A great big thank you to the Friends of Stanmore
The FoS have been working alongside the school and teachers to help fund some useful and needed resources for the children, so far we have purchased lots of fun games, guided reading books and some rather cute waterproof sets. The beaming smiles of the staff tell you how great it is to be supported by a great team in our Friends of Stanmore.
Mrs Spencer-Clark and Miss Day with educational games for Year R
Mrs Mason with games for Ready 2 Learn
Mrs Laver with new books for Year 6
Cultural Discoveries in Ready to Learn
This week in R2L, the team have been travelling the world in search of different cultures. Earlier in the week, the team had the challenge of creating a pyramid out of spaghetti and marshmallows. The team needed to show a degree of persistence and resilience as the spaghetti was rather brittle and would break if we were not careful. Lots of different structures were designed and the team tried to be the best that they could be!
Later in the week, the team explored the significance of the Chinese New Year. We discovered that 2020 is called the Year of the Rat we immersed ourselves in the festival spirit ending the week by making paper fortune cookies, Chinese lanterns and a paper dragon made from our hand prints. Our target this week was to understand that we can’t always be first.
By the end of the week, team R2L understood that “Team work makes the dream work!”
Practising Politeness in Ready to Learn
This week’s target in R2L has been to demonstrate politeness to all people – children and adults!
The team were able to practise these skills in a variety of ways throughout the week starting with a visit from Silas Brown, child and youth worker at Level 10 church, on Tuesday.
The team warmly welcomed Silas and particularly demonstrated the RESPECT key to success as they enjoyed some playtime activities with him in the rain. In spite of the bad weather, the team continued to show politeness towards Silas and each other as well as showing excellent team skills.
The team were challenged to put their polite skills into action on Tuesday when they held a tea party and invited Mrs Taylor, Mrs Fenton and Mandy Dodds (our wonderful kitchen supervisor). Of course, the team had to work co-operatively to make jam tarts, mince pies and fruit kebabs for the party as well as serve their guests. The tea party was a huge success and the team were noticed for displaying polite manners to all guests and each other.
The week ended with the team becoming “Politeness Detectives” whereby they visited different classrooms throughout the school to discover how polite the school community were to each other. The team decided that Stanmore School is a fantastic school to be part of!
Special thanks must go to Mandy Dodds for making extra time to bake the jam tarts and mince pies. You are certainly now part of Team R2L!
By Mrs Mason, Miss Shuff, Mrs Petts, Mrs Griffiths and Team R2L
Ready to Learn - Den Building
Every week, the R2L team try really hard to make good choices and follow the school rules. For each good choice, the children put a marble in the jar hoping that by Friday, the marble jar will be full. A full marble jar of good choices equals a marble jar treat.
This week, the team made SO many good choices, that we had an extra special marble jar treat – den building outside!
The team had to use all of their keys to success to work together to build a den. This was achieved in spite of the rain.
Well done Team R2L
By Mrs Mason, Miss Shuff and team R2L
Ready to Learn - Remembering
In R2L this morning, our activities were all based around the meaning and the significance of wearing a poppy at this time of year.
First of all, we listened to a story by Hilary Robinson and Martin Impey entitled “Where the poppies now grow.” This is a beautifully illustrated story, told in rhyme, which tells the tale of two best friends who go from small boys in the countryside to men at war.
We then used the story as the inspiration for our paintings to commemorate the bravery of the fallen soldiers from the First World War.
We hope that you like them!
By Mrs Mason, Miss Shuff, Mrs Petts and R2L
Stanmore children attend an anti-bullying conference
On Friday 11th October, two year 5 children were supported by the R2L team to represent Stanmore School at the anti-bullying conference.
The aims of the conference were to train and support the children to be “kindness champions” back at their school. The training was anticipated to last not just for anti-bullying week (which occurs in mid-November) but to also become embedded in the school culture.
The children were informed about the rights of a child in accordance with the United Nations Rights of a child 1991. These rights included the right to learn; the right to attend school; the right to be treated fairly and the right not to be hurt by others.
The conference involved a variety of interactive workshops which included examining the role of a “bystander” – the role that someone takes when they witness unfair behaviour but do not act upon it. Stanmore children decided that they would like to change the role of a “bystander” at Stanmore into an “upstander” role. Someone that stands up for a victim and helps them.
The children involved themselves fully in the day demonstrating all of the keys to success alongside showing excellent behaviour. The children have been given the responsibility of being “anti-bullying ambassadors” and Mrs Taylor awarded them with their badges this week.
The new anti-bullying ambassadors have taken away LOTS of ideas from the conference to share with the children. Watch out for an anti-bullying assembly soon!
As a result of the most recent advice from the anti-bullying conference, our new ambassadors will work with staff and children to update our Anti-Bullying code.
In the meantime, if you feel that you are being treated unkindly by your peers, try to follow this idea:
STOP (what you are doing) WALK (away to a safe place) TALK to a trusted adult.
Mrs Mason. R2L lead.
Introducing our new Friendship Ambassadors
We have introduced a new scheme to help our children with friendships and play.
As part of our wider Ready to Learn provision our first Friendship Ambassadors have graduated from their training programme and are already at work supporting children on both the Key Stage 1 and 2 playgrounds.
The Ambassadors are there to help with strategies and but they are not problem solvers. They have a code of conduct that they follow and are aware that the adults on the playground remain in place to keep the children safe.
Friendship Ambassador Code of Conduct
We recognise that we are strategy givers NOT problem solvers.
We understand that if a child has been hurt either by hitting, swearing or name calling, then we must tell an adult immediately.
We understand that if we have any issues or concerns about a problem that we must speak to an adult immediately.
We shall always work in pairs.
We shall design our own timetable and be responsible for keeping to it.
We shall have a Friendship Ambassador meeting every other Wednesday during singing assembly.
The Friendship ambassadors launched their role by presenting a fantastic assembly on 25th June where they explained their role to the whole school.
The aim of the program is to select and train a group of Year 5 students each year so that there will always be a peer support mechanism on the playground. This initiative is also in direct response to a request from our school council - SPEAK.
Don’t worry, be happy!
We all get worried from time to time. Sometimes they are little worries, and sometimes they feel a lot bigger. Whether it is to do with friendships, growing up, someone close to us not being well, or that we just don’t know what to do about a situation. A worry can become, well, worrisome.
That is why we have the Worry Box. Located in a prominent position within the school, children are encouraged to share their worry with the little worry monster by filling in one of the simple forms. Our trained staff check the worry box each day. Once they’ve picked up the worry, they formulate a plan. They’ll arrange some time to speak to the child with the worry and then talk it through with them.
The idea is that our children get the help and support they need. So sometimes things can be solved by working out a new strategy to tackle the issue. Other times people need help to resolve things, or they just need to know that someone is able to listen to them and understand.
Having a worry is perfectly normal, but we want to help our children through it. Whatever the worry, we are here to help.