The Coronet THE JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
MARCH 2018
We have had a very full Spring Term and our girls have worked extremely hard both in and out of the classroom. There are many highlights and the girls have enjoyed recording their thoughts on some of them in this edition of ‘The Coronet’. Our World Book Day events reminded us all about how fortunate we are to have access to so many wonderful books at home and in school and we were very pleased to welcome the author, Helen Moss for a day of workshops. Thank you too, for all your hard work in preparing costumes for our Book Character Day. Our STEAM week was a great success with an exciting and explosive assembly by Mr Hislam as well as House activities for the girls. Year 3 and 4 performed wonderfully in their production of ‘The Glint of Gold’ and now our year 5 and 6 are busy practising for their production after Easter. Participation in sport is very important to us at Little St Margaret’s and it has been encouraging to see and hear how our girls have progressed in their Netball and Swimming fixtures throughout the term. A whole host of Sports Relief activities ranging from the Mile Run to the Staff v 6th Form Netball match and very popular cake sale helped to raise a huge amount for this worthy cause. During our last week some of Year 5 and 6 girls participated in a fantastic Gym and Dance display showing what can be achieved through hard work and practice. Our very last day of term saw the whole of the Junior School, girls and staff, participate in a ‘Big Dance’ in the playground choreographed by Miss Porter and Miss Pares. May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and safe Easter break. Mrs Norris
Head’s Commendations Congratulations to the Spring Term recipients : Amina Khan, Aariya Pankhania, Simran Shah, Grace Killick, Jasmine Halai, Minnah Syed, Carma Takla, Kaitlin Mano-Ramnarine, Naisha Vagadia, Esha Kumar, Sofia Khandelwal, Ariana Ashar, Zienna Sojitra, Aneesa Patel, Tia Patel, Anshikaa Desai, Diya Meghani, Carmen Barquero Dominguez, Anya Ashar and Melina Shiralizadeh.
Stars of the week this half term Reception : Amina, Jessica, Aariya, Arina, Angela, Amarah and Keya Year 1
: Isha, Lana, Anaya, Mollie, Shanahia, Deborah and Alina
Year 2
: Suhana, Maya, Saiya, Minnah, Jasmine and Naomi.
Year 5 Belmont Maths Challenge On 20th February 2018; Shira, Francesca, Doris and I went to Belmont School to compete in a mathematics challenge. There were 6 different activities and we had 8 minutes to do as many questions as we could. There were 20 different schools and we came 7th. One of the challenges we had to do was to make 34 out of four digits. Here is an example: 7 3 6 5 Rules You can only use the 4 operations including: multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. You must use all the numbers: Method: 7 x 6 = 42 3+5=8 42 – 8 = 34 Now you try: Can you make 34 from these digits, 7 9 4 10 (Yes, it’s possible!) Aneesa Patel (5H)
Year 5 Reading Book : “The Midnight Fox” This term, Year 5 have been reading a book called, “The Midnight Fox”. This book is suitable for all ages. The book is very easy to read and to understand. Rudrani from 5J said, “The book was brilliant”. Florence from 5J says that it was an emotional and interesting story. I really recommend it no matter how old you are. We made a story board of all the main things that happened in each chapter. Everyone was super excited and wanted to read on every time we came to the end of a chapter. At first some people weren’t that excited but when we finished the book everyone was happy and relieved that it had a happy ending. Masooma Syed and Anqi Chen (5J)
Year 4 Visit to the Chiltern Open Air Museum On Friday 23rd February Year 4 went on a school trip to the Chiltern Air Museum to learn about the Anglo Saxons. The first workshop we did was in an Anglo Saxon house. We made our own broaches and carved our names on a block of clay. It was not easy because we had to do it in Anglo Saxon runes. We also got to play a board game it was so much fun. After the workshop it was lunch I was so glad as I was so hungry. I was so glad when I found out where we were eating had heating. The second activity was a dig. I thought we were going to have to dig outside but instead we went to a hut where there were a lot of fun things like attaching old broken jars together with tape and digging through sand to find artefacts. It was so much fun, we all had a brilliant but very cold day. Isabella (4H)
Netball On Monday 12th March, St. Margaret’s played a netball match against Ashfield School. In the first half, the Jaguars played. All the girls played amazingly and it was lovely to see everybody in St. Margaret’s cheering us on and keeping our spirits up. Our defenders got the ball down to the shooters a lot and our shooters, Maria and Kaiyana, scored a tremendous amount of goals but we could not have scored that many times if it was not for our defence team. Kaiyana, one of our shooters, still scored in very difficult places and it was extremely nice to see the SMB audience cheering like crazy! Overall we scored fifteen goals and Ashfield School shot five. We did win but I do not think it was by luck. In training Miss Porter and Miss Pares put quite a lot of effort into planning what we are going to do. We also could not have won the match without their coaching skills and their sportsmanship. Everybody had a lot of fun and they were all very proud of themselves. Lili (6C)
Y3 & Y4 Play to Parents
On Thursday the 8th of March, Year 3 and 4 did a play about the Ancient Egyptians called a Glint of Gold. It was about Tutankhamen coming out of his tomb and showing everyone how he ruled ancient Egypt. We had some fantastic songs, dances and very brave soloists! We all worked extremely hard to make it perfect and in the end it was perfect!! There were some funny moments, sad moments and crazy moments but everyone enjoyed it. The funniest moment was when Osiris did his solo dance (everyone laughed so much because it was hilarious). The best part was when Tutankhamen did his solo telling everyone how he ruled Egypt at nine years old! In the play Hatshepsut (an ancient Egyptian queen) was telling everyone her story, most people giggled because Hatshepsut was a bearded women. All of us learned so much about the Ancient Egyptians from doing this awesome play! Everyone was amazing in the play! Tara and Naisha (4H)
Chinese Workshop In Year 5 we are learning Chinese. On the 13th of March we had a man from Brazil who could speak fluent Mandarin and a lady from China come to teach us. We started by learning the actions for ‘Hello.’ Then he gave us this amazing demonstration. He showed us a Kung Fu fan routine. He slowly worked though it step by step with us. When we flapped the fans open it made a really loud bang! He also showed us one of his chain sequences. We didn’t do it because it was a bit too dangerous for us to do. At the end we showed everyone what we learnt. It was really fun. Shira and Tia (5J)
Mothers’ Day Assembly For our Mother’s Day Assembly, Year 2 sang a song to our mummies in three groups. The first group sang about what our mummies often say, such as, “Go and clean your teeth.” The second group sang about what we blame our mummies for, like when we forget things. The third group sang about how kind and helpful our mummies are to us. All our mummies enjoyed the songs we sang to them. Please remember: “We love you Mummy.” My mummy is lovely because she is; A car – driver A butterfly – catcher A hair – brusher A peace – maker A holiday – planner A nose – wiper By Joline Nyman
My Mummy is special because she is; A tight – hugger A kiss – giver A brownie – maker A story – teller A cake – baker By Shanahia Wu
I love my mummy because she is; A pillow – fighter A silly – prankster A tea – drinker A nose – wiper A hard – worker A puddle – jumper By Lea Tang
On Wednesday 14th March, it was not an ordinary day for the girls of little St Margaret’s. Wednesday was a particularly exciting day. The girls took part in several activities for S T E A M week featuring the following subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. It started off with an exciting assembly that included different experiments to do with colour and our wonderful head girl, Luciana stood at the front and put her hands on what looked like a metal sphere attached to a machine that made you static. Luciana’s hair stood up on end! In the afternoon the girls split up into their houses to take part in the different activities planned for them. These activities included making a paper aeroplane and measuring how far the aeroplane flew, making a tower out of spaghetti and plasticine and seeing how tall you could make it, making a xylophone with glass test tubes, water and food colouring that you pour in at different heights to make different sounds and finally the girls either coloured in their own pattern on a flower or coloured a co-ordinates sheet. Overall, the girls had a very exciting day and can’t wait to see what next year’s S T E A M week brings. Isabel (6C)
Netball : Teachers vs Sixth Formers On the 21st of March, some of the teachers played a netball match against the Sixth Form. Reception to Year 12’s watched the match. Mr Hislam, Mr Sedley, Miss Porter and Miss Pares all played the match with teachers from the Senior School. I hope they all enjoyed playing it because we enjoyed watching. The score at the end of the match was 5-5. It was very funny. Isabella said, ‘I wanted the Sixth Formers to win because it was their last year here and I wanted them to go home with a big win against the teachers.’ Daisy said, ‘It was a very fair match.’ Florence (5J)
Environmental Day Our Environmental Day was based on the Julia Donaldson book ‘Stick Man’. When we went for our walk we all found our own stick man and took him on an adventure. We explored a new part of school that we had never seen before and love the big open space. Some of us used our sticks to dig in the ground and we ordered all of our stick men from shortest to tallest. We left our stick man back near their homes so they too could return to their family tree.
On our way we saw lots of Spring flowers; daffodils, snowdrops and the some bluebells, but unfortunately they had not bloomed yet.
Some of use made grass angel’s in the long wavy grass.
In the morning we had a quiz about Spring things then we watched Stick man. In the afternoon Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 were given a compare bear in an ice cube and we had to try and get it out. Afterwards, we went for a walk in the forest with Miss Porter and Miss Pares and we found sticks which we used to make stick men. We looked for ducks at the pond but we could only see them if we were quiet, which we weren’t. Miss Porter made us run to the tree and back twice, which was exhausting! We got into order of our stick height from shortest to tallest. We all had fun and really enjoyed the day. Thank you to Miss Porter for organising such a wonderful event.
On Wednesday 7th March Years 3-6 had a swimming gala against St Hilda’s School. This gala was at home in our sports centre swimming pool. All swimmers tried really hard. Eloise in Year 5 was really good and won all of her races. There were loads of other people who won all their races but Eloise was just amazing. Everyone cheered each other on when the girls were swimming. While we were getting changed Mrs Braine and the other umpire were calculating the scores on which school won. The results were in, overall we won and the score was 115-159. Anya (6C)
Year 6 Visit to the Lincolnsfield Centre On Friday 16th of March the whole of Year 6 went on an outing to Lincolnsfield Centre, to experience how people lived during the 1940s. Before the trip, we were told that we had to wear old clothes since over there was muddy and we could get dirty. This did make us excited. On the day we came in as planned and stayed for Fridays Assembly. After that we got in to two groups and then Mr Hislam (Year 5H teacher and Head of Science) kindly drove each group to the centre. Once we were all there we went into this village hall (which was a classroom) and it was very old. The desks were just like the desks the Year 6’s have! Then a man came in the room and told us rules that we had to follow. Not long after, we all got split into 3 groups and went ahead to do our activities. There were 4 activities. One was ‘Dig for victory’, where we got to go in an Anderson shelter and use a hose to extinguish a burning incendiary bomb. The other was the ‘Blitz Kids’ where we experienced what it was like to suddenly hear an air raid siren and run to shelter. We got to go on a jeep to get to the place, which was really fun and very bouncy. There was also a museum where we got to see all the supplies soldiers could take with them to war and we got to feel how heavy their guns and bags were. The last but not least one was where we got to see how the houses would be like in those days. It was very interesting because everyone shared the bedroom, and it was also very hard to wash clothes. The games they played in those days were obviously not like the games we play now, but they were still really fun. Overall everyone had a fantastic time and thank you too Mr Sedley, Miss Caher, Miss Weber and the staff of Lincolnsfield for making this trip possible. Melina (6C)
Year 1 Visit to Kew Gardens On Monday 19th March Year 1 made their way to Kew Gardens for a fun filled day of learning about lots of different plants, flowers and animals.
We were all wrapped up in our hats, gloves and scarfs as there was still snow on the ground and made our way towards the Palm House. We immediately felt the temperature difference and had to delayer quickly. We saw lots of interesting plants including vanilla, sugar cane and coconut trees. We even climbed all the way to the top of the greenhouse and saw just how tall some of the trees were. Some were even bigger than our school! We learnt about plants in the rainforest and how they catch water on their leaves and how some water rolls off them because they can get too much. We got to pretend to be cacti and got bigger as be absorbed more water and thinner when we used up our stores.
We explored around the Climbers and Creepers Exhibition and got to pretend to be bees and collect pollen.
Year 5 Visit to St. Albans Abbey On Friday 2nd February 2018, we went on a school trip to St Albans Abbey in St. Albans. When we arrived, a volunteer escorted us into the Abbey. The Abbey was beautiful, there were carvings around and inside the buildings. There was a huge stained glass window which had a gigantic colourful flower on it. First, she told us the history of the Abbey and showed us some pictures of how one part of the Abbey looked in the Victorian times. Then she gave us one penny which used to be used in the Victorian times. We went to a Victorian classroom where they taught us like they use to teach in the Victorian times. There was a lesson called, The Object Lesson. In that lesson, she showed an object and told us facts about it. The class was divided into two parts, half were boys and the other half was girls. The boys had to learn and read grammar while the girls had to learn a nice poem and had to do needlework. The lesson after that was the drill. In the drill we had to march. The classroom had strict rules and we had to follow all the rules - if we didn’t then the teacher would take us in a different room and hit us with a stick. There was a piece of cursive handwriting on the blackboard. They gave us a stylus and a small slate to write on. We were not allowed to write with our left hand. In Victorian time, they tied a rope around their left hand and they had to write with the right hand. After that we went into the Cathedral to eat our lunch. We had three choices of sandwiches, tuna, jam or cheese. After that we played with the toys they played with, in the Victorian times. We made our own optical illusions. It was finally the end of the day and all of us were really tired when we got back to school. Anshikaa (5J)
Reception
We have had a really busy term in Reception Class. ‘We wrote lists of what to take on a Bear Hunt.’ Milly ‘We designed caves for the bear’ Annissa ‘Then we went on a Bear Hunt in a real life snowstorm.’ Amarah
‘We made a tally chart to record different types of transport that goes past our school’ Amina ‘We decorated our class spaceship and wrote about what we would see on a journey to space.’ Aariya
‘We practised how to cross the road safely and wrote instructions on how to do it.’ Sara
‘Book Character’ Mufti Day This year on the 5th March 2018 everyone dressed up as a book character. Almost the whole of the Junior School took part and in assembly we all stood up on stage and talked about our costumes. From the Hetty Feather to Cinderella they were all amazing. We also did a class activity which was related to books (for example Year 6 did a trial in court for Hansel and Gretel). Whatever we did I am sure that that everyone would agree that it was marvellous. Ishiya (6C)
Helen Moss : Author visit and workshops This term, St Margaret’s have been fortunate enough to be visited by Helen Moss, author of the Island Adventure series. Each year group was able to have a workshop and spend time in class with her doing fun activities. In the morning Helen talked in assembly about how she became an author and were she gets her inspiration from. She told us she travels all around the world and sees creatures that you would never imagine existed. This all inspired us to do more things. In year 6 we explored what made a good mystery story and how you have to leave clues and think like a detective. We played a really fun detective game where we had to follow clues, ask questions and use our inference skills to figure out the characters identity. The first group that guessed the character right won. At the end of the day we were allowed to get some of her wonderful books that she sold like Adventure Island or Secrets of the Tombs. We were then able to get it signed Helen wrote a little message for us. We all had a fabulous day and it would be fantastic if she could come back. Luciana (6C)
Volcano Experiment On Thursday the 22nd of March my class/Year 3s did an experiment of explosions. The first instruction was to pour half a bowl of flour into a mixing bowl and while you were mixing, your partner would pour in the water. I was with Sienna, Bonnie, Jemima, Nisanur and Arianna. As a group we made a very nice volcano. It was a real one but small. After the volcanos dried Mrs Parikh put a plastic cup inside to make a hole. The next day we painted the volcanoes. Finally it was the day to do our experiment. We needed Fairy liquid, baking soda, vinegar, food colouring and water. The first group that did the experiment was Summer, Edna, Ayesha, Isabelle, Ruofei and Isabella. First Isabella’s group put the water first and then they added the Fairy liquid and, to make it look like lava, they added red and orange food colouring. Next they put the baking soda and it exploded. Sienna said it was like it gave birth. It was my groups turn and we added the same things. The volcano exploded all over the pavement and my group got spoons and tried to take more lava out. Last of all it was Evie’s group. Evie was with Carma, Lily, Kiara, Sofia and Kaitlin. They had a bit of holes so their volcano was like a proper volcano. When Evie’s group poured in the vinegar it exploded and the pretend lava went through the holes and all over the tray. I was proud of the volcanoes and I liked doing the experiment. Lauren (3JT)
A Level Student Interview On Thursday 4th February 2018, four Year 5 girls were chosen to go to the senior school science department to interview an A Level student, Amy Derrick. The four girls that were chosen were Lily Morris and Sadie Slagel from 5H and Isabella Stratis and myself from 5J. Amy is trying to become a paediatric nurse. A paediatric nurse is a child nurse. This means she will specialize in helping children when they have an illness. We prepared some questions on a piece of card to ask her. We could tell she was very nervous but so were we. Although some of her answers were very upsetting, she was confident in her answers. We all had lots of fun and we wish Amy the best of luck. Isabelle (5J)
Charity donations this half term ÂŁ324.05
This term, for Sports Relief the whole of the Junior school ran a mile. Here, we have some quotes from the day. Florence Pickles: ‘‘It was a tiring and exciting event.” Anqi Chen: ‘‘There were a lot of thorns.’’ Daisy Goodman: ‘‘I had lots of fun with my friends but came out muddy.’’ We were raising money for people who can‘t afford good sports facilities. After this Year 5 ran another 2 miles in P.E. The first one was helping set out the course. The second one was to run the mile again for exercise. It was a very exciting day. Divine Donovan and Daisy Goodman (5J)
On Friday 23rd March 2018, the Junior School had a cake sale to raise money for sport relief. Years 5 and 6 brought in cupcakes and cakes and sold these at the end of the day. All classes from Reception to Year 6 bought cakes. We raised £228-66. Thank you to everyone. Mathura Logeswaran and Fatima Bhaila 5J
A big THANK YOU to everyone who supported the Book Fair. We raised a total of £1279.64. We are very excited to be able to choose books for our school with the reward.