1. St Luke’s Church of England School Newsletter 13 May 2016
Message from Mrs Tyler
This has been a week of outings and I have been lucky enough to go on each one! On Monday Year 4 had a wonderful day at Longridge Outdoor Activity Centre in Marlow. The activities were planned to challenge the children and they certainly did that! They had to climb the 13 metre climbing wall and then abseil down, they were hoisted up by their classmates in order to build a tower of stacking crates, they were dropped from an amazing height on the giant swing and they then rowed down the Thames in a ‘dragon boat’. “The best day I’ve ever had at St Luke’s”, “10/10”, “Best trip ever”, “When can we go again?” were a few of the children’s comments. I was so impressed with, not only the way the children tackled these testing activities, but also with the way they supported and encouraged one another.
On Tuesday Reception visited Hampstead Heath Environmental Centre where they learned a great deal about minibeasts. Did you know that a spider the size of a human would have a web the dimensions of a football with the strength to catch an aeroplane? The children had a great time pond-dipping, mini-beast hunting and making their own clay minibeasts. On Wednesday a group of Year 3/4 boys and girls represented the school in our first football tournament – they looked great in the new SLS football kit and they grew in confidence game by game. Thank you to the parents who transported and supported the team and to Mr Bravesmith for coaching the children and sourcing the kits.
Earlier in the year, St Margaret's School invited SLS musicians to join their Orchestra and today in assembly we were treated to their playing, with Ata accompanying on the cello.
KS2 Certificate of Merit
Year 3
Adam for using great table manners at lunchtime.
Year 4
Isabella for fantastic camaraderie on our Outdoor Activity Day.
KS2 Maths Mascot
Sahara for answering a question using reasoning skills.
KS1 Class
Golden Book
Shaun for amazing Maths problem solving.
Amaya for an adventurous pirate story.
Maths Monkey
Zoe for drawing and using a numberline to solve subtraction problems.
Reception Class
Golden Book
Ella for showing lots of enthusiasm in Maths.
Gabriel for joining in with class activities.
Maths Monkey
Reuben for solving addition and subtraction problems.
Internet Safety Talk
Thank you to all those parents who came to the Internet Safety presentation yesterday. Mary’s advice sheet can be found on the Safeguarding page of the school website. Please see the separate letter from Miss Milne about online safety at St Luke’s.
School Photographs
The company will take late orders next week, so please make sure you have returned the form and payment to Miss Hardwick in the office by Thursday 20th May.
News from Reception
This week was all about minibeasts! Our trip to Hampstead Heath Education Centre on Tuesday was very exciting – the children learned about different types of minibeasts and how to identify them from their features, such as how many legs they have and their body shapes. The children then went out into the drizzle to look under logs and stones to collect slugs, snails, woodlouse and even a centipede! They then went to the pond and learned how to use a net to catch minibeasts, and then examined their catch in the trays – the children found bloodworms, water boatmen and a tiny tadpole. They then went back into the Education Centre to listen to a story and make their own minibeast out of clay and natural materials. The rest of the week we used this experience to write recounts and imaginary stories as well as solving lots of addition and money problems.

2. 2015-16 and 2016-17 term dates are on the school website.
News from KS1
This week we have had a pirate themed week. In Maths we solved pirate subtraction problems and we learned how to draw our own number line to work out the answer. In English we have written pirate stories and messages in bottles in the form of riddles. We also looked at a selection of pirate stories, which we then reviewed. On Thursday we had an internet safety workshop. The children learned about how to use the internet safely and what to do if they ever felt unsafe. Do ask them about it at home. The PE challenge of running for five minutes continues. We saw a huge improvement this week, going from five children to twelve who could run continuously. We wonder how many we will have next week – watch this space! We have our Pizza Express outing to look forward to on 26th May. The letters giving further details have been sent out this week. Please do try to return the consent form by next Friday (19th May) and please let the staff know if you are able to help. Thank you.
News from KS2
Monday started with a special outing for Year 4 – a trip to Longridge Activity Centre. The children had an amazing day - working together to complete tasks, encouraging one another and pushing themselves in activities that were a little daunting at first. This week’s inclement weather meant that we didn’t have our weekly outdoor learning trip to Hampstead Heath. So we started to create our very own outdoor learning scrapbooks – they will look super when finished! The children completed their topic on explanation texts today, working on their long writing task. It has been great to see the children’s work develop in English with Mr Bravesmith over the past few weeks. Finally, we had a special Eurovision-themed Maths problem solving lesson today. We had great fun and developed our skills in working systematically at the same time.
Secondary Schools
Mr Stephenson is working with Katy Forsdyke, Head at Christchurch School, to ensure we are well prepared and able to support parents as they start to consider secondary schools. More information to follow on this, but in the meanwhile, Miranda has alerted us to Compton School’s application to open a new free secondary school within the borough of Barnet. Leaflets explaining their plans are available from the Office – please visit the website for information about the school and Open Evening (w/c 6th or 13th June) –
St Luke’s Church Events - Coffee morning for St Luke’s School parents & toddlers – Wednesday 18th May, 9-10am.
Dates for Diary (Spring term)
and term dates are on the school website.
Please note change of date of the Music concert (from Monday 23rd May to Thursday 16th June 9-10am), due to the Headteacher interviews on Monday 23rd.