January 2019

Message from the Deputy and Assistant Head

January has been a month full of democracy and

debate with the children having plenty of

opportunities to discuss and air their opinions on a

variety of themes, linked to school life at Booker Hill.

The Pupil Parliament have been busy collecting views

on lunchtime provision and the school ethos (see the

attached newsletter pages); Miss White has been

talking to children about writing; and Mrs Meyers

has been gathering views about ways to improve our

current after school clubs.

We have all been especially impressed with the

children’s ideas and we are really looking forward to

sharing some of the exciting new developments that

come from the discussions.

Me Ball and Miss White

Considerate Parking

We are still having some issues with inconsiderate parking around school.

Please remember:

Parking across drives, even for a few minutes, can cause great frustration and distress

Parking on the pavement makes it very difficult for people with buggies or disabilities

Parking on the pavement can be very dangerous as vehicles moving on the pavement are a hazard, especially for small

children, as is forcing pedestrians to step into the road to get around a parked vehicle

Parking on corners prevents a clear view for those crossing the road

Parking, waiting or stopping to let passengers out on the zig-zag lines is illegal between 8am and 5pm

Parking in such a way as to prevent emergency vehicle access could be life threatening.

Walking to school, if possible, is a great way for you and your children to become healthier and can positively contrib-

ute to a child’s development and better academic performance

Year 5 Fire Safety Workshop

On Monday 14th January, Year 5 were visited by

three members of the Fire and Rescue Service based

at Wycombe Fire Station. The visitors were

extremely impressed by the children’s knowledge

and understanding of the school’s fire safety

procedures.

The visitor’s also explored the children’s approach to

fire safety in the home and the children talked about

the importance of smoke alarms. The children were

also asked to discuss with parents / carers if they

had an escape plan in place in the unfortunate event

of a fire in the home.

Children enjoyed the workshop and showed how

clearly the fire drills we regularly complete at school

have benefited them.

January 2019

The Importance of School Uniform

Our school uniform is important to us. It is one way in which we identify ourselves as a school family and it promotes a

strong, cohesive school identity which supports high standards and expectations in all areas of school life. It promotes

harmony between different groups represented in the school, and it enhances security, assisting the school in identifying

individual pupils in order to maintain good order and spot intruders more easily. Smartness and high standards of

appearance are expected at all times.

It is our policy that all children should wear school uniform when attending school, or when participating in a school

organised event outside normal school hours. We provide a complete list of the items needed for school uniform in this

policy and on our website. The link to this can be found here https://www.bookerhill.bucks.sch.uk/AboutBookerHill/

Uniform/

Aims and Objectives

Our policy is based on the notion that a school uniform:

promotes a sense of pride in the school

engenders a feeling of community and belonging

is practical and smart

identifies the children with the school

is not distracting in class

makes children feel equal to their peers

is regarded as suitable, and good value for money

has been designed with health and safety in mind

The Role of Parents

We ask all parents / carers who send their children to our school for their support of the school uniform policy. We believe

that parents have a duty to send their children to school correctly dressed and ready for their daily schoolwork. Parents /

carers should ensure that their child has the correct uniform, and that it is named, clean and in good repair.

The Role of Staff

Staff support the uniform policy and will challenge children who do not arrive in full school uniform. They are also able to

help parents locate lost, named items (where possible).

We thank you for your assistance in helping to maintain the standards of uniform at Booker Hill School.

January 2019

Attendance

January

(%)

Reception Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6

91.0 91.3 97.4 96.5 94.3 92.0 94.3

The Importance of Good Attendance

All parents want the best for their children and for them to get on well in life. Having a good education is

important to ensure that they have the best opportunities in their adult life. They only get one chance at

school, and your child’s future may be affected by not attending school regularly. If children do not

attend school regularly they may:

Struggle to keep up with school work. In a busy school day it is sometimes difficult for schools to

find the extra time to help a child catch up.

Miss out on the social side of school life.

Poor attendance can affect children’s ability to make and keep friendships; a vital part of growing up.

Setting good attendance patterns from an early age, from nursery through primary school will also help

your child later on in their life. Children who have a poor school attendance record may have less chance

of securing a job when they are adults. Being on time is also vital. Arriving late at school can be very

disruptive for your child, their teacher and the other children in the class.

We encourage children to value good attendance by awarding certificates to classes achieving 100%

attendance in any given week. This is announced in Celebration Assembly each week. Any class achieving

100% attendance receive an extra break time the following week.

Nursery

This half term our topic is "Wriggly Rhymes". During January, our favourite rhymes were I Can Sing a Rainbow, Incy Wincy Spider, 1 2 3 4 5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive and Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree.

We have welcomed new friends to our nursery, who are settling in very well. We have painted rainbows and mixed primary colours to make new ones.

We are getting better at counting our friends during talk time. We love learning about 2D shapes and playing the 2D Shape Monster Game.

Reception

This month we have been learning about bears. We have learnt facts including what they eat, where they live and how they behave. We thought up our own questions about bears and have enjoyed finding the answers together using books, videos and the internet. We have learnt about addition in maths and can now add together two groups of objects to find out how many altogether. We have used a number line to find then record the numbers we needed for our answers. We have also compared groups of objects and used the words 'more' or 'fewer' to describe them. We have continued our Phonics learning and are improving our reading and writing all the time. We have written facts about bears on our own 'Bear Fact Sheet' and had a go at labelling bear pictures and making little books about bears. We have decorated our classroom with our fantastic bear paintings, which we cut out ourselves. Our scissor skills are really improving. Now that it is the Spring Term, we have started going to assemblies. It has been lovely to join in with the Key Stage One assembly on a Tuesday and the Whole School Celebration assembly on a Friday. We always sit quietly and listen and put up our hands to answer lots of questions. It is great to be with the older children in the school.

Year 1

Year 1 are enjoying their new topic of Travel and Transport this term. In English, we have been

reading Mr Gumpy's Outing. We enjoyed acting the story out by pretending to be one of the

animals and doing what Mr Gumpy had said not to do. We have written our own versions of the

story and given Mr Gumpy a different form of transport and some different animals to take for a

ride.

In Maths we have been focussing on addition and subtraction and are getting much quicker with

our Number Bonds to 10 and 20, doubles of numbers to 10. We have worked very hard to learn

how to subtract two numbers that are below 20.

In art we have been very busy painting beautiful ocean scenes and have made carefully cut out

sailboats. We have also been working hard to improve our letter formation, which we have

enjoyed very much.

Year 2

So far this term, Year 2 have begun writing explanation texts using the book 'Flanimals' as a stimulus. We have looked at life cycles of various animals and then created a life cycle for a Flanimal. The children have chosen their own flanimals and are now beginning to write the life cycle for their own flanimal. In Maths, we have been revisiting multiplication and division and have recently started doing 2D and 3D shape. The class have created some Art work linked to the artist Mondrian using only 2D shapes: squares, triangles, circles and rectangles. Some of our Art work will be added to the Art gallery in the office area.

This month in school….

Year 3

Year 3 have made an amazing start to the new term! In Maths, we have been lots of

different methods to multiply and divide two digit numbers. In Science, we are learning

about nutrition and the effect this has on the human body. We are particularly

enthusiastic about our new topic -Dinosaurs! We have enjoyed researching lots of

information about our chosen dinosaurs in order to write a non-chronological report in

English. We are looking forward to learning lots more about fossils and pre-history.

Year 4

Year 4 have been very busy this month. In Science, we have started a new topic about

electricity and have enjoyed investigating simple circuits. In English, we have written our

own persuasive accounts about what High Wycombe has to offer and why people should

come for a visit. In Maths, we have practised lots of multiplication and division, including

the 11 and 12 times tables. In PE we have a great deal of fun, with Wycombe Wanderers

teaching us many football skills and techniques.

Year 5

Year 5 have really enjoyed the first month of 2019 including our new topic - Space. We

have been learning about the shape of the Earth, Sun and Moon and why day and night

occur. We have also been looking into the history of space. Alongside learning about the

history of the telescope, we found out how Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter and

why this was such an important discovery. We have also developed our understanding of

the timeline of “The Space Race” between the USSR and the USA in the 1950s and 1960s.

Currently, we are working to write news broadcasts about the first man on the moon. In

English, we have writing our autobiographies and have been improving our ability to use

relative clauses and semi-colons.

Year 6

The spring term in Year 6 has got off to a great start. We have squirmed and gasped when finding out all about crime and punishment in the Roman era. We used the concept of the Roman Twelve tables - laws written for the first time during the Roman times - to create our own class list of crimes and punishments. Now no one will forget to stick their work in correctly for fear of facing 2 hours of community service! Alongside learning all about percentages in Maths (and discovering one young man’s talent for teaching the bubble method), we have looked at crime statistics and are looking forward to more lessons linked to our topic. Soon we will be visiting Oxford prison which will provide a fabulous stimulus for some biographical writing. This will help us to build on some of the amazing progress we have made while writing as a micro organism in science and when writing spooky stories with unexpected endings. We look forward to sharing some of our work with you soon!

This month in school….

Hello—from Booker Hill’s Pupil Parliament. The Autumn term saw an increase in the work carried out by the Pupil Parliament at

Booker Hill. In September, a new parliament was elected by the pupils in years 2 to 6

and then the Parliament themselves elected Year 6 pupils to the key positions. Let us

introduce ourselves:

This is all made possible because of the support

from our teacher lead, Miss Fitzgerald, who

organises our meetings, makes sure our display

is up to date and keeps our teachers informed

of the work we are doing.

We share information with the whole school in

assemblies and on our display board including

results from pupil voice surveys, information

about our stationery shop and any other

projects that we are currently involved in.

Hello. We are Kai and

Alishba and we are the

secretaries. It is our role to

write down all the good

ideas and to write what we

need to remember. We give

feedback on events and

keep notes at every

meeting.

Hello. I am Atif and I am

the chairperson. It is my

role to lead meetings and

to share the agendas

with my fellow Pupil

Parliament members.

Hello. We are the rest of the

Pupil Parliament members

and we hold meetings in our

classes, attend Parliament

meetings and share ideas to

make our school the

amazing place that it is.

Hello. I am Abigail and I

am the speaker. It is

my job to speak in

assemblies and to let

the whole school know

all about the work we

have been doing.

Poppy Appeal

During the autumn term, we were delighted to take responsibility

for selling poppies and other Remembrance related items to raise

money for our annual poppy appeal. We raised a fabulous £221

which will go towards supporting the families and servicemen

affected by past and ongoing conflicts.

Stationery Shop

This spring term, we are involved in a number of projects. We

have reinstated the school stationery shop and will be

continuing to provide the pupils of Booker Hill with the

opportunity to purchase a variety of essential stationery items

every Thursday lunchtime in the school library. The shop has

now been open for a month and we are seeing more and more

customers every week.

Pupil Voice

One of the most valuable parts of our role in school is to collect the views of the

children of Booker Hill and we have been very busy gathering ideas and opinions on a

range of topics linked to our school’s development plan. Our most recent survey was

to gather everyone’s opinion on lunchtime provision. We met with school leaders to

share the results and everyone was really pleased that the information clearly

demonstrated that the majority of our pupils are happy with the organisation of our

lunch breaks.

Next month we hope to share the results of our ongoing pupil voice survey into ways

to make our school Roller Coaster even more exciting.

99% of all pupils

said they are safe

and comfortable in

the lunchtime

environment.

100% of all pupils

said they listen to

the adults and each

other at

lunchtimes.

98% of all pupils

said they are happy

with the choices

they make at

lunchtimes.

Thursday 7th February Y3 Trip - Oxford Natural History Museum

Friday 8th February Y6 Trip - Oxford Castle

Friday 15th February PTA Mufti Day

Friday 15th February Break up for half-term

Monday 25th February Children return to school

Monday 25th February Book Fair Week

Monday 4th March Y2 Trip - Florence Nightingale Museum

Tuesday 5th March Parents’ Evening (4pm - 6pm)

Thursday 7th March World Book Day

Thursday 14th March School Science Day

Thursday 14th March Parents’ Evening (5pm - 8pm)

Thursday 21st March Y4 Trip - Hazard Alley

Monday 25th -

Friday 29th March Last week of after school clubs for the Spring Term

Thursday 28th March School Maths Day

Friday 5th April Break up for Easter (1:30pm)

Tuesday 23rd April INSET Day

Wednesday 24th April Children return to school