Well, Christmas is upon us and the holidays have finally arrived.
Everyone in year 6 has worked really hard throughout the entire term and deserves a well earned break from  lessons.

We are sure you will agree that their concert was fantastic; in such a short space of time the children worked incredibly well together to create a truly memorable performance.  Despite illness and children taking on lines they had never rehearsed the end result went seamlessly. Well done all round!

Decorations and parties dominated the final week and much fun (and noise!) was had on our party afternoon. Hopefully your children have brought home their decorative creations to share around the house.

Looking ahead to next term, we are all very excited about our long awaited trip to the Harry Potter Studios and our consequent topic work- very science and literacy based.

It just remains for us to say a huge thank you for the very generous gifts that we all received at the end of term and to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and new year. We look forward to seeing all the children again on the 8th January.

Enjoy your holidays and let's hope this drab wet weather turns into something white and infinitely more fun!

Happy Christmas from the Year 6 Team.

Christmas approaches

A big thank you to all parents and children for the fantastic effort that has gone into providing the costumes for our year 6 play. The first time we saw the children all dressed up on the stage the sight really was breath taking.

Everyone has worked so hard to learn their lines, and some children did have a lot of lines to learn. We hope that you enjoy watching your child's performance as much as we have enjoyed putting the show together.

Please ensure that on the evening performance children are at school by 6:45p.m. They may bring something quiet to do to keep them amused whilst other year groups perform. However, please make it clear to the children that they are responsible for whatever they bring in, any games should be age appropriate and it cannot be plugged into the wall sockets!

At the end of performances children can be collected from their own classrooms.

The year 6 team

Christmas preparations arrived in full flow this week as children got to grips with their Christmas play. they have been working really hard to learn lines and songs.

Any quiet moments over the long weekend could be usefully spent logging in to DB Primary, the learning platform, where words and music can be found for the songs.

Costumes need  to come into school on Monday please so we can be sure children have what they need before they do their first performance to the rest of the school, year 2 and siblings on Friday afternoon.

Enjoy your extra day off and we look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday morning.

The year 6 team

Wow, what a week!

It was great to see so many of you at the assembly yesterday and we hope that you thoroughly enjoyed their journey through time. Many of you were able to take the time to visit your child in their classroom at the end to have a look at the work they have been doing along with tasting their culinary efforts. We think they now believe us when we say rationing was not the tastiest time for eating! The atmosphere in the parties was great.

Next week we move onto Christmas and the work begins properly on the Christmas concert. With only two and a bit weeks to go until you will have the opportunity to be amazed by year 6 and their talented performance once again!
Homework next week will once again be learning lines etc so please support your child with this.

A list of costumes will be with you in the early part of next week. The play is set in an imaginary African world and, although the costumes will be simple, children will need some support in getting their outfits together.

Our final major part of the work we will be doing for our topic is a make do and mend activity. For this we will be making rag rugs in the style used to decorate many a hearth in the 1940s. If you have any old, torn, worn out items of clothing fit only for the rag bag that we could cut up and recycle, creating a true work of art for our classrooms, please send them in with your child next week.

Many thanks for your continued support in all that we plan and do with your children.

The Year 6 Team

E Safety at Crabtree

E Safety Support for Parents



Children are so confident with the use of all things ICT that I thought you might want some support and advice on how to ensure that your children are safe at school.

Our esafety motto at school is: "zip it, block it, flag it"





Which I'm sure that you'll all be following at home too.



Here are a list of wesbites, recommended by Herts that you might find useful.

• www.childnet-int.org - A non-profit making organisation working directly with children, parents and teachers to ensure that the issues of online child protection and children’s safe and positive use of the internet are addressed. Childnet International produce an online CD guide specifically for parents KnowITAll - www.childnet-int.org/kia/

• www.thinkuknow.co.uk - The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre has set up its own edcational website which has been designed and written specifically for children, young people, teachers, parents and carers.
  
• www.getsafeonline.org/ A beginners guide to using the Internet safety, including a quiz and some video tutorials about how to ‘stay safe’ on-line.

• www.kidsmart.org.uk/ - Kidsmart is an award winning internet safety website for parents and those working with children. It has been developed by the children's internet charity Childnet International and has excellent information on many of the technologies used by children, with guidance on how to ‘stay safe’ online.
  
• http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2011/10/advice-for-parents/ - Managing your Media - Good Ofcom online safety video and guide for parents/carers
  
• www.bullying.co.uk - One in five young people have experienced bullying by text message or via email. This web site gives advice for children and parents on bullying.

• www.chatdanger.com/ - This website is about the potential dangers with interactive services online like chat, IM, online games, email and on mobiles. It provides information, advice, true stories and games. The resource page also contains a number of links to other useful websites.

• http://parents.vodafone.com/ - Vodafone have developed this website in conjunction with mumsnet. It is very accessible and provides information and guidance to parents with understanding their child’s digital world and get more involved. There is even an on-line test to see how much you know!

If you do have any questions please do pop in to see me. I will be doing a parent session after school in the Spring term linked to Social Networking and Safety.

Miss Wilson

The first week of the second half of the term has flown by.

Children went through the script of what will over the next few weeks become their assembly. Auditions will take place and parts will be allocated next week and then children's homework will be to learn their lines.

We hope as many of you as possible will be able to join us for our assembly on Thursday 22nd November at 9:10 a.m. The children will need the costumes that they wore to go  to Hendon, and if any parents feel inclined to dress in 1940's style please do come along suitably attired. Several parents joined in last year and it really did make for a special atmosphere.

 After the end of the assembly please leave a little extra time to come back to the classrooms with your child for some World War II music, a look at their topic work and to try the war time cooking that will be taking place just prior to the assembly.

We look forward to seeing many of you next week at consultation evenings. Please remember that we only have ten minutes allocated per appointment if we are to keep to our  time tables, but if you do not feel that is sufficient time we are always able to make an alternative time after school.

Hope to see many children and adults at the fireworks this weekend- don't forget to visit the staff stall to buy your novelty glow in the dark items!
See you there!

The year 6 team

The end of a very busy half term adjusting to the rigours of year 6 and our expectations.

We waved Miss Renier off yesterday amongst flowers and balloons wishing her a dry, bright and fantastically enjoyable day on Saturday as she becomes Mrs Renier- she has decided not to change her name as hers is so special to her!

As promised last week here are some of the amazing Anderson shelters and gardens that the children designed and made last week. I have to say the growth of cress in Elm was most impressive.

Wishing you all a very happy and restful half term.

The year 6 team