S K Y S W O O D P R I M A R Y & N U R S E R Y
S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R
I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :
N E T B A L L R E P O R T
2
F O O T B A L L U P D A T E S 2
A M E R I C A N F O O T B A L L 3
C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S T O
B R Y O N Y A N D L E W I S 3
F O S S Q U I Z N I G H T 3
K I D Z C O R N E R
4 & 5
A R T I S T O F T H E Y E A R 6
C R O S S C O U N T R Y
U P D A T E 6
B A S K E T B A L L
C H A M P I O N S 6
I N F A N T A U T H O R O F
T H E T E R M
L A U R E N C H I L D
7
J U N I O R A U T H O R O F
T H E T E R M
A N T H O N Y H O R O W I T Z
8
T E M P O R A R Y B O I L E R
I N S T A L L E D 9
A N N U A L S W I M M I N G
G A L A 9
Y E A R 3 V E R U L A M I U M
T R I P 9
Maths Presentation Evening
Our Parents’ Presentation Evening on Mathematics on
Wednesday 17th October was a great success, with several
parents in attendance to find out about our school’s approach to
calculation strategies, and how our children have maintained
such outstanding standards over the past few years. Skyswood
pupils have excelled in maths, with over double the national
percentage of children reaching standards of ‘greater depth.’
Following a presentation in the school hall, many of our upper
juniors demonstrated a wide range of strategies, including
partitioning, use of number lines, halving, doubling, chunking and
using the grid method for multiplication. Thank you to all of the
children who helped out on the night, all of those parents who
attended, and a special thank you to Mrs Loukes for her support
in organising the event. For parents who were unable to attend,
many of the methods are demonstrated on our website (through
short video clips) alongside our Skyswood Calculations Policy.
These can be found in ‘Curriculum’under ‘Mathematics.’
October 2018
Page 2
Netball Updates
On Monday the 8th of October 2018 the Skyswood netball team
played their first match of the season against St Albans High School.
The game was played at Skyswood School. Our opponents were
very strong and it was a hard challenge, but we tried our hardest and
tried to be the best that we could be.
In the first quarter, we were down 4-0 but we did not let that
intimidate us, and continued to pass the ball very quickly and
thoughtfully. During the second quarter we attempted a few shots
but their well prepared defence managed to block out our
attempts. We were told to take our time and that helped us a lot in
the third quarter. It was in the third quarter that Mrs Lewis decided
to switch up our positions and brought on our subs, who were
Eleanor and Megan. We played our best in this quarter, and
although the final score was 11-0, we had great fun and played our
best.
Report written by Honey (Year 6)
The netball team followed up their first match with a stunning 14-4
victory against Wheatfields, with Chloe and Natalie in superb
goal scoring form. The team worked exceptionally well together,
with slick passing and well timed interceptions.
The ‘B’ team played a highly entertaining match against
Wheatfields ‘B’, losing out by three goals to two despite excellent
goals from Bryony and Tilly. The whole team played well, with
Emily at the heart of the action and increasing confidence shown as
the match progressed. A special congratulation must go to Eddie;
the first boy to represent the school at netball this season.
Football Updates
Both our school ‘A’ team and our girls football
team go into half-term on top of their respective
leagues with a 100% record, with the ‘A’ team
winning their first three matches and the girls’
team winning their first two. Both teams,
however, have been knocked out of the County
Cup having come up against strong three-form
entry schools, Fleetville and Wheatfields, in their
first round matches.
Our ‘B’ team fought hard against Sandridge ‘A’ in
their league match, but were unable to match a
team that included two district players, whilst our
friendly against Prae Wood ended in a 4-0 defeat
that was far from a true reflection on the balance
of play.
The girls’ ‘B’ team won their first match of the
season 1-0 against Bowmansgreen ‘B’ and we
are proud that over forty children have now
represented our school at football since the start
of the autumn term.
The school football team also competed in the
first round of the St Albans City penalty prize
competition on Saturday 13th October, defeating
Margaret Wix by five goals to four. This sets the
team up for a quarter-final shoot-out against
Aboyne Lodge early in the new year.
Our football team at Clarence Park before their penalty shoot-out
victory against Margaret Wix.
Page 3
Skyswood Claim American Football Title!
Skyswood have become the first ever American football
champions in the district after the St Albans & Harpenden
Sports Partnership hosted its first ever American football
tournament earlier this month.
Skyswood entered two teams for the competition and
both teams reached the semi-final stage, where they
came face to face! Skyswood ‘A’ won through to the final
after an exciting match and then faced The Grove School
from Harpenden in the final.
Skyswood saved their best performance for the final and
ran out 31-10 winners. Congratulations must go to both
Skyswood teams for performing superbly throughout the
tournament, and a special thank you must go to Mr Oswin
and Mr Jones (who have both been involved in coaching
American football and adding it to the wide range of
sports on offer at Skyswood. FOSS Quiz raises over £600
Our FOSS Quiz Night was once again a fantastic
success, with a crowded school hall and an
excellent variety of quiz rounds, carefully prepared
by Mrs Cheshire. The evening raised an amazing
£639. Stuart Burden was a brilliant quiz caller for
the evening and the winning team, for the second
year running, were #donttellthewives with an
awesome score of 73.5 points out of a possible
100. The teachers’ team (Mistakes are proof that
you are trying) proved themselves strong
contenders by finishing in second place. Skyswood Duo win Triathlon Silver
Congratulations to Bryony (Year 6) and
Lewis (Year 4), who were team members
in the triathlon relay held at
Sandringham earlier this term. It was set
up by their local triathlon club and our
determined duo helped their team to
secure second place for their age group.
Well done Bryony and Lewis, we’re proud
of you!
Page 4 S K Y S W O O D P R I M A R Y & N U R S E R Y S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R
Year 5 have artistic fun exploring space!
Our Year 5 class have created some colourful and creative artwork linked to their current science
topic on space. The children have painted a range of planets and swirling galaxies, with some of
the finest examples shown below:
Goodnight Mr Tom
Year 6 have read the book and watched the film as part of their learning about World War II. This has inspired
their own writing. The children have written some exceptional pieces based on Goodnight Mr Tom; here is the
opening to Natalie’s piece of descriptive writing;
Willie’s face sank. Tom, trying to comfort him, reached out but he shrunk back towards the open door.
Scrambling up the ladder, Willie stumbled into his room and slammed the hatch door closed. He sprawled
across the bed. Staring at his drawings, Willies heart skipped a beat and he started crying.
Meanwhile, Tom slumped into his chair and stared into the fire; he
remembered the day he lost Rachel and his son. Whimpering, Sammy
clambered up onto Tom’s lap and howled.
The next morning, Tom entered the kitchen to find Willie sitting by the
range, bent over his sketch-pad. Slowly, Tom began to cook breakfast and
the smell of warm bacon spread through the house. Once the table set, an
awkward silence settled in the room. Little was said as Willie picked
meaninglessly at his food.
Page 5
Autumn Leaves and Horse Chestnuts
Year 1 have created some exceptional autumn leaves and horse chestnuts in clay. The children
painted their artwork using an autumn palette. The wonderful examples below were created by
Joshua, Rory, Anika, Kymani, Leila and Nishika.
Year 3 Fables
Year 3 have written some very imaginative fables. Here are a couple of extracts, from Sherri
and Hannah N’s fables, to give you a taste of just how well the children have matched their
writing to the genre.
Spider and Chicken
‘Spider wasn’t looking where he was going when he
blundered into Chicken. Chicken had been
munching on her food, but in a millisecond she
trapped spider with her talon. Spider looked so
small and chicken wasn’t really hungry after all the
food she’d eaten.
“Please spare me! Think of my little tiddiwinkles!”
prayed spider. Chicken thought of her own kids and
decided to let spider go,’
Sherri
The Snake and the Tiger
‘One sunny morning Snake was out looking for a good
place to nest. He wasn’t paying attention to what he
was doing and he wasn’t focusing on where he was
going when he slammed into tiger. Tiger had been fast
asleep in the sun, but in a moment he whacked his
big paw down and trapped
snake in his claws.’
Megan
Page 6
Artist of the Year
We are delighted to announce that one of our Year 5 pupils, Jodie, won
the Speculation Gallery Children’s Artist of the Year competition for her
fabulous picture of a deer. Jodie’s inspiration comes from the fact that
she’d one day love to be a wildlife photographer. Her picture is now
proudly hanging in the Speculation Gallery in Old Road, Brixton.
Cross Country
Our cross-country team enjoyed their second meet of the year,
at Fleetville Junior School, earlier this month. With over 130
children taking part in each of the boys’ and girls’ races, the
children ran a three and a half lap course and all did the
school proud. Well done to Kia, Hannah, Honey, Bryony,
Tristan, Aidan, Harry G, Harry W and Daniel, you’re a fantastic
team!
Basketball Champions!
For the second consecutive year, Skyswood have won the St
Albans Primary Schools basketball championship, defeating
Fleetville ‘A’ in the final 10-6, having been 6-4 down with just
three minutes remaining.
Skyswood entered two teams and both teams performed
superbly, with our ‘B’ team finishing second in their pool and on-
ly losing out to Fleetville ‘A’ on goal difference, having defeated
both Camp ‘B’ and Bernards Heath in their group.
Our ‘A’ team defeated Camp ‘A’ 37-2 and also recorded
convincing wins over Oakwood ‘B’ (24-3) and Park Street (25-0)
to finish top of their pool.
In the semi-final, Skyswood ‘A’ beat Fleetville ‘B’ 12-4 before
going on to defeat Fleetville ‘A’ in the final.
We are extremely proud of all the children who represented our
school and thank Mr Oswin for coaching and supervising the
team on the day.
Page 7 S K Y S W O O D P R I M A R Y & N U R S E R Y S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R
Infant Author of the Term Competitions
Lauren Child
Charlie and Lola Go to the Zoo
Imagine that Lauren Child is writing a new Charlie and Lola book, entitled ‘Charlie and Lola go to the Zoo.’
In the story, Charlie and Lola get to see lots of animals. Our Author of the term competition is to design a
page for the new Charlie and Lola go to the Zoo book. Choose a favourite animal (or animals) to illustrate.
Think about what Charlie or Lola would say about that animal. Have a practice at drawing Charlie and Lola
before you start your illustration.
Reading a few Charlie and Lola books would really help. Sometimes the text is wrapped around the
picture. The Lauren Child style of illustration often uses simple colours and patterns. You could cut out
animal shapes out of wallpaper or wrapping paper if you wish to go down the ‘pattern’ route. See if your page
can reflect the style of a Charlie and Lola illustration.
Create a new character for a Lauren Child book
The second Lauren Child competition is to create a new character for one of her books. This could also link
to Charlie and Lola if you wish; you could create a new friend, or maybe a pet?
Or you might like to look at other Lauren Child books, such as That Pesky Rat, Pippi Longstocking, Clarice
Bean or Hubert Horatio. What would be a good name to make up for a Lauren Child character. Look at lots of
Lauren Child illustrations to give you a good idea of her style.
Junior Author of the Term Competitions
Page 8
Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz has produced a series of books
based on the Diamond Brothers investigations. Tim
Diamond is the world’s worst private detective.
Everything that he does seems to go wrong... Very
much the Mr Bean of crime investigation. When Tim
set’s out to find a rich lady’s pedigree Siamese cat,
he actually runs it over on his way to see her. What
mystery could you invent for Tim to solve? (Or mess
up as usual!)
Tim’s younger brother, Nick, is the quick-thinking,
wisecracking member of the team who never seems
to take things too seriously.
Our author of the term short story competition is to
create a short story (of no more than 500 words)
based on an investigation to be carried out by the
Diamond Brothers.
Think about the following questions to help you with your story
planning:
What crime has taken place?
Where has the crime taken place?
Who was involved? When did it happen?
What is the title of your story? Anthony Horowitz
sometimes creates puns using famous books or titles
(eg The Falcon’s Malteser (not Maltese Falcon) or The
French Confection (instead of French Connection). Could
you use this strategy to create or inspire a story title of
your own?
What are the clues or leads that the Diamond Brothers
have when embarking on their case?
How do they mess it up?
How can you use your knowledge of the main characters
to bring the story to life? Or to add elements of humour?
What is the final outcome?
Illustrator Competition
Imagine that Anthony Horowitz’s publishers
would like to re-print three of his best-selling
books with new front cover designs.
The three books are Eagle Strike, Snakehead
and Scorpia.
Our illustrator competition is to re-design the
front cover for one of these books.
As the illustrator it is helpful if you have fully read
the book and essential that you at least have the
synopsis for the story.
You should work your illustration around the
front cover Anthony Horowitz book frames that
are provided for the competition.
Page 9 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1
Temporary Boiler Installed
Following the failure of our school boiler, which dates from the foundation of the school in
1960, we now have a temporary boiler installed to get us through the winter. Although this
will come at a cost to the school, the good news is that we have received confirmation that
the school has been successful with its re-submitted bid for a replacement boiler and a
total overhaul of our school heating system. This will be funded through the Herts BMT
Capital Funding Programme for the financial year 2019/20. We have therefore hired our
temporary boiler until the end of the spring term, with the hope that the work can be
carried out as soon as the funding becomes available in April 2019.
Swimming Gala
The annual St Albans Primary Schools Swimming Gala (small schools
section) took place last Saturday at the Hertfordshire University Cam-
pus in Hatfield. For the first time in our history we were able to enter
two teams. Both teams gave their all and our Boys Medley ‘A’ team
claimed second place, along with Alex in his individual race. In a tightly
contested gala, Maple were the overall winners with Oakwood in sec-
ond place, just three points behind. Well done to all of our swimmers,
you were all a credit to the school.
Verulamium Visit
Year 3 have been learning about the Romans, so the Museum was the
perfect place for us to explore.
First, Matt took us back in time two thousand years ago when Romans lived!
Matt set out four tables of interesting historical artifacts . My first table was
the beauty table where we labelled the different items. It was so much fun!
Next Matt told us about the kitchen. We could tell the bone was from the
butchers because of the marks. We also enjoyed the building table very
much. It was epic! There was a half broken chimney and we learned about
plum bums, this is where the word plumber comes from.
Then we did some acting. Zaynah and Adrian took to the stage. Zaynah was
Floriana and Adrian was Maximus.
After lunch it was time for the Museum tour. We went through lots of different
rooms, including ‘The People of Verulamium ,’ Food and Family, and Rites
and Recreation. I liked The People of Verulamium section as it was
interesting. Afterwards, we visited the hypocaust. It was once a thirty
roomed Roman house, but now it’s just the remains of a mosaic from one of
the many rooms. They used under floor heating as they were very advanced.
My favourite part was completing the challenges as it got my brain thinking
hard.
Report by Chloe H