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The Patten Pages The William Patten Newsletter for Parents and Children

Year 4 trip to British Museum

On Thursday 30th March, Year 4 visited the

British Museum, where the children took part in

a Science Investigators workshop. The children

learnt about the techniques that museum

scientists use to investigate ancient Greek and

Egyptian objects and uncover their hidden

surprises. They then created a multimedia

presentation that was sent back to school to

continue their learning in the classroom and to

share with others. This trip was in collaboration

with the Department of Conservation and

Scientific Research.

Dear parents,

It's the start of the final term with so many super

events and projects planned for our children to look forward to.

I am delighted to say that we are the host school for the schools' event and the Children's Hub for the Stoke Newington Literary Festival, which takes place from 2 - 4 June. There are some very special guests in the line-up and we hope you can come along if you are staying in London over half term. We are also running our 'Book in a Box' competition again as part of the schools' event and I can't wait to see the children's entries this year!

Just to keep you updated about the roof garden project - the structural engineers have been out to assess the roof and the project is going out to tender. Our timeline for completion in the summer holidays is on track!

You may have noticed that the low walls and the house walls in the playground were repointed and repainted in a brighter orange, blue and yellow during the half term. Some parents have asked us about having a non-slip surface on the house walls. Trying to get this done is much more complex than we thought. We have asked Elsie, who is designing the roof garden, to add it to her list of jobs, so hopefully that can be completed in the summer too.

A number of parents have been asking about how the new national funding formula will impact on the school and I will be sending out a letter to parents next week.

Parents (and mainly KS2 children) have also been asking about the new craze of ‘Fidget Spinners’ and whether they are allowed in school. We have spoken to the KS2 children and explained that they are not allowed, as they are causing distraction in lessons and arguments in the playground.

I would also like to remind parents that after school, children should not be climbing or swinging on the many trees that are in the playground. The children are also pulling the leaves off the trees and new plants and grasses. We do not allow the children to do this in the school day, so it is a confusing message for them, if parents allow them to do this at pick up time. Thank you for your support with both issues.

Have a lovely weekend Karen

Issue 113 Friday 5th

May 2017

Visit our website www.williampatten.hackney.sch.uk

Country Dancing Every child took part in English folk dancing sessions last week. The maypole was set up in the bottom hall, the flower garlands and shakers were out and the children were excited to learn the routines! The children were taught by Jane Pfaff who is an outreach worker for the English Folk Dance and Song Society. She was accompanied by Jeremy Monson, who played the accordion. Jane travels the country raising the profile of traditional dancing in schools. ‘Working with schools we provide exciting opportunities for all age groups to engage with folk music, dance and song and learn about our dynamic, living, folk heritage’.

“Tanya, this is brilliant! Look at what is happening

to the maypole!” Henry W, 2T

Run Hackney Half Marathon

On Sunday 30th April, William Patten once again took part in the Hackney Half Marathon! Over the past 6 weeks, 70 children have been meeting Jim and his team at Clissold Park on a Tuesday morning before school, to run 2 miles. This was with a view to completing the total half marathon distance of 13.1 miles. The final 1.1 mile run was held at Hackney Marshes on Sunday, where the children got to complete the total distance with other schools in the area. After a little warm-up, the children were led to the starting pen - where the final half marathon runners had just returned - and waited patiently for the starter to sound. As the race began, the children were cheered by thousands of spectators who had stayed to support the schools challenge. It was an incredible event that has hopefully inspired a future generation of athletes to take up running! We look forward to next year’s event. Thank you so much to Jim, Jon, Lavern and Brodie for all their hard work over the last 6 weeks (and giving up their Sunday during the bank holiday weekend!).

Visit our website www.williampatten.hackney.sch.uk

Tennis Taster Sessions for KS1

KS1 were very lucky to have some fun tennis

taster sessions led by John Coates at Lee Valley

Park Tennis Centre. Year 1 were introduced to

some fun and interesting tennis skills. The children

chose a name for their ‘pets’ (tennis balls) and

took them for a walk around the park, making sure

they kept them close by with their leashes (tennis

racquets)! We taught our new pets some skills too

like waiting at traffic lights and running around a

‘tree’ (cone). We even practised balancing skills

by pretending to fry eggs in a frying pan! All in all a

lot of fun was had!

Keys Steps Gymnastics Competition Well done to our gymnasts who took part in the Key Steps Gymnastics competition at Queensbridge Leisure Centre on Wednesday: Connie Warrington, Dyreeice Paul, Esteban Whitehead, Asia Emanuel, Vincent Johnson, Harley Cai, Marc Salek Camara and Millie McLean. The team performed very well in a challenging competition. Thank you to Jim and Wendy for accompanying the group and to the children who behaved impeccably.

Yoga sessions

Reception are taking part in weekly yoga sessions

this half term, led by yoga teacher Esme. During

the sessions the children have been learning

different yoga positions to support their gross

motor development, including moving in different

ways and balancing. They are also learning

breathing exercises, which helps to calm and relax

them. Esme creates a very tranquil environment for

the children, assisted by her “singing bowl”, which

the children are very captivated by!

Year 1 Spring Walk

On Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th, 1A and 1I

headed out for a spring walk around Abney Park

Cemetery. Armed with clipboards and pencils we

hunted down signs that spring had maybe finally

arrived in Stoke Newington (although the weather

certainly doesn’t feel like it!) We spotted swathes of

cow parsley and plenty of blue bells too. We

listened out carefully for bird song and at one point

1A got caught up in hail! We observed the trees

carefully and found a mixture of deciduous and

evergreen trees in this lovely local reserve. A very

big thankyou to our parents and carers for helping

out – no matter what the weather – you help us

make these trips safe and fun for the children.

Visit our website www.williampatten.hackney.sch.uk

NFER Pilot Tests The National Foundation for Educational Research selected William Patten, as a high performing school, to participate in pilot test trials on Tuesday 18th April. Ben’s class came straight back after the Easter holidays to a morning of tests as they took part in two reading pre-tests! Sue Maran from the NFER was so impressed with the children (who took it all in their stride) that she wrote to congratulate them – well done 6B! “Good afternoon Carole, I just wanted to reiterate sincere thanks to you & Ben & his Year 6 pupils. The pupils’ commitment & focus to 2 back to back reading tests was outstanding. I did tell them but it is worth repeating! They were a credit to themselves & their school - what a way to start their final term! Please pass my thanks to Ben once again. With kind regards Sue Maran 0n behalf of NFER”

Afternoon Tea with Karen!

The next group of children to be nominated three

times in Good Deeds assembly met with Karen for

afternoon tea on Friday 28th April. Congratulations

to Mia Gioia, Marlowe Innes Hopkins, Tanak Patel,

Sergey Arif, Ezra Thomas, Millie McLean, Florence

Hornblower, Finn Curtis, Rudy Ashford, Pablo

Chalcraft, Clement Vero, Marnie Kennedy, Marleigh

Edwards Lue, Jack Hawkins, Nadia Malik, Molly

Heaphy, Phoebe Stevenson, Mehdi Aliaoui Liferki,

Altay Abdullah, Ronnie Heseltine, Adnan Ali,

Florence Nettleton, Serin Murat, Max Olley and Ben

Lees. The children each chose a friend and enjoyed

a lovely afternoon of tea and cakes!

Time Capsule Workshop! Milly Meadows from 5M recently took part in an exciting day for Great Ormond Street Hospital’s new proton beam therapy centre making a time capsule: “Hi Karen, We have had an amazing time at the UCLH Time Capsule workshop!!! Here are a few photos! I made a book to go in the time capsule. We had amazing cupcakes!!!!! I got lots of selfies with Dr Chris from CBBC 'Operation Ouch'! I did a film recording of my ideas for the new Proton Beam unit too. And they gave me a lovely goodie bag!! Mum drank lots of coffee and ate cupcakes!! Have a lovely Easter holiday, Love

Milly xx😄🐶 P.S.Lindy sends his love”

PTFA Update Welcome back from the PTFA! This is going to be a busy term with the Summer Fair, Helen Ham Creative writing award and ongoing discussions about playground air pollution levels. More on all of these later. For now, some dates for your diary: Air pollution meeting - Wed 17th May, 7pm

PTFA meeting - Wed 7th June, 7.30 pm

Summer Fair - Sunday 9th July, 12 till 3pm. We are going to need a team of organisers for the summer fair so if this is something you are interested in or would like to know more about please get in touch via the usual channels. Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/groups/williampattenptfa/ Email: williampattenptfa@gmail.com

Visit our website www.williampatten.hackney.sch.uk

Premio Espanol Primaria-Primary Spanish Award

We are pleased to announce that the school has

been awarded the 'Premio Espanol Primaria' - a

quality mark for schools who are able to demonstrate

high standards in Spanish teaching and

learning. Although schools generally work through

each level of award, beginning with bronze, as a

result of the strength of our Spanish provision,

William Patten has been awarded the Silver level of

award. Following her visit, Bernadette Clinton, MFL

consultant at the Learning Trust, acknowledged the

engagement of the pupils and their ability to talk

about their learning which evident from the lesson

observations, as well as pupil interviews. She also

acknowledged the progress of pupils and the impact

of the positive impact of the William Patten Spanish

App.

The following feedback was given in Bernadette’s

assessment report to the school - ‘The visit to

William Patten was set up to assess for the Bronze

Award, but it became clear that the evidence for also

achieving the Silver Award was overwhelming. Since

the school has achieved the International School

Award (ISA) the mapping of the curriculum to the

International Dimension has been shown to have

taken place; the school has a strong established link

with a Madrid school; the partnership with Clapton

Girls is well-established and joint projects have taken

place and the partnership with SNS is under way;

there is clear evidence throughout the school of

cross-curricular work; and there is evidence through

the monitoring of pupil outcomes, and our own

observations, that good quality lessons are being

delivered. We have, therefore, awarded the school

the Silver Award.’

Bernadette’s report also included the statement ‘This

is a Beacon school for Primary Spanish!’ which we

feel acknowledges the combined efforts of the

children, staff and parents and carers who so actively

support the MFL curriculum.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Happy birthday to everyone who celebrated their

birthday since the last newsletter: Octavia, Tamimur,

Dominik, Holly, Zarya, Efe, Thomas, Ben, Uma,

Julian, Nana, Lola, Aisha, Cian, Taylor, Basanti,

Quentin, Fred, Ilyas, Cavarley, Eshrat, Luna, Alfie,

Daniel, Joseph, Ismail, Emran, Elsie, Kezia, Grace,

Brody, Kit, J.J, Phoebe Marnie, Rezwana, Iris, Molly,

Aidan, Neelam, Lucas, Jamie, Malaika, Aras,

Tamzin, Florence, Cate, Charlie, Grace, Marc and

Elsa.

Air quality action plan meeting

Over the past few months, plans have been

developed for reducing levels of air pollution

around William Patten, which are currently over

EU safety limits. If you would like to hear about

the plans and contribute any ideas you may have,

please join us on Wednesday 17th May, 7-8pm in

the back room of the school. This will be a

meeting open to all parents, and will be attended

by Karen, the PTFA and Hackney Council. A

contractor who has developed plans for a green

screen will also be attending. The green screen is

a screen of plants that will reach above the wall

along Church Street, and will help to block out and

capture some of the pollutants caused by traffic.

Hackney Council will also provide an update on

the monitoring and air quality audit that has been

carried out at the school, and will explain how the

council can support us with our plans. We have

also begun discussions with TfL to ask them to

remove the Church Street bus stops directly

outside the playground. With buses stopping there

every few minutes and running their engines, the

pollution levels there are extremely high. So lots to

discuss… We hope to see some of you there and

hear your thoughts.

Well done to 4D class who are top of attendance chart this week with 97.4%

Rec Natalie 96.9% Rec Hannah 97.1% Y1 Asima 95.6% Y1 India 96.9% Y2 Tanya 97% Y2 Vanessa 97.2% Y3 Helen 96.8% Y3 Claire 95.4% Y4 Aimee 95.7% Y4 Diane 97.4% Y5 Jon 95.8% Y5 Marcus 95.9% Y6 Ben 96.4% Y6 Christine 96.7%

Lost Property - We have a mountain of coats,

jumpers etc at the moment in lost property. Please

check before half term if your child has lost

something as we will be making a donation to the

clothing bank during the holidays.

Visit our website www.williampatten.hackney.sch.uk