Epi Owl Hoot
October 2020
Headteacher's Message
Dear parents, as we move in to the half term break, I want to congratulate your children for how hard they have worked since returning in September, and for the resilience they have shown in their ability to adapt to the new routines. You should all be very proud. As you will be aware, we have had a challenging end to the week, with our first positive Covid result confirmed on the staff team. This meant that all of our FS2 staff and children, and some of out FS1 staff, had to move in to isolation. For those of you who are affected by this, I hope that you are able to still enjoy the time together as a family over the half term, albeit in the confines of your own house and garden.
We continue to maintain strict safety measures in school at all times, and seek to minimise any transmission of the virus in school. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that these cases will never appear, and we appreciate your patience and understanding when they do. Please note, we will provide remote learning support to children who are directed to self-isolate, however if parents choose to keep children off as a precaution, this has to be recorded as unauthorised and no educational support will be available. Longer periods of absence will also need to be reported to the unit welfare officer.
With the hot weather continuing, we have not asked children to be in our winter uniform up to this point. However, we ask that after half term, children return to school in: Grey skirt or trousers with white shirt (polo shirt or normal short sleeve) and navy blue school sweatshirt. The sweatshirt can be purchased from the school office should you need one. Children should also wear sensible dark footwear, not trainers please.
As we cannot hold normal parent consultation meetings this term due to ongoing restrictions, we will be offering you a ‘Microsoft Teams’ meeting after half term to allow you to discuss your child’s progress and any learning needs. The class teachers will be sending you an appointment time via email, and I would urge you to make every effort to take up the meeting as these are a very important part of the ongoing support for your child’s education.
Finally, I would like to welcome all of our new families who have recently arrived on island, and to wish any of you who are leaving the island over the half term break all the very best of luck with your new adventures.
Thanks,
Alex Thorp
Episkopi Primary School
Email: episkopi@modschools.org
Website: www.episkopi.modschools.org
Phone: +357 25963425
Facebook: facebook.com/Epiprimary
Year 6
Combining guided reading and drama using a conscience alley.
Orienteering fun down in Happy Valley
Year 5
Year 5 have enjoyed a very practical half-term. We have designed, built and visited a river in Geography and learned about life-cycles of animals and plants in Science.
FS2AC reading their story map
FS2OG Have worked hard this half term!
As part of our transition from FS1, all the children decorated boxes. They then put three special things inside which they talked about. Noah brought in a photo and his special cuddly toy.
We painted amazing self-portraits. They look beautiful in our classroom.
Lucas really persevered in trying to grind the wheat for the Little Red Hen.
Felicity tried really hard to draw straight lines during our handwriting session. What a lovely picture you created Felicity.
Scarlett loves potion making. She even explored freezing her potions!
Having lots of fun making and exploring magic mud.
FS2LB love playdough and glitter!
One morning we arrived to see that the Little Red Hen had visited to tell us that her friends would not help to grow her wheat.
Y4KW experience amazing things to embed their learning!
After reading 'The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe,' we got to taste Turkish Delight, just like Edmund in the story. It tasted delicious and delightful, no wonder Edmund wanted more!
This term, Y4SD mummified tomatoes - amongst other things!
We mummified a tomato because it's the closest thing to a human that we could use, as it has skin and flesh. The best bit was scooping out the insides.
Year 2, super learners!
Science (in the garden) - We were looking for bugs with magnifying glasses because we have been learning about animal habitats in Science. We have been finding out about all different kinds of habitats.
Swimming-we have had a lot of fun in the pool. We have learned how to dive. We even swam a whole length on the last session. We have practised jumping in in different ways.
Geography - we have been learning that deforestation is a terrible thing. If all of the trees in the Amazon rainforest are cut down, there will be no oxygen. The animals might become endangered if their homes are chopped down. They might even become extinct, which would be devastating.
Mrs Campbell talked to us about bike safety and how important it is that we wear a helmet when on a bike or scooter. We have to make sure that the helmet is not wiggly on our head and check it fits us properly. We have to click it in so that we are safe to ride. We must always check our bikes to check that we sit on them properly and that we can touch the ground with our toes. We watched some videos to show us how to be safe on the road. We have been asked to design posters to remind people to wear a helmet and be safe on their bikes. The SBA police will choose the winning poster for each year group. We had lots of fun doing our posters and hopefully people will listen and will wear helmets all the time when riding around camp.
Brooke is our class Eco-Warrior and she cares about what happens in our world. Brooke gave a presentation to us about things we can do to help recycle our plastic. Her presentation made us think about saving the world and to help prevent animals from becoming extinct. It was interesting because the pictures showed what is happening in the oceans. Brooke talked to us about eco-bricks and how we can create these to not waste plastic. Her dad brought some into school to start us off. We are now doing this at playtime, pushing plastic into old plastic bottles to make them strong. When we have made enough we would like to make things with them. We thought we could maybe make a table and mini chairs. Thank you Brooke!
This term Mr Fazackerley and Mr Hambleton have been teaching us orienteering in school. We got the chance to test our new skills down in Happy Valley. We had to look for numbers and then we punched our control cards to prove we had found the number. We had lots of fun and Happy Valley was great as we had more space to run around. Orienteering has been fun and we have learnt new skills. We have had to work as a team and stay with our group. We have learnt how to read a map, although sometimes we did go the wrong way but that’s because we had the map the wrong way around, oops!
Y3MM have had a great half term!
Y3FK: oat-grinders extraordinaire!
Making sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks using sweets!
Discovering a skeleton in the school garden…could it be a stone age man?