Mrs Phelps led another exciting Times Tables Competition assembly this week. Classes in KS2 nominated new challengers from their class to be tested in front of an audience. It takes great aspiration and confidence to practise every day and then perform in front of others. Well done to all the competitors. Are you practising every day? Maybe you will be nominated next term!

Find out more by visiting last term’s competition gallery. You’ll find links to apps and websites to help you practise at home.

What’s your target table and what is your favourite way to practise?

Happy New Year to our families and community. In assemblies today we talked about our New Year’s Aspirations. These are our hopes and ambitions for the year ahead.

Can you leave a comment below with your aspirations for 2020? Here are some of the children’s ideas from the assemblies today…

You could try this fun activity on the CBBC website to give you ideas!

Two weeks to go before the holidays but Christmas has certainly begun at Lawford Mead! Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to watch children from Nursery and Reception classes perform with such confidence at their Christmas concert. Christmas jumper and dinner day was as joyful as ever too. Thanks to the Year 6 role models who helped out and waited on tables. Now we are all looking forward to the KS1 Christmas production!

The new Word of the Week is…absurd. Can you look it up and use it in your conversations or writing this week?

Our website advent calendar will begin on Sunday night. Don’t forget to visit each day. Christmas-themed art can be given into the front office next week too, it still has a chance of being selected for the calendar.

Our word of the week this week is a challenging one. Radical. A radical person believes that there should be change and wants to make a difference. A radical idea is a very new way of thinking. Can you use this word this week?

Thank you to the Year 6 role models who wrote our reflection time poem this week…

You never look good trying to make someone look bad.

Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.

Be strong but not rude.

Be kind but not weak.

Be bold but not a bully.

Be humble but not timid.

Be proud but not arrogant.

Be nice!

Many thanks to the parents association for the cake sale today. Always popular, these sales raise money that will enhance the Lawford Mead learning experience for all our children. Huge thanks too of course to everyone who donated or bought the cakes!

Our Word of the Week this week is… perplexed. can you use it in conversation and your writing?

Ooh, and do check out the Highlights section of our website for info and photos of this week’s Anti-Bullying Week and Children in Need activities…

Have a great weekend everyone.

Mr Poyton

Next week is Anti-Bullying Week 2019.

We will be celebrating another ODD SOCKS DAY on Monday and we will be spending the week celebrating our diversity and discussing kindness and the changes we want to make with our actions.

WHAT IS ODD SOCKS DAY?  Odd Socks Day forms part of Anti-Bullying Week each year. It is a chance to celebrate that we are all unique. All we ask is that you wear odd socks on Monday 11^th November. Millions of children and adults will be taking part across the country. The national Odd Socks Say is actually Tuesday but we are celebrating it on Monday – don’t forget!

WHY IS ODD SOCKS DAY IMPORTANT? The day sends an important message to people that they should be allowed to be themselves, free from bullying and it helps us celebrate Anti-Bullying Week in a fun and positive way.

Of course, Monday is also remembrance day and children will be observing a minutes silence during the morning.  Children took part in assemblies about remembrance this past week.

Enjoy these official Anti-Bullying Week videos:

Former pupils visited our KS2 assembly today to present us with a lovely framed letter and photo. Look out for it in the front office and read the letter below. The letter told us how former Lawford قيامة عثمان Mead pupils have been doing at Hylands so far and thanked us for all we did to prepare them for the next stage of their education.

in the assembly I asked KS2 what they want to take with them when they leave Lawford Mead. I didn’t mean objects like an iPad or Macbook! I meant feelings and lessons about learning and life that will help them be successful in the future.

Here are some of their fantastic answers:

• friendship and knowing how to be a good friend
• confidence and feeling prepared for Year 7 learning (like algebra!)
• our school values
• the passions and talents we have discovered here at Lawford Mead
• knowledge
• fitness and health
• memories of time with our teachers
• a love of reading and subjects like art, sports, and maths

Can you comment below with more answers?

Our Word of the Week is infinite. I’m sure you can find infinite ways to include it in your conversations and writing this week.

A talented pupil brought tears to my eyes with his hilarious persuasive letter this week. Alfie got into the mindset of rude, greedy, selfish King Henry VIII and wrote a letter to the pope that made us all laugh. Here it is…enjoy…

Dear Mr Pope,

I am writing to you to give me a divorce, Catherine of Aragon is getting really old and smelly. I really need a divorce.  Everyone in the palace wants her gone so if you say no it just won’t be me, it will be everyone in the palace who will be sad.  Especially me!  Though if you said no my axe man would be happy.  Anyway I’ sure you will say the right choice.

She still failed to give me a son and as you know, you can’t rule if you’re a stupid girl who is thick as two short planks! Anyway, you see how important this is to me.

Pope, you really are the best pope ever.  Probably why you got the job.

Yours sincerely,

Henry VIII

The more money spent at our Book Fair stalls on Target Sharing and Exhibition days, the more free books we get for the school library! So thank you to families who bought books last year as we have received over 100 free books last week! See the picture above with two of our Year 6 reading role models. Can you spot a book you want to read?

Our Word of the Week this week is unexpectedly, a great sentence opener for a story when something surprising happens.

Mr Poyton

We announced the new members of School Council in assembly last Friday. Here is a picture of our new Secretary, Chair, Vice Chair and Treasurer. Each year group’s council representatives were democratically elected. Watch this space for a photo of all of them with their shiny new badges. Our School Council, with support from Miss Abbott, play an important role in making decisions that help Lawford Mead continue to improve and make a positive contribution.

Our Word of the Week this week is frivolous. It means unimportant and maybe a bit silly. Can you use it in your writing and conversations this week?

Mr Poyton