Middle School Newsletter

To our Middle School Community,

Another week packed with excited learning experiences has passed! As we move start the penultimate week of the Spring term, we are happy to share some news on all the great things happening in Middle School.

Please read through the newsletter to hear about the happenings of last week and upcoming events.

Meetings
We are always happy to meet with parents to discuss any ideas, concerns or questions you may have. Ensuring our parental community feels supported is very important to us. Please be aware, however, that due to teaching timetables, other meetings and events we are not often able to meet you immediately. If this is the case, please let the office know who you would like to see and give a brief overview of what you'd like to meet regarding and we will get back to you as soon as we are able to.

YEAR 6 PARENTS - Year 7 Place reminder
Recently we sent letters to all Year 6 students' parents and carers regarding accepting your child's place at School 21 for Year 7. The deadline for returning these and accepting your child's place in Year 7 is coming up on Monday, 1st April. Please ensure this comes back to us, even if you are accepting a place elsewhere. A copy of the letter is available by clicking here if you have misplaced your copy. Our waiting list is substantial, and we will be looking at offering places externally after the deadline date.

Monitoring your children before and after school
Please ensure you are vigilant in knowing your child's whereabouts before and after school. There have been a number of incidents at the shops on Stratford High Street where students from School 21 have been present or involved. Ensure your child is not loitering after school as this behaviour can put them in unsafe situations. The school will contact families of students we have concerns for specifically, and shop owners are advised to contact the police if their businesses are disrupted by students. Thank you for your support in keeping your child and our school community safe.

Parental Involvement and Reporting
A big thank you to our parent & carer community for coming in to our Bring A Parent to School Days and for parents' evening meetings over the last two weeks. As the Middle School develops, we are keen to build in further opportunities to collaborate and open our doors to our wonderful families. We hope you found the days useful and insightful. Our staff are currently working on the Spring term assessments and a progress report will be sent home soon for all students from Years 5 to 8, detailing their working level and attitudes to learning either in the last week of term or directly after the Easter holiday.

Dates For Your Diary

Return Date for Academic Year 2019/2020 - Monday 9th September

Monday 25th - Wednesday 27th March: Year 6 final Mock SATs

Thursday 28th March: Great Oracy Exhibition (school closed)

Monday 1st April: Above and Beyond Out and About trip for March

Monday 1st April: Primary Maths Challenge 8:45 - 13:30 (Selected Y5 students)

Tuesday 2nd April: Y5/6 Debate teams to Debate Mate Cup at
Queen Mary University

Wednesday 3rd April: Middle School non-uniform day - 'Go Glow' themed (Gold coin donation, come wearing shimmery / shiny / bright / glowing outfits!)

Thursday 4th April: Tea Party Music Recital
Year 5 - 15:30 - 16:30 / Year 6 - 17:15 - 18:15

Friday 5th April: Last day of term - school finishes at 13:00

6th April - 22nd April EASTER HOLIDAYS

Tuesday 23rd April: First day of Summer Term 1

Tuesday 30th April: Above and Beyond Out and About trip for April

Monday 13th - Thursday 16th May: Year 6 SATs Exams

Friday 17th May: Year 6 Celebration in the Park day! (More information to come)

Friday 17th May: Year 8 Salesforce Project group - Salesforce Maker Faire trip 1 - 10:00 - 16:00

Monday 20th May: Year 6 Chessington World of Adventures trip 9:00 - 18:45 (TBC - More information to come)

Thursday 23rd May: Year 8 Salesforce Project group - Salesforce Maker Faire trip 2 - 10:00 - 16:00

Attendance Winners - Week Beginning 18/03/2019

Year 5 Snowdon 98.0%

Year 6 Kosciuszko 100.0% Overall Middle Winners

Year 7 Himalayas 97.5%

Year 8 Mount Blanc 95.9%

Drama at the Royal Court Theatre

Last week students who collaborated across Year 7 and 8 to write their own plays had these brought to life at the Royal Court Theatre, the world's most historic and renown playwright's theatre. Over the course of the project, students have had the opportunity to collaborate with a professional playwright and dramatists to shape their pieces through guidance and critique. They then had their work performed in a space that every successful British playwright since 1961 has started their career in, watched by the most sought after literary manager in the theatre world amongst other special guests. It was a powerfully validating and valuable experience for all. Huge thanks to Mr Thomas for running the project and securing the funding to help it go ahead.

Glow Non-Uniform Day

Currently, Year 7 are completing the Lantern Project with Ms Freed. They will be creating lanterns that will decorate our Middle School courtyard. Their fundraising efforts for lanternprojects.org are coming from a non-uniform day they are holding for the whole of Middle School on Wednesday, 3rd April! The 'Glow' themed day is open to all year groups. Students can wear anything glittery, blinging or glowing for the day (please ensure outfits are suitable for school - no bare midriffs or high heels please!). Students taking part are asked to bring a gold coin donation which will be collected during morning registration. All funds raised will go to the projects students have selected at the charity and will supplement the impressive amounts already collected from Year 6 and the Year 8 project group! If you still have night walk donations at home, please bring these in this week.

Salesforce Maker Faire Project

This week saw the Year 8 project group working with volunteers from Salesforce to experiment with our 3D printer! Thursday week then will start working with Microbits and coding, then combine the printing and coding when forming teams to create a product that addresses one of the Sustainable Global Development Goals. Thanks to Mr Roworth who helped to get our printer up and running smoothly on the day and to Laura from Salesforce for helping out!

Poetry Day

On the 21st of March it was UNESCO World Poetry Day! Click this link to visit the website with lots of links to activities and events and all things poetry related to explore at home! Middle School has been doing a lot of poetry work of late, with Year 7 and 8 completing a PoetrySLAM project with Ms Druce and Ms Keaveney, and the Year 5 team working on WWI inspired poetry for display at the Great Oracy Exhibition this week. Thank you to Lucy from our parent community for sharing the link!

February Above and Beyond Out and About

We were finally able to get out for our Above and Beyond Out and About trip for the February winners last week! The crew had a lovely time with Ms Kyrk giving some feedback about what was the most positive parts of Middle School, and what we should still be working on. Congratulations to Adrijus, Nebil, Khyri, Gabriela, Adil, Adeeba, Nabeeha, Denis, Laura, Katarina, Elizabeth and Alexia for being the February representatives. The March group will be selected this week!

Recognition last week

Our recognition boards with filled with names again this week. Especially interesting was Monday's board which formed almost a perfect oval due to the volume of different names added! Congratulations and thank you to all who demonstrated working in the zone, choosing kind and stepping up - you make our Middle School community #middlestrong!

The Lunch Menu is Week 2 this Week!