1. family and parenting
2. children

PLEASE TURN OVER FOR THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES...
Edmund Waller
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
8th May 2015
IMPORTANT DATES
Thursday 14th May
Young Mayor visiting School Council
Friday 15th May
Yr 5 Visiting Crofton Roman
w/b Monday 18th May all week
Yr 6 Bikeability training.
Thursday 21st May 3:30-6pm
International Afternoon
Thursday 21st May
Children break up for half term
Friday 22nd May
SCHOOL CLOSED FOR INSET
Monday 26th— Friday 29th May 2015
May Half-Term Play Scheme
Monday 1st June
First day of Summer Term
Thursday 4th June 3:30 –4 pm
Parents’ drop in
Monday 15th—Friday 19th June
inclusive
Yr 6 School Journey to the Isle of Wight
Saturday 27th June
Summer Fair
Thursday 2nd July 3:30 –4 pm
Parents’ drop in
Thursday 9th July 6pm
School performance at Catford
Broadway
Friday 17th July 3:30pm
Summer Holiday begins
Monday 20th July – Friday 7th August
Summer Play Scheme
Football Finals
Tomorrow morning, the Year 6 football
team will compete in the Mary Bennett
Cup competition on Blackheath Common.
Each game will take just 8 minutes and the
winners of the 4 groups will take part in
the semi-final. Kick off is at 10am (close
to All Saints Church on the Heath). It
would brilliant to see as many supporters
as possible.
International Evening
Save the date! Celebrate Edmund Waller
PTA International Evening on Thursday
21st May, 3.30 - 6pm, marking the World
Day for Cultural Diversity. Bring a dish to
share (sweet or savoury) from any country
in the world.
Come to school
dressed in your
national dress or
in clothes or
colours
representing a
country you are
interested in.
Wed 13th May
4B
Wed 20th May
Frame Aid
3S
Work Share Assemblies
Book Talk
Mohamed in 4W has been
reading Fantastic Beasts and
Where to Find Them by J.K.
Rowling. The book has been
on quite a journey, as Mohamed’s sister loaned it to him, after borrowing it from a friend.
He noticed that there is a label
on the front of the book, claiming it belongs to Harry Potter.
Mohamed thought Harry might
visit his house and collect his
rightful property. So far this has not happened and
whilst Mohamed has given up hope of meeting the boy
wizard, he is considering reading the Harry Potter series
of books.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a
catalogue of beasts that can be found both in Harry
Potter books and elsewhere (if you are unlucky enough
to be in the wrong place at the wrong time). Mohamed
is particularly interested in the beast named Fwooper.
This beast is actually a bird, whose song can make you
go insane! If Mohamed spotted a Fwooper bird (which
would not be too difficult as it has orange, pink, lime
green or yellow feathers), he would run away as fast as
he possibly could. If he was carrying bird food, he
would drop it right there on the spot.
Mohamed also enjoyed finding out about the Fire Crab,
which is not a crab, as the name suggests. It is actually a
tortoise, which becomes aggressive if you attack it. The
Fire Crab protects itself by shooting fire from its rear
end, which Mohamed finds incredibly funny. He would
actually like to tame one, as it would make a really
weird pet. However, you need a special licence to tame
a Fire Crab. Mohamed thinks
you might obtain this from the
Wizard Department but he is
not sure.
If Mohammed could create
his own beast, he would call it
the Drasis. The Drasis would
be green with a scaly tail; it
would run around on its forelegs, catching its prey with its
claws. However, if the Drasis
was attacked, it would
become invisible.
The PTA have organised a special fundraising evening: Quiz, Chips & Music! to raise
money for our new climbing frame. It
promises to be a brilliant social event with
prizes, dancing and a charity auction.
There will also be a licensed bar for over
18s.
Date:
Saturday
9th May
Time:
7:30pm for
the quiz at
8pm
Place: THE
HILL STATION, Kitto Road, SE14 5TY
Tickets cost £10 each and include a welcome drink.
They can be purchased from the PTA in the
school playground at 3:30pm or via
www.brownpapertickets.com
Polling Day
Children in Reception and Year 5 entered
into the spirit of Polling Day by holding
their own class elections. Some of the children shared their thoughts on election morning:
Shanice : “I can’t wait to see if our new
Prime Minister will be David Cameron or Ed
Milliband.”
Olivia: “I couldn’t wait to see who was going to be Prime Minister and our children’s
Prime Minister.”
Find out what the children in Years Reception, 4 and 5 learnt about the election process on the other side of this newsletter.
In school, children in Years 1-5 will soon be
voting for their peers to represent them on
the School Council. The School Councillors
have done a fantastic job this year, raising
the profile of homeless people in our school
community, fundraising and making some
key improvements in our school. They will
be ending their year by sharing their successes in a whole school assembly, where
they will be joined by some members of the
local community who have worked with
them this year.
If your child has been inspired to run for
election, please talk to them about how
they will encourage others to listen to their
ideas and consider them as a School Council representative.
Chess Club
Chess Club has been running successfully for four years at Edmund Waller. Simon and Jascha, who run
the club, are keen to spend the next year succession planning; so that chess club can continue to grow
after their children leave the school.
They would love a few more volunteers (who are already chess players) to show the ropes to. Lots of
volunteers would mean that we could perhaps have a rota of people to run the club. If you would be
interested in volunteering, please speak to Mrs Moon in the school office.
Chess Club currently takes place on Thursdays at lunchtime.
The
children in
Reception
have loved
creating their
own
manifestos,
helped by
the children
in Year 4, and campaigning in their own
class election. In the photograph, you can
see Eva’s excellent writing. Her Letterland
book has helped her with her writing,
because it shows her lots of letters. Eva can
talk confidently about words that begin with
different letters. Maybe Eva will be a
politician one day, just like her friend Juno.
Eva: “I have made a thing like a letter. It’s
for everyone in Reception C, because I want
them to vote for Juno. They should vote for Juno, because she will give them a loom
band. They will also get more girly Lego, because most of the Lego in the Lego
place are boy’s Lego. Juno is the leader of the Purple Party.”
Windy Wonderland
Our premises team do an excellent job every day, ensuring
that our outdoor spaces are places that children want to be in.
Teachers take
advantage of this
invaluable resource to
teach lessons outside,
when the weather
allows. Children also
develop important skills
through their own play.
This week it has been
incredibly windy,
causing waves of
blossom to rain down
on the children at playtimes. This magical
phenomena inspired all
kinds of fun, including
some passionate renditions of Let It Go from
Frozen.
You can find out all about the run up to the class election on their blog on the school
website. You may like to take a look at the other class blogs to find out what everyone else has been learning, while you are there.
In Year 5, the children also formed
their own parties and spent break
times canvassing for votes, before
presenting their manifestos to their
classmates. Each child then cast
their vote on the ballot slip, before
posting it in the ballot box. The
winning party, the Luxbys, received enough votes to form a
majority government. Lulu: “I was really proud of the effort
we made with the PowerPoint and the sashes. I think the information on the PowerPoint encouraged people to vote for
us.” Beatrice: “I was surprised we won. Although we put so
much effort into it, there were loads of other good parties.”
The newly formed political parties
in 5T presented manifestos that
were described as “overlyambitious”, “unrealistic”,
“rational”, “unfunded” and even
“crazy”! What is your opinion of
the promises made here? Which
party would you vote for and
why? What would you want to
ask the party leaders?
After the votes were counted, Mr
Thompson revealed that there
was no majority party leaving the
Blue Party, who received the most
votes, to consider the parties they
might form a coalition government
with.
Nell: “Mr Chilvers said we should be prepared to answer any
questions that the class asked. At playtime, we were practising
and Mr Chilvers handed out little slips of paper, reminding us of
what to talk about. We looked through and talked about all of
the issues but we didn’t write anything down.”
Heidi: “Kai noticed we hadn’t talked about teaching in our
speech. In front of the class, I had lots of thoughts but they didn’t come out like I wanted them to. I didn’t really know what to do with so many thoughts, it went so quickly.
I thought about what I would want and this helped me to make a decision for other
people.”
Benjamin: “We practised for two lunchtimes and we made some posters and bullet
pointed the main points of our presentation. I found it quite tricky speaking last, as
we didn’t know what the other parties would say and if they had the same ideas as
The A & O Party

Every school to have iPads to do homework

McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut serving
school lunches

Children watch a movie everyday

School day will be four hours long

Children go to Alton Towers everyday
The Red Party

Every school has a Pret-aManger

Free food if your parents
can't afford it

School day is 9 - 2

Activities from 2 o'clock

Class pets looked after by
children
RAK (Rhinos and Koalas) & H and A

New clubs such as basketball

No more trident (nuclear bombs)

Rhinos and Koalas will be OK

50 pence a day pocket money for every child
The Walker Party

Teachers fitted with a microchip so
that children can order them about

Longer weekend

Friday is daydreaming day

All educational books are
free

All water fountains fitted with juices
and fizzy drinks

Children have luxury changing
rooms for PE

All universities are free and have
free accommodation.

Famous people teaching (Stephen
Hawking will teach science)
Nursery Educational Visit to Kent Life Farm
On Wednesday, the morning and afternoon children in Nursery joined together to visit Kent Life Farm. The children had a wonderful time, especially in the animal enclosure where they were able to stroke the animals. Another highlight of the educational
visit was the tractor ride, where the children were able to see the whole farm much more easily. After a delicious packed lunch,
they let off some steam in the
soft play area, before
returning to school. David:
“I liked stroking the horse.”
Cecily: “My favourite thing
was finding all of the pigs
and getting a special prize.”
Thank you to all of the adults
who joined us and helped to
Ensure the educational visit
was memorable and safe.