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Principal's Update - Easter 2022 SHIRELAND TECHNOLOGY PRIMARY ACADEMY

Message from the Principal

Two years on since the pandemic began, I think this is a good point to look back and reflect on the journey that all of us have been in. For some it is has truly been a difficult time but as a school community I am immensely proud of how we have risen to the challenges and been able to still provide an exceptional education for our children.

This term has allowed us to start to 'open up' and invite families in again, with great attendance at parents' evening consultations and various workshop sessions we have been able to provide.

We know that it has been a difficult term again with COVID and sickness, but as we move into the Summer term, we will have a renewed focus on attendance and punctuality; especially in Early Years where setting good routines is essential to good learning development.

We expect children across all year groups to be in school, on time, every day to ensure they make the best possible progress that they can and catch up on missed learning over the last two years.

Despite the COVID challenges, this Spring term has seen the children enjoying school life and taking part in amazing opportunities that are shared below.

Nursery I Theme: Coming Alive

Nursery had a thrilling time exploring our theme, Coming Alive. We have been learning about the life cycle of a frog, a caterpillar, and a chick to explore how things change.

We went on a beautiful spring walk to look at different types of flowers; their buds and blossom and have been developing our communication and language through exploring fruit and investigating what makes a healthy diet, devising egg hunts to develop our counting, creating Mother’s Day hearts and painting bright sunflowers. We have even been tickling our tastebuds with tasting yummy pancakes and delicious hot cross buns.

Reception | Theme: Food Glorious Food

This term we have been learning all about growing vegetables, different types of root vegetables and how to take care of a bean plant. The children in Reception have also taken part in a starch experiment in the STEM Innovation room to investigate which vegetable is the healthiest.

Together, the children have also created potato clocks and studied which vegetable can conduct electricity – this built upon on previous learning about electrical circuits. In the creative room we have been exploring Easter and spring and developing water colour painting skills.

Year 1 | Theme: Amazing Animals

Year One have been learning all about the amazing animals that live in the world. We have been looking at a range of animals; we used a globe to discover where different animals come from and some animal cards to learn lots of interesting facts. We have also looked at how certain animals are endangered and what we can do to stop them becoming extinct.

In English, we have looked at poems linked to the ‘Amazing Animals’ theme. We have started to learn and recite the poem ‘Walking with My Iguana’ and we also created our own poem in the same style!

In Maths, we had our very own Maths Focus Day! We looked at capacity and measure by making a Victoria sponge cake, buying and selling items in our shop and making symmetrical patterns. These activities helped us with our reasoning and problem-solving skills.

Year 2 | Theme: Creepy Crawlies

As part of our E3L theme, ‘Creepy Crawlies’, we visited Victoria Park on the hunt for minibeasts! We found everything from slugs and snails to spiders and worms – all living in a range of microhabitats throughout the park!

We also studied food chains and how the reduction in the bee population will affect them. We have created some wonderful photos to Save the Bees.

In English, we have been creating our own adventure story inspired by ‘Superworm’. Pupils have created their own version using rhyming couplets and adjectives to add effect and engage a reader. They chose to be either Super Spider or Super Butterfly!

In Maths, we have been focusing on developing our skills for adding and subtracting two 2-digit numbers. We have been using concrete resources such as dienes to help our understanding and have even began to draw our own representations!

To end year two’s fantastic term, we had a Music Focus Day focusing on rhythm andsinging. We sang songs associated with minibeasts from different cultures and created our own minibeast soundscape! We were really impressed with the pupils accuracy and fluency when playing both tuned and untuned instruments.

Year 3 | Theme: Planet SOS

This term, Year Three have been learning about key issues surrounding our planet. These include water pollution, plastic pollution, oil spills and the effects of rubbish. We have learnt about how these issues are not only affecting the planet but also us. We have learnt about how we can overcome these issues so that we have a better place to live. In addition, the pupils have created some beautiful artwork using a water colour wash and layering with a silhouette and designing and constructing amazing monsters out of trash.

In English, we learnt about persuasive writing and wrote a letter to our local MP about how pollution is damaging the environment and the importance of reducing climate change. We also created some rhyming poems about protecting the environment based on ‘The Lorax’ by Dr Seuss.

In Maths, we have been focusing on measure relating to length, perimeter and weight. We have also continued to learn about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes.

Beauty and the Beast – Birmingham Hippodrome

Not only did Year Three head off to the theatre to see Beauty and the Beast: The Musical, but they returned to perform to an audience in the Patrick Studio. What a fantastic experience and they made us all very proud!

Welsh National Opera

In Year Three we had a unique opportunity to work with the Welsh National Opera to create our very own opera 'Planet SOS' based on our theme. The children wrote their own song lyrics, soundscapes and choreographed their own performance. They got to perform it to families and Dame Evelyn Glennie, the world-famous percussionist and musician. The performances really were first class, bringing tears of pride to many parents' (and staff's) eyes.

World Book Day

What a wonderful World Book Day!

It was lovely to see such magnificent costumes again (staff and families really do go above and beyond at STP) and share the delights of reading with our pupils. It is so important highlight the fun that can be had by reading and this has become a firm favourite in our school calendar.

Thank you to the families and staff that entered the half term Extreme Reading Challenge. We loved receiving family photos, and these were collated into a special video. We raised a whopping £361 with your kind donations for the Disaster Emergency Committee.

Comic Relief - Friday 18th March

Thank you to staff, pupils and families who helped to raise £360 for Comic Relief this year. We definitely have a few aspiring comedians amongst us as the staff and children shared their jokes in a special joke-a-thon assembly!

Our favourite joke of the day was, "What do you call a donkey with only three legs? A wonkey!"

Easter

The Easter bunny provided a surprise visit to us at STP. He hopped around all the classes with a basket of chocolate eggs for each class.

It certainly helped get the children into the easter spirit! We also held 'eggcellent' Easter Bonnet Parade and Egg Decorating Exhibition was held on Friday

8th April the children (and parents) proudly displayed their bonnets celebrating 70 years of the Queen's reign.

Great Big School Clean: Friday 25th March - Sunday 10th April

We're inviting our families to participate in the Great Big School Clean in their communities this year!

As part of our commitment to being Eco-Friendly, we're teaming up with the team at Keep Britain Tidy, because we believe that no one is too small to make a big difference. And when we all come together, that big difference becomes a huge one.

Our aim is for every family to pick up just one bag of litter during the Great Big School Clean, and together as a nation, we could remove 10.3 million bags of litter from our natural environment.

Back for its seventh year, our 2022 Great Big School Clean takes place 25 March - 10 April.

Families pledged to pick up one bag - or more - and joined the #BigBagChallenge over the Easter break and the start of the Summer Term.

Together, let's make a huge difference as part of the Great Big School Clean!

Britannica Launch Event

All of us at STP celebrated the official national launch of the Britannica Magazine, our Britannica Reading Club and participated in a cross-Trust quiz on Thursday 7th April hosted by the author Christopher Lloyd.

Our Year 2 / 3 team took part and did extremely well.

Parent Engagement

Story Escape

Thank you to all the families who joined us for Story Escape! It was a joy to share stories with parents in each classroom and show how we set the scene when sharing a story and how we ask a variety of questions and discuss a text whilst reading to help develop deeper understanding and enjoyment. We definitely plan to repeat this due to its success and family feedback.

Friends of STP (logo competition winner)

The Friends of STP ran a competition for pupils to design a logo that could be used as their official logo. They were inundated with some amazing designs and after mu

After much deliberation the winning design was awarded to a Year 3 pupil.

Dates for your Diary

Friday 8th April 2022 – Break-up for Easter

Monday 25th April 2022 - Return to School

Tuesday 26th April 2022 – Passport to Success workshops (1:15-3:15pm)

Thursday 28th April 2022 – Sow and Grow sessions commence - Reception

Monday 2nd May 2022 - Bank Holiday

Tuesday 3rd May 2022 - Training Day (school closed for pupils)

Weeks Commencing: 16th May and 23rd May - KS1 SATS testing window

Wednesday 18th May 2022 – Family Forum

Wednesday 25th May - Break Up for Half Term | Queen’s Jubilee Tea Party Lunch and Disco

Thursday 26th May 2022 - Training Day (school closed for pupils)

Friday 27th May 2022 - Training Day (school closed for pupils)

Monday 6th June 2022 - Return to school

Week Commencing: 6th June - Year 1 Phonics screening administration

Thursday 7th July 2022 – Sports Day (afternoon)

Friday 8th July – Reports sent home

Wednesday 13th July – Parents’ Evening

Thursday 14th July – Reception trip to Dudley Zoo and Castle

Friday 22nd July 2022 – Break-up for Summer

Monday 5th September 2022 –Training Day (school closed for pupils)

Tuesday 6th September – Back to School for pupils

Monday 24th October to Friday 28th October 2022 - October Half-term holiday

Friday 4th November 2022 - Training Day (school closed for pupils)

Friday 16th December 2022 - Break-up for Christmas

Credits:

Created with images by BestForYou - "Collection fruits and vegetables isolated top view." • willyam - "Playful dolphins jumping over breaking waves. Hawaii Pacific Ocean wildlife scenery. Marine animals in natural habitat." • DirkDaniel - "Bee - Apis mellifera - pollinates cinquefoils - Potentilla „Flamenco“" • jozsitoeroe - "Climate change withered tree and dry earth." • lovelyday12 - "woman hand holdging box garbage for recycle" • neirfy - "Pile of old books"