Livingtone Newsletter
February Week 2
Friday 9th February
Maths Impact Workshops for Parents and Carers
Due to parental demand and the success of the English impact meetings, we would like to invite you to come and support your child/children to see how the school teaches Maths. 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... but someone please!
The sessions will take place at 9 am for an hour. Please use the form links below to inform us if you will be attending the meeting for your child's year group.
Reception Math IMPACT Workshop - Wednesday 13th March 2024
Year 1 Maths IMPACT Workshop - Monday 11th March 2024
Year 2 Maths IMPACT Workshop - Tuesday 12th March 2024
Year 3 Maths IMPACT Workshop - Wednesday 20th March 2024
Year 4 Maths IMAPCT Workshop - Thursday 14th March 2024
Year 5 Maths IMPACT Workshop - Friday 15th March 2024
Year 6 will be having a SAT's meeting for parents and carers instead. This will be held on Thursday 21st March 2024 at 9:00am.
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!
Attendance
This week's attendance was 91%.
Still lots of coughs, colds and other viruses are around, let's hope we are all feeling better after half term and we can improve our overall weekly attendance.
Thank you!
A very special thank you goes to Medina and Zachary's parents for sending the most amazing bouquet of flowers. Also, a special thank you to Miley's parents for the beautiful flowers they gave us as well. It demonstrates again, the kindness and generosity of our families, in reaction to our Outstanding judgement by Ofsted.
Rock School Assembly
It was thrilling to experience Rock music at our assembly today. Sonny, Ruby, Charlotte, Elon, Elia and Lewis are at the early stages of playing the electric guitar but they put their nerves aside to play brilliantly for everyone. We thank Edward Partridge for these taster classes and mini concert, with the hope that it inspires our pupils to learn to play guitar.
Please contact the office if your child would be interested in learning electric guitar as part of a group or individually. If there is enough interest we are looking to start an after school club on Thursdays.
Cinema Night is back at Livingstone School!
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.
Reception, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3 will watch ‘Ice Age’ (PG).
Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 will watch ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever’ (6+)
They will watch the film at the following timings:
Reception, Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3: 1:30pm – 3:00pm
Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6: 3:15pm – 4:30pm
Permission forms for Years 4-6 will be sent out after half- term.
Nursery and Kingfisher Nursery
This week the children have been learning about the celebrations that start today around the world for Lunar New Year. This year is the year of the dragon. It is a festival with many different traditions: the children have enjoyed listening to different texts, watching videos and having visitors who have shared some of those with them.
The colours of red and gold are a big theme and we have used these in our art and sensory play activities. The children have tried chopsticks and made lanterns, dragons and lucky envelopes.
We have also continued to focus on hand-eye coordination and building our upper and lower body strength.
Reception
A fantastic first half term in Reception. We are really proud of the progress that the children have made. They are becoming much more independent in many areas of their learning and have wowed us with their ideas, kindness, writing, maths and more!
Please continue to work hard over the half term, especially with reading and letter formation when writing. Have a lovely break!
Lavinia - for being a role model for effort and behaviour
Roman - for excellent progress this half term in phonics, always trying his best!
Year 1
Year 1 were enthusiastic pedestrians in our Road Safety Workshop. We learnt all about staying alert and safe as we walk outside; we know we need to stop, look and listen! In Maths this week we explored addition and doubling. The children used dienes, ten frames and Numicon to see how we can use our number bonds to 10 to help us. We loved acting out The Paper Bag Princess in our English lessons and the children wrote the beginning of the story using their own story maps and excellent speech bubbles for the characters. We continue to learn Set 3 sounds in our phonics lessons and work on our fluency. We created our own sliders and levers in Design and Technology. What brilliant creativity and ingenuity! Please remember to read and review your set 2 and 3 sounds over the half-term.
Achievement awards this week go to Arshin and Marina for their brilliant D&T sliders and levers!
Year 2
Last week, Year 2 took part in a road safety workshop with Year 1. The kids took part in role play activities to understand how to stay safe outside.
Year 2 have been busy with our foundation subjects. In R.E, we have been learning about symbols. We had a great trip on Monday where we visited the Synagogue. The children had excellent questions for Mr Segal to deepen their understanding. We have also been doing art focusing on drawing techniques. The children are very talented!
In Maths, we have looked at word problems to identify if we need to multiply or add and in English, we wrote a fact file about a wild animal.
Have a lovely half term!
This week's achievements go to Enzo for his great effort in Art and to Rosie for her inquisitive mind and thoughtful questions during our trip.
Kingfisher 1
This week in Maths we have been learning all about 2D and 3D shapes. The children did a great job at naming different shapes and properties.
In English we are on our final fairy-tale story, The Three Little Pigs. The children all enjoyed listening to the story and songs. The children retold the story using colourful semantic and role play. Lots of fun was had by all.
We wish you all a restful half term!
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Year 3
Year 3 have had a great week working really hard on their letters of complaints. Last week, they came into class and their chairs had gone on strike! Our writing has been inspired from the book the day the crayons quite where we have been writing letters of complaints as the chairs. We have all really enjoyed this writing and have produced some excellent pieces of work. In maths, we have focused on dividing with remainders, we had fun putting together a Tarisa puzzle based on our 3 and 4 times tables. We found this tricky but really enjoyed this lesson working as a group to complete our puzzles.
This week we have been learning about Christianity and Islam in our afternoon sessions. We have really enjoyed learning about the different religions, their similarities and differences.
Have a lovely half term!
Homework - punctuation pages 16 & 17
This week our first achievement goes to Savannah for her excellent attitude towards her reading, for always sharing her interest in her books with others .
The second achievement is for Gia Khang for his perseverance whilst completing mathematical problems. Well done!
Year 4
Year 4 have finally finished their two-week intensive swimming lessons. It is fair to say these lessons have been intense and the children are very much ready for the half term break. Everyone in the class is now able to swim at least five metres on their front and back which is an exceptional achievement. In Maths, we have continued exploring short division by dividing 3-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers with exchanges and reminders. In the afternoons, we have been using our knowledge from science and electricity to explore and create handmade switches and design a torch which we will be making after half term.
Homework:
Times Table Rhyme Quiz on Teams.
Punctuation: Apostrophes pages 18 to 23
This week’s achievement award goes to the whole of Year 4 for their excellent attitude and progress in swimming.
Year 5
This week, the children did fantastically drawing bar models to help them solve fraction problems. They also started learning about decimals.
In English, they practised relative clauses, using colons and passive voice. We also finished our whole-class book, Kensuke's Kingdom, which they absolutely loved!
In Science, they learned about forces: gravity, air resistance and water resistance.
Homework
Reading and filling in their reading diaries.
They should also get some Brain Boosters activities done!
This week's awards go to Muthara for her enthusiasm with our Viking unit, and to Elia for her excellent Brain Boosters - well done, girls!
Year 6
A busy final week for Year 6. In English, the children have written a narrative from the perspective of someone during a night of the Blitz. With each long write, they impress us even more with their understanding and what they demonstrate within their writing focusing on their word choices to create an atmosphere.
Year 6 have also completed assessments this week and have demonstrated some of Livingstone’s core values such as determination and resilience. The children have done well and are certainly ready for a break.
It was lovely to see you at Parent Consultations and sharing your children’s successes and work with you. I hope you are as proud of them as we are.
CGP Homework
English
SPaG – pages 32, 33, 34 & 35
Reading – pages 38 & 39
Maths
Arithmetic – pages 26 & 27
Targeted Questions – pages 42 & 43
Brain Boosters
A new Brain Booster homework grid has gone home with your child today. There is one box that your child does need to complete over half term to bring back to school on Monday 19th February. Please ensure your child does this research as they need the information for their next piece of writing in English. Thank you in advance!
This week’s achievement awards go to Grace for always completing her work to a high standard and striving to do her best and Josh for his positive attitude towards learning and being a supportive classmate. Well done!
Kingfisher 2
This week in Kingfisher 2 we have continued with the theme of money. The children have been calculating and combining amounts and completing 2 step problems which often involved giving change.
In English, the children brought together all their learning around the story of Goldilocks to plan and write their own descriptive narrative.
The boys did well to make their changes, such as;
“Who’s eaten my toast, broken my deckchair and is sleeping in my hammock,” cried Baby Goat, sadly.
They then typed up their edited work to be published in their file.
Congratulations to Dilan for demonstrating bravery and focus by successfully climbing through the wall bars at the very top, during P.E.
Parent Representative Meeting 31.01.2024
In attendance:
Giovanna Phelan – Head teacher
Jackie Scott -Year 1
Charlotte Gosling – Year 3
Kate Figgis – Year 5
Lina Cavozzi - Year 6
Shelly Farmer - Year 6 and kingfisher 2
Apologies:
Sid Visvanathan – Reception
Austin Scott - Year 1
Laura Blackaller – Year 2
Mel Gosling - Year 4
Megan Atkinson has resigned as she has now taken a position as school Governor.
Q - What are the short and long-term effects for the school as far as funding and increased staffing or pupil population?
A- We are so pleased we have an outstanding Ofsted report in all areas, we are still buzzing from the news! This is a huge achievement for our school. The school will not get any more funding, but we may get more applications. There are no plans to make the school into a two-form entry as primary pupil numbers are falling across Barnet.
Q. Some of the Key Stage 1 parents are interested in a mixer to get to know about the PTA and how to participate - any recommendations on how to organize and is this something the PTA can help with?
A. It is lovely to hear from our parents that they would like to know more about our PTA and how to get involved, it is a lot of work and the more hands-on deck the better.
We have a lot going on this year and soon we will be letting you know all about the future plans and how to get involved. Our PTA has made quite a bit of money this past year and we will be setting up a team’s meeting for everyone to put forward ideas of how to spend this money.
One hope is to build a smaller all-weather pitch for the pupils in KS1. We also have the 70th anniversary of the school coming up which will include an event for adults. We have a cinema night planned, a spring ball – glow in the dark party for the kids and much more…
If you would like to join the PTA, please ask your class reps to add you to the PTA WhatsApp group to keep you in the loop with all things Livingstone.
Q. Will there be an opportunity to meet the new teacher in Year 1? Some parents weren’t even aware Mrs Segal had gone to 4 days. Some are not even sure what new teacher is called.
A. Year 1 have Mrs Segal and now Ms Kwan who has returned from maternity leave. She has taught at school for many years, but we are now aware some of the parents may not know Ms Kwan. She will be introduced to you all via the newsletter and parent consultations very soon.
Q. Could the choir do Young Voices this Year?
A. The Choir is looking into doing Young Voices, but it won’t be until next year as the process has already begun for this year. Taking part in this event needs 100% commitment from the children and parents. It is a very high standard of performing, and a very late night usually finishing close to midnight. There is a lot to take into consideration but watch this space for next year…
Q. What sort of snacks can the children bring for during the day? Can the children be given enough time to eat their snacks? As they are becoming very hungry.
A. The school is given funding to provide fruit for EYFS and KS1. Children in KS2 can bring in healthy snacks of fruit into school and are allowed to eat them during break times. Please do not send in junk food.
Q. Why not Paris for Year 5?
A. In the past trips to France the school has always gone to Paris. This year we are going to Boulogne where the pupils will have the chance to eat in a restaurant and use the French skills they have learnt in school.
Paris is always a great trip; however, you may have seen in the press that Paris has a lot of protesting in the city centre. The French Government do not recommend bringing in parties of school children to this area and this means we are no longer able to meet up with our French Pen Pals. This is concerning for the staff taking a whole class, so we have chosen Boulogne as an alternative.
Q. On-line teams chat concerns
A. This term we are looking at internet safety for children and parents. Teams has a filter which LGFL regulate, and flags things children may say online when using teams. The children will be spoken to about how to communicate online and there is also a workshop for parents about online safety with Lisa Nicholson our computer coordinator.
Q. Can you please consider an after-school show for Christmas shows in the future? Some parents were unable to see the show because of difficulties with getting time off work around Christmas Parents have enquired if we could have the Christmas show in the evening so more parents can attend.
A. The show will not be able to be as late as 6.30pm when we do the Year 6 show as KS1 children are tired by the end of the day and some children may not be able to come back to school to take part in the show. A later time is up for discussion and parents will be informed nearer the time.
YEAR 6 PROM DATES
Year 6 will be informed soon of their Prom date.
PTA Annual Meeting
The PTA annual meeting is taking place on Zoom at 7pm on Wednesday 21st February.
Everyone is welcome to attend our virtual meeting to discuss PTA past and future events. If you would like to help raise funds for the school - join us!
Please keep an eye on your emails for the Zoom details which will be sent after half-term.
Years 3 and 4 Kurling Competition
Some children from Years 3 and 4 represented our school at a New Age Kurling event. The children have played this before where they aim to get the discs to the centre of the mat to score as many points as possible for the team. The children were very determined and concentrating very hard to try their best. They all had a great time and played against different schools. There were 20 teams in total and we are extremely proud that we game third overall narrowly missing out on entering the final. Well done to Ryan, Deni, Isabelle, Georgie, Jordan and Andreas.
Barracudas
FEBRUARY
Monday 19th:
- Pupils return to school for Spring 2 term
- Activity Clubs begin
Tuesday 20th:
- Year 2 trip to London Transport Museum
Wednesday 21st:
- PTA Annual General Meeting on Teams 7pm - link to join meeting will be sent to parents/carers after half term
Tuesday 27th:
- Rec, Years 1, 2 and 3 Cinema Night, 1:30 - 3:00pm
- Years 4, 5 and 6 Cinema Night, 3:15 - 4:30pm
- NO NETBALL CLUB
Thursday 29th:
- Year 6 Kinder Workshop
- Netball Match - Underhill vs Livingstone
Use this link to visit our School Calendar 23/24 for further dates.