Friday 3rd December

Headteacher Update

Dear families,

It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Shacklewell. A huge thank you to the families who made and hung the beautiful snowflakes to decorate our hall. The children have really enjoyed seeing them today. This Christmas spirit continues into next week with some very festive celebrations taking place.

On Thursday 9th we have our Christmas lunch which will be a scrumptious festive feast. The menu is on the flyer below, but this annual tradition is a highlight for the children because not only is it a special meal to share with their friends they enjoy seeing me don my festive apron and serve the meal with the catering team.

On Friday we have a jumbo day of Christmas celebrations. Please send the children into school in a Christmas jumper but please don't feel the need to spend lots of money or buy something new. I will definitely be recycling my Mickey Mouse Santa jumper and look forward to seeing children in some home made creations. Please think about donating to Save the Children to support their work protecting vulnerable children in our society. Donations can be brought into school and will be collected by the office. £2 is more than enough per child.

On Friday 10th we will also be heading to the Hackney Empire for the incredibly well reviewed Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime. I know the children can't wait and I am sure they will be thrilled to see some of their teachers being called upon to take part by the pantomime dame. As a reminder, collection from school is at 4.45pm, via the usual gates. For children in Caterpillars, Butterflies, Aqua and Sky, the children will be staying at school to watch the Hobgoblin travelling pantomime, The Snow Queen. Their pick up arrangements are the same as usual.

Thank you for making parent consultations such a success this week. The staff really enjoyed speaking with you about the children's progress. If you have any further questions or were unable to attend an appointment then please contact the office to arrange a meeting next week.

One final message- please check out the Shacklewell Families raffle. We can't have a winter fair this year so this is a crucial way of raising funds for the school. Click this link https://go.rallyup.com/shacklewell/Campaign/Details to see the amazing prizes on offer.

Have a restful weekend,

Rory

December

  • Thursday 9th December:
    Whole school Christmas lunch

  • Friday 10th December:
    Christmas Jumper day

  • Friday 10th December:
    Year 1 - 6 at the Hackney Empire pantomime

  • Tuesday 14th December:
    Whole School 'Winter Sounds' concert [digital]

  • Friday 17th December:
    School finishes at 2.00pm for Christmas holiday

This Week at Shacklewell

November was a great month for our children and December has begun in the same vein. The drop in temperature has not stopped our children in Reception heading off to explore the local art gallery in search of 'Holy Art' at The Factory. Children used the inspiration to hone their artistic flair, imitating the works of Van Gogh and other artists.

In key stage one, children have been hard at work identifying and sorting animals who eat meat (carnivores), animals who eat plants (herbivores) and animals who eat both (omnivores) using a Venn diagram. They also created animal-themed cards, focusing on a different pop-up mechanism this time, when compared to their previous work. Stories of migration were loved by year 1 too with Ms. Mensah's recount of her life in Ghana and the journey and experiences encountered when she moved to England. Year 2 focused on chronological reports, identifying their features as well as matching relevant information to the relevant sub-headings. They also had an amazing opportunity to meet the author and illustrator, David Litchfield, who wrote the 'Bear and the Piano'. He modelled how he created the bear and gave children the opportunity to do so too.

In key stage two, children in year 3 have been creating posters, showing their knowledge of the Celts and the Iron Age. Year 3 also became 'Stone Agers' for the afternoon, recounting what it was like to live during this period based on information and research from secondary sources. Year 4 have been working diligently through their data unit in maths, both interpreting and constructing line graphs in the process. Working scientifically has been the focus with all year groups showing their enquiry skills in the process. Year 6 created periscopes to demonstrate how light travels and bounces off objects; year 4 added buzzers to their simple circuits to observe their effect on a bulb and year 5 proved their understanding of gravity by creating hypotheses to prove/disprove scientific statements.