Atwood Newsletter 8th March 2023

It has been a hectic week for our Book Week celebrations this week.

In Reception this week the children have been reading about the adventures of Supertato and his struggles against the Evil Pea. Imagine their surprise when they turned up on Thursday to see their teachers dressed as Supertato and other staff as the Evil Pea! In Nursery, the children have been looking at Jasper’s Beanstalk and trying to build their own beanstalk. They also shared the story of Little Red Hen and the Sly Fox with our visiting author, Margaret Bateson-Hill.

Year 1 have had a fantastic week celebrating Book Week. The children made their own books, created book marks, read with Year 3 and made puppets of their world book day characters. They also solved the mystery of the missing book tokens by solving a variety of quizzes. Each day, the children eliminated a member of staff from the list and discovered it was Mr Robins who had taken them. Luckily, on Thursday Mr Robins gave back the tokens so they could take them home to get a book. In maths, the children partitioned 2-digit numbers into tens and ones and found one more/less of numbers to 50.

The highlight for Year 2 this week was their trip to London as part of their thematic learning. The children set off in the rain and took the bus then the train to get to London Bridge. By the time they reached London, the rain had stopped allowing them to pause on London Bridge to take in the views, get a few photos and complete a survey of the types of transport they could see. After that, they visited The Monument and Pudding Lane to link with their learning about The Great Fire of London. The children had lunch in St Dunstan in the East Church Garden. This is a truly unique space set within the ruins of a Sir Christopher Wren church. The Church of St Dunstan was originally built around 1100 and is a Grade I listed building. It was severely damaged in 1666 by the Great Fire of London. The children then walked down past the Tower of London and across Tower Bridge on their way back to the train station. It was a tiring day but the children were so well behaved and loved seeing the sights of London.

The children in Year 3 have been learning all about how fossils are made as part of their science topic. In Spanish the children have been learning about how to have a basic conversation and how to talk about the languages they can speak. They really enjoyed reading with their Year 1 book buddies.

In Year 4, the children had a workshop with our visiting author, Margaret Bateson Hill. She shared her story of Lao Lao of Dragon Mountain. The children were encouraged and inspired to think about dragons and this led to some great writing. Children wrote poems, stories and even instructions on how to care for a dragon.

In Year 5, the children have had a great week. Both classes have spent two days at Whitgift High School. They were lucky enough to conduct science experiments in the lab. In IT the children made stop motion animations and on Wednesday they programmed robots using Microbit. They had a Chinese lesson and learned how to greet people as well as learning facts about China and the people who live there. In music, they have played djembe drums, performing a repeated rhythmic pattern as an ensemble. It sounded great! The children also saw the flamingos and peacocks that live in the grounds.

Year 6 had a visit from the Metropolitan Police this week. Two officers came to talk to the children about keeping themselves safe as we prepare them for moving on to secondary school. The police talked about making good choices even in the face of peer pressure and what to do if they don’t feel safe.

SPORTS NEWS

On Monday, the Year 6 netball team lost 12-5 to Margaret Roper although the coaches say they played their best match yet and managed to score an impressive 5 goals against a very good team. On Tuesday, the Year 5 netballers played Forestdale and won 6-2. The children have really gelled as a team despite only having a few training sessions and a couple of friendly matches

WORLD BOOK DAY

The school was full of an amazing array of book characters on Thursday as children dressed up to celebrate their favourite books. We saw numerous wizards and had to keep searching for Wally. There were some Oompa Loompas to help out the various Willy Wonkas. There was a good sprinkling of Matildas as well as superheroes, Stick Men and myriad other characters. The children looked great and it was a lovely day to get children inspired to read and enjoy books. Thank you to everyone at home who helped to make costumes and support the event. In class, the children have been taking part in various online World Book Day events and quizzes including linking teachers to their favourite childhood books based on photos of the staff as children. The children have also been visiting different classes to share stories..

And finally…

Did you know that around 188,000 books are published in the UK every year with over £383 million worth of books sold? In 2022 over 202 million books were sold in the UK and 1 in 3 books sold are for children. Don’t forget to claim your free book using your World Book Day token.

DATES FOR THE DIARY

Please check because new dates are being added below