1 Greenside a Curious & Inspirational Place of Experiential Learning
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Issue: 1 Greenside A Curious & Inspirational Place of Experiential Learning & Leadership Where we are .. Breaking Boundaries Learning is Everything, Everything is Learning Welcome to the Year of Colour! Date: Friday 15th October 2020 Dear Parents/ Carers, Welcome to our final Greenside Newsletter of the half term - we have made it this far and we are all feeling super positive and happy (if a little autumnal as the early mornings & evenings start to get darker). Last week our overall attendance was 99% so thank you all for making that happen - we are so grateful for each day we get together on site and having all our students here is so important. A special well done goes to Reception, Y3 and Y5 for 100% across the whole week - wonderful! The Year of Colour continues to burst out at Greenside each day - we had such fun last week enjoying Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi and a special treat with Ciara Finney making her own fab version to help us learn the song too - we were most inspired! This week we have an equal amount of fun writing our own Greenside lyrics to the songs we have been studying over the last couple of weeks - oh what talented students we have! 1. Data Capture 1 This week our Y1 - Y6 students have had their first Test Ready experience of the academic year. Students in Y2 and Y6 have been taking end of year papers in Reading and Maths and this has been so helpful in allowing us all to know exactly how we support and challenge all our students individually. They all tried so hard and showed great resilience. Students in other year groups have been taking Maths papers and our Teachers have also been making TAs (Teacher Assessments) in Reading & Writing. Please check in by email with your daughter/ son’s Class Teacher if you have any questions or would like to know more about her/ his progress and attainment. If you have a daughter/ son who is in Y2 please be aware that we have been told by the Government that they will have a Phonics Screening Check in December and these results will be reported to the DfE. This will replace the Screening Check they missed during Lockdown (it was officially cancelled by the DfE in June). This is a check where students read 40 words - some are ‘real’ words and some are ‘alien’ and students need to score 32 marks or more to reach the ARE (Age Related Expectation). Laura Gilroy and Michelle Williams are busy supporting and rehearsing these words and checks with students. If we feel your daughter/ son would benefit from some extra practice at home Laura or Michelle will contact you before half term holiday. The Y6 journey has begun in earnest and Daniel Mahara will be keeping in touch with you about progress as the weeks go by. Our Nursery & Reception Teachers will also begin the assessment process for our little EYFS students - just to make sure learning is happening as we hoped and they are all happy, having fun and feeling appropriately challenged. I think most of our N & R students will be looking forward to a very relaxed half term to sleep and regain some energy! Over half term if you have any time please check out Year Group DfE allocated Spelling lists on our website - any time rehearsing and using these words would be time very well spent! 2. Y6 Secondary Transition This is our final reminder to all our Y6 Families - the Pan-London Secondary application should be completed by 30th October this year. Please contact us at any point if you have any questions this year! 1 3. Open Days Our Open Day film is a ‘raw, one-take’ tour of Greenside - it was fun to make and really is an organic, natural visit to classes - but we hope it gives everyone a flavour of Greenside. It is now on our website so please take a look if you have a daughter/ son ready to start Nursery or Reception in September 2021. We’d be really grateful if you can tell all your friends, neighbors and family as we cannot invite anyone to view Greenside in person - thank you! 4. Covid-reminders We have had a good week at Greenside - we are most fortunate that we have still not had any positive cases at Greenside or Griffin but at this pivotal moment in London’s safety we are being extra cautious on site, ensuring social distancing wherever possible and meeting the highest standards of cleaning. We are still going outside when we can and keeping windows and doors closed for good circulation. You may have heard stories about a possible ‘Circuit Break’ in the media this week. We will, of course, keep you updated if we hear anything further next week. Meanwhile please keep in touch with questions or suggestions on anything Covid related. 5. TEFAT Relationship Education As some of you may be aware the Government issued updated guidance for schools on teaching Relationship Education a year or so ago. The introduction of the guidance has been postponed because of Covid and will now either begin in the summer or autumn term 2021. I would like to put your minds at rest in a couple of ways at this point. Firstly there are few actual changes that affect Primary Schools and secondly we will be consulting with you before we begin any such teaching. We will share ideas, facts and information - do remember if you have any questions come and speak with us directly (or email in these Covid times). We will be able to answer any concerns and help keep everyone up to date with information. 6. Little Amal Some of you may have seen the Press release this week made by the charity Good Chance as Little Amal a 9 year old Syrian refugee girl is all set next year to make a walk from Turkey, across Europe before reaching London. Little Amal is actually a 3.5m high puppet and she is quite extraordinary. Some of our Greenside students ‘met’ her when she was a tiny prototype and helped create her personality as she started to grow and come to life. At the Press Release Mary & Andre (Y6) Ibrahim (Y5) and Lara (Y4) represented not only Greenside but all young people in an online event and shared a moment in history! Little Amal is making her journey for all the children who have been forced to undertake such extraordinary stories. Here at Greenside we will be doing some fab work this year to support Good Chance. I know some of your daughters & sons have already made a money box (see item in green below) and at home you have been collecting loose change. May I urge all families to get invoked - every penny students can collect will make a difference. We will be following Little Amal’s journey over the next few months and meeting and greeting her when she reaches London - where she is due to celebrate her 10th birthday with our Greenside families (we hope in a big outside party) so watch out for information! GREENSIDE FILM FACTORY Film Inspired Money Boxes Collecting loose change for charity One of the 1st Greenside traditions that our potential Head Girls & Boys have pitched in their applications is to ask our students (and their families) to please make a really interestingly designed ‘money box’ at home inspired by their Class Film for this half term. After they have designed and made the box at home please can your family collect loose change all the way through to the start of December. We will then choose a day to bring the money in and count it all. It really is a case that every penny counts and it’s a great way to get young people to engage with charity, counting money and seeing that a little contribution from a lot of people can make a huge difference and impact. It would be wonderful if you could send me a photograph of their Money Box when they have made it! With many thanks for your help. Karen and our Y6 students. Have a great day, week ahead and half term. Karen 2 1. Message from the Head of School Dear Greenside families, As we come to the end of our first half term, the time has zoomed by and as I have said many times - we have loved having our students back with us! This half term has been jam packed with incredible learning experiences, a Specialism focused entirely on Black Lives Matter and Black History, while our history crew days are only reaching the halfway point with another period of history to compare and contrast coming up. We are already excitedly planning next half term's learning experiences, ready to take it up another notch to keep those curious minds buzzing. This year's theme is The Year of Colour and it is definitely our students who have brought the colour back to Greenside! Robin Yeats (Head of School) 3 2. STAR Days - Hooks Goodness me our Classes have almost reached the end of their Colourful Film and our Teachers proudly share some of that amazing learning with you here. a) Nursery - Paddington Nursery has had a wonderful half-term learning all about London and Paddington Bear! This week we were able to use a variety of 2D shapes in order to re-create some iconic London symbols (like a red London bus and Big Ben).