It has been a fantastic first week back and the children and staff have all returned refreshed and ready for a new term. Welcome back everyone!
We began the week at the Upper School with an assembly about ‘distilling’. This is the ability to be able to draw out the key information or ‘golden nuggets’ from our learning. When using this skill, we also reflect on our approach to learning and think about what went well and what didn’t work so well. It is important for the children to understand that knowing what doesn’t work is a key part of the process of learning and can really help them in the future. Miss Patel introduced our new BLP cup which will run alongside our house points. Classes will be awarded points by their teachers for using the BLP skill of the week in class. The winning class will be announced in assembly each week and will get to keep the cup in their classroom for the week.
At the Lower School, we celebrated children who have received Rainbows this week – we are so proud of you all! We have also been lucky to have a fantastic drama workshop called ‘Take flight to Neverland’ running for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Children were characters from Peter Pan such as mermaids, pirates and the Lost Boys, stealing treasure from Captain Hook! Children in Reception had an exciting visit from the Big Bad Wolf this afternoon – I wonder if he was pretending to be Grandma still?
Cypress Super Stars
Well done to Joey in Blue class for his fantastic science and maths and to Oskar in Ruby class for his maths and writing – they’ve both been to see Mrs Sorensen twice this week for their fantastic learning! Gilbie in Orange class has impressed us with his amazing writing using all his sounds to write ‘I can see seven chicks in a nest.’ Abdur in Blue class has also been working hard to use his sounds when writing about a lion. Well done to Clara in Orange class who wrote a fabulous recount of her Easter holidays. Jamie in Blue class was able to explain his mathematical reasoning when solving problems this week. Well done to Mateus in Turquoise class, for being able to tell the time to o’clock. Finally, Yellow class created a fabulous puppet theatre this week, which they’ve all loved playing with!
Congratulations to Alanna in Hawthorn class who attend the regional gymnastics competition last weekend and came third in floor. What an amazing achievement. Well done to the children in Oak class, who produced some amazing skull art in Enrichment inspired by the work of the artist Basquiat.
Word of the Week
This week’s word wizard at the Upper was Cavani in Willow class who wrote a fantastic sentence using the word ‘ravenous’. This week’s word is ‘rustling’. Please put your entries in the box to be in with a chance of winning.
At the Lower School, Conor and Aleksy won rosettes this week for using ‘quietly’ in fantastic sentences. This week’s word is ‘exciting’ so please get your entries into the golden box!
Studybugs
As you will be aware, we have recently moved to a new way of reporting absence and communicating with the school via an app called ‘Studybugs’ and we’ve had some great feedback from families who are finding this a far more efficient way of contacting the school. We have exceeded our 50% target and now have 65% of Cypress families registered via the App! If you have not yet had a chance to download the App or register for an account, you can find further information in our news article here. We are aware that some emails from Studybugs are going to ‘junk mail’ so please check here if you have not been receiving emails from Cypress. We will no longer be sending comms out via Teacher2Parents text messaging.
Lower School Afterschool Club
KS1 are now using the Community Room for ASC every day. Please do not use, or allow your child to use, the Community Room toilets after school for safeguarding reasons. Thanks for your support with this.
Class Photos
Class photos will be taking place at the Lower School on Tuesday 25th April and at the Upper School on Wednesday 26th April. We have sent out a letter regarding this via Studybugs.
Charity concert at St John’s Church
One of our parents is running a charity concert in aid of St John’s Refugee Cafe. Please see the images below for more details and support this cause if you’re able to.
NEU Strike Action
We have sent out a letter via Studybugs regarding the upcoming NEU strike days on Thursday 27th April and Tuesday 2nd May. You can also read an update from the Trust here.
We hope everyone has a lovely weekend and Eid Mabarak to all of our families who are celebrating!
Miss Binks, Mrs Sorensen and the Cypress team
