CELEBRATING WRAY COMMON’S VIBRANT AND DIVERSE HERITAGE AND CULTURE

Newsletter

No. 34: 12th June 2020

WITH LOVE FROM WRAY COMMON Wray Common cards have been spotted brightening up noticeboards at East Surrey Hospital! These ones were lovingly made by our Year 3 pupils.

ART COMPETITION WINNER We are pleased to share that James (5Bu), entered a Funny Faces Art Competition run by Dunottar School for Year 5 pupils and came in first place! The prize is a set of art materials for his school. Well done, James and thank you! Take a look at his prize-winning entry. We’re sure you’ll agree that it is indeed a great piece of art. We particularly loved the funky hairstyle!

After the launch of our initiative to celebrate Wray Common School’s diverse cultural heritage and ancestry back in January this year, it’s all change for the flags adorning the flagpoles (newly painted by our very own Mr Fensom) next to the KS2 playground. During last week’s Zoom assembly (a Wray Common first!), Mr Murphy randomly picked out 15 countries’ flags from a selection of 50 countries, with which Wray Common pupils and staff identify. Brightening up the school building now are the national flags of Bangladesh, France, Germany, Kenya, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Portugal, Sweden, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Wales and, of course, England! Next time you come into the school grounds, have a look at the flags and test your knowledge. Do you know which flag belongs to which of these countries?!

YEAR 1 Year 1 have immersed themselves in the story of “Katie in London,” and created fantastic setting descriptions of Buckingham Palace. In the story, Katie is transported back to a Victorian beach holiday and children looked at how beach holidays then were different compared to today. Year 1 have also been learning to tell the time this week!

YEAR 2 Year 2 have started work on their brand new “Rainforest Explorers” topic by drawing, colouring and painting bright, vibrant rainforest animals. They have written descriptive paragraphs using prepositions and apostrophes and, in Geography, completed some great weather and climate work. Keep up the fantastic work, Year 2!

Alex L, 2DS

Alexa, 2V

Ameera, 2B

The rainforest was a happy and peaceful place. The high, emerald, leaves were gently swaying and shining above the tapir. The black, grey, happy mud skippers were grinning, quietly sitting on the log. The mudskipper’s tails were wagging, quickly behind the frogs and tapir. The green, small frogs were perched and smiling beside each other. The big, grey, white, heavy tapir was gracefully sleeping next to the frogs. The short, green, smooth grass was waving beneath the tapir.

Jemima, 2V

Joshua T, 2DS

Oliver, 2V

Ella, 2DS

Erin, 2B

Elena, 1S

Jenson, 1S

RECEPTION Children have been having fun building an obstacle course, creating fish for their aquarium and working on their maths skills.

Henry, 1W

Nicky, 1W

YEAR 3 Inspired by Georges Seurat, Year 3 have created pointillism orangutans for a rainforest scene and then written great descriptions about the rainforest being torn down by humans, from the perspective of a baby orangutan.

Finley, 3LS Katie, 3LS Heidi, 3F

Jake, 3LS

Katie, 3F

Ethan, 3F

YEAR 4

Elsie, 4M Holly, 4P

Lily D, 4M

Lucas, 4P

Ryan, 4R

Zackary, 4P

Deejay, 4M

This week, Year 4 have created their own “Batique” art using a technique called water resist. First, they made a design on paper using water resistant materials such as candles and wax crayons. They then painted their designs with water-based paint, revealing the fabulous pictures you see here!

Nathan (3F) has learnt a new skill. Having read Enid Blyton’s “Five On A Treasure Island,” a story in which the children light a fire to keep warm, Nathan decided to learn, under the watchful eye of a supervising adult, of course, how to do the same!

CLASS MEET-UP FOR YEARS 2-5! Teachers are missing their classes as much as the children are missing their teachers and friends. For those still learning from home in Years 2-5, teachers will be Zooming groups of children on Wednesday. Parents/carers: please look out for an email with the special link to join and details of the times and group expectations. Please note: in order to maintain the highest standards of safeguarding, parents/carers must be present during the class meet-up.

YEAR 6 ART

In English, Year 6 have been creating information texts about fictional creatures and this has inspired their art topic this week. They have been looking, in particular, at dragons and thinking about how to create sketches, drawings and paintings which have a 3D effect through the use of shadows, highlights and colour details. Some worked with chalk and oil pastels to depict the dragons’ eye, others created pencil sketches and used watercolours to paint the scales. As you can see, we have some very talented Year 6 artists.

Henry, 6

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Soph

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ll, 6C

Chloe

, 6C

Soph

ie E

a, 6C

Millie

, 6E

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lsa, 6E

Enya, 6

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Lucas 6

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YEAR 5 Year 5 children have been reading a book called “The Night the Diamonds Fell” on Purple Mash. It has been very popular, with children enjoying the cliffhanger chapter endings and waiting with baited breath for the next chapter the following day. Alongside reading the book, children have also produced some great work, including writing their own missing radio broadcasts, blogs and book reviews.

Gracie, 5B William, 5Bu

“An Earthling’s Blog Written By An Alien Observing Humans,” by Oriel, 5Bu: “Whilst I was stalking them from their shed, I realised they are most peculiar: they DO NOT eat space mud, they eat things like pizza and ice cream. I have seen some terrible things from humans but nothing like this, they throw innocent blankets into a thing called a washing machine and I could hear them shrieking HELP ME, HELP US, PLEASE! And I am most offended by how they think we look: they think we are super tall and green. I know this from the little boy’s bedroom where he has alien decorations but I am most pleased that he has a sense of good space creatures.”

SCHOOL LIBRARY BOOKS As the end of the academic year approaches, parents and carers are politely requested to return any school library/reading books by the end of next week. Reception, Year 1 and Year 6: please place the books into the collection box at the playground gates/main entrance at morning drop-off. Year groups at home: there will be boxes in the covered area at the main entrance every day next week, between 10:00a.m. and 2:00p.m.

THINKING THURSDAY This half term, we are exploring our Wray Common value “Kindness.” Children have been thinking about why it is important to show kindness and respect towards everyone, including people who might be different to us. We also thought about what would happen if people do not demonstrate kindness and respect towards others… Oak pod’s class quote: Everybody deserves to feel happy and so we should be kind to everyone. Harry and Ellie M (1W) said: We have to be kind to everyone otherwise people might get lonely or sad. Jessica (1W) said: If you are kind to new people, they might become a new friend! Jemima (2V) wrote: We should respect others because inside we are all the same and it is good to be kind to other people because they will hopefully do it back. [Being unkind] is not nice because it would hurt that person's feelings and the world would not be a loving world. Will P (3F) wrote: We should be kind to: Nanny and Grandad and Grandma, Animals (Alfie), the planet, school friends, our teachers, our headmaster, the postman… every person in the whole universe! Treating people different to us without kindness would make them sad and make them not want to play with you. If we didn’t have kindness, we’d be hurting each other and doing bad and nasty things to each other which would make people feel sad. Poppy (3LS) wrote: It is important to treat others how you want them to treat you and remember that people’s feelings are the same all over the world. Kindness leads to kindness. If you were mean to someone then they would feel upset and it would be much harder for them to be kind. Cruelty leads to cruelty. And the world would be a bad place. Callum (4R) wrote: It's important to show kindness to others because you don’t actually know how they’re feeling already and one act of unkindness could be really upsetting them. Everyone is different and we all have things in our lives not everyone knows or understands but to be kind will only be good and make someone else's day. If people went around being unkind then they would be the reason for many people’s unhappiness and they will end up very lonely in years to come because they would have been so horrible and no one would want to spend time with them. Eden (4M) wrote: It is ok to be different in this world but inside we're all the same. If we didn't have kindness the world would not be the same because kindness is the peace in the world. Harry (4P) said: We should treat everyone with kindness and respect because we are all human. Luca (5B) wrote: It's good to treat everyone nicely if you want to be treated the same way and it doesn't matter if someone has different skin colour or comes from a different country, we are all just humans. Hayley (5Bu) wrote: If nobody was kind and respectful then everyone wouldn't want to live in this world and everyone will be angry so they will do bad things. It would be horrible!! Chloe, Hagan and Phoebe B (6C) said: We should respect and show kindness to everyone because we are all the same. We are all part of the same world family and even though we are different in some ways we are all beautiful in our own way.

SUMMER READING CHALLENGE

The Summer Reading Challenge launches today with a “Let’s Get Silly” Launch Party where you can “meet our super silly Ambassadors, who will be sharing their favourite silly stories, leading a draw-along to create your very own Silly Squad character, showing us their silliest dance moves, telling their most hilarious joke and sharing so much more silly fun with us all.” Click on this link for more information: https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/

AND FINALLY… Now that we have settled into our new normal, it has been a source of pride to see how well children have adjusted to social distancing in the classroom and the playground, eating lunch in disposable containers at their desks and all the extra handwashing! Thank you to parents/carers for adhering to the new drop off and pick up arrangements. For your safety, and that of children and staff, please do your very best not to arrive late. For junior children, we are allowing them in 5 minutes early to support you in this. Families should also continue to ensure that they follow national guidance on social distancing - any ongoing breaches may mean that your child will not be able to come to school for health and safety reasons. We would also remind parents that school is closed on Wednesdays to all pupils except those in Key Worker pods.

HONOUR BOOK RS Skanda For being sea creature experts with fantastic drawings of sharks and jellyfish Joanna and teaching Miss Stables some interesting new facts Louie For fantastically speedy sea creature writing. He used his sounds, persevered and had the courage to try something new. (In school). Annabel For using her sounds to thoughtfully create messages and cards for friends and family . RP Rocco For excellent research and fact finding about jellyfish and sharks and for consistently applying his sound knowledge to write brilliant sentences! Lola For confidently sharing her great knowledge about sea creatures with us this week. Evie F For her amazing ingenuity creating a portable make up carrier out of popoid. She is improving her design to incorporate an eye shadow pod. Amelia For working really hard on her reading and phonics with Mrs Morrant. 1S Jaxson For proving his answers and explaining his understanding clearly when dividing. Florrie For using great descriptive language and commas when describing Buckingham Palace. Adi For creating a fantastic fact file about the United Kingdom. Jenson For trying his hardest to use our descriptive toolkit when describing the pirate ship setting in our writing class. 1W Ahmed For his brilliant writing all about Katie’s adventures in London! Keep it up, Ahmed! William T For perseverance in his writing. Ava For using fantastic descriptive language in her Katie in London writing. 2B Nathan For a wonderfully detailed map showing how the climate varies across the world. Luke For a colourful picture showing the 4 layers of the rainforest. 2DS Zac For working so hard at your home learning. You always put maximum effort in and you’ve shared some fantastic learning. Well done and keep it up! Mimi For always putting a smile on everyone's faces with her lovely messages on our daily blog and for encouraging her peers. Logan For settling excellently into our pod this week. I’ve been so impressed with his excellent behaviour, polite manners and positive attitude to his learning. Well done! 2V Ruaridh For such great comprehension work this week. Rayan For showing such perseverance with his home learning and even having a second try at some tasks. Seanna- For wonderful similes created from Mickey in the Rainforest. "Mickey slid through the puddles Leigh like an ice skater" 3F Ethan For super understanding and showing his working when calculating perimeter this week. Harry For hard work and perseverance with his spellings. Milo For his amazingly creative ideas when writing about rainforest destructions and for persevering with his spellings. 3LS Poppy For always putting a huge amount of effort into all her work throughout our learning at home. Well done. Ben For using some lovely descriptive language in his rainforest destructions slow write. 4M Deejay For his excellent effort in school this week – always putting his best effort into his work. Lily For an excellent turtle picture using water resistant materials

HONOUR BOOK Continued….. 4R Phoebe For a fantastic description of what it would feel like to travel back in time through a magical portal – I could really imagine it! Daniel For being a brilliant math-magician this week during our decimal learning – tricky stuff, well done! Jack For fantastic effort in maths this week – you are a decimal pro! For great work with Roman Numerals this week working out his birthday and Luka lots of other dates. 4P Sienna For her continued commitment to home learning. Keep up the amazing effort Sienna! Harry For a brilliant, detailed Roman soldier description. 5B Benito For amazing perseverance towards all of his Maths learning this week – it may have taken some time but you’ve done amazingly. Imman For a well-written and helpful radio broadcast full of advice as to why aliens might have invaded in our Book Club book. Flora A great blog about Earthlings from the viewpoint of aliens. Lovely use of rhetorical questions to show thought process and engage the reader. Hannah For an amazingly well written 'Finding Tale' with incredible language and vocabulary choices. It was a pleasure to read. 5BU Jacob For always showing a great attitude to his work and looking for extra challenges. Keep up the great work! William For always demonstrating high levels of engagement and excitement, via the blog and his completed work. I loved your creative radio broadcast. Oriel For an original and funny blog from the viewpoint of an alien observing humans. 6C Roxy For a fantastic effort when attempting maths problems in class. Amy For some super hitting and sportsmanship during PE lessons at school this week. Rooshan For working really hard and offering great vocabulary choices in English. 6E Macie For her enthusiastic start back at school and for really focusing in class, applying herself to her tasks. Luc For his fantastic sportsmanship displayed in our PE lessons since we have been back at school. A real delight to have in the lesson. Jacob For showing such great Wray Common values, being cooperative, considerate with his peers and willing to go out of his way to be helpful. A delight to have in our pod!