Reception - Winchester Road - 2.20pm
Year 1 - Winchester Road - 2.10pm
Year 2 - Winchester Road - 2.00pm
Year 3 - Winchester Road - 2.30pm
Year 4 - Chertsey Road - 2.30pm
Year 5 - Chertsey Road - 2.20pm
Year 6 - Chertsey Road - 2.10pm
Christmas is coming and if ever we've needed a drop of magic and sparkle, it's this year! Year Two has been getting fruity by making some Christingles in their RE lessons to kick off this year's Advent season at St Stephen's. Comprising an orange, some cocktail sticks and a sweetie or two and topped with a white candle to symbolise Jesus as the light of the world, they are getting us in the mood for Christmas and reminding us of the real meaning of the season.
Continuing the Advent theme, our classes have made wonderful wreaths, comprising cut-outs of our children's hands. Children drew around their hands and wrote on their hopes for Christmas and what the season means to them. RE Co-ordinator and Year Five teacher, the brains behind our Advent wreaths, explains: "Usually, we get together for whole school worships in the hall and in the run up to Christmas we bring out our school Advent wreath and sing carols. We obviously can't do that this year, so we have had to adapt our plans! So, I've organised for each class to make their own wreath, using it as a lovely tool to learn about what the season means to Christians. The word 'advent' is based on the Latin word for 'coming' and refers to the period before Christmas. It is all about preparing for Christmas Day. Advent starts on the Sunday nearest to 30th November. Massive thanks to FOSS for providing us with some wonderful, blank wooden baubles for our children to decorate for our trees."
Not meeting in our school hall for assemblies is just one of the changes this festive season. We are also unable to go up to St Stephen's Church for our usual wonderful Christmas service. Instead, the church has been sending us some wonderful online assemblies and helpful Advent videos. Many thanks to Jez, Lauren and the church team who have been so supportive. So, all in all, we are ensuring there is still lots of Christmas learning on the agenda.
This half term the RE lessons for all year groups are Christmas-themed. "Reception is looking at the Nativity story. Unfortunately we can't have our usual live performance this year, but Mrs Dale is capturing it on video instead. Year One is focusing on the characters in the Nativity story, while Year Two made lovely Christingles. Moving on to Year Three, our children are learning about Advent and Epiphany, while Year Four is studying what we mean by 'peace' at Christmas. The art and music of Christmas has been the subject of RE lessons in Year Five, while Year Six is examining advertising at Christmas - assessing if it reflects Christian values," sums up Miss Taylor. So, we have Christmas covered and have tried to ensure that even without some of our regular festive traditions our children are not missing out.
Keep a look out for more Yuletide shots in our next issue ... we are determined to keep the good tidings coming ...
We are in absolute awe of the job our chef Nicola and her team are doing to ensure our lunchtimes are running smoothly and everyone who wants a delicious school lunch gets one. Staggered lunchtimes to keep us all safe and eating within our bubbles means classes alternate weekly between classrooms and the hall for their lunch. Formerly, the kitchen would provide hot lunches for classes whose turn it was to eat in the hall, while their classroom dining peers would get a cold, packed meal. However, this has all changed with the introduction of our bento boxes, which means the hot food is now delivered to the classes as well, and very delicious it looks too! The recyclable boxes have enabled us to do classroom takeaways for the first time at St Stephen's.
This is nothing short of an Herculean task for Nicola, Maggie, Angela and Hannan, our marvellous catering team. We salute them on achieving this in the most difficult of circumstances. Well done ladies, we all appreciate the marvellous job you are doing.