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Springmead Newsletter

No. 19~ 2019/20

Friday 13th

March 2020

Dear Parents,

The school week started with an invigorating ‘Wake and Shake, as part of our Sports Relief Day,

thank you for the generous donations. Well done everyone who has been involved in the Mid

Somerset Festival, such opportunities will stay with you for life. James Shone, our Chaplain, has

just completed a two week tour visiting schools in Australia. On returning he visited the school and

asked me to share his thoughts with you:

‘Whilst I was away I visited some of the greatest and well known schools in Australia. They

impressed me with their facilities and their children were well turned out and clearly

motivated. However, in my mind none of them had created the essential sense of

‘belonging’, this particular quality is Springmead’s trump card. When we are young we

need to belong and at Springmead individuals are truly celebrated for being themselves and

every individual is known, really counts and belongs. I cannot endorse the importance of

this more heavily. Well done Springmead.’

As our Chaplain James visits the school a couple of times each half term, as well as leading

assemblies and offering pastoral support for the community. As a previous school leader he also has

the important role of being a ‘critical friend’ and not shying away from asking searching questions.

It is good to get such feedback and it good to know that he can see the true benefit our children get

from our setting.

Parents will have a chance to look around classrooms on Monday before our Open Morning. Year 6

will host coffee and tours from 8.30-9.00 along with a few of the grown-ups of course!

Sports Relief

Corona Virus Update

(This is a copy of the parentmail sent yesterday evening for anyone who may not have seen it)

The impact of Corona Virus and steps to mitigate around it are profound for all of us, as well as being a huge

responsibility. As a school we are absolutely duty bound to follow Government advice to the letter. We

cannot go above it or below it at all. Clearly, we want our whole community to stay well so we can carry on

providing an education for all, preferably on-site or if required, off-site. We have all been told today that

anyone having a persistent cough or a temperature above 37.8 C should self -isolate for seven days. That will

need to come into play immediately.

If children are poorly they won’t want to be doing school work. However, for children who are just at home

with mild symptoms but are now required to self-isolate we will provide distance learning in discussion with

parents concerned.

Should we go into a phase of Government enforced school closure we will continue to provide distant

learning to minimise the impact on each child’s learning, from Nursery to Year 6. Plans are being put in place

for this but this will not happen until the Government directive says to do so.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

We, as always, will keep you updated with information as we move through this difficult time for everyone.

In a situation where staff have to self-isolate we will aim to keep things as normal as possible for the children

but may need to make timetable and staff cover adjustments.

I know that this situation impacts on every one of us and I thank you for your support.

Madeleine Taylor

We would ask as a matter of course, that parents inform us of any travel abroad to category 1 and 2

areas or contact with a confirmed case. We also ask parents to keep up to date with all relevant

government advice. If a family member becomes unwell or has been exposed to the virus call or email

the school rather than come in.

Please read https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public

If you have queries please do not hesitate to contact us.

Handwashing

Please be assured that as a school we are concentrating on handwashing as the primary method

for sanitising hands within the day. The hand sanitiser is being used is one that contains the

recommended alcohol content for effective cleaning of this virus. We are trying to keep the use

of hand sanitiser to a minimum to prevent the skin drying.

Art Competition

This year our annual art competition will have another slant. As Mr Gulliford works on preparing

our outside classroom we would like our children to get creative. During our enrichment week next

term you will have a hands on art experience to put your mark on the area. For now we would like

you to draw and colour an animal which would live in a rainforest. So, you will need to do some

research! Please use the special card provided by your class teacher before the Easter break. As

always we will have a display in school, the winners will be painted onto a rainforest scene in the

outside classroom. Please see Jane Dickson’s focus article at the end of the newsletter.

Individual Music and Drama At Springmead At Springmead School we are delighted to continue to offer a wide range of peripatetic lessons. All

pupils having lessons have the opportunity to enter for exams when they are ready, and we have a record

of excellent results from Trinity Guildhall, The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music

(ABRSM), the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) and the London College of

Music (LCM). Lessons are available in

Singing

Drama

Piano

Clarinet

Saxophone

Trumpet

Cornet

Guitar

Ukelele

Flute/Fife

Recorder

Music Theory

Introduction to Music

If you wish for your child to start lessons after Easter, please see the letter attached and return the reply

slip by Monday 23rd

March, 2020. If you wish for your child to begin lessons in September 2020, please

return the reply slip any time before the end of the Summer Term. We will always assume that pupils’

peripatetic lessons will continue from one term to the next unless we receive the half term’s notice to stop.

Personnel Changes

After many years of working with our children two of our musicians move on from Springmead at Easter

to continue to develop their musical careers. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Denian Arcoleo

and Tamsin Kennard, they have given so much to the children they have worked with and have very much

been a part of the Springmead community. Denian has worked with us for nearly eighteen years and

Tamsin since Hannah’s first maternity leave. Thank you Tamsin and Denian, all the very best for the

future!

Moving Forward

We are delighted to announce that we will be welcoming John Millichip, experienced guitar and ukulele

teacher and professional guitarist, who comes highly recommended!

Hannah Drury will resume individual singing lessons for those who were working with Tamsin Kennard.

Mid Somerset Festival News

As we go to print children are involved in the Mid Somerset Festival, we will share news with you

next week.

LAMDA

Good luck to the following students taking their LAMDA exams on Saturday.

Sienna Marshall- grade entry

Mollie Foot- entry

Bella Bush- entry

Tom Burt, Beatrice Bremner and Oscar Haslett- Group acting entry

Leon Marshall- Grade 1

Maria Lazardiou- Grade 1

Paddy Bagan- Grade 1

Leon Marshall, Darcey Scully and Maria Lazardiou- Grade 1 group acting

Also good luck to Sienna Marshall, Leon Marshall and Mollie Foot who will compete in the Mid

Somerset festival acting classes.

Year 5 to Year 6 Transition Meeting, 8:30-9:15 am, Friday 27th

March

This meeting describes how we prepare your child for senior school and what parents need to be thinking

about. Year 6 is crucially important and we would ask that all Year 5 parents come and join us.

Founders Day, Tuesday 21st April

Again, we will be celebrating Founders’ Day, marking the moment Springmead School began, on

the first day of the summer term, now eighteen years ago. During the day, we will be going to the

church for a service of thanksgiving and, following repeated requests from the School Council, we

will have our annual class buffet on this day. The children and class teachers will plan their buffet

before the end of term. In the party spirit, children can come to school in mufti on this day, although

lessons will carry on as usual.

As it is the first day of the new term, we will send out a reminder via Parentmail

the day before.

Norland Students

We are delighted to welcome first year students from the prestigious Norland College, based in

Bath. Lauren O’ Callaghan is working with the Otters and Zoe Crook with the Hedgehogs.

Academic focus on Geometry

Geometry is one of the classical disciplines of math. In Greek, it is roughly translated as “Earth

Measurement” and is concerned with the properties of figures and space.

Geometry is important because the world is made up of different shapes and spaces. Geometry finds huge

applications in the real world:

• in Art and Architecture

• in Space Study and Astronomy

• in Domestic Activities

Geometry is an integral part of mathematics but is often overlooked for number work. The national

curriculum splits geometry into two sections – Properties of Shapes and Position and Direction.

At Springmead geometry takes its place within the curriculum in all year groups, with each new step

building upon previous learning.

EYFS – beginning to use everyday names for ‘solid’ 3D shapes and ‘flat’ 2D shapes;

recognise, create and describe patterns; explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes.

KS1 – identify and describe the properties of 2-D and 3-D shapes; use mathematical

vocabulary to describe position, direction and movement.

LKS2 – describe positions on a 2-D grid as coordinates in the first quadrant; identify right angles; identify

horizontal and vertical lines and pairs of perpendicular and parallel lines; identify acute and obtuse

angles; compare and classify geometric shapes, including quadrilaterals and triangles, based on their

properties and sizes.

UKS2 – identify 3-D shapes, including cubes and other cuboids, from 2-D representations; draw given

angles, and measure them in degrees; distinguish between regular and irregular polygons; recognise

angles where they meet at a point, are on a straight line, or are vertically opposite, and find missing

angles; recognise, describe and build simple 3-D shapes.

This week in maths, the Eagles have been embracing and enjoying geometry by working with co-

ordinates in a four quadrant grid. They have been plotting, drawing, reflecting and translating shapes

through all four quadrants.

They have also been working out missing angles using their knowledge of shapes, lines and a little

algebra!

Nick Munckton

Springmead Charity Week 2020, Monday 23rd March - Friday 27th

March

Helping those less fortunate than ourselves is crucial to being a complete human being and forms an

important part of our wider curriculum. Charitable work intersperses our school year, supporting

many national and international worthy causes. Charity Week is the moment when we really think

about charitable giving. We continue to work with Mercy in Action, helping street children in the

Philippines, as our main charity. Crucially, staff from the charity come to talk to our children and

are able to tell them directly how their money is being spent, making the children feel very

connected to their acts of charity.

Charity Week relies totally on your generosity; thank you in advance for your support.

Charity Week Activities 2020

Monday 23rd

March Year R Sponsored walk in costume

Year 6 Sponsored fancy dress run

Tuesday 24th

March Year 5 Sponsored jump-a-thon

Year 1 Sponsored sing

Year 2 Sponsored draw

Wednesday 25th

March Nursery Sponsored triathlon

Year 3 Sponsored construction

Thursday 26th

March Year 4 sponsored story

Teacher Event To be announced!

The Tale of Three Trees Lower Prep Spring Production 2020

Our Years 3 and 4 children are busy preparing for their Spring Production. The two performances

will be staged at St. Georges Church, Beckington on:

Wednesday 18th March at 2.00pm and 5.00pm

Please note that all performers need to be at both performances.

Again, this year, due to requests from parents, and in consideration for our young performers,

children need to be Reception age or older to come to the performances. Hopefully, by having

two performances you will be able to find babysitting friends! All children in school will be taken

to see the dress rehearsal.

Tickets must be produced on entry; please ensure you bring yours with you.

Please note that all Year 3 and 4 children should be collected from school by 3.30pm on

18th March, so that they can have a proper break before their evening performance.

For the evening performance, children need to be dropped at St. Georges Church, Beckington at

4.30pm and can be collected from the Church as soon as they are changed after the performance,

at approximately 6.15pm.

Go Explore, out and about

Reception Go Explore!

The Hedgehogs had a great time at the wild life area exploring. We were out looking for signs of

spring, spotting primroses, daffodils, buds, listening for birds and generally enjoying the sunshine at

last!

Year 1 Go Explore!

Rabbits had the most wonderful time on their ‘Go Explore’ on Wednesday! They walked to the nature

reserve and hunted for different types of leaves and for the first signs of Spring. They spotted lots of

sheep, many holly berries and waved at a farmer! They had so much fun and got thoroughly muddy –

yay!

The Class of the Week is for the Rabbits

Points are awarded to classes for collective good behavior. The winning class is rewarded with the

cup for a week and an extra five minutes playtime. Points are given to classes who, for example,

follow our school rules by walking quietly around the school and to and from Assembly, line up

quietly in the playground, and listen carefully to instructions.

Stars of the Week

The following children received praise certificates this week

Nursery

Lizzie Palmer~ fantastic concentration during activities.

Beth Gillies~ listening and attention during phonics.

Finn Gillies~ being caring and helpful towards friends and grownups.

Harrison Harbour-Lilley~ including others into his play.

Reception Woody Harbour-Cowles~ working really hard on identifying different coins in Maths.

Everly Ballinger~ always being so helpful in class.

Year 1 Rufus Ryan~ fantastic working in Maths.

Reece Oliver~ being respectful all the time, to everyone.

Seth Woods ~ showing great confidence and determination in swimming

Year 2 Lucy Barker ~ working super hard on reading

Rafe Hammond ~ working hard on handwriting

Delilah Thompson ~ showing great enthusiasm in class

Year 3

Felix Millard ~ a brilliant ‘save the rainforest’s’ poster

Phoebe Fisher ~ fantastic expanded column addition

Ruben Percival-Caddis ~ a great retelling of the ‘King Midas’ myth

Year 4

Beatrice Bremner~ working hard to extend her descriptive writing.

Lara Oliver~ pushing herself to contribute in Maths.

Sophie Thompson~ excellent work on column subtraction.

Year 5

Zak Veshaj~ accurate Islamic geometry.

Joel Lamb~ extreme Islamic geometry.

Year 6

Seb Vaughan ~ a super video book review.

Georgia Doel ~ great graph work in maths.

Alice Gale ~ good teamwork skills during bushcraft.

Homework Stars of the Week for last week

The following children have had their homework

displayed this week as it showed real effort:

Reception Martha Rider

Year 1 Mabel Munckton

Year 2 Evie Poa Paterson

Year 3 Evie Ricks

Year 4 Sammi El-Deen

Year 5 George Keirle

Year 6 Jack Thompson

The Springmead Reading Award for this week

Well done, keep up the reading!

Diamond Jack Poa Patterson

Bronze Scarlett Baker

Felix Young

Everly Ballinger

Platinum Seth Woods

Emerald Ruby Sapphire Amethyst Diamond Copper Bronze Silver Platinum Gold

You may remember we set up an easy fundraising page to buy a new heavy-duty basketball hoop,

which we now have and the children enjoy using as playtimes. Please can we ask for your continued

support to help raise money for the Springmead School Association.

Please help us by collecting free donations every time you shop online.

Follow these three easy steps:

1. Join - Register with the site:

easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/springmeadschool

2. Shop – There are nearly 3,000 retailers on board. Begin your purchase at

easyfundraising.org.uk, and then go to the retailer site (amazon.co.uk, for example)

3. Raise – after you have made your purchase, the retailer will make a donation and

Springmead will receive a percentage of the purchase price – with no additional cost

to you.

Sports News

Next week’s fixtures

Wednesday 18th

March Year 5 Tag Rugby @ Frome RFC

Thursday 19th

March Year 5 and 6 Netball at Oakfield

Sport at Springmead As the Coronavirus starts to effect sporting fixtures and events all around the world, sport and PE

continues to take place at Springmead. PE lessons are still in full flow and sports clubs continue as

normal.

KS1 have been working on their hand-eye co-ordination and their targeting skills.

LKS2 have been exploring the skills and tactics involved in Tag Rugby while also enjoying the lovely

weather!

UKS2 have been developing their netball games playing skills.

Out of School Achievements

Do share your child’s out of school successes with us so we can celebrate the news! Please email

details to mtaylor@springmead.com

The newsletters are a way of keeping you up-to-date with current issues; please look out for them,

every week amongst your emails (usually on a Friday), please read them alongside the Calendar of

Events. Newsletters for the current academic year will be available on the school website at

www.springmead.com.

Yours faithfully,

Madeleine Taylor

Principal

‘Springmead School is committed to

safeguarding and promoting the welfare of

children and expects all staff and volunteers

to share this legal and moral responsibility’.

Springmead School

Castle Corner, Beckington, Somerset BA11 6TA

01373 831555 info@springmead.com

www.springmead.com

Directors: M. Taylor & J. Beardsley

Taypenny Schools Ltd. Registered office:

4 Beaufort Way, Bath, BA1 6QB

Registerd in England No. 3090822

Focus on observational drawing

Fun in the Rainforest A wonderful, new outdoor classroom space is being developed which calls for a vivid and bright piece

of wall art. Our own resident artist, Ilka Brown, has agreed to paint a rainforest scene as a background

and to recreate creatures drawn and coloured by Springmead students.

There are many opportunities to do observational drawing at school. As well as art in class, there is

Sketching and Watercolour club, Big Art club, Cookery and Craft club and Art club as well as the

annual art competition.

The art competition for 2020 is to investigate, then choose an animal or insect which resides in the

Rainforest to draw and colour. There is a huge variety to choose including: jaguars, tigers, howler

monkeys, sloths, orangutans, spider monkeys, red-eyed tree frogs, poison dart frogs and green

anacondas. Research the variety of creatures online and in books. Having made a choice, parents or

helpers can talk with the child about what can actually be seen, before putting pencil to paper. It will

take several practise runs of drafting and re-drafting, remembering to use fairy pencil strokes and to

draw lightly so errors can easily be rubbed out. Colour is also an important part of creating an

accurate picture so try to match the colours up. The final version of your picture should be produced

on the card template provided by the school.

The competition is open to children from Reception to Year 6 and will be set as a piece of Easter

Homework. Entries should be returned to class teachers by Friday 24th April. Everyone who enters

will receive a house point. Three winners will be selected from each class and they will have two

house points each. The winner will be selected from the class finalists by Mrs Taylor.

Enjoy!

Jane Dickson