Newsletter
February Week 1
Friday 5th February
We are now into week five of remote learning and reduced-scaled school learning; we have been very grateful for the positive feedback we have received for both these modes of learning.
A special thanks to Miss Papas, Miss Kwan and Miss Lax for organising such a wonderful 'Creative Wednesday' this week, it was full of exciting activities based on the theme of children’s mental health awareness.
Teachers are delighted that they got to talk directly to pupils on the telephone and we do hope that your child or children were able to talk personally to their teacher. However, if you missed the call for any reason, please email the school office so that a call-back can be arranged for next week.
Being a parent myself, I fully understand how complicated life is at the moment and how the boundaries between home-life and school often seem so blurred. As parents, we are naturally worried about our children missing face-to-face lessons as well as the social interactions that being in school offers. We are all also anxious about when and how these restrictions might be lifted. Parents and carers also need to look after their own mental health in these challenging times; and we encourage you to contact the school if you feel you are struggling in any way and talk to a member of staff: there is always someone on site who is ready to help and although we cannot solve all issues, we will have a really good try!
Once again, we appreciate the way you have supported your children in being organised, well-focused and engaged in their learning. Your high expectations and commitment to working alongside us is gratefully acknowledged.
Unfortunately, we had to close Kingfisher One and Two this week because a supply teacher tested positive for Covid-19. We wish her well and hope she has a very speedy recovery. Our aim is to hopefully open the Kingfisher provision on Monday 22nd February but, in the meantime, we would like to thank all the Kingfisher parents for their continued patience and understanding in such uncertain times. On a more encouraging note, we were able to re-open our Year 4 bubble on Wednesday, which was very pleasing.
Please remember that school is closed to all children and staff during the February Half Term (Monday 15th to Friday 19th February). We will not be open to any of our key worker, SEN or vulnerable groups. I think you will all agree that pupils, parents and staff alike need to recharge their batteries ready for the start of next term on Monday 22nd February.
Please read this section carefully if you have a child currently attending school!
You may have heard that, despite our best efforts to keep everyone safe in school, it is evident that the virus is spreading rapidly to staff and pupils. We therefore, urge all parents who can safely arrange alternative childcare to please do so for the sake of our pupils, staff and community.
As our numbers at school grow, we may have to ask parents to provide evidence that they are officially Key Workers or begin offering places to pupils for less days per week.
Please work with us to keep as many pupils and staff off-site and safe.
Please email our office if you can help!
Nursery
This week, Nursery have been learning about animals that hibernate in the winter. They have been working so hard both at school and at home.
Reception
Reception have been working on the story of the Gingerbread Man. They have been playing board games, labelling pictures and making boats for the Gingerbread Man. In Maths, they have been counting one more and one less with numbers up to 20. We had a very exciting mystery reader, Mrs Segal's mum, all the way from Canada. What a fabulous weeks work, well done Reception!
Year 1
This week has been National Storytelling Week for KS1. Year 1 have amazed Miss Purse with their puppet shows and retelling of the traditional tales that they have heard this week. They have enjoyed making story dens, book reviews, forest walks and roleplay. Well done Year 1 :)
Year 2
This week for Year 2 it has been story week and we have had a new story each day read by a KS1 teacher. Pupils have chosen from a range of tasks and have really enjoyed role playing the characters, creating wonderful story maps and lolly-stick characters. Some have completed guess who games for the characters from the stories and wanted posters for the big bad wold in Red Riding Hood. They have also been creating story dens at home as a lovely comfortable place to read a book to a family member.
In Maths we have been working on odd and even numbers and mental calculations through problem solving questions.
In PHSE we have been working on families and what communities we are part of. We created a family handprint portrait to show that our families come together to love and care for each other.
A great week Y2, well done!
Year 3
Mya-Leigh shows us how brilliant she is at recalling her spellings in her usual Friday verbal test!
Our topic for Spring is Ancient Egypt.
Year 3 have loved learning about this topic in History. They have constructed a timeline to order some key events and linked their Topic work to English work.
This week the focus was on diary entries and the pupils imagined that they had time travelled to 3100BC!
Everyone has worked really hard to include different writing techniques and here are some examples.
Year 4
Year 4 this week have continued with working on fractions. They have looked specifically at equivalent fractions. Once again, Year 4 have taken it their stride and shown a fantastic understanding. Here is an example of work from Rohan who labelled and used a fraction wall to find equivalent fractions.
In Geography we have started studying mountains, volcanoes and earthquake which has captivated Year 4. Here is a piece of work from Leo explaining how mountains and formed.
Year 5
This week, Year 5 have been creating and developing ideas for their own fantasy creatures. Their ideas have been inspired by many of their favourite fantasy games and books, like Harry Potter, the Legend of Zelda and Pokemon. The children are going to be writing non- chronological reports about their creatures in English.
Year 6
In English, Year 6 are revising fronted adverbials. Here are some excellent, creative examples.
Jacob 6S
It is pitch-black – I can barely see with my tired eyes. Seconds after I enter the house, air raid sirens start playing an ear-piercing ring that rips through the air straight into my weak ears. I am exhausted but for my safety I run into a shelter as fast as I can. In a matter of seconds, all shelters have a litter of people at each entry which gives me worries of me not being able to get in time. Finally, I am in the shelter. I sit down as the shelter fills up by the second. Everything goes silent; rumbles engulf the room. Whilst fire conquers the streets like a lion in the jungle, wardens patrolled them, looking for dead pedestrians. Those feeble and defenceless buildings had no chance against bombs.
Shannon 6S
Running away to seek shelter in the station, I look back and see a house being eaten by the untamed fire.
Shocked by what I have witnessed already, I notice crying children separated from their parents.
Unaware of what was about to happen next, a bomb drops a few miles ahead, making the ground shake beneath me.
Almost tripping over, I finally reach the station.
Maya 6B
Above my head, the Luftwaffe soar across the sky.
A few hundred yards away, the bombs are being dropped carelessly onto helpless citizens.
Slowly, the people adjust to the air raid shelter making themselves comfortable.
Without a second thought, I ran quickly to the shelter in my back garden.
Hailey has filmed a fantastic mini film filled with great facts about what happened to some famous London landmarks during The Blitz.
Creative Wednesday
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week so our Creative Wednesday was full of feel-good, positive, mindfulness activities that promote children's mental well-being and happiness. We realise that it is a difficult time for everyone and sometimes we may feel anxious, sad, angry or just moody and this is perfectly normal.
The theme this year is Express Yourself and a lot of our pupils 'dressed to express' and shared their favourite lockdown memories.
Many of us enjoyed the rock art activity the involved writing kind messages on the rocks and placing them around our local areas. Mrs Boucon was very fortunate to find a beautifully decorated rock by one of our pupils around the school area. This put a massive smile on everyone's faces!
Happy jars were decorated and filled with happy thoughts. Time was given for reflection and clearing our mind. Overall, children at school and at home spent an enjoyable morning creating, meditating, reflecting, reminiscing and de-stressing.
In the afternoon, we were very lucky to have Fraser leading a live body party for us all. Fraser, with his infectious energy, managed to get everyone who attended the party on their feet, swaying, spinning and twirling. Another Creative Wednesday came to a close with Livingstone's positivity and energy levels soaring sky high!
Livingstone Bake Off!
For the last week of term, we need something sweet, something savoury or something that simply looks fun and tastes delicious. For our next Creative Wednesday we are holding a 'Livingstone Bake-Off'! Please ensure you have the ingredients to create your own recipes next week.
We would love to create a Livingstone recipe book so if you have a family favourite recipe, we would be grateful if you would share it with us on the day. More information about the Bake-Off challenge will be given by the class teachers during the Wednesday zoom meetings.
Art at Livingstone
This week the pupils have been exploring the definition of 'tone' in an art context and practised achieving different shades with their pencils by creating their own value scales.
Using their value scales for guidance, they created drawings of eyes for the centre point of their artwork and ensured a range of tone was applied to produce a realistic effect.
Each pupil, personalised their work by surrounding their drawings of eyes with self-expressed details and patterns.
Last week we showed you a few examples of our Optical Artwork from different year groups, however Years 2 and 6 needed a little bit more time to finish their masterpieces so we thought we would add them on to this weeks art appreciation.
