F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9

S K Y S W O O D P R I M A R Y & N U R S E Y

S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Y E A R 5 M A T H S

C H A L L E N G E 2

N E T B A L L U P D A T E S 2

B I G S C H O O L S ’

B I R D W A T C H 2

J O S H U A ’ S K A R T I N G

P R O G R E S S 3

G I R L S ’ F O O T B A L L

T O U R N A M E N T S

3

A C T I O N A G A I N S T

H U N G E R C A K E S A L E 3

K I D Z C O R N E R 4 & 5

C Y C L I N G P R O F I C I E N C Y 6

T R O U B L E ’ S A B R E W I N G 6

Y E A R 1 A T T H E A B B E Y 6

C H E S S U P D A T E S 7

S A R A C E N S T A G R U G B Y

F E S T I V A L 7

F O O T B A L L U P D A T E S 8

C I V I C S O C I E T Y

A R T C O M P E T I T I O N 8

W O R L D B O O K D A Y 8

G R A N D - D A D S O F T H E

A T L A N T I C 9

T A B L E T E N N I S

C H A M P I O N S H I P 9

S A N D R I N G H A M

C H E M I S T R Y S H O W 10

I N D O O R A T H L E T I C S 10

I N T E R N A T I O N A L W O R K

P L A C E M E N T

10

Reception take Pride in their Roaring Rex!

As part of their project on dinosaurs, our reception class have enjoyed the

opportunity to create their very own roaring Rex! The model, which Mr

Collenette kindly put together with chicken wire, was given a couple of

strong coats of papier-mâché by the children, who are now in the process of

painting their delightful dinosaur. An added feature has been to record

some raging roars using sound buttons, a novelty which the children have

clearly enjoyed. Once the dinosaur has been completed, he will be given a

coat of varnish and then take pride of place in the reception classroom.

Over the longer term, Rex will no doubt join Greg the Steg (stegosaurus) and

our terrifying pterodactyl in the school library. Well done to all of the

children, who took great care with their papier-mâché and showed excellent

control when giving Rex his makeover. The picture below shows Ana

painting some of the finer details of the head, with Sophie painting the

back.

Page 2

Year 5 Maths Challenge

On Wednesday 6th February , eight children from Year 5

went to Garden Fields to participate in the Primary Schools’

Year 5 Maths Challenge Competition. The children were

divided into two teams. In Team A there was James, Sebi,

Aidan and Leo, whilst Team B included Emily, Bella, Laura

and Charlie. The quiz included two general maths rounds,

one memory round, and an ‘estimation’ round. Out of 20

teams, the A team came a commendable eighth, whilst the

B team came joint second with the Garden Fields A team. It

was a great afternoon and, with a very impressive points

total, the Skyswood B team have qualified for the County

Final as‘ highest scoring runners-up.’ The final will be held at

Robertson House, Stevenage, in late March.

Big Schools’ Bird Watch

Thank you to all of the children who took

part in the Big Schools’ Bird Watch 2019.

Although there were no sightings of gold-

en eagle, albatross or dodo, over fifty chil-

dren took part and the data collected is of

great use to the RSPB. The pie chart

shows the most common birds that were

spotted in our Skyswood community. The

most commonly spotted bird was the

wood pigeon, with nearly 200 spotted al-

together. It has also been great to see

increasing numbers of red kites in recent

years.

Triple Success for School

Netball Team

The school netball team have enjoyed a

fantastic February. Firstly they secured a

4-3 victory in a nail-biting match against

Abbey , followed by an impressive 3-0

victory against St Bernadette in difficult,

windy conditions . The team then made it

three in a row with an excellent 7-2 victory

against Camp on the Thursday before we

broke up for half term. Mrs Lewis stated

that this was the probably the stand out

performance of the season due to the slick

passing and clinical finishing. Well done

girls, this fabulous form comes at just the

right time, with the Annual Netball Rally

taking place next month.

Page 3 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9

Girls Star in National Tournaments

Our girls’ football team rose to the occasion when competing in

two prestigious national tournaments over the past month. The

Premier League regional finals were held at the Watford Training

Ground in the week before half term, and this was followed by

the National League Trust tournament at Borehamwood Football

Club. In both tournaments, the girls played six group matches

against strong opposition, and on both occasions they narrowly

missed out on a place in the semi-finals (by a single point). The

Borehamwood tournament was a South-East England regional

final of the highest standard, with our girls coming up against

champion teams from Leyton Orient, Boston United, Dagenham

& Redbridge, Hemel Hempstead, Braintree and Barnet.

Joshua Set for Documentary

It has been great to follow the progress of Joshua with his karting, which has clearly gone from strength to

strength in just a short period of time. Joshua has been selected to feature in a short documentary about

young sporting talent and is extremely excited about the prospect of being filmed. Well done Joshua, we’re re-

ally proud of you!

Action Against Hunger Cake Sale

A big thank you to all the children and parents who made,

donated or purchased cakes at our Action Against Hunger Cake

Sale on the final day of half-term. The sale raised an amazing

£203.74. Thank you also to the wonderful team of helpers, who

set up the sale and helped this busy event to run smoothly in a

packed Year 3 classroom at the end of the school day.

Page 4 S K Y S W O O D P R I M A R Y & N U R S E Y S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R

How our body works

Year 6 have been finding out all about the body

in their science lessons, and have produced

some large scale collaborative diagrams to

locate, label and explain the main functions of

our organs. The diagrams have been used in

their excellent class display based on the

respiratory and circulatory systems.

Animaltastic Zoo

Over the half term break, Megan, Hannah and Daniel

produced the most amazing poster/map of their very

own Animaltastic Zoo! The effort that has gone into the

poster, alongside the beautifully designed fact-files for

every animal, was truly sensational. The poster itself is a

couple of square metres in size and superbly

illustrated. It certainly creates a visually impressive map

that would grace any zoo.

Page 5 S K Y S W O O D P R I M A R Y & N U R S E Y S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R

Art Club Toucans

Our Art Club have created some wonderful watercolour toucans. Here are eight examples of their

paintings. Many thanks to Laura Allan for her inspiration!

Year One Growing Up Poems

Our Year 1 children have created some growing up poems inspired by the A.A. Milne poem entitled ‘Now

we are Six.” The children used the structure and style of the poem, making excellent use of rhyme. Here

are a couple of fine examples.

When I was one I was very young,

When I was two I got the flu,

When I was three I drank tea,

When I was four I fell on the floor,

When I was five I knew I was alive,

But now I am six I’m clever as clever,

So I think I’ll be six now and for ever.

Leila

When I was one I loved laying in the sun

When I was two I lost my shoe,

When I was three I drank tea,

When I was four I learnt to draw,

When I was five I knew I was alive,

But now I ‘m five I’m clever as clever,

So I think I’ll be five now

Now and for ever.

Jasmine

Trouble’s a Brewin’

On Sunday 17th February, Ruby, Hazel and Willow (all from Year 4)

performed in Trouble’s a Brewin’ at Her Majesty’s Theatre. The

three girls attend the Pauline Quirke Theatre Academy and were all

incredibly excited to be given the opportunity to perform in the

West End. The show follows the fortunes of a number of cowboys

and cowgirls in the town of Albuquerque. Fifty ‘big ones’ get stolen

from the Weathermoon’s safe, and the chief suspects are Billy the

Girl and the Not so Magnificent Three. The girls had fantastic fun

and we are all extremely proud of them making their western West

End debuts!

Page 6

Cycling Proficiency

Our Year 5 children enjoyed a beautiful February

week with plenty of sunshine when taking their

cycling proficiency course. The course tutors

commented on the polite manner, positive attitude

and excellent progress of all the children who took

part. The class showed a good awareness of road

safety and all received certificates at the end of the

week to mark their success. Well done Year 5!

Year 1 at St Alban’s Abbey

Year 1 had a fantastic time on their trip to St Albans Abbey. They

particularly enjoyed the opportunity to dress up and re-enact the

story of St Alban as part of their Alban Trail.

The children all behaved really well and they truly loved the day. At

the beginning, we split into two halves and did a St Alban trail, every

child dressed up as a character in the story. The characters includ-

ed Alban, Amphibalus, the Magistrate, the executioner, soldiers, a

spy, slave buyers, slave sellers and of course the slaves them-

selves.

In the afternoon, the children made some magnificent mosaics,

planning out their patterns on plain paper and creating some

colourful Roman-style designs. All of the children behaved

impeccably and were excellent ambassadors for the school.

Page 7 S K Y S W O O D P R I M A R Y & N U R S E Y S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R

Saracens Tag Rugby Festival

Skyswood entered three teams for the Annual Saracens Tag Rugby Day at Smallford. Each team

played five matches in this ‘non-competitive’ event and the standard of rugby was excellent from

each of our three teams. Skyswood 1 won all five of their matches, whilst Skyswood 2 and 3 also

won many of the matches and scored sore tremendous tries. Well done to all of the children who

competed and thank you to the parents who were able to help us with transport on the day.

Chess Updates

Our chess team have now accumulated seven and a half league points after their second round of chess

matches on Friday 8th February. The team secured three points against Aldenham ‘A’ and one through their

jamboree pairings, to add to the two and a half points against St John Fisher and point against Windermere.

The team are improving with every match and will hope to break the ten point barrier when they compete in

the final round of league matches at Cunningham Hill Junior School on Friday 15th March. With a number of

our team members still in the lower juniors this promises much for the future. Wednesday Chess Club has

become increasingly popular over the past couple of years and we are delighted to see so many young chess

players coming through and representing the school.

Page 8 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9

Football Updates

Our ‘B’ team gave another impressive league

performance against St Alban & St Stephen ‘A’

earlier this month, despite losing out by six goals to

one. Aidan played particularly well in goal and Seb

capped a fine captain’s performance by scoring the

Skyswood goal.

The school ‘A’ team have also played extremely well

since the start of the new year, building on their

excellent league and cup runs in the autumn term.

The team played in the Premier League Tournament

(held at the Watford Training Ground) earlier this

week and narrowly missed out on a place in the

semi-finals after winning three, drawing two and just

losing one of their group matches.

Civic Society Art Competition

A group of Skyswood pupils from Key Stage 2 are looking to enter the

Civic Society’s Art Competition based on ‘the built environment from

where we live.’ The children will create mixed media pictures using

montage and paint. In order to fully utilise the ‘St Albans’ theme, we

would like to collect a range of papers (with a St Albans link) to use

in our montage. If any parents or children have any of the following

that we can add to our collection of local ‘paper products’ we would

really appreciate your help.

Local tickets (eg train/bus/parking tickets, performance tick-

ets from the Alban Arena/Sandpit Theatre/Abbey Theatre etc...

Take away menus from St Albans’ restaurants or information

flyers from local attractions.

Receipts that you no longer need from St Albans shops.

Local maps, timetables, neighbourhood news brochures

Any other paper products with an obvious ‘St Albans’ connec-

tion. Thank you!

World Book Day

A reminder that World Book Day will be celebrated

next Thursday. We’ll be having lots of fun and look

forward to seeing children and staff arriving to school

dressed as their favourite book characters.

Page 9 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9

Grand-dads of the Atlantic

On 13th February 2019, a former Skyswood pupil helped to set a new world record when he

completed an epic rowing challenge across the Atlantic.. 62 year old, Peter Ketley, alongside his

rowing partner Neil Young, became the oldest pair to row across any ocean! The pair were taking part

in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, and took 63 days and 22 minutes. The two grand-dads met

40 years ago when they trained in the parachute regiment. Peter, who grew up living on The Ridgeway,

attended Skyswood School with his brothers back in the sixties. Through their 3,000 mile challenge,

the pair aim to raise £250,000 for the Royal British Legion, Dreams Come True and Support our Pa-

ras. We sent out a message of congratulations to the pair on completing the challenge and have invit-

ed Peter to come and speak to our children about this amazing adventure when he returns to the UK.

It would be fantastic if we could make this possible.

School Table Tennis Championship

Our upper juniors contested the school’s annual table-tennis

championship earlier this week, with over forty children entering the

tournament. After several closely fought matches, the final was between

Tristan and Harry. Tristan had defeated Elizabeth and Harry won an

exciting semi-final against Aaron. The final itself could hardly have been

closer. Tristan won the first set before Harry fought back to level and

took the contest into a final set. Harry then rescued match point and

went on to win a nail-biting match by 12 points to 10 in the final set. Our

Dutch students, Femke and Leanne, helped us to organise the

tournament and kindly presented the trophy to Harry to end an excellent

afternoon of table tennis.

Sandringham Chemistry Show

The extremely popular Sandringham School Chemistry Show will be tak-

ing place on Tuesday 12th March between 6.00 p.m. And 7.00 p.m. If

you haven’t been before, we can highly recommend it. An evening

filled with loud noises, flashing lights and lots of mess! Hold onto your

hats and come and enjoy this explosive showcase of Science. A fun

and exciting evening for primary school children and parents. The

show lasts for approximately one hour.

Tickets cost £2 and can be purchased from the Sandpit Theatre box

office. This is always a very popular event so book early to avoid dis-

appointment. Visit the website at https://sandpittheatre.co.uk/

SandpitTheatre.dll/WhatsOn or call the Box Office on 01727 799565.

District Athletics and Cross Country

Our junior athletics teams did the school proud in the Herts County

Sportshall Indoor Athletics Finals, held at Herts University, Hatfield.

Both our boys and girls teams had qualified for the finals and

stand out performances include Hannah and Elizabeth’s individual

sprint victories, alongside Toby’s outstanding second place over a

longer distance. The whole team performed superbly and we

would like to thank Mr Oswin and Mr Jones for their excellent sup-

port, and for supervising our teams on the day.

Following the Sportshall Athletics, our school cross-country team

competed in the latest meet at St Columba’s. All of the team ran

well, with Toby achieving fourth place in the boys race. This is the

highest place that any Skyswood pupil has achieved in recent

years and is even more impressive given that Toby is still in Year 4

and was up against runners from years 5 and 6.

Thank You to Leanne and Femke

We have enjoyed having two young students from the

Netherlands on an International Work Experience placement

during the first week after half term. Leanne and Femke have

made a wonderful contribution throughout their week at

Skyswood and their friendly, helpful nature has shone through.

The girls have gained experience across the breadth of the school

and helped out with a number of sports events. Thank you

Leanne and Femke, have a safe journey back to the Netherlands

on Sunday.