Dear Parents and Carers, We have had an amazingly busy couple of weeks. The whole school has taken part in a science week with year groups studying plants, the human body and growth. We have had a visit to the Houses of Par-liament, a visit to Kew gardens and Engineering workshops taking place. People from all walks of life visited the school as part of our inspirational careers fair, where Year 4, 5 and 6 were able to discuss career paths, find out about different jobs and think about their futures. Year 6 also took part in the Junior citizen scheme as well as participating in the Willow Tree Sports Partnership athletics competition where the B team came first!

As many of you will know an inspection by OFSTED was carried out on Tuesday. We had one inspector for the day and the process was quality assured by an HMI (Her Majesty’s Inspector). We are hoping that the official feedback to the school will be made available to us before the end of term.

During that day we held our KS1 Sports day which was a huge success. It was made even better by the support of so many of the parents who came to cheer on their children. We are looking forward to our KS2 event next Thursday and our Reception and Nursery Sports events next Wednesday (weather per-mitting).

Many of our Year 6 children have spent the day today at their High School for the Common Induction Day, where they will familiarise themselves with the rules, routines and layout of their new school. The children are preparing themselves to leave and there are, as always, a mix of emotions, we are looking forward to the End of Year production and the children are preparing a Leavers’ Assembly. If any pupils in year 6 have changed their destination high school or if pupils in any other years are leaving at the end of this term please let the school office know so we can make sure that their file is sent to the correct new school.

At the other end of the school we have been busy welcoming new Nursery and Reception pupils and their parents who have visited us in readiness for September who have also met their teacher and sup-port staff. The PSA have worked tirelessly to organise the Summer Fair which takes place tomorrow from 12– 3pm, please come along and join in the fun. Sophie Liardet

Friday 30th June 2017

www.st-marks.ealing.sch.uk @st_marksw7

School Parliament On Monday 26

th June School Parliament went on a visit

to the Houses of Parliament as a reward for their won-derful work as ministers this year. They enjoyed a tour of the House of Commons and the House of Lords and were able to take part in an imagi-nary vote just like the real MPs do!

Careers Fair We had a hugely successful careers fair last week with visitors form all walks of life. We learned from our local MP Mr Sharma about life in the Government, two doc-tors, one a GP and one an Accident and Emergency doctor told us about their careers in medicine. The Fire Brigade turned up in their Fire Engine and our Commu-nity Police Officer was on hand to talk about their expe-riences in the emergency services. We were also lucky enough to have a specialist camera engineer, a builder, an undertaker, a recruitment consultant and many more… A really big thank you to all our visitors.

Science Week Nursery

The children were very keen to be ‘scientists’ this week! They brought old white shirts to wear as a ‘lab

coat’ and a pair of goggles or glasses to help them get into role. We planned lots of investigations and

experiments for the children to explore such as floating and sinking investigations, stretchy gloop investi-

gation, and a dental health tooth experiment. We also discussed how to keep our teeth clean and

healthy, and which foods are good for our teeth and which are not good. We had a very exciting week!

Reception Reception have been very busy during Science week with lots of experiments and investiga-tions. The children have been learning all about how to keep their teeth strong and healthy. We put eggs in milk, water, cola and juice to see what happened to the egg shell. We also became rocket engineers and launched rockets into space! The children have been fascinated by the activities, including colour mixing, testing magnetic materials, floating and sinking and making their own walkie-talkies.

Science Week Year 1 started Science week by drawing pictures of sunflowers, using Van Gogh’s painting for inspiration. First we sketched the outline and then we used oil pastels to add some colour!

Year 1 had a great time visiting the meadow across the road from the school. They went on a wild flower hunt, then

designed and created their own meadow in class.

We have also been busy investigating whether plants need sunlight to grow. We

planted cress seeds, and put one pot on the windowsill in the classroom and one

pot in the cupboard where it is dark. Ask us what we found out!

In Year 2 we have been conducting an experiment to find out what plants need in order to grow and be healthy. We wanted to find out if they needed air, light, water and something to grow on. We worked in groups and each group planted their own cress. To make it a fair test we made sure that each group had the same number of seeds and gave their cress the same amount of water each day. Each group then

took one thing away from their seeds so that we could see which ones grew. After a week we were surprised to find that the seeds grown without light had grown to be quite tall and for some reason they were yellow rather than green. The seeds grown in a bag without much air had also grown quite tall and these ones looked healthy and green. The seeds that had nothing to grow on had started sprouting roots but then seemed to stop growing and the seeds that did not get any water did not grow at all. We then analysed our results as a class and agreed that the most important thing that plants needed to grow was water. It was also agreed that while plants could grow without light, they would not be very healthy.

To consolidate our learning we went on a trip to Kew Gardens where we took part in a fantastic workshop that taught us more

about plants and what each part is for. We had a great time examining plants through magnifying glasses and even got to look at

some through a microscope. We then went outside where we pretended to be squirrels and hid raisins throughout the park to

help us to understand more about seed dispersal.

In Year 3 the children kept a food diary for their homework task and had to record the nutritional information of 4 foods they ate, including the sugar content. In school, we investigated whether varying amounts of sugar mixed with water affected how much the egg shell rotted away. Pupils recorded their results and found out that the more sugar they ate, the worse it was for their teeth and bodies.

In Year 4 children learned about tooth decay.

In Year 5, we plotted a time/height graph to show how the average male and female height changes over time. We

used our duckling visitors and measured the growth of their beaks and wings over a period of 11 days. We made

predictions about the pattern of their growth using the data about humans as a guide. Next week, we are going to

compare the gestation period of ducklings and humans and compare it to their life expectancies.

During science week, Y6 learnt all about evolution. They looked at a collection of fossils and now under-

stand that fossils help us to learn about animals and plants from the past so that we can see how things

change over time. They found out who Charles Darwin was and learnt a little about his theory of evolu-

tion. Alongside this, the children enjoyed completing a fun investigation about bird beaks.

Our year 6 children took part in an Engineering Workshop on 20th June, run by Rosie Kendrick who some of you may know as she has two children in our school. Rosie works with the radio company ‘Fun Kids’ and designed the workshop to discover what our children's current understanding of engineering and railways is and what further information they would like to know. The children were then filmed by Adam, Rosie’s cameraman, asking questions and making suggestions about the development of trains and railways. These questions will be used to inform the creation of content for ‘Fun Kids’ on air and online. The children were awarded a special certificate as recognition and thanks for their participation in the workshop.

PC McGuigan visited Nursery and Reception this week. She spoke to us about her important job and

showed us her special uniform. We all took turns to wear the police hats!

We used chopsticks,

spoons, tweezers, pegs

and pairs of flat stones to

represent different types

of bird beaks. Then we

tried picking up various

items simulating different

foods to see which beak

was best for each one.

We found out that certain beaks

were more suited to particular

kinds of foods. This helped us

to realise why different birds

have different types of beak. If

all birds had the same beaks

they would all be competing for

the same food which would

cause some species to die out.

Birds’ beaks have evolved over time

by adapting to suit the food which is

found in the environment in which

the birds lives.

Attendance The best attending classes in each The most punctual classes were Key stage this week are; KS1 Darwin KS1 Franklin KS2 Beethoven KS2 Beethoven Well done! Well done!

#greenforGrenfell Daisy, Chloe, Elle, Eliza, Mara and Mia have knitted bracelets and necklaces in or-der to raise money for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. They have thought about others in their time of need and raised a magnificent £25.50 The Year 4 cake sale also raised an amazing £161 for the cause and our wear green for Grenfell non uniform day last week on Friday also raised over £450 I am sure that the families who have lost so much in this tragedy will really appreci-ate our support. Thank you.

Some of the year 6 children took part in the Ealing Junior Citizens

Scheme this week. They were organised into teams and completed

five different activities, earning points on the way. Each session was

focussed on teaching the children how to respond to a range of real

life scenarios including a house

fire, travelling on the tube, dealing

with an unwell or unconscious per-

son and making a 999 call. Well done to all the children who behaved

impeccably and learnt many new things from the experience.

Congratulations to the winners: Team 2!

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

July 1st School Summer Fayre 12-3pm

July 5th Reception/Nursery Sports Day

Morning Kahlo and Nursery AM

Afternoon - Matisse, McQueen and Nursery PM

Performance of Noyes Fludd at Ealing Christian Centre Northfields 7.30pm

July 6th KS2 Sports morning

July 7th Matisse Class Assembly

July 12th Year 6 Show for parents 6pm

July 13th Year 6 Show for parents 6pm

Year 4 trip to Chiltern Open Air Museum

July 14th Darwin Class Assembly

July 18th Leavers Assembly 9.00am

PSA Disco 4.45 – 6.30pm *more details to follow re: Key stage timings

July 20th Last day of Summer term (normal finish time)