Monday 30 January 2023

New Diverse and Inclusive books

We are delighted to have recently purchased over 120 books that have been selected from a list of recommended diverse and inclusive books for children in Nursery, Reception, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, which feature characters that are traditionally under-represented in children’s books. 

This collection of diverse books for children across the primary school age, includes books with minority ethnic main characters, books that celebrate difference and books with representations of cultural diversity, different family groups, physical disabilities and neurodiversity.  

The books will be shared amongst the classes for children and adults alike to enjoy.





Celebrating Lunar / Chinese New Year in Nursery

This week we have been inspired by learning about the celebration of Lunar or Chinese New Year. 

The children have relished learning the story of how the years were named after different animals, and then enjoyed retelling it using small world toys, masks and chalks outside, and even acting out the story as part of our Helicopter Stories session. 

We have explored the colour red as a lucky colour and practised making marks inspired by Chinese lettering and numerals. 

   



We also did some maths, exploring ordinal numbers (first, second, third etc.) as we awarded numeral rosettes to the animals depending on where they finished in the race. 



And in PE we celebrated by making our own dragon (puppet) dance with the parachute, before moving to the beat of the cymbals and drums as we became a body under the parachute, just like the ones we had seen in the clips of the celebration Lion, Dragon and Unicorn street dances. Lots of wonderful fun and learning together! 





Friday 27 January 2023

Scientist of the Week!

Our very first Scientist of the Week at SRH! 
Congratulations and well done for correctly answering our first science question
"Why does salt melt snow?

So the answer to the question is:

Salt lowers the freezing point of water. When salt dissolves into liquid water, water molecules have a tougher time sticking together and forming ice. Salt cannot melt solid ice - but it can dissolve into the layer of water on top of the ice, which helps melt the ice below. 

Always pre-treat your driveway or roads with salt before the temperature dips, the salt will have a chance to mix with slush before the water freezes.

This week's question is
"Why do birds not fall off a branch when they sleep?"

Thursday 26 January 2023

Spicy Maya Hot Chocolate!

Last week MB and MS made Maya hot chocolate as part of our 'Hola Mexico' topic. We practiced our mixing, boiling and measuring skills to make a spicy hot chocolate. Most of the children liked it and said it tasted like gingerbread!







Friends Cake Stall

Friends Cake Stall after school today for the children.

3.15pm in the Front Playground Pavilion



Film Night Sold Out!

Please note the film night on Friday 3rd February is now sold out and there are no longer tickets available to purchase online or at the cake sale tomorrow. 

Arrangements for the evening will be circulated next week via ParentMail. 

Thank you to those who purchased their tickets within 48 hours of it being on sale! 

Friends of SRH x



Wednesday 25 January 2023

KS1 Maths Wizards

Mrs Hopkins and Mrs Hall were delighted to welcome children from Early Years, year 1 and year 2 to the new and exciting lunchtime club today - Maths Wizards.  

It was so lovely to see children from across all classes playing together and it was great to see the older children helping some of the younger children. 











Cake Stall Tomorrow

Don’t forget tomorrow is the Friend’s Cake Sale where Classes VW, SBr & SBJA are baking to sell cakes after school! 🧁🍰

💰Please support our events to help raise vital funds for the school


Tuesday 24 January 2023

An oceanic start to Land Ahoy!

As artists, Class LH created a collaborative piece of work using water colours to capture the sense of feeling in the clouds and the water.  We have been learning about using different techniques and this project allowed us to explore this further.   We found out information about Claude Monet as an impressionist artist and looked at different pictures he had painted in his lifetime.  We also talked about the style of impressionist artists.

As thinkers, we discussed the picture Red Boats, Argenteuil painted in 1875 and how it captures a sense of calm and as writers, we wrote descriptive extracts about this picture including some noun phrases such as "calm water", "boats bobbing around" and "gentle puffy clouds"

We have continued the “Land Ahoy!” theme and pursued some creativity using observational drawing of boats using pencils and charcoal.  As artists, we understood that each angle would be different and no two pictures were the same.  We hope you are impressed by their finished pictures (see below).  Thank you to Mrs Lucas for sharing her skills and knowledge to create both of these.

As writers, we wrote an acrostic poem using the world “RESCUE” following on from the visit by the RNLI.  It was a very interesting talk and we gathered a lot of ideas to use in our poems.  We have also been persevering with our hand writing and using the cursive style to join letters. 

As Geographers, we have been finding out about the oceans around the world; the equator and northern and southern hemisphere and recapping the continents. 

As mathematicians, we found out about Rene Descartes during Maths week and discovered that he was instrumental in establishing coordinates.  We used coordinates to plot various items in and around the pirate island. 













Monday 23 January 2023

‘Spotlight on Maths’ week

Last week, the children at SRH took part in varied maths activities across the school, which then concluded in Miss. Whipps leading an assembly so that classes from Reception to Year 6 could share their learning. 

It was lovely to see the range of tasks, for instance, Reception have been learning about numbers beyond 20, Year 1 blended maths and art and looked at the famous artist  about Kandinsky and his mathematical artwork. 

Year 2 talked about coordinates, whereas Year 3 and 4 used ‘Song Maker’ to create maths musical compositions. 

In Upper Key Stage 2, Year 5 investigated Fibonacci and Year 6 researched different mathematicians who ultimately had a significant impact on society and mathematical thinking. 

It was lovely to share the learning across the school as a whole. Additionally, we talked about how we come across maths everywhere we look.  






Film Night!

 🎬 The Friends of SRH are excited to announce a film night open to all years from Reception* to Year 6 on Friday 3rd February 🍿

The children are welcome to dress up as a superhero and bring a cushion and blanket to watch 'The Incredibles' in the main school hall 🦸🏻🦸♀️

🎫 Tickets: £5 (+ 42p booking fee) - includes: film, hot dog, popcorn & drink

Limited spaces available: www.ticketsource.co.uk/srh

  • Doors open @ 5:15pm
  • Film starts @ 5:30pm
  • Approx finish @ 7:30pm

*Reception children to be accompanied by an adult 



Eco- Council Litter Pick

Recently, the Eco- Council got together and decided to take some immediate action by conducting a litter pick around school. The children were suitably prepared for the task, and we went off on our mission. Both playgrounds were covered, as well as the staff car park areas and dining areas. 

On the playgrounds, the children collected fruit and veg which had been dropped or discarded by children and not picked up and binned. We discussed the wider implications of this and children quite rightly we're concerned if this continued. 

Other items we picked up were food bags/wrappers, a sponge, snack pot lids. We also talked the impact and worried about about small animals consuming wrappers and micro plastics getting into water sources by air travel, particularly the Mere. We also said that it looked untidy. 

Going forward, the Eco-Council believe saving the planet starts with us at home and school - they're going to work hard to model positive behaviours to their peers. They will speak to their classes about putting rubbish in bins or back in lunch boxes to take home, and to encourage everyone to pick up and bin litter when they see it.






It's a Mitzvah

What is a Mitzvah?  As theologians, Class JF learnt about the Jewish custom of good deeds - this is known as mitzvot and they believe this to be the way God has directed them to live their lives. 

There are 613 different mitzvah including the ones known in the Christian faith as the 10 commandments .

The children learnt that the most important mitzvah were visiting the sick, giving to charity and saving the world. JF were very good at identifying good deeds especially things to help our world. They enjoyed making the get well cards and charity boxes.

 

Maths week and other fun learning in Nursery

Last week we were celebrating maths week, along with the rest of the school. 

We have been enjoying different number rhymes each day and practising representing quantities using our fingers. We looked at the wonderful book Anno's Counting Book and asked the questions "What do you see?" and "How do you see it?" to encourage our noticing skills, leading on to subitising (recognising a quantity without needing to count it - the foundation of number sense). Some of our children used 5s frames to explore the composition of numbers to 5. It was very exciting to be told "There's nothing, that's zero", "There's a 2 and there's a 2, so that is 4!" and "I have 2, so I need 3 more to make 5" (while using the 5s frame). Equally important, it was brilliant to hear "I can see a bridge!"

What brilliant noticing mathematicians! 

We have also has a wonderful time exploring the ice outside and experimenting with making it melt back into water. 

                    

We have been developing fine motor skills, tearing and gluing to add texture to our big heart and developing gross motor skills, with yoga and lots of outdoor learning too, building and balancing. 


 A lot of fun while learning again!!