Limpsfield Junior School Newsletter
Spring 2 2017
Welcome to our Spring 2 newsletter. It is great to see that winter is well and truly over and the longer days are definitely warming up. As always, a lot has happened at Limpsfield and I hope that you will enjoy reading what the children have been doing.
This and previous Newsletters are available on the school website which also contains photos and information about what your children have been doing at school. This can be found at http://limpsfieldschool.org.uk
World Book Day
February 2nd was World Book Day and it was great to see so many children and staff dress up to celebrate this annual event. We had visits from Hagrid, The Mad Hatter, The Boy in the Dress and Little Red Riding Hood amongst others.
Red Nose Day
Following on with the dressing up theme we also recognised Red Nose Day on 24th March. This national bi-annual event provides children with the opportunity to raise money for local and international charities. I am pleased to say that Limpsfield Junior School raised £96.34
Cross Country
As you will know, children from Limpsfield have again been competing in the Sheffield Federation for School Sports Cross Country events this year. The last race of the season was organised and held by Limpsfield School on our school fields. It was a fantastic event and everyone involved commented on how well organised the morning was. I would like to thank all those parents and carers who volunteered to help as well as all the staff who helped and who have given up their Saturday mornings since September to take our children to the different events.
Because of all the hard work and effort that the children put in to cross country every child who had run in an event was given a medal. We were very lucky because the Lord Mayor, Councillor Denise Fox, visited school to talk about her role as Lord Mayor and was able to present the medals to the children in assembly.
Improving the School Playgrounds
On Saturday the 1st April, the Reverend Phil Warman kindly organised some volunteers to help create a small garden area in one of the school yards. This was also supported by some of our parents and I am pleased to say that their hard work has cleared a great area in school that we can now turn in to a garden. We will again be working on this area on Saturday 8th April.
We are committed to improving the school playgrounds and to help fund these changes the children will be organising a sponsored fun run during next half term. If each child raises £5.00 then the school can potentially raise a total of £1000 to spend on the school grounds. I hope that you will support us in this and details will follow after the Easter holiday.
Y3/4 Maps Topic
As part of their topic on maps, the year 3 and 4 children had a DT day where they made a 3D map of a town. This project allowed them to use their DT skills as well as maths and co-operative working strategies. As you can see from the pictures, they had a great time and made some fantastic models.
Cooking club
Members of the school cooking club cooked another three course banquet for some of the staff. As I am sure that you can imagine, this was well received by the staff and as always the children put on some very tasty, home cooked food.
Y6 Sats Tests
The Year 6 children have been working very hard in preparation for their Sats tests. These are standardised tests in maths, reading and spelling, punctuation and grammar that are taken by all Year 6 pupils across England. Sats tests are used to show how well a child has done in comparison to all children nationally and also provide information to the government about how well a school is doing. Writing is assessed differently with the teachers making a judgement of how well a child has done in respect to national expectations.
Sats tests changed in 2016 to reflect the new national curriculum. These new tests are very challenging and all teachers have been working hard to ensure that children are ready to take them this year and in the future. If you have a child in Year 6 then you need to ensure that they attend school every day during Sats week.
Sats week is the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th of May
We also ask that you continue to support them at home so that we can ensure that they can be rewarded for all of their hard work. Further information about Sats is available on our website in the letters section.
Religious Education Day
On Tuesday of this week we had an RE Day. These days are part of our normal curriculum and help our children to understand the different religions that are followed throughout the world. For this RE Day we focussed on Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. We had visitors in to school who met with our children and answered their questions. Some of our own staff also discussed their own religions and shared their beliefs with the children.
At Limpsfield we celebrate our diversity and these days are a great way of helping children to understand and accept the differences that exist in the world.
Online Safety
As part of our online safety procedures in school we have software that filters and restricts what your child can view online at school. This software has recently been updated and will now record any appropriate websites that your child may try and access. The filtering means that the sites will be blocked but we will know if they have tried to access a site. We have procedures in school to deal with this which may involve us contacting you if we feel it is appropriate. This further supports our commitment to effective safeguarding procedures at school.
I hope that you have a good Easter holiday and we will see you back in school on Monday 24th April.
Martin Moss