Autumn 2

Friday 15th February

 

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Friday15th February

Our school Library

One of our focuses this year is to promote reading for pleasure throughout the school.  This week we have re launched the Key Stage one library and all children will have the opportunity to visit the library once a week and choose a book to share with you at home.  We have also appointed some very important library monitors who will help keep the library tidy and teach other children how to use it correctly.  Our monitors are:                                     If you could spare any time during the week to help us run either the KS1 or KS2 library please let the office know.  Thank you very much. 

Asda Green Token Scheme

Please support our school if you visit Asda Roehampton store as we have been nominated for the green Token scheme. Each time you visit please ask for some tokens at the till and place them in the token counter by the help desk.
If we collect lots of tokens we could receive £500 towards our library.

Multiplication Tables free resources
Please follow the links below to access free online resources that support times table practise.  It’s free, and you can use it as often as you like!

https://collins.co.uk/pages/primary-mathematics-times-tables-test-simulator

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Year 1 Multi skills  festival
On Wednesday 6th February, some of the Year 1s where invited to attend a multi skills festival based around developing Cricket skills at Chessington School run by All Stars Cricket. They arrived incredibly excited to try out what was on offer. All attending schools rotated around six different activities that helped developed teamwork, bowling and batting skills. It was clear that the batting based activities were our favourite as all the children displayed fantastic and powerful shots hitting off of a tee. The enthusiasm, effort and excellent listening skills shown by the children made them a joy to share in the activities with, and I am sure that there are a few more Cricket fans at Alexandra now. 

Year 2 Football  festival
On Thursday 7th February, some of the Year 2s participated in a 5 a side football festival at Surbiton High playing fields. All the children were excited to get playing and show off their footballing skills. After losses in the first two matches, the warm up period was clearly over as the team came alive. The 5-0 win over one of the Surbiton teams was evidence of this as Zack scored a hat-trick, Ivor was racking up assist after assist and Julian was placing passes incredibly accurately. Another special mention to Julian as his goalkeeping against another Surbiton team helped keep the score line at 0-0 in the toughest game for Alexandra during the day. However, goals kept coming from others, such as Tom and Zubeyir, and the team left feeling proud of what they accomplished due to the hard work and effort put in by them all. Well done Year 2. 

Sketchbetter news from Kingston Rotary Club

“Kate Andrews explains how SketchBetter is more than just an art class.  Following our success at last years Kingston Business Excellence Awards we have been inviting some of the other category winners to speak to the club about their respective journeys to their awards. For our evening meeting in January we were very fortunate to have Kate Andrews, CEO and Founder of Sketchbetter winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year award. Kate spoke to us movingly about how she had founded sketchbetter in 2015 after suffering from depression and her motivation to provide a positive education model to children. Kate's vision is a world without depression where children and adolescents learn the skills and science that support their resilience and to flourish Kate has a studio at Alexandria Primary school in Kingston and she described the variety of different lessons she provides to Key Stage 1 and 2 children and the contributions the children have made to the Kingston International Youth Arts Festival. We were very fortunate that Kate had been able bring along one of her pupils, Ida aged 10, who explained in a very eloquent presentation, that she had written herself, how important the Young Leaders programme was and how sketchbetter was making a difference to her education It was very difficult to find the appropriate words that did complete justice to the two presentations that we heard but suffice to say every primary school would benefit from the passion and commitment that Kate delivers and everyone was left in no doubt as to why she had won her Kingston Business Excellence award.”

Asda Green Token Scheme
We are delighted to have been nominated for Asda's Green Token Scheme at Asda’s  Roehampton store. If our school is in receipt of the most tokens, we could  receive £500 towards our school library.  Each time you visit please ask for some green tokens at the till and place them in the token counter by the help desk. Thank you for your support.

Reading books for our Key Stage 2 library 

If you have any books that your Key Stage 2 child has read and no longer needs, please consider donating them to our Key Stage 2 library. We would be very grateful for any donations. Please bring them to the school office or to your child’s teacher. Thank you very much. 

Accelerated Reader Workshop for Parents

Thank you to erveyone who attended our AR Reader workhops this week. If you were unable to attend, please visit the school website for all the information;
                                                 https://www.alexandra.kingston.sch.uk/page/?title=AR+Reader&pid=116

Welcome 
Rosie Buckle – joins our After-School Club team;
Lucy Johnson – joins the Swan class team;
Rene Von Solms  - joins the Fox class team;
Reema Lubbat and Marwa Gamal  –join our lunchtime team.
Please join us in welcoming them to our school family.

Parent Consultations Wed 20th March 3.45pm – 7pm & Thurs 21st  March 3.45pm – 6pm
Appointment times will be made available to book live on Parentmail. We will inform you once this booking facility open. 
A reminder that no after school clubs or activity clubs will be running on these days.
Red Nose Day  Friday 15th March
Since its launch in 1988, Red Nose Day has become something of a British institution. It’s the day, every two years, when people across the land can get together and raise money at home, school and work. There’s a fantastic night of TV on the BBC, with comedy and entertainment to inspire the nation to give generously. Comic Relief spends the money raised by Red Nose Day to help people living tough lives across the UK and internationally. For further information please visit  https://www.comicrelief.com/rednoseday
We will be supporting Red Nose Day on Friday 15th March by asking the children to wear something red in exchange for a minimum £1 donation to this worthy cause.

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Michael Shilling Visits Year 4

On Monday 28th January, Year 4 had the pleasure of inviting in Michael Shilling to do an Anglo-Saxon workshop with us. Michael explained to us how we had to feel what it was like to be an Anglo-Saxon. This was done through acting out different situations. Our first situation was being an invading Angle, Jute or Saxon coming to Briton for the first time. This required us to be fierce and tough. We also had to act out what it was like sailing to Briton. Once we had settled in Briton, we acted out daily life on the farm, and what it might have been like to be a slave in those times. This culminated in us being invaded ourselves by Vikings and trying to feel how scared people must have been. We remembered how fierce we were earlier in the session to act out a battle with these invaders. Thank you to Michael for giving us such a great workshop. 

Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) 

Primary-school children are expected to know all their times tables up to 12x12. Under the current National Curriculum, children are supposed to know their times tables by the end of Year 4, but they are not formally tested on them other than through multiplication questions in the Year 6 maths SATs.  The purpose of the MTC is to determine whether Y4 pupils can recall their multiplication tables fluently (being able to answer times tables questions accurately and quickly, without having to work out the answers).

In June 2020 the multiplication check will be become compulsory for all English maintained schools, special schools and academies (including free schools).

How can you help?

Because the National Curriculum for maths is so extensive, there is an expectation that parents will help their children learn their times tables at home and not rely on schools to bring them up to speed.

Some of the techniques you can use include:

• Practising times tables by rote.

• Asking your child multiplication questions out of order – such as ‘What’s 11x12? What’s 5x6?’

• Asking your child the related division facts: ‘What’s 8/4? What’s 9/6?’

• Using arrays to help your child memorise times tables – you can use fun objects like Smarties or Lego bricks to make it more entertaining.

• Giving your child word problems to test their skills, like ‘If Peter has 800ml of orange juice and needs to share it between four friends, how much can they each have?’

• Using apps and games like TheSchoolRun’s multiplication games to build speed.

• Singing times tables using songs like Percy Parker.

For further information please follow this link:  https://www.theschoolrun.com/new-primary-school-times-tables-tests-explained

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PEGI ratings on Games

We have been alerted to the worrying fact that many of our children are playing the game FORTNITE. This is having an impact on the way some of our children are playing and in their behaviour and language at school. Please be advised that Fortnite has a PEGI rating of 12, PEGI have said this is due to the: ‘frequent scenes of mild violence. It is not suitable for persons under 12 years of age’.  This PEGI rating only takes into account the content in the game and not the contact element, where players may be exposed to swearing and offensive language from strangers in voice or on-screen text chat.

What are PEGI ratings?

Age ratings are systems used to ensure that entertainment content, such as films, videos, DVDs, and computer games, are clearly labelled by age according to the content they contain. Age ratings provide guidance to consumers (particularly parents) to help them decide whether or not to buy a particular product.

The rating on a game confirms that it is suitable for players over a certain age. Accordingly, a PEGI 7 game is only suitable for those aged seven and above and an PEGI 18 game is only suitable for adults aged eighteen and above. The PEGI rating considers the age suitability of a game, not the level of difficulty.

PEGI 3

The content of games given this rating is considered suitable for all age groups. Some violence in a comical context (typically Bugs Bunny or Tom & Jerry cartoon-like forms of violence) is acceptable. The child should not be able to associate the character on the screen with real life characters, they should be totally fantasy. The game should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to scare or frighten young children. No bad language should be heard.

PEGI 7

Any game that would normally be rated at 3 but contains some possibly frightening scenes or sounds may be considered suitable in this category. 

PEGI 12

Videogames that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy character and/or non graphic violence towards human-looking characters or recognisable animals, as well as videogames that show nudity of a slightly more graphic nature would fall in this age category. Any bad language in this category must be mild and fall short of sexual expletives.

PEGI 16

This rating is applied once the depiction of violence (or sexual activity) reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life. More extreme bad language, the concept of the use of tobacco and drugs and the depiction of criminal activities can be content of games that are rated 16.

PEGI 18

The adult classification is applied when the level of violence reaches a stage where it becomes a depiction of gross violence and/or includes elements of specific types of violence. Gross violence is the most difficult to define since it can be very subjective in many cases, but in general terms it can be classed as the depictions of violence that would make the viewer feel a sense of revulsion.

Descriptors shown on the back of the packaging indicate the main reasons why a game has received a particular age rating. There are eight such descriptors: violence, bad language, fear, drugs, sexual, discrimination, gambling and online gameplay with other people.   Bad Language: Game contains bad language.  Discrimination: Game contains depictions of, or material which may encourage, discrimination. Drugs: Game refers to or depicts the use of drugs.   Fear: Game may be frightening or scary for young children.  Gambling: Games that encourage or teach gambling.  Sex: Game depicts nudity and/or sexual behaviour or sexual references.  Violence: Game contains depictions of violence.  Online gameplay: Game can be played online.

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Social Media
Last week we sent out a plea about exposure to social media. If you are in any doubt about the damaging effect it can have on our little people’s well-being please follow this link. It gives us an example of what our children can be exposed to. DO NOT WATCH THIS WITH YOUR CHILDREN, as it is upsetting. It is to help parents/carers be aware of the dangers of access to unsupervised social media. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuqlg_pyZks
It is crucial that all devices have parental controls. Please follow the links below to learn how to do it.
 

Social media
It is our school policy not to allow pupils to have mobile phones in school. However, if you child is in possession of their own phone can we strongly recommend that the installation of group chat apps such as WhatsApp are not allowed for children. We have been made aware of some upsetting incidences within our school community involving  WhatsApp messaging. For further information and advice please see read the article below:
https://parentinfo.org/article/whatsapp-a-guide-for-parents-and-carers

Breakfast = Brain Power Breakfast gives children the energy they need to handle their busy days. Children who eat a healthy breakfast go longer without feeling hungry & are able to concentrate better in the classroom. A healthy breakfast can help children perform better at school IDEAS: A banana or any fruit Healthy yoghurt Boiled egg and toast Cereal – low sugar content, muesli Toast with peanut butter Dippy eggs with Marmite soldiers  Avocado & strawberry smoothie Apple & sultana porridge Peanut butter & banana on toast Berry bircher Melon & crunchy bran pots

Information Reminder *Please check the school website for events, dates, club information before telephoning the school office.* The website is updated weekly  - click here for @Alex , Dates, Activity Club Information, Frequently asked questions.   The class information pages and weekly information are updated every MONDAY. Nursery Reception    Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year5