Seeing the snowdrops in the school orchard and the first signs of the daffodils pushing through in the Junior School planter tells me that Spring is just around the corner, hot on the heels of a particularly cold spell. The girls (and staff!) thoroughly enjoyed the snow when it came and we even managed to include a little bit of STEM teaching out on the field with Mr Hislam and the older girls attempting to build an igloo! Year 6 also learnt that life didn’t stop because of snow in the war, as they headed off to the Lincolnsfield Centre on a particularly cold day. Year 2 ventured into London at the start of term and came back brimming with excitement about all they had found out about their topic of the Great Fire of London.

Our girls have had a busy start to the year, with a number of sports fixtures in which they can take much pride. Our Year 6s have also had to work extremely hard as they took the school entrance exam. This year there was a very strong field, in particular in the application for scholarships. However, we were delighted to be told that six scholarships in total were awarded to St Margaret’s girls in the Junior School in Academic, STEM, PE and Drama. Congratulations go to all our girls for their achievements in these exams.

On our last Thursday we were all treated to a celebration of talent in the inaugural ‘House Talent Day.’ It was a wonderful way to start the day with laughter and awe as we saw drama, comic sketches, singing and an impressive display of card tricks. A final highlight for me has been listening to the Year 3 and 4 girls start rehearsals for their production in April - you’re in for a real treat! April 2nd - Save the Date!

Mrs Norris

THE JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2019

The

Coronet

Stars of the week this half term Reception : Aiza Sheikh, Ridhi Manek, Miri Fogel, Vanshi Kerai and Millie Halai

Year 1 : Samaa Ahmad, Amina Khan, Jessica Feier, Keya Malde, Aariya Pankhania and Arina Khristoforova Year 2P : Alisa Shah, Simran Shah, Saachie Ahluwalia, Alara Erdil, So Yul Kim and Mahi Ladva

Year 2JT : Priyal Patel, Amber Tokhi, Husna Yusefzai, Grace Killick, Amara Qayyum

Our congratulations to

Mrs Hashim on the birth of her son, Zamin,

on 3rd February.

Short Story Competition Awards

All participants received a certificate and First Place winners received an Aspiring Young Writers Activity Book

The girls were

treated to a Mad

Science Assembly in

which they learnt

all about H2O! This

was presented by

Mad Science in

association with

Affinity Water.

Junior girls enjoying the snow!

Snow Poems

St. Margaret’s has snow everywhere.

No one wants to stay inside.

Outside is so pretty.

White on all the trees.

Flying is what I wish to do.

Laying in the snow making snowangels.

Accidently throwing snowballs at a target.

Keeping my hands warm in my gloves.

Eyeballing people’s snowmen.

Safely having so much fun.

By Mia-amore Gayle (5J)

No school today.

It’s lots of fun to play in the snow.

Green patches with roses go to bed as the clouds send down a blanket.

Big fluffy clouds sweat all around causing a mass explosion.

All children gaze in awe and look up.

Watch out!

An army of snowballs bombard your garden.

Hey Derek, stop, don’t throw any more!

It lands in my mouth.

Mmm… yummy.

I spot an icicle…

What a nice ice lolly that would make but should I have hot cocoa instead?

I hop along inside and grab a mug, I toss in some milk, cocoa powder and cream but the marshmallows are best.

Off I hop into my igloo but I bang my head

I drop a marshmallow on the ground but pick up snow instead.

My fingers froze inside my mittens

I pick up my mug

My fingers feel safe from the snow again.

By Zaynab Baig (5J)

A fresh white sheet, ready to jump on,

Mr Hislam takes the first step.

All the children and teachers together,

It’s the perfect weather.

Now all of us have red cheeks,

Our faces aglow.

Pink are all the noss,

They’re the colour of roses.

Igloos, snowmen and much, much more.

Snow flying everywhere.

To the children’s delight,

There was a snowball fight.

(Obviously the children won)

It all looked like a winter wonderland.

By Sofia Khandelwal (5J)

Year 2

Year 2 have had such an action packed half term, we don’t know if we can squeeze everything in to such a small space! Over the Christmas holidays we became architects and builders, designing and making houses with various mathematical criteria: a tessellating pattern, something symmetrical and careful or creative measurement along with beautifully decorated interiors.

In the first week back we had a trip to London for the London’s Burning workshop at St. Paul’s Cathedral,

dressing up as characters from the Great Fire of 1666 and finding out lots of interesting facts about the fire and Sir

Christopher Wren’s design. This was followed by a whistle stop tour of the National Portrait Gallery to kick

start our topic on fashion through the ages.

Back at school we learned about weights and measures, making flapjacks to put our

weighing skills to the test -they were delicious!

We rounded off our Topic work by researching fashions of the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s and put on a fashion show for Year 1 and Reception, finishing with a disco, dancing to the music of AHA and Cindy Lauper!

St Margaret’s vs Royal Masonic School (RMS) On Monday the 4th of February 2019 St Margarets netball team had a match against Royal Masonic School.

There were 2 matches. In our match we won 5-0.

Our player of the match was Isabelle who played goal shoot.

Both of our teams played exceptionally well and so did the other team but over all St Margarets won 10-3.

By Imaan Zaidi (6C) and Isabelle Payne (6S)

St Margaret’s vs Ashfield On Monday 28th January we had a netball match against Ashfield. Match 1 the team played excellently and won, Arya Y6 scored the first goal as well as the third, Sohni scored the second, but then Ashfield scored. The end result was 3-1. The second match went just as well as the score was 5-0 and we won. Isabelle in Y6 scored 3 goals and Annabelle in Y5 scored 2. The overall score was 5-0. The Player of the Match for the first game was Rinola in 6C and the Player of the Match for the second game was Isabelle in 6S. By Arya Ladva (6S)

Well done Eloise

On Saturday 9th February I travelled to Cornwall with my family for a fencing competition. In one of the pools, I lost against the girls I later went on to beat in the finals. I think this made me more determined to win! I went on to win two fights and a place in the finals. It was tough but when I won, I was really proud of myself as it was my first gold. I am now preparing for my next competition which is a championship in Poland. By Eloise (6C)

A day of Spanish

Our Year 5 girls put together a Spanish menu and made food to serve to our Spanish students and teaching staff. They practised their Spanish, welcoming customers, serving and ordering food and drinks.

Year 5 visit to St. Albans Abbey

On Friday 2nd February 2019 Year 5 went on an amazing trip to St Albans Abbey as part of the History curriculum to learn more about the Victorians. Everyone was so excited to go because we didn’t know what was going to happen. When we arrived at the Abbey we went straight into a Victorian Classroom. As you can see from the photo below the teachers were very strict (but they were just acting). To get into the classroom we had to give the headmaster a Victorian penny, which the teacher gave to us at the start, and we had to say ‘Good morning Sir’ as you gave him the penny. Then we all sat down and the teachers pretended that Naisha stole an apple from a tree, so the headmaster took her away and played the sound of someone getting the cane. Naisha had to scream, but strangely Naisha came out smiling!

Next we had to be split into two groups (The girls and the boys, yes some of us had to play boys!) because boys and girls learnt different things. The boys had to listen to the headmaster and the girls had to listen to the teacher. It got very confusing since we had to repeat everything they said and sometimes we couldn’t hear ourselves.

Lunch time Concert

After that the teachers chose Sofia to wear the dunce cap and stand in the corner and then they said she’s lucky there is not a window there because if her parents saw her there she would get even more punishment at home!’ Our next activity after lunch was Victorian games! The first thing we did is look at some toys and decide whether they would be toys for rich children or poor children and we also looked at some photos of poor children and rich children.

By Tara Kohli (5H)

On the 31st January, both Year 6 classes went to the Lincolnsfield Centre in Bushey. When we arrived, we were greeted by a man dressed in a World War 2 costume. We were taken into a classroom that was designed to be like a World War 2 classroom. A very strict teacher came into the classroom with her cane. We were given an identity card and inside we had to write our name, school and surname. Our first activity was the “Dig for Victory Garden” where we pumped water out onto an unexploded bomb and we looked at an Anderson shelter. The next thing we did was the brick shelter where we saw an unexploded butterfly bomb. We also met a man who was a real evacuee from World War 2. He told us a very sad story all about his life. His “guardian” was keeping all his rations and made him eat sardines and mashed potatoes every day for 9 months. The last activity was a WW2 style house. When we went into the kitchen, a lady showed us a cake. After she asked us “would you like a slice?” we all said yes (obviously) but everyone changed their mind once they realized that there was no cake! She had made a cardboard cake and put it over a plate. We also met a person called Stan Elliot who got captured by the Germans and still survived! By Arya Ladva and Tia Patel (6S)

Year 6 visit to Lincolnsfield

Charity donations this half term

On Friday the 15th of February, the Junior School raised an amount of £439.26 for Watford FC’s Community Sports & Education Trust and Our World Educational Trust. We chose the two charities because we wanted to support our local community and also do something for the wider world. We are privileged to receive the education at St Margaret’s and want to help those who are not so fortunate. We all came to school dressed in our bright sparkly outfits. Thank you to everyone.

By Sameya Pereira (6S) and Zoey Umenyiora (6C)

By Sameya Pereira (6S) and Zoey Umenyiora (6C)