NEWSLETTER 5 th July 2019

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Ditton Hill Road, Long Ditton, Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 5JB T: +44 (0)20 8398 4398 http://longditton.surrey.sch.uk [email protected]

Dear Parents and Carers

Gosh it feels as if we are racing towards the end of term now and there is hardly time to stop and catch a breath! During this very busy, warm and light night time it is important to try to take 5 or 10 minutes to stop still and breathe. Take a mindful moment, say thank you for how lucky we are – and then back to it!

Open Afternoon/Evening

Thank you for coming to support your children and our school at the open evening. It was brilliant to see so many of you there and I know the children all loved showing you their work over the year, their classrooms and their new teachers.

Congratulations Mrs MacIver!

Mrs MacIver is expecting a baby! I know you will join with the school to say congratulations to her and her husband and family. Mrs MacIver will be starting her maternity leave after October half term so those children in Year 1 who will be in Husky Class will have Mrs MacIver as their class teacher until October. We will be recruiting for a maternity cover teacher in the Autumn term and I will keep the parents and carers of Husky class informed on our progress.

Mrs Irwin is Retiring

After 27 years of working at Long Ditton Infant and Nursery School the wonderful Mrs Irwin will be retiring and her final day with us is Thursday 18^th July. Mrs Irwin has been a dedicated teaching assistant, a one to one support and more recently our special needs assistant. She has worked with over 800 children during her time at Long Ditton and made sure that each one of them has made

progress and developed their personal and social skills. I know you will join with us all to wish her an awesome retirement filled with adventures and memory days. We will miss her very much indeed! Multi-Cultural Week

Next week is ‘Multi-Cultural’ week and we will be learning about different countries around the world. Each class has chosen a different country to learn about:

Amethyst – Poland Diamond – Belgium Moonstone – France Sapphire – Australia

Ruby – Italy Topaz – Russia Nursery – Sri Lanka

During the week each class will study where the country is in relation to the UK, different foods, the flag of the country, to learn about the currency, passports, suitcases, facts, entertainment (dancing), travelling to the country and will make something that represents that country. Where possible special visitors will be coming in to talk to the children.

Next Friday will be a ‘multi-cultural’ change around morning. The children will all come into the hall to be taken on a ‘magic carpet’ ride to another country. Each class will visit two other classes to experience what it is like in those countries. The children will be asked to dress up in something that represents the country they have learned about – but please do not go spending lots on outfits! The colours of the flag, swapped/re-used costumes or made at home costumes are always better – and more eco-friendly!

LATEST NEWS

NEWSLETTER

5

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July 2019

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The teachers will be ‘Magic Carpet’ cabin crew this year.

Potatoes!

Today in celebration assembly we took a moment to pick the potatoes we have been growing this year. We weighed them, talked about the type of potatoes they are and what we do with potatoes. We have grown 17kg of potatoes! Now they are going to go to St Mary’s Juniors to be cooked for us for lunch next week! The staff in St Mary’s kitchen have agreed to cook the potatoes one day next week so that the children can begin to get an idea of the importance of knowing where food comes from and how we use it. We will let you know next week how tasty they were!

Golden Manners Table

The children chosen for the Golden Manners table are the ones who always say please and thank you, use their knives and forks, eat with their mouths closed, pick up the food that falls on the floor and are polite to all the staff who help at lunchtimes. This week the people who demonstrated this were Oliver, Evelyn, Nancy, Ava, Parth, Anya, Miller and Destiny. We talked about their weekend activities and holidays to come!

Birthday Books

Thank you to Omar, Ethan C and Ella for choosing a birthday books to share with their classes.

Class with the most attendance

This week’s class with the most attendance is Ruby with 98.6%. Well done Ruby class!

Battery recycling

Thank you to everyone who has brought in batteries so far. The children have enjoyed counting the batteries as they post them in the big battery outside the school office!

Thought for the Week

The new Value for the month is ‘Courage’. This is an important Value for us because it allows us to help the children understand about change and how they can best manage their feelings through

change. This is an important life skill to learn – remember that one of the certainties in life is that things will always change! Understanding your feelings towards this but accepting change takes time and understanding. For the first ‘courage’ thought for the week:

‘The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting for the old but on building the new. If you have the courage to start you have the courage to succeed.’ Socrates.

Have a beautiful weekend! Mrs Paines

Library

From Monday 8th July the children will just return all their library books. Our wonderful band of library helpers will be sending home notes with the titles of books we think you may still have at home. Having the titles helps you to check at home; however, we do appreciate that sometimes the children return the books to the class box or home reading boxes by accident. So please do not worry if you check at home and can't find them!

It is Book Amnesty Week from Monday 15th July! Please return any school or school library books you find at home. There will be a clearly labelled box in the bike shed. It doesn't matter how many you have or how long you have had them....we will just be pleased to have them back!

Thank you to the amazing team who have maintained the library and the children's library visits this year. You have made a great difference to the children and their love of reading. Thank you from all of us!

Are you or your child feeling anxious?

At this time of year with the build up to moving into new classes, year groups and school, it is very normal for many children, parents and teachers to be feeling anxious, to varying degrees.

I recently attended a workshop on supporting children with anxiety and wanted to share some of the thoughts from the Educational Psychologists that I think you will also find interesting and helpful. Anxiety is a word used to describe feelings of unease, fear, worry.

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Anxiety is a NORMAL EMOTION – it helps us cope with difficult, challenging or dangerous situations. Anxiety is COMMON – there are times when we all feel worried, anxious, uptight or stressed.

But anxiety is a PROBLEM WHEN IT STOPS YOU from enjoying normal life by affecting school, family relationships or social life. This is when ANXIETY TAKES OVER.

Feeling anxious can cause physiological reactions which in turn, can increase the anxious thoughts and feelings, which then increases the physical symptoms!

Children need us to help them break this cycle and we can do this by:

 Listening. to and empathising with their worries e.g. Using emotions coaching e.g. “I can see you feel worried and it is Ok to feel worried.”

 Helping them to look for small, solutions focused steps, e.g. once they have identified what they are worried about, help them work out if there is anything they can do straight away and/or in the future to help them reduce their anxiety.

 Reducing their physiological symptoms so they are more able to manage their thoughts and feelings. For example:

-Mindful, deep breathing

-Relaxing different parts of the body (body scan idea where start by tensing and relaxing toes, feet, legs, buttocks, fingers hands, arms, shoulders etc )

-Meditation for children

-Ensuring they get plenty of sleep to help emotional well-being and to help them manage anxiety

-Providing a well-balanced diet to improve their mood, give them more energy and to help them to think more clearly

-Providing opportunities for them to get physical exercise as it is proven to help to de stress and emotionally regulate

Please do talk to your class teacher or myself if the strategies don’t seem to be helping your child manage any anxiety they may be feeling.

Mrs Emmett

Nursery

It has been a marvellous magical week in the Nursery, we have explored all sort of magical stories and have been talking about imagination. The children have been describing their own amazing stories and looking at the way that a story is structured, beginning, middle and end.

We have explored concepts of size and shape as part of the week and have been experimenting with counting actions and sounds (claps, music etc) We have spent lots of time outdoors in the playground, on the trim trail and over in the woodland area enjoying the warm weather.

Next week, as it is multi-cultural week, we will be looking at stories from around the world. If you have a story in your home that you would like to share, then please sent it in.

We will also be exploring our country for the week, Sri Lanka. We will look at the country, food and wildlife and we will be taking part in the whole school International day on Friday, when the other classes will be able to visit Sri Lanka in our Nursery. If they would like to, the children can wear clothes in the colours of the Sri Lankan flag (yellow, red, orange, green).

As you are aware, on Tuesday we are having our Nursery celebration day and we hope to see you there either in the morning or afternoon! For more information, please see the letter sent home today. Have a happy weekend

The Nursery Team  Nursery Diary Dates

Tuesday 9^th July 10.15am or 1.20pm – end of year outdoor learning and minibeasts celebration – see letter sent out today. Please return the reply slip on Monday or email the school office.

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Reception

This week we have been continuing our topic of Sea Creatures and Under the Sea. Children have been sharing the facts they learnt about their chosen sea creature to the rest of the class. We were amazed with all facts. Did you know that sea otters fall asleep ‘holding hands’ so that they do not get lost? In literacy, we finished our fact files on sea creatures. In maths, we revisited the topics of addition and subtraction. Recapping what we had already learnt, children used objects to work out sums independently.

Reception children visited their new classes on Wednesday and met their new Year 1 teacher. As part of the introduction to Year 1, children had circle time and talked about what they wanted to achieve in the coming year. They also learnt about the dog their class will be named after, either Dalmatian class or Husky class. Children made a piece of art based on their class dog, this will be displayed in their new classroom in September. Next week is Multi-Cultural week at school. It is a very exciting week where children will be learning about different countries and cultures. Ruby class will be learning about Italy and Topaz class about Russia. As part of the week children will be learning a dance, eating food from that country and learning about the traditions and customs. On Friday, the whole school will be exploring each classroom and learning about all the countries children have studied in the week. On this day, children can come to school in a traditional outfit from that country (if you have one) or the colours of the country’s flag.

Key vocabulary: country, traditions, flag, travelling, exploring, adventure

 Home learning ideas

 Research some facts about your chosen country

 Draw your country’s flag, what does each colour represent?

 Make a collage of your chosen country using photos/pictures

Dates for your diary

Wednesday 10^th July: Hampton Court celebration event

Friday 12^th July: Multi-Cultural Day

Please return any library books and home school reading books next week. We will not be sending home anymore books or word boxes for the remainder of the term. There will also be no FRED.

Have a great weekend, The Reception Team

Year 1

This week in literacy we have been looking at a piece of art work called ‘Beach Scene’ by Degas which was painted in 1869. We looked carefully at what we could see and imagined we were jumping into the picture. We then wrote a number of different questions we would like to ask someone in the picture. We had to remember to start with a question word and put a question mark at the end. We also had the opportunity to write a postcard from the perspective of the girl in the picture. In maths, we have been solving subtraction missing number problems e.g. 10 - __ = 6. We used a number line to work out the answer by starting on the 6 and working out how many jumps it is to 10. We have also been learning about number fact families and how they are connected. We started by looking at three numbers e.g. 4, 6 and 10. We then thought about the different number sentences we could make using these numbers. We started by thinking of addition number sentences e.g. 4 + 6 = 10 and then the other way around 6 + 4 = 10. We then looked at what subtraction number sentences we could make e.g. 10 – 4 = 6 and 10 – 6 = 4.

This week we had the chance to visit our new classes and meet our new teachers. We were really proud of the children for being so grown up with the changes. We have done lots of work recently on making new friends and the importance of this. However, the teachers have worked hard to ensure the children are with at least one person that they asked to be with.

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In P.H.S.E this week, we have been talking about different changes that the children may face and how they might feel during these. We then spoke about how to cope with changes and the importance to speak to an adult when feeling worried.

Home learning ideas:

 Solve some subtraction missing number problems e.g. 16 - __ = 12

 Write about something in the perspective of someone else e.g. could be writing about parent’s day pretending to be them.

Show and tell – Giraffes (this term our show and tell theme will be the seaside)

Reminders

 Next week is multicultural week, if you haven’t already done so, please let us know about food allergies as we will be trying a selection of different foods.

 Friday - Dress up in colours from country flag (Moonstone - France, Sapphire- Australia)

Year 2

Another busy week for Year 2! On Monday we visited St Mary’s Juniors to watch the Year 6 Leavers’ Production which was brilliant. We have also been practising our own Leavers’ Assembly. Please help us to learn our words off-by-heart at home. We have been very excited to visit our new schools and meet our new teachers.

In Maths we have been using our skills to estimate the volume of liquid in different containers. We then used measuring jugs and cylinders to accurately measure the liquid in millilitres. We also compared the capacity of containers of different sizes and shapes and estimated which we thought would have the greatest and smallest capacity.

In Literacy we used all of our knowledge of the Great Fire of London to write a gripping newspaper report for the London Gazette. We created lots of attention grabbing headlines, such as “Devastating Fire Destroys London!” We also thought of questions we would have liked to ask the different people involved in the disaster, Thomas Farriner,

Samuel Pepys and King Charles II, for example, to find out more information and their opinions of what happened.

Homework: Please help your child to learn their words for our Leavers’

Assembly. Also the words for our song, “When I grow up” from the musical, “Matilda”. Key vocabulary: estimate, compare, millilitres, litres,

capacity, volume, headline, sub-heading. Next week will be Multicultural Week.

Amethyst will be finding out all about Poland and Diamond will be focusing on Belgium. We will be tasting food from our country, learning a dance, and listening to traditional music. We will also find out about the art and culture, the currency, and what makes that country unique. On Friday we will all be boarding magic carpet sto visit some of the other countries and join in with activities to share what we have learnt.

Diary dates - Tuesday 16^th July

 9:15am Leavers’ Assembly & Graduation followed by a picnic and games for the children in our woodland area. Children to bring in their own picnic of their favourite foods.

 2:00 – 3:00pm Year 2 Leavers’ Disco. Children to bring in a change of clothes for the Disco.

Friends

Nearly there. Just a few more weeks of fundraising fun!

Thank you to Sapphire class for today's ice lolly sale. Next week its the turn of Amethyst class. Tickets for next Thursday’s Quiz Night are now on sale. It will be held in the school hall between 7.30 and 9.30pm and the cost will be £5. We will have a bar accepting cash and card payments and you are welcome to bring your own nibbles or buy from the Halloumi Bites van that will be parked outside. Each class will have a table to join or you can form your own team. There will be tables at the back for non-quizzers to join us for a drink if preferred and

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then at 9.30 we will be heading over to the George Evelyn for end of year drinks, all welcome.

School Garden: Thanks to Desiree and Richard Jones for planting up the new garden and cutting the bushes on what felt like the hottest day of the year. Thank you to everyone who has donated money for plants, the Rubens and Jensen families. Thanks to the plants that were donated too. There will be more planting once they stop struggling in the heat. If you have any more plant donations or money donations for the garden, please let Desiree know on [email protected] or leave them in the shed marked Desiree.

Class reps 2019/20:

Thanks to those who have volunteered for Nursery and Reception. We still need some volunteers for Yr1 and a job share in Yr2 for Labrador class. This is open to anyone. This year we even have some Dads stepping up for the role of class rep.

And finally please get donating towards our Dragon Boat virgin money giving total.

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-

web/charity/displayCharityCampaignPage.action? charityCampaignUrl=DragonBoatRace2019

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ACHIEVEMENTS

ValueStars: Courage

Golden Certificates:

Credit Card:

Outside

Achievements:

Jacob A

Jihu

Eilidh

Anna

Riley E

Diamond class

George

Archie

Ruby class

Betsy

Sapphire class

Carlos

Tate

Olly

Rayaan

Poppy H

Ava D-F

Toby

William

Riley E

Joe

Charlotte B – 7

Omar – 4

Ella – 5

Ethan C – 7

Martha passed the 5

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Award at Gymnastics and received a certificate

Iromi took part in a ballet and tap show at Epsom Playhouse

Megan was awarded Duckling 4 Swim England certificate

Parth was awarded Stage 1 Learn to Swim certificate

Eleanor was awarded 5m Rainbow Distance swimming certificate

Harrison received his Duckling 2 Swim England badge

Quentin was invested as a Beaver

Rebecca received 5m Rainbow Distance swimming award

Charlie H passed 5

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Award badge at Gymnastics

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July 2019

Monday 8

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Start of Multi-cultural week

Tuesday 9

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Nursery picnic 10.15am / 1.20pm

Wednesday 10

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10.00am French/Spanish clubs assembly

Thursday 11

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2.15pm Rocksteady concert

Friday 12

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Multi-cultural day - Dress up as class country / flag day

Monday 15

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Transition week

Tuesday 16

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9.15am Yr 2 Leavers’ Assembly

 2.00-3.00pm Yr 2 Leavers’ Disco

Wednesday 17

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Nursery last day - finishes for summer holidays

Friday 19

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9.15am Church Assembly at St Mary’s Church – all welcome

 1.30pm school closes for the summer holidays

DIARY DATES

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EVENTS / ACTIVITES (outside of school) / School Adverts

Please note the school does not promote or endorse any children’s clubs or activities advertised.