Samuel Ryder Academy
Issue: 46 Date: 10 Nov 2017

Dear Parents and Carers

 

In the last couple of weeks, we have held our first parents’ consultation evenings of the academic year.  Last week and last night primary parents were invited in, and it was lovely to see so many parents in school, hearing about the progress being made and the strategies they could employ to help.  Thank you to all the staff involved.

 

This week the Year 11 students have their mock GCSE examinations.  This is a very important part of the process in preparing students fully, for the exams in the summer. I know they have been working hard and preparing fully for the exams – I hope they went well!

 

Next week is a busy week, with two major events in the calendar.  On Wednesday we open our doors to the parents of prospective new Reception children, as we start the process for our new Reception intake in September 2018.  At the other end of the age spectrum, on Thursday 16th November, we have the Sixth Form Open Evening, when parents and carers of Year 10 and 11 pupils are invited along with the pupils to meet sixth form teaching staff and hear about our fantastic sixth form offer.  More details to follow next week.

 

On Sunday, as in previous years, Samuel Ryder will be represented in the Remembrance Parade in St Albans, with students and staff from both the primary and secondary phases involved.  It is a really special event and we are the only school taking part so please do go and pay your respects on Sunday if you are able.

 

As always, if you have any comments or suggestions I would be pleased to hear from you, please contact me at head@samuelryderacademy.co.uk.

 

Mr Gauthier

Headteacher                                                                                                                           

 

 

Primary Phase News

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. 

Junior Apprentice Launch Event

On the 1st November, the Junior Apprentice Launch event was held in the primary area. The organisers came to launch the challenge and the two teams had the opportunity to meet their charities and to discuss fundraising ideas with their Dragons. Their Dragons, Hannah Morriss and Khadja Zaman (Year 13) will support them in turning £50 into £150 or more, by 20th December 2017. The two teams will be promoting their fundraising ideas in assemblies and via social media. Well done Junior Apprentices!

 

Secondary Phase News

                                              Student Celebration!

                                                           

This week we would like to congratulate Junior Mason in Year 8. On Sunday, Junior  played for Old Albanian's Rugby club for the first time and in the half that he played in, scored six times. He is an exceptionally promising young athlete!

 

Sport

 

Rugby

 

Samuel Ryder Academy vs Broxbourne school

Years 7-10 Rugby temas played Broxbourne on Saturday. Year 7 lost 15-10, Year 8 won 65-0, Year 9 lost 47-12, Year 10 won 38-31. Although it was a mixed bag of results, there were lots of positives coming from each game.

Year 9

On Saturday, the Year 9 Rugby team travelled to Broxbourne school on Saturday and made a really positive start with Jason Murphy scoring a well-deserved try. As the game went on, our lack of subs did become a problem as Broxbourne's substitute's fresh legs began to have an impact. Our pack began to tire, and we, eventually, lost 47-12. Rubeun macheda also scored a try for us. The boys have shown significant improvement since being beaten at a County Cup at St Clement Danes and a heavy home defeat to Roundwood Park. Hopefully, our remaining games in November will bring a victory!

Samuel Ryder Academy vs Marlborough Science Academy

Year 9 followed up a promising performance at Broxbourne School on Saturday, with a 20-5 victory over Marlborough last night. In fading light, we improved significantly and went over the try line four times in the second half. Well done to Dominic Burgetss who scored his first try for the school. Three of the four tries were scored by Junior Mason!

Samuel Ryder vs Nicholas Breakspear

Year 8 girls won against Nicholas Breakspear on Wednesday evening, with some very impressive play from the whole team!

                                                    FIXTURES

 

Rugby

Saturday 11th November 2017

Year 7 and 8 - Samuel Ryder Academy vs Tring, (Home)

Year 9 - Samuel Ryder Academy vs Tring, (Away)

Netball

Wednesday 15th November

Year 11, Samuel Ryder Academy vs Loreto

 

For more regular updates, follow us on Twitter @SRA_PE_dept

 

Artwork of the week.

This week's Artwork of the Week goes to Sophie Yeomans, Year 9, for her excellent Observational Drawing sheet with great use of contrast and colour. A stunning piece of work, well done Sophie!

Christmas Card Competition

 

'The Big Draw' event

Exciting things are happening here in the Art Department, as we prepare for 'The Big Draw' event which is taking place at school on the 27th and 28th November. The Big Draw is the world's largest drawing festival, which takes place each year, to encourage everyone to explore, experiment and have fun drawing. The theme for 2017 is 'Living Lines' and we are looking at the artist Picasso for our inspiration. Students from both primary and secondary will be chosen to help produce a series of seven murals based on each of our house colours and once completed they will be displayed in the hall. Watch this space for photos of the event and our final masterpieces! Click here for more information.

Dahl House Sponsered Swimathon

On Thursday 23rd November, Dahl House will be swimming approximately 22 miles for Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity, who provide nurses, research and funding to help seriously ill and disabled children. We would be very grateful for any donations, please click here for our Justgiving page.

 

Post 16 Information Evening - Thursday 16th November 2017, 6.00pm - 8.00pm.

The Samuel Ryder Sixth form information evening will be an opportunity to find all the information you need, to support your A-Level subject choices. Meet the teachers and talk to students about the course content, assessment methods and career opportunities.

Teaching in the 21st Century - Using New Technology for Creative T& L.

 

Parents who are teachers may be interested in this event, an opportunity to see iPads in action, both through (an optional) learning walk, into both our primary and secondary classrooms, and an opportunity to meet our staff and student iPad champions in our market place, displaying and allowing you the chance to have a go at ideas to take away, for the use of hand-held devices in the classroom. For further information, please click here:

 

Inclusion Coffee Morning

This will be a coffee morning that is open to all parents/carers who would like to see the work of the inclusion faculty. Coffee/Tea and biscuits will be available. Hope to see you there!

Upcoming Dates

Wednesday 15th November, 6.00pm, Year 9 Extra Language GCSE Information Evening in 6th Form Common Room. (Please return the reply slip indicating your extra language asap.)

Thursday 16th November 2017, 6.00-8.00pm – Post-16 Information Evening

Thursday 30th November 2017, 4.00-7.30pm – Year 12 & 13 Parent/Teacher Consultation Evening

Friday 8th December 2017, 9.00am – 10.30am – Inclusion Coffee Morning (All welcome)

Tuesday 12th December 2017, 4.00-7.00pm - Year 11 Parent/Teacher Consultation Evening, (PLEASE RETURN REPLY SLIP BY WEDNESDAY 8TH NOVEMBER)

 

Samuel Ryder App

Please remember that we supply the ‘Samuel Ryder’ mobile app.  We use this for non-student specific communication, it also has a copy of the school calendar and the latest Samuel Ryder news.  This can be downloaded from your mobile device’s App store by simply searching ‘Samuel Ryder’. Click here for a guide on how to download.

We have recently created ‘All Primary’ and ‘All Secondary’ notification groups. We ask that you please select one or both of these options in your app settings in order to receive information about primary or secondary as a whole. This needs to be done in addition to your year group selection (please change this to your current year group as soon as possible). If there are any queries regarding this please don’t hesitate to contact App_Help@SamuelRyderAcademy.co.uk

Facebook and Twitter

 

To keep up to date with lots of exciting activities happening in school please like our Facebook Page and follow us on Twitter!  Click here to visit our Facebook page, and follow us on twitter at @SRASecondary and @SRAPrimary. Our Facebook and Twitter accounts can also be accessed through the ‘contact’ section of the app. Simply click on the small Facebook or Twitter icons and you will be linked straight to our pages.

 

Technical Assistance

If you are having any issues regarding Parent Pay, the Samuel Ryder App, or Sims Login , please use the following email contacts for assistance:

Parent Pay Log in requests:

Finance@scholarseducationtrust.co.uk

School App

App_help@samuelryderacademy.co.uk

Sims Log in Technical Assistance

technicalassistance@samuelryderacademy.co.uk

School Volunteers

We now require all volunteers to provide a reference for us to keep on file. If you are currently on our records as being an active volunteer at Samuel Ryder with a current and valid DBS, you are required to complete and return a “SRA Volunteer Reference Form”. Please can you ensure that all referees have a valid email address, so that we can approach them in this way. Thank you for your help and continued support for our school.

PTA News

We had our PTA meeting, on Wednesday of this week, where we discussed how we would spend our funds, as well as making plans for our Pitch in 4 Pitches campaign, and the Christmas Fair. We are delighted to announce that we were able to invest in the maths and media departments, which will benefit students across the academy, as well as putting funds towards Christmas activities for Primary children, and developing space around the outdoor classroom. We have made the decision, that if possible, we will run both a primary disco and a trip to the Odyssey in the Spring Term. 

Rock and Roll bingo is tomorrow at 8pm in the Academy Hall! We are looking forward to seeing lots of you there, the wine, beer and prosecco are chilling and the bingo dabbers are ready to buy! It’s shaping up to be lots of fun for everyone! If there is anyone still wishing to come along please do contact us on sra-pta@hotmail.co.uk as there are still places available. 

We have our next Bag2School collection date on Friday 17th November 2017, the more bags we manage to fill the more money that will be raised for the PTA. The school receives 40p per kilo collected! So far you have all helped to raise over £1000 with Bag2School, please help us to raise a little more and fill any bin bags with unwanted clothes, shoes, bags and soft toys and drop off at the school reception by 9am.

Christmas Fair – Saturday 9th December 2017

 

 

 

All of the class stalls have now been allocated and are on PTA social, if you can spare anytime to help out at this event or on the day before then please do sign up via PTA Social https://app.ptasocial.com/events/37324, as always we will need lots of volunteers to run this wonderful event and there are a variety of different jobs available to suit all interests! 

What can you offer to help make our Christmas Silent Auction a real success?

Upcoming Events

 

Event

Date

Music Bingo Night

Saturday 11th November

Bag2School

Friday 17th November

PTA Meeting

Wednesday 6th December

Christmas Fair

Saturday 9th December

Aladdin at the Alban Arena

Wednesday 13th December

 

Have a great weekend!

The PTA 

 

Term Dates Academic Year 2017

Autumn Term

Half Term – Monday 23rd-Friday 27th October 2017

Friday 24th November (INSET) – School closed to Students

Finish - Thursday 21st December 2017 – Autumn term ends for all Students, 12.30pm.

 

Spring Term

Start – Friday 5th January 2018 (INSET) - School closed to all Students

Monday 8th January 2018 – Spring Term starts for all Students

Half Term – Monday 12th-Friday 16th February 2019

Friday 23rd February 2018 (INSET) – School closed to all Students

Finish – Thursday 29th March 2018 – Spring Term ends for all Students, 12.30pm.

 

Summer Term

Start – Monday 16th April 2018 – Summer Term starts for all Students

Half Term – Monday 28th May – Friday 1st June

Finish – Friday 20th July 2018 – Summer Term ends for all Students, 12.30pm