Community Newsletter 10/11/2023

Welcome to this week’s newsletter! Quick reminder that School 21 will be closed for an INSET day on Friday 17th November. We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday 20th November.

LATEST NEWS:

Get Caught Reading Challenge

We are working hard to enhance our school-wide reading culture and are encouraging all pupils to read for pleasure. We would like the children to take photos of themselves reading in unusual places – this could be on the train, at the park or even upside down. We know the children will enjoy being creative and we can’t wait to see what and where they have been caught out reading!

Please share your photo along with your child's name and class with Miss Donnelly-Symes ([email protected]). Include a short explanation of where the photo was taken and why, and what book your child has been reading.

Vouchers to be spent at our upcoming book fair will be awarded for the most creative reading places.

Please send all entries by Friday 24th November.

Have fun getting caught reading!

WANTED – Mud Kitchen Supplies!

If you have any plastic, rubber or metal kitchen equipment that can be used in the Primary playground for the mud kitchen, please bring them into school and give them to your child’s teacher!

Objects needed;

Scoops
Pots
Pans
Spoons
Sieves
Bags of soil / peat
Baking tins
Old CD’s

Thank you for your support!

Festival of Light

We are delighted to announce our Festival of Light concerts for 2023! This is an extra special year because we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of these amazing music showcases.

The Festival of Light concerts are centered around ensemble and community. Every student from Reception to Year 9 performs in one of these concerts, with the final concert (Year 10-Year 13) as a showcase of our students who have chosen to continue their music education at GCSE, BTEC and A Level.

Festival of Light tickets are ON SALE NOW via Reach More Parents (Weduc) and letters have been sent out to all parents and carers with further details. Don’t forget to order your tickets as soon as possible! The ‘one ticket cap’ on tickets will be lifted on Monday 6th November for concerts 1-3 and Monday 13th November for concerts 4-5.

THIS WEEK AT SCHOOL 21:

Reception

This week we started learning about the celebration of Diwali and the story of the Ramayana. We used loose parts to make rangloli patterns and painted rangoli patterns. We made clay diva lamps, used different construction to make a mandir or temple and even drew some characters from the Ramayana.

Year 1

Year 1 have been working super hard and reflecting on their Stratford landmark drawings. We have drafting our drawing three times and making it better each time, by making sure we have accurate lines and colouring in carefully.

Year 2

This week in year 2 we have been continuing with our measurement unit in Maths, which has allowed us to explore the length of our body. This involved using our feet to measure our talk partners bodies, where we were able to find out who is the shortest all the way to the tallest person in our class. We used ranking to arrange the shortest to the tallest! We have also been learning all about plastic pollution in our Geography project, where we have used Atlas' to understand the importance of rivers in keeping the oceans clean. As well as researching charities such as 'The Ocean Clean Up Charity' who help to keep our oceans litter free.

Year 3

This week, Year 3 have been working on writing a diary entry from the perspective of our book character in the book 'Journey to Johannesburg.' The children have worked so hard and have thought carefully about how they would include fronted adverbials and subordinating conjunctions in their work. The children carefully edited their work and produced fantastic pieces of work! Well done Year 3.

Year 4

Year 4 have been working really hard over the last two weeks to create their own poems based on 'The River' by Valerie Bloom. They worked hard to include a range of figurative language devices including personification and similes.

Year 5

Year 5 had the pleasure of meeting Alastair Campbell this week. We conducted a Question Time style debate around oracy and the theme of our project this term which is our impact on the world around us. Students asked Alastair and the panel a range of questions, challenged and built on from ideas discussed. Thank you so much to the parents involved and the hosts of the panel, Lizanne, Greyson, Sama and Fikayo for their incredible contributions.

This week, the Year 5 students have been putting in tremendous effort. We dived into the world of maths, exploring the connection between division and multiplication. In our English sessions, we published formal letters to the Prime Minister, advocating for the well-being of our animals, communities and the world. Eagerly anticipating a chance to discuss positive environmental changes with him. Exceptional work, Year 5!

Year 8 Coaching

Year 8 are in the process of exploring themselves and their coaching group's identity through shared values and have produced some beautiful artwork to represent this. These images, along with the work on their shared values will form the basis of their research into their new coaching group names which will be finalised over the coming weeks. We look forward to revealing their new names very soon!

Year 10

We are excited to share that our Year 10 GCSE Maths class has recently commenced their exploration of algebraic fractions. Building upon the strong foundation laid in previous units, students have impressively demonstrated their proficiency in factorising algebraic expressions and simplifying fractions. This newfound expertise will undoubtedly serve as a solid platform to access even more challenging yet rewarding math problems. We look forward to witnessing their growth and achievements as they delve deeper into this fascinating area of mathematics.