Dear Parents and Carers,
A very happy new year to one and all! Even though the children only returned less than 72 hours ago, it seems to have been a busy week, with pupils being introduced to their new termly topics through activities that aim to engage the children and from which future learning will develop, along with innovation.
STAFFING
The new year brings resolutions, change and news. After 4 years working at Stower Provost it is with great sadness that we will be saying goodbye to Ms Babiy at the end of this term. Ms Babiy’s experience, organisation and enthusiasm will be missed. Many pupils have benefitted from her excellent teaching. She has spear headed our Maths curriculum, raising standards and pupil outcomes. We are grateful to have benefitted from Ms Babiy’s experience and talents of the years and wish her all the very best in her new role teaching at Marchant-Holliday School.
THE HOLIDAY
Several have been extremely busy over the holiday, and to those who volunteered and helped paint our library a
massive THANK YOU! The room is transformed ready for its new lease of life. Books are being sorted and shelves restocked, and we hope to have the library ready for pupil use by the latter part of next week. Thank you again to those who painted for their time, effort and support.
Congratulations also to those who took part in the Winter Reading Challenge. I look forward to handing out certificates in forthcoming Praise and Celebrate assemblies.
NEXT WEEK
After School Sports Clubs
These start next week with:
Tuesday: KS2 Handball (Chestnut and Oak classes)
Thursday: KS1 Handball (Hazel and Beech classes)
Friday: KS2 Hockey (Chestnut and Oak classes)
Sports Clubs are free for children to attend and subsidised out of the school’s PEPPSA (sports funding). If you have not yet signed your child up, yet wish to do so, please sign up asap following the links below:
KS2 Handball: https://primesportscoaching.classforkids.io/info/186
KS1 Handball: https://primesportscoaching.classforkids.io/info/187
KS2 Hockey: https://primesportscoaching.classforkids.io/info/188
OTHER NEWS
If your child is a keen swimmer do please have look at the attached flyer from North Dorset Turbos, who are looking to recruit more swimmers!
Class news
Oak
The children in Oak have come back with extraordinary levels of energy and enthusiasm. We have been finishing off and extending various aspects of our science topic this week – it is great to see how much they have remembered and can apply to other areas of their learning. They all thoroughly enjoyed well-being day, and have created and refined some excellent strategies for keeping their mental health as good as possible. We also considered the importance of nurture in creating a sense of well-being, both for ourselves and others. We thought about accepting differences – we discovered that even people who look identical, such as twins, still have different personalities. We had a short interlude when we considered the amazing world of moss, too and collected and observed some under the digital microscope – amazing! New week, we are looking forward to getting back into a full curriculum – which will be fab!
Chestnut
This week, the students have been introduced to their new topics. They have learned about the layers of the Earth during their introduction to the new geography topic – Rocks, Relics and Rumbles. Linked to this, the students have read the core text The Street Beneath My Feet by Charlotte Guillain and Yuval Zommer to contextualise their learning. In Science, the children have begun to learn about forces and magnets.
Beech
This week, Beech class have started off the New Year working extremely hard. The children have started looking at our new story ‘The Building Boy’ and learning about architects in order to recreate this story as the weeks progress. In maths, the children have started to look at money focusing this week on coins and finding the value of them.
Beech class are also today (Friday) going to be exploring Longleat along with Hazel class, looking at the animals and the habitats that they are in as well as starting to think about the use of onomatopoeia ready to include this in their stories for English. It has been a brilliant first week back!
Hazel
Reception children have been introduced to their new topic of ‘Ticket to Ride’. They have been looking at machinery and what is inside. Yesterday they took apart old laptops and other electronics to investigate the internal workings, including circuit boards.
Year 1 pupils have been introduced to their new topic of ‘Bright Lights, Big City’, with a focus on landmarks and the different types, such as engineering structures, memorials and entertainment venues. In English, the children had a conversation with a Queen i.e. Miss Buxton hot seating as a monarch, learn all about Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard.
All pupils are very excited about the trip today to Longleat – news of this adventure in next week’s newsletter.
Diary dates (dates in red have been added this week)
| 5th Jan | 14.55 | NO Praise and Celebrate assembly |
| 22nd July 2024 | INSET DAY | |
| 23rd July 2024 | INSET DAY |
Best wishes,
Ailsa Boardman-Hirst