Newsletter
February 2022
Principal's Welcome
Dear Parents/Carers
Now that we are half way through the school year it seems appropriate to reflect on a few of the many opportunities our pupils have had so far this school year. This module has seen KS1 venturing to The Tower of London on a school visit. It was a wonderful experience for everyone involved and we hope it will be a memory to stay with them for a very long time.
We have had pupils competing in indoor athletics competitions in KS2 which has enabled them to test their skills against many other pupils in Medway. Congratulations to everyone that took part.
Our Tree Planting Day was a fantastic occasion and was made even more special with such great community involvement. We were overwhelmed with how many parents, carers, governors and parish councillors came along so thank you for your support.
Module 3 has also seen some clubs being offered for the first time. Some KS1 pupils were given the opportunity to have an introduction to the ukulele and KS2 were offered a STEM club; both of which have been very popular.
Module 4 starts off with KS1 and KS2 all taking part in STEM workshops. What a great way to start our learning into our transdisciplinary theme of, ‘How the World Works.’ This has been funded by LAT as we were successful with a bid to develop STEM opportunities in the academy.
We have kept you regularly updated with covid cases in the academy. Whilst we saw a big increase in pupil cases in Year 3-5 part way through the term I am pleased so say that these numbers have reduced significantly. Currently there are only a few pupils cases across the academy. Thank you to all families who continue to engage with regular lateral flow testing at home.
Wishing you all a safe and enjoyable February Break. We look forward to welcoming the pupils back to the academy on Monday 21st February.
Mrs G Stangroom
Safer Internet Day
This year Safer Internet Day was on 8th February with the theme, ‘All fun and games? Exploring respect and relationships online.'
This covers everything your child might do on their own or on shared devices at home from gaming and chat, to streaming and video. Safer Internet Day 2022 celebrates our children’s role in creating a safer internet, whether that is whilst playing their favourite game or creating content through apps and online, or interacting with their friends and peers.
As an academy we all spent the afternoon celebrating how to be respectful and have safe relationships online. If you would like some more information on how to support your child with this at home as a school we use the National Online Safety website and have a subscription for parents to access as well. On this website you can find a multitude of fantastic resources on how to teach and support your child when online. If you haven't signed up already you can do so by following this link: https://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/high-halstow-primary-academy
Tree Planting Day
In Module 3 Nature Squad were proud to be involved with ‘Tree Planting Day’ We were so pleased to see so many parents and carers attend to support their child in planting a tree dedicated to the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
160 trees were planted in total, including:
Rowan, Hazel, Silver Birch, Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Crab Apple
As well as some wonderful fruit bearing trees:
Cherry, Plum, Pear & Apple
Stem Club
This term we have been fortunate enough to be offered the chance to run a STEM club involving an external provider. This has given pupils the opportunity to develop their Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths skills in a fun way. The pupils have carried out a range of activities and challenges such as using K’nex to make gravity-powered vehicles, making a bridge structure using only marshmallows and dry spaghetti, and starting to do some basic decoding. The pupils who attend the club have enjoyed working as a team and problem solving as well as experimenting how to get the best outcomes for each task.
The club will continue in Module 4 so if your child would like to attend please look at the communication sent to all KS2 parents and carers.
PE News
We've had two Indoor Athletics competitions at Medway Park this term. Both were extremely good fun! Every single High Halstow athlete represented the school brilliantly and really did make us proud!
We finished an amazing 9th out of 29 schools in the Year 5 and 6 competition, and an outstanding 3rd out of 21 schools in the Year 3 and 4 competition!
We’re very much looking forward to the next sports competitions in the coming terms!
Grasshopper Class
It has been another busy half term in Grasshopper class! We have been following our lines of Inquiry to find out what is in space and why people explore space. We have a space ship crash in our classroom that we had to investigate. We wrote sentences to describe and report on our findings and drew pictures of what we thought the spacecraft may have looked like- we even found space food in the wreck and thought we had better give it a taste! Some of us liked it a little more than others! We’ve built rockets our of lots of different things- including a very large one in our classroom!
We also enjoyed planting our trees and have been looking after our very own Cherry Tree in our garden area- although Mrs A told us we would have to be very patient and that it probably won’t get any Cherries until next year.
In maths we have been learning all about numbers to 10 including how to find smaller amounts in larger numbers, how to use our part whole model to find different amounts and using our tens frame.
Dragonfly Class
Wow what a busy term module 3 has been! It has absolutely flown by!
To start the module we immersed ourselves in the book “The Queen’s Hat”. We enjoyed seeing all of the places which Queen Elizabeth’s hat blew around in story and we all shared our own experiences of London. Then we went on our visit to the Tower of London! It was so exciting to see the Beefeaters, the actual crown jewels (and think that Queen Victoria must have been a very small lady to have such a small crown), learn about the history of the tower, see real weapons, question and discuss if we thought the tower would actually fall if the ravens left, and meet Sir Thomas the knight. With the help from some of our parents, the trip was a great success and we are very proud of how well behaved Dragonfly Class were - They represented our school incredibly well. We then used our first hand knowledge to create some fantastic non-chronological reports (fact files). We then learnt all about Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria and compared the lives of these two incredible Queens. We are amazed that Queen Elizabeth II has been Queen longer than some of our grandparents have been alive! We then wrote some brilliant stories about the two Queens before digitally designing a new crown for each of them.
What a full on term it has been - I think we are ready for the half term break and a well deserved rest.
Ladybird Class
Ladybird class have had yet another fantastic module. Our central idea ‘knowledge of the past connects us to the present’ has opened up many opportunities for learning about key events in history. In particular, we have focused on The Great Fire of London and we kick started our module by visiting The tower of London, learning more about the events of 1666. For many of the children in the class it was their first ever visit to London and the day did not disappoint. We had so many things to see and discuss that the day flew by! Ladybird class would like to thank all of the parent volunteers for your support on the day (and those that put themselves forward to be on our reserve list) without you the day could not have gone ahead so THANK YOU!
We have also enjoyed reenacting the events of 1666 and used our newly acquired knowledge to write some excellent information reports about The Great Fire. But the fun didn’t stop there . . . we produced some amazing artwork of the fire inspired by the illustrator Jan Pienkowski. We learnt how to use pastels and charcoal to create different effects for our background and created some silhouettes of London to place over the top. I’m sure you will agree the outcome is phenomenal! Please take time to admire the artwork that we have on display in the main corridor and to read some facts about the Great Fire of London.
I cannot believe that we are now half way through the academic year! Where is the time going? I am unbelievably excited to see where our inquiries take us next module.
Spider Class
Year 3 has had an amazing term! They came back after the Christmas break, raring to go with our learning. Our inquiry this term has been centered around learning about an ancient civilisation - The Stone Age. We looked at lots of different sources of information to find out about how the people lived during this time. We explored artefacts, cave paintings and learnt about some of the skeletons that have been found that have told archaeologists lots about how people lived and where. We also looked at cave paintings and created our own wonderful artwork based on Stone Age cave paintings. We really enjoyed reading our key text this term too- Stone Age Boys and we wrote diary accounts in the role of the character in the book and we are also writing a narrative based on the book.
Number Day was on Friday 4th February and there were some amazing number day hats made to celebrate the event!
Cricket Class
Cricket class has had yet another exciting term delving into their inquiries about early migration. First we explored who the Anglo-Saxons were and why they invaded Britain whilst creating and presenting amazing Google slides to document all of our knowledge. Whilst discovering what life was like for Anglo-Saxons all those many years ago we started reading our class text ‘Beowulf’ which has been thoroughly enjoyed by everyone in the class. We wrote newspaper reports based on the adventures in the story and created our very own Bayeux Tapestry to display the events.
This then led us into our second line of inquiry looking at the effect that migration has had over time. We learnt that Anglo-Saxons influenced British art, culture, religion and that many of the places in England were named by the Anglo-Saxons therefore we created models of the villages that they would have lived in. So much effort was put into these and we were all very pleased with how they turned out.
Lastly this term, our focus was on migration in today’s society. We thought about why people migrate to the UK today such as refugees and listened to some of their stories.
Thank you Crickets for another fantastic term! Make sure you get a well deserved rest and we look forward to the next term.
Ant Class
Year 5 have had another fantastic, busy and fun term!
The class have been extremely engaged in our inquiries this term, beginning with looking into significant explorers from the past, before going onto human exploration of Space. The children have been brilliant Scientific inquirers, investigating why we have day and night and how our shadows change throughout the day. Measuring them was trickier than we thought… the sun kept on going in!
The class have also been very busy preparing for the class assembly, we hope you enjoy it!
Ant Class have also been extremely fortunate to have Emergency Exit Arts in this module. Over two workshops, the class created beautiful, huge lanterns. It was rather messy work but it was a lot of fun! We are looking forward to seeing them lit up in the parade.
Well done Ants for all your hard work. Have a great half-term break!
Butterfly Class
Butterfly Class have loved learning about World War 2. In our first line of inquiry linked to Causation, we explored which events led to the outbreak of the war and discussed key turning points such as The Battle of Britain, Pearl Harbour and D-Day. The children wrote some very informative non-chronological reports about these events. Then, we explored the concept of Change. We discovered that life on the home front changed dramatically in the war, with rationing and women going to work. We were lucky enough to speak to an evacuee who was sent to Cornwall in 1939 and were able to ask lots of questions about his experience. The children used this knowledge to write in role as an evacuee and consider how this would have felt. In our final line of inquiry, we explored Perspective. To do this, we looked at what the war was like through the eyes of a German child, using the text Rose Blanche. The children wrote their own narratives to explore this further, creating their own character to share their knowledge. We can’t wait for next module!
Dates for your Diary!
Thursday, 10th February - End of Module 3 for all pupils (Friday 11th February - Staff Professional Development Day)
Open Morning Sessions - Module 4
Tuesday, 22nd or Wednesday, 23rd February - Year 6
Tuesday, 8th or Wednesday, 9th March - Year 2
Thursday, 17th or Friday, 18th March - Year 3
Tuesday, 29th or Wednesday, 30th March - Year R Stay & Play
Module 4 - Key dates
Friday 18th March -PTA Easter Disco (details to follow)
Friday, 1st April - Team Tree Charity Day (Green Day) - details to follow.
Friday, 1st April - Last day of Module 4
Future dates
Monday, 16th May - RSPCA Charity Day (Bring a soft-toy Pet) - details to follow.
Friday, 24th June - Dandelion Time Charity Day (PJ Day) - details to follow
Term Dates 2021-2022
Term 1
Start: Tuesday 31st August 2021 (Professional Development Days) – PUPILS DO NOT ATTEND
Pupils return: Wednesday 1st September 2021
Finish: Friday 22nd October 2021
Autumn Break: Monday 25 October 2021 to Friday 5th November 2021
Term 2
Pupils start: Monday 8th November 2021
Finish: Friday 17th December 2021
Christmas Break: Monday 20th December 2021 to Monday 3rd January 2022
Term 3
Start: Tuesday 04 January 2022
Pupils Finish: Thursday 10th February 2022
Friday 11th February 2022 (Professional Development Day) – PUPILS DO NOT ATTEND
February Break: Monday 14th February 2022 to Friday 18th February 2022
Term 4
Start: Monday 21st February 2022
Finish: Friday 1st April 2022
Monday 4th April 2022 (Professional Development Day) – PUPILS DO NOT ATTEND
Spring Break: Tuesday 5th April 2022 to Monday 18th April 2021 (including Good Friday 15th April and Bank Holiday Monday 18th April 2022)
Term 5
Start: Tuesday 19th April 2022
Finish: Friday 27th May 2022
Early May Day Bank Holiday: Monday 2nd May 2022
May Break: Monday 30th May 2022 to Friday 3rd June 2022
Term 6
Start: Monday 6th June 2022
Finish: Friday 22nd July 2022