Livingstone Newsletter
Week 4 November 2023
IMPACT Workshops - sign up to support your child!
Friday 24th November
Please support us and your child/children to see how the school teaches reading.
It is crucial that someone from your family attends as it boosts your child’s confidence and reinforces a positive attitude towards learning. It can be Mum, Dad, Carers, a Grandparent, an Auntie or Uncle, older brother or sister... but someone please!
Click the date for your child's class and respond to the form, stating who will be attending to support your child.
Rec - Wednesday 6th December at 9:00am - 9:45am
Yr1 - Monday 4th December at 9:00am - 9.45am
Yr2 - Tuesday 5th December at 9:00am- 9.45am
Yr3 - Wednesday 29th November at 9:00am- 9.45am
Yr4 - Thursday 30th November at 9:00am- 9.45am
Yr5 - Friday 1st December at 9:00am- 9.45am
Yr6 - Friday 8th December at 9:00am- 9.45am
We look forward to seeing you there!
School Uniform
Thank you to all the parents who have donated very generously on our non-uniform days, we hope that the pupils have enjoyed wearing their own clothes.
Please remember that when we go back to wearing school uniform, standards do not drop and we keep to the rules especially on creative curriculum days where we are seeing multi -coloured trainers and leisurewear being worn.
Thank you for your support.
Nursery Clothing
Nursery pupils should wear clothes they should be able to run and play safely in as well as put on and take off without adult help.
We recommend jogging bottoms, t-shirts, sweatshirts and trainers with Velcro fastening. We also ask that they bring in wellies so that they can access our woodland pond area even after it has rained.
Finally and most importantly, please can you ensure that all clothing is labelled clearly with your child's name.
Thank you for your support.
Attendance
Our attendance this week is 94%.
We are still dipping below the expected minimum of 96%. This is mainly due to some pupils being unwell with a viral cold/cough or sickness bug.
Stay happy and healthy!
Mrs Barton and Mr Madle
Christmas Party
Election for One Parent Governor
We are holding a Parent Governor 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 put yourself forward as an elected Parent Governor, please collect a nomination form from the school Office. This form should be completed, with AN accompanying personal statement of no more than 150 words and returned to the Headteacher no later than 12 NOON on Friday 8th December. The personal statement will only be used if more than two parents wish to be considered for nomination; in which case, a ballot will be held.
Mrs G Phelan
HEADTEACHER
Nursery and Kingfisher Nursery
This week has been all about spiders in Nursery and Kingfisher Nursery. We have explored this through art and craft, observations of books and videos and through our key text: 'Spinderella.' The children have enjoyed the multiple themes of this text: football, numbers, school and of course spiders.
The children have been attentive listeners and produced some beautiful work.
They also enjoyed going to the pond are where they were on the lookout for lots of different creatures as well as spiders.
Reception
Reception have had a busy week! We have been talking about our feelings and how we can recognise happiness and sadness in ourselves and others. We have introduced our Self-regulation station, to help us to express how we feel throughout the day using the different zones.
Our book this week is 'The Gruffalo' and the children have loved all the Gruffalo themed activities. They have been role-playing the story using soft toys and masks, using dice to count and subitise purple prickles, matching pairs and lots more! We have also started to write menus for our ‘Gruffalo Café’ and enjoyed playing with ‘Gruffalo Crumble.’
Mystery reader is on Thursdays at 2:45pm. We would love some more parent/carer volunteers to sign up. The children look forward to it every week! Thank you to everyone that has volunteered so far. Please continue to practise phonics daily. Have a great weekend!
Alki - for his beautiful drawing of peppa pig. Well done!
Isabelle - for always completing our class activities. Great work!
Year 1
Year 1 explored 2D and 3D shapes this week and used mathematical vocabulary to classify them. Have a look around your house and see if you can find any spheres, cuboids or spheres. We are working on our fluency with Set 2 and 3 sounds in phonics. Please look at your child’s reading diary to see which sounds they have been learning this week and practise those at home a long with reading the 2 Read Write books. We finished our topic on the changing of the seasons and are experts on describing the Great British weather!
Our first achievement award this week goes to Sergio for his excellent listening and participation during creative curriculum. Our second achievement award goes to Sonny for his brilliant sentence writing during our phonics lessons.
Year 2
In Maths, we are continuing to add and take away. We have solved missing number problems and balance equations. In English, the children wrote lovely setting descriptions using adjectives and similes to describe the polar regions. We have finished learning about the polar regions in Geography. The children have remembered lots of key words and recalled many key facts. This week we compared the Arctic, Antartica and the UK. We also discussed which animals and plants we might find there and why.
Thank you to the parents/carers who came to watch our singing assembly. The children put on quite a show and we are very proud of them.
Homework:
Reading- read page 11. Complete pages 12 and 13. Please do not do anymore as the children will finish those pages the next time the book gets handed out.
This week goes to Daniel for his great knowledge in Geography and Ethan for his lovely language he used in his setting description.
Kingfisher 1
Kingfisher 1 have had lots of fun continuing "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" in English. The children participated in sensory activities and experienced different textures. The children all went on their very own bear hunt around the school.
In Maths we are learning all about subtraction. The children used different methods and a various resources.
This weeks award goes to Daniel for good participation in all lessons.
Year 3
This week in Year 3, in Maths, we have been learning how to do column method subtraction with exchanging. In English, we have begun learning about speech by performing role plays and using speech bubbles. These were focused on the characters Varjak and Julius from our class book, 'Varjak Paw'. We have also been learning about the daily routines of Muslims and Hindus in our RE lessons, and we have been working hard on our Christmas production!
Homework
Christmas show: Next week we will begin rehearsing without our scripts, so please keep practising your lines for the Christmas show and remember the line before yours so that you know when to say it. Try to think about when you come on and off stage too! What are your cues? Try to read loudly, clearly, slowly and with lots of expression!
The first achievement award goes to Abdul for his excellent performance in our rehearsals and knowledge in RE lessons.
The second achievement award goes to Zachary for his dedication to learning all of his lines in the show and excellent delivery of them.
Year 4
This week in Year 4, we have been exploring the 7, 9, 11 and 12 times tables and how to answer multi-step word problems. In English, we have finally published and created our Fact File book all about different ancient Greek gods and goddesses. We have now started looking at different myths with a focus of the Twelve Labours of Heracles. In the afternoons, we have started our new art topic exploring drawing techniques which the children are thoroughly enjoying.
Homework:
TTRS 7s
Maths: Subtraction (pages 20 to 25)
This week's achievement awards go to Zak for his clear explanations in art and to Scarlett for being an excellent partner. Well done :)
Year 5
This week, the children learned about the features of persuasive writing.
In Maths, they did fantastically well at calculating equivalent fractions, and converting between improper fractions and mixed numbers.
In RE, they learned about how Muslims, Hindus and Christians worship, focusing on prayer and other important rituals and practises. They loved using their own religious experiences to help them understand.
Homework
Maths: pages 31 and 32 (fractions A)
Reading: pages 46, 47, 48 and 49 (Fairtrade Bananas question set 1)
This week's awards go to Evgenia for her persuasive writing plan, and to Lewis for his improvement with fractions in Maths. Well done!
Year 6
This week, Year 6 have continued with fractions in Maths and in English, they have started looking at WAGOLLS for diary entries. The children will be writing diary entries in character based upon our class book 'Cogheart' by Peter Bunzl.
The children have begun Art where they have been looking at Mayan art and the artist Diego Rivera in detail.
CGP homework
Maths (Arithmetic) – pages 30 and 31
English (Grammar) – pages 24 and 25
This week’s achievement awards go to Jacob for creating rhythmic patterns during Music and Anastasia for always pushing to achieve in the classroom and at home – she has written the beginnings of a fantastic story at home.
Kingfisher 2
On Monday, the class discovered their chairs stacked and taped up – they were on strike! An accompanying letter explained the chairs had quit due to their mistreatment.
The children then outlined formal letters of complaint on behalf of the chairs, which they later typed up in best.
In Maths, we began our 2-D shape unit. We discovered how to recognise and count the sides and vertices, drew different shapes, and began exploring how shapes can look different. We also figured out the relationship between the number of sides and the number of vertices.
This week’s award goes to Kayce for demonstrating his caring and supportive nature whilst helping the younger children in their cooking session.
Netball
All the children who attend club with Mrs Church and Mrs Craddock are dedicated players. Some children are selected to play in the netball league where we have played two games so far.
Last week, we had our first game against Danegrove Primary School. It was a very close match and both sides were evenly matched. Our young players made a great impression on all the spectators as everyone was so impressed with their skill and teamwork. The game ended 3-2 to Livingstone!
Well done to Anastasia T, Dante, Arbel, Sophia, Sienna-Rose, Diya and Josh!
This week, we played against St. Andrews Primary School. Again, all the spectators were in awe of how amazing they were playing. Our children had lots of shots; the game ended 8-3 to Livingstone!
Well done to Diya, Chloe, Josh, Sophia, Dante, Emily and Bianca.
Football
This week children played in the mixed league match against St. Andrews primary school. They demonstrated an incredible team effort and were individually brilliant.
Unfortunately, we lost the game 2-0 but there were many positives to take from the game: the children didn't concede any goals in the second half, they never gave up and they had our Livingstone lions/lionesses attitude.
Well done to Stefi, Brychan, Oliver, Sotirio, Xander, Josh, Dante, Chloe and Arbel.
Christmas Fair
Barnet Educational Arts Trust (BEAT)
To encourage budding musicians to kickstart their musical journey, we are excited to announce a whopping 50% discount on all group and ensemble fees exclusively for new students.
Whether you’ve always dreamt of joining a band, or refining your vocal skills, now is the perfect time to turn those dreams into reality. Our January Sale is designed to make music education more accessible by significantly reducing the cost for newcomers.
To take advantage of this limited-time offer, simply visit our Music Academy page or contact our admin office on 020 8959 4111 for more information.
"At BEAT we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to explore their musical talents. Our January Sale is a fantastic chance for new students to join our vibrant community of musicians and learn from our experienced tutors,” Sophie Boden, Head of BMAW and BMAC
Sport 4 Kids
NOVEMBER 2023
Monday 27th:
- INSET Day - School closed to pupils
Tuesday 28th:
- Year 5 begin Swimming for two weeks
Wednesday 29th:
- Year 3 IMPACT Meeting for Parent/Carers 9am
Thursday 30th:
- Year 4 IMPACT Meeting for Parents/Carers 9am
- Football Fixture - Livingstone Girls vs Monken Hadley, 3:30pm
DECEMBER 2023
Friday 1st:
- Year 5 IMPACT Meeting for Parents/Carers 9am
- PTA Kids Christmas Party - during school hours
- PTA Christmas Fair from 3:15 - 4:30pm (£1 entry)
- No Yoga Club
Monday 4th:
- Year 1 IMPACT Meeting for Parents/Carers 9am
Tuesday 5th:
- Year 2 IMPACT Meeting for Parents/Carers 9am
Wednesday 6th:
- Reception IMPACT Meeting and Fitbag Meeting for Parents/ Carers 9am
- Choir singing at Barnet Spires - PM
- KS1 (small group of pupils) Christmas Sports Festival at Stone X Stadium - PM
Friday 8th:
- Year 6 IMPACT Meeting for Parents/Carers 9am
- Years 3 and 4 Recorder Assembly for Parents/Carers 2:30pm
Use this link to visit our School Calendar 23/24 for further dates including Christmas dates.