Please be reminded that Commonswood Primary & Nursery ... · Our local shops that do this are:...

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Please be reminded that Commonswood Primary & Nursery School is a nut free school. Please check ingredients of sandwich fillings carefully to ensure a safe eating environment for all school children. Absences and Lateness If your child is going to be absent, it is a required safeguarding procedure for parents to notify the school with a reason why by at least 9:15am. This can be done by text via Gateway (preferred – text number 01707 830007), email or phone, with the option of leaving a message. If your child is going to be late please let the office know of the reason and the child’s lunch option. Book week, book vouchers and the travelling book fair First of all, a big thank you to all of you for supporting your children with their Book Week costumes! The children all looked great and we had a wonderful time focusing on reading for a whole week. At the beginning of this half-term, your children brought home £1 World Book Day Vouchers. These can be used to buy a whole book (from a pre-determined range) or put towards the cost of any other book or audio book at any participating book shop. Our local shops that do this are: Waterstones, WH Smith, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. The vouchers are valid until from the 27th February - 29th March. The Travelling Book Fair will be visiting us for the week of 23 rd March. As usual, it will be open after school from 3.10 to 3.40 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that week. Come along and browse through the exciting range of children’s books on offer! Essex and Herts Air Ambulance On the 31 st January we took part in a Go Red Go Yellow day in support of the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance service. Unlike other NHS emergency services, this service is a charity and each lifesaving mission costs around £2,200. As there is limited support from the government, the generosity and goodwill of supporters and fundraisers is essential. By dressing in red and yellow and selling the school newspaper which was written and edited by the reporters’ club last term, we have raised an astonishing £497.37. A massive thank you to everyone who contributed. Giving a little certainly goes a long way. Reception September 2020 Is your child school ready? We know that children who are school ready are happy, healthy, curious and ready to learn. Family Services Commissioning (FSC) in partnership with early years providers, schools and Herts for Learning, have developed a school readiness guide to support families and children. Please see www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/readyforschool Email: [email protected] Telephone: (01707) 880420

Transcript of Please be reminded that Commonswood Primary & Nursery ... · Our local shops that do this are:...

Page 1: Please be reminded that Commonswood Primary & Nursery ... · Our local shops that do this are: Waterstones, WH Smith, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. The vouchers are valid until from the

Please be reminded that Commonswood Primary & Nursery School is a nut free school. Please check ingredients of sandwich fillings carefully to ensure a safe eating environment for all school children. Absences and Lateness If your child is going to be absent, it is a required safeguarding procedure for parents to notify the school with a reason why by at least 9:15am. This can be done by text via Gateway (preferred – text number 01707 830007), email or phone, with the option of leaving a message. If your child is going to be late please let the office know of the reason and the child’s lunch option.

Book week, book vouchers and the travelling book fair First of all, a big thank you to all of you for supporting your children with their Book Week costumes! The children all looked great and we had a wonderful time focusing on reading for a whole week. At the beginning of this half-term, your children brought home £1 World Book Day Vouchers. These can be used to buy a whole book (from a pre-determined range) or put towards the cost of any other book or audio book at any participating book shop. Our local shops that do this are: Waterstones, WH Smith, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. The vouchers are valid until from the 27th February - 29th March. The Travelling Book Fair will be visiting us for the week of 23rd March. As usual, it will be open after school from 3.10 to 3.40 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that week. Come along and browse through the exciting range of children’s books on offer!

Essex and Herts Air Ambulance On the 31st January we took part in a Go Red Go Yellow day in support of the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance service. Unlike other NHS emergency services, this service is a charity and each lifesaving mission costs around £2,200. As there is limited support from the government, the generosity and goodwill of supporters and fundraisers is essential. By dressing in red and yellow and selling the school newspaper which was written and edited by the reporters’ club last term, we have raised an astonishing £497.37. A massive thank you to everyone who contributed. Giving a little certainly goes a long way.

Reception September 2020

Is your child school ready? We know that children who are school ready are happy, healthy, curious and ready to learn. Family Services Commissioning (FSC) in partnership with early years providers, schools and Herts for Learning, have developed a school readiness guide to support families and children. Please see www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/readyforschool

Email: [email protected] Telephone: (01707) 880420

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Nursery

On the first day back to school after half term, the children reminded us that it would be one more sleep and then Pancake Day. So, after one sleep the children have had great fun filling pancakes with banana and strawberries, rolling them up, and eating them. They have explored the ingredients used to make pancake batter. The children counted out four tablespoons of flour, cracked an egg and carefully poured milk before whisking up their own mixture. Pancakes were also made on the playdough table, rolling out the dough to flatten it and making sure it would fit into the pan. After lots of fun trying to flip the playdough pancakes the children then squeezed real lemons and added the juice to their pancakes.

Reception Over the past month Reception have been looking at different people's jobs and what we can do to help others. We were very lucky to have a nurse and a physiotherapist come into class to talk about their professions. This stimulated lots of discussion around other occupations and we began to talk about what we might like to do as a job when we get older.

Since coming back from half term, the children have been looking at growing. Some of our daffodils have started to appear in our outdoor

area. Also, we have started to plant cress, radishes and lettuce, which we will use to make a salad later on in the term. As you know, we have started woodwork this half term and would be very grateful if you could continue to bring any offcuts of wood to Alder Class (no hard wood please) to help with our projects.

Year 1

In Year 1 Geography has entailed learning about our local area. While walking around Welwyn Garden City we spotted different types of houses and buildings and identified physical and human features.

After our walk we chose a topic to become an expert in and used secondary sources of information to find out more. We created posters and presented our findings to the class.

Year 2

Year 2 have been enjoying learning all about China in Geography. As part of this topic the children learnt all about Chinese New Year and the Chinese Zodiac symbols linked to the different years. We made Zodiac animal pouches by using different types of sewing techniques such as a running stitch, over-cast stitch and back stitch. The children had a lot of fun designing, creating and evaluating their animal pouch. Although threading a needle was not always easy, the children persevered and made some fantastic designs come to life!

Year 3

On Wednesday 26th February we held an RE day across the school. We started with an assembly which we thoroughly enjoyed! After play, we took part in a workshop where we sang songs, dressed up and acted out parts of the stories. We learnt to keep trying and to be kind towards others; by being kind and supportive we can be successful.

This was a very positive start to the second half of the Spring term and we are looking forward to the rest of the term – especially our trip to Celtic Harmony Camp on the 19th March!

We also continue to be impressed by handwriting and many children are now gaining their pen licenses! We look for consistently joined up letters of the same (and appropriate) height and writing which is on the line with clear ascenders and descenders.

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Year 4

We have continued our work with Ancient Egyptians – looking more closely at the process of mummification and the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. We have finished our science topic on habitats which we will revisit during the Summer term to make comparisons to the habitats which we observed during February. Starting in book week, we have begun our next English topic on adventure stories and our workshop from author Alice Hemming has given us lots of ideas.

Year 5 To start this half-term, Year 5 have been writing non-chronological reports on dragons. This will bring to an end the work we have been doing based on the “Dragon Slayer” story. There has been much discussion about whether our report should be a guide to capture or train a dragon. We are also busy planning and writing books for Year 1 children as part of Book Week. After interviewing the children in Year 1 we have lots of ideas for a selection of interesting books.

In Maths we are looking at area, taking our learning on from Year 4, to using standard units for calculating area. We will be looking at more complex shapes

and moving on to composite shapes as we progress.

In History we are continuing to learn about the Tudors, concentrating on the Tudor royal family and continuing to work on our “expert” area, as shown in our recent assembly.

Year 6

John Hardwick visited the school on Wednesday 26th February to lead a day about working towards our dreams based on the Bible characters of Samson, Esther, David and Solomon. He took an assembly in the morning where we met 3 juggling balls who felt they could not succeed because they were not like the others, but with practice and determination, they beat the opposition and won the championship. We also met Charlie the Monkey who had been given advice about how to decorate his room, but he had not listened and had decorated it in 10 minutes! But did he get it right? We learned the importance of listening to advice and teaching, and the importance of following good advice. We also learned about the importance of training and determination. In the Bible, Samson was strong, but he did not listen to advice and

so failed. Esther thought she was not strong enough but listened to God and followed his advice and so saved her people. David spent time listening to God and became King of Israel, even though he started as a shepherd boy. Solomon asked God for wisdom and ruled wisely, until he thought he knew better and went his own way. It was a fun day and in our workshops with John, we acted out the characters and stories, discussed their strengths and failings, and considered our own dreams and goals.

Also, we have been studying the work of the artist LS Lowry. From Manchester, he drew ‘matchstick’ people with big feet, and he started drawing and painting when he missed his train home. We tried to replicate his style, using the colors he would have chosen, and included a local monument at Hatfield Hyde. Even though other artists at the time didn’t appreciate his style, we like it.

Aiden & Alyssa

House News House Mascot Competition – only a few weeks left to get your entry handed in. Lots of children have provided their artwork so far and remember every entry earns your House 5 House Points, it all makes a difference.

New House Competition: Currently running is a House competition in TT Rockstars. The Houses will be competing against each other for the next two weeks, then the top scoring player from each House will compete against each other for even more House Points.

There are a lot of House Points to be earned from this competition, but you must take part to win them.

Remember, your House needs you – TEAM WORK!

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Staff Changes

Miss Bowden will be starting her maternity leave at the end of this term. I am sure that you will join us in wishing her well. Miss Armstrong will teach Pine Class for the Summer term with Mrs Riazi Pachenari continuing to support.

Reading Recommendations

We would like to encourage and develop a love of reading at Commonswood as we know reading a variety of books helps develop children’s knowledge, vocabulary and language skills, as well as their imagination. Each month we will suggest a book recommended for each year group that we hope you will enjoy reading alongside your child’s reading book.

This month’s recommended reads are:

EYFS – Mr Wolf’s Pancakes by Jan Fearnley

Year 1 – That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton

Year 2 – Don’t Look in this Book by Samuel Langley-Swain

Year 3 – Varjak Paw by SF Said

Year 4 – There’s a Werewolf in my Tent by Pamela Butchart

Year 5 – Brightstorm: A Sky-Ship Adventure by Vashti Hardy

Year 6 – Time Travelling with a Hamster by Ross Welford

Write a comment in your child’s reading log if you have chosen one these books.

Polite Reminders

Smoking - it is against the law to smoke on any part of the school site, so please avoid doing so here or in the immediate vicinity of our gates where young children can suffer harm from passive smoking.

Dogs – are not permitted on the school site. Please do not tie dogs up outside the school gates as barking dogs can frighten children.

Cycles /scooters- please dismount before entering the school site and leave cycles and scooters securely in the bike sheds and scooter pods. Electric scooters are not permitted on site.

One-way system; - a voluntary one way traffic system operates in the commons at the start and end of the school day. If possible, please avoid bringing vehicles into the Commons but if this is essential please keep the school on your left.

Photos - it is not possible to take photographs on the school site whether inside or outside the buildings. This is designed to protect the small number of families affected by domestic violence or child protection concerns. This includes the use of mobile phones which is prohibited on site.

It is parents’ responsibility to look after children while on site. Please keep young children with you. They are not permitted to be on the field or the play equipment. Children are not permitted to play on the main entrance railings or climb any fences.

Gates open at 8.30am unless attending breakfast club, no children should be on site until this time. All parents and children (not attending after school clubs) need to be off site by 3.30pm.

Catch it, bin it, kill it

You will have received the letter regarding guidance from the Department of Education and the Health Authorities. Inn it, you will find useful contact details if you have concerns about the Coronavirus.

The main message is that personal hygiene is the most popular way we can tackle the virus. Thank you for sharing this message at home.

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Diary Dates March

9th Science week

10th Dance festival

11th Internet Safety day

12th School council visit to parliament

13th Year four assembly - parents please enter through the junior hall door (a maximum of 2 family members per child please due to fire regulations)

Deadline for Nursery applications

19th Year 3 visit to Celtic Harmony camp

23rd -26th Book fair after school

23rd Last week of clubs

26th Year 5 outdoor learning day

27th Last swimming session for Year 5

April

2nd Junior film night organised by Friends of Commonswood

3rd Excellent attendance award assembly

Deadline for consent/payment Year 2 Chiltern open Air Museum

3rd Term ends 12.30pm

20th Term starts – please note that there is no INSET day

20th Easter bonnet competition organised by the Friends of Commonswood

21st Deadline payment/consent for Nursery trip to Paradise Wildlife Park

23rd Reception trip to Shepreth

28th Young Carers forum 2:30pm

May

5th Year 2 trip to Chiltern open air museum

7th Nursery trip to Paradise Wildlife park

8th BANK HOLIDAY

11th SATs week for Year 6 pupils

15th Year 3 assembly – parents please enter through the junior hall door (a maximum of 2 family members per child please due to fire regulations)

20th Year 1 Gunpowder Mills trip

22nd Quiz Night organised by the Friends of Commonswood

23rd – 31st Half Term

Commonswood Primary & Nursery School is a Safeguarding School

‘All schools have a clear responsibility placed on them by the Children Act 1989 and by guidance from the Department of Education to safeguard the welfare of all their pupils. In doing so schools are expected to consult with Social Services if they believe there is a possibility that a child may be

suffering from abuse or neglect.’ If you have any concerns about children please contact Mrs. Seymour, Mrs. Manning or Mrs. Scatchard via the school office. Commonswood Primary & Nursery School works in conjunction with Operation Encompass supporting children who experience domestic abuse.

Mrs. G Seymour Designated Senior Person, Mrs. S Manning, Mrs. N Scatchard & Mr. S Burt Deputy Designated Persons Chair of Governors: Mrs. Julie Noakes