Upcoming Diary Dates

This week	Event	Details
Wednesday 11th October (7:15 pm)	Community Zoom: Our School and its Ethos	Sarah Thorne and Zoe Everett will be hosting this webinar about school ethos and culture. Please read Sarah’s message below to find out more. Join us at 7:15 pm here: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/71835874933?pwd=xaJPKUDKb3Hlaonu3hYQWDPlReZuRp.1
Thursday 12th October (children only event, am)	Chestnut and Oak Classes Football Practice at HSW	We are getting ready for the Chatsworth Schools’ Friendly Football Tournament on November 9th with some joint practice at Hall School Wimbledon. Parents, please sign consent form here: https://forms.office.com/e/PDwA674hHh
Friday 13th October (8:35 am)	Chestnut Walk and Talk	Join our Headteacher for a Walk and Talk through Morden Hall Park to ask questions, share ideas and find out more about education in Chestnut Class.
Next week	Event	Details
Thursday 19th October (children only event, am)	Chestnut and Oak Classes Football Practice at HSW	We are getting ready for the Chatsworth Schools’ Friendly Football Tournament on November 9th with some joint practice at Hall School Wimbledon.
Thursday 19th October (children only event, pm)	Chestnut and Oak Classes visit Wimbledon BookFest	We are delighted to be hearing Katherine Rundell in conversation at Wimbledon BookFest after studying her book, Rooftoppers, last term.
Thursday 19th October (parents welcome, 2:45pm)	Juniors’ Open Classrooms (Willow and Birch)	As we approach the end of this first half term, parents are welcome to come into their child’s classroom to see their wonderful work for themselves.
Friday 20th October (parents welcome, 8:30am)	Juniors Open Classrooms (Chestnut and Oak)	As we approach the end of this first half term, parents are welcome to come into their child’s classroom to see their wonderful work for themselves.
Friday 20th October (9am)	Oak Walk and Talk	Join our Headteacher for a Walk and Talk through Morden Hall Park to ask questions, share ideas and find out more about education in Oak Class.
Friday 20th October	End of Half Term	Have a fun and restful two weeks and we will see you again on Monday 6th November!

Welcome from our Headteacher

Welcome and good afternoon,

This week the emphasis is on school culture and ethos, particularly the value of mutual respect.

This connects to the five British Values of democracy, the rule of law, celebration and respect for others family choices, culture and religion and the individual right for everyone to go about the business of life in a spirit of mutual respect.

The business of life for children is play. On this last that includes the rights of children to play freely, provided it is safe for themselves and respects others.

We will be covering our school culture and our hopes and expectations for it on Wednesday evening, please do join us via zoom for this presentation and question session.

As you know from previous Nutshells, we have been concentrating on getting the culture right for lunchtime, and that is why we are trialling a new timetable. The playtimes are equally important. For some children it takes a little time to become a skilled respectful play companion, one month into the school year we are identifying some who may need respectful play messages backed up at home. This is part of our partnership with you. Thank you for your understanding in advance.

Best wishes,

Sarah

Announcements, Reminders and Important Information

New Starter:

Please join us in welcoming Ferne Dunn and her family to our school. Ferne joined us in Bluebell Kindergarten for her first official day on Friday. We trust that our supportive parent community will make this new family feel at home here.

Snack for Snack Time:

Thank you to parents for your appreciative feedback on the school making changes to children’s eating times.

As we get into a new rhythm with snack and lunch, please help by providing your child with a portable snack (such as a banana, oatcakes or a cereal bar) that they can eat outside at playtime. Lunch (including hot thermos of food) should be eaten at lunch time and the younger children should clearly know what food is for snack time and what is for lunchtime. Bins are provided at snack time for any rubbish.

Thank you for your support in making this transition easier.

Coach Jody’s Half-Term Sports Camp:

Book your spot for our half-term camp 23 Oct – 3 Nov.

ALL BOOKINGS & ENQUIRIES TO:

CoachJody01@gmail.com

Limited space available.

Kindergarten News

With summer warmth lingering in Autumn winds, we had a very productive week! We were busy making lanterns: learning to fold the lines, to use scissors and to apply glue. We dug deep holes to plant tulip bulbs and watered them. Children were already checking if our bulbs had grown the next day! We cleaned the wax stuck on candle holders, so they will be ready to be used for the Lantern Festival. We are so proud that we can do so many things with our hands!

When the chill in the air was felt, you can discover cozy homes and comfy beds in every corner of the Kindergarten. Rooms with different functions in big house and beds to be shared with friends. During outdoor time, the best way to warm ourselves up has been big-rope skipping. Another popular option has been getting on a hula-hoop train. Seats were limited, so one must grab a seat whenever it was available. This week we also celebrated lovely Adeline’s birthday together and welcomed the very gentle Ferne to our Kindergarten! What a wonderful week it had been!

Junior School News

Willow Class brought in baby photos in a special lesson looking at their personal history. A lovely moment to bring home into school and learn more about one another. Also, last week, Willow Class were challenged in Science when exploring the sense of sight by guiding each other to build towers with their eyes closed!

Birch Class have progressed from looking at large-scale calendar time to the hours and minutes of the day, comparing analogue to digital time. It is always a joy to see how well this class works together to solve problems in Maths.

Chestnut Class have been reviewing converting between 12hr and 24hr clocks in Maths, creating Viking trading route board games in Humanities, and completing their version of the Norse Creation Myth and annotated Yggdrasil drawing. They can’t wait to show you their beautiful book work at Open Classrooms next week.

Oak Class have been tested with their seven times table knowledge recently, all completing the challenge of 150 questions! They have also continued to dive into personal family stories from WW1.

Woodland Craft News

Wet weather gear

Milder weather has made wet weather gear inessential this week, but we are grateful for the efforts families are putting in to ensure the full kit is ready in school. Next week should be mild and dry, but of course, autumn is drawing in, and it is good not to let the cold and wet stop us.

Willow Class

We wallowed in the sky-high patterns of leaves and varying autumn leaf colours on the ground this week, as well as learning bird songs and the Apple Tree song. There was also great care put into mixing exactly the right texture of mud as ‘glue’ for building their den – an ancient construction material, discovered afresh by the children. ‘Don’t waste it!’ said one. ‘I’m making soup for you’, said another.

Birch Class

Some Birch class students loved crushing their hawthorn berries and rosehips in readiness for cooking, while others using our hand-ground powders of charcoal, chalk and ochres as paint, skilfully advising on water and glue, getting the consistency right ‘perhaps a little more glue? Then brushed or dribbled it well, freely and quickly with good results. Well done painters and cooks!

Chestnut and Oak Classes

Some very imaginative games went on, and some children practised whittling spirals in fresh willow wood too, after a bit more work on the spirit shields, transferring paper designs onto cloth. These are based on the Plains Indian People’s tradition of Spirit Shields, and as the designs have evolved we’ve been reflecting on what gives each person their sense of strength and connection to the world.

The source book for this project has been Seven Arrows, by Hyemeyohsts Storm (Ballantine Books, New York, 1972)