A Friday Night Round Up from Mr Schumm

Good afternoon,

It’s been a busy few weeks filled with lots of learning, assemblies and sport! It was the turn of our two Year 5 classes to delight us with their class collective worship extravaganzas! First off the runway was Miss Hall’s class, who took us on a whirlwind tour of the life of the author Malorie Blackman (who their class is named after). Confident voices and superb acting were the order of the day in their amazing assembly. Following swiftly on, was Miss Bill who took us back in time to the Victorian era where a rather nasty teacher was dispensing rather nasty punishments on the children! We also learnt about the appalling life of very young chimney sweeps. Great singing and fantastic acting by everyone – well done Year 5. You were superb!

Thank you also to all the Mums and Dads who helped dig out the adventure playground and build numerous Ikea cupboards. Your work was much appreciated by one and all!

A quick reminder to purchase your Class Christmas Cards on Parentmail by Monday, 21st November at 3pm.

City Harvest

On Wednesday, Cristina from City Harvest Charity came to tell the children about her job and the role of the charity. The children were shocked to learn that 1 in 4 children in London do not know where their next meal will come from. The children were encouraged to reflect on the role that they play within the community to help reduce food waste by eating their lunch, not worrying too much about expiry dates (looking at and smelling the food instead!) and eating wonky vegetables and fruit. Cristina also told us about the many different roles within the charity that ensure that good, edible food is not wasted and goes to people in need. This assembly linked to our addition of ‘Lunch Angels’, who are Year 6, who collect food waste at lunchtime into special bins, which mean that our food waste can be disposed of in a more ethical way by being turned into energy.

Year 3 sample the Stone Age at Gunnersbury Park

Year 3 enjoyed a trip to Gunnersbury Park Museum where they took part in a Stone Age workshop. They handled a hand axe and flint blades, which were actually from that time period, as well as seeing a real mammoth tooth! They were also shown a replica spearhead which had been skilfully put together using animal intestines to tie the spearhead to the shaft of the arrow.

They braved the bitterly cold weather and went outside to test their hunter gatherer skills. They were shown how to spear a buffalo (no animals were injured!) and used animal skins and long sticks to build a shelter. They even got to splat some daub on wattle to create sturdy fence-like panels. The children had a brilliant time and learned so much. The teachers would like to say a big thank you to all the parent and carer volunteers for making the trip run so smoothly.

Year 5 enjoy learning about The Victorians at Gunnersbury Park

Miss Bill’s Year 5 class also travelled to Gunnersbury Park but this time to enjoy a workshop on The Victorians (all sorts of historical goings on down at Gunnersbury park it seems). They learnt lots of interesting facts about Victorian life and what life held in store for a Victorian child. They were perfectly behaved and a credit to our school.

Bute House

Children from Y2 attended a brilliant workshop at Bute House last week, where they learned how to use a saw, a heat gun and a mallet, hmmmm. They came back to school laden with extensively decorated dream catchers. Having enjoyed it so much, they’re returning for more.

Primary Professors

Our four Y5 Primary Professors had fun at St Paul’s and can’t wait for more Maths, Science and Latin challenges over the coming Saturdays. What an inspiring programme!

Panathalon

A massive thank you to St Paul’s Girls School for hosting the Hammersmith & Fulham Primary Panathlon on Thursday. Our team loved the games, the friendly competition… and their bronze medals too!

Debating

We are one of 14 local primary schools taking part in Primary Debating at Latymer. Now in its 13th year, the programme helps develop confidence and learn skills for public speaking, as well as building friendships. We love debating here and our Y6 pupils attending this brilliant programme are having a great time whilst learning lots. Parents report that their persuasive language skills are becoming ever so slightly intimidating!

Our Year 5 debating teams headed off to South Hampstead High School for a debating competition this week. It was such a brilliant event; our three Y5 teams had so much fun and learned so much! The judges were superb, giving highly constructive feedback in a very sympathetic way.

Sunningdale

Children from Y4 made the trip to Sunningdale School last week, to take part in a plethora of high-octane games and activities including; Fives, Rugby League and Cricket. What fun they had and a superb lunch was provided – always so important!

Dodgeball

A group of Year 6 students went to Hammersmith Academy to play in a ‘friendly’ dodgeball tournament. They enjoyed 6 games playing many teams from Hammersmith and Fulham and having really good time.

Mayor’s Cup

St Stephen’s carried on their winning ways in the Mayor’s Cup with the girls giving a 7-0 thumping to St Marys and the boys following suit with a 3-0 win.

EFL QPR Tournament

The boys team went out today to represent St Stephen’s at the EFL football tournament. They played incredibly well making it through the group stages and finishing top of their group. They went on to comfortably win in the quarter finals (3-0) and continued on to the semis. In the semi-final, it was tense and so close it went down to penalties, in which St Stephen’s came out victorious. The final, however, finished 2-0 to Holy Cross, but we still manage to go through to the other tournament where we have a chance of representing QPR against other clubs from the EFL.

Bikeability

The children in Year 5 Blackman have had a great week working with Bikeability, where they have learnt how to cycle safely on and off roads. The course has given the children the skills and confidence needed to cycle to and from school or for leisurely rides, something which is very important as they reach Year 6 and secondary school.

Anti-bullying Collective Worship

On Monday, Miss Hall lead our collective worship and we joined over 1,000,000 students and educators to watch The Big Anti-Bullying Assembly 2022, in recognition of ‘Anti-bullying Week’. The assembly gave the children an opportunity to practise being positive to the child next to them and highlighted the importance of the role played by all to call out bullying if they see it happening. Mrs Bouwman then introduced our ‘Playground Buddies’ to the children and told them how to identify them in the playground (high vis jackets). These children are from upper KS2 and are there to help all the children have a happy playtime by making sure children are not left out or sad. We also discussed the occasions where an adult is the best person to tell and which adults in particular.

Remembrance Day

On Friday, 11th November, we honoured and remembered those who have lost their lives fighting for our country. We all honoured the 2 minute silence at 11.00am in our classes and had a discussion about the importance of recognising Remembrance Day. As part of this discussion, the children learnt about the relevance of the poppy and how and why it is symbolic of the day. We also read the poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’. In the couple of weeks building up to the day, children sold poppies and ‘snapbands’ to raise money for The British Legion to members of the St Stephen’s community. Miss Rachel was singing with the Bach Choir in the Remembrance Special on TV and a massive thank you to our ‘poppy sellers’ who did a sterling job – can’t wait to see what they raised!

Streetlytes

The homeless charity Streetlytes are looking for donations of sleeping bags. If you have any old sleeping bags or could donate a new one, please drop them at the school office. Thank you.

Have a lovely weekend. I am bracing myself for the School Sleepover this evening!

Mr Schumm