Ayres

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord: plans to prosper you and not harm you; plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

 

Teacher, Mr Gane; Teaching Assistant, Miss Charrington.

Class Updates

Friday 20th December - Merry Christmas!

Dear Parents & Carers,

And so to the final day of a very, very long term during which your children have worked very, very hard. I must say that I have been truly amazed at the advancements they’ve made since they started in Y6 way back at the start of September and the wonderful maturing I have seen in their understanding of why they are here each day and in their attitudes too. Some way to go though for a few, but definitely solid movement in the right direction.

After the break for SATs Practice last week, the children picked up on where they had left off in English, really working hard planning and writing their persuasive letters to Mr Schumm advocating less homework…. Let’s see how those go down with him! No Maths this week, but lots of Geography lessons, Including Mr Gane zooming in from Tokyo for a Q&A session with the children on Japan. Some had expected me to be there, but actually it was my brother, who has lived then now for 30 years. He answered questions on many of the cultural differences and told them that children at Japanese school, eat their lunch in their classrooms, have an indoor pair of shoes to change into after play and have to clean the classroom each day too – 万歳 Banzai! There followed an end of unit assessment, which was mirrored in Science & RE too.

However, the main focus on Thursday – like much the three days prior – was very much on the ‘Carols by Candlelight’ service, with your children joining the combined voices of Key Stage 2 brushing up on the finale with their tea-lights. Then, the children were back at school at 5.45pm ready for the 6pm performance itself to a packed congregation of expectant parents and carers. They sang their rather challenging Latin lyrics like the angels they are, while cherubs Luca and Francesca played the perfect flute instrumental, as I am sure all of you who were able to attend will agree. Kitty, Jack, Trixie, Millie, Sean, Marlow and Lotte all helped in telling the Christmas story on what I think we can all agree was a very special evening to remember. Many congratulations to Mr Perry and Miss Rachel on organising another amazing event – a first for Mr P and the last for Miss Rachel.

It was straight back into the church again this morning for the traditional Christmas Service, with a reading from St Luke’s Gospel by Tian, as well as carols and hymns by the Choir (including Mercy, Wilf, Soli, Aggie, Amber, Viv, & Millie) as well as the whole school. Rev Denis’ homily was memorable not only for its message but also its hijacking by an over enthusiastic parent with a tub of sweets – you had to be there! We finished with a brilliant compilation of photos from the last 12 months, celebrating all that is St Stephen’s. After lunch it was hotfoot to the Main Hall for the annual House Quiz led by the Quizmeister himself, Mr Faith. So endeth the first term.

Sadly in Y6, as part of their training for secondary school, homework is set over the holiday. As at Half Term, the children have a full set of SATs papers to do. We ask that they are left alone to do them (although you can read the questions to them – except in Reading Comprehension) in the allocated time. Once they have done as much as they can do, please do feel free to go over the assessments with them, but use a differently coloured pen to make any corrections so that they are obvious to us just what work was done independently, or not. We do not use scores from these as a formal assessment, they are just for the children to become yet more familiar with the work, the standard and the time pressure. Finally thanks to all who have returned the Booster Class Programme confirmation slips, which will begin after the Spring Half Term.

Finally, huge thanks for your most generous gifts and kind words; they are hugely appreciated. Thanks also to you for your on-going support during what can be a tricky, and is always a very formative, year for both pupils and you parents and carers too. I must also put on record my thanks to Miss Charrington for the invaluable part she plays in helping and educating your children, making a difference to their learning.

God bless and best wishes for a restful Christmas and a peaceful 2025!

Mr Gane

Friday 13th December - Practise for Carols By Candlelight

Dear Parents & Carers,

SATs Practice weeks are always a bit tough but as tricky as they are, I am delighted to say that good progress is being made, which is wonderful news and a testament to all that weekend comprehension homework – a big THANK YOU once again for all of the trials and tribulations that you go through. It is, and will be so worth it, come May and at secondary schools next year.

With most days filled by sitting the Maths and English tests and then reviewing them, the children’s lessons this week have focused on the Foundation Subjects; Japan in Geography, Carols by Candlelight practice in Music (links for practice repeated again below), describing their dream house in Spanish, circuits and components’ symbols in Science, a theory lesson in Gymnastics where they learned the position and names of various bones in the body, more Dance with Grace their penultimate lesson, the much anticipated House football competition in PE, while also adding buttons and pockets to their waistcoats in DT.

Each year, Y6 Ayres pops off a Christmas card to our namesake, the poet Pam Ayres: this year was no different. I say that, but actually it was, because not only did we receive a card back once again but she also sent the class a present – a copy of her latest book ‘Doggedly Onward: A Life in Poems’. We’ll read some of her work next week, after which the children will compose some of their own poems inspired by hers and we’ll send them off to her as a thank you in the new year.

We had a message from the BBC 500 Words team which stated that they receive tens of thousands of entries each year and that only around 5,000 go through for the second round of judging by the Reading Agency. It went on to say that we should be very proud that the story ‘Very Fishy’ by Mercy had been selected and that they will be back in touch with an update when we have selected our shortlisted stories in January. HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Mercy on making it through to this next stage – a first for any St Stephen’s pupil!!! We are so very proud of you Mercy.

And finally, letters will be going out next week to parents whose children will be involved in the SATs Booster Programme that will start after the February half term. I will be explaining to the children which classes they will be expected to attend as well as how and why they might have been selected, which Is to help ensure they reach Mr Gove’s ‘Expected’ standard and/or to assist them into the ‘Greater Depth’ band.

Have a great weekend,

Mr Gane

 

STORY COMPETITION

Mrs Pereira writes: It may make for nice Christmas project? The local story competition run by Daunt Books is back again, with every child who enters getting a £5 book voucher. Most years, we have a winner at St Stephen’s who receive a voucher and the glory of seeing their stories published – so a good success rate. Click on the link

https://www.ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk/teaching-and-learning/library-corner/ and check out the info in the sidebar.

 

‘Carols by Candlelight’ on Thursday

Please help the children to practise these carols.

Y6 Ayres Hymn – In Dulci Jubilo

Finale – Silent Night

Finale – Traditional Carol Medley

Finale – Popular Medley

Thanks.

Friday 6th December

Dear Parents & Carers,

Advent, which the children learned about at the whole school Collective Worship on Monday, is well and truly upon us once again and with the Christmas break now just two weeks away, there is no rest for the wicked of Y6! This week, in addition to watching their Reception buddies’ final rehearsal of their Nativity in the church on Wednesday, your children have had their noses to the grindstone once again.

In RE we’re very much sticking to the Church’s teaching that in fact, it is Advent (not Christmas, yet) – the beginning of the spiritual year – and four weeks of preparation before the ‘arrival’ or ‘visit’. The children have learned about the secular ‘takeover’ of the Christian feast of Christmas by the retail sector, before we take a look at how the Church and churches promote Christianity’s second biggest celebration next week.

The darker days of the autumn term make the Science unit on Electricity more interesting – this week the children trawled their memories from Y4 to recall circuits before actually getting their hands-on the various components required to create and evaluate circuits in series and in parallel. Enlightening!

Meanwhile we began a super short, new unit in Maths on Monday, which saw the children getting to grips with a mini Geometry unit on ‘Position & Direction’ developing their learning on translation and reflection of shapes using coordinates in all four quadrants of a grid – exciting stuff – and just in time for next week’s SATs Practice (see last week’s blog for the details).

English has seen us continue working on our persuasive writing skills and this week we have looked at writing engaging introductions, how to make our writing more cohesive and how to structure our counterarguments. Next week we will be writing our final letters to Mr Schumm and I am looking forward to reading them all.

We are so lucky that children here have so many opportunities to be active. On Monday I joined Paul & Stephanie, the Gymnastics teachers, and got to see your children ‘work out’. It’s great to see the enthusiasm for most children, eager to push themselves to develop their skills in a core discipline that is transferable to any sport that they are keen to pursue. On Tuesday I saw the same in Dance, where it was not only the keen sports-people who were developing their poise, balance and co-ordination skills. Mr Blair then took them all for PE on Thursday.

The Dodgeball team (inc. Barbare, Danil, Luca, Saron & Sean) was out at the Borough tournament on Wednesday morning, so with another half a dozen children also out sitting the Latymer Upper entrance exam and another band (Aggie, Amber, Millie-Jo & Soli) singing in the choir at Westfield with Miss Rachel & Mr Schumm, there was less than half the class left for this week’s DT lesson. These lucky few had the attention once again of Alice & Jess, under whose expert guidance, they made frustratingly swift work of machining their laboriously hand-sewn seams… “Why didn’t we do this first?” J With the addition of a few pockets, these children are close to completing their first ever garment and will therefore be the experts next week when the other half of the class are back. Top work and many thanks to all. Nearly all of the children were back in time to watch the Reception Nativity in the afternoon.

Yesterday, in RHE the children came up with a list of differences between people in our school and community. Despite differences in height, weight, skin colour, hair colour, gender, religion, disability, wealth and more, the children recognised the fact that we are also all very similar. This might not be visually, but morally we all want to live peaceful lives and have similar outlooks on life. However, despite these similarities, they sadly recognised that some ‘differences’ can lead to bullying, which they discussed looking to see what they might do to help those being bullied and how awful it is for people to be victims just for the way that they look. They agreed that bullying of any kind – verbal, physical, excluding someone etc. – is NEVER acceptable and that they should always do something to help.

Next week is our half-termly mock SATs week. The children have been working really hard and we are hoping to see their best results yet, please do email me if you have any questions.

Finally, with ‘Carols by Candlelight’ rapidly approaching, the children also have MUSIC homework this weekend and the only way to get Miss Rachel’s accompaniment to them is here. If you could all please play your part with our rehearsals by having your child/ren practise their songs, that would be greatly appreciated. PDFs of the lyrics can be found below, alongside their accompanying mp3s:

Y6 Ayres Hymn – In Dulci Jubilo

Finale – Silent Night

Finale – Traditional Carol Medley

Finale – Popular Medley

Have a great weekend.

Mr Gane

 

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS!

Friday 29th November

Dear Parents & Carers,

Lots of ins and outs this week what with the sporting competitions, School Council visit to Parliament, ISEB tests here, mums in to help in DT & Geography as well as the various 11+ exams too. With the FOSS Christmas Fair at 12pm tomorrow, the weeks just get busier and busier.

Meanwhile back in class at the sharp end, in Maths this week the children saw the back of fractions, for a while at least, learning how to find fractions of amounts as well as original amounts from fractions, and how to convert fractions in to decimals too. Today the reviewed and tested their learning over the last few weeks with a wonderful (well two actually) end of unit assessments, which they all loved!

In English, persuasive writing is the order of the day with the children learning to use the acronym REARR when preparing their exquisitely crafted missives, packed full of well-reasoned ideas on how there should be less homework – dream on. We’ll end this unit with a debate when they can put their persuasive learning in to practice. Then, the oral Book Reviews have also been continuing apace this week with some expert analysis followed by incisive questioning as always. I have been delighted to see that following each review, lots of children have been persuades that they might give the book in question a go – top work!

With the great help again this week of Jess and Alice, the children are making swift work of running up their waistcoats. Most had their patterns pinned, fabric cut and were hand stitching both shoulder and waist seams by the end of the afternoon on Wednesday; a few had completed that items to try on. Next week they get their hands on the sewing machines from Miss Tami’s ‘Stich & Chill’ club, a first for most pupils.

The children concluded the first lesson of our new Relationships and Health Education topic ‘Valuing difference’ on Monday. Having played a game that highlighted the positives of being different to other people – who moved seats, they the discussed what a ‘bystander’ is and how if we see someone being bullied, they need to take action. We agreed lots of actions that they could try and do (if safe) should for when they might see a friend or peer in this position. Having a strong group of friends can provide protection against bullying they decided that they would try to be even more positive to our peers throughout their school days.

Buddy Reading after morning break each Thursday, continues to be a big highlight of the week. Every Y6 child is partnered with a child from Reception – this term we are teamed up with Mrs Ghoul’s class – and for 30 minutes the two buddies sit down to read quietly together. It really is wonderful to see and a super experience for both parties with your children relishing the responsibility of nurturing the love of reading for their young friend. It is something that is a huge win win for all, which is remembered as a key part of Y6.

On the sporting front, Mr Blair & Miss Charrington took the Athletics squad to the Borough heats for the London Youth Games held at Sacred Heart High School on Wednesday morning that included Alex, Tian, Marceau, Trixie, Soli, and Matilda from our class. They team smashed the morning heats session but then had a nervous wait to hear how the afternoon session had gone. When the final points were tallied sadly we were pipped to the top spot this year by West London Free School’s 698 point to our 664. St Peter’s took third place with 624. There’s more sporting events planned for next week – parents of children involved will have had emails from Mr Blair.

It’s the last few weeks of Miss Rachel’s time here at St Stephen’s as she prepares to emigrate south to the warmer climes of Cornwall in the new year, so in Music she’s putting the children through their paces for the very last time as they rehearse for the ‘Carols by Candlelight’ service on Thursday 19^th. This year in the annual celebration that all of the children are expected to attend, Y6 Ayres will be singing the ancient Pearsall hymn, ‘In Dulci Jubilo’ meaning ‘In sweet rejoicing’ in Latin, which has reflected the joy felt during the Christmas season over the centuries. Make sure you ink in the date to your diaries now.

In Geography the children continued their learning using atlases to scour latitude and longitude co-ordinates to firstly find Japan and then a host of other countries dotted all over the world. It was hugely gratifying to see children linking these man-made lines criss-crossing the globe to their learning at the end of last year on Position & Direction (X and Y grids) in Maths. There was a big added bonus this afternoon when Japanophilia or Shinnichi / 親日 in Japanese, Caroline (Charlotte’s mum) came in to share with the class some of her experiences living and working in Japan. She told the children about the three distinct scripts used in the Japanese language including Kanji (漢字) with over 10,000 characters, and taught them how to write their names. Next they moved around a carousel of activities that included trying on traditional Japanese clothes, tasting seaweed crackers, playing a simple games and using chopsticks. What a great way to end the week – thanks you so much.

Heads up for the week after next (w/c 2/12/24) when the children will be sitting another round of practice SATs as we continue to prepare them for what they will face in May. This time around there will be more children working in smaller groups, which helps them to be less distracted and more focused on the task in hand. What can you do to help… reading, reading and more reading. The one-hour Reading Comprehension paper is by far the most challenging, with three increasingly taxing texts and around 40 questions to answer, the children need to be confident in what they read in the first instance, as well as being able to ‘skim and scan’ the texts for key words and phrases when answering specific questions. The more you can help them with this now, the less of an issue it will be at high school. Practising times tables and number bonds too, would also not go amiss!

Maths and English Booster Classes will begin in the spring term, to which many children will be ‘invited’ – it’s compulsory. The aim of these are two-fold. Firstly we want to ensure that children on the Expected/Not Expected boundary will ‘pass’ well, but also that those at the Expected/Greater Depth border do themselves justice, showing off their strengths. Miss Marchant and I will be informed further by the next set of results from the SATs Practice week and will be writing to you to let you know, which, if any, of the classes your child will be invited to, as well as which day or days (likely Wednesdays & Thursdays 4-5pm) and groups they will be in.

See you at the Christmas Fair tomorrow and have a great weekend,

Mr Gane

 

 

 

A NOTE FROM LINDA

Hello St Stephen’s!

This is a little note to say a big thank you to each and every one of you. It has been amazing to have been your Scientist-in-Residence and working with all of you doing fun Science experiments, to learn together, and to answer all your great questions. I love Science and I loved doing Science with you all – and I hope you love Science too!

Thank you,

Linda

Friday 22nd November

Dear Parents & Carers,

Lots to report again this week, but I think I’d be sacked if I didn’t start off reporting on another incredible FOSS extravaganza: St Stephen’s Got Talent! A huge, huge thanks to all of those who braved the stage in front of BGT judge Alisha Dixon, Mr Schumm and Amanda too. Sadly ‘X Factor Supremo’ Simon Cowell was unable to attend in person, but sent a great message and kicked off the night with a very generous donation too. Good Morning Britain presenter Scarlette Douglas was truly amazing in her role as compere, moving things along and gently coaxing the more performers. Thanks also to everyone who attended on the night donating so generously once again, and all who have already supported this fantastic FOSS fundraiser in other ways. If you are able and would like make a contribution of whatever size, please take a look at the Just Giving page. Very many thanks.

Mr Schumm always has an eye to the future, so this half term, as part of the curriculum, Y6 has Dance classes, which of course, the children love… well most of them. Take a look at the results of Tuesday afternoon’s session with the amazing Grace – impressive. Check out that hand jiving and image them as parents on the SSGT stage in 15/20 years’ time… too much, sorry.

In Maths this week both groups have continued to work their way through ‘fractions’ focusing on multiplying and dividing. I find if you think of multiplying as ‘lots of’, then finding half (a lot of) a quarter gives some logic to the equation ½ x ¼ =  The children learnt that the calculation is actually very straight forward and they all did very well when asked to simply ‘Times the Tops’ and then ‘Times the Bottoms’. So in our example it is 1 x 1 = 1, and 2 x 4 = 8 giving us the product ⅛. The children continued learning varying mutations of division too using Bar Models and dividing fractions by other fractions using our KFC method (keep, flip, change – so 1/5 divided by ½ is the same as 1/5 x 2). Whilst the children have seen some of this in Y5, our work in Y6 aims to instil a greater depth of learning, challenging the children with word problems that are aimed at making them use the understanding they have in order to solve more complex problems.

The children hugely enjoyed the English topic on poetry this week by first analysing a brilliantly inspiring poem by Benjamin Zephaniah with Mr Schumm on Monday. His ‘No Problem’ poem confronts his experiences of racism and how he is now able to not let it affect him in his day to day life. As a result, the children planned and wrote their own poems based on issues that are important to them. Once they were written, the class performed them with some powerful messages hitting home on majors issues including bullying, climate change, equality, sexism and racism – each spoke really passionately about their subject.

Starting our new Computing topic on Tuesday afternoon, the children are using Scratch for the coding part of the curriculum. To begin, they discussed what ‘problem solving’ was and how it needs to be logical. In terms of coding, problem solving can be used to ‘debug’ programmes and make sure they are working properly. So to begin, the children created a ‘sprite’ and a ‘stage’ and then coded movements controlled by the up, down, left and right arrow keys for a race car game. Some went on to add colour sensing, which forced a restart. They will continue in this vein next week, looking at spotting errors to ‘debug’ a given code.

Project Waistcoat has begun and I have to thank mums, Alice, Jess and Lucy for so kindly volunteering to come in and lend a hand on Wednesday afternoon. Led by Miss Charrington, the TEAM managed to get the children to cut out and customise their patterns, before pinning them to their fabric and cutting the cloth. Not at all bad for an afternoon’s work! Thank you so much and if it hasn’t put you off, would you please come back next week.

The weekly Monday morning 8am debating sessions led by Emma K are not only great fun, but they are equipping the debating squad with life-long skills. On Wednesday, Emma and I took four teams of three to South Hampstead High School for a huge debating competition of 31 primary and prep schools from near and far. There were 93 debates in all with a total of 558 speeches. Seven teams won all three of their debates TWO of those from St Stephen’s – the only school with two winning teams. What a huge testament to the quality of Emma’s coaching and the children’s hard work. Huge congratulations to Aggie, Viv, Dom, Mercy, Lotte, Marlow, Jack and the whole squad.

And to end the week, along with Y5, we all trooped down to the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith for the annual panto… Oh yes we did! The children had a great time cheering and booing in all the right places as they watched a dazzling performance of Aladdin.

Wrap up warm and have a great weekend.

Mr Gane

Friday 15th November

Dear Parents & Carers,

Can I really start off the blog with ‘what a busy week it’s been’ again….? Every week is a busy week here! It was great to catch up with so many of you on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Open Classroom morning’s and for Parents’ Evening to share with you all of the super work and efforts of your children. On the whole, we are well on track for another impressive year, which does certainly seem to be picking up.

So to matters in hand. All of the children continued developing their understanding of fractions in Maths this week, as they compared different fractions using the lowest common denominator (LCD), although something new to those in my group, was comparing fractions using the numerator… ask them to explain, before we moved on to adding and subtracting fractions.

We continued each day this week in English with a focus on Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem ‘The Kraken’. After analysing the Victorian language, the children recited the poem a few times, before then planning and writing a detailed description of the legendary creature. Inspired by his grot and polypi, they conjured up their very own sea beastie planned and wrote a poem – we packed it in!

We had started the week with an Anti-Bullying Week Assembly led by Miss Bill and many children wore odd socks on Tuesday to celebrate individuality and uniqueness. This coincided conveniently with our new ‘Relationships & Health Education’ topic – Valuing Difference, which the children began with a brief pre-assessment giving their thoughts on a new religious group taking over a village’s old, unused cinema.

In RE this week the children had their second and final lesson on Remembrance which included the story of Sadako Sasaki – a 12 year old from Hiroshima – and her paper cranes. Her dying wish for peace inspired your children to learn how to make her famous cranes, following the ancient Japanese legend which says that your greatest wish will come true if you fold 1,000 origami cranes. Some of those that the children made went home; some are in their RE books and others have been placed on the RE display board.

Continuing the theme, on Monday morning – Remembrance Day itself – just before 11am we joined the BBC’s live proceedings at the Cenotaph, standing for the two minutes silence as Big Ben began to chime. I must say that the solemnity of the occasion was very well observed by everyone in Y6 Ayres. I mentioned that, as part of their homework last weekend, they might watch some of The Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance the annual commemorative event from the Royal Albert Hall at 9pm on BBC1. As an added incentive, our very own Music Teacher, Miss Rachel, was there singing as part of the Bach Choir and was caught prominently on camera! See the BBC iPlayer.

Dance on Tuesday afternoons is proving a big hit with Grace putting the children through a great cardio warmup before building quiet complex dance routines. The electricity continued afterwards in the first lesson of the new topic, ‘Changing Circuits’, which saw the children recap their previous learning, before moving on… They were enthralled, or not, by a hugely informative Oak Academy film on static electricity, where they learned that static electricity is the build-up of the electrical charge in an object when it is rubbed against another object – friction. Objects will stick together when they have opposite charges and repel when they have the same charge – positive charge and negative charge. When objects are charged, they exert forces on each other – electrostatic force. So much for the theory, next thing they were blowing up balloons, generating their own static electricity, before then sticking them to walls, picking up small pieces of paper and making their hair stand on end!

On Wednesday afternoon, the children enjoyed an amazing performance of Peter Pan at Latymer Upper, led by our very own Peter Pan, Mr Schumm. It was an original and unique take on J.M. Barrie’s classic tale about the boy who never grows up, performed by Mountview Drama School’s Actor-Musician cohort, as an interactive musical adventure with inventive takes on pop hits, an original score and endless theatrical magic. They loved it and Mr Schumm wished he could have been the tap dancing crocodile!

As I was out with the two Mayor’s Cup teams, including; Matilda, Soli, Trixie, Tian, Jack, Marlow, Sean, Dom & Alex, this afternoon, Mr Schumm once again deputised, teaching the children the first of our Geography lessons on Japan, with a few added bonuses… before they ended the week by watching the BBC Live Lesson on Ant-Bullying Week.

And so to next week… Mr Schumm has dusted off his dancing shoes and managed to squeeze back into his sequined bodysuit in readiness for the 2024 edition of ‘St Stephen’s Got Talent!’ Do you have your ticket to the event of the decade?

Have a great weekend – fingers and everything crossed for the England rugby team tomorrow.

Mr Gane

 

BREAKING NEWS

Both football teams won their friendly matches this afternoon against West London Free School; Sean scoring the winner in the Boys’ Team 1-0 victory, while Girls’ Team again knocked in 7 without loss (Trixie 4, Matilda 2 & Lizzie 1).

Friday 8th November

Dear Parents & Carers,

What a week and what a final Assembly – I’m so glad that so many of you were able to make it along to your child’s last class assembly at St Stephen’s. Didn’t they do well! All of their hard work, over a few disjointed weeks, really paid off and I was so proud of them all – big pats on the back all round.

Following an initial grammar brush up on identifying the past, present and future progressive (continuous) tenses at the start of each lesson, we began this week in English with a focus on Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem ‘The Kraken’. The children will be analysing the Victorian language, reciting the poem before then planning and writing a detailed description of the legendary creature, inspired by his grot and polypi. A lot to look forward to!

In Maths we began by reviewing the children’s previous learning of Fractions looking at equivalent fractions, improper fractions as well as mixed numbers. They learned how to accurately place fractions with different denominators on a number line – a wonderful visual aid that helps enormously in what can be a challenging unit for some children.

Following the whole staff’s ‘Unconscious Bias’ training a few weeks ago, it was the turn of the children on Wednesday to welcome back Kat. She expertly and very gently led them through the complicated subject, provoking animated discussion and heart-felt experiences, including one from Mr Schumm. The children found the session very helpful as they will when she’s back in the summer to talk about the birds and the bees!

Before we move on to Advent in a few weeks’ time, we started RE this half term with a timely investigation of Remembrance. The children learned about what it is, why we do it and how it is done. They listened to the famous poem by John McCrae…

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders’ fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders’ fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders’ Fields.

…before then writing one of their own.

Today was Hispanic Day at San Esteban’s which saw Y6 focusing on Chile and its natural environment. After an atmospheric assembly which saw the whole school singing Louis Armstrong’s classic, ‘What a wonderful World’ in Spanish, followed by a dazzling dance demonstration by ‘Illusion Flamenca’ to get them all in the mood, your children began the day with their own workshop. Let by the professionals from ‘Illusion Flamenca’, the children had a great time exploring percussion in a very exciting drumming workshop.

After break (and the weekly Spelling Test), in the classroom they learned some of the history, geography and culture of Chile before starting on the Class Christmas card for FOSS… there will be a distinct Hispanic theme this year. Next up Stefania a teacher from Chile popped in to chat to the whole of Y6 about the similarities and differences in schools here and in her home country. Then to finish the morning we took a Zoom call from Mr Schumm in Santiago, Chile… It confused the children too… it was in fact Mr Schumm Jr, Ben, who is currently living and working in the Chilean capital. There was lots of great Q&A about food, earthquakes and what exactly Mr Schumm Sr will be doing there on holiday at Christmas.

A spectacular Hispanic themed lunch with a special banoffee pie pudding set the children up for an afternoon of further immersion when Ella’s Uruguayan dad chatted to the children about the great guano war amongst other things while Dom’s Argentinian mum organised a Chilean themed bingo. The day concluded back in the main hall with many of the children from across the years showing off their new, percussion and dancing skills lead by ‘Illusion Flamenca’. What a day – well organised Mrs Pereira.

It’s Design Technology in place of Art this half term which means that homework this weekend includes taking a look at the BBC’s ‘Sewing Bee’ which links perfectly with the children’s DT project this half term – making waistcoats. They will begin next week by devising a ‘Design Brief’ detailing who the garment is for; when and where it might be worn; what type of fabric might be best; how it might be ‘cut’; what decoration and fixings it will have etc. etc. They will then sketch out their individual designs. So the following week the classroom will be turned in to a veritable sweatshop as the children toil away to, first cut out their patterns, then pin the three pieces to their fabric before finally cutting out their material. Fingers crossed for no blood… this year!

Do make sure you have booked a Parents’ Evening slot for Tuesday or Wednesday next week when I look forward to speaking with you all. Also note that on Wednesday, Mr Schumm will be taking the children mid-afternoon to attend a performance of Peter Pan and is scheduled to return around 4.30pm. See the ParentMail.

Have a great weekend,

Mr Gane

 

ART COMPETITION

Children are being challenged to bring their futures to life — with a full-body self-portrait! From clothing and accessories to props, they can design themselves as future footballers, chefs, scientists, singers, or any star they aspire to be. Their task? To showcase what makes them fantastic through their creative designs! See the sheet in the Homework Folder for more information about the competition and prizes, which should be returned to me by 22nd November.

Friday 25th October - Half Term!

Dear Parents & Carers,

…and so ends the first half term – just five left to go at St Stephen’s!

The children managed (mostly) to remember their stories for the BBC 500 Words competition, finishing them off on paper, then editing and typing them up on Google Classroom. My job now is to enter them all for judging. They have really loved the freedom to write as they wish, with no prescriptive Learning Objective or genre to tick box, and consequently some of their tales are truly amazing – hopefully someone might need a new outfit when their child is invited to the final alongside Queen Camilla.

Maths was somewhat less inspiring this week, although with two end of units assessments, we did bring the ‘Four Operations’ block to a close. We looked at square, cubed and triangular numbers and my group also took a quick peep at Pascal’s Triangle as a taster for Y7 and onwards. As promised there has been a little movement between groups and with parents of those affected having already been informed, we’ll start the new groupings after half term.

More end of unit assessments in RE, Science and History; regular Spanish, Gymnastics, Music and PE lessons and lots and lots of Class Assembly practice pretty much filled the week, with just enough time left to squeeze in an excellent workshop ‘Hidden Figures’ as part of our Black Voices programme and an RHE lesson with Mr Schumm this afternoon.

Holiday Homework – Welcome to Y6!

The children have been given half term homework in the form of SATs papers. We have asked the children to complete these as they would in class, as if they were in the actual exam – so they need to find a quiet space, give themselves the correct amount of time and try and do it independently. It should not be rushed and ‘knocked out’ in a day.

To save the world, we have attached the Reading Comprehension text to Google Classroom (no hard copies) but the children do have answer booklets for it as well as the Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling paper too. They are in their homework folders along with two Maths Reasoning booklets. The Maths paper 1 Arithmetic questions are on GC and there is a double-sided A4 sheet for the children’s answers.

For the 20 Spellings, please test your child, getting them to write their answers – neatly – on a piece of scrap paper.

Timings:

Reading Comprehension: 1 hour

Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling: 45 mins

Maths Paper 1, Arithmetic: 30 mins

Maths Papers 2 &3 Reasoning 1 & 2: 40 mins each

We are asking parents NOT to help during the ‘actual test’. Children should work in pencil and if parents would like to go over your work afterwards, then they should use a pen – NO rubbers please. This way we can distinguish the children’s own work and any corrections that parents might have made later. Children’s own correction should be in green pen.

Hope you can enjoy your break.

Mr Gane

PS Please remember ‘Winter Uniform’ when we come back and a COAT as children do go outside for Break and Lunch, even when it’s raining!

Friday 11th October

Dear Parents & Carers,

The children coped admirably this week as they experienced their first run of practice SATs, which as promised was a nice gentle introduction, with the whole class sitting the tests together. As we move forward each half term, this will change with some children working in smaller groups, others one-to-one and so forth, based entirely on the needs of each individual and the statutory requirements permitted.

As explained previously, there are six papers which they sit over the week: Grammar; Reading Comprehension; Spelling; Maths Paper 1 – Arithmetic; Maths Paper 2 – Reasoning 1 and finally Maths Paper 3 – Reasoning 2. I have been gentle with them and I have told the children, the whole idea of these assessments are for them to begin to get an idea of what they will be confronted with come the week of 12^th May 2025 and for me to identify, which parts of the curriculum I need to focus on moving forward. I will speak with you about these results and how the children have progressed since then, at Parents Evening in November. There is likely to be movement between the Maths groups, with some children who would benefit from support moving to Miss Marchant’s group, and others who have demonstrated their ability to work more independently, moving to mine. I will contact parents of any children moving groups before half term.

The netballers were off to St Peters on Tuesday afternoon to play the postponed fixture for last week.

Amber, Kitty, Vivian, Ekaterine, Tian, Wilfred & Marlow were the backbone of the team that played loads of fun friendlies – a most enjoyable time was had by all.

Mr Schumm, ably assisted by Miss Bill, opened World Mental Health Day here yesterday with a Collective Worship assembly to a sea of yellow-clad children. In addition to our weekly RHE lessons, many children also have the opportunity to spend time with our School Councillor, Theresa or the Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA), Miss Tami, which means we do a great deal at St Stephen’s to help children develop resilience over their years with us so that they are as prepared as possible for when they move on. Thanks so much for your donations via ParentMail.

After their final SATs Maths paper, as a treat, Mr Blair took the whole cohort on Thursday afternoon to complete the House Tag Rugby competition at Power League.  After coaching the children myself for the last two weeks, it was fantastic to hear how successful they were and how much fun they had. For the record Liddell and Aylward were joint winners.

The Choir – including Aggie, Lotte, Mercy, Millie-Jo, Viv and Wilf from Y6 Ayres – was up and out early this morning travelling to Kensington to take part in the opening ceremony of the annual London Diocesan Board of Schools’ Headteacher’s Conference.

It’s the time of year for coughs and colds, so can I please ask that you supply your children with all they need, including tissues. While we do have tissues for emergencies, again in preparation for next September, Y6 children should not be relying on the school to be supplying tissues.

I did share with children a message that our colleagues at West London Free School sent to parents warning that they have ‘seen an increase in reports of muggings or attempted muggings in the local area.’ They report that thankfully no pupils have been physically harmed in these incidents, but they are no less scary for those involved. We then had a great discussion on how they can help themselves to stay safe – no flashing phones around.

On a lighter note…. No school next week, well technically there is, but we’re away on the much anticipated PGL residential. Everyone is expected to come in to school at the normal time, then following a quick Maths lesson, we are scheduled to depart at 10am. Please do ensure that children have a sleeping bag and a pillow too, as well as a packed lunch for Monday. They will be outside all day, every day, so please ensure that they have the correct clothing for potentially wet weather all week! Do please ensure that no electronic devices are included, which includes Airtag or tracking devices of any kind. I will be in regular (one way) contact with your Class Representatives sending photos and updates, so you will see how much fun your children are having.

Enjoy your weekend.

Mr Gane

Friday 4th October

Dear Parents & Carers,

The whole school and loads of parents and carers were shoehorned into church on Wednesday for our annual Harvest Festival service organised and led by Mr Perry and by Rev Denis. In front of an altar overflowing with generously donated food, the children sang and prayed prayers of thanks for all of the wonderful gifts that God bestows on us. Danil read part of Mathew’s Beatitudes, which Mr Perry then spoke about. Wilf, Luca and Soli expertly played soothing sounds on their musical instruments during a much more calming entry and exit to and exit from the church.

The children have been working this week on their own creative stories for the BBC 500 Words competition. We did some work exploring how to integrate feelings invoked in the five senses by the setting of their stories, which was challenging, and then reviewed their previous learning on the rules of dialogue, using direct speech to move on the story. There’s a lot going on. I hope that they might finish their first drafts next week, before editing while typing their stories the week after we get back from PGL. Less to write in Maths, but just as much learning, as both groups continued work on the four mathematical operations by developing learning on factors, multiples and Prime numbers – more for homework on Mathletics.

In RE, the children refreshed their memories on how the faith communities in our borough have changed over the years. According to Mrs Connor, Shepherd’s Bush has always been a diverse area with many different religious buildings, however the range of different religions in the wider area has continued to grow further. There is now has a Buddhist Vihara in Chiswick, a Progressive Synagogue in Finchley, a Serbian Orthodox Church in Notting Hill, the Holy Ghost & St Stephen’s Roman Catholic church in Shepherd’s Bush as well as a range of Church of England churches. Splitting in to six groups, each was allocated a different faith community, and using the computers, the children used their knowledge and understanding of search engines to find out more. With the information they have gathered so far they began creating a slideshow presentation, which they will deliver to the class, so we will all learn about all the different faith communities and how they have evolved over the years.

I took the two football teams to the Mayor’s Cup fixtures this afternoon – for the record the Boys’ Team won 1-0, while the Girls’ Team stormed to a 7-0 victory so that left Mr Schumm to teach History. Those left here learned about the two famous city-states of Athens and Sparta, discovering that the main differences between them was their government, economy and society. Athenian society, which was based on trade, valued art and culture and was ruled under a form of democracy. Spartan society, on the other hand, was a militant society whose economy was based on farming and conquering. Spartan children were placed in a military-style education program. At the age of 7, Spartan boys were removed from their parents’ homes and began the “agoge,” a state-sponsored training regimen designed to mould them into skilled warriors and moral citizens. Children in Athens lived fairly simple lives. Boys went to school to learn to read, write and memorise the works of philosophers. Boys also had private tutor, who were often slaves, to help them with their lessons. Girls stayed at home with their mothers and learned what they would need to have a house of their own. Mr Schumm had them work in groups of four to prepare a talk show presentation where they each took on one of the following roles: an Athenian, a Spartan, a Visitor and the Host. The rest of the class had to decide which questions the host should ask, and how each ‘guest’ will answer them. A lot of fun was had by all, especially Mr Schumm.

To next week – heads up on the first SATs Practice – when your children will experience their first run of ‘mock’ SATs. There are six papers which they sit over the week: Grammar; Reading Comprehension; Spelling; Maths Paper 1 – Arithmetic; Maths Paper 2 – Reasoning 1 and finally Maths Paper 3 – Reasoning 2. We will be very gentle with them, sitting the tests in their own classroom as a class cohort and as I have told the children, the whole idea of these assessments are for them to begin to get an idea of what they will be confronted with come May 2025 and for me to identify which parts of the curriculum I need to focus on moving forward. My assessment of their work in lessons coupled with how they do with the practice SATs, will mean that there will be some movement between the two Maths groups. Rest assured I will speak with you about any changes that affect your child beforehand. The following week will be much more exciting when we head down the M4 to PGL  – so in fact these next two weeks mirror what comes in May with the real SATs (12-15 May) followed by the residential trip to Spain (19-23 May).

That’s all for now, have a great weekend,

Mr Gane

Friday 27th September

Dear Parents & Carers,

In English this week the children completed writing their autobiographies on Monday and Tuesday, which I am thoroughly enjoying reading, while learning a lot about them! So, on Wednesday I was delighting in what a wonderful thing technology is when the children were able to learn and be inspired by best-selling writers, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Charlie Higson and Francesca Simon, as they watched the BBC 500 Words ‘Live’ Lesson. This kicked off our next English unit as the children picked up some great story writing advice and top tips from these hugely popular authors and BBC 500 Words Judges, before they brainstormed their own fantastic story ideas. They are now planning their characters and settings before using the ‘story mountain’ to draft their own fantastical stories, which they will then edit on to Google Docs and we will submit to the competition. Then it will be fingers crossed to see if anyone makes it through to the final and presentations in June at Buckingham Palace in front of Queen Camilla.

It was Long Division all the way this week in Maths as the children revelled in learning this most time-honoured of methods. Both classes worked exceedingly well on this traditionally tricky strategy with most of the children now pretty confident in their understanding of the process of what to do, so much so that we moved on to testing their understanding of the concept with word problems – challenging them to put the theory that they have learned, into practice. There was a twist also this week with a very interesting, short assessment that had more to do with reading comprehension than the continued learning on division – do ask your child about the test, if they haven’t already tried it on you!

It was the classification of plants this week in Science, with the children’s prime learning on the difference between vascular and non-vascular plants – that’s another to ask them about! In History, meanwhile, the focus was on the different forms of government that were employed by the ancient Greeks; the children explored the pros and cons of Monarchies, Oligarchies and Democracy, before deciding for themselves which they thought was the best. The children completed their Chuck Close inspired, watercolour portraits on Wednesday, which are amazing and will be the inspiration for the class Christmas card – yes, we’re planning for that already and well as the Class Assembly which you need to ink into your diaries now for 9am on 7^th November. Can you believe it’s their last one here?

With Mr Blair accompanying children to a sporting fixture on Thursday afternoon, it was down to me to dust off my old trainers and blow the cobwebs from my whistle to take a Tag Rugby session, which reminded me of many cold Sunday mornings coaching the Richmond Minis. We had a great time…. well I did! Prior to that, Mark from RAW Drama was back too and the children had a great time before lunch, in one of his amazing, high-octane workshops that gets even the quietest, most retiring child, performing. And then after school, it was great to see so many of you at International Night yesterday – what a wonderful occasion.

Finally, we will be in church at 9am next Wednesday to celebrate the annual Harvest Service, which you are most welcome to join us. The children have been asked to bring in donations (see ParentMail) which can be dropped off in Mr Schumm’s office from Monday.

Enjoy your weekend,

Mr Gane

Friday 20th September

Dear Parents & Carers,

Without question, the highlight of this week, was the much anticipated House Captain presentations, which took place on Wednesday afternoon. Your children really did themselves proud, delivering thoughtful and inspired talks that included some zany fundraising ideas for many personally heart-warming and deserving charities. The votes were counted and Mr Schumm announced the election results just before lunch yesterday, handing out the highly desired badges at this morning’s Assembly. Really well done to all 45 candidates across the year group who took part – the children of the school voted as follows:

House Captains:

• Crummell – Lotte, Wilf, Isla, Mercy
• Wesley – Ella H, Matilda, Ella PF, Sam
• Aylward – Annie, Millie-Jo, Amber, Jack
• Liddell – Kitty, Ben, Evelyn, Aniela

Sports Captains were also selected this week based, not only on their love and individual ability in sport, but also on their ability to encourage and motivate other team members, as well as their organisational skills and ability to help Mr Blair prepare for events. So give a cheer to: Trixie, Soli, Viv, Jonah and Tian.  Well done for shining in PE over the years and enjoy the new sporting calendar as it picks up again from the last few years.

Then there were even more elections this morning, this time to the School Council – a very influential organ – that works hard behind the scenes under Miss Bill’s guidance. Each class elects two Council Members, who from Y6 Ayres this year are: Saron and Dom. Congratulations and thanks in advance for all of your hard work.

Finally, Marlow and Jack volunteered to represent the class on Mr Perry’s Prayer Group, which meets each fortnight to help facilitate prayer and contemplation throughout the school as well as to pray for us all.

…and we also had time for some teaching and learning!

On Monday in Maths we began work on the four mathematical operations reviewing previous learning on methods of addition, subtraction and multiplication before recapping on ‘short’ division aka the Bus Stop method as well as how to use factors of the divisor, to breakdown more complicated calculations in to easier chunks. See the Mathletics homework for more. Next up… the much anticipated Long Division. I would also like to add that the children’s Times Table recall is improving, which is great news. They should continue to focus on the Tables that are slowing them down when it comes to their two minute Times Table Challenge. I’ll send their papers home on Monday.

‘Life in Trinidad’, the autobiography of Floella Benjamin whose birthday it is next week (75), was examined further in English with the children who investigated unfamiliar words and phrases and identified Co-ordinating and Subordinating Conjunctions, before writing a brief summary of her early childhood. Later in the week they planned their own autobiography and began writing it.

The children continued their Science learning on the somewhat dry ‘Classification of Organisms’ topic while in RE this afternoon the children had a very special visitor, who has lived in Shepherds Bush for 70 years, who came to talk to them about the changes she has seen in the area over her life time – Mrs Connor. She spoke in general about how the shops used to be and explained that this part of London has always seen lots of different communities coming and going. Along with Mr Schumm, she focused on places of worship close to our school some that have changed and ‘downsized’ like St Luke’s CE church on the Uxbridge Road and others that have sprung up and grown such as the Mosque and Muslim Cultural Centre just a few doors down. Also, as a past pupil of St Stephen’s herself, she told us that the whole school used to attend the church for a service every Friday – how things have changed! The children then discussed how faith communities show and share their beliefs and faiths in the wider community, focussing on outward signs of faith; our Harvest Assembly a week on Wednesday being a great example.

Finally, I took the Girls’ and Boys’ Football Teams to their first Mayor’s Cup of the season. The Boys kicked off first, and after a fast and fairly one-sided game, packed full of chances on goal, they came away with a 1-1 draw against a determinedly defensive Wormholt Park Primary side. The Girls’ team fared better, keeping a great shape to outplay Wormholt in every position with Matilda knocking in 6 goals and captain Trixie 3 for the 10-0 win.

Enjoy the sun this weekend while it lasts.

Mr Gane

 

MUSIC OPPORTUNITIES

Please find details below of two singing groups run by the Tri Borough music hub.

Our First Voices choir (years 1-2) is a group for children who love singing and enjoy taking part in performances. The students learn fun songs, rounds and musical games, as well as increasing their confidence when performing and developing fundamental musical skills.

Our Junior Voices choir (years 3-6) is a non-auditioned ensemble where students learn and perform music from a range of musical styles and through various teaching styles, including notation. The students develop key musicianship and performance skills, whilst engaging in regular performance opportunities throughout the year .For more details please follow the link below.

Registration – Tri-borough Music Hub (speedadmin.dk)

You can also contact Evie directly via email (evie.asio@rbkc.gov.uk) if you would like to discuss further.

 

ART OPPORTUNITIES

Homo Viator X Noiasape – FREE Art workshops for Y5-6 students.

Willow Art are curating an Art exhibition entitled Homo Viator at Noiascape High Street House in Askew Road from 10th – 24th October.

As part of the exhibition, Willow Art & Noiascape are running a series of FREE 70 minute painting workshops on Saturday 19th October. We are inviting local schools/parents to provide 10 Year 5-6 pupils with an interest in visual art to attend the workshops.

The workshops will delve into local folklore and storytelling, creating a rich dialogue between art and community.

Workshops:

The workshops are held at 83 Askew Road, London W12 9A

Each workshop will be attended by 2 of the exhibiting artists and DBS-checked supervisors from Willow Art and Noiascape.

St Stephen’s workshop is at 1pm.

The workshops will involve painting and drawing. All drawing materials are provided. Children should come in old clothes that they can paint in. There is a toilet on site, and we can provide water for the children.

Parents can drop their children off from 12.50pm and pick them up at 2.10pm or are welcome to remain in the building (which is WI-FI enabled) whilst their children carry out the workshop.

The work the children produce will be used to contribute to a small exhibition in the gallery space. There will be a photographer on site during the event to record the workshop. If you do not want your child photographed, please inform a member of staff on arrival.

 

WORKSHOP 2 – St. Stephen’s School

Date: Sat 19/10/2024, 1pm

Location: Noiascape, High Street House, 83 Askew Road, London W12 9AH

Participating Artists: Jan Valik & Yifan Jiang

Updated Theme: The Flow We Share, The Waves We Feel

Medium: Indian Ink 2 x 1000ml, water, brushes, cloths, watercolour paper, watercolour tubes, pigments

Structure: The workshop explores ideas connected to fluidity working with water based media

For further information and to book your child’s space (on a first come first served basis), please contact Mrs Wordsworth – l.wordsworth@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Friday 13th September

Dear Parents & Carers,

We have already come to the end of the first, very brief Maths unit on Place Value, an essential understanding of which is key to all going forward – and explains why we no longer use Roman numerals… In English, the children have been reading extracts of Floella Benjamin’s ‘Life in Trinidad’ autobiography as a basis for their learning this week, as they have learned more about the features of biographies and autobiographies with grammar focusing on identifying word class (noun, verb etc.) and today reviewing their understanding of complex sentences.

Having started RE by focusing on our Y6 word of HOPE, the theme now until half term is ‘Understanding Faith in our Community’. This week, in a cross-curricula activity, the children used their geographical map reading skills to identify locations of places of worship in the locality, before then tracing their routes to school, annotating any faith centres along the way. There’s a special visitor joining us for the next lesson…

Meanwhile in Art, with our theme of ‘The Face’, the children’s portraits using sharpies on acetate with backgrounds of complementary colours are now proudly on display and look spectacular. Then, during the Art lesson on Wednesday, we looked briefly at the work of disabled, US, painter and photographer, Chuck Close beginning a multi-coloured gridded background, prior to adding a simplistic over painting in water colours of a…. face.

Classifying Organisms is the Science topic this half term and Tag Rugby in PE, while in Computing this afternoon the children discussed how we could be a Cyber Superhero – someone who helps people to stay safe online. They discussed how to stay safe online, for example not sharing our personal and private information, not talking to strangers and not sharing images that show where they are. Online security is big in Y6 and we will do lots of work reinforcing the message over the year.

The weekend homework is up on the Google Classroom page and copied into Homework Diaries too, and is due in on Monday – Mathletics too. With the House Captain elections scheduled for Wednesday, I have asked for final presentations to be submitted or emailed to me by 5pm on Tuesday. Good luck to all.

Have a great weekend.

Mr Gane

Friday 6th September - Welcome to Y6

Dear Parents & Carers,

Can you believe that that little child who went fresh faced into Reception only six years ago is now in Year 6 – how time flies!

So with summer now officially over and tans (for what you could grab) fading, a very excited bunch turned in on Wednesday, ready and raring for the joys and rigours that face them in Y6. We’ve hit the ground running with your children writing letters to their future selves and setting their ‘Reach for the Stars’ goals for the year – we’re saving Maths for next week!

They enjoyed honing their Tag Rugby skills in PE with Mr Blair; checking out the work of innovative electronic music composer, Delia Derbyshire of Dr Who fame, in Music; creating impactful portraits in Art now proudly displayed in the classroom; working collaboratively to build a bridge out of paper and tape for the first lesson in ‘Me & My Relationships’ in RHE; learning about our class poet, Pam Ayres and her most famous poem (which is their homework to learn) as well as listening to me read the first class book of the year, one of Louis Sachar’s brilliant works, ‘A Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom’, which is always a top favourite.

The children have had a busy few days with lots to think about. We have focused on developing a ‘Growth Mindset’ – ways in which to have a positive approach to even the most dreaded of subjects while also not sitting on ones laurels. There are loads of motivational quotes around the classroom, one of which I have already had thrown back in my face!

I for one have thoroughly enjoyed being back with a full class in Y6 and getting to know lots of new faces. It’s great to be back in the saddle after the hols and I’m looking forward to the challenging new work ahead – they all tell me they are too. The Homework Diaries seem to be a hit (so far) and I would be most grateful for your support in asking to see them each evening and initialling or signing to confirm that work, especially some reading (recommended reading list), has been carried out. Written homework will be set on Mondays and Fridays. Knowing how to manage this will set them in great stead for Y7, less than a year away now – gulp.

We will be having our House Captain elections a week on Wednesday 18^th September.  Each House will elect four Year 6 Captains, who will help lead their houses in certain events and activities throughout the year. Candidates will make a presentation to their fellow House members from across the year groups in the main school hall, who then vote for their preferred captains. As the election is just over a week away, for anyone wanting to throw their hat in to the ring, they need to start planning now… Whilst a PowerPoint / Google Slides (NOT Apple or MAC) presentation is not necessary, it might help as a prop and prompt for the nervous candidate; these should be email to me on d.gane@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk or submitted through the Y6 Google Classroom portal. Below is a job description and a few ideas that might help.

   House Captain’s Job Description

• Each House will fundraise for a specific charity. In the presentation you should put forward your recommendations for your chosen charity and ideas for fundraising.
• Lead regular House meetings
• Help to organise your House for certain school events i.e. Sports Day
• Representing the school at particular school events i.e. Grandparent’s Day
• Acting as a role model for your House/School
• To meet regularly with the Headteacher
• To present House Captain Awards at the end of the year.

Any speech or talk should be no more than five minutes long.

Finally, I hope you have seen the ParentMail regarding the Leavers’ Hoodies with the link for you to purchase yours. There will be only one opportunity to buy these very handy pieces of uniform so please don’t miss out.

Thanks for your support so far and I look forward to the year ahead with you and your lovely children.

Kind regards,

Mr Gane

 

Summer Writing Challenge with a difference…

St Paul’s Girls School has invited St Stephen’s pupils to submit magazine articles for their annual ‘More Than A Month’ publication. It is a student led interdisciplinary inclusion school magazine focused on viewing history, literature, current events, art and culture (e.g. film, music) through a diverse, decolonised lens. They have given a handy resource that they believe might help in writing the article, which I have shown the children on our Google Classroom stream. This is entirely optional, so good luck and have fun to all budding journalists who would like to give it a go.

Completed articles should be returned to me by email by end of the day next Tuesday 10^th September – d.gane@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Make sure that the article itself includes the following author details at the top:  The full name of the student author/s; St Stephen’s CE Primary; Their year group in the new academic year 2024-25.