Newsletter JAMES

ELLIMAN

ACADEMY

November 2016 Issue 30

Page 1 James Elliman Academy Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers, I hope you all had a restful half term. As the cold weather sets in please ensure your child has a winter coat for playtime and lunchtime. Many children are coming to school in summer polo t-shirts which do not keep them warm.

Please also label all clothing and personal items so that they can be easily identified.

A reminder that Key Stage 2 children should be bringing in their own stationery including whiteboard pens which can be purchased from Wilko at a very reasonable price.

Next month, we will be having our Winter Fete and Christmas performances, we really hope you will join us at this special time of the year. We will this year be having individual year group performances to allow a greater number of parents and carers to attend. Our drama group will also be performing A Christmas Carol this year.

Dates and timings will be sent out next month and we look forward to seeing you at school.

Our new improved canteen opened this month. The children agree that it is an excellent improvement which gives them more room to socialise and relax at lunchtimes.

We say goodbye to Mrs Panesar and Mrs Hanspal this month who are have been valued and long serving members at JEA.

Mrs Panesar is taking a break and venturing out to partake in other activites and Mrs Hanspal will be working at the Council.

We wish them all the best for the future and look forward to seeing them when they visit us.

A reminder that school will finish on Friday 23rd December at 2:30 pm.

Miss S Rasheed - Principal

In this issue

After School Clubs

Year Group News

School Vacancies

Charity Update

Writing club In writing club the children are in the process of publishing a comic / newsletter for Years 2, 3, 4 and 5. The children have been very creative and produced their own comic strips, crosswords and puzzles. They call themselves the JEA Publishers and are very proud of what they are achieving.

Art club In art club, children have been able to express themselves through paint and drawing. They have been observing two specific techniques to create their own painting. The first was Pointillism, where the children made work using dots of different colours to create a landscape. The second was Abstract Art, looking at the work by Kandinsky. They listened to music and created colours and shapes reacting to the music they heard.

After School Clubs Currently, we are running 3 clubs this term; Art club with Mr Clark who is an artist in his own right; an ICT club run by Miss Demirci and a writing club run by myself, Mrs Weber. The clubs are very popular with 17-20 children attending each club regularly.

IT Club In Computing Club, they have been working hard on their PowerPoint Projects and are enjoying using the internet effectively and safely. They have been using computational thinking and all of their creativity skills in the club to help them understand how computers and the internet work, and becoming more efficient at using basic skills in Computing. Further on, they will be presenting their PowerPoint Projects to their peers and continue develop their skills by moving onto bigger projects!

The after school clubs have been a huge success. The children have really enjoyed coming as the number of children attending each week has been extremely high. They always are excited and proud of the work they have created.

We look forward to continuing success throughout the rest of the school year.

Mrs Weber - Year 4 Leader

Principal’s Message

James Elliman Academy Year Group News

Page 2 James Elliman Academy Newsletter

Year 1 After a restful break, it's been a busy start to the new half term. The children have been exploring the change of season in Science and have been studying the changes outside at James Elliman Academy. The children have enjoyed learning Handa's Surprise this term and especially enjoyed acting out the story with their friends. We have begun to prepare for the Christmas performance and the children have enjoyed learning and singing the

new songs.

As the weather is getting colder, we would like to remind you to ensure that your child has long jogging bottoms in their PE kits this term.

Miss F Fernandes-Dwyer - Year 1 Leader

Year 2 We would like to thank all the parents who took time out to come and see the staff at the parent meetings in the second week of this half term.

Year 2 have been learning stories using Pie Corbett's story telling technique. They have also been working hard developing ideas for characters in stories with familiar settings. Here is an image of one classes ideas.

We are currently manipulating the story of Pumpkin Soup and making it our own.

Events that the children will be participating in are collaborations with other schools in the Park Federation centred around singing and

celebrating Christmas. We have been hard at work learning a series of songs that a selection of children will be performing at another Federation school.

We have also been looking at Remembrance Day and making poppies or exploring interactively the Somme as it is today

compared to what it was in the Great War.

We thank you all for your continued support and working with us to help your child.

Mr N Symons-Chan – Year 2 Leader

Nursery In Nursery we have been learning about Celebrations. We have been looking at different celebrations like Halloween and Diwali. We watched and listened to the story of Room On The Broom. We made spooky jelly and sandwiches and had a Room On The Broom tea party. Some of us dressed up like a character from the story and we all sat together and ate delicious food. To celebrate Diwali we made diva lamps and rangoli

patterns.

Reception So far, this term, in Maths the focus has been 2D shapes and their properties – square, triangle, rectangle and circle. They have made pictures using blocks and by sticking different shapes onto paper.

Children have been learning about Diwali, Bonfire night and how they are celebrated. They took part in making poppies and participated in a 2 minute silence for Remembrance Day.

Stories read this term so far – Aliens love underpants/Pirates love underpants which the

children are really enjoying.

Parents afternoons were very successful and parents were happy to see their children have settled in and are now busy learning new things about the world around them.

The weather has now changed and it is time for winter coats, scarves, hats and gloves to

be worn. Please ensure all items of clothing is labelled with your child’s name. Children are most welcome to wear wellingtons but must have a pair of shoes to change into.

Mrs J Chander – Reception Leader

Year 1 and 2 It has been a pleasure seeing all of the children in Years 1 and 2 growing, developing and working hard during the Autumn term. The staff have also worked very hard in ensuring that children have settled well back to school and that their learning progresses effectively. Please continue to read with your child at least 5 times per week - reading really is the key to success!

Many thanks to all of you who came in to support our Harvest performances in October. We all delighted in how many of you made the time to support your child and come in to watch. There will be another opportunity to see your child perform during December when Years 1 and 2 perform their

Christmas plays.

May I also remind you that if you have any queries please make an after-school appointment to speak with your child's class teacher. We look forward to your continued support during the remainder of this term.

Mr J Telling - Vice Principal for Key Stage 1

James Elliman Academy Year Group News

Page 3 James Elliman Academy Newsletter

pieces of art for their Ancient Egyptian boards using a variety of skills such as maths skills to produce symmetric pictures of Tutankhamun. The harvest assembly was a great success and the children sang 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' with enthusiasm and joy and read their poems with expression and intonation. The Year 4 teachers were very proud.

Mrs S Weber - Year Leader for Year 4

Year 5 and 6

Year 5 Year 5 have been busy raising money for their chosen charity, Cancer Research. The children decorated cakes and sold them to the rest of the school. This is only one of the fundraising ideas implemented by the year group, who are planning to design and sell purses and wallets in their next fundraising venture. It was pleasing to see so many children taking an active role in raising money for charity and we would like to thank parents for their contributions. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Year 6 Year 6 have been lucky to have been visited

by Slough MP Fiona Mactaggart. Ms Mactaggart spoke to 15 children about what her job entails and how important it is for people to work hard in any career that they decide to go into. In addition, she explained to children the importance of having an education so that they can move closer to achieving their goals. The children asked a number of relevant and well thought out questions which Ms Mactaggart was very impressed by, she commented that she enjoyed her time with the children and was pleased with the intelligent questions the children posed to her. The children thoroughly enjoyed the session and expressed

that Ms Mactaggart had demonstrated to them the importance of working hard at school.

Miss T Dhaliwal - Vice Principal for Year 5 and 6

Years 3 and 4 The children in Year 3 and 4 have settled well into their new year groups and have produced brilliant pieces of work. I have particularly enjoyed reading Year 4’s character sketches of Mr Stink and the descriptions of imaginary mythical beast created by the children in Year 3. I was extremely proud of the singing and readings that the children performed during the Harvest assembly. Thank you for all the food

donations, it was greatly appreciated.

We look forward to working with you throughout the school year.

Ms V Devshi - Lower Key Stage 2 Vice Principal

Year 3 Year 3 have continued on a positive note, with a splendid performance in the Harvest Festival. The children sang with gusto and were very well behaved. They are now more settled in their new year and are beginning to work hard to meet our high expectations. They have enjoyed learning about myths and discovering some scary mythical creatures!

Our learning about British prehistory is on-going until Christmas although in Science we will soon start to look at keeping healthy. Progress is being made in guitar lessons, which the children really enjoy and they are looking forward to performing to you in the Spring term. Thank you to all parents who sent their child equipped with white board pens, pencils and colouring pencils so that they are ready to learn. Whilst the children are becoming more independent, they still need support with things like remembering to bring PE kits and complete homework and to read regularly. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for your continued support.

Ms C Walker - Year Leader for Year 3

Year 4 The children have had an excellent start to Year 4 and are all working very hard. In English they have written stories set in an historical setting which they used and embedded adverbial phrases and expanded

noun phrases. They have just finished writing a character sketch on Mr Stink, a tramp from the book Mr Stink written by David Walliams, which they enjoyed very much. This unit of work contributed to developing the children’s inference skills.

Year 4 children have also produced excellent

James Elliman Academy Year Group News

Page 4 James Elliman Academy Newsletter

Year 5 will be going on their James's Elliman Academy Promise Trip in December to the Theatre in Windsor to watch a pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, which we hope the children will enjoy.

In English the children have been working on persuasive writing and have included a variety of persuasive features in their texts. Mrs N Routledge – Year 5 Leader

Year 5 Year 5 have worked hard to decorate cakes and sell them to raise money for our Year 5 Charity, Cancer Research. The children fully enjoyed decorating and raising the money. We raised £213.34. Thank you for all your help and support.

Year 5 children will also be fund raising for Cancer Research in December when they will be designing their purses and wallets and then selling them to the rest of the school.

Elliman Avenue Slough Berks

SL2 5BA

Phone: 01753 810686 Fax: 01753 790816 E-mail: jeaoffice@

theparkfederation.org

JAMES ELLIMAN

ACADEMY

Dates for Your Diary

We’re on the web

www.jameselliman.academy

26th December - 6th January Christmas Holiday

2017

Monday 9th January Children Return to School - Spring Term

13th - 17th February Half Term

3rd - 17th April Easter

Tuesday 18th April Children Return to School - Summer Term

Monday 1st May School Closed - Bank Holiday

29th May - 2nd June Half Term

Wednesday 19th July End of Summer Term

Page 5 James Elliman Academy Newsletter

Thank you for

your continued

support.

Saira Rasheed

Principal

James Elliman

Academy

Thank you for all your contributions we collected £104 for the Royal British Legion for Remembrance Day.

Charity

The school has the following vacancies:

HLTA (Experience required within Year 2)

Specialist Learning Assistant – Speech & Language

SEN Teaching Assistant to a Named Child/Children

Early Years Class Teacher

Year 1 Class Teacher

Year 2 Class Teacher If you are interested please look on our website for further details, you can find the vacancies listed under ‘Our School’ and then ‘Vacancies’.

School Vacancies

On Tuesday 11th October, Year 6 were fortunate enough to play host to a very important visitor. Fiona Mactaggart, is a British Labour Party politician and

former primary school teacher. Since the 1997 General Election, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Slough.

The children were given a lot of important facts about the British democratic system such as the different parties, the voting age and how you can become an MP. Fiona also

made sure to tell the children about her work. She ensures that everyone who provides services to people in Slough know what her constituents want. She regularly meets the local Police Commander, transport companies, leaders of schools and hospitals and local government to raise the issues which people in Slough want to be resolved.

Aarib from 6 Tolkien said: “I didn’t know anybody could be an MP let alone be one for 20 years!”

Alicia from 6 Shakespeare said: “We found out that she meets with the Prime Minister, Theresa May and has even met the Queen.”

Mr M Ali - Year 6 Leader

Year 6 During the week beginning Monday 3rd October, a group of 22 children from a mixture of classes in Upper Key Stage 2

enjoyed a fun filled residential trip to Kingswood on the Isle of Wight. The trip lasted five days and involved many outdoor physical challenges, such as abseiling, rope climbing, orienteering and problem solving. In addition to this, the children took on responsibilities in terms of looking after themselves and their belongings in the absence of their parents.

The children’s behaviour was very good on the whole, impressing both their teachers and the Kingswood staff. A blog was written by the children as they went along; once home, they were able to keep a copy each, accompanied by a photo gallery of the week.

Special prizes were given out to pupils who the teachers believed had really excelled themselves in terms of behaviour, independence and effort towards the challenging activities. The winners were:

Tyrese (6 Shakespeare) Ceesay (6 Tolkien) Jahrel (5 Lane) Nikola (5 Pullman)

Mr Toynton - 6 Pearce Class Teacher

Year Group News Continued