ferncumbe friday

friday 13th november 2020

half-term bake-off

Last week, Miss Morris and Mr Bladon had the very difficult task of selecting Bake-Off winners from the huge number of competition entries which came in over half-term. You can see how creative and professional the cakes were! We took great delight in looking carefully at every single entry, and Miss Morris wanted me to pass on how tricky making a final decision was.

The prize for the lucky winners was tea and cake with Miss Morris - you can clearly see how well that went down!

The event raised £128.74! Can I take the opportunity of thanking you all for your generosity, hard work and amazing creativity.

hatton class are settling in well

Last week Hatton Class had a super morning of sport as part of the 'Road to Tokyo' sessions. We practised our swing with some golf coaching and then tried out some athletics activities. All the children participated with enthusiasm and thoroughly enjoyed learning some new skills.

This week in Hatton Class we have been learning about Diwali through a variety of activities. We found out that it is also known as 'The Festival of Lights' and we made our own diva lamps. We are going to paint them and decorate them next week.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Joan Bolton who gifted us a beautiful picture book this week. Joan has 'old family connections' with the school as her Mum was a pupil at the school 108 years ago. We enjoyed sharing the story in Hatton Class today, a super story with a great message!

Mrs Stephenson

Social Media checklists

SWGfL, in collaboration with the UK Safer Internet Centre have created these User Guides for Profile Settings for a range of social media sites that a lot of children and young people are accessing. They are intended for children and parents to use to gain a better understanding of the sites and how to change your privacy and security settings to keep your profile secure.

As you may have seen in previous newsletters, we have a lot of children in school using Tik Tok, with little to no restrictions on their accounts. This means that their profiles are accessible to the public. This user guide will help you to change the settings on your account so you can be in control of who has access to your posts and account content. If you would like further help with this or have any questions, do reach out to Miss Forbes through the school office.

Other help guides can be found through these links…

Miss Forbes

class email communication

A polite reminder that the class email accounts which were used during the lockdown last term and went direct to the class teacher(s), are currently not being monitored, and will only be used in the event of a whole class closure. If you need to contact your child(ren)’s teacher(s), please do so in the usual way via the school office… admin3210@welearn365.com

Many thanks for your cooperation.

what a bookworm!

Mrs Reid is so impressed with Hugh, who ploughed through a pile of books during the recent isolation fortnight. He struggled to sleep having not worked off as much energy as usual, but reading was a strategy which really helped him settle at night. A big thumbs up from Mrs Webb too - Keep up the great work Hugh!

remembrance week

Each class observed Remembrance this week in their own way. Shrewley Class explored the history of World War 1 and the Christmas Day Armistice in 1914. They imagined how the soldiers must have felt in the trenches on Christmas Eve, when the Germans began singing and how incredible meeting them across no man's land would have felt the next day. Here is Zak’s diary entry…

‘Dear Diary,

I feel like I'm going to get frostbite, I can't bear the chill running through my bones. I'd rather die than be here, I just hate the trenches. I want to be home.

Last night, suddenly, the most amazing thing happened. The gun shots stopped. Then, out of nowhere, I heard the tune of Silent Night. I tried to work out the words, but I had the tune and that was all I needed. We started to sing along, it made me think of home, me and my family having mince pies. Wishing I was at home, I drifted off to sleep. As I drifted, I realised that the Germans are not like Dracula, or some monster that kills everyone in sight. They're young, like us, fighting for their lives, the same as us. It was one of the weirdest nights of my life. I loved singing along with Silent Night.

I felt happy today. I found my post and there was a chocolate bar! My brain exploded with excitement, but all I did was smile. I opened it gently and ate one, tiny square. Suddenly I felt a courageous feeling flowing through my body. I knew that this was either the day I died, or the day I went up the ladder...and lived.

I muttered to myself 'I'm going to regret this.' I looked at the sky. It was snowing. I peeped over the parapet and saw barbed wire, blood everywhere and a sea of bodies. I climbed up, waiting for black. I wasn't shot at! I opened my eyes and walked towards a German officer. Suddenly, enemy greeted enemy.’

Below are two highly recommended clips which I suggest you might watch with your child. The first is a special selection of songs by Ruby Ann Sings with readings of poems and a soldier's letter home to his fiancée to mark Armistice Day and to remember the fallen soldiers of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and the Fusiliers. The second clip is remembering the contribution of soldiers from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxBNojvpEPw&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcs8QC2o6I8&feature=youtu.be