The Russell

School Newsletter

Friday 8th March 2019

Our half term has started with gusto and all classes have begun their new and exciting Imaginative Learning Projects:

I have really enjoyed seeing the children actively engage in their new learning and coming to me with tales of the work they have really enjoyed so far. The half term started with some great news – as you can see from the top of the newsletter! Our netball team took part in the ‘High 5’ Netball Tournament – a borough wide competition involving most Richmond schools. They were delighted to come back to school carrying the first place shield! We are extremely proud of them as they worked so hard as a team, competing against some of the biggest schools in Richmond who can select their team from 120 Year Six children. We are doubly proud of them as it also means

that they now get to represent the London Borough of Richmond at the London Youth Games in a few weeks’ time. An amazing achievement. You should by now have booked your appointment to see your child’s class teacher at Parents’ Evening on either Tuesday 12th March or Thursday 14th March – both next week. Please make sure that you come along to discuss your child’s progress and see how you can continue to support learning at home. It is vital that home and school work together if we are to get the best out of the children. Another reminder about our next Learning Look which takes place on Thursday 21st March from 3.30pm – 4.15pm. It is a great opportunity to see your child’s books and see their progress for yourself. You will hopefully have seen the letter sent this morning related to school funding. It will also be in the news today and over the weekend. Schools are currently in the midst of setting budgets

for the new financial year. Once this process is complete, I will know more about the full picture and will write again to parents and let them know what the current funding situation will mean for The Russell. I am afraid that it is not going to be the best news. On a much happier note, we would like to invite all of our mums to some special Mothers’ Day events, all of which will be taking place on Friday 29th March. Parents of Nursery and Reception children – please come along at 9.00am and join us for a special Mothers’ Day picnic. Parents of children in Year One, Year Two and Year Three – we would love it if you could join us for our special Mothers’ Day event at 2.00pm. Finally, parents of children in Year Four, Year Five and Year Six – we would be delighted if you could join us at 2.30pm (n.b. you may need to wear your trainers – just saying!). Have a great weekend watching the rugby – Come on Wales! Mrs Leir

Year 1 Bright Lights, Big City

Year 2 Rio de Vida

Year 3 The Rhythm of the Rain

Year 4 Burps, Bottoms and Bile

Year 5 Peasants, Princes, Pestilence

Year 6 Take Cover!

Borough Champions!

Again, lots of Headteacher’s Awards over the past few weeks which is great – most of them taken in front of our new entrance mural which looks amazing. I was able to give a Headteacher’s Award for music this week. Well done to all of the children who worked so hard to achieve their Grade One Violin. I was also delighted to give a Headteacher’s Award to a member of Year Six for a very thought provoking piece of Big Question Home Learning about being evacuated during World War Two. I gave two members of Year Four awards for massive improvements in their writing. Finally, I was able to give Headteacher’s Awards to a group of children from Reception who had written some amazing rhyming stories. Well done everybody!

Headteacher’s

Awards

Elephant Class (Nursery)

Elephant Class have had a very exciting start to this half term. As part of our learning on “Why do spiders eat flies?” we have been listening to Eric Carle’s ‘The very busy spider’ story. We made our very own busy spiders and also sang Incy Wincy spider. We used our bodies and moved like mini beasts in our PE lesson. The children were very good pulling themselves along a bench like a worm and all had a go! These activities are very good for the children and help them to strengthen their core which benefits their learning in all areas. With the lovely weather, we have been lucky planting fruit and vegetables with the help of our mums. We are looking forward to them growing and being available to be bought and sampled by all. We used our sense of taste this week to try pancakes with two different fillings. It was great seeing them all have a go and get the filling right purely based on their taste! We have some MasterChef judges in our midst!

Zebra Class (Reception)

The children have taken the lead in their learning straight away this term, choosing a project of animals and creating a mythical animal role play area in the classroom. Our first animal of choice were worms, so we have read several worm stories, made sock worms which we measured and weighed to see if they were regular wiggly worms or super worms and then developed stories around them. We have made snails in a parent led cooking session and we have broadened our knowledge of different animals by writing an animal alphabet; this also helped us with our rhyming when we linked it to ‘Oi Frog’ and thought about what each animal should sit on.

Hummingbird Class (Year 1) Last week we had a very special visit from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II! The children had lots to prepare for this special occasion, including learning the correct forms of address and manners, writing invitations and shopping lists, making cucumber sandwiches and decorating union jack cupcakes! Her Majesty was very impressed with the children and everyone had a lovely time at the party. The children have also produced some beautiful art based on some of London's landmarks and made designs for new stamps. In mathematics

the children have been doing addition and subtraction using tens and ones - very impressive! Our sounds this week have been 'ou' (pound and found) and 'ir' (girl and circle) please do practise them at home. In PE the children enjoyed using the big parachute, we took turns to run underneath and pop bubbles.

Arctic Tern Class (Year 2) As I write this I can’t believe that we have got half way through the year, where has time gone? A lot of parents have been enquiring about SATs and what preparation work they will need to do at home. I think the only preparation work that I would like you to do is to continue supporting your child with their reading, KIRF facts, Pathway to Spelling and Big Question. Before half term all the children had a practise completing both the reading and maths SATs papers from previous years to familiarise themselves with the layout and types of questions that they would be asked. We have had a very exciting start to our new project learning about Brazil and, as you can see, our role play area is slowly turning into the Amazon rainforest! In English for the last few weeks we have been looking at different fruits grown in Brazil and have been learning to write our own ‘What am I?’ riddles. Only this week we have begun to research about Brazilian food, animals and artefacts, reading a range of project books and searching the internet to plan our riddles. We have been learning Brazilian folk tales and, in art, have created our own stamps capturing elements of Brazil. We will share some of them next week. In maths, the children have been learning to tell the time to the nearest five minutes, learning that there are different parts of the day and that there are 24 hours in one day. We have started to use this knowledge to solve problems. Well done Year Two!

Turtle Class (Year 3) Turtle Class has had a fantastic time during the last two days. Lots of us dressed as book characters on Thursday and we sang and performed plays all about the book 'Leon and the place between'. We have also been writing and performing poems in class and for homework adding personification and descriptive language. As part of our class project we have been learning about the water cycle, looking at different types of cloud and the difference between the ways water returns to Earth from them. We have been green screening in computing, writing our own river based scripts to perform in front of a superimposed background. We now know how difficult it is for weather presenters to deliver the weather in front of a picture that isn't really there!

Polar Bear Class (Year 3) It is hard to believe that we are already half way through this year! Last week we started our project on 'The Rhythm of the Rain' by reading the story and talking about the River Thames. We learned so many interesting facts such as which parts of the river are tidal and which towns and cities it flows through. We drew a map of the Thames trying hard to show the bends and important towns. On Friday we enjoyed a trip down to the River Thames, including sketching features of rivers and learning about why the river was important in the past. In science we have been exploring the characteristics of different soils and using our knowledge of rocks from last term to understand how they are formed. In maths we have been exploring how we can use multiplication facts to solve division problems and learning to work systematically through a problem. In English we wrote some wonderful descriptive poems about flowing rivers and this week we have started to plan our own adventure stories set on a river.

Whale Class (Year 4) An interesting start to our new term… talking cavities, decay, fillings and floss! Straight into our new Burps, Bottoms and Bile project! We have been naming the different adult teeth and learning about their functions. We enjoyed making a delicious cheese sandwich

Look What We Have Been Learning…

and have written a set of comprehensive instructions alongside, containing imperative verbs, technical vocabulary and conjunctions! In addition, we have considered how to keep our teeth healthy by eating a balanced diet and brushing regularly. In science we have been undertaking a comparative test to see what effect different liquids have on the hard, enamel like shell of an egg. We have made predictions and have been observing the changes over a number of days. In maths we have been learning to tell the time using 12 and 24hr digital clocks. We have been converting hours and minutes, days and weeks and solving problems involving time. World Book Day was amazing and the children enjoyed dressing up as their favourite characters… great fun when changing for swimming!! It was amazing to see the enthusiasm and confidence whilst they were reciting their poems and they thoroughly enjoyed moving about the tents to hear the different stories being read and performing their Readers’ Theatre from the shared book… Leon and the Place between. Looking forward to another busy week!

Iguana Class (Year 4)

Iguana Class transformed into their favourite book characters for World Book Day. Our class was filled with heroes and villains from a range of texts! We also enjoyed practising for the first ever Russell School poetry slam as a class! We have learnt about classic poetry as well as creating our own. Learning the keys to a solid

spoken performance has been essential to our success. We have focused on tone, pitch and inflection at the end of our sentences. In our project, we have learnt about oral hygiene and healthy teeth. We were surprised to find out what sugars could do to our teeth. After learning all about our teeth, we wrote an instructional ‘How To...’ text, teaching others how to look after their teeth. We also had another go at instructional texts by creating hot, grilled cheese sandwiches with a partner! We have started a unit on time in maths. We are learning all about converting time along with why and when we use different types of clocks. Finally, we have started a new swimming session. A few of us have started rescue training; we enjoyed jumping into the pool with our pyjamas on!

Lemming Class (Year 5) Year Five have had a great time learning about the printing press and how William Caxton invented this and the impact it had on book making. They had a go at making their own letters and printing them on to paper; all agreed it was a laborious process and we should all be thankful technology has advanced! We have also been learning about microbes, the three main categories of bacteria, viruses and fungi. We have been experimenting with yeast, racing batches of solution mixed with flour and sugar and seeing what affects the microbe. In English we have written personification poetry and have looked at illuminated lettering and decorated the first page of our medieval manuscripts, all ready for the plague diaries we will be writing. We have been reading 'The Children of Winter' in class, and acting out a playscript based on the true story of the Village of Eyam in Derbyshire, who quarantined themselves from other villages to stop the spread of disease (we have focused more on the positive nature of this than the negative!). In maths we have been converting fractions to decimals and rounding decimals to two places. We have also been using card games such as pontoon to help with our mental arithmetic of number so please feel free to challenge your children to a game of this! The children should be very proud of the poems they have learnt for World Book Day, they were performed with real enthusiasm and were very funny to listen to.

Emperor Penguin Class (Year 6) "What a week Mrs Baker – it’s been mad; I totally love Year Six!" And the class are quite correct, this week has been rather out of the ordinary. World Book Day: dressing up, tent story reading, magical mornings bringing Leon and The Place between to life with the whole school and Strathmore. WE Day at SEE Arena Wembley: early starts, train travel at rush hour, packed escalators, busy platforms, pushing people. Large crowds of excited children, security checks and bag searches. Wristbands that lit up. Bands that rocked so loudly and so very early. Words, powerful words in inspiring speeches. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex speaking so passionately about the world, kindness and humanity and being so proud of Meghan that he just couldn't resist bringing her on stage too. Committed campaigners calling children to action. "We didn't realise we were making memories, we just thought we were having fun."

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Thurs 7 Mar World Book Day

7 – 8 Mar ‘All the World’s A Stage’ Special Event

Mon 11 Mar Y6 – Magistrates Court House Trip

12 & 14 Mar Parents’ Evenings

Fri 15 Mar Y2 Class Assembly

Thurs 21 Mar Y3 Girls Football / Learning Look

Thurs 21 Mar Y6 Junior Citizens Trip to Holly Lodge

Fri 22 Mar Y3 Polar Bear Class Assembly / Y5 Netball Tournament

Mon 25 Mar AFTER SCHOOL CLUBS FINISH

Tues 26 Mar Pupil Parliament Action Day Trip

Wed 27 Mar Y5 Stem Visitor / Singing Festival - Choir

Fri 29 Mar Bags to School Event / Y5 Stem Visitor

Fri 29 Mar Harpinis Concert / Mothers’ Day Events

URBAN FARM

PEEPAL TREE LEARNING – NEW START TIME (4PM)

PETERSHAM HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY The Petersham Horticultural Society are holding a Free Family Seed planting event on the 9th of March 2-4pm in the Petersham and Ham Sea Scouts Field (Douglas House Meadow, Richmond, TW10 7AH)

We will be making seed bombs, making paper pots, making seasonal pictures, planting beans, and sowing flower seeds.

From these little seeds if tended with care rosettes and cups can be won!!

There will be tea and cake for sale in aid of the sea scouts new hut.

NUTRITION

Events and Notices