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Newsletter No: 28

Friday 15th May 2020

CoMPasS

Registered Charity No: 1141329

Inspired by the Reception children reading

their book of the week ‘That Rabbit Belongs

to Emily Brown’ they have created beautiful

Shoebox dioramas and built fabulous Dens.

Also, in Year 2 Mrs Franey’s (aka Fiona

Attenborough) second nature walk update

was enjoyed by all as well as the amazing

Hockney art by the Year 2 children inspired

by woodland. In Year 1 they have created

incredible forests. Based on all of the above

we thought it would be a great idea to take

all of the children in school to the Forest

School to create dens, to learn how to

whittle sticks using peelers and knifes, to

bake smores on a fire, cook marshmallows

using our whittled sticks on the camp fires

we created and to connect with nature at

our Forest School Area. The children loved

their afternoon outdoors as you can see

from the photographs below.

It is so important for us all to experience

and enjoy the outdoors and connect with

nature, particularly in these difficult times.

Children and young people are stimulated by

the outdoors and typically experience, over

time, an increase in their self-belief,

confidence, learning capacity, enthusiasm,

communication and problem-solving skills

and emotional well-being.

Forest School sets learning in a different

context for children where they can

undertake a range of practical activities and

carry out small achievable tasks. At Forest

School children can develop their team

working skills and also learn to become

more independent. Those who are

unfamiliar with woodlands and green spaces

can become confident in using them and this

can form the basis of a life-long relationship

with natural spaces. As a school we can

identify with this and it was clearly evident

today. Thank you to all of the staff who are

working with the Key worker children and

Mr Roberts who came to support the

children too. We even had surprise visit

from Mr Walker and Lottie and Isaac W

too!

I have shared this link from Miss Evans and

Miss Jeffrey in a previous newsletter. This is

a film showing Forest School in action in

Denmark demonstrating the difference in

approaches to childhood and risk in different

countries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Jkiij9dJfcw

On Monday my assembly followed on from

Mrs Clarke’s excellent assembly from the

week before, ‘All are Welcome’. Using a

packet of Jelly Babies I explained that in 1989

each of the six 'Jelly babies' were given a

name and an identity. The six characters are

- Pink Baby Bonny, who wears a nappy and

frilly bonnet. She is always crawling into

mischief! Boofuls is soft-hearted and cries a

lot, even when he is happy! Bumper is

orange, wears a bum-bag, and bumps into

things! Bubbles has her hair in a ponytail and

is yellow. Bigheart is grey and always puts his

friends first. Brilliant is the red leader of the

gang. I then suggested that the greatest

teams, whether that is a family, a sport team,

a choir, a school like Clifton or an even

larger school like St Peter’s all have

individual characters with their own

opinions, different ages, interests,

appearances, things they enjoy doing and not

doing, with different personalities need to

pull in the same direction for the strength of

the team. If this happens sensational

outcomes can result and let’s face it

wouldn't a bag of jelly babies be dull if the

sweets were all one colour and flavour! I

then read ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ to

demonstrate all the animals working

together as a team; they stopped a plan to

steal the Prize Cow in the story.

I have continued to be impressed by the

sensational learning that is taking place by

our children and the brilliant opportunities

the staff are providing for the children. It

was lovely to hear all of the summaries this

morning in our celebration assembly by our

fabulous teachers. I really appreciate the

support of the parents too. Thank you so

much to everyone for pulling together at this

difficult time for the children.

I was impressed by Roasmund this week

who was on Radio York, celebrating her

efforts for creating a spotting game for other

children to play as they pass her house – we

are all proud of you Rosamund.

I am looking forward to the music concerts

next week for the Year 2 and Year 3

children they are going to be marvellous I

am sure! I hope you have a wonderful

weekend.

My best

wishes,

Notice Board INSTRUMENTALISTS CONCERT

We have had lots of children signing up for next week’s

Zoom concerts. I am really looking forward to seeing and

hearing the children perform again. The concert for Year

2 will be at 1.30pm on Tuesday to which all Year 2

children are invited; I’m sure your friends will be glad of

your support. It’s always easier to play to smiley faces!

There will be two concerts for Year 3 on Wednesday and

Thursday at 1.30pm. All year 3 children will be invited to

watch their friends perform.

I will email the parents of performing children the running

order so their children can be prepared and ready to play.

It promises to be a lovely celebration of our children’s

musical journeys. Mrs Hayden.

House

Points

Trophy

Monk

On Tuesday 2nd June at 2.30pm, Young Voices, the

largest children’s choir in the world and the Guinness

World Record holders for the world’s largest

simultaneous sing, invite you to join together with

children, teachers and parents all over the world to sing

“The Power in Me”! Whether it is singing from your

balcony or simply out of your back door - you are

invited to sing along to a special online broadcast of The

Power in Me. If your child(ren) would like to take part,

please sign up here https://www.youngvoices.co.uk/

powerinme. We will be learning the song in Mrs

Hayden's live music sessions over the next week but

there are also online workshops available on the Young

Voices website! It promises to be an exciting event plus

it's a great song to sing too! Mrs Hayden

Have you got The Power in You?!

Over this half term we have used our school value of friendship to think about how we can be friendly and kind to ourselves and to others in a variety of ways such as setting goals for ourselves, carrying out acts of kindness and inspiring our friends.

This week Year 3 re-visited the 'Brain House' which is a visual way to teach children about how our 'thinking' and 'emotional' brains work devised by Dr Hazel Harrison. Understanding this not only helps children to deal with the big emotions, it also helps them to deal with the

inevitable frustrations that learning brings, especially when tackling new and challenging concepts. We know a child's emotional response to learning can be a help or a hindrance, so it is important that we support them with this, as learning and experiencing emotions whether highs or lows goes hand in hand. This is particularly valuable at this time as the children have had to grapple with learning at home and new ways of working.

Below are some examples of our Year 3 children's work on the Brain House.

Wellbeing News

This useful e-book for children who are feeling worried about Covid was shared with me this week. It's a very helpful and age appropriate resource. https://en.calameo.com/read/000777721945cfe5bb9cc?authid=Xu9pcOzU3TQx

If you'd like to read more about Dr Hazel Harrison's Brain House please click on this link: https://www.heysigmund.com/how-to-teach-kids-about-the-brain-laying-strong-foundations-for-emotional-intelligence-by-dr-

hazel-harrison/

This is a clip for children to watch: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/pshe-ks2-the-brain-house/zd7kd6f

Wow! Once again Nursery you have blown me away with

your enthusiasm and interest for all the different play and

learning activities! Every time I see your photos and videos,

or read a comment about just how busy and engaged you

have been I feel so incredibly proud of you all!

This week we discovered the traditional tale The Three Little

Pigs, and oh what fun we have had with this story! We

kicked off the week by building our very own dens both

indoors and outdoors, building them strong enough to keep

us safe from the big bad wolf! We made them cosy with

cushions, lit them up with lights and some even created

different rooms in their den!

Alongside this we have made

delicious Three Pig biscuits,

been on a scavenger hunt,

made stick puppets and had

our very own puppet shows, retelling the story! We have

also discovered that some of the beans that we planted last

week have already started to grow… that giant needs to

watch out!

Thank you Nursery for a truly wonderful week!

ACORNS and

CONKERS

What another wonderful week in RA!

The children have once again made me

smile with all of the fantastic learning

and registers that we have had this

week! The children have been incredibly

busy learning all about repeating

patterns! They have transformed

themselves into the pattern Kings and

Queens as they have designed and

created the most special and magical

pattern crowns! They all looked

fabulous!

The children have also been bowling

this week for their maths learning as

well as making many fabulous pop up shops! They

have been knocking down many skittles and doing

the most amazing subtraction sentences! During

our zoom registers, RA have been very busy

learning how to sign to ‘A Million Dreams’ from the

Greatest Showman as a member of RA has taught

all of her friends this! And finally, to end our week

in a fun way… we had a CRAZY

HAIR register which made

everyone giggle! You all looked

super, super,

ssssuuuuupeerrrrr!!! RA

RB knock my socks off

every week! I love our

zoom registers

together; seeing all your

toys, hearing your

inspired answers to the

'question of the day' and singing funny

songs together really is the very best

way to start my day! During registration

we enjoyed watching a science

experiment from my son Toby, had a

'showtime' performance and even a

special dress up Friday disco. The

children have had some brilliant

learning adventures this week inspired

by our book of the week ‘That Rabbit

Belongs to Emily Brown'. They have made

beautiful shoebox dioramas, built

fabulous dens, set up toy shops, baked

'Bunnywunny Bread' and have become

repeating pattern Kings and Queens in

crowns! Playing subtraction skittles and

subtraction smash has been great fun

and their coat hanger scales were

perfect for their weight investigations!

The children's reading and writing

RB

Another wonderful week in RC! Our storybook this

week is called 'That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown'.

We have enjoyed making shoebox dioramas, which look

wonderful and creative. We have also been drawing

pictures of adventures we would like to see if we

opened our doors. Building dens inside and outside has

also been lots of fun and finally making some delicious

'bunnywunny bread' - yum!

In maths we have been finding objects round our houses

to weigh, designing and testing obstacle courses,

bowling, splatting playdough and making pattern

crowns. What a fantastic time we have had. And finally,

RC have blown me away with

how amazing their phonics has

been!

I continue to be so incredibly

proud of every single member of

RC as they show resilience, resourcefulness,

collaboration and reflect on their learning throughout

the week. Our Zoom registrations continue to be such a

special time in the day and it makes me smile to see you

all and I love hearing all about what you have been up

to. Continue to be kind and caring RC, you are all

amazing learning superheroes!

RC

What a fun week we have had in Year 1! We have been building obstacle courses in phonics and playing ‘Phonopoly’, a phonics game similar to Monopoly. We have been learning how to use positional and directional language in maths and we have loved hiding our toys around the house and then describing their hiding places. The videos that you have made this week Year 1 are incredible; your IT skills are definitely giving Miss Evans and Mrs Johnson a run for their money!

We have been blown away by the incredible forests you have created this week which links to our key text ‘Greta and the Giants’ and it has been lovely to

hear how passionate you feel about the book’s important message of protecting our environment.

In English we have been learning about Greta Thunberg and how she has made a difference to the world. We then made our own fact files about people who have made a difference to the planet; there were some wonderful examples and we really enjoyed reading them.

Well done Year 1 for yet another incredible week of learning, we are so proud of you.

Year 1

2H have continued to wow me with their enthusiasm to learn, whatever the circumstances this week! Our book this term, Famous Five on a Treasure Island, has come to a thrilling conclusion this week and- by popular demand- Miss Jeffrey and I will start to read the next in the series on Monday. The book has inspired all sorts of learning and we have been making maps, learning about coordinates and directions, watching Mrs Hall programme a human beebot (her daughter Phoebe...), painting like David Hockney and producing exciting writing! It has also been lovely to see the children of key

workers in school, busy with our activities so well done to them too- and the grown ups supporting them! It has been great to see familiar faces in our live registrations this week. We enjoyed seeing Miss Flockhart and loved dancing to our class song, 'What have you done today to make you feel proud?'. I am feeling very proud of you all, 2H and all of the grown ups supporting you- at home or in school. Well done and have a happy weekend!!

2H

I have thoroughly enjoyed this week - it has been so much fun! Our registrations have now been ending with story sessions and I must say, I could get used to 2J becoming the teachers whilst I sit back with my morning coffee and be read to. Why didn’t I think of this before?!

It has been great to see you all getting stuck in with this week’s science challenge. We now understand just how some animals manage to keep warm in those freezing ocean temperatures... using their blubber! We used lard and other similar substances to see how this works. It was fascinating! The children really impressed me with their English and grammar this week as we started looking at some tricky concepts such as adverbs, homophones and spelling rules using new sounds.

We have had lots of fun with Mrs Hall this week using coordinates in maths. We used treasure maps to help with this and even became human Beebots! She also put on another wonderful art lesson

for us and we were so impressed with the children’s pictures.

Some of our highlights from this week have been our visitors in registration time - thank you Mrs Moss and Miss Flockhart, it was wonderful to see you and we miss you! We also celebrated Mrs Fattorini’s birthday with posters and music! We hope you had a brilliant day Mrs F!

2J

Another wonderful week of home learning

in Year 3!

We started the week with some

marvellous science! The children created

lava lamps and learnt about immiscible

liquids, which means liquids that won’t

mix!

this week the children have been busy

exploring the amazing discovery of Edward

Jenner! Did you know he created one of the

first vaccines! He used cowpox to vaccinate

against smallpox! We know scientists are

busy working hard to make a vaccine for

Covid-19 at the moment and we have

Edward Jenner to thank for his amazing

breakthrough over 200 years ago!

In maths, the children have been

continuing to explore marvellous measures!

There has been lots of weighing taking

place at home and today the children have

been putting their measuring skills to the

test by baking some super cute sheep

cupcakes for George! Look out for some

photos next week!

This week in our theme text, we have

discovered that George's medicine makes

all the animals on Mr Kranky's farm huge!

Mr Kranky, the farmer, is delighted! The

children then were set the task to design

and make a persuasive poster advertising

George's Marvellous Medicine to farmers

who want to grow huge animals..! Imagine

having a chicken which laid an egg as big

as a football!

Building on their observation skills, the

children have been looking at cockerels

this week in art. They have taken a trip

down to Miss Platts' chicken coop and

have been creating some beautiful portraits

and all-yellow eggs!

CLUBS Thank you for sending all of your fabulous

photos in from the clubs you have been doing.

Please do keep sending them in as it's lovely

for everybody to see what you have been up to!

The food related clubs went down well with

the VE Day celebrations, Emma made use of

Mrs Hall's Art Club idea with her sunglasses

in the sunshine this weekend and lots of you

have been enjoying making your animation

videos. Keep a look out on the school

Instagram page @clifton_distance_learning for

the videos!

I hope you enjoy next week’s club selection

and make sure you email me at

h.hopwood@cliftonyork.org.uk with your

fabulous pictures!

St Peter's School, York: a company limited by guarantee Registered in England: Company Number: 6927030

Registered Office: St Peter's School, Clifton, York, YO30 6AB Registered Charity Number: 1141329

T

F

E

W

St Peter’s School, York, YO30 6AB

01904 527300

01904 527302

enquiries@stpetersyork.org.uk

www.stpetersyork.org.uk

Dear Pupils and Parents

Since our daily lives are now taking on a much more virtual setting, you may be aware that

opportunities for traditional charitable events are somewhat limited, but in these unprecedented

times, charities need our support more than ever.

We have therefore decided to pursue a virtual fundraiser across the whole 3-18 St Peter’s

foundation to support our local community, with the initial goal of travelling the virtual distance of

York to New York, 5425 km. We will set up a Virgin Money Giving page and are accepting distances

travelled in any form of exercise. We plan to log the distances we travel through Microsoft Forms

and we will be providing regular updates on our progress. With this fundraiser, we can use our daily

exercise to not only keep ourselves motivated, but to do something positive for our local

community in this challenging time. We would like to match our distance to the amount of money

we raise and have plans for larger distances once the initial goal is achieved.

The charities we have chosen to support are York Foodbanks and Mind, as these are two vital

charities that we believe could particularly benefit from our support at this challenging time. Across

the country, many residents are being forced to turn to Food Banks due to the increasing number

who are in unstable financial positions and are looking to the Food Banks to help. During this

pandemic, Mind have been constantly offering support to young people, adults and key workers and

we feel that we should be helping Mind to continue their great services throughout the pandemic

and after. Our help is needed to make a big difference to these two charities in these tough times.

We believe this is an excellent opportunity for a combined effort across the whole foundation to

do something that can make a real difference to the local community whilst keeping ourselves active

and well. We plan to start this fundraiser on Friday 8th May and for it to run until Friday 22nd May

for the initial stage. In the coming days we will also be launching a social media campaign to raise

some local awareness and get as many of us involved as possible. We will be encouraging sharing of

photos, thinking of creative ways to carry out this exercise and are always open to any suggestions.

We hope you will consider joining us in this fundraiser for these vital causes. Please find the links

below to the Microsoft Form and the Virgin Money giving page.

Yours Sincerely

Ethan McKinney, Charlotte Calvert, Katie Bonner & Harry Jones

Upper Sixth

Links:

Microsoft Form

Virgin Money

From: Heads of School

Tel: 01904 527408

Fax: 01904 527302

Email: c.frank@stpetersyork.org.uk

Web: www.stpetersyork.org.uk