Wessex Gardens Primary &

Nursery School

Wessex Gardens, Golders Green, London NW11 9RR

Tel: 020 8455 9572 Email: office@wessexgardens.barnet.sch.uk

Headteacher: Alexander Banks Deputy Headteacher: Gorana Henry

Another fantastic week! The children have been highly engaged with their health awareness week. I learned all about how to clean my teeth properly from Palm class! Thank you Palm class! I am so proud of our Year 6 who visited Moat Mount on Wednesday. They were a credit to the school—and it was our first trip since March 2020! For those of you football lovers, I am sure you will be following the Euros 2020 with much enthusiasm. We here at Wessex will be hosting our very own Euros for two weeks from 28th June with all classes from Reception to Year 6 taking part. More information will be sent out in next week’s Newsletter—do have a look to see which country your child’s class will be representing. We sent details earlier this week to let you know how you can help us raise money for the school by working in partnership with a local estate agent. Please get in touch if you can help. Have a lovely week. Alexander Banks Headteacher

Newsletter

Summer Term — 18th June 2021 (Issue 24)

Dates for your diary 01.07.2021 Y3&4 Sports Day at Whitefield School 07.07.2021 Y6 Induction day at Hampstead School 20.07.2021 Class swap morning 22.07.2021 Last day of term for Nursery

Welcome to this week’s Newsletter

School Reminders,

Requests & Information

Letters home this week: Nurs-Y6 Supporting Wessex Gardens fundraising Ellis & Co, Estate Agents display boards

Summer Reading Challenge

This summer, Barnet Libraries’ Summer Reading Challenge is back! Wild

World Heroes takes you on a trip to Wilderville, with help from WWF, for a

special nature-themed challenge that will inspire you to stand up for the planet.

With amazing books, amazing rewards and lots of ideas for taking care of the

environment, why not join us?

To complete the challenge, all children have to do is read at least six library books of their choice; collecting special stickers and other exclusive rewards along the way; and it’s FREE to take part! Signing up for the Summer Reading Challenge When the challenge begins, parents can register their child for the challenge and pick up prizes from their local Barnet library during staffed hours. Alternatively parents will be able to register online and pick up their Wild World Heroes pack from the library during self-service opening if they are registered; or we can arrange to post the pack out if required.

Wild World Heroes starts on Saturday 10 July. I have attached a letter with a registration form if you wish to hand these out to the children in your school to take home. Summer Events and Activities Throughout the summer holiday, Barnet libraries will also be running a pro-gramme of fun activities for early years and primary school age children to coincide with this year’s Wild world Heroes theme. Events this year include; Storytellers Cat and Hutch bring Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic tale to life in their interactive adaptation of "The Secret Garden".

Join author and performance poet Joseph Coelho for a dynamic online

session which will be sure to inspire young readers and writers to get to the

heart of creative writing.

Join author Hannah Gold for a virtual introduction to her beloved charac-

ters from 'The Last Bear' along with some polar bear facts, creative writing tips

and advice on how to be a planet-saving superhero or heroine.

‘Same, Same but Different’ - A production for children from Sonia Sabri

Company which celebrates individuality, diversity and connection through

different dance styles, slapstick and humour, movement and expression.

Kev F's Comic Art Masterclass - Kev F Sutherland writes and draws for

Beano, Doctor Who and Marvel Comics. Learn everything he knows so that

you can leave school and steal his job!

Visit www.barnet.gov.uk/wildworldheroes For more information about the reading challenge and summer events in Barnet. The full programme of events will be listed online before the school holiday begins. Please check regularly and follow us

on Facebook and Twitter for news and updates.

Reminder to please wear a mask when coming onto the school grounds. Unfortunately, there are rising cases of the Delta Variant and I must keep our school as safe as possible. Alexander Banks

Nursery We have been focusing on the story Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen. In literacy, we have been continuing to encourage the children to talk about the events in the story and sequence them. In maths, we have been ordering beanstalks by height while using the appropriate mathematical language; tall, taller and tallest. We have also enjoyed counting beans and placing them into plant pots of various heights. The children and continuing to love playing with sand and water and are showing lots of interest in discovering how different toys work. All of the children are enjoying watering the plants daily and watching them grow. We have also created a wonderful beanstalk in the classroom. The children have been helping us transform our role play area into a Garden Centre. Please could you upload some photos and flowers in you house or garden which we could display in our Garden Centre. Many thanks for the wonderful examples of home learning uploaded to Tapestry. We would love to see some more home learning from different parents. Please remember that we change our books on a Thursday to please send in your child’s book bags every day. We would like to welcome Dawn who joined us in Nursery last week and will be with us in the afternoons. The Nursery Team

Reception As we had such lovely weather earlier in the week, many children have been busy outside, exploring water play and gardening. We have started building our big Bug hotel in the garden, and we hope we are going to be encouraging lots of creepy crawlies into our outdoor classroom. In the classroom, our caterpillars are enjoying the heat too and we have watched them develop from tiny creatures into large larva which are now creating their pupa. We will be waiting to see what happens. We have now completed phase 3 sounds in our phonics and we will continue to practise these as we move into phase 4. Please read regularly at home and talk about what your child is learning.

Year 1 & 2 It has been another fantastic week of learning in Key Stage One! The children have all been working really hard and enjoyed the sunshine. For Health Awareness week this week, all the children created posters about the importance of being active. We also looked at the importance of good dental hygiene. Ask your child if they remember how many minutes they need to brush their teeth for in the morning and in the evening. In English, we have enjoyed reading the story The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch. The children learnt definitions of new vocabulary, drew story maps and retold the story. In maths, Year 1 have been learning about place value up to 100. You can play place value basketball on Topmarks to help your child practise their tens and ones. Year 2 have really enjoyed learning about shape. They had lots of fun going on a shape hunt around the school. Have a lovely weekend!

Year 3 This week we have been comparing the endings of traditional tales to see what they have in common. We have also started exploring our new text, 'The Lost Happy Endings', which is very rich in language. In maths, we learned about equivalent fractions and ways to compare fractions. Our focus in PSHE has been on different food groups and what makes a balanced diet. We learned about how to look after our teeth and we conducted an experiment with eggs, cola, vinegar and water- to see the effect that different substances have on tooth enamel. Some of us are beginning to prepare acts for Wessex' Got Talent auditions- the school's annual talent competition. Best of luck to everyone!

Year 4 This week in year 4 we are exploring deep sea diving with our current topic quest 'Blue Abyss'. What an exciting topic to do! We have looked at the problems divers face whilst diving under the sea, classified different creatures according to their diet, type and habitats in science and in our English we will be writing a story based on our trip under the sea. And there's more to come as we continue on our deep sea journey.

Year 5 Year 5 have had a wonderful week writing descriptive pieces in English, exploring the concept of Show Don’t Tell. This week was Health Awareness Week, and Year 5 have been discussing hygiene and dental care. We also participated in a Health Awareness workshop. Why not ask your child what it was about? Furthermore, we have continued to explore the relationship between fractions and decimals, and will start learning about percentages next week. With the warm weather we have been having, please ensure your child comes to school with a reusable water bottle. Thank you for all your support.

Year 6 It seems like only 5 minutes ago that we were writing our last Newsletter entry! This week has whizzed by with so much going on both in and out of school. A huge thank you to all parents for pulling together and allowing our trip to Moat Mount to go ahead on Wednesday - we couldn't have done it without you! The children (and staff) had an amazing time and it was clear how much we have all missed spending the day away from school, learning in the outdoors! What a lovely memory for our children to take with them as they soon transition to secondary school. In other news, we have begun our new Topic Quest this week - 'Tomorrow's World' and have looked at different methods of communication using new technologies. We will continue next week by writing our very own blogs!

Treat from

the chest

The children invited to take a treat

this week from the Headteacher’s

Treasure Chest were:

Maple Celin

Palm Amelia

Redwood Yunus

Cedar Fadel

Oak Obay

Hawthorn Kora

Hazel Devisa

Acacia Gaia

Sycamore Giada

Mahogany Alesia

Magnolia Eris

Stars of the Week:

Superstars of the week

Cynthia, Maple class

Erika, Palm class

Zahra, Redwood class

Certificate of Merit

Saraa, Cedar class

Katrin, Oak class

Daanish, Hawthorn class

Ardil, Hazel class

Ali, Acacia class

Umar, Sycamore class

Jaffar, Mahogany class

Reader of the Week

Mathias, Maple class

Aaminah, Palm class

Romi, Redwood class

Arsham, Cedar class

Arasp, Oak class

Fatima, Hawthorn class

Diyar, Hazel class

Hamudi, Acacia class

Aryan, Sycamore class

Ali, Mahogany class

Omar, Magnolia class

Class Merit

Magnolia class

Fabulous Friday winners this

week were Hazel and Sycamore clas-

ses.

Well done everyone!