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The Voice of st leonards

Friday, 4 March 2022

Books are like Magic

"Books are like magic, they can bring you from the bottom of the sea to outer space." Niamh, Year 3

Research shows that reading develops vocabulary, empathy and writing skills, and also that books help children to better understand themselves and the world around them. But reading is so much more than developing skills: as Niamh aptly said this week, "books are like magic" because they have the ability to transport us to and immerse us in different worlds, different periods of history, and different cultures. It is for this reason, that we strive to cultivate a love of literature in the children - reading is not a chore but rather a joy, and access to books is not a given but a privilege.

The excitement generated by World Book Day at St Leonards cannot be underestimated. Preparations commence weeks in advance, and each year our budding bibliophiles enjoy a week of celebrations peppered with activities and events - everything from author visits to costume parades, Read-A-Thons, bookshop browses, workshops and more. Below are some of the children's reflections on Book Week.

"It is super fun choosing lots of new books." TJ
"World Book Day is important because lots of people don't have books, but need them so that they can access education." Olivia
"I like World Book Day because you can see books you haven't seen before at the bookshop." Teddy
"We get to see how different authors write and illustrators draw, and how lucky we are to have that variety." Catherine
"I like World Book Day because every story has a good ending." Stellan

I hope that you and your children have enjoyed our book-themed celebrations this week, and we look forward to more literary adventures in the coming weeks and months.

Claire Boissiere, Head of Years 1-3

Spotlight on Book Week

Author Visit

AUTHOR VISIT | This week, we were delighted to welcome David MacPhail to St Leonards to speak to Years 1-3 and Years 4-6. David has written a wealth of fiction and non-fiction books for children, including Thorfinn the Nicest Viking: The Awful Invasion, which was shortlisted for the inaugural Laugh Out Loud (Lollies) Book Award in 2016. His most recent book is An Amazing Illustrated Atlas of Scotland. The children enjoyed hearing David read excerpts of his texts, and were fascinated to some obscure and interesting facts about Scotland. For example, did you know that North Ronaldsay sheep only eat seaweed? Many thanks to David for taking the time to visit us!

Bookshop Browse

BOOKSHOP BROWSE | The pupils enjoyed walking up to Waterstones and Topping & Co this week to browse the children's shelves and spend their World Book Day tokens. This year, the children were able to use their tokens to purchase a fantastic range of books, including fiction by Michael Morpurgo, Sophie McKenzie and Matt Lucas. The children had a wonderful time, and are looking forward to immersing themselves in their new books!

At Topping & Co, Year 2 were treated to a fun reading session with Robin, one of the booksellers. The class were inspired by the colourful shelves of books which surrounded them, and loved acquiring new snippets of knowledge from the non-fiction text that Robin shared with them!

Special Storytimes

SPECIAL STORYTIMES | This week, the PYP pupils have created reading nooks in their classrooms, shared stories in the cosy yurt, and also enjoyed reading outside with toasted marshmallows and freshly-cooked pancakes around the firepit. They have also enjoyed listening to stories read by some of the Year 12 pupils, who told tales from their home countries in their mother tongues - Hindi, Mandarin, Italian, German, Dutch and Polish. Thank you to Lotte, Nicholas, Nikolai, Ava, Keyuri and all the other pupils who took the time to share stories with our youngest learners. It really was World Book Day in the truest sense of the word!

Matilda the Musical

MATILDA THE MUSICAL | The PYP pupils tuned into the 25 Years of World Book Day Celebrations, streamed live from the Cambridge Theatre. The celebrations were centred around Matilda and Friends in partnership with the Roald Dahl Story Company, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Puffin. The event also featured a number of special guests including Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell, rapper MC Grammar, and authors Chris Riddell, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Allen Fatimaharan and Hannah Lee.

Beautiful Bookmarks

BEAUTIFUL BOOKMARKS | This week, the children honed their origami skills in Craft Club and made some beautiful corner bookmarks. With all the reading going on inside the classroom, outside the classroom and at home, the bookmarks have already been put to good use!

Book Aid International

BOOK AID INTERNATIONAL | As part of our Book Week celebrations, St Leonards parent and Book Aid International ambassador Dr König kindly gave an assembly for Years 4-6. She spoke to the children about the work of Book Aid International, which seeks to give everyone access to books no matter where they are born or how much money they have, and helped the children to understand that access to books is an immense privilege.

Books really do change lives, and since 2015 the St Leonards community has raised funds to send 350 books to communities across the world, helping children to gain vital literacy skills. This year, the children raised £171.75 for the cause, which will enable 85 further books to be sent. Thank you to all those who contributed, and special thanks to Dr König for taking the time to record such an informative, interesting, and inspiring assembly.

Guess the Reader

GUESS THE READER | As part of our Book Week celebrations, the teachers dressed up and hid behind one of their favourite books. The pupils were set the tricky task of identifying the reader. How many can you guess?

Word Millionaire

WORD MILLIONAIRE | Congratulations to Eleanor H who has read over one million words through Accelerates Reader. This was a timely achievement which corresponded with the commencement of our Book Week celebrations!

Natter with a Novelist

NATTER WITH A NOVELIST | Years 4-6 enjoyed posing their questions to Scottish author Jan-Andrew Henderson this week. Jan-Andrew has written 37 books for children, young adults and adults and been shortlisted for 13 literary awards, and so this really was a fantastic opportunity. He recorded answers to a number of their questions and read an excerpt from one of his books, Secret City. The pupils enjoyed listening to his reflections, which were streamed from Australia! Many thanks to Mrs Arkwright for organising this online exchange.

Character Parade

CHARACTER PARADE | To celebrate World Book Day, pupils and staff dressed up as their favourite literary characters including Mary Poppins, Willy Wonka, Sherlock Holmes, Gangsta Granny, and the Tiger from The Tiger Who Came To Tea. The children enjoyed parading around St Katharines Hall in their fabulous costumes! Please click the link below to view our World Book Day Gallery, featuring the best costumes from Years 1-13.

Parade Posters

PARADE POSTERS | Thanks to the children in Years 1-3 who designed some fantastic posters to publicise the World Book Day Costume Parade. They were certainly an effective marketing tool, as this year's display of costumes was fantastic!

Read-A-Thon

READ-A-THON | The annual St Leonards Read-A-Thon is always a highlight of Book Week. The pupils have each logged the minutes that they have spent reading this week, and these individual totals have then been put towards a collective total for each Island. The competition was especially fierce in Year 5C. The class has been making the most of every spare moment to try to make sure that their Island finished in the gold medal position, whether that be reading by the fire pit, in quiet nooks around school, or in the classroom. By the end of the day on Thursday, the children had amassed 3,880 minutes of reading, which equates to 65 hours!

Drum roll please.... the results are in, and the winning Island was Mull with a total of 7281 minutes read over the course of this week. Harris finished in second place with 6083 minutes, Lewis in third place with 5588 minutes and Skye in fourth place with 5242 minutes. Very well done to all the children - the results really are staggering. We hope that the Read-A-Thon has encouraged the pupils to read even more. Many thanks to Miss Brannen, Mrs Arkwright and Mrs Beebee for organising the event, and to all of the parents who verified their children's reading!

Island Quiz

ISLAND QUIZ | On Friday afternoon, the pupils in each Island gathered together to tackle some tricky book-themed quiz questions. Excellent literary knowledge and teamwork was displayed by all!

Adventures into the Past

ADVENTURES INTO THE PAST | This week, we were delighted to welcome St Leonards parent and historian Dr Christy Pichichero to speak to the pupils in Years 4-6 this week as part of our Book Week celebrations. Dr Pichichero is a literary scholar and cultural historian of early modern France and the French Empire. She spoke to the children about why stories matter, how her stories are adventures into the past, and how she became a history writer. It was a fascinating journey that spanned everything from poetry to art, war, food, language and food, with references to her book The Military Enlightenment, War and Culture in the French Empire from Louis XIV to Napoleon. Thank you so much to Dr Pichichero for sharing her expertise with us - the children were simply captivated by her stories!

Year 1

Perfect Pancakes

PERFECT PANCAKES | To mark Shrove Tuesday, Year 1 enjoyed making pancakes with Miss Barclay. The children first made the batter for traditional Scottish dropped scones, which they enjoyed lathered with jam, before having a go at tossing a big crèpe which had been prepared by Miss Barclay. They also learned that Shrove Tuesday is the day before the Christian celebration of Lent, and that traditionally people would use up all the good ingredients in their houses on this day before 40 days of fasting in the run up to Easter. They also discovered that there are other traditions, such as pancake tossing races and kicking cans down the street to represent the pots and pans that would not be used for the duration of Lent.

Year 2

Sharing Stories

SHARING STORIES | This week, the Year 2 pupils have enjoyed digging deeper into their new inquiry into stories from around the world. The pupils have created story dens indoors and out, shared tales from different cultures, written their own stories, acted out tales through role play and puppet theatre, analysed a number of different fairy tales, and developed a play plan that will support independent inquiry.

The children learned that stories are sometimes about big questions, such as how the world was created or how we know that we exist. This prompted some fantastic discussions, and the philosophical debate incorporated the children's own ideas, a variety of religious and cultural explanations, and scientific reasoning. The class concluded that different people and different cultures have different ways of answering the big questions of life. Below are some of their reflections.

"Sometimes stories are about big questions like 'how do you know that you exist?' and 'how do I know that other people exist?'." Ellen
"The number 'three' is used a lot in fairy tales. For example, the three little pigs, three wishes, three guesses in Rumpelstiltskin, three fairies in Sleeping Beauty and three rules in Little Red Riding Hood. There are lots of threes in the Bible too." Flora
"Good always triumphs over evil. In every single story, the evil ones get defeated as a punishment for doing bad things." David
"You get different versions of stories. Stories get passed around and it makes them change." Isobel

We look forward to hearing more of the pupils' reflections in the coming weeks!

Around the World

AROUND THE WORLD | Year 2 enjoyed hearing stories from other cultures in other languages this week with guest appearances from some Year 12 storytellers Keyuri sensitively recounted a story about whether the emperor's baby was the most beautiful of them all, and the pupils were interested to make connections with the Snow White fairytale and hear the sing song inflections of Hindi. They then heard a Chinese fairytale in Mandarin, which was instantly recognised by Ray, Alvin and Chloie in the original version, as well as a translation of a Judith Kerr favourite, The Tiger Who Came To Tea. It was wonderful to adopt a global perspective to storytelling, and to watch the children comprehend that not all storytelling takes place in English.

Year 3

Super Sportsmanship

SUPER SPORTSMANSHIP | Congratulations to Agnes and Albert who were this week's winners of the PE Trophy, which is awarded by Mr Hislop for displaying super sportsmanship!

Coming Home

COMING HOME | This week, the Year 3 pupils were tasked with composing poems based upon the idea of 'coming home'. Before putting pen to paper, the pupils used journey maps to help organise their thoughts. The finished poems are beautiful, evocative and creative - well done, Year 3!

Hayder
TJ
Grace
Sofia
Sholto
Catherine

Year 4

Shrove Stories

SHROVE STORIES | Years 3 and 4 celebrated Shrove Tuesday with a cosy storytelling session around the fire pit, complete with delicious homemade pancakes. Many thanks to Mr Barrable and Mrs Sneddon for cooking up these tasty afternoon treats!

Year 5

Personification in Poetry

PERSONIFICATION IN POETRY | This week, Year 5 has been learning about how to use figurative language, with a focus on personification. The children have worked hard to incorporate personification into a poem about their 'something beautiful'. It's clear that we have some very thoughtful and creative poets in the making!

Year 6

Peter Pan Performance

PETER PAN PERFORMANCE | As part of their PYP Exhibition, which is focused on the central idea of using our passions to make a difference to the lives of others, the Year 6 pupils will be staging a performance of Peter Pan. Rehearsals with Mrs Stewart have got off to a great start - the children can't wait to share their production with our community at the end of the year!

Lots of Learning

LOTS OF LEARNING | It's been a great week of learning in Year 6. The pupils have been learning to multiply fractions by a whole number, attempted to solve two step word problems, explored poetry, and considered what their lines of inquiry will be for their PYP Exhibition projects!

Tasty Treats

TASTY TREATS | The Year 6 pupils enjoyed cooking delicious pancakes over the fire pit with Miss Clements, which they then enjoyed with a range of tasty toppings! It really was the perfect way to celebrate Shrove Tuesday.

Other News

Crisis Collection

CRISIS COLLECTION | Many thanks to all the families who kindly donated food and other non-perishable supplies to the crisis collection, which were packed into cardboard boxes by pupils and other community volunteers on Wednesday night. In the coming days, the goods, as well as some motivational messages produced by the children in Mindfulness Club, will be driven over 1000 miles to the Ukrainian border by St Leonards parent Mark Fleming to support refugees. At the last count, the St Leonards community had also raised over £14,000 for the cause, which will go towards a mobile canteen which is providing hot food and drinks to refugees. Our thoughts are with all those affected by the conflict, both here and in mainland Europe.

Cross Country Congratulations

CROSS COUNTRY CONGRATULATIONS | Very well done to the St Leonards team who won our cross country meet against Lathallan earlier this week. Special mention to William M, Phoebe F and Cara L who won their respective categories!

Wishing Kostas G and Annie P a very Happy Birthday!