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

Dear Parents & Carers, I hope that this newsletter finds you all welI, especially our school’s Muslim community - wishing you a very Happy Eid as you celebrate the end of Ramadan this week. The school has recently felt so much more like ‘business as usual’ with Year 5 being well into their weekly swimming lessons once again, children taking part in sporting competitions (see below) and the fabulous annual Science Week where children in every year group explored different aspects of science in creative and interesting ways – see Science Week section below. In addition we are excited that the PSA are currently planning a number of end of term events both at Church Lane and Rectory Gardens. These are listed in the PSA section at the end of this newsletter and will of course be subject to the appropriate national Covid guidelines at the time. Parent consultations – thank you for taking the time to virtually meet with teachers to discuss your child’s academic, social and emotional development. I do hope you felt that these meetings gave you a good insight into the progress that your child is making. However, if you feel that you need to have an additional conversation with your child’s teacher to discuss an area/issue that could not be covered in time, please do contact the school office on office@stmarysn8.co.uk to arrange for a follow-up phone call at a mutually convenient time. We look forward to the time when we can reinstate our ‘Open Door Policy’ and return to more regular conversations with our families. Charitable efforts – I am constantly amazed by and impressed with the dedication and enthusiasm showed by the whole school community to the range of charitable organisations that we support. Here is a roundup of your recent efforts:

YMCA Sleep Easy – we hope you enjoyed camping out in support of homelessness. Thank you for your donations to this fantastic local charity – you raised £321! Lots of families took part and we especially loved David’s camp in his garden. However, Isabella in Y4 has won the prize for the most inventive sleep spot, by camping in her bath! Well done Isabella.

St Vincent and the Grenadines relief appeal – thank you for donating so many items to this much needed appeal.

Red Nose Day - £330

Air Ambulance Day - £261

Christian Aid – please remember to return your Christian Aid envelopes to the offices as soon as possible. Thank you!

Best wishes for relaxing (and hopefully dry) weekend,

Calvin Henry Headteacher ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---

Reminders There is NO Teacher Training Day / INSET day on 7th June - The correct term dates were circulated to families in November 2020

and are on our website – please click here to see them. Our sincere apologies if you have been guided by an old set of dates. You can also find the term dates for the next academic year on the school website - click here

Y6 school journey – Parent & carer Zoom meeting on Thursday 20th May at 6pm. Details have been sent in a letter to families yesterday.

Book Amnesty – a reminder to have a good look through your bookshelves and return any St Mary’s books. House points are being awarded for every book returned!

Year group emails – (e.g. y6@stmarysn8.co.uk) that were used for the duration of lockdown have now been suspended so please address any communication via the school office as usual. Thank you.

Newsletter 14th May 2021

As we love, we flourish

As we flourish, we aspire

As we aspire, we achieve

Together, we are a family

Science Week - 2021 All the children throughout the school thoroughly enjoyed Science Week last week and which very naturally followed our recent environmentally focused activities of Earth Day the week before. The theme was ‘The Nature All Around Us’. The children enjoyed daily nature journaling and learning about local and global conservation efforts. A key focus was learning how to do field sketches and Mr Gould, the school science lead, will be judging the best field sketch next week.

Rectory Gardens - The children at Rectory Gardens became scientific investigators during Science Week. Classes investigated, identified and documented ‘the nature that is all around us’ and spent time in the school grounds learning about the plants, trees and animals that live alongside us. They learned how to do field sketches, weighed and measured their discoveries and compared species. The children also created their own class Science Week books to capture all of their investigations and any evidence found. One of the highlights was a live lesson led by the World Wildlife Fund all about the extinction crisis and the threats that climate change and human impact are having on the planet. It was a fascinating week and it is safe to say that we have many budding future Sir David Attenborough’s in our midst!

Church Lane Science Week should really be called Ducklings Week for our Church Lane children! They have so enjoyed caring, interacting and watching the ducklings hatch, take their first steps, their first swims and continue to grow and thrive. The children also really enjoyed learning about seeds, planting and caring for new plants. Another highlight was taking part in a live lesson led by the David Sheldrake Wildlife Foundation, where the children learned about how orangutans depend on their forest environment. Our nursery children explored colour, planting sunflower seeds and watching the ducklings in Reception hatch and grow. Children also worked on developing their predication and observation skills and enjoyed their ‘Skittles’ experiment where the blossom changed colour when placed in different coloured water. They also developed their understanding of life cycles and were especially thrilled that their snail family has now expanded to 4!

PE Report by Mr Oakley

Y3/4 Girls and Boys Football teams – competed in the Haringey Football Cup The Y3/4 boy’s team, were truly outstanding winning the entire Haringey Football Cup competition, having won every single game they played in and beating 8 different schools along the way! Dieumerci led from the front as captain and ended up the competitions top scorer. The boys can say that they are now the best in Haringey! Well done all! Team: Dieumerci, Jack, Joseph, Isaac, Reuben, Lionel, Dominic, Abu

The Y3/4 girl’s team had a slower start to the competition, losing their first two games but recovered well and improved throughout the day. They went undefeated in their last 5 games and won the Silver Plate, winning our school a large bag of PE/Sports equipment! Lottie, Harri and Ra’ya excelled with Lottie ending up with the most goals. Well done all! Team: Lottie, Ra’ya, Daniah-Lea, Destiny, Karis, Khloe, Harri, Waverley This was our first external competition of the year and I could not have been more proud of the children. They had a brilliant attitude throughout, encouraging their teammates and showing good sportsmanship. The effort and ability on show was fantastic with great teamwork and superb individual performances. Well done all! Running Club Running club is back! A free morning club on a Monday or Friday morning before school for any child at Rectory Gardens (Y3-6) who wants to increase their fitness after multiple lockdowns. Contact Ms Walker for more info on swalker@stmarysn8.co.uk

Year 5/6 Girl’s and Boy’s Football teams entered Haringey Football Cup They Y5/6 boys came 4th at the Haringey Football Cup. 21 schools across Haringey were in competition with each other and our boys narrowly lost 3-2 to miss out on a bronze medal. They had some big wins (6-0 and 4-0) on the way and only lost two all day. The team showed great determination and resilience and Kieran was outstanding up front and finished our top scorer. Team: Kieran, Treyvon, Leon, Shyne, Anelka, Dexter, Joel, Euan This was the first time the Y5/6 girls had played together competitively and although it was a tough tournament for them, they bonded really well as a team,

picked up one win and managed 3 clean sheets. Well done all! Team: Keilani, Kalisha, Ella, Asha, Maria, Natalie, Julie Cricket and athletics competitions coming soon, so watch this space!

Nursery The focus artist this week is the fantastic Yayoi Kusama and the children have enjoyed printing with different circular objects, and adding stickers to their colouring to replicate her work. They have watched a video showcasing her latest exhibition in NYC and were amazed at how big some of her sculptures are. They children also enjoyed their maths work this week filling ten frames with objects they collected and used items to make transient art projects inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. The children are becoming confident with using the term 'finished ten' and talking about how many more they need to fill the next ten.

Reception The children have continued to progress through Phase 3 phonics moving on to or, ar and ur digraphs. They continue to enjoy their 'Wild Animals' topic, comparing the African Savannah to that of the British countryside. They have considered key features and differences, including the weather and animals living in these habitats. The children have also been developing their inference skills whilst reading Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae, recognising that with practice and determination, they can achieve more than they thought they could! In maths, there has been a focus on repeated patterns, learning how to make an AB and AABB pattern by clapping, using colours and with repeating shapes.

Year 1 The children have been enjoying the ‘Land Ahoy’ topic, reading pirate stories and learning about famous real-life pirates. In English, they have been writing fantastic descriptive sentences using the past tense and plurals based on the book A New Home for a Pirate by Ronda Armitage. In maths, the children are focused on their 2, 5 and 10 times tables and are now moving on to multiplication by making equal groups. In RE, they have been thinking about the real meaning of the story of Noah, thinking about why God flooded the Earth and the promise he made to Noah.

Year 2

The children have been learning about the features of fables focusing on The Bundle of Sticks story by Aesop. In maths, they are focused on the column method (addition with regrouping), developing problem solving and reasoning skills. In their ‘Awesome Achievers’ topic, they have been identifying female figures who have made a significant impact in the world. They are also currently learning about Marley Dias, an inspirational young African American activist and writer who launched a campaign called #1000BlackGirlBooks, when she was in school.

Year 3 In English, the children have been predicting and inferring, making sensible guesses and reading picture clues to help inform their ideas and opinions. They have also been applying prepositional language to their stories. In maths, they have been continuing with fractions and applying their knowledge by solving word problems. In RE, the children have been relating the Beatitudes to our lives and what they mean to us and relating them to the Christian values.

Year 4 In English, the children have been looking at the story Gorilla by Anthony Browne and have started writing their own stories based on the text. They have been researching their favourite animals to use in their own stories. In maths, they have looked at finding fractions of amounts and the relationship between fractions and decimals. The children have been working hard to finish their wonderful mosaics in their topic lessons. In RE, they have been studying parables, with particular reference to the parable of 'The Good Samaritan' where they discussed what is meant by 'Love Your Neighbour' and who our neighbour is. The children then created some great art work in groups.

Year 5 In maths, the children have continued to explore fractions by adding fractions with the same and different denominators. In English, they have started a story Talk4Writing unit, The Caravan. The children are enjoying learning the story through actions and repeating the story as well as drawing the story map. In science, they continue to learn about various forces, and are enjoying investigating the effect of gravity and how to measure it. The rainforests around the world is our Geography focus. Through art, map work and research, we are discovering the variety of plants, trees and animals that makes the rainforest their habitat.

Year 6 In English, the children continue to read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. The children have produced some excellent descriptive writing and are developing a good understanding of the formal language used in this book. They are developing their skills of summarising, learning to identify the main theme or idea in a paragraph or particular chapter. This story fits in well with their new history topic, the Victorians. In maths, the children have been learning about decimals and percentages, linking this to their work on fractions. A key focus continues to be reasoning and problem solving skills so this is covered in each lesson based on the particular focus of that day's lesson.

Y4 mosaic

Nursery children collecting items, ordering them and counting to 10

Noah’s Ark by Simeon in Y1

PSA NEWS Dear Families!

Thank you to all of you who supported the PSA’s fundraising activities during this past year. It is much appreciated as we know how tough times have been. Hopefully we can now start looking forward to some happier times and spending time together again. If restrictions continue to be eased, we are planning two events for the summer term - so save these dates!

Planned upcoming events – (subject to the continued easing of Covid restrictions)

Thursday 15 July: afternoon outdoor disco at Church Lane (exact timings TBC)

Thursday 22 July: end of year BBQ at Rectory Gardens (exact timings TBC)

PSA Meeting

Thank you to all of those who attended last week’s PSA meeting, where these events were discussed. We also elected people to fill some key committee vacancies on an interim basis. The new chair is Sara Thomson (mum of Ted Y6 and Lottie Y4); the treasurer is Vicky Thirkettle (mum of Harrison Y6 and Elliot Y4) and the secretary is Angela Loulopoulou (mum of Penelope Y4). Thank you also to all those parents who are doing such a fine job as class rep. We really do rely on this line of communication and you are very much appreciated. If your class does not have a rep, perhaps you would like to give it a go? Or if you are no longer able to commit to this role, please get in touch with our class rep coordinator: Charlotte.al.worth@gmail.com

Have a great weekend! St Mary’s PSA