Notice Board
School Improvements During Lockdown
 You may remember that
during the first lockdown the children were building a new wildlife pond at the
edge of the woodland. During this lockdown, the forest school team have been
busy building a dipping platform and making a ‘beach’ (if you watch Monty on
Gardener’s World you will be aware of the wildlife value of a pond ‘beach’!) We
hope that this year the pond will attract lots of wildlife; in fact we have
already spotted a frog and a smooth newt checking out the new ‘des res’. I am
sure that the Forest School team will have lots of activities for the children to
do putting the finishing touches to the new pond, including planting bog and marginal
plants to attract dragonflies and damselflies and building a hibernaculums to
attract our amphibious friends! |
French Food Experience Day
 Year
4 had a fantastic experience trying different types of traditional French
food. They tasted cheeses of Roquefort, garlic and herb roule, Brie,
Camembert and Boursin along with crème caramel, pain au chocolat, Ardennes pate
and croissants. They cooked French onion soup and French toast (Pain
Perdu meaning lost bread) from scratch over the fire and also had a chance to
build French monuments with sticks. Mrs Helsden was so impressed with how
the children tried the new flavours and most of them now have new foods they
love. The class said they felt like they were in France and they were
just so amazing at taking on a new experience. Take a look at the Forest School
Diary entry for Year 4 for some photos of this day. |
Level 4 RHS School Gardening Award
 This week we received our Level 4 RHS School Gardening Award Certificate and with it a large
donation of seeds from the RHS, which I am sure we will look forward to
planting in the spring term! |
Parliament Week
 Our school hall is now fabulously decorated with the
children's work from Parliament Week. Parliament Week is aimed at teaching the
children all about democracy, voting and how our country is governed. During
Parliament Week, the children took part in a range of activities including:
understanding the role of The House of Lords and The House of Commons; The
Suffrage Movement; The Gunpowder Plot; Magna Carta and taxes. We also took part
in The Big Vote where children chose their favourite season; they chose winter! |
Kendall’s PTA
 The PTA fund amazing things for our school. This
year they have funded reading books for the school library, a writing shed for
EYFS, and contributed to the materials for the construction of our wildlife
pond. We couldn't provide these amazing resources for our children without the
generous support you give to our PTA. Due to Covid restrictions we are unable
to hold our normal events such as discos and the Christmas Fayre. This impacts
on our fundraising for the school. If you could consider making a small
donation (we suggest £1 a week) via SIMS Pay we can continue to fund projects
for the school and we would be extremely grateful. |
Harvest and the Foodbank.
 This year we have
celebrated Harvest festival with the children in our class worships, along with
Canon Mole, Reverend Rachel Rat and Deacon Foxley-Loxley. We talked about
saying ‘Thank you’ for our food and those who produce it for us and then
considered how we could help those who were less fortunate than we are. This
brought us onto the subject of the Foodbank, which is helping so many people at
this difficult time.Many of you have been kind enough to send in tins and packets for us to take to the Foodbank, thank you very much. Those gifts will be dropped off at St. Stephen’s Church where they are collected and taken on to the Foodbank for us. If you still have gifts for the Foodbank, St Stephen’s are having a regular collecting session on a Thursday between 11am and 1pm and we would ask you to drop any further gifts off directly to them. The list of items they are looking for is as follows: SMALL BAGS OF RICE, LONGLIFE MILK/JUICE, SHAMPOO, CARRIER BAGS/ REUSEABLE BAGS, SQUASH, TINNED FRUIT, DEODORANTS, TINNED POTATOES, TINNED PUDDINGS, TINS OR PACKETS OF CUSTARD, JAM, PEANUT BUTTER, TOOTH BRUSH/ TOOTH PASTE, RAZORS, SHOWER GEL, SMALL JARS OF COFFEE, SMALL WASHING POWDER/LIQUID, SMALL MULTIPACK SNACKS (PENGUIN/CLUB/TWIX), TINNED TOMATOES |
CAReless Pollution
 CAReless
Pollution is a new Colchester-wide campaign encouraging drivers to switch off
their engines while they wait at traffic lights, level crossings or outside
schools to reduce air pollution. Scientific research shows that air pollution
inside a car with the engine running is up to seven times higher than the air
pollution outside the car. There is strong evidence that links air pollution to
heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and lung cancer. Switching off your
car engine is a simple action that brings health benefits to everyone inside
the car. For fascinating Fact vs Fiction and FAQs see the documents we have
attached to this week’s newsletter. For more information and to get involved: www.colchester.gov.uk/cleanair. |
SCARF Live Online
 At
this time of the year, Nancy and the Life Bus visit Kendall. However, due to
current restrictions, we have been unable to have the Life Bus at Kendall.
Therefore, this week and last week, children from across the school have been
taking part in SCARF Live Online sessions with Nancy and her friend Gerald (the
giraffe) Zooming live into classrooms. The children have been thinking about
emotions, feelings, choices and mental wellbeing. All of the children really
enjoyed seeing Nancy again as they have been used to her coming to Kendall for
a number of years now. The organisation SCARF provides us with resources which
supplement our Personal Development Curriculum, and the annual visit of the
Life Bus is a fabulous way of getting the children to think about their
emotional wellbeing as well as their academic achievement. |
Living Streets Five Day Walking Challenge
 Walk
to School Week this year is next week (5th – 9th October).
Living Streets have created the
greatest national Walk to School celebration, where pupils and grown-ups around
the UK unite for one week of walking to school. Their five-day walking
challenge aimed at primary
schools is a fun and engaging week-long activity, raising awareness and
celebrating walking for all. Pupils will be well on their way to reaching
their recommended 60 minutes minimum of physical activity per day before even
reaching the school gates! Not only will it set them up for a positive day in
the classroom, it will also help create healthy habits for life. We will be sending activity diaries home for your
child to complete and each day the class teachers will be giving rewards for
pupils who walk to school, whether that is some of the way or all of the way!
If your child returns their completed activity diary they will also receive a
pin badge in recognition of this achievement. We hope you can join in! |
Conker Competition
 Today
we held our conker competition amid much excitement. We will be presenting the
winners with a certificate next week. |
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