Newsletter
November Week 3
Friday 19th November
This week, we have focused on friendship, specifically learning about how to spread a bit of kindness. The children have learned about the small things that make a difference, such as a simple 'smile' and saying kind things to each other as well as being thoughtful and caring everyday.
Staff have been very busy this week. We have scrutinised the work done by every year group to celebrate our achievements and to see how we can further improve our Reading and Mathematics pedagogy.
We have also been making plans to improve the children's general knowledge about the world we live in. To improve our 'Cultural Capital', we will be examining significant pieces of Art, listening to influential types of Music and discussing the global issues from around our world. Look out for the children talking about people and issues such as Picasso, Mozart, Rock Music and Global Warming.
We are pleased to announce that 'Read With Me' can start again next week. Please see the details below for more information.
We all hope you have a lovely weekend where we can start thinking about putting up Christmas Decorations!
Livingstone and Cop26
Livingstone school have been playing their part in saving the planet and looking after the environment. Here are some pictures from Forest School and our Creative Curriculum.
Election for One Parent Governor
The term of office of a Parent Governor has ended. It is therefore necessary to hold an election. The following might help you decide if this role would interest you:
Becoming a governor is a very rewarding and worthwhile experience. Effective governors do not need educational expertise but do need to be committed to the school, willing to ask questions and offer appropriate challenge and support.
Governors are elected for a four-year term. They attend four Governing Body meetings a year, which are held in the evening, as well as termly committee meetings. The Governing Body makes decisions collectively.
The prime focus of the Governing Body is to develop the strategic direction of the school, be accountable to stakeholders and ensure that financial resources are spent appropriately. Governors need to work as an enthusiastic member of the team with the aim of raising and maintaining high educational standards for all children. Governors are asked to act always with integrity, honesty and objectivity in the best interests of the School.
All Governors are expected to read and understand straight forward budget reports and data information.
Training is available to develop and enhance knowledge and skills.
It is important to note that once elected, Parent Governors are a representative parent but not a delegate. This means they are not expected to report back to parents on any matters relating to the School or Governing Body without prior consent from the Governing Body.
If you would like to seek nomination as an elected Parent Governor, please collect a nomination form from the School Office. This form should be completed, with the accompanying personal statement of no more than 150 words, and returned to the Headteacher no later than 12 NOON on Thursday 2nd December 2021. The personal statement will only be used if more than one parent wishes to be considered for nomination; in which case, a ballot will be held.
Children in Need
Today, we have raised an amazing £337.00 for the Children in Need charity. Thank you to everyone for donating their loose change to help this worthy cause. It was great seeing all the pupil's in their Pudsey inspired items. The pupil's had an assembly where they learned about the charity and how their money is spent to improve the lives of thousands of children less fortunate than us. Thank you for all your kind donations and enjoy watching the show tonight on BBC One.
PTA Quiz Evening
On Friday 26th November, the PTA are hosting a 'Family Fun Quiz' for all Parents, Carers, Pupils and friends at school. Doors open at 6pm for Pizza and the quiz will start promptly at 6:30pm. There will be a bar, a raffle and prizes. Please let the PTA know that you are coming! Adults £5.00 and Children £3.00.
Attendance
We aim to provide a high quality education in a safe, caring and disciplined environment so that all pupils are able to reach their full potential. An integral part of this is to develop in our pupils positive feelings about education and an awareness of, and responsible attitude to, the value of good attendance and punctuality. The National expectation for all pupils is 96% attendance
This weeks attendance:
Reception 96%
Yr 1 88%
Yr 2 96%
Yr 3 96%
Yr 4 97%
Yr 5 87%
Yr 6 96%
*KF1, KF2 and Nightingales are included in their Mainstream Classes.
Well done to Reception, Years 2, 3, 4 and 6 for being over 96%!
Times Tables Rock Stars
This term's battle of the bands is over.
Congratulations to Year 5 and Year 4 who were the winning classes.
A special congratulations to Jake (Year 6), Geethesri (Year 5), Xander (Year 4) and Lewis (Year 3) for being the most valuable players in their classes and contributing the most points to their battles
Nursery
Nursery have been celebrating Friendship Week too! They have loved listening to the story of The Rainbow Fish - and they especially enjoyed all of the beautiful pictures in the story. We talked about the scales and how kind the Rainbow Fish was to share his shimmering scales with his friends!! We have made a lovely wall display in the classroom in celebration of the story.
It has been really interesting to learn about lots of other sea creatures too whilst reading the story of The Rainbow Fish. The children were particularly intrigued by the mysterious octopus!
Kingfisher Nursery
This week as you know was friendship week. In Kingfisher Nursery we focused on the beautiful story of 'The Rainbow Fish.' It is a story that promotes sharing and the happiness it brings, very much in line with the values of Livingstone.
We have been sharing toys and resources all this week. We have been retelling the story using masks and props. We have also incorporated it into our maths and OT activities.
Reception
We have had an amazing week in Reception focusing on kindness and friendship. We have been enjoying the story of The Rainbow Fish and walked in to an 'under water' theme! The children have been using masks and toys to role play the story, describing and writing about the Rainbow Fish and on Thursday we received a letter... We discussed who it could be (we hoped it was Santa but we were informed it's still just a tad too early) and were very excited to see a very sandy letter from the Rainbow Fish himself! He told us he needed our help to make his scales all colourful again so we worked hard to make beautiful collaged scales using shiny paper.
In Maths we have been spotting shapes, we had a fresh walk in the woods spotting the signs of Autumn and in Phonics we have now learnt sounds 'y' 'w' 'z' and 'x'. We would like to thank everybody for their support at the impact lesson, you are all now phonics superstars!
Gino - for being enthusiastic and trying lots of new activities this week.
Rosie - for some amazing writing this week including a get well soon card for the Rainbow Fish.
Year 1
This week Year 1 began a new Science unit on Seasonal Changes. We went for a walk in our local woods and searched for signs of Autumn. We also set up a weather station just outside the class to measure the temperature and the rainfall. We enjoyed welcoming so many parents for our Impact Meeting and appreciate all of the support you give your children at home with their maths and reading.
Please stick in the first page of our Numeracy Champion homework into the scrapbook provided at the Impact Meeting and enjoy doing this activity with your children. Please hand in the scrapbook every Wednesday starting on the 24th November. We will stick in a new activity each week.
Well done Year 1 on another fantastic week!
Achievement awards this week go to Zachary for his excellent writing about the seaside in Phonics and to Renée for her fantastic subtraction problem solving in maths.
Year 2
This week we have been working really hard in Y2 on our subtracting with exchanging in Maths. We have had a few practical lessons with this and we have started to move on to the drawing side of this. We are spending quite a bit of time to make sure we all understand how to exchange 10.
Some of us in English this week have started reading the book Giraffes Can't Dance and we are really enjoying it. We have story mapped the book and we have had some fun lessons acting out the story in groups with our giraffe masks! Next week we will be retelling the story of Gerald the giraffe.
In the afternoons, we have focused on science with our topic of materials. This week, we planned and carried out our own experiment looking at which material would be the best for an umbrella for our teddy. We predicted what we thought out of paper, cardboard, sponge or a plastic bag and then we carried out the experiment which was really fun! We found that the plastic bag was the best as it kept teddy dry but the others made teddy wet!
This week our first achievement award goes to Daniella for her excellent enthusiasm into learning the book Giraffes can't dance, her wonderful story map based on this. Well done Daniella.
The second achievement goes to Junior for his fantastic prediction about which material would be best to keep our teddy dry in our experiment. Well done Junior you really enjoy science!
Kingfisher 1
This week in Maths, KF1 pupils learnt to count back and subtract within 10 using a range of practical resources. They practiced their number formation and experimented with different sensory materials.
In English the children had lots o fun taking part in role play activities aimed to explore different emotions and friendship issues through the story " The selfish crocodile"
This week's KF1 Achievement award goes to Daniel for counting back from 20.
Year 3
This was our last week focusing on addition and subtraction in Maths. We looked at word problems, rounding and estimating answers. Ms Boucon and Miss Fairley are so impressed with how the children have learnt different methods to add and subtract.
In English, we have looked at a range of fronted adverbials which are our sentence starters. We have identified different types of fronted adverbials and we have written descriptive sentences to describe the setting and characters from our class story 'Stone Age Boy.'
Our afternoons have been preparing for our Christmas Show. We are delighted with how well everyone is doing but please continue to learn the lines from the show. We can't wait for you all to see it!
CGP Books
Maths- pages 16-17
English- pages 10-11
This week's awards go to Evgenia for always being a fantastic role model to her peers and to Sotirio for his beautiful presentation and descriptive sentences in English.
Year 4
This week in Year 4 we have been looking at the perimeter of rectilinear shapes. Using our knowledge of times tables, we were able to quickly solve the perimeter only knowing length and width of of two sides.
In English, Year 4 have taken on the role of the boy from 'Into the Forest' by Anthony Browne and created excellent emotive letters using a range of grammatical features to engage the reader. They have work exceptionally hard on writing and editing their this week and created some brilliant letters.
We are now teaching art, focusing a range of different mosaic styles by different artists such as Gaudi, Invader and Sonia King. The children have been hooked and can't wait to design and create their own mosaics next week.
CGP Books
Maths: pg 44-45
English: 14-15
This week's awards go to Muhammad for being a kind and supportive friend, and to Xander for his eye to detail when exploring and recreating mosaics by different artists. Well done!
Year 5
This week, Year 5 have been learning about factors, multiples and prime numbers in Maths, where they showed a good understanding. They learned some tricks on how to quickly identify if a number is a multiple of 2, 3, 4 or 5. Having quick times tables recall really helped, so please continue to encourage your child to go on TT Rockstars at home.
In English, the children became Bradley Chalkers (the main character in our core text) and wrote diary entries. They were very impressive! The children used relative clauses and semi-colons to help make their writing better, and showed how Bradley's character changed from one entry to another.
We're now teaching Science, focusing on changes to materials. In the upcoming weeks we'll be separating mixtures, learning about dissolving and explaining some key differences between reversible and irreversible changes.
CGP book pages:
Maths pages 18-20
English pages 18-19
This week's awards go to Nate for his excellent explanations in Maths, and to Despina for editing her diary entries independently - fantastic work, you two!
Year 6
Year 6 have had an exciting week! We have continued with our fraction work in Maths - we are still very impressed with their knowledge and application of their skills and in English, the children have written their non-chronological reports - again, we have been so impressed with their creativity! In Design and Technology, the children have been programming a crumble with a light dependent resistor (LDR) as a sensor, ahead of making a sensor dependent night light; this is also building upon our recent Electricity topic in Science as they need to ensure their circuit works to operate sensor and the bulb. The children are very engaged and I look forward to seeing their creations as a finished product! Well done for an amazing week Year 6, you have all worked so hard!
This week's achievement awards go to Chloe for her creativity in English and Louis for his fraction work. Well done!
Kingfisher 2
This week, in Kingfisher 2 we have started our new topic, Traditional Tales. The children have been reading ‘The Three Little Pigs’, sequencing the main events of the story and learning about the key features of traditional tales.
In Maths, we have been tackling 2-step problems involving money and buying a number of items in our ‘Tuck Shop’. The children have enjoyed taking it in turns to be the customer and the shop keeper, adding their own items and calculating the change they would be given.
We also welcomed some Sports visitors who taught us how to play ‘Boccia’ and ‘New Age Kurling’. The boys had natural aim and got the hang of the games very quickly. They enjoyed themselves and displayed great turn taking skills.
Well done to Calvin for a great week. He deserves the achievement award for trying his best at all times and having a great attitude to learning. He always has a smile on his face and a high five to give!
Nightingales
This week in Maths we have been learning about multiplication. We have used Numicon to look at repeated addition and have made arrays.
In English, we have been looking at grammar techniques -using the first person and the past tense. We have also been learning how to use 'show not tell'.
This week's award goes to Jacob for excellent independent multiplication work. Well done Jacob.
Exciting News
Your children may have told you that Miss Grant is expecting a baby in February. We are ecstatic for her and we cannot wait to meet the new member of her family. When she is on maternity, Miss Papas will take over as the full-time class teacher to ensure there is consistency for all our Yr 2 pupils.
Reading Impact
We had a great attendance of Parents and Carers from Reception and KS1 this week for Reading Impact lessons. Miss Purse, Mrs Segal, Miss Grant and Miss Papas hosted the Reading sessions, where the adults learned about their letter sounds in Phonics and the Year 2 Reading SATs. Thank you to all those who attended, please check your emails for the PowerPoint Slides.
In the Spring Term we will be running parent/carer sessions for Maths, look out for the dates in the Newsletter after Christmas.
Read With Me for EYFS and KS1
As you have discovered from the Reading Impact sessions this week, Reading is so important. We are delighted to invite you to our weekly 'Read With Me sessions' that will start from next week.
When you drop-off your children to school, please come and join us in the school library to read with your child. The sessions start at 8:50 am and will last for about 10 minutes.
Mondays - Year 1
Tuesdays - Year 2
Thursdays - Kingfisher
Fridays - Reception
Remembrance Sunday
On Sunday, a number of Livingstone pupils attended the service of the Cenotaph in New Barnet. Thank you to all those families who attended and to Kaitlin's family for organising the wreath. Mrs Phelan enjoyed seeing all the Livingstone children representing our school and looking so smart in their uniforms.
Year 5 and 6 Netball
It isn't just football season but netball season too! Children have been working extremely hard in after school clubs and we had our first game in the league against Danegrove Primary School on Tuesday. It was a tough game but the children showed superb determination and resilience. Despite losing the game, we saw excellent interceptions and some great shots attempted.
Well done to Lois, Hattie, Zeynep, Maisie, Albion, Tyler and Noah.
Year 5 and 6 Girls Football
Our Livingstone ladies made their triumphant debut Thursday afternoon with their first game against St.Andrews Primary School. Within minutes of the first half, brilliant goals were scored by Arbel, Maisie, Hattie, Zeynep and Aaliyah. Our girls continued to add pressure and with their determination to succeed, we went on to score another two goals by Lois. Everyone at afterschool club has been working extremely hard with Mr Thomas and we are so pleased with their positive attitude towards playing as a team. Well done to Arbel, Hattie, Lois, Kaitlin, Geethesri, Catherine, Maisie, Zeynep and Aaliyah.
Diary Dates
November 2021
Tuesday 23rd:
Year 5 and 6 Boys Football Match v Foulds School - Home 3.15 pm
Friday 26th
Family Quiz Evening 6.00 pm
Non-uniform Day - Donations of Recycled Gifts
Monday 29th:
INSET Day - School closed to pupils
December 2021
Wednesday 1st:
Year 5 and 6 Girls Football Match v Trent School - Home 3.15 pm
Thursday 2nd:
Year 5 and 6 Netball Match v Churchill - Home 3.15 pm
Non-uniform Day - Cakes and Pre-loved Toys
Friday 3rd:
Christmas Fair and Santa Visit
No Yoga Club this week
Wednesday 8th:
Years 5 and 6 Boys Football Match v Northside - Home 3.15 pm
Thursday 9th:
Parent Champion coffee morning - 8.45 am
Nursery PM and Reception Christmas Songs to parents/carers - 2.30 pm
Friday 10th:
Activity Clubs finish for Autumn 2
Christmas Jumper Day with £1 donation to Save the Children (optional)
Nursery and Reception Christmas songs to parents/ carers - 9.10 am
Christmas Show to Year 1 parents/carers only (more info regarding tickets to follow)
Monday 13th:
Activity Clubs for Spring 1 go online for booking 8.00 am
Christmas Show to Year 2 parents/carers only (more info regarding tickets to follow)
Tuesday 14th:
Christmas Show to Year 3 parents/carers only (more info regarding tickets to follow)
Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 class parties
Wednesday 15th:
Christmas Dinner Day
Thursday 16th:
Years 1 and 2 class parties
Friday 17th:
School finishes for Autumn term at 2 pm - No Cabin Club
School Holiday:
Monday 20th December 2021 - Monday 3rd January 2022
Pupils return to school on Tuesday 4th January 2022 for start of the Spring Term
More dates will follow...