Newsletter from St Ann’s Heath
Issue 8 - 19th January 2017
A note from Mrs King
We are three weeks into the new term and already so much great work has been produced. A lot
of this work is being displayed around the school with our winter themed boards. I have been really pleased with the enthusiastic and hardworking attitude of our children. They are so eager to
learn and demonstrating good learning behavior in and around the classrooms.
School council have been involved in monitoring behavior at break and lunch times and next
week, they will be holding class assemblies to explain their findings to the rest of the school.
FOSAH News
The next FOSAH event is the Winter Wonderland, which will take place on Saturday 4th
February between 10.30 and 4. There will be an artificial ice rink in school and various stalls
and refreshments. Flyers came home on Tuesday this week along with a booking slip to
book slots for ice skating. Please send these back into school asap. We are also sending
home Raffle tickets on Monday in the hope you will be able to sell some amongst your
friends and family - FOSAH are raising money for a new play area/trim trail on the school
field so all money raised is very appreciated! Please look out for the tickets next week.
Please help - we do need volunteers to help make this event as successful as possible.
Please sign up on the board displayed at the front of the school. If you could give an hour of
your time to support our school, this would be much appreciated.
Reminder - we are having a mufti day this Friday (20th January) where your child can
wear their own clothes to school in return for a donation. Years 3 and 4 – wrapped chocolate
bars (any size) for the chocolate tombola; Years 5 and 5 – a bottle (wine, champagne, spirits,
soft drink)
Lateness
An increasing number of children are arriving late (after 8.50 am registration time). Please ensure
you allow enough time for your journey to school. The children who consistently arrive late miss
the main learning input of the day which is not repeated. It is also very disruptive to both the
children who arrive late and those who are already in class. Thank you for your co-operation.
Healthy break time snacks and packed lunches
Please could we reiterate that children should only be bringing fresh fruit snacks to eat at break
time and packed lunches should be healthy and balanced. They should not contain sweets, large
chocolate bars, fizzy drinks or nuts.
Governor News
Governors hope that you and your families had a happy and relaxing time over the holidays. Our
first meeting is in early February, and will be considering issues
including finance, pupil progress, and safeguarding. Our committees are working on the key
school development priorities alongside staff.
On school leadership, you are probably aware that a recruitment process is underway and we
will advise the outcomes when known. It is important to select the right
leadership for our school, and will make our decisions with care. In the meantime, Mrs King is
leading the school with the full confidence of governors and, with additional support now firmly in
place, she is moving forward with our improvement
priorities.
There is a notice board just inside the main doors to the school where you can see the governors, and information about the governing body and all aspects of school life is available on the
school website.
Helen Syms - Chair of Governors, on behalf of your Governing Body
Lost Property/ Second Hand Uniform
This year, we have some brilliant year 6 monitors who are in charge of sorting the lost property
and are taking their job very seriously. They aim to return named lost property back to its owners.
However a lot of it is unnamed. Please ensure that all of your children’s uniform, including
clothes, ties, shoes and bags, is named clearly so that if it is lost, it can then be found.
Volunteers needed
A couple of parents have come forward to suggest running a second hand uniform sale, with any
donations made, feeding back into the school to be spent on the children. This would probably
work on a half termly basis but in order for it to be a success, we need a few more volunteers.
Please come in and speak to the school office so that we can build up a team of helpers. This
could also help to decrease the amount of unnamed lost property in the school!
Long hair
Children with long hair (boys as well as girls) need to have it tied up whilst they are at school in
line with our uniform policy. Could we also remind parents, that ties need to be worn to school as
these are part of our winter uniform.
Drop off/ Pick up times
Once again, we urge parents for their consideration when dropping off children in the mornings
and picking them up at the end of the day. There have been a number of incidents where parents
have parked inconsiderately, blocking the pedestrian walkways, driven up on the curb or blocked
other cars. In addition, on more than one occasion, when approached by another member of the
school community, perpetrators have become verbally aggressive or abusive. It is important to
remember that the safety of our children is paramount and it is the responsibility of the teachers to look after all of the children on the playground. It is not our teacher’s responsibility to ‘man
the traffic’ and supervise cars coming onto and leaving the school premises. However, with additional adults, we could have a solution.
Volunteers needed
A number of parents have been into complain about the traffic situation and also to offer their
help. If you feel strongly about the traffic situation and could help at the end of the day with easing the traffic congestion - please let the school office know.
Sainsburys Active Kids Vouchers
Starting next week, Sainsburys are once again supporting schools with their Active Kids scheme
- vouchers can be collected when you shop at Sainsburys that we can redeem in the summer
term for equipment to support learning across the curriculum. The vouchers are available in
store until early May 2017.
In ENGLISH the children will be exploring the story of Peter Pan, and following the Hobgoblin Theatre group’s visit
next week (25th), they will be doing some fictional and creative writing.
In SPELLING they will be looking at long vowel sounds, followed by looking at general spellings within the Year 3
word list
In MATHS they will be revising Year 2 work on fractions before moving on to non-unit fractions, ordering fractions
and word problems involving fractions
In SCIENCE, they will be continuing their topic on animals including humans—analysing food diaries and linking
with English and computing to write instructions.
In GEOGRAPHY they will be looking at co-ordinates of different locations and doing map work linked with London.
In RE, the children will looking at the baptism of Jesus, followed by temptations shown within The Bible and discussion of how it can be overcome.
In ICT, there will be finishing their work on internet safety and then moving on to use their computer skills to write
instructions and analyse food diaries.
In ART/DT the children will be continuing their work on creating 3D London Landmarks.
In PE the focus is gymnastics and using the apparatus.
In ENGLISH the children will be writing some poetry based on what they can see through a window.
In SPELLING they will be looking at the suffix - ’-sure’ and ‘-ture’
In MATHS they are looking at multiplication from the grid method to the formal written method. They will also be
looking at area and perimeter of linear shapes.
In SCIENCE, the children will be looking at digestive systems and animal diets
In HISTORY the children will be looking at Roman invasion to Britain and why the Roman Army were so successful
In RE, the focus will be on understanding what prayer is and why people chose to pray.
In ICT they will be learning and understanding how a computer interprets data
In DT they will be linking their work to their study on The Romans - creating their own mosaics.
In PE the focus this term will be gymnastics - receiving body weight in different ways
YEAR 4 - DON’T FORGET ROMAN DAY ON THURSDAY, 9TH FEBRUARY we are still in need of helpers - please let the school office know if you are able to help - thank you.
In ENGLISH the children will be watching the animation - ‘Baboon on The Moon’ and writing their own
ending. They will also be looking at some Rainforest writing to link into their topic work on The Amazon.
In SPELLING/GRAMMAR the focus is on reviewing spellings covered so far, looking at ‘able’ and ‘ible’ words, homophones, homonyms and a range of punctuation to use in their own stories.
In MATHS they will be looking at factors, multiples, prime numbers, equivalent fractions and fractions of different
amounts.
In SCIENCE, the children will be investigating night and day and looking at the different phases of the moon.
In HISTORY they will be continuing their topic on South America, looking at Rainforest layers using different map
skills
In RE, the children will be continuing to look at Jesus the Healer and Jesus walking on water
In ICT the children will be continuing to look at internet safety
In ART/DT the children will be making a diorama of the solar system and looking at Van Gogh’s Starry Night
PLEASE NOTE THAT EACH CHILD WILL NEED TO BRING IN A SHOE BOX NEXT WEEK PLEASE—PLEASE LABEL THEM
WITH YOUR CHILD’S NAME—THANK YOU.
In ENGLISH the children will be re-telling a story from a different perspective and starting to study
Macbeth incorporating drama and descriptive writing.
In GRAMMAR focus is on subjunctive form, relative pronouns and clauses and extending sentences with adverbial
and conjunctions.
In MATHS they will be looking at area and perimeter and SATs style practise papers
In SCIENCE, they will be studying the circulatory systems and there will be some practical investigations involved!
In HISTORY they will be continuing their study on Vikings Gods to complete their topic. Following that, we will
look at natural disasters in Geography.
In ICT they children will be researching Viking Gods and also designing a poster for our ‘Junior Apprentice’ stands
at Winter Wonderland.
In PE the children are focussing on indoor athletics.
Spring Term Dates
Wed 25th Jan
Thurs 2nd Feb
Wed 8th Feb
Thurs 9th Feb
Friday 10th Feb
Y3-Theatre company in school showing Peter Pan
Indoor Athletics Event at Leatherhead Leisure Centre
(selected children)
NRLP Quiz Club Area Heat (12 children involved)
FOSAH Winter Wonderland event
Y6 FACT ‘Time to Wonder’ Day at
Christchurch
4pm Governing Body meeting
Year 4 Roman Day
3.10pm Break up for half term
Mon 20th Feb
8.50am Children return to school
Fri 3rd Feb
Sat 4th Feb
Mon 6th Feb
PLEASE NOTE:
Tues 18th Apr
th
Wed 19 Apr
will now be an INSET DAY
8.50am Children return to school