Good afternoon,

What a brilliant two weeks packed with lots of learning and fun. We even had the Great St Stephen’s Conker Contest taking place in the playground, which saw the Y6 children enjoying their practical learning of this traditional autumnal pastime.

So get a coffee, a large packet of chocolate biscuits, put your feet up and I’ll begin!

We started the day all in red in support of Show Racism the Red Card (thank you so much for all your kind donations – we raised over £450!) Miss Hall and Miss Whiting led assemblies to start the day, which taught the children to understand the importance of tackling racism in society and how this is an opportunity for us to show support and raise money for the UK’s largest anti-racism charity. The children then took part in an age-appropriate session, discussing racism as a class. Once again, we are eager to stress that this recognition and encouragement of an anti-racist mindset is not a ‘one off,’ but part of the wider curriculum we have embedded at St. Stephen’s.

Not only were we collecting donations for Show Racism the Red Card – the poppy boxes were out in force and we even had time for a rather special prayer meeting in front of the school. We had ‘proper coffee’ and one kind parent donated Subway breakfast rolls for us all – as I said, you could have listened to the prayers and munched away! What was especially lovely to see was adults and children praying together for our school community and of course their eyes lighting up at the Subway rolls! So, come and join us every Friday or the next time we have prayer and breakfast!

Happy Diwali!

Today we had the most delicious Diwali lunch – check out @StStephensLBHF for some pictures. Diwali is a festival of lights and is one of the major festivals celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs. The festival usually lasts five days, or six in some regions of India, and is celebrated during the Hindu lunisolar month Kartika. Diwali begins on 22^nd October so we were slightly early but an important reminder of the other religious celebrations in our community!

Black Voices Week

We have had the most wonderful Black Voices Week, which has seen each class focusing on poets and poetry. The children have learnt about their chosen poet’s life, their work and completed a range of activities inspired by them. Mr Faith kicked off the week with a wonderful assembly and on Tuesday Kat Francois, a performance poet and long-time friend and collaborator of the school, delighted us with a high-octane assembly. The lucky Y5s and Y6s also had poetry workshops with her. Kat has agreed to run poetry workshops for parents, so look out for those dates and more information next term. Thank you to all those parents who have joined us for the week and look out for Mr Faith’s newsletter (which should be sent out in late October / early November) telling you all about our fun and informative activities this week

Sports Update

Going for Gold

The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust, to reward and recognise school’s engagement in the school sports and to celebrate keeping young people active. A massive well done to Claire, Alastair and Miss Marchant, as well as the hundreds of children from our school who helped in this tremendous achievement! They don’t give out many GOLD ones!

Across the Scrubs

No rain, no mud, just glorious sunshine for last week’s Cross Country. Pupils from Y3 to Y6 walked the 1.5 miles to our starting point on Wormwood Scrubs, before launching themselves around the 800/1,200m course. Some superb running in preparation for the School Games Mini Marathon!

QPR Trust

Children from Y2 enjoyed a fantastic day out, scoring loads of goals and meeting Jude the QPR mascot, too. Thank you to QPR trust for hosting this inspiring event once again.

5K Challenge

Children from Y5 and Y6 took part in the very first World 5K Challenge organised by LBHF. In short sharp relays, teams raced against each other to complete 5000m, pushing themselves to beat Mo Farah’s 12:53.11 record. LOTS of fun was had!

Mayor’s Cup Update

St Stephens opened up the Mayor’s Cup season with two very good wins against Ark Swift. The boys were up first and took control early on with a nice finish by Sean, the defence were solid and kept the game to 1-0. The girls were next and Matilda and Trixie, on their Mayor’s Cup debuts, both scored one each to make it a convincing 2-0 win. Onto the next game against Wendell Park!

Year 5 on the Trail

Y5 enjoyed a LBHF Black History Trail today around our local area. The children saw Fanny Eaton’s memorial, discussed Esther Bruce’s work outside of her old place of work, Charing Cross Hospital, and, sensitively discussed the slave trade whilst at Hammersmith Bridge by the Thames.

Playtime!

Our Playground Buddies are a new initiative starting after half term, to involve older children in the smooth running and fun needed at playtime.

Year 6 children volunteer to take on the role and wear the snazzy new high-vis jackets whilst on duty.

Each child signs a pledge to confirm their understanding of the role. They are then given some training, especially around how to sort out minor disputes. Playground Buddies will also introduce a ‘Game of the Week’ from the inspirational ‘101 Playground Games’ by Therese Hoyle and so much more.

Check out our new webpage – https://www.ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk/our-school/playtime/

Watch this space for future updates from some of the buddies themselves:

Year 6 Ayres

A brilliant Assembly by Y6 Ayres focused on Black Voices Week, highlighting local people who made a big impact. The LBHF Black music history trail featured heavily & the children finished with an inspiring performance of dub poet & musician, J. Chambers’ ‘Letter to Self’ – Check out our Twitter page to see them in action – @StStephensLBHF

Help Needed

The wood used on the central section of the adventure playground is literally rotten so we need to remove the whole section. The plan is to do this on Monday, 31st October and Tuesday, 1st November so we would really appreciate some helpers. We will need sledge hammers and crow bars! So if you feel like a day of vigorous exercise without putting the heating on at home then please come and join us!

Please email me head@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk if you are able to help.

Year 6 Zephaniah

For Y6 Zephaniah’s assembly, the week before, the class focussed on the Ancient Greeks. They taught the rest of the school about life back in 2200 BC, how the Spartans and Athens loved to fight one another on a regular basis, told the story of The Trojan horse by Homer and finished off with their own version of the Grease Megamix. They all worked so hard and put on a great show!

Questionnaire for Parents & Carers Summary – Summer 2022

Percentages drawn from 158 replies

Key ideas / issues in feedback comments

• Having longer parent meetings in the first term to allow for more in depth talk and questions to be answered.

Hopefully over the last year, as restrictions were lifted, it has enabled parents to enjoy more of the ‘open door’ policy we have always had at St Stephen’s – I love a catch up! We do realise that time can be restrictive on parents / carers’ evenings, and that is why we encourage parents to meet with teachers if they need more information.

We are more than happy to meet with parents at other points in the year and not just parents / carers’ evenings, so please do email the class teacher if you have concerns and make an appointment to discuss your children’s work, etc.

Teachers are always available for an informal chat / catch up at the end of the day too.

Reception have now reinstated ‘Open Classroom’ mornings throughout the year for parents to spend time in the classroom and see the work the children are completing and chat with the teacher.

• More updates after SEN diagnosis and EHCP put in place

At St Stephen’s in line with the SEN Code of Practice and Ofsted expectations, all teachers are teachers of SEN. The school ensures that all staff access training opportunities to support the needs of children in the classroom. We as a school prioritise a host of specialist agencies to support the work that we do, e.g. sensory integration, speech and language, educational psychology. The SENCo works closely with all staff to ensure that children’s needs are met in the classroom and staff produce individual provision plans setting out how this is organised and these are shared and discussed with parents/carers. The SENCo and staff are always open to meet with parents and carers regarding children’s needs in addition to the Parent Evenings organised within the school year. We have a SEND Parent’s Group that meet regularly and if you would like to be part of this please email s.bouwman@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk. This group has provided excellent feedback to the school and been instrumental in some of the additional resources made available to children e.g. the Music of Life specialist music teaching for children with SEND.

Please note that requests for EHCPs are carefully considered for those children with the most severe levels of need impacting on their access to the curriculum. This is a very small proportion of children (2%) and most children’s needs are met under the category of SEN Support (10 %.) The school is fully committed to working with parents and carers to ensure clear communication lines and impactful joined up working.

Direct Quotes

• ‘The school do a wonderful job of keeping us informed of all the things we need to know and are very available to deal with any concerns or queries.’
• ‘Excellent school second to none goes above and beyond in all aspects. Fantastic friendly staff. St Stephens has exceeded my expectations and more!’
• ‘We are very happy at St Stephen’s and the End of Year Report illustrates the care taken by the school and its staff to support each child individually with carefully considered feedback.’
• ‘Very happy parents, love the school and all the staff! You are all fantastic!’

Over to Year 3 and the IMAX

Year 3 had brilliant time at the Science Museum on Thursday where they were treated to a 3D film of Antarctica. After a leisurely lunch and a short stroll around the galleries, they excitedly collected 3D glasses and waited patiently for the film to start. Report from Miss Kelly and Mrs Jeffrey as follows:

We were mesmerised by the bold, beautiful moving images in front of us. Some of us stretched out our arms to try and touch the realistic pictures. We learnt about living creatures in one of the most hostile habitats in the world. We felt like we were swimming alongside seals, flying above the high mountains and walking alongside penguins when we weren’t dodging the hungry sea lions! We almost hid behind our St Stephens jumpers when the elephant seals took to territorial battle! We all giggled at the speed that baby penguins squirted / excreted their white poo to create star shape patterns that are visible in space.

We had a spectacular rain shower to dash through to get back to school but it was worth it!

Thank you to the parents who came along to help us!

A Word from Sanne and Winky

Parents who have roots/ connections with East and South East Asia have now set up a WhatsApp group. Together they ran our school’s first Lunar New Year celebration last year. It was great fun and the children loved it. If you would like to join this lovely supportive group and celebrate your amazing culture, please contact Wing Kei (07767 684168) or Sanne (07741030038).

Movie Night

A massive thank you to FOSS for organising Movie Night! It was a popcorn, hot dog movie fest of all things outer space. The children loved it!

It’s been an incredibly busy first term but a really productive one where we relaunch for another fine year. Thank you for all your continued support.

Have a lovely half term.

Mr Schumm