From the Headmaster:
It never ceases to surprise me just how much the children grow over the two months of the summer holiday. Handshake height now spans quite a range from our youngest children through to our oldest children who are clearly growing into mature and confident young men and women, definitely role models.
Whilst we pride ourselves on having many strengths, perhaps the sight of our oldest children calmly guiding our Second Steps children across to our Thursday morning assembly at St. Paul's Church best describes our 'whole school' approach, every one of us wanting the best for one other.
I am delighted to welcome many new members to our school community, judging by the smiles through these last three days, you have clearly been made to feel welcome and your children getting used to the routine.
We have been very busy both in the last three days but also over the last few weeks, making improvements and refinements to further enhance the quality of teaching and learning. Do please read through this edition of the Deerstalker to learn more and to enjoy some of the images of our children hard at work (and play) this week, and to learn a little more about the addition of Latin to the school.
We will be holding a West End Theatre Workshop for both weeks of half term. I will provide further information in the next edition of the Deerstalker.
I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend.
Yours sincerely,
Alistair
Welcome and Congratulations
As I explained in my letter to you all earlier this week, we are delighted to welcome a number of new colleagues and a slight name change for another! I am sure you will join me in congratulating Mrs Gibbons (Miss Dixon) who got married earlier this summer.
We also welcome two new members of staff who I am confident will contribute significantly to not just their respective classes but also across the whole school.
Mr Papps will be working with our Year 5 and Year 4 children and brings with him considerable experience having taught in both independent and state schools since graduating. With a particular strength in Art, I think we can all look forward to a particularly impressive art exhibition this year!
I am also delighted to welcome Ms Adamidou who joins us as our PE teacher. I am in no doubt that under her leadership, the quality and provision of PE and sport across Park Hill will flourish. Her particular strength is with swimming which bodes particularly well for our continued triathlon success!
We will also be joined from next week by Mrs Nektaria who will be working with our Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 children on a new addition to the curriculum at Park Hill - Latin!
Maybe when I ask what 'citius, altius, fortius' means at the next sports day, some of our children will be able to respond!
Finally, I am pleased to confirm that Mrs Hanif has returned from her maternity leave. She has resumed her crucial role as SENCO for the school. Welcome back!
Assembly - Perseverance!
It was most pleasing to see so many parents at our first assembly of the year. The children started with a rap that contained my two favourite words - perseverance and resilience...
We looked at various endeavours that required such qualities and ended with what we agreed is an important message -
News from Year 5 and Year 4
Year 5 and Year 4 have settled in well to the new year. With only one day in school pupils managed to perform with little preparation in the first assembly of the year. New members of the class, both pupils and teacher, have been warmly welcomed.
We are studying Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories and we will continue to read more stories next week as inspiration to develop our own stories themed around animals.
In Maths, we are recapping place value and identifying the values of numbers in 5+ digit numbers to aid our use of the four operations.
For humanities, we have started to create our masks inspired by themes, shapes, forms and materials used by the Aztecs.
We are looking forward to hearing pupil’s presentations for school roles next week.
Don't forget - Swimming kit on Wednesday; After school activities start this week; Games kit on Tuesday; Showbie parent workshop also on Tuesday.
News from Year 3
Year 3 have hit the ground running! The children are keen and excited about the new year ahead. We started off developing our alter-ego in superhero form, looking at what we are good at, and how they could be transferred into super strengths. Next week, we will develop these ideas further to help us work on our targets for the term. In Mathematics, we are looking at place value and why it is important to get the digits in the correct columns even counting up into millions.
This term we are looking into life in Ancient Rome and how the Romans invaded Britain.
The children have a busy weekend ahead of them planning their speeches for the student council, house captains, digital leaders and librarians.
Don't forget - Swimming kit on Wednesday; After school activities start this week; Games kit on Tuesday; Showbie parent workshop also on Tuesday.
News from Year 2
Over the first few days, Year 2 have been getting to know the routines and expectations in their new class and how their room is laid out. In mathematics, we have started some work on place value while continuing to explore our room. The children were challenged to search the classroom for some sums that they then needed to solve. English has involved our first writing task, describing our owl using exciting and interesting words. In addition to this, the children have had their first French ,comprehension, and 11+ lesson on verbal and non verbal reasoning.
Next week, we will continue our work on place value and focus our English on story writing revising adjectives, verbs, and nouns.
An excellent start to our new year.
Don't forget - Swimming kit on Wednesday; After school activities start this week; Games kit on Tuesday; Showbie parent workshop also on Tuesday.
News from Year 1
A wonderful start to the new academic year.
Year 1 came in with huge enthusiasm and confidence. They are already asking well thought out questions and working hard to develop their iPad skills.
This week we had a fantastic woodland school where we climbed over bridges we created and recorded our adventure using journey sticks.
In Maths, we have been looking at our knowledge of 2D shapes and learning new shapes like the trapezium and rhombus.
We created scary shape monsters so beware if you enter the Year 1 classroom!
“They are really scary, they scare people and the walk around and teach you shapes.”
Don't forget - Swimming kit on Wednesday; After school activities start this week; Games kit on Tuesday; Showbie parent workshop also on Tuesday.
News from Reception
What a great start to the term. It has been an absolute joy and pleasure to see the children so happy and enthusiastic ready for learning and settling into the classroom routine. Reception have thoroughly enjoyed participating in a range of activities, particularly enjoying ‘All about Me’ tasks. Within Maths the children measured their height which we are now beginning to display in the classroom for comparisons. The children even decided to measure the height of other items around the classroom such as the ‘dolly and dinosaur.’ Next week we will introduce our new topic ‘My Body.’ I look forward to seeing as many of you at the Tapestry workshop on Monday 10th September.
Don't forget - After school activities start this week; Games kit on Tuesday; Tapestry parent workshop on Monday.
News from Second Steps
Wow, what a fun first week for Second Steps. We have been learning our new friends names and its been a joy to see so many children coming in happy and settled each day. We’ve got messy this week with our sensory play and have been practicing our name writing, which is on display in our classroom for you to see. Next week we will be starting our Topic which is ‘All About Me and My Senses’. We would like to remind our parents that there is a Tapestry workshop with Mrs Gibbons on Monday 10th September at 8:40 - 9:30 in her classroom. We would advise as many of our parents to attend this session as all our homework and children’s observations will be done through Tapestry.
Don't forget - After school activities start this week; Tapestry parent workshop on Monday.
News from First Steps
Wow! What a great start to the first week in First Steps! We have welcomed four lovely new students. The children settled very quickly to their new environment and their new friends. They enjoyed exploring their environment and discovering new activities. All of the children got involved in our morning circle time where they sang about their feelings and said hello to their new friends! They showed super concentration skills when they were decorating their very own frame. All of the children got involved in their first PE session with Ms. Anastasia where they focused on throwing and catching a ball. Well done, First Steppers!
The Gallery
Key Dates for the first few weeks:
Monday 10th September - Start of after school activities and teacher led clubs
Monday 10th September - Introduction to Tapestry parent workshop, 8.40am
Tuesday 11th September - Introduction to Showbie parent workshop
Monday 17th September - Individual portrait photographs
Monday 17th September - Curriculum workshop - Phonics and Reception Open Morning
Thursday 20th September - Whole School Open Morning
Monday 24th September - E-Safety Workshop for parents
Credits:
Alistair Bond