What another busy term it has been. I wish you were all able to walk through the classrooms as I do every week and see just how engaged the children are in their learning. What is wonderful to observe is that there is also a lot of fun and laughter happening in classes all the time which is so important in lifting our spirits and making us feel happy.
It is with sadness that this term we are saying goodbye to Mrs Taylor. Mrs Taylor has been a part of St Margaret's school on and off over the years. She joined St Margaret's as an 'NQT' back in 2006-2007 before moving on to a different school. Mrs Taylor then returned to St Margaret's some years later to cover maternity leave, before rejoining us once again in 2019. We are all really excited for Mrs Taylor as she embarks on her new journey opening her own school for children with specific needs, however she will be missed very much from all at St Margaret's. Thank you Mrs Taylor!
Mrs Murphy will be joining the St Margaret's team to teach Year 3 in the Spring and Summer term and I am sure you will all make her feel very welcome.
Please enjoy this terms newsletter which will give you a little peak at what's been happening in school.
Thank you to our whole school community for your continued support and kindness. Have a fabulous Christmas and a safe New Year and we will see you all on Tuesday 3rd January 2023!
Reception
The children in reception class have had a fabulous second half term at school. Not they are fully settled into school life, they are demonstrating some wonderful values, showing how caring and kind they can be to each other.
This half term their theme has been 'Terrific Tales'. They have listened to a variety of stories from traditional tales, to stories about Guy Fawkes and Diwali, and ending with stories such as Stickman and lets not forget the Nativity!
The children have really embraced performing for others, learning songs and dances and getting up on stage.
We continue to embrace Welly Wednesday, possibly one of the favourite times of the week for the children where they love to take risks and climb the trees, build dens, investigate nature and just get mucky.
Well done reception - we are really proud of the journey you are taking!
BMX & Scooter Workshops
Earlier in November, the whole school was treated to a visit from Mike Mullen - a World Champion BMX rider - and his colleague, Terry Price. Terry, one of the originators of the sport of stunt scootering and also a World Champion, shared his story and explained how scootering wasn't even a sport when he began. He didn't fit in and was made fun of for being different. He learned how to channel his energy into scootering by blocking out people who were unkind to him and developing perseverance to land some 'world first' tricks in his sport. Terry demonstrated to us many of the key tricks he mastered along the way in our assembly, finishing off with a backflip!
After the assembly, Mike and Terry delivered workshops to all our KS2 children, helping to build their control and confidence before moving on to foundation level tricks and encouraging them to use a growth mindset approach. The children all thoroughly enjoyed their sessions and we very much look forward to hopefully welcoming both Mike and Terry back next year!
Year 2
Year 2 have had a fabulous half term. They are really working hard, but also demonstrating the wonderful attributes of St Margaret's children. Their work on 'Amara and the Bats' really inspired them to find different ways to collect information to write their own facts about bats.
Some of our Year 2 children also took part in a Change4life wellbeing festival at Green Towers. They completed LOTS of fun activities such as yoga, dodgeball, parachute games, cycling to create a smoothie and much more. It was great fun and the children joined in everything with enthusiasm and perseverance. The adults were very proud of them.
As part of our design technology topic, the children have also made rainmakers.
Feed the Hungry
We have had several visits with feed the hungry this term as we continue to work in partnership with them. Most recently with your support at home, we were able to package gifts for families (including those within our own community) and food parcels for those who are really struggling in the current financial climate so they have something to look forward to during the festive period. Thank you for your kind generosity and support with this.
This term, Elaine and Martin from Feed the Hungry came to talk to the children about how Christians show Jesus' values in the world today. Their fun packed day ended with them packing meals for children in Africa that don’t have as much as we do. We were delighted to say they packed 4320 meals, what a difference you have made Year 6, we are so proud of you!
Year 3
Year 3 have been busy little elves stitching and sewing Christmas stockings. We are always amazed every year at how well the children do with this challenge. We always have to say a huge thanks to Mrs Close for spending a lot of her own time preparing, repairing and helping the children with their wonderful festive creations.
Prayer Spaces
The whole school was invited to the Methodist Church to take part in a session about invitational prayer. This was a beautiful session which encouraged all the children to reflect at different times, sometimes about themselves and their family, sometimes about others. Some children chose to pray and some just to think. Thank you to all those who gave their time to organise the event for us.
Circus Skills
All the children had a fabulous time learning news skills and trying a variety of different circus skills. There was real evidence of perseverance and encouragement of one another, especially when the tasks at hand were a little tricky. Miss Steele even enjoyed demonstrating her skills with a hula hoop!! Lots of fun had by everyone.
Year 5
This half term, Year 5 were lucky enough to end their RE unit, ‘What does it mean to be a Muslim in Britain today?’ with a trip to Nuneaton Mosque. Roy and Harry shared with the whole school what they wrote about our trip:
We went into Nuneaton where we were warmly welcomed and invited to look around and find out more about the Muslim Faith and their place of worship. At first, we entered the mosque where we met somebody called Zed Hajji ~ he was a scholar and one of the people who spent a lot of time at Nuneaton Mosque. He told us about the 5 Pillars of Islam. Next, we went to the wash room and we learnt a lot about wudu. Wudu is the Arabic word for washing. A Muslim person usually wouldn’t pray or pick up the Qur’an if they haven’t cleaned themselves. There are lots of stages to washing, from hands, to mouth, nostrils, face, arms, head and ears and feet. The scholar speaking to us had leather socks on and wiped over his leather socks. He said that on arrival at the mosque, before he first prayed, he would wash his feet before putting on his leather socks due to the fact that he spent pretty much the whole day there. After we’d seen the wash room, we were shown to the classrooms where the children who attend the mosque go in the evening. The mosque is the heart of the community for many of the people. Many of the children choose to go there in the evening, after they’ve had their dinner.
The children attend evening classes at the mosque from 5pm to 7.15pm. They learn Arabic, the Qur’an and more. The children are keen to be there. One of the last rooms we went into was the prayer hall where we were asked to stand in the same way that the people who used the mosque would have done. It meant that the boys were all at the front and the girls were at the back.
This isn’t to be unfair to anyone, but is entirely about helping everyone to remain focussed and respectful. It also means that when they carry out some of the different prayer moves, everyone is respectful.
We were so lucky to have had the opportunity to go and visit a place of worship that we had never seen before. It was absolutely fascinating.
Carrying out these obligations provides the framework for a Muslim’s life and beliefs. Their key beliefs centre on pleasing Allah and being generous.
By Roy & Harry
Year 6
What an industrious half term we have had in Y6. We have enjoyed learning about the Battle of Bosworth in history and learnt about why Stoke Golding is the birthplace of the Tudor dynasty. We are incredibly lucky to have such a rich local history and our children wrote fabulous recounts of the battle from different perspectives. Their writing outcomes have been fabulous this half term and we are really starting to see lots of purpose and thought about audience in the children's work. High quality reading is paramount in order to help the children's language acquisition for writing and they have developed confidence in working with a higher level of language. Thank you to parents for supporting our weekly book talk sessions: these have really encouraged high quality reading to be practised at home. We hope the children have time to continue their reading over the holidays alongside their Christmas festivities.
In geography, we have been learning about how climate change affects different places. The children have demonstrated passionate global citizenship and after the Christmas break will begin to think about what can be done regarding climate change. There will be lots of opportunities for them to make a difference! In science our topic has been electricity and we have started learning about fractions, decimals and percentages in maths.
The children were also visited by Moira from Humanist Uk, who came to talk to them about what being a Humanist meant to her.
The class also spent time measuring ingredients, mixing and making Christmas cakes to be sold at the PTA Christmas Fayre - the smells in school were devine!
Well done Y6 for your fabulous attitude toward your learning this half term!
St Margaret's Sports Updates
Cross Country: It's been great to see some new faces coming along to the cross country this half term. Despite some chilly and muddy races, all the children who have attended have really put in their best efforts and been excellent team members for St Margaret's. We're excited for the final race at Brookvale College in January which all KS2 children are welcome to come to. Well done this term to all the children who have raced for St Margaret's!
Football News: The Year 5/6 football team had super success this half term with a brilliant 3 - 0 win over St Peter's, Earl Shilton. It was fabulous to see the team organise themselves, take responsibility for their team and manage themselves! They played absolutely superbly and gave us an exciting game to watch ~ even when we struggled to tell who had the ball due to the darkening skies! Goals came from Max M, Harry M and Noel; there was fabulous defending from Archie P and Archie M with Kian in goal and Evie and Sebby were super at getting the ball up and down the pitch. We can't wait for the next match in the Spring term. Super team work and play ~ well done!
Change4Life: This term, a number of our Year 2, 3 and 4 children have been able to attend the Change4Life Festivals at Green Towers in Hinckley. The Change4Life Festival gives the children the opportunity to celebrate all things multi-sports! They were able to have a go at a whole range of different activities from 'flight' to 'combat' and even peddling on a bike in order to make a smoothie! At times, they had to really challenge themselves and had to show real determination, perseverance and respect for themselves and others. We were very proud of all our children who attended!
Sports Hall Athletics Win! Our Year 5/6 athletics team performed absolutely superbly at the recent sportshall athletics competition. A team of 9 boys and 9 girls headed to Hinckley Leisure Centre to represent St Margaret's in a range of different events ~ from sprints to jump events and even a 6 lap paarlauf! Both the boys and girls teams were brilliant ~ from their athletic performances to their level of respect and teamwork. The boys won their section by a long way and the girls came 3rd. The overall combined result for the St Margaret's team was 1st place ~ brilliant! Well done to all the children who participated ~ we are proud of you!
