STEPHEN FREEMAN PRIMARY SCHOOL “Everybody; Every Moment; Every Idea Counts”

September 11th 2020

Welcome back to you all

As you read this newsletter you will see what amazing work the children have been engaged in

since their return to school. They have all settled in so well and have managed the new routines

with skill and maturity, so well done to all of you.

We have welcomed a new teacher, Mrs Manthorpe into Year 5 and hope she will really enjoy

being a member of staff at our school.

As you are aware we have had to adapt our procedures to reflect the situation that we are in

and some clarification is needed to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Each class has set start and finish times. If you are late dropping off your child and the big

vehicle gate is closed, please do not use the pedestrian gate as this is for exit only. You

will have to wait for the big gate to open again before you can drop your child off.

Staff will be coming into school at different times due to varying contracted hours.

Please observe social distancing. If you are coming on site the ruling is still set at 2 metres

or one metre if you are wearing a mask, which you are very welcome to do.

Please be mindful that as a school we are all doing our best to maintain the new routines

to ensure safety but also to keep our school vibrant and enjoyable for everyone.

Because we have children arriving and leaving at different times, it is even more important

to be sensible and thoughtful when you park your car. We also have children leaving

school by themselves so please think about this before you park your car. A reminder from

the highway code rule 243:

You should not park near a school entrance - as well as anywhere that would prevent ac-

cess for emergency services, at or near a bus stop, opposite or within 10 metres of a

junction, over a dropped kerb and in front of an entrance to a property.

Nursery

We are so proud of all our new Rainbow Explorers chil-

dren. They all arrived at Nursery ready to explore, play

and learn. We are so impressed with how polite and

kind the children are to their new friends and teachers.

Year 1- Brazil and Chile

The children in Brazil class have had a fantas-

tic start to the new school year and have set-

tled really well. The children have shown how

they are ready to be independent and respon-

sible learners. We have been listening to a

story about ‘bubbles’ and talking about where

we would like to go if we were floating in a

bubble. This week we have been reading ‘The

Colour Monster’ by Anna Llenas which has

led us to think about our emotions and how

we talk about how we are feeling. We are ex-

cited to begin sharing our learning all together

as a class.

Reception have had a super start to their year. The Reception staff have been impressed

with how well the children have come into school and how they have settled into their new

classes. We are looking forward to getting to know each other and our new environments.

The children have decorated the walls with self-portraits to help them feel at home in their

classroom.

Reception -UK and Poland Classes

This term we are having a PSHE

focus on ‘bucket filling’, you may

have heard this mentioned at home.

Bucket filling is all about being kind

to others and helping to build other

people’s self-esteem, as well as

your own. Each Friday we will be

awarding the ‘bucket filler’ of the

week with a certificate. The children

are already really focused on this

and have shown so much kindness

to each other throughout the week.

In art the children have created

some lovely self-portraits.

Peru and Argentina have had a wonderful start to the term. We are so proud of how well

the children have settled and adjusted to the new routines. Our topic this term is ‘The

Magic Paintbrush’ and we have really enjoyed the story and beginning our study of China.

The children have been making predictions and have also had the chance to role-play as

the main character Ho. The children have shown great enthusiasm towards the chapter

book we are reading in class ‘Charlie Changes into a Chicken’. We are enjoying reading a

chapter a day and we have had lots of giggles.

Year Two—Argentina and Peru Classes

The journey begins in Chile Class

What an amazing start we have had to Year 1. The children

have come in and settled brilliantly to their new routines and

structure. The children have explored their new learning space

and have proved that they are incredible at tidying up! This

week we have been reading a book called ‘The Colour Monster’

by Anna Llenas, it is about a colour monster who is all confused

and needs help to sort out his feelings. We have discussed feel-

ing and emotions with the children and completed some work

Year 4 - China and Japan

The term has started really well

in the Year 4 bubble of China

and Japan, the children have

been amazing. We have started

the unit Road Trip Asia and will

be learning more and more

about our wonderful countries.

During the first few days of term

we have created spaghetti and

marshmallow towers to show

how well we work in teams. We

learnt that in China and Japan,

technology and architecture are

important when building tall tow-

ers and buildings.

We put a bubble display togeth-

er. We wrote a target for the

coming term on our bubbles,

hopefully when we look at them

again in 6 weeks time we will

have met our targets. We also

produced some amazing art

work. We worked in the style of

Charlie Mackesy who wrote and

illustrated the book ‘The Boy,

the Mole, the Fox and the

Horse. We wrote about what we

feel is important to us

We have had a busy few days and the children have been

working really hard, well done everyone. We have been

making our own maths resources to help with our times

tables and we have been reading ‘The Stone Age’ by Mar-

cia Williams and ‘Stone Age Boy’ by Satoshi Kitamura. We

have already starting to develop our understanding of

nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Please Note: PE lessons will be on a Wednesday so the

children will need to come to school in their PE kit and they

will remain in their kit all day. PE will be outside, even in

the rain so make sure your child is dressed appropriately.

Year 3- Nepal

Year 3-India

India class have had a fantastic start to the term.

We began by creating our ‘leaf targets and think-

ing about what we would like to achieve this

year, such as ‘being kind and helpful’ and

‘getting my pen licence’. We have started our

science topic on plants and have designed our

own plants and learnt about their structure. The

children have done some amazing creative writ-

ing describing caves and woodlands which links

to our topic exploring The Stone Age.

Kenya class have had an amazing and busy start to the year! We have designed dream

jars full of our goals for this year and written reports on Kenya. Our guided reading book is

entitled ‘Holes’ and our class book is called ‘Wonder’. We have even figured out where all

the symbols should be in a coded hundred square and although this was tricky at first we

persevered and got to the end. As a class we are really looking forward to the great term

ahead!

The children in Madagascar are working re-

ally hard and settled into school life really

well. This week we have been learning all

about our class country and have written

non-chronological reports to display our in-

formation.

Year 6-Kenya

Year 6- Madagascar

The first week back for Year 5 has

been fantastic. The children are regain-

ing their resilience and showing kind-

ness towards each other. We have

been using a short animated film called

‘Tadeo Jones’ to inspire our diary en-

tries and have had great fun creating

our ‘Dream Jars’ which hold our aspira-

tions for this year. In maths we have

been learning about place value, and

we have started to look at our topic

studying Ancient Egypt by making our

own cartouche using hieroglyphics.

Year 5 Egypt- South Africa and The Gambia

Class Dojo and Tapestry

Please make sure that you are signed up to Class Dojo and Tapestry. If your child

is isolating the staff will use either one of these programmes to send work home.

Please remember not to send any important messages via Dojo or Tapestry, if

you need to contact your child’s teacher you will need to call or email the school

office.

Thank you to all of you for recognising the

collective responsibility that we share to

ensure our school is a safe and engaging

learning and working environment