Issue No.1 15.9.2017
Head of School Update
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome back and a Happy New Year to you all. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas
holidays with your family. It has been so pleasing to see the children of Katherines settle well
after the Christmas break. The Children have been working diligently in their classrooms, find-
ing out about their respective authors on Class Name Day. Learning about their Class Charity
and working extra hard in Ks2 to taste the fruits of their labour on the smoothie Bike. The Road
Safety team have also worked with Year 5 and Year 6 this week demonstrating the dangers of
the road; the children all had a go at testing their reactions times and could not believe the re-
sults. Thank you to the team for working with Katherines we look forward to working with
them again.
Katherines Chronicle
OUTSTANDING EXPERIENCES DESERVED SUCCESSES BRIGHTER FUTURES Issue No. 7 12.01.2018
As we begin our second term Katherines has been looking outwards wondering how we can
help the community and how the community can help us. With this in mind we are in the be-
ginning stages of developing our Katherines Community Charter. Children will be encouraged
to think about their citizenship at an individual level, community level and Global level. Look
out for more information on this in the coming weeks and months. We would also like your
opinions to develop our School Improvement Plan, coffee mornings have been set up to seek
your opinion please see the ‘diary dates’ section further on in the newsletter for times and
dates.
Is your child due to start in Reception in September 2018?
This is all children who were born between 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2014. You MUST apply for your child's place by 15th January 2018. You can apply on line and if you need any help making your application, then contact Sharon Newton, Family Support Worker on 07943018698.
Parent Learning Opportunities this Term
ESOL (English Classes) continue on Thursday 18th January 2018 for four weeks.
SATs Attack—starting on Tuesday 16th January for 4 wks.Find out about SATs
and how to support your child to be able to do their best. For parents with chil-
dren in years 5 and 6—but all parents are welcome.
This week’s news quiz
Book Worms Fancy getting to know a new book? Here is our recommendation this week
The Explorer Katherine Rundell
From his seat in the tiny aeroplane, Fred watches as the mysteries of the Amazon jungle pass by below him. He has always dreamed of becoming an explorer, of making history and of reading his name amongst the lists of great discoveries. If only he could land and look about him.
As the plane crashes into the canopy, Fred is suddenly left without a choice. He and the three other children may be alive, but the jungle is a vast, untamed place. With no hope of rescue, the chance of getting home feels impossibly small..
Except, it seems, someone has been there before them .
The Explorer has been shortlisted for the Costa
Children's Book Award 2017.
1. Where does the president of the United States of America live? 2.
3. What is the largest brass instrument in an orchestra? 4.
5. Which country does parmesan cheese come from? 6.
7. What is the name of the highest Mountain in Africa? 8.
9. What type of tree do dates grow on? 10.
11. What are the colours of the five Olympic rings? 12.
13. How many holes are there in a standard ten pin bowling ball? 14.
15. What letter is located between letter E and T on a computer keyboard? 16.
17. How many cards are there in a complete pack of cards? 18.
19. Who was leader of the Romans when they invaded Britain in 55 and 54BC? 20.
Sensational Work this fortnight A look inside…
Beatrix Potter
What a fantastic start to the New Year we have had! The children have really enjoyed ‘Harry
and the Bucketful of Dinosaur’ stories these last two weeks. We have been very busy playing
together and sharing resources in our fantastic ‘Claws and Teeth Vets’ role play area, where
we have tended to all our sick animals. The dinosaurs have loved being pampered and
cleaned in our water tray.
We have tried very hard to trace over our names at the start of every session, with some of us
beginning to copy our names. One of our favourite activities over this week has been Bingo
with numbers to 10.
Sensational Work this fortnight
Dr Seuss and Ahlberg
Claws and teeth - Dinosaurs
Reception children had a very special visit the first day of school. A dinosaur came to our
class and laid some eggs! We were all very excited and wanted to learn lots of things about
dinosaurs in order to take care of the baby dinosaurs once they hatched out of the egg.
We read some stories about dinosaurs to know them better, like Harry and the bucketful
of dinosaurs and The Dinosaur that pooped a planet.
The eggs that were left in our class were made of ice, so we talked about what to do to help
the baby dinosaurs hatch. Some children had very nice ideas like keeping them warm or
putting them next to the heater to help them melt quicker. It was lovely to see the baby
dinosaurs hatch!
Mummy dinosaur sent us a letter asking us to look after the babies while she was away
and we did a brainstorm with lots of ideas that on how to keep the babies safe and sound,
for example; feeding them with leaves, keeping them warm, building a nest... We also
wrote wonderful things about it!
A look inside…
Since we had read The dinosaur that pooped it is about a dinosaur in space. Recep-
tion children got to use their imagination to pretend they had a journey to space! In
our trip we saw planets, the moon, aliens, rockets and lots of stars. It was a very in-
teresting trip through their imagination of the children. Afterwards, we made some
planets and described them. Reception children did an amazing job!
Sensational Work this fortnight
Eric Carle
A look inside…
Year 1 enjoyed a great start to the term looking at Eric Carle’s books that he
has written and illustrated. We copied his collage style and saw the animated
stories too. We were lucky enough to have our special toys come to a teddy
bears picnic where we thought about what they are made of and why they are
special to us. We looking forward to continuing the work
We enjoy reading
books and sharing
them together.
We have been learning the names of 2D and 3D shapes in maths, and
practising our handwriting formation.
JULIA DONALDSON
We had a great start to the New Year by celebrating our class author, Julia Donaldson.
Most of the children dressed up in fantastic costumes and were very excited to share
which book they had come from. We learnt to recite her well known
poem ‘I Opened A Book’ using lots of creative actions. We read lots of her wonderful sto-
ries and learnt that they mostly contain rhyme.
In English, we have continued to explore poetry and have thoroughly enjoyed listening to
poems by Michael Rosen, especially ‘Chocolate Cake’. We found this poem very funny!
Sensational Work this fortnight A look inside…
Sensational Work this fortnight
Oliver Jeffers
We have had a very busy and exciting two weeks back at school. The term started with
our author day. The children made a great effort to dress as characters from books by
Oliver Jeffers. We spent the day reading Oliver Jeffers’ stories including Lost and
Found and Up and Down. The children made a found poster to help the penguin find
his home. They also learnt more about Oliver Jeffers. We were surprised to learn that
Oliver Jeffers is an artist as well as an author. Ask your child to retell their favourite Oli-
ver Jeffers’ story.
A look inside…
Carbon Monoxide Workshop
Year 1 and 2 were lucky enough to take part in a Carbon Monoxide workshop.
We learnt about the dangers, how to identify risks and how to stay safe. We
had great fun acting out appliances which can cause Carbon Monoxide. Can
you guess what we are?
We met a character called Safety Seymour and will be lucky enough to bring
him home to complete a safety inspection. The children will also be each given
a Carbon Monoxide detector to bring home and keep.
We visited other classes to teach
them about our author.
Sensational Work this fortnight
On Friday 5th January, Change4Life
came in with their smoothie bikes! We
all had to ride the bike for 10 seconds to
help make the smoothie which we then
drank at the end. To start with, we
played a guessing game: guess the fruit
and vegetable – some of them were really
quite difficult to guess especially as we
did it with our eyes covered!
A look inside…
We are enjoying our new topics. In science we are learning about states of matter and we had great fun in pretending to be particles!
Here we are being a ‘liquid’….
as a gas ...
as a solid!
Roald Dahl
Year 3 News letter blurb– Roald Dahl (weekly)
We started our new term with an ‘author
day’! We spent a day finding out more about
our author. We really enjoyed dressing up.
Sensational Work this fortnight
A look inside…
Sensational Work this fortnight
David Walliams Class
A look inside…
Our first day back was happily spent learning about our class’s namesake, Mr. David
Walliams. We learnt about his birthday, his parents, his interests and a little about when
he wrote the books we enjoy so much, then we created our own timelines about him. In-
between the hard work we made some self portraits with hands in order to display our
own David Walliams book cover designs. We chose our favourite books written by him
and added our own blurbs, in the witty style David Walliams favours. We can’t wait to
enjoy another of his books; after we finish The Ice Palace from last term.
In English we have been listening to and writing
our own poems. We are very pleased with our
efforts at writing a poem using Christina Rosset-
ti’s; What Is Pink?
We have also already enjoyed an excellent visit
from the Smoothie Bike. We did some fabulous
sporting activities, discovered some new fruits and
made our own Strawberry, Mango and Pineapple
smoothie by pedal power!
Sensational Work this fortnight
A look inside…
Sensational Work this fortnight A look inside…
On the first day back we had a CS Lewis day! What is this I hear you ask...well let me
tell you…
We spent the day learning all about our chosen author CS Lewis. First we had to plan
our biography, then we spent time in ICT researching all about his life, including his
childhood and greatest achievements. We then drafted , edited and copied into best our
biographies about CS Lewis, it was very interesting! We have displayed our amazing
work on the wall, you should come and see it! We also completed some art silhouette
work based on the famous Chronicles of Narnia! We were so proud of our hard work.
Well done everybody :)
CS Lewis
CS Lewis Day
Sensational Work this fortnight
JK Rowling
Author Day
We had a lot of fun getting to know our class author, JK Rowling, the writer of
Harry Potter. There were some fantastic costumes! To begin with, we watched a
video about her life, then used that information to make a comic strip biography.
We learnt that although she had a difficult life before Harry Potter was published,
she kept persevering and didn’t give up on her dream!
Next, we learnt about the books of Harry Potter and answered quiz questions to
find out our Hogwarts Houses. There were no Slytherins at all! We then made
our own House crests to represent an animal or characteristic important to that
house.
After lunch, we had a go at a word search for those all important Hogwarts House
Points, and then began to design our dragon eggs and wands. Finally, we used
paper mache to create one of our designs, which we then decorated with paint.
They look amazing!
A look inside…
Sensational Work this fortnight A look inside…
Charles Dickens
Dickens of a Day
Year 5/6 class had a fun-filled day learning about their class’ namesake – Charles Dick-ens.
The prominent Victorian writer was an advocate for the rights of poor people and the children have explored some of his books during the day. They have enjoyed creating their own versions of book covers for chosen stories and have learnt more about his life and work.
They have entered into the spirit of things by dressing up as some of the characters from the writer’s novels: Little Tim, Scrooge, The Ghost of Christmas Past and Future.
Dickens has produced a massive amount of material during his lifetime. He published
fifteen novels, wrote hundreds of short stories, plays and letters. The children really en-
joyed getting acquainted with some of his most famous pieces of work.
Recipe Corner
Cheese and Leek Fritter—Makes 10
Ingredients
1.5kg potatoes
4 large leeks
4 teaspoons of oil
200g cheese
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
Method
1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4 or equivalent
2. Peel potatoes, cut into 2cm chunks.
3. Mash potatoes.
4. Add grated cheese and a pinch of salt and pepper.
5. Sauté diced leeks until soft, add to mash and leave
to cool.
6. Divide into equal size patties put into the fridge
for 30 minutes.
7. Bake in the oven for 20minutes.
Have fun cooking these delicious fritters at home. As ever, if they turn out well I know
lots of teachers that would appreciate them. However they turn out I hope you enjoy the
experience of baking by yourself or with your family.
This week’s recipe from our school’s kitchen
is as follows:
A huge thank you to all those that supported the Save the children Christmas Jumper ap-
peal, the jumpers made at home ad in class were simply fantastic. Some children, lie my-
self, choose to buy their jumpers so we thank you for your efforts. We raised a fantastic
£85.96 for Save the Children, you should all be very proud of your efforts. Even
Stanley managed to make a quick visit sporting his Christmas Jumper, here are Year 1 en-
joying some Stanley Strokes.
Save the children
Diary Dates 19th January: Yr5 Yr5/6 Yr6 Coffee Morning
26th January: Yr1 Yr 1/2 Yr2 Coffee Morning
2nd February : Yr3 Yr3 /4 Yr 4 Coffee Morning
5th February : Mental Health Week
9th February: Valentines Disco
9th February: Last Day of Half Term
12th—16th February: Spring Half Term
19th February: INSET School closed
20TH February: Return from Spring Half Term
23rd February: EYFS Coffee Morning
School Council
Our school councillors have helped each class decided upon a charity to support, this
year. Each class will be hosting a fundraising day, to raise money for these worthwhile
causes. Each class has chosen the following charities to support:
Eric Carle – Barnardos
Julia Donaldson – Save the Rhino
Oliver Jeffers—WWF
Roald Dahl—PLAN
David Walliams— GOSH
Jacqueline Wilson— The Dogs Trust
Charles Dickens— RSPCA
JK Rowling—Save the Children
CS Lewis—CLAPA
Do you know why these charities
are important?
Road Safety Workshop
On Friday 5th January 2018, pupils from Key Stage 2 had the opportunity to take part in
Smoothie Bike workshops as part of the school’s Physical Education programme. Smoothie Bike
workshops are run by Sport4Life and give pupils the opportunity to learn about
diet in an innovative way. During the workshops, students got the opportunity to take part in a
fruit themed warm-up, a blindfolded guess the fruit and finally the main event; the Smoothie
Bike. Students worked in teams, to blend a mixture of strawberries, pineapple and mango as
well as apple juice while riding a static bike. After each student had helped to successfully blend
the fruit they were able to taste what they had made. All the students enjoyed their Smoothie
Bike experience and came away learning something new with smiles on their faces. In addition
to this Mrs Harman and Mrs Camilleri had a bit of friendly competition to see who could create
the most smoothie, by the look on their faces I think they all had a good time.
Friends of Katherines
The Friends of Katherines have been busy organising events for the rest of the year, these dates and events will soon be released. But just to keep you organised our next event will be a Valentines Disco held in the school hall. As per the Halloween disco there will be treats and drinks as well as some fantastic music and lighting. We hope to see as many of your children there as possible. The event will take place on Friday 9th February and will cost £2 per child
To request a place for your child: Nursery
For a nursery place please contact our school directly.
Primary
School year places are allocated by Essex County Council
http://www.essex.gov.uk/Education-Schools/Schools/Admissions/
0345 603 2200
Katherines Primary Academy and Nursery Brookside Harlow Essex, CM19 5NJ
http://www.netacademies.net/katherines
01279 421495