St George’s Hanover Square CE Primary School, South Street, Mayfair, London W1K 2XH

Website: www.sghsprimary.co.uk School Office: 020 7629 1196 Email: office@sghsprimary.co.uk

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome to this week’s Newsletter and I am pleased to inform you that we have once again had a wonderful week at

St. George’s.

Mrs Harris and I were lucky enough to observe some lessons in Year 6 this week and my were they a treat. The children were enjoying learning all about algebra and developing their knowledge and understanding about the subject

through excellent teaching and activities. They were all very much attentive and focussed and it was a pleasure to

watch them make good progress in their maths work. Thank you Mr Long for making learning so much fun.

Miss Carmichael also had the opportunity to watch some Destination Reader lessons this week. As you will know, we have started Destination Reader in place of what used to be Guided Reading lessons. Each week the children focus on

a different learning strategy, such as predicting, inferring, asking questions, evaluating, clarifying, making connections

and/or summarising. She was very impressed with the lessons that she saw and the way in which the children were really using the language of the learning behaviours. The children thoughtfully answered questions and respectfully,

built on, challenged and agreed with each other. Well done KS2 for being such active and articulate learners.

It was my pleasure to be able to take Year 3 on their trip to the Museum of London this Thursday. The children were extremely well behaved and were a credit to the school and to their families. They very much enjoyed consolidating

their learning around the Stone Age by looking at artefacts and answering questions. They worked together very

sensibly whilst at the museum and were keen to share what they had been learning in class with me.

As you know attendance and punctuality are very important to the school and should be equally important to you. When your child is not at school they lose out on valuable learning experiences and when they return have missed the

sequence of learning, carefully planned out by the teachers. If they arrive late, they too miss out on valuable input

which affects the understanding of the curriculum subjects being taught for themselves and others. I met with parents this week and would also like to reiterate in our newsletter the importance of being at school. Moving forwards, the

school is looking at issuing penalty notices to families taking holidays during term time. I am sure that you will appreciate that we are working with every child’s best interest at heart. With this in mind, please do not book extra

days off around the school holidays.

Attendance

Well done to Year 2 with 99.2% this week! That is fantastic news and makes us very proud.

We need to work on our lates. The current number of lates is unacceptable. Think of the

lost learning time and the disruption it causes to the children.

Lates

Reception 96.5% Reception 1

Year 1 93.9% Year 1 5

Year 2 99.2% Year 2 7

Year 3 96.5% Year 3 9

Year 4 96.8% Year 4 9

Year 5 93.9% Year 5 7

Year 6 95.9% Year 6 5

Total 96.2% Total 43

Hooray for Pizza Attendance and Punctuality Challenge!

Currently we have 34 children who have been in school on time and in school 100% This is a tremendous achievement and very well done to you! Let’s see if you can keep

it up until the end of the school year and enjoy a pizza and pudding with Mrs Harris.

St George’s Hanover Square CE Primary School

24th January 2020

Working together for the achievement of all.

Class Assembly

Reception were all round superstars this Thursday when they put on their very own performance of The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. They were ever so brave and used extra loud stage voices which ensured that all the audience could

hear. They had some wonderful songs and pulled out some super dance moves too! They should be very proud of themselves for doing such a great job. Thank you to Miss Galvin and Miss Brashko too for working so hard to make it

such a hit!

Thank you to all the parents who came along too. It’s always a pleasure to welcome you into school to share the learning that is taking place. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

KS1 end of day pick up

As you may have notices, the stairs to the office from the playground are sadly out of action at the moment. We are

having the pipe repaired as soon as we can. However, we have decided that the end of day pick up for Reception and KS1 being from the covered football area is working much better and is a far safer way to dismiss the children at the end

of the day. Therefore, we are going to be dismissing Reception and KS1 from this area until the end of term and see how it goes. Your support in keeping your children safe is, as always, very much appreciated.

Swimming Y4

This week we trialled the children coming in with their PE kits over their swimming suits Wednesdays. It worked much

better and the children were much speedier at getting changed at the end of swimming this way. Thank you to all parents for your support in this and we look forward to seeing how the new approach works.

Danceathon

My goodness! The whole school was like a fabulous discotheque at points this Friday. The children all joined in at

different points in the day and danced their hearts out to support the NSPCC’s work whilst having a great time! KS1 dances to Baby Shark whilst KS2 were busy doing the Macarena (I even took part in this frivolity with Year 2!).

Whilst we all had lots of fun we must remember that we did this to raise money and awareness for the valuable work of the NSPCC.

All money raised needs to be brought in by Monday 3rd February. By supporting the NSPCC we can work together to end child abuse.

You and Me There is still time to join in with our fundraising challenge championed by our very own Penelope Deschamps and her

super mummy Gaelle. How does it work? Each child received 5 books in a zip bag last Friday.

You have ½ more weekends to sell the 5 books.

Please return money raised and unsold books if any in the zip bag on Monday 3rd February.

The class with the most books sold wins the Fundraising Cup in Chapel on Friday 7th February (or when Chapel

resumes)

Please ask the office if you have any further questions.

Academic Review Day Thank you to everyone for your positive response to our Academic Review Day. It is important to note that this is one of

the 5 INSET days that are held annually. These 5 INSET days can be taken at any point over the academic year. We have decided to use two of the days this year to enhance home school collaboration in support of your child/ren’s learning. You

will now have 15minutes to discuss your child’s bi-annual report, highlighting strengths and areas for development.

Quite a few parents have already signed up. If you still need to, please contact Mrs Baukovic who is the gate keeper of the sign-up sheets.

Uniform

Well done to Year 4 for winning our Uniform Cup this week. The whole school is looking much smarter so thank you for

your continued effort. It is always pride raising when the children are commended on looking great when we go on school trips. Please make sure that your child is coming to school wearing the correct uniform. Remember that boots are not part

of school uniform so we’re looking forward to seeing all the girls in their black uniform regulation shoes on Monday.

Costumes

We still haven’t had any parents come forward or share their ideas regarding the idea of creating a central costume store at St. George’s. Please come and speak with Ms Slater if this is something that you would like to get involved with.

Prayer of the Week

Dear God and Father, Please help people of all religions get to know each other better and this week we pray for Christian Unity. We pray for justice for those who are poor or homeless or hungry or those in danger or in need.

Turn the hearts of those who spread disunity and preach violence. We pray especially for an end to wars in the world and

for all who have been forced to leave their own homes and countries. We give thanks for the gifts of creativity and imagination and pray for all who work to bring peace and unity to our divided world.

HELP US TO BRING LOVE, AND BUILD UNITY

Dragon Song Sunday 26th January 2020

St. George’s Church, Hanover Square 6.00pm

This promises to be an amazing event and you are most welcome to attend – the concert begins at 6pm on Sunday 26th January. It would be wonderful to see as many of you there as possible! Richard Quesnel, Director of Music at St George’s College, has composed “DragonSong”, a new musical work retelling the story of St George and the Dragon and he came to our school on Wednesday 20th November to work with the Year 5 and Year 6 children. They learned four new songs and hymns that will be performed during the “DragonSong” concert and I am delighted that our pupils have been invited to take part in this wonderful celebration. The concert will feature primary and secondary school children both singing and playing instruments, an adult choir, two professional singers and a professional orchestra!

Whatsapp

Last week we wrote about parental use of WhatsApp groups and the fact that you should come and speak to a member of staff to resolve any concerns.

This week, we would like to outline some online safety advice for children about this App.

Dates for your diary

Tuesday 28th February Y4 on Class Trip to Museum of London

Thursday 30th January Year 2 Class Assembly 3.00pm

Friday 31st January Y5 attending Service at St. Paul’s Cathedral

Thursday 6th February Year 1 Class Assembly 3.00 pm

Thursday 13th February Year 3 Class Assembly 3.00pm

Friday 14th February Break up for half-term

Monday 24th February Back to school

Friday 28th February Academic Review Day

Thursday 12th March Year 4 Class Assembly 3.00pm

Thursday 19th March Year 5 Class Assembly 3.00pm

Thursday 26th March Year 6 Class Assembly 3.00pm

Friday 3rd April End of term 2.00.pm

Thank you for all your support, it is much appreciated.

Best wishes

Ms Petra Slater, Head of School and Mrs Rebecca Harris, Executive Headteacher