Summercroft Primary School

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1 Summercroft Primary School Achieving through care, challenge and creativity Dear Parents and Carers, Welcome back after the Easter break! It has been wonderful to enjoy some improved weather and allow the children to make good use of our beautiful field. Being able to watch the children play together so well is one of the joys of being on lunch duty. The space hoppers made an appearance yesterday and were proving to be very popular across the age groups. Favourite past times are flourishing across the field with an abundance of daisy chains being created and birds nests constructed out of the grass cuttings! Let s hope that the dry, sunny weather will continue throughout the Summer term! Fingers crossed. It would be helpful to us if you could just double check that children s jumpers are named so that they can be returned to those forgetful few who seem to abandon them after lunch break. Our Summer uniform is an option for children now and the unwritten golden rule comes into play: ties stay on as long as Mr Jess is wearing his! Sadly, it was only our first day back when I received a complaint from a parent about thoughtless, dangerous driving and parking which resulted in a child being injured. Please take care in the mornings NOT to mount the kerb the pavements are narrow enough and children and their parents should not have to take evasive action to avoid cars in this manner. Thank you to the vast majority of people who use the Kiss and Go zone correctly it really helps congestion outside the front of the school. Can I also remind you of the one - way system around Plaw Hatch Close which is badly sign posted but does help to keep the flow of traffic moving. Please see our website for more details, thank you. Let s keep our children safe. The school has participated in many competitive sporting events since the beginning of the new term (read about them later in the newsletter) and I should like to say a huge, thank you to all those parents who have been able to help transport children at various times of the day. Without you, we just couldn t participate! Thanks also go to Mr Carter and Mr Eaton, who have their own competition around Most Successful Coach, for devoting their time on these events and to our admin team who have to keep on top of last minute changes! Thank you for the feedback we have received around annual reports which the Leadership Team are reviewing. There s still time to return your slips if you wish to do so. Wishing you all a restful weekend. Kind regards, Carole Hinstridge Headteacher The Golden Folder Congratulations to the following children who have appeared in our Golden Folder recently: Newsletter No th April 2018

2 Time Travelling in Year 3 We have stepped back in time since Easter in Year 3. The children are immersing themselves into all things Victorian and learning about life for the children in the 1800s. Last week the children had the opportunity to play with some Victorian style toys. They were fascinated by the fact that there were no plastic toys and a little disappointed by the lack of batteries and electrical toys. Did they like not being able to play on computers? was heard in Maple class. When they were told that only religious toys like a wooden Noah s ark could be played with on Sundays and that boys played with cars and bricks while the girls played with dolls and tea sets there were shouts of indignation! Our art work this half term will be inspired by William Morris so we went out into the sunshine to sketch some of the plants, leaves, trees and flowers we could find on our field. The children tried very hard to match the shapes and sizes accurately and were pleased with their results. There were lots of ladybirds on the willow dome who obligingly sat still to be drawn! We are hoping to use these sketches to create colourful prints in a couple of weeks. We are looking forward to our Victorian Day next month when we will experience life in a Victorian classroom. I wonder whether the children will prefer the strict Victorian teaching or modern day schooling. Page 2

3 A Day at the Museum Precious Pottery Year 4 Year 4 had an exciting start to the summer term with their new topic, A Day at the Museum, which forms part of our cultural stimulus, looking at Ancient Greece. We were introduced to Larry, the guard from the film Night at the Museum and he told us about the precious pottery he looks after in the Ancient Greek section of the museum. However, something terrible happened some of the priceless pots had mysteriously fallen from their displays and had broken into many pieces! It was our task to help Larry put them back together (which we managed successfully!). Once complete, we were able to explore the different pot designs more closely and began to think about what they tell us Ancient Greek life might have been like. We noticed that the pots were different shapes, so to investigate this further we researched six different pot styles, finding out their names and what they were used for. Noticing that Ancient Greek pottery is decorated with unusual geometric patterns, we decided to look at this more closely by sketching some of these patterns ourselves. Once we had finished, we used these ideas to form patterns as part of our own designs for our own Ancient Greek-style pot. English Mythical Madness This week, we began our English lessons by reading and interpreting some famous Ancient Greek myths. The first myth was Theseus and the Minotaur where we took part in a Story Whoosh. This involved listening to the story and dramatising different sections, acting out the characters, objects and events. This was a lot of fun and really helped us to understand the sequence of events and characters in the story. We developed our understanding even further by working in groups to text map different paragraphs from this story and then acted this out to show we had learnt our paragraph inside out! Next, we explored the myth Perseus and Medusa by watching and listening to this on a video clip before comparing the similarities and differences between this myth and the previous one. Then we finished the week by looking at the myth Pandora s Box, a cartoon version by Marcia Williams and then another version of the same story, which we used to answer comprehension questions about the myth, hunting for evidence in the text to support and justify our answers, something we feel we want more practice with! Page 3

4 Maths Decimal Dissection Understanding Place Value More from Year 4 We started the new term by dividing one and two digit numbers using place value grids and Gattegno charts to explore the effect dividing by 10 and 100 has on the value of the digits in the numbers and what direction the digits move on the grids. We noticed that the two charts show this differently, with numbers moving to the right on a place value grid and down on a Gattegno chart. We moved on to reading and representing hundredths on place value grids and partitioning decimals using the part-whole model, also referred to as the cherry model. To deepen our understanding of these concepts, we have been using reasoning skills to solve problems involving dividing numbers and explaining the effect this has on place value. Julian Clary Event at Bishops Stortford College The weather was most certainly on our side on Friday 20th April, when Year 4 set off to visit Bishops Stortford College to see Julian Clary and learn more about his books, The Bolds. We had the opportunity to hear him read extracts from his books and ask him questions about the characters and his inspiration for his books. We also had a masterclass with his illustrator, David Roberts, who showed us how he draws the characters. When we returned to school, we put this into practice and had a go at drawing the characters ourselves and these now form a wonderful display in our classrooms. What an exciting start to the Summer Term with much, much more to come! Happy times at Hatfield Forest! Year 2 The end of last term finished on a real high, with a terrific trip to Hatfield Forest. The children took part in two different activities - a bug hunt and den building. The Hatfield Forest staff were extremely impressed by our children s scientific knowledge when identifying different mini-beasts and by their collaboration and can-do attitude during the den building. We also received a very kind and positive message from the education leader at Hatfield Forest after the trip, who praised the children s impeccable behaviour and supportive attitude towards each other. The Year 2 team are extremely proud, and the children should be too! Since returning from the holidays we ve started our new topic - growing. The children have already started learning about how plants grow and they have also put a bean seed in a plastic bag. Over the coming days they will observe whether or not it germinates and keep a diary about it. We have also started rehearsals for the Year 2 music festival! This is a fantastic project where schools from in and around Bishop s Stortford all rehearse the same songs and then come together at the Rhodes Centre for a final performance. Our performance will be on Friday 22nd June and details will follow soon about what will happen on the day and how you can buy tickets. As ever, thanks for your continued support, The Year 2 Team Page 4

5 Celebrating All Things St George! Nursery Nursery has been extremely busy learning all about the story of St George. Together we sequenced the story and then the children retold their versions to their peers. We also made swords during a forest school session by tying sticks together with string, collaged helmets with different textures, created our own shields with foil and made our own English flag. On Monday we came to school dressed in red and white and joined Reception in the afternoon for a parade around the playground showing our parents all of our amazing creations and also performing a song which we have learnt about St George. Throughout the week the children have shared their thoughts on who St George was Miles explained George is a knight who fights a dragon with his sword. Stanley told his peers St George is a knight about England. He saves people from the dragon and he is brave and never dies. Shifra told everyone St George is a knight. He killed the dragon and he wears armour. He wears the flag of England. It has red and white. Adam explains, St George has a horse. He is the patron of England. He has the England flag. It has a red cross. The Story of St. George Reception In Reception we have been learning all about the story of the brave knight Saint George. We made swords, shields, flags and armour and had an exciting day dressing up in red and white clothing for a St. George s Day parade! We made up our own Saint George chant and sang it on our march around the playground. "My name is Saint George the Knight; I gave the dragon a fright! I saved the princess for the King and Queen and now the dragon is never to be seen!" Thank you to our parents and carers for coming to see our parade, the children were so excited to show you their creative masterpieces! :) As the children have been very inquisitive about the increasing number of minibeasts outside, we will be learning all about them from next week. We wonder what minibeasts you might find in your garden! Page 5

6 Connection Making Mr Jess Our April focus has been on Connection Making. This learning power was launched in assembly with the story of the coral reef in danger of becoming polluted but the coral made connections with what it could see and hear to get the other sea creatures and learning powers from our undersea world to save it from dying out. The children then went on to think about the importance of making connections in their learning; between lessons and subjects and how the lightbulb moment often occurs when connections are made. The teachers work extremely hard to deliver our creative curriculum to the children with opportunities to link their learning by building on previous experiences and connecting it with new topics. By doing this, the children are able to transfer and develop the skills they have been taught more readily on a day to day basis. In talking groups, the children also discussed how they can make connections in their learning and how this helps them and they watched a video about DIY Orangutans ( This gave them the opportunity to think about the connection between humans and the great apes and how the orangutan can use its brain to make connections with what it can see humans doing. Once Upon a Time... Year 1 The summer term has begun with a Once Upon a Time and a Happily Ever After! We started the week with sharing and writing our Easter news. We then moved onto discovering the story of The Three Little Pigs. The children greatly enjoyed retelling the story using actions and puppets. They used the Learning Power of collaboration to decide who acted out which part in the story. In English the children have been exploring good and bad characters within the story. Following on with the fairy tale theme, Year 1 have been learning a Three Bear Rap! Please ask your child to sing it to you, it's adorable! In art the theme continues with the children painting a fairy tale character of their choice. Page 6

7 Year 5 Pitch Practise Makes Pitch Perfect! To prepare for the visit of the Dragons Den investors later in the term, the children practised pitching ideas as a team. They upcycled a plastic bottle, transforming it into a new product, and wrote a persuasive script to convince the adults in Year 5 that their product was the best. We were encouraged by the children s ideas and look forward to taking this idea further. Congratulations to the winning team in a close-fought competition! As persuasion is important in any pitch, we have been practising our persuasive language in English, looking at adverts and debates and trying out a few of our own. The children argued against the idea that parents owned their children, something a lot of them felt very strongly about! In order to take the upcycling ideas in a new direction, Year 5 have also been taking old pillow cases and tops from home and sewing them into pocket pals! They practised a variety of different stitches, from the easier running stitch to the more complicated backstitch, with some pupils even teaching Mr Eaton a thing or two! We have also been looking at fractions, converting them into mixed numbers using bar models to represent them. Product Design winners - George, Charlotte, Sophia, Imogen, Evan and Lola. Stitched Pals - Lara, Poppy and Charlotte. Parachute Project Year 6 Last week Year 6 were given a science investigation: to create a parachute. Last year at Osmington Bay, Mr Carter was apparently scouted by ToysRus and was told he was the action man. He was given the task of creating a parachute to help save the company. Knowing Mr Carter was too busy to do it, he gave us the challenge instead. We were split into groups to design and test our own parachutes. Year 6 were told to only change one variable in each group and keep the others the same. This would make it a fair test. When every parachute was finished, we put them to the test and dropped them from a height. We all agreed to measure how long it took to hit the floor. We did this a number of times and then found the mean average. It concluded in some surprising results. Once we had found the results, we joined together as a year group to find the best possible components to make the dream parachute. Then, we had the second task of redesigning our parachutes, this time to hold an egg. The main test will be to see which eggs stay intact. Over the next few weeks, we will assemble our final prototype in our groups before making the real thing. They will be dropped from a ladder (or from the roof of the school if we can persuade Mrs Hinstridge!) to find the winner of the year group. Alex and Jamie Page 7

8 Sport at Summercroft The first week back was jam packed with sporting events and all of the staff are extremely proud of the children who participated for their efforts and attitude. On Wednesday morning, the Year 4 football team competed in the KAS Football Festival. Despite only having one training session together, the team performed brilliantly. They showed great talent, determination and togetherness to produce some great performances, so much so that Mr Carter is extremely excited at the prospect of having them as part of the Year 5 and 6 football team in the next couple of years. Following the Year 4 s efforts were the Year 5 and 6 Girls football team. They also competed in a KAS Football Festival on Wednesday. Building on their prior successes as a team this year, the girls put together some excellent performances, only conceding 2 goals and losing one match in the whole tournament. If it wasn't for the extreme heat and a sickness bug affecting our players then Mrs Dawson assures us that we would have been coming home with a trophy. On Thursday, our Year 6 hockey squad competed in the BSP Quicksticks tournament. The squad was comprised of two teams who performed brilliantly. Both teams played with determination throughout and produced some outstanding team performances, scoring some excellent goals and making astonishingly brave last - ditch tackles. Unfortunately we didn't bring back a trophy for our efforts, however, one of our teams were only one match off reaching the grand final. Finally, on Friday, the A and B football teams took part in the final KAS Football Festival. Building on the excellent progress that they have made already this year, both teams gave their all to produce some excellent performances. The B Team remained unbeaten during their group stage matches despite having to face A Teams from two other schools and qualified for the Gold cup, while the A Team kept their nerve and were victorious during two penalty shootouts to win the Silver Cup. Mr Eaton and Mr Carter are extremely proud of their effort and positive attitude on Friday and during the whole year so far. Year 4 Football Team Years 5 & 6 Football Squad The Hockey Team Page 8