Newsletter 38 - New Horizons Children's Academy · Year Four. We are re-writing the story of 'The Indian in the Cupboard' with an edited character list and setting. We are using all

Children First – Aspire – Challenge – Achieve

Newsletter 38

12th July 2019

IMPORTANT REMINDERS FOR PARENTS Please note we have an overwhelming amount of lost property. Any outstanding items left at

Please note as from September the cost of Breakfast Club will rise from £2.00 to £2.50.

• Year 5 – Maidstone Museum – Tuesday 16th July – please ensure you have signed and returned

your child’s permission slip as well as paid £8.50 via ParentPay.

• Should you have any unwanted toys at home such as, puzzles, Lego or board games, Breakfast

Club will happily take them off your hands.

• On Friday 19th July the School Office will be closing at 3:30pm so please ensure any queries are

made at morning drop off. Children will be unable to enter back into school after 3:30pm.

• Friday 19th July – Last day of term 6

Dear parents and carers,

The heatwave has begun! We have had a fantastic and very busy week. Year R have had

their sports day which was a joy to see. On Thursday we had ‘A Play in a Day’ with Year 5

learning, making props for and performing The Tempest! It was wonderful to see how

well the children engaged with this and we all very much enjoyed the final performance.

Year 6 have shone this week during their production of Alice in Wonderland. They acted

and sang beautifully, sporting brilliant costumes, not to mention the fabulous sets and

stage hands to support. We are all very proud of what they’ve achieved.

We have noticed lots of children using the play equipment at the end of the day once

they have been picked up by their parent or carer. I would like to take this opportunity

to ask that your children are supervised adequately during this time and that bikes and

scooters are not ridden in the playground area. We don’t want any bumped heads or

squashed toes! We are fortunate to have the drop-off zone and a car park for picking up

and dropping off your children. In addition, there is street parking. Please ensure you do

not park in front of residents’ drives or on the zig-zag lines. This makes it unsafe for

children and adults crossing.

Year 1-6 have sports day on Monday (15th July) and children can come in their usual P.E

kit (ensure white T-shirt please). On a sporting theme, finally I’d like to say a very big

well done to three of our staff who undertook the Race for Life at Mote Park. Miss

Madigan, Miss Kwakye and Miss Morgan did us proud!

Have a wonderful weekend

Mrs J Murphy

Executive Headteacher

Nursery Nursery have been using the beebots this week! We have learnt how to input

instructions into the Beebots to direct them to a particular place. Also this

week, to help us to get ready for our transition into Reception, we have been

using the Reception outside classroom! We have had lots of fun exploring all

the new activities and have especially enjoyed the climbing equipment!

Reception

This week in Reception we have been talking about

moving up to Year 1! We have been creating our

own ‘All about me’ forms so that our new teachers

can find out a little bit more about us! We had our

Sports Day this week and we were all amazing and

had so much fun! Thank you to all the families

that were able to come along to support us and

cheer for us!

Year 1

This week in Year 1 we have been looking at patterns in number

sentences in Maths. In English, we read the book ‘Honestly, Red

Riding Hood is Rotten!’ and made comparisons with the original

version of the story. In DT we have been making birds’ nest using

natural materials and thinking about what makes them suitable

habitats. In Science, we have been looking at plants and

vegetables that we can eat. We celebrated the end of our topic

with an Enchanted Woodland themed party. We also enjoyed

watching the Year 6 production of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Year 2 This week, Year 2 have been working on their times tables to

prepare for Year 3. We've become really good at Times Tables

Rocks Stars and encourage you to join in at home! We have

compared the different times tables to look for patterns that

might help us when we work out times tables that we are less

familiar with. We have done lots of practice with counting in 2s,

5s and 10s, especially doing it backwards! Our letter to the

whale has been finished and written up in our neatest handwriting with our purple hat improvements

on it. We've also completed our last creative assessment piece of Year 2; showing just how much

progress we have made this year. In Science we've been evaluating our long term experiment, looking

at the changes that have happened and discussing why that might be. We have continued to explore

how the beach has changed over the years from the past to the present and even imagining how it

might change in the future! We have reflected on our work in Year 2 and discussed how we feel about

moving in to Year 3 using our red hat to help us talk about our emotions, worries and what makes us

excited. Now that we have met our new teachers twice, we are really excited to get going in Year 3!

Year 3 This week, we have been on a school

trip to Riverside Country Park as part

of our Flow topic. We walked along the

River Medway and learnt about the

history of the river as well as the

geographical features of the river. We

then had the opportunity to take part in pond dipping where we found lots of creatures like

stickleback fish and pond insects. After lunch, we went on a bug hunt in the long grass. We caught a

range of mini-beasts like grasshoppers and ladybirds. We then played some team games in the park.

We had a lovely day in the great outdoors!

Year 4 In English this week we started writing our final narrative piece of

Year Four. We are re-writing the story of 'The Indian in the

Cupboard' with an edited character list and setting. We are using all

our teaching throughout the year to make them an exciting read. In

Maths this week we re-capped our knowledge of column

multiplication and the short method of division. We then used this

knowledge to solve 2 step Maths problems. Year 4 were also very grateful to be invited to watch Year

6 and Year 5 performance this week. We were very impressed with everyone who participated in

acting or pushing themselves out of their comfort zone this week.

Year 5

Year 5 have had an incredible week! On Monday we had our SkillForce

graduation which Mrs Murphy attended too. We all received certificates

and the school won an award. On Tuesday we watched the Year 6 production

– it was incredible – thank-you Year six. Wednesday brought another visit to

The Victory Academy (the second time in two weeks) but this time we went

to watch their production which was the musical ‘Hairspray’. We thought we

were lucky with two productions but then on Thursday we had our own Play

in a Day, where we got to create Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, thanks to

the help of a team of Shakespearian actors. It didn’t end there either –

we’ve even learnt all about the Fibonacci Number Sequence, the Golden

Ratio and where these can be found in nature and built our own Canopic jars. Finally, on Friday we had

our second transition day in our new classes. Juniper also won the Buster Book Club trophy this week

for the most minutes read by a class and certificates were received by some of Sycamore for their

C.L.I.C. project. Wow, what a week! On another note please

remember to bring contact books into school every day and

to come to school in your P.E. kits on Monday – it’s sports day!

Year 6 In Year 6, we have been working really hard on our

production this week. It is finally time to perform. We had

our dress rehearsal to the whole school which went really

well. We were really proud of ourselves for how well we did. Since then, we have been working on the

little mistakes we made in order to make the production as good as possible for the parents. We have

learnt how much work goes into making a production, but it has been really fun.

Well done to the following top 3 classes who gained the most units on Lexia last week:

Damson, Hawthorn and Damson

Next week’s Thunk is… If both hands fall off a clock is it still a clock?

This week’s winners are:

Maple – Yvie Damson – Evie

Beech – Harnoor Hawthorn – Harvey

Hazel – Neriah Conifer – Archie

Birch – Nihal Poplar – Kairan

Pine – Jovan Juniper – Jordan

Spruce – Zachary Sycamore – Angelina

Apple – Kisali Cypress – Daniels

Cherry – Sarai Elder – Holly

Thinking task of the week – Thinking task of the week- Each week we will focus on a different

key. This week is the construction key.

Using any spare recycled rubbish or boxes, can you make a musical instrument and play your

favourite song.

The winner of the Buster Book Club trophy this week is Birch who had the most

amount of minutes read. Also well done to Birch who had most amount of readers.

A reminder that every Tuesday morning ‘Book Club’ is held for Years 1 – 6. Don’t forget to send

your child’s money into school in a clearly named envelope.

Dates for your Diary – Term 6 Monday 15th July – 9:30am - Y1, 2 & 3 - Sports Day

Monday 15th July – 1:30pm - Y4, 5 & 6 - Sports Day

Monday 15th July – Year 6 – 6:30pm – 8:00pm – Leavers disco

Tuesday 16th July – Year 5 – Maidstone Museum Trip

Wednesday 17th July – 9:15am - Year R assembly to parents

Wednesday 17th July – Year 6 – 6:30pm – Graduation Event with parents

Thursday 18th July – Class Parties

Friday 19th July – Last day of term 6 Summer Break – Monday 22nd July – Tuesday 3rd September

TEAM POINTS

This week the ‘Holcombe Cup’ has been awarded to Fort.

Attendance Ace Cherry with 100%

Punctuality Penny Cherry and Oak with 0 lates

Golden Tie

Congratulations to:

Ash – Ella

Elm – Elizaveta

Oak – Finley

Beech – Elsie

Hazel – Amelia

Maple – OJ

Birch – Nieller

Pine - Darcey

Spruce – Duru

Apple – Alizah

Cherry – Faiz

Damson – Dylan

Conifer – Rowan

Hawthorn –Adedayo

Poplar – Teon

Juniper – Jordan

Sycamore – Sophie

Cypress – Tegan

Elder – Tyler

Achievement Alley

Ash – Vlad

Elm – Alara

Oak – Amaris

Beech – Lexie

Hazel – Jacobi

Maple – Tristan

Birch – Maci

Pine – Jovan

Spruce – Shiloh

Apple – Daniel

Cherry – Riley

Damson – Taylor

Conifer – Tatiana

Hawthorn – Liam

Poplar – Try

Juniper – Bill & Jasmine

Sycamore – Callum

Cypress – Production week

Elder – Production week