Maths Presentation Evening · 2018. 10. 26. · Maths Presentation Evening Our Parents’ Presentation Evening on Mathematics on Wednesday 17th October was a great success, with several

S K Y S W O O D P R I M A R Y & N U R S E R Y

S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

N E T B A L L R E P O R T

2

F O O T B A L L U P D A T E S 2

A M E R I C A N F O O T B A L L 3

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S T O

B R Y O N Y A N D L E W I S 3

F O S S Q U I Z N I G H T 3

K I D Z C O R N E R

4 & 5

A R T I S T O F T H E Y E A R 6

C R O S S C O U N T R Y

U P D A T E 6

B A S K E T B A L L

C H A M P I O N S 6

I N F A N T A U T H O R O F

T H E T E R M

L A U R E N C H I L D

7

J U N I O R A U T H O R O F

T H E T E R M

A N T H O N Y H O R O W I T Z

8

T E M P O R A R Y B O I L E R

I N S T A L L E D 9

A N N U A L S W I M M I N G

G A L A 9

Y E A R 3 V E R U L A M I U M

T R I P 9

Maths Presentation Evening

Our Parents’ Presentation Evening on Mathematics on

Wednesday 17th October was a great success, with several

parents in attendance to find out about our school’s approach to

calculation strategies, and how our children have maintained

such outstanding standards over the past few years. Skyswood

pupils have excelled in maths, with over double the national

percentage of children reaching standards of ‘greater depth.’

Following a presentation in the school hall, many of our upper

juniors demonstrated a wide range of strategies, including

partitioning, use of number lines, halving, doubling, chunking and

using the grid method for multiplication. Thank you to all of the

children who helped out on the night, all of those parents who

attended, and a special thank you to Mrs Loukes for her support

in organising the event. For parents who were unable to attend,

many of the methods are demonstrated on our website (through

short video clips) alongside our Skyswood Calculations Policy.

These can be found in ‘Curriculum’under ‘Mathematics.’

October 2018

Page 2

Netball Updates

On Monday the 8th of October 2018 the Skyswood netball team

played their first match of the season against St Albans High School.

The game was played at Skyswood School. Our opponents were

very strong and it was a hard challenge, but we tried our hardest and

tried to be the best that we could be.

In the first quarter, we were down 4-0 but we did not let that

intimidate us, and continued to pass the ball very quickly and

thoughtfully. During the second quarter we attempted a few shots

but their well prepared defence managed to block out our

attempts. We were told to take our time and that helped us a lot in

the third quarter. It was in the third quarter that Mrs Lewis decided

to switch up our positions and brought on our subs, who were

Eleanor and Megan. We played our best in this quarter, and

although the final score was 11-0, we had great fun and played our

best.

Report written by Honey (Year 6)

The netball team followed up their first match with a stunning 14-4

victory against Wheatfields, with Chloe and Natalie in superb

goal scoring form. The team worked exceptionally well together,

with slick passing and well timed interceptions.

The ‘B’ team played a highly entertaining match against

Wheatfields ‘B’, losing out by three goals to two despite excellent

goals from Bryony and Tilly. The whole team played well, with

Emily at the heart of the action and increasing confidence shown as

the match progressed. A special congratulation must go to Eddie;

the first boy to represent the school at netball this season.

Football Updates

Both our school ‘A’ team and our girls football

team go into half-term on top of their respective

leagues with a 100% record, with the ‘A’ team

winning their first three matches and the girls’

team winning their first two. Both teams,

however, have been knocked out of the County

Cup having come up against strong three-form

entry schools, Fleetville and Wheatfields, in their

first round matches.

Our ‘B’ team fought hard against Sandridge ‘A’ in

their league match, but were unable to match a

team that included two district players, whilst our

friendly against Prae Wood ended in a 4-0 defeat

that was far from a true reflection on the balance

of play.

The girls’ ‘B’ team won their first match of the

season 1-0 against Bowmansgreen ‘B’ and we

are proud that over forty children have now

represented our school at football since the start

of the autumn term.

The school football team also competed in the

first round of the St Albans City penalty prize

competition on Saturday 13th October, defeating

Margaret Wix by five goals to four. This sets the

team up for a quarter-final shoot-out against

Aboyne Lodge early in the new year.

Our football team at Clarence Park before their penalty shoot-out

victory against Margaret Wix.

Page 3

Skyswood Claim American Football Title!

Skyswood have become the first ever American football

champions in the district after the St Albans & Harpenden

Sports Partnership hosted its first ever American football

tournament earlier this month.

Skyswood entered two teams for the competition and

both teams reached the semi-final stage, where they

came face to face! Skyswood ‘A’ won through to the final

after an exciting match and then faced The Grove School

from Harpenden in the final.

Skyswood saved their best performance for the final and

ran out 31-10 winners. Congratulations must go to both

Skyswood teams for performing superbly throughout the

tournament, and a special thank you must go to Mr Oswin

and Mr Jones (who have both been involved in coaching

American football and adding it to the wide range of

sports on offer at Skyswood. FOSS Quiz raises over £600

Our FOSS Quiz Night was once again a fantastic

success, with a crowded school hall and an

excellent variety of quiz rounds, carefully prepared

by Mrs Cheshire. The evening raised an amazing

£639. Stuart Burden was a brilliant quiz caller for

the evening and the winning team, for the second

year running, were #donttellthewives with an

awesome score of 73.5 points out of a possible

100. The teachers’ team (Mistakes are proof that

you are trying) proved themselves strong

contenders by finishing in second place. Skyswood Duo win Triathlon Silver

Congratulations to Bryony (Year 6) and

Lewis (Year 4), who were team members

in the triathlon relay held at

Sandringham earlier this term. It was set

up by their local triathlon club and our

determined duo helped their team to

secure second place for their age group.

Well done Bryony and Lewis, we’re proud

of you!

Page 4 S K Y S W O O D P R I M A R Y & N U R S E R Y S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R

Year 5 have artistic fun exploring space!

Our Year 5 class have created some colourful and creative artwork linked to their current science

topic on space. The children have painted a range of planets and swirling galaxies, with some of

the finest examples shown below:

Goodnight Mr Tom

Year 6 have read the book and watched the film as part of their learning about World War II. This has inspired

their own writing. The children have written some exceptional pieces based on Goodnight Mr Tom; here is the

opening to Natalie’s piece of descriptive writing;

Willie’s face sank. Tom, trying to comfort him, reached out but he shrunk back towards the open door.

Scrambling up the ladder, Willie stumbled into his room and slammed the hatch door closed. He sprawled

across the bed. Staring at his drawings, Willies heart skipped a beat and he started crying.

Meanwhile, Tom slumped into his chair and stared into the fire; he

remembered the day he lost Rachel and his son. Whimpering, Sammy

clambered up onto Tom’s lap and howled.

The next morning, Tom entered the kitchen to find Willie sitting by the

range, bent over his sketch-pad. Slowly, Tom began to cook breakfast and

the smell of warm bacon spread through the house. Once the table set, an

awkward silence settled in the room. Little was said as Willie picked

meaninglessly at his food.

Page 5

Autumn Leaves and Horse Chestnuts

Year 1 have created some exceptional autumn leaves and horse chestnuts in clay. The children

painted their artwork using an autumn palette. The wonderful examples below were created by

Joshua, Rory, Anika, Kymani, Leila and Nishika.

Year 3 Fables

Year 3 have written some very imaginative fables. Here are a couple of extracts, from Sherri

and Hannah N’s fables, to give you a taste of just how well the children have matched their

writing to the genre.

Spider and Chicken

‘Spider wasn’t looking where he was going when he

blundered into Chicken. Chicken had been

munching on her food, but in a millisecond she

trapped spider with her talon. Spider looked so

small and chicken wasn’t really hungry after all the

food she’d eaten.

“Please spare me! Think of my little tiddiwinkles!”

prayed spider. Chicken thought of her own kids and

decided to let spider go,’

Sherri

The Snake and the Tiger

‘One sunny morning Snake was out looking for a good

place to nest. He wasn’t paying attention to what he

was doing and he wasn’t focusing on where he was

going when he slammed into tiger. Tiger had been fast

asleep in the sun, but in a moment he whacked his

big paw down and trapped

snake in his claws.’

Megan

Page 6

Artist of the Year

We are delighted to announce that one of our Year 5 pupils, Jodie, won

the Speculation Gallery Children’s Artist of the Year competition for her

fabulous picture of a deer. Jodie’s inspiration comes from the fact that

she’d one day love to be a wildlife photographer. Her picture is now

proudly hanging in the Speculation Gallery in Old Road, Brixton.

Cross Country

Our cross-country team enjoyed their second meet of the year,

at Fleetville Junior School, earlier this month. With over 130

children taking part in each of the boys’ and girls’ races, the

children ran a three and a half lap course and all did the

school proud. Well done to Kia, Hannah, Honey, Bryony,

Tristan, Aidan, Harry G, Harry W and Daniel, you’re a fantastic

team!

Basketball Champions!

For the second consecutive year, Skyswood have won the St

Albans Primary Schools basketball championship, defeating

Fleetville ‘A’ in the final 10-6, having been 6-4 down with just

three minutes remaining.

Skyswood entered two teams and both teams performed

superbly, with our ‘B’ team finishing second in their pool and on-

ly losing out to Fleetville ‘A’ on goal difference, having defeated

both Camp ‘B’ and Bernards Heath in their group.

Our ‘A’ team defeated Camp ‘A’ 37-2 and also recorded

convincing wins over Oakwood ‘B’ (24-3) and Park Street (25-0)

to finish top of their pool.

In the semi-final, Skyswood ‘A’ beat Fleetville ‘B’ 12-4 before

going on to defeat Fleetville ‘A’ in the final.

We are extremely proud of all the children who represented our

school and thank Mr Oswin for coaching and supervising the

team on the day.

Page 7 S K Y S W O O D P R I M A R Y & N U R S E R Y S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R

Infant Author of the Term Competitions

Lauren Child

Charlie and Lola Go to the Zoo

Imagine that Lauren Child is writing a new Charlie and Lola book, entitled ‘Charlie and Lola go to the Zoo.’

In the story, Charlie and Lola get to see lots of animals. Our Author of the term competition is to design a

page for the new Charlie and Lola go to the Zoo book. Choose a favourite animal (or animals) to illustrate.

Think about what Charlie or Lola would say about that animal. Have a practice at drawing Charlie and Lola

before you start your illustration.

Reading a few Charlie and Lola books would really help. Sometimes the text is wrapped around the

picture. The Lauren Child style of illustration often uses simple colours and patterns. You could cut out

animal shapes out of wallpaper or wrapping paper if you wish to go down the ‘pattern’ route. See if your page

can reflect the style of a Charlie and Lola illustration.

Create a new character for a Lauren Child book

The second Lauren Child competition is to create a new character for one of her books. This could also link

to Charlie and Lola if you wish; you could create a new friend, or maybe a pet?

Or you might like to look at other Lauren Child books, such as That Pesky Rat, Pippi Longstocking, Clarice

Bean or Hubert Horatio. What would be a good name to make up for a Lauren Child character. Look at lots of

Lauren Child illustrations to give you a good idea of her style.

Junior Author of the Term Competitions

Page 8

Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz has produced a series of books

based on the Diamond Brothers investigations. Tim

Diamond is the world’s worst private detective.

Everything that he does seems to go wrong... Very

much the Mr Bean of crime investigation. When Tim

set’s out to find a rich lady’s pedigree Siamese cat,

he actually runs it over on his way to see her. What

mystery could you invent for Tim to solve? (Or mess

up as usual!)

Tim’s younger brother, Nick, is the quick-thinking,

wisecracking member of the team who never seems

to take things too seriously.

Our author of the term short story competition is to

create a short story (of no more than 500 words)

based on an investigation to be carried out by the

Diamond Brothers.

Think about the following questions to help you with your story

planning:

What crime has taken place?

Where has the crime taken place?

Who was involved? When did it happen?

What is the title of your story? Anthony Horowitz

sometimes creates puns using famous books or titles

(eg The Falcon’s Malteser (not Maltese Falcon) or The

French Confection (instead of French Connection). Could

you use this strategy to create or inspire a story title of

your own?

What are the clues or leads that the Diamond Brothers

have when embarking on their case?

How do they mess it up?

How can you use your knowledge of the main characters

to bring the story to life? Or to add elements of humour?

What is the final outcome?

Illustrator Competition

Imagine that Anthony Horowitz’s publishers

would like to re-print three of his best-selling

books with new front cover designs.

The three books are Eagle Strike, Snakehead

and Scorpia.

Our illustrator competition is to re-design the

front cover for one of these books.

As the illustrator it is helpful if you have fully read

the book and essential that you at least have the

synopsis for the story.

You should work your illustration around the

front cover Anthony Horowitz book frames that

are provided for the competition.

Page 9 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

Temporary Boiler Installed

Following the failure of our school boiler, which dates from the foundation of the school in

1960, we now have a temporary boiler installed to get us through the winter. Although this

will come at a cost to the school, the good news is that we have received confirmation that

the school has been successful with its re-submitted bid for a replacement boiler and a

total overhaul of our school heating system. This will be funded through the Herts BMT

Capital Funding Programme for the financial year 2019/20. We have therefore hired our

temporary boiler until the end of the spring term, with the hope that the work can be

carried out as soon as the funding becomes available in April 2019.

Swimming Gala

The annual St Albans Primary Schools Swimming Gala (small schools

section) took place last Saturday at the Hertfordshire University Cam-

pus in Hatfield. For the first time in our history we were able to enter

two teams. Both teams gave their all and our Boys Medley ‘A’ team

claimed second place, along with Alex in his individual race. In a tightly

contested gala, Maple were the overall winners with Oakwood in sec-

ond place, just three points behind. Well done to all of our swimmers,

you were all a credit to the school.

Verulamium Visit

Year 3 have been learning about the Romans, so the Museum was the

perfect place for us to explore.

First, Matt took us back in time two thousand years ago when Romans lived!

Matt set out four tables of interesting historical artifacts . My first table was

the beauty table where we labelled the different items. It was so much fun!

Next Matt told us about the kitchen. We could tell the bone was from the

butchers because of the marks. We also enjoyed the building table very

much. It was epic! There was a half broken chimney and we learned about

plum bums, this is where the word plumber comes from.

Then we did some acting. Zaynah and Adrian took to the stage. Zaynah was

Floriana and Adrian was Maximus.

After lunch it was time for the Museum tour. We went through lots of different

rooms, including ‘The People of Verulamium ,’ Food and Family, and Rites

and Recreation. I liked The People of Verulamium section as it was

interesting. Afterwards, we visited the hypocaust. It was once a thirty

roomed Roman house, but now it’s just the remains of a mosaic from one of

the many rooms. They used under floor heating as they were very advanced.

My favourite part was completing the challenges as it got my brain thinking

hard.

Report by Chloe H