No. 86 Friday 3rd February 2012 With this newsletter you will receive School Holiday Sport Camps leaflet Year 5 Cycle Proficiency letter Year 5 & 6 Knatty Knitting Club sign up form

Headteacher’s Commendations Congratulations to the following children, who received the award this week:

Charlie C in 4L for a wonderful poem about Summer. Maddie C in 5L for excellent improvement in English.

Portia K in 5S for excellent improvement in Creative Writing.

Well done, children!

Dear Parents, It was very good to meet with the Class Reps at the Coffee Morning yesterday and to hear your ideas and suggestions. Several issues were raised which will require further consideration and I will get back to you on those. There are a couple of areas, however, which I am able to address straight away:

After half-term, parents needing to drop their children early in the morning may do so from 8.10 a.m, when the school door will open. Those children may then go into the playground to be supervised by school staff and allowed up to their classrooms when the bell goes at the usual time of 8.20 a.m. This will apply for all children except for those in Nursery and Kindergarten, as we feel there is a safety issue with their being in the playground with much bigger children. I hope that this small ‘window of opportunity’ will make life easier for some of you and possibly relieve pressure on parking spaces at this busy time.

Again after half-term, younger siblings of Year 5 children only may remain in school until their older

siblings finish at 3.40 p.m. This is to help those parents who have to wait for up to half an hour with small ones running about for their older children to come out. The younger siblings will be taken into a classroom and supervised by a member of staff until they are collected by their older brothers or sisters. The children should bring a book to read while they wait. They will not be supervised in doing homework as this will not be an appropriate environment for it.

We hope that these changes will make life easier for some of you at drop-off and pick-up times. The system will start after half-term and we will reassess it at the end of term. I am grateful to our staff for taking on the extra work that this will involve. We feel it would also be beneficial to look again at the possibility of a school bus in the mornings. This has been raised as an idea in the past but not taken forward for reasons of cost and practicality. We are doing some research into this again and will shortly be circulating you all to see how much interest this scheme would attract. I wish you a relaxing and if possible slightly warmer weekend. Anne Dobell

DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES

Year 4 Joshua (4L) Charlie (4L)

Suki (4L)

Year 5 Patrick (5S) Charles (5S)

Lily (5S) Frederick (5L) Victoria (5L)

Annabel (5L)

Year 3 Georgina (3B)

Raul (3B)

GAMES AND SWIMMING Since we are experiencing extremely cold weather we would be grateful if you could ensure that your child has several under layers to keep warm, plus hats and gloves. Leggings or tights for boys and girls to wear beneath their shorts - or two pairs of track suit bottoms. The boys need two bottom layers so that they can play in one and have a clean layer to put on to travel back in the coach. It is not possible to board the coach covered in mud as the coach often goes on to another job and the drivers are keen to keep the seats 'mud free'. Please can you put an extra hand towel into the swimming bag so that we can get hair as dry as possible. Also please remind your children that they need to wear their hat and their hood up when

Monday 6th February

Open Morning Year 3 Kindergarten Blue and Green first half of the Register 1M and 1B first half of the Register

8.20 –8.35am

The Nature Collection for Kindergarten and Nursery in Main School Hall

10.00am – 1.15pm

Tuesday 7th February

Open Morning Kindergarten Blue and Green 2nd half of the Register 1M and 1B second half of the Register

8.20 –8.35am

Year 4 Netball v Kew Green Prep Away Year 5 Hockey v Orchard House (training session) at Home

2.00pm 2.00pm

Year 6 outing to Pizza Express in Kew Village. Please bring your child to the restaurant, meeting upstairs at 5.00pm. Please collect your child from school at 7.00pm.

5.00pm - 7pm

Open Morning Year 4 2B and 2M 1st half of the Register

8.20 - 8.35am Wednesday 8th February

Year 3 outing to National Gallery Coach leaves at 9.00am

Thursday 9th February

Open Morning 2B and 2M second half of the Register

8.20 - 8.35am

Year 6 Netball v Broomfield Away 2.00pm

KCF Quiz Night at Barn Church, Atwood Avenue Kew 7.00pm

Friday 10th February Year 5 Cake Sale

Monday 13th February – Friday 17th February inclusive

HALF TERM

SWIMMING

A reminder that if children are unable to swim on Thursdays they should not come to school before their first lesson of the day. Parents should check their timetable to identify when this is.

Mrs Dobell

Ibstock Swimming Gala On Friday 27thJanuary the Kew College swimming team travelled to the other side of Richmond Park to swim against Ibstock prep school. As we waited to go into the pool we felt nervous and excited as our matches against Ibstock are always close. The first whistle blew and Kew College had their first win as Benedict in Year 3 climbed out of the pool victorious. Many close races followed and it soon became clear that Ibstock had been practicing hard and we would have to swim our very best. Year 4 did amazingly well, as in both the back stroke and breast stroke they came first and second, but everyone swam brilliantly and gave hundred percent effort. Then it was time for the relays which were particularly closely fought. The Year 5’s put in a heroic effort and came first and second in both the medley and freestyle. The Year 6 freestyle relay brought the event to a close and as the final whistle blew we had no idea who would triumph. This nail biting gala, however, came to a perfect end as Kew College were announced the winners. Once again, well done Kew College Swimming team! Arthur Y6

Year 3 Netball v Kew Green Prep On Thursday 26th January Year 3 A team played a Netball match against Kew Green Prep. We won the toss and chose first centre pass which Jasmine took. During the first half we played quite well and managed lots of excellent passes. We had some shots at goal but didn’t quite manage to score. At half-time the score was 0-0. Mrs Mayer gave us and encouraging talk and we started the second half feeling very confident. In the middle of the second half we got the ball into the circle and Olivia Maddox passed to me and I tried my hardest and I scored. The final score was 1-0 to Kew College. Well done to the whole team, in future we must space out more. Ella 3B Year 3 Rugby v Kew Green Prep On Thursday 26th January the Year 3 A team played a rugby match against Kew Green Prep on Kew Green. On the way to the match we were feeling confident. Kew Green won the coin toss and chose to kick off. Mr Barlow gave us some encouraging words and the match started. Kew Green made the first pass and set off down the field. We caught up to the ball carrier and tagged him; he passed the ball to one of his players, who ran into touch. Our scrum half got the ball and got our team into a line, the whistle went and after a brilliant pass to Benedict he sprinted up the pitch and scored a try. We carried on playing well and ended the first half with a 5-1 lead. After half time Benedict made the first pass to Arrian who ran down the pitch and got tagged, he passed back to Benedict who also got tagged. He made an attempted pass to Noam, but Matthew was able to catch the ball and score! We finished the game with a 10-2 win. We played well on the day but could do better spacing out in the line. Matthew 3B

Year 3 Netball v Kew Green Prep Year 3 B team played a Netball match against Kew Green Prep. We got into our places and were ready to go. The umpire blew the whistle and we were off! Anya passed to Olivia Meadowcroft who tried to pass it on, but Kew Green got the ball. Then it was half time, but no-one had scored! From an encouraging talk with Mrs Mayer, we got back on the court. Anya passed to Olivia and then on to Rose. Rose managed to get the ball to Tilly; she then received it again and managed to shoot! When the match was over, luckily we had won. The final score was 4-3, well done Year 3 B team. Kate 3B Year 3 Rugby v Kew Green Prep On the 26th January Kew College B team had a rugby match against Kew Green Prep. When the ref blew the whistle we got off to a good start. Louis, who was scrum half passed the ball to me. I raced down the field, but unfortunately got tagged. I then passed to Oliver who ran on to score a try. I managed to score 3 more tries and Oliver another 2. Despite a brave performance by Kew College, we were beaten 12-6. I think we need to work on our spacing and formation. Well done to all the boys who played. Edward 3B

Year 3 Rugby v Falcons

On Tuesday 31st January Kew College B Team played rugby v Falcons at London Welsh. The weather was cold but we were very excited when Mr. Barlow blew the whistle and the game started. It was the Falcons who kicked-off and did some great passes and scored the first try. Then it was our ball, Noam passed to Ian and he scored our first try. Falcons scored their second try before Mr Barlow blew the whistle for half time. The score at half time was 2-1 to the Falcons.

In the second half Ian, Noam and I scored tries and the Falcons scored one more. When the final whistle blew the score was 7-3 to us. Well done to everyone in the B team.

Oliver 3S

On 23rd January, the motion for the debate was ‘This house believes that animals should not be killed to support human vanity.’ This motion was carried by 14 votes to 2, reflecting the children’s strong belief that killing

animals for their pelts is inhumane and morally wrong. Perhaps the most emotive

argument for the motion was the description of the horrendous way animals are trapped

and slaughtered by the fur industry, with up to 40 animals sacrificed to create one fur coat.

The most powerful arguments against the motion pointed out that most of us wear leather

– is it the fact that this product comes from an ugly animal as opposed to a cute, furry

animal that makes it acceptable? This was an extremely interesting and passionately

argued topic; I look forward to hearing next week’s discussion!

Mandarin Classes If your child would like to take up Chinese Mandarin Classes please see the notice boards for information on this opportunity or you can contact Mei Yuen, Director of Learning at Mama-Mei’s Chinese School email: mamamei@me.com or telephone 020 8274 1732.

Change to Infant House Lunches and Yr 6 lunch duties After half term the Infant House will now eat their lunch at 12:00 and go out to play after

they have eaten at 12:30. The Year 6 children who currently monitor them will no longer be

able to do so due to the timing differences. Instead those Year 6 children will now monitor

the Junior House alongside other Year 6 children. To maintain the very valuable

relationships built up between Year 6 and the younger children, it has been decided that

during the Friday afternoon clubs in school, Year 6 will go into the Infant classrooms on a

rota basis to do activities with the younger children. Friday afternoon clubs will remain in

place and this will be looked on as an “extra” club. We feel that this will be an improvement

on the current situation for all parties and both the younger children and Year 6 will

thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to interact in this special way. Year 6 is certainly very

enthusiastic about this new challenge ahead.

Mrs Austin

MISSING COAT Ben in Form 1B named overcoat has gone missing, please could children in the Infant School check that they have their own coat this weekend. Should you find it please hand it to the office on Monday. Thank you Julia