A Friday Night Festive Round Up!

Good afternoon,

Who doesn’t love a Christmas jumper? My favourite comment today, in collective worship, when I asked the children what we needed to remember to do when we were being served our Christmas lunch (I was looking for ‘to say thank you to Jessie and the kitchen team’) what I got was, ‘to not drop gravy on your Christmas jumper!’ – equally as important! Well, three nativities down, the choir singing in Westfield and a Carol Concert and a church service to go and we are still rocking Christmas at St Stephen’s with a Whiting Wiggle!

Thank you to all those parents who joined us for a glass of festive cheer last night, it was good to see so many of our newest parents. It was a lovely evening – filled with fizz and banter!

Thank you Jessie and the kitchen team for a delicious Christmas lunch! The hall was filled with festive cheer and a number of fab-u-lous Christmas jumpers! We loved the homemade shortbread biscuits!

Thank you FOSS for a superb Christmas Fair. The weather was fantastic and the day was organised brilliantly. Thank you to everyone who attended, helped with a stall, served food or liquid refreshments and generally had a great day – you could have worn your sunglasses the weather was so warm!

Christmas Performances

Reception delighted us with a superb Nativity in the church last week. In the stillness of the church they retold the greatest story ever told as only Reception can. They were amazing! Their confident voices filled the church and their smiles were truly infectious. Thank you to the Early Years team for all their hard work.

Year 1 and 2 well and truly wiggled their way through the most amazing Nativity on Thursday. The Inspectors were out in force tracking down any sloppy innkeepers who might not be keeping up the standards, let alone letting people have a baby in a stable! They were soon singing and dancing up a storm! The joy in their faces was infectious and the audience was well and truly enthralled. Thank you to the Year 1 and 2 team for all their hard work, Miss Whiting for the brilliant chorography and direction and a special thank to Miss Rachel and the band, who added a true professional, showbiz feel!

Year 4 at the Science Museum

Year 4 had a fabulous trip to the Science Museum to enjoy a range of videogames from the past 50-odd years via the ‘Power Up’ exhibition. The children thoroughly enjoyed playing these games, and in doing so, made connections with the work they have done in Computing (Computer Science and coding in particular). Pupils focused on how input (giving a game instructions using a controller) leads to an output (something happening within a game) and how sprites and backgrounds are used to create compelling gaming experiences. For those children, parents and carers interested in delving into the world of ‘Power Up’ further, extra resources can be found here:

https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/power/resources

Year 5 on Risk Ravine?

On Wednesday, Year 5 children were on a journey through Risk Ravine, Kindness Cove, Mind Mainland, Influence Island and Digital Domain to practice how to stay safe on the online world. There was a discussion around influencers and how they appear online. They discussed how these people appear very friendly however are making money by advertising these products. The children also discussed fake news: misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is when someone gives incorrect information but they believe it is correct. Disinformation is a deliberate lie, they know it is not true. They then discussed cross-checking against different sources to work out if it is accurate.

Cracking Careers in Year 5

As part of this term’s ‘Faith-Based Careers’ focus, Year 3 and 5 were joined by Malcolm Cunningham, a local Pastor at Trinity West Church. Malcolm described how one of the most important qualities to have for his job is people skills, especially communication skills. He described how many people come to him for help and advice and he needs to have these skills to work with others in the community. He described how he went to Bible College to study, which taught him the history of religion. He also explained how every day is very different with no set hours.

A final well done to those children who received a golden pen today, in collective worship, in recognition of their hard work in improving their handwriting!

  • 19th December – Carols by Candlelight, Years 3-6, at St Stephen’s Church at 6pm (Years 3-6 need to be back to school for 5.45 in full winter uniform please)
  • 20th December – Christmas Whole School Service at St Stephen’s Church at 9am

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mr Schumm