Welcome back

I hope you all had a happy and peaceful break. On behalf of all the staff, thank you for all the wonderful cards and gifts we received at the end of last term. We were all very grateful.

A new term and a new year. We are easing back into school life and Year 4 had a fantastic time on their Young Voices trip – they were so excited.

Can I please remind you to ensure that the office have your correct contact details. If you are unsure, please have a chat with one of the office staff.

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

Best Wishes
Lucy Collins
Headteacher

The Stars of the Week for week ending 6th January:

The Stars of the Week for week ending 13th January:

Arriving at School

Please can we remind you that children should not be arriving at school too early and being left on their own.  If you need your child to come to school early we run a Breakfast Club that can be booked via the SZapp.

Milk

We have lots of surplus milk - if your child is on the list for milk, but does not want it, please cancel this with www.coolmilk.com


Activity Club bookings are still open on the SZapp

These are now available for you to make a second choice for your child should you wish to do so.  

Bookings are made via the SZapp

Collection points for your children after the clubs are on the SZapp. 

and here as a PDF:  Lin Diner Menu 0401 - 1702

We are always looking for people to get involved.  Without our wonderful volunteers, we are unable to arrange and run the projects and events.  Please get in touch if you would like to find out more at [email protected] 

Friends of Linden 

We have been taking lots of photos of all the trips, visits and events our school children have taken part in.  We love to take photographs or video clips of your children having learning experiences at school. 

We havent been able to share all of these with you as we still do not have updated permissions on file for a lot of the children (you may recall we have changed how we capture permissions).  

Here's the form should you wish to review the photograph permissions for your child:

FORM: Photograph Permissions

We have our own Facebook page now!

Please find the link to join the school's Facebook page (users can't view the group's content until they become a member which school have to authorise):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/lindenprimaryhub/?ref=share_group_link

(Please ensure you answer ALL the questions - if you miss any we cannot add you) 

EYFS:

New from Nosy Crow: the second in Chris Naylor-Ballesteros’s Frank and Bert picturebook series, charmingly subtitled The One Where Bert Learns to Ride a Bike. These books explore with a comedic and empathetic touch the intricacies of friendship: in Book 1, we see Frank learn to put Bert’s feelings over his own desire to win; and Book 2 demonstrates how to support a friend’s confidence, though the message is never laboured.

I Did See a Mammoth! (Alex Willmore, Farshore) is a wintery spin on ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’, in which a bored child tries to convince his penguin-spotting parents that there really is a skateboarding, top-hat-wearing mammoth following them round the Antarctic. The cumulative patterned text, expressive illustrations, clever twist, and increasing frustration of the protagonist make this a laugh-out-loud read for young readers.

Something for the festive season: Through the North Pole Snow (Walker) is a tender story about a hungry little fox in the middle of winter, taken in by a kindly old man with a white beard. Polly Faber’s text and Richard Jones’s warm illustrations come together to slowly reveal the identity of this man; the shape of the fox as it curls around the man’s shoulder, and the allusion to the turning of the seasons bring to mind Raymond’s Briggs’s classic Father Christmas.

KS1:

Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen continue the creative partnership that brought us Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, The Wolf, The Duck and the Mouse, and Triangle, Circle and Square. Their adaptation of The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Scholastic) features pockets of rhyme, characteristically deadpan illustrations, some very witty moments and a brilliant twist.

More twists abound in the latest picturebook from award-winning author-illustrator Rob Biddulph, The Blue-Footed Booby (HarperCollins), a rhyming crime caper about missing cakes and jumping to conclusions. A repeated refrain carries the action along, and Biddulph’s bold colour choices – the bright blues, reds and greens of the boobys’ feet – tell a story of their own. 

From Steve Small, the illustrator behind I’m Sticking With You and The Duck Who Didn’t Like Water, Wellington’s Big Day Out (Simon & Schuster) is a surprisingly moving story about birthdays, families, and growing up – or not. Young elephant Wellington wishes he was big like his father and grandfather, but soon learns to enjoy being small for a little bit longer. Small’s charming illustrations capture family dynamics and emotions (both big and small) perfectly.

What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking (Pushkin Children’s) is written and translated by Tina Oziewicz and illustrated by Aleksandra Zając, and joins such books as The Colour Monster and Happy in creatively personifying emotions. Large grey creatures embody feelings through expression, physicality and action – “Joy”, for example, “bounces on a trampoline”, while “Nostalgia smells a scarf”. Creative and thoughtfully poignant.

From Enchanted Lion Books, Almost Nothing, Yet Everything by Hiroshi Osada and Ryōji Arai is a poetic examination of the oppositions and juxtapositions held within water – whether quiet or coursing, clear or colourful. Arai’s immersive painted illustrations accompany the sparse text; it’s a beautiful artefact, and invites a range of engagement from readers.

Lower KS2:

Publishing in February 2023, Wildsmith: Into the Dark Forest marks the start of a new series by Liz Flanagan, centring care for the natural world in a gently fantastical setting. When war threatens her city, Rowan flees to the perceived safety of the forest with her family, where she discovers magical creatures living among the trees… Short chapters, with embedded illustrations from award-winning artist Joe Todd-Stanton make this a great read for Lower KS2.

An alphabet book with a difference: A is for Bee (Ellen Heck, Pushkin Children’s) explores translation and languages through the format of a classic ABC book. Each page depicts a woodcut illustration of a familiar creature, and all the words for that animal that start with a different letter to that in English – for example, ‘F’ is for butterfly’ if you are speaking Arabic (‘farasha’) or Irish (‘féileacán’).

Letters to Anyone and Everyone was first published by Boxer Books in 2009, now repackaged as a Hardback gift edition. This is a unique collection by Toon Tellegen of short stories that either feature letters and correspondence, or are entirely told in letters – often these take the form of parables or conversations between various woodland creatures. Accompanied by Jessica Ahlberg’s ink and watercolour illustrations.

Upper KS2:

The Detention Detectives (Puffin) by debut author Lis Jardine is a fast-paced and cleverly put-together murder mystery that sees detective fiction fan Jonno setting out to solve the murder of the school’s PE teacher. Though Jonno starts out self-obsessed, he soon finds himself not only caught up in the case but in the lives of his new friends: one a budding journalist, the other a young carer for his mother. Packed with plenty of references to classic crime.

Following on from 2017’s The Murderer’s Ape, heroine Sally Jones returns in The False Rose (Pushkin Children’s), another world-spanning mystery-noir adventure with the puzzle of a missing necklace to unravel at its centre. Author Jakob Wegelius has a knack for crafting narratives that, despite their length, remain engaging throughout with flashbacks, harkbacks, and self-referentiality, the narrative threads always coming together in satisfyingly unexpected ways. Translated by Peter Graves, and narrated by tame, intelligent, and resourceful gorilla Sally Jones.

A work of illustrated non-fiction from independent publisher Cicada Books, Nomads examines the lives, traditions and cultures of a range of nomadic societies, from the Maasai people of East Africa to the Yanomami communities of the Amazon rainforest. Each segment closes with a reflection on the future of these societies, and how changes to the environment may be impacting their ways of life. Kinchoi Lam writes and illustrates this book, the artwork reminiscent of William Grill in its style and level of detail.

Subtitled Ancient Civilisations and the Astonishing Things They Taught Us, historical encyclopaedia The Humans (Jonny Marx and Charlie Davis) showcases the greatest inventions, practices and developments created by ancient societies. Arranged by continent and chronologically, and closes with a timeline of the founding of these civilisations, from Australian Aboriginals through the Micronesians and Aztecs.

My name is Ms Sidhu, (previously known as Mrs Atwal)

Having worked at Linden Primary School for over 20 years, I am now the founder of my own business Draw to Explore.

My practice supports clients with a non-cognitive therapeutic method which is recommended by CAMHS. It is currently being used very successfully with children within my pastoral role at school.

Below are the details of the service I provide, please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information or wish to make a booking.

Email: [email protected]