Kilmorie Primary School Newsletter - 2nd February 2024
Friday 2nd February 2024
Dear parents and carers,
This week has been so busy, our feet have hardly touched the ground!
Performance Poetry Assembly: We had a brilliant start to our week with the children performing poems written by poets of colour. Yasmin Ali, a local poet and parent, facilitated the event and was in awe of the children’s performances. A quote from Yasmin: “I thoroughly enjoyed watching Kilmorie students graduate as poets this week. I am so proud of each class for their creativity and enthusiasm. Each poem was presented in its own unique way and demonstrated such impressive performance techniques. The performances included choreographed actions, sections, delivering lines individually and collectively, movement, reciting lines using rhyme, rhythm and sounds. As well as using call and response, rap and so much more. Each performance encapsulated the essence of the poem and honoured its message. It was an absolute pleasure to witness each poet challenge themselves, improve in confidence, work together and empower each other through poetry. 'Please keep it up, poets!'
The poems, as selected by Yasmin, encouraged you to think and feel about the messages they were trying to relay, and the children conveyed this clearly and powerfully. The children learnt that volume, rhythm, pacing, and intonation greatly enhance the way a poem is received. In their delivery, the children considered expression, volume, gestures and tone to support the poem.
Below is the list of poems that the children recited:
Year 1: Butterflies, Ladybirds, Treefrog Mami Loves you - Natalie Stewart
Year 2: Kate M, Sarah C, Shona Slow down- David Neita
Year 3: Elis, Crystal, Jo G Life doesn’t frighten me - Maya Angelou
Year 4: Rebecca, Sarah, Hannah I am every good thing- Derek Barnes
Year 5: Shipra, Conor, Rachel People need people - Benjamin Zephaniah
Year 6: Dominic, Vicky, Penny A few things - Rudy Francisco
Monday Night Football with Dennis: On Monday 29th January, Kilmorie played a football match against Haseltine Primary School. The team was made of Year 5 children who all performed well in a hard-fought game, unfortunately, Kilmorie lost two nil. The score does not reflect the true nature of the game, it was indeed a very balanced game. As always, the Kilmorie team showed commitment and a fantastic sporting attitude; they were a credit to the school.
Today we had a wonderful sharing of learning from Jo's class assembly. They shared with us all their knowledge about the Stone Age. It was fascinating to learn how much of what they discovered is used as a basis for much of modern day living! I was very impressed with how well they presented the information, and it was great to see how their confidence has grown this year. Well Done Jo's class.
We have had a number of educational visits this week with:
Year 4 class had a fantastic day out at the Maritime Museum on Thursday. They participated in a workshop where they discovered where the Vikings came from and where they settled. They also looked at some replica Viking artefacts, such as horns, beads, weighing scales and coins. They put on our historical detective hats to figure out what clues they told us about how the Vikings lived. They also had a fab time in the playground and the hands-on exhibition too!
On Thursday, Shona's and Sarah's class went to Dulwich College to find out about Ernest Shackleton. The children saw the James Caird, a lifeboat that Shackleton sailed from Elephant Island to South Georgia. It was a fantastic trip and the children learnt so much. Thank you to the staff at Dulwich College who made the visit possible.
Can anyone help please? The parents who have set up our wonderful library in the community room would really like some help. If you think you have some time and would be interested, please email kilmorielovesbooks@gmail.com. We still need books and are still collecting book donations. Please leave them in the blue bin next to the main entrance, but it is important they are in a good and clean condition. Thank you.
As mentioned last week, we are having a school gardening day on Sunday 11th February from 10am to 12pm. Do please come along, bring friends too! It's a great opportunity to enjoy the gardens with your children and enjoy some fresh air! And meet Eva the School Gardener in the main playground. It is planned that pruning, sweeping and giving the gardens a tidy tidying before spring arrives will be the key focus. There is a few woodwork projects and the team would be very grateful to any parents/carers with any expertise in this area. Experts and enthusiasts are welcome. Please bring drills, saws and goggles, and we will have the wood, screws and a plan. For the gardening work, if you can, please bring trowels, secateurs, brooms and wheelbarrows, label tools, so they don't get lost. Bring extra gloves for children. Their hands get very cold at this time of year. Bring drinks, and we will provide biscuits. Unfortunately, we won't have toilet access.
It's a lovely activity to enjoy the fresh air and help improve the playing and learning environment for the children. It’s always a fun morning. From Eva.
Science Week Request: The week beginning 11th March is British Science Week! As part of this, we would love to have volunteers from our parent community that work in STEM subjects come in and help spread the word about opportunities in science. If this is something you could support us with, please email FAO's office by the end of next week (Friday 9th Feb) and she will be in contact to discuss this further. Thank you in advance!
Tully’s first week: On Monday, we welcomed Tully to school. She has settled in well and, whilst very excited about her new environment, the children have been amazing at not overwhelming her. Next week her schedule will remain the same, but today Tully and three members of staff have been trained to get ready for her to start working with children after half-term.
Kilmorie has registered for The Royal Academy’s Young Artists’ Summer Show.
We would love it if you entered your child’s artwork! There is no theme and artists aged 4-19 can submit a wide range of works which may include drawing, painting, printing, photography, sculpture, textile, fashion, animation, video, or surprise the judges!
Judges are looking for imagination, originality and skill. If your child is interested in entering, please have a look at: https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk/get-involved . Please note the deadline to submit work is 27th March 2024 at 5pm.
To enter your child’s work, you will need to register. Once you have done this, you can submit your work by following the instructions. If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Casson at info@kilmorie.lewisham.sch.uk.
Next week is Children's Mental Health Week and the children will be taking part in wellbeing activities throughout the week. A mindfulness practitioner will be coming in to deliver mindfulness sessions with the children from reception to year 6. The sessions will be age appropriate and will provide children with pocket-sized tools for developing confidence, calming difficult emotions and nurturing connections with each other. The sessions will also give teachers the knowledge and confidence to deliver mindfulness on a more regular basis to their classes. Thank you to FoK for funding this.
To tie in with the theme of 'My Voice Matters', Friday 9th February will be 'Express Yourself Day'. We would like the children to celebrate what makes them unique with a fun dress-up day. This could be by sharing their favourite hobbies, wearing their favourite colours, wearing something to celebrate their heritage or simply just coming in as themselves. Express Yourself is about empowering children to tell their own stories. If you would like to make a donation to the wonderful children's mental health charity Place2Be, the children can bring in a £1 to school on that day.
To help children feel they are being listened to and have a voice, this week we asked them for tips and advice on what they would like to pass on to you about what they need or would like from you. Click on the photos below to read their advice, there are some powerful messages that we can all take something from.
Changes to the reception area: For those of you who have been in school, you will have noticed that the front desk has been removed. Further to it not being used by the reception admin staff, it became a dumping ground and meant that sometimes those waiting got missed. We are trying to address this and have got a desk at the entrance, hopefully making the office more accessible. Please bear with us as we shift things around.
Safeguarding: Please can I remind parents they should not be escorting children to their classes. This is a safeguarding risk, and we ask that all children are dropped at the office.
The final member of the office team, Alesha joins us on Monday. She will be our front of house (Michaela's replacement), and we are all looking forward to the office team being complete. However, do please be mindful that it will take her time to settle into the role. I hope you will join me in giving her a warm welcome.
Do please make sure you read the rest of the newsletter as there is a lot of important information, such as, the the Friends of Kilmorie school disco.
Have a lovely weekend and I look forward to welcoming you back for our final week of this half term.
Kind regards
Julie
Celebrations
In this week's Celebration Assembly, we celebrated...
Child's Name
Celebrating...
Year 2 - Milo
For fantastic investigation work when learning about shapes, I am very impressed with the mathematical vocabulary Milo has remembered and for always explaining his knowledge and thoughts so clearly to the rest of the class.
Year 2 - Jessica
For improved focus and independence she has shown towards her learning. Jessica is always ready for her learning and has become a very resilient learner. She is also a fantastic role model for the rest of the class when we are doing our yoga poses.
Year 3 - Romy
For brilliant focus and building her confidence.
Year 3 - Greyston
For excellent enquiry skills and being a brilliant scientist.
Year 3 - Arthur
For brilliant enquiry skills and being creative when completing projects at home.
Year 3 - Ruben
For excellent focus and being an amazing behaviour role model.
Year 3 - Stanley
For continuing to show great resilience, particularly in his writing and working hard on his handwriting.
Year 3 - Lucky
For doing great independent work in English, thinking about what he has been asked to include and continuing to show resilience in maths, resulting in making good progress.
Year 4 - Raphael
For participating in activities that initially felt a bit out of his comfort zone - well done Raphael!
Year 4 - Sophie
For fantastic effort in her writing and handwriting this half term. I am so impressed with how much more independent you are becoming.
Year 4 - Zara
For being a brilliant role model in class. Thank you for your constant hard work and for being so helpful around the classroom.
Year 4 - Ruben
For his creative writing ideas. He makes fun comics at home.
Year 4 - Iris
For the maturity that she has developed with her learning behaviour. Her handwriting has improved dramatically.
Year 4 - Arthur
For his good listening during football.
Year 6 - Izzy
For a great improvement in the amount of work produced in English lessons. She works independently to include all the features needed.
Year 6 - Jayon
For working really hard on his writing, responding well to feedback and trying to include all the features we have been learning about.
Reminders
Please remember to use our dedicated email addresses. We have specific email addresses, some are listed below - all can be accessed on our website:
attendance - for illness / change to pick up person from school.
wrap - changes to bookings / change of pick up person from wrap.
enrichment - any questions / queries
music - any questions / queries
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Friends of Kilmorie School Disco is on Friday 23rd February, the first Friday back after half-term. There will be snacks 🍿and drinks 🥤 on sale, but NO hot food! Along with face painting, tattoos, lucky dip, a sweet stall and pocket 💷 money stalls for small items like hair bands, bracelets and much more, cash or blue tokens will be accepted.
Winkworth will donate £250 to FOK for any instruction received from a current Kilmorie parent if this is declared at the beginning of instruction.
They also donate raffle prizes for both summer and winter fairs as well as giving us money to have their boards up advertising these events. We are continually grateful to them for all their support.
Community News
If you are having a clear out of used unwanted items ~ bag them up and Bee Kind will come and collect.
Dear parents and carers, 
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