Alban Wood Primary School and Nursery Newsletter: Issue 3 2020-21

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Alban Wood Primary School and Nursery is a business name of the Agora Learning Partnership, a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company registration number 10290954 at registered address The Orchard Primary School, Gammons Lane, Watford, WD24 5JW.

Work together, learn together, succeed together We value: Respect, Kindness, Ambition

Note from Mrs Pinder The weather has really changed this week and we are all beginning to feel the cold. Please make sure that your child has a proper coat to wear. The school is developing its remote education / home learning offer and we would really appreciate you completing the survey about Remote Education / Technology at home: https://forms.gle/wWfuRQjYz57j13HV7

1st -31st Oct

Black History Month

9th Oct Hello Yellow Young Minds – non uniform day

12th Oct Harvest Festival

19th Oct Parent Consultations via Google Meets

21st Oct Parent Consultations via Google Meets

21st Oct Flu Vaccinations

26th - 30th Oct

Half Term Break

16th Nov Healthy Heroes Workshop - Yr 3

24th Nov Flu Vaccinations

18th Dec End of Term - 2pm finish

Current Percentage of attendance 2020 - 21 Aim: over 96%

Year R 94%

Year 1 96.1%

Year 2 98.2%

Year 3 96.5%

Year 4 98.6%

Year 5 95.5%

Year 6 96.1%

Whole School 96.5%

Attendance This week the whole school attendance is 96.5%. Our school attendance target is 96%, so as you can see, we have hit our target. Well done.

Moving On 2021 Local secondary schools will be holding their annual open evenings / events throughout September and October. More information about secondary transfer can be found at Hertfordshire Admissions. The deadline for applying for a secondary school place, if your child is in Year 6 is Saturday 31st October 2020.

Harvest Festival Our Harvest Assembly will be held on Monday 12th October. We will be collecting any tins and packets of food (please check the use by dates) for Watford Food Bank.

Alban Wood Primary School and Nursery Newsletter: Issue 3 2020-21

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Alban Wood Primary School and Nursery is a business name of the Agora Learning Partnership, a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company registration number 10290954 at registered address The Orchard Primary School, Gammons Lane, Watford, WD24 5JW.

Work together, learn together, succeed together We value: Respect, Kindness, Ambition

Mrs Heard It is with great regret that we need to inform you that due to ill health, our wonderful Year 5 teaching assistant Mrs Heard will be leaving us on Friday 9th October. She has been an amazing support at Alban Wood for many years and has been Mrs Overy’s stoic sidekick for the last two. She will be very much missed by both the children and staff with whom she has worked. Year 5 will, however, be enjoying the support of the fantastic Mrs McGill, who worked with the children last year, so knows them well. We are very much looking forward to welcoming her back into Rowan class.

Contact with us at Alban Wood Please remember, if you have any concerns or questions about your child, the first person you must speak to is the Class Teacher who has the most information about your child and is in the best position to be able to solve things as quickly as possible. (The best time to speak to the Class Teacher is at the end of the school day rather than before school.) If the matter remains unresolved, please contact the Phase Leader (Mrs Harrop, KS1; Miss Beattie, KS2). We would also appreciate it if you would keep us informed if there is an issue that may affect your child e.g. if something has happened at home/within the family/extended family that may have the potential to unsettle your child emotionally or socially. Please do let the class teacher or Miss McKinney (Well-being Leader) know as a quick word will allow us to support your child.

Year 1 In Geography we have been learning about near and far, and left and right. We have also begun to look at maps including labelling what we could see on aerial maps of our school area. In groups we created maps of the classroom, we had lots of ideas for what we would like to represent on our maps- You can see them in the photo! We then realised that maps need a title and a key so that others know what is on them, so the following lesson we had a go creating a key for the maps. The Geography Homework task for this half term is to create a map of your journey to school; if you have not yet done this task maybe you could use different colours to show school, church and houses. If you have a go- remember to create a key! Mrs Richards and Mrs Rose

Alban Wood Primary School and Nursery Newsletter: Issue 3 2020-21

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Alban Wood Primary School and Nursery is a business name of the Agora Learning Partnership, a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company registration number 10290954 at registered address The Orchard Primary School, Gammons Lane, Watford, WD24 5JW.

Work together, learn together, succeed together We value: Respect, Kindness, Ambition

Reception This week in Reception we have been learning all about features of a face. This lead up to our fun art activity on the Friday where we looked at the work of the famous artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Giuseppe is known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books. On Friday reception created their very own imaginative portraits inspired from their fruit and vegetables they brought in from home. We had lots of fun recreating these portraits with laughter amongst all the children. We then showed our individual fruit and vegetable we brought in at our circle time. Next week we are learning all about people who help us. Ms Weston-Brown

Year 4 What a busy few weeks we have had! We continue using poetry in English to build our vocabulary and I am impressed by the creativity in Year 4's writing. In maths we have been developing mental fluency skills to help us with written calculations. The children are excited to be learning a new language and we can now ask and tell each other how we are feeling and have begun numbers up to 10 in Spanish. In history we have been looking at the timeline of Ancient Egypt and investigating different types of evidence to learn about their achievements, while in geography we are exploring river features and how important the River Nile was/is to both ancient and modern Egypt. In science we are studying electricity and using our new knowledge in practice to build circuits and create our own switches; I was so pleased to see their resilience and team-working skills to experiment and make changes to get their circuits working. All this and we've not even reached half term! I look forward to speaking with many of you at parents' evening. Mrs White

Year 3 In English, Year 3 have started our new unit of fables. We have looked at different types of fables and what morals they teach us. We are currently studying 'War and Peas' by Michael Foreman and coming up with lots of adjectives to describe the land! In guided reading we have been looking at 'Hair love' by Michael Cherry. We discussed the differences that different people face and used this as a starting point for our black history month learning. In Maths, we have started adding mentally - using "think 10" to help us get to the nearest 10 and make the question easier for ourselves. Mr Severin

Nursery We have been so busy in Nursery it’s very hard to know where to start! We have been exploring the outside looking for signs of Autumn, we went on an Autumn walk and found many items for our Autumn table. We looked at the colours of Autumn and painted amazing pictures using the Autumn colours. We have been developing our counting skills finding new ways to count. The children really enjoyed learning how bread is made from the field to the plate. We made sandwiches in class and next day toast. The children were asked a question “what is easier to spread butter on bread or toast”? The children decided bread as it is soft! Maybe you could bake some bread at home with your children. We went on a listening walk around the school and identified different sounds. The children made amazing towers for the bears to live in. We have been learning new words. We had Mrs Stroud our very own crossing lady to talk to the children on how to be safe outside school crossing the road. We would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Stroud what a wonderful job you do keeping us all safe. Could I ask all parents and carers to work with your children to be able to put on their own coats independently? Keep up the good work Nursery Mrs Russell

Alban Wood Primary School and Nursery Newsletter: Issue 3 2020-21

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Alban Wood Primary School and Nursery is a business name of the Agora Learning Partnership, a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company registration number 10290954 at registered address The Orchard Primary School, Gammons Lane, Watford, WD24 5JW.

Work together, learn together, succeed together We value: Respect, Kindness, Ambition

Be Active, Take Notice, Connect, Keep Learning and Give This week we are going to take a closer look at being active. What we do with our bodies can have a huge impact on our health. Being physically active can help to improve our physical and mental health. It can improve our mood and sense of wellbeing and helps us to feel good, relaxed and less anxious. ‘Children and young people need to do 2 types of physical activity each week:

aerobic exercise exercises to strengthen their muscles and bones

Children and young people aged 5 to 18 should: aim for an average of at least 60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a day across the

week take part in a variety of types and intensities of physical activity across the week to develop

movement skills, muscles and bones reduce the time spent sitting or lying down and break up long periods of not moving with some

activity. Aim to spread activity throughout the day. All activities should make you breathe faster and feel warmer’

www.nhs.uk

There are many ways in which we can be physically active:

walk or cycle to and from school dance to your favourite song play games on the playground roller skating/skateboarding hula hooping walking a dog make up your own sport help in the garden wash the family car

And remember to have fun! Be kind to yourselves.

Miss McKinney Wellbeing Mentor

The NHS website - NHS Find out how your medicine works, how and when to take it, possible side effects and answers to your common questions. While everyone is being told to stay at home, it can be hard to know what to do if you're unwell. For help from a GP – use your GP surgery's website, use an online service or app.

www.nhs.uk

Alban Wood Primary School and Nursery Newsletter: Issue 3 2020-21

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Alban Wood Primary School and Nursery is a business name of the Agora Learning Partnership, a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company registration number 10290954 at registered address The Orchard Primary School, Gammons Lane, Watford, WD24 5JW.

Work together, learn together, succeed together We value: Respect, Kindness, Ambition

Year 6 On Tuesday 29th September, Year 6 had a visit from two of our local PCSOs who work in youth crime. We looked at how important our own choices are, especially when choosing our friendship circles. We discussed how to keep ourselves safe and spoke about difficult topics such as knife crime and grooming. The children approached the day with great maturity and took on board the information and advice they were given. The workshop was a brilliant opportunity for Year 6, giving them all things to think about as they complete their final year with us and move on to secondary school. Miss Beattie

Year 2 Phonics Screening You may have heard in the news that the children who were in Year 1 last year, who all missed out on their phonics screening test in June (now Year 2 pupils), will be required to do the assessment in the second half of this term. The Teachers and Teaching Assistants are working hard on preparing the children for their screening test in school, but I would encourage you to also help your child at home by looking at some past papers which are available online and having a go at home with your child. In the meantime, you can access all past papers and instructions, mark sheets etc. using the following link: https://www.satspapers.org.uk/Page.aspx?TId=21

Year 2 In year 2 we are using 'Voices in the Park' by Anthony Browne as a focus for our learning in English. We are using the book to write recounts and it would be really useful if you could take your child to the park this weekend to give them recent first hand experiences to talk about in their recounts. In our Shipwrecked Topic we are beginning to think about sea sides of the past and the entertainment on offer including puppet shows. We will be going on to use running stitch to make our own puppets. We have been thinking about what makes us proud and how we can make others proud, lots of good ideas were shared and it was lovely to hear about times when you (as parents) have told the children you are proud of them. Mrs Harrop

Year 5 This week, Year 5 have been working some great writing for English. We found some powerful vocabulary and used this to write a first person recount of finding ourselves abandoned in a rainforest! We watched some Bear Grylls video clips to get an idea of the problems that could be faced, and how food and water might be found...I'm not sure many of us fancied barbequed snake on a stick though! The children were fantastic at using the modal verbs and expanded noun phrases that we have been learning about. In art, I was delighted to discover what a creative and talented bunch the class is! We did a guided sketch of a volcanic landscape, using paintings of Mount Vesuvius as inspiration. The children learned a new pencil grip (shading grip vs sketching grip) and how to use shading to create tones and depth. Their pictures were wonderful! Another successful week for Rowan class- well done! Mrs Overy Free School Meals This academic year, we continue to be able to offer children who are eligible for free school meals a discount on many school activities and uniform. As all children in Reception to Year 2 automatically receive universal free school meals, we are aware that some of you may be missing out as you have not applied. If you receive: Income Support, Income-based Jobseekers Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit, Child Tax Credit (as long as you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and you don't get more than £16,190 a year), Working Tax Credit run-on (paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit) or Universal Credit (with annual earned income of no more than £7,400 after tax and not including any benefits you get), you may be eligible. Please visit www.hertsdirect.org/freeschoolmeals if you wish to apply.