St Mary's Newsletter

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

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the first newsletter of this academic year. I hope that you and your children have settled well into their new classes and year groups. Welcome once again to all new parents to St Mary’s.

Thank you

As I come to the end of my third week at St Mary’s I wanted to say thank you again for your warm welcome. I am enjoying talking to people on the gate and getting to know everyone. I also look forward to seeing you all at some our social events this term such as Bonfire Night and the Christmas Fair.

Parent/Teacher Meetings

Thank you if you attended a curriculum evening meeting either at Church Lane or at Rectory Gardens this week. Here, you will have learned more about what your child is being taught this term/year as well as learning about class timetables, routines of the school day and any expectations that teachers have of you and your child. If you did not attend you will have received an email containing a power point for your information.

Jeans for Genes

Today we raised over £300 for Jeans for Genes, a charity supporting children and young people with genetic conditions. By wearing jeans our school is helping fund projects that provide nursing care, equipment, activity weekends, online support and counselling. Well done everyone! We’ll update you with the final total soon but if you didn’t manage to donate you can still do so via the JustGiving page HERE

School development priorities

In the next few weeks, I will be having a School Progress Coffee Morning, where we will discuss our key priority areas for improvement. The first of these is planned for Tuesday 10^th October at 9.15am at Church Lane site. Please come along and find out more.

We will be saying farewell to our Year 3 teacher, Clarissa Fernandes next week as she starts her maternity leave. I’m sure you will join me in wishing her all the best as she awaits the birth of her first child. We look forward to hearing about the news of the baby’s arrival. Some of you will have already met Miss Antonnina Anderson who will continue to teach year 3 for the rest of the school year.

Have a lovely weekend.

With warm wishes,

Jane O’Brien
Headteacher

Important Dates – please make a note

Tuesday 19/9/23 – Church Lane Curriculum Information Evening 5.45pm
Wednesday 20/9/23 – Rectory Gardens Curriculum Information Evening Y3-Y5 5.45pm
Wednesday 20/9/23 – Y6 Secondary Transfer Evening 6pm – find out about applying to secondary School
Wednesday 27/9/23 – Y3 to Horniman Museum
Wednesday 27/9/23 – Y6 Curriculum Information Evening & Pendarren Y6 Journey 5.45pm
Friday 29/9/23 – Teddy Bears Picnic for Reception 3.30pm-4.30pm
Friday 06/10/23 – Y4 to Hindu Mandir
Tuesday 10/10/23 – School Progress Coffee Morning with Jane O’Brien – Church Lane @ 9.15am
Wednesday 18/10/23 – Harvest Festival 9.30am at Rectory Gardens What We Would Like – thank you

For Your Information

Do you have a child aged 7, 8, 9 or 10 and live in Haringey? Are you separated or separating parents? This organisation is offering support though a free Youth Club every Tuesday – see this COAC Supporting Separated Families

Reminders

We are strictly a nut-free school – please remember this for packed lunches and party treats
We are a latex-free school – this includes balloons, latex gloves, rubber bands etc
To enable children to get fresh air and enjoy outside please make sure they have a raincoat and suitable shoes
To help our catering company please let the office know if your child changes from school meals to packed lunch or vice versa – thank you

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.

: Reception 29/9/23

Class News

Nursery	The last couple of weeks, we have been focussing on settling into nursery and thinking about ways we can be kind friends. We have spoken in detail about our value of friendship and what is special about us. This term we will be learning a different nursery rhyme each week. Nursery have really enjoyed reading stories about feelings and how being different makes you special.
Reception	Our new Reception children have settled into school wonderfully, making friends, enjoying learning and getting to know our routines. We have begun Level 1+ phonics and the children are enjoying learning the letter names and sounds. In English, we have shared the story ‘Leaf Man’ by Lois Ehlert and have created our own Leaf Man pictures, imagining where he might fly off to next. Children are also practising recognising and writing their own names. In maths, we have been matching and sorting. In RE we have been learning the Creation Story and thinking about how we should take care of the world.
Year 1	What an amazing start to the new term! Year 1 have settled in to their new classrooms and routines and have shown fantastic behaviour and a keen love for learning. In maths, Year 1 have shown their understanding of place value, using objects to count to 10 and beyond, counting one more and one less, as well as representing an amount from a large group. In English, Year 1 have read the book, ‘We’re Going On A Bear Hunt’, and have shown their enthusiasm by performing in groups using the story map, creating descriptive sentences and even used prepositions to describe the bears movements.
Year 2	In Year 2 we have been working very hard! In English, we have been exploring the story ‘How the Tortoise Got His Shell.’ We have immersed ourselves in the story and practised orally rehearsing the story through drama and role play. In maths, we have been looking at place value and have been working on identifying the tens and ones in two digit numbers. We have also been using place value charts to help us represent numbers in different ways. As scientists we have been learning about animals, including humans, and what we need to survive as well as exploring healthy and unhealthy foods. For history, we are beginning to look at what happened in the Great Fire of London and what London was like before the fire. We are looking forward to learning even more next week!
Year 3	In maths we have been developing our place value with numbers up to 1000. We have used number lines to support us when estimating and we have also estimated, compared and ordered numbers to 1,000. In English we have been using the Chromebook to research are favourite animals and gathered interesting information from a text. The information has been organised into groups using sub headings to help us write our own non-chronological reports. For our science topic we discussed what animals and humans need to survive and stay healthy. We sorted foods into their relevant food groups and described the nutrients provided by a range of foods.
Year 4	Today we were visited by Charlie from ‘Firing London’s Imagination’. We enjoyed a workshop looking at ancient Roman artefacts found in London. First we sorted a variety of artefacts from the oldest to the newest. We looked at a dagger from the Palaeolithic age and a brooch from the Elizabethan era. We were then invited to carefully handle pieces of pottery over 2000 years old. Finally we had the best time making our own pots using clay. In English we have begun story mapping our focus text ‘Escape from Pompeii’. It has been fun working in small groups on suggested actions and images for our story map. Next week we look forward to the innovating stage of our learning. In science this week, we enjoyed sorting different images into their state of matter. This helped us to make connections with the different objects we encounter every day and their state of matter.
Year 5	This week Y5 has worked extremely hard in mathematics learning the topic of place value. They have been introduced to powers of 10 for the first time and confidently used resources to support them. In English, Y5 has become familiarised with the myth of Pandora’s Box. They have had a range of activities regarding this myth, such as creating a story board, writing an apology letter as Pandora, role play and boxing up. In science we have started our lessons on ‘Materials and Properties’ by exploring different materials around us and discussing a range of properties. In RE, we are exploring the Bible’s big story – so far, we have explored ‘The Creation’, ‘The Fall’ and ‘People of God’.
Year 6	The children have settled well and we are glad to see them back at school already adjusting to life in Year 6. In English, we have begun looking at mystery writing as well as revising necessary grammar and sentence types. Maths lessons have also begun well as we have kicked off our first unit on number and place value with the children showing their understanding of numbers up to 10 million and rounding. In other areas of the curriculum, the children have already shown a good understanding of the light and have acted out the key events in Jesus’ life. In history, we will begin looking at ancient Mesoamerican civilisations as we also continue with our class text, Artichoke Hearts.

In the news over the last two weeks…

Jeans for Genes Day 2023

A Great Start To The Year

Settling Back Into School Life

Year 4 Step Back In Time

Children of the Week – w/e 08 09 23 + 15 09 23 + 22 09 23

Christian Values of the week: 23/06/23 – & 30/06/23 –

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…

Jeans for Genes Day 2023

A Great Start To The Year

Year 4 Step Back In Time

Children of the Week – w/e 08 09 23 + 15 09 23 + 22 09 23

Contact Details

Useful Links