Attendance
Reception - 98%
Year 1 - 98%
Year 2 - 97%
Year 3 - 97%
Year 4 - 97%
Year 5 - 97%
KS1 Stars of the Week
Felicity Laybourn - Purple Class
For showing increasing confidence in applying her phonics skills to her writing and for outstanding behaviour both in and out of the classroom.
Izzy Murray — Orange Class
For always following the Samuel Ryder Way. You always listen and sit so beautifully on the carpet. This has led to you producing some fantastic work, your wanted poster for the Big Bad Wolf was amazing!
Alia Navid - Green Class
For always being so happy and helpful in class. You will always find Alia smiling and ready to learn. Thank you for being so kind and helpful!
Livvy Tse — Yellow Class
For persevering in her handwriting and focusing on using clear lead in and lead out strokes. Your handwriting is looking really great and you are applying it in all forms of writing. Keep it up :)
Fine Diners
York - Tyler Dunn - For being polite and well-mannered when in the dining room and always saying thank you to the staff.
Bath - Lily Clarkson - For being well-mannered and setting a good example to the other children.
Durham - Bobbi Gibb - For always setting a good example in the dining room, by showing good manners.
Warwick - Aarya Gaike - For always tidying up after herself, being polite and setting an example to other children.
Proud Cloud
York - Adam Lahan - For a brilliant effort in literacy this week. You are a very creative boy, who understands how to write a fable with a moral message
Bath - Bryn Wakelin-Smith - For producing some incredible writing as part of his fable writing, with excellent use of adverbs and a strong moral to his story.
Durham - James Burge - For making excellent progress in the quality and quantity of all his work in lessons.
Warwick - Amy Hargreaves - For designing a focused and creative cracking contraption in literacy.
What’s been happening in EYFS this week?
This week in Reception, we have been focusing on goodies and baddies in fairy tales. The children had an opportunity to take part in a science investigation linked to the gingerbread man. Each child had a gingerbread man and dipped his legs in warm water to see what happened. They thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this task, especially seeing the gingerbread man’s legs dissolving.
In Maths, we have been focusing on our counting to 100 and recognising numbers to 20.
Please remember to use bug club, as a tool to enhance your child’s reading, after reading their reading book. It is also important to fill in your child’s reading record at home.
This week, we have also started learning songs for our Christmas play ‘Whoops-a-daisy angel’. Letters about costumes and parts will be going out in book bags next week.
Thank you for your continued support.
The EYFS Team
What’s been happening in KS1 this week?
In Year One, the children have been busy planning their own versions of The Three Little Pigs. They have followed the Talk4Writing approach to do this and they will be writing their stories next week. The children have also been refining their acting skills in preparation for their play.
In Maths, the children have been learning about days of the week and about the importance of sequencing events in chronological order. They have compared different lengths and heights too.
In Science, the children went on a material hunt and they tried to explain why objects were made out of a particular material.
In Year 2 this week, we have been looking at writing instructions. We have created our own spooky spell to turn Miss van Rensburg and Mrs Hayes into toads. We worked really well at expanding our ingredients with adjectives and similes.
In Maths, both classes have continued to practise their adding and subtracting. Please remember to count forwards and backwards from any number with your child. This will help with their accuracy in answering problems.
In Science, we have been looking at different local habitats and how living things are able to carry out their life processes in their habitat. We talked about urban, woodland, pond and coastal habitats.
What’s been happening in KS2 this week?
Children in Year 3 have continued learning about fables this week. Most children have made a good attempt at writing their own fable with a moral. We have been really impressed with their work.
Children in Year 3 have also continued to work hard at practising their multiplication and division facts. If you haven’t already started, now is a great time to begin practising times tables and multiplication and division facts on a regular basis at home. We recommend practising at least three times a week, focusing on a particular times table and then moving on to a new one once the children have mastered the first. It is also important to continue to practise the tables that children already know, to avoid memory lapses (which are common).
Explanation texts have been the focus in Year 4 this week and we’ve been designing our own wacky contraptions, in true Wallace and Gromit style. Once the children had designed their own inventions, they needed to write a flowchart, to explain how it worked and they will be using that next week to write up their explanation texts. In Maths, we have been looking at multiplications and the amazing patterns and number facts you can come up with.
This week, Year 5 have been learning to use inference to describe the characters in the poem ‘The Highwayman.’ They impressed us with their identification of metaphors and similes and their ability to discuss the effect on the reader. In Maths, we are continuing to work on fractions. We introduced percentages, making links with fractions, and fractions of amounts. The children are making good progress with this tricky topic. In topic, the children have been highly engaged with learning about the gruesome battle of Thermopylae, identifying how this followed the Battle of Marathon.
This week, our Year 5 Dragons Apprentice teams have been working hard to come up with some fundraising ideas. Both classes have enjoyed thinking creatively and planning strategically with some of our sixth form students. Below is a letter from one of our teams who need your help.
Letter from Year 5 Dragons Apprentice Team
Dear Parents and Carers,
We are the Super St. Andrews Dragons Apprentice Team. Our aim is to raise as much money as possible, for the charity we have been allocated. The Charity we have been given is the Daylight Club. The Daylight Club is a friendly social club for adults of the working age, with physical disabilities who live within the City and District of St Albans.
Starting from Monday 13th November, we will be hosting a ‘copper run’ as one of our many events. Each class needs to collect as many 1ps and 2ps as possible (in the containers provided). There will be a winner for the class that collects the most coppers in their year group, and a prize will be awarded. All the coppers collected will go to the charity the Daylight Club.
The ‘copper run’ will end on Friday 24th November.
May the best class win and good luck!
From
Team Super St. Andrews.
EYFS Phonics Workshop
We were pleased to see so many parents attend our workshop. We hope you found it informative and inspired you, with ideas about how to support your child at home.
Parent Evenings
This week we held our second parent consultation evening of the year. Thank you to all of the parents who were able to attend on Thursday evening (Tuesday evening, if you are a parent from York class). Parent consultations are intended to help you understand what the children are learning about every day in school and give you some ideas as to how you can support their education out of school. They are also a great opportunity for you to ask the teacher questions about your child’s education. Thanks, also, to our staff who give up their time, in order to support all of our children and their families.
Swimming
Mr Barlow wants to congratulate Jayden Ray Walker, for the incredible progress made with his swimming.
Reminders
This week we have been reminding children of our school uniform expectations, with a particular emphasis on hair styling. We ask that children with long hair keep their hair tied up, with a dark colour hair band or dark coloured clips. Children who come to school wearing brightly colour hair bands/bows/braids etc. will be asked to remove them. Children with particularly short hair must not have lines shaved into their hair styles.
We thank you for your support in maintaining our high standards of uniform.
Please remember to send your child to school with appropriate shoes, a warm coat, and a jumper, as the weather is getting colder and more unpredictable.
Year 1 Production - Parents of children in Year 1 are invited to attend the Year 1 Production on Wednesday 22nd November at 2pm, in the main school hall.
Year One Phonics Workshop - Wednesday 29th November at 2.30pm, in the main school hall.
EYFS Maths Workshop - 30th November at 2.30pm, in the main school hall.
Year 3 trip to Celtic Harmony - All children to wear warm clothing in layers (not school uniform), old trainers, walking boots or wellies, gloves and a hat, and a warm coat. All children will need a packed lunch for the day.
The children will be outside all day, so must wear warm clothing. Parents of children who turn up on Monday without a warm coat will be asked to go home to get one for their child before the trip leaves.