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10th March 2017

Dear Parents, Pupils & Guest Readers

Please read on for school news and information about forthcoming evens, including Comic Relief

silliness!

World Book Day

Sunnylands Nursery children celebrated World Book Day by dressing up

as their favourite storybook characters. We were treated to an array of

costumes depicting heroes and heroines old and new. During the day

Nursery children were encouraged to share books in small groups and

were treated to ‘Popup’ story sessions in addition to the usual story

time. The older children turned into authors, providing imaginative plots

and characters that were turned into books (with a little bit of assistance from

Nursery staff!) to take home.

The day’s activities were themed around

letters and sounds, including creating

imaginative new characters for future stories.

A happy time was had by all; it was excellent

to see lots of spontaneous sharing and

retelling of books and stories by the children.

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This year Reception, Year One

and Year Two decided to

celebrate World Book Day by

exploring the prolific works of

Julia Donaldson. The children

brought to school their favourite

books by the author, along with

drawings they had made to

match.

Teachers read several Donaldson stories to the children

throughout the day, and Reception pupils drew and

labelled pictures of their favourite characters, from Stick

Man to the Singing Mermaid! The children and adults

alike were interested to learn just how many stories

Donaldson has written - everyone discovered new books

that they had not heard of before. They had a lovely time!

Year One shared the story of The Highway Rat by Julia

Donaldson. They were quickly joining in with some of the

repetitive elements of the story. We discussed the main

character and came up with a variety of describing words

for him. We agreed that Samuel’s suggestion of ‘selfish’

was the most apt. We also talked about the trick played

by the duck and why it was so successful. There was also a

discussion about echoes and where best to go to hear

one!

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Mrs Ward read 'A squash and a squeeze'

to Year Two and afterwards they

discussed the repetitive phrases. They

also considered whether the wise old man's suggestion of moving in all of the animals was actually a

clever idea or not! Sidar explained the order of the characters as they appeared, Tom was keen to know

what a larder was and Finnie was most amused by the idea of a cow having a jig on the kitchen table!

Year Three had a really varied and interesting World Book Day sharing books such as War Horse, Harry

Potter, The Enormous Crocodile and When I grow up I Want to Play for Liverpool! All of the children had

brought in a few of their favourite books and we had a round robin lesson where they had the

opportunity to look through and read a chosen part of each other’s book. They were then given the

opportunity to discuss with the rest of the class why they liked their favourite book, what they liked

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about each other’s books and whether or not they would be tempted away from their current reading!

They were intrigued by some of Mr Burgham’s favourite books from when he was their age. A few

comments were made about the old book smell and size of text in some of Mr B’s books! This was a

fascinating insight into what the class enjoy reading which also gave them the opportunity to see what

some of their friends and read.

Year Four were introduced to Phillip

Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy. Mr

Holmes explained the basic plot and

premise of the first book, The

Northern Lights (also known as The

Golden Compass) and introduced

several of the weird and wonderful

characters from the novel to the

children. At least one of the pupils had

been proactive and had sought out

the book from our library with the intention of reading it. Mr Holmes read the first chapter to the

children and was very impressed by their avid listening and interest. Year Four pupils are now looking

forward to their next ‘class reading book’ which will be Clockwork, by the very same Phillip Pullman

Upper Key Stage Two have

gone Malorie Blackman

mad! This former

Children’s Laureate has

penned a wide range of

books, many with a

thought-provoking theme,

written from a child’s or

young adult’s perspective.

She uses a range of literary

features to hook her reader

from the very first page.

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In Year Five, Mrs McCahill shared a few of the books that she has read with her own children, including

‘Pig-Heart Boy’, ‘Hacker’ and ‘Thief’, prompting many of the class to request the latter as a class reader.

The class used the first chapter to spring-board a discussion on peer-pressure and ‘fitting in’.

In Year Six, pupils researched and created fact-files

about Malorie Blackman before looking at the characters

in ‘Noughts and Crosses’ and improvising the scenes.

They discussed the mature issue of racism and prejudice

that is raised in the book, turning stereotypes on their

heads, and linked this with their research about the

Martin Luther King movement. Mrs McCahill and Mrs

Butler are very pleased to see the classes’ increased

interest in reading books by this worthy author.

Share Your Work in Lent Term

It was great to see so many families making the recent Share Your Work sessions. Here are some

captured moments snapped in classrooms during this special time…

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Winter Games Day

This year’s spring-like Winter Games Afternoons allowed the children the chance to enjoy four

traditional sports in a competitive tournament. They worked hard in preparation during Games lessons

and extra-curricular clubs too! The results reflected a super performance form everyone with lots of

high scores. Thorpe finished 4th on 37 points, Rutland 3rd on 44 points and Pitsford 2nd on 49 points.

The event though was decisively won by Grafham on 67 points after showing they knew the way to goal!

Mr Burrows and Mr Holmes say “Well done children! You should all be happy with your efforts and hard

work over the twelve matches.”

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St P’s joins in with Comic Relief

Red noses are sold out in the School Office but there are still

plenty on sale in Sainsbury’s. This fast sell out indicates the

pupils enthusiasm for this biennial event. The rollcall of

‘bonkers events’ for the day is as follows:

For a minimum donation of £1 (all proceeds to Comic Relief naturally!) pupils may wear all

manner of Comic Relief merchandise to School on Fri 24 March: deelyboppers, wristbands, red

noses (of course!), badges. Usual school track suit needs to be work on the day but blue polo

shirts can be swapped for t-shirts, including (but not essential) ones relating to Comic Relief.

For an additional donation of £1 pupils may take on the St P’s Comic Relief Challenge (cue

drumroll) of…….Dress Up Your Potato (or any other fruit/veg ). Will your veg be a

super-hero, a character from a book or film, a famous person from history? There will be a little

Comic Relief themed prize for the potato/veg judged to be the cutest, funniest, silliest, smartest

or anything else-est. This is a silly competition so box any serious competitiveness

away!

Children in KS1 and KS2 also are invited to write down a joke which will go into the SILLY HAT OF

JOKES. Parents are asked to help younger children write the joke down to assist in the clarity of

humour! A Grand Draw of Jokes will take place at Assembly that day and those

whose jokes are drawn out will read them out or have the teacher read it out.

Headmistress’s Sensible Alert: Dear Mums & Dads- please ensure all t-shirts and jokes are ‘school-suitable’.

There will be a lunchtime KS2 disco on Friday 24th March organised by the School Councillors.

Entry fee to be confirmed and posters coming soon!

And finally, there can surely be no fundraising without the mention of cakes, and on this special

occasion all thoughts of ‘lo-sugar, no sugar’ are abandoned as we ask you all to bake for Comic

Relief. There will be a Red Nose Cake Stall after school on Wed 22nd March in Sunnylands Hall.

Please get baking for this nearer the time. Homework on Tuesday will be so light it might have

actually disappeared althogether….in case children want to help with the baking.

Kettering Eisteddfod…

….will be upon us next week! Parents of competitors will shortly be receiving an advice letter about the

conventions of behaviour at competitions so please give this a careful read before everything starts.

Good luck children! We have heard and seen a great deal of strong work at school. So many of you

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have been putting in the extra practice at home, which I hope will please the adjudicator, whose job is

to write some advice for you, telling you the strengths of your performance and areas upon which you

can focus for further improvement. Be brave! Be strong! Be awesome!

St Peter’s School Art Gallery

Congratulations to Pippa Wills and Ezekiel Nolan for

receiving the honour of having a piece of their art work

framed and hung in St Peter’s School Art Gallery.

Consultation

Requests for Y1 – Y6 consultation appointments were due today. Confirmation slips will be back to you

by Mon 20th March for Y1-Y6 and by Mon 13th March for Reception Class.

Class Assembly Reminder

Year One will present an assembly to their parents and to the School on Thursday 23rd March and then

Reception Class will follow on Thursday 30th March. Parents of children in these classes are asked to

arrive at School no earlier than 10.20am.

The next bulletin will have a full round up of Eisteddfod results and details of recent trips taken by Year

Three and Year Six.

Yours sincerely

Maria Chapman MA(Ed) Headmistress