Acting Headteacher: Mr Peter Hyman Middle School NewsletterHAPPY HOLIDAYS! The entire Middle School team would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our families a peaceful, relaxing and safe holiday and a happy new year. We look forward to welcoming all the students back on Tuesday, 7th January! Key Dates Middle School Attendance Winners Year 5 - Matterhorn 97.8% Thank you for your continued support regarding attendance. Year 7 iPads - Delivery Update Thank you to everyone who has put through an order for a 1:1 Device. They will be delivered in the first few weeks back after the Christmas break. If your child is bringing a device from home, they must bring these in and visit the IT Office to have the security profile installed so these can be used in lessons. Please check the newsletter for updates on the collection dates in case these change. All students and parents MUST sign a User Agreement before their device is used in the school, including those who have brought in an external device. Exhibition Update Coming up on Wednesday 18th December we have our Exhibition of Beautiful Work. To align with secondary and to allow teachers working on multiple projects to set up, we close at 1:00pm on this day. We do understand, however, that this can put pressure on some families, especially with two 1:00pm finishes in a week. If you have younger children in the primary and need to collect at 3:00pm, we will provide supervision for your Year 5 or 6 child from 1:00pm - 3:00pm. Similarly, if you would like to collect your primary aged child at the earlier time of 1:00pm, we can also arrange this. If you would like to register your child to be supervised from 1:00pm - 3:00pm on the 18th December, please click here to do so. If you have any further questions regarding this, please speak to your child's coach. All students are welcome to come along to the exhibition - some will receive timetables for when they are expected to present or run workshops. Some exhibits can feature students at anytime they visit throughout the evening. Students whose conduct is not adhering to expectations will need to have their parents attend with them or could be asked to leave during the event. A reminder that the school closes for the Christmas break at 1:00pm on Friday 20th December 2019. Collection after Clubs Please note that parents collecting students after clubs are dismissed, must wait outside the main reception office on the left hand side for their children. The reception area must be kept free and clear for a safe dismissal, so waiting inside is not possible. Thank you for your support and understanding in this matter. Please see Middle School After School Clubs Timetable below: Coaching Group - Secret Santa The Student Voice Representatives are organising Secret Santas for each coaching group. On Friday 20th December (the last day of term), all coaching groups will participate in their own gift exchanges. The limit for each gift is £3. Coaching groups will decide if they will have a 'lucky dip' or presents or if they will choose names and buy a gift specifically for a random person in their group. Please remind your child to bring their gift to school by Thursday 19th to participate! The SVR will support any students who are not able to bring a gift and would like to participate. We also ask that presents are wrapped in recycled Christmas paper or newspaper where possible! Forces in Clay! Last week, to consolidate their learning over the last half term, the Year 5 classes used the iPads and plasticine to create claymation examples of the different forces they have been learning about. Here are some terrific examples... Amber, Sameeha, Meija and Leah loved explaining the science behind their daredevil snowboarder. They talked about the impact of gravity, air resistance and friction on how the snowboard moves down the mountain. Click here to watch! Kayden, Nassir and Ivan showed us that the simplest ideas are often the best with this stop-motion clip demonstrating magnetic force. Click here to watch! Keon, Thierry, Xavier and Antoni's skydiver soars through the sky against air resistance, demonstrating drag forces clearly. They explained that, to slow the skydiver down, the parachute opens and reduces the impact of gravitational forces. Click here to watch! Year 7 Journeys to the Centre of the Cell This week Himalayas made the journey to the Centre of the Cell in Queen Mary's University, Whitechapel. The students had the opportunity to consolidate their learning about cells and the human body by playing a number of interactive games and looking at real samples of human organs and tissues. They modeled our values and had a great time exploring and seeing real scientists at work under their feet on the basement levels of the building! Rockies and Ben Nevis are off on their adventures tomorrow! Festival of Light - Second Middle School Concert Last week saw the Year 6 to Year 8 students take to the stage to perform in their Festival of Light concert. The students followed the Year 5's lead and put on another amazing performance, complete with Hip Hop Brass Band, Vivaldi's Gloria, a huge Community Choir singalong to I Wanna Dance with Somebody and a 5 minute Homecoming spectacular. Thank you to all of the parents, staff and of course students who have made the concerts so fantastic again this year. Y8 Drama Performances Evening Tomorrow evening, on Tuesday 17th December, the Year 8 Project Groups will be performing their play 'The Journey' focused on the issues of immigration and refugees. The group have been working on the show over the term with Mr Thompson and Mr Brokenbrow, including all the multimedia aspects. The posters below were designed by Yahya. As well as this, Ms Hansen's project group will be performing 'East End Tales' which they have been learning over the term. Please come along to support the groups! Well look forward to seeing you there. Just One Tree - Non-Uniform Day This Friday 20th December, students are invited to wear non-uniform for the day to help raise money for the Just One Tree organisation. For each £1 donation, a tree will be planted, helping to combat Climate Change and make the world better for all of us! Click the image below to learn more about the charity and its mission. We've only got one planet - we'd better take care of it! Kooth Free Online Counselling A reminder that Kooth Online Counselling is available and promoted at School 21 to all of our young people. It is a portal through which free, anonymous counselling is offered by trained professionals. Click here to visit the website to learn more about and to access this offer. Punctuality Push After the holidays, the Middle School will be having a big push on punctuality at the start of the day. Students who arrive late to school will need to attend a 10 minute reflection during their break time to catch up on the missed learning. If they are late by more than 10 minutes, the actual time will need to be made up. We will contact parents where lateness is repeated. Thank you for your support on this matter. Sweets at School Lately we have noticed a rise in the number of students who are bringing sweets into school. We have reminded all of the middle school today in assembly that students should only be bringing healthy snacks into school for their break. We also reminded everyone that fruit is always available in the canteen at break time. Students who are bringing chocolate bars, family bags of crisps, whole packets of biscuits and other sweets and unhealthy items will have these confiscated by staff. Please support the school by talking to your child about this expectation, especially if they have time and money to visit the shop on their way to school. 'Sometimes' foods such as cakes and snacks to share may be brought in for birthdays or special occasions (such as class parties), but not each day for snacks and lunches. Thank you for your support on this matter. Latest Green and Red Star Winners - Update! Congratulations to this weeks' additions to the Red Star winners list: Year 5: Helena, Tolga, Vincent 232 students have reached their Green Star milestone and 26 have reached their Red. Who will be the first to reach the next milestone - Blue Star? Congratulations to this months' Above and Beyond nominees! Student Safety Advice - Mobile Phones With winter well on its way and hours of darkness lasting for longer each day, it is advisable to speak to your child about staying safe on the journey to and from school, especially in regards to carrying their mobile telephone. This link: https://www.met.police.uk/cp/crime-prevention/violence/stay-safe/ gives information on things to consider to help stay safe when out and about with your mobile phone. Please read through this with your child and ensure you are equipping them with the knowledge to stay safe! Millionaire Readers Congratulations this week to Numair in Year 7 for reaching his Bronze millionaire reader award! Keep reading and completing quizzes over the Christmas holidays to bank your words! If you are unsure of how to access this, please speak to your coach / class teacher or see Ms Druce! Reading regularly makes a huge impact on your child's success in their education. Encouraging 20 minutes a night of reading gives a massive advantage to a child and exposes them to a staggering 1.8 million words per year! Get reading everyone! Dear Parents/Carers, Thank you to those who have registered with the Easy Fundraising platform, the donations have already started to come in! For those who haven’t, this platform allows us to turn everyday online shopping into donations for the school which can then be spent on equipment and facilities. If you haven’t registered yet and are happy to help (at no cost to you!), we ask that you do two things: 1. Sign up to Easy Fundraising and register School 21 as your cause of choice here: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/invite/GO6EW2/. (We get a £5 donation for every person that signs up via that link!). 2. Install the donation reminder on your computer: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/donation-reminder/. This is a totally unobtrusive button that sits on your internet bar, and pops up with a subtle reminder every time you shop with a retailer that donates to us. Finally, please share with any family and friends. All at School 21 Flu Vaccine Information The flu vaccine will be happening at school tomorrow Tuesday 17th December in the afternoon for students in Reception to Year 6. Students will be collected from classes if they have returned their consent forms. Thank you for your cooperation. First Aid First Aid Notice If you son/daughter needs to take medication at school it has to be brought to school by an adult and a form needs to be signed. Please do not send medication in with your son/daughter as this is going against our school policy and the medication may not be administered. Your help and cooperation is greatly appreciated. Sun Newspaper The Sun newspaper is offering primary schools the chance to claim a set of free Collins Big Cat books worth over £600 (106 books). To claim this offer, we need to collect 3,500 tokens printed in The Sun and The Sun on Sunday from Saturday, November 23rd - Saturday, January 18th 2020. Please help us claim this fantastic offer by collecting the tokens and placing them in a designated box at the front office. Important Middle School Links: Information on ParentPay and School Lunches Payments - click here. Email Ms Nandra (rnandra@school21.org.uk) if you need any assistance. Walking Home Alone Permission - to register your permission for your child to walk home alone, please click here. See your child's teacher/coach with any questions or concerns. For access to the online Homework Google Classrooms please fill in your details through this link. See you child's coach/teacher for help if needed. Use this link to see all the homework set for your child. Recognition Board Even though we've all been very busy with rehearsals and events, there have been over 600 students names making it onto the board this week. Keep demonstrating our values of Humanity, Excellence, Community, Responsibility and Openness! Please note the Lunch Menu has changedThe Lunch Menu for This Week is Week 2! |