It has been delightful to welcome back our pupils and parents after the Christmas holiday break. PSHE's theme this term is 'dreams and goals' which ties nicely with the New Year's resolutions that the children have been busy making. Some very interesting ones (pupils' and parents') have been shared in assembly this week! However, with some of our perseverance levels being tested already, we're going to focus on our attitude, so.....be kind, be thoughtful and do your best! We are looking forward to a term filled with learning and fun - do look out for upcoming events in the Key Dates sent before Christmas and in the Dates for Your Diary section of the newsletter. The next whole school event is Showtime Saturday which we hope you will be able to make - please do invite friends and family (they can follow the link below too).
We would like to invite all our parents to join us on Saturday 3rd February 2024, from 9.00am to 12.00pm for a morning of performing arts where your child can take part in workshops including dance, performance, technical theatre and costume, music singing and music instrumental. Meet our specialist teachers, find out about the first class performing arts provision and amazing Dance, Drama and Music facilities available to our KC Nursery and Prep pupils. Suitable for ages 3-11 years. Please follow the link to book your place.
Magistrates in the Community
Magistrates in the Community, Sara Bartolozzi and Shelley Heim, visited Year 5 and Year 6 today. Children learned how the Magistrate’s Courts work and what sort of cases appear in front of them. The prosecution and defence for a case was presented to them which they had to deliberate and then come to a conclusion. There was a great deal of debate before they passed their judgment! A fascinating and thought provoking morning to start the term.
What happened in school this week?
Forest Explorers
Forest Explorers are very excited to be back at school - we all had lots of lovely news to share with each other. We had fun down in the forest making super hero masks, pretending that ice is our super power!
Reception
The children in Reception have been really excited to be back together after the Christmas holiday. In circle time they shared photographs and talked about their Christmas and New Year celebrations. We then looked at how New Year is celebrated around the world, how it is often a time to look back at what has happened during the year and look forward to the coming year. Each of the children thought about something they would like to get better at this year as their New Year's resolution. They made a star with their resolution on and we have displayed them so that the children can see how they are getting on with it throughout the year.
Year 1
Year 1 have started their new Science topic on Scientists and Inventors with great excitement. They began with the man who invented Lego, Ole Kirk Christiansen. Ole came from Denmark and named his company 'Lego' because it sounded like the Danish work 'leg godt' which means 'play well'. The children explored different ways of putting the Lego bricks together whilst creating models of their own considering the properties of the bricks; hard, lightweight and durable. The children shared their models with each other and talked through why they had made certain design decisions. We think there are many budding inventors in our class!
Year 2
In Year 2, we have explored Monet's Waterloo Bridge paintings, discovering how light influences a subject. We also studied London's building shapes as potential silhouettes for our artwork. Children experimented with layering and blending pastels, creating unique effects. Using colored sugar paper, they drew inspiration from Monet to craft their own vibrant artworks, showcasing their newfound skills and creativity.
Year 3
In science we have been learning about healthy eating, balanced diets and what we should be eating to live a healthy lifestyle. We really enjoyed making, and eating, fruit kebabs which we had chopped and peeled ourselves.
Year 4 started their Geography topic with a very interesting conversation about where our food comes from. At first it seemed quite simple but when they thought about foods such as pizza and chocolate cake, they realised that a rather long complicated process occurs before food finally reaches our plate. Thinking about a whole range of food types, they chose 8 foods to investigate and look forward to tracing the origins right back to the fields and trees where they began their journey to our tables.
Year 5
Welcoming back year 5 has been a delight! Greek Myths have filled many lessons this week, including art and English. Pandora, Epimetheus, Prometheus, and Zeus had an interesting time in the first myth we read. Pictured here, 'Pandora' is walking down a conscience alley as she is considering opening the box gifted by Zeus. The pupils offered advice on whether she should or shouldn't and had tremendous ideas. Poor Prometheus remained tied to a cliff but was aided by the release of 'Hope'. Next week we will work further on our Greek plate designs.
Year 6
Year 6 have returned to another busy week! We have set ourselves two new goals in PHSE which we will be reminding ourselves of during the coming weeks. This was inspired by Mrs Hall’s assembly on Tuesday and a determination to do our best this term. In maths we have been learning about addition and subtraction of mixed numbers, whilst in English we have started the non-fiction text for this half of term, which is an e book called ’Blood’. We revised features of non-chronological, non-fiction texts and looked to spot these in the facts that we read - did you know that a drop of blood the size of a pinhead contains approximately 5 million red blood cells?
Our science topic links to our English topic at the moment as we are studying the circulatory system. On Wednesday we had our first netball matches of the term and we are looking forward to and training hard for more to come. Alongside our German lesson, learning about websites and how to build them, swimming and thinking about the concept of eternity in R.E, we were extremely excited to listen to Mrs Cable talk about the upcoming school production of ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’. She has invited those of us who would like to, to take part in the chorus – a letter to the parents will follow.
HALO Lecture
This week some of our AIMs pupils attended a HALO lecture led by Ms Handford, who was talking about ending sexism in education. It was a very thought provoking talk and left the children with much to discuss and think about:
I was surprised that girls and boys do not have equal opportunities in school, because they really should.
The percentages that Ms Handford showed us were really very surprising.
I was shocked about the inequality in education, because it should definitely be fair in schools.
The Wellbeing Hub
Towards the end of 2023 we shared the The Wellbeing Hub platform with you. As a parent, you have free access to a wealth of information and we encourage you to take the opportunity to register and take advantage of these invaluable resources. Creating an environment that nurtures pupil mental health and wellbeing is a key priority for us at Kent College. To help us do this, we have invested in The Wellbeing Hub, developed by child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing experts.
The Wellbeing Hub is an interactive online portal, designed to help you understand and meet your child’s social and emotional needs. We believe it will be an invaluable source of information and support for our whole school community.