St Mary’s CE Primary School, N8 Jesus said: Love one another as I have loved you - John 15:12

Dear Parents and Carers,

YMCA SleepEasy Event Tonight at our Church Lane site, a number of people will be taking part in the annual YMCA SleepEasy Event to raise money to support the homeless. You are more than welcome to support this event by either taking part and staying overnight beneath the canopies in the infant playground or by donating to this very worthwhile cause. This event is being led by Fran Johnson, one of our ex-parents who runs the YMCA on Tottenham Lane.

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/sleepeasy20

Parent Consultation Meetings You will have recently received a letter from the school office about the parent consultation meetings which begin next week. Please do sign up to a meeting to discuss with your child’s class teacher, the progress that your child is making in school in their learning and in their social and emotional development. Please speak to the school office if you need help booking your meeting. Click below to book. http://www.parents-booking.co.uk/stmarysn8

Creativity at St Mary’s It’s been a particularly busy week at St Mary’s! Your children have enjoyed the fun and challenges of a myriad of activities during Science Week, be this building windmills or making ‘umbrgraphs!’ I also hope that many of you were able to attend the open-door discussion to learn more about science as a future career.

We have also had fun during World Book Day yesterday, dressing up as a famous Book Character. World Book Day, as ever, is focused on further raising the profile of reading so that children develop an even greater love of taking part in this most special of pastimes. My thanks to Sam Gould, our science leader and Emma Jenkins, English leader for organising these events so well for your children.

Big 6 Eucharist at St Mary’s Last week, a number of our children in Key Stage 2 were admitted to communion, taking part in the Eucharist Service at Hornsey Parish Church. It was a very special time for these children, their family members and for the rest of KS2 who observed and took part in aspects of the service by singing, serving and reading intercessions. Thank you to the clergy team for supporting and preparing the children so well for this very special occasion. Attendance and Punctuality I am very pleased to report that our attendance figures are currently at 96% (which is our target level). Thank you for all your efforts in helping to improve our attendance and punctuality rates. Bea Fenton, our SHS worker continues to work tirelessly to support this this important school priority. COVID-19 I would like to reassure all parents and carers that the school is keeping abreast of information regarding the Corona virus and receives regular updates from the Local Authority, the DfE and Public Health England. We are consistently being told the current risk is moderate and will of course inform you immediately if their advice changes. In the meantime, the staff are promoting good hygiene and encouraging the children to wash their hands regularly. You will have already received some best practice information from the school last week, and this week, the DfE launched a new helpline to answer questions about COVID-19 related to education. Staff, parents and young people can contact the helpline by phone: 0800 046 8687 or by email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk. Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday). The DfE has confirmed that “no school should close in response to a suspected (or confirmed) COVID-19 case unless advised to do so by Public Health England”.

With very best regards, Calvin Henry Headteacher

Newsletter 6th March 2020

As we love, we flourish

As we flourish, we aspire

As we aspire, we achieve

Together, we are a family

World Book Day We so enjoyed seeing the children (and staff!) take part in World Book Day on Thursday. So many dressed up as their favourite character and are looking forward to taking part in the Reading List Challenge – see overleaf for more information.

Information Whirlpool has alerted customers to a safety risk concerning certain models of Hotpoint and Indesit washing machine as they prepare to launch a product recall. Owners of appliances purchased since 2014 should contact Whirlpool immediately to check if their washing machine is one of the models affected. Check this site to see if your machine is affected washingmachinerecall.whirlpool.co.uk

Please be more thoughtful….. about our neighbours on Rectory Gardens. We have good relationships with them, but have regulary reports of parents and carers being rather thoughtless whilst waiting to drop off or pick up their children. Please do not:

Park over private drives

Reverse into private drives

Leave your car enging idling

Loudly play music/radio

Thank you for your support on this.

March

Fri 6th YMCA SleepEasy event at Church Lane

Mon 9th Topaz Class to Finsbury Park Adventure Learning

Tues 10th Tangerine Class Assembly 9am

Tues 10th Turquoise Class to Finsbury Park Adventure Learning

Tues 10th Reception to the Science Museum

Wed 11th Emerald Class to Natural History Museum

Wed 11th Y6 to National Gallery

Thur 12th Lime Class to Natural History Museum

Fri 13th Sapphire Class to Finsbury Park Adventure Learning

Tues 17th Reception Classes Assembly 9am

Wed 18th Jade Class to Natural History Museum

Thur 19th Class photos

Thurs 19th Y6 SATs meeting 6pm

Fri 20th Open Morning for prospective parents

Fri 20th PSA Class Reps meet up #4 – Intrepid Bakers

Tue 24th Nursery Assembly

Wed 25th Trumpet concert Y4+5 (continuers) 11am - tbc

Wed 25th Guitar concert Y4+5 (continuers) 2.30pm

Thur 26th Height and Weight for Reception and Year 6

Fri 27th PSA quiz night at Church Lane

Mon 30th PSA Committee meeting #7 – at Church Lane

Tues 31st Violin concert Y4+5 (continuers)

April

Fri 3rd Last day of term. Collect children at 1.15pm RG, 1.30pm CL

Sat 4th PSA Easter Egg Hunt at Church Lane 11am – 1pm

Reminders

Dinner money - for this half term is £75. Please pay promptly!

Lost property - please check lost property!

World Book Day – St Mary’s Reading List Challenge In celebration of World Book Day 2020, we are launching the ‘St Mary’s Reading List Challenge’ throughout the school. How does this challenge work? Each year group has a list of 15 books (see Year 4 example to the right) and every child will receive a record card to keep track of their reading. This list of books is divided up into sections: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Read each book in each section and collect a sticker from your teacher to say that you have read the book. What will happen when I have read the books in each section? When you have read every book in each section, you will receive a badge for Bronze, Silver and Gold respectively. What will happen when I have read every book on my year group’s list? You have until the end of this academic year (July) to read every book on your reading list. If you manage that, and have collected your Bronze, Silver and Gold badges, you will be awared with a special enamel pin and a certificate at the end of the year! What sort of books are on the list? We have worked hard to make sure that every list has a wide range of books included. There are some information books, poetry books and lots of wonderful stories. There are funny books and possibly some sad books, there are books with adventure and mystery, there are books to inspire you and books to make you think. Some are books that have won awards, some are very new and others are old favourites. We plan to continue this project and to update the list each year so if you have any feedback or if there is a particular book you think should be on the list, please do tell us! Where can I get the books from? We have two copies of each book on the list in school and plan to purchase more when possible. However, you might like to buy the books yourself or borrow them from your library. If any families buy the books and, once they have been read, would like to donate them to the school, this would be greatly appreciated. We have made some special stickers to go in the front of the donated book. Read 200,000,000 minutes – what’s this? Also, and as part of our ‘Achievement for All’ project, the school is also taking part in this gobal challenge to read 200,000,000 minutes. This runs until 1st April. Be sure to keep track of your reading minutes as Mr Baptiste will be adding them to the running total! If you have any questions about the Reading List Challenge, please speak to Ms Jenkins. Happy, happy, happy reading!

Nursery In Tiny Gems, we have been learning all about different forms of transport. We have discussed how we travel to school, and found out that lots of us walk or come on our scooters. One Tiny Gem thought they would like to come to school in a submarine! We have also been learning about 2d shapes. Little Jewels have had lots of fun experiencing different weather conditions - the short snowfall last Thursday was a real highlight as we tried to catch snowflakes on our tongues and in nets! We are also working on shapes alongside learning more about Spring and have been undertaking some fun science experiments, such as investigating colour through the Skittles experiment and dissecting daffodils. We are beginning to develop our topic on 'How does that building stand up?' and have been constructing dens in our outdoor area.

Reception Our new topic is 'What happens when I go to sleep?". We have begun to explore how night is different from the day and the solar system and have made night time pictures, painted planets and made 2d rockets. In maths, we have moved onto money and are learning to recognise the value of coins and how to count different amounts of 1p coins. In phonics, we have continued to work through phase 3 learning the new diagraphs ee, oo, oa and the triagraph igh. We have also focused on kindness and how we can show it to our friends and teachers and at home!

Year 1 Year One had an amazing trip to the Natural History Museum. We saw all the model dinosaurs and all the fossils and we especially enjoyed seeing the roaring T Rex! We took part in the 'Super Stegosaurus' workshop and built wooden Stegosaurus skeletons. The museum guide said we were expert palaeontologists! In maths, the children have made progress in multiplication and division and are beginning to understand the relationship between these two operations. In English, we are enjoying our new unit based around the book Tyrannosaurus Drip.

Year 2

In English, we have started our new topic looking at non-chronological report writing. This week we are learning all about trains through our new story map. In maths, we are continuing with learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We are confident in identifying properties of both 2D and 3D shapes and we are beginning to see and replicate the patterns seen in shapes. In science, we are focussing on plants and are currently learning about seed dispersal and what conditions a seed needs to grow. In RE, we are learning about Easter and have looked at the symbols which represent the Easter story and why they are important.

Year 3 In English, we have begun our new adventure story, The Journey, looking at inference and prediction reading skills as well as diary writing, persuasive writing and setting descriptions. In maths, we have begun division, looking at different methods to solve dividing a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number with and without regrouping and remainders. In science, we have begun our new topic of Light and have enjoyed our science workshop about shadows and practical experiments about light.

Year 4 In English, we have completed our books inspired by the text Gorilla. We have now moved on to looking at poetry and have been working on acrostic and list poems. In maths, we have been using the ‘bus stop’ method for division. In science, we are studying food chains and naming predators, prey, consumers, producers and decomposers. In RE, we have finished looking at parables and their deeper meaning and will now be looking into famous Christians.

Year 5 In English, we have been exploring and analysing poems, as well as creating our own. In maths, we are learning how to calculate perimeter and area of composite shapes. In science, we are learning about forces and we had a lovely workshop during Science Week, where children explored forces while doing practical experiments. In topic, we are finishing our work on the Plague. In RE, we are looking at what happens in church during the holy week.

Year 6 In English, we have continued to read Jane Eyre and written diary entries using formal language and also descriptive language to express Jane's feelings. We have focussed on different types of comprehension questions, as well as inference. In our grammar sessions, we have been learning about different types of adverbials, for example, adverbials of manner, time and place. This has helped to make our writing interesting by using a range of sentence starters such as: Surprisingly..., as night fell... and at the crack of dawn...In maths, we have worked on the formal methods of multiplication and division and also geometry - coordinates and translation.

Year 2 learning about symbols in the Easter story

There’s a bear about…. Paddington?

A World Book Day enthusiast – Diary of

a Wimpy Kid!

Year 1 trip to The Natural History Museum The children had a fantastic trip to the Natural History Museum recently. They saw all of the dinosaur galleries and enjoyed looking at fossils, models and especially the huge, roaring T-Rex! They also took part in the ‘Super Stegosaurus’ workshop, which was really interesting. They are all super palaeontologists now according to the museum guide!

The wonders of Science Week! Thank you to Mr Gould who organised Science Week across the school this week. Children from Reception to Year 6 all experienced interesting and hands-on workshops on topics such as Space, Animal Bodies, Gravity, Wind/Windmills and Energy/Candles. There was even a workshop for parent and Year 5/6 children in the evening to find out more about Science and possible future careers in Science.

Dancers success Huge congratulations to our amazing dancers who are part of the Storm the Stage Dance Academy. They have recently won gold (All Styles category) and silver (Street Division category) in the Southern Regional Dance Qualifiers. They have now qualified for the National Finals for the 5th year in a row. They have put such effort and dedication in to their training and performances and we are super proud of them all! We will keep you updated on their future success!

We are pleased to let you know that the Yr 5 children are taking part in School Swimathon 2020 this term as part of their swimming lessons. School Swimathon is a free programme for schools that encourages children to ‘swim their best’, make progress and have fun in the pool, all while supporting National Curriculum swimming requirements. At the end of the programme, children are challenged to swim further together as a team.

You can join the national Swimathon 2020 weekend! Why not claim your free family entry into Swimathon 2020, which is

held on 27th – 29th March 2020 at over 600 venues all around the UK. Anyone can go to swimathon.org to select your session before midnight on Monday 23rd March and use the promotional code SCHOOLSWIMATHON20.

PSA NEWS Cake sales Thanks to everyone who baked, sold and bought at the Church Lane and Rectory Gardens cake sales! Together we raised £250 across both events, helping towards our goal of contributing towards the

Teacher’s Bids and class funds.

St Mary’s PSA Parents’ Social: calling all teams for the annual Quiz Night! Gather your teams and start dusting off your general knowledge - the St Mary’s Quiz Night returns! The event will be at Church Lane on Friday March 27th. Doors open at 6.30pm, and the quiz starts at 7pm sharp. We aim to be finished around 9:30pm. Adults only please. Teams of 6-8, individuals/partial teams welcome. Tickets are now available on Classlist/Events at £7 each. If you are not already a member, please sign up to Classlist by using the QR code below. Other local news Hornsey Parish Church Productions are delighted to present Rodgers and Hammerstein’s much loved stage show of ‘The Sound of Music.’ Based on the true story of the Von Trapp family and the arrival of the Nun Maria Rainer into their lives. Our very own Mrs Walker will be playing the Baroness and ex-staff and ex-pupils also feature! Do come along and support this wonderful production with iconic songs, beautiful costumes in the amazing setting of our own Hornsey Parish Church. 18th March – 21st March. Tickets can be purchased by clicking on this link, https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/hornsey-parish-church-productions/the-sound-of-music/e-axvbxz

Or by scanning this QR code. Tickets are also available on the door.

Dates for your diary Fri 20th Mar 9am Class Reps meet up #4 at Intrepid Bakers Fri 27th Mar 6.30pm-10pm Quiz Night at Church Lane Mon 30th Mar 9am PSA Committee meeting #7 at Church Lane Sat 4th Apr 11am-1pm Easter Egg Hunt at Church Lane

Do please join us for an excellent evening’s entertainment

Intellect optional, sense of humour obligatory!

Friday 27th March at Church Lane Doors open 6.30pm for 7pm start

Tickets £7 per person Whether you lead a fully formed 6-person team, or are a single fledgling,

sign up now on: Classlist.com/StMary’s CE Primary School Parents

or use the QR code below. Numbers limited so book soon to avoid disappointment!