What's been happening at St Meryl this week?

• We're Back!!

  Fri 04 Sep 2020

   I am still pinching myself that I have actually seen FULL CLASSES of children over the last 2 days! 

   Nearly everyone I spoke to came in full of excitement and tales of their summer holidays and the wonderful things they got up to. 

   Teachers have spent the last 2 days exercising their training from Inset Day (called "From Lockdown to Listening"), and children have been given opportunities to talk and write about their feelings/ worries/ eagerness to get back into their learning.  

   Year 3 spent some time identifying positive things about themselves. They even created medals. Year 1 produced some wonderful artwork where they made themselves into superhero teddy bears. 

   Year 4 created some beautiful artwork with contrasting colours. 

   Even though it has only been 2 days, I am sure that the children have had a week's worth of fun. Roll on next week! 

  

• Sports Relief and an another amazing assembly.

  Fri 13 Mar 2020

   Happy Sport Relief day, St Meryl! We some  creative costumes hidden amongst future Watford, Chelsea and Manchester United footballers today. This year we saw - Olympic athletes, martial artists, dancers, and even a couple of Rugby Players (who may or may not be inundated with House Points next week..) Thank you for your generosity - at last count we were at £197 and climbing. 

   It has been a busy week for Reception class, who worked tirelessly to perform an enthralling assembly which we all loved. Glockenspiel playing, more Makaton, bead strings and the greatest highlight - actual sounding out and writing of words on to whiteboards. These are huge steps for our young learners, and we are all so very proud of them! 

   To end the week, I was presented with a potato fritter as cooked by the Outdoor Learning group for golden time. no Friday takeaway needed!

  

• Book Week

  Fri 06 Mar 2020

   Happy Book Week, St Meryl! Usually when we do Book Week at school, most people come as fictional characters, and lots of teachers read fictional stories to the children. this year, we decided to set ourselves an extra challenge. Using the book "The Street Beneath My Feet" as a stimulus, teachers created all of their activities based around non-fiction texts, and during our Read-Around on Thursday, teachers shared their favourite non-fiction texts to pupils. Thursday also saw the pupils dressing up as non-fiction characters - a real challenge for some people! Many thanks to the parents who toiled with assisting your children into some wonderful attires! 

  Other highlights - Nursery went exploring in the woods, and were archaeologists. Some dug up bricks "from ancient houses", and some found rocks that may or may not be dinosaur eggs (they are still being analysed by palaeontologists). 

  - Year 1 stunned the audience with an all singing, all dancing extravaganza. They also showed their Maths, English, Spanish and Geography skills. As I said to the audience on Thursday, I have seen a lot of things in my time, but never have I seen Darth Vader give a weather forecast. Well done, Year 1 - you were Superstars!

  

• Taking the New Half Term by Storm

  Fri 28 Feb 2020

   After a week off,  the pupils all came back with more energy than Storms Ciara and Dennis combined. A very busy week, and some particular highlights: 

  - a dazzling assembly from Year 5 who were true superstars, performing stories, freeze frames, Olympic-level gymnastics, pie-related fractions, singing and even a slice of old-school hip hop. What a show. 

  - Our second ever whole-school Stay and Play was really well attended in Early Years and Key Stage One, and it was great to see more parents joining Key Stage Two's learning. Again, plenty of happy faces, and LOTS of fun maths learning happening. 

  - Some pupils in Year 3 and 4 attended a "Maths Mastermind" workshop. They were challenged by some tricky questions - some involving human bar graphs, some involving Fibonacci sequences. Wow. 

  - Year 6 created their own blood! Don't panic, it was made up by "pretend" materials, including a ping pong ball standing in for a white blood cell. 

   - Pancake Wednesday (the new Pancake Tuesday) was gratefully attended by Early Years, and we all saw some excellent Maths work based on ordering pancakes by size in Friday's Celebration Assembly. There was even a spare pancake or two for the teachers to try! Thanks, Early Years!

   Enjoy the weekend, St Meryl, and come back with the gusto of Storm Jorge!

  

• Final Week of Spring Half Term 1!

  Fri 14 Feb 2020 Mr Davies

    There were many highlights this week, beginning with a simply-the-best class assembly from Year 2, - full of catchy songs (with added Makaton), brilliant poetry, creative science and times tables excellence. There was also some eye-catching 3D Art on display as well. Earlier in the week, they even managed to perform a gymnastics assembly to parents! Is there anything they can not do?

    There were milestones aplenty as well, in the form of Year 3 children who were awarded their pen licences on Friday, and children in Nursery writing their names for the very first time. In fact, I was inundated with children being sent to me with fantastic work - ranging from Festivals posters to brain breaking BIDMAS problems. 

   A final note to year 6 and Year 2 who sat their Mock SATs tests this week. I have been inspired all week by your never-say-die attitude. You have got through them, and you can all hold your heads high for giving them your best shot. You (as well as the rest of the school) have earnt yourselves a week off! 

   Enjoy the half term!

  

• Week 5: Fund Raising, Singing, Cutting and a Great Assembly!

  Fri 07 Feb 2020
   The week started with so much energy! The school welcomed athlete Luke Delahunty, and we all took part in our sponsored fitness activities, which will hopefully raise some money for playground equipment! Year 6 performed a fantastic assembly (I still can't get the Passive and Active Voice Rap out of my head), and also showed us how blood becomes oxygenated! The sounds of glockenspiels rang out from Reception class on Thursday afternoon - they performed a song that had singing, glockenspiel playing AND Makaton! I had to join in. We created musical fusion. The week ended with Nursery teaching me how to cut out a Mr Potato Wonder. I have never seen such concentration on a Friday before. Finally, Mr Joyce's Golden Time Group got to make hot chocolate out in the wilderness (well, the woods behind Year 6)! It looked like lots of fun!

  

• Week 4: Diversity Week

  Fri 31 Jan 2020
  How delightful it was to see so many different activities happening this week that saw everyone at St Meryl celebrating all the diverse things that people in our community do! These included: a fantastic visit from Bhaktivedanta Manor School pupils, a brilliant series of workshops in the hall from some of our mums, art and craft, writing in Hebrew script, Saying No to Racism and singing Waltzing Matilda! I know I've said it before, but what a great week!

  

• Week 3: The Spheros Have Arrived!

  Fri 24 Jan 2020

   Earlier this week, we were delighted to receive 12 wonderful robots! We were so delighted that we convinced one of our teachers that it would be a great idea to try these out for a Golden Time club in our new Rainbow Room. After not that much pleading, the teacher agreed. For the last half hour of the school week, the Rainbow Room was lit up with 12 colour-changing Spheros! We changed their colours, we raced them, and we took them through obstacle courses. 

  What a great way to end the week! Next time we will be programming them. Look out, world - here come the St Meryl Spheros!

  

• Spring Term Week 2

  Sun 19 Jan 2020 Mr Davies

   A busy week for Week 2. Year 3 enjoyed a fantastic time at the Bridget Riley art exhibition in London. Pupils had a lot of fun creating their own versions of pictures based on her work! Thank you to the parents who accompanied Year 3. 

   Year 5 were also out of school for an afternoon this week. They went to the South Oxhey Baptist Church, where they all took part in the "Labyrith of Hope" activity, and also a fantastic art activity - all linked to their current RE topic: Leaders in Religion. Thank you to Steve Hobbis and his team for a most informative and enjoyable afternoon. 

  

• Happy New Year!

  Fri 10 Jan 2020 Mr Davies
   After a festive holiday, one would think that by Friday afternoon in the first week back that children would be tired, and wishing for the weekend to begin. I took the opportunity of seeing for myself if this was the case. Clearly not! Firstly, some amazing portrait artwork in Year 3, and some fantastic Digital Art in Year 5. Upon leaving these classrooms, I was greeted by choruses of "Mama Mia" ringing down the hallway. Year 4 were in full voice. Year 6 were in the middle of what looked to be a serious discussion in RSHE (I didn't want to intrude), and when I made it down to Year 1 they were deep into explaining weather patterns of the U.K.! Year 2 were defying gravity in the hall with some amazing gymnastics balances, and when I made it to Early Years I was presented with a model house as a gift. What a great way to end the week. Big smiles, LOTS of different learning and NO tired faces!