Livingstone Newsletter
April Week 3
Friday 21st April
Eid Mubarak
Wishing all our families celebrating today a very happy Eid!
Teacher Strikes
As you may already be aware, the NEU are planning further strike days because the Government's offer has been rejected by teachers across the country.
The planned strike days are Thursday 27th April and Tuesday 2nd May 2023.
Please ensure that you have a back-up for your child/ren on these days, as we are likely to have class closures or a whole school closure.
We are expecting to get more information from the local authority and the unions and will send any information by text.
Questionnaire for Parents and Carers
Thank you to our parent/carers who responded and returned the questionnaires that were sent out and also for all the additional comments were made.
106 questionnaires were completed, though not all the questions were answered by every parent/carer. However, the information gathered gives a very positive outlook of the school and the great news is that everyone recommends Livingstone School!
Please note that if we were to get an Ofsted inspection, all parents/carers will be given a link.
School Uniform
As we informed you previously, uniform sales from the school office will discontinue when we run out of the current stock as our longtime supplier has gone into liquidation.
We are really happy to be working in partnership with Smiths in Cockfosters and you are now able to purchase our school uniform from the shop and online.
Smiths have been very fair in their pricing and have maintained the cost as close as possible to our previous supplier and in addition will offer promotions and discounts throughout the year. They offer an order collection service as well as a choice of delivery. You will be able to choose to have your order delivered to your home or to the school.
Look out for your 10% off code being sent to you via email.
Every year families donate good quality items of outgrown uniform and Livingstone will continue to pass these on for a small donation - see Mr Sudbury.
Wearing the Correct Uniform
We are now going into the Summer term and are looking forward to the addition of our summer uniform to the range of clothing that can be worn to school.
With regard to the wearing of correct uniform, there are incidents every day when the staff are having to remind parents/carers to keep to the essentials and not introduce new elements such as leggings, knee high boots and tracksuit bottoms with sports logos. We appreciate pupils and parents want to maintain the individuality of their children but wearing uniform denotes membership of our school and for this reason all pupils should keep to the rules.
In addition to this, it is also important to remind parents to avoid hairstyles, footwear, jewellery and watches that are really only suitable for when the pupils are in social situations that allow for this. Though we have never sent pupils home for inappropriate choices made about these things, we are conscious that they could lead to being targeted by others out of school and placed at risk. It can also lead to later difficulties at secondary school, where infringements of the uniform code can result in exclusions and loss of education. So please send pupils into school looking and dressed appropriately and hopefully it will avoid potential problems.
Nursery
This week in the Nursery we have been learning all about the frog life cycle and looking at our growing tadpoles. We made a little frog life cycle frieze for the classroom and learnt how tadpoles slowly become little froglets by losing their tails and growing legs.
Kingfisher Nursery
This week in Kingfisher we have looking at animals and their babies. A popular theme with the children, they have enjoyed playing with the farm, playing matching games, drawing and colouring lots of lovely pictures of animals and their babies.
Reception
Reception had a fantastic day at Aldenham Farm consolidating their learning about animals and life cycles. They were brilliantly behaved and enjoyed their day watching and feeding the animals. Well done Reception!
Achievement Awards!
The whole class for their excellent behaviour on our trip. Great job!
Year 1
Year 1 have returned to school with a spring in their step. They have impressed us with their enthusiasm and focus in all areas of the curriculum. We are in new phonics groups and reading words with all of our Set 1, 2, and 3 sounds. The beginning of Spring has inspired us to write poetry in our English lessons and we look forward to publishing and performing our poetry next week. In Maths, we are becoming fluent counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and are beginning our understanding of multiplication. The children have particularly enjoyed our R.E. lessons on religious leaders and teachers. We have listened to, acted out and retold the stories of 'Jesus feeding the 5000' and 'Prince Siddhartha becoming Buddha'. Keep up the fantastic work Year 1!
Achievement awards this week go to Gino for his excellent work in R.E. lessons and Iliana for challenging herself in Maths this week. Well done you two!
Year 2
Year 2 have had a great first week back.
In Maths, we have continued to tell the time to the nearest 15 minutes, sequence intervals of time and find the durations of start and end times.
In English, we are reading 'The Rise and Fall of Claude the Magnificent'. We explored the different language features and identified different word classes.
Our foundation subject this week has been computing and we have been learning about how to use I.C.T creatively. We have used Purple Mash to create pictograms, art, posters and create a story book.
Homework
Arithmetic. Pages 12-15
Achievement Awards!
This weeks achievements go to Yvette for her good work telling the time and Dexter for his creative skills in computing.
Kingfisher 1
Kingfisher 1 have enjoyed the first week of Summer term.
We have begun our Eric Carle author study with 'The Very Busy Spider,' and I think we all know how the spider felt after a very busy week!
In Maths we have been measuring length and height, ordering and comparing and beginning to use a ruler as well as non- standard measuring units.
Achievement Awards!
This week's achievement award goes to Stylianos for good listening and concentration, well done!
Year 3
This week in Year 3 in Maths, we have been continuing our learning on mass by comparing masses, adding and subtracting masses and finding equivalent masses. In English, we have begun our work on, 'Gregory Cool' where we will be writing a diary in role. In Science, we have started our new unit on 'Plants' where we have been learning about pollination, fertilisation and transpiration.
Times Tables Focus: 8x table
CGP Pages:
Maths - pages 46 and 47 (Length, Mass and Volume)
English - pages 34 and 35 (Staying in the Same Tense)
The first achievement award goes to Alex for his excellent focus and positive attitude. Well done!
The second achievement award goes to Stefi for his fantastic problem-solving and arithmetic skills in Maths.
Year 4
Year 4 have had a great first week back. The ancient Greeks have well and truly conquered Year 4. In English, we have been looking at myths and have been doing drama and role play to learn about how they are structured. In History, we have been exploring how the ancient Greeks influenced modern-day Britain, and in Maths, we have been partitioning, comparing and ordering decimals.
CGP
Maths: Comparing decimals - page 39
SPaG: Words ending in gue and que - page 86
Timetables: 6s, 7s and 9s
This weeks achievement awards go to Nadine and Elia have their role play of Theseus and the Minotaur in English. Well done! :)
Year 5
It's been a good first week back. The children are enjoying their swimming lessons and are showing more confidence in the water after just one week. We are swimming next week too, so please ensure your child brings everything they need.
In Maths, they've learned how to plot, read and write coordinates.
In English, we read the classic poem 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes. The children enjoyed doing drama about the poem, and showed a good understanding of the complex characters.
We're doing DT in the afternoon, focusing on baking bread. The children researched the nutritional content of breads, tasted different breads and practised kneading.
CGP Books
Maths: pages 76-77 (translation)
English: pages 28-29 (linking paragraphs)
Achievement Awards!
This week's awards go to Marwa for her excellent inference about 'The Highwayman', and to Josh for his problem-solving work on coordinates - well done!
Year 6
Year 6 have had a very busy week as they finish learning the remaining Maths units and revise all of their previous learning. The children have continued to show how resilient they are as we continue our preparations.
Next week is 'Practice SATs Week', the children will complete practice SATs under test conditions so they know what to expect in the week beginning the 8th May. Please ensure your child is at school on time as we will be beginning the tests promptly.
Early morning groups will continue as normal next week.
CGP Pages
Maths - pages 70, 71, 72 and 73
English - pages 19, 20 and 21
This week's achievement award goes to every member of Year 6 for their hard work and resilience. We are very proud of them.
Kingfisher 2
It’s been a busy first week back.
We have started exploring a new text by Anthony Browne 'The Tunnel'. The boys were able to predict and infer information from the front cover and gave some great reasons (for and against) going through the tunnel in a conscience alley.
A team from Chickenshed also came in to the Kingfisher classes this week, to run the first of three workshops. We designed a fabulous playground together and used shape and actions to bring the ideas to life! The children really enjoyed it!
It's been a good first week back. The children are enjoying their swimming lessons and are showing more confidence in the water after just one week. We are swimming next week too, so please ensure your child brings everything they need.
In Maths, they've learned how to plot, read and write coordinates.
In English, we read the classic poem 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes. The children enjoyed doing drama about the poem, and showed a good understanding of the complex characters.
We're doing DT in the afternoon, focusing on baking bread. The children researched the nutritional content of breads, tasted different breads and practised kneading.
CGP Books
Maths: pages 76-77 (translation)
English: pages 28-29 (linking paragraphs)
Achievement awards this week go to Mario and Calvin for their participation in the Chickenshed workshop and interesting ideas for the imaginary playground.
Well done!
Intra-House Competitions
In the Spring term, children in KS2 took part in intra-house competitions. This is where children compete in their house colours. We try to promote teamwork in all our subjects but this is more evident in our P.E lessons. Children had been learning hockey and tennis in their P.E lessons last term and at the end of each unit they took part in a game style competition to show off their skills, tactics and knowledge of the rules.
Here are the results...
Hockey Tennis
4th place- Blue Team 3rd place- Green Team
3rd Place- Red Team 2nd Place- Yellow Team
2nd Place- Green Team Joint 1st- Red and Blue Team
1st Place- Yellow Team
APRIL 2023
Monday 24th:
- Year 6 Practice SATs Week
MAY 2023
Monday 1st:
- Bank holiday - school closed
Friday 5th:
- Class Photograph Day
- King's Coronation Lunch / Street Party
Monday 8th:
- Bank holiday for King's Coronation - school closed
Tuesday 9th:
- Year 6 SATs Week (Free Breakfast Club and Morning Yoga for 4 days)