An amazing number wanted to represent their peers on School Council and, at this juncture, it is important to recognise that those unsuccessful at this point in time demonstrated resilience and supportiveness in spades and, furthermore, despite their disappointment have been extremely gracious and supportive of their friends. I am delighted to announce the School Councillors for the Autumn Term, elected to post by their peers, are as follows: Reception – Rosie and Willem; Year 1 – Max and Alfred; and Year 2 – Aryan and Caleb. Next Friday (1 October) will see the first School Council meeting of the new school year.
Each year we hold an ‘Open Homework’ Week when pupils throughout the School are given the freedom to explore an open-ended theme encouraging lateral thinking and creativity. No other academic homework (Prep) is set, that is apart from reading and phonics/spellings which must continue.
The children have a week to create anything they like associated with a given theme. Whatever approach the children take, they should learn something new. They might write a poem, a story or character sketch. They may wish to do a geographical, historical or scientific study. They may make a toy, game or some form of 3D montage. They may like to prepare some food, produce a piece of art or design something on the computer. There is no right or wrong way to approach ‘Open Homework’ and it provides the children with the opportunity to be creative in an area of learning they particularly enjoy.
In the past, we have followed the themes, ’hope’, ‘7’, ‘round’ and ‘red’, and the range of interpretations is always simply breath taking. Do look out for my letter revealing this year’s word!
This term we have received a number of requests for children to bring in their own packed lunches, I am afraid, however, this is something we cannot accommodate for a number of important reasons. Chief amongst them the fact that a significant number of our school community suffer from severe life-threatening food related allergies; it is therefore, vitally important that any food products on-site are very carefully controlled and managed.
Please do be mindful of this when sourcing birthday treats. We are happy for the children to distribute these to their friends at the end of the day and we will, of course, ensure that children attending Late Stay don’t miss out. Please note, however, we never allow the children to consume sweet/treats, given to them by birthday girls and boys, whilst they are here with us on-site – it will be entirely your choice if you allow your child to eat the birthday treat!
The recipient of the Courtesy Cup and Badge this week was Thomas (Year 2) for always using polite manners around the School. Well done!
Stars of the Week were awarded to:
Year 2: Arjun for always presenting his work so neatly. Keep up the great work!
Year 1: Jasper for consistently following the golden rules and always trying his best.
Reception: Alex for his super dragon picture and writing.
We also celebrated the fact that Rayan (Year 2) gained his Front Kick badge in Kuk Sool Won and Jacob Ri (Year 1) completed his Stage 1 Swimming Award – many congratulations to both boys.
Finally, some excellent news to share, a cheque for £100 arrived in the post as a prize for past Year 2 children taking part in a Young Writers Competition. Covid-19 definitely had an impact here on the timings of this announcement, as this was in recognition of the efforts of the Year 2 cohort 2019-2020. What an achievement – we are so proud their efforts were recognised and know they will inspire our current pupils to take part in the competition this year.