St Peter's 2-8 Newsletter I 26

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Newsletter No: 26 Friday, 7th May 2021 Earlier in the year St Peter’s 2-8 were shortlisted for the TES Preprep school of the year award. This year’s ceremony was not held in London as in previous years, but was live-streamed online. It was great to see awards given to Streatham and Clapham High School, Thorpe Hall School, Harrow School, Bedales School, Orchard House School, Norwich High School for Girls, Wycombe Abbey, Rugby School and Felsted School and Sylvia Grace, Head of Moreton Hall won a Lifetime Achievement Award. Then it was the turn of the school winners.

Congratulations to all shortlisted and winning schools in a challenging year where the recognition is all the more resonant, including St Peter’s 8-13, nominated in the Prep School category.

very best for every single child in our school. The teachers, teaching assistants, support staff, catering team, housekeeping team, grounds team, and estates team; it is such an immense endorsement for all of your stunning efforts throughout the most difficult year. Huge thanks to the School Leadership and Governors who give up their time to strengthen and guide the school.

Your support is appreciated by all.

Thanks to the parents for your continued support, developing extremely strong relationships to benefit the learning of your children. Finally, thanks to all of the children at St Peter’s 2-8 for being simply brilliant. You make ours the best job in the worId and we should all celebrate this remarkable achievement together. Please follow the link below to find an eBook with a write up of the TES We were extremely delighted to Independent School Awards from win the TES Pre-prep School of the last Friday evening: TES ISAwards Year, a wonderful achievement in Winners eBook and you can watch its own right. This meant that we the awards ceremony on YouTube went into the final with the best here: TES ISAwards Ceremony.

Prep School, St. Ronan’s School, the best Senior School, Notting Hill My huge thanks for all your letters, and Ealing School and the Best emails and gifts of congratulations.

Boarding School, Moreton Hall for This was a huge team effort with the prestigious title of Independent the whole school community School of the Year and we won! playing a part.

What an accolade for us and for St Have a wonderful weekend.

Peter’s School as a whole.

I would like to say huge congratulations to everyone in the school community for all they do for the children. I know how hard they work to provide the

Notice Board MUSICAL NOTES 2-8 has been alive with the sound of African drums this week! Children in Year 2 and 3 have begun to explore the different sounds the drums can make, depending on where you hit them! They have worked on copying back rhythmic patterns and attempted playing whilst singing, trickier than it sounds! Year 3 had their final string/woodwind/ brass lesson this week ready to switch to the final group of instruments next week. They all managed to play some simple pieces on their instrument in only a short space of time; well done Year 3!

Reception have had lots of fun this week playing Mrs Hayden’s favourite game, Boo! Next week we are continuing the theme of going on a journey so will be leaving the Scary Castle behind for a special island! Year 1 have been listening to Thai instruments this week. They loved the circle of gongs and found out that they are tuned to our major scale. The children are looking forward to Monday’s lesson where we are going to have a practice for our very first concert, recorders at the ready!

We marked Deaf Awareness week on Thursday with a whole school assembly with Sean Chandler, a support worker for deaf children. He spoke to the children about what being deaf is like, ways to communicate with deaf people and answered some questions asked by the children, such as how to sign ‘love’ and ‘friendship’. Sean showed the children his hearing aid and explained how he uses a vibrating alarm clock to wake up in the morning. Our thanks to Sean for a fantastic assembly.

house points trophy

Notice Board learning superheroes •Freddie H (RA)

•Novem L (1J) •Dylan l-B (1J)

•Emilia B (RC) •Hugo W (1J) •Ellie B (RC) •Olivia A (2H)

•Lydia B N (RC) •Nina H (2J) •Alfie S-A (1C) •Jonah H (3C) •Jack M (1E)

•Erin G (3M)

•Hamish R (1J) •Hildy W (3S) •Pierce C (1J) •Felix G-J (3S)

WALMGATE (Lochie and Alice standing in—Bertie photo next week!)

value champions

•Georgia V (RA)

•Oliver M (1E)

•Miles H (3C)

•Esmé C-C (RC)

•Eva N (1J)

•Myla W (3M)

•Iker I (RC)

•Immie D-D (2H)

•Zac P (3S)

•Sofia B (1C)

•Annlee K (2J)

PE award •Darcy (3S) •Felix G-J (3S)

Music award •Olivia T (1E)

•Lizzie K-L (2H)

•Toby M (3S)

In their Games lessons, Year 1have been working diligently to improve their hand eye coordination in striking and fielding games. After recapping the correct technique with which to hold the bat, the children worked in partners, aiming to hit a beanbag into a hula hoop which was placed on the ground in front of them.

The children demonstrated excellent teamwork skills, providing their partner with constructive feedback on how to

improve the accuracy and power of their hit.

Once the children were able to confidently vary the power with which they hit their beanbag, they tried to hit their beanbag into their partner’s hands for them to catch. At the end of the lesson, we put the children’s newly developed target practice skills into a game situation, working as a group to score points by hitting their beanbag into an opposing team’s hula hoops. Well done Year 1!

In their Athletics lessons, the children have been working on the skill of jumping for distance.

Following a warm up game, we discussed which parts of the body are used when jumping for distance. After establishing the importance of using both our legs and our arms in order to maximise the power behind the jump, the children practiced their standing long jump in pairs. One person acted as the athlete and their partner acted as a coach, providing verbal

PE feedback on the jump and marking their best jump using a cone, before switching roles.

Everyone demonstrated excellent collaboration with their partners and there were some fantastic distances jumped! Brilliant work!

PE

ACORNS

Our little Acorns have had another busy week!

flowers growing. We even enjoyed having our snack there whilst listening to the story of Jack and the We had a lovely time visiting the library gardens Beanstalk. This inspired us to plant our own beans… I wonder what they at St Peter’s 8-13, where we spotted some colourful will grow into?!

CONKERS

Conkers have continued to travel the world this week and it has been fabulous to hear about all their holiday adventures!

RECEPTION We have had another joyful week in Reception and the rainy days haven't stopped our outdoor explorers one bit! We have made giant parachute tents outside to hold off the rain snuggling down in cosy sleeping bags; made brilliant dens in Forest School and traversed the exciting climbing equipment at St Peters 8-13 - putting all our learning superpowers to effect. The children are making us so very proud with their incredible writing; their confidence and imagination is simply soaring!

We have loved reading their super descriptions of mysterious images in our morning writing

challenge, hearing their sweet 'Dear Zoo' books to be shared with our nursery friends and seeing all the posters, tickets and stories which emerge spontaneously from their childled play. Felt hand puppets, aboriginal art, drama in our helicopter stories sessions, mud kitchen cafes, animal hospitals and florist role-play have all emerged from the children's interests and shown their flair for creativity too! Finally, we can't leave without mentioning our back pack adventure sessions which have been so popular - we get to travel all over the world right here in Reception and we really couldn't ask for more animated and excited presenters!

RECEPTION

Another busy week in Year 1.

We have been making the most of our outdoor area this week in between the rain showers.

There have been children making tsunamis, creating spicy recipes in the mud kitchen and using our woodwork area to create Ikat inspired designs. The children are really starting to lead their own learning now and have been really inspired by some of the animals of Asia

YEAR 1

and their plight, from the elephants of Thailand to the Komodo dragons of Indonesia and the orangutans of Borneo.

They are becoming really responsible and caring world citizens and impressing us with their compassion. We are also really grateful to some of our parents who have been sharing artefacts and information with us about Asia.

This week Amara shared some beautiful wedding dresses from India which we have loved admiring and learning how to wear. I wonder where our travels will take us next week?

YEAR 1

The children have had so much fun putting those ICT skills that they acquired in lockdown to good use this week as they continue to build their knowledge of Madagascar and the different animals we can find there. The children loved using apps such as Google Earth and Barefoot Atlas to look at where Madagascar is in the world and learn new information about this incredible island. The Year 2 team were very impressed with the children's collaboration skills and we saw these skills being put into action again with a QR code challenge in science. Continuing on from animal classification in last week's science lesson, this week the children had to scan the QR code to reveal a statement about animals and decide which animal groups these statements applied to, for example we discovered that 'they lay eggs' could actually fit into the bird, fish, reptile and amphibian groups! Did you know that some types of lizards actually give birth to live young too? We have learnt so many incredible things about the different animal groups!

In the latest chapter of our key text 'Into the Jungle' by Katherine Rundell, we met Bagheera, a black panther that was kept in a cage at the Maharana's palace with his sister Gilhari. The children used descriptive language and thesauruses to describe the cage and how Bagheera was feeling in the captivity of the Maharana. This got Year 2 thinking... is the captivity of animals always bad or are there times where it is positive or even necessary? The children

worked in groups to discuss reasons for and against zoos and they came up with some fantastic points. All of the children looked at both sides of the argument and discussed why it is important to be respectful of opposition's ideas. We played 'Conscience Corridor' where the children decided which side they would like to be on, expressed their views but were allowed to change sides depending on how they felt and the points they had listened to among their peers. We were very impressed with how the children expressed their views in a mature manner and also listened to the advice and views of their peers.

YEAR 2

In maths, we have been revising place value and using our reflective skills to partition numbers into ones, tens, hundreds and so on. The children have enjoyed using a range of resource to create 2, 3, 4 and even 5-digit numbers!

Despite getting caught in the rain on Monday, the children enjoyed using willow to weave crowns just like King Julien from the Madagascar movie and also researched the abundance of wonderful leaves that can be seen at this time of year.

So much learning in just one week Year 2! What will next week bring? Have a wonderful, restful weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday for more action!

YEAR 3

This week we have been on a long journey following the Danube River from the Black Forest in Germany through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria before eventually reaching the Black Sea. We have enjoyed lots of pit stops and learnt about different cultures and ways of life. Whilst in Austria, we discovered a famous artist and architect called Hundertwasser. He was well known for many different reasons, not least his incredible, bold style of art and love for the environment. We explored the major events in his life then used his work to inspire our own Hundertwasser style creations. As we meandered down the Danube, we learnt about the main features of a river before creating a huge 3D model in our classes. We looked at tributaries, deltas, flood plains and discovered what a confluence is. We were fizzing with excitement when the author of our book, Alastair Humphreys, found out we

were using his book as our themed text and tweeted us to say that he would be happy to answer any questions we may have about his adventures. We jumped at the opportunity and wrote a VERY long list of questions which we have recorded and sent to him. We can’t wait to hear back! As we have been away for quite a while now, we thought it best to write home (just in case our parents have been missing us!) We realised just how much we have done and seen in our first three weeks exploring and it made us excited about what lies ahead!

In Maths we have be challenging ourselves with the grid method of multiplication. The children have enjoyed learning a new mathematical concept and it has been wonderful to see them so enthusiastic about putting their knowledge and understanding to the test. Next week we are hoping to move on from Bulgaria, but what will our new destination be? Hoşgeldiniz!

House Art

Competition St Peter’s 2-8 Paint, draw or model your pet, or a pet you wish you could have and enter it into our first House Art Competition! Named entries in to Mrs Hall by 19th May with winners chosen for each house in each year group. There will be an exhibition for all entrants after the competition has closed!

!! Please note– no photographs this time! !!

COLLECTION DAY

Friday 18th June 2021 Bring in your bags of unwanted items and raise money for charity!

YES to all of these:Clothes

Paired shoes (tied)

Jewellery

Handbags

Socks and tights

Hats

Belts

Scarves and Ties

Lingerie

Curtains Bed Linen

Household Linen

Towels

(But NOT Duvets, blankets, pillows or cushions)

NO to all of these:Duvets, blankets, pillows and cushions

Textile off-cuts

Carpets, rugs and mats

Soiled, painted, ripped or wet clothing

SCHOOL UNIFORMS

Corporate clothing

Toys

COLLECTION DAYS Nursery – Monday 14th June Reception – Tuesday 15th June Year 1 – Wednesday 16th June

Year 2 – Thursday 17th June Year 3 - Friday 18th June 2021

The Collection Point for Bag2School will be behind the Nursery/ Hope House building, at the Friends of St Peters 2-8 shed.

Just follow the A-board signs, queue up at 2m intervals and use the one-way system in place, to ensure we abide by strict social distancing guidelines.

If you miss your year group’s day, don’t worry, you can drop off on another day, but we are just trying to keep as socially distanced as possible.

Thank you Friends of St Peter’s 2-8