Staff Mail
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES 2023-2024
NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR THIS TERM
ROYAL ALBERT HALL YEAR 5 CHANGE IS COMING PERFORMANCE (11th March)
Year 5 joined a total of 1200 singers and musicians to perform at the Royal Albert Hall on 11th March. Mr Tyler and Mrs Rajendran worked very hard in the lead up to the show helping children rehearse and learn songs. Mrs Blow and Mrs Torreiro accompanied the children to perform at this exciting event.
WINTERFEST (27th November)
This is our 13th year participating in the Winterfest – last year it changed its name from Wimbledon Winter wonderland to Winterfest. We are the only primary school who have participated every year since it began! Our children will once again be singing and dancing and showcasing their talent on Sunday 27th November. Mrs Lloyd has been busily rehearsing with the children for several weeks and they are getting very excited.
Oral Health workshops (22nd November)
On the 22nd November Morden Primary will be taking part in King’s College Hospital’s Oral Health Promotion. Specialist dentists will be in school to deliver age related workshops for classes. These include puppet shows and both interactive and in person presentations. Each child will receive a free tooth brushing pack on the day and then another pack 4 months later.
These workshops are imperative as by the age of three, more than one in ten children have decay.
An additional workshop will be held for parents during our coffee morning on Friday 1st December.
Year 5/6 Residential to Sayers Croft (13-17th November)
Y5 and Y6 will be attending Sayers Croft for 5 days from the 13th-17th December. Activities that they will participate in include: caving, woodland ropes, natural art, maze and blindfold trail, ballista building, Pitch Hill walk, a campfire, disco, team play, a nature session including pond dipping & bug hunting and a special WW2 trail activity.
Dogs’ Trust Workshops (7th November)
On Tuesday 7th November, Dogs Trust visited school to teach both children and staff the importance of dog safety. The day began with an assembly for all and then age-related workshops throughout the day in classrooms. The Dogs Trust do not bring a real dog into school but use Bessie a puppet!
Oral Health workshops (22nd November)
On the 22nd November Morden Primary will be taking part in King’s College Hospital’s Oral Health Promotion. Specialist dentists will be in school to deliver age related workshops for classes. These include puppet shows and both interactive and in person presentations. Each child will receive a free tooth brushing pack on the day and then another pack 4 months later.
These workshops are imperative as by the age of three, more than one in ten children have decay.
An additional workshop will be held for parents during our coffee morning on Friday 1st December.
WINTERFEST (27th November)
This is our 13th year participating in the Winterfest – last year it changed its name from Wimbledon Winter wonderland to Winterfest. We are the only primary school who have participated every year since it began! Our children will once again be singing and dancing and showcasing their talent on Sunday 27th November. Morden Primary will officially be opening the Wimbledon Winterfest! Mrs Lloyd has been busily rehearsing with the children for several weeks and they are getting very excited.
Harvest
On Thursday 19th October, Year 6 delivered the generous Harvest donation to our local elderly residents at FISH (Friends in St Helier). The children enjoyed a cup of tea and chat with our elderly community members who were delighted to receive the generous food bundle donations.
HAF Club for Half term for Pupil Premium Children
Eco Meeting
The Eco Committee meeting held their first meeting this half term. They thought about what it means to be ‘eco-friendly’ and shared ideas as to how we can be more eco-friendly at school and changes we can make to ensure we are being more environmentally friendly at school.
Recycling week
We held a recycling week as a focus during PSHE lessons. Classes discussed the importance of recycling and engaged in activities that highlight its importance. Launched with an assembly explaining the Recycle, Reuse and Refuse, children were encouraged to think about how they could recycle and reuse more both at home and at school.
ONGOING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES:
Wellbeing: Core to all we do, we offer the following support at Morden:
ELSA Mrs Rogers continues to provide Emotional & Literacy support to targeted children.
Sunshine Club This lunchtime club operates 4 days per week and supports children who find the playground difficult.
Jigsaw4U Jigsaw support 2.5 days per week with Laura Hold, funded by the Pupil Premium.
Off the Record: Through the cluster mental health group, Natalia – a counsellor from Off the Record- comes in once a week to support children and parents. She is also able to offer advice to staff.
National School Breakfast Programme: We continue to participate in a programme that delivers bagels and breakfast cereal to schools who have high deprivation statistics. School pays 25% of the cost of the bagels, cereals and delivery associated with the programme. This is covered from School Fund by weekly direct debit. The children enjoy being able to help themselves to bagels throughout the morning in the their classrooms.
OSF BID – Opening Schools facilities bid
As part of Stage 2 of the OSF, we have now started two of the external clubs. Basketball club is delivered two days a week after school and each Wednesday, Community Advantages, delivers a gymnastics class. Currently 16 children participate in gymnastics and 35 children participate in basketball. This half term, their places have been funded for free. We are hopeful that Boccia and Archery will start soon – we are in the final stages of securing a coach.
Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised
We continue to use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised which is a complete systematic synthetic phonics programme (SSP). This SSP is developed for schools by schools and is widely used within Merton. Based on the original Letters and Sounds, but extensively revised this provides a complete teaching programme. As part of this school has invested in all the matching Collins phonics readers which provides a comprehensive range of fiction and non-fiction decodable books for use in school and at home including an online library.
Mastering Number Fluency: The teachers in Rec-Year 2 have participated in the Mastering Number project. These year groups will continue to use the Mastering Number materials to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children from Reception through to Year 2. The aim over time is that children will leave KS1 with fluency in calculation and a confidence and flexibility with number. Attention will be given to key knowledge and understanding needed in Reception classes, and progression through KS1 to support success in the future.
KS2 classes have a daily 10-15 minutes maths fluency session in addition to maths lessons, which will allow children to retrieve previously taught knowledge in order to rehearse concepts, practise multiplication facts and go through home-learning.
Sustaining Maths Mastery: We continue to work with the Sustaining Work Group in order to develop and sustain our teaching for mastery approach to mathematics. Participating in the course continues to support us to refine school structures and systems to embed and sustain mastery.