Dear Parents

As Easter is fast approaching we have been looking at origins of the Christian ritual of Holy Communion. In our RE lessons we have been continuing to look at The Last Supper painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. It is amazing when you actually stop and study a piece of art like that which we may have come into contact many times. The details we can all miss in repeated viewers is quite something. We looked at what the disciples would have been thinking when Jesus said that his disciples would abandon him and that one would actually betray him. We continued studying the painting in Art and this time took a section each and recreated it in our art books. Finally we have looked at the legacy of Jesus on the world and what we would like our legacy to be after we are gone.

In English we have begun to round up our work on non-chronological reports with a focus on ‘Fairtrade Products’ of course chocolate once again comes into this but we have also expanded our learning looking at other products such as bananas, sugar and honey. It has blended nicely into our geography topic as well of Plants of the World. We looked at agriculture this week and in particular how we rely on plants for our food as well as many other products. Hey who does not like an aloe vera based face cream? The children looked at the process and stages of growing and using wheat and so our work on chocolate in English really came to help here.

I have been really impressed with the children’s ability to use their understanding to expand on their own work and learning in their subjects in science and geography. Quite often I give ‘open’ tasks where the children have a theme and they need to research, record and present their work using their own initiative. We make regular use of our school chrome books and ipads within this. In our geography, science and English topics this week we have made effective use of our school ipads and chrome books to help with these topics. There has been some fantastic work in their books.

Parents Evening

It was great to see you all over the last few days for parent’s evening, although I am sure you would agree there was a lot of clock watching going on too as the countdown happened before our eyes. It is ultimately good for me though as these are always supposed to be ten minute sessions and I always had a reputation for going over! I hope you found the feedback useful and gave you insight into how your child is doing.

Notices for Next Week  

As I am sure it is not a surprise to you parents who have been with us at St Stephens for a while next week will be a little …well mad! So the weekly timetable kind of goes out the window at this time. We have a number of events such as the Easter Bonnet Parade, Easter service and Foss Auction. On top of that in class we will be completing our end of term assessments for English, Maths and RE and we have our cooking D & T day next Thursday where we will continue our work on designing, advertising and cooking biscuits. We will also try to complete our topics in geography, Science and RE as well as include some end of term fun. I have been asked many times by the children if we can fit at least one game of ‘Kidnapper’ in … think TVs show the ‘Traitors’ only in the classroom. I am sure the children will be happy to explain.

Important – Library Books

I hope you all received my parent mail this week concerning the library books. Please can you have a look around the house for any that may have been missed please.

English Homework

Homework, as always, is on the right of this blog.

Kind Regards

Mr Perry

Dear Parents

Well as we started talking about the weather last week I thought I would do the same for this week as well. Oh the joys of global warming. If you be4lieve in it or not no one can deny there has been some odd weather these last few years and none more so than this week. Cold days at the beginning of the week, massive rain in the middle and glorious sunshine these last few days. My favourite weather actually! Beautiful blue sky, a crisp bite in the air and wonderful sunshine.

On that note…our new computing topic this week is about statistics and looking at websites that collect data for a particular subject. We are looking at weather websites, especially those like the MET and the BBC weather website. The children looked at important facts such as recorded storms (such as Eunice recently) weather patterns over the last 30 years and how the environment has been affected by our weather patterns.

Maths carried on the topic of fractions with more references to junk food such as pizza and cake. I did add in a few vegan pies and vegetables for balance this time though. We looked at how to add and subtract two or more fractions as well as being able to convert mixed numbers to improper fractions. We rounded the end of the week by looking at how to subtract fractions from whole numbers. It goes without saying that their homework will be based upon that.

In English I was so impressed with all the children’s final piece on the making of chocolate. Their writing was brilliant and it included all the elements of their learning these past few weeks. Key vocabulary such as the technical words and conjunctions, the correct application of complex sentences and relative clauses and of words and strategies to engage the reader. Brilliant work all around. We have started this week on a different topic, but keeping chocolate (amoung other things) as a theme. As we look at non-chronological reports we are using ‘Fairtrade’ as a theme and of course chocolate figures highly in that regard – along with my other favourite substance of coffee! We have had excellent discussions and eye-opening chats around the subject and I look forward to continuing next week.

Our geography and science this week has had a useful crossover, as in geography we are continuing our topic of ‘Plants of the World’ and in science next term we will move onto classifying animals to classifying plants and there has been some excellent research work and children leading their own learning.

On that note…

Perivale Wood Trip

I am sure you have all received the email regarding the summer 1 trip to Perivale Wood. This coincides well with the above mentioned science and geography topics. Please can you return the permission slip and small cost of £5 in the usual way on parent mail.  

Parents Evening

I hope to ‘see’ you all next week to give you updates on your wonderful children. Please can you double check the day and timings as we do sometimes get the days mixed up and one of the disadvantages of doing it online is that if you log on late , the sytem does end the call at the allotted time regardless of if we have been talking for 10 minutes or 2.

Mothers breakfast

Ah mothers- the best people on Earth! After losing my mum last year I have truly come to appreciate all mums do. I always always knew this, that but the sacrifice, hard work and love we receive from our mums is the greatest thing on earth.  This time of year can be truly tough as well for those of us who have lost our mums. It is poignant for my family especially as it is also the time of Mum’s birthday and anniversary as well.

It was great to see so many mums turn up this morning to have a gut busting breakfast with their loved ones. I may not be a mum, but I enjoyed a bowl of muesli or too as well. Teacher’s prerogative! These social occasions are wonderful and I am sure you agree having food involved as well always goes down well.

Happy Happy Mothers Weekend to all you wonderful mums out there. You are doing a cracking job!

English Homework

Comprehension, mathletics and usual spellings will be this week’s homework.

There is also the additional option of the Science fun task. See to the right.

Spelling sentences should have a mixture of fronted adverbials being used within the process of writing relative clauses and complex sentences.

Homework, as always, is on the right of this blog.

Kind Regards

Mr Perry

Dear Parents

Okay the less said about the weather the better!

RE and RHE always create some excellent discussion points and this week was no exception. RHE looked at who keeps us safe and healthy and their responsibilities within their roles. On the same footing we discussed what our responsibilities were both to help these people as well as what we may do at home or in school. RE is beginning to look at the Easter story with a focus on The Last Supper and moving towards next week focusing on how we remember it in the Christian church – Holy Communion. This week we looked at the famous Da Vinci painting and what the disciples must have been thinking that night as Jesus spoke not just about the symbolism of the bread and wine but also that they would all abandon him and one of course would betray him. The children wrote caption bubbles above the faces of some of the individuals in the painting and looked at what might we have done in the same situation- ultimately potentially facing the same fate as Jesus.

Maths is back to the old favourite – that of fractions. It gives me a chance to bring up one of my favourite topics, that of food! So our classroom is abounding in talk of pies, pizzas, chocolates and cakes. I did try and find healthier options to talk about but talking about splitting carrots, celery or cucumbers into equal parts did not quite have the same ring! We have been looking at problems involving fractions on number lines, is a shape spit equally, what are mixed numbers and today we looked at improper fractions.  I think the children always have that faint hope I will bring out a cake or something to back up my teaching.

Geography is also week 2 into our new topic- Plants of the World. I have to admit as I am teaching it, I keep thinking we are having a science lesson. We were looking this week at plants that live in different ‘biomes’ which are areas of the world that have a particular climate which plants have adapted to living in. Biomes include themes such as ‘steppes’, ‘tropical’, deserts, arctic deserts, mountainous, sub-tropical and many more. We used an atlas to locate places from each biome and where in the world they are located.

In English – after a hiatus for World Book Day , school trips and science days- we got to get back to our topic on the subject of ‘the production of Chocolate’. This week the children have looked at the stages of the chocolate making process of growing, harvesting, roasting, grinding and moulding. We have focussed on how to use formal conjunctions to create complex sentences and relative clauses. We are learning how to use commas in this process as well. We broke this down into each section over the course of the week with a focus on editing, giving feedback and following the success criteria.

English Homework

Spelling sentences should have a mixture of conjunctions being used within the process of writing relative clauses and complex sentences.

Homework, as always, is on the right of this blog.

Kind Regards

Mr Perry

Dear parents/guardians,

Well I will start with my obligatory weather report. It really cannot work out what it wants to do. For someone who does not feel the cold as much as others, I was just getting ready to go back to just needing a fleece when all of sudden the arctic winds came roaring back! Good job we dressed warmly for the Tower of London this week or I may have needed a little round on ‘the rack’ just to get the blood flowing again.

As the title of my blog suggests, It has been another of those weeks where it is hard to recall just when we have actually been in the classroom! So let us get cracking then.

World Book Week

Normally World Book Day falls in our annual Arts Week but we decided to move that to the summer term as it is so busy this half term, yet we have still had a week full of fun and special events.

To kick off the week we had a visiting theatre company (who we see once a year) come to show us an adaptation of the famous classic ‘The Secret Garden’ a lovely tale about how nature and the local environment can breathe life into individuals who have to overcome various challenges in their life.

Thursday was of course World Book Day itself and although I was not in that day, I heard about the wonderful ideas and costumes that were produced that day including; Medusa, Cerberus, Poseidon, Athena and many more. Myths are one of my favourite genres and was lovely to hear about the effort that was put into the costumes.

The week was finished with a book sale and a great assembly about Myths from a visitor and then while a group of the children were away, the children sketched and painted a scene from their favourite book.

House award and The Tower of London

That was not all! Today we brought back an old event (stopped originally due to Covid and Lockdown) of the children having their house point winning day out. Crummel were the worthy winners of the autumn term and so had a brilliant day out at ‘Kidzania’. A very clever place I have to say. Lots of fun all around I have been reliably informed.

Then of course we had our trip to the ‘Tower of London’. This went really well and was a great complement to our learning around the Normans. The children loved hearing the ‘gory’ details such as it used to be a prison that housed famous individuals awaiting execution such as Ann Boleyn, Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Jane Grey and that some of these were executed in the Tower itself. They also wanted all the details about the ‘Rack’ and other such devices. I felt like a tour guide but really enjoyed it. There were also some fun interactive activities such as how to virtually dress a knight, how to ride a horse while chopping cabbages (don’t ask) and looking at the power needed to fire arrow. There are some pictures above of our day out.

Science Workshop   

This week the children also had science workshops with Mercedes, our resident science specialist. She is fantastic and always plans funs lessons that are linked with our science learning and curriculum. This term we are looking at how we hear (see Mrs Wordsworths science newsletter) and they had different activities around how sound travels, vibrations and how it travels through materials.

Believe it or not we did have a few English and Maths lessons…short ones and only a few! Well the children clearly had a great week and learned a lot the same time so well done to them.

Homework as always on the right.

Have a great weekend.

Kind Regards

Mr Perry

Dear Parents

I hope you had a happy half-term and welcome back. It is hard to believe I know, but we are already past the half way mark. Time does go by quickly as we get older!

I hope the children had a wonderful time at Woodrow and you looked at the photos through your What’s App parent group as well as getting link from Mr Faith. It is always great to have these trips and I personally really like the idea of spending time with them in a different setting. We do get a different picture of them that way and it is great seeing them have fun with their pals.

Due to such a short, but very busy spring term 1 we are busy wrapping up our topics as we prepare to move onto new ones. I have been very impressed with their writing in their history topic – The Normans. Over the last few weeks they have written excellent entries that have included speeches nominating a king, a written information text on castles, a diary entry of a knight in training and just this week – a non-fiction report on the Feudal System instigated by King William. Great stuff and makes this history fanatic here very proud.

In RE we have started our short topic on Fame and Christianity before we head into the Easter topic. We have looked at how people often reach success with the character traits often shared with the teachings of Christianity. We have looked at how it can be hard to live a successful famous existence as a Christian due to being a role model and how behaviours can be reported on by media and people can be judged. Finally we looked at who we look up to and why and the qualities we both aspire to as well as share.

RE homework this week (instead of comprehension) is to research a famous Christian looking at their qualities, talents and how their belief and faith influences their life. This was set deliberately earlier (Wednesday) so the children will have it ready for a lesson on Monday where we will also have a special visitor from the CofE Diocese education department. The sheet we are using is in the homework section and can equally be written in their homework books. Here is the link again below.

In English we are continuing the subject of ‘the production of Chocolate’, a very popular theme as I am sure you can imagine. This week the children have learnt about the process of harvesting cacao beans and the production process. As I may have mentioned before, a big push this year is developing vocabulary and we have spent time on both the technical as well as creative words to help explain the chocolate making process. They will be leading to writing their own explanation piece next week.

English Homework

Homework, as always, is on the right of this blog.

Trip, World Book Day…and Ash Wednesday Service  

Yes next week is going to be another quiet one. Yeah right!

Next week we have every parent’s favourite – World Book Day. Que mad scrambles to check dressing up boxes, wardrobes and the odd visit to a costume shop! This will be on Thursday and we will be back to the old way of having parents sit in the hall while the classes parade around a couple of times in their costumes. The theme is myths and fantasy (such as Greek myths, Arthurian legends , Narnia and LOTR) so please try and avoid Mr Men, Superheroes and Star Wars.

Ash Wednesday

Thank you to all who joined us for our Ash Wednesday serviced this week. It always follows Shrove Tuesday in the Christian calendar (where I hope you indulged yourself in lots of pancakes, sugar and lemon) and is the day that begins the reflective season of Lent. We had a lovely service with some great hymns, beautiful readings and wonderfully fun Mr Schumm style talk.

Phew I think that is everything, although I am sure I will wake up in a cold sweat on Saturday morning and realise I have forgotten something important!

Ah yes Important! Remember we have our trip this week to The Tower of London. Please ensure the children come to school with a packed lunch , water bottle and weather ready clothing.

Have a great weekend all.

Kind Regards

Mr Perry

Dear Parents,

This will be the shortest blog ever!
Woodrow house was a blast and I loved spending that quality time with your children. I hope you all enjoyed the photos and updates.
Massive thank you to Miss Amy, Miss Hall, Miss Charrington, Miss Newton and of course Mr Faith for all their hard work on the trip and for helping the children have such great time.

Log onto Google Classroom to see lots of pictures and videos from our trip!
Ok I am off…to Greece!
Have a great half term.
That is all 🙂
Kind regards Mr Perry

Dear Parents,

I know I say this a lot and do not do it but …this one will be short!

Remembering my two Woodrow House trips last year (we took two year groups in consecutive weeks as last years Year 5s had obviously missed out the previous year because of Covid) and thought I would put a few notes online before heading off.

Firstly it is yet another a great situation, as Woodrow House is a ritual for children at St Stephens as the first big trip together (after Swanage in Year 2) with a few more to look forward to in Year 6 and is a great practice for them for PGL and Spain. It also gives me a great idea with what to expect with your children.  Please read the letters and correspondence you have received as there is important information regarding clothing and other arrangements and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

The children have been working hard this week on our subjects and your teachers have been working hard to once again fit all our subjects in. In English we are learning about the form and structure of an explanation text using chocolate as our muse! Not a bad choice to be fair. We are looking at the process from harvesting the cacao beans to the final product in our sweet shops. We will carry this topic on after half term.

History is continuing our theme of the Normans and this week we looked at the purpose, structure and features of a medieval castle. We looked at how they helped the development of towns that stand today in our country and the speed in which they were constructed by the victorious Norman conquerors. In science we continued our work on our teeth and why it is important to keep them healthy, especially as we get our ‘adult’ teeth. The children learnt at how and why teeth can get stained and damaged (ahem I hope I did not have a chocolate biscuit and cup of coffee in my hand at the time) and how we can look after them.

Okay it was not short, but it was not long either. Please email me if you have any more queries regarding Woodrow House.

Homework is on the right of this entry.

As I said earlier this is going to be short (as I prop up my eyelids with matchsticks) so I will sign off now and wish you all a joyful weekend.

Kind regards

Mr Perry​

Dear Parents,

I have to say it has been a strange old week!

Well we have been living in strange old times so I suppose that is …well normal! Not that our class is anything but normal J

The theme for me certainly has been that despite all the challenges that life can bring us is that life  goes on and I think that this is important that we hold on to that. I am very aware after a number of years of teaching in a variety of schools that the children have a very blessed time here with so many fun learning experiences to have and to look forward to. This week alone on top of our lessons with our wonderful Spanish, gym, Kick London and music lessons we have had our weekly chess lesson, extra drama lessons and of course our usual collection of curriculum lessons. As today was the Lunar New Year the school was just abounding in red, Lunar related art pieces, Lunar related lunch and a couple of lunar related workshops. As I said before, being in St Stephens is a real blessing with the opportunities and extracurricular events the children can get involved in. I have taken a few photos and put them above to show you. They are getting excited about our Woodrow House trip in a few weeks – one of a number of residential opportunities they will have in St Stephens. How many children in other schools can say that?

In English, the children came back to the subject of dragons (also apt as it is the Lunar New Year) as we wrapped up our work on George and the Dragon. The children wrote a story, ensuring they inserted elements of all our grammar learning and spellings. It was great to see how some elements of the story were sometimes changed as it is not always ladies (or princesses) that need rescuing, or indeed heroic ‘men’ that do the rescuing. I am currently marking them and enjoying some of the examples so far.

I am sure the children can update you on their learning this week, but we have had some very fruitful lessons in our subjects learning about life as a Buddhist and life in a Buddhist Sangha (monastery) , the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings and the number and functions of human teeth. On the latter subject, the children were enjoying using a mirror to count their own teeth and how many of each they have. They also looked at other animals and researched why a carnivore such as a wolf would have different teeth to a herbivore like a cow.

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London Vidhara and The Tower of London

As always there always seems to be something else on the horizon. You would have received a parentmail letting you know we are taking children to a Buddhist Vidhara in a couple of week (date is is on the email), this is to help reinforce our learning on our current RE topic – What it means to be a Buddhist. We have also sent you information and a request for an entrance fee cost (of £5) for our trip to the Tower of London. This being to help and coincide with our learning on The Normans. London is a very rich and diverse cultural joy and it is great we have so many places like the Tower of London or places of worship for all religions just on our doorstep.

Woodrow House

This is almost upon us and so you may want to start planning a couple of wonderful chill out evenings when we are away. Find one Netflix program you want to watch, think about what take away you want to get in and stock up on the treats. Equally I am aware that your child may be one of many siblings so you have no such luck but I assure you not to worry and know your child will have a wonderful time. You should have now received our final letter (and kit list) outlining the travel arrangements and final reminders of anything we may need from you.

Homework is on the right. Please take particular attention to the maths.

Kind Regards
Alex Perry

Friday 20^th January 2023

Dear Parents,

How has your week been? I hope it has been productive and ticked off elements of your to do lists! Could mention the weather again but my fingers are still numb from the cold, so I will not.

We have been motoring along and there has once again been some fantastic work produced in the class. I have to say that Spring 1 term in year 4 is one of my favourite terms to teach in terms of some really interesting subjects.

We are continuing our work in science on ‘animals including humans’ and have been working this week on food chains. There were a lot of excellent questions asked around what actually eats a meat eater! For example in a woodland habitat the snake or the kestrel may not necessarily be at the head of the food chain. I did enjoy saying that in certain parts of the world we might not be at the top of the food chain either! There were some excellent examples of food chains in their books.

It is no secret that history is one of my favourite subjects and I was really impressed with some of the work produced this week. We looked in detail at the events of 1066 culminating in the battles of Stamford Bridge and Senlac Hill (Hastings) and I have to say the children showed an amazing grasp of the tactics and events portrayed at these conflicts. I asked the children to write a recount as though they were in either Harold’s (Godwinson) or William’s (Normandy) armies and the feelings they would have felt. From the exhaustion felt by Harold’s army on the march to and from Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire (a mammoth 180 miles in four days on one journey) to the feelings of trepidation and nervousness William’s troops must have felt as they disembarked of their ships in the south of England.

Knights have definitely been our theme this term so far as our English topic continues to look at St George and the dragon. The children were bringing their excellent descriptive skills to the front and looking at how they could put across characteristics in movements and actions. For example a knight may have a ‘confident swagger’ as they walk or if they are confident with other people may ‘look at them with piercing eyes’. I am looking forward to seeing where this may lead next week. The children’s reading comprehension homework is also about knights and the Battle of Hastings.

Here is a message from Mrs Allen and Miss Hall

Woodrow House

Finally as Woodrow house draws ever nearer please ensure you have all that is required your end in school so the children can go.

• An updated emergency contact form
• Any outstanding payments
• £5 spending money
• Any medical or dietary information

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Kind Regards

Alex Perry

Dear Parents,

Now I am aware that the cliché for small talk is to talk about the weather but…is it just me or has it been raining now for about two months? Ah well the words within the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ spring to mind about ‘walking on England’s mountains green’. The plants and crops will certainly get their fair share and we certainly should have enough water in our reservoirs for a while that is for sure!

Well on to school work! It will come as no surprise to you that school has begun this term with a bang and has started at full speed. Our new topics include some fantastic themes and exciting learning. In history we have begun to look at the Normans and how their culture changed that of Saxon Britain and the effects of those changes are still in evidence now. I loved the first lesson where we looked at the then contenders for the English throne in 1066, their strengths, weaknesses and what ultimately happened to them. Many of us love a bit of action learning about battles and rivalries and the children got stuck into this topic with each of them choosing and candidate and writing a speech to get them ‘elected’. Spoiler alert… but as we know the Norman leader William won and we will continue the learning this term by seeing what changes he began to make on the culture of England.

I was very proud of the children in English this week. We have been looking at poetry and how they are often filled with imagery and a wonderful example of this is Kit Wrights ‘The Magic Box’. This is a poem just filled with all sorts of images and really brought to life by the use of our senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. I first asked the children to help me with finding description I might put in my magic box and as you can imagine the first few items that sprang to their young developing minds were coffee, cricket, reading and the odd chocolate biscuit! They know me so well. Then they wrote their own versions and what really made me proud were when the children gave feedback on their peers delivery and then recited their own poems in front of the class. All children did it and some had to overcome nervousness and I was really proud of all of them.

We have started our work in science looking at how animals eat. This week we looked at the difference between herbivores, carnivores and omnivores and identified examples of each from a variety of animals. There were a few surprises amongst the animals listed as to what eats meat and what does not. Some animals such as bears and some apes were surprisingly included as omnivores and the children enjoyed researching habitats to find examples of each in them.

This week, we were joined by Sarah and Harold the Giraffe from Coram Education, who hosted a workshop where we learned about the importance of celebrating our individuality. Thank you for visiting us, and an extra-special ‘thank you’ to Miss Hall (our RHE coordinator,) who organised the event!

On a final RHE note, here is a message from Miss Hall:

RHE Knowledge Page – Keeping Safe

Since you have by now received the parent mail, you will know we have organised another trip. We plan to go to the Tower of London to help supplement our learning on the Normans and the cost for this trip is £5 entry. More information will follow.

That is all for now and, as always, the homework as always is on the right of this blog.

Kind Regards

Alex Perry

Dear Parents

Happy New Year and welcome back – I hope you have all had a lovely and restful break. It’s hard to believe but we are creeping towards the half-way mark. Time does go by quickly as we get older!

I would also like to once again thank you for your amazing generosity with your gifts for Christmas. Then voucher will definitely go to good use in the coming months (actually I have spent it already) and the chocolates have already been consumed!  Your support is indeed a great encouragement to me and I do appreciate it. Miss Cummins also sends her heartfelt wishes for the New Year and thanks for the gifts before Christmas.

We have started our English topic on poetry this half term and have been looking at cultural and experience based poems from a number of authors. This week we have looked at how life experiences, beliefs and interests often form the basis of a poets works and that they often do not follow the ‘Queens English’ but will have influences from an author’s culture, language and accent. Children will be moving toward writing and performing their own poems over the next week or so.

Well on to school work! It will come as no surprise to you that school has begun with a bang and has started at full speed. Our new topics include some fantastic themes and exciting learning. Due to starting later in the week we have not yet started our topics in RHE, History and Science but I really enjoy the new topics. We have shuffled our science topics around from the curriculum map on the website so we can make use of our scientist teacher – Mercedes – in the spring term and so that our scheduled Spring 1 topic of ‘Living Organisms and their Habitats’ can be taught with a corresponding trip to London Zoo in the Summer term.

In history we will be studying the Normans and how they changed the culture within Britain– a topic I really enjoy – and one that was a massive time of change for our Island. We will also be organising a school trip hopefully to the Tower of London to help enhance our learning for this topic but more on this and on our class learning in the coming weeks.

In RE we are looking at the second part to our learning about the Buddhist religion. This time we are focusing on what it means to be a Buddhist and looking at some of their important teachings and the similarities and differences with teaching from other faiths. This week we looked at the symbols of Buddhism and compared them to other religions, focusing on how symbols are an integral part of most people’s faith.

Woodrow House.

Our Woodrow House trip on is fast approaching and I know this can bring about all sorts of feelings from being worried about children being away from home for the first time to wanting to be fully prepared in terms of clothing lists and groupings. It is a wonderful experience and one that has been enjoyed by the Year 4 children of St Stephens now for a number of years, it is also great practice as they have not one, but two residential trips to look forward to in Year 6.

I know in the weeks before the break you would have received information and requests for payment about the trip, and would please encourage you to pay the full balance as soon as possible if you have not done so already. If you have any questions please ask myself or Mr Faith.

I have sent you all a kit list via parent mail and we have sent home an emergency contact form as well as a small envelope for their £5 spending money. Please can you return them to Miss Amy in Mr Faith’s class by Friday January 20^th. We can not take your child to Woodrow house without the form returned.

Homework as always is on the right of this blog.

Kind Regards

Alex Perry

16^th December 2022

Dear Parents

Well it is quite unbelievable that we are already a third of the way through the academic year!

This week has been the usual mix of joy and groans! From the children I hasten to add  J . I have had many accusing stares as I have laid out end of term assessments or told them we WILL finish our English writing or Humanities topics. ‘But it is Christmas’ they would cry!’ We have played a few games though as well as create a fantastic piece of work for our display on dragonology. I was thinking of watching my favourite Christmas movie – ‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’. I decided against it though because I know that as soon as watch Ebenezer Scrooge at work I will get a few suspicious looks in my direction as they began to compare us. Although I would like to think they have all had a Christmassy week as we have been practising our song, had a few run throughs for the carol service, a couple of Christmas themed Maths quizzes along with a few rounds of a growing favourite game – kidnappers.

I was also immensely proud of the singing last night and the solos were just fantastic.

I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching your children this term. They are a fantastic and lively class and I’m loving getting to know them. We have worked hard, but we have also had a lot of fun. They have an amazing sense of humour, being able to put up with me at my (nicely I assure you) sarcastic best and have been brilliant at taking jokes- although there have been a few tumbleweed moments where my jokes fell on uncomprehending ears. They are a supremely talented bunch and I have been truly impressed with them. I promise you they all have a bright future. A few highlights which stand out for me are the amazing art pieces they have produced, some fantastic pieces of writing , our class assembly and of course just the sheer energy they produce. As much as I have come to care about them I am VERY glad to pass them back to you in the afternoon and – as my weekly updates suggest – go home and collapse!

At this Christmas tide I do wish you a peaceful Christmas, no matter what you have been through these past few years with covid, worries about the state of this world and of course now the rising cost of bills and day to day living. We have also been hit with a lot of very weird weather as well. With a very hot summer, very wet autumn and now an extremely cold winter. Please dress up warm and look after yourself this coming Christmas.

I would like finish by coming back to Advent. The four candles represented in this season are especially poignant for us as a school as each of the words are associated with a year group’s spiritual identity.

HOPE – May all of us have hope in Christ’s coming and hope that 2021 will be a good year

PEACE – May all of you find the peace of Christmas with your loved ones

LOVE – I pray we all experience the love of God this Christmas and the love of our family around us

Joy- I wish you all a joyful and special Christmas as we celebrate the birth of God’s son and time with our family.

Oh and if you have not guessed – NO HOMEWORK . Ebenezer Scrooge indeed!  Merry Christmas to you all J.

Thank you so much for all the Christmas gifts, you have all been so generous and it is hugely appreciated. Mrs Cummins has also asked me to thank you on her behalf.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas and fruitful New Year. I hope you all have a lovely and restful break and- virus willing- I look forward to seeing you in January.

God Bless you all this Christmas time

Kind Regards

Alex Perry

Friday the 10^th December 2023

Dear Parents,

Been another busy week. To be fair I could start all my blogs this way, but I am not complaining.

Well this week we had this half-term D&T project – making pavilions. I have to be honest I have to do something I always advise children in my class to do – which is to step out of my comfort zone. For some it is taking risks with an English task, others it is to sing a song or act in a play while for me it is planning a D & T day. Saying that I have to be thankful for the ladies in the year group Mrs Cummins and our resident art expert Miss Amy– they did the donkey work that is for sure. I hope you enjoyed hearing about the work they made. There are a few pictures above.

Speaking of making, due to yet more effort from the ladies… I hope you buy and enjoy the gingerbread shapes the children made on Saturday and if you do not…you can blame them J .

As I am sure you know we have our upcoming Carols by Candlelight next Thursday evening. To be fait this was one event I regretted losing during Covid a few years ago. Children really are a talented bunch and it is wonderful hearing them sing the beautiful carols prepared by our music team and Miss Bell. I hope as many of you as possible are able to make it next week.

In English we completed our work on Dragonology and I must admit I really loved the descriptive work then children put into their writing, on the same note we wrapped our week up today with sketching and painting their dragons. They wrote their pieces to the format of non-fiction chronological reports and there were some great examples, even making them sound real. The class was just abounding in dragons of all shapes and sizes. There were ice dragons, forest dragons, water dragons and of course fiery dragons. There were serpent like dragons, huge colossal dragons from myths and there were even a couple of small cute dragons. Oh and a few vegetarian ones as well!

We have been finishing up and recalling topics in maths with a particular focus on times tables and, like last week, showing our knowledge through how we can depict different number statements as well as writing our own word problems to match the problems. The children are recognising the importance of key skills such as inverse and estimation to help them solve problems. We have a times tables challenge task the children particularly love and each week they are keen to beat their own personal best and reduce the time they are given to complete them.

I hope my wish last week of a carnage free Christmas preparation is coming to pass, yet if my plans are anything to go by I suspect not. As well as it being truly baltic conditions, there are also a lot of bugs around including flu, stomach bugs and of course our old friend Covid which will of course influence who we visit, but I am still hopeful of a family orientated Christmas. Having the challenge every year of thinking what to get my legion of nieces , nephews and God children is causing my usual levels of high blood pressure , extra challenging as they get older , and I have sent my imploring texts to their parents to get me a few hints. Who is still into unicorns or Minecraft? Who is beginning to focus on clothes, makeup and other such items? Still I do love Christmas.

Our RE topic linked well with my assembly this week which focused on ‘Peace at Christmas’. That is the topic for our RE module and this week also looks at the Second Advent candle – Peace. The children saw that wonderful Sainsbury’s advent based on the true event during WWI where the German and English soldiers came out of their trenches to share gifts and play football together to celebrate Christmas. A little peace in the heart of a terrible war. I hope we can all find a level of peace no matter what is going on in our lives.

Kind Regards

Mr Perry

Dear Parents,

Subjects have been motoring on, as us teachers are thinking about just how we could fit everything in from the curriculum before the bells toll 12 and the ghosts of Christmas come calling…or maybe that is just for me. I have been telling the children that our school days are going to extend over Christmas just to complete all our subjects. I think some of them believe me!

So what have my class of little Bob Cratchit’s been up to? This week we have begun our new English topic, that of non-chronological texts. Dragons seem to be a bit of a theme this year …and no I am not talking about me – although I can breathe fire from time to time. We are using a mythical creature to design and describe our own type of dragon. The children are enjoying creating their own dragon with its physical descriptions, feeding habits and special features all using a report layout. They are enjoying themselves and we are looking forward to our final written piece next week. I am sure I have seen some dragons with my face, although that might be my imagination. We are really focusing this year on editing and giving advice and feedback to each other for their work – a very useful and important skill. I am very much looking forward to reading the final piece myself.

Maths lessons for my group have been all about expressing knowledge. We are acknowledging that sometimes actual methods are straightforward, and we are comfortable with them, but what can we do with that knowledge? They have looked at the importance of using inversing to check calculations and times table knowledge. The children have been depicting equations dividing and multiplying by 10 and 100 in a variety of ways, they have focussed on the describing rather than the actual final answer and have looked at how the methods in our head can be used to solve a variety of questions.

So Christmas is here, or almost. So that means in these strange times there will be no celebrations, carols, performances, Christmas cheer…Hey wait! This is St Stephens so of course there will!

It is wonderful that we in Christmas really keep up wih the Christmas spirit, never forgetting its true meaning. I have seen the wonderful FOSS advertising and preparing for our annual fete, the school halls are just echoing with the sounds of carols and nativity songs from the lower years being practised and we are starting to learn our own song for Carols by Candlelight’ which we will perform the last week of term. Trust me, it is a beautiful event and I am sure those parents who have been before will back me up. I hear those of you with children in lower years will have a chance to see their ‘Nativities’ soon as well, so that is great too.

Whether Christmas is your thing or not, or if you are not fond to the build- up to the season, with all that goes on, it IS a special time of year. I have been telling the children in assemblies how important Advent is. Yes, we are waiting for the celebration of the birth of Jesus when he came the first time, but also those of us who are Christians also believe we are looking forward to the second time he comes. This week churches up and down the country lit their first Advent candle -that of HOPE. I hope we are all feeling that first stirring of hope and joy that can be found at Christmas. Finally, our Christmas topic in RE is all about peace at Christmas, it’s message from God, and how Christmas brings us peace …amid all the carnage of course!

As you think about how you will celebrate with loved ones this year, I wish you as carnage free a Christmas as possible.

Kind Regards

Mr Perry

Friday 25^th November 2022

Dear Parents

It has been a bit parky the last few days don’t you agree? Still not complaining I prefer the cold to rain and hot sun. I have a cricket club and for a sport that is known for stopping in even slightly cold or rainy conditions, it felt a bit odd! Still I had my big coat on and a cup of coffee so all was okay.  Oh dear I am starting to sound like someone at a get together with nothing to say and end up talking about the weather!

In English we have completed our topic around the book ‘The Red Dot’. It is a simple tale, but one with great meaning and is particularly relevant for the children – that of seeing the best in what we do and overcoming our doubts and frustrations. The premise of the story is about a little girl Vashti, who did not do any work in an art lesson because she ‘could not do it’. It showed how frustrated she became because of this. Her teacher helped her see the positive side of it and even though Vashti created a dot on her page (by stabbing her pen on it) in frustration she then came in next day to find that her dot had been framed and put on the wall. The rest of the story showed how she expanded on this by creating patterns and other pictures with dots and by the end was helping a child that had equal frustrations. Over the last few weeks the children looked at the writing focuses of adverbials, expanding vocabulary, writing dialogue and their spelling words around this story and then yesterday and today wrote their own story with a similar theme based around experiences in school. At typing, this I am looking forward to reading the results.

In geography and science respectively we have also recently started new topics, that of ‘India’ and ‘States of Matter’. India is a fascinating country filled with many types of mountain, long rivers, assorted rivers and a LOT of people! So far the children have enjoyed researching types of mountains, terrains, rivers and population areas. This week we looked at the rivers of India (such as The Ganges) and their importance in life for washing, tourism, food, livelihoods and religion. We looked at how much the river is under pressure due to the massive population and the overreliance due to lack of flowing water.

On to science,  I do like to bring into the lessons the mention of items such as chocolate and cake (ask the children) usually as an example of a word problem in maths such as ‘child’ ate 360 doughnuts over a week how many did they eat a day?’ which the children find amusing, however when I actually bring real snacks into a lesson their little eyes light up!

In our art lesson last week, we created pavilions with sweeties (using them to join cocktail sticks to make a standing structure) it may seem like a form of torture and indeed laying out lots of various sweets such as haribo, jelly tots and dolly mixture in front of them with strict instructions not to eat did indeed cause quite a reaction. It was rather enjoyable to eat a few in front of them. Still, they got to eat them in the end, so I am not a complete monster! Next week in science we will have ice cream, chocolates and twiglets!

When it is assembly week it is hard to fit all our subjects in (in order to practice) and the children do enjoy the theatrical interludes, but it can equally be great to get back to some levels of normalcy. Speaking of assembly …

Our assembly was a great success, and I was very proud of your children who were all brilliant! They spoke so clearly and sang so beautifully, and their enthusiasm created a wonderful energy. A big pat-on-the-back to those with lots of lines to learn and to those who stepped out of their comfort zone. The costumes were excellent and thank you to all who provided them as well as our wonderful class saint – Miss Cummins. I can get a little carried away when writing the script and always add bits n bobs as I go and I hope you got all the in-jokes. Thank you for coming and I hope you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed performing it.

Homework

As always, I have put homework to your right on the webpage. I have also set another task. I want you to create a poster as though you were advertising our class assembly. Think like the flyers or advertisements you might see around of famous musicals shows and see if you can create something similar.

Well, that is the lot I think for this week. I have decided it will be the new me. Less coffee, healthy walks (try the All-Trails app) healthy eating and only a little Netflix. I am all set up to go.

I will start next week!

Have a great weekend.

Kind Regards

Alex Perry

Dear Parents

It has been another wet couple of days! Is it just me or has this Autumn’s weather been wetter than normal? I seem to be collecting wet and muddy trainers and walking shoes at my front door. My mop and bucket is also seeing more use than normal, but small problems I suppose. Saying that my Netflix shows or sports podcasts can somewhat distract me a little, but it is good to make you all think I am a domestic champion.

Anyway on with my next dazzling entry. Reminds me of the old James Herriot books (the show ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ are based on these) where each chapter is another incident in the life and times of a Yorkshire vet. So what would I call my memoirs?  How about ‘All Children Great and Small’, Or The life and times of a Shepherds Bush Primary School Teacher? Hmm have to think about this one.

I have put above our blog webpage our Year group bible verse (and stuck it in the inside cover of their h/w book). I would like them to learn it off by heart please. We promote in our school each year group having a spiritual gift and identity. We in year 4 look at TRUST. Next week, In RE we are starting to look at our Christmas module. Ours is titled ‘Peace at Christmas’. This week the children wrote their own ‘Beatitudes’ and came up with some real pearls of wisdom.

In geography we have been looking at the country of ‘India’ and the makeup of the country’s population and terrain. Did you know there are 28 mountain ranges in India? Before teaching this last year for the first time, I did not. We usually just think of the Himalayas, when thinking of Indian mountains but there are so many more. We looked at types of mountains too including plateau, volcanic and folded mountains. Interesting!

I have been impressed with how hard they have been working on their class Collective Worship’ for this Thursday. We have been talking about keeping it ‘fresh’ (which can be hard after practising it many times) and keep working on putting character and power into their voices. I look forward to sharing our work with you all this Thursday. Thank you to all those who have provided costumes so far (do not worry if you have not been able to, we will try and work something out). Please can we have the last of any costumes due by this Tuesday at the latest?

I think that is my lot for today. As much as I would love to outline the amazing activity I have planned for the weekend to enrich and inspire my life…I won’t as it involves a walk, a T V show, a pie and probably a bit more mopping!

Homework is on the left.

Have a great weekend.

Kind Regards

Alex Perry

Friday 11th November 2022

Dear Parents,

Firstly thank you for all who came to the parents’ evenings. It was a pleasure talking to you and I would like to reiterate that I have really enjoyed the first term teaching your lovely children. They are a talented, bright and lively that is for sure! It is interesting hearing some of the impressions the children feed back to you after getting to know me. Great titbits have included my coffee habit, my enthusiasm for history (where I have deduced I may talk too much), my drawer that will have the odd kitkat lurking and my sense of humour – or lack of!  It has been fun getting to know your children’s own unique characteristics too.

As well as parents evening we have been doing a little learning too. In our English lessons we have concluded our book ‘The Last Bear’. It has been a wonderful book with a great theme and message. Having our character get to know a polar bear really brings to life the real threat they – and countless other animal species- face due to human influence on the world. Their final writing piece was an excellent letter to Mr Schumm giving ideas around how our school could become more eco-friendly. There were some common themes arising, so it would be interesting to see these ideas brought to our school council.

In other subjects we have continued our topic of ‘How we feel’ in our relationships and health topic. Yesterday the children looked at the difference between being unkind, teasing and bullying. We played out some sketches about pressure situations and where the pressure may come from – not always from the people actually involved and how it may cause uncomfortable situations. We had great fun in our science lesson too as we looked at the differences between solids and liquids and how materials such as sand, salt and sugar may pour like liquid but are yet are solid. It is as been wonderful comparing religious texts in Christianity and Buddhism this term and we currently have a small module of work on Jesus teachings of ‘The Beatitudes’. The children have been looking at what each one means and next week will be writing their own set of beatitudes. Blessed are the children indeed.

We had a Collective Worship this week on Remembrance Day and have looked at a few moving videos about why we have such as day – whether we believe in war or not.

Our own class assembly is fast approaching, and children are encouraged to learn their lines and the expressions needed in their voices in how they say them. Please ask them regarding their costumes. We look forward to seeing you.

Finally, there was todays D & T lesson which involved …sweets! As I am sure you can imagine the children got stuck into this one with great gusto! I had to patrol like a prison guard to ensure they did not eat the equipment. We are looking at pavilions and structures and the children were equipped with cocktail sticks and sweeties and worked -innitially- independently to create a standing structure and then moved onto joining their structures with a partner and finally a whole table. There were some great examples and yes, they were allowed to eat the sweets at the end.

Homework as always is to the right of this screen.

Kind regards

Mr Perry

Friday 4^th November 2022

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to you all. I hope you had restful time and are ready for the madness that is the lead up to Christmas and the end of term.

After our break from our book for Black Voices Week before half-term, we carried on with our book ‘The Last Bear’, a text they have been really enjoying. They have been discussing the character April, her relationship to the polar bear all the while exploring the themes around climate control and how it affects such areas as the arctic and all the damage we do as a human race. They are leading toward their final written piece early next week and I am looking forward to the final results.

We have been working hard in maths looking at presentation, laying out questions according to place value and correcting mistakes, really important when looking at arithmetic. We have been working on long subtraction and long addition methods and how to break down word problems that require this knowledge to solve the problems set. My group have mathletics set around this subject.

Well life in St Stephens this half term has set off again at a fast pace with many events already in the pipeline and of course today we have already been on our trip to the museum today. I have to say, even though I am a massive history fan, I do think this is one of our best museums. The Oceans and Habitat workshop was fun and informative and the children really enjoyed the exhibits especially the dinosaurs and the mammals. I enjoyed them too, as well as the lovely cup of coffee with my lunch. We have another sports trip on Monday so again the children should bring a waterproof just in case and should wear their PE kits.  Photos from the museum are above this entry.

Parents Evening

It is that time of year again and if you have not done so already, please can you remember to book a slot for next week. If this is not possible then please get in contact so we can organise another time. I look forward to hearing from you next week.

Class Assembly

Finally it is that time of year again…class assembly. We have a few weeks yet (after Year 5 classes) but the children have their scripts and they will talk to you I am sure about their costumes.

If you do go to a fireworks display this weekend (or host one) then I pray you enjoy yourself and that you all stay safe.

Homework as always is to the right of this screen.

Okay I am shattered and after being inspired today at the museum I think a brilliant BBC nature show such as Planet Earth, Blue Planet or Frozen Planet awaits …then again I may just go for a good Viking show on Netflix instead, so I will sign off. Have a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards

Mr Perry

Dear Parents

With the first half of the term now over, we can all stop and take a breath.  What an eventful week it’s been: Red Card to Racism Day, Hispanic Day, Black voices Week, and our DT Day.

During Black Voices Week class Bloom have been looking at the life and work the poet, John Agard. He is a very powerful voice for change and for challenging out thinking. All this week we have looked at a number of his poems and the messages behind them. One which stood out was ‘The Flag’. This poem shows how a flag can represent a culture, a country and an ideal. We discussed how they can be symbols of hope (such as the Greenpeace flag representing a mission to protect our planet) or indeed like the Nazi flag which represents a racist and evil ideology. We looked at how flags can be used in the wrong way such as far right fascist groups or regimes taking on their national flag or how those same flags can show all that is good and positive about a country in sports events or to represent a positive person such as our recently deceased queen. The children designed their own flags this week to represent our class Bloom with some fantastic results. As homework this half term I have asked the children to research a black scientist or inventor who has invented a machine or item we use in our everyday life.

We have also been slowly wrapping up our half term topics and have completed work in our Science (electricity and circuits) and history (Anglo-Saxons) .The children have worked very hard this term and I have seen some fine efforts in their tasks. They have enjoyed practical elements including investigations around how to put together a working circuit, conductors, insulators and what happens when you add to or change components including batteries and bulbs. Then children have really honed their research skills in history and computing by using chrome books and ipads to find key facts about animals (computing) and about the Saxon way of life. They have understood the meaning (and beliefs) behind stories from our world faith- Buddhism- and have used very creative skills in retelling religious and historical tales (like Beowulf). All in all a very productive half term!

Red Card to Racism Day

Although I am so glad to live in such a multicultural society, it saddens me that racism and discrimination still abounds in our society. The children today all wore red in support of the ‘Red C Card to Racism’ movement and we had a lesson on what prejudism is and ways in which it can occur and manifest itself. The children looked at scenarios in everyday life and discussed how to deal with such situations.

Homework is on your right of the screen for half term. Please I would ask if you could support me in helping the children be organised in both completing homework as well as not losing it or not packing it into their school bags. We have been getting a few more cases of this lately than normal.  Please can the children learn by heart the year group bible verse which is on the right of your screen.

May I finish by saying that I hope you have a great break and I look forward to seeing all the children refreshed after half-term.

Kind Regards

Mr Perry

Dear Parents

Hard to believe we only have a week to go until half term and as is the way in St Stephens it has been a truly busy one. This week was relatively quiet in comparisons, but we have our Cultural Heritage Week next week and Red Card to Racism to look forward to.

In English we have been enjoying our two books this term ‘Varjak Paw’ and ‘The Last Bear’. It has been really enjoyable reading them to the class and then watching their rapt faces as they get into the stories being told. Their work has been very good as they explore the characters and experiences of the three characters (April, Dad and Bear) in ‘The Last Bear’ and we have been concentrating too on their individual grammar targets of punctuation, sentence structure and handwriting. We will have a break from the book next week in English as we look at6 some poets in relation to Black Voices Week, but I know the children will be keen to finish it after half term. It is a great book, and the character of April is a very engaging person full of morals and strength as she deals with all times of challenges and experiences. We look forward to continuing the journey.

In RE we have been looking at Buddhism and the importance of respecting other people’s religion. We recognise that we can learn from others and do not have to be a Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh etc to take elements of their stories and elements and apply to our own lives. For instance, in the story of ‘Prince Siddhartha and the wounded swan’ we can learn that unnecessary cruelty to animals is wrong and -like Siddhartha- we can always be kind and caring to animals.

It was wonderful to join all of KS2 in our cross country run at Wormwood Scrubs this week. Well, when I say join…I was there cheering them on! They really did well and that was after a long walk to the grounds to get there in the first place. As they passed me from my steward’s position, I was there with every beating hard and tired set of legs. I loved telling them my own story of cross country and how when as a child I was in the Boys Brigade and that even though I usually brought up the rear, my company getting through to further rounds of the competition due to my very fast friends coming in top of the group. I told them how I loved my medals and felt I earned them as we ran as a team and that is exactly what we did at Wormwood Scrubs. Well, they did anyway, and I was very proud of them. They all finished the run and were cheered home to the last child by the rest of KS2.

Homework is on your right of the screen for half term. Please I would ask if you could support me in helping the children be organised in both completing homework as well as not losing it or not packing it into their school bags. We have been getting a few more cases of this lately than normal.

Kind Regards

Mr Perry

Dear parents,

I think sometimes I should cut and paste for every blog ‘it has been a busy week in St Stephens, but I must try and be more creative so in on with the blog…it has been a busy week in St Stephens!

We are well into the half-term now and it has been wonderful getting to know your children. They are getting to know me as much as I am getting to know them. Nowadays I am often greeted with comments such as, ‘How many coffee cups have you had today?’ The answer is usually followed by a stern frown. In a similar fashion if they win a small treat for a task such as the best presentation as a group in RHE or the winner of a times table game they really ensure I pay my debt!

I have been enjoying the teaching subjects this term and there has been some great work occurring through the class. In RE we have been looking at stories and tales told by The Buddha in order to put across a theme or a learning point. It struck us how we can learn so much from stories in all religions, even if we are not from that religion (or of no religion at all). For example last week we looked at the story of the sacrifice of the Monkey King to save his people from the King’s greed and Tuesday we looked at the story of ‘Prince Siddhartha and the Swan’ which highlighted how important it is to show kindness to others. We realised that Jesus used stories all the time to help put across his teachings as well. Our learning in Buddhism around not giving into greed or that we should show kindness to both animals as well as people around us is something we could all learn from no matter what our religious beliefs are.

Today was Hispanic day and our year group is focusing on Peru. We had a brief lesson on Peruvian geography and culture. The children used their knowledge and growing research skills to prepare a fact file advertising the merits of Peru, looking for key facts and explaining why it would be an excellent place to visit. We had a wonderful visitor in the form of one of the children’s mum who read a story to us in Spanish. We learnt how colourful the art and clothing of Peru was and had a number of artistic tasks based around this, including the decoration of some face masks. We rounded up the day by having a wonderful interactive workshop that looked at Mexican Folk dancing and it was wonderful watching the children get stuck in. I will try and upload some pictures in the next few days. What a wonderful day!

I know I am always talking about how ‘busy we are’ but these couple of weeks really do highlight that. Monday we have a science workshop, today was Hispanic Day and next week we have Red Card to Racism day and Black Voices Week, where as a school we all look at a leading figure in the science community. Then we have the little event of our class assembly…eek! Fear not, it is not until mid-November, but I will ensure they have their scripts before the end of the half term. I am also aware parents evening is fast approaching, which I am sure you have received correspondence about from the office.

Homework as always is to the right of this entry.

So I will say goodbye now and go get a fun size bag of maltesers to pay my growing debts!

Kind Regards

Senor Perry!

Kind Regards

Mr Perry

Dear Parents

It feels like deja vu but…we are all exhausted after another busy week! In English, the children have continued their work on our novel Varjak Paw, and they have been really getting into it. They have been learning how to use interesting vocabulary, correctly punctuating speech and included fronted adverbials. They finished the week planning and writing a ‘chapter’ of their own. We will round this work off on Monday with some learning around the skill of editing. From what I have read, there are great ideas, showing their passion for the book and their knowledge of the characters and I am very much looking forward to marking their final product!

In Maths, the children in my group have been consolidating their knowledge on place value looking at counting ahead in 1000s and 25s and spotting patterns within the numbers. The latter part of the week has included work breaking numbers down through partitioning and then learning how to order them through our understanding of the value of the digits. We have looked as well at maths language such as ‘ascending’ and ‘descending’, which also lends toward our spellings this week – SC words.

Other subjects have included continuing our topic of electricity in science, where the children have looked at the difference between objects that use mains electricity and those that have batteries. We have looked at the dangers and the absolute ‘no nos’ of behaviour around electrical power sources. I am sure many of you parents are of an age as me, and It was interesting recalling and explaining to the children the computer suites from school with the green screens (and no pictures), the first proper home PCs followed by briefcase sized laptops. Boy am I old! I always get worried when we start our computer lessons that they know more than me. I think they secretly think I was born in the same era as Oliver Twist. They may have a point!

Our Harvest Festival went well. It was wonderful to see us all together again in such a fashion. Thank you for so many of you coming and of course for all the Harvest donations that are quite simply stacked at the back off St Stephen’s church ready to go to those who need it through the ‘Upper Room’. I think the tears came to my eyes when we all sang ‘I Give Thanks’. Just watching all the teachers, children and parents getting stuck into the actions as well as singing their hearts out was simply heart-warming. One teacher said they felt the hairs rise up on the backs of their arms and I have to agree with them. It was special indeed.

Speaking of special …A massive thank you to all the parents who came to the family supper – one of my favourite St Stephen’s events. I think I got to say hello to most of you and if not …well hello! Delicious food – I could not pass without taking at least one more falafel or chicken wing!  It was wonderful to celebrate all together and to have it on the same day as the Harvest Festival was a bonus! Just like the ‘old days’. Thank God for the harvest and then have a feast afterwards! With all the wonderful events that FOSS put on, I know this one is always one of the favourites. The children love it because –as one child stated- we can run around in the dark! I am just thankful we pass over all responsibility to you at 3.30pm. I mean what is not to love about children who have been stuffing their faces with doughnuts, cakes and other puddings (and of course a few savouries too) running around the playground on a sugar high! Seriously though it is a wonderful evening and I am always one of the first in line with my plate to sample the wonderful variety of food that is brought to the supper. It is a simple event – yet one that really shows our community spirit.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful food brought to the event! Your children MAY have been on a sugar high running around, but I was too busy stuffing my face to notice. A wonderful event all around thank you.

Have a wonderful weekend and kind regards.

Mr Perry

Hi all,

As I have been away at PGL with Year 6 this week there is no blog but there is homework!

Have a wonderful weekend.

This week’s homework can be found at the link below:

Year 4 Homework For Friday 23rd September 2022

Please note that there is no reading comprehension task this week.

The written homework for this is to be handed in no later than this coming Wednesday, 29th September 2022.

Dear Parents

Did we have a summer holiday? When was it? It seems so far away…cue a bit of whinging and sobbing in a corner…followed by a large glass of wine!

This past week or so (and over the coming half term)  I am getting to know the children’s learning habits through classroom activities and getting a handle on how we can work together.. Don’t be alarmed if your child moves onto different class working groups and there may be movement in the maths classes in the coming weeks as Miss Cummins and I get to know the children. They are a great bunch and I have really enjoyed teaching them , even those in Wesley House…In class joke there !

We have started our maths and English topics in earnest. In maths, my group have looked at face value, understanding the value of parts of four digit numbers and what happens to them when we add to or subtract from those numbers. We also joined history and maths together by having a lesson yesterday on Roman numerals, they really enjoyed it and it was fun trying to get the right sequences together accurately. Timetables are a massive push this year and the children know this also requires regular practice at home. We are working in my group on consolidating times tables up to 5.  There will be an informal test next week. Our homework for maths this week reflects all these points.

We are so blessed tom have such generous parents in this school and we are lucky to have additional avenues of support for the children. Mrs Wordsworth, as our KS2 Specialist Catch-up teacher, will be working with a number of children from Year 4 to give some support in their Maths and English learning. These sessions will take place on a weekly basis as on-to-one sessions and in small groups. More details on this will follow later on in the term.​

Homework – Please see opposite for the homework which will be spelling, comprehension and maths.

In RE we have begun our topic of Buddhism as well as begun looking at our class spiritual word –Trust. Next week the children will write prayers and created a poster with their bible verse in their RE books based on their idea of Trust in each other, close family and most importantly – God. We also have started our worldwide religious topic on understanding what Buddhism is and where it started , by looking at the story of Prince Siddhartha – who of course went on to later become The Buddha.

It has been wonderfully democratic in school this week with class elections for school council and the children voted for who would take on that role. Well done to all those who went for it, as well as the two children nominated as our prayer group representatives.

Speaking of elections we also saw the speeches and presentations prepared by the Year 6s and voted for the house captains. As a prior Year 6 teacher I know how important these elections are and told my class just how the confidence of many house captains have risen as a result of being elected, the amazing fund raising they have been a part of and the pivotal role they have in school daily life. The children took the responsibility of voting very seriously and I am sure they have made excellent choices.

So all in all it has been a very democratic week in class…although I still have my dictator moments J.

Thank you to all the parents who attended the meeting last night on Woodrow House, it is a fun trip and the children love it. It also helps them experience just a little of what they will experience in Year 6 at PGL. On that note good luck to the Year 6 going to PGL next week and I am sure they will have a fantastic time.

I will repeat this throughout the year to the children many times throughout the year, but I truly believe that they are blessed to have so many opportunities and experiences in this school, or have I said that already J

Just to round off I would like to say your children are certainly a group full of character and energy. I see myself having a long bath before sinking into my couch every Friday when the week ends with a glass of wine and a box set on Netflix as I try to recover J . Seriously they are wonderful children and I am having great fun teaching them.  They are a credit to you!

Kind regards

Mr Perry

Welcome to Year 4 Bloom!

Well it has been a strange week of mixed emotions that is for sure. Whether you are a royalist or not, yesterday was a historic day as Queen Elizabeth passed away after 70 years on the throne. She was a servant to the country and had a deep faith and she was admired by many. At writing this entry on Friday morning, we will be having a period of reflection in an assembly in the church led by Mr Schumm and Rev Denis as we remember the life of the Queen. Thoughts and prayers to the members of her family.

I hope you had a wonderful summer holiday and are ready to start the new school year. I always love teaching Year 4 (I taught Year 4s at the start of my career for five years before going to year 6) and they are at a lovely age in their development and also they begin to get my humour (or lack of) J  as well. It is fantastic once again to meet new families, siblings of old students and to get ready to welcome our new addition who will be joining us on Monday. We are all in this together as we start our year 4. I look forward to getting to know your children (and you of course) in the coming weeks and months ahead.

Mrs Cummins has been wonderfully helpful over the last few days and we thank her. She has over twenty years’ experience as a TA and is a welcome member of the Year 4 team. As I am sure you are aware – your previous teacher, Mr Faith will be working next door with the ever wonderful Miss Amy. The Children have been letting me know all about themselves by creating a coat of arms that represent them and have included with them topics such as family, interests and talents. They have learnt a bit more about me and my interests, hobbies and expectations- history, reading and coffee figure quite prominently. I look forward to hearing more about their own summer and what they love to do in their play time. We look forward to getting to know each other well in the coming months through assemblies, playtimes and looking at being back on track with school trips and sports events. Then of course early next year we have our residential. Roll on Woodrow House! The children have been listening and following the rules sensibly.

Our timetable will look similar to previous Year 4 timetables and the new timetable will be published on this blog (see to your right). In Maths – Year 4 will be split into two groups.  I will be teaching the more independent group (Miss Kelly’s last year) and Mr Faith will be teaching the supported group that will have additional adults – Miss Amy and Miss Cummins. Although the groups will start more or less the same there may be some adjustments to even out the class numbers and to support them better, there may be changes based on Mr Faith and I’s judgment. We will want to support your children as best as possible.

As per my parent mail Monday, PE kits will be needed for Tuesdays (gymnastics) and Wednesdays (PE – Kick London). The children should come into school in their PE clothes which they will keep on for the rest of the day, unless we have sports days- I would want the children to have full school uniforms on Monday, Thursday and Friday.

Reading books will not be issued this week, but will go out every Monday and should be returned by Friday when they will be changed, these books should be read with an adult and recorded in their reading log books. We will also have a school library slot on a Thursday where the children make a more personal choice.  Children will visit the school library most weeks.  Homework will be issued every Friday and should be returned by Tuesday. Mathletics tasks are part of the weekly homework and should be completed by Tuesday as well.

I am looking to meeting you all properly over the course of the coming weeks and know we will have a successful year ahead.

Please see to the right the homework for the week (spellings, mathletics and a small task related to our class poet Valerie Bloom.  Please see our weekly timetable below. Being in St Stephens now for a few years I am sure you can appreciate this will need to be adapted from time to time.

Timetable Y4 Bloom

My email is a.perry@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Kind Regards

Mr Perry