Upcoming Diary Dates
| This week | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 18th June | Midsummer Festival – children only event |
An opportunity to reflect and look forwards as we approach the Summer Solstice, traditionally burning worries about the past and igniting wishes and dreams for the future.
|
| Friday 21st June | Parent Workshop – Challenging Behaviour (Role Play Inspirations for Conflict)
9am- 10am |
Jo Pearce, our Little Acorns Leader, leads an interactive parent workshop to explore different ways of dealing with challenging behaviour through role play. This is suitable for parents with children of different ages. If you are interested, please email: jo@thelondonacornschool.co.uk
|
| Friday 21st June | Meet and Greet for Parents with next year’s Birch Class Teachers, Chantel Martins and Martin Cooper
10:30am-11am |
Current Willow Parents are invited to come and meet Chantel and Martin to find out more about teaching for next year’s Birch Class, hosted by SLT with a Q&A session. |
| Friday 21st June |
Sports (Bonding) Day- Whole School and Parents/Carers/Families Invited 11am |
Families, please join us for the second year running of Coach Jody’s Sports (Bonding) Day. A chance to play a range of different sports with your child on the meadow and enjoy a picnic afterwards together.
Please bring plenty of water, sun protection and a seat or blanket to sit on. The schedule will be as follows: 11am -12pm – Junior Games with Parents 12pm -12:15pm – Break (a chance to refuel and relax) 12:15pm -12:45pm – Kindergarten Obstacle Course 12:45pm – 1pm – Games for all 1pm – End of school day. Please feel free to stay and continue enjoying your picnic. Clubs will be running as usual. |
| Next week | Event |
Details
|
|
Monday 24th June |
Meet and Greet for Parents with next year’s Willow Class Teacher, Emily Cook
8:30am-9:15am |
Current Reception and Year 1 Parents are invited to come and meet Emily Cook to find out more about teaching for next year’s Willow Class, including an example phonics lesson and a Q&A session hosted by SLT.
|
| Friday 28th June | Open Day
11:30am-1pm |
Our last Open Day of this academic year. Please share with friends who may be interested in securing a last-minute place for September 2024: Open Day |
Welcome from our Headteacher
Welcome everyone,
‘Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood’
Friedrich Froebel (1782 – 1851)
I hope you are having a good start to your week. The children had such a good week playing last week, with their session on Friday break so full of such positive and explorative activities, all driven by the children themselves.
Friedrich Froebel had a great deal to say about children’s play. What a wonderful, curious and observant early educator he was, and how much joy and interest he took in watching children at work playing. He felt that, when they play with concrete objects, children construct their understanding of the world through direct experience. As parents and carers we have a unique opportunity to observe our children in play, without getting involved. It is so telling about what individual children seek and need, and about the extent of their capabilities.
This was much in evidence on Friday with junior children. Four children constructed a super complex high building, with lots of interesting details, combining natural materials from the garden with building blocks of different sizes. They were really proud of this proof of their powers of creative expression, and sought to have it photographed. Meanwhile, two others were deep in an origami session, one teaching the other how to make ‘flying saucers’ out of paper. They were pleased to demonstrate the results, but mainly absorbed in how they could transform materials. At the same time, a group of girls was deeply engaged in making homes for insects and caring safely for a bumble bee, they wanted to create mini environments. Another mixed group used a tyre and hoops to create an innovative target game with beanbags, seeking movement and also a chance to test their strength and aim skills.
I am so proud that so much of this play was using creativity and collaboration, which reflects the Steiner tradition where play is the children’s work and where every class group can become a powerful learning machine, working beyond the scope of the individual. Current thinking on the future of work implies a significant shift from fixed team structures to flexible project teams – it looks like our children will make great future citizens!
Best wishes for a great week,
Announcements, Reminders and Important Information
30 HOURS FREE CHILDCARE:
We are pleased to announce that we are now able to offer eligible parents 30 hours of funded childcare alongside the 15 hours we already operate for children under 5. Please follow the attached link to check your eligibility.
A FEW MORE TWEAKS TO SUMMER CALENDAR:
Please check the Summer Calendar below for a few tweaks at the end of term, including:
Meet and Greet New Class Teachers: Martin and Chantel on Friday 21st June (next year’s Birch Class), Emily Cook on Monday 24th June (next year’s Willow Class)
Singing Concert on Friday 5th July at 12:30 pm, parents invited, followed Leavers’ Lunch for Oak and Chestnut.
Kindergarten Leavers’ Ceremony now on Tuesday 9th July at 2:30 pm.
We will say goodbye to all our leavers with a leaver arch outside of school at pick-up on Wednesday 10th afternoon at 3:15 pm.
Kindergarten News
Linden trees are covered in fragrant pale yellow flowers. Mayflowers turn into little hawthorn berries. Bunches of helicopter seeds are hanging on maples. Horse chestnut trees have started to form baby conkers. Children have been busy collecting these treasures from the trees or picking up the fallen ones from the ground. We also set out for adventures in the long grass, saying hello to dragonflies, grasshoppers and butterflies. When playing at back garden, Kinde children have fun with hula hoop trains, castle building and big rope skipping. The temperature might have stayed in spring, nature’s pace and our foot steps have moved towards summer.
In the last half term of the year, we have observed the increasing complexity in children’s drawings as well as better collaboration during indoor play. We purposefully increase the length of stories during story time and are pleased to see children staying attentive till the end. This week we did sun-weaving during craft session. Thank you Jo, Little Acorns leader, for kindly bringing us the willow branches!
Junior School News
Willow Class:
Willow Class have been learning all about measurement in Maths this half term. We’ve been measuring our heights, measuring our classroom, even measuring the back garden. We’ve been learning to use different weighing scales and the relationship between grams and kilograms. Now, we are going to start learning more about money! Asking your children to buy something with coins and notes in a shop and checking that they get the correct change will aid their learning in school.
Birch Class:
Birch Class are learning about Ancient Egypt this half term and have been exploring the geography, myths and history, and engineering of this civilisation. For instance, last week the students worked together to make a shaduf, a hand-operated device for lifting water.
Chestnut and Oak Class:
Updated Summer Term Calendar 2024
