Livingstone Newsletter
November Week 2
PTA Comedy Night
14th November Friday
Tickets are still on sale for our Comedy Night on Wednesday 19th November!
Request your tickets here: PTA Comedy Night Tickets
Headlining the night is none other than Iain Stirling, the hilarious voice of Love Island!
Joining him is the brilliant Katie Green, a regular at top comedy clubs across the UK.
And hosting the evening is Livingstone’s very own Joe Bor, bringing his sharp wit and local charm to the stage.
🤣 Expect belly laughs, great company, and a night to remember.
🍻 Bar and refreshments available.
🎟️ More details coming soon — but trust us, you’ll want to be there!
Remembrance Sunday
On Sunday, our Livingstone pupils took part in a tribute for Remembrance Sunday. They began the day at the East Barnet Royal British Legion, before walking together to the War Memorial in the village, where they laid a wreath in honour of those who served and sacrificed their lives.
Throughout the event, the children demonstrated outstanding behaviour and represented our school with pride and respect. Mrs. Phelan was full of praise, commenting on how our wonderfully our pupils conducted themselves during this important occasion.
Children in Need
Today, we celebrated Children in Need with a whole-school assembly, learning about the amazing work the charity does and how it uses donations to support children who are less fortunate than us.
It was wonderful to see all the children dressed in their Pudsey-themed outfits, bringing so much colour and joy to the day!
Thank you for your generous donations.
Minutes of the Parent Rep Meeting - Part 3
Question:
How is the school supporting the transition from Reception to Year 1, as it can be quite a big step for the children in terms of the shift from a more play-based environment to a more structured, formal approach? Given the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework’s emphasis on the importance of play, exploration, and active learning as key drivers of early development, I am interested to understand:
- What measures or strategies are currently in place to support a developmentally appropriate transition between Reception and Year 1?
- Whether there is scope to maintain, or even extend, opportunities for child-initiated play and outdoor learning within the Year 1 curriculum. There is strong evidence, including from Ofsted and DfE guidance, that highlights the benefits of play-based and experiential learning approaches for supporting not only academic readiness but also emotional regulation, confidence, and social skills.
I’m keen to understand how these principles are being incorporated within the school’s Year 1 provision, particularly as the shift towards more formal teaching methods can sometimes feel at odds with what we know to be developmentally and emotionally appropriate for this age group.
Answer:
Thank you for raising the questions around the transition from Reception to Year 1 at the parent rep meeting. Our Early Years team works closely with the KS1 team and takes guidance from Barnet Local Authority advisory teachers to ensure best practice in managing this important phase.
Key Strategies in Place:
- Familiarisation Activities Children visit their new classrooms and the KS1 playground to take part in short activities and begin building relationships with Year 1 staff.
- Continuity of Environment: The Year 1 classroom and playground retain elements of the Reception setting, including role-play areas, construction zones, and outdoor learning spaces.
- Consistent Routines and Teaching Approaches Familiar activities such as Read with Me and Mystery Reader
- Phonics is taught using the same methods, and literacy is underpinned by RWInc strategies. Teaching is delivered in bitesize chunks, interspersed with opportunities for free movement and play.
- Collaborative Planning and Professional Development Reception and Year 1 teams plan together to ensure pedagogical continuity and a shared understanding of child development. This collaboration continues into Year 2, with subject leaders ensuring that learning builds on prior knowledge and includes scaffolding where needed.
- Parental Engagement Parents and carers are involved in the transition process through meetings and information packs, with ongoing communication throughout the year.
At Livingstone learning in Year 1 is heavily practical. For example, in Maths, we use Numicon, counters, Dienes and other real objects to reinforce concepts of number and shape. Activities for foundation subjects are engaging and hands on. We use our extensive grounds and visit the woods several times a year to explore the changing of the seasons, we look at and play with real old toys in history and visit the Young V&A to explore children's lives in the past.
As a mainstream state school, we follow the national Curriculum and ultimately the move from Reception to Year 1 is a transition and not a replication. link to National curriculum document is here: https:// assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ media/5a81a9abe5274a2e8ab55319/ PRIMARY_national_curriculum.pdf
The expectation is that, over the course of three terms there is a shift from play-led Reception to marked teacher-led delivery. Reception focuses on broad areas of learning (e.g., Communication & Language, Expressive Arts), while Year 1 shifts to distinct subjects like English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, etc and daily English and Maths lessons replace the more holistic, integrated approach seen in EYFS.
We will look at the requests being made and discuss as part of the SMT.
Nursery
This week in Nursery we have continued exploring the story Whatever Next! by Jill Murphy. The children loved retelling Baby Bear’s adventure and were especially excited to use a range of junk materials to design and build their own rockets. Once finished, they used their imaginations to 'fly into space', just like Baby Bear!
As part of our literacy and language development, the children took part in mark-making activities and talked about what they would pack in their suitcase for a trip to space. We discussed how there is nothing in space, which encouraged lots of creative thinking and new vocabulary.
For Understanding the World, we learned that Baby Bear and his family would begin hibernating when the weather gets colder. We explored other animals that also hibernate and talked about why they do this.
We have continued focusing on name writing and identifying basic 2D shapes, and we will be working on these skills over the next few weeks as well.
Talking Homework
Can you talk with your child about hibernation?
If you were an animal getting ready to hibernate, what would you need in your cosy winter home?
Talk together about:
- Where the animal might sleep (a den, a burrow, a cave).
- What it might want to collect before winter (leaves, twigs, food).
- Why animals sleep for so long in winter.
- Which animals hibernate and which do not.
Encourage your child to draw a picture of their hibernation home or act it out using blankets, cushions or soft toys.
Kingfisher Early Years and Bluebirds
This week we continued with our core text, Whatever Next and enjoyed lots of activities and songs themed around journeys into space and rockets.
The children built rockets out of wooden shapes, junk modelling, playdough and Duplo.
In Fun with Food, they even made a spaghetti planet Earth!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWWjz-79QMY 5 little astronauts was our Makaton song of the week.
Reception
Reception have had a fantastic week enjoying Autumn and outside. We read a story called Stanley's Stick which inspired us to go to the woods and collect our own sticks to imagine what they could be. The children's welly boots have been well used this week with the weather changing. We have been discussing weather and the changes that happen to the world around us throughout the seasons.
We have been singing songs about colours of the trees changing, and then even made our own colourful puddles using powder paint to discuss colour mixing.
What a wet and fun week!
Year 1
In Maths, we are continuing to add one-digit numbers using mental methods and drawing dienes to represent our ones when adding. We are still following the Read Write Inc. scheme in Phonics, with some groups recapping previous sounds. Year 1 had a lovely surprise on Tuesday as we had a chef visitor who helped us make a pizza. In Science, we have become weather reporters, conducting daily investigations to describe the weather. We have recorded the temperature and measured how much rainfall there has been. In History, we have started learning about the past and present by exploring a range of old toys. Before playing with them, we predicted what they might have been used. We even got to play on a Pac Man arcade machine!
Reminders:
- We have our class trip to the Young V&A Museum on Monday. Please arrive at 8:30am. Children can wear trainers along with their correct uniform. Please make sure they have a packed lunch and water in a hands-free bag (backpack/string bag). There is a gift shop so if you would like to give your child money, please bring in around £5.
- For one of our history lessons, please can you bring in three pictures of your child as a baby, toddler and one recently. You can email these pictures to the office or give copies to Miss Fairley. We need this for next Thursday. Thank you.
- Please can your child continue to bring in their school bag on Wednesday but also bring it in on Thursday. We will be handing out library books on Thursday this term. Thank you.
Homework
Maths- pages 26 and 27
This week's achievements go to Defne for her fantastic behaviour for learning and always doing the right thing and Mark for his passion in our history lessons and for always contributing.
Year 2
In Maths, we have been using our place value counters and dienes to help us add and subtract 2-digit numbers. In English, we have finished our current comprehension module by reading a non-fiction text titled Matthew's Diary about how a child felt during his first day at a new school. In the afternoons, we have completed our Science unit, Everyday Materials, by exploring with materials we can recycle and why it is important to recycle. We even made our own paper to recycle some the scrap paper found around school.
Reminder: You are all invited to join us for our Year 2 Parent Impact session on Tuesday 18th November from 8:50am. The focus of the session is to demonstrate how we teach Reading in Year 2 and you will have a chance to view the RWI comprehension booklets that we are using.
Homework due in on Wednesday 19th November:
Maths: pages 29 and 30 (page 31 as an optional challenge) English: pages 18 and 19 (Junaid's Party)
Achievement Certificates: The first achievement award goes to Ben for his interest in recycling materials in science.
The second award goes to Julia for her consistent positive behaviour for learning and always trying her best.
Kingfisher 1
This week in Maths, we explored number bonds to 5 and 10. The children used Numicon and the part–part–whole model to help them understand how numbers can be split and combined. They enjoyed hands-on activities and worked confidently to find different ways to make 5 and 10.
In English, our focus story was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. The children loved listening to the story and taking part in role-play, using sensory materials to explore each setting— swishy grass, squelchy mud, and the cold, swirling snow! They also used colourful semantics to help them retell the story, building sentences and showing great understanding of the events.
This week’s award goes to Roman for his brilliant blending of the split digraph a–e.
He has worked so hard on his phonics and is applying his blending skills with growing confidence. Well done, Roman!
Year 3
We revisited the Stone Age in our art lessons this week. The children used berries, turmeric, paprika, cinnamon, charcoal and flour to make paint. We explored marks on our papers and labelled our creations. Then we glued lentils, couscous and rice to cardboard to create our own ‘cave walls.’ Finally, we sketched and painted British wildlife onto our cave walls. In maths, we learnt about multiples of 2, 5 and 10. We also practically made arrays to show multiplication. We began rehearsing our Christmas show in our English lessons and we look forward to children developing their characters and learning their lines. Please practise at home as well so the children become even more confident actors.
Homework:
Year 3 Maths Practice Journal: p.29 - 32 (page 32 is optional)
English: Please learn your lines for our Christmas show. Remember to project your voice and use lots of expression.
Brainboosters are optional. If you would like to complete these activities, they are due back on Monday 15th December.
Our achievement awards this week go to Sergio and Sonny for their fantastic prehistoric cave art. Well done you two!
Year 4
Year 4
In Maths, the children have begun multiplication and division with the focus being on the 3-, 6-, 9- and 7-times table. In English, the children have practiced fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases and using sensory descriptions in preparation for their letter writing, next week. In History, the children have been investigating how Ancient Greece has influenced our lives today in the UK focusing on their way of life, architecture, The Olympics and democracy.
Homework
Maths – pages 31 and 32
Reading – pages 18 and 19
Times Table sheet and please encourage daily reading and TTR at home.
Reminder - The Year 4 Reading Impact workshop is on Monday 17th at 8:50am. If you are unable to attend, the information will be available.
This week’s achievement awards go to Alex for showcasing his learning about Ancient Greece in answering the ‘Big Question’, and Aysha for being so focused and completing all of her work to a high standard. Well done to you both!
Year 5
This week in Maths, the children learned how to multiply and divide by 10, 100 and 1000 using place value grids to support their understanding.
In English, they practised the grammar they'll be using to write persuasive speeches next week: modal verbs, subordinating conjunctions and different forms of the present tense.
In RE, they studied more about Hindu beliefs in higher beings and how Hindus may worship their Gods.
I apologise for the short notice cancellation of today's Impact Meeting. I'm looking forward to working with you and the children collaboratively in a few weeks time. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Homework due by Weds 19th November
Maths: pages 27 and 28 (multiplication and division)
Grammar: pages 56 and 57 (apostrophes)
This week's awards go to 4 people:
. Deni for challenging himself in English
. Yvette for challenging herself in all lessons and being more independent with her learning
. Mrs Vann for doing Year 5 maths
. Mr T for holding down the fort
Year 6
In Maths, we have continued exploring fractions, developing our confidence in applying different methods to solve problems.
In English, the children have been identifying and practising a range of grammatical features to include in their writing, thinking carefully about how to achieve their desired purpose and impact.
In Science, we concluded our learning about electricity. We will be building on this knowledge in our upcoming D&T unit, where the children will design and create their own automatic nightlights.
Homework:
Maths: Fractions – pages 29 and 30
GPS: Formal and informal writing – pages 27, 28 and 29
This week's achievement awards go to Alex and Junior for their excellent work with fractions in maths. Well done!
Kingfisher 2
This week in Maths we have been learning about the formal method of multiplying. We have tried our best and will revisit this next term.
In English we have been writing arguments to support the best super hero and super villains. We are really enjoying talking about this topic.
We all had a wonderful time at the cinema watching Sonic.
This week's award goes to Dilan for his excellent attitude towards his learning and always challenging himself. Well done Dilan!
Christmas Fair and Non-Uniform Dates
Sporting News
This week, we played our first game in the mixed league and what a way to start the competitive league. The team showed brilliant skills and great teamwork right from the beginning. We managed to keep a steady lead throughout the match, with some excellent shots on goal. Every player gave their best and supported one another beautifully. We’re thrilled to announce that we won our first game 7–1. Well done to Elsie, Skye, Kevin, Mikolaj, Edward, Leon, Stefi, Dotty and Anwen.
We had another wonderful day of sport as we took two teams to the Year 5/6 Girls Borough Competition. The first team, coached by Mr. Madle, faced tough opponents including the semi-finalists and finalists, and impressively only conceded two goals. Their determination and effort were a real credit to the school. A special mention goes to Renee and Alya, who played their first matches and Yvette, who was outstanding in goal. Eva was a rock in defence and showed great resilience throughout the tournament.
The second team, coached by Mr. Thomas, were also outstanding. After a slow start, they found their rhythm and progressed to the quarter-finals, where they won 1-0 against Danegrove thanks to a lovely goal from Daniella. In the semi- finals, they beat Foulds 1-0 after a great strike from Elsie, with Daniella deflecting it in. In the final, the team pulled together brilliantly, and Dotty scored the winning goal! It was a tremendous performance from the whole team, with a superb defensive display from Anwen, Ryann, and Soroiyan, who helped the team go through the tournament conceding only one goal!
NOVEMBER 2025
Monday 17th:
- Year 4 Reading/Phonics IMPACT Workshop for Parents/ Carers 8:50 - 9:30am
- Year 1 trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum - all day
Tuesday 18th:
- Year 2 Reading/Phonics IMPACT Workshop for Parents/ Carers 8:50 - 9:30am
- Selected Years 5/6 Netball Competition at Copthall - 11:30am
Wednesday 19th:
- Reception Reading/Phonics IMPACT Workshop for Parents/Carers 8:50 - 9:30am
- Selected KS2 Sports Festival at Hendon Leisure Centre - 11:30am
- Years 5/6 Mixed League Football Match vs All Saints - 3:30pm
Thursday 20th:
- Year 3 Reading/Phonics IMPACT Workshop for Parents/ Carers 8:50 - 9:30am
Friday 21st:
- Non-uniform Day (please send donations of unwanted gifts)
- Year 6 SATs IMPACT Workshop for Parents/Carers 8:50 - 9:30am
- Year 2 Infant Music Festival (in school)
Monday 24th:
- INSET Day School closed to pupils
Tuesday 25th:
- Year 1 Reading/Phonics IMPACT Workshop for Parents/ Carers 8:50 - 9:30am
- KF1 trip to Vue Cinema - AM
- Flu Vaccinations for pupils who were absent on previous date.
Thursday 27th:
- Year 5 Reading/Phonics IMPACT Workshop for Parents/ Carers 8:50 - 9:30am (rescheduled)
- Years 5/6 Mixed League Football Competition at Powerleague 11:30am
- Individual photos for pupils who missed previous day
Friday 28th:
- Non-uniform Day (Nur, Rec, Years 1 + 2 please send in alcohol donations. Years 3, 4, 5 + 6 please send in chocolate donations)
DECEMBER 2025
Tuesday 2nd:
- Years 3/4 trip to Chickenshed Theatre - PM
Wednesday 3rd:
- Non-Uniform Day (Nur, Rec, Years 1 + 2 please send in sweets donations. Years 3, 4, 5 + 6 please send in alcohol donations)
- Year 3 Christmas singing at The Spires, High Barnet - PM
- Years 5/6 Girls Football Match vs Alma
Thursday 4th:
- 🎅 Santa visiting Livingstone!
- Non-Uniform Day (please send in donations of good condition/new unwanted toys and cakes with no nuts)
Friday 5th:
- PTA Christmas Fair - starts 3:15pm
Use this link to visit our School Calendar 25/26 for further dates including 🎄Christmas performance dates for Nursery/Reception and Christmas show dates for Years 1, 2 + 3 🎄