St Mary's Newsletter

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

Dear Parents/Carers,

International Evening

Thank you if your supported this most special event at St Mary’s. It was so well attended by many parents and children. Together, the whole school community greatly enjoyed the fabulous entertainment provided by parents, children and school staff as well as the abundance of very tasty food from around the world. Thank you once again to the wonderful Mrs Peacock, Mrs Walker and Ms Clarke for driving on, and organising the evening so brilliantly. We very much hope that this will now become an annual event in the life of our school.

Year 5 Trip to Paris

This week, our Year 5 children spent the day visiting the gorgeous capital city of France. They had a wonderful time taking in the many tourist sights when walking around on foot and cruising up and down the River Seine. The children even got to practise some of their French on the locals. Thank you to Madame Williamson for organising a wonderful day, one which brought the children’s learning to life in the most meaningful and enjoyable way.

Sports Events and Class Trips Aplenty

I find it hard to keep up with the multitude of trips and sports activities that consistently takes place throughout our school. This week alone, there have been five sporting events and three visits to places of educational interest. We remain ever-committed to providing St Mary’s children with opportunities that enhance their love and enjoyment for school. As we all know, creative and fun experiences help bring learning to life as well as fully supporting children’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. Have a look at the Summer Sporting Round Up from Mr Oakley to see what the children have been doing.

Year 6 SATs Tests

You may have heard or read in the news the concerns relating to the Year 6 SATs tests this year, particularly how difficult the reading paper was. Whilst we too felt that the paper was unnecessarily challenging, our children nevertheless demonstrated great resilience and applied themselves to all of the tests in the way that we hoped they would. We now await the results of the tests, which will be sent to us early in July.

Half-Term Week Next Week

As you know, next week is half-term. I hope that you and your families have something very special planned for the week and that you also have a good rest. We look forward to seeing you back at school on Monday 5^th June.

Have a lovely weekend and a super half term,

Calvin Henry
Headteacher

Important Dates – please make a note

Wednesday 24th May – Y5 to Paris
Thursday 25th May – Y2 to Wightman Road Mosque
Monday 5th June – Author Visit to Y3, Y4, Y5 & Y6 – details HERE
Tuesday 6th June – Y3 Emerald Class Assembly 9.15am @ RG
Tuesday 6th June – Y1 & Y2 Author Event at Wood Green Library
Friday 9th June – Early Reading & Reading Coffee Morning at CL – 9.15am
Tuesday 13th June – Y5 Topaz Class Assembly 9.15am @ RG
Wednesday 14th June – Nursery to Little Angel Theatre
Wednesday 14th June – Coffee Morning to discuss us as a Rights Respecting School @ CL 9.15am
Friday 16th June – Y3 to the British Museum
Monday 19th June – UNICEF Schools Challenge Week – more details to follow
Tuesday 20th June Y5 Turquoise Class Assembly 9.15am @ RG
Tuesday 20th June – PSA Meeting at Church Lane @ 6pm
Wednesday 21st June – Summer “Soulstice” Concert at Rectory Gardens – more details to follow
Tuesday 27th June – Whole School Outings – more details soon
Wednesday 28th June – Non-Uniform Day in return for Tombola donation
Wednesday 28th June – Nursery & Reception Open Evening – 6-8pm
Thursday 29th June – Book Fair at Church Lane & Rectory Gardens until 6/7
Saturday 1st July – Summer Fair 1pm-4pm – please see HERE here for how to help
Monday 3rd July – Cycling Event at Herne Hill Velodrome
Tuesday 4th July – Year 1 Moving On Assembly 9.15am @ CL
Wednesday 5th July – Whole School Open Evening – 6-8pm – come & see new classes
Thursday 6th Book Fair last day
Tuesday 11th July – Year 2 Moving On Assembly 9.15am @ CL
Wednesday 19th July – Church Tower Service – details TBC
Friday 14th July – Sports Day – more details to follow
Friday 14th July – End of Year BBQ at Rectory Gardens – more details to follow
w/c 17/7/23 – Year 6 Productions – more details to follow
Friday 21st July – Nursery Teddy Bears Picnic – more details to follow
Friday 21st July – last day of the year

For Your Information

Haringey May Half Term Fun Booklet

This is the link to see some of the activities that are going on in Haringey over half term – many of them are free Haringey Half Term Fun

Haringey Get Talking

Haringey have organised some events to show how we can all use everyday play to get our children talking. The family-focused events will include a whole range of engaging and interactive activities, including music, storytelling and much, much more besides! See HERE for details

Webinars & In-Person Workshops for Parents & Carers

The Haringey Learning Project have organised a series of webinars and in-person workshops for parents and carers on a variety of subjects from general conversations about parenting, to cooking on a budget, to a DWP information session, raising expectations and managing your budget – see the details HERE and follow the instructions for registering

Summer Fair

The Summer Fair which will be on Saturday 1st July 1pm-4pm at Church Lane. There are various ways that you can get involved and help make the day as special as it can be. Please click HERE to see how.

Author Event for Y3, Y4, Y5 & Y6

We have an author, Louie Stowell, coming to visit Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6 on Monday 5th June (first day back after half term). She writes the lovely, funny Loki stories based around Norse mythology. The books cost £7.99 and if you would like to pre-order/reserve a copy for your child to have signed on the day please use the link and give your child’s name and class HERE The deadline to order is Thursday 1st June (during half term).

Free Junior Hockey Training – Southgate Hockey Club – ages 6-18

Please click on this LINK to find out about how to take part in this free hockey training

Reminders

New to English?

Come along to our ESOL/English classes on Thursday mornings at 9.15am in Rectory Gardens and join other keen parents/carers in a friendly group to help your English.

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.

: Summer Fair details

: Romeo & Juliet @ HSG

: Romeo & Juliet – details

Class News

Nursery	We have had fun playing outside in the sunny weather over the last couple of weeks; the children’s great construction skills never fail to impress us! They have been busy weeding and planting with Sara and we are now patiently awaiting signs of growth from our sunflower seeds and potato plants. We have enjoyed continuing our woodworking sessions, particularly watching the children come up with their own ideas. We have also had fun making clay pumpkins, spotty view-findings, our own mini rooms with lights and mirrors (under tables) as well as decorating our little house and vegetables with spots as we take inspiration from the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
Reception	In English the children have been listening to stories with rhymes and created their own rhyming sentences. In maths they have been learning about spatial reasoning through creating tangrams. We also really enjoyed showing the parents how to play our favourite maths games with them at the maths stay and play. In topic we learned about the different foods we get from farm animals. In R.E. we have been learning more about how Jesus rescues people with his miracles. We really enjoyed our visit to Wood Green Library to meet author Samantha Rodgers. Samantha read us some of her stories and poems and answered lots of questions about being an author (see photo below)
Year 1	Year 1 have been continuing their pirate adventures in English, topic and DT as we have been making ‘tube pirates’ and thinking about instruction writing using bossy verbs, creating 3D desert islands and using compass points to find the hidden treasure on a treasure map. In maths we have been investigating fractions and working out which shape has a half or quarter shaded and how many is half or quarter of a quantity. In RE we have completed our Noah’s Ark investigation and found out that the story is all about having trust and keeping promises. In science we have continued to investigate materials and have found out that some materials are absorbent and some are not. In ICT we have been practising our word processing skills including changing the font size and style and copying and pasting pictures.
Year 2	Year 2 have successfully completed their SATS test last week, and the children all did the best that they could have done. We are all very proud of everyone’s effort, attitudes and endurance during the last 2 weeks. They were rewarded with a fun filled ice cream party where they created their own creative flavours and toppings. During the last two weeks, we have also started our D&T projects of making Paper Mache piggy banks. Ms Webb and Mr Solomon worked with the children in small groups to create the very important base layers and currently we are adding the legs, ears and snouts before we can paint them. They will be coming home in June. We have also had a very busy time in our art lessons. Not only have we created amazing cave art drawings with pastels and charcoal, but we have made Stone Age jewellery from air dry clay too. On Thursday, we visited Wightman Road Mosque to learn more about what it means to be a Muslim for our RE topic.
Year 3	In English we have written our own version of ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ and independently composed a short adventure story about a naughty boy who dreams of meeting some magical and mysterious creatures in a distant land. In maths we have been learning vital skills in maths – telling the time! Quarter past and quarter to, telling the time to the minute and minutes in an hour. As part of our D&T week we have been constructing castles. We started by looking at the features of a castle and designed our own castles. We then investigated how multiple shapes (2D and 3D) are combined to form a strong and stable structure. We constructed 3D nets and finally constructed and evaluated our final piece.
Year 4	In English we have just completed our hot task writing of a newspaper report, based on an earthquake and the children have enjoyed taking on a journalist role to seek evidence of their quake. We have complete our unit on decimals in maths, including dividing 1 and 2 digit numbers by 100. In science we have enjoyed investigating and classifying the variety of minibeasts in our local park (Priory Park) and understanding the difference between a heathland and a woodland. In DT we are looking forward to designing, making and displaying our designs of castles in the new term
Year 5	In our English work we have made a wonderful start to our non-chronological reports and the children are hugely enthusiastic about their research! In maths we have just begun working on graphs and data. The children will now move on to data interpretation and statistics. Please support your children to keep practising their times tables using Times Tables Rockstars as having quick recall of these number facts is hugely important. In RE last week, we had a lovely lesson on Pentecost and the children created some amazing artwork. Please do ask them what they can remember about the meaning of Pentecost. We are enjoying our new book Anglo-Saxon boy and it really supports our current history topic on the Anglo-Saxons.
Year 6	This week, in English, we are coming to the end of writing a story involving flashbacks based on a short film called, ‘The Piano’ as the children look to create atmosphere using a range of techniques. When we return from half term, we will begin to look further at algebra using substitution and creating formulae before moving on to consolidation projects utilising many of the skills the children have developed this year. The children have given their presentations on different religions’ beliefs and traditions around death based on their research and we will continue to host Tracey Campbell each Friday to help the children begin preparing for life at secondary school. We wish you all a lovely half term and look forward to seeing the children – with lines learned – on their return.

In the news over the last two weeks…

Nursery – Going Spotty & Butterflies

Nursery News

Sporting Round Up May 2023

Sporting Round-Up May 2023

Y5 – Cooking for D&T Week

Y5 D&T Cooking Project

Y2 – Visit to Wightman Road Mosque & Making Stone Age Jewellery

Y2’s Busy Week

Y5 to Paris 2023

Y5 in Paris

Children of the Week – w/e 19 05 23 & 26 05 23

Christian Values of the week: 19/05/23 – Love linking to Compassion, Hope & Friendship & 26/05/23 – Spirituality linking to Pentecost & Hope

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

Class News

In the news over the last two weeks…

Nursery – Going Spotty & Butterflies

Sporting Round Up May 2023

Y5 – Cooking for D&T Week

Y2 – Visit to Wightman Road Mosque & Making Stone Age Jewellery

Y5 to Paris 2023

Children of the Week – w/e 19 05 23 & 26 05 23

Contact Details

Useful Links