Squirrels Heath Junior School

Sumdog's Havering contest starts next Friday! There are lots of prizes and awards, and the winning school will win Sumdog for free for 6 months! Please play as much you can, and try to be as accurate as possible! Thanks.

Congratulations to our Year 5 girls who came 2nd at Frances Bardsley's annual Maths competition! Even with a teammate down, we narrowly missed the top spot by 10 (or possibly 9, depending on who you ask!) points and it was wonderful to see how well the girls worked in teams...and they enjoyed visiting the farm on their break. Well done girls!

On the 14 of July is Bastille Day in France; a day when France celebrates its independence. In order to celebrate this, the whole school will be taking part in 'French Day' on Friday the 12th of July. It is hoped that this activity will help your child's understanding of Modern Foreign Languages and that it will give them a greater understanding of countries where French is spoken. The day will include a range of French activities, food tasting and a French themed lunch menu. We are also asking for children to attend school that day wearing red, white and blue. Keep checking the blog for some photos of the day.

Our digital leaders were lucky enough to have a visit from Ramsay Melhuish, the senior education advisor, from Prowise. As well as leading on digital technology Ramsay is also a google trainer. He introduced the world of possibilities that are available through G-Suite for education to the children. These included the use of google docs and quizzes. The children were also transported to Mars on a google expedition, using virtual reality. This gave the children a valuable insight into this new technology, as we are introducing G-Suite and chrome books into the school over the next half term and they will be able to lead on their introduction. James, in year 5, said, "it was a very good experience, I rate it 10 out of 10!" We always try and give all of our digital leaders new and exciting experiences, by engaging with technology in a variety of ways. Keep checking our blog, as over the coming weeks I will be updating you on all of the exciting activities t

Recently, Stella in Year Four entertained us all in assembly by playing one of the piano pieces she is learning for her Grade 1 exam. I am proud to say that Stella did a brilliant job and received a round of applause from her peers. Keep up the great work, Stella! On the 19th of July, our Recorder group will perform for the rest of the school, their parents and governors in assembly. We would love to encourage other pupils who are learning to play an instrument to let us know if they would like a similar opportunity to perform in front of an audience. We would be happy to accommodate and it would help us promote music in school. If pupils are interesting in learning to play an instrument, we have a number of teachers from Havering Music School who come into school to provide tuition. We also offer a Recorder club on Wednesday lunchtime run by Mrs Atkinson.

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who came today to support our school, at our summer fete. It was a great success and everyone had lots of fun. The inflatables were extremely popular and many children could be seen going from one to another, at great speed. Also, as usual, our bottle tombola was a real success, with all of the bottles going to new homes! The money raised at this event will directly benefit all of the children in school and help to enrich their school experience. Keep an eye on the blog for updates on how much we raised.

It has been very hard to decide on a winner. We have had so many outstanding entries, that we even had to create a new category to acknowledge the great efforts of our children. Our year 3 winner is Alexsija in Birch class. Our year 4 winner is Amy in Elm class. Our year 5 winner is Megan in Cedar class. Our year 6 winner is Bryce in Poplar class. We also have the new special mention category. Zac and James in Elm class, and two entries that have not been named. If your jar is in the picture below and you have not been named please see your class teacher and let them know that you made it. Well done to everyone who entered and we look forward to seeing what you can create next year.

We investigated the best material for cleaning certain areas by checking durability, absorbency, softness, effectiveness and how eco-friendly it was...which material do you think was the best?

We've B een Extracting Strawberry DNA in Y6 . DNA is the material that carries all the information about how a living thing will look and function.   We explored how we would analyse the DNA just like forensic scientists or doctors would.     Scientists   would separate the DNA from skin and blood.

It was lovely to see so many parents at our Year 3 Maths Open Lesson today. Thank you for making time to visit us today. The children and adults enjoyed working together to find fractions of amounts using counters and cubes. By the end of the lesson, most children were quite confident. Tomorrow, pupils will be using the knowledge they have gained to find fractions of amounts mentally. Well done Year 3, keep up the fantastic work! If you missed the Open Lesson this morning, don’t worry as there will be further opportunities for shared learning in all year groups next term.

We have had lots of fun today exploring how sound is made from things vibrating, and how it travels to our ears!

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be designing and making musical instruments...if you have any resources or recycling that can be used, please send it in to Year 4! Thanks!

These are just some of the lovely entries for the Summer Fete Decorate-A--Jar competition. A big thank you to all pupils and parents who have sent in an entry. If you haven’t brought in your jar yet, you have until the end of the week to bring it in. All entries will be judged on Friday afternoon, with the winning entries for each year group announced on our blog on Friday evening. The jars will then be sold at our Summer Fete on Saturday afternoon. Come early to see our wonderful creations and purchase one for yourself!