Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...
- Year 1 Veolia visit report
- Year 6 archery competition report
- KS1 Borough Sports in the PE and Sports section
- News of Friday's PTA Summer Fayre
It’s Friday again and phew… are we in need of another weekend rest! A busy week has seen a Nursery educational visit, Veolia visiting Year 1, an archery competition at Prince Avenue, Key Stage 1 Borough Sports, an Open Evening and Meet the Teacher sessions today for many of our classes. Whilst an exhausting week it has also been really great! If your child did not have a Meet the Teacher session today, don’t worry as every class will have two sessions by the time we break up for the summer.
On Friday next week we have our PTA Summer Fayre, where you can collect your children at 2:15pm to join in with the fun. Please see Wednesday’s letter for more information about the fayre. We hope that it is as successful as in other years. Of course, we are at the mercy of the weather gods… if there is heavy rain predicted, we will bring everything inside. Hopefully this will not be the case but if it is we will let you know as soon as possible once a decision has been made.
On Wednesday the Year 6’s have their own mini-fete happening during the school day. The Year 6 children will be running their own games that the children can play. If the children can bring in small change on Wednesday that would be very much appreciated please. Each class will have an opportunity to go outside and join Year 6 for lots of fun.
A bit of a miserable wet day today but hopefully a much better weekend for everyone. Have a lovely Saturday and Sunday and see you next week.
Mr. McClay, Principal
Design a Card
Just a message from last week... A parent asked if we could share the link below. At the moment, the stationery shop Ryman are offering to print children's 'Thank you Teacher' cards free of charge. You can find the template by following the link:
New Road Safety Signs and Banners
You might have seen that we have new signs and banners for the front of our school asking for visitors to not park on the zigzags. Please do not park here... it makes it unsafe for the children and it may result in a police fine. Thank you.
Diary Dates
July
- Monday 8th - Friday 12th - Careers Week
- Monday 8th - Little City Visit EYFS & KS1
- Tuesday 9th - School Nurse presentation to parents
- Little City Visit EYFS & KS1
- Nursery Beach Visit 12:30pm-3:15pm
- Wednesday 10th - Year 3 & 4 YMCA Songwriting workshop
- Year 6 Mini-Fete Extravaganza - please can the children bring in small change to join in
- Thursday 11th - Final swimming lesson for 1MV
- Friday 12th - PTA Summer Fayre 2:15pm to 4:30pm
- Monday 15th - Nursery Stay & Play
- Tuesday 16th - Year 6 Pizza & Film afternoon
- Wednesday 17th - Meet the Teacher Lesson
- Year 6 Water Fight
- Thursday 18th - Y6 Leavers Assembly 9:15am-10:00 (KS2 Hall)
- Friday 19th - Last Day of Term
- Monday 22nd - INSET DAY
REMAINING 2023/24 INSET DAYS
- Monday 22nd July 2024
Nursery
Things are back to normal in Nursery this week, which we are glad of as it has been a busy week. Since the mud kitchen has reopened, the children have enjoyed pretending to make dinner in there. Using the herbs we are growing, the children have been allowed to snip cuttings to add into their meals, which of course they think is great. Some children have made their own recipes and made lists of ingredients. And of course, we had our very last beach visit and although the weather wasn’t as kind as we had hoped, this didn’t stop the children from having fun. The tide was out so onto the mud they went. I think at one point there was quite some competition about who could find the biggest crab. I think Charlie was the winner! We also found a jellyfish in a rockpool, with the children being careful not to touch it. During group time the children used the story, Shark in the Park to support their oral blending skills.
REMINDER: Please look out for the parent survey coming out on ParentPay, where we ask for your feedback on our Beach School work. We’d love to hear what you think!
Letters sent home this week (via ParentPay)
Reception
We have really been enjoying delving into the Naughty Bus in further detail this week. We’ve made wanted posters and paper craft buses; maps of the garden and made our own road and infrastructure table top map, practising our cutting skills and working together as a group. This week we have also written our own story; the Naughty Night Bus! We made story maps and tried our own pictorial text.
In maths we have been counting on and backwards from given numbers to 30. We’ve loved making obstacle courses outside, giving ourselves challenges and testing our balance and physical skills.
Letters sent home this week (via ParentPay)
Year 1
In Year 1 this week, the children made their own fruit salad. They followed their own recipe and carefully cut up their fruit using child friendly knives. All of the children worked really well and enjoyed eating their fruit salad. They wrote instructions of how to make it in their English lessons. In maths, we have been learning about time, making and recording time using o’clock and half past. We were really pleased to see lots of you at our Open Evening this week. The children are excited about going to Year 2.
REMINDER: We have collected in all of the children’s reading books so that they can be sorted out ready for next year. If you find any at home, please return them to school. Thank you
Letters sent home this week (via ParentPay)
Year 2
In Year 2 this week we have been learning about position and direction. We have been creating routes using directional vocabulary. We have also explored what happens to shapes when they rotate by a quarter, half or whole turn.
In English we introduced the story of ‘The Whale’s Tale’ which focuses upon the problem of plastic pollution. The children were shocked by the impact that plastic can have upon the animals living in the sea.
We continued our historical research into the amazing travels of Captain Cook. The children had to match events to the dates on a timeline.
Thank you to those parents/carers who came to our open evening. The children really enjoyed sharing their work with you.
REMINDER: Well done to the Year 2 children who represented the school at the Borough Sports. Fantastic effort all round!
Letters sent home this week (via ParentPay)
Year 3
In maths we have finished our topic of statistics so from now we will be recapping on our previous learning and visiting a range of reasoning and problem-solving activities. In the afternoons we created our own mosaics using real tiles, they turned out fantastic! During geography we looked at the culture of Italy and did some independent research. Lastly, we found out who our new teachers were on Tuesday and spent some time with them on Friday morning. What an interesting morning we had!
Letters sent home this week (via ParentPay)
Year 4
Last week it was perhaps too warm, this week it has been too chilly. Can’t the weather make up its mind?
The new topic in maths this week has been angles – an amount of turn – and shape. The children have been learning to identify different types of angles and be able to name different 2D shapes and their features.
In science in 4D, the children had fun watching a variety of food being melted so that they could compare melting point temperatures, learning that a solid changes state to a liquid when the temperature changes.
In D&T, the children have continued to make their chosen room. We have seen some fantastic ideas and children have been making extra elements that they want to include – mini cushions, fire places and the smallest L-shaped sofa ever seen.
It was lovely to see so many of you on Wednesday. We hoped that you enjoyed seeing your children’s books and if time allowed, meeting their Year 5 teacher.
REMINDER: 4D have Outdoor Learning next Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. They can jeans, joggers or shorts but they must have their Friars tops on. Please remember that there may be stinging nettles outside as it is an environmental garden. As to whether the children should wear suntan lotion or bring a warm jacket.....who knows!
Letters sent home this week (via ParentPay)
Year 5
A very busy week as usual with lots taking place. Of course, the children were excited to hear about their new classes for Year 6 and this news was shared with them on Tuesday. The children all seemed really happy and today they had their first Meet the Teacher lesson with Mr. Leggett and Mrs. Bailey. We still have two weeks left and we are very much looking forward to spending time with the children before they leave us for their final year at Friars.
Reminder: On Monday we are visiting the church.
Letters sent home this week (via ParentPay)
Year 6
This week, we have been writing a descriptive recount based a short video clip. In maths, we started looking at statistics and interpreting information in graphs. We have also been spending time preparing for our leavers assembly and Year 6 Extravaganza.
We hope that those children who were on their transition days today had a great time!
Letters sent home this week (via ParentPay)
Computing
Year 1 this week had their final week of coding on Scratch Jr, where they were able to consolidate their skills of makes sprites move, making changes as they moved along such as changing size, colour or speed. If you have an iPad at home, you can download the Scratch Jr App so children can show you their learning.
Year 3 have been adding features to their coding using the pen extension, such as changing the colour and thickness of the lines they drew. Some drawings were very elaborate such as a house or castle.
Year 5 have been working on making quizzes on Scratch, by using their knowledge of the code “if... then... else”, so an end user can input an answer and the computer has two options of the response. They also realised what the acronym “GIGO” means (Garbage in, garbage out), so their programming needs to be correct for the quiz to work.
For the last few weeks of term, Year 6 will be taking part in the BBC Microbit Playground Survey. After programming their Microbits, they will be recording various data on the playground ready to submit to the BBC at the end of term. This is part of a national BBC project.
Online Safety
WhatsApp is the most widely used messaging platform on the planet, with over two billion users (forecast to become three billion by 2025), across more than 180 countries. The majority of those people (70%) open the app at least once a day – but what exactly are they seeing? Contact from strangers, fake news and convincing scams are all among the service’s well-documented hazards.
According to Ofcom, WhatsApp is used by more than half of 3- to 17-year-olds in the UK (including one in three from the 8–11 bracket), despite its 16+ age restriction. If your child hops onto WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends or family, our updated guide to the service contains the key details you’ll need to support them in doing it safely.
PE & Sports
This week four children represented the school in an archery competition - you can read this a little further on in the newsletter. Some of our younger athletes competed at the KS1 Borough Athletics tournament. It was great to see our children representing the school so well. We made it to a number of the finals with a particular highlight being the boys' team winning the final of the space hopper race! A huge congratulations to all of the children who participated.
Below you can click on the links to see photographs from our Sports Day last week.
Outdoor Learning
4S have thoroughly enjoyed their outdoor learning sessions this week and have learnt how to cut wood using a range of tools including saws, secateurs and even axes! After the wood had been chopped we learnt how to start fires which was useful for roasting marshmallows on! Finally we prepared vegetables using peelers and knives ready to make a delicious vegetable curry – a very satisfying end to our outdoor learning! 4D will have their outdoor learning next week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
REMINDER: 4D have Outdoor Learning next Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. They can wear jeans, joggers or shorts but they must have their Friars tops on. Please remember that there may be stinging nettles outside as it is an environmental garden. As to whether the children should wear suntan lotion or bring a warm jacket.....who knows!
Veolia visit Year 1
Year 1 enjoyed finding out more about how to recycle from Veolia on Monday morning. The children read a story about the recycling truck then watched how recyclable materials such as cardboard or plastic are loaded onto "Munch" the truck. The children then had a go at sitting in the front cabin of the truck and they honked the horn! We all really enjoyed Veolia’s visit as you can see by the photographs.
Archery Competition
On Wednesday, four Year 6 children took part in an archery competition at Prince Avenue, accompanied by Mrs. Hodgson. The morning event saw six schools come together on the soft archery boards in a round robin tournament. Mark, Toby, Michelle and Skye competed brilliantly in their first archery event and scored well. Whilst we didn’t win, we did have lots of fun and enjoyed the experience. Well done all!
Someone mentioned that Mrs. Hodgson and the other adults had a go at the end... and Mrs. Hodgson failed to hit the target. Maybe this is just a rumour...
Dinner Menu
Week 1
Monday - Beef Bolognaise with Spaghetti - Vegan Bolognaise with Spaghetti - Baked Jackets with Grated Cheese - Chicken Mayonnaise Baguette - Cheese Salad Wrap - Pea & Broccoli - Maryland Cookie
Tuesday - Ham & Cheese Pizza with Bakes Wedges - Margherita Pizza with Baked Wedges - Pasta & Tomato Sauce - Ham Sandwich - Cheese & Tomato Bloomer - Carrots & Sweetcorn - Apple Crumble with Custard
Wednesday - Roast Chicken with roast Potatoes & Gravy - Squash & Lentil Lasagna- Baked Jackets with Baked Beans - Tuna Sweetcorn Baguettes - Cheese Sandwich - Seasonal Greens & Cauliflower - Cherry Cornflake Cake
Thursday - Mild Chicken & Vegetable Curry with Steamed Rice - Vegan bEAN Chilli with Steamed Rice - Pasta & Tomato Sauce - Tuna Mayonnaise Sandwich - Cheese Salad Wrap - Broccoli & Carrots - Chocolate & Pear Sponge
Friday - Breaded Fish Fingers with Chips & ketchup - Vegan Goujons with Chips & Ketchup - Baked Jackets with grated Cheese - Ham Sandwich - Egg Mayo Baguette - Peas & Baked Beans - Banana Flapjack
Freshly Baked Bread - Carrot & Beetroot or Wholemeal Bread.
PTA
Thank you everyone who has sent back raffle ticket stubs and money so far! If you want to buy any more tickets they are available from the office or at the fayre. We now have over 50 fabulous prizes so don't miss out!
Please see our fayre poster below to see another exciting development! If you don't have change on the day- you can purchase tokens using your cards at our tuck stall!
Celebration Assembly
The links for our Celebration Assemblies can be found below.
With two weeks to go it couldn't really be much closer. A win for Caernarfon this week has seen the gap close to just 18 points. Caernarfon really could overturn this deficit... It will be very interesting to see what happens...
Community
In July we are hoping to host some career events for our children. We are looking for parents/carers/family members or friends who would like to come and talk to our children about ut their jobs. Think you can help or know someone who can? Please drop me a line etaylorbrown@fps.porticoacademytrust.co.uk
01702 294837 - office@fps.porticoacademytrust.co.uk