Children First – Aspire – Challenge – Achieve

Newsletter 35

21st June 2019

IMPORTANT REMINDERS FOR PARENTS

Please note that should your child be significantly late to school with no warning or valid

reason there will not be an option for a school pack lunch, only a hot school meal. We have seen

a rise in the amount of children coming into school up to 60 minutes late and by this time lunch

orders have already been processed.

• Payments for term 6 clubs are now overdue. Please ensure you have paid for your child’s club via

ParentPay if you haven’t already done so.

• Year 3 – Wednesday 10th July – Riverside Trip – please ensure you have signed your child’s

permission slip and paid £15.00 via ParentPay.

• Year 6 – Wednesday 26th June – Aztec Workshop – please ensure you have paid £9.50 via

ParentPay.

• Please note as from Monday 24th June for 2 nights there will be road resurfacing works from

Park Crescent to the Ridgeway. This is set to be carried out during the night, however, please

allow extra time in the morning just in case they over-run.

• Please note as from September the cost of Breakfast Club will rise from £2.00 to £2.50.

Dear parents and carers,

The children have had a wonderful day today in their shorts and shades. We have been

very lucky with the weather! Some of our Year 6 children went to Lower Grange Farm for

an activity morning. It was wonderful to see them conquer their fears and climb the wall.

Other Year 6 children have been away on the Isle of Wight having an excellent time on

their residential. Beach trips, games and challenging climbing have been enjoyed by all! I’ll

bet the water was cold in the sea though!

Well done to the Burnett News Club whose hard work was noted by the charity. Nationally

we are currently in 9th place which is a remarkable achievement! The Burnett News Club

meets weekly and the children discuss important issues for our world today – more

recently they have been listening to, and formulating their own viewpoints on climate

change.

A reminder that all children need to wear suitable school shoes. The classes frequently

undertake the Medway Mile and children enjoy running in the playground so

sandals/strappy shoes are not practical.

Mrs J Murphy

Executive Headteacher

Nursery This week Nursery have been continuing

to explore with technology. We have once

again been using the bubble machine as

the children have enjoyed this so much. In

addition, we have been using different

tools to create our own bubbles! We have

also been using magnets and testing what kind of materials attract to them.

Reception This week in Year R we have continued our

learning around stories. We have been writing

about our favourite part of ‘Jack and the

Beanstalk’, and started to look at new stories

such as ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. We

have also planted ‘magic’ beans in literacy in

different environments such as: soil, soil and water, sand and just water. The

children have been making predictions as to which bean they think will grow

the tallest. They have all produced fantastic writing and are very excited to see if our beans grow as

tall ask Jack’s beanstalk! All the children have continued to work really hard in Maths and this week

have been subtracting and reading number sentences independently.

Year 1

During Literacy this week we have

been investigating the text of ‘The

Gruffalo’. We used our thinking hats

to explore how each character moves

and speaks and discussed how this might change at different points during

the story. We worked on our intonation during drama and role play sessions

and then presented our acting to the class. During Maths this week we have been working on

commutative law, finding out fact families and using our previous knowledge to help us solve problems.

We have also been conducting experiments in Science and creating masterpieces in Art, based on the

work by Georgia O'Keeffe.

Year 2 This week Year 2 have been writing poetry about our topic,

Beachcombers. In Maths we've been revising telling the time and finding

fractions of shapes and amounts. We're now really good at telling the

time and we’ve started working on questions that ask us to use this skill

to solve a problem. In Art we've begun to explore sculpture making and

how to create shapes using different materials. Topic this week has

started to explore the history of the British seaside and all the things

that have changed over the years. We've been using our green hat to

imagine what it would have been like and our comparison key to explore

the differences between now and then. In RE we started to explore the importance of the three

great Gods of Hinduism and the stories told about them in the Hindu Holy books called the Vedas.

Year 3 This week, we have been looking

at the way rivers work. We have

thought about the materials that

make up a river and the way it

carves a path through the

landscape. We searched the

school grounds for materials

that we could use to replicate a river and used what we found to make a miniature model! We had

great fun thinking interdependently and building our teamwork skills,

even if we did get a bit messy!

Year 4 Year 4 have had a very busy week this week. In Maths, we have been

plotting and reading coordinates from grids and have been creating

shapes. In English, we have been practising our skill of ‘show not tell’ and

powerful adjectives. We worked in groups to practice showing a range of

feelings. Our next step is to use these skills in our narrative writing

which we are starting next week. All of Year 4 have been fantastic in

their assessments and they have all shown their habit of 'Striving for

Accuracy.' We are impressed with their persistence with difficult

questions.

Year 5

Wow what a week! In English we have received mystery parcels with messages of help and travelled

through portals to save a friend in a mystery tale – we cannot wait to see how the narrative unfolds.

In SkillForce we have been working towards our project, building on our presentation skills and our

mummification project is beginning to react “well” to the warm weather. Our timeline of Ancient

Egypt is growing alongside our knowledge of the Gods and Goddesses and geographical features of

Egypt. Do you know which of the seven wonders of the ancient world is in Egypt – can you name the

other six? Thank you to all parents that attended various meetings this week – if you have any

further questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact us. As a cohort we are really looking

forward to next week when we get the chance to visit Victory for the whole day. Year 5 have a busy

term planned, with lots of engaging projects: from Shakespeare Schools coming to teach us all about

Shakespeare and drama as well as a proposed trip to Maidstone Museum (more information to follow).

Year 6 Our Year 6 children have had a very

busy week, whether they have been on

the Residential Trip at the Isle of

Wight, or here in school. The children

who stayed in school have had great fun

creating props for their production, making and cooking pizzas and enjoying a

movie afternoon with popcorn. Whilst the children on the residential trip took

part in activities such as; archery and rock climbing. We look forward to

welcoming back our travellers on Monday and hearing their adventures.

Well done to the following top 3 classes who gained the most units on Lexia last week:

Birch, Conifer and Juniper

Next week’s Thunk is… Do you achieve more the less you care?

This week’s winners are:

Maple – Yvie Damson – Dylan

Beech – Ruby-Ann Hawthorn – Jason

Hazel – Neriah Conifer – Henry Sm

Birch – Nihal Poplar – Erica

Pine – Viktorija Juniper – Rachitha

Spruce – Elliott Sycamore – Isaac

Apple – Kisali Cypress – Daniels

Cherry – Sarai Elder – Patricia

Thinking task of the week – Thinking task of the week- Each week we will focus on a different

key. This week is the Brainstorming key.

How can we reduce the amount of plastic in our environment?

The winner of the Buster Book Club trophy this week is Hawthorn who had the

most amount of minutes read. Well done to Conifer who had most amount of

readers.

A reminder that every Tuesday morning ‘Book Club’ is held for Years 1 – 6. Don’t forget to

send your child’s money into school in a clearly named envelope.

Congratulations to Michelle, Monika and the

rest of the kitchen team on achieving a grade

5 for their latest food hygiene inspection.

TEAM POINTS

This week the ‘Holcombe Cup’ has been awarded to Fort.

Attendance Ace Oak with 100%

Punctuality Penny Ash, Cypress, Damson, Maple and Spruce with 0 lates

Golden Tie

Congratulations to:

Ash – Freddie

Elm – Max

Oak – Amelia

Beech – Dollie-Ann

Hazel – Amerah

Maple – Darcey-Anne

Birch – Dillan

Pine – Jotham

Spruce – Lewis

Apple – Jamie

Cherry – Dinulya

Damson – Alfie

Conifer – Bella

Hawthorn – Gordon

Poplar – Arjun

Juniper – Nathan

Sycamore - Thabo

Cypress – Double award next week

Elder – Double award next week

Achievement Alley

Ash – Shayla

Elm – Arina

Oak – Ivy

Beech – Florence

Hazel – Hunter

Maple – Evie-Louise

Birch – Nihal

Pine – Narhngua

Spruce – Victor

Apple – Anya

Cherry – MJ

Damson – Alfie

Conifer – AJ

Hawthorn – Ellie

Poplar – Teon

Juniper – Dinev & Jasmine

Sycamore – Lee & Callum

Cypress – Double award next week

Elder – Double award next week

Dates for your Diary – Term 6 Wednesday 26th June – Year 6 – Aztec Workshop

Wednesday 26th June – 6:30 - New to Year R parent meeting

Tuesday 2nd July – Shakespeare Rocks Production to parents – times to be confirmed

Wednesday 3rd July – 9:30am & 1:00pm – Nursery Sports Day – times to be confirmed

Wednesday 10th July – Year 3 – Riverside Trip

Wednesday 10th July – Year R – Sports Morning – times to be confirmed

Thursday 11th July – 1:30pm & 6:30pm - Year 6 Production to parents

Monday 15th July – Sports Day – Y1, 2 & 3 – AM – times to be confirmed

Monday 15th July – Sports Day – Y4, 5 & 6 – PM – times to be confirmed

Monday 15th July – Year 6 – 6:30pm – 8:00pm – Leavers disco

Wednesday 17th July – Year 6 – 6:30pm – Graduation Event with parents

Thursday 18th July – Class Parties