Tuesday 31 January 2017

Mead Swimmers



Well done to Yakub Idir, Danielle Girdenyte, Lois Robinson and Taha Hassani who attended a Swimming event at Central Park Leisure Centre on Saturday, They met Cassie Patten, an Olympian swimmer, who had a very distressing story to tell about swimming with Jelly fish!, Craig Figes, who is the Great Britain men's polo captain, and Vicki Lucas, a synchronised swimmer who competed in the London Olympics in 2012. The children took part in races, competing against the swimmers, and as you can see they all won medals for their efforts. They received first aid training but weren't overly keen when asked to give CPR to the life-like model!!!

Sunday 29 January 2017

Canada class communicate with China!

In year 5 we have been focusing on a text, 'Dragon Slayer', set in China and we have been studying the Shang period of ancient China in History. 

With a contact school in China, Shanghai International School, we have been lucky enough to contact the pupils in China. They sent us a video to say 'hello' and we sent back a reply which was very exciting for the class! Hopefully we can ask them all our pressing questions about China and we may even send over some of our stories by air mail...

See our communications below!



Reception Newsletter -Week Beginning 30th January 2017

Term: Spring 1 Date: 3O.01.17 


Dear Parents,

Last week was another fantastic week learning about the story of the 3 Little Pigs The children are really enjoying our topic of Traditional tales and it is a pleasure to hear the children asking for favourite stories to be re-read to them. This week we will be having a week in thinking about the celebration of Chinese New Year. This will involve a range of craft activities as well as writing linked to the topic. At the end of the week we will be trying some Chinese food so please let us know if there is any reason you would rather you child did not try the food.The children are enjoying their Read, Write Inc. and we can clearly see the children making good progress in their lessons. In maths this week we will be looking at ordinal numbers linking with the Chinese race story.

Our Learning Objectives for this term are:-

Personal, Social and Emotional:

Confident to talk to other children when playing, and will communicate freely about own home and
community.
Enjoys responsibility of carrying out small tasks.
Can describe self in positive terms and talk about abilities.

Communication and Language:

Is able to follow directions (if not intently focused on own choice of activity).
Listens to others one to one or in small groups, when conversation interests them.
Responds to instructions involving a two-part sequence.

Physical Development:
Understands that equipment and tools have to be used safely.
Uses one-handed tools and equipment.
Shows increasing control over an object in pushing, patting, throwing, catching or kicking it.

Literacy:

Enjoys rhyming and rhythmic activities.
Enjoys an increasing range of books.
Suggests how the story might end.

Mathematics:
Counts objects to 10, and beginning to count beyond 10.
Recognise some numerals of personal significance.
Counts out up to six objects from a larger group.

Expressive Art and Design:

Understands that they can use lines to enclose a space, and then begin to use these shapes to
represent objects.
Explores colours and how colours can be changed.
Explores what happens when they mix colour

Understanding the World:

Knows some of the things that make them unique, and can talk about some of the similarities and
differences in relation to friends or family.
Shows interest in different occupations and ways of life.
Remembers and talks about significant events in their own experience.

Messages.

Learning Challenge
 Each half term we will be setting our pupils a challenge related to their learning. We believe that it is
important for us to provide guidance for parents on how their children's learning can be extended at home.
The learning challenge will include either a nursery rhyme, famous person, illustration or a piece of music.
Please talk to your child about the challenge and help them to engage in their learning. The children can choose how they present their learning challenge outcomes to their teacher or class. Well Done to the children that have already completed this. There were lots of certificates given to children in Barbados class on Friday so well done to them. All the children who complete their learning challenge will receive a certificate in our E for Excellence assembly. 

Person: Choose a Traditional Tale Character.
Artist/Illustrator:  Find out about   Axel Scheffler

Poem/Song to learn:    Teddy Bear Teddy Bear

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn around
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Touch the ground,
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Reach up high,
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Touch the sky.

Nursery Rhyme Artist/Illustrator Person

Possible activities 

1. Learn the poem off by heart.

2. Draw a picture to illustrate the teddy bear rhyme.

3. Find out about Traditional Tale Characters.

4. Produce a collage, book or picture of your favourite traditional tale.

5. Find out facts about the illustrator. 

Please ensure your child has their P.E kit in school for Tuesday and a spare set of clothes on their peg in the event that they get wet and need to change would be very useful. Please encourage your child to practise dressing and undressing at home as there are still quite a few children who need a lot of support. Please name all hats and scarves as the children are not always sure which one belongs to them. Lunch is from week 1 of the Havering Catering services this week

We cannot emphasise the importance of reading at home . The book marks have now arrived in school so we will be rewarding those children who read regularly with book marks and certificates so PLEASE spend some time helping your child, they really will reap the rewards. Jamaica class had a good week and managed to beat the very impressive Barbados class. Come on St Lucia class it definitely needs to be you this week!

As a reminder Friday the 10th February is a staff training day so school closes for half term at 3.00pm on Thursday 9th February and reopens on Monday 20th February at 8.30am.
We now have an Early Years email address so if you have any enquiries or you are working and unable to meet with class teachers you can contact staff more directly the address is:-

eyfs@mead.havering.sch.uk

Kind regards

The Reception Team

Friday 27 January 2017

Learning Federation Parents’ Association

Learning Federation Parents’ Association - Volunteers Meeting Thursday 2nd February 9.15am Infant Hall @ Mead
This week saw the first meeting of the newly formed Learning Federation Parents Association. The Executive Committee met to establish a new Chair, Treasurer and Secretary and appoint additional Trustees. The team also had to agree the initial events that would begin to contribute towards our annual fundraising target of £10,000. First we are delighted to confirm that the following appointments were made:
Michelle Saunders (Mead Parent) - Chair
Radika Muthukumarana (Mead Parent) - Treasurer
Jenny Porter (Broadford Parent) - Secretary
Additional Trustees: Mark Borrell (Broadford Parent) Alan Kemp (Governor), Mrs L Smith, Mrs L Nicholls

The first event the team will be looking to organise is a Mothers’ Day Table Top Sale. This will be hosted on consecutive days in March. Both sales would be held at the end of the school day 2.45-4.15pm:
Broadford 15th March - Wednesday
Mead 16th March - Thursday

If you would be able to help with this first event please attend the planning meeting on Thursday 2nd February @ 9.15am. All parents - from both schools - will be welcome

If anyone who can't make the meeting would like to volunteer their services please contact -
Jenny Porter <jporter.lfpa@learningfederation.org.uk>

Star Writers



Star Writers:

These children have used a range of powerful vocabulary and techniques to become a Star Writer;

Thereisa Henry, Ava Paris, Grace-John Jennings, Hayden Flower, Kiyah Forde, Brea Cassell, Aminata Singhateh, Abigail Safo-Frimpong, Yvie Jackson, Callum Saunders, Deon Woni, Akacia Mungulu, Rosie Nash, Washakh Nadeem, Sarah Adeyemi, Kamile Zilinskaite, Aimee Ince, Stefan Labedzki, Formoso Da Silva & Ashlea O’Halloran. Look out for examples of their work on the blog!

Freshwater Theatre company visit to year 1



Freshwater Theatre company visit to year 1
Year 1 got creative on Thursday as they told the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears through dance. Alice from the Freshwater Theatre Company visited Mead and worked with the children to create an amazing dance routine. The children had a fantastic time moving as the different characters and even learnt some facts about real bears.

Mya exclaimed "I had great fun dancing. I liked mixing the porridge."

Macie added "It was brilliant."​

Sport at Mead



Sport at Mead

A massive well done to both our netball and football teams who won their games this week:
Our netball team-Abbie ,Julia, Valeria, Daisy, Lenny, Nelson and Harley beat Hilldene an impressive 17-1 and are currently 2nd in the league.

Our football team: Vilius, Rolex, Rolvier, Stefan, Tommy, Martin, Harley, Michael, Alfie and Nelson fought hard to score in the last few minutes of their game to beat St Ursula’s 3-2 and are currently sitting at the top of the league with one match to go.

Awards



Certificate of Presentation:
Well done to Jack Stevens and Ryan Eaton who have presented their work beautifully. They have shown pride in their work and taken care with their handwriting and number formation.

Learning Challenge Awards
Ava Paris, Sabina Banaru, Ruby Sinclair, Stephen Hunt, Yanis Ruzibaev, Dami Akeredolu, Alfie Joyce, Rubie-Mae Edwards, Amelia Christie, Ina Monterio Barry, Jessica Shorter, Sebastian Rotaru and Kamile Zilinskaite, have been working hard at home and extending their knowledge through their learning challenge work.

Learning Power Awards:
These are the awards we present to the pupils when they have demonstrated one of our four learning skills: resilience, reciprocity, reflectiveness & resourcefulness. Gene Brown receives a certificate for Resilience and Mihaela Bordei, Ellie Mann, Lexie Smart and Grace Allen for Reciprocity. Well done to them!

Tracker Awards:
Congratulations to the latest pupils who have achieved their Bronze awards: Riley Ince and Isabelle Cutts.

E for Excellence Winners:



E for Excellence Winners:

These wonderful children have demonstrated excellence this week.
Barbados -Rocco Livingstone
Wales -Wahab Mudashiru
Jamaica -Charlotte Brown
Scotland -Ryan Mutumbo
St Lucia -Ian Alexander
Germany -Briana Grigore
New Zealand -Paddy Clarke
Greece -Kyla McGinn
Australia -Harry Donovan
Italy -Elizabeth Hau
Palau -Charly Perfect
U.S.A -Jake O’Flynn
Madagascar -Aidan Andreetti-Brown
Canada -Benjamin Nwabenu
Egypt -Charlotte Bowers
Mexico -Paige Cheney
Kenya -Lennie Hands
Chile -Alfie Cook
N. Ireland -Pritika Maheshwari
Brazil -Charlie Crease
Fiji -Lenny Hurt




WOW Awards

I have made my teacher happy/WOW Award

Yasmin Braun and Jimmy Kelly in Barbados class -For reading with words
Austeja Paulauskaite, Riley Manton, Lucas Middleton, Gabriela Alves Rodrigues, Brea Cassell and George Shah in Palau class -For moving up a book band
Aminata Singhateh, Sophiat Olojede, Wajeeha Hussain, Hennessy Bell, Louie Peters, Ronnie O’Connell, Nafisa Ahmed-Osman, Kaylin Nachwa Muwenda, Reggie Miller in Madagascar class
-For moving up a book band

Zephan Witchalls, Tomi Akeredolu, Agata Deptuch, Ricky Donovan, Emilis Juodelis in Egypt class
-For moving up a book band

Grace Rowley and Lennie Hands in Kenya class -For moving up a book band
Kieran Hart in Fiji -For moving up a book band

Raul Misinciuc, Aleena Seleka, Briana Grigore, Sofia DeAngelis, Rosie Nash and Maisie Flower in Germany class -For achieving swimming certificates

Elizabeth Hau, Daniele Girdenyte and Alecia Mmor in Italy class -For completing work to a high standard at home

Elizabeth Hau, Lacey Crease, Paige Taffe, Yakoub Idir, Kayla Letch, Alecia Mmor, Lois Robinson and Daniele Girdenyte in Italy class -For achieving swimming certificates

Janek Piekarski in Fiji -For fantastic writing 






Bikers' Breakfast - 3rd Februrary

Bikers' Breakfast 3rd February 2017


To encourage pupils to use their bikes and scooters, we are holding a free Bikers' and Scooters' Breakfast on Friday 3rd February 2017 from 8:00am-8:30am in the dining hall.

Anyone in Key Stage 1 or 2 who has travelled on their bike or scooter on that day is welcome to come along.

Please ensure you have filled out a form and handed it in to Miss Harding by 27th of January 2017.

Thank you

Attendance Update



Attendance Update

Year 5&6 -Brazil 97.2%

Year 3&4 -Northern Ireland 97.8%

KS1 -Kenya 97.7%

Overall -94.5%

Well done to Brazil class who had the highest attendance in Y5&6 last week at 97.2%.

Northern Ireland had the highest attendance for LKS2 and overall at 97.8% and Kenya the highest attendance in KS1 at 97.7%. The overall attendance last week was 94.5% -disappointing as it is significantly below our target of 97%

Year 4 Star Writers

Year 4 Star Writers


Congratulations to Year 4 Star writers! 
Rosie Nash - Germany, Sarah Adeyemi- Italy and Washakh Nadeem - Greece. 

These children were able to write fantastic stories from the viewpoint of one of the characters from "The Bogey Men and the Trolls Next Door". These children  were able to write in the first person, they used paragraphs, inverted commas, fronted adverbials and show not tell sentences. Well done writers! 

School Council




Harold Hill Food Bank

The Mead School Council are continuing to collect donations of dried and tinned food for the Harold Hill foodbank. Thank you for the donations that we have received so far. The food bank provides an essential service to the less fortunate members of our community. We are asking our generous Mead School families to please give what you can. Thank you on behalf of the Mead School Council.

Year 4 Spellings

Year 4 Spellings

Get busy and practise your spellings for the test on Friday 3rd February 2017  

This week's words are: 

outrageous
spontaneous
glamorous
humorous
enormous
jealous
activate
action
active
activity
reign
electrician


Make sure you know what each word means. 
Try to use it in a sentence, and impress us all by using and spelling the words correctly in your writing.


School Uniform




School Uniform
Our current school uniform supplier has advised that they are moving to Hornchurch so we now have arrangements in place with a local company to supply Mead school uniform. The new supplier, Premier Schoolwear, have changing room facilities, is situated close to the school, ample parking space and will always be open during holiday times and on a Saturday. We will be arranging a voucher system for those families who are eligible for yearly free school uniform.

Diary Dates




Diary Dates

INSET Day - Friday February 10th
Please be advised that school will be closed on February 10th as we have INSET training at both Mead & Broadford.

Next Friday 3rd February we will be holding Biker’s breakfast from 7:45 -8:30 in the dining hall-All biker’s/scooter’s welcome!

Key Dates

Last day of half term -Thursday 9th February

INSET Day -Friday 10th February -School closed for pupils

Parent / Teacher Consultations -Tuesday 28th March /Wednesday 29th March

Last Date of Spring Term -Friday 31st March











Year Group Email Addresses



Year Group Email Addresses
We have now set up e-mail addresses so you can contact teachers directly if/when necessary.
To contact teachers in our nursery/reception classes-eyfs@mead.havering.sch.uk

For year 1 teachers -year1@mead.havering.sch.uk. for subsequent years substitute the number with the year your child is in. e.g if your child is in year 4 - year4@mead.havering.sch.uk

Gym area



Gym Area
Please be advised we can not be responsible for any accidents in the gym area in the KS2 playground before or after school. When used during school time this area is always supervised by a staff member to ensure the equipment is used correctly but we are unable to supervise the area when your children are in your care. The children are aware of this rule-we would be grateful for your help in enforcing it.

Year 3 Star Writers

Congratulations to Year 3 Star writers! 




Deon Woni in Wales, Akacia Mungulu in Scotland and Callum Saunders in Norther Ireland 



These children were able to write fantastic new episode to a story. They used excellent sentence structure, correct punctuation, and challenged themselves using different sentence types such as 2A, 3 ed and relative clause sentences. 



Well done writers! Keep up the good work!

Nursery newsletter 27.01.17





       Term: Spring 1                    27.01.17





Dear Parents and Carers,


This week we are reading the book, ‘Walking through the Jungle’. We are encouraging children to retell the story independently. If you have this book at home please encourage your child to read to you, or you can borrow the book from our library.

Next week our topic is, ‘Chinese New Year’ We will be learning about different cultures and tasting different foods.

Notices

Friday 10th February is an INSET day therefore there is no school on this day. This then leads into half term where children will be off for a week. Back to school on 20th February.

Please remember that children should be wearing suitable shoes to school, not plimsolls. Children’s school shoes should have buckles or velcro, NO LACES.

Absence and lateness

If your child is unwell you need to call every day they will be off. Children are marked as absent on the register unless we have heard from parents that morning. If your child is off Mon-Wed, parents are required to call every morning of those 3 days.

Nursery opens at 8.30am. If you have older children that you need to drop off we have allowed time for you to do this by leaving our doors open until 8.45am. Some children are being consistently late and this means they miss an important part of their day. After half term we are beginning our Read, Write, Inc programme which teaches children phonics. This input will happen at the start of the day. Children who are consistently 5-10 mins late will miss this very important section of the day. Please make sure your child is in Nursery no later than 8.45am.

Times
Morning Nursery: 8.30am - 11.30am
Afternoon Nursery: 12.30pm - 3.30pm

Please be aware that morning Nursery children need to be collected at 11.30am at the latest. Please make sure you are outside our Nursery door at 11.20 ready to collect your child when we open the door. Children who are not collected by this time will be taken round to the main school office for late collection.


The Newsletter will also be published on the EYFS blog. You can view this from the school website: http://www.mead.havering.sch.uk or by following the school facebook page.

     
Kind regards,

The Nursery Team

"Someone's been eating my porridge."

Year 1 got creative on Thursday as they told the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears through dance.  Alice from the Freshwater Theatre Company visited Mead and worked with the children to create an amazing dance routine.  The children had a fantastic time moving as the different characters and even learnt some facts about real bears.

Mya exclaimed "I had great fun dancing.  I liked mixing the porridge."
Macie added "It was brilliant."










Wednesday 25 January 2017

What a treat for Year 2!

Year 2 children were lucky enough to have a visit from the famous author Ian Whybrow who has written many children's books such as: Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs, Harry and the Robots and Whiff.

Ian spoke about how to plan a story and he gave the children some tips on what to include in their writing. He spoke about how he came up with some of his ideas for his books. The children found out that his grandchildren are lucky enough to listen to his stories before anyone else!

The children also had the pleasure of listening to Ian read two books to them and they interacted with the stories with great enjoyment.

"I found it really interesting because he told us how to improve our writing and not to use too many characters"
Aliyah.


"I have never met an author before"
Lexie.





Tuesday 24 January 2017

Year 5 science investigations!

Canada class in year 5 have been having an exciting time learning about our new science topic - Electricity!

They have been enjoying plenty of investigations and have even managed to get their balloons to stick to walls. See below for proof...

Anyone know how to explain this magic trick in terms of the science behind it (electrons and electricity?!)? Year 5 do...go ahead and ask them!





Year 1's astonishing author.

Have you ever wondered what a real life author was like?
Do you have some riveting questions that you would love to ask an author?

Well today, year one had the opportunity to meet a real author.


Ian Whybrow is the Author of many children's books including: 'Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs', 'The Bedtime Bear', 'Harry and the Snow King' and many, many more.
The children were given an insight into the workings of an author. How they come up with ideas and get inspired. How they get their books published. Why they choose to write about certain things. 


All of the children were fully engrossed and wanted to know more about Ian and his fantastic stories. 
Many of the children voiced their ambitions of writing their own stories. One child in New Zealand class said that he wanted to write a story about birds. 
Ian also treated the children to some live readings of his most famous books. The children loved hearing the stories and found many of them hilarious. 


We would all like to give Ian a special thank you for inspiring and exciting us today.
It is time to get reading and dreaming up those stories!!



Monday 23 January 2017

Welcome Miss Sligar

Welcome Miss Sligar!!

Germany has a new class teacher, Miss Sligar.

She has come from Australia, where she was teaching in a town called Orange in the state of NSW. She has been sightseeing around London is having a wonderful time at school.
Miss Sligar says " I am very excited to be here! I am enjoying being a part of the Mead Primary School community and the Germany class. Thank you to everyone who has been so warm and welcoming, it is greatly appreciated. I look forward to meeting more of you in the future."




Year 2 Star Writers

Year 2 Star Writers

For the week beginning 23rd January

Our Year 2 Star Writers were:

Riley Ince    (Kenya)
Charlotte Bowers    (Egypt)
Amelia Nauthoo    (Madagascar)

For producing excellent writing about 
sailing with Christopher Columbus!

Well Done!


Year 2 Star Writers

Year 2 Star Writers

For the week beginning 16th January

Our Year 2 Star Writers were

Agata Deptuch     (Egypt)
Hamara Junior Barry    (Madagascar)
Asia Blissett    (Kenya)

They used expanded noun phrases, different sentence types and
produced great pieces of writing.

Well done!


Safety in our parks



We had special guests in school today from the Parks Protection team. John and Steve, Park Protection Officers in the local area, spoke to our KS2 children about keeping safe in our parks and about respecting the environment-ensuring it is clean and safe for everyone to use. They imparted some very important messages which hopefully your children will be able to share with you.

Saturday 21 January 2017

Reception Newsletter Spring 1 Week 4


Term: Spring 1 Date: 23.01.17 

Dear Parents,
The children are really enjoying our topic of Traditional tales and it is a pleasure to hear the children asking for favourite stories to be re-read to them. This week we will be concentrating on the story of the 3 Little Pigs. The children are enjoying their Read , Write Inc. and we can clearly see the children making good progress in their lessons. In maths this week we will be looking at 3 dimensional shapes so any help you can give your child with naming and understanding the properties would be appreciated.

Our Learning Objectives for this term are:-

Personal, Social and Emotional:

Confident to talk to other children when playing, and will communicate freely about own home and
community.
Enjoys responsibility of carrying out small tasks.
Can describe self in positive terms and talk about abilities.

Communication and Language:

Is able to follow directions (if not intently focused on own choice of activity).
Listens to others one to one or in small groups, when conversation interests them.
Responds to instructions involving a two-part sequence.

Physical Development:
Understands that equipment and tools have to be used safely.
Uses one-handed tools and equipment.
Shows increasing control over an object in pushing, patting, throwing, catching or kicking it.

Literacy:

Enjoys rhyming and rhythmic activities.
Enjoys an increasing range of books.
Suggests how the story might end.

Mathematics:
Counts objects to 10, and beginning to count beyond 10.
Recognise some numerals of personal significance.
Counts out up to six objects from a larger group.

Expressive Art and Design:

Understands that they can use lines to enclose a space, and then begin to use these shapes to
represent objects.
Explores colours and how colours can be changed.
Explores what happens when they mix colour

Understanding the World:

Knows some of the things that make them unique, and can talk about some of the similarities and
differences in relation to friends or family.
Shows interest in different occupations and ways of life.
Remembers and talks about significant events in their own experience.

Messages.

Learning Challenge
 Each half term we will be setting our pupils a challenge related to their learning. We believe that it is
important for us to provide guidance for parents on how their children's learning can be extended at home.
The learning challenge will include either a nursery rhyme, famous person, illustration or a piece of music.
Please talk to your child about the challenge and help them to engage in their learning. The children can choose how they present their learning challenge outcomes to their teacher or class. Well Done to the children that have already completed this. All the children who complete their learning challenge will receive a certificate in our E for Excellence assembly. 

Person: Choose a Traditional Tale Character.
Artist/Illustrator:  Find out about   Axel Scheffler

Poem/Song to learn:    Teddy Bear Teddy Bear

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn around
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Touch the ground,
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Reach up high,
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Touch the sky.

Nursery Rhyme Artist/Illustrator Person

Possible activities 

1. Learn the poem off by heart.

2. Draw a picture to illustrate the teddy bear rhyme.

3. Find out about Traditional Tale Characters.

4. Produce a collage, book or picture of your favourite traditional tale.

5. Find out facts about the illustrator. 

Please ensure your child has their P.E kit in school for Tuesday and a spare set of clothes on their peg in the event that they get wet and need to change would be very useful. Please encourage your child to practise dressing and undressing at home as there are still quite a few children who need a lot of support. Please name all hats and scarves as the children are not always sure which one belongs to them. We did have some missing hats on Friday so please check that your child has the right one.

Lunch is from week 3 of the Havering Catering services this week

We cannot emphasise the importance of reading at home . We will shortly be rewarding those children who read regularly with book marks and certificates so PLEASE spend some time helping your child, they really will reap the rewards. Let `s see if St Lucia Class and Jamaica class can have more Super readers than Barbados Class this week. They really are hard to beat. 
We now have an Early Years email address so you can contact staff more directly
the address is:-

eyfs@mead.havering.sch.uk

Kind regards

The Reception Team