Weekly Online Safety Advice

 

Weekly Online Safety Advice

 

Heroes Stamp Design Competition!

KS2 are entering the Royal Mail Heroes stamp design competition!

 The pupils are designing stamps for a special collection honouring heroes of the pandemic. This has been done in school and to a very high standard.

Below is a form for parents regarding parental permission (a copy has also been sent home with all pupils entering the competition). Please read it carefully and ask your child's teacher if you have any questions.

I look forward to seeing all the wonderful designs.

Miss Galpin

Year One learn about Ramadan

 

The year one children were treated to a very special assembly this morning.  Maryam's mum and Samir's mum came into school to share their knowledge of Ramadan and Eid, which are important events in the Islamic calendar.  The children learnt about why Muslims fast, say special prayers, spend more time reading the Quran and help those less fortunate than themselves.  The children asked some interesting questions and also got to try dates (which Muslim's eat to break their fast).  The children really enjoyed learning about Islam and sat beautifully throughout the assembly. 

Walk to School Week 2020

Are you up for the challenge?

On Monday the 5th of October we will be taking part in the walk to school five-day challenge. We challenge you to walk, cycle, scoot or park and stride to school every day for one week.

This year Living Streets are asking us to join them this coming week in celebrating the incredible physical and mental health benefits walking brings to every individual.

Strong hearts, healthy bones, increased muscle strength are all well-documented outcomes of walking, but the benefits for the mind are just as powerful. Increased sense of calm and self-esteem, time to connect with friends, family and the natural world, awakened creativity and improved overall cognitive function, phew! All that makes for a happy, healthy child set up for success in and out of the classroom!

Every pupil will be given a fun activity diary to record their journeys, daily stickers for the pupils that have taken part and badges which will be awarded at the end of the week for pupils who have taken part throughout the week.

We hope to see as many of you as possible taking part next week.

If you would like to find out more about the challenge you can visit www.livingstreets.org.uk/parents

Letter to Y5 Parents/Carers from Hornchurch High School

Dear Parents/Carers,

It is coming up to that time of year when you will be starting to think about secondary school choices.

Here at Hornchurch High School, we usually invite our Junior School partners up for activity days, competition days, tours and taster lessons. Unfortunately, as you are aware, these are on hold for now but we will resume these when we are able to.

In the meantime, if you would like to come to the school and meet with a member of the senior team, we are holding socially distanced tours with opportunities to visit our new building and world class sports facilities. These are available to you between 10am and 1pm, Monday to Thursday each week between now and Friday 17th July.

If you are interested in coming in for a tour, please email publicity@hornchurchhigh.com to book an appointment.

We hope to see you soon.
Kind regards,
Mr James Lynn
Assistant Head Teacher
Hornchurch High School

V.E. DAY CELEBRATIONS

We have had a tea party to celebrate V.E day with the few pupils we had in school. As you can see a good time was had by all, including the staff who really enjoyed the jelly and ice cream!!

       




PLEASE BE REMINDED WE ARE NOT OPEN FRIDAY 8TH MAY
If you are planning a special event for this day please remember to abide by the safe distancing rules.
Stay safe and hopefully see you all soon.

Superstar Ailie

We are really proud of a member of our staff.
In response to the NHS call for more scrubs our lovely Ailie Moul has been busy at her sewing machine. Ailie you are a super star and we are really proud to call you a member of the Mead Team.
Fantastic.

School closure information

Dear Parents,

We hope that you are all well and keeping safe. 

As you would have seen on the news we now know the lockdown is to continue for at least another 3 weeks so we want to make you aware of the provision we are making for your child. 

As most of you already know EYFS and KS1 children can access tasks on the internet through Classdojo and KS2 through google class room. It has been so pleasing to see the results from you using this provision.

Under normal circumstances the children would be returning to school this coming Monday 20th April but as this is not possible teachers will be setting tasks on a daily basis though the online classrooms. We take our responsibility to educate your children and support our families seriously and hope you will encourage your children to complete the tasks so as far as possible they stay on track with their learning.  

For those that are unable to access the online classrooms learning packs are being prepared which will be available for collection from school on a Monday. We hope you will encourage your child/children to complete the work prepared and return it to school when you collect the next pack.

We know this is a difficult time and that most of you are not trained educators so hopefully this will help keep your child progressing with their learning. 

As you may be aware Miss Bloom is doing an amazing job with her 'story time' for our younger children -As of Monday I will be doing story time for our older pupils via facebook at 2:30 every day- hopefully your children will be able to join me.

In the meantime Good Luck and Stay safe.

Kind Regards

Lin Smith

SSE - The alphabet song

Try and join in with the alphabet song!

Rainbows of hope at Mead

Today the KS2 children showed their support by making rainbows of hope. We have put these at the front gate and are hoping to make more when we can.


We hope you like them as much as we do!

                                      

Home learning-ClassDojo for Year 2

Dear Parents/carers

We are in the process of setting up ClassDojo for the year 2 children.

You should get an email today to join this classroom community. Please follow the instructions within this.  This can be used via the website or free App.

We are in the early stages of setting this up so please be patient with us.  The aim is that we will be able to communicate easily with the children and set work and activities for them to complete.

If you have not received the email by tomorrow the 25th March please email our year group mailbox:

year2@mead.havering.sch.uk

Thank you for your continued support.

Take care

Year 2 team

It's Science Week!

It's officially British Science Week 2020!

If you are creating your own science project for our roadshow on Friday please be reminded this is due tomorrow!

We can't wait to see all of your exciting projects!

Please click here for more information about the homework challenge.

Best Before Stall

Science Week 2020! Years 1-6

British Science Week: 6th - 15th March 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

To celebrate British Science Week, we are running a whole school science based learning challenge where the children can pick one or more of the challenges below to complete at home. This year’s theme is ‘Our Diverse Planet’. We want to encourage young people to celebrate the amazing diversity we see across the world. From biodiversity to cultural and societal diversity, from the diversity of knowledge to STEM careers and subjects. There are lots of ways to explore this theme - we’d love to hear some of your ideas too!.

This year we are holding a Science Week Roadshow on Friday 13th March, where children can bring in science projects they have made, created and tested at home to share with parents and other pupils in the school.
There are some great websites to get inspiration from including:

• https://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/sites/oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/files/STEM%20Futures%20brochure.WEB_.12Sep_1.pdf
• https://primarylibrary.crestawards.org/all-superstar-challenges/61747644
• https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/activity-packs/

1. Design and present your own science project for our Science Week Roadshow.

Of course you can be as creative as you like but any ideas linked to the theme ‘Our Diverse Planet’ would be fantastic! Your project must be eye-catching, colourful, neatly presented and interactive (if possible!).

Your project could involve any of the four STEM subjects, Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

• You could create a model or prototype.
  You will need to include:
  *Information on your design including it’s purpose
  *How your design functions and how you have tested it
  *Reflection on your design including any challenges you faced and how you could improve it.

Some examples made in University of Mead STEM Squad group will be on show, which includes an electrical quiz board and a cardboard prosthetic hand invention.

• You could design and set up your own science investigation.

All great science investigations start with a question. For example ‘How do shadows change over the time of the day?’ Think about the science topics you have learned in class and are there any other experiments you would like to do. You will need to include:
*A prediction of what you think will happen (hypothesis)
*Equipment needed
*Method of how to carry out your investigation
*Results – Was your prediction correct? Why?
*A conclusion of what you have learned!
Your investigation can be practical and something that can be shown in our roadshow.

• A well presented information board

You could also link this with this year’s theme and poster competition listed below. Use the information on the next page to get some great ideas! Other themes to base your board on:
*A person you have heard about in the news.
*A significant person with a STEM career or who has achieved something unbelievable.

2. Design a poster for this year’s British Science Week Poster Competition on the theme ‘Our Diverse Planet’.

Get creative and enter the British Science Association’s annual poster competition, on the theme of journeys (more details on: https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/poster-competition/ ).
The 5 best posters from our school will be entered into the UK-wide competition with the chance for students to win an array of prizes, or you can enter your poster at home yourself.

Any entries for our Science Week Roadshow will be due by Tuesday 10th March 2020. KS2 entries are to be given to Mrs Hillyear and KS1 entries are to be given to Miss Redgrave. Good luck! Try to be as creative as possible and think outside the box! We look forward to seeing some fantastic entries this year!

Yours Sincerely

Mrs Hillyear & Miss Redgrave

STEM in our Community

In preparation for British Science Week 2020 and Careers week, we would like to find out if any of our parents and extended families at Mead have a job that might link to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. If you think this may apply to you, please would you kindly fill out the form below with information that we can share with pupils in the school. It would be fantastic to be able to raise our Science capital within the school and be able to inspire pupils towards taking up a STEM career in the future.

Click here to answer our short questionnaire.

Thank you for your time and support!

Best Before Stall

Weekly Newsletter-14th February 2020

Dear Parents,
The past 6 weeks seem to have flown by and already we are halfway through the academic year.

Advice for parents/guardians from the DFE (Dept. of Education
You should not be unduly worried about the possibility of your children catching the Coronavirus.
There is no reason why your children should not continue to attend their early years, school or further education setting as normal.

We recognise that some families or children may be planning to travel to China during the forthcoming half-term period. If so, please refer to the FCO’s latest travel advice via the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/novel-coronavirus-and-avian-flu-advice-for-travel-to-china

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china

We are aware that the directives with regard to this situation are changing daily so request that any families travelling to/from China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau over the half term break please let us know.

Diary Dates
Monday 24th February-Year 4 swimming starts for this half term today. There is a meeting for parents of our year 5 pupils going on the residential trip to Mersea after school

Wednesday 26th February - Dinosaur workshop for our Reception children in school and some of our year 3 children will be attending a Forest school session during the afternoon

Friday 28th February-Some of our Mead singers will be entertaining the elderly visitors at the Painsbrook day centre this morning


World Book Day is Thursday 5th March this year and Havering Catering service have put on a special menu to celebrate the day-See below:
Red - Sausage baguette
Blue - Hunters chicken with rice
Green - Cheesy quesadilla with potato dippers
Baked beans
Peas and sweetcorn
Iced sprinkled sponge


INSET Dates for 2019-20
Please note the school closure dates for this academic year.
INSET day 1- 4th September
INSET day 2- 3rd April
INSET day 3- 20th July
INSET day 4-21st July
INSET day 5- 22nd July


Please note that the final day of the summer term for pupils will be on Friday 17th July, 2020.
Term Dates 2019-20
https://www.havering.gov.uk/downloads/file/2023/term_dates_2019-2020


Havering Catering Services
Week beginning Monday 24th February is week 3 on the Havering catering services menu. All meals are served with unlimited salad and vegetables and cost £2.25.
Please be reminded to top up your child’s catering account as we cannot provide dinners for pupils whose accounts exceed a debt of £10.
Havering catering Service now provides a breakfast club for Mead pupils. For £1.50 your child can have a bacon or sausage sandwich or beans on toast or cereal or toast or fresh fruit or yoghurt plus a drink.
We will also have speciality days when other items such as pancakes and muffins will be available.
In order for you to book a place you will need to deposit the money in advance in your Squid account.
Please do not send your child to school to attend breakfast club if there are no funds in your account as they will not be admitted.


A message fromHavering Catering Service
We would like to reassure parents whose child may have a Dairy Allergy or Intolerance that the School Kitchen only use Dairy Free Sunflower Spread at Breakfast Club and Lunch time.


Key Diary Dates for this term
Monday 17th -Friday 21st February -Half term-School closed
Monday 24th February -Back to school-Swimming starts
Monday 23rd March -Last swimming session this half term
Monday 30th/Tuesday31st March -Parent afternoon/evenings
Friday 3rd April -Inset Day-school closed
Monday 6th-Friday 17th April -Easter holidays-School closed
Monday 20th April -Back to school


Attendance update
Well done to Mexico class who had the highest attendance in Y5&6 at 96.7% . Germany had the highest attendance in LKS2 and overall at 97.9% and Australia had the highest attendance in KS1 at 97.3%. Well done to them!. The overall attendance was disappointing at only 94% which is well below our target! Hopefully we’ll do better next half term.


I hope everyone has a good restful week and that the children will return ready on Monday 24th February for another very busy 6 weeks on the run up to Easter.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs L Smith
Headteacher

Big Schools Birdwatch!

Once again, in year 5, we have taken part in the RSPB's Big School Birdwatch.

We turned into conservation scientists helping to track the ups and downs of birds popuations across the country.

We have learnt how to identify species of bird, common to our local area, by looking at:

• The beak shape and colour
• The size of the bird
• The birdsong 
• The colour of its feathers
• The colour of its legs

This is us in action:

Kris said, "I now recognise many of the birds that I see on the way to school- 11 house sparrows this morning!"

Hope commented, "I want to work with animals when I grow up so I'm glad that I get the opportunity to start that now."

Here are our official results:

We also received a certificate for taking part, and helping a national charity.

Well done Year 5!

Half Term Arts and Crafts