Friday 9th January 2026
Dear Parents and Carers,
Happy New Year!
On behalf of the staff team I welcome you back at the start of this new year and new term and I thank you for the generosity shown to staff at the end of last term. Staff particularly felt valued through the kind words and wishes expressed in the cards given to them at the end of what was a busy, exciting (and at times challenging) first term for most of them.
We have hit the ground running this term, starting as always with a themed week – the focus being Terrfic Transport! A week focused entirely on developing our children’s Design and Technology skills, bringing the children together after the holiday to work collaboratively to design and create different modes of transport. Over the week the children have explored how the world of transport works, the different mechanisms and technologies used to keep the wheels of the world turning, and they have all experimented with methods to make their own designs move. Our sharing assembly this morning was a wonderful celebration of all the children have achieved this week. I do hope that you were able to drop in to the exhibition on collection today to see their wonderful work, more information on the focus for each class can be found in the extracts below.
Below is a summary of the learning that has taken place across the school this week.
| Early Years |
| This week, we have used the story of The Gingerbread Man as a stimulus for our themed week on Terrific Transport. Terrific Transport, The children have been exploring a variety of different types of transport and helping the Gingerbread Man to cross the river by choosing the correct transport and they have also created boats using recycled milk bottles. The children have also been learning about the setting and characters in the story, and have been repeated refains in their own story telling. In Maths, we are working on subitising numbers from 0–5 in Reception and 0–3 in Nursery. |
| Year One |
| This week in Year One we have had the best time learning all about wheels, axels and cams in our Terrific Transport themed week. We have explored how wheels are used in toys and in transport, looking at the size and number of theme needed to make an object move. We then designed and made our very own cars. We were so delighted that tour cars were stable and able to move and we could evaluate them as being effective! |
| Year Two |
| Happy New Year! The first week back has been very practical for our class as we have been diving into design and technology with a focus on levers and sliders as part of our themed week celebrations. The start of the week consisted of researching and exploring different types of sliders and levers. We looked at toys that manoeuvre vehicles through pushes and pulls of a lever or slider. We also looked at the mechanisms behind books that require sliders to tell a story about transport. The children then worked on creating their class book about terrific transport which consisted of sliders that work to tell a story and make a picture come to life. Year Two has begun to look at multiplication in Maths and how we can show different groupings of numbers. What a great start to 2026! |
| Year Three |
| In Year Three our focus has been on levers and linkages! We begun the week by defining the term ‘mechanism’ – a mechanism is where materials or components are joined together to make a movement – and then looking at different mechanisms in everyday objects. To help us in our learning we had to get to grips with new technical vocabulary to enable us to identify the different parts of a mechanism. We then spent some time experimenting with and making different mechanisms, before choosing a suitable one for our final product; a moving picture. We designed our moving pictures and then made prototypes of the mechanisms we wanted to use to check that our ideas would work. Once we were satisfied we made our moving pictures which we greatly enjoyed sharing with the rest of the school in our assembly today. |
| Year Four-Five |
| It has been a wonderful first week back for Year Four and Five, especially given that it has been a themed week! We learnt all about wooden cams mechanisms and used our knowledge to make our very own moving transport themed toys out of wood and cardboard. It was so exciting to see them come together. If you ask the children about handles, cams, followers and sliders, I’m sure they will have lots to say on the subject! Elsewhere, we started various topics for the term by checking in on the knowledge we already have before getting stuck in next week. A reminder that all Year Four and Five children begin their swimming lessons this coming Tuesday (13th) and so will need their swimming kit for then. |
| Year Six |
| A warm welcome back to Year Six! It’s been great to see some well-rested faces and their enthusiasm for our Themed Week. Year Six made robotic cars and programmed a basic Crumble computer to move it. They worked hard assembling the cars showing effective teamwork and problem solving skills as they followed detailed instructions to measure, cut and fix all the components. For the programming they showed skill in creating their code and debugging any problems to ensure their robotic vehicle could move. |
Attached to this letter you will find a list of the confirmed dates for the term ahead – do please keep this somewhere safe. All dates will be added to the calendar on our website and timely reminders will be sent home. Class Teachers are busy arranging a number of educational experiences for the term ahead and, when the dates are finalised these too will be added to the calendar.
The house point totals for this week are:
| GARRISON | 17 | AUGUSTINE | 14 |
| FRANKLIN | 27 | DICKENS | 15 |
On a final note, you will by now have received the letter informing you of our upcoming SIAMS inspection. SIAMS inspections take place every five years and the focus is to review how well we are fulfilling our duties as a Church School. The inspection give us an opportunity to show-off all we do and how well our children flourish. The inspector, Rachel Jones, will be with us on Thursday 15th January and she will be joining me on the gate at drop-off.
Kind regards
Mrs Warland
Head Teacher
Spring Term 2026
Tuesday 6th January Term Begins
Friday 9th January Terrific Transport Exhibition
Monday 12th January The final Holy Communion preparation class
Tuesday 13th January Swimming begins for Year Four & Year Five
Wednesday 14th January Moon Landing – Coding Workshops for children in Year One, Year Two and Year Three
Sunday 18th January Holy Communion Service – St John the Divine Church 10:30am
Monday 19th January Year Four Dodgeball Competition
Thursday 5th February Candlemass service – in Church
Monday 9th February Children’s Mental Health Week
Tuesday 10th February Safer Internet Day
Wednesday 11th February London Fire Brigade – Fire Safety Workshops Year Two and Year Five
Thursday 12th February Lent service – in church
Year Five and Year Six Dodgball tournament (TBC)
Friday 13th February Value of love – celebration day – wear red to school day!
Term Ends
Monday 23rd February Term Begins
Friday 27th February Year Six Class Assembly
Thursday 5th March World Book Day – dress up day!
Friday 6th March Year Four & Five Class Assembly
Monday 9th March Assessment Week
Spelling Bee
Monday 16th March Class Photographs
Friday 20th March Year Three Class Assembly
Year Two Multiskills tournament (TBC)
Monday 23rd March Individual and Sibling photographs
Tuesday 24th March Open Evening
Wednesday 25th March Open Evening
Thursday 26th March Open Evening
Friday 27th March Year Two Class Assembly
Wednesday 1st April Easter service – in church
Thursday 2nd April Year One Class Assembly
Term Ends