Learning @ Lonsdale

Whole-School

News

Weekly Newsletter—Friday 17th January 2020

Information

and Dates for

your Diary

Please see below details of events taking place this term:

After-school cricket club—on Thursdays 3.45 to 4.45pm Stevenage Singing Day—23/01/2020 Theatre Performance “Boy” for some groups—28/01/2020 School closes for half term—14/02/2020 Half-term holidays—17/02/2020—21st/02/2020 End of term—03/04/2020 Louie Charity Walk—04/04/2020 Easter holidays—06/04/2020—17/04/2020

A list of dates for the academic year can be found on the school website. Please also see the

website calendar in News & Events.

School Calendar 2020 are still available for purchasing at £5 each. Please order your calendar via Mrs North and 5P Class.

Boccia success!! On Tuesday this week, we took two teams to a boccia tournament at Presdales School in Ware. There were 9 teams in the tourna-ment, and we are very pleased to say that one of our teams (Thomas.C, Andres and Oli.S ) came 4th and our other team (Jake. P, Faye and Cesca) came FIRST!!!!! Both teams played really well and did themselves and the school proud! A big thank you also to Mrs Read, who took the pupils to the event.

Primary

News

Bumblebee Class: This week Bumblebee Class have continued to work on our space project by investigating the moon! We have watched clips of the moon landing, had a go at being astronauts moving slowly, explored rocks and looked at the moon in relation to earth. We also retold a story about the moon and earth!

Owl Class: This week the children have been planning their mission to the moon. They made a list of the things they would need to take. They watched how the mission to the moon happened and built their own rockets using construction kits. The children have been using the role- play area to talk to astronauts getting ready for blast off, and in Music they acted out getting into their rock-et and taking off. In Maths they have been working on 1:1 counting and matching pennies. In Letters and Sounds the children have been developing their segmenting and blending of words.

Koala Class: Koala Class have made a good headway with their diaries and will be editing next week. In Nu-meracy they tried really hard with 3D shapes and learning their properties. In topic, we looked at the moon and developed our comparing skills. In Music, we explored the different sounds instruments make ready to start planning our own space music. In Life Skills we developed our spatial awareness by looking out for the public when buying snacks in ASDA. On Wednesday, we had a lot of fun using the PE equipment from FitKidz, and we must have worked really hard as we were all very tired afterwards!

Dolphin Class: This week Dolphin Class have covered ‘I like bears’. They have listened to the story ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’ and role-played the story, learning the sizes big, middle and small. They have explored porridge in messy play, looking at different textures. They contin-ue to sort teddies by colour and developed their counting as well as going on a walk to find bears with colours, letters or numbers on. They have enjoyed playing ‘Snakes and Ladders’ and exploring the toys in the room. Swimming was trialled this week, and we will trial for three more weeks, so please ensure pupils have their swimming kit in school.

Secondary

News

Wombat Class: During class time this week, we have been doing some fantastic editorial skills with writing our own fact/fiction newspaper articles around events in the 1960s. Everyone’s imagination and enthusiasm were so impressive! In our Maths lessons, we have been discovering that we can measure things in different ways, as well as measuring everything in the classroom! We have gone back in time again in our K&U lesson; back into the 1960s looking at fashion trends. We even had a go at being creative with designing our ‘GROOVY’ 1960s party wear with some background music, just for extra effects! Have a great weekend, and we all hope you like the beetroot muffins we made on Friday!

Hippopotamus Class: This week, the Hippopotamus Class have been writing some fantastic haikus in their English lessons; they did a great job of using the 5,7,5 syllable pattern. In Maths they’ve been tackling multiplying a two- digit number by another two-digit number using a written method, which has been tricky, but they’re getting the hang of it. In Science they’ve been experimenting with pitch by cutting straws to different sizes and finding out whether a shorter straw gives a higher or lower pitch when blown down. Creative lessons have also involved sound – the class have been listening to and creating different rhythm patterns with percussion instruments. In their K&U lessons, they’ve been learning about the industrial revolution and how it affected life as we know it today.

Sea Turtle Class: Our week started with a some excellent dance led by dancers from Hot House Dance. Students then continued to work on algorithms in Computing. In English, we looked at zodiac signs, zodiac character-istics, horoscopes and constellation maps. In K&U, we explored some more changes that happen over time and that make ‘history’. We started looking at the 1960s by exploring some toys, technology, food and music from the era, before we next week will look at some historic events from that time. In Sci-ence, we looked at the eight planets of the solar system and found out some really interesting facts about them. I was very impressed with the homework that the students did. In PSHCE, we had some excellent discussions about bullying. And in Creative, we created a piece of music about the planets. In Maths this week, students completed a number of different challenges to see how we are progressing.

Vaquita Class: This week, pupils have continued with their book study of Cosmic—’I nearly shaved myself to death’ dealt with the issue of facial hair and how misunderstandings create humour in a story. In maths, pu-pils investigated regular and irregular shapes (geometry); Science: pupils completed their Mars rover design and described an experiment it could help to carry out at the International Space Station. In KU, continuing with the space theme, pupils completed a non– fiction text about an astronaut from either the USA or USSR (as it was during the space race). In Creative, pupils listened to another chapter of ‘Firebird’ and then chose a scene to make their own illustration. This followed our visit to Greenside Multi-Schools Council, where pupils joined other schools to vote for a project theme for this year. The activity chosen was a ‘colour run’. In PSHCE pupils learned about the importance of personal hygiene.

Gorilla Class: The pupils have completed some interesting homework where they interviewed someone who recalls watching the moon landing in 1969, and they were also able to hear from a member of staff who remem-bers the moon landing as a child. They have looked at key features of the front page of a newspaper and what might have been the headline when the astronauts landed on the moon. On the theme of the 1960s, they have learnt about the way fashion changed during the decade and designed some hippy-style pictures.

Tasmanian Devil Class: During class time this week, the students have done a variety of different things. In ICT they had to build shapes using giant Jenga pieces, and then use an IPad to take pictures to make an algorithm for other class mates to follow. In Maths, they have continued with the topic of ‘Measurement’ and used small rulers to measure correctly. In Science, they have been ‘trying’ to build rockets using certain sweets and differ-ent types of bottled drinks, the objective was to find which sweets and drinks worked best to set off the rocket. In Art the class made pictures of Space using chalk, powder paint and their imagination! In English, they had loads of fun finishing off their ‘Theseus and the Mino-taur’ film. They are looking forward to watching it when Miss Ward finished putting it all together into a movie!

Upper School

News

REP News

Elephant Class: This week, in English, we started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Last week we designed our very own Willy Wonka chocolate bar, and this week we MADE them! We wrote down the instruc-tions to make our own chocolate, what equipment we would need and used lots of different toppings to make delicious chocolates, our very own. In Science, we started a series of Science-based experiments by mixing colours and then created some original pieces of art with the colours we had made up.

Lynx Class: In English, we are continuing with the novel ‘Wonder’! August has started school and has encoun-tered lot of new and unfamiliar situations such as going into the school canteen for the first time. Last week we begun to plan a piece of descriptive writing about this experience based on a photograph. This week, we are continuing on with this task, turning our plan into a full length piece of writing, concentrating on our marvellous vocabulary to write using sensory language. We have been preparing Valentine’s Day gifts in Young Enterprise. There will be lots of little things to buy to give to your friends a family in the week before Valentine’s day—so look out for more infor-mation to come! In Maths we continued to take assessments to identify gaps in our understanding and to recognise achievements. There will be some more of it next week.

Panda Class: In English GCSE, we have just got back our mini mock marks, and everybody got a level 3 or above, which is amazing. We are all super proud! Both English groups have been building on their creative writing skills, focusing on sensory language, and we all had fun using the VR headsets to ‘visit’ places all over the world (or even out of it by viewing the space station or the moon!) We used these virtual experiences to write about one of the places using sensory language. In Biology we have been studying the circulatory system and learning just how amazing our bodies are. We used stethoscopes to listen to our hearts, and we are looking forward to dissecting hearts next week. In Maths we have started to learn about ratio and proportion and have applied this under-standing to real-life contexts. Those students who have already passed their Maths exams are doing a wonderful job of supporting our primary students as part of ongoing work experience.

News from REP: The highlight of the week for some REP students was a late night watching a football match from which Tottenham emerged victorious! The REP students also enjoyed the after-school dance and table-top cricket sessions as well as spending time with their peers in the flats.

LOuIE - Lonsdale Outdoor Inclusive Experience - are holding their first ever Charity Walk on 4th April 2020

There will be a 5km accessible route for our students and other wheelchair us-ers, and a half-marathon route for ages 16+. We are hoping that as many pupils and parents sign up to take part and fundraise in order to help us raise as much money as possible for the charity. It will be a self- navigating walk around Ste-venage with easy instructions to follow. Parking will be allocated at school to

ensure our students have easy access to the starting line. Each racer will receive a T-shirt and medal when they reach the finish line.

An assembly will be held to give the students more information about the walk

in due course.

To sign up to either walk (the 5km or half-marathon), please use this webpage - https://www.goldengiving.com/event/LOuIECharityWalk2020#purchase.

All proceeds will go directly to the LOuIE charity. Please take a look at

www.lonsdaleoutdoorlearning.co.uk to see which amazing activities and equip-ment the money raised will go towards.

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact

Miss Lauren Hughes at lhughes@lonsdale.herts.sch.uk.