St Winifred's School
    View from the Window
                                                                  Autumn Term number 8
                                                                  8th November 2015

Christmas Carol Service

On Friday 11th December, all pupils from St.Winifred's School and Preschool will be taking part in our annual Christmas Carol Service. The Carol Service will take place at Highfield Church at 2pm. After the service everyone is invited back to school for the Christmas Fair and a visit to the Christmas Grotto.

Preparations have begun for the Nativity play. Most rehearsals will take place during music or gym lessons so any changes to the core timetable will be kept to a minimum. If you would prefer that child does not participate in the Nativity and Carol Service please contact the school office.
On Wednesday 14th October, Form 2 and 3 had the wonderful opportunity to visit a Mosque in Portswood.
  
We were greeted by Imran, one of the Mosque leaders.  As we entered, we all took off our shoes as a sign of respect and the girls put on head scarves.  Inside, the Mosque was very spacious and Imran showed us the body positions Muslims adopt during prayers.  He also showed us the prayer beads many Muslims use as well as the different areas of the Mosque including the library (containing many copies of the Qu'ran) and the wash rooms used for Muslims to purify themselves before they go in to worship.  
 
At the end of the visit, we even had a snack altogether courtesy of Imran!  This was the perfect way to round off a visit that all of Form 2 and 3 learnt a great deal from. Thanks to Mr Ahmed for arranging this visit.  
 NEW PTA
 
Thank you to all those parents and staff that came to the meeting on Tuesday 3rd November - what a fabulous turnout!

As a result of the meeting we are forging ahead with a newly formed committee - a link to the members is attached. It was agreed at the meeting that we will be adopting the PTA UK model constitution.

Mrs Manuela Horwood, the newly appointed Chair of the PTA, will be meeting with the members on Wednesday 16th November at 7.30pm. The first meeting will be held at St.Winifred's School. 
November Assessments

chidlren doing exams Pupils in Forms 3 to 6 with have tests in Maths and English this coming week.
Form 6 this week

In Maths, we will be completing fractions work, revising and doing our November assessments. 

In English, we will be continuing with our unit on performance poetry as well as doing November assessments. 

In Science, we will be starting a new unit on electricity. 

We will also begin a new Geography topic.   
Form 5 this week

 
English: This week we are looking at significant authors. Our focus will be Philip Pullman his Northern Lights Trilogy.
 
Maths: We are revising place value this week as well as looking at subtracting decimal numbers.

Science: This week we are studying the strange case of opposing forces.
 
Forms 5 & 6 - Design & Technology - our topic this half-term is to design & make a balanced meal to be served on an airline. This week we are focusing on creating a popular menu & thinking about the design of the menu.
Coming up in Form 1
Form 1 will be continuing on with understanding of poems with the children performing their own chorus of Batman's Exercise Video!  They have found rhyming poems tricky and this will also be continued further this week.
 
In Maths the children will be taught to understand that a double is two of the same number added together. They will be ordering the days of the week and months of the year, beginning to recognise when the months are ordered incorrectly.
 
In Geography this week the children will be searching for lost toys by following a simple map/plan. They will be using positional language to record their work.
This Week in Preschool:
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Miss Polly's dolly is sick and Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall; who shall we call? 
 
This week we will be sharing some of our favourite rhymes.

Our theme of the week is 'Nursery Rhymes'

Our phonic of the week is 'h'

Please can you ensure that your children have a coat in school since we like to venture outside in all weathers!           
Coming up for Form 3
 

Maths - This week we will be continuing with our unit on addition and subtraction. We will be using formal written methods of column addition and subtraction. We will also be estimating answers to calculations and using inverse operations to check answers.

 
Science - This week Form 3 will discuss how different things move, e.g. with simple pushes or pulls, or by wind, water, clockwork, electricity and radio control. Children will set up an enquiry about how far toy vehicles move on different surfaces & draw conclusions from their findings.
 
English - Form 3 will be starting a new topic on stories from other cultures. The books they will be focusing on will be Tiger Child and Seasons of Splendour. The children will write notes to create a synopsis for a traditional/folktale, identify main points in a story and retell the story of the Tiger Child.
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This Week:

Winter Menu Week 2

Tuesday - Thursday 
KS2 exams

Thursday 12th November
Ladies Night at The Gregg School 7-9pm

Important Dates:

Friday 20th November
Primary Book Fair

Friday 11th December
Carol Service 
2pm Highfield Church
3.30pm Christmas Fair
In This Issue
In Form 2 this week:
Maths - Form 2 will be learning different methods to help them with their addition and subtraction.

Science - The children will be learning about frogs and their life cycle.

RS - The children will be learning about the nativity story.

English - The children will be continuing to look at fables and also learning about proverbs and speech bubbles.
 
 
  
Website links
Reception in the coming week
 
In Reception we will be continuing our topic of festivals and celebrations- if your child would like to bring in any pictures to show about celebrations in your home we would enjoy talking about them.  

We will also be reading some traditional tales such as Red Riding Hood and talking about who the 'goodies' and 'baddies' are and what they are like.  

In Maths we are using number lines to find 1 more and 1 less.
Form 4 this week
English: Form Four will be continuing with writing stories in familiar settings with inspiration from our anti-hero Horrid Henry.
 
Maths: Measures and data will be our focus for the week ahead with special attention to understanding time on analogue and digital clocks.
 
Science: What is a electric circuit and what components do they consist of? We will be learning all about them and looking at good conductors of electricity. 
 
History: We will be finishing off our newspaper reports on famous battles and studying the great Alexander, otherwise known as Alexander the Great.
 
RS: Looking at the journey made by Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, we will be thinking about long pilgrimages that people take and using them as inspiration for some role play activities.
 
Art and DT: A little more sawing, a bit of gluing and figuring out how to make the chassis of our electric motor cars.
 

Clubs




Clubs for the coming week are:

Monday
Book Club for Form 1 and 2 with Mrs Carrett 3.30-4.15pm* (please note later finish time)

Tuesday
Board Games Club for Forms 1 and 2 from 3.30-4.15pm.
Art & Craft Club for Forms 2 and 3 with Mrs Presland 3.30-4.30pm
Art Club for Forms 4 to 6 with Mr Papps from 3.30-4.30pm
English Club for Forms 5 and 6 with Mr Pascoe 3.30-4.30pm
 
Wednesday
Homework Club for Forms 3 to 6 with Mrs Jolley 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Cricket/Sports Club for Forms 3 to 6 with Mr Milton 3.30pm to 4.30pm
 
Thursday
CHOIR for Forms 1 to 6 with Mrs Grant 3.30pm to 4.15pm

Judo* for Forms 1 to 6 at lunchtimes

* These clubs are are provided for St. Winifred's School by external teachers for an additional charge to parents.  The content of these clubs are not set by the School and all clubs are dependent on numbers.

Details of these activities are available from the school office.

I hope you had a good weekend. 

 

Mr Brogan

Head Teacher

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