Livingstone Newsletter
May Week 1
Friday 9th May
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.
Goodbye and Good Luck!
This week, we are saying goodbye to Ms. Cooper in Year 1 and Ms. Cooper in Year 2, who have completed their teaching placements with us. Both students have been exceptionally well-prepared by the University of Hertfordshire, and Barnet is fortunate to have two outstanding teachers starting at Northway School in September. Both were wonderful additions to Livingstone teaching team. We wish them the best for the future and thank them for their hard work with the children in Key Stage 1. They will be missed!
Founder's Day Family Picnic
On Friday 23rd May, weather permitting, our school gates will open at 11.40am for the family picnic.
All our families are welcome to bring picnics and find a comfy spot on the field.
The pupils will be getting a packed lunch to eat with their class or with their families and this will be followed by nature themed activities on the field, pond, KS1 or Early Years playgrounds.
Parents/Carers of am Nursery pupils are welcome to join us on the field after they have collected their children.
The day will finish at the usual time.
Nursery and KFE
What an exciting week it has been in Nursery and KFE! We are so pleased to have welcomed all our new friends, and it’s been wonderful to see everyone beginning to settle in so beautifully. The children are already starting to build lovely new friendships, showing kindness and care as we get to know one another.
This week, our learning focus has been all about frogs! We’ve been diving into the hilarious rhyming story Oi Frog! — a big favourite among the children. The book is packed full of fun rhyming pairs, and the children have had a great time spotting, repeating, and even coming up with their own inventive rhymes!
We've also been exploring the life cycle of a frog, from tiny eggs to jumping adults, using songs, stories, and hands-on activities to bring the topic to life. To support this learning, we’ve been singing the much-loved nursery rhyme ‘Five Little Speckled Frogs’, which has helped us practise counting, rhythm, and movement too.
In phonics, we’ve introduced two new sounds this week: ‘s’ and ‘d’. The children have enjoyed exploring these sounds through songs, actions, and games, and are already beginning to recognise them in words around us as well as in some of their names.
We’re so proud of how the children have settled in, and we’re looking forward to more fantastic learning adventures ahead!
Talking homework: Encourage your child to share their thoughts about the life cycle of a frog, sing the ‘Five Little Speckled Frogs’ rhyme, or even draw a picture of a frog or its life cycle. Talking together really helps reinforce new learning and builds confidence in speaking and listening.
Reception
We have had such a fun week in Reception class, going on our first full day trip to Lee Valley Farm where we got to see some of the animals that we have been learning and reading about. We saw (and some of us were brave enough to hand feed) some goats, we got up close to wallabies and meerkats and saw 2 out of 3 not so little pigs! The children were brilliantly behaved and especially enjoyed the part of the day in the playground.
Year 1
Year 1 say goodbye to our fabulous third year Bachelor of Education student, Miss Cooper. We thank her for all of her hard work and dedication, and wish her all the best for her career in teaching. This week Year 1 learnt all about sculpture in our art lessons. We rolled and folded paper to create unique 3D art! In maths, we learnt about finding half of a shape and half of an amount.
Next week we will be creating a gigantic spider, so can we please ask you to bring in lots of newspaper by Tuesday.
The pupils loved listening to and acting out The Paper Bag Princess in our English lessons and started their ‘talk for writing story maps.’
The phonics screening test is fast approaching, so please continue to review Set 2 and 3 sounds and practise reading their Read Write Inc books for at least 10 minutes every day.
Our achievement awards go to Riley and Muhammadamin for their fantastic teamwork and artistic skills when designing and creating their paper 3D sculptures. Well done you two!
Year 2
Year 2 have been learning about volume and capacity in Maths. We have practically measured volume in ml and L and compared and ordered volume. In English, children retold the narrative 'The Rise and Fall of Claude Magnificent.' It has been lovely to read their individual styles in their writing which was filled with a range of vocabulary. In Computing, we are learning about how to stay safe online through navigating search engines. In PSHE, we discussed the human body and named different body parts.
Homework
Maths- 79 and 81. 80 is optional.
This week's certificates go to Carter for his brilliant story telling in English and Sienna for her mathematical language and good understanding of measurement.
Kingfisher 1
This week in maths we explored position, direction and movement. The children had great fun using happy sticks to practice following directions. They confidently used vocabulary such as forwards, backwards, above and below to describe movement. We also enjoyed working with a range of hands-on resources, including the always popular Bee Bots to further develop their understanding of directional language.
In English we read 'The Mixed-Up Chameleon' by Eric Carle. The children loved engaging in role -play and expressing their creativity by making mixed up chameleon artworks. We used Colourful Semantics to support sentence building and the children worked hard to construct simple sentences based on the story.
This weeks award goes to Dajjen for his directional vocabulary in maths.
Well done Dajjen!
Year 3
This week Year 3 have been busy using a range of sentence openers, expanded noun phrases, similes and 'show, don't tell' sentences to write letters from the point of view of the main character of our book. In Maths, the children created their own steps to success for finding fractions of amounts. In PSHE the children learned about different emergency services and their purpose. Using role play they explored different scenarios about when emergency services should be contacted for particular incidents, which service to request and types of treatment responses.
To end the week, we paid tribute to VE day reflecting on what its impact and what it means to us today.
Homework
Maths: pages 90 -91 (optional additional page/ Spicy p92)
Punctuation: pages 16 - 17
TT Rock stars and reading 20 minutes every day.
Gino and Jack receive their achievement awards for their efforts in developing their descriptive sentences and utilising all of what they learned to write an engaging and imaginative informal letter.
Holly received her achievement award for her excellent reasoning explanations and applying her times table and division facts to find fractions of amounts.
Year 4
This week, Year 4 have carried on with time in Maths. We live in a digital world so have been revisiting telling the time using an analogue clock. Please continue to practice this skill at home. In English, the children have been consolidating all their knowledge about the Roman army into an explanation text.
Year 4 have finished their learning about the Romans which was consolidated with the trip to the Verulamium. The adults were very impressed with the knowledge they shared and their behaviour on the day.
Homework
Maths – pages 101 and 102
Reading – pages 52 and 53
This week’s achievement awards go to Maya for her hard work and determination, and Andreas for the Roman facts he shared on our trip. Well done to you both!
Year 5
This week in Maths, the children learned about calculating angles in triangles; identifying regular and irregular polygons; and about 3D shapes and their nets.
In English, they drafted, edited and published their romantic letters based on The Highwayman.
In DT, they designed a loaf of bread for a peer in the class and spent today making and baking their loaves. They enjoyed tasting them this afternoon!
Homework due by Weds 14th May
Maths: pages 93 and 94 (shape)
Punctuation: pages 18 and 19 (commas)
This week's awards go to Stefi for fantastic editing, and to Georgie for her excellent writing - well done!
Year 6
This week, year 6 have been revising key topics in Maths, English and spelling in preparation for the upcoming SATs. In Geography, we continued our learning about South America and the rainforest with a focus on how human activity - such as deforestation, logging, tourism and farming - impacts the environment. It was wonderful to see the children engage in thoughtful debate, exploring a range of perspectives on these important issues.
Homework:
to rest, relax and recharge ☺️
SATs Week - Monday 12th to Thursday 15th May
SATs begin next week, running from Monday 12th May to Thursday 15th May. You can find the full timetable here: SATs Timetable
To support the children during SATs week, we’re offering a special morning routine for Year 6:
Breakfast Club in the Year 6 classroom from 8:00 to 8:20 am
Followed by a calming yoga session with Kate in the main hall until 8:40 am
We’d love to see all children join us for this positive start to the day, although we completely understand that it may not be possible for everyone.
This week's achievement awards go to Renuka and Zainab for demonstrating a positive and proactive approach to group work in geography,
Kingfisher 2
This week in Maths we have been looking at addition and subtraction. We have been exploring the inverse relationship between them and have been solving word problems.
In English, we have been looking at the story of Rama and Sita. We have made a story map and have been role playing to help us to understand the key events.
This week's award goes to Andreas for great effort in independent work. Well done Andreas!
Tennis Open Day - New Barnet Leisure Centre
MAY 2025
Monday 12th - 15th:
- Year 6 SATs Week (please see Year 6 section below for more information)
Friday 16th:
- Year 6 trip to Trent Park
Monday 19th:
- Year 5/6 Tag Rugby Match vs St. Catherines - 3:30pm
- Activity Clubs Summer 2 go online for via Arbor at 5:30pm
Wednesday 21st:
- Year 5/6 Tag Rugby Match vs Cromer Road - 3:30pm
Thursday 22nd:
Selected KS2 Athletics Competition at Stone X Stadium - All Day
Friday 23rd:
- Founders Day Picnic for all pupils and families starting 11:40am on the school field.
- School finishes for Half Term - 3:15pm (Cabin Club open until 5:45pm)
HALF TERM: Monday 26th - Friday 30th May 2025
JUNE 2025
Monday 2nd:
- Pupils return for start of Summer 2
- Activity Clubs Summer 2 begin
Tuesday 3rd:
- PTA Non -uniform Day for chocolate and sweet contributions to upcoming Summer Fair
Use this link to visit our School Calendar 24/25 for further dates next term.