From the Head of Primary 02.10.2021

The Friday celebration assembly really is a highlight of my week as it gives us the opportunity to connect as a school community. This week we launched a whole school competition ‘Life after Lockdown’ which is open to all students, staff and parents. Find out more by clicking here .

As always, we celebrated birthdays; gave shout outs to students from each class who are going above and beyond; awarded Bronze certificates; shared House Point totals and announced the winners of the house competition ‘Life Thru a Lens’ – A view of Sabah. Congratulations to:

On Thursday, Mr Gross hosted ‘Laptops and Lattes’, which was a great opportunity for parents to pop in and ask any questions they have about the primary school. Look out for the next one which will be in two weeks and please drop in, if you have the time.

As I continue to be amazed by the activities that I see when I drop into the virtual lessons, I decided it was time to share all the wonderful learning opportunities that are happening online.

Therefore I would like to launch a new feature for my weekly newsletters ‘Spotlight on…’. Each week, we will take a quick look at the fabulous learning that has been happening in one of our year groups. This week the ‘Spotlight is on….

EYFS’

This week early years have been on an exciting adventure to the beach!

Through the story ‘Sharing a Shell’ by Julia Donaldson, they have learnt about crabs, sea anemones and bristle worms, using playdough, painting, dance, singing and food art, amongst other mediums. In maths, F1 have been learning all about the number 1, counting 1 item, recognising the digit and beginning to form the digit themselves. In F2, they have learnt about ‘numbers that make 10’. In the weeks leading up to this, they have spent a lot of time on numbers 0-10: using counting tools and ten frames, counting on, writing addition number sentences, as well as mark making to record and help solve number problems. In phonics, they have enjoyed swimming to a deserted island, digging for treasure and identifying sounds to make up words.

As well, F1 and F2 have taken part in activities such as STEAM, Kindness Kids, Bubble Party, Storytelling, Memory Masters, Dough Disco and much more. All these fabulous activities create an engaging learning environment which supports the learning of new skills, independence, curiosity and, most importantly, a love of learning!

Thank you to the Early Years Team for all the hard work that goes into creating such amazing experiences for our students.

We are looking forward to welcoming some of our early years students back into school on Monday. I know the staff in early years are super excited to see all the children again.

Finally, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to a new student and her family who joined us this week:

Grace Kim (Y3S)

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Ms Karen Hitchen

Acting Head of Primary