Dear Parents and Carers

I would like to begin with thanking everyone who helped to make Science Week so amazing – the whole school got involved and the projects are fantastic, I am sure the children will tell you how much they enjoyed the week’s tasks.

We round off this week with Comic Relief – Red Nose Day. It's been such fun to see the children wearing something red and getting involved with class activities.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please make an appointment to see me through the school office.

I wish you all a lovely weekend.

Kind regards

Lucy Collins
Headteacher

All of the children in Linden had a wonderful time taking part in British Science Week last week.

The theme this year is ‘Innovating the Future,’ and the week was kick started with a whole school tour using Microsoft Teams of a local Product Design Consultancy, DUKU Design. The children were shown how the team at DUKU take ideas, design them using CAD, prototype them using their 3D printers and get them to manufacture! They also saw live prototypes of the new electric car chargers being designed and made there!

Each year group then spent the week working on different STEM activities. Here is a snapshot of what the children got up to:

EYFS:

EYFS became inventors and designed and made a new game using resources around the EYFS environment. They also helped Billy Goats Gruff by building a new bridge. As well as building lots of bridges using Lego and blocks, they explored which materials would make the strongest bridge. Finally, EYFS learnt about computer programming. They had great fun programming the Beebots and Spheros to make them move in different directions!

Year 1:

In Year 1 the children took part in a range of construction challenges. This included building a structure using limited resources. The children also designed and created Mother’s Day cards, incorporating sliders into their design. Finally, the children used Venn diagrams to compare the structure of different animals.

Year 3:

Year 3 have been designing their own Robobugs! They researched insects and took all of the best insect features e.g. camouflage and wings, to innovate their designs.

Year 4:

Year 4 have been designing and making their own torches, this included making their own electrical circuit.

They innovated their own robobugs. Also, they became inventors and designed their own inventions. We had some really creative ideas! Finally, Year 4 did some coding, directing the Spheros around an obstacle course and by using Scratch on the ipads.

Year 6:

Year 6 started by looking at 'What is a scientist?' They soon discovered that the old man who is a genius is a big stereotype and it's very wrong! There's no such job as a 'scientist' - hundreds of jobs use science in one way or another. They smashed stereotypes by looking at people from a huge variety of backgrounds and the scientific jobs they do, including Krystina Pearson-Rampeearee and Dr Mamantha Maheshwarappa.

They then looked at the skills that scientists use (taken from the British Science Week materials) and talked about how we could use them in our projects (flying tumble wings and a jelly baby wave machine). They were curious, they were tenacious, they were resilient, they were patient, and they were self-motivated (amongst other skills).

It's a very exciting time for our Wraparound Care at the moment ...  we have a lot planned for the children to enjoy especially as the warmer weather and brighter evenings are just around the corner!

Take a look at some of the lovely crafts the children have made in Wraparound After School Care:

As you are aware, we have extended the date for our Wraparound Care Competition - any child at our school can submit an entry!

The Stars of the Week for week ending 12th March

The Stars of the Week for week ending 19th March

Who Let the Gods Out - Maz Evans 

A laugh out loud story about a boy who spots a shooting star which turns out to only bring him problems!

Don't Look in This book - Samuel Langley-Swain

A great book for those who need a little push to read at home. This book is great fun with a twist at the end.

Sponsored Read Event

We have extended the closing date until Sunday 21st March, so there is still time to pay in sponsorship money, make a donation, take a look at our virtual book fair or send in your child’s reading log.

Sponsorship Money
Please pay in sponsorship money/donations via the following link:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/friendsoflindenprimary?utm_term=XX9AazRqe

I am delighted to announce that we have now raised over £600 in donations. This means we have unlocked the 60% additional free books from Usborne. This is fantastic news, thank you again to everyone that has donated.

Virtual Book Fair
Our book fair with Usborne is open now. Check out the following page for book reviews, special offers and the opportunity to ask questions about the books:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/769344337033454/?ref=share

If you do not have access to Facebook, please email Shelley at [email protected]

Any purchases will help generate more free books for school.

Reading Logs
If you haven’t already done so, please email a photo of your child’s reading log to [email protected]

Friends of Linden

If you are late dropping your child off to school please ensure that you bring them to the school office to be signed in and order their lunch. 

Please be aware that staff cannot give medication to your child and the child cannot administer medication to themselves.  However, you can come into the office and we will bring your child to you to give them any necessary medicine.

If you are running late at the end of the school day, please contact us so that we can reassure your child. 

If your child is to be collected by someone other than yourself, please inform the school office.  For safeguarding purposes, we will not be able to release your child from the classroom unless we have parent / guardian permission.