Kamyk Newsletter [27/09/2019]

Primary House Football Competition

It was a busy week in the House Football Competition. In the Year 2 matches, Lednice and Karlstejn played out a thrilling 2-2 draw, before Konopiste swept aside Hluboka with a 6-0 win. In Year 5, Hluboka got some points of their own with a narrow 1-0 victory over Lednice. In the final game of the week, Konopiste beat Karlstejn 3-1.

Next week there will be matches for Year 6 and Year 1. To find out which day the fixtures will be, check your child’s diary.

Hluboká vs Konopiště

Lednice vs Karlštejn

Pre-Nursery

Another fun week for the Pre-Nursery class. We have been busy creating and made autumn trees using balloons, finished our grape pictures from last week and did observational drawings of a brier branch. We loved exploring our new playground equipment and you can see us climbing on some of it in this week’s photos. On Wednesday we had a great time in the gym where we were moving like different animals and playing with balls. On Thursday we celebrated Henry’s birthday. He joined our class on Tuesday and we would all like to wish him a very happy birthday and thank him for preparing yummy cupcakes for us!

On top of all this our teachers have been really pleased to see us start playing together. Learning to interact with other children, share and take turns is always one of the big goals for Pre-Nursery children and so it is amazing to see some aspects of it already happening.

Nursery

Developing an awareness of behavioural expectations and using our manners, such as saying please when we are asking for something and thank you when we receive something, have been on everyday agenda in the Nursery classes. We have been pleased to observe children’s improvement in these areas.

This week we have been focusing on ‘This is Me’ theme. We reviewed our face parts and focused on our body parts. We drew round a body to make a big collage using a variety of different material. The children looked at themselves in the big mirror and were encouraged to name their body parts. The children were supported to draw a picture of themselves, which was a great learning experience. Within Mathematics, we looked at height and compared our height with each other. We practised words such as short, tall, shorter, taller, the shortest and the tallest. The children took part in our handmade body puzzle game. The game contains children’s photographs of their body that are stuck on the wooden blocks. The children enjoyed thinking critically to put the correct pieces together; and it was a challenge since all the children wear a uniform. The children have been encouraged to play with this new puzzle game in their child initiated play time.

Thank you to all the parents who sent us the photographs of their child at their age of 1 year and 2 years old. If you haven’t managed to do that, we would like to ask you to send these to your class teacher by email over the weekend. We will be looking at these at the start of next week.

We would like to inform you that the Nursery A (Lions) have been enjoying their Yoga lesson with Ms Adela and the Nursery B (Tigers) have been developing their physical skills at the gym with Ms Denney this term. The classes will swap next term.

We wish you a lovely and relaxing weekend.

Reception

This week our focus in Maths has been all about shapes! The children have been busy looking for shapes in the environment and using shapes to create some spectacular dinosaurs. We have also been thinking about colours and different shades, the children worked collaboratively to create collages with objects that they found around the classroom.

In phonics we have been thinking about the sounds ‘n, p, and g’ saying the sound they make and listening for them at the beginning and end of words. I wonder if you can spot any objects at home starting with these sounds?

We had a lovely Autumnal walk in the forest, looking at the changing colours of the leaves. We even spotted a few squirrels, spiders and webs! Please remember to bring waterproof clothes as well as wellington boots as it could get quite muddy and we love jumping in puddles!

Year 1

In year 1 this week we have been learning about so many exciting and interesting new things through lots of hands on activities.

We have practised our weather reporting skills, working in groups to describe the weather and reporting back to the rest of the class. We will continue with our reporting next week so we become experts at knowing weather words and symbols. Next week we will be writing our very own postcards, if you have a postcard at home please could you bring it to class on Monday. Thank you.

In maths, we have been 2D sharp, shape hunters, searching for different 2D shapes in the classroom, in the corridors and even outside in the playground. We have looked closely at various 2D shapes and have been finding out how many edges and vertices each 2D shape has. Do you know that a circle has zero vertices?!

Maths has been so exciting and we have linked it with some ICT! We used the Ipads to find ‘real life’ shapes in the environment, take pictures of them then we drew around the shapes we found on the Ipad.

Creative curriculum has been a blast this week, we have been looking at interesting artwork by the Swiss artist Paul Klee. We have been learning lots of facts about Paul Klee and his work and we have been using our shading and tinting skills to recreate some of his work, for example ‘Separation in the Evening’. We have discussed what we like/dislike about his paintings and why.

Thank you to our new House captains for taking the time to come to year 1 and get to know the children as well as helping them with their work.

Please note:

The photos of our camping day experience are now on the VLE, please use this link and enjoy looking through the pictures. We hope you enjoy the photographs as much as we enjoyed the day.

https://pbis.fireflycloud.net/year-1-3/kamyk/year-1-trips-and-events-photo-album

Please remember to:

Label all your child’s clothing.

Bring a swimming hat every Tuesday.

Bring in jogging bottoms on PE days as the weather is changing and it is getting cold outside!

Please help your child with the magic words throughout the week and bring the booklet to school only on Fridays.

Thank you for your support. Have a wonderful weekend.

The Year 1 Team.

Year 2

2A and 2B started the week with a walk to the castle to see examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles of architecture. 2C and 2D have been today. Fairies visited the 2B classroom whilst inspectors looked into the 2C class! The fairies were looking for a new home which amazingly happened to link with our design technology project on designing houses. The inspectors found fantastic teaching and learning happening in 2C - our current class of the week! 2A have been busy using clay to make a tile of the Prague cityscape whilst 2D made silhouettes of the city skyline.

In maths the theme this week has been doubling numbers to a hundred, first we needed to partition the number; 13 is 10 and 3 then double each value - 20 and 6. In English we have finished our first unit on descriptions by writing independently about a scene featuring buildings. Children were encouraged to use adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions and even similes in their writing.

The weather is steadily getting cooler so please send in coats and suitable shoes. Well done Year 2 on all the healthy snacks coming in each day I hope it helps to maintain a strong immune system.

Year 3

In English this week, we have begun to think about different story structures, through exploring books by authors Julia Donaldson, Oliver Jeffers and John Burningham. The children have discovered similarities in the author’s own styles, and then mapped out their favourite story to help them re-tell. In maths, we have been telling the time to quarter, to quarter past, and 5 minute intervals as well as exploring the properties of 3D shapes. Creative Curriculum has continued focussing on Mayan art, as we have been blending oil pastels to create light, shade and depth in large-scale glyphs.

Year 4

We have had another wonderful week in Year 4, the children are really working on our Value of the Month and trying to be more responsible with their property and diaries. The Year 4 team have really appreciated the children and parents writing in the diaries when they read, we will continue to encourage the children to do this as often as they can.

In English this week, we have been researching using books, the internet and making notes. We then used this information to make paragraphs about the rainforest, which was quite tricky! We had to include sentence starters, conjunctions and adjectives to make our writing more exciting, as well as remembering when to start a new paragraph. In addition to writing paragraphs, we explored what life would be like if we lived in the rainforest. We discussed what we could see, touch, smell, taste and hear and thought of how we could adapt without electricity, running water and roads. The children came up with some inventive ideas! We are now working towards writing a diary about life in the rainforest and would encourage children to explore books like Diary of a Wimpy kid and Dork Diaries in the coming weeks.

In Maths, we have revised our 6 and 9 times tables and great strategies to help us solve multiplication problems, such as the grid method. Please encourage your child to continue to work on times tables on https://ttrockstars.com/ . They will help your child in all areas of Maths! We also recapped finding fractions of amounts and starting thinking about telling the time using analogue and digital clocks.

In Creative Curriculum, we have thoroughly enjoyed observing how our broad bean seeds are growing. We are investigating what plants need to grow and have set up a fair experiment in class. We will continue to work on this next week. We have also looked at food chains, making paper chains to represent food chains in the rainforest. We learned some new vocabulary and would encourage you to discuss food chains with your child to help them remember these tricky words: producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, apex predator, decomposer. A few pieces of fantastic homework for the Creative Curriculum project have started coming into school, we are very excited to see the rest over the next few weeks!

Notes:

Please remember to label your child’s clothes, lost property can be found next to the Early years reception and in the PE department.

Please bring in longer trousers for PE and a coat for playtimes, as the weather is getting cooler.

4A and 4B are looking for a volunteer to be a parent representative for the class, please email Mr Jaffari or Mrs Culek if you are interested! Your support is much appreciated.

Year 5

As autumn begins we are continuing with some great learning and fun in Year 5.

In English, we have started to look at interviews and the difference between open and closed questions. This will continue next week as we start to write our own newspaper report. Most children are now very good at recording their reading each evening, please encourage your child to continue with this.

In Maths, we have been working on converting time from the 12 to the 24-hour clock. This is a great skill that you can practise at home. The children have also been trying to get their heads around the difference between am and pm! Next week we will be solving word problems using the formal methods of addition and subtraction.

In our Creative Curriculum, we investigated the Moon and the planets. We also learned how the Earth orbits the Sun and how the Moon orbits the Earth. It lead to some interesting discussions about why we have a 24 hour day and a 365 day year. Our maths topic this week really helped too!

We wish you all a great weekend!

Some reminders:

• Please encourage the children to check our Year 5 VLE regularly as homework and class reminders will be set here.
• Please ensure that the children bring their (named) jumpers and coats with them every day as the weather becomes cooler.

Year 6

In maths this week Y6 have been measuring and converting measurements, in particular investigating length (km, m, cm and mm), weight (kg, g) and time (12 hour clock to 24 hour clock). In English we have been working on writing interesting and engaging character profiles. We have been exploring powerful adjectives to describe ‘Maia’ (the main character in our novel), expressing her physical appearance and her personality.

In our Islands focus we have explored the various types of energy sources available and in particular looked at our case study of the Shetland Islands. We looked at the advantages and disadvantages that different types of energy sources would bring for the economy and the people on the islands. Some students even had a go at making paper wind turbines. In science, we continued to classify animals into Linnaean’s system and then looked at some curious creatures that are a puzzle to classify. Some students even created their own curious creature, that would puzzle any taxonomist!

In art, we put the finishing touches on our still life pastel masterpieces, with some lovely work ready to be displayed around our classrooms.

Of course, the big focus this week as been on our first trip to the islands in Prague to carry out some geography field work. Photos and more details on this to follow in next week’s newsletter.

Next week we will have a visitor join us to help us understand more about Brazil and the situation for the people of Brazil as the fires in the rainforest continue.

Reminders:

We are looking for a Parent Rep for Class 6B, if you are interested please contact Mrs Lawlor

Have a lovely weekend!

Primary Digital Leaders

Introducing the next cohort of PBIS digital leaders:

What is a Digital Leader? The role of the digital leaders team is to support the use of technology, particularly ipads across the school. Digital Leaders do a variety of jobs that include:

• Support the use of iPads and computers in school to support learning

• Share their skills and expertise with other pupils, classes and teachers.

• Assist teachers and other pupils in understanding coding applications.

• Set up equipment in classrooms for teachers.

• Support teachers in using technology in the classroom.

• Have a good understanding of how to stay safe with technology and share that with others.

• Provide first line technical support in school.

• Attend training sessions.

Here are a few quotes from our digital leaders:

“''I want to be a Digital Leader so I can help people get better at computers and make the school better''

''If there are internet problems then there is a 95% chance I can fix it!''

''I love to code! I can make my own apps.''

KS3 Assembly

Last week, on Friday, we had our first official KS3 assembly. With all the students back from their excursions, it was great to be together to start talking about important aspects of the school life.

Mr Baker congratulated the students on their impeccable attitude since the start of the year. We have been very impressed with them so far. We are just completing week 4 and there is a great feel in Kamyk, with students being friendly and communicative, but also openly excited about their learning and various extra-curricular activities.

Ms Hamel then mentioned the importance of Student Leaders in the school community. As a school , we are recruiting a team of motivated students, eager to be involved and to be the intercessors between teachers and students. Interested students have been asked to send an email to Ms Hamel and Mr Baker and we have received quite a few applications. We will interview the students in the coming weeks.

This year, we are implementing a new reward system. In the students' academic passport, teachers regularly give them stamps when they behave in a positive way and embody the school values. Parents, do you know the school value? Ask your child, they should be able to answer that question!

Every five stamps, the students get a raffle ticket and get a chance to win a prize in the assembly. This was our first raffle draw last week and Colomban, Daniela and Maiwand all received a prize. Congratulations to them.

Before the holidays, we will reward the students who collected the most merits in the half-term.

Year 7 - 9 Student Learning

In KS3 ICT lessons, all of the students have been learning how to use the Immersive Reader tools from Microsoft. They have all written instructions to explain how to use the different functions and to demonstrate their understanding.These tools help people to personalise their documents on screen so that they are easier to read. This is great for our EAL and Learning Support students. We think you might like to try it out yourselves, I’m sure your KS3 child will be able to demonstrate it for you.

https://usingtechnologybetter.com/immersive-reader-and-accessibility-tool/

Year 8 Residential Trip

Week 2 saw all the Year 8 students take part in their residential trip. They spent 3 days communing with nature, hiking, making shelters in the woods, designing giant catapults and learning to light fires. How nice it was to see so many students involved in the trip; meeting new people and forging new friendships. The feeling from the camp staff was that it was impossible to tell which students came from Kamyk, which from Vlastina and which ones were new to the school, which is testament to the manner in which everyone was welcomed into their new activity groups. For me, it was lovely to observe so many students getting so involved in the collegiate approach to many of the activities. From discussing the problem as a group, coming up with possible solutions, designing a suitable product and then adapting that product, a group could only be successful by working together harmoniously and learning to listen carefully to the ideas of others. A great three days- with plenty of students (and staff!) sad to leave and keen to stay for another day or two.

James Gray

Head of Year 8

Dance 

Primary