Hi! My name is Miss Collingwood and I have taught at St John's since it first opened. I started my teaching career 40 years ago and have taught children from nursery age right up to year 6. I am also a qualified Reading Recovery teacher. The teaching profession has seen many changes over the years but my passion for helping children to learn is as strong as ever.

In my spare time I enjoy curling up on the sofa with a good book, playing the piano (wearing headphones so nobody else can hear!), doing gardening and DIY around the house. I have a handsome black Labrador called Arthur and we love going for walks along the beach together.

I spent the first 18 years of my teaching life at a school in South East London. Patrick Okogwu, one of my ex-pupils, went on to win two Brit Awards and performed at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games - he is now better known as Tinie Tempah!

 Who knows what great things the children in Kingfisher Class will achieve if they work hard and aim high!

 

  Other staff working in our class are:

   Mrs Jones – Teaching assistant

   Mr Hasker – 3rd Teacher

   Mrs Sanger – Art and DT teacher fortnightly on Thursday afternoons

 

  Our Weekly Timetable:

Important dates for the diary this term for Kingfisher Class:

PE - Every Monday (School PE kit to be worn to school please)

WaterAid Talk – Friday 25^th April

River Stour walk – Date TBC

Our learning this term:

This term we are learning all about ‘The Journey of a River’. The children will be finding out about different rivers around the UK and working on their map-reading skills in order to locate them. We will also be making observations of the River Stour which runs alongside the school!

This term in English we will explore ‘The Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Graham. We will be writing character descriptions using a range of adjectives and adverbs to create effect. We will also be writing letters from the points of view of different characters and developing our knowledge of paragraphs to structure our writing clearly. 

 

 

 

 

 In maths we will be learning how to read scales when measuring mass, capacity and volume. We will further our learning about fractions by adding and subtracting fractions.

             

 

 

In science, our topic is ‘Plants. We will be learning about the function of different parts of a plant; roots, stem and leaves. We will take our learning outside when we observe roots and stems of plants growing in our school field and we will be carrying out an experiment to find out how water is transported around a plant.

In R.E. we will be learning about ‘The Kingdom of God’. We will explore our big question: When Jesus left, what was the impact of Pentecost?

 

 

The children will continue to develop their German vocabulary including speaking, reading and writing in German. They will learn how to name different body parts, starting with learning the song ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ in German! They will practise having conversations about things that they like and dislike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning at home for Kingfisher Class: 

Children are expected to read every night for at least 15 minutes.  Please spend time each day listening to your child read as it really does have a positive impact on their progress. Remember to sign your child’s reading record book when they have read to you as reading records are checked every day.

When your child has finished an AR book, they can complete the quiz. We are focussing on quizzing accuracy. Your child will receive a raffle ticket if they pass a quiz at 80% or above and will have the chance to win a prize at the end of term!

It is important that reading books and reading record books are in school every day even if your child hasn’t read.

                                       

Please remember that you can access Times Tables Rock Stars (TTRS), Numbots and Spelling Shed from home.

There are certificates and a trophy for the winning class and individual certificates for the child that scores the most points each week. 

Spelling assignments will be given out each Monday and spellings will be tested on the following Monday.

You will find your login details in your child’s reading record book.

                                                                    

 

Be ready for learning!

In Kingfisher Class, your child will need to have these items in school: 

• PE kit (to be worn on PE day - Monday) 
• Water bottle with sports cap lid (filled with fresh water each day, no squash or juice) 
• Small rucksack (big enough to hold lunchbox and reading books) 
• Wellington boots (to leave in school) 
• Coat (weather appropriate) 

Please don’t bring other items into school, as we do not have space to store them, and it can cause upset if things are lost or damaged. Please remember to name all items of clothing so that they can be returned if lost.

 

School uniform checklist:

Please, please, please check that all items of school uniform and PE kit are clearly named, as it can be upsetting for the children and frustrating for parents and teachers when clothes go ‘missing’. Don’t forget to check regularly as names can fade easily in the wash!

 

Snacks

Please note that in KS2, children do not receive a snack for break times.

If your child would like a snack, please feel free to send them in with a piece of fruit in their bag that they can eat during their morning break! Grapes should be cut in half lengthways please.

 

Highlights from Term 4

We started off our term by becoming investigative journalists tasked with travelling to Egypt to find out about Howard Carter’s amazing discovery. We had to decipher hieroglyphics and dig for clues to uncover the facts of the case.

In D.T, we were really excited to create our own coil pots and enjoyed learning how to use our slip to make sure that they all stayed together when they were put in the kiln.

 

In Science, when learning about shadows, we loved creating our own shadow puppets and observing how they changed size depending on where the light source was.

 

Another highlight was our Egyptian exhibition! We were so happy to see so many of our adults there to see all of the amazing things that we had learnt about Ancient Egypt.