Newsletters

Newsletter - Friday 17th June 2022

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a lovely half-term and enjoyed the Jubilee celebrations - we have certainly enjoyed ours! We've designed bunting, decorated tea cups, created Union Jack collages and even painted the Queen's portrait. It has been a wonderful celebration of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and we have loved hearing about all the ways that you marked the occasion over the half-term.

Today we have enjoyed a fantastic Sports Day at Thames Valley Athletics Centre. We look forward to sharing all the results with you next week.

Arts Week

Our Arts week has been a huge success. Our children have learned the art of oral storytelling, they've met a published author, read poetry, begun their Year 6 production, performed with Berkshire Maestros, and much more!

Bodhi the Pirate Dog

We were delighted to invite author Alison Simpson in to read Bodhi the Pirate Dog to Prep and Upper Prep this week, as part of Arts Week. It was a wonderful experience for the children to meet an author and understand that all the wonderful books they enjoy, are the product of someone's imagination and creativity. We hope the visit has inspired some of our youngest children to write their own stories, and you never know, maybe we'll be inviting them back in years to come to talk about their book!

Year 5 Maths

As part of Arts Week, Upper Trans (Year 5) were exploring the mathematics of art and design. We created some lovely designs using repeated shapes such as kites, circles and patterns within circles by crawling chords.

Traditional Story Telling

The children were enraptured by David England, our visiting storyteller. It was wonderful to see the ancient art of oral storytelling in practise. It has been such a rich part of all cultures around the world, and it was lovely to see the children so engaged.

Scientists at Work

Lower Trans (Yr 3) have been looking at plants and how they grow in Science. This week they have conducted an experiment to see how plants absorb water. We can't wait for the results!

Experiments have also been taking place in Mrs Skorupska's lab this week, where Upper Trans (Yr 5) have been learning about heat conduction and what materials are good for conduction and insulation.

Spotlight on Success

Aarush has been selected to represent Berkshire County Cricket Club U11 external squad for the 2022 season. He will be presented by a county green cap in the coming week. He has also passed his Grade 5 Piano theory exam!

Chess

Our annual Chess Championship is underway. We've had 54 entries from Years 4-6. We look forward to keeping you posted on how the competition unfolds!

Reminders

Tuesday 14th June 5pm - Online safety meeting for Parents, held in the school hall. Parents and carers only please, as sensitive subjects will be discussed.

Thursday 16th June - Berkshire Maestros Concert at the Hexagon

Thursday 16th June - EYFS Sports Day at school

Friday 17th June - Little St Bs

Please remember to keep to the designated footpath when entering and leaving the school, and not cross through the car park. Thank you.

Mrs Verma's Big Ideas for Curious Minds

As a school we love to stretch and challenge our children, to enrich their education beyond the curriculum. Every week I will be sharing with you some discussion topics, new vocabulary, Maths riddles and book recommendations, that will infect our children with a love of learning. These will all be posted in the Parent Portal section of our website as well.

Word of the week: extol (verb)

extol – praise enthusiastically

The teacher was extolling the benefits of reading to his pupils.

Calling all bookworms

We have recently appointed Tulsi from Trans G to review and recommend a book for our newsletter. This week is The Garbage King, written by Elizabeth Laird.

In The News This Week - Osprey chick

The first osprey chick to hatch in Poole Harbour in 200 years has arrived!

The chick's mother, known as CJ7, is part of a reintroduction programme which started in 2017 with the aim of boosting the number of ospreys in the area.

The fish-eating birds of prey used to breed across the British Isles in the past but their numbers fell dramatically in the Middle Ages.

CJ7 has been seen feeding her chick a charity - The Birds of Poole Harbour - called it a "magical moment".

Good luck to Remove (Yr 6) with their performance at Reading Hexagon next Thursday and to Hailee in Upper Trans (Yr 5), who will be playing the cello with the National Children's Orchestra this weekend.

“Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.”

- Pope John Paul II

Yours sincerely,

Mrs A Verma