24 October 2019

Dear Parents   I start this week’s newsletter with an appeal. One of our parents is struggling with transport issues. The family live on the Walshes and are presently walking to school. This has become increasingly difficult with young children as you can imagine. If there is anyone who feels they could help out with a lift , just for one child,  we would be extremely grateful. Even if you can only manage a few days that would be a massive help. Please contact either myself or the school office if you can offer assistance. Thank you.

Our  ever popular PTA children’s cake sale was held on Tuesday. Thank you to all the Year 6 parents who donated cakes so generously.  A fabulous £40 was raised so a massive thank you from the children to everyone who made it such a successful and enjoyable event. Thank you also to the mums who came to sell the cakes and commented on the children’s beautiful manners.

Last night the annual Autumn disco took place in the school hall and all the children had a wonderful time. Many thanks to everyone who came and especially to the PTA band of parents, Kim Ball, Hannah Gariff, Laura Haynes. Liz Sheerin, Alison Thomas, Karen Blanchfield and Emily and Immy, who worked so hard for the children. Again many thanks to everyone who supported the event

Many children have brought in their shoeboxes for Operation Christmas child. We will be collecting them after half term so if you would like to create a box there is still plenty of time. Please do not feel the boxes have to be filled with expensive gifts, a small notebook, pencils etc from the Pound shop will bring great happiness to children who have very little or indeed nothing at all.

Parents Evening will be held onTuesday 5  November 4.00-7.00pm and Wednesday 6 November 5.00 - 7.00pm. If you have not already done so please sign up for an appointment via the school life app. Please also check the school website for updated calendar dates.After half term all children will all need to wear full winter uniform. This consists of white shirt and tie and trousers for the boys( Red polo shirts are only for summer). The girls winter uniform is white blouse and tie and grey skirt or pinafore. Can I just remind parents that culottes or trousers are not part of our girls uniform and should not be worn.  I know many parents will take their children for haircuts over the half term break. Again we remind you that extreme haircuts are not allowed. Several parents have asked what is the permitted cut and we request a Grade 3 is the shortest. Several children have had extreme haircuts recently and once grown out we request that you adhere to our uniform policy. Thank you for your support and to the many parents who double check with me before taking their child to the hairdressers.

We often celebrate the children’s success out of school activities. It was lovely to hear yesterday of Ryan in Year 4 who at the beginning of term was extremely wary of even putting his face in water at swimming yet has made so much progress he has now achieved his 25 m award, swimming confidently like a fish! A fabulous achievement Ryan, well done!

When we return to school after the half term break we will be selling poppies in school as part of the British Legion’s annual appeal. If you would like your child to purchase a poppy please send them into school with a donation that week. A reminder that flu vaccinations will take place on Monday 4 November.

As I said last week, today we say a sad farewell to Mrs Jones and Mrs Smith, we wish them both much happiness but hope they will come back to visit us at Christmas. They will be greatly missed by us all.

It is hard to believe but we have completed the first half of the Autumn term and there is so much to celebrate. This week the children have completed this term’s’ Discovery topics’ and it has been lovely to walk around the school and see how they have been celebrating and sharing their work. Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who have accompanied us on trips, helped with cookery, art and DT, reading and football. Such support is very much appreciated by the staff. We thought it would be lovely to share some from each year group with you.

This half term has seen Year 6 study the topic: Hola Mexico! The children have developed their map skills and used atlases to discover more about Mexico: its location and both physical and human geographical features. They have examined primary sources to find out more about the ancient Maya, including how they made chocolate! They even tried some chocolate made in the style of the ancient Maya with cinnamon and chilli, which had mixed reviews! In Design and Technology, the children tasted, researched, planned, created and evaluated their own salsa and Aguas Frescas recipes. The finale of our topic was a Mexican Festival to which they invited parents and relatives. TheĀ  parents tasted and judged the salsa and Aguas Frescas and were treated to a performance of the children's ancient Maya inspired musical compositions. The children also taught their parents something they have learned during this topic, activities ranges from long division and relative clauses to map work and a quiz on the farming methods of the ancient Maya. More pictures and details can be found on the school website under the Year 6 page.

Last Friday, Year 2 became mini Beatrix Potters and posted story letters to their friends and family. They worked hard to write a letter with a story in, just like letters that Beatrix Potter sent to her friends. They hope that their friends and families enjoyed receiving this exciting post! Thank you to Mr Walton for collecting this special post from the post box later that morning. The children were rewarded for their hard work by buying some chocolate bars in the shop to use in school in the afternoon in their data handling work in mathematics. The children were also able to practise their road safety skills gained on their recent training. I am very proud to hear how the shop assistant commented on our children’s beautiful manners and behaviour. What an exciting and fun way to learn and apply their maths and English.

On Wednesday, Year 3 held a wonderful 'Tremors' workshop in the hall. They invited Year 1 to come and learn about all the exciting activities that have been happening in Year 3 this half term. The children worked collaboratively to put together presentation stands with topics ranging from tectonic plates to volcanoes to earthquake-proof buildings. Year 1 were delighted to take part in experiments and demonstrations - they even witnessed a volcanic eruption! Mrs James and Mrs Warnett  are extremely proud of Year 3 for their hard work and for their fabulous presentation skills - Year 1 went back to class buzzing with excitement and full of a whole new vocabulary. Well done Year 3!

This half term, in Year 5, we launched the topic ‘Misty Mountain Sierra’ with a walk up to the highest point of the Long Mynd. From the top we enjoyed beautiful views of Shropshire and beyond.

We’ve also learnt about how and why mountains are formed; the climate between 3000 and 8000 metres; the people and wildlife that inhabit mountainous regions and current issues such as melting glaciers and erosion. We studied the water cycle’s course from peak to valley; discussed popular mountain sports; looked into past and present explorers; analysed the risks involved in mountain travel and the equipment needed to survive during high altitude mountaineering expeditions. We’ve all taken on a journey all over the planet without leaving the school!

In the last week of the half term, we also planned our mountain expedition to the Malvern Hills and created a travel package for a mountain range. We’ve had a fabulous time learning all about mountains and are disappointed that we’ve come to the end of this topic. Please have a look at some of the 3D mountains that the children created in the photographs below.

Year One have enjoyed their learning through the Super hero topic this half term. We have found out about how we can look after ourselves using super foods and keeping ourselves well. We also explored our own super powers by investigating our 5 senses. One of the things we enjoyed most was finding out about real life super heroes who work for our emergency services. We also learnt about Mary Seacole who was a super hero from the past. We finished our work by making posters to share with Reception class about how we can be super heroes in our school community by looking after each other and our school environment.

Reception Class have had a wonderful first half term. We have enjoyed learning all about ourseleves and have had a very exciting week finding out all about Autumn. The children have enjoyed finding out about where food comes from, digging for vegetables (linked to their maths and science) and most especially they loved making soup!

Congratulations to all our KS2 children who participated in the recent Cross country competition at the Memorial Park. The children competed with other local schools as part of the Stourport Sports Partnership and enjoyed much success. They returned to school very tired, somewhat muddy and extremely exhilarated. Well done children!

Many congratulations to our Tag rugby competiotors who were awarded their certificates at Celebration Assembly this morning.

Over the duration of this half term, Year 4 have been exploring the country of the United States of America. The children have been exploring geographical language and features of the country, along with developing their map skills to find and locate the country on a world map. They have had the opportunity to research some key physical and human features of the city of New York and have looked into the United States’ past, by understand the Native American people that first lived in this area. We have also spent time studying Times Square and this has inspired us to create electrical circuits to replicate some of the famous advertisement boards that can be seen.

Road Safety test for Year 4

As a school community we have also been supporting others in the world who are not as fortunate as ourseleves through our Harvest sale and charity fundraising.

Thank you again for all your support and we hope you have a lovely half term holiday with your families. We look forward to seeing the children on their return to school on Monday 4 November.

KE Savage

Emmaus CMAC
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