Week Commencing 3rd January 2025
Dear Parents and Carers,
NOTICES
Safer Internet Day
In anticipation of Safer Internet Day next week (11th February) we have some resources that we can share with you at home.The theme this year is‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online‘.Whereas we wouldn't expect some of our younger friends to be shopping online or reading emails from a fake charity, there are ways we can introduce the concept to prepare our young people for future interactions.
Every family is different and it is up to parents to decide how much access a child has to devices and the World Wide Web. We consider it to be an incredible resource, for information and connection to others, but one that should be understood and used sensibly and in moderation for us to be healthy.
The resources for parents and carers are here, it also includes how to talk to 3-7 year-olds about how to stay safe when using the internet. In the Children's House we use the book The Internet is like a Puddle, which you can view here. If you want to watch a series of e-safety videos aimed at 4-7 year olds then take a look at the Jessie & Friends website.
For our Elementary community, the UK Safer Internet Centre have developed a page with top tips for 7-11 year olds on how to stay safe from scams online. This would make great reading practice for some of our older friends!! In addition, you can read it with your young people to start a family discussion. You can access it here. For more information about e-safety and how you can approach it at home, take a look at these resources from CEOP.
Montessori In Her Own Words
“It is not that man must develop in order to work, but that man must work in order to develop. The work of the hand is the expression of psychic growth.”
Maria Montessori,The 1946 London Lectures, p. 130
This quote is from 1946 and translated from the original Italian, and like many of Montessori quotes it can be tricky to understand what she's really getting at. Below is our potted interpretation!
We offer lessons to individual or small groups of children in the different areas of the curriculum: The lessons show the children how to work with the materials on the shelves, or a skill which will unlock different aspects of the curriculum. It is then up to the children to "follow-up" to the lesson by practising, with the materials or skill, and it is through this practical, hands-on work that the learning occurs. Through her observations, Maria Montessori saw that when the hand and mind work together, the knowledge is embedded. This is a concept now confirmed by neuroscience: repeated movement of the body creates strong neural pathways which lead to better learning outcomes.In short, when a child works repeatedly with the materials that is when the learning occurs.
Work is not the utilitarian interpretation that we know as adults - rather it is any developmentally meaningful activity which aids the child's self-construction, but it does imply making an effort. The attitudes and expectations around learning start at home; if you associate the word 'work' with boredom or drudgery then so too will your child. We have high expectations of the children and believe they are capable of great progress. They find an enormous sense of peace and fulfilment when they focus on the work before them.Conversely, if a child does not engage with the environment, the expected progress does not happen.
Learning is full of exciting opportunities.You can foster this love for learning by sharing excitement about your own and your child's 'work'; you can ask questions about your child's day - 'what challenge did you meet today?'; 'what did you find out today?'; 'what did you practise today?'; 'How many times?'; 'what was your favourite work today?' Depending on the child's stage of development, the answers may be practical work, social work or academic work. Of course, younger children will often answer 'nothing'!
THIS WEEK IN SCHOOL
Children's House
This week, we had a parent visitor at the Children's House. She talked about Carnival, a celebration she enjoyed as a child. Carnival is a celebration characterised by a parade through the streets with floats (decorated vehicles), music and dancing. People will often dress in elaborate and colourful costumes and sometimes wear masks.
She transmitted her love and passion to this celebration showing pictures and reading a book, 'Teo se disfraza' by Violeta Denou (Theo dresses up). At the end of her group, the parent offered plain masks to the children to colour at home.
When she asked the children if they like to dress up, they answered, 'Yes, I have a witch and Elsa…. Costume', 'Last year I made my own mask. It had two holes.', 'I like to dress up.'
This week's yoga session started with a breathing activity. Miss Hayley asked the children to imagine filling a balloon and releasing the air. After some breaths, Miss Hayley asked the children to fill their balloons with something happy. 'I filled it with a love heart.' 'with gold and rainbow and flowers and leaves and love hearts.''my family.'…
We have been talking about the importance of having healthy oral hygiene. We read"Why do I brush my teeth?" by Angela Royston, which brought a lovely conversation afterwards; we didn't even have time to finish the book as the conversation and shared experiences continued. 'If you don't brush your teeth, you get bacteria', 'I have a timer from my dentist to brush my teeth.' And'mine is blue and red and tastes minty.',' I brush my teeth in the morning.'
In cooking this week, we made our very own interpretation of vegetarian Spring Rolls. The children collaborated to grate carrots and cabbage and cut spring onions and peppers. It is all about veggies now! Then, we boiled rice noodles and dipped the rice rolls 'It's like a circle mat!' in hot water '1, 2, 3, 4, 5! Take them out!' The children chose their toppings and then rolled the rice sheets. 'It's like rolling a floor mat!' "We can't eat that, it's plastic!!!'
This week for snack we had Sharon fruit. Few children knew this fruit. After a child ate it at the Snack Table, she came to a teacher and said, 'I love paran shoot. Yumm Yumm. I will buy it and eat it at home with my sister.'
We did sports indoors this week. The children warmed up with 'head, shoulders, knees and cones'. Then, they were divided into two groups and had to race, placing the basketballs carefully on top of the cones.
Conversations of this week:
Ch: 'Lala la… I'm grating cheese!' while grating soap for washing cloths.
Ch1:Oh no.
Ch2,you have to see this!(He had accidentally knocked down all the drying cloths on the floor)
Ch1:Doesn't matter. I can fix that problem.
A proud collective moment:
(Ch1 showed her work to the teacher, andthe other children decided to join in from their tables.)
Ch1: 'I am proud of my work' (Metal Inset)
Ch2: 'I'm proud of the work I'm doing too' (painting on the easel)
Ch3: 'Proud of my work, though' (writing letter with Sandpaper Letters)
Elementary
During the week, we have seen the joy of the mixed age cohort in action. In choosing work partners for their follow-up work, children are guided by 'who else needs to practise this?' and there have been many spontaneous groups of two or three students deciding to work together - an older child might be consolidating prior learning and a younger child practising a new skill. For project work, they choose partners with complementary
skills - who can work out the sugar content per portion in a plan to bake a tasty treat for Forest School? Who can write a shopping list? etc.
In Yoga the children took part in a story about "superheroes" which all need to work together to make a change. The superheroes are: Sleep, Water, Exercise and Vegetables, each choice helping the body become stronger and more able to withstand infections.
We managed to learn a new song in a single week - the photosynthesis song! Another wonderful ear-worm that I'm sure some of you have been delighted to listen to all week. Should you wish to review it, you can listen here. It's great fun teaching the children new, sometimes complex, concepts and vocabulary using music and rhyme to help them to remember.
Next week is the last week before half-term so we've had a number of discussions about helping children get some projects finished off before we break over the February half term.
Finally, on Friday, the weather was so poor that we had to do sports at school, much to the delight of the children! Anthony devised a number of (careful) challenging indoor games for the children to enjoy.
We will need scooters for Wednesday and Friday next week and pickup will be from Painshill on Wednesday.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Kind regards,
Yvonne
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
ACADEMIC YEAR 24-25
FEBRUARY 25
Saturday 8th February Spring Open Morning 9.30-11am
Monday 17th-Friday 21st February Half Term
Friday 28th February Parent Meetings
MARCH 25
Saturday 1st March Parent Meetings
Wednesday 12th March Coffee Morning - Maths
APRIL 25
Friday 4th April End of Spring Term school closes at 12.15
Tuesday 22nd April Inset Day for Staff
Wednesday 23rd April Start of Summer Term
MAY 25
Friday 9th May Coffee Morning - Language
Saturday 17th May Summer Open Morning
Friday 23rd May Provisional School Trip
JUNE 25
Wednesday 11th June Coffee Morning - Transitions
Friday 27th and Saturday 28th June Parents Meetings
JULY 25
Tuesday 15th July Sports Day
Thursday 17th July End of Year school closes at 12.15
To view our report from 8th-10th November 2022 click here
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