Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
A message from the Head
As part of our Christian value Perseverance, we have been exploring the importance of doing our best at all times, persevering even when the going gets tough, and understanding that continued effort brings its rewards. We continue to celebrate our children's successes in different ways in school, and especially on Fridays in our collective worship.
What extreme weather we have had over the past fortnight! Please do continue to pay attention to the forecasts and send your children into school in the appropriate clothing.
I am sure that you will all now be aware of the extension to the current COVID-19 measures announced by the Government last week. Please make sure that you have read the letter that was sent out on Tuesday evening and is also posted in the Virtual office. It contains some important information.
As a result of the Government announcement, it is a great shame that PSA will not be able to hold the popular summer social events. Not only are these events a great deal of fun and enjoyment for families, but it also brings in much needed revenue for PSA. I do hope that when these events are possible again, you will all be able to fully support them.
Staff changes
After 20 years of working with children at St John’s Mrs Libby Jaquest (our Nursery teacher) will be retiring. A number of her pupils have returned to St John’s as parents themselves! We thank her for her many years of dedication to our school family.
Miss Katie Channer will be returning to Thailand to complete her teaching stint abroad. She will be very sorely missed, but we wish her all the very best and we hope to hear from her in the future.
Miss Lauren Clegg is also leaving us at the end of this term to pursue other projects in Social Media. We will all be sorry to see her go and wish her all the best.
Miss Caroline Palmer-Hall will be leaving at the end of the academic year. She has been a valued member of our school family and we wish her all the best in her future endeavours.
If you would like to contribute to leaving gifts for these staff please put it in a named envelope and send it into the school office.
Keep going we can do it!
Please donate and share. This will be created by WeAreSkyHigh. A mosaic will also also be produced by a local artist, Philippa Adams, to commemorate our school's birthday. Our children will be involved in these projects. Can you please support us in raising £4000 towards these projects. Please donate to our JustGiving Crowdfunding Page, and help us share this link on your social media platforms
Our wonderful mosaic to commemorate our school's birthday, produced by a local artist Philippa Adams along with all the students at St John's, is now complete and in place on the wall of Bluebridge House.
Birthday week timetable
Monday 5th July: Sports Day (in school) followed by a picnic lunch
Tuesday 6th July: Victorian Day: Victorian farm, Victorian fancy dress, design a t-shirt activity
Weds 7th July: Church service blessing the new mosaic
Thursday 8th July: Time capsule, virtual interviews with school alumni
Friday 9th July: Carnival day with magic shows and procession to Bedelsford School and back
Two air raid shelters and allotments
Read about John Pridmore's St John's memories from his years at the school during 1945 - 1951
Another unearthed Album
Mrs Singh has discovered another old photograph album featuring images from across the years at StJohn's. See the images here
OWL & Forest School News
We're taking part in RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival!
We are excited to announce that OWL have been asked to be involved in the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival. We will be taking part with 7 like minded community groups in The Community Brain's 'Crop-Ups' garden as part of the Community Allotments category. You can read all about what the children have been growing and designing here
Woodland Warriors - Holiday Club
Our holiday club is filling up fast - all the booking details can be found here
Danceathon
The children and staff did a brilliant job dancing to raise funds for our partner school in Malawi. The final total is a brilliant £2,723.08! This is the most ever raised by a partnership school ever since they have been running (since 2008). This will make an incredible difference to M’khalapadzuwa School in Malawi. Thank you all again.
Updates from our class teachers
Reception
We have been very busy in Hubble class recently. One of the children asked if we could make lemonade and so we squeezed lemons and added sugar and enjoyed some lovely homemade lemonade. We have also been learning about halves and quarters and we used this concept when making our Fathers day biscuits. We divided the icing we had rolled out into halves or quarters and then decorated it. We wrote a label to tell our Dads and Granddads' how much we love them. We even used some fruit and vegetables to cut in halves and quarters and the best bit was we got to eat them! Keeping on the Maths theme we learnt the names and properties of some 3D shapes and some children even found some of those shapes at home too. We are now busy making props to make a garden for the fairies in the playground.
Year 1
We have been learning about the Wright brothers and the first aeroplane flight. We had fun being detectives looking at different sources to find out about their thrilling adventures. It is part of our History topic on Explorers. We looked at different sources to find out what happened with the first flight. We looked at the telegram the brothers sent to their father, a diary extract, a photograph that was taken that day of the aeroplane at Kitty Hawk, and a newspaper report.
In DT we looked at the red arrows and Concorde to help us design our own paper aeroplanes. We had a competition to see which one flew the furthest.
In geography we have been learning about the Artic and the various amazing animals living there.
Year 2
Brilliant Byron Class continue to be working very hard in all areas of their learning! They have even welcomed new members to the class -three caterpillars!
They have started to look at the work of the artist Anni Albers. The weaving is coming on beautifully!
Year 3
Year 3 have been exploring fractions in maths and we used Lego to build mini fraction walls. Our new geography topic ‘The UK’ has led us to look at the different counties making up the UK.
Year 4
This term class 4 are learning about playscripts. We have been looking at the features of playscripts and watching different plays as well as acting out different roles. We have acted out the traditional story of Goldilocks and Three bears and watched A Midsummer Night's dream. We have also been acting out a play called Just like us which is set in classroom during second world war.
Year 5
The chairs in Year 5 went on strike last week. They have had enough of Class 5 pupils swinging on them, kicking them and spilling food on them. The chairs wrote each Class 5 child a letter to express how upset and annoyed they were. This sparked some incredibly passionate persuasive writing as each Class 5 child had to convince the rest of the class they could have their chair back.
In maths, Class 5 are investigating ‘shape and space’. They have been making angles with their bodies and understanding similarities and differences in the exterior and interior angles of regular and irregular shapes.
Class 5’s Rounders’ tournament earlier last week became very heated and ended with a draw! Watch this space as a tie breaker will be happening this week (weather permitting!)…
Year 6
Class six have been getting to grips with algebra this week, and found that it is not as hard as they thought it was going to be. They have also been putting the finishing touches on their volcano power points which they will be presenting in the near future. They have also been learning about dichotomous keys and are going to be constructing their own shortly. Busy busy!
Transition arrangements 2021-2022
In preparation for the new school year the children will have the opportunity next week to meet their new teacher and spend time in their new classroom. Teachers will introduce their autumn theme and set out their expectations. The teachers for next year and their transition mornings are as follows:
Year 1: Mrs H Keaney (Wednesday and Thursday)
Year 2: Ms M Brierley (Wednesday and Thursday)
Year 3: Ms N Wilson (Wednesday and Thursday)
Year 4: Ms C Campbell (Wednesday and Thursday)
Year 5: Ms N Quartey- Papafio (Monday and Tuesday)
Year 6: Mr G Redhead (Wednesday and Thursday)
The Early Years have a separate arrangement which is already in progress.
Kingston postcard competition
Congratulations to Charlie, Jake and Oscar from Year 2 who have had their art work of Kingston recognized by Kingston Tour Guides. Their work has been turned into postcards for visitors to the town. Fabulous news for the boys, Class 2 and St. John's - well done!
School Street
Last night at the Kingston Neighbourhood Committee meeting approval was given to go ahead with the trial school street scheme on Portland Road. Fantastic news!
We will update staff and pa