St Mary's Newsletter

“Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12)

Dear Parents and Carers,

Happy New Year!

I know Christmas and the New Year will be a distant memory now, but I am taking this opportunity to wish you all the best for 2024 and I hope that you all had a good break.

New Term and Start Times

The children have settled back into school and from the smiles and laughter seen around both school sites, are happy to be back. Thanks to everyone who have adapted to new gate opening and closing times at Rectory Gardens and the prompt closing of the Church Lane gate. We understood that it would take a couple of weeks for families to get into a routine, so we are looking forward to seeing further improvements in punctuality from next week. Being punctual is important so that children do not feel uncomfortable when they arrive in their classroom late and because we do not want them to miss learning that could impact on the rest of the day or even week. As we all know this is important in life too, so lets help our young people get into good habits for life!

Attendance and Punctuality

You will have received our new Attendance and Punctuality parents leaflet last term which clarifies school expectations. In addition to this, you will soon be receiving a letter telling you about Synergy Education & Welfare Service (SEWS) who will be working with the school to improve attendance, punctuality and persistent absenteeism. The Department for Education (DFE) report that 1 in 5 children frequently miss school, in comparison to before the pandemic when 1 in 10 frequently missed school. Because of this the DFE are asking schools to work with professionals and most importantly, families to improve pupils attendance and SEWS will be working with Ms Fenton in school to do just that!

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school office or a member of the school team.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Jane O’Brien

Headteacher

Important Dates – please make a note

Monday 8th January – Children return to school – Y3, Y4, Y5 & Y6 8.45am & Church Lane 9.00am
Wednesday 10th January – Year 2 to Tower of London
Thursday 18th January – Y4 to Natural History Museum
Thursday 25th January – Y3 to Muswell Hill Synagogue
Tuesday 30th January – Reception & Nursery – Animal Encounters
Thursday 1st February – Year 6 & Reception Height & Weight
Thursday 8th February – Y2 Marigold Class Assembly
Wednesday 7th February – Reading/Phonics Stay & Play (from drop-off)
Tuesday 20th February – Early Reading & Phonics Coffee Morning @ CL
Thursday 22nd February – Y3-Y6 Safer Internet Meeting 6.00pm
Thursday 22nd February – Y6 SATs meeting for parents/carers 6.30pm
Thursday 29th February – Y2 Buttercup Class Assembly
Tuesday 27th February – Parent Consultations – more details to follow
Wednesday 28th February – Parent Consultations – more details to follow
Monday 4th March – Y5 to Science Museum
Thursday 7th March – Y1 Saffron Class Assembly
Thursday 7th March – World Book Day – more details to follow
Tuesday 12th March – Y1 Tangerine Class Assembly
w/c 11th March – Science Week – more details to follow

For Your Information

The Mayor of London has confirmed that children in KS2 (Y3-Y6) will continue to receive a free school meal next year which is great news. Click here for details Mayor KS2 FSM Expansion 24 25
Don’t forget to book up for clubs for Spring Term – they will all start the week children return to school (08/01/24). The lunchtime Chess Club at Church Lane has lots of spaces and may not continue unless we get a good sign-up in 2024. It’s a great game for children to learn and helps develop strategic thinking, problem solving and is a fun social activity. Why not give it a go! Please also note that previous attendance of a club does not guarantee a place going forward and that some clubs have waiting lists.
Does your child love writing or do they struggle to get their ideas down. Creative Writing Workshop at Collage Arts in Wood Green with friend of St Mary’s, Paul Lyalls – see photo below for details.
Do you love St Mary’s Churchyard? Do you love trees? Have a read of this lovely article about keeping it green I LOVE TREES
Are you the parent/carer of an SEND child – if so, have a look at the latest newsletter SEND Newsletter January 2024
Thank you for your kind donations of coats just before Christmas – we received this message from Wrap Up LondonThank you to all those at St. Mary’s Primary School for donating warm coats to Wrap Up London 2023 and those in need. With your help Barnet Libraries collected nearly 600 coats which are now being distributed through charities supporting vulnerable people ““including homelessness organisations, refugee and asylum seekers, women’s shelters, community groups and more.” – Wrap Up London
Parents of children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 who are entitled to Free School Meals are invited to free Saturday morning tennis lessons at Highgate Tennis Club – click here for details Highgate Tennis Club
We are raising funds for new sensory pods on each site and have match-funding up to £1,000. We’re so close so please consider donating here Sensory Pods Fundraising
Have a look at our new Spring Term menus from Olive Dining and please let us know if your child will still be school meals or packed lunch next term School Meals Spring Term 2024 and click here to see the Olive Parents Newsletter for January Olive January Newsletter
A new dance class is opening at Hornsey Parish Church. The Little Dance Academy is coming to North London! Our mission is to foster a love of dance in all our students through our Parent & Me, Ballet and Bop classes starting from 18 months old and up to 5 years old. We inspire our dancers in a nurturing environment and create a warm and welcoming community where children can learn basic movement to start their dance journey! Our dance classes include different themes and props to inspire imagination whilst developing confidence, co-ordination and creativity! See you at Hornsey Parish Church and Muswell Hill Quaker House for class! Book classes here Little Dance Academy
Haringey Girls Football Academy Development Centre are looking for girls to join their U10s and U11s – see photo below
Free I Got Soul Taster Day at Jacksons Lane 27 2 24 – see photo below for details

Reminders

Please remember to let us know if your child is changing their meal preference for the Spring Term – from packed lunch to school dinner or the other way round!

Contact Details

Are your contact details up-to-date?

If you have changed your address, telephone or email address please let us know as soon as possible. Have your personal circumstances changed? Again, please let us know. If you don’t get emails or texts from us then we may need to update your details.

Class News

Nursery	Welcome back and happy new year! The past week in nursery has been very exciting as we have welcomed our new starters- well done to nursery for being so welcoming and well done to the starters for settling in so well! We have been reading the story “What The Ladybird Heard” and thought about the different sounds in the story. We have also been learning that there are 12 months in a year and in which order the months go. This week we have been looking at the Northern Lights and the different colours there are to create some lovely art work. We are very fortunate to have the art teacher Tabitha to be working with us this term. Well done nursery, we are very proud of how you have settled back after the Christmas break!
Reception	We hope that everyone had a lovely holiday – the children have settled back into school really well. In English, we have been learning the story ‘Monkey See, Monkey Do!’ using a story map and actions. The children have been doing writing inspired by the story and are making good progress with their phonics and letter formation. In maths we have been focussing on numbers to five, including zero. We have been using five frames to explore the composition of five and we have shared some lovely stories to help children understand ‘one more’ and ‘one less’ within five. In RE we have started a new unit ‘Why do Christians believe Jesus is special?’, which focuses on the miracle of Jesus. Our topic this half term is ‘Why do zebras have stripes?’ and children are finding out lots about the continent of Africa, focusing on African animals.
Year 1	Year 1 have begun thinking about their topic in history and geography, My Family and Toys. In English, we have read “Look Up” by Nathan Bryan and thought about what we see in our world when ‘we look up’. We have investigated continents around the world where our family may come from and built 3D maps showing mountains, rivers, roads, houses and other physical and human features (see photos above). In maths we have begun our place value to 20 unit and have been finding missing numbers on number lines and solving puzzles. We have begun investigating Hinduism in RE and so far have learnt about who Hindu people pray to. In ICT we have thought about E-safety again and why it is important not to spend too much time on a device.
Year 2	In English, we have started our new story “The papaya that spoke” and the children are really enjoying all the talking fruit, animals and things. The children are getting to know the value of coins and notes in our money unit in maths and are very busy adding combinations of coins and notes together. This will lead us to apply our money knowledge when we play ‘shopping’ next week. Last week, we had a very exciting trip to the Tower of London. Although it was freezing cold, the children were immersed in the sights of London around us as well as the fascinating history of the Tower of London. They were in awe when they saw the Crown Jewels in the vault room. During the workshop, we were led by Lady Isabella that took us through the steps of how to become Knights. We all did well and are now fully fledged Knights of St Mary’s! Thank you for all the parent that accompanied us on our journey!
Year 3	In English we have been working on our new text “The Promise”. We have been developing our inference and prediction skills whilst also creating our own questions for a character. In maths we have been continuing with our multiplication and division unit. And multiplying and dividing a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number including remainders using a variety of partitioning and representations. We are looking forward to our trip to Muswell Hill Synagogue and have discussed what a promise means, the significance of Passover for Jewish people and the Seder meal. We have also made our own Mezuzah’s and learnt about the key artifacts.
Year 4	We have had a great start to the year in Year 4. In English we have been preparing to write a non-chronological report, which has included our trip to the Natural History Museum to further our research on earthquakes. In maths, we are continuing our learning on multiplication and division by learning to multiply/divide by 10 and 100 before moving on to learning about column multiplication next week. We have begun our new unit of sound in science and Jesus’s new commandment in RE.
Year 5	This week year 5 have worked extremely well as a year group! In maths Y5 are still continuing with fractions and are aiming to finish the first unit on fractions next week. There are some tricky concepts such as subtracting and adding fractions with different numerators. We have worked step by step referring back to equivalent fractions to help us understand. In English, Y5 are working hard with their new unit of adventure stories. They had a range of creative activities by following our writing scheme Talk for Writing. Some activities involved creating a story map, role play and lots of social learning. Children are very enthusiastic about adventure and mystery stories and are full of creative ideas. More specifically, this writing unit focuses on ‘show, don’t tell’ which is a difficult technique. Y5 have worked hard to understand this technique and created a tool kit for this unit. In science, Y5 have officially finished the forces unit, which leads us next week to our new unit of ‘Living Things and Their Habitats’. The last lesson taught in science related to water resistance. In RE we have been focussing on how messages spread and the importance of making a message clear and understandable. As an activity, both classes created bunting with lovely messages to the rest of the school. You can see some photos of the bunting above.
Year 6	In English, we have been looking at the structure of a non-chronological report; in particular organising information into paragraphs and incorporating the use of semi-colons into sentences. Accompanying this, we have been looking at examples of non-fiction texts such as those about the Arctic and Antarctic. We are about to begin working with decimals in maths; including the place value of each digit, rounding and being able to add and subtract when using them also. In science, we have continued looking at evolution and inheritance, looking at Charles Darwin and how certain characteristics may or may not be passed on as well as adaptations while in RE, we have continued our study of Buddhism looking at the ‘Four Noble Truths’

In the news over the last two weeks…

Sporting Events Spring 1 2024

Indoor Athletics Event at St Thomas More School – 18 01 24

Y4 Visit The Natural History Museum

Y2 Visit The Tower of London

As we love, we flourish
As we flourish, we aspire
As we aspire, we achieve
Together, we are a family

St Mary's Newsletter

“Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12)

Important Dates – please make a note

For Your Information

Reminders

Contact Details

Class News

In the news over the last two weeks…

Sporting Events Spring 1 2024

Y4 Visit The Natural History Museum

Y2 Visit The Tower of London

Contact Details

Useful Links