Hackbridge

Primary

News 19/12/2019

Dear Parents and Carers, It has been such a busy autumn term at Hackbridge and as usual the children have all been working so hard. When visiting the classrooms the children are able to talk so confidently about what they have learnt and what their next steps are. The Express events continue to be successful and I hope you enjoy them as much as we do. As well as all the work taking place inside the classrooms we continue promoting a range of physical activities, including the Daily Mile across the school and Year 4 going to swimming lessons at Westcroft. Some Year 6 went away to PGL for a week and faced challenges such as abseiling, raft building, low ropes and the giant swing. Those who didn’t go away had a busy week as well going out on visits and taking part in many team building activities. It was an enjoyable week for everyone. Our Christmas celebrations this year have been amazing and started with our Christmas Fair on 6th December. Thank you so much for all your support as we all had such a lovely time. The Year 4 and 5 Carol Service was great as well. The hall was filled with friends and family especially at the evening performance. The children sang so beautifully and we were all so proud. The Nursery, Reception and Key Stage 1 performances were a delight as well and made everyone smile and I know you will join me in thanking all the children and staff who worked so hard to make them happen. Each class has had a party and Father Christmas and his Elves came to visit with a surprise for everyone. We spread our Christmas cheer as we made our way between the two school sites to visit Honeybees, Moles and Sea Otters! We had a fantastic Christmas dinner again this year where all the staff had lunch with their classes. It was very festive with a large range of Christmas hats and jumpers being worn by the children and staff. Thank you so much for your support with this event. Money raised will go towards the Save the Children campaign. Please can I take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Hackbridge Primary. I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year. Children return to school on Tuesday 7th January 2020. Mrs E Walford Head teacher

In Caterpillars and Tadpoles classes we have been busy getting ready for Christmas! We have been using our creative skills to make decorations as well as cooking star biscuits. We have also been practicing very hard with our Nativity so we can perform for our mums' and dads.

We are looking forward to our Christmas holidays and promise to be good so Santa will come and visit us on Christmas eve. We promise to leave a treat for Santa and Rudolph!

We are excited to be thinking about our new topic which is 'Traditional Fairy tales' and doing lots of new learning in 2020.

Honeybees have enjoyed celebrating Christmas in their new classroom! They have been getting very creative making hats, cards and calendars to take home. We had a visit from

Ernie the Christmas Elf he’s been giving us lots of activities to do and making sure the Children are sharing and taking turns with their friends. This week Ernie was frozen by Elsa and the

children had to help to rescue him. The children enjoyed Christmas dinner sitting with Reception and all the teachers; they especially enjoyed the chocolate cake! Yummy!!

Year 1: Paws, Claws and Whiskers

Year 1 have loved their ‘Paws, Claws and Whiskers’ topic this term. We have been discovering the

story of ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ and enjoyed recreating the story through actions, words, play and in their writing. During our Design and Technology lessons, the children created their

favourite animals out of junk modelling. Here are just a few:

Year 1 have been very busy practising for their Christmas Shows. Dolphins and Turtles have been involved with Year 2 and created a wonderful show called, ‘A Christmas Recipe’. While Sea Otters have been practising with Moles and Honeybees and created a fabulous ‘Christmas Sing-a-long’. Year 1 would like to wish you all a very happy holiday with your families and see you all in 2020.

This month Reception have been very busy making Christmas crafts. We wrote letters to Father Christmas and read the Nativity story. Reception spent a lot of time singing and

practising for our Christmas sing-a-long; we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did! We read lots of winter stories and watched a Christmas pantomime. We hope that you all have a

lovely break and we wish you a happy and healthy 2020.

We have had a busy month in PE with a few different sporting matches such as Football games for the girls and boys and Netball matches for the girls. We are very proud

of how hard the children are working together as team when they are playing and that they always try their best. We are also excited about the launch of our new clubs in the Spring Term and hope that everyone has found a club that they are interested in! Reply slips for the clubs will go

out in the first week of term. We are excited to have a group of 11 children going to

attend a Sutton United Football game over the holidays where they will walk on as mascots! We can't wait to let

you know how they get on.

Year 6 have continued their Science learning about Light, linked to the

Northern Lights in our Frozen Kingdom topic. We have explored how light

moves in waves and can be reflected and refracted by different materials. We learnt that white light can be split up into the colours of the rainbow by shining a torch through a prism. We then got creative and made our own colour wheels to demonstrate how

different colours can merge to appear white.

What a busy but brilliant half term Y5 have had! We have enjoyed being scientists in our topic of ‘Everyday Materials’. We have conducted a variety of experiments to broaden our

understanding of the properties of different materials. We are looking forward to finishing off this topic after the Christmas break. Over the past term we have really enjoyed learning about

the Tudor period, and ended our topic with a Tudor dance - fit for a royal ball! We loved dressing in Tudor costumes and showing our dance skills to our adults. On the 9th December,

we held an amazing Carol Concert for the Hackbridge community! We sang a selection of songs, including: Away in a Manger, Jingle Bell Rock and Bastille's fantastic cover – Can't fight

this feeling. Thank you to everyone who joined in the festivities and came to watch us.

Year 3: From Food to Ancient Greece! The children have been continuing their food journey by finding out about different food

groups that we eat, as well as the main bones and muscles in our bodies. We have also been looking at food packaging, using their findings to design their own sweet wrapper. Here are just some of

our designs! Our topic came to a Scrumdiddlyumptious end

with a singing extravaganza at our Express event. The children worked very hard learning their

songs and actions all about food! From Scrumdiddlyumptious to Gods and Mortals, our next topic will be focusing on Ancient Greece.

We will be discovering Greek Gods and mythology, as well as exploring Greek art.

We are very proud of all our children in year 2 this month after they have worked fantastically

hard on their play 'A Christmas Recipe'. We hope that you enjoyed watching the show and

hearing our fantastic singing and acting! We have enjoyed lots of art this half term as well with

some drawing. Here is a picture of us drawing ourselves for our Year group art piece.

As part of our Roadtrip USA topic, Year 4 have been working hard building the San Francisco bridge in our DT lessons, using wooden dowels, glue guns and even saws! We are very excited for you to see the finished products at the end of term! We also spent a lot of time practising our Christmas songs for the Carol Concert and thoroughly enjoyed performing to the parents

and community.

Attendance & Punctuality

Our whole school attendance remains at 96.5%, which is above our school’s target of 96%. Thank you all again for

your continued support with attendance.

Congratulations to Orcas for having the best attendance this year with 98% attendance. Well done also to:

Elephants, Polar Bears, Penguins, Raccoons, Meerkats, Toucans, Eagles, Tigers, Sea Otters, Dolphins and Turtles

who have also had very good attendance this year too. All classes that do not appear on the graph, sadly have

attendance below 90%.

Monday 25th November to Friday 13th December

Punctuality: Below is a table with the number of incidents of lateness for last half term (34 days) and this term so

far (33 days) In red is the average amount of late incidents per day. Being on time for school gives our children the

best start to their school day and helps them feel settled each morning.

Term Year N Year R Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6

Autumn 1 15

0.4

92

2.7

87

2.6

75

2.2

99

2.9

180

5.2

139

4.0

196

5.8

Autumn 2

so far

44

1.3

154

4.7

107

3.2

96

2.9

112

3.4

161

4.9

111

3.4

135

4.1

As you can see from the table above most classrooms are having nearly 3 pupils late each day in most year groups.

This can be unsettling for a child to arrive at school late and this means that they are missing vital learning. Please

ensure you arrive to school on time each day. Punctuality continues to be a focus for the school and while we

appreciate that your child is in school establishing healthy morning routines is vital.

20/12-05/01/20 Christmas Holidays

06/01/20 INSET Day – school closed for pupils

07/01/20 All Children Return to School 08/01/20 Y6 Trip to Imperial War Museum – Giraffes

09/01/20 Y6 Trip to Imperial War Museum – Rhinos 10/01/20 Y6 Trip to Imperial War Museum – Elephants

13/01/20 Y3 Greek Day

13/01-17/01/20 Y5 & Y6 - Bikeability Level 1 & 2 15/01/20 Y5 Top-Up Swimming Starts

27/01/20 Y1 Dinosaur Museum Workshop 04/02/20 Y4 Tate Modern Trip

17-21/02/20 Half Term Holiday 03/04/20 Last Day of Term

06/04-17/04/20 Easter Holidays

06/04-09/04/20 Y6 Easter School 09.00-12.00pm 20/04/20 First Day Back for Pupils

21/04/20 Y2 Beekeeper Workshop

The school raised an amazing

£367.28 for Save the Children on

the recent Christmas Jumper Day.

Thank you all very much for your

kind donations.

AUTUMN TERM 2019

Inset Day: Monday 2nd September 2019

First Day: Tuesday 3rd September 2019

Half-term: Monday 21st October – Friday 25th October 2019

Inset Day: Monday 28th October 2019

Inset Day: Tuesday 29th October 2019

Last day: Thursday 19th December 2019

Please note: on the last day of the autumn term, there will be a full school day for children in

Years R - 6 and all Nursery classes will be open as usual.

SPRING TERM 2020

Inset Day: Monday 6th January 2020

First Day: Tuesday 7th January 2020

Half-term: Monday 17th February – Friday 21st February 2020

Last day: Friday 3rd April 2020

Please note: on the last day of the spring term, there will be a full school day for children in

Years R - 6 and all Nursery classes will be open as usual.

SUMMER TERM 2020

First Day: Monday 20th April 2020

Inset Day: Friday 22nd May 2020

Half-term: Monday 25th May – Friday 29th May 2020

Last day: Tuesday 21st July 2020

Please note: on the last day of the summer term, there will be a full school day for children in

Years R - 6 and all Nursery classes will be open as usual.

If you wish to contact the School Office, please call 020 8647 7974 or e-mail office@hackbridgeprimary.sutton.sch.uk

The school website also contains lots of information about the school and downloads about the curriculum and ways to help your child, at www.hackbridgeprimary.sutton.sch.uk