Newsletters

23/24 - Autumn 1 - Week 4

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Dear parents and carers,

Institute of Imagination

It has been another fun-filled week of learning at William Ford.  This week we have been privileged to welcome the Institute of Imagination who have led sessions across the school.  Year Three and Four have developed their artistic skills whilst considering the environment: using natural resources from herbs and spices to plants and vegetables to paint some beautiful landscapes.  Meanwhile, Year Five have been linking literacy to computing as they embarked on digital storytelling.  Across all of this, our core skills of creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication have been developed - all key skills that are valued by employers.

The Learning Zone - our new special educational needs base

It is always frustrating when building works over run - and this is no exception as we were hoping to have this brand-new facility open at the start of year.  However, we have been informed that our new softplay, sensory room and one of our two classrooms will be ready in just over a week's time.  A small number of pupils will be receiving the majority of their education within this new facility, whilst others will drop in for interventions and support when timetabled.  Below are some pictures showing how things are progressing.

        

Pupil voice group elections

It has been an exciting time of manifesto writing, campaigning and voting at William Ford has our pupils stand to represent their classes in our various pupil voice groups.  It was great to broadcast on our radio station the results of the election, but in case you missed it, here are the final results.

My thanks to all of the children who were prepared to stand to represent their class. Also to Miss Isaac-Wilson, Mr Wakeford and Mrs Legg for running each of these groups and to Mr. Wakeford for co-ordinating these elections.

Homework queries

I have received a couple of queries about how parents can support their children at home when, as a school, we have decided not to set homework.  Here are some ideas and some clarification.

Having worked in five different schools, with five very different approaches to this topic, it is clear there are a lot of different views.  I also know that if I speak to five different parents, I would get five very different responses!  I have also been very active discussing this topic on some educational leadership forums, which also sparked a lot of interest.

Those of you who follow the news will be aware that pay was only one small part of the current teacher strikes. These also cover school funding and teacher workloads.  The government are very clear that it is not good for teachers to be working at home after working hours. So why do we expect children to do this?  We all expect to be able to leave work at our place of employment, then be able to relax - spend time with families and friends at home.  So again, why do we not provide this for our children? Are we bringing up children to think that home is an extension of the workplace? The school leadership spends time looking at how we can protect teacher work-life balance.  It is time we also did this for our pupils.

There is no educational research that shows that homework has a significant impact on pupil progress at primary age.  Most schools who responded to my post on the forums had either already stopped setting homework or only did this because parents expected it.  If you are a parent who expects homework, let me list some more beneficial activities to undertake with your children:

  1. Having a conversation - asking them about their day.  We recognise that a lot of our pupils struggle to talk to adults and to justify their views.  How much practise are they getting at this incredibly important life skill at home? Again research shows that families where parents are not constantly on their mobile phones, or place their earbuds in on the school run have children who are more articulate, have better vocabulary and achieve higher outcomes.  As a parent, I do understand the temptation to disengage from the world at times but do consider the impact this could have on your child.
  2. Take them shopping with you.  Let them pay for items and count the change.  They will learn much more about money from being in a shop or market than from any worksheet.
  3. Throughout your conversations, regularly ask them what the time is.  What time does their favourite TV programme start, when does it finish?  How long is it on for?  Our whole curriculum is based on 'purposeful learning' - this provides a purpose for learning about time.
  4. Cook with them.  This involves weighing and measuring, reading recipes, setting timers etc - all examples of purposeful learning along with teaching a life skill. Again, far more engaging than a worksheet.
  5. Encourage an out of school interest.  This could be sport, music, drama or fitness based, or could be attending a local church youth group.  All of this promotes mental wellbeing, fitness, social skills, team work and problem-solving.  

Of course, we know that some children actually really do enjoy working at home or want to practise a certain skill. Some families love completing projects together.  Maybe your child was inspired by a recent science unit on space or wants to learn more about volcanoes.  Maybe they really want to write at home in order to practise their handwriting.  If that is what your child would like then by all means let this happen. If children want ideas from a teacher then I am sure they will oblige.  All we are trying to do is ensure that all children have a healthy balance between work, rest and play - something that is important for all of us! We also hope this takes the pressure off working families to complete homework but please, do still read with your children!

I pray you all have a wonderful weekend.

 

Mr. David Huntingford

Headteacher

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Ephesians 6:14-16

14 So stand strong, with the belt of truth tied around your waist. And on your chest wear the protection of right living. 15 And on your feet wear the Good News of peace to help you stand strong. 16 And also use the shield of faith.

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Take a look at the LBBD SEND Local Offer with has been updated to include: 

 • EHCP Phase Transfer booklets

• Stay Well Stay Safe – Health Future Project

• Inclusive Digital Zone

• Community Hubs List

• Youth Clubs List

Local Offer: What's happening | London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (lbbd.gov.uk)

Can we kindly ask parents to remind children not to ride scooters and bikes on the driveway. If you could, please remind them to dismount the bike or scooter and walk the item to the bike shed. As always, we would advise parents to purchase locks to secure bikes. 

We have been offered the opportunity to run two sessions of Bikeability in November for the Year 5 Pupils. There will be limited spaces and all information will be sent shortly.

REMINDER: TREWERN RESIDENTIAL TRIP

30th October -3rd November 2023

Please remember all completed forms are required by Monday 2nd October. All outstanding balances must be cleared as soon as possible.

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This week's book recommendation is' The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse' by Charlie Mackesy. This book was our class reader and we loved it! It teaches you life lessons which can motivate us every day. We looked forward to reading this book every day to discover more lessons. 

By 6I

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Pentathlon Bowling Competition for 12 pupils
9:00am – 1:00pm
29
September
Harvest Week
8:00am – 8:30am
From 02 Oct until 06 Oct
02
October
Pupil Voice Meetings
8:00am – 8:30am
From 02 Oct until 06 Oct
02
October
Black History Month
8:00am – 8:30am
From 02 Oct until 31 Oct
02
October
Colleective worship - Launch Black History Month and Home Project
9:00am – 9:30am
02
October
Primary steps / Royal Ballet Company lesson Year 3 Class One
9:30am – 10:45am
02
October
Primary steps / Royal Ballet Company lesson Year 3 Class Two
10:45am – 12:00pm
02
October
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29 Sep 2023
Council Voting Results
This week we hear from Awesome, Joanna, and Hope from 6F
Read more
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Year Three

We have had another busy week in Year Three. In English, the children learnt about prepositions and played a fun preposition game to reinforce their learning. We have also looked at writing our own questions and the types of question words to help us to formulate these. In maths, we have come to the end of our unit on Place Value, and we will be moving on to our next unit, 'Addition and Subtraction'. 

This week the children learnt about countries in geography, focusing on Europe. They loved using the atlases to locate countries and those they border. 

We have continued with our fabulous ballet lessons this week and the children have practised port de bras and first position. 

The pupils were very excited to participate in our school elections this week after listening to the candidates' thoughtful manifestos. Congratulations to all the successful candidates.

Thank you for your continued support with regular reading at home.

Have a peaceful and relaxing weekend.

 

Year Four 

This week Year 4 have had another action-packed week, with lots going on. In English and reading, we have been continuing our study on Nell and the Cave bear, as well as looking at our historical focus on the Stone Age. This week, pupils have been looking closely at the woolly mammoth and what life was like when they roamed the earth. Pupils have been working hard to construct an informational leaflet all about woolly mammoths. In maths, pupils have been identifying, ordering and comparing numbers up to 10000, as well as beginning to round numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. In history, pupils have been learning about hunter-gatherers and comparing food from the Stone Age to food in modern Britain. In addition, Year Four worked alongside the Institute of Imagination on a project that linked so well with our art and history topic. Pupils have been developing their artistic skills whilst considering the environment: using natural resources from herbs and spices to plants and vegetables to paint some beautiful landscapes. We hope you have a great weekend and look forward to seeing you all next Monday!

Year Five

This week in Year 5, in English, the children have continued to learn about the lives of some of the women known as human computers. They have been using formal and informal language in different settings and have written a formal letter of apology from the perspective of one of the women in the book, Hidden Figures.

In our maths lessons, we have finished our unit on place value, testing our knowledge of what we have learnt so far. We have begun our new unit on addition and subtraction by looking at mental strategies to help with calculations.

Our RE unit on the ‘People of God’ has continued to look at Moses, this time understanding the story of the ‘Ten Commandments’, creating their own commandments for our modern world. Next week we will be finding out about how Martin Luther King used the strength of his faith to change society for the better.

We had a fabulous opportunity to work with the Institute of Imagination on Wednesday. The children created stop motion videos to show their own junk model creations helping to world in some way. They looked great!

In science, the children created a scale model of the solar system, using fruit and toilet rolls. They had to work out the scale (one square of toilet roll represented 20 million km!) and we used nearly the whole playground to set out the planets.

Year Six

The Year Six children enjoyed another week of hard work.  They have continued to study the text Street Child and used it as the context to develop their use of inverted commas within descriptive narrative writing.

Within maths, we have been working on factors and multiples.  The children have realised how important it is to have an accurate and quick recall of their multiplication facts to help them with this work.  Regular practise of their multiplication facts by using TTRS at home will really help with this.

In art this week, the children have continued to explore the work of William Morris.  They have investigated his use of symmetry in his work as well as continued to develop their observational drawing skills.

R.E. discussions have been extremely thought-provoking this week.  We have explored the debate and controversy around the relationship between creation stories in Genesis and scientific accounts.  Many of the children were able to explain their own beliefs and give reasons for them.

The Year Six team wish you a restful weekend.

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Each week, staff select three children from each class who have shown effort and commitment to upholding an aspect of our school vision, shown at the bottom of the page. Congratulations to this week’s ‘stars of the week’ for their tremendous endeavours!

 

Working diligently

 

Acting generously

 

Promoting peace

Year Three

3FL

Name: Arya

For: working diligently in lessons.

 

Name: Angeline

For: acting generously to help a new pupil settle in.

 

Name: Hannah

For: promoting peace and always ready to learn

3M

Name: Dwayne 

For: always being a diligent and enthusiastic learner

Name: Adesewa 

For: being kind and helpful to other members of the class.

Name: Danyal

For: always being calm and peaceful in class.

3N

Name: Sofia

For: hard work in maths lessons this week.

Name:  Teddy

For: for taking responsibility for tidying his table without being asked.

Name: Maxwell

For: trying really hard to be calm and peaceful in the classroom.
 

Working diligently

 

Acting generously

 

Promoting peace

Year Four

4D

Name: Aaron

For: really trying hard to improve his presentation all subjects this week 

 

Name: Ayaana

For: being sensible and always helpful to others and doing jobs around the class

 

Name: Kacie

For: always being peaceful and calm in class

4IW

Name: Delia 

For: working diligently and putting consistent effort in all lessons this week!

Name: Ameerah 

For: acting generously-giving up her time to help tidy up around the classroom.

Name: Slav

For: living at peace and always being a wonderful person to others in the class 

4W

Name: Andrew

For: working diligently in all lessons, especially when constructing a leaflet about woolly mammoths. 

Name: Ophelia

For: acting generously, helping others in art and producing a fantastic piece of art in our IOI project. 

Name: Deba

For: always promoting peace, especially during our creative lessons.
 

Working diligently

 

Acting generously

 

Promoting peace

Year Five

5A

Name: Mia

For: being a calming influence in and out of the class 

 

Name: Jasmine

For:  always listening and completing her work

 

Name: Jerry

For: always trying hard and getting 6/6 in spelling.

5H

Name:  Daniel

For:   great effort in Maths this week.

Name:  Annabel

For: generously giving her time to help others.

Name:  Violet

For:  always being such a kind, considerate person and promoting peace in the classroom.

5P

Name: Mya

For: working hard on her fantastic science explanation. 

Name: Harley

For: working well in a group, being a generous team player. 

Name: Jordan

For: despite distractions on his table, he has remained focused on his learning. 
 

Working diligently

 

Acting generously

 

Promoting peace

Year Six

6B

Name: Demi

For: settling back into school and working hard.

 

Name: A.J.

For: being a great partner in English.

 

Name: Isaiah

For: his calm influence within the classroom.

6F

Name: Julian

For: great enthusiasm and determination during handball.

Name: John-Mark

For: demonstrating great teamwork in PE.

Name: Anne

For: having a calming presence in the classroom, consistently living at peace.

6I

Name: Evie

For:  Working well with others and always doing her best.

Name: Kaiona

For:  Always being kind to others and for her lovely attitude.

Name: Jaden

For: Working peacefully in class and having accountability for his actions.
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