Newsletter

No. 21: 12th February 2021

YEAR 6 The last two weeks Year 6 have been learning all about the orchestra, what groups of instruments make up an orchestra and which individual instruments make up the groups. They have been listening to music and identifying the sounds which each instrument makes, when played together. This culminated in the children making their own fantastic instruments at home. Below are some examples of what they made. Year 6 have also been creating stories based around the book 'The Lost Thing' by Shaun Tan. We began our task by creating our own 'lost things' using items from around the house. These then became our inspirations for our own stories. Below are some tasty snippets from our writing to engage you as the reader with the focus of wanting to find out more about our stories.

Standing in the hallway, with a little grimy face, the little pins as straight as a pencil, was the water bottle I found in the park. It nodded towards me, the malicious smile on face slowly spread up into a deceiving smile. Without warning, it pounced up into my palm. I wanted to get rid of it and fast but as I ran to the door I heard mum coming up the stairs... Diving across the room, I squeezed the bottle closer to my chest. Knuckles clenched as mum got closer and closer to the door. I had to do something and fast. Without thinking, I rushed through the door knocking over mum and racing down the stairs. I yelled that I needed to collect more bottle caps and cascaded through the door. (Leaving my bottle cap collection behind and still my pyjamas) My feet slipped on the icy floor, my heart was pounding but there was no stopping me now. No wonder this bottle was buried under ground and it is going back where it came from. (Ben—6E)

After we had had a conversation, and had eaten our lunch, we resumed our hike. Geoff and David picked up their bags, but I forgot mine. Anyway, we kept going, going and going until we were so exhausted. We thought we would stop for a drink and that was the moment I realised that I didn’t have my backpack. We couldn’t go back now. We had not been able to see Salt Lake City, we could only see Clearfield and Bear Lake in the Utah desert. The stunning sunset had just started to roll around. (Jack 6C)

James—6E Luca—6E Hayley—6C Lizzy—6C

Jasmine—6C Sami—6C Lola—6E

Saoirse—6E Jessica—6E

YEAR 2 Roll Up! Roll Up! The Year 2 circus is in town. This half term Year 2 have been at the circus. We celebrated the end of our topic by holding a circus zoom party. We shared our circus skills of juggling and tight rope walking. Some of us even had a go at plate spinning.

YEAR 4 Online Safety This half term, Year 4 have been learning about the importance of staying safe online by following the SMART rules. They then created an online safety leaflet on Purple Mash to educate others about how to stay safe online. Here are some excellent examples from 4P and 4F.

Finle

y—4

P

Henry L

—4

P

Dexte

r—4

F

Am

abel—

4F

Henry E

—4

F

Poppy—

4P

YEAR 5 This week Year 5 celebrated their awesome learning this half term by taking part in SPACE DAY! They used amazing detective skills to break codes in maths and rescue their teachers from outer Space! They also designed and made some SUPER Satellites! Children have also been using the NASA website to explore and extend their learning even further and have been following some brilliant art tutorials to create fantastic pieces of Art. The costumes, enthusiasm and effort was 'out-of-this-world' and we are so proud of them all!

YEAR 3 In Year 3, our artists have been getting creative making sculptures of figures linking to our Super Human topic about the body. Here are some great pieces:

3B—in school

3F & 3R—in school

Erin—3F

Oliver—3R

Joshua W—3B

Lily—3B

Maeve—3F Thomaz—3F

Jayden—3R

Zahraa—3R

YEAR 4 Colour Wheel and Henri Matisse Year 4 have been busy at home and school learning about the colour wheel including complementary and analogous colours. They have experimented by creating their own colour wheels in different ways using paints, pencils and pens. This week, they have learnt about the artist Henri Matisse and used his style to inspire their own masterpieces!

4P Pod

Caitlin & Philippa

Ethan– 4F Hayden—4F Jess N—4P

Luc

a N

— 4

P

Olivia—4P

Poppy—4P

Stanley—4F

Will P—4F

YEAR 1 Last week, we had a special guest join our zoom lesson! Did you know, that before he worked at Wray Common, Mr Huelin was a Sea Monster Expert? Year 1 asked him some fantastic questions about the Thunder Monster such as "Does it have horns like a triceratops?" and "What does it like to do for fun?" Then they added this information to their Sea Monster Hunters Guide! This week, they have created their own sea monsters and the Year 1 teachers were amazed at their imaginations! They also kindly created some awesome pirate accessories for a crew of pirates whose ship had been robbed!

YEAR 4 BRAIN BUILDS Here are three examples of brain builds from 4F this week! Their task was to research a country and make a piece of work reflecting that culture. Lots of children created their own menus. It seems that there are lots of budding chefs in 4F!

Will P Meghan Stanley

Albie—1W

Skanda—1W Annie—1W

William M— 1W Florence—1W

Heidi—1W Poppy—1W

Aoife—1W

Athena—1W Lily—1W Ottilie—1W Zoe—1W Thomas—1W

Katie—1W

SNOW What a magical week we have had with the snow. The children and staff in school had a great time enjoying the snow at lunch time. In Year 3, they have been writing newspaper articles which inspired Vivaan from 3F to write his own article all about the snow last Sunday.

ONLINE SAFETY In PSHE this half term, we have been learning about the importance of staying safe online. As we are all using digital devices even more than usual, our Wray Common Citizens have produced some fantastic reminders about how to use the internet safely.

Year 3 were challenged to spread the word about being kind online, here are some examples: Maria is 'spreading kindness' using the internet by facetiming her Grandma as she cannot be with her at the moment. Mollie made a quiz for her younger sister. Charlotte made a poster promoting 'Smart with a Heart'.

Iona—1W Mollie—1W Dolcie—2S

Lily B—2S Nicky—2S

Amelie—3R

WRAY COMMON CITIZENS A special mention to Malak from 2S who went to great efforts this week in creating her Circus tent. She had to be very creative due to not being able to get hold of certain items that she needed. Her family and teachers are very proud of her efforts.

VACANCY AT ST JOHNS SCHOOL St Johns Primary School have an exciting opportunity and are looking to recruit an effective School Business Manager to lead their premises and admin team. For full details and to apply please follow this link: https://www.eteach.com/job/school-business-manager-1131546

WELL BEING There are a wealth of resources on our school website currently relating to children’s and family well being. http://wray-common.surrey.sch.uk/school-closure/ We would like to draw particular focus to this new video all about supporting the emotional well being of your family during lockdown.

CBBC ON YOUTUBE We’ve made an exciting revamp to the CBBC YouTube Channel. We are uploading videos to it daily that are suitable for 5-11 year olds. We have all the top CBBC brands on here, with a wide range of genres from factual shows, news, dramas, comedy to entertainment. Programmes like Horrible Histories, Blue Peter, Newsround, The Next Step, Saturday Mash-Up, Operation Ouch, the Playlist, the Dumping Ground, Heirs of the Night and Jamie Johnson. We are also welcoming back Dani Harmer in the brilliant new programme My Mum Tracy Beaker.

COVID OVER HALF TERM Please remember if your child is currently attending school and develops Covid symptoms today (Friday 12th), Saturday or Sunday and tests positive later in the week, please contact the school by text on 07759 460314 stating your child’s full name, class, date your child first showed symptoms and the date of their last day of attendance in school. If your child develops symptoms from Monday 15th February onwards, please follow NHS Test and Trace instructions, do not contact the school. Before returning to school on 22nd February 2021, please email the Office at info@wray-common.surrey.sch.uk if your child has had any Covid symptoms, or has tested positive anytime over the half term holiday giving details of your child’s full name, class, date your child first showed symptoms and the date of the test so that we can update our records. Critical worker and vulnerable children will return to school on Monday 22nd February 2021.

INTERNET SAFETY COMPETITION There is still time to enter our Internet Safety Competition, deadline for entries has been extended until Monday 22nd February 2021. Thank you to those of you who have already applied. The winners will be announced in the first newsletter after half term. We would like the children to design a mascot (a character similar to the ones we use in our CAPTURE learning) to help promote and celebrate our school’s SMART rules that we use in our computing and online safety curriculum to teach the children to Be SMART with a HEART online! Be creative and think about how SMART helps you to stay safe and enjoy your time online. There will be a KS1 and KS2 winner chosen by the student council and digital leader team. Deadline for entries is Wednesday 10th February 2021. Please send entries to info@wray-common.surrey.sch.uk The following BBC link has some useful videos to open discussions with children about the internet plus one about 'social rules for parents'. https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/curations/safer-internet-day

PROVISION OVER HALF TERM Please note that the school will be closed to all children—including critical worker and vulnerable children, next week 15th—19th February 2021. School will reopen for those currently attending and online lessons for those at home will resume on Monday 22nd February 2021.

HONOUR BOOK Caterpillars Hilda WOW, you always impress us with your home learning. You go above and beyond and we love to see it. Keep working hard Hilda. Zachary Zach, we love seeing your home learning. You are working so hard to improve your writing and using your phonics knowledge to help you. Brilliant learning! Ladybirds Charlie For excellent work in his phonics, handwriting and measuring in maths. Great learning. 1P Henry For creating a fantastic piece of writing about his invented sea creature – The Blood Eyed Monster. 1W Albie For his terrific writing about the Skull Monster of the seas! 2B Holly For super effort and achievement in her Time learning this week. 2S Richard For being an independent and resourceful learner at home. 3B Sam Fantastic focus and determination on your art sculpture this week – you did an incredible job! 3F Harry For using his CAPTURE skills at home and reflecting on feedback and improving his writing – amazing work! 3R Charlie For being a great role model to his friend this week in Maths. 4F Everyone For working so hard this half term and doing such a great job in their writing over the last couple of weeks! Miss Fairbairn has really enjoyed reading your stories! 4P Ben For demonstrating an excellent understanding of fractions this week. Well done! 5B Haroon & For amazing enthusiasm towards their work and class Zoom discussions this half term. Always putting 100% Bethany in to all the tasks set. 5G Owen For his fantastic effort and creativity with his Space Day outfit! 5SE Jack For sharing, building on and initiating creative thought in others during our Thinking Thursday discussions. Thank you Jack! 6C William For his continued enthusiasm, dedication and commitment to learning this whole half term in all subject areas. 6E Jhoeni For his positive attitude and focus during the live maths sessions developing a good understanding of the ratio and algebra concepts.

WHEEL OF VALUES 1P James For showing an amazing improvement this week by persevering with learning and listening. We are very proud of you James. 1W Lillie For always showing perseverance to improve her writing, keep it up! 2B Sam For showing Gratitude towards his friends. Following his turn to receive his compliments in the compliment game he made sure he said thank you to his friends for the comments he received. 2S Eliza For always showing dedication and perseverance to complete the maths challenge every day. 3B Joshua T For showing fantastic dedication and perseverance towards his artwork this week. 3F Ameera For always showing respect online and for a very thoughtful Thinking Thursday response. 3R Amelie For always offering such thoughtful responses to our discussion about being a WC citizen AND for actively demonstrating this citizenship by making a lovely poster all about feeling happy for your Brownies group. 4F Naqiyah For making such an effort over the weekend to show her gratitude by making her parents breakfast in bed – Miss Fairbarn loved the photos! 4P Anshu For sharing some thoughtful reflections during our Thinking Thursday discussion about SMART rules to help us to stay safe online. 5B Phoebe Always showing dedication and perseverance when making her model NASA satellite on SPACE DAY! 5G Askira For her lovely comments about everybody's NASA satellites when the class shared them at the end of Space Day. 5SE David For being incredibly helpful on our purple mash blog this week. He has been showing his classmates some extra Spanish resources and created a quiz for them. 6C Oriel For always showing enthusiasm, dedication and perseverance to achieve high quality learning from home, evidenced this week in her super writing. 6E Rebecca For her dedication and structured focus towards her online learning resulting in her completing all the set tasks this half term.

Well done to everyone for being the best that they can be. Have a great relaxing week!

HAPPY HALF TERM!