In their local history topic, Year 5 are currently doing a project on Victorian schools in our area. 5 Indigo had a session in the museum at Bruce Castle to give them an idea of what the schools in Victorian times looked like (Bruce castle itself used to be a school). The class dressed up in Victorian clothing, did some writing on chalk boards and used old ink pens. Then they had an outside session looking at the history of the building, it was a fantastic trip!
The focus of Black History Month this October was ‘Freedom fighters’. This has enabled children to learn about a range of historical figures both male and female and from different cultures and times in history who have made a stand against injustices. It has been fascinating to explore the freedoms and rights we take for granted, particularly democracy and freedom of speech along with the responsibilities that come with these and to also consider what could happen if they were ever taken away.
Year 1 read the book ‘Frog is a hero’ and talked about what it means to be a hero.
Year 2 discussed rights and responsibilities and wrote about famous freedom female fighters-Rosa Parks and Emmeline Pankhurst
Year 3 discussed articles from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and learnt about the Civil rights movement in the USA
Year 4 discussed freedom fighters and values which inspired them to bring about a change. They learnt and wrote about Harriet Tubman and Malala Yousafzai.
"As part of our Black History topic on ‘Freedom Fighters’ we looked at the rights of children as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We looked at 5 of the rights and ordered them according to the importance of them. We had to discuss each right and explain why we ordered them the way we did."
Year 5 have been reading Journey to Jo’burg and discussed apartheid in South Africa. They learnt about Nelson Mandela and other very important historical figures who were involved in the struggle against racial discrimination such as M.L.King, M.Ghandi, or Jesse Owens.They also read and discussed poems by Benjamin Zephaniah with a theme related to racial discrimination and diversity.
Year 6 learnt and wrote about Muhammad Ali and his protest against the Vietnam war.
Year 5 and a group of year 6 took a part in an African drumming workshop and performance with Ben Edwards.
The Sankofa Bird reminds us that we must continue to move forward as we remember our past. And at the same time we plant a seed for the future generations that come after us.
Public Health England have released a winter newsletter for parents and carers that includes information regarding:
In the 1800s, Britain became a rich country selling things made in its huge factories to the rest of the world. In cities like Manchester, huge factories made clothes from American cotton. Men and women (and sometimes children) worked very hard and earned enough to survive. The factory owners became very wealthy. But what about the people who picked the cotton in the fields?
In the Southern states of America, a country just 80 years old in 1860, 4 million African-Americans lived as slaves. They belonged to their masters and were paid nothing as they worked growing and harvesting crops like cotton.
Some of our volunteers tried cotton-picking. Cotton plants were spiky, and picking the cotton all day in the sun was exhausting, back-breaking work. Men, women and children younger than 10 worked in the fields of states like Georgia. If they tried to escape they faced fierce punishments.
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He wanted to stop any more states from having slaves. When he won the election in 1860, the slave-holding states of the South went to war with the free states of the North. This war between the North and the South is what we call the American Civil War.
When the American Civil War started, the cotton stopped arriving in Britain. Wealthy factory owners started to lose money and their workers lost their jobs. The Cotton Famine made people in towns like Manchester very poor. Some people in Britain thought the answer was to go to war in America against the North so the cotton would start coming across the sea again.
The Civil War was a long and bitter fight. The armies of the North did not find it easy to defeat the South. Lincoln worried that the powerful nations of Britain and France would join the South’s side. He badly needed some friends in the world if America was to survive as one country and slavery was to end.
Cotton workers in Manchester were in a desperate situation. They needed a way to make a living. But they believed that slavery was wrong and did not want to earn a living making clothes from cotton that was picked by slaves.
Instead, they refused to use cotton picked by slaves and to let their country go to war against the North. They gave up their jobs and risked being poor and going hungry instead. It was a real sacrifice.
They wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln to express their support for him and urged him to end slavery in America once and for all.
Lincoln was extremely impressed by the generosity and solidarity shown by ordinary cotton workers in Manchester. He read their letter and replied to them:
"I cannot but regard your decisive utterances on the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country.
"It is indeed an energetic and re-inspiring assurance of the inherent truth and of the ultimate and universal triumph of justice, humanity and freedom… Whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exists between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual."
The Earlsmead Children and Family Centre celebrated Halloween, we had a nursery party and a stay and play party. Some of the children dressed up in costumes.
The Earlsmead Children and Family Centre also celebrated Pink Day by wearing pink to raise money for Breast Cancer Care and Cancer Research’s Stand Up To Cancer campaign.
Our library has been given a fantastic makeover and is now open for all children. Classes can visit with their teacher and students can come in at lunchtimes on a Tuesday and Thursday. You can see some pictures of Mr Hadley's Library Lunchtime Club below.
The school will be closed to all children on Monday 14 th November 2016. It is one of the five days that we have allocated to staff training. School will be open as usual on Tuesday 15th November 2016.
We would be very grateful if parents and carers could complete our internet safety survey. It will only take a few minutes, the results are anonymous and they will help towards improving our e-safety policies at Earlsmead.
Are you interested in becoming a Junior Librarian?
We are looking for children who are organised and who love to read.
A Junior Librarian will have to show dedication and understanding that a Library is a creative learning environment that helps children develop a love of reading and deepens people’s understanding of the real and imaginary world!
A Junior librarian must also support Mr Hadley in keeping our fantastic library neat, tidy and up-to-date.
You must be able to:
- Sort and order books
- Dedicate (spend) Thursday Lunchtimes
to sorting, ordering and tidying the library
- Recommend books to others and to Mr Hadley
- Use the computer to check out children’s books (there will be training on this)
In classes there will be a voting session. Ask your teacher for more information.
We are looking to appoint three Lunchtime Supervisors. We have a wonderful community spirit that celebrates our diverse population and are looking to appoint committed, passionate and outstanding individuals who will be role models for our children.
For more information please see the documents below.
Completed applications should be returned to the school’s address or emailed to office@earlsmead.co.uk by 5.00pm 7th November 2016.
Dear Parents/Carers and Earlsmead Community,
We are delighted to let you know that following our ‘Earlsmead Parent and Community Coffee Morning’ and ‘After School Cake Sale’ we were able to raise a total of £200!
An enormous ‘THANK YOU’ to all parents and carers who attended the coffee morning. Delicious cakes made and donated by parents and staff were enjoyed during the morning and after school.
Some Year 6 children had the tough job of judging the cake donations to choose a ‘Star Baker’. A delicious chocolate cake was chosen to be our winner, it was baked by Mrs Aynur Cimen, mum of Lydia in Year 2.
We were delighted to raise £200 for this extremely worthy cause to support the ongoing and valuable work of Macmillan.
The children and staff will be raising awareness and fundraising for ‘Cancer Research’ during the month of October.
Many of us have been affected by cancer in our personal lives and are keen to support cancer charities.
On Friday 21st October Earlsmead School will turn pink for the day!
Children and staff will be encouraged to wear pink in support of Breast Cancer Care and Cancer Research’s Stand Up To Cancer campaign. We also ask that those children and staff who wish to wear pink donate £1. All donations will then be split between Breast Cancer Care and Stand Up To Cancer. As always, we really appreciate your support!
The Great Weight Debate hits the road this October with a road show travelling across London. A tour bus will visit Haringey and 3 other London boroughs to raise awareness on the issue of childhood obesity. The road show aims to galvanise wider social action and start local conversations with residents in their community. Residents will learn about healthy eating choices and be able to get involved in fun, physical activities encouraging them to live an active lifestyle. There will also be a call to get everyone to make pledges in support of tackling obesity.
You can join the Great Weight Debate on Sunday 23rd October from 11am - 4pm at Tottenham Green Market.
We have a new page dedicated to our resident technology specialists - the Digital Leaders
The Digital Leaders will be updating the page with information about them and top tips for using technology.
As new technologies continue to become integral to all our lives, both within school and outside of it, the importance of understanding how to stay safe online increases.
We have created a set of strong e-safety policies which demonstrate good and safe internet practice for staff and pupils, and link to our existing policies around behaviour, anti-bullying and safeguarding.
The Acceptable Use Agreements are a group of documents that establish expected behaviour for young people, parents, carers and staff when accessing the internet and using technology in and around school.
Your children will be receiving a copy of an Acceptable Use Agreement outlining our expectations for their internet use -please take the time to read it with them and talk to them about it.
Acceptable Use Agreement EYFS and Key Stage 1
Acceptable Use Agreement Key Stage 2
We have also published an Acceptable Use Policy for parents and carers along with supporting documents about the use of social networking and online media and the use of digital images and video. Please make sure you have read and understood the policies below and don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Acceptable Use Agreement Parents and Carers
The use of social networking and online media
The use of digital images and video
You can read all out safeguarding policies on the Safeguarding section of this website and for more information on staying safe online take a look at our Internet Safety page.
On Thursday 22nd September HelenandJohn an award winning comic theatre show visited Year 2 and performed their show "Beginnings". The show follows a beleaguered creator as he struggles with his latest creation. It was noisy, punchy and deliciously disgusting theatre. The main character - a hilarious hairy and wrinkly puppet - re-enacted creation myths involving ridiculous antics. It was performed with few words but accompanied by a loud drum kit and was manipulated by an internationally acclaimed award-winning puppeteer. The children greatly enjoyed the whole performance and loved chatting to the puppet at the end of the show.
We all had a fantastic time drinking frobscottle and eating snozzcumbers at our special Roald Dahl birthday celebration. Thank you so much for everyone that came and made it such a success.
