Term 2 Newsletter Plain text

Dear Parents/Carers

December, as usual, has proven to be the enchanting highlight of the school year. The joy of listening to the children singing Christmas carols while diligently preparing for their plays and the Christingle ceremony from my office is truly heartening.

A heartfelt thank you extends to everyone who played a part in orchestrating these performances, from organizing props to rehearsing songs and acting, it has been a remarkable team effort.

Not forgetting of course, a big congratulations to the children for their splendid Christmas enactments; we take immense pride in your accomplishments!

We would also like to thank our wonderful Mrs Baker, our kitchen and MDSA team for preparing Christmas lunch for the whole school. It is always a colossal undertaking but they ensured that everyone was happy and that they enjoyed a delicious festive meal with friends. We loved seeing the children in their Christmas jumpers – who knew there were so many different kinds?!

A special thank you goes out to the Year 6 children who generously sacrificed some of their playtimes to organize and deliver the Christmas cards from our school post box – their efficiency has been commendable!

As we reflect on the accomplishments of this autumn term and the year 2023, we can do so with a profound sense of collective pride. It has been a pleasure to welcome so many new families to our school community and see the children so settled and happy. Gratitude is extended to all the dedicated staff members who contribute to making this school an exceptional place to learn and work. On behalf of them and our amazing team of Governors, I want to express our deepest thanks to you, our families, for your unwavering support – it truly makes a difference!

Wishing each and every one of you a delightful Christmas break filled with abundant moments of family fun, delicious food, and festive celebrations.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

With love Paula Phillips

Foundation Stage

As we approach the end of the term, I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for the wonderful time we've had together this term.

We celebrated Remembrance Day, and explored lots of loose part Poppy play where the children showed great respect and understanding during this time of remembrance which was touching and a testament to their growing empathy. We went on to make our own Remembrance wall full of the poppies we made.

Additionally, our exploration extended to the beautiful Festival of Diwali. The children were captivated by the vibrant colours, rich traditions, and the significance of this festival of lights. It was a delightful experience to witness the diversity of cultures within our classroom and to celebrate the values of love and light that Diwali represents.

We hope you loved the Christmas Extravaganza that Reception and year 6 starred in and the Nurseries Nativity! The dedication and enthusiasm demonstrated by the children were truly heart-warming. It's a testament to their hard work and your ongoing support. The shows were not just a showcase of talent, but also an opportunity for our children to explore the beauty of the winter season. From festive decorations to heart-warming performances, the event captured the spirit of the holidays in the most magical way.

Once again, thank you for entrusting us with the privilege of nurturing and educating your children. It has been a joyous term, and we look forward to creating many more cherished memories together in the coming months.

Wishing you and your loved ones a joyful holiday season filled with love, laughter and warmth.

Love Miss Thompson

(Early Years Leader)

Key Stage 1

What an incredible journey it has been as we've dived headfirst into the new academic year! The past couple of terms have been a whirlwind of learning and discovery, brimming with exciting highlights that have captivated our amazing learners.

Year 1 has wholeheartedly embraced their new classroom environment, diving into exploration with boundless enthusiasm. The allure of the outdoors has been a magnet for their curiosity, and they've revelled in the vast opportunities offered by our outdoor space. Through continuous provision, they've embarked on a journey of discovery, each corner offering a new avenue for learning and play.

Their delight in exploring the natural world, engaging in hands-on activities and uncovering treasures in the outdoor setting has been palpable. It's heartening to witness their joy and growth as they navigate and thrive within this dynamic learning environment, fostering a love for discovery that extends far beyond the classroom walls.

Our young historians have been enthralled by tales of the Great Fire of London. They've delved into the past alongside Samuel Pepys, exploring the events that shaped our history. The climax of this historical adventure was their recreation of the Great Fire itself – an immersive and unforgettable experience that brought history to life within our very own school grounds.

Meanwhile, in the world of computing, our Year 1 children have been exploring the captivating artwork of Wassily Kandinsky. Through his use of colour and shape, they've explored emotions and meanings behind these vibrant compositions, igniting their own creativity along the way.

Year 2 have been on a captivating journey exploring the history of toys and games from the past, and the enthusiasm and excitement among our children has been truly infectious! In their history lessons, our budding historians have dived into the enchanting world of toys and games from different eras.

They've revelled in discovering the toys that captivated the hearts of children long ago, exploring how playtime has evolved over time. From cherished classics to forgotten gems, their exploration has been both enlightening and joyous. Particularly, the hands-on experience of exploring physical toys and games has been a highlight. Through these tangible relics of the past, our children have connected with history in a uniquely personal way. Witnessing their fascination and curiosity as they handle these artefacts has been a delight, fostering a deeper understanding of life in bygone days.

Meanwhile, in the realm of computing, Year 2 have been immersing themselves in the art of capturing images. They've delved into the world of photography, learning about different lighting techniques and effects to create captivating visuals. From experimenting with various angles to understanding the impact of lighting on images, their creativity has soared as they've explored this dynamic medium.

The Year 2 Harvest performance was an absolute delight, radiating warmth and joy that filled the room. Laughter echoed as the children shared their charming harvest jokes, sprinkling the atmosphere with cheerful giggles and smiles. Their confidence shone through as they took to the stage, delivering their lines with enthusiasm and flair. The staff couldn't have been prouder of their remarkable speaking skills and melodious singing, showcasing their dedication and practice. Each child's performance was a testament to their growth and development, and the audience was spellbound by the heartfelt rendition of songs and the heartfelt delivery of lines.

For both Year groups, Geography has taken us closer to home as we've embarked on a journey through East Wichel, our local area. From identifying familiar landmarks to mastering the art of creating aerial maps, our children have embraced the skills of cartography and discovered the wonders nestled within our own community.

Our budding chefs in both Year 1 and Year 2 have been busy putting on their aprons and diving into the world of culinary delights in Design and Technology! The classroom was abuzz with excitement as our children rolled up their sleeves to design and create their very own pizzas. In this hands-on experience, our young chefs learned a medley of essential culinary skills. From mastering the art of kneading dough to precision in chopping, peeling, and grating ingredients, they've showcased their dexterity and creativity in the kitchen.

The dedication and enthusiasm our children have shown in their learning adventures are truly commendable. As educators, witnessing their growth, curiosity and eagerness to explore the world around them fills us with immense pride.

As the term drew to a close, the air has been buzzing with anticipation as Year 1 geared up for their spectacular Christmas show, "The Big Little Nativity." Excitement filled the classrooms and corridors as our talented young performers eagerly prepared to bring this heart-warming tale to life on stage.

Rehearsals echoed with laughter, songs, and the spirit of collaboration as each student embraced their role with enthusiasm and dedication. The joy of storytelling, coupled with the festive spirit, has ignited a spark of creativity and camaraderie among our Year 1 stars. Parents, teachers, and fellow students alike enjoyed this magical performance, and have been swept away by the charm and wonder of "The Big Little Nativity."

We're looking forward to the upcoming term, brimming with more exciting adventures, discoveries, and learning opportunities for our young learners. Thank you for your continued support and encouragement in nurturing these bright minds. Have a fantastic Christmas and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

Mrs Benfield

Key Stage 1 Leader

Key Stage 2

Wow what an amazing two terms we have had! It has been such a pleasure to see the children happy, content and really enjoying their learning. And they have had so many fabulous experiences.

Year 3 have sunk their teeth into the Stone Age in History and English and wrote some fabulous adventure narratives based on all they had discovered from the Stone Age and its different eras. Year 3 also delved into the wonderful world of rocks and fossils. They learnt about the three different kinds of rock and how they are formed and how to spot the difference between them. Discovering fossils, helped us consolidate our rocks understanding and our knowledge of the Stone Age.

Moving into term two Year 3 have had fun rediscovering animals including humans looking at their diet, food and nutrition. In geography they have learnt all about water cycle and rivers. They were fascinated to learn that the water we drink was the same as the water dinosaurs drank! They have been looking at instructions and in DT haves designed and created a set of instructions for a Victoria Sponge cake with a Christmas theme! They have had so much fun creating and decorating their cakes, they looked amazing!! Year 3 also had the opportunity to visit a local church and discover the true meaning of Christmas. It was a magical experience, one the children really appreciated.

Our wonderful Year 4 have also had an incredible learning journey this autumn. Kicking it off in English with the Highway Man poem and the fun related story the Highway Rat. Learning the poem and the story for their writing, creating fabulous characters and scenes in their narrative poems. In science Year 4 revisited biology learning all about the digestive system and teeth. They loved to see the decay of an egg’s shell when placed into different liquids. The children were amazed to see how different each shell became and what it means for our teeth.

In history the children got to find out all about the Roman’s and spent the day visiting the Corinthian Museum to consolidate their learning and had the best, most memorable time. In history they learnt all about the physical features of our worlds continents, they discovered all about the mountains and rivers that shaped our landscape. In DT the children learnt to sew a reusable sandwich bag, they worked extremely hard to get their stitching correct and were so pleased with their end results.

The children have had so many wonderful, enriching learning opportunities and it is only just the beginning!

It has been a joy to walk around and see them happy and enjoying their learning, the teachers and I are so excited for the spring term!

Thank you to each of you for all your continued help and support, we really appreciate it, you make the difference!!

Have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic new year!

Love The Lower Key Stage 2 Team

Miss Gough

Lower Key Stage 2 Leader

Upper Key Stage 2

What a fantastic start to the school year we have had in Upper Key Stage 2! The year so far has been filled with smiling faces, lots of learning and we have been so proud of the enthusiasm and aspiration shown by all of the children over the past two terms.

Year 5 have loved their first two Book Talk texts, ‘Letters from the Lighthouse’ and ‘A Wrinkle in Time’. In DT this term, they have been designing and making their own moving toys and have been inspired by their ‘Enough for Everyone’ geography topic finding out how they can make a difference by helping preserve our planet’s natural resources. They have also taken on the roles of video creators in computing, learning a range of filming techniques to create their very own video and have explored forces in Science by making and testing their own parachutes.

Year 6 have also been hooked by their first two Book Talk texts, ‘Holes’ and ‘Wonder’. In science, they have become microbiologists, learning about microorganisms and bacteria and carrying out an experiment to investigate which microbes are on different surfaces in school. They were very surprised by the results!! They have also been very lucky to receive two workshops from Barnados, they centred on healthy relationships and online safety. In computing, Year 6 have been having lots of fun exploring Micro:bits, using what they have learnt to program a device.

The whole key stage really enjoyed being able to explore the Swindon Art Trail last term, making connections between the paintings and taking part in some exciting activities.

We have also had lots of our children reach 50 reads and earn their second reading ribbon (and be very close to achieving 100 reads as I write this!). Reading really is a key that opens so many doors – a huge well done to you all!

We were very excited to once again this year give some of our Year 5 and 6 mathematicians the opportunity to take part in the National Primary Maths Challenge. They all did brilliantly, showed lots of aspiration and we’re very proud of them all.

We have also had some fantastic performances this term! Year 5 shared their Diwali assembly and made us all proud with how confidently they performed for their families and the rest of the school. Year 6 have also been working incredibly hard rehearsing for the Reception and Year 6 Christmas Extravaganza! The sneak-peak rehearsal photos and singing videos are making us all very excited to see the show itself, which I’m sure will leave everyone feeling fabulously festive!

From all of the Upper Key Stage 2 team, we wish you a very

Merry Christmas with your loved ones!

Mrs Pavey, Upper Key Stage 2 Leader

Forest School

The autumn this year came late. Leaves were still on the trees in November. There has been lots of rain and our forest school area has been very muddy with lots of puddles for the children to explore and splash in, creating lots of fun.

Our fire pit area has been out of action due to the ground around it becoming muddy. We have started work on improving the ground by chopping up last years old Christmas trees, placing wood chips around our site, which will help. We look forward to being able to use this again next term.

We now move into winter and the festival of Yule. Darker nights and twinkling lights. The scent of pine trees decorating our homes.

Merry Christmas from Mrs Webb and the forest school team.

We would love to re home your old real Christmas trees in January. Real foliage wreaths too. Donations can be brought into school and left by the playground gates on the roundabout.

Mrs Webb

Forest School Leader

Family Support Worker

We are pleased to be able to say that Mrs Sheward is home and recovering well. We wish her a healthy and speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming her back into school in the new year once she has fully recovered. She sends her love and wishes everyone a happy holiday.

In the meantime we thank Mrs Hole who has been stepping in for her whilst she is away and doing a grand job.

At East Wichel, we hold a strong belief that children need to be physically, mentally and emotionally healthy and resilient to achieve their best. As such, PE lessons and physical activity play a vital role in developing this health and success. Mindfulness is also playing a big role in helping children with their mental health so having yoga as part of our PE curriculum combines these two areas really well and is very popular amongst the children.

Last year, we made some big changes to the school day to ensure that all children have lots of opportunities throughout the day to engage in physical activity and to find their passion. We also revamped lunchtimes, offering many different opportunities for the children to engage in different activities. We have been really pleased with the levels of engagement shown from the children and activity levels have certainly increased. However at East Wichel we are continually looking at ways and opportunities to build on what we have in place to make it even better so there are some truly exciting long term plans in the pipeline for lunchtimes which will be officially launched in January.

As you will have seen in our previous letter we have been working with OPAL to promote more active childhoods. Promoting activity is one of the many reasons we are improving our playtimes, as well improving opportunities for socialisation, cooperation, coordination, resilience, creativity, imagination and enjoyment for your children. More detailed information will continue to be posted on Class Dojo which will include information on how parents can get involved.

We have teamed up with HS Sports this year who are coming in to run our Year 6 football team and have started training with them this term. They have been impressed with how talented some of our players are as well as their attitude towards training.

Thank you for your continued support for P.E.

Mrs Ash and Miss Hardy

Art

We have had lots of fantastic art opportunities so far this year! We have had the Outdoor Art Gallery Trail, from Swindon Museum and Art Gallery that provided us with lots of exciting artwork to look at and discuss.

As a school, we have started with our Drawing units, learning how to use lots of new media, including graded pencils, watercolours, pastels, charcoal and ink!

In Year 1, the children have been learning how to draw faces and bodies, and have been drawing their own fairy tale characters, linked to Quentin Blake!

In Year 2, the children looked at Dawn Coulter-Cruttenden, and her sketches of teddy bears. They used hatching and cross hatching to create their own drawings in a similar style.

In Year 3, the children used graded pencils to shade, hatch and cross hatch to create their Beatrix Potter inspired artwork.

In Year 4, the children have been learning how to use and blend watercolours, pastels and coloured pencils to create their own Snowman inspired artwork, similar to Raymond Briggs.

In Year 5, the children created artwork in the style of the ‘Shoreditch Sketcher’. They used perspective and lines to create their own landscape images of our school.

In Year 6, the children have been looking at Charlie Mackesy and his use of ink and watercolours. They have created their own artwork in his style, exploring different techniques of using watercolours, including dry on dry, and wet on dry.

Design and Technology

We have had a magical flurry of activity happening in DT these past two terms. Starting from our youngest years, nursery and reception have been busy building dens, creating structures and learning new and exciting ways to make them strong and safe with different joins, such as bracing, slotting and tabs. Our fabulous Key Stage 1 classes have been busy making pizzas from scratch and learning new skills such as kneading and stretching dough, grating and ‘decorating’ with key chosen ingredients. The children had so much fun and were so enthusiastic with the preparation, planning and designing of the journey, that the pizzas tasted extra special when they were able to eat them!!

In Lower Key Stage 2 our gorgeous Year 3 children were also cooking and created a Christmas themed Victoria Sponge from scratch. The children have learnt how to accurately weigh ingredients, how to fold, beat and mix the ingredients together carefully to keep the sponge mix light and fluffy. They had great fun researching Christmas cake designs and coming up with their own, which looked amazing. The icing was hard work getting it right, but didn’t they look amazing!! The children were thrilled with them and so, so proud of themselves. In Year 4, our wonderful children created sandwich bags from food safe materials and used a running stitch to hold the bag together. They researched and designed their bags, making them extra special and extra safe for their lunches!

Our amazing Year 5 children have been busy planning and designing moving toys from recycled materials. They have learnt all about cams and the various shaped cams that can create an automaton machine come to life with different movements. The final designs will be magic and we can’t wait to see them.

With so much achieved during these terms, we cannot wait to see the children’s products next time! Thank you to all the parents who donated items for the cause or gave up their time to support these projects, without you, these would not happen! We really do appreciate it!!

Miss Gough
Design and Technology Lead

Kitchen News

It has been busy in the Kitchen over the last 2 terms.

In September we held our Grandparents Cream Tea, which was enjoyed by all who attended. We and raised £682.29 for our Forest School and Kitchen Garden. A massive thank you to Mrs Bevan who sourced a lot of our fabulous raffle prizes.

Thanks to everyone who came to support this event.

We have supported cooking across many of the year groups, pizza’s in Year 2, snacks in Nursery, cakes in Year 3 to name but a few.

Our Christmas dinner was once again a huge success and enjoyed by all.

If you are too late we can only offer a jacket potato option we only cook for what is ordered as we don’t want to have food wastage.

Allergies and dietary requirements

You will now see on our menu (GF) and (DF) on options where we are able to offer this option as a dairy free or gluten free alternative to children whom we are aware have these diets.

If you would like to talk to me about any allergies or dietary requirements please email me sbaker@eastwichel.swindon.sch.uk and I can make you an appointment to see me.

Packed Lunches Do and Don’s!

We are a nut free school. Please can we ask you DO NOT send any packed lunches with nuts or chocolate spread (it is hard to distinguish which chocolate spreads could contain nuts) as we have children who are allergic to them.

We promote healthy eating and ask that you are mindful of this when packing the children’s lunches.

Children can bring water, juice or squash (no fizzy drinks please). Water is always available to all children.

Please only one chocolate biscuit i.e a 2 finger kit kat, penguin or such like, no chocolate bars)

We have recently had the Pacific Hall floor renovated ( it looks lovely a shiny), this is where the children eat their lunches. We always encourage children to be tidy and not to drop litter but inevitably litter does end up on the floor. The red wax from certain cheeses is extremely difficult to remove from the floor. We would therefore politely ask the wax is removed from the cheese if it is to be included in any lacked lunches.

for further information and ideas for healthy packed lunches see our website here.

On behalf of the kitchen and MDSA team we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Friends of East Wichel School

We are sorry to say but due to other commitments Christy and Mark McGregor have stepped down from their roles within The Friends of East Wichel School. They have been at or at least part of the helm for many years now raising a great deal of money for the school and making a difference to children’s lives!

We would like to honour and recognise their work.

Thank you so much Christy and Mark!

Other ways in which you can support the Friends of East Wichel School - Click on the images to find out more information

Use Easy Fundraising when shopping online

So far this year the Friends of East Wichel School have –

Supported the development of the Year 1 outside area

Funded the new East Wichel Football kit

Supported the Eco Club by purchasing Weaving looms

Notices

Attendance

There is a direct link to good attendance and punctuality and subsequent high achievement at school.

Please support your child to be on time in school EVERY day as this will give them the best life chances and help them to establish good habits that will stay with them in the teenage years and on into adulthood.

If your child is really unwell and unable to attend school please call 01793 695134 and either speak to a member of the office or leave a message. Messages should be sent every day of absence unless advised otherwise.

Not sure if they should be in school click here

Social Media

East Wichel Primary School is now on social media!

Find us on -

• Facebook @eastwichelprimaryschool

• Instagram @eastwichelprimary

• X formerly Twitter @EastWichelSch.

Diary Dates

Printable at a glance Calendar can be downloaded by clicking here

School term dates and teacher training days 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 can be found, here.

Interactive Bar

Term 2 Newsletter Plain text