​This Week In School…
Year 3 – have had a very busy week. In English, they have been publishing their diaries of 'A day in The Tin Forest'. In Maths, they have been learning to round numbers to the nearest 10 and 100 and have used these skills to estimate answers to addition and subtraction questions. They have completed their art topic, exploring shape and form and then positive and negative space. In PE, they have been taking part in mini football matches and have demonstrated that they are great team players. We are incredibly proud of all that Year 3 have achieved this half term, well done!
Year 4 – have been using their written method of subtraction to solve problems involving exchanging with one exchange and more than one exchange in Maths. In English, they have been working in groups to research plastic pollution in the oceans and how we can change and protect the future. They have taken this research and written two paragraphs for their non-chronological report. In Art, they have been creatively putting their sketchbooks together with all of the artwork they have created this term. In Humanities, they ended their topic by writing a fact file about rivers of Africa.
Year 5 – have delved into the mathematical world of factors, multiples and prime numbers and have worked on solving mathematical problems using the knowledge they have acquired. They also completed their information leaflet based on China and have worked hard to produce colourful and attractive leaflets! As well as the information leaflets, they have also started writing a character description of a strange, fascinating animal – the Tardigrade! In Science, they observed what happens to wet and dry materials when they are burnt and wrote some insightful, scientific conclusions. It has been a week of scientific exploration, mathematical thinking and creative writing in Year 5!
Year 6 – have been away on their residential PGL trip, taking part in lots of exciting outdoor activities and braving the weather!  Those children who have remained in school have also had a great week, doing a range of activities in school.  These have included: designing and painting their own pillowcase; creating a 'nature art bug' from nature items collected from the playground; decorating a stone; finding out about the decades from the 1950s to - and including - the 1990s; creating a decade mood board; construction afternoons using Lego; watching a movie; team and individual challenges; sporting activities; and a technology challenge making a fashion outfit from black sacks.  It has been a very busy week but also very enjoyable for the children and staff!

Please Note: If you decide you do not want to vaccinate your child against flu, please complete the consent form giving the reason. This will help the NHS plan and improve the service.
If after submission you wish to withdraw your consent please contact The Immunisation Team at least 48 hours prior to the session using email [email protected]

The IVJS Choir is back again. We are looking for members to join and help us spread some cheer this year with your amazing singing voices!
The choir will attend events such as the Carol Concert and singing for residents at the local nursing home, they will even lend their dulcet tones to the Rotary Club's annual Christmas lunch! We will have choir rehearsals every Friday after school until 4.30pm after the half term. Please note, THIS IS FREE, NOT A PAID FOR CLUB. We will send letters out ahead of any trips.
To sign up, please do so here:

​Activity clubs for next half term are now available to book!
Clubs will be starting next week, from Tuesday 31st October.

PLEASE NOTE, IF YOU PAY BY CHILDCARE VOUCHERS, PLEASE EMAIL THE SCHOOL TO RESERVE THE CLUB PLACE YOU REQUIRE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AND WE CAN ALLOCATE THE SPACE, IF THERE ARE SPACES AVAILABLE.

Mondays:

• Street Dance Club with The Christina Marks Performing Arts Company - This is booked directly, more information here: STREET DANCE CLUB INFORMATION 
• Upper School Spanish Club with Miss Brown
• Lower School Boys Football Club with Miss Yandell

Tuesdays:

• Musical Theatre Club with The Christina Marks Performing Arts Company - This is booked directly, more information here: MUSICAL THEATRE CLUB INFORMATION 
• Chess and Puzzle Club with Miss Imam

Wednesdays:

• Ukulele Club with Rebecca and Monique from The Slough Music Trust
• Girls Football Club with Miss Yandell
• Comic Drawing Club with Miss Rowe

Thursdays:

• Build a Band Club with Rebecca and Monique from The Slough Music Trust - This club now runs at the same times as our other clubs and can be booked on SchoolMoney.
• Construction Club with Mrs Macdonald

Fridays:

• Upper School Boys Football Club with Miss Yandell
• Choir Rehearsals with Miss Couves and Miss Short - This is not a paid for club but still runs until 4.30pm. For more information or to sign up, click here: CHOIR INFORMATION

​As before, clubs will show as a payment on your child's School Money account (www.eduspot.co.uk). Please do not pay this unless you want to book your child a space. Club payments that are not paid/needed for will be removed from your account after Monday 6th November. 

Clubs start Tuesday 31st October and run for 7 weeks (with the exception of the Monday clubs which will only run for 6 weeks, starting Monday 6th November), the last club being Friday 15th December. All clubs are 3.15pm to 4.30pm with pick up at the front of the school. Clubs cost £7 per club and can be booked for the full half term, £49 (£42 for the Monday clubs). We are still offering a discounted rate to any children entitled to Pupil Premium (the discounted cost will show automatically to anyone entitled).
​
Should you have any issues logging into your School Money account, please email [email protected].

Dear Parents/Guardians,
National Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check (MTC)
As many of you will be aware, the National Curriculum states that all children should be confident with all times tables up to 12x12 by the end of Y4. In Year 4, all pupils’ times table knowledge will be assessed by the National Multiplication Check (MTC). The purpose of the MTC is to determine whether pupils can recall their times tables fluently, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will help schools to identify pupils who have not yet mastered their times tables, so that additional support can be provided. Rapid recall of these times tables really gives all children an excellent foundation on which they can build a wide variety of mathematical skills.
The pupils currently in Year 4 will do the multiplication check in school in small groups on iPads during the national testing window and will take about five minutes to do. The national testing window runs between Monday 3rd June and Friday 14th June 2024. As a school, we aim to give pupils the best possible opportunity to be successful in the multiplication check and will choose the most appropriate time for them to sit the check during this window. The outcome of the check should inform both us as a school and you as parents as to where each child is in terms of times tables. We can then celebrate their successes and work together to identify and address any gaps. You will be informed of the outcome for your child alongside their end of year report.
As it is a key part of the Year 4 curriculum, your child’s class teacher is already supporting them in developing their times table fluency at school and ensuring they will feel prepared for the multiplication check when the time comes. However, we ask that you encourage your child to use their online TTRockstars account as regularly as possible – it has an excellent track record for improving times table recall and is great fun! Children can earn coins and create an online Rockstar avatar by battling one another and taking part in arena tours. One of the excellent features of TTRockstars is the ‘Sound Check’. This is an online game set up in the same way as the MTC. Practising via ‘Sound Check’ will help children to prepare for the MTC. If you have any further questions about the MTC or how best to support your child, please contact their class teacher.
Yours sincerely,

Miss Couves

We are thrilled to announce that Street Dance club will continue after the half term break but we have some even more exciting news than that! Starting Tuesday 31st October, The Christina Marks School Of Performing Arts will be running another incredibly exciting club; Musical Theatre! Booking for both clubs are already live, please see the both letters below for more information.

​This Week In School…
Year 3 – have been writing a diary entry about the old man building the tin forest of his dreams during their English lessons. In Maths, they have been using their addition and subtraction skills to solve word problems. During RE this week, they worked in groups to present their ideas about how they could help others within the community and they came up with some very imaginative and thoughtful ideas. In Art, they have been learning about primary and secondary colours and have used paint to explore colour mixing, creating their own colour wheels. Year 3 have come to the end of their Science topic about plants, they have sorted plants into categories according to how they disperse their seeds in the plant life cycle. It has been a very busy week!
Year 4 – have been researching and writing a non-chronological report about plastic pollution! They have been very interested and shocked to find out so many facts about the problems with plastic. Year 4 have been working really hard in Maths. They have used what they had learnt in Year 3 to be able to use column method to add two four-digit numbers together. In Science, they used what they had learnt in the previous lesson about the water cycle and wrote some amazing diary entries, pretending they were a water droplet in the water cycle. In Humanities, they discovered how volcanoes are formed and found out what volcanoes are in Africa.
Year 5 – have engaged in a wide range of exciting activities. In their Art class, they showcased their creativity and understanding of negative and positive space by crafting stunning pieces of artwork. In Maths, they delved into the world of word problems, sharpening their problem-solving skills through addition and subtraction. Furthermore, they began exploring the concept of multiples. In their English lessons, the students began working on an informative leaflet about China, diving into research they have collected in Humanities lessons, which will be woven into their written work. It's been a week filled with exploration, creativity, and academic growth!
Year 6 – have been working very hard on assessments this week.  They have had tests in grammar, spelling, reading and maths; and we are very proud of the positivity and resilience they have shown during the week.  As well as the assessments, they have been publishing their non-chronological reports on climate change and global warming in English; and have been continuing to find out about evolution and inheritance in Science.  This week, the children have been finding out about Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, as well as natural selection.  The children have concluded their PSHE topic by working in groups to discuss the consequences of an imagined situation and have participated in role play to learn how one person's actions can have consequences for many other people.

Dear Parents/Guardians, 

On the first day back of the new half term, Year 4 are going to be taking part in a 'WOW' day to excite them about their new topic in English. 
 
As Year 4 are going to be studying the book 'Arthur and the Golden Rope' in English, they will be using their imaginations to travel to Iceland by taking part in some Icelandic activities during the day. As Iceland is known as the land of Ice and Fire, we would like Year 4 to wear winter jumpers over their school PE kit for the day. 
 
During the day they will learn about life in Iceland, learn skills that are required to book a trip (including budgeting, finding accommodation and map reading), they will also have the opportunity to try some Icelandic treats, though they will still need to have a separate lunch.  
 
We will be offering them: 

• Hot chocolate  

• Marshmallows 
• Skyr yoghurt 
• Hotdogs (vegetarian & meat) 
• White bread hotdog roll 
• Tomato ketchup 

 
Please complete the form on the paper copy of this letter sent home with your child to give permission for your child to take part in the tasting. Without it your child will not be able to try the food and drink on the day.  
 
Yours sincerely, 
Miss Rowe, Miss Ramsay and Mrs Punny ​

This Week In School…
Year 3 – have been writing a letter to help persuade people in Iver to look after the environment. They have included prefixes and suffixes into their sentences, expanding their knowledge of spellings and vocabulary. In Maths, they have moved onto subtraction. They looked into 2-digit compact subtraction without exchanging before moving onto calculations that require exchanging. In PSHE, they have been using their knowledge of emotions to look into how to make a new person in a classroom feel comfortable. In Science, they have been looking at the life cycle of a plant. They have been expanding their scientific vocabulary with words like germination and pollination.
Year 4 – have been working hard at rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. They have shown a growing confidence at rounding 4-digit numbers. In English, they have had fun designing a robot made from recycling materials and have written instructions to go with their design. In Science, they were introduced to the water cycle and were fascinated to discover that the water we use today is the same as water from the Jurassic period! In Geography they compared the different mountain ranges of Africa. In Guided Reading, they continued on from their dramatic interpretations of plastic pollution by writing poetry about the plastic. In Computing, they have worked hard to practise their coding skills.
Year 5 – have been on a well-rounded journey of exploration and learning. In Art, our young artists have delved into mark making, letting their creativity flow. In Maths, they've taken a deep dive into addition and subtraction, honing their skills to perfection and learning to use inverse operations to double-check their answers, promoting mathematical accuracy. The narratives inspired by 'The Girl and the Fox' have reached their culmination, with students dedicatedly working on publishing their written creations. In Humanities, they've delved into the fascinating topic of China's economic growth, gaining a global perspective.  In Science, the children have also explored the intriguing world of heating and cooling materials, adding another layer of scientific knowledge to their repertoire. It's been a week filled with artistic expression, mathematical mastery, literary achievement, global awareness, and scientific curiosity for Year 5!
Year 6 – have continued writing their non-chronological reports about climate change and rising sea levels.  They are becoming more and more familiar with the Year 6 writing success criteria and are working really hard to try and include as many features as they can in their reports.  In Maths, Year 6 have been solving problems involving multiplication.  They have used their times-table knowledge to find factors, multiples and multiply using a formal method.   In Science, Year 6 began the topic of Evolution and Inheritance – they thoroughly enjoyed exploring the characteristics/traits they believe they have inherited from parents.