Newsletter
April Week 4
Friday 30th April
Livingstone are Looking for a Parent Governor
If you love being part of the Livingstone family, then you are the ideal candidate for a position on the Governing Body. We are a really approachable bunch of parents, staff and ex-parents who adore the school and love supporting it. Once you are in, you are only committed to attending the Full Governing Body meeting which is one per term. There are also opportunities to join other interesting committees such as the curriculum, welfare and finance.
During my time as a governor I have gained real insight into how the school runs, got to know the staff really well and been privileged enough to attend in- school events such as the school Christmas Dinner and the Leavers Tea.
Lucky for you… there is a parent governor position open so please ask the office for an application form if you are interested in supporting this amazing school. If you are nervous about the expectations/commitment, then please contact Mrs Phelan or Mr Madle who can put you in touch with me or one of the other governors. Remember most of us started with little or no knowledge and have been supported all the way.
Good luck and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Catherine Baker
National Daily Mile
I am sure we all agree that the physical and mental health of our children is incredibly important. Even more so with all the lockdowns they have experienced!
The National Daily Mile is a great initiative to rebuild their fitness and improve their emotional and mental health. Children are expected to run a mile (10/15mins) a day.
Everyone is going to take part on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday straight after assembly.
The assemblies will finish around 10:10 am to give us the opportunity to get outside and get active!
If the field isn’t wet, we can run on there (roughly 3 laps).
Otherwise, Year 6 can run on the all-weather pitch and Years 3-5 around the playground a couple of times. Early years and KS1 will use their playgrounds.
We started today for the national daily mile event!
Livingstone Toddler Forest School
We are very happy to report the success of our first Toddler Forest School. Thank you to Diane, Mr Sudbury and Laura Blackaller for spending hours sourcing equipment and preparing the pond area to make it a wonderful experience for our under 3s. At a time when young children have been limited in opportunities to mix with other children, this was a real inspiration and hopefully will go towards addressing setbacks potentially caused by lockdown.
Frogspawn
Nursery are looking for a small amount of frogspawn for the class. Please let us know if you have seen some locally that we can collect. Mrs Sampson will make sure that it is well looked after and after the tadpoles are born, they will be safely released into our pond.
Victoria Park
Last week a member of the public wrote to the school regarding damage to his car caused by a child throwing stones near the leisure centre car park. There is video footage of this pupil but the film is not clear enough to see who it is, but we can see that this boy is wearing a blue sweatshirt similar to our uniform. We know there are other schools with blue sweatshirts so we cannot be sure that this pupil attends our school, however, we would be grateful if anyone witnessed the child throwing stones last week and let us know.
Since we have had an improvement in the weather, the numbers of pupils going to Victoria Park has increased substantially, however, with this has come several reports of unsociable behaviour and general rudeness. Given that the behaviour at Livingstone is exceptional, it is very disappointing to hear that pupils are letting down themselves, their families and the school by behaving inappropriately. May we remind parents to check on their children when they go to the park unsupervised, as bad behaviour reported to us and future secondary schools that can be verified could potentially lead to exclusion and in the case of the damage done to the car, civil or criminal prosecution.
Asymptomatic Testing
Everyone in Barnet is now able to collect Lateral Flow Test kits for asymptomatic testing from participating pharmacies and the three main Barnet libraries: Edgware, Finchley Church End and Chipping Barnet.
Regular self-testing of adults and secondary pupils in families among school communities will help keep everyone safer as we move along the roadmap out of lockdown.
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Nursery
ESonny is new to the Nursery this week. He loves playing outside and he has found a dandelion flower seed-head to make a wish. I wonder what Sonny is wishing for .....?
Nursery are learning their phonics. Irsa loves practicing her letters on her small whiteboard. She is practicing the letter 'i' and she can say some words that begin with 'i' such as 'insect' and 'instrument'. Well done, Irsa!
This week's awards go to Sonny for settling in so well at Nursery and Irsa for fantastic phonics. Well done!
Year 1
Plants, Plants, Plants!
This term for Science, Year 1 have been learning about plants. Our classroom has been turned into a jungle with all types of plants everywhere! We also had our own Bonsai tree expert , Mr Sudbury, who gave us a very informative lesson on these amazing trees. We have learnt how Bonsai trees always stay in shape (regular pruning), what food they need and the importance of watering and repotting. An educational and wonderful insight into the magical world of Bonsai. Thank you Mr Sudbury!
The first achievement award goes to Mikolaj for trying really hard all week in Phonics and Maths.
The second achievement award goes to Zak for his excellent problem solving skills on capacity and volume.
Well done!
Year 2
In Year 2 this week we have started looking at the book Mrs Armitage on Wheels. Mrs Armitage is a fun inventor and decorates her bicycle with many wonderful things to make it entertaining! This week we role played the book using bikes and added all the items to our bikes that Mrs Armitage added to hers. We then story mapped the book and now we are starting to re-tell the book.
In our new science topic 'animals including humans' we had some cute visitors from Reception. In the afternoon, we sat outside with the new chicks after learning about adults and their offspring. We are all looking forward to our caterpillars arriving next week, hopefully!
A wonderful week Y2, keep up the great work.
The first achievement goes to Zyan for his excellent problem solving using measurements in maths.
The second achievement award goes to Charlotte for her excellent scientific knowledge about animals and their needs to survive.
Kingfisher 1
Kingfisher 1 have had a busy week! In English, we have explored the story 'The Bad-Tempered Ladybird' by Eric Carle as part of our author study. The pupils went to the pond area to look for ladybirds and other minibeasts. They have enjoyed exploring nature.
In Maths, we learnt about addition and pupils used a variety of resources to complete their calculations.
This week's achievement award goes to Georgie for her fantastic effort and great attitude towards all of her work this week!
Year 4
This week in year 4, we have been learning about fractions and decimal and they have all done superbly!
In English, we have continued exploring Greek myths. We have looked at describing the Minotaur and the labyrinth using powerful and precise vocabulary to create an image in the reader's head and keep them engaged. It's fair to say that they had Mrs Craddock, Mr Madle and I hooked!
In History, we have learnt about how the modern Olympics were influenced by ancient Greece, which they showed great understanding of how the two events are linked.
This week's awards go to Aaliyah and Jack D for their positive and hard working attitudes. Well done!
Kingfisher 2
This week in Kingfisher 2 the children have all been working very hard.
The children have continued to develop their measuring skills in Maths and applied them to problem solving.
In English they have been exploring more poems, performing to one another and as a group. They have been working on their Spring poems and have produced some excellent pieces.
In the afternoons, in addition to their mainstream topic lessons they were lucky enough to be able to enjoy the revamped pond area as well as cooking some more delicious and healthy treats.
The achievement award this week goes to Jotham for challenging himself in Maths and measuring in mm and cms, well done!
Year 5
This week, Year 5 have been learning all about decimals in Maths and have done so well.
Their partner writing in English, where they wrote romantic letters between two of the characters, completely blew the adults away. The class have thoroughly enjoyed their learning on The Highwayman and their enthusiasm has show in their work.
In Science, the children have learned all about plant life cycles and the parts of a flowering plant. They enjoyed dissecting tulips and have shown great understanding.
This week's awards go to Maisie for her fantastic rounding in Maths, and to Emmanuel for his lovely ideas in his Highwayman letter - well done, you two!
Nightingales
The children in Nightingales have all settled well into the new term and their new classroom routines.
This week in Maths we have been learning all about money. We have been looking at the value of different coins and how to add them together.
In English, we have been learning about super heroes. We have really enjoyed dressing up to take part in role play activities and have also written some excellent comics.
This week our achievement award goes to Kayce. He completed fabulous work adding coins together using mental calculation strategies
Nursery - Please share with all your friends and family!
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Reception
This week Reception have continued their learning about the Life Cycle of a Chicken. The children learnt about an incubator and how it helps the eggs hatch without the mother hen. They also discovered that inside the eggs, the chicks break themselves out by using an egg tooth at the end of their beaks. We were lucky enough to be able to watch the eggs hatch right before our eyes! The children also know that a male chicken is called a Rooster and a female chicken that lays eggs is called a Hen. We looked at the features of roosters and hens and compared the differences and similarities to other birds.
This weeks achievement award goes to our new pupil Jordan, who has amazed his teachers with his positive attitude towards learning and adjusted to Livingstone life.
Year 6
This week in Year 6, we have been continuing with our topic of the rainforest in Geography and English. The children have created their own diagrams explaining the layers of the rainforest and we have written sentences about the rainforest using colons and semi-colons.
In Maths, Year 6 have been looking at ratio which includes some difficult concepts to grasp. They all really impressed us with their resolve.
In Year 6 this week, we have been preparing to write diary entries as someone who is lost in the Amazon Rainforest. We have been exploring different ideas, using our imagination and revising semi-colons and colons.
6B Achievement Awards
This week's awards go to Sara for her fantastic sentence work and Tyler for his ratio work. Well done!
6S Achievement Awards
This week's achievement award goes to Arbri for his unwavering excellent attitude to all of his studies - he is such a pleasure to teach!
The second achievement award goes to Sammie for always trying her best in every lesson, being kind to others and smashing the 'mile-a-day' run with such poise!
6L Achievement Awards
This week's awards go to Andra for her excellent work on the layers of the rainforest and the second award goes to Chloe for her lovely English work on colons and semi colons.
Dunelm Barnet - Community Support
Two weeks ago, Dunelm created a poll on their community support group Facebook page for Barnet offering a giveaway of three sunflower buckets to a school with the most votes. A lot of Barnet schools were entered in to the poll and Livingstone began with a great lead in votes and at times, it was a close tie with another Barnet School. Considering the other school is three form entry, we still managed to come second with a fantastic 88 votes. Thank you to all our families who voted!
As we were so close to winning, the Chaffe family thought we still deserved some sunflowers and very kindly purchased the exact same buckets sold by Dunelm and gifted them to us. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their generosity, we will certainly enjoy growing them!
Following the success of the sunflower poll, Dunelm have created another one offering the chance for schools and other key worker organisations to win the chance to spruce up their staffroom with an amazing prize package worth £40. We are included in this poll!
If you are a Facebook user, please support us by following the Dunelm Barnet Community Support Group and vote for Livingstone on the relevant post, on their page and help us stay in the lead. Voting ends on Monday 3rd May.
It really is a lovely way of bringing the community together with a bit of healthy competition plus there are lots of other amazing offers regularly posted that may be of interest to you.
Meet the Artist
Last term, Year 6 met the fantastic artist Anna-Louise Felstead over Zoom. They listened to her talk and asked questions about her life as an artist and her incredible work.
To say thank you to Anna-Louise for sharing her experiences and time, Year 6 designed thank you cards using her art work for inspiration and Miss Lax posted them to her.
Anna-Louise has received their beautiful cards and in her email to us she said:
''Just to say I went to my studio yesterday and was told I had a letter waiting for me.
I was absolutely blown away by the beautiful hand painted cards your students sent me and I’m so sorry it’s taken to long to reply but I never check my post at Wimbledon Art Studios.
Please thank your students so much - I absolutely adore them and will do a post on Instagram about them today as they are just so special.
Many thanks indeed,
A-L x''
Have look at the video below of her Instagram story expressing her delight!
She was over the moon with her cards and really impressed with the pupil's artistic talents.
Apologies to Kal-El as she accidently said his name incorrectly when looking at his art work.
Year 5 Secondary Selection
Now is the time to start thinking about a secondary school for Year 5 pupils. As you can see the deadline for selective schools is fast approaching, so it is important that you start looking at school websites and find out how that they will be arranging school visits and any testing if required as a part of pupil selection.
Parents in Year 5 will be sent a link for a zoom meeting at 5pm on Wednesday 12th May. in which we will explain the whole process. If there are any parents in other year groups who would like to be included, please let the office know and a link will also be sent to you.
Diary Dates
May 2021
Monday 3rd:
May Day Bank Holiday - School closed
Wednesday 5th / Thursday 6th:
Parent Consultation Meetings
Thursday 6th May:
Class photographs
Wednesday 12th May
Year 5 Secondary Transfer Zoom Meeting 5 pm (Please let the office know if your child is in another year group but you would like the link to join)
Friday 21st May:
Founders Day (celebrating 67 years of Livingstone) - school was founded on 22nd May 1954.
Monday 24th:
Year 6 School Journey to the Isle of Wight - arrive promptly to school at 7am for 7.30am departure.
Activity Clubs for Summer Term 2 go online for booking from 8am
Friday 28th:
Year 6 return from School Journey
Summer 1 Activity Clubs finish for Half Term (please re-book if you would like your child to continue after half term)
End of Summer 1 Term - school finishes normal time
Half Term: Monday 31st May - Friday 4th June
June 2021
Monday 7th:
Summer 2 term begins - pupils return to school
Activity Clubs begin this week
Tuesday 8th:
Year 3 Egyptian Workshop - Cost is £9.00, please pay via School Money.
Friday 18th:
Year 6 visit to Trent Park
Friday 25th:
INSET Day - school closed