Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Year 2 and welcome to Hoberman class. Myself and Miss Karen have all very much enjoyed our first hot, hot, hot week back at school and we hope the children have too. We’ve spent most of the week getting to know each other and adjusting to the expectations of Year 2. The children are doing brilliantly and we think we’re going to have a fantastic year together.

In English we’ve been learning about our class poet Mary Ann Hoberman and studying a poem he wrote called Brother. The children discussed the poem, how it made them feel and words that they liked. They also learnt the meaning of unknown words in the text.

A little bit of admin.

Homework will be set on Fridays and will be uploaded on the class website page – but not this week. We will start in earnest next week so enjoy this weekend!

Miss Bell will be reading with all the children to determine their current reading level soon. Once levels have been checked, reading books will start to go home with your children.

PE is on Mondays and Gymnastics is on Tuesdays so please make sure that your children come to school in their PE kits on these days.

We have uploaded a copy of our timetable, curriculum map and our class poem to the website so please do familiarise yourselves with them. Please feel free to email us with any questions or concerns. Our email addresses are

l.whiting@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

For our Art lesson on Friday 22nd we need 16 tea towels. It would be amazing if the children could start to bring these in.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Whiting

Dear Parents/Carers

Our first full week in Year 2 and luckily no water or concrete issues to keep us off school!

This week we have been reciting the class poem Brother by our class poet Mary Ann Hoberman. The children picked their favourite describing words from the text before writing their own versions with new adjectives. You can find a copy of the poem on the class webpage and soon you should be able to hear your children recite it too!

In Maths, we have been looking at Place Value partitioning numbers into tens and ones and finding different ways of breaking numbers apart using part-whole models, tens and ones and as calculations e.g. 12 = 12 + 2 and 12 = 6 + 6. Some children are still finding this tricky so we’ve included a place value activity in our homework this week for extra practice.

In Humanities this week, we learnt about London landmarks such as Big Ben and the London Eye so do ask your children what they remember and see if they can spot any landmarks on your activities this weekend.

We also began our RE topic on Hinduism, learning what it means to be a Hindu and the importance of family. Students drew pictures, wrote about who is important in their family and why they are important. Could it be you..?

This is the first week for homework so do save some time this weekend! Children always have weekly spellings, a little bit of Maths, three sentences to write linked to spelling words and a fortnightly Comprehension activity that you will find in their homework book starting from this week. Children will bring home their homework books this afternoon (Friday), complete the homework in the book and return by next Wednesday at the latest. You will also find homework information on this webpage.

Mathletics will also be set this Friday and should be completed by the following Friday – so a couple of days extra to return! Please don’t let your children get behind with Mathletics. The work set will consolidate their class learning and help ensure it is stored in their long term memory.

Mathletics logins and spelling groups (which are fluid throughout the year) can be found on the inside front cover of your child’s homework books. The green group should learn the first 5 spellings, and the blue group should learn all 8 spellings. There are also 5 statutory spellings that all children should learn. Spelling tests will take place on Friday mornings starting from next week. Children will also be tested on two ‘unseen words’ that follow the spelling pattern for that week to assess children’s understanding of each rule.

Last call for tea towels – so far we’ve only received few donations and need 16 altogether so do please dig around in your kitchen drawers for any tea towels you are happy to pass on. These will be used in our Art lesson next Tuesday. Thanks in advance.

Your children should also have in their school bags to bring home a leaflet from FOSS detailing their amazing efforts last year and what their donations helped to pay for in school. The leaflet gives information on how you can support their work this year in the form of donations or by volunteering.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Whiting

Happy Friday everyone.

This week Year 2 have been carrying on our Maths Place Value work partitioning 2-digit numbers and we have re-introduced the class to the greater than/less than symbols. A good trick to help children remember which way round these go is ‘the greedy crocodile always eats the bigger number!’ The Maths homework set this week will help to consolidate this.

In English we have started our new topic based around Margaret Mahy’s beautiful book ‘The Lion in the Meadow’. The class have acted out the story, answered comprehension questions and looked at the difference between retrieval and inference questions. (Answers to retrieval questions can be found in the text whilst you need to look for clues for inference questions.) The class have also thought of their own adjectives to describe the animals in the story and wrote their own questions for the lion.

Thank you for all of your tea towel donations which have been put to great use. The tea towels were used to help make children’s own felt with wool fibres.

We are still after small boxes (think matchbox size) to give our imaginary creatures in English a comfortable home so do please have a hunt at home. Many thanks to the new homes that have already been provided.

Next week, the children will be split into two groups for Maths. One will be with Mrs Foster/Mrs Wordsworth and the other half will stay with us. We will be telling the children which group they are in on Monday.

Reading books will start to go home with your children next Monday and are due back each Friday. Miss Karen will not be able to change books if they are not returned. Thank you to the parents who have already come forward to offer their help as parent-readers. If you would like to volunteer to read in Year 2 and across the school then do let us know and we will put you in touch with Natasha to start the ball rolling with DBS checks and Safeguarding training so you can be added to the list.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Whiting & Miss Karen

Happy Friday everyone.

Well the big news for this week was our amazing trip to St Paul’s Cathedral. Hoberman class climbed over 300 steps to reach the Whispering Gallery and were blown away (not literally) by the beautiful interior. Our guide told us all about the history of the cathedral and how it has been rebuilt five times over the centuries. She was really impressed with how much the class already knew about the Great Fire of London. Some of the class were chosen to play the roles of Samuel Pepys, the Mayor of London and fire-fighters from the time. Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered to help that day and did a fantastic job. I’m sure everyone slept really well that night after all of our adventures!

In Maths, we have been counting in twos, fives and tens really well. Today, we moved onto counting in 3’s which was slightly trickier but the class were brilliant at spotting lots of patterns to help. We’ve added a number square to the blog for practice with this.

Parentmail letters have gone out this week to alert everyone to the fact it’s Harvest Festival next Wednesday and to ask for donations. Also on 11^th October it’s Hispanic Day and our year will be focusing on – Mexico! Children can wear colours from the Mexican flag or general Hispanic costumes that day so do start looking in your wardrobes for items to use.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Whiting

Happy Friday everyone and it looks like Summer is still with us so lets make the most of it!

Thank you to all parents who attended or contributed to our Harvest Festival on Wednesday. You all helped make it a truly wonderful event!

Next week we have Hispanic Day on Wednesday so do please get those outfits ready – either colours of the Mexican flag or Spanish ‘dance’ outfits. Ms Pereria has some wonderful activities planned..

Next Friday is school photographs day so please could all students come to school in their Winter uniform on that day looking spit-spot!

Thank you to all the Madan mums who have given up some of their precious time to read with Y2 students – we really appreciate this extra help. If any Hoberman parents have an hour to spare each week then do please get in touch.

This week, we have started working on odd and even numbers whilst continuing our work counting in 2’s, 3’s 5’s and 10’s. Do help by practicing on your walk to school counting at house numbers on the way.

In English we have left our lions behind and our new topic is The King’s Guard which fits in perfectly with our London landmarks Humanities topic. The children have been looking at the difference between command, question and statement sentences.

Children made some wonderful abstract art compositions this week – we have some wonderful artists in Year 2!

Have a lovely, sunny weekend,

Miss Whiting

Happy Friday 13^th everyone and Autumn is now definitely here…

Looking forward to seeing some of you at the Parents’ Maths Information session on Monday evening at 6.30pm. This is an opportunity to find out more about the Year 2 curriculum, supporting children both in class and at home and guidance on using Mathletics. If you have any specific questions that you would like us to address please email these in advance.

This Tuesday morning, we kicked off Black History Month by joining many schools across the country virtually participating in the Great Big Live Assembly. The children were introduced to this year’s theme for Black History Month: ‘Celebrate Our Sisters’. The children listened to inspiring stories about black women of influence around the world and had the opportunity to listen to responses from panellists about practical things they can do to help make a difference in their communities. In Year 2 we will be focusing on space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin Pocock who is truly inspirational in more ways than one.

On Tuesday we also celebrated World Mental Health Day – a day to talk about mental health and show everyone that mental health matters. It’s day to let people know that it’s okay to ask for help, no matter what you’re going through. This is something we look at throughout the year in our RHE work with the class.

Wednesday was our annual Hispanic Day which started by everyone coming together to sing ‘Somos como las Flores’ and watching an amazing Peruvian dance performance by ‘Ilusion Flamenca’. During the day, each class took part in a Peruvian dance workshop and learnt more about our chosen Spanish speaking country – Mexico in Year 2. As part of the day, we created self-portraits inspired by Frida Kahlo. For lunch we enjoyed a Spanish feast and finally, at the end of the day, we all came back together to watch and listen to a live Salsa Band! Olé!

Next Friday, the last day of term is our annual ‘Red Card to Racism’ day, an opportunity to show support and raise money for the UK’s largest anti-racism charity. On the day, children can wear their own clothes and we encourage them all to wear something red.

Have a lovely weekend all,

Miss Whiting

We made it everyone! Autumn 1 complete and half term awaits!

This week, we have been focusing on Black History Month with the theme of ‘Celebrate our sisters’. Year 2 have been focusing on the awesome space scientist/TV presenter Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock who, despite moving schools 13 times, went on to invent equipment for telescopes and satellites to enable scientists to see far into space and understand more about climate change.

Also, as part of Black History Month, students watched an Anansi puppet workshop, based on Caribbean folklore, and children made their own puppets linked to the story.

It was wonderful to see so many bright red outfits for our annual ‘Red Card to Racism’ day today and we all enjoyed Zephaniah’s assembly linked to the theme. This is an opportunity to show support and raise money for the UK’s largest anti-racism charity. Thanks to those of you who have contributed via Parentmail to this important cause so far.

It was great to see so many of you at the Parents’ Maths Information session on Monday evening. For those of you who couldn’t make it I sent out a copy of the presentation via Parentmail. Thanks to those parents who recommended the White Rose app for parents to use at home – lots of quick activities linked to topics we are covering in Year 2 right now such as number bonds. Please look at the link for more information.

1-minute maths app | White Rose Maths (whiteroseeducation.com)

On the White Rose website, you can also find a series of short videos for parents – Maths with Michael (sadly not our Michael..) – explaining how maths may have changed since the days of your education – which was also a question raised by parents during the evening.  Maths with Michael | Michael Underwood | White Rose Maths (whiteroseeducation.com)

If you have any further questions about how Maths is taught in Year 2 then do get in touch.

And if you find yourself with nothing to do over half term then why not enter the  Daunt Books Children’s Short Story Competition? Please look at Ms Pereira’s Parentmail message for more details and email your story as an attachment to Ms P at  l.pereira@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk by Friday 19th January. The competition is open to all children aged four to fifteen. The story must be all your child’s own work and must be between 300 and 1500 words. Good luck!

Your child should come home this afternoon brandishing a daffodil bulb as part of the returning London Children’s Flower Society Spring competition. We can’t wait to see all of your blossoming flowers next year. We had over 100 entries last time…

Have a wonderful half term and see you all on the other side – Autumn 2 here we come!

Welcome back everyone to what now properly feels like Autumn. Mr Schumm’s even allowed us to put the heating on!

Our new English topic reflects this Autumnal feel with poems about Autumn leaves looking for the rhyming words and using actions when reciting them. We’re hoping to record the class reading these out later in the term so watch this space.

We also have new topics in Humanities (the Great Fire of London) which the children have been enjoying remembering their trip to St Pauls last term.

In RE we have been learning about the 10 Commandments, discussing which ones we think are the most important – a toss up between ‘Put God first’ and ‘Obey your parents’ you’ll be glad to hear. Some of the children came up with their own additional rules needed for today including ‘always hold your mummy or daddy’s hand when crossing the road!’

In Maths we’ve been learning how to cross 10s when adding together a two-digit and one digit (or two-digit number) e.g. 15 + 6 and 23 + 38. Some of the children have been finding this tricky and we’ve been looking at all the different strategies we can use to help us, such as adding the 10’s together first.

In Science we are continuing with our Animals Including Humans: Growth and Survival topic and this week looked at how humans grow as they get older. This included thinking about what we can do at each stage of our growth – from babies, toddlers, children, teenagers and adults such as learning to walk or drive. SCIENCE FACT ALERT: Did you know that your foot is the same size as your forearm? You can get your children to show you how to check if this is correct or not!

And a huge well done to all of Year 2 on their cross country efforts this Wednesday including the long walk to Ravenscourt Park. We know that some children were rather anxious about the trip beforehand but we were all so impressed at how everyone overcame their fears. And what a speedy bunch we have in Year 2. Miss Marchant (Sports lead) was super impressed with how fast everyone was. Also a big thank you to all the parents who remembered to pack spare clothes as my goodness we all needed them when the heavens opened on the way back!

Your children should have come home with their Nativity script today and their highlighted lines! Do take time to help them practice this weekend as rehearsals will start shortly and we want them to be word perfect – many thanks in advance.

Lastly don’t forget it is flu immunisation day next Monday when children who have returned consent forms will receive a nasal spray. We’re sure they will all be brave little soldiers!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Whiting

Happy Friday everyone.

We want to start by saying a huge thank you to you all for the amazing response to the feedback form this week sent by our special visitors. The number of responses took even our visitors by surprise along with the overwhelmingly positive scores. We are so grateful for your support this week. You should also be very proud of your children who behaved beautifully around our visitors – you could have heard a pin drop in our Maths classes – so thank you each and every one. It’s been a long week but we are looking forward to reading the report – watch this space!

In Science, as part of our Growth and Survival topic, we looked at what we should eat for a healthy and balanced diet including foods that are carbohydrates and proteins etc. We learnt an action for each of our food groups and designed healthy meals for the day.  It would be great if you could have a chat together about the meals you are sharing this weekend.

We met Abi – our new dance teacher for this term who taught us 4 dance moves including the ‘Bart Simpson’! The children also showed Abi their own dance moves – we have some serious movers in Year 2!

During Collective Worship today, the children listened to our local MP, Andy Slaughter, talk about his job as part of Parliament Week. The children were very knowledgeable about each of the parties and the name of our PM. When Andy asked if anyone would like to be PM themselves LOADS put their hands up so we have a few politicians in the making.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Whiting

Happy Friday everyone.

Firstly, let us introduce you to the newest member of our class – the carpet! Our previous carpet was looking a little worse for wear so we decided to replace it with our brand spanking new model – we hope you approve. The children were very excited to see their new spots.

Thank you to everyone who attended the parents evenings this week, albeit virtually. It was lovely to put faces to names and have the chance to wax lyrical on how amazing your children are! We will be getting in touch with details of a parents open morning to give you the opportunity to look at your children’s books and have an informal chat with us all – details out shortly.

In Science, as part of our Growth and Survival topic, we looked at why exercise is important. The children checked their pulse rates before and after exercising and talked about the benefits of exercise – not just on our bodies but for our mental health and to have fun.

In Maths today, we started our new topic of inverse calculations (7 + 3 + 10 so 10-3 = 7). Some children found this trickier than others and we will be reinforcing this next week with lots of practice.

This week, we also started our new RE topic, Where is the Light of Christmas? looking at the extract from John describing Jesus as the ‘light of the world’ and what this means. We also looked at the painting of Jesus from St Paul’s Cathedral (sadly not on display at the time of our visit) by William Holman Hunt.

And we’ve been lucky enough this week to have not just one but two class assemblies from Year 5 which definitely kept us entertained and educated. We learnt lots of new myths & legends jokes today in Mr Perry’s assembly so do get ready for some belly laughs as they are repeated back to you.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Whiting

Happy Friday everyone.

As many of you are aware, the rehearsals for this year’s Nativity, ‘The Angel Who Nearly Missed It All’ have begun. The children have done a great job so far learning their lines, dances and songs.  Videos of each number have been sent to the class whats app groups so please do take time this weekend to help children learn their lines and routines – your help is much appreciated!

The performances will be on Thursday 14^th December at 9.30am and 2pm in the school hall.

Costume lists have been sent out via Parentmail. If your child is required to bring in additional costume pieces, costumes need to be put into a clearly labelled bag and sent to their class by Friday 1^st December.

In Science this week, the children took part in their first experiment of the term predicting what would be the best way of washing hands – with paper towels, with water or with soap and water. We used a special lotion and UV torch to check where any missed dirt still remained and wrote out our conclusions. This was part of our work on hygiene and how important it is to wash hands throughout the day and especially before eating and after going to the toilet.

In Maths today, we started our new topic on adding together 3 one digit numbers. The Maths homework on the sheets this week is on our last topic which we finished yesterday – inverse calculations (7 + 3 + 10 so 10-3 = 7) Some children found this tricky and it would be useful to practice this weekend.

In English, we read our new topic book Look Up by local author Nathan Byron sequencing the sections of this space-tastic story into the right order. The children loved the pictures and we’re looking forward to carrying on with this next week.

For our RE topic, Where is the Light of Christmas?, we looked at Christingles and the meaning behind each item, for example the orange represents Earth. Next week we will be making our own Christingles which you will be able to buy at the school fair (Saturday 2^nd December).

And don’t forget that next Thursday (30^th November) is own clothes day. We’ll be dusting off our Christmas jumpers especially.

Have a lovely weekend and keeeeep practicing!

Miss Whiting

Happy 1^st December everyone.

First the good news – there is NO usual homework this week. No spellings, no mathletics, no sentences to write. Instead please, please, please can you help children to learn their lines and routines for the Nativity. As we draw nearer to the performance day of 14^th December, it’s important that everyone feels confident that they’ve got this. It WILL be alright on the night with your support.

And on that note a reminder that all costumes should have been sent in by today. We are still missing some costumes so please do try to bring these in next week.

In RE this week following on from last week’s lesson on light, children made their own Christingles ready to be sold at the Christmas Fair tomorrow. All oranges have been personalised so do look out for your child’s creation.

We all loved meeting the donkeys yesterday – all dressed up for Christmas and so well behaved (which goes for your children too!). Children got the chance to groom the donkeys and ask questions – they were very interested in looking at the donkey’s teeth and wondering if they have to visit the dentist too.

We also loved Author day and meeting David Macintosh who spoke about his books and led a draw-a-long session teaching the class to draw animals and socks!

Have a lovely weekend  – perhaps there will be more snowflakes (we spotted some at lunchtime!)

Miss Whiting

Dear parents and carers,

Nativity rehearsals are most certainly in full swing!  The children are doing so well remembering their lines, songs and actions. No homework again this week as we’d like the children to continue to practise for this Nativity.

Please could all children come into school on the morning of the Nativity (Thursday 14th) wearing their usual school uniform. Gymnastics for Madan will either be cancelled or rescheduled next week as it clashes with the Nativity. More details to follow once confirmed.

This week in English, the children have used our book ‘Look Up’ to compose question and exclamation sentences about space. For example ‘Do you know?’, and ‘In 1957 a dog went to space’. We have also worked with a partner to brainstorm verbs, adjectives, adverbs and expanded noun phrases to describe a meteor shower.

In Maths, we have found halves and doubles of numbers, for example ‘double 6  = ?, and half 18 = 9’. We have also completed our end of unit assessment for addition and subtraction.

In computing, we have been planning and recording routes for beebots using instructions such as forward, clockwise turn, clockwise turn and forward followed by go. We were very careful to remember the go  instruction, as without it the beebots stay put!

In RE, we have looked at a painting of the Nativity scene and discussed where the light was coming from and why the Holy family had halos around their heads.

We look forward to seeing you for show time next week.

Have a great weekend!

Miss Whiting

Dear parents and carers,

Well how much fun was that! I’m sure you will agree that yesterday’s Nativity performances were an absolute triumph! Well done to all of our children for learning their lines, their dance routines and coming in at the right point. Thank you to all of you who helped your children with their parts and costumes – we did it!

This week, as you can imagine, has been taken up with rehearsals but we have squeezed in some lessons in between! Children finished off their RE, Humanities and Science topics so next term we will be starting afresh.

In English, we continued our work using the book ‘Look Up’ to write our own piece to describe a meteor shower using (deep breath), verbs, adjectives, adverbs, expanded noun phrases and exclamation marks.

It was lovely to see so many of you who at the Christmas Fair last weekend and to see how the Christingles were snapped up so quickly!

Sadly the visiting production of Wind in the Willows was cancelled by the company due to illness but rest assured they will be returning in the New Year so watch this space for details.

Now that rehearsals are over, homework is back with a comprehension piece to complete in children’s homework books and spellings to practice.

Have a great weekend – nearly there! I’m off to walk our new puppy – Ted – a toy poodle. Photos to follow (the children have already had a sneak preview!)

Miss Whiting

21^st December ‘23

I’m writing this with only 4 sleeps till Christmas on the last day of our first term together in Year 2.

Firstly, thank you for all of the Christmas cards, gifts and kind words. As Mr Perry said in our Church service today, a thank you means the world to us and lifts our spirits. We are very touched by your generosity.

This week has been, as you might expect, all about Christmas. We’ve made Christmas angels and sang our hearts out in church today.

We’ve squeezed in time for lessons and started our new Maths topic on Shapes learning about 2D shapes such as parallelograms and new words like vertices. More next term! We also finished off our DT topic by completing baby Bear’s chairs.

No homework this week but do keep up the reading over the holidays please.

It only remains to say have a restful and joyous break and we will see you on the other side.

Happy Christmas and a happy new year,

Miss Whiting

Happy Friday everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

New year, new term, new topics.

In English we have started our new topic all about The Princess and the Pea. The children have been acting out parts from the story using puppets. They also wrote great recounts about their Christmas holidays – what fun you have had!

In Maths, we have completed our work on 3D Shapes. Some children have found this topic rather tricky so it would help to practice at home using objects around you. For example a baked beans can is a cylinder, a dice is a cube and has 6 faces, 12 edges and 8 vertices etc.

In Science we have started our topic on Everyday Materials and have been sorting materials using different categories such as natural/man-made, waterproof/non-waterproof, hard/soft. Again, at home, you could help children practice by helping them identify what objects around them are made from.

In RE, we are studying the Lord’s Prayer (which the children already know very well in song form thanks to Miss Rachel!). We looked at the first two lines (Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name), translating the language and thinking about our relationship with God and those who care for us in our family, friends and wider community.

Our new topic in Humanities is Kenya. If anyone in your family has been to Kenya we’d love it if they could come in and talk to the class about their adventures. Do let us know.

Homework is back this week with an additional comprehension piece. We are discussing the reading book feedback received from parents regarding having books at the weekend and will let you know next week any changes to this. Thank you for sharing this with us.

We have dates for your diaries – the Hoberman assembly is on Thursday 29^th February. We’ll be in touch with more information soon.

Have a lovely weekend and stay warm!

Miss Whiting

Happy chilly Friday everyone. Hope you’re all keeping warm…

A quick word about reading books – we know that for many of you, weekends are the best time to read with your children. We have discussed this as a year group and agree that reading books can go home at weekends from next week. Please could they be returned by Monday in order to get changed for the week ahead?

This brings us on to homework. Some homework books are not being returned in time to get marked so please could they be returned by Wednesday at the latest in order for this to be completed – thank you for your co-operation on this.

This term, parents evenings are on Wednesday 20^th and Thursday 21^st March. We will be holding open mornings from 9-9.30am on these days to give you the opportunity to look at children’s books which can then be discussed during your appointment. No need to book for the open mornings – we look forward to seeing you then.

In Maths, we have started our new topic on Money identifying the coins and notes in our currency and making the same amounts (such as £3.42) using different coins. This is a topic you can really get your teeth into at home! Do encourage your children to work out how much they would need to buy items in shops (if you are still using cash..) or have a play at home with the contents of your purse!

In RHE, we are discussing ‘Keeping Myself Safe’. Last week, we thought about what to do when feeling poorly and who should be advising on the right medication to take. As you will have guessed with so many doctors and nurses amongst our family community, the children were very knowledgeable in this area!

As part of the school’s Cracking Careers work, we were lucky enough to be visited by Jean in Year 6 and her father Keat who explained how STEM is part of his work analysing risk to buildings from certain weather conditions. The children loved explaining their previous work on the 3 Little Pigs and the importance of the right building materials followed by a game measuring probability rolling giant (soft) dice. Throughout Spring term, the Cracking Careers work will focus on Retail in Shepherds Bush, looking at local unsung heroes. If you know of anyone who works within retail in our diverse, local community please do get in touch, either with ourselves or with Ms Bill, RHE lead, y.bill@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Next Friday please could children come to school in their PE kit as we are lucky enough to have a training session with a Middlesex coach! There will be a further session on Friday 9^th February which we will remind you about in good time.

St Stephen’s Instagram : Who has spotted the new Instagram account?

Do take a look using the links below and follow us to keep an eye on what’s been happening here from day to day. Children whose parents have given consent will appear anonymously, unless specific permission has been obtained when pupil’s names will be included. This supersedes the X / Twitter social media account, now dormant.

ststephensce_w12

https://www.instagram.com/ststephensce_w12/

Have a lovely weekend and stay warm!

Miss Whiting

Happy Friday everyone!

It’s great to feel the warmer weather after the storms of late. This week, we ventured back into the school garden to see how our tulip bulbs are faring and….we can see shoots! Our tulips should be flowering by the time we start our new Plants topic after half term – yay!

This week in Science, we went on a treasure hunt around the classroom to find objects made out of metal, plastic and wood. We thought about if there were any other materials these objects could be made from considering the suitability of each material. If your children are kicking their heels this weekend do send them on a Materials treasure hunt around the house – they loved this activity.

In Maths, we finished off our Money topic bringing in simple addition and subtraction to work out how much change would be received. Next week we move onto multiplication and division.

In English we have been reading an alternative version of our class book entitled The Pea and the Princess, told from the perspective of the pea! The class wrote their own version of the story today and used contractions, past tense verbs and lots of adjectives to keep us enthralled.

In RE, we have moved onto a new section of The Lord’s Prayer – ‘forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us’ talking about why it is important to forgive and move on but how sometimes this can feel a very difficult thing to do.

Royal Academy Young Artists Competition 2024

The Royal Academy Young Artists Competition has opened again this year! Children can enter with any art they have made, be it at home or at a club. The winning entries are displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts in central London! The deadline for entry is the 7th of March. To find out more about the competition, or to enter your child’s artwork, please visit: https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/

If you have any questions about the competition, please email Mrs Allen (e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk)

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Whiting

Happy Friday everyone – can you believe we are already into February!

Today we had an informative session with Yaz from the LFB (London Fire Brigade) which fitted in well with our Keeping Safe RHE topic. Yaz talked to us about how to call for help (by dialling 999) and how important it is to know your full address to help the emergency services reach you quickly. So part of this weekend’s homework could be ensuring everyone knows their house number, street address and postcode. He also asked if everyone could play the point and press game at home this weekend – by pointing at your smoke alarms and getting grown ups to press the button to ensure that they all work properly. A powerpoint will be winging its way to you next week linked to our talk.

We have moved onto our Multiplication and Division topic in Maths so this week’s homework is linked to this subject.

In Geography this week children had the opportunity to work with compasses so if you have a compass at home you may want to get them to have a practice and show you their new skill!

Next Friday, we will take part in ‘Wear Your Scarf to School Day’ to support Children’s Mental Health Week. Please could children come to school wearing a scarf of their choice. This is their opportunity to share if their choice of scarf says something special about them.

And as we have a cricket session next Friday please could children also come to school in their PE kit – quite a combination!

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Whiting

Happy Friday everyone,

We loved watching the other Year 2 class (Madan) perform their Chinese New Year themed assembly this week.

There are lots of Chinese New Year (also known as Lunar New Year outside of China) celebrations taking place including in Central London this Sunday from 10am with parades, performances and family activities.

Chinese New Year 2024 – Year of the Dragon – Chinatown London

Many museums and galleries will also be celebrating the occasion including the Museum of London Docklands with a weekend of activities for families. Kung hei fat choy!

Lunar New Year | Museum of London Docklands

We will also be celebrating Lunar New Year on Friday 23^rd February (the first week back) where children can wear red/gold clothing and enjoy a host of linked activities.

Today wass ‘Wear Your Scarf to School Day’ to support Children’s Mental Health Week. It was lovely to see all the bright meaningful scarves worn by the class that said something special about them.

Thank you for all those who participated in the recent homework survey. Due to feedback we have extended homework book hand in day to Thursday (latest) rather than Wednesday giving the children an extra day to complete their work. As a reminder, reading books are now changed on a Monday and handed in the following Monday giving children time to read them over the weekend. If children haven’t finished their books it is absolutely fine to hold on to them until they have.

We’re sorry that some of you found the Spelling sentence homework tricky this week. We will ensure that, each week, there is a standard activity plus a more challenging level if needed. If, in future, children are finding the sentences too hard then it is absolutely fine to write standard sentences that do not need to follow the theme set.

Thank you to those of you who suggested a Grammar cribsheet for all the terminology used in English. Ms Foster sent this out earlier this week via Parentmail which we hope is useful at homework time.

And on that note, due to half term, there is NO set homework this week. If you are looking for something to do then you could use previous homework sheets set this term to revise spellings and Maths activities plus reading! Plus don’t forget our class assembly practice!

Following our safety visit from the London Fire Brigade last week, you should have received an email via Parentmail with the key information given as a fireplan to be shared as a family – another half term activity!

Also as a half term activity – your children will be coming home tonight with an A4 World Book Day sheet to create a book cover with their favourite character. Once complete this can be taken to the Winkworth local office to be redeemed for a book voucher (plus our school receives £5 for EVERY entry received)!

This term we have been learning about (deep breath) The Princess and the Pea (including contractions, adverbs, -ful and –less suffixes, adjectives, informal letter writing), Money, Multiplication and Division using 2s, 5s and 10s, Using Everyday Materials in Science, The Lord’s Prayer in RE, Kenya in Geography, Keeping Myself Safe in RHE, Painting and Mixed Media in Art including colour mixing and touch rugby. Phew – such a lot of fit in such a short half term. New topics coming up next half term with a more Spring based theme. And the opportunity to discuss your childrens progress during parents evening and our open mornings.

This term’s trip has been booked with further details about the trip available on parentmail. As usual we would love parent volunteers to join us. Do email us if you are available once you have seen the date.

You should also have seen an email on Parentmail regarding our forthcoming residential trip to Swanage in the Summer term with a zoom meeting taking place on Monday 4^th March at 6.15pm to give more information about the trip and answer any questions you may have.

It only remains to say have a WONDERFUL half term and see you the other side!

Miss Whiting

Welcome back to a new Spring term – although the weather doesn’t seem to have caught up with the new season yet! We all got such a surprise seeing our new playground equipment on Monday – see for yourself in the lovely film up on our Instagram account.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3mgFNVv6mF/?igsh=dnJqdHB6cm92ZXUz

We’ve had a busy first week back with the Life Bus paying us a visit on Wednesday and movie night yesterday.

And today we’ve had a fabulous celebration of Lunar New Year with amazing food, a dragon dance and Winky (Bea’s mum) reading us a story and helping us all to make Chinese lanterns.

In terms of new topics this is what we are studying this term.

Maths – Multiplication and Division of 2’s, 5’s and 10’s (reflected in our homework this week.)

English – Explanation texts and information about honeybees

Science – Growing plants (we will soon begin an experiment into growing radishes under different conditions).

RE – Easter Symbols (this week we revised the Easter story using symbols such as bread and wine for the Last Supper.

History – Florence Nightingale & Mary Seacole

RHE – Rights and Respect

In Design & Technology we will be making our own fairground wheels and need your help collecting materials! Please save your eggboxes and small or medium yoghurt pots as these are vital components for our wheel – all will be revealed soon. By 12^th March please.

School Trip – thanks so much for all of you who have volunteered. We are very lucky to have such dedicated parents/carers. We now have a full house of volunteers – thanks very much!

And last, but not least, the class are doing brilliantly with their rehearsals. Do keep practicing this weekend for one last push before the big day next week – we can’t wait!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Whiting

Welcome to March and Happy St David’s Day!!

On Monday 4^th March we look forward to ‘seeing’ as many of you as possible for our Swanage zoom meeting at 6.15pm. Some questions have already been sent in advance for which we have prepared answers to hopefully put your minds at rest if any worries.

Next Thursday 7^th March is World Book Day. We can’t wait to see all of your fabulous costumes. There will be a book fair at school so do bring in cash labelled with your child’s name in an envelope if you would like them to choose a book. We also have the opportunity for extra reading that day. Please find attached the Reading Challenge sponsorship forms and letter which starts on Monday and runs for a week.

RSR Reading Log

RSR sponsorship form St Stephens

RSR_Primary_Letter-to-Parents St Stephens

Beat the Streets challenge – We are second in the leader board for primary schools in this part of Hammersmith & Fulham. In assembly today Mr Schumm reminded everyone to check they have signed up online and labelled their cards. There is also an extra 100 points if you fill in the online survey – good luck everyone and lets get moving/tapping!

On Friday 8^th March, we will have a special Mothers Day breakfast first thing with lots of freshly made goodies. Do please come along if you can.

In RE we have been focusing on the Easter Story. If you come across any smooth stones on your walks this week please do bring them into school for next week’s lesson on washing away sins. We will be writing down things to forgive on our stones then washing them away!

In DT we have been busy designing our fairground wheels for which we need lots of materials! Thank you for all of the eggboxes and yoghurt cartons that have been arriving into school. Could you please also save your cardboard boxes – ideally cereal boxes and flattened for storage purposes? Thank you in advance.

In Science for our Growing Plants topic, we have been observing the growth of our radish seeds including those receiving sunlight and water and those kept in a cupboard in the dark (with and without water). This week, we also observed how well our tulip bulbs, planted last Autumn, have been flourishing. And to coincide with our topic, this Sunday is World Wildlife Day celebrating wild animals and plants. More information here – Home | Official website of UN World Wildlife Day

Royal Academy Young Artists Competition: There is still just under a month left to enter your artwork into the Royal Academy Young Artists Competition. The artwork can be in any medium you’d like: painting, drawing, sculpture or even performance art!  The deadline for entries is 5pm March 27th. Please visit: https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/ to find out more and enter your child’s artwork. If you have any questions about the competition please email Mrs Allen: e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Have a lovely weekend all,

Miss Whiting

Happy International Women’s Day!

First, apologies for not mentioning our amazing assembly last week in last week’s blog. How fantastic were your children and thank you to you all for both turning up on the day and helping your children learn so many song and dance routines. We couldn’t be prouder.

Ms Periera did us proud for World Book Day with our annual parade and book sale. The children looked fantastic and it was so lovely seeing them reading at break time with their new books.

We hope those that checked into the zoom meeting on Swanage on Monday found it useful and that it answered all the questions you may have. Please do get in touch if anything else has occurred to you – we really do want everyone to come along! We hope those of you who could not make it have received the presentation via Parentmail.

We have begun new topics in both English (Rhythm and Rhyme) introducing the rhyming books Dare and Hippy Hoppy Toad. In Maths  we have started the Measurement topic and have included some practice in this week’s homework.

On Tuesday as part of Cracking Careers we were lucky enough to have a visiting parent Naz who owns Delina in Shepherds Bush Market and even brought in delicious snacks!

The children sampled more food today as part of their Science lesson on seed dispersal counting the number of seeds in various fruits including pomegranates and papayas.

Finally, we’ve heard a bit of chat in KS1 about an online film series – Skibidi Toilet – which has also featured a lot in the news. We just wanted to remind everyone the importance of being aware of what your children are watching and to ensure that you have the relevant filters on. I’m attaching a recent article from The Guardian about Skibidi Toilet. I did wonder why some of our children knew the Tears for Fears track Mad World!

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/jan/22/skibidi-toilet-youtube-series-viral

Also, some children have been bringing in lipgloss rather than just lipbalm which we have been allowing when the weather was colder. Now that Spring is on the way, it would be best if this was kept in their school bags if really needed for chapped lips but we will now say no to lipgloss. The same applies to soft toys which have started to find their way into the classroom. These are best kept at home to avoid distress if they cannot be found.

Happy Mothers Day to all your lovely mums out there for Sunday. Hope you have a restful day and are spoilt silly.

Miss Whiting

Apparently Spring is only five sleeps away now – we can’t wait for the warmer weather.

We’re looking forward to meeting with you all at parents evening next Wednesday and Thursday. Just a reminder that you are also welcome to attend the open mornings on these days, between 9-9.30am, for the opportunity to look through your children’s school books. The children and staff will be in Collective Worship at this time so it should be nice and quiet!

And hopefully we will have tidied up all the spare egg boxes and yoghurt cartons by then. DT Day extended into DT Days as the class knuckled down to creating their fairground wheels with pods and axels. We won’t lie – it was tough, with blood, sweat and tears, but we were so impressed with the resilience and determination of the children who problem solved and, even better, supported one another tremendously.

In English, we’ve moved on from rhyme and repetition to looking at books by the author Simon James (Dear Greenpeace and Mr Scruff). We’ve been learning more about the author and using rhyming and alliteration to write our best sentences.

In Maths, we continued with our Measurement topic moving on from centimetres and metres (using rulers and metre sticks) to mass/weight in grams so a great opportunity to get cooking this weekend weighing out items and using the words heavier and lighter than.

In RE, we carried out our last Easter lesson on symbols looking at the symbolism of water in the Easter story for Christians. Children wrote something they wanted to be forgiven for which will be displayed on our RE working wall.

For our Growing Plants topic in Science, we continued to observe our radish plants growing (or not) in the sunlight, in a cupboard and with or without water. We looked back on our earlier predictions about the best growing conditions for our plants and reached our final conclusions.

A reminder about Odd Socks Day next Thursday, 21^st March, to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day. The brighter the better!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Whiting

Happy Friday and welcome to Spring!

It was good to have the opportunity to meet with you all (albeit online) and have time to talk about the progress of your children. I think we’re getting better at beating the countdown clock and not being cut off mid sentence now!

This week in Maths, we moved on from measuring in grams to looking at millilitres introducing the terms volume and capacity. The children are good at measuring when on the line but, if you have time this weekend, it would be useful to give them practice with a measuring jug looking at the increments.

In English, we have continued looking at the stories of Simon James introducing the class to Mr Scruff (a firm favourite) and Leon and Bob. We used this book to create our own story plans about imaginary friends.

In RE, we moved on from Easter to Saints, finding out more about the saint attached to our school – Saint Stephen – the first martyr and the patron saint of….bricklayers!

The children loved coming into school in their odd socks on Thursday to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day.

Next week is our last week of this Spring term with the annual Easter Bonnet parade on Tuesday and the Easter service in church on Thursday morning – our last day of term. We also have our school trip to look forward to with some great workshops planned.

If your child is in Crummell house, they have the treat of wearing their own clothes to school next Monday!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Whiting

We made it!

The weather may not have caught on yet but – let the Easter holidays begin.

Year 2 pulled out all the stops for our Easter bonnet parade on Tuesday looking spring-tastic! Thank you to all of you involved in their creative efforts.

Our trip to Gunnersbury Park went down a storm with everyone this week and all your children were beautifully behaved. The children loved meeting Florence Nightingale and role playing helping Florence out on her duties. Plus sleeping lions on the bus on the way back was a particular highlight. Thank you to all the parents who helped out or volunteered on the trip – we couldn’t do it without you.

This week has mainly been about end of term tests and finishing off topics so we can start the Summer term afresh. We even managed to fit in an Easter Egg hunt this afternoon!

No homework over the holidays but please do keep reading and using the materials on the blog page like the hundred square. Apologies for those of you who requested extra materials over the holidays – this week has been super busy – but please can we direct you to the parents’ section of White Rose and their app ‘One Minute Maths’ to keep practicing the 2, 5 and 10s tables (and the 3s if you fancy a challenge..)

Have a wonderful Easter and see you on the other side.

Miss Whiting