The Ambler Chronicle

Edition 15. published 15 February 2026

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Visit: www.ambler.islington.sch.uk

Donate: Ambler Community Fund

MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER

Dear Ambler families,

It has been a very positive start to 2026. Being a short half term, it has also been a whirlwind!

The calendar at Ambler is so full that to find a moment to pause and reflect on how much has been accomplished is valuable. Looking over the Ambler Chronicle, I am always immensely proud of my hard-working staff, brilliant children, and supportive Ambler community.

For me, there have been particular highlights this half term:

Learning Showcases

Thank you to all the parents/carers who were able to join our Learning Showcases - the turnout was fantastic. It was wonderful to celebrate the children's achievements and give them the opportunity to share their learning. I'm extremely proud of the progress they have made since the start of the academic year. The success of the Learning Showcases means that we are planning to make this an annual event.

The Curiosity Lab Launch

The Curiosity Lab was completed at the end of autumn term - to see staff and children enjoying the space, engaged in hands-on learning has been magical. The Mayor of Islington returned to officially open the Curiosity Lab in January. The project exemplifies what we can achieve by working together - from consultation with staff, design by Ambler parent, Sorrel Challands, input from our subject leaders, to fundraising by Friends of Ambler, and support from our governors. You can read more about the Curiosity Lab below and watch a video of the launch, created by another Ambler parent (Louis) here!

Governors' Day

I was delighted to welcome four new parent governors and a new LA governor in October. The governing board helps to set the strategic direction of the school. On Governors' Day last Friday, governors reviewed the School Development Plan, went on a learning walk with me, and spoke with children and staff. Another way governors support Ambler is as 'link governors' for different subject areas. In this edition of the Chronicle, read the Link Governor Spotlight on Oracy at Ambler.

Common themes to these highlights are community and collaboration - both at the core of our One Ambler ethos. Thank you for your continued support.

I wish you all a restful half-term break and look forward to welcoming you back on Monday 23rd February.

Warmest wishes,

Sandy McNicholl
Headteacher

DATES FOR THE DIARY

Mon 23 Feb - First day of Spring 2
Mon 23 Feb - 1B trip to St Thomas Church ⛪
Mon 23 Feb - Poetry Week workshops

Tue 24 Feb - FoA Disco - Yr1-2 and Yr5-6, 2.45-3.30pm 🪩🎉
Wed 25 Feb - 1G trip to St Thomas Church ⛪
Wed 25 Feb - City Hall Oracy trip 🗣️
Wed 25 Feb - Yr4-6 swimming competition (selected children only)
Thu 26 Mar - Speech and Language coffee morning for Reception and Year 1 parents/carers, 9.00 - 10.00am

Thu 26 Feb - Year 6 trip to London Docklands Museum🚢
Thu 26 Feb - FoA Disco - Reception and Yr3-4, 2.45-3.30pm 🪩🥳

Fri 27 Feb - Family food and eating coffee morning, Community Room, 9-10am 🥗🍞

Tue 3 Mar - Online Safety coffee morning - Chloe, Mr Field, Katy Potts, community room 9-10am 📱
Thu 5 Mar - World Book Day 📚
Fri 6 Mar - Y3 Guardian Newswise workshops 📰
Mon 9 Mar - Reception and Year 6 height and weight measuring (community room) 📐
Fri 13 Mar - Children's Centre closes at 4pm (Reception extended day until 4pm only)
Fri 13 Mar - FoA adult disco!, 7:30-11pm 💃🪩🕺
Thu 19 Mar - Y2 Kew Gardens trip, 3.45pm return to school. Please give permission on Arbor🌳🌺
Thu 19 Mar - Year 6 to Year 7 transition, 9-10am
Thu 19 Mar - Y4 Neasden Temple trip 🛕
Sat 21 Mar - Grow Ambler Gardening Day, 10am-2pm 🪴
Tue 24 Mar - Y1 London Transport Museum trip 🚌🚉
Tue 24 Mar - Parents' Evening (R-6)
Thu 26 Mar - Parents' Evening (R-6)
Fri 27 Mar - Last day of Spring term, normal finish.

ASK THE HEAD

Thank you to those who submitted questions or were able to join our recent 'Ask the Head' coffee morning.

Please following this link to read the notes from the coffee morning.

A reminder that the Parent Handbook is available on the Ambler website.

Click the image above to read the round-up.

THE YEAR OF READING LAUNCH EVENT

We were lucky enough to be invited to The Year of Reading launch event, which was held at the Arsenal Stadium. We got to meet Arsenal Legend, Theo Walcott and give Gunnersaurus Rex a high five!

If that wasn't exciting enough, we listened to Jordan Glover talk about the series of books (The Wonder Team) she writes with her footballer cousin, Leah Williamson. We also got to practise reading off an autocue and took part in an epic quiz all about books!

END OF ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL MULTI-FAMILY GROUP

Katy (educational psychotherapist) and Chloe (child & family support worker) have come to the end of another successful Family Group. Children fed back that they felt more confident and able to talk about how they are feeling, and parents were proud of all the children in the group and what they achieved.

We had fun with clay, Kintsugi, Lego, and made spaghetti & marshmallow towers! Please look out for flyers about our next groups - we run these termly.

♻️ ECO TEAM UPDATE 🗑️

The Eco Team kicked off the term with an exciting new initiative focused on reducing food waste at lunchtimes. The team confidently shared this message in assembly, reminding everyone about the importance of the 3 Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Each week, the Eco Team comes together to weigh the food waste from each key stage. These results are then shared during the DREAMS assembly, helping the whole school to see how we are doing and encouraging us to work together to reduce waste. To support this, the team has been encouraging children to aim for an empty plate at the end of their meal, using the slogan “More for us and less for the bin.”

The team continues to inspire our school community to take a positive attitude towards caring for our environment. Noah (Year 2), Maya (Year 1), Anaya (Year 1), Frankie and Alice (Reception) have created eye-catching signs to support our goal of reducing food waste.

Next term, we are looking forward to welcoming the council into school for an assembly. This will give the Eco Team the opportunity to ask questions about recycling and explore what more we can do as a school to protect our environment.

LET'S REDUCE by Eva (5B)

Out of reducing, reusing, and recycling, reducing is the most important. If you reduce you don't need to recycle or reuse as much.

What is reducing? Reducing is when you throw less away or buy less in the first place! For example, you should buy less single-use plastic as possible. This means, that whether it's recyclable or not you're still throwing less away. Did you know that paper can only be recycled 6 times befores it's too thin to use? So, if you throw less recyclable things away, you waste less!

How Can You Reduce? Reducing is easy. All you have to do is buy less! Only buy the things you need. A few great ways to reduce are: Take showers not baths, be vegetarian/vegan, turn the lights off when you leave the room, walk/scoot/cycle to school, turn your heating on less. reduce screentime, turn off the tap. All of these things are extremely efficient. Plus, a lot of people already do this, so just make sure you keep it up!

THE CURIOSITY LAB LAUNCH

We are thrilled to announce that the Curiosity Lab - the redvelopment of out attic space - is finally complete! It has been used by the children since the beginning of term and we had the official launch on 28 January. The Mayor of Islington, Jason Jackson, returned to Ambler for the offical opening, which included a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The Curiosity Lab is designed to nurture creativity, curiosity and innovation, through hands-on learning. It will be used across the curriculum, supporting learning in subjects including science, design and technology, art and STEM-based learning.

The project was a collaboration with the Ambler community, particularly through fundraising by Friends of Ambler, and design by parent Sorrel Challands. Sorrel's design brief was to create a modern space that inspires children to be creative and inquisitive, and practical for hand-on teaching and learning. Her incredible effort, dedication and attention to detail have transformed that vision into a reality.

The space is designed to support our commitment to providing every child with an inclusive, ambitious and opportunity-rich curriculum enabling them to explore, experiment, collaborate and problem-solve. From creative projects and investigative learning to innovation and design, the Curiosity Lab empowers children to take ownership of their learning and develop skills that will support them both in school and beyond.

In addition to the Mayor of Islington, we were joined by many of our governors, parents, Friends of Ambler, our subject leaders and representatives from Islington Council. Most importantly, we had a group of children demonstrating how the Curiosity Lab will be used. They created ballon-powered cars and rounded off the launch with a race!

Part of the design was the inclusion of a Curiosity Cabinet - a display of interesting and unusual objects to inspire curiosity and spark imagination. Thank you to all the families and staff who have donated and loaned items. These have included a typewriter, globe, taxidermied parrot (Bruce), deer antlers, and a piece of the Berlin Wall!

Thanks again to everybody involved in bring the project to fruition. We are delighted to see the Curiosity Lab already inspiring children and enriching teaching and learning at Ambler.

Thank you also to the Ambler media team, Vlad and Louis, for the stunning photos and video!

🔗 LINK GOVERNOR SPOTLIGHT 🔗

At Ambler, all the governors and associate members take on link roles, which means they are responsible for linking up with the school on a particular area to see how the school is getting on. This is partly to ensure the governing board knows the school well - and to make sure it is doing a good job. It is also to provide the school with extra support and a listening ear.

We have found it a great privilege to get to see the school up so closely and are amazed by the energy and commitment we have seen. We have decided that, going forward, we should share our thoughts a little more regularly on what we are seeing. This month the spotlight is on Oracy.

Duncan Aldred, Chair of Governors

Oracy at Ambler – A Governor’s View by Nicky Dawkins

I’m lucky enough to be the Link Governor for Oracy and so met up with Ms Harry, the Oracy Lead in Ambler, to see what is going on in this area.

For those that don’t know, Oracy is the ability to express oneself fluently when listening, speaking, presenting and debating. All of these skills are incredibly important to develop and Ambler has been focussing on these in the classroom for some time now. There is a lot going on in this space so I wanted to flag the top 6 (I failed to stop at 5) exciting things:

Ambler is trying to get children to use their Oracy skills outside of the classrooms too. Each year group is going to create their own Oracy charter on how to deal with things like playground issues in a more constructive way.
There is now a Year 6 debate club working towards an interschool tournament. Watch out for how they do!
There is going to be an Oracy school trip to London City Assembly for the debate club and School Council members (years 4-6) to learn about democracy in London.
There has been an Oracy homework project this term to encourage children to work on learning and presenting poems. Finalists will get to perform in front of the whole school. This is just the start of creating more performance opportunities going forward.
There are going to be some Ambler parents coming into speak about how they use Oracy in their work lives – including a human rights barrister and a theatre director. Lucky kids!
The children now wear Word of the Week stickers every Friday. This helps to generate conversation around new words and get the children excited about using complex vocabulary.

DEBATING CLUB

Year 6 Debating Club has officially launched, with nine enthusiastic debaters learning about the structure of a debate and key debating vocabulary before putting their persuasive skills to the test.

So far, the group has debated whether fast food should be illegal and are now exploring arguments for and against children being paid to attend school! The debaters are also excited to be visiting London City Hall with the School Council team next half term, where they will learn more about democracy and see persuasive communication in action.

THERAPEUTIC STORY GROUP

Katy Singer and Georgia Myers successfully led their first Ambler Therapeutic Story Group, guiding Year 6 students on an imaginative journey to a distant land and back. The children showed great creativity with their adventure ideas and worked well as a team, facing challenges and overcoming obstacles. The group concluded with a successful book launch party, where they read a chapter and answered audience questions.

Click the image above to read the full flyer.

HAMPSTEAD HEATH TRIP

Year 2 went on an outdoor learning adventure at Hamspstead Heath. We visited the secret garden where we spotted animals and made a den for them. It was very muddy but lots of fun!

BRITISH MUSEUM TRIP

To conclude our history unit on Ancient Egypt, Year 3 visited the British Museum. It was amazing to see how engaged the children were as they explored the galleries for artefacts and displays, becoming archaeologist for the day. They worked very hard to complete their booklets, making thoughtful connections to their classroom learning and showing great enthusiasim throughout the day. The trip was a great success and enjoyable expereince for all.

Y3 INSTRUCTIONAL WRITING

With the grand opening of our exciting new Curiosity Lab this term, year 3 completed a hook lesson there to launch their instructional writing unit. The children were introduced to key features of instructional writing and used this to write their own instructions for making jam sandwiches, which they made in the end. Yum! 😋

ATTENDANCE MATTERS

The law requires parents/carers to ensure their child’s regular attendance at school.

Please notify the school if your child cannot attend for any reason (each day they are absence)
Explain the reasons for your child’s absence. Please be specific.
Ensure your child is not absent where this can be avoided (e.g. minor illnesses).

There are 175 non-school days for holidays, family time etc. We do not expect parents/carers to take children out of school for a holiday or other term-time leave. Absence may be granted by the headteacher in exceptional circumstances.

If you feel it is absolutely unavoidable to request term-time leave:

You must apply for leave in advance (request forms are available from the school office)
Submit your application at least 4 weeks in advance of the proposed leave dates
Apply before booking your travel .

If you withdraw your child during term time and the absence has not been agreed by the Headteacher, it is unauthorised leave, which may lead to a fine of up to £160 and/or court proceedings.

We understand that every family’s circumstances are different and subject to change. Please email the school office to arrange a meeting with Mrs McNicholl if you have any concerns you would like to discuss.

MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING

Children's Mental Health Week

We really enjoyed taking part in Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week. Thank you so much for all of your generous donations - we are very grateful for your support. We will share our final fundraising total when we return from the holidays.

The children especially loved Dress to Express Day, where they had the opportunity to celebrate and express exactly who they are. This year’s theme was Belonging – “This is My Place”, and it was wonderful to see our school community embracing this message so positively.

We were also delighted to welcome the brilliant Eastside Creative artist Joseph, who delivered workshops across the school earlier this week. During the workshops, pupils took part in creative, interactive sessions focused on belonging, community, and emotional wellbeing. Through storytelling, role play, imaginative characters, and spoken word poetry, children explored themes of inclusion, empathy, and identity while developing key skills in communication, listening, confidence, and self-expression.

Family Food and Eating Coffee Morning

We would like to remind families about our upcoming Family Food and Eating Coffee Morning with Sophie Smith-Tong and Ruby Uddin on Friday 27th February in the Community Room.

This session will be an opportunity to explore family eating and share ways in which you can create and develop a positive approach to food at home. Please come along, everyone is welcome.

Thank you for all of your continued support as we work together to promote positive mental health and wellbeing across our school community. 💛

Sophie Smith-Tong

YEAR 1 SPACE TRAINING

Year 1 have loved our space topic! The children wrote and designed their own astronaut recruitment adverts, using exciting words and pictures. They also took part in a Space Training Day, working together on fun challenges. We learned about famous pioneers including Amelia Earhart, the Wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong and Mae Jemison. The children showed great enthusiasm and teamwork throughout!

AMBLER'S CAR BOOT + JUMBLE SALE

Our annual Ambler Car Boot Sale is coming soon! Sell anything and everything including second-hand clothes, toys, home-made arts and crafts, books, furniture, or even plants! You only need to pay for the booking - you get to keep all the money you make on your stall. Proceeds from the booking fees will go towards the Y6 Leavers Fund.

Confirmation of the date and how to book will follow soon!

BOYS' EMPOWERMENT

The boys empowerment event was an inspiring and uplifting experience that encouraged confidence, responsibility and positive choices. Through engaging talks, teamwork activities and open discussions, the boys learned the importance of respect, resilience and believing in themselves.

The event created a safe space for them to share ideas and support one another, helping them understand that true strength comes from kindness, courage, and cooperation. We look forward to welcoming the boys back to the Boys Empowerment Club that will commence in the near future.

PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL STARS TOURNAMENT

Congratulations to the Y5/6 Girls Football team for winning the tournament! The girls were able to work together, showing great team spirit and teamwork to win the trophy. Scoring a total of 15 goals in all their matches. They demonstrated a great sense of resillience showcasing all the DREAMS qualities to win the entire tournament! A huge achievement for the girls, which guarantees them the right to represent Arsenal at the National Primary Stars Championship later in the year!

DODGEBALL

The Y5/6 Dodgeball team delivered a great performance coming 2nd in the Islington Dodgeball tournament! The team worked super hard and finished in 2nd place. The team demonstrated great teamwork and communication and never gave up. Even when the games were tough, the children kept smiling and continued to try their best. Everyone are proud of their silver finish and can’t wait to play again next time!

TABLE TENNIS

The Y5/6 table tennis team showed great effort and determination. Each player tried their best, stayed focused, and kept going even when the matches were challenging. They all demonstrated good sportsmanship, encouraged one another and never gave up on a single point. The tournament was a wonderful example of how hard work and positivity can bring out the best in each other.

WORKING TOGETHER FESTIVAL

The year 2 Working Together Festival was a joyful celebration of teamwork, friendship and cooperation. Throughout the day, students took part in fun group activities that encouraged them to listen to one another, share ideas, and solve problems together.

Through exciting team challenges, everyone had a chance to show kindness and support for their classmates. The festival helped Year 2 students understand the importance of working together and reminded them that great things can be achieved when they help one another.

NEWS FROM EARLY YEARS

What a start to 2026! We blinked and almost missed this half term, it has flown by.

The children have thrown themselves into winter with enthusiasm. Whether making mud pies, jumping in puddles or building fires safely at Forest School, their love of the outdoors is clear to see.

It has been a real highlight to celebrate the strong progress each child is making during our progress meetings with the teams, and then see that development first-hand in classrooms each day. Confidence, independence and skills are continuing to grow across the setting.

Dress to Express was a fantastic celebration of individuality. I’ve enjoyed hearing the baby room’s joyful singing during Sign and Sing, admired Nursery’s gallery-worthy still-life flower paintings, and been incredibly impressed by Reception’s reading and writing achievements. Our toddlers have also shown great engagement during their mindfulness sessions.

We have also welcomed many visitors from other settings this half term. They have been incredibly inspired by the quality of teaching and learning, our rich environments and the stunning artwork on display. I am very proud of the team and the children for showcasing what makes our setting so special.

Next term we’re looking forward to:

More enrichment trips and experiences
The long-awaited start of our forest redevelopment project
New woodwork and tinkering areas to encourage creativity and problem-solving

We are looking forward to Spring 2, hopefully with a little less rain and a little more sunshine!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Best wishes

CÍara Rush

📮 RECEPTION 💌

Reception have been incredibly busy and have had a wonderful few weeks of learning and exploring! We enjoyed a trip to the library, where we continued to learn how to show consideration for others in public spaces, how to look after books, and how to share and enjoy stories together.

In Forest School, the children have loved getting muddy and fully immersing themselves in outdoor learning. They have been busy in the mud kitchen, relaxing on the outdoor hammock swing, making nests for forest creatures, and even painting using natural materials such as turmeric and beetroot.

We also went on our first school trip to The Postal Museum, and the museum staff could not get over how amazing our children were! They showed fantastic resilience and enthusiasm throughout the day, especially on the Mail Rail, in the Sorted! playroom, and while learning all about what it means to be a Postie. We are so proud of how well they represented our school.

We have also loved creating our own collages inspired by Henri Matisse, exploring colour, shape, and cutting techniques. A special highlight was when Francis visited the Tate to see a real Matisse artwork and kindly shared his photos with the class, which inspired lots of discussion and creativity.

As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, we explored the importance of feeling a sense of belonging within our communities. The children shared thoughtful ideas about friendship, kindness, and what makes them feel safe and happy.

In class, we have begun writing longer sentences using our phonics knowledge and strengthening our hand muscles to form letters more confidently. Drawing Club has also taken on a whole new level, with children producing incredibly creative and expressive work. We are learning that it is okay if our drawings don’t turn out exactly as we first imagined - mistakes help us learn, grow, and try new ideas.

It has been a joy to see the children developing so much confidence, independence, and creativity every day. We are very proud of them! 🌱

🧌 NURSERY 🐐🐐🐐

Our nursery class has had a wonderfully busy half term, especially as we explored drawing from life. The children have been learning to really notice the world around them – thinking carefully about shape, colour and size. They have practised using the colours they can see and experimented with creating long, short and curved lines in their artwork. Using a range of media including watercolour, oil pastels, chalk and charcoal, the children have enjoyed expressing their ideas in different ways.

Story time continues to be a favourite part of our day, and the class particularly enjoyed re-enacting the familiar tale of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Inspired by the story, the children worked together to build bridges using recycled and repurposed materials, as well as constructing block bridges so their goats could safely travel from one side of the table to the other.

During our Forest School sessions, the children showed fantastic persistence and resilience as they learned how to create the spark needed to make a fire, taking great pride in their achievements. It truly has been a full and exciting half term, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back after the break for another fun-packed term together.

🌱 TODDLER ROOM 🌷

This half term the children have been exploring emotions with Pip and the Bag of Buddies. The children talked about different feelings and chose a buddy to help them understand emotions like happy, sad, and excited. They then created handprint artwork to express their emotions.

The children have also been planting bulbs and exploring how plants grow. The children enjoyed digging in the soil, placing the bulbs carefully, and watering them, using all their senses during the experience. We look forward to watching our bulbs grow together over the coming weeks!

We really enjoyed baking cornbread together. The children helped pour, stir, and mix the ingredients, exploring different textures and smells along the way. The children loved tasting the cornbread they helped make and some of them shared their cornbread with their families!

🐮 BABY ROOM 🐏

We are currently supporting children as they transition into the toddler room, while also warmly welcoming new children into our setting. During this time of change, staff provide consistent reassurance, comfort, and familiarity using the key person system to help every child feel safe, secure, and confident.

This term, our babies have been exploring emotions through stories, movement, and sensory play. Using the Mood Meter, we have focused on simple feelings such as happy and sad, supported by clear visual prompts to help children begin expressing their own emotions and recognising feelings in others.

Our book last month, “Sometimes”, alongside stories that explore emotion like “Pip and the Buddies", inspired us to introduce baby yoga and continue our mindfulness sessions with Mindful Mo. Children explored gentle movements such as stretching, reaching, and simple poses to promote relaxation and body awareness. We created a warm, soothing environment using individual mats, sensory resources, sound bowls, Tibetan bells, and simple breathing activities. We also used breathing balls and a small duck placed on the children’s tummies which helped them visually observe the rhythm and flow of their breathing. Each session ended peacefully with time to relax and unwind, supporting emotional wellbeing.

Our current book of the month, "Who Said Moo?", has been enjoyed as an interactive story introducing animal sounds while supporting listening skills, attention, and early language development. We extended this learning through a sensory farm tray using oats, Weetabix, and crunchy cereals, alongside farm animals and a barn. Farm animal sounds played in the background to encourage imagination and engagement.

During communication and language activities, children matched animal sounds to real photographs using sound buttons, chose their favourite animals to place on an interactive board, and copied the sounds the animals make. These activities support vocabulary development, confidence, turn-taking, and meaningful communication.

The children enjoyed a fun and creative art experience as they explored mark making on a large-scale canvas using animal-shaped stampers, animal figurines, and paint. This activity encouraged the children to experiment with different colours, patterns and movements, supporting their creativity and imagination.

During the activity, the song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” was played in the background, which helped the children make meaningful links between the animal shapes they were stamping and familiar farm animals from the song.

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