Headmistress’s Newsletter

Issue 128 4th December 2020

Christmas Excitement!
Many children have been preparing for Christmas events – whether it be our Christingle Virtual
Celebration, the Year 3&4 production ’Camelot’ or the lower school’s Christmas Medley. There has
been much singing and some wonderful costumes around school this week (sneak previews
below……..)

All our productions are being filmed this year. They will be available to view via Google Classroom
at the following times – we can’t wait to show you all that we have been doing! So, grab a glass of
mulled wine and settle down to watch:

6.00pm, Wednesday 9th December: Christingle Celebration

6.00pm, Thursday 10th December: Year 3 and 4 production - ‘Camelot’

6.00pm, Monday 14th December: Lower School – Christmas Medley

Why not send me a photo of your family enjoying one of the above – you might feature in the next
Newsletter……….!!
Page 2
 Page 3

Useful Maths!

Year 6 has been investigating how useful estimation is

and how easy or difficult it is to estimate a quantity.
They discovered that using smaller objects made the
estimation much more difficult and that evenly
stacked objects were much easier to judge than
unevenly grouped ones. They then thought about
why this area of maths is so important and they soon
discovered that there are many uses for this strategy
in real life. One pupil mentioned her father, who was
building an extension and how he had used his
understanding of area to estimate how many tiles he
would need. Mrs Prescott talked about going
shopping and using the strategy of rounding to
estimate how much a bill would cost.

Whilst manipulating concrete objects can be seen as

something only younger children do, for children to
move onto and apply abstract concepts accurately,
they have to be able to visualise these concepts and
experience working with them concretely. The
feedback from the children certainly indicated that
they are not only found this lesson to be very
enjoyable, but very useful too.

Our new-look virtual assemblies

continued this week with Years 5 and
6 tuning in via Zoom to hear Emma
Oliver from St George's Church teach
us about respect. We recognised the
diversity of the world's religions and
acknowledged the birthday of Guru
Nanak, before listening to a story
from the Bible to help us remember
to treat others in the way in which we
would like to be treated ourselves.
Respect is one of our 4 main school
rights and one of the British Values
within our school.
 Page 4

This week in Maths lessons Year 1 have been

learning all about 2D and 3D shapes! Children
have been sorting, comparing and labelling
shapes. In 'choices and voices' children had lots
of fun transforming their shapes into rockets,
Ferris wheels and they experimented with
stacking 3D shapes as part of their reasoning
challenge! Miss Dhillon has been very
impressed with their models!
 Page 5

Congratulations to Daisy
and Leela in Year 6 who
were awarded their Silver
Stars this week. They are
both excellent role-
models and it is always a
pleasure to see them
around the school. Well
done from Mrs Prescott,
Mrs Wood and the whole
school community.

Don’t forget
to send us
your raffle
tickets!!!
 Page 6

For some Bronte children the journey to and

from school is becoming more exciting as
Mr Collins decorates the minibus and wears
some of his vast selection of Christmas
hats!!

Unfortunately, estimating pick-up and drop-

off times can be tricky, so our minibus
escort, Pam Tehara, uses an app on the
Minibus phone to let parents know exactly
where they are!

This is proving very helpful – particularly as

the traffic can be rather busy at this time of
year!

Thank you to Mr Collins and Mrs Tehara for

keeping our children safe (and entertained)
on the journey to and from school.

Elf on the Shelf

Some children at Bronte have

been astonished at how very
naughty the Elf has been in
their classroom.
One Elf even had a red card
for scribbling in a book!!!!
In History Year 5 have been studying Victorian Toys.
The children made thaumatropes - an optical toy which was popular in Victorian times.
Page 7
 Calendar Dates

December

Tuesday 8th Year 6 visit: St George’s Church for Christingle activities

…………………

Tuesday 8th Year 6 meeting with parents regarding the Y6 PGL trip
(4.00pm via Zoom)

Wednesday 9th Christingle Celebration (whole school)

6.00pm (This will be posted on Google Classroom)

Thursday 10th Years 3 and 4 production ‘Camelot’

Looking Ahead

6.00pm (This will be posted on Google Classroom)

Friday 11th Christmas Fun Day (all classes) and Christmas Lunch

Monday 14th Blue Breakfast

Monday 14th Lower School Christmas Medley

6.00pm (This will be posted on Google Classroom)

Wednesday 16th Term ends (12 noon)

January

Wednesday 6th Spring Term Starts

Monday 11th Activity clubs and music lessons begin

Wednesday 13th Kindergarten and Reception: Digital Talk

from the Blue Cross

Thursday 21st Parents’ Council Meeting (4.00pm, The Study)

Friday 22nd School Nurse clinic (9.0am – 10.00am)

February

Thursday 4th Year 5: class assembly

(9.00am, School Hall & posted on Google Classroom)

Monday 8th Year 5 and Year 6: Brek Foundation presentation

(10.00am, in classes)