Connecting school and home
Welcome, our new school council! This year, we have a fresh new batch of school councilors and a top team of Head Boy and Head Girl, to lead the rest of us through the year. Say hello to:
Our Head Boy and Head Girl,
Our Reception school councillors,
Our Year 1 representatives,
Our school councillors from Year 2,
Our Year 3 school councillors,
From Year 4,
And these two represent Year 5!
We look forward to see what they can do!
On the 21st of September, we celebrated St. Matthews day with fun on the field for every class from Reception to Year 6. We all had a wonderful time and for some of the younger children, it was their first time on the field. It was so lovely to all be together again after almost two years of bubbles!
It was really exciting to meet all the young children joining reception and was really enjoyable to be as a whole school again!
Year Six this term are the St Matthew’s ‘in house’ electricians and this week we have been making circuits – we even made one with a dimmer switch using a pencil (there’s a video below if you want to have a go!)
We are putting all this practice in for next week – Science Week. During Science Week Miss Manhire has set us the task of making a working burglar alarm. She wants us to put in place to figure out who keeps taking all her green pens. We will let you know how we get on – and who the culprit is!
How to make a dimmer switch using a pencil http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwfqwTo3K0g
As you know, our topic this term has been Ancient Greece – specifically The Adventures of Odysseus by Hugh Lupton. Therefore, we jumped at the chance to go to the National Gallery last week where we would be able to see two paintings that were based on Homer’s adventure: Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus and Penelope and the Suitors.
We were lucky to have a very informative talk by Nick (one of the gallery guides) who gave us an insight into the mysteries behind the paintings and expand our knowledge of the story even more.
As well as the informative tour, we also had our own challenge for the day. Miss Manhire had given us a list of artists, paintings and other interesting things to find in and around the gallery. Here are some of the fantastic things we found:
‘Anyone seen my lion?’
Mosaic
The Judgement of Paris
A London scene
Mrs Sullivan’s group
A portrait of someone our age (this boy is 11)
Van Gogh
and a present from Norway to England!
It was such a good day and a member of the public even told Miss Manhire how brilliant gallery visitors we were.
Year 6 😉
A wonderful morning was had by the Year 6’s last week at the Annual Storytelling Competition. Heats had whittled the finalists down to three and we were ready to enjoy a fun-filled morning of Greek tales, Greek food and Greek music. Well done to finalists Helena and Henrietta. A special congratulations to Ollie, our Maple Class Storytelling Champion 2019.
If you particularly enjoyed any of the food, then this is some of what we ate (perhaps you could try it at home.)
This week, Year Five and Six were incredibly lucky to welcome Sonoro Choir and Organisers of the Wimbledon International Music Festival to St Matthew’s. We were unsure how the day would unfold when we were told that we were being visited by a group of classical singers and artists but it turned out to be an unforgettable day. The morning began by listening to the group perform a classical piece of music. This is a video of Sonoro performing it here.
The choir then guided us through a variety of warm up techniques before we joined them in singing a beautiful version of ‘Bridge over Troubled Water.’ We were also very lucky to hear each of the choir members sing a solo during the morning. Jeff started by singing Maria from West Side Story, Nina then sung a piece from the opera Madame Butterfly and finally Jo sung a very moving piece from Gianni Schicchi. You can see another version of it here.
The afternoon session was lead by a lovely lady called Helen. We used art straws to create the bridges we had been singing about in the morning.
A thoroughly great day was had by all and we look forward to welcoming Helen back next week for a follow up art session.
Thank you Sonoro and Merton Music Foundation.
Reading fever has well and truly hit Year Six. Have a look at what we’ve been reading and come and ask us about our books, we might have a perfect recommendation for you..
Some of us have so enjoyed the first book that we’ve immediately started the next in the series!
Some of us are reading the same book!
These two were recommended these books by their friends.
Some of us prefer to have the actual book, but some of us prefer to read on a kindle. What do you prefer?
Good Afternoon all,
This week in Year Six has been a roller coaster -with everything from House Captain presentations to one-eyed giants. I know that the children and House Teachers (including myself,) very much enjoyed hearing the presentations of all the House Captain candidates. The children presented to their houses confidently and responsibly, taking into account all of the personality traits that are needed to be a successful House Captain. These character traits were evident in all who went forward for the role, but only two captains can have the leading role in each house. So, our House Captains for 2019-2020 are:
Cecil: Faris and Ollie
Churchill: Helena and Shiann
Spencer: Kalvin and Talia
Wilberforce: Tarran and Timo
Congratulations!
Once House Captains have been allocated, many other important school roles can be assigned. These are essential jobs in order to achieve the excellent running of our school. Our Year Six school roles for the term are:
Stars and Charmers Computer leads: Adriaan and Joel
Stars and Charmers Display leads: Liz and Olva
Blog Team: Milia and Katya
School Botanist: Joel
House Merit Lead: Lily-Grace
Tech Team: Jai, Abbeer, Cammy and Reece
Art Monitors: Calvin and Liz
Paddy’s Assistant: Sarah
During our English lessons, we have been reading about Odysseus’s visit to Polyphemus’s cave. After being repulsed but certainly intrigued by the story, we wrote our own scripts portraying the narrative.
Here are some of our scripts (let us know what you think):
Odysseus and The Cyclops Helena
Despite the rain, we still had an excellent PE lesson with Paddy in the hall. Well done to Spencer House who won the indoor games this week!
The Year Six Curriculum Map for Autumn is ready and can now be found here.
I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and are well rested and ready for next week, which will undoubtedly be another busy one!
Miss M and Year Six 🙂
Hello All,
It is been so wonderful having you back in my class again Year 6. Although there are lots of similarities to the class I said goodbye to in July 2015, I am pleased to report that a lot of growing up has happened since then and every day I am more and more impressed with your wisdom, kindness and friendship. It has also been great getting to know those of you who have joined since I taught in Year One, so thank you for welcoming me. You have tackled the first three weeks of term like pros. Being at the top of the school comes with a lot of responsibility and so many of you are rising to the challenge. One challenge that many of you faced this week, was the interviews for Head Boy and Head Girl. For those of you who applied, your letters of application were very well thought through and Mr Quinn and Mrs Sullivan have informed me that all of you came across excellently in the interview. I have no doubt that it was a very tricky decision. However, the role can only go to two children, so I say a huge congratulations to Henrietta and Sam, I know that you both will take on this important role with humbleness, integrity and enthusiasm.
Our Fantastic Head Boy and Head Girl Candidates
But the week has not simply been filled with deciding important roles, earlier in the week we published our Lonely Planet guides to the Greek landscape. These are now being proudly displayed on the wall and I am becoming increasingly tempted to book my next holiday. Here are a few of the guides that were created (thank you to Mrs Carroll for the super display):
Year 6 has also been rocking out this week with our new music topic: Classic Rock. We have been listening to a range of rock classics but our main focus has been learning how to sing ‘Living on a Prayer’ by Jon Bon Jovi. I know that Year 5 are also learning this song, so year 6 get practising because just before half-term we need to win the ‘Phase 2 Rock Out.’ Here is the link to the song below, so you can bring out those air guitars at home!
Anyway I best get off, the Rugby World Cup starts today and I want to watch the opening ceremony! Have a great weekend and see you on Monday!
Miss M 🙂