Taking Stock: 13th February 2024

And, with that, we have reached the end of this half term and are half way through the school year.

We ended our half term by celebrating Number Day, in support of the NSPCC. There were Numbots and Times Table Rockstars all over the school and we raised £83, which will be donated to this worthwhile cause. The whole school enjoyed a special lunch to celebrate Chinese New Year and Nursery ended the term with a parade featuring a dragon!

The PTA put on a wonderful end of term disco on the last day of term. This, along with the own clothes day, has raised funds that will all go back to the children of Stockwell. We thank them for organising a wonderful event. Watch this space for the next one. Thank you also to all of the staff that came along to help out and to those who supported with dismissal after the disco.

I always love having visitors in my office and some of our youngest learners made the long journey across the playground to show me their wonderful artwork. The children in preschool have been reading the story 'Tiddler' and have made under water dioramas to reinforce their learning. They were very proud of their hard work and showed me the fish that they had chosen to add to their pieces.

Next half term, every child in the school, from Reception to Year 6, will have the chance to perform to an audience. The children in R, Y1, Y2, Y5 and Y6 will perform in class assemblies, while LKS2 will produce a play at the end of term. I cannot wait to see these productions. The dates can all be found below, on our website and in the letter that you should have received at the end of term.

If you didn't receive a copy of the letter, or think you might be missing key information from the school, please ensure that the office has up to date details for you, including the correct email address. A number of emails bounce back every time we send things out and we would hate for you to miss vital information about what is happening around the school.

Have a wonderful half term break. See you bright and early on Monday morning.

This week, the Stockwell Primary football team continued their good form with another two wins.

Christchurch 1-2 Stockwell

Goals: Bilal S. (2)

MOM: Marco

This was a solid performance by Stockwell. From the beginning Stockwell pressed hard, creating many chances and scoring two wonderful goals. The attack and midfield combined well and were trying to score as many goals as possible. However pressing that high up left them vulnerable at the back. As a counter attack Christchurch scored on their only attempt on target.

Stockwell bounced back, the defense stepped up and, until the end of the match, Stockwell had many chances. Unfortunately the keeper of Christchurch made a lot of fantastic saves.

At the end 1-2 was the result but the result did not show the dominance of Stockwell on the pitch.

Loughborough 1-3 Stockwell (friendly)

Goals: Rayan (2), Bilal B

MOM: Rayan

This was an emphatic win from Stockwell against a team that is currently undefeated in the League and drew against Stockwell in their first match of the league.

Stockwell had another good start and a very mobile attack. They managed to score 2 goals. Loughborough came back and started to press Stockwell with Stockwell's keeper making some good saves. Loughborough pulled one back and after some precise substitutions, Stockwell regained control of the match scoring to make the final 1-3 result.

Stockwell is joint first in the league (5 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss) joined by Allen Edwards and Granton.

Our monthly value for February is 'Love'.

You say that you love someone when their happiness is very important to you, so that you behave in a kind and caring way towards them.

If you love something, you like it very much.

We loved the food so much, especially the fish dishes.

I loved reading.

...one of these people that loves to be in the outdoors.

I love it when I hear you laugh.

If you would love to have or do something, you very much want to have it or do it.

I would love to play for England again.

I would love a hot bath and clean clothes.

His wife would love him to give up his job.

Synonyms: adore, care, for, treasure, cherish, prize, worship, enjoy, like, desire, appreciate, relish, delight in, savour

Sentences provide us with the framework for the clear written expression of our ideas. The aim in writing is always to write in complete sentences which are correctly punctuated. Sentences always begin with a capital letter and end in either a full stop, exclamation or question mark. A complete sentence always contains a verb, expresses a complete idea and makes sense standing alone.

Each term, we cycle through three types of writing. The children learn three weeks of fiction (story exploration, narrative, diary entries, playscripts, setting descriptions); two weeks of non-fiction (non-chronological reports, fact files, debates, newspaper reports, recounts); and one week of poetry (acrostic poems, shape poems, imagery poems, haikus, performance poetry).

Cycling through the different text types ensures that the children are exposed to rich and varied writing, which are designed to inspire the children. We teach spelling, punctuation and grammar as part of the exploration of each text as well as independently, as stand-alone sessions. This helps to introduce and embed challenging concepts in the long term memory.

Each unit of work follows three main stages:

Immersion

At the start of each unit, the immersion lessons will involve ‘immersing’ the children in the examples of the genre they are focusing on. This will include lessons which allow the children to read, listen to, and where applicable, act out a range of examples of that genre.

Exploration

Following this, children use the features of the genre to work on their sentence and word level skills. This will include a focus on the grammatical elements of the genre. These lessons and their work are linked to the overriding topic of that term and have a clear context and purpose in terms of their end of unit piece.

Innovation

Children will then have the opportunity to plan, draft, edit and publish their final pieces, building on the skills developed over the course of the unit and embodying the practices of professional writers.

Opportunities for Writing at Home

There are lots of ways in which you can support your child with their writing at home. Being a role model, and ensuring that they see you writing is the best way to encourage children to write. Encourage your child to:

• make shopping lists
• write letters to family
• try mark making
• complete diary/journals
• fill in occasion cards
• write captions in a scrap book
• jot notes on post-its
• write playscripts (and then act them out)
• interview family members
• role play stories
• write book or movie reviews
  

The children in RB have been organising their classroom and writing labels for the drawers and cupboards.

Have a go at writing with your child at home. We love to see what they come up with at home.

• 19th February - Spring Term 2 Begins
  
• 21st February - Year 3 and 4 Multiplication Check Parent Workshop
• 26th February - 1st March - Spanish Week
• 26th February - NSPCC e-safety workshop
• 26th February - Open Morning
• 27th February - Federation Spanish Workshop
• 28th February - 6K Class Assembly
• 29th February - 6A Class Assembly
• 1st March - Maths Parent Drop-In
• 4th March - 5P Class Assembly
• 4th March - Year 3 Trip to Imperial War Museum
• 5th March - 2B Class Assembly
• 6th March - 2G (2S) Class Assembly
• 7th March - World Book Day/ Dress up Day/ Reading Drop-In
• 8th March - 5H Class Assembly
• 8th March - International Women's Day
• 11th March - 15th March - Science Week
• 11th March - Science Parent Workshop
• 11th - 22nd March - Big Walk and Wheel
• 13th March - 1T Class Assembly
• 14th March - 1S Class Assembly
• 15th March - Red Nose Day
• 15th March - Year 3 Trip to Science Museum
• 15th March - PTA Movie Night
• 20th March - RA Class Assembly
• 21st March - RB Class Assembly
• 22nd March - Spring Enterprise Event
• 25th - 28th March - Pre-School Parent/ Teacher Consultations
• 26th and 27th March - Parent/ Teacher Consultations
• 27th March - Topic Dress Up Day
• 27th March - PTA Cake Sale
• 28th March - EYFS/ KS1 Easter Bonnet Parade
• 28th March - END OF TERM: 1:30pm

Next week is Safer Internet Day and e-safety week. With this being a whole school focus, I thought this would be a good time to talk about online, or cyber, bullying.

Safer Internet Day is an event organised in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre, which aims to promote the safe, responsible and positive use of digital technology for children and young people. The event has grown year-on-year, and it is now celebrated in approximately 170 countries worldwide!

Report it and block people
If someone’s harassing or bullying you online, you can report it on the site or app. Even if someone else has reported it, making a report yourself can make it more likely the content will be removed. Don't reply to abusive messages or posts as this can make things worse.

Keep evidence
Keep a diary of what's been happening and when, and take screenshots of online messages. This can help you prove what's been happening.

Tell someone at school
If you’re being bullied by people at school, your school has a responsibility to support you. If you have screenshots or evidence of what's been happening, show them to a teacher you trust.

Practise being assertive
Being assertive means standing up for yourself without being aggressive. It can help you feel more confident and in control when someone's bullying you.

Get support from someone you trust
You don’t have to cope with bullying alone. Talking to an adult you trust can help you to find ways to stop the bullying. If you don’t know who to talk to, talk to us.

Take a break from checking messages
It’s natural to want to see what people are saying when they’re bullying you. But taking time away from your phone or device, even for a few minutes, can help you to feel calmer.

We will be holding an e-safety workshop on February 26th, between 5 and 6pm. The focus will be social media, online bullying, gaming and more. We hope that lots of you can join us.

We have an active PTA, called Friends of Stockwell, who do a brilliant job of fundraising for the school and bringing the community together. Last year, every child was given a £5 donation to reduce the cost of trips; the PTA contributed to class Christmas presents; they also raised money for vulnerable families at Christmas.

It is great to see new faces getting involved. Every parent is a Friend of Stockwell. I ask that everyone gets involved. If you can spare an hour per term (that's three hours per year), your contribution would make a huge difference.

Please email friendsofstockwell@gmail.com to get involved.

Can you help out around the school? Are you a keen gardener? Do you have skills or knowledge that the children would benefit from? Visit our Call to Action page to let us know how you can help.

Have you read the BJS Federation Newsletter? You can find it below.

This issue is all about mental health and wellbeing. Check it out.

We have learnt quite a few signs now. Have a go at making a sentence with the signs you have learnt. Can you work out how to say:

• Where are you going?
• I am learning Maths.
• I am walking to school.

Here are some new signs for you to try.

Central to raising standards in all schools and ensuring all pupils can fulfil their potential is the need for children to attend school regularly to benefit from their education.

There is a strong link between good learning, high achievement, rapid progress and developing good social skills with excellent attendance.

We want to take this opportunity to outline our expectations for school attendance this academic year.

If your child arrives at school from 9.02am they will be marked as LATE, if they arrive after 9.30am, they will be classed as “late after the register is closed” and their attendance is classed as absent for the morning session. As the registers would have already been returned to the Department for Education.

Regular poor punctuality can also have a negative effect on your child’s attendance as well as their academic learning. Being 6 minutes late each day equals 30 minutes of missed learning every week.

If your child’s attendance drops below 90%, we will need to share our concerns with the Local Authority Education Welfare Officer at Lambeth Council.

Well done to 5H for the best attendance in the school, with 100% attendance. What a great job! This means that every single child was in school every day during the last week of term.

Attendance has also improved since the last newsletter, with attendance back up at 95%. Well done everyone. Keep up the good work!

School uniform should be worn throughout the school day. While we do not enforce that all school uniform should be branded, children should be wearing the correct colours (white t-shirt tops, navy trousers/ skirts/ pinafore dresses, sensible black shoes). Football boots/ coloured trainers are not school uniform and should not be worn.

Children should be changing into their PE kits for PE lessons (Blue or black tracksuit bottoms, plain white t-shirt, trainers). We have made arrangements for girls and boys to be able to change separately, so the expectation is that all children change for PE.

While our supplier of school uniform is WearAbouts, we do some some items available for sale from the school office. Please check with us to see if we have what you need in stock.

If you have a concern, please see your child's class teacher in the first instance. If they are unable to resolve the problem, please speak to your child's phase leader.

If they are unable to help, please see one of the school's Assistant Headteachers.

If you are still dissatisfied, please see the Acting Head of School.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind parents and carers of the expectations for conduct on the school grounds. Please remember that everyone in our school community deserves to be treated with respect. While we may have differences of opinion, it is vital that we continue to communicate effectively with each other.

Breaches of conduct towards staff, children or other parents may result in the school taking further action.

If you have a concern about your child, please speak to members of the school team. Members of SLT are always on the gates at the front and back gates. Class teachers can be contacted by email via the school office.

We let space around the school.

You can hire the school hall, and grounds, on a regular basis or as a one off.

Need a space for a party?

Looking for a pitch for your team?

Contact the school office on:

clericalofficer2@stockwell-pri.lambeth.sch.uk

to make an enquiry.

As you are aware, the BJS Federation of Schools is running a number of low-cost out of hours clubs for the children of the local community. In response to requests from the parent community, the days and times of the clubs have been changed.

All clubs run at the weekends:

• Girls' Football runs on Saturdays from 11am - 12pm
• Table Tennis runs on Saturdays. 9:30 - 10:30 for short tennis (5-8yrs) and then 10:45 - 11:45 for table tennis (9-11yrs).
• Boxing runs on a Sunday from 3-4pm,and will start again on Sunday 18th February.

Please visit: BJSFederationclubs.classforkids.io to book a place for your child.

What are Pre-School, Nursery and Reception learning about? Find out below.

Years 1 and 2 are incredibly busy with their learning. Find out more on our website.

Are you keen to find out more about the learning in Years 3 and 4? If so, have a look by clicking the button below.

Please check our website, to find out what the children in Years 5 and 6 are learning about.