Metheringham Primary School
Welcome to issue 9 of our whole school Newsletter. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for regular updates on achievements, class news and whole school updates. Follow us @metheringhamp
Coming up in this issue:
Learning updates
Meet the subject leader
TTRockstars
Attendance
Lateness
This Week's Tweets!
Swimming
FOMS
Gardening Club
Reading Pledge
Reminder
Learning Updates
Foundation Stage In the Foundation stage, the children have been learning about how to care for the environment in RE. They thought about things they could do in their school grounds and in the community to show care and consideration for the world around them.
Key Stage One KS1 English lessons this week have focused on the story Du Iz Tak? Mrs Jones had never read the book before but is now totally smitten. What a story! The children have been acting out parts of the story and writing speech for some of the characters. In PSHE we have been talking about our differences and celebrating how we are all unique. There has also been lots of practical mathematics.
Lower Key Stage Two LKS2 have been looking at parts of real flowers. Our Haiku poems have been shared with our classmates and some have been proudly displayed on our classroom wall. Our new focus in English is on playscripts. In maths, we have been learning about the properties of shape including different types of polygons and developing our knowledge of parallel and perpendicular lines.
Upper Key Stage Two This week, Upper Key Stage 2 have really been ramping up the rehearsals for their end of year performance of "Pirates of the Curry Bean." The children have been working really hard to learn their lines and work out where to stand and how to act to make their character come to life. Singing and dancing is a crucial part of the play and it is a joy to hear all their voices as they practise the songs and actions. The staff involved are beginning to see the whole performance come together now. Year 6 have also been busy planning their events for our Summer Garden Party. It really is wonderful to have school back to near normal once more. Year 5 have enjoyed reading a new collection of books about inspirational people.
Meet the subject Leader
Meet Miss McKenzie
our
Maths
Subject Leader
My name is Miss McKenzie . During my teaching career , I have had experience of teaching all year groups from Y1 to Y6. I have led several areas of the curriculum and am once again returning to leading maths at Metheringham. A role that I am very much looking forward to!
When I was I growing up, my interests were very varied, I loved swimming and represented my district in competitions; I made clothes; had a love of art, and I adored travelling just as much then as I do now . However, as a youngster, maths was never on my list of favourite interests ….. until I realised just how vital a role maths skills actually played in my life. Understanding units of time helped me to know if I was getting faster when I swam races. In art, I loved designing fabrics so knowledge of shape and pattern was required. As a keen dressmaker, I was reliant on estimating and measuring length and knowing how to scale pattern pieces up or down to get the right fit! When travelling, making sense of train and bus timetables was essential when exploring a new destination with friends or family. I even found out that data handling was going to play a huge part in the scientific aspects of my degree in Archaeology at University. The list goes on.....!
As a result of my own experiences, I believe that maths plays a massive part in all of our lives. I have a passion for sharing this belief with the children I teach and making the subject accessible to all.
TTRockstars
Every child from Year 2 upwards has a TTRockstars account which can be accessed in school or at home via the website TTRockstars
Each issue we will list the latest leader board for Times Tables Rockstars. To get on the leader board, you need to play 'studio' on TTRockstars and you need to play at least ten times.
There is no change the leader board this week but there has been so much enthusiasm to beat scores and move closer to the top from the children around school. Let's keep rocking everyone!
Attendance
Below are the attendance figures for week 3 of Term 6. A huge well done to Mrs Wilcox class who had the best attendance for the second week running.
Lateness
This week a number of members of staff raised concerns about children arriving at school late. They discussed the impact this has on pupil's well-being, learning and emotions as they enter a full classroom, part-way through a lesson. We would kindly ask parents to encourage pupils to be on time. We allow 15 minutes, from 8:45-9:00, for a calm and successful start to the day. Any child arriving after 9:00 will be marked as late, Our attendance team monitor persistently late children. Please allow time for children to get into school, hang up their belongings and get to class before the register closes.
This week's tweets!
Swimming
The work on Metheringham Swimming Pool is still in progress and we have been told that the pool won't be open until the summer. This is a disappointment but every effort has been made to ensure that the pool is safe for use in future years.
Metheringham Swimming Pool have a lovely offer for our Year 6 pupils to access the pool in the summer holidays. This will mean that they don't miss out as they are transitioning to secondary schools at the end of term 6.
We have everything crossed for a full swimming programme for all classes in the next academic year.
FOMS
Our FOMS group have kindly donated £1500 towards the purchase of new independent reading books for our Key Stage One pupils. Team Green are in the process of auditing and replacing all independent reading books across the school. The fundraising efforts by FOMS allow us to make a difference to all pupils and their experiences in school. We hope that the next fundraising efforts will help towards replacing and updating books in Key Stage Two.
THANK YOU FOMS!
Gardening Club
The garden had been left with no one looking after it, due to lockdowns, but a group of eager KS2 children have stepped in and got it looking fabulous.
We have dug out the weeds in the garden and planted vegetables and flowers. Whilst in the process of that, we faced a few difficulties like needing new compost and the water butt wasn't working, which is our next project, but we were determined and puzzled through. Miss Nourish helped to start the gardening club although she is now just the supervisor as the students have taken over.
Not only did we return the garden to its former glory, but we learnt many things like what are edible flowers, like marigolds and nasturtiums, and companion planting, like putting sunflowers near tomato plants to attract pollinators. Gardening has not only been fun but it has also been inspiring and has created new friendships.
Don’t worry there is plenty more to do so you can join the club, all you have to do is turn up and help out in the garden at playtimes or lunchtimes.
A big thank you to everyone who joined the gardening club already.
Briar Year 5
Reading Pledge
We are delighted to announce that we have signed up to Lincolnshire's Reading Pledge!
The aim of the Lincolnshire Reading Pledge is to ensure all children in Lincolnshire learn to read and develop a love of reading! We will work towards a set criterion (Bronze, Silver or Gold). Each criterion will strengthen our school's approach to teaching reading and transform our school's Reading for Pleasure culture.
Reminder
We are disappointed to see children bringing toys, fidgets, keyrings and personal property into school. Our school rules on personal property in school are clear. Over the weekend, we would like pupils to remove keyrings from bags, check their bags for toys/fidgets and ensure that no personal property is brought into school on Monday.
These items will be confiscated if found and will be left in the school office for adults to collect at their earliest convenience.
Thank you for helping us to reinforce this responsibility with your child.