Livingstone Primary & Nursery School Newsletter

New Term Dates 2025-26!

We are pleased to inform you of our new term dates for the next school year 2025-26. Please note that currently we can only confirm four of our five INSET Days. The fifth day is being held back until training is confirmed. September start dates for Nursery and Reception are different to the rest of the school and will be confirmed soon.

Term Dates 2025-26

DfE Filming at Livingstone!

CABIN Club will be hosting a film crew from the Department of Education next Tuesday. Our school was chosen after Mrs. Armstrong completed a questionnaire regarding the services we provide and her role as an Afterschool Club Coordinator. The DfE will be interviewing Mrs Armstrong and filming our facilities, some of the activities such as Ball and Field Games Club.

If your child is attending Cabin Club or Ball and Field Games Club next Tuesday, they could be part of the film but only if we have received your completed consent form.

Arbor - Reporting Absence!

It is now possible to record absences on the Parent Portal and Arbor App. You can only record same-day absences, so for any extended or future absences, please contact the school office.

To log an absence, select the menu icon (bottom left corner), select attendance and then complete the log absence form.

Please ensure all absences are reported by 8:30am

Happy New Year!

Last year was 2024. Now, take a guess what this year is. Yup, that's right! It's 2025. A new year. Last year, we all made mistakes, there's no denying that. And this year, we will all make even more mistakes. But without them, we wouldn't learn or move on in changes. If you don't make mistakes, you are definitely not human. Anyways. We wish you... drumroll please. We wish you a very happy and a great new year. Lovely jubbly.

by Zyan and Elia (Newsletter Editors)

Considerate Parking and Drive Safe Reminder!

If you travel by car to and from school, please make sure you are parking considerately and ensure you do not park across our neighbours' dropdown kerbs in front of their driveways when dropping off or collecting your children.

Also, it is incredibly important that when travelling by car, children are legally sitting safely by having the correct age- appropriate car seats and wearing seat belts.

PTA Comedy Night - Thursday 30th January!

Tickets are still available on School Money under the 'Clubs' tab for purchase at £15 per ticket. You will not want to miss out so be quick to avoid disappointment. Over 18s only.

Join us for a night of laughter!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

As we come to the end of another year and celebrate Christmas, we want to thank parents, carers, governors, and friends of Livingstone for your incredible support throughout the year.

Your generosity and appreciation have been evident through the work of the PTA and in the donations and generous gifts.

Thank you to all our teaching staff for your dedication to our pupils. Your hard work and commitment to bringing out the best in each student is truly inspiring and today's service reflected your work in transforming the lives of our pupils.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2025!

Girls Football Match

On Thursday, our girls football team played their second match, this time competing in the Central League, with determination and enthusiasm. Everyone at the club has been training hard, and their dedication truly paid off on the field. Despite the challenging weather, the girls stayed focused and refused to let it affect their performance. They played in perfect sync, showcasing teamwork and exceptional coordination throughout the match. It was a fantastic game that ended with a 6-0 victory, with goals scored by Elsie, Anwen, Dotty and Anastasia. The girls also demonstrated excellent sportsmanship towards the opposing team. Well done to Xhizela, Dotty, Anwen, Anastasia, Elia, Muthara, Nadine, Elsie and Medina.

Friendship Week!

This week we have been celebrating Friendship Week by making class jigsaw puzzles.

Every member of the class, including teachers and TAs have decorated a piece of the puzzle with something that means a lot to them or represents part of who they are. The puzzle is a celebration of coming together.

All week we have been recording acts of kindness on our Friendship Poster and pupils who have been exceptionally kind have been rewarded with a special pencil.

Welcome to the New Year of the Pupil Newsletter!

Hello, we are the new newsletter editors. We ( Zyan and Elia) will be writing / telling you all about what happens in school along with some other Y6's and Y5's. We will be editing everything you see to ensure you get the best possible news of our school. I hope you are happy with us and we will try to inform you as much as we can about our school. Goodbye and thank you.

The Newsletter Writers

Zyan and Elia

Welcome Back....

Welcome back everyone and thank you to the PTA for starting the year with a wonderful Family Camp Night.

Thank you to Mrs Craddock and Mrs Church for organising this popular event. Despite setbacks due to the weather, many families participated in all the activities

We would also like to thank Diane, Mr Sudbury and Mr Madle and all of the parents/carers who volunteered with all the activities to make it a special event.

Goodbye Year 6!

The time has come for Yr6 to say farewell to Livingstone; the years have flown by - it feels like yesterday since we joined Livingstone as the youngest and now we leave as the oldest. Despite going through highs and lows we've still, after 8 years, have managed to maintain our friendships. As the start of a new adventure comes, overwhelming emotions crowd our minds: sadness, curiosity, excitement and fear of what is to come, but Livingstone will always be a part of us even when we begin our new journey through secondary school.

I would like to thank all of the teachers who have helped us along the way and who have made our last few weeks very memorable with several trips and activities such as the Lion King show, prom, Chessington and PGL.

Emily Yr6 :)

Thank you....

to all parents and carers for your help and understanding after the recent police incident in our area.

We appreciate how quickly you responded to the situation. Your prompt response has helped us manage the situation and keep everyone secure.

Livingstone Make Headlines!

When some Year 5 and Year 6 pupils attended the Athletics For All Event, a few children and Mrs Church were interviewed by the organisers (London Marathon Group).

We are honoured to have been chosen to explain why P.E and School Sport is important and how giving children opportunities to participate in different sports is a valuable experience for them.

Click the link to read more.

https://www.londonmarathongroup.org/latest-news/2023/ athletics-for-all-event

Father's Day!

We had a brilliant Father’s Day stall this year, filled with wonderful gifts and excitement. The children eagerly chose presents for their fathers, and we hope all the dads enjoy the thoughtful gifts their children have selected. The stall was a great success, bringing smiles to many faces. A special thank you goes out to Lina, Georgina, Kate, Zahra, Mahbobi and Charlotte for their hard work and dedication in organising the event.

Boulogne -sur -Mer, France!

On behalf of all the children, Mrs Phelan would like to give a special thank you to Ms Papas for organising one of the best ever trips to France and to Mrs Cockburn for helping with the organisation. Ms Nicholson and Mr Sudbury were fantastic drivers and every member of staff helped to make the trip an amazing experience for everyone.

Pupil Newsletter No.5!

After School Activity Clubs Summer 2

Activity Clubs for the next half of the term will go online for booking on Monday 20th May at 5:30pm. The Clubs for Summer 2 will begin Monday 3rd June, first week back after half term (except Tag Rugby, this will begin Monday 10th June).

Bookings will close on Friday 31st May 2024 to enable us to populate registers.

Please be aware there have been some changes as outlined in the timetable below as part of the school's transition into the next academic year.

70th Anniversary Tickets!

Tickets for the morning and afternoon assemblies are still available in the office and tickets are on sale for the evening event. Evening tickets can be purchased online via School Money under the 'club' tab or direct from the school office.

Don't forget this event is open to past pupils and friends of the school - so please spread the word!

70th Anniversary Tickets!

Tickets for the morning and afternoon assemblies are now available in the office and tickets are on sale for the evening event. Evening tickets can be purchased online via School Money under the 'club' tab or direct from the school office.

70th Anniversary Celebrations - School Day Timetable!

On Friday 17th May the pupils will be performing songs and dances for the 70th Anniversary. However, due to limited space, and in order to allow as many people as possible to come, the pupils will be giving two performances.

Parents and carers will need tickets for the morning and afternoon assemblies as we need to manage numbers in the hall, but anyone can come to the midday performance as this is taking place outside, as part of the family picnic.

70th Anniversary Celebrations - Evening

Tickets are now on sale on School Money or via the school office. The tickets are priced at £7.00 each and include a drink on entry. This is an over 18s event with a bar serving drinks and small selection of bar food. We have a live band playing covers and a disco and the theme is based on music through the decades, so please come dressed in the style of your favourite era.

Doors open at 7pm and the event finishes at Midnight.

Activity Clubs for Summer!

Clubs for the first half of the summer term will be online for booking from Monday 25th March 2024, 5:30pm.

As we are moving into the summer term, some of the clubs have changed.

Years 3 and 4 Football will be replaced with Athletics on Mondays (this will be a payable club).

Years 4, 5 and 6 Netball will be replaced with Ball and Field Games on Tuesdays (this will be a payable club).

Years 5 and 6 Football will be replaced with Athletics on Wednesdays (this will be a free club and subsidised by our PE Premium).

Rec - Year 5 Maths Impact Workshops

and Year 6 SATs Meeting for Parents and

Carers!

Thank you to all the parents, carers and friends who came to the IMPACT sessions this week. We were blown away with how many of you came to find out how to support your child in Maths. I am sure you found this beneficial.

It's not too late to sign-up and support your child/children to see how the school teaches Maths. We know it can be difficult for working parents to attend, however it is important that someone from your family attends as it boosts your child’s confidence and reinforces a positive attitude towards learning. This can be Mum, Dad, a Grandparent, an Aunt or Uncle, older brother or sister... but someone please!

Cinema Night Reminder!

On Tuesday 27th February 2024, we will be holding a ‘Cinema Night’ in the school hall.

We are asking for a voluntary donation of £2 for refreshments (popcorn and a drink) and the cinema experience. This will go towards the charities, ‘Cherry Lodge Cancer Care’ and ‘RSPCA – Southridge’.

Please pay the £2 via School Money.

There will be opportunities to spend money on other items if your child wishes to bring a small amount of additional money.

Livingstone Library News!

We are very excited to announce we have some lovely new large books in the library. Thank you to Pickled Pepper Books for supplying such a brilliant selection for everyone to enjoy.

Happy reading!

Livingstone School is Outstanding!

I cannot express the elation experienced by everyone involved in the school when we got to hear that we had achieved Outstanding in the Ofsted Inspection. There were tears of joy and happiness and those of you who were able to come into school on Monday, got a sense of what an achievement this was for everyone who is part of the team.

Thank you to everyone who has congratulated us, sent flowers and gifts. We have been touched and overwhelmed by the generosity and kindnesses. Such actions reflect our wonderful community of parents and carers and the contribution they have made to our success.

We hope you enjoyed reading the report as we really felt it reflected the true nature of our school.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back everyone to the start of a new Spring Term. We hope everyone had a good holiday and are now back rested for an action packed term.

We are happy to announce that Ms Kwan is back from her maternity leave and this half term she will working with Year 1, Year 2 and Year 6.

We also have a new member of staff, Abi Pomphrey who is completing an apprenticeship in Early Years. She is in Nursery working closely with Ms Papas and Mrs Babayan to ensure the best possible start for our Nursery pupils.

Parent Champions Coffee Morning

This morning we held the last Parent Champion coffee morning of the year. Thank you to all the parents who came for a coffee and a chat.

We are looking forward to seeing you again on Friday January 12th.

Christmas Party and Fair

Christmas has officially begun at Livingstone this week!

All the children have had a wonderful time bouncing away on the Disco Dome, decorating Gingerbread and visiting all the lovely festive stalls at the Kids Christmas Party.

Wow, The Christmas Fair was busy! It was fantastic to see so many of our families come along. As well as the activities mentioned above, our school choir sang beautifully to everyone, we also had our popular German Sausage BBQ, Tombola and Raffle to name a few.

IMPACT Workshops - sign up to support your child!

Please support us and your child/children to see how the school teaches reading.

It is crucial that someone from your family attends as it boosts your child’s confidence and reinforces a positive attitude towards learning. It can be Mum, Dad, Carers, a Grandparent, an Auntie or Uncle, older brother or sister... but someone please!

Click the date for your child's class and respond to the form, stating who will be attending to support your child.

Remembrance Sunday

We would like to say a big thank you to the four girls - Daisy, Holly, Sophia and Ruby and their families who represented Livingstone in the wreath-laying ceremony at the East Barnet War Memorial. Despite the bad weather, many people turned out to pay their respects including past pupils, their families and staff. Anyone who wishes to see the Livingstone wreath can visit the memorial in East Barnet Village.

Rememberance Day Assembly

Thank you to everyone who has donated to the Poppy Appeal this week.

Our assembly this week was themed around this event and we held a minute silence to remember all the fallen soldiers.

If you would like your child/ren to join in with the Livingstone pupils taking part in the Wreath-Laying Ceremony at the East Barnet War Memorial, please bring them (in full uniform) to the British Legion Club, next to Aldi, by 10:15am so they can join the procession with our other Livingstone pupils.

Activity Club

Reminder: For health and safety reasons, please make sure your child is wearing the appropriate PE kit for after school activity clubs.

Now that the days are turning colder and wetter, pupils also need sensible outdoor clothing for Football, Tag Rugby and Netball. They have to wear shin pads, moulded football boots or astros as well as wear warm and waterproof outerwear.

The club staff will decide if pupils are wearing the correct kits and may make the decision to send children to Cabin Club if they are not.

Welcome to the New Year

Welcome to a new school year! What makes a new school year so special is that we greet new students into nursery and into the Livingstone family, but we are also open to welcoming pupils in the other year groups. Every year, we get a chance to work with different teachers and learn new things. A new year gives us an opportunity to try new things that we hadn't had a chance to do the year before.

For everyone in Livingstone, we hope you enjoy this new academic year ahead of us!!!

Anastasia and Emily (Editors)

Year 6 School Journey to the PGL, Isle of Wight

Today we welcome back our Year 6 pupils who went on their residential trip to PGL in the Isle of Wight. They set off for their school journey on Monday morning and travelled by coach to Portsmouth to catch a ferry over to Fishbourne where they not long after arrived at PGL for a week to remember. It was full of fun and amazing day activities such as Abseiling, Sensory Trail, Giant Swing, Zip Wire, Buggy Building, Jacobs Ladder and Keelboat Sailing to name a few. At night they sang their hearts out around the Campfire, danced their socks off in the Disco and sneaked around SAS style for Ambush.

Free School Lunches!

School lunches are not only free for children in Reception and KS1, but they are also now free for pupils in KS2!

It's not too late for your child to start having a healthy and hot school meal, in fact we encourage it especially as the colder months are upon us. You save money too!

Contact the school office if you would like your child to start having a school lunch after October half term.

No Nuts in School and No Sharing of Food!

On Thursday we had an incident when a child brought in a packed lunch with nuts and shared them with another pupil, causing them to have an unforeseen allergic reaction. No one was aware that the child had any form of allergy and fortunately the child was able to recover quickly. However, this leads us to remind all parents/carers not to send in nuts or nut related products. It is equally important to remind child/ren not to share their food with other pupils as other foods can potentially cause allergic reactions, which in some cases can be life-threatening.

School lunches are free to all pupils at the moment so unless your child has very restricted food requirements, they should be having school dinners as they cater for all diets, vegetarian and vegan.

PTA Comedy Night - Thursday 19th October 2023 @7pm

Exciting Announcement! We're hosting a comedy night fundraiser for over 18's only, featuring our host of the night, Joe Bor (Milo's Dad in Year 3) and the hilarious talents of Iain Sterling and Nathan Caton, both seasoned performers from Live at the Apollo.

Scan the QR code from the poster below or visit School Money to book your tickets. Be quick to avoid disappointment.

Join us for a night of laughter!

Welcome Back!

We look forward to another promising year at Livingstone and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone returning to school and to our new pupils.

Over the next couple of weeks more children will be joining our Nursery and Reception class from families who are new to the school. We welcome them into the Livingstone family and look forward to working in partnership towards educational success!

Next week we will be adding a link to an Annual Calendar which will set out dates throughout the year. This will enable parents/ carers to plan ahead where possible.

Goodbye and good luck for the future to our wonderful Year 6

They are an amazingly talented group of children who have exceeded all expectations in everything that they have done during their time at Livingstone. We look forward to hearing all about their upcoming achievements and successes.

Also, well done to all our pupils who took part in the assemblies and shows, especially Year 6 who took lead in the end of year school production, School of Rock. Thank you to the staff for their hard work and to all the parents/carers for supporting their children.

Goodbye to Year 6!

The journey through Reception to Year 6 has been full of surprises, ups and downs but we have loved every second of it. The years have passed by so quickly and now we are nearly in secondary school! Some of us are going to part ways and some of us will still see each other but we will always keep our memories with us.

In Reception, we did the chicken dance (an old Livingstone tradition!)

In Year 1, we had our first snow together at school and Miss Gomes even let us have a little snowball fight!

By Katerina and Lois :) xxx

PTA Summer Party and BBQ

The Summer Fair was another successful event made possible by a dedicated group of PTA members who worked tirelessly to ensure the children had the best possible experience.

Thank you to everyone who donated, as the generosity was overwhelming and very much appreciated by anyone who won a prize. The performance of the choir was outstanding and Edward Partridge and Mrs Margetts were star turns! Despite the threat of rain, the barbecue was unaffected, the bouncy castles were used to full capacity and the Karaoke was brilliant. All in all, the event was a tremendous success and we raised just under £3,000.