It’s been another jam-packed half term break and the pupils of SJA have been involved in a wide range of activities at school and beyond… Year 3 had a wonderful time visiting Preston Manor. Thank you to all parents/carers for ensuring the children were dressed in perfect period costume—it really made the experience all the more special. Year 4 have had Bronze and Iron Age mornings supported with the incredibly knowledgeable and engaging historian Paul Ullson, and Year 5 have been visited by the Fire Service, who allowed them a detailed inspection of their fire truck. As you have seen on the front cover, Year 6 have been scaling the monumental climbing wall this week. It’s always a stunning sight in the playground and an experience the year 6 children look forward to every year. The rest of the academy got a chance to stand back and watch the year 6s climb with confidence. Please take a look at all the amazing activities and events we’re planning for the Summer Term on the ‘Dates for your diary’ page. The summer term marks a new chapter for us at SJA as Mrs Brown departs for a new and exciting journey into headship. She has had an immeasurably large impact on the academy; past, present and future pupils and staff will continue to benefit from everything she has accomplished here. We wish her all the best and look forward to keeping very close ties. After the Easter holidays, I am sure that you will join me in welcoming Mr Dudeney and Miss Cooper as they step up into Interim Deputy Head roles. I hope you and your families have a great Easter break and we look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Monday 17th April. As well as reaching you through ParentMail, the SJA newsletter is posted on the academy website and sits alongside our academy twitter feeds @SouthwaterJA and @SouthwaterJA_PE , as another way we regularly keep in touch with you. Mrs R Toogood Headteacher
N.B. For the most up to date list, please contact the school office.
https://www.southwaterjunioracademy.co.uk/ Parents/Learning-an-Instrument-at-SJA/
Our Kindness Ambassadors have been looking out for children to catch being kind. They have had no problems finding acts of kindness, and it has been such a pleasure recognising the everyday kindness that is all around us. Mia B in 4ZL helped a child with their crutches. Ellie Hogman in 4ZL was caught helping cheer up a child who was upset. Elise Masters in 6MD was caught helping children with their work in lessons. Erin Cresswell and Megan Green in 6IM were both caught helping a new playground buddy to decorate their t-shirt Elodie Daniels in 6IM was caught helping to tidy away coloured pencils and things that were on the floor.
On Wednesday 1st March, we celebrated World Book Day. The theme this year was ‘You are a reader’, and we began our day by sharing a video the staff had recorded, reading the book, ‘I Don’t Like Books. Never. Ever. The End.’ by Emma Perry, a story about a girl who discovers the magic of books. From there, we gathered on the playground to take photos and share costumes of the children’s favourite book characters. This year, we chose ‘The Barnabus Project’, by the Fan Brothers, to be our whole school book. It is a picture book about a world of Perfect Pets, but Barnabus - a half elephant, half mouse - and his friends, are considered to be ’Failed Projects’. Throughout the day, the children read parts of the story, and took part in activities based on the text. They designed their own unique creatures, explored vocabulary, made a pipe maze for Barnabus and his friends to escape through, and thought about the themes of tolerance, kindness and being unique that the story represents. We later shared some of the work across the school in the assembly, and we finished the day by singing the World Book Day song. We had a brilliant day celebrating the power of books. Thank you to all involved! Prior to World Book Day, the children were tasked with a Reading Bingo Challenge, which involved reading in a range of different places and scenarios, including reading under torch light, reading poetry, reading in an unusual place and reading to a cuddly toy. Thank you to everyone who participated in this. We loved sharing the photos in the assembly!
The Y3 children and staff enjoyed their visits to Preston Manor at the start of February, taking a trip back to Victorian times to experience the life of a servant. In English, the children were invited by Benjamin Beesley, the butler, to apply for one of four jobs, and we wrote application letters stating our strengths and how this could benefit the MacDonald family at Preston Manor. Once at the manor, the children met Miss Ada the housemaid, who apologised for the absence of Benjamin Beesley, who had mysteriously disappeared… The Year 3 children experienced the difference in living quarters between the family and the servants, and in the bedrooms, they swept the rugs, cleaned the fireplace, made the bed and polished the door handles. In the kitchen, the children made lemonade, and they quickly learned that a teaspoon of soda will cause the lemon juice to fizz over! They were taken to the laundry room where they learned to write invitations, lay the table, arrange flowers, polish shoes and clean hats. They also learned how irons were warmed by the fire to help the housemaids ensure the linen was returned to the family of the house in pristine condition. We hope that the children are now using their skills at home to assist their parents with jobs around the home! At the end of our time, Miss Ada gave jobs to lucky candidates who would be starting fresh the following Monday morning. The visits provided the children with a deeper understanding of what life was life for servants during this period, and we have taken this forward throughout our learning since the trip. Back in school, we discovered the whereabouts of Benjamin Beesley, and the children wrote an exciting newspaper report on events that had taken place after our visit at Preston Manor. Overall, our time spent at Preston Manor was a fantastic learning experience for all involved!
Year 5/6 Art Club This term Year 5 and 6 have enjoyed getting creative at Art Club. We have looked at many artists, including Henri Matisse and Andy Goldsworthy, as inspiration for our artwork. The children thoroughly enjoyed creating their own 3-dimensional flower in a colour of their choosing. “I liked making the flowers because I got to work with my friend and it turned out really well!” - Holly W
This year, we will be using this section of our newsletter to show you different pictorial strategies we are using in school to support your child’s maths learning. We aim to share with you the main uses for these strategies, so that you can help your child with their home learning should you need to. Number lines are often thought of as a tool for counting, but they are actually incredibly versatile and can be used in a range of ways. They can be used to represent both positive and negative numbers. In this way, the children are able to visually see how to count negative numbers and can develop their understanding around finding differences involving negative numbers. Number lines are also very useful when working with time. They can be used to work out the differences between times and when adding or taking time away. -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 +3 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 +5 10:30am 4:40pm 10 mins 6 hours 3:15pm 5:10pm 45 mins 10:40am 4:00pm 1 hour 10 mins 5:00pm = 6 hours 10 minutes = 1 hours 55 minutes
Our weekly TTRockstars tournament is a battle between the year groups and the winner is announced every week in assembly. Every time your child logs in and plays any of the games, their correct answers contribute to their year group’s average score (the number of correct answers divided by the number of children). Therefore, the more children who play, the higher their average score will be. Multiplication tables are a foundational block for so many areas of the maths curriculum. Children who know their tables find it easier to learn methods and apply multiplication tables if they are fluent in them. TTRockstars is a great way of learning times tables out of order and helps assist rapid recall. Below is a list of the weekly winners this half term: Week Ending Winning Year Group 24th February Year 4 3rd March Year 4 10th March Year 4 17th March Year 4 24th March Year 4 Our top rockers in each year group this half term (as of Friday 24th March) are: Name Year Group Speed Per Question Lazar P Year 3 1.70 Coralie W Year 4 1.00 Evie P Year 5 0.63 Thomas L Year 6 0.83 Congratulations to all our winners this term.
What a fantastic half term it has been for our sports teams at SJA! We have now seen over 50% of our pupils representing the school in one of our teams or at an event - no easy feat when there are over 460 pupils on roll - and we have loved giving so many children the opportunity to represent their school! We have enjoyed A LOT of success this term, and at the time of writing, with 8 days of term left, we still have another 8 competitions/matches before we break up for Easter! • A huge congratulations to our Year 3 & 4 Football team, who won the West Sussex Albion Cup at Brighton and Hove Albions training ground, to be crowned West Sussex champions, and the team now progress to the Sussex finals! • Our Year 4 Football A team won the Horsham Cup, winning 5/5 games, scoring 17 and conceding 0! Our B were fantastic too, finishing 5th overall! • Our Netball team won the Central Sussex finals, and will head to the County Finals next week! We also finished as runners up in both the A and B tiers of the top division in Horsham. • Our Year 5/6 girls Football A team won the Horsham Cup! • Our Year 3 Sportshall Athletics team won their Athletics tournament! • The Year 6 Football B team won Division 2 of their cup, whilst the A team finished 3rd.
We have had brilliant times at lots of other competitions, with pupils involved in festivals such as Badminton and Tennis, and tournaments such as Dodgeball, Hockey and Swimming. As always, all of our pupils represented themselves and the school impressively, behaved well at all times, tried their best and had a great time!
We all know the saying that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. Joining forces with the ‘Eat them to defeat them’ campaign has been a real success in school with children eating plenty of fruit and veg in order to earn their stickers. Thank you to all parents for supporting with this and we hope that it has had a positive impact at home too. The company behind the campaign, Veg Power, would like to invite parents and carers to take part in their survey, which should take 10-15 minutes to complete. As a thank you for your time, you will have the option to enter Veg Power’s prize draw to win one of 5 £50 shopping vouchers. All entries will also go into a draw for an award of £250 for the school. Veg Power welcome all feedback from parents/ carers and would like to hear from as many people as possible by the closing date for entry which is 9am, 3rd April 2023. The link for participants to use to complete the survey can be found below https://eatthemtodefeatthem.com/west-sussex-survey/
Y4 Maths Competition On Wednesday 22nd March, Ben, Elliott, Casey and Maisie represented the school at the Christ’s Hospital maths competition. They competed against 40 other teams and were presented with lots of challenges throughout the afternoon and their efforts were rewarded with a tasty tea from the Christ’s Hospital kitchens. Stone and Bronze Age Mornings This half term, Year 4 have been busy learning about the stone, bronze and iron ages. As part of this topic, they have had two curriculum mornings. On both mornings, their learning was supported by a local historian, Paul Ullson, who guided them through the story of our pre-historic ancestors and how they lived, worked, hunted and fought. On both occasions, they were able to look at, identify and draw artefacts from the periods in question and draw and explore the clothing of the time. On Stone Age morning, the children learnt how and why man went from being gatherers to hunters, explored various furs and created their own stone age cave art. On Bronze and Iron Age morning, they learnt what it meant to go into battle during the bronze age and how to use Ogham writing to communicate.
Year 6 have created some amazing Easter poems in Spanish, using bilingual dictionaries. Their poems are about going into the garden and finding Easter eggs of all colours. They have compared the Easter egg colours to everyday nouns, for example, un huevo azul como el cielo – a blue egg like the sky. ¡Buen trabajo chicos! Good work children! ¡Felices Pascuas! Happy Easter! Señora Waide
What is Scratch? Scratch is a programming language and an online community where children can program and share interactive media such as stories, games, and animation with people from all over the world. As children create with Scratch, they learn to think creatively, work collaboratively, and reason systematically. Here are some examples of the children’s work using Scratch this term: Year 3 have been creating conversations between two sprites. Meanwhile, Year 5 have been creating car racing games. Internet Safety At Home Do you want an entertaining and engaging way of supporting your child navigate the online world? Interland is an adventure-packed online game that makes learning about digital safety and citizenship interactive and fun—just like the Internet itself. It is accessible free through Google at https:// beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/en_us/interland or alternatively search ‘Interland’ on a Google search. Have a happy and safe time online over the Easter break! Mr M Purdew Computing Subject Lead 3CG 5EH
Year 5 Updates West Sussex Fire Rescue Service We were so incredibly lucky this half term to have a West Sussex Fire Rescue crew talk to the children about their role as a firefighter, as well as the various other jobs that they do in addition to putting out fires. The children thoroughly enjoyed getting to see the fire engine up close and explore the variety of equipment that they use on a daily basis. The children were enthralled at the thermal imaging software used to help the firefighters locate the heat of the fires through the dense smoke. Curiosity Corner Throughout this term, we have enjoyed sharing many pieces of the children’s extra work that they have been completing at home. Please find below a small selection of the brilliant work shared in the Year 5 assembly.
Gracie 3AM Joseph 3AM Lily 3CE Helena 3CG Amelia 3CE Sofia 4CC Jessica 4JB Riley 4PS Brandon 4ZL Mya 4ZL Elsie 4PS Sophie 5EH Bella 5LB Leighton 5LB Joel 5MP Chelsey 5EH Faith 6CJ Maisey 6DM Reuben 6DM Leah 6IM Layla 6MD Isla 6MD Luke 3AM Amelia 3CE Esha 3CG Olive 3CG Leo 3PW Dacre 4CC Hayden -Thomas 4JB Jack 4PS Jake 4PS Benjamin 4ZL Maisie 4JB Charlotte 5EH Jack 5EH George 5LB Daniel 5LB Morgan 5LB Luka 5LB Alice 5MP Annabel 6DM Dylan 6IM Niall 6IM Evie 6MD Jamie 6MD Harry 6CJ Lewis 3AM William 3CG Keira 3CG Dylan 3PW Millie 3PW Aryan 3CG Harper 4CC Lois 4JB Casey 4JB Logan 4PS Aedan 4ZL Harry 4ZL Lillie -Ann 5EH Archie 5EH James 5MP Finley 5MP Jessica 5MP Sophia 5MP Carolina 6CJ Oscar 6CJ William 6DM Alfie 6IM Jasmine 6MD Jessica 6DM
The Climbing Wall The Year 6 children had a spectacular day tackling an 8-metre climbing wall provided by Altitude Events. The weather was warm and the sun shone as the pupils scaled the structure. On each side of the wall, there was a different level of challenge. Each spring, the Year 6 climb the wall as part of their mountains topic. Rosie from 6MD described the wall as, ‘Really fun. It made you come out of your shell.’ Isla, also from 6MD, said, ‘It was cool being able to see over the whole school. The instructors gave extra challenges, which meant that we felt like we made real progress over the session.’
We take all things Eco very seriously at SJA, and now have an Eco club that runs after school and Eco Warriors that fly the flag during the school day! Together they form our Eco Committee. Eco club news: This term’s activities all started with a wonderful idea from one of our members in year 6, Elodie. She thought that it would be a great idea to plant some late bulbs and flowers in preparation for summer. Not only would it make a lovely addition to the school grounds, but we would also have a theme for each planter. The theme we’ve chosen are based on our school’s team names: Air, Water, Fire and Earth. We chose yellow bulbs for Team Air, blue for Team Water, and red for Team Fire. For Team Earth we chose green, hardy herbs. We had a great time researching which types of bulbs would be suitable for planting this time of year. We then had even more fun getting stuck in and planting our bulbs and herbs. The planters are on the field next to the path leading to the infant school. Next time you’re picking up or dropping off, take a look! Competition time! We are looking for someone to design a sign for each of the planters. If your child is interested, they will be sent home with an A4 piece of card to make their design on. We ask that they have their team name written clearly and boldly in the centre of the card, and then can use their own artistic impression to decorate. A winning design will be selected for each team, and then fixed to the planters for display. Happy designing! The Eco Club Team Eco Warriors news: Children have been busy looking at interesting ways to promote recycling in our school. Recently one of our year 6 pupils, Seren, designed a fantastic milk bottle top collector out of an old milk bottle. She made an Elmer the Elephant recycling box, and has inspired the Eco club to make their own bottle top collectors. Each class has their own one now, and we are busy collecting as many as we can. Please continue to send your milk tops in to be recycled. Another one of our members in year 3, Dexter, has made this fantastic recycling poster to remind us of the dangers of pollution in our oceans. We were very impressed with his creativity and how he used ‘rubbish’ to enhance his design. If your children would like to have a look at his poster, it will be up on our Eco display wall which is near the Year 4 corridor. Our Eco Warriors have been invited to go on a nature safari at Knepp Estate this summer. We are looking forward to planning this trip. Further news will be sent out closer to the time. Happy Recycling… The Eco Team Team Water Team Earth Team Air Team Fire
SJA Attendance Flowchart Here at Southwater Junior Academy, we pride ourselves on the fact that more than 90% of pupils are happy in school and attend school regularly (taken from pupil survey and attendance records). Attendance Target It is our aim that we maintain an attendance target of 97%. We believe that regular and consistent school attendance is of great importance for your child’s continuing achievement and friendships in school. Under the law, the school has a duty to ensure that all of our pupils attend school regularly. Regular school attendance is important in giving your child the best possible start in life. Children who have high attendance rates are more likely to enjoy school, have secure friendships and go on to achieve well. There are 190 school days in the academic year which leaves 175 days (weekends and holidays) for holidays and days out. Unfortunately, attendance below 90% can lead to children achieving less well than their regularly attending peers and experiencing problems with developing social skills. 97% attendance is equivalent to 5 days off across the whole academic year. 90% attendance is the equivalent to 20 days off in just one school year. 80% attendance is the equivalent to 1 day off a week. When is an absence unauthorised? Unauthorised absences are when a pupil has been marked in the school attendance register as being absent from school without authority. It is only a Headteacher who can authorise absence for any reason from school. This includes: any absence marked in the register as unauthorised persistent late arrival at school after the register has been taken a holiday in term-time, which has not been authorised by the Headteacher The Government has directed that Headteachers may only grant leave for a holiday in term-time where there are exceptional circumstances. West Sussex County Council may issue a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) if a pupil has accrued unauthorised absence of 10 sessions in 10 weeks. Additionally, we are monitoring punctuality carefully as it is more challenging for late arrivals to settle calmly in to their learning. In order to find out some of the barriers to attending school punctually, we will be asking children to provide a reason for their lateness on arrival at the school office. If you are concerned about ongoing lateness for your child, please contact their class teacher in the first instance to discuss what sort of support strategies we can put in place. How do we inform you of your child’s attendance? In order to make our attendance systems clear, we have produced a concise table of attendance information for reference. This helps to explain what our systems are at each stage of the process. At each point on the attendance ladder where attendance is a concern, we offer support strategies to help improve attendance percentages and we also monitor each case closely to look for improvements over subsequent weeks and months.
Attendance between 97% – 100% rewarded in end of term assembly Attendance between 95% – 97% School will monitor Attendance falls to between 93% -95% A letter from the Deputy Headteacher will be sent home indicating their concern of how many days off the child has had so far in comparison to peers. Three-weekly monitoring will take place. Attendance between 91% – 93% A warning letter will be sent home by Deputy Headteacher explaining that the child is close to missing 10% of their time in school. Weekly monitoring will take place. Attendance below 90% Will require a conversation with Deputy Headteacher where we will discuss an attendance action plan with regular monitoring opportunities. Other actions may include Referrals to other agencies Fixed Penalty Notice Permission may be sought from parents to contact medical professionals Where there are ongoing medical concerns or investigations, related absences can be logged as medical. If this is the case for your child, please provide any relevant paperwork to the school office for us to hold on file. This will avoid attendance concern letters being sent home. What can the school do to support your child with attendance? Support strategies can include meeting a buddy once in school, attendance at sensory circuits before school, building a positive celebration book and one to one time with a key ‘go to’ adult to reduce any potential barriers that may exist. There are many other strategies that can be used and personalised for each individual. If you would like further information, please contact your child’s class teacher or book an appointment to see Mrs Brown. Helpful hints for the home • Being prepared by helping to check school bags the night before and keeping an eye on homework progress. • Have a clear routine for sleep so that your child has a regular bedtime and wake up time • Make time for breakfast so there are no shop stops where children can get side-tracked on the way to school. A nutritious breakfast also fuels more effective learning. • Children can become unsettled if they have to go into school late and without their friends - getting children to school in time to meet friends on the playground prevents this. Thank you for your continued support in this matter. Mrs K Brown
Whole Academy Assemblies Our whole academy assemblies have returned to the hall. It is wonderful having the school back together in one room, singing songs, listening to presentations and celebrating each others’ successes. Our Friday whole academy assembly is not just about giving out certificates and reading notices. We believe assemblies should entertain, inspire and impart knowledge. We aim to link them to our Thought for the Week and teach inspiring lessons. Assemblies should teach, set the tone and develop our school values and ethos.
Do you have any comments about any information in the newsletter? Do you have any suggestions or concerns? Please let us know what you think below: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Hand in to the school office, via the red post box on the front desk. Parent/Carer: Name of child: Class: (PLEASE PRINT NAME OF CHILD)