St Luke’s Church of England School Newsletter 22 April 2016 Message from Mrs Tyler Well, we are all back into the swing of learning this week! It is a delight to see the children engrossed in practical, ‘hands on’ activities which help them to understand more about their topics, such as the KS2 outdoor learning afternoon at Hampstead Heath, solving of ‘real’ problems in Maths in KS1 and Reception’s butterfly learning. Over the next two weeks our children will take part in two sports competitions and be introduced to our brand new SLS team kit! Those of you who have been at St Luke’s for a few years may remember we have had to be very patient waiting to be included in the Camden Schools Sports Association, which arranges competitive sports across the borough for KS2 (although we are still not able to access all the events as we only have Years 3/4). I am passionate about sporting opportunities for children and young people, not only to ensure their physical wellbeing but also to help them develop skills such as resilience, as they learn to cope with the highs and lows of competitive sports. It is great that every KS2 child at St Luke’s has the opportunity to represent the school in the borough cross country competition, but unfortunately smaller numbers are required for most other events. Whether you have not been chosen for the school team, you came last in the borough competition or you got a silver medal not the gold you were predicted at the Olympics, it hurts! Competitive sports is one of the many ways we are trying to help prepare our older children for the successes and failures that they will meet at secondary school and beyond. On to another sticky subject… homework! Some parents think we give too much, some too little and some just right. We have spent a good deal of time as a staff team thinking about this and trying to find an approach which we believe is consistent and yet age appropriate, which is easily accessible and allows you as parents to do additional activities should you wish. Please take a look at our new Homework website page. Here you will be able to access your child’s homework (although paper copies will still be sent out each week) and find links to other sites which will support learning. Please remember that the most important thing about homework is your involvement – doing pages of calculations, learning spellings or timetables by heart is only part of the learning .The children need to be able to use these facts - working with you, playing games and talking with you is the best way to develop your child’s understanding. KS1 Class Golden Book Freddie for applying his knowledge. Liliana for her enthusiastic retelling of the Lion and the Mouse fable. Maths Monkey Ethan for solving greater than and less than equations. KS2 Certificate of Merit Year 3 Jasmine for persevering with her learning. Year 4 Sahara for an outstanding attitude to learning. KS2 Maths Mascot Raynard for explaining his mathematical reasoning. Reception Class Golden Book Daniel for always including others in his games. Michelle for confidently trying new things. Maths Monkey Finley for counting in 2s up to 30 in his head. News from Reception This week we continued to use the book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ to learn more about the butterfly lifecycle. The children have been asking some interesting questions such as ‘Why is a butterfly called a butterfly?’ and ‘What happens inside the cocoon?’. We have been looking in lots of non-fiction books and searching on the ipads to try to find the answers. We have also continued counting in 2’s in different contexts and used repeated addition to make even numbers. The children have also learned what an adjective is and have been using them to make their writing more interesting! In the outside area the children have been busy making up games and constructing a cocoon out of tables and blankets. The whole class treat each other with such kindness and respect and this is most evident in the way that they all play and get involved in activities together.

2015-16 and 2016-17 term dates are on the school website. News from KS1 The children have worked very hard this week. We were very impressed with the children’s own stories based on ‘Gorilla’ by Anthony Browne. The children applied their knowledge, using all the skills they have been learning throughout the year. They were a pleasure to read. In Maths we have been focusing on place value, identifying the tens and units and using this knowledge to solve number sequences, solve missing numbers in addition and subtraction and use the greater than >, less than < and equal = symbols to balance equations. We encouraged the children to apply this knowledge in practical problem solving activities. This week we have been making domino snakes – ask your child to make a domino snake worth 21. Our Thursday PE session is at West Heath Tennis courts, where we have a large space to run. This Thursday we had a beautiful sunny day to practise our running and team sports. We are focusing on building up stamina by running for longer periods and greater lengths. News from Lower KS2 We have had a lovely week in KS2! Mr Bravesmith has been teaching the children about explanation texts in English and it was great for me to see just how much they’ve improved in this area of their writing. Our main focus in maths has been to get the children to see that facts they already know can be used to help them work out more tricky calculations – I think we are getting there! As I mentioned last week, the children have started a new history topic learning about the Viking invasion of England. It may be great to take your child to The British Museum to look at the many Viking artefacts they have there. Finally, the highlight of our week was our outing to Hampstead Heath. As you can see from the picture, the children made a rather impressive den! Dates for Diary (Spring term) 2015-16 and 2016-17 term dates are on the school website.