Dear Parents and Carers,
The penultimate week of the term, making use nearly two thirds of the way through the academic year. There is still much to do, even though the children have achieved a lot to date.
This week’s curriculum in focus is Music.
Our music curriculum is based on the developing themes from the Charanga Music platform, financially support by Dorset Council. Children take part in a music lesson each week, with songs and instruments learnt and explored. There are also a number of children taking part in a variety of instrumental lessons, including piano, guitar and clarinet.
In Hazel class children are learning traditional nursery rhymes which help with rhyme and word play, as well as basic musical technique. While in Beech class, due to their gym/swim sessions being timetabled in their music lesson, music has not been at the fore front of the children’s timetable this half of term. Children have experienced singing songs, exploring rhythms and learning about pitch and pulse within their previous music lessons.
Chestnut class have been practicing their music and song for a performance in our next Praise and Celebrate Assembly. Oak class have started learning ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ by Carole King, covered by The Brand-New Heavies, and a James Taylor favourite! The children have been learning how to play alongside the rhythm using glockenspiels and recorders.
NOTICES
TT Rockstars
TTRockstars! From Friday 28th at 3:20pm there will be Times Tables Battles starting in an effort to challenge the children with their times tables. The competition will be fair, by only setting the children times tables that they have been taught to support their learning. It will run until Friday 4th April at 12:00pm.
Happy Rockstar-ing!
Parent Governor Vacancy
We currently have one vacancy for a parent governor. Those wishing to find out more about this opportunity are encouraged to contact our clerk to the governors Catherine Dunkley-Jones, who willingly share what is involved. clerk@stowerprovost.dorset.sch.uk.
THIS WEEK
18th – 25th March – Scholastic book fair
Thank you all who purchased books through our Scholastic book fair last week. The children were happy with their purchases (Miss Buxton was happy that the technology worked) and you helped raise £96 for the school to spend on books. We have used this money to purchase some graphic novel style books such as Bunny vs Monkey, and the Cat Kid Comic Club, and to purchase some PSHE books such as The Camel Who Had The Hump and Doctor Colour Monster. Again, thank you to all who purchased books, I hope the children have thoroughly enjoyed reading them! (Miss Buxton)
Assemblies
Our Monday assembly focused on Green Week, with children considering how plastics could be reduced or recycled. Facts were shared such as:
- Every day in this country, we buy nearly 4 million bottles of water, and we recycle less than half.
- Every year in this country, we produce 8 million plastic bags, and we recycle only a small
number. (Mrs B)
Tuesday’s assembly focused on our Self Worth character, Sam. In the story by the children, he learns that he has special attributes just like all his other animal friends. (Mrs Clasby)
Sam the sea otter: self-worth
“You are amazing just the way you are”
Sam the sea otter lived in the chilly North Pacific Ocean near Canada. He would often watch the other animals around him. His loved to watch the octopus and admired her dancing arms and cleverness. Sam wished he could be more like the loons who could fly in the air and in the water. He often saw the salmon rushing past and thought how beautiful their shiny red scales were. Then he would go sit on his log and look at his reflection and think they are so special but I am not. I am brown with very thick fur. I do not shine. I am not clever. One day Sam was dozing on his log and was swept very far out to sea where it turned very cold. He was very afraid. He had never been this far out before. Sam sat down with a very hard thump on his log and accidentally fell into the sea. To his surprise the water did not seem cold after all! His thick brown fur was keeping him really toasty. He started enjoying himself splashing around as he realised that he too was just as special as the octopus, the loons and the salmon.
Lego Club
This week’s Lego challenge was to build a mythical creature linked to water or fire. Monday’s winners were Hugo and Elsie who worked together to create a Kraken coming out of the sea and destroying ships. Thursday’s winner was Finley with his kraken. (Miss Buxton)
Clubs
Gardening Club
Gardening Club will resume at the start of the summer term. Please let Mrs Pike know if your child is interested in attending. The cost of the club will be £10 per child per 4 week block.
Summer Term Clubs
A full list of clubs will be published in the next newsletter with sign up details included.
NEXT WEEK and BEYOND
Tennis Roadshow – Weds all to come in PE kit
Next Wednesday the children will all have the opportunity to experience a Tennis Roadshow. Please would all children come to school therefore in their PE kit. Many thanks.
Disco
The Friends Friendship Disco – bounce and spring! Is running on Thursday 3rd April. Tickets will be on sale after the Praise and Celebrate assembly for the event, with tickets costing £2 each.
15.30 – 16.15 Hazel and Beech Class disco
16.15 – 17.00 Chestnuts and Oak Class disco
Praise and Celebrate
Next weeks Praise and Celebrate will start at 14.45.
Last day of term no ASC
A reminder that there will be no after school club on the last day of term – Friday 4th April.
FRIENDS OF STOWER PROVOST
| 3rd April | 15.30 – 17.00 | Friends Friendship Disco – bounce and spring!
15.30 – 16.15 Hazel and Beech Class disco 16.15 – 17.00 Chestnuts and Oak Class disco |
| Easter hols | Decorate an egg. £1 an entry. | |
| 17th May | 9.30 – 11.30 | Jumble Sale – Donations welcome to be dropped off at the school. |
| 4th July | 15.15 – 17.00 | Summer BBQ |
Easy Fundraiser
There is no time like the present to download the Easy Fundraising app on your phone, and raise funds for the school without having to do anything, other than going through the app to make online purchases.
Remember friends, family and businesses can all use our Easy Fundraiser page too. Larger items like insurance and travel can also be purchased through the Easy Fundraiser page.
You can raise even more money by asking others to join the community fundraising effort- use the QR code!
How it works: easyfundraising partners have over 7,000 brands who will donate part of what you spend to a cause of your choice. It won’t cost you any extra. The cost is covered by the brand.
So why not help the school raise money and make your online purchases through the Easy Fundraising app?!
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/panel/
COMMUNITY AND OTHER NEWS
Holiday Activities
Please find attached a flyer linked to Prime Sports Holiday Activities, which include a range of sports.
Gillingham Foodbank
The 6 weeks between 5th March and 17th April marks the season of Lent when Gillingham Foodbank will provide emergency food parcels for local individuals and families facing hardship.
The soaring cost of living is driving record numbers of people on the lowest incomes to the foodbank and the amount of help needed is outstripping the donations they are receiving.
The foodbank is calling on the local community to donate food, if they can, to ensure that they can continue to support everyone who needs help.
Please see the attached poster with a shopping list of the foodbank’s urgent needs and another for anyone who would like to give a donation of money.
Please help if you can, by dropping off any food donations:
Monday and Thursday 10-12am
6 Station Road
Gillingham
SP8 4PY
(With thanks from Helen Weaver, Project Manager at Gillingham Foodbank)
CLASS OVERVIEWS
Oak Class
What a wonderful year 5 group we have! They have patiently sat and worked silently and diligently almost every day this week. We are so lucky to have them. In maths we have looked at equivalence in fractions, decimals and percentages. We have continued with our writing project in between tests and have started our grammar bursts – high speed grammar revision which usually involves a lot of audience participation and as much fun as possible. As we say in Oak: #grammar – living the dream. In history we examined the precursors to World War 2 and ranked them in significance. We discovered that Germany finished paying war reparations in 2010. We also looked at major events in World War 2 including Operation Overlord. Next week we are looking forward to catching up on strategies to help with some knotty relationship problems in PSHE. (Mrs Clasby)
Chestnut Class
This week’s activities have been brimming with learning and hands-on creativity! We explored the intricate classification of the plant kingdom, discovering how groups such as mosses, ferns, and flowering plants are organized based on unique traits. In the realm of poetry, children mastered the use of metaphors, crafting comparisons like “the river is a digger” to create vivid imagery. We also experimented with rhyming patterns to give our future verses a melodic flow. Tech-savvy competitors took on the challenge of Scratch programming, creating simple interactive games where characters moved across the screen with sound effects, like a bouncing ball or a race car’s vroom. TTrockstars is at the front of our learning, children practicing their set timetables, trying hard to improve their score. Well done to all children who took every chance at home to earn extra points! (Mrs Sanda)
Beech Class
This week in Beech Class, the children have been using speech to start writing their own version of ‘The Owl who was afraid of the dark’. In Maths, the children have been using their computing skills learnt this half term to extend their understanding of tally charts and bock diagrams.
During the afternoons, Beech Class have been comparing what Whitby used to look like with how it looks today, as well as exploring how to work as one which is suggested as part of a Sikh Wedding. (Mrs Whelan)
Hazel Class
This week has been a busy week searching for signs of Spring. We had a lovely walk around the field finding daffodils, blossoms and buds on the trees, and bees. The children built and painted their own tractors, several with plough and trailers attached. The children have been focusing on creating their on sentences in Literacy and it has been brilliant to see their hard work in their letter formation, use of phonics and sentence structure. The children had lots of fun and got tired arms making butter but enjoyed using the butter to make a jam sandwich. (Miss Buxton)
Diary Dates
| 2nd April | Morning | Tennis Roadshow experience for each class |
| 3rd April | 15.30 – 17.00 | Friends Friendship Disco – bounce and spring!
15.30 – 16.15 Hazel and Beech Class disco 16.15 – 17.00 Chestnuts and Oak Class disco |
| 1st April | 10 – 11:30 | Autism Central Coffee Morning at RiversMeet, Gillingham |
| 4th April | 14.45 | Praise and Celebrate Assembly – please not earlier start time |
| 4th April | 15.20 | Second half of term ends – no after school club |
Best wishes
A Boardman-Hirst