Hello from Mrs. Barton ….. What another busy week and such a productive time in school. This week, I have been showing many visitors around the school and I have been very proud to take them into classrooms. The atmosphere has been hard-working as well as fun, creative and enjoyable. Colleagues visiting have commented on the behaviour of the children; their use of manners; the ability to talk to adults and their overall warmth and friendliness. On Monday, staff at Midfield and from other trust schools took part in learning walks around Midfield where they had the opportunity to observe their colleagues in action! Teachers relished this opportunity and found so much that they could then take back to their own class as a way to develop their practice. Thank you to Mr Frost for arranging this. During Wednesday’s staff meeting, staff were beavering away in corridors and classrooms to update and create new displays. Such great teamwork was evident which is what makes Midfield special. Welcome to our new staff We would like to say a very warm welcome to our new staff members who have recently joined Midfield: Mrs Amanda Horns – Admin assistant Mr John Nihall – Site manager assistant who will be helping Mr Atta as Midfield is a very big site. I am sure that you will join me in welcoming them both to Midfield. Catch it, Bin it, Kill it This is the season of coughs, colds and other nasty germs which can spread rapidly in a school; at Midfield we are keen to minimise any outbreaks. At school we will ensure the children have access to handwashing facilities and all staff follow infection control guidelines. Please continue to reiterate the same hygiene standards at home so that good habits are formed. We want Midfield to stay healthy and ready to learn. Wishing you a lovely weekend and hopefully the sun will come out. Classroom News Grasshoppers and Bluebirds Grasshoppers and Bluebirds have been learning all about the wriggly world of worms! We learned that the thick strip on their body is called a saddle and that their head is the bit nearest to it. We found out that they liked cool, damp, dark places as we searched for them under rocks and logs at Forest School. We also found catkins, which looked like hairy worms! We drew worms from close observation, made a layered wormery for our class worms and visited the composting worms in the Eco Garden. In maths, we have been learning about 3D shapes - especially cubes, cuboids, cones, spheres, cylinders and pyramids. Hedgehogs This term Hedgehogs class have really enjoyed learning football skills with the football coach. Over the past few weeks, they have learnt different ways to throw dribble and kick the ball. Yesterday they got into teams and played some matches. Everyone showed great sportsmanship and all shook hands at the end! Hedgehogs class are very excited for their school trip to St Barnabas Church next week. We have been learning about Christianity and can’t wait for what Reverend Neil has to tell us all about the Church! Butterflies This term in Butterfly class, we have been exploring the stories of the Three Little Pigs and Red Riding Hood. Butterfly class were very lucky to have a visit from the characters in Little Red Riding Hood and they had a turn at re-telling the story. We have been learning about the different materials needed to build a strong house and we even received a letter from Mr Wolf asking for some help to build him a home at Forest School. The children have been using their mathematical skills to plan and create differ- ent strategies. Owls In Owl Class we learnt that there are many different countries in Europe including the UK. We coloured in Europe on a World Map and then tried some different foods from countries in Europe. Beetles Beetles had there class assembly this week where we re-enacted the trials of King Charles I. This was our first class assembly together and we had a lovely turn out from the parents and KS2. We have been practicing all of January and really enjoyed performing our play. So much in fact, Beetles would love to perform it again for KS1. Robins Fractions, fractions, and more fractions...Robins have been working hard on lots of different fraction problems (and solutions!). We have been comparing fractions, ordering fractions, adding fractions, subtracting fractions, finding equivalent fractions and even multiplying fractions. Here, we are working towards completing a jigsaw by putting a lot of those skills into practice. We’ve also been getting outside - despite the weather! Have you noticed the new row of shrubs along the path between the Grovelands Road entrance and the playground? Robins have been busy! Woodpeckers This week in Woodpeckers, as part of our Geography, we made mountains using potatoes. We drew contour lines on them and recreated them as an aerial view to see how close together the lines were. This showed us that the closer the lines, the steeper the mountain! Great fun! Squirrels This week Squirrels class created Japanese blossom trees in art. We had to develop our understanding of colours by mixing the shades we needed ourselves. We found pink easy to mix but brown was a little trickier at first! Acorns Following our walk to the shops to buy ingredients we went ahead and baked some lovely gingerbread men. They were very tasty! Rabbits In Rabbits we explored rhythm and sound. We worked in teams to make instruments out of natural ma- terials. We sang songs and even made up some of our own. We had a special guest who came and built us a camp fire for us to have our hot choco- late around :) Ladybirds In Maths we have recapped on multiplication, but this time we used Numicon as a pictorial resource. In Literacy we have continued our unit on Traditional Tales. We read the book ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’. We worked in talk partners to write questions for the troll. Then we asked the troll our questions and used his answers to write a diary entry in the role of the troll. Foxes Foxes class had a fantastic time participating in Outdoor adventure activities. We have been focusing on teamwork over the last few weeks and have completed two tasks. The first was to stand on a line in our teams and move ourselves around into height order without falling off the line. We realised that communication and helping others was key to achieving this. The second task allowed us to concentrate more on verbal communication. We were given a pile of flat cardboard boxes and in our teams we had to get to the other side of the playground. We were not allowed to talk first time round and we found this tricky (lots of facial expressions were pulled). Our second attempt went more smoothly as we could verbally communicate. We had great fun! Badgers In literacy we are still enjoying reading Street Child and would recommend it to anyone! The main character Jim is currently suffering in a Victorian workhouse—we are feeling very grateful that they don’t still exist today! Oaks This week Oak class have been acting out directed role-play scenarios. The children decided who would play each character, found appropriate props, performed their sketch to the class and even remembered to take a bow at the end. A round of applause for all J Dragonflies Dragonflies have been super excited about our Class Assembly, which will take place on Thursday 1st February at 2:40. We have had a couple of rehearsals and we are doing really well. We are really looking forward to performing our assembly (which is about Henry VIII), though we are all a little bit nervous too! Composer of the Month Beverley Knight 1973 – Wolverhampton, UK Beverley Knight, MBE is an English recording artist, radio presenter and musical theatre actress. Heavily influenced by American soul music icons such as Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin, Knight has released eight studio albums to date and is widely labelled as one of Britain's greatest soul singers. Knight has spent a lot of time on the West End stage, performing the lead role in The Bodyguard, Memphis and Cats. Knight has since teamed up with British singer Cassidy Janson and American actress Amber Riley to form a musical theatre super group, known collectively as the "Leading Ladies". Their debut album, Songs from the Stage, was released on November 17, 2017 and features covers songs from Cats, Beautiful and Rent among others. This month we will be listening to: Week 1: Piece of my Heart Week 2: Seasons of Love (Leading Ladies) Week 3: Falling Slowly (Leading Ladies) Week 4: Shoulda Woulda Coulda NEWS Eco Garden News The Children from Robins class helped to plant daffodil bulbs in the border leading to the school entrance and small shrubs along the path to the play ground. They worked in groups and did a fantastic job! There are lots of bulbs coming up along the side of the path near the fence, please would you keep off the strip of grass there to give them chance to grow. Thank you Welcome To Midfield! We have created a short video to give you an insight into what goes on at Midfield Primary School. Follow the link below to see what makes us ‘Outstanding’. http://www.midfield.bromley.sch.uk/welcome/ Head Lice Unfortunately, the problem of hair infestation by head lice is steadily worsening.