A WEEK AT SCHOOL - HEAD TEACHER'S BLOG
September 2024
September 13th
Lots to look forward to with the summer fete on 27th, and before that you can 'meet the teacher' on the 20th. October will bring us 'Black History Month' and 'Harvest' before we get to the spooky disco being organised by our fabulous friends at FOSP.
When our children go to the hall for PE they take off their shoes and socks and put them together. Please do name everything! It is easy to see how young children get in a muddle. Please have a peek at their jumpers and other items too, in case names have rubbed or been washed up. It's already started happening. 
We do our best to return items to children and naming them will really help.
Year 6
Spencer C came to tell me all about y6 this week. He said they have been working on fractions, but have also looked at the place value of digits upto 1,000,000. He said the best6 two things have been, designing cam toys and making a suspense story...can't wait to read those.
Year 5
Freddie said in year 5 they have been learning about Alice In Wonderland in English. They've been thinking about writing with description for the characters. His best two things were WRE and PSHE. In World Religion Education they looked at the Hindu symbols and meanings. Friendships was the theme for Personal,Social and Health Education. A healthy friendship is kind and caring. It is also encouraging. Friends are pleased for you when you do well.
Year 4
Daniel and Lexi came together. They have been rounding to the nearest tens and hundreds. The focus in English has been a story about a beetle and a sand monster. Through this they have been identifying the vocabulary for their Egyptian topic, as well as things like similes, adjectives, commas and full stops, semi-colons. Lexie really liked the new neon colour that the PSHE books came in, when they were learning about friendships at the start of term. They compared positives and negatives. She chose two octopuses, one squirted in when it was scared. Daniel chose Ronaldo and Messi.
Year 3
Isabelle came prepared. She had written about her week.
'In maths we have been representing numbers to a thousand. In English we have been making a text map and using conjunctions. In WRE we have been learning about sikhism. In geography we have been learning how a mountain is formed. In guided reading we read a book called Lilly Par Scores! In Science we have been learning about rocks and fossils.
Year 2
Isla said "We have been learning about Little Red Riding Hood a bit differently". They did some investigation about who brought the basket. They are still hunting for clues, and finding bits of broken purple rope. "Every day we do a book vote. We find our coloured discs and put it in the basket for the book we want. Today we will read Princess and the Pea." Throughout school we teach children that they have a voice, and can be democratic.
Year 1
Mrs Finch was excited when year 1 treated Ted to a ball. He visited for the day, and the children made him a crown, took his photos and showed him how to dance. This was part of the 'Talk for Writing' work that the children do, to help them learn to write with full sentences, great ideas and strong vocabulary.
Reception
This week we have bene learning the rules and routines. They have learned the phrase CHOOSE IT, USE IT, PUT IT AWAY. One of the routines is the lunchtime boogie. The children have enjoyed the car washing. The children have been designing and making rockets in their free flow. They have been exploring what resources are in the different areas, and how to use them safely.
Nursery
Children have been exploring inside and outside. They have been getting to know each others names. Each child has learned to find their own name on their rocket when they arrive too. Turn taking skills have been a focus for the children through lots of different activities, games and adult interactions.
A reminder from Mrs Mutch is to remember those wellies for our outside learning.
Some children have already earned stars in the jars this week for making excellent choices. These will accrue house points right from the start.
HEAD TEACHER AWARDS - Frederico was very patient with me, and ensured I did not miss off the award he earned on Friday for his excellent work in design and technology. Well done. Matilda earned her award for her fabulous independent sentence writing. Excellent.
BUCKET FILLERS - Ethan, Sonny, LIlly, Hiba, Jack and Alara earned their certificates this week. It is fantastic to hear that the children are being kind and helpful to each other, as well as all the adults - not just the teachers. Keep it up children.
GOLDEN TICKETS - Mrs McKenzie gave out golden tickets this week in assembly. Mrs McKenzie is in school to help our children with all sorts of things, whether they are at home things, or in school things. The children get to know her and enjoy the positivity. This week, Mrs McKenzie took responses for Phil Good's question of the week: What was the most exciting thing you did this summer? Explain"
"I went on holiday it was really fun because I made a friend at the Isle of Wight and I ate the biggest marshmallow ever, it was bigger than my hand. Soon I am going to Spain to see a family member." Jake Year 5
"Having a sleepover." Ralph Year 3
"I went to the park and I went on a swing." Matei Year 1
SHEPHALBURY L.E.A.R.N.E.R.S. Showed lots of creativity and have been growing with resilience too. The determination and perseverance shone through.
Mr Haslet has become firm friends with TED. Ted always shows 'in'ted'grity. This was Mrs Finch's first assembly. We say that integrity is when we do the right thing even if no one is watching. The two rules Mrs Finch and TED abide by at all times are BE KIND and BE HELPFUL.
This week Mr Haslet let Ted go to spend time in y6. He had special help from Ephraim and from Frederico. Mrs Finch also had special help with the house points too. There were so many with lots of extra reading happening.
DATES COMING UP - please use the calendar link here and sign up to the calendar if you want it to go direct to your phone.
September 6th
Its been a wonderful first week back. Only 3 days, but so much has happened already. Thank you to everyone who joined us for a meet and greet so far. Next week we will be looking at Year 6 job roles, and of course our house captains.
Our children have already been earning lots of house points. We reward each and every time they read. It is so important for language development,. That supports critical thinking in every way.
In assembly we learned what Mrs Finch's two favourite rules are - being KIND and being HELPFUL. We also learned about the word INTEGRITY. We learned it means 'doing the right thing even if noone is looking'. The children have really been true to these ideas this week. Well done.
Scroll down for a flavour of what has happened in each year group, and to see photos of our awards.
Year 6
Roma went to see Mrs Finch about what she was was learning. She said, "In year 6 maths we have been doing some place value with Miss Maggs. We are going to be learning to go up to a million. We learned about fractions too with Mrs Oustayiannis. We learned to simplify numbers and which were equivalent.' The Harry Potter theme of the class really stood out to Roma. DT was an excitement for Friday - learning about mechanics and cam. Roma found the learning in Science interesting. She especially enjoyed making the poster about sources of light. They saw what a 'cross-section' picture of what our eyeball looks like in the inside.
Year 5
Lillyanna shared the year 5 learning with Mrs Finch. "In english we've been learning about Alice in Wonderland. My favourite bit was when Alice grew and shrank to get through the doors", she said. "In maths we've been learning about Roman numerals as well as using the place value counters for numbers with four digits". Lillyanna showed Mrs Finch a Hindu greeting using 'namaste'. She said it was a bit scary going to year 5 the first time, but she's used the new classroom already. "year 5 learn about the victorians. We put the date in chronological order"
Year 4
In English, the children have been learning the features of fantasy stories. They have been sequencing with cartoon strips. In guided reading the class have been looking at the book Pompeii. This is linked to the unit in Geography called 'Extreme Earth'. In maths children have been remembering the work they did last year, such as 100s 10s and ones, along with the 5 times tables.
Year 3
Ralph keenly explained that the class is "enjoying the fun".
Children in year 3 have already begun the Geography unit on 'Extreme Earth'. They have been identifying the human features and the physical features. Maths has been all about splitting numbers into their hundreds tens and ones, sometimes more! This helps children to add and subtract more easily.
Year 2
Grayson was very happy to tell us "we've been learning about shapes". The class have been on a shape hunt. He said "We found 40 different shapes". The class talked about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. Can you find more at home. Where are they, how many edges do they have? How many faces does each shape have?
Year 1
Children in year one have been learning to put their writing on the line. They have remembered to use finger spaces when forming their letters. There have been lots of exciting sentences used. They have also been counting and using numbers in lots of ways, including when they have been exploring in the freeflow areas.
Reception
Children in reception have proudly shown their animal stickers for dancing. They have been counting, drawing, climbing and dangling. These are all essential skills. They have been practising their letters with phonics and playing games together.
Nursery
children in nursery had a special visit from Mrs Mutch and Mrs Lee. They were getting to know the families. 'We are looking forward to seeing them in their groups next week!' said Mrs Mutch.
Head teachers awards
Lenny came with his first piece of work for 'World Religion Education'. He was Mrs Finch's first head teacher award at Shephalbury Park. He was able to talk about the facts he had learned from Hinduism, and made comparisons with other world religions. Well done Lenny.
Molly shared the holiday book she had made. It contained lots of amazing sentence writing and her own pictures. Molly remembered what she had done and was able to read back her ideas. She was very proud to share a song too. The words about her holiday were matched to a tune she knew well. Great work Molly.
Bucket Fillers
Dominica, Tommy, Kane, Leonardo and Lilley filled their adult buckets this week by showing their enthusiasm for learning, showing how to include other people in games, helping each other with learning and fun. They made us very proud this week.
Learner certificates
McKenzie, Louis, Albie, Roco, Melissa and Spencer proudly earned L.E.A.R.N.E.R. certificates this week. Showing this week's value from our Monday assembly - INTEGRITY. They were able to stretch themslves, to grow their learning, to solve problems and think more deeply.