Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable half term. I’m sure it seems like a long time ago now! It is suddenly dark and wet and of course this means we must all allow a little extra time and take extra care when travelling. Can I please remind all adults to keep themselves and pupils safe by making sure they cross Hook Road with their children, at the pedestrian crossing, and with Julie our School Crossing Patrol Officer.

I returned to St. Paul’s on Tuesday and what an absolute pleasure it is to be back at school after Jury Service! It was an interesting experience: I found the systems and routines fascinating and The Old Bailey is a beautiful building, but I certainly missed the company of the children—their positivity and enthusiasm. I have enjoyed catching up with all that they have been learning over the last two weeks and have been really impressed with all that they have learned about World War One and the different ways in which the occasion has been remembered and commemorated in school as part of our World War One Week. Events included a visit from Mr Griffin (Mrs Griffin’s father-in-law) who came to talk to the children about some of his incredible artefacts from WW1 and a video from Mrs Lightbound’s 100 year old Grandma, answering questions posed by the children. The week concluded with us creating the image of a poppy in the playground and remembering those who fought so that we could be free.

Thank you all so much for your positive feedback so far on the new website! Please do have a look and let us know if there is anything which you feel we ought to include or which would be useful. Please click on the envelope symbol in the top right corner in order to send an email directly to the office.

School Uniform Check.

You may have read in the press recently about schools

which send children home if they are not wearing correct

uniform; while we would not resort to this strategy, we are

actively seeking to ensure that policy is followed and that

children are correctly dressed. We also want to reduce the

number of unnamed school sweatshirts and cardigans which

are collecting in the lost property.

In order to address both of these issues we will be carrying

out full uniform checks on Monday 17th and will be

checking that all items are also named. This process will

then be repeated monthly.

We will be putting all lost property out on a trestle table at

the main gate on the next dry day. Please may I remind you

that black canvas shoes are not school uniform and are not

appropriate for children to be wearing in a wet playground.

Thank you.

As it gets colder and wetter please ensure your child

brings a coat with a hood or a hat to school every day.

Headteacher Newsletter November 14th 2014

Kingston museum This week both Years5 and 6 visited Kingston

Museum. Year 5 learnt about the different aircrafts the army had - many of which were named after animals. They also looked at photographs of Kingston during war times - how it has changed! The Year 6 trip to Kingston museum was also a

huge success, where they had a workshop on Conscientious Objection during the war and had the

opportunity to try on a soldier's uniform!

School Quiz.

Huge thanks go to the PSA and Mr Robinson for

organising a fantastic, fun evening on Friday 7th. I am

delighted to report that the staff team did not come last

and must (reluctantly) congratulate the Yellow Class

team who won overall. Thank you to all who attended

and helped to fundraise for the pupils

Thank you to Mrs Forrester

(Red Class) and to Sarah

Mulvey of ‘Black Sheep

Wools’ for contributing

wool to keep our knitters in

pom-pom production!

Mrs Kathryn Hemming

Class News

Red: We made stunning handprint poppy bunting and have also been learning all about money by recognising coins and

adding together 1p and 2p coins. Mrs Knight would love us to keep practising this at home!

Year 1 We have been learning to measure with rules and found out how many cm tall lots of Christmas presents are.

We have also been learning about WWI; practising our marching, designing medals and writing beautiful prayers

Year 2 We have been using adjectives, verbs and speech to create our own Horrid Henry characters and role play. We

loved creating our WW1 class poem and performing it at the tea party! We have been thinking about light as a

symbol for goodness and enjoying designing our own candle and writing about it in RE.

Year 3 We particularly enjoyed making silhouette pictures in art and creating our poppies to decorate the school hall

ready for the tea party. We’ve also been measuring the perimeter of different WW1 objects and have used our

guided reading sessions to find out some amazing facts about the war.

Year 4 Have been creating posters about what life was like in WW1 and writing diary entries from the point of view of a

soldier just about to leave for war. We have really enjoyed marching and ‘training for war’ and studying then

designing badges for caps.

Year 5 We were shocked to learn how women had less rights than men, but discussed how it was a hugely positive change

that women began working when the men went to war. This week we especially enjoyed learning to dance to Vera

Lynn songs and entertained the local residents with our moves on Thursday!

Year 6 We have loved learning about WWI this week especially when we learnt about the different forms of

communication soldiers used on the battlefield. In maths we had fun decoding secret messages using the Caesar

Shift Code and Transcription Ciphers. We also had the privilege of attending St. Paul's Church Remembrance

Service, placing individual crosses for the Hook and Southborough Servicemen by the war memorial.

Remembrance WW1 Tea Party

As part of our WW1 Remembrance theme week, we hosted an afternoon tea party. Members of the local community were

invited to attend and we had guests attend from St Paul’s Church, members of our Governing Body, grandparents of our

children and parents of staff.

Preparation for the event started with the Hall being decorated using art work created by the children during the week and it

looked amazing. Our guests arrived and Y6 did a great job of seating them and taking their orders for refreshments.

Once everyone one was served the afternoon recitals began with reception and yellow class giving an outstanding performance

of WW1 songs. Our guests were singing along with the children and the atmosphere was charged with much joy and teary mo-

ments.

Y2 children performed next and recited a poem that they had written themselves and was greeted with much enthusiasm from

our guests.

Y3 children followed and displayed art work that they had produced during the week. There were several gasps of delight from

our guests as the children showcased their work. We have some very talented artists and our guests thoroughly enjoyed seeing

their work.

The children in Y4 narrated diary entries which relived experiences and feelings those soldiers in the trenches would have been

experiencing. The whole recital was very moving and took you back in time to those dark days.

Next came the wonderful dancing of our Y5 children who performed a waltz to WW1 music. After their performance they

invited our guests to dance with them. Several of our guests got up to dance with the children and really enjoyed themselves. It

was a truly memorable experience.

At the end of the afternoon after more tea and cakes had been eaten, it was time for us to say goodbye to our guests.

The afternoon was a great success and it was so lovely to see how proud the children were to be able to showcase how much

they had learnt during our WW1 theme week. Well done to them all, we are very proud of you!