Dear Parents and Caregivers

I hope life is treating you well as we progress through our final term of the year. There is a high energy in school at the moment, with learners participating in a variety of different learning engagements and events. It’s wonderful to see their enthusiasm and involvement in these activities.

As we move closer to the end of the term, I want to share a few important updates and reminders with you.

Managing End-of-Term Excitement

As we approach the end of the academic year, we often notice a mix of tiredness and excitement among our learners. Many are eagerly anticipating the long break and the opportunity to spend time with friends and family. This combination of emotions can sometimes lead to poor decision-making and a lack of focus in the classroom.

During this period, we make an extra effort to regroup and remind everyone of our class essential agreements. We strive to respond to our learners in an empathetic and restorative manner. Your support is greatly appreciated. A couple of practical steps you can take as the end of the term approaches are :

• Maintain Regular Routines: Keep to your regular meal and bedtime schedules to ensure your child gets adequate rest.

• Discuss responses and reactions: Take a moment to talk to your child about how to respond if things don’t go the way they would like.

I shared a reminder in assembly this week a reminder to all learners to be kind to one another in the coming weeks and you can see how we celebrated Care for Others Week, last week in the News from the Year Groups below

Social Media Concerns

We have noticed an increase in concerns and issues arising from social media and messaging apps. We do not recommend that primary learners have access to any social media or unmoderated messaging apps. Online conversations can easily filter back into school and significantly impact the learners involved. If you wish to discuss social media use with your child, we have found The Smart Talk to be a useful resource.

Planning for the Long Holiday

Many of you are likely making plans for the long holiday. While we will miss anyone who is leaving, we kindly request that if you know you will be departing at the end of this academic year, please complete a withdrawal form available on the Parent Portal. This will help us plan appropriately for the next year.

End-of-Term Reminder

Please remember that school will finish at 12:00 midday on the last day of term, Friday, 14 June.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Fiona Lewis

Head of Primary

Throughout the school year, Nursery learners learn and develop an understanding of caring for others in their interactions within their community. Through the Nexus Care Movement we focus on care, concern, empathy and action. Adults play a crucial role in modelling social-emotional learning, often using our class puppets and role play to illustrate empathy, sharing, and cooperation. These purposeful moments help children grasp these abstract concepts in a tangible, engaging manner. This journey is supported by the establishment of our classroom essential agreements that promote a respectful and supportive classroom environment and encourage a growing sense of identity, belonging and community. During our whole school Care for Others Week,  Nursery learners actively practiced daily acts of kindness in school and were encouraged to try some at home. This ongoing year-long focus reinforces their understanding of care, fostering a nurturing community and instilling these values into their daily interactions.

As part of our ‘Care for Others’ week, the learners in Kindergarten have been responsible and active in caring for their peers, teachers and adults that work in our environment. We focussed on different acts of kindness throughout the week. We used an ‘act of kindness’ chart to reveal different things that we could do to contribute to everyone's wellbeing. ‘Say thank you to an auntie or uncle who cleans our space,’ was a favourite amongst the learners. They used their initiative to thank the cleaning aunties and it was really powerful to observe the learners reaction and how that made them feel afterwards. We believe there are many benefits for embedding kindness in the Early Years. The person receiving kindness feels reassured, happy, safe and cared for. Those demonstrating kindness can also feel a sense of pride in their actions, happy that they have impacted on the wellbeing of another. We hope to continue these acts of kindness and instill them in everyday life in Kindergarten and hope these skills transfer to home and in life. Celebrating kindness in the Early Years helps children develop behaviours that have value far beyond their school years.

Care for Others week has been a truly exceptional journey for our Year 1 learners as they delved into the beautiful concepts of kindness and caring for others. The classrooms buzzed with discussions about what it means to be kind, drawing inspiration from both historical stories and engaging activities. Our exploration began with the story of Siddhartha, the prince who became the Buddha. Through his tale, the children learned about his journey towards enlightenment and his profound message of compassion. This story tied in perfectly with our introduction to Vesak Day, a significant celebration, of which we had the pleasure of having a mid week holiday. The the learners found out that commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha. The learners were captivated by the idea of dedicating a day to kindness, reflection, and community. 

To bring these concepts to life, we listened to "The Kindness Snippet Jar," a heartwarming story that emphasizes the importance of small acts of kindness. Inspired by the narrative, our young learners created their own Jar of Kindness. Each child contributed a "kindness snippet," a small note describing an act of kindness they had done or planned to do. This activity not only reinforced their understanding of kindness but also fostered a sense of community as they shared their ideas and experiences. Throughout the week, the classroom was filled with examples of these acts of kindness. Whether it was helping a friend with their work, sharing toys, or simply offering a kind word, our Year 1 learners demonstrated that kindness truly is a powerful force that can brighten everyone's day. The week has been a testament to the incredible capacity for empathy and compassion that young children possess. As we move forward, we hope to continue nurturing these values, helping our learners grow into kind and caring individuals who make a positive impact on the world around them.

The Year 2 learners focused on kindness throughout Care for Others week. Each day we revealed a ‘Daily Act of Kindness” which included cleaning up without being asked, saying thank you to teachers and cleaners, playing with someone you don’t usually play with, offering to help a friend, and giving compliments to others. To help the learners grasp the act of kindness we shared pictures books or songs for the learners to make connections and consider how the act applied to themselves in our Year 2 context. On Thursday 16th May we focused on peace, enjoying ‘The Peace Book’ by Todd Parr and watching a short video of children pledging for peace. We then wrote on our peace doves and took them to the Peace Wall in the atrium. It was lovely to read the messages other learners had written. 

As part of our How we organise ourselves provocation, the Year 2 learners returned from lunch one day to find the hub in a big mess. Perhaps it was the inspiration of Care for Others week, all the Year 2 learners instinctively started cleaning up and organising the space almost immediately and without being asked to by the teachers. We were extremely proud of the learners for taking the initiative to do so and it truly demonstrated how caring this cohort is. When it was revealed that the teachers were responsible for making the mess (for the provocation), we were told that it was not very kind of us! Well done to the Year 2 learners for being so considerate and proud to restore their learning environment to order. 

For last week’s Care for Others focus, Year 3 engaged in a variety of enjoyable activities to highlight the occasion. For example, learners delighted in creating postcards for each other, exchanging kind messages on Padlet, and drafting pledges on how they would care for others.

Last week, we also hosted our Year 3 Exhibition! We extend our heartfelt gratitude to those who were able to attend. It was a truly special occasion, and the learners felt immense pride in showcasing all their hard work. Your participation was greatly appreciated!

Year 3 had a distinguished guest at our Year 3 Assembly: Adrian Bennett. Adrian, a parent at Nexus, is also a Guinness Book of World Records holder. During his visit on Tuesday, he shared his upcoming challenge of cycling from Cape Town to Cairo in under 41 days. He explained that this endeavour would require cycling more than 250 km each day. We invited Adrian for two main reasons: to inspire our learners to pursue extraordinary achievements and to establish connections with our current Unit of Inquiry. Adrian is raising funds for Practical Action, a charity that supports communities worldwide that are less privileged than our own.

With only a few weeks remaining, we are savouring every moment with our learners. We are immensely proud of them and have full confidence in their success as they transition to Year 4!

As part of our 'Care for Others' Week, Year 4 learners have been reflecting on the actions we take to make the world a better place for those around us. Learners have been sharing their ideas through discussions in 'Circle Time', their daily Reflections and in their 'Peace Pledges'.  One of our big moments of the week was the completion of our Year 4 Community Tree which is a project facilitated by Mr Thomson and the Y4 Learner Leadership Team. Each member of Year 4 has added a cut out of their hand with a statement of how they are supporting the Nexus Community. These represent the leaves on our Year 4 Nexus Tree to symbolise how our community is growing and strengthening.  Last week (and every week) there have been some wonderful examples of ways in which learners have put their ideas into action.  Here are just a few examples of the comments made by our Year 4 learners this week.

'Are you alone? Would you like to play with us?'

'Are you hurt? Would you like me to go with you to the Nurses' Station.'

'Thank you for holding the door open for me!'

'Do you want help to figure out that Maths problem?'

'I helped my Mom with the dishes yesterday and I took our dog for a long walk'.

'Siqi was very brave to take part in the 'Hair for Hope' hair-shaving event. I'm going to donate some money because I think it is important that there is more research done into diseases like cancer. This way more lives can be saved.'

'I've made a new friend! '

Caring for others is one way that our learners connect with our RECIPE values and show compassion. Showing awareness of others in our learning spaces and speaking kindly are ways that we can support each others well- being every day. 

Care for Others week was an opportunity for us to celebrate each other and be more intentional about our words and actions. Year 5 learners designed beautiful postcards for friends or family. They reflected on a learner profile attribute that their chosen person exemplified and included their own drawings too. It was amazing to see the care and effort that each learner dedicated to their postcard. 

Congratulations to our primary learners who participated in Hair for Hope. Year 5 were well represented with nine of our learners choosing to shave their heads to raise money for Child Cancer Research. We are all very proud of you for the personal action that you have taken and the money you have raised. A big high five to: Orion Patterson, Hunter Barber, Matilda Palmer, Jake Hickman, Aiden Yang, Hannes Cheung, Shourya Gosain, Yinuo Liu, Viggo Bianchini. You are amazing. 

We also participated in the Pledge for Peace wall, as each learner made a personal promise to contribute to peace in their own way. Some included: 

-I will try to listen to people who share their feelings and comfort them to make them feel better. 

-I pledge to respect other people and my parents. 

-I pledge to be kind. 

-I pledge to be honest and responsible. 

-I promise to help someone when they are feeling sad. 

-I pledge to treat everyone equally no matter what.

We aim to achieve our pledges through our words and actions and invite our families to consider pledges too. 

We are excited to share the progress our learners are making with their PYP Exhibition projects. This journey has been truly inspiring, as our students forge meaningful connections to real-world issues and concepts. Many of our learners have explored how their projects can incorporate the 'Care For Others' movement to fostering a sense of empathy and compassion.

As we move forwards, our focus shifts towards how our learners will present their findings and actions. Rather than merely creating boards or posters filled with information, we aim to design experiences or activities that provoke thought and discussion. Our learners are tasked with sharing their information in ways that engage their audience and ensure their exhibition leaves a lasting impact. They are encouraged to think outside the box, making their presentations interactive and engaging to deeply connect with their viewers.

The last few weeks will be exciting and challenging. By working together, we are confident we will achieve success. The support and encouragement from our school community are crucial as our learners navigate the final stages of their exhibition.

Please also see the future dates below, along with opportunities for all learners as they enter secondary school next year.

Thank you for your continued support!

Dear all Year 6 Parents,
We have an exciting, jam-packed few weeks for our Year 6 learners. Please see the various opportunities to come and celebrate the final weeks of primary school with us.