Royal Russell

Junior School

Bulletin

Spring Term 2016

Dear Parents,

Monday and Tuesday saw me back to my roots as a Games teacher with the

U11 Boys and Girls both in tournaments at Alleyns. They performed extremely

well and the boys were very unlucky to narrowly miss out on a semi final

place before eventually coming 5th out of 12 schools.

An excellent Music Café on Monday culminated in a superb performance

(amongst many) from Cassie on the drums. It was then onto the Ski

Presentation Evening at which La Plagne 2016 really came to life and wetted

the appetite for what I am sure will be an excellent trip.

Report writing, prospective parents and an IAPS meeting in Putney dominated

the remainder of the week for me, that was capped off this morning with a

bumper celebration assembly, where almost every child in the Upper Juniors

received an award of some description. Well done to all.

Family Thompson are off to The Alps tomorrow for some skiing in Morzine, so

do wave if you are there as well. I look forward to seeing you all for the

second half of term.

Best wishes

Mr James C Thompson

Monday 22 February 2016 08:00 U11 IAPS Boys Hockey (A) 16:00 Swimming: U8/U9/U10/U11 Girls Croydon High Swimming Gala (H) (LL/EJ) Tuesday 23 February 2016 15:45 Netball: U11AB v Croydon High (H) (LL) Wednesday 24 February 2016 08:30 - 15:30 Year 2 Trip to the Museum of London (AK/AC) 15:45 Cello Soiree (SFo) Thursday 25 February 2016 15:30 Netball: U10AB Netball v Alleyn's (A) (LL) Friday 26 February 2016 15:45 Trampolining: U11 Croydon Schools Tournament (H) (LL) 15:45 Football: U9AB Boys v St Christopher's (H) (JF) 16:00 Football: U10 Boys v St Christopher's (H) (JF) Saturday 27 February 2016 09:30 Netball: U10 Russell House Tournament (A) (LL)

Key Dates for the Spring Term

Wednesday 24th February

Cello Soiree 3.45pm

Monday 29th February / Wednesday 2nd March

Upper Junior Parents – Teacher- Pupil Consultations

EYFS and LJ Parent - Teacher Consultations

Friday 4th March

Lower Junior Mothering Service 2.30pm

Monday 7th March

Senior School/Junior School Spring Music Concert 7pm

Wednesday 16th March

House Music Competition 6.30pm

Junior School Open Day 9-2pm

Saturday 19th March 2016

1853 Society Comedy Night 7pm

Monday 21st March

Bushcraft Presentation Evening to Parents 7pm

Thursday 24th March

End of Term 3.30pm

Appointments for Parents’ Evening

on Monday 29th February and

Wednesday 2nd March will be

available to make after Half Term on

Monday 22nd February on the boards

in the Junior School Lobby. Please

remember to come in and sign up for

your preferred time.

Year 5 World War 2 History Day

Blitz experience

We experienced a mock air raid which made us really understand what it must

have felt like during an air raid in the Blitz. We only experienced it for 10 minutes, but were unable to imagine how people could have done it every night for years!

War time cooking

We made rock cakes using an authentic recipe.

VE Day Party

We celebrated the end of the war with food, entertainment and fun. We all performed Run

Rabbit Run!

We all dressed up in war time costumes

We all had a lot of fun!

Communication during the war

We learnt about how people communicated their battle plans during

the war and tried writing our own messages in Morse code.

Jeramee, Hartleby and Oooglemore

A Unicorn Production

On Tuesday 9th February 2016 the Nursery bordered a coach for Tooley Street,

London. As well as seeing lots of landmarks on our journey, we also visited the

Unicorn Theatre to see the production of ‘Jeramee, Hartleby and Oooglemore.’ A

show delivered with wit, impeccable timing and plenty of clowning around. The

play was about three people who have a lot to say and only three words with which

to say it, Jeramee, Hartleby and Oooglemore. When the show had finished we all

enjoyed a packed lunch together!

We found it to be a perfect theatre experience for our thriving Nursery pupils. A

truly wonderful time was had by all.

Congratulations to all of our young musicians who performed in the recent Music Café.

The audience was treated to a wonderful, eclectic programme of solo and ensemble musical items,

demonstrating the breadth of musical talent across the Junior School.

Well done and thank you for entertaining and impressing us, in equal measure!

Knitting Club

Our natty knitters

have been busy

weaving and

working on some

lovely knitted

creations.

The U11 Boys and Girls took part in our Annual Royal Russell School Hockey tournament along

with 14 other teams on Saturday, 6th February.

The girls played well but faced some tough opposition against St Thomas’ Clapham to come 3rd in

the Cup competition.

The boys had a brilliant run in the Plate competition, but narrowly missed out on coming 1st after

penalty shuffles vs Oakfield. Both teams played some fantastic Hockey throughout the day.

Thank you to all the parents for their support throughout the day and to

Addiscombe HC and Kenley HC for helping with umpiring.

Royal Russell Hockey Tournament

The U11 Boys and Girls took part in our Annual

Royal Russell School Hockey tournament along with

14 other teams on Saturday, 6th February.

The girls played well but faced some tough

opposition against St Thomas’ Clapham to come 3rd

in the Cup competition.

The boys had a brilliant run in the Plate competition,

but narrowly missed out on coming 1st after penalty

shuffles vs Oakfield. Both teams played some

fantastic Hockey throughout the day.

Thank you to all the parents for their support

throughout the day and to

Addiscombe HC and Kenley HC for helping with

umpiring.

Congratulations to all Year 5/6

pupils who gave their all in the

house cross country event.

1st home was Sam Charvet

closely followed by Sam

German. Sasha Howard was

the first girl home in 3rd place,

well done.

Results for Cross Country;

1st: Canterbury

2nd: Exeter

3rd: Durham

4th: York

Results for House Basketball;

1st: Durham

2nd: Canterbury

3rd: York

4th: Exeter

Current Y4/5 pupils will have the chance to

experience a fantastic few days of Hockey

(girls) and Football (boys) in the beautiful town

of Valkenburg.

Laser Tag in the caves - The toboggan

run & chair lift - The front of the

hotel

Raring to play Hockey at a local fixture

The tour is running in the first week of the October half term 2016, see Mrs Lloyd

for more information. Full details have been sent via email.

Royal Russell School has taken Teens Unite into their

hearts since former pupil, Sadie sadly lost her battle

with cancer last year. We supported Sadie throughout

her journey and the staff and students at Royal Russell

School have truly gone above and beyond to

help Teens Unite reach out to even more young people

during their fight against cancer.

Royal Russell School

Raises Over £43,000 for

Teens Unite

It’s safe to say that Royal Russell School didn’t take on the challenge of raising money and

awareness for Teens Unite lightly. Their incredible efforts resulted in a staggering final total of

£43,431.18! The main source of fundraising came from the schools ‘London Loop Challenge’. This

was a mammoth challenge, which saw staff and students come together to travel a total of 152 miles-

the same distance of the London Outer Orbital Path (Loop).

The distance was split into 24 sections and shared amongst different year groups, houses, staff,

parents and students to complete in different ways- some of the students completed five miles in

onesies and one of the teachers, Mr Dear, ran the distance of six marathons in four days. A huge

congratulations goes to everyone who helped Royal Russell School to complete the challenge by

contributing in some way.

As if this wasn’t enough, the school held a calendar of fundraising events alongside the London Loop

including a cinema night and family BBQ, not to mention Mr Rocca shaving his hair to raise a few

extra pounds.

To say a massive thank you to Royal Russell School,

Teens Unite’s CEO and Founder, Debbie Pezzani

visited the school last week, along with parent of Sadie,

Julia and one of Sadie’s friends who is also supported

by Teens Unite, Harry. They spoke with students and

staff during an assembly and took the opportunity to

thank everyone for their dedication and hard work.

We really would like to thank everyone at Royal Russell

School from the bottom of our hearts. It has been truly

overwhelming to see you all come together to support

the same cause and help us make a difference to the

lives of more young people just like Sadie. THANK

YOU.

To read the full article please go to http://teensunitefightingcancer.org/royal-russell-school-raises-over-43000-for-teens-unite

It is really lovely to see some of you in our Lower Junior Celebration Assembly each week. This is part of the children’s timetabled educational provision and as such we respectfully ask with safeguarding and privacy of children and their families that no

photography or recording of the assembly takes place.

The assembly is scheduled to start at 2.50pm each Friday and you are very welcome to enter the hall from 2.40pm

We will announce any birthdays that fall in the week leading up to the Sunday of each week and if a child is absent their card and sticker will be given to the class

teacher to celebrate in class as it is not possible to keep a track of children who have missed assembly in the week of their birthday.

In next week’s assembly on Friday 12th February, we will celebrate birthdays up to

and including Sunday 21st February as the following week will be half term.

Royal Russell are collecting Active kids vouchers! If you go to Sainsbury’s make sure that you pick up some vouchers, bring them to school and put them in the box that’s in the lobby!