Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School

Headteacher Blog Archive Autumn 1 2023

20 October 2023

The week started off quieter than usual within school as we were without our Year 6 class for the first few days. Year 6, Mrs Osborne, Miss Roberts and Miss Zairi had the most amazing time away challenging themselves to complete activities to help build confidence and resilience, strengthen relationships and develop teamwork.

On Tuesday we were delighted to welcome Bridget Phillipson MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, Catherine McKinnell MP, Shadow Minister for Schools as well as David Pinto-Duschinsky, Parliamentary Candidate for Hendon as well as Lord Levy in to our school this morning. During their visit they spent time taking part in a Year 2 maths lesson and also spoke to children in Year 5 about what they like about our school and what they would like to see in schools and within education in the future. They ended their visit with a meeting with myself, some of our governors as well as leaders of other Jewish organisations talking about the current situation in Israel and it's impact on our community in Britain as well as how they can help educate others to reduce incidences of anti-sematism. We discussed how the current situation has impacted on the well being of parents, children and staff in schools and the need for us all to come together at a time like this.

On Wednesday a team of footballers from Year 5 represented Etz Chaim at the first Maccabi football tournament of the year. Although the children have not spent much time together as a team they played some fantastic football and were managed brilliantly by Mrs G. The children played each match with passion and dedication and worked well as a team to attack and defend against the other schools. Congratulations to Eli, Luca, Jonah, Joseph, Oli, Mason, Sonny and Jordan.

Today the staff were all treated to a sneak preview of the delicious hot lunches the children will get to enjoy after half term. Our new chef cooked up some delicious chicken shwarma, falafel and salads for us to taste test on behalf of the children. The feedback was extremely positive and everyone marvelled at how succulent and flavoursome the food was.

Congratulations to the following children who were invited to my Tea Party today for showing Educational Excellence in school this week: Ariella, Ethan, Poppy-Rae, Maya, Freddie, Felix and Daniel.

We are pleased to announce that for Mitzvah Day, we will be running a collection for Food Bank Aid. Food Bank Aid is a charity which supports over 30 independent food banks across North London (including Gift in Hendon) by collecting, sorting and distributing food, toiletries and household items to over 16,000 people, including 5,200 children. As you know, the cost of living crisis is affecting more and more families, and the need is growing, especially as many people are having to heat their homes during the Winter and are unable to afford to feed their families.

We are delighted to help support such a worthy cause. We feel strongly as a school community we should help raise awareness of food insecurity and engage particularly with our children about social responsibility, as well as helping families who are really struggling.

The collection will take place from 30th October until 14th November. Please help us support this charity by bringing your donations to school during that time.

Shabbat Shalom and wishing you all a restful and peaceful half term.

Mrs Martin

13 October 2023

This wasn’t the week we expected it to be when we finished for Shabbat last week. The atrocities of the weekend and the ongoing war in Israel has impacted us all in different ways, but as a school we have felt it also important that we try to continue in as normal a way as possible. Thursday nights evening of solidarity was a poignant way to come together as a school to pay our respects and a reminder of how fortunate we are to have such a strong and supportive school community. I would like to thank you all for your support for our staff, children and parents this week. It is at times like this that we are able to see what a special community we truly are.

I had a thoroughly enjoyable tea party today celebrating the educational excellence that all seven children have demonstrated this week. I loved seeing Reception and Year 1 come to tea in their pyjamas! Congratulations to Abe, Gefen, Jax, Noa, Izac, Ollie B and Koby K for their hard work.

As ever, we have been continuing with teaching the children a variety of topics and subject across the week.

Reception have been reading the book Leaf Man. They have drawn story maps to help them remember the text and have made animals as well as the Leaf Man and Leaf Woman out of leaves, acorns and conkers.

Year 1 have been learning about different types of houses and were lucky enough to have an architect visit their class this week to talk about designing houses.

Year 2 have been learning about space and constellations. This week they even got to draw their own alien.

Year 3 have been working very hard this week on their addition and subtraction skills, practicing adding and subtracting three digit numbers.

Year 4 have been learning how to write reports, making sure they include important features such as relevant facts and direct quotes. They were able to choose the topic for their report based on what interested them the most.

Year 5 have been looking at personification this week. They wrote sentences in which they described a non-human thing using human descriptions in order to give it more impact.

Year 6 have almost finished reading the text Kensuke's Kingdom. They thought about what Kensuke, the old man, would like about the young boy, Michael, in the story.

Also this week we had our first prospective parents tour. It was wonderful to be able to show our brilliant school to new parents and shout about the fabulous things we offer to our children. We have three more prospective parent events over the next few months so please do share the information with any friends you may have who are looking for school places for September 2024.

Thank you for all your donations to Magen David Adom this week, together with this weeks PTA challah sale, we have raised over £270 for this amazing charity.

We will be sending children home today with blue Shabbat candles to light in order to keep Israel in our thoughts.

Wishing you all a safe, restful and peaceful Shabbat,

Mrs Martin

6th October 2023

We have had a fantastic week in school celebrating Sukkot and enjoying so many wonderful Chol HaMoed activities. Every class has been able to visit the Sukkah and enjoy spending time in it - perhaps the biscuits they had whilst they were there helped! Each class has also had an opportunity to enjoy riding their bike or scooter in our playground this week. We are so lucky to have such a vast playground for our children to use and all our two and three wheeled children took advantage of that this week.

A number of classes across the school have enjoy having leaders from Tribe come into class and lead Sukkot sessions with them. We hope that those of you that were able to come in for our Seed family workshops enjoyed them too, I certainly loved seeing Year 1 and Year 2 dance around the hall with their Simchat Torah flags.

We welcomed children from Year 4, 5 and 6 at Courtland and Fairway Schools to Etz Chaim on Tuesday and Thursday this week. Our Year 6 children ran sessions for them explaining about Rosh Hashana, Sukkot and Simchat Torah. They skilfully explained the meaning behind having a Sukkah, how to shake a Lulav and Etrog, how to blow and Shofar and what a Sefer Torah looks like. They led the sessions with confidence and a high level of knowledge and really impressed the adults and children from both visiting schools. All of us in our school too were blown away by their passion, knowledge and leadership, congratulation to all of Year 6.

On Wednesday a team of footballers from Year 4 represented Etz Chaim at the first Maccabi football tournament of the year. Although the children have not spent much time together as a team they played some fantastic football and managed to qualify for the quarter finals. Although they were knocked out at this stage, they played each match with passion and dedication and worked well as a team to attack and defend against the other schools. Congratulations to Joshua, Freddie, Nathan, Tamar, Ezra, Casey and Louis B.

Congratulation to the following children for showing educational excellence this week and for coming to my tea party:

Reception - Celine

Year 1 - Harrison

Year 2 - Daniel

Year 3 - Eden

Year 4 - Chaim

Year 5 - Jonah

Year 6 - Anna

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,

Mrs Martin

29^th September 2023

I cannot believe how quickly this week has flown by, perhaps it is down to the hard work that all the children in school have been completing this week.

I began the week by announcing our new library monitors and digital leaders in assembly. Together with the Junior Travel Ambassadors and Class Ambassadors we have a wonderful team of pupil leaders in our school and I look forward to working with them all during the school year.

On Wednesday our new School Improvement Partner spent the day with us. She enjoyed walking around school and seeing the purposeful learning taking place. She also enjoyed spending time in the Reception indoor and outdoor classrooms and seeing how well our new Reception children have settled into school life.

Yesterday Miss Roberts ran a session for parents on how we teach phonics and early reading to our children. We hope the session was informative and useful to those that attended as it definitely wasn't talk like that in my day!

It was lovely to see so many parents and children enjoying our MacMillan Coffee Morning this morning. Thank you again to all parents that donated cake and coffee and for those that enjoy the goodies whilst supporting a great cause.

Congratulation to Lenny, Sam, Summer, Noa, Amelija, Orli and Saul for showing educational excellence this week and for getting to come to my tea party. It was lovely to spend time talking to the children about their learning and hearing about what they have been up to in class.

Finally, we are really looking forward to the variety of activities taking place next week to aid our Sukkot celebrations. Thank you to the parents who so kindly gave up their time this morning to help put up the wonderful Sukkah decorations that so many children have spent time making at home. Every class will get a chance to spend time in the Sukkah as well as numerous other exciting activities. We are also looking forward to welcoming pupils from two local school to spend time in our school Sukkah and learn about the festival as well as about Judaism.

Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Martin

22 September 2023

It was wonderful to hold our final three Meet the Teacher sessions this week. Thank you to everyone who has come to them over the past two weeks, it is always good to see so many parents at events like these. If you have any questions after the sessions for your class teams please send an email via the School Office or put a note on SeeSaw. We aim to answer all communication within 48 working hours.

The PTA would like to invite you all to Etz Chaim's Macmillan Coffee Morning on Friday 29th September. Join thousands of people across the UK by participating in Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning. The money we raise at our Coffee Morning will help many living with cancer to live life as fully as they can. Please join our Parent Volunteers in the Music Hall (accessible from the playground near the steps) from 8.30am for tea, coffee, biscuits and cake to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Care. A suggested donation of £1 is asked, but feel free to donate anything you can, this can be done via ParentPay or at the coffee morning.

Congratulation to Rafi M, Alexander, Tilly, Samuel, Tommy, Sonny and Rafi H who got to attend my tea party today. It was wonderful to hear what they had enjoyed about their week this week and all the exciting learning that has taken place around the school.

Shabbat Shalom and g'mar chatima tovah. Wishing you all well over the fast.

Mrs Martin

15 September 2023

It has been wonderful to see so many parents at our Meet the Techer sessions this week. We hope you have found them helpful and informative and look forward to welcoming parents in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 to theirs next week.

As always it has been a busy week at Etz Chaim. The Reception children have settled in extremely well and it feels like they have always been with us.

In Year 1 this week Mrs Friedman took the children into the playground to find out about the four compass points, the children enjoyed moving around to find North, South, East and West.

In Year 2 the children have been learning about the different continents of the world. They discussed different countries that can be found in the different continents and how they are different to each other.

Year 3 have been starting to think about creating an edible garden, they had to smell a variety of herbs and try and work out what they thought they were.

Year 4 have set up their first Science experiment of the year this week. The children are looking forward to observing the changes made to egg shell left in a cup of water and another left in Coke.

Year 5 have been immersing themselves into the text Wonder. They have been thinking about how some of the characters were feeling during parts of the story and have drawn self portraits thinking about their own appearance.

We are excited to have spent this week teaching Year 6 how to be leaders. They have considered what makes a good leader and how to support younger children. We look forward to seeing them put the theory into action next week when they lead their first Circle meeting and begin to take on the role of Sports Leader.

Today I had my first Tea Party for children who have shown academic excellence in class. I welcomed one child from each class to the staffroom for 'tea,' which actually consisted of a biscuit and some squash! It was lovely to talk to the children about their learning this week and hear what they are looking forward to in the new school year. Congratulations to Grayson, Indi, Sylvie, Dylan, Tali, Eden and Amelie.

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Wishing you all Shana Tova, a happy, healthy and sweet new year.

Shana Tova and Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Martin

8 September 2023

I would like to wish a warm welcome to all the new families who have joined our school this week as well as welcoming back to the new school year all the families who are already in our school. The year has started of with such positivity and it has been wonderful to see so many children working hard and moving around school calmly and with purpose.

Even though the children have only been in school for three days this week, they have all been working hard to learn the routines and expectations in their new classes and with their new class staff.

It was lovely to see the children in school today in their own colourful summer clothes. Thank you to everyone who brought in food or drink items for the Etz Chaim Get Together next Wednesday evening. If this years is anything like last years it will be a wonderful evening and I look forward to seeing many of you here on the night.

Finally, I would like to say a massive thank you to the PTA for subsidising the new activity trails on the floor of the playground. We began our whole staff INSET on Monday morning by having a go on them and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the children using them since coming back to school.

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom,

Mrs Martin

Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School

Headteacher Blog Archive Autumn 1 2023

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Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School

Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School

Headteacher Blog Archive Autumn 1 2023

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