Marden Lodge Primary School & Nursery

End of Spring Term Update

Dear Families,

Welcome to our Newsletter of the Spring Term, and what a busy term it has been! You can see from the pictures below just some of the fantastic learning that your children have been engaging in. When walking the school, it is amazing to see the breadth of the curriculum in action.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my first 3 weeks back at Marden, seeing the progress the school and children have made and reconnecting with the Marden Community.

School is closed from today. The children are due back in school on Monday 17th April. Our Family Support Workers will be on their Easter break too, so if you require any help for your family whilst we are closed, the following numbers may be of use:

Childline 0800 1111

https://www.childline.org.uk

NSPCC 24/7 helpline: 0808 800 5000

Surrey Children's Services 0300 4709100

Caterham Foodbank 01883 348385

The Samaritans 116123

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support and for working in partnership with school. I hope that you have a lovely Easter break, spending time with family and friends.

Denise Coady

Head of School

Star Values

This term, we have focused on demonstrating the following values:

Trustworthy- January

Active Citizen- February

Caring- March

Children are awarded certificates from Class Teachers in our Celebration Assembly every Thursday and also earn individual Dojo points from staff whenever they are seen to demonstrate the values. Our children are becoming more and more confident in articulating the meaning of each value and recognise where they feature in every day life.

Marden's Marvellous Learning Behaviours

This term, we have focused on the following learning behaviours:

January- Resilience

February- Challenge

March- Collaboration

Children are awarded certificates from Class Teachers in our Celebration Assembly every Thursday and also earn individual Dojo points from staff whenever they are seen to demonstrating the learning behaviours. Our staff make reference to them whenever they are relevant to the children's learning.

House Points

As you know, children are awarded Dojo points when they are representing our school values and once these points reach 50, they are then recognised with certificates is our Celebration Assembly. Pupil Parliament have been working with their classes over the year to relaunch our House Point system and we have decided that the Dojo points will also count towards House Points, therefore each individual child's points will also contribute towards their House total too.

Pupil Parliament led a vote and the children have voted to name the houses as the following:

Jupiter - Diamond

Mars - Ruby

Saturn - Sapphire

Earth - Emerald

This term, the winning House is... EARTH / EMERALD

Our Curriculum

We have had a brilliant term. The children have worked so hard and deserve a big rest over the Christmas break. See below to see what each year group has been up to.

Nursery- Caterpillars & Butterflies

This half term in Nursery we have been exploring the topic Digging for Dinosaurs. This is a new topic for this year and the children have really helped to shape the teaching and learning with their ideas and interests. We started by finding out what the children knew about dinosaurs already… which was a LOT! I was blown away by their knowledge of dinosaur names and features. We looked more closely at the characteristics of different dinosaurs and tied this into our Pen Disco by introducing draw-along videos. The Butterflies in particular have been developing their focus, listening and attention through these videos, waiting patiently for each instruction. It has been wonderful to see how far their fine motor and drawing skills have come since September. Mrs A has also been busy making dinosaur fossils with the children on Tuesday and Friday.

In Maths we have been focusing on 2D shapes and their properties: circle, squares, rectangles and triangles. Using the language of sides, we have been identifying similarities and differences. Some of the children noticed a similarity between the shapes and the dinosaurs… “A triceratops has 3 horns and a triangle has 3 sides”. In addition to 2D shapes, we have also been building our number knowledge by learning all about Numberblock Two. Introducing language such as one more and both, the children have started to observe “two” within their environment. “There are two chairs” “There is only two apples left”. We have also been developing subitising in Butterflies which is the ability to look at a group of objects and realise how many there are without counting. We have been subitising groups of 1 and 2 and the children are very quick now!

In Butterflies we are also growing our knowledge of Phonics, and we have started teaching phonics in a slightly more formal way to support the children with being school-ready. This half term we have learned M-A-S-D-T-I-N-P-G-O-C. Please see a previous post on our Nursery Class Dojo page for more information about Phonics in Nursery.

The Caterpillars have continued to develop their gross motor through soft play, visits to the adventure playground, cable reel rolling and morning dance breaks! They have also been developing their listening and attention through more regular story and song times, as well as welcoming in mystery readers to share stories with them. The team have also been working hard this half term to enhance the room further in response to the children’s needs. As our Caterpillars grow, their developmental needs change very quickly too. After Easter they will be welcomed back to a room full of fresh new challenges and areas.

In addition to the above, this half term has also been busy with wider events and celebrations! We celebrated pancake day by making pancakes… and I did admittedly set the fire alarm off (which I am reminded of weekly by the children – oops!). We had a snow day full of snowball fights and snowmen building. We celebrated World Book Day by dressing up as our favourite characters and listening to stories read by Mrs Young and Miss Staples. But, I think that the highlight of the half term (and I think the children will agree…) was the introduction of indoor roller coasters! Implementing a phonics based queuing system – counting the number of children on and off the ride – encouraging descriptive and positional language whilst “on” the ride… it has been a brilliant and fun way to introduce lots of key skills indirectly.

Have a fantastic Easter break Nursery!

Reception- Gruffalo

Newsletter.pdf

Year 1- Supertato

Supertato SPRING newsletter.docx.pdf

Year 2- Peter Rabbit

Spring Newsletter.pdf

Year 3- Hodgeheg

What a term for Year 3! They started learning the ukulele with Mr Beany and have progressed brilliantly. In PE the children have been working extremely hard on gymnastics. They have learnt how to set up and use the equipment safely, especially balance, posture and flexibility. You can see some lovely examples of the children in action on DOJO. In geography the children have been learning all about fieldwork which is using compass directions and maps. To do this, the children have been linking it to orienteering, an area of PE. Art lessons have focussed on drawing using charcoal. We have connected this to last term's history topic of Stone Age Britain and cave paintings. In the core subjects, the children have been excelling. They have been practicing different comprehension question styles while in writing we have just finished writing a fiction piece based on the book Stone Age Boy, again linked to last term's topic. In maths we have just finished column subtraction. All children have now been taught how to add and subtract three-digit numbers in columns. If you are looking for additional home learning, practicing this would be an ideal place to start. There is a lot of exciting learning to come in the summer term and I can not wait to start!

Miss Tollafield

Year 4- Champion

Year 4 Champion Class Newsletter Spring.pdf

Year 5- Aslan

Spring Term.pdf

Year 6- Potter

What a busy Spring Term! Potter class have been working exceptionally hard this term. They have created so many amazing narrative stories which Miss Jeffery has had the pleasure of reading, (Little Red Riding Hood was a favourite!)

The classroom library has recently been extended to include new authors and genres for the children to investigate and broaden their reading habits. The children have particularly appreciated the collection of humorous poetry that we have shared together!

Year 6 also explored the life of The Maya- to which they were shocked to learn about the cruel hierarchy that was in place- along with the unjustified human sacrifices!

The focus of our Life Skills has been Healthy Lifestyles. Topics discussed include: healthy eating, realistic goals, hobbies, exercise and the effects of a variety of drugs on the body- both prescribed and otherwise. The class had a mature and responsive attitude to the topic and contributed sensibly to the lessons.

Following their science unit of Evolution and Inheritance, Potter class created some AMAZING clay animal sculptures. They experimented with the clay first by creating various shapes and trialled booth smoothing and detailing techniques- before achieving their final masterpieces. Year 6 have also PLANTED THEIR PANTS! As part of Science week, Year 6 began an investigation to explore how healthy our soil is. This involved planting some pants! Collaboratively, the children decided on the plan for our experiment and carried it out with great independence- from soil observation work to burying the pants in the school field!

Plenty of awesome Dojo rewards have been earned by the class, including; a pyjama day, delicious donuts and extra free time.

Miss Jeffrey

Anti-Bullying Update

As part of our ongoing anti-bullying work, in every newsletter we will provide you with useful information about bullying, online safety and friendships.

We have had some issues where children have been in situations where they have been unsafe online. Please see some information below from iNEQE about how to keep children safe whilst gaming.

Gaming_Infographic.pdf

Thrive-Easter-Activity-Pack-2022.pdf

A few reminders...

Morning Drop Off

Our gate opens and 8:40am and closes at 8:50am. Lots of children are being dropped off late to school which then prevents the gate from closing at the correct time. Please can you make sure that your child arrives by 8:50am so that they can be in class ready to start learning as quickly as possible.

School Uniform

Our school uniform includes:

Black school trousers, skirts or pinafores
Black tailored shorts in the summer
Navy v-neck jumper or cardigan (school logo optional): Reception to Year 6
White polo shirt: Reception-Year 2
White shirt and School Tie:Year 3-6
Plain black school shoes
White/black socks/tights
Blue checked dress in the summer

Our Nursery Uniform:

White polo shirt
Navy sweatshirt, or Navy V-neck jumper
Black jogging bottoms or black jersey shorts
Black socks for boys
White socks for girls
Black shoes or trainers (please note that Crocs, flip flops or canvas footwear will not be permitted for safety reasons)

If there are any issues, please contact us.

Attendance Update

Marden Lodge Primary School and Nursery firmly believes that all children benefit from regular school attendance. A full and interrupted presence gives children the opportunity to fulfil their academic and social potential but also contributes significantly to establishing a positive leaning and work ethic.

Thank you for your support with making sure your child attends school. Here are our attendance winners from the last few weeks.

Spring term winners- Year 6 Potter Class

Congratulations!

Being late to school can have a considerable impact over the whole school year. The table below shows you just how much time can be missed over a year just by being 5 minutes late to school every day.

We understand that the school mornings can be hectic, but when your child is late for school they are missing out on vital parts of their education.

Our gate to the playground closes at 8:50am so please make sure your child arrives before this time. If you don't, you will need to take your child to the school office to enter the school.

If you have any queries or would like to talk to anyone about attendance and punctuality, please do not hesitate to contact our Senior Office Administrator on 01883 343014

Safeguarding

If you are concerned about the safety of a child, please use the contact below:

dsl@marden-lodge.surrey.sch.uk

The safeguarding leads at Marden Lodge Primary School & Nursery are Mr Williams, Mrs Young, Miss Staples, Mrs Bell, Miss Bullman, Ms Garratt, Mrs Copard, Mrs Kirkpatrick and Mrs Jelly.