17th July 2020

Dear Year 5!

After 15 weeks of learning from home and 12 weekly letters to you all, I am now penning my last

letter to you as your class teacher. It has been an immense privilege to be part of your educational

experience. Each of you are wonderfully unique with your own characteristics, eccentricities,

strengths and foibles (the latter of which you’ll remember from our studying of cautionary tales, such

as Matilda and Jim, by Hilaire Belloc -although fortunately, none of you have developed the

unfortunate habits of unnecessarily calling the fire brigade or venturing into predatory animal zoo

enclosures! 😊).

You are all remarkable and what neatly summarises your strength of character is how you’ve

persisted through the unprecedented disruption to your Y5 school year whilst remaining positive and

productive. Even though we’ve all inevitably and understandably had off moments or days, it has

been truly inspiring to speak to you and read your updates (via letters, emails or blogs) sharing your

anecdotes, activities and hobbies. Whether it has been learning languages, cultivating green fingers,

baking brilliance, awe-inspiring art, baffling brain-teasing blogs or generally keeping in-touch with

each other and family, you’ve made me laugh, smile and beam with pride.

Whilst we can be forgiven for lamenting the time we have lost in school and with each other, we

must celebrate and reflect on the progress you have all made and the positives. Our Kensington

Palace and Globe visits immediately spring to mind. Seeing you lined up in a human, royal

chronological timeline (wearing props like historical wigs) in Queen Victoria’s bedroom is one effective

but unusual way of remembering an order of succession. The unorthodox method acting on display

in the Shakespeare workshop (in which I won’t name names 😊) will also forever be etched into my

memory bank (and the unusual fountain in the Tate Modern, where we ate our sandwiches after).

In terms of our in-class learning, a particular topic I fondly recall are your short ghost stories inspired

by Kevin Crossley-Holland. This was previously a Y6 English unit and is a challenge to this year group

level due to the specific style, structure and technical features required to stay true to the author.

Your enthusiasm in creating spooky relative clause sentences and constructing your own chilling tales

was ghoulishly great. The general commitment to your learning and embracement of the rich variety

of cultures across our class was typified by incredibly precious items being brought to school from

home to share highly personal insight into your lives with each other, such as our religious practices

or create the most extraordinary Anglo-Saxon artifact display. Recreating a medieval royal court and

dressing up class members as different societal class persons in newspaper to carry out trial by ordeal

sentences was also humorous and harrowing in equal measure!

Although there was inevitably the odd disagreement within a room jam-packed full of 30 bounding

personalities, your treatment of each other was overwhelming commendable. We all have strengths

and development areas, which we will continuously nourish through an attitude embracing lifelong

learning and seeing setbacks, challenges and mistakes as opportunities for growth. Witnessing

frequent moments of you supporting each other and collaborating conscientiously are some of the

occasions that are particularly special for me. They highlight how our world will be in good hands

when you are at the forefront of it and they validate why teaching is such a rewarding vocation.

I’ll definitely miss the little, everyday things. Our beatboxing exchanges, humorous quips and willing

offers of helping hands to support the fulfilment of our various classroom duties and logistics (less so

the sporadic challenge of curbing your effervescent enthusiasm in occasional moments, such as

getting organised and out of our classroom in a timely fashion for other commitments 😊). On

balance, you’re all brilliant as you excel in the bits that matter most (although we can all improve

elsewhere too 😊).

Just as we developed our ‘fellowship’ (although I’m reluctant to compare myself to the omnipotent

awesomeness that is ‘Gandalf the Grey’ in Lord of the Rings), the initial fellowship does break but the

quest continues. Without revealing any spoilers, other sources of support come to the aid of the

heroes and heroines in J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic tale and Mr Spencer is a fantasy epic-sized teacher to

continue on your educational adventure with.

Now is probably an appropriate time to also tell you all that I will be leaving St Barnabas and St

Philips to carry on my own teaching adventure at another school. It has been an emotional change

for me to embrace but as with the events that have affected us all this year, life sometimes

necessities change and adaptation. ‘The only constant in life is change’ is a famous quote, which is

why constants that we can affect or influence – such as friendship, respect, compassion and trying

our best – we must endeavour to adhere to as consistently as we can (and be forgiving to ourselves

and others when we temporarily stumble). The good news is, my new school is not in the deepest,

darkest depths of Mordor at the other end of Middle Earth, so I will do my utmost to come back, say

hi and drop a few beats when or if it is appropriate and safe to do so.

Answers to the prior week’s quiz questions are below and a final picture diary collection from Bobby.

I hope you enjoyed the video clips in last week’s letter. I found them fascinating and inspiring in

showing how we are all capable of achievement and overcoming adversity through effort and how

mental resilience or strength is often more important than physical strength or skill.

We’ve watched it before but I thought you’d enjoy revisiting the wise words of ‘Kid President’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5yCOSHeYn4

We should all have the following in our immediate vocabulary: ‘thank you’, ‘excuse me’, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I

forgive you’, ‘you can to it’, ‘please’, ‘everything is going to be okay’, ‘I don’t know (or I don’t

understand)’, ‘you’re awesome’, ‘hello’, ‘I disagree with you but I still like or respect you as a person’,

‘life is tough but so are you’ and ‘say something nice’. I particularly enjoyed the metaphor of ‘looking

at the BBQ sauce on your own shirt before pointing out the BBQ sauce on someone else’s.’ I was less

keen on admitting ‘my sporting team is not always the best sports team’, which is all to true as an

Arsenal fan ☹!

Enjoy your Summer. Keep in touch with each other. Keep you body and mind active. Be kind to

yourself and others. Just keep on being you.

Keep smiling Y5. All my thoughts and best wishes,

Mr Tauchert

‘Is it time to go to the park?’’ ‘Bobby and one of her BFFs – Nala the miniature dachshund’

‘I like you but not enough to share my ball!’ ‘Teddy and Bobby having a tiff over a stick!’

‘I really don’t like my raincoat. Do I have to go out in this?’ ‘Look what I picked for you?’

‘Uh oh. Someone has rolled in something they

shouldn’t have. Emergency ketchup required … and a bath!’

‘But I like the towel drying after … and now I’m clean!’

Last week’s answers:

1. The English language is conventionally divided into three historical

periods. In which of these periods did William Shakespeare write his

plays?

(a) Old English

(b) Middle English

(c) Modern English

The period of Modern English extends from the 1500s to the present

day. Shakespeare wrote his plays between 1590 and 1613.

2. Which of the following is the longest word that appears in a play by

William Shakespeare?

(a) honorificabilitudinitatibus

(b) sesquipedalian

(c) antidisestablishmentarianism

(d) disproportionableness

(e) incomprehensibleness

Honorificabilitudinitatibus (27 letters) shows up in a speech by Costard

in Shakespeare's comedy, "Love's Labour's Lost." "O, they

have liv'd long on the almsbasket of words. I marvel thy master hath not

eaten thee for a word, for thou art not so long by the head as

honorificabilitudinitatibus. Thou art easier swallowed than a flap-

dragon."

3.

4. What are the Panj Kakke or 5Ks?

5. Movie titles phrased badly: Special insight into the thoughts, behaviours and feelings of

follicly-endowed companions reveals a rivalry for affection.

The Secret Life of Pets

‘We hope you all have a great Summer!’