It has certainly been a much quieter week in school by Millfields standards anyway and half term is just around the corner! Please also remember that there is an INSET day on Friday 21st June – school will be closed to pupils, so please put the date in your diary.

Firstly a sports round-up! Last week, the newly formed girl's football team took part in a Hackney schools tournament. Our team of girls did really well and only went on to win the competition!Other schools were apparently asking how long they had been training for! The answer, only a week! Fantastic effort and really well done to all the girls, and to Sharon and Dwayne who made it happen! Girls football takes place after school on Thursdays, so if you are in Y5 or Y6 and want to play, please speak to Sharon who is in the playground each morning.

Yesterday, our dedicated Arsenal Double Club members had the fantastic opportunity of playing on the pitch at The Emirates Stadium. They children involved really enjoyed the whole experience. The morning runs, pre-Hackney Run, continue to take place each Tuesday and Thursday, and the children are now getting very excited about the main event coming up on Sunday 19th May. Look out for the t-shirts and competitor numbers that have arrived and will be given out sometime over the next 2 weeks.

Also today is the Y4 and Y5 Cycling league event on grass at Hackney Downs. The Millfields cyclists are still out in the lead overall for the season and I know that the children involved today will be trying their best to keep adding points to the table and hope that we stay at the top of the league. More on this next week.

This week, the children in Y2 have been working really hard on their SATs reading and maths papers. Parents of Y2 children please be assured that we are reinforcing that the children should try their best and do what they always do in class! Year 6 classes have also been very busy with last minute revision for the KS2 SATs that take place next week. As part of their support and our commitment to reducing the stress levels and anxiety, all 3 class teachers are reinforcing strategies to cope with feelings of anxiety, and developing methods to help them keep calm pre, during and post each test. Y6 parents, again, please reiterate that the children should just try their best and that we will all be very proud of them whatever the outcome as they have all worked extremely hard this year. The tests are not a measure that secondary schools readily use, so please tell your child that they should not be worried or stressed about the results. Good luck to everyone!

Thankfully the rain just about stayed away yesterday when we had our class photos taken. This meant that we could have the photos taken outside and the children looked lovely and smart in their school uniforms.  Look out for the proof that will be coming home with your child hopefully next week.

The Reception classes had a day out at Hayes Hill Farm on Wednesday, and despite the rain, they put on their wellies and waterproofs and enjoyed their day with the animals. Thanks to all the parents and carers who accompanied the trip – your help was greatly appreciated.

A reminder that we have regular ‘Come Dine With Us’ sessions – please check the Mag for dates for your child’s class.

Have a good weekend. Best wishes, Jane

Firstly a huge ‘thank you’ to all the parents, carers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and pets who have taken part in our very successful ‘Families Week’. The atmosphere around the school has been great and the feedback from parents has been overwhelmingly positive, despite some last minute changes to timings and postponements due to the weather!

On Thursday the whole school focused on activities that celebrated 500 years since the death of Leonardo da Vinci. All of the children from Nursery to Y6 were involved in art and/or science activities that celebrated his genius and learnt about how is creativity and inventions have shaped our world today.

We have enjoyed lots of family activity sessions such as tennis, crafting and football, as well as cookery sessions, science workshops, various eco-workshops and Family Forest School. Parents have also been in to Science lessons with their children, and lots of you have volunteered to share/read a story with your child's class at the end of the school day. As a direct result of such great feedback from parents and pupils, this is something that we will be offering as a more regular activity in the future - look out for more details coming soon. The Family Cooking/Packed Lunch session was a huge success and the parents really appreciated guidance on making a healthy packed lunch and the family tennis taster sessions were very popular - hopefully you will have received a leaflet about a free follow-up tomorrow at Millfields Park - no need to sign up, just turn up! The eco-sessions included Forest School, pond dipping at QEOP and composting in our new Eco Garden on the roof terrace! The children and staff have also really enjoyed meeting some of their friends’ pets! We have had dogs, snakes, guinea pigs, cats and fish! We didn't have lots of parents at our Breakfast Quiz and chat, but I think the ones who attended found the sessions useful. If you would like to see more morning drop-ins, please let us know as this could be an opportunity to ask lots of questions and find out more about the curriculum and the working of the school day. Thank you to all the staff who organised and ran sessions – Emma, Ashraf, Rana, Sheyenne, Selime, Belen, Reegan, Leea, Alicia, Sharon, Dwayne and of course Vicky, who put the whole week together!

PSA meetings continue to take place most Friday mornings and the organisation of the Film Night, Book Fair and the Summer Fair are well under way, so if you would like to help or have any fundraising ideas, please do come along to our meetings, or email the PSA. The Film Night -'Sing a long with The Greatest Showman' takes place next Friday 10th May -tickets are selling quite quickly so please don't miss out and get yours before or after school. The book fair arrives on Tuesday for a week and this year we have a special deal - buy 3 get the cheapest free. The school also makes good commission and this enables us to buy new library books, so please try to support us. Finally the Eco-themed Summer Fair is taking place on Saturday 29th June this year - save the date!

A reminder that Class photos will be taken on Thursday 9th May and outdoor day activities combined with eco and climate change activities will take place on Friday 24th May.

Finally, have a great long weekend. Hope the rain stays away for some of the time!

Best Wishes, Jane

Welcome back to everyone and I hope you have all had a good break. The children certainly look happy, well-rested and have been very enthusiastic and excited to return to school. It has of course also helped that the sun has been shining.

However, as you know, the world has again been united in grief after the terrible attacks in Sri Lanka over the Easter weekend, and today , the whole school came together in a minute’s silence to reflect and remind ourselves that as a rights respecting school we celebrate our differences and respect each other’s beliefs and cultures and we are learning how to be positive members of a peaceful world. We do have families and staff from Sri Lanka or with links or friends –our thoughts and prayers are with them. The following link may be helpful if you want to talk to your child about the events. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/48002965

You will be receiving your class information booklet/letter for this term today via email, so please have a look at the dates and events that are happening, and also the areas of the curriculum that your child will be covering this term. As you know, we try to start each topic with a wow trip or workshop. So, already this week, Year 5 have been on a trip to Hampstead Heath to learn about the Stone Age as part of their history topic –they learnt how to make fire the old way, and Jones Class visited the British Museum to kick start their topic work on the Ancient Greece. Other WOW trios will be coming up in the next few weeks including Y3 trip to the Natural History Museum. Our Super Writers group also visited the Imperail war Museum this week as part of their topic and creative writing work on World War 2. they had a fantastic time and learnt lots.

Also this week, the weekly mile runs have continued to take place before school as we build up to the Hackney Run on Sunday 19th May. The before school runs will be taking place every week on Tuesday and Thursday up until the run itself.  Please be reminded that they start at 8:30am and that children need to then wait for the bell to ring at 8.45am to get changed in their classrooms. If it is wet on the morning, you will receive a text to say if it is on or not as a risk assessment will take place at 8:15am. Thanks for your cooperation with this.

‘Families Week’ starts on Monday and we hope that you have the opportunity to sign up for one of the many activities that we have on offer for you and your child during the week. There are still spaces for you to come in at the end of the school day to read a book of your choice to the class, so please sign up. There are also spaces left for you to visit your child’s class and take part in a Science lesson, as well as a few spots for the Eco workshop and pond-dipping at QEOP. And if you have apet that you and your child want to introduce to the class, please sign up for the remaining places.

On Thursday, May 2, 2019, along with Italy and the rest of the world, we are honouring the day, 500 years ago, when Leonardo da Vinci died. There are lots of art and innovation activities taking place in  our classes, so please sign up to help out in your child’s class. There are a host of celebrations planned across the whole country throughout this year so have a look on the various websites to see if you are able to visit one of the exhibitions or events.

Many of our families in the wider school community are preparing for Ramadan that will start in the next week or so. Please look out for an email coming out soon to share Millfields’ arrangements for Ramadan in school and the wider community.

Finally, thank you to the parents and carers of Lovelace Class who came to the postponed Parents’ Evening on Tuesday. If you have still not had a chance to meet your child’s teacher, please liaise with the teacher directly.

Please also sign up for a Keatons Board to help advertise the Millfields’ Summer Fair (Saturday 29th June), and support the PSA fundraising efforts –more details in the Mag and via email today.

Have a good weekend and enjoy the lovely weather.

Best Wishes, Jane

We are at the end of another busyand very productive and enriching term at Millfields. Yesterday, all the classes enjoyed their second London Day of the year by visiting a range of museums across Lon-don. Reception classes went to the Bethnal Green Museum ofChildhood; Year 1 traveled south
to the Horniman Museum; Y2 en-joyed their trip to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich; Year
3 were all wowed by their trip to The Bank of England; Year 4 enjoyed their experience at the RAF
Museum in Hendon; Year 5 learnt more about sustainability at the Crystal Centre in Docklands and Year 6 visited the ever-popular Tate Modern Gallery on the Southbank. I heard lots of children enthusing about their trips to their parents when they were picked up yesterday, so please do take time to talk to your child abouttheir experiences and visit some of the museums yourselves over the Easter or Summer break.

Tuesday was 'Autism Awareness Day' and all classes watched a short film and talked in theirclass about autism and how we as a school include and support all our friends who have autism. Please look on the following website for more information so that you can also speak to your child.https://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/asd.aspx

Thank you to the parents who came to the Parent Workshops this week and to all the Y2 parents who came to eat lunch with their children on Wednesday. We hope that you enjoy coming in toschool and learning more about what your children have been doing and how to support them at school. With this in mind, the week beginning 29th April - 3rd May is 'Parents and Families' week at Millfields. There will be information coming home via letter and email this evening, so please do look at this as there is some homework linked to families for your child to complete over the holidays. There will also be lots and lots of workshops, opportunities to visit classes, read stories to your child's class, bring your family pet in to school and take part in Science lessons during that week—look out for the sign-up sheets.

Also during that week, Millfields will be marking 500 years since the death of Leonardo da Vinci,(something that is being marked nationally) so teachers will be looking for helpers on that day -Thursday 2nd May, to support the scientific and creative activities that will be going on in class. Finally, we have seen some amazing homework projects in school this week, especially the Y4 China projects, Y3 work on the Romans and theY 6 projects around their work on the Amazon.Thank you for supporting your child at home and learning about their curriculum work in classthrough the homework assignments.

I hope you all have a good Easter break with family and friends. I hope the sun may shine for some of the holiday at least and that if you are going away -have a safe journey. Children start back at school on Tuesday 23rd April. Best Wishes, Jane

The whole school came together this morning for a minute's silence to reflect on the New Zealand mosque attacks. All classes watched a Newsround clip that you may want to re-visit with your children https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47580572 and then we stood silently to remember those who lost their lives and their families who are mourning their loved ones. We have spoken to the children about why we are sad about the attacks and how itis very important that we unite together in the face of hatred and anger and respect eachother’s cultures and faiths if we want to live in a world at peace.

Also this week, some of the ARP children and children from Year 4 went on a residential trip to Kench Hill. The children took part in a wide range of activities from bread-making,team-building and feeding the chickens - some of the photos are on the school website.Thank you to all the staff who gave up their time this week to allow the children to have this opportunity—thank you Lucy who organised all the activities, Chris, Isabelle, Paula,June and Jo.

On Monday, we helped celebrate St Patrick's Day with the fantastic St Patrick's Troupe.The young people were so confident and creative, and entertained us all with songs, music and dance during the afternoon!

Thank you also to all the parents and carers who booked to come to meet with their child's class teacher on Wednesday. The new online booking system was in operation and Iknow that some parents originally found it difficult to book without a SCOpay account, but that this was resolved once you had a link code. Please make sure that you have an account for future use by emailing info@millfields.hackney.sch.uk.

Also, this is the time in the term when we are collecting 'Parent Voice', if you have not hada chance to complete our very quick online survey, please take a minute to do it on the school website or now via the link below. You have until the end of next Wednesday tocomplete it — many thanks. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/MillMARCH19.

Today all our musicians and choir members had the opportunity to go to the Royal AlbertHall to experience the amazing 'Classics Spectacular'. This trip is always awe-inspiringand I know that the children and adults who attended will have really enjoyed it. Thanks to Roz and Tom for organising the event.

As this goes to press, I have had news that the Millfields Y5 Debating Team have won theHTSA inter-school competition. The motion was ' This house believes that children shouldbe allowed to vote in elections'. I am sure that all our work on democracy and pupils' rightsmust have given us the advantage in the final! A huge 'well done' to Biba, Annie, Honor, Rosa and Lena — you were fabulous! Thank you to Kingsley and Izaac for coaching the team and making it happen! The girls will now represent Hackney in the cross-London finals in July.

Finally, a huge 'thank you' for all the donations last week for Red Nose Day -we raised more than £1250 in nose sales and other cash. Thank you and well done everyone!

I hope you all have a good weekend. Best Wishes, Jane

The boys and girls were up early this morning, most were packing before the staff went onto their rooms. Beds were stripped and bags down before breakfast, the boys were better than the girls at getting their rooms sorted. Breakfast was had and the room tidied before the chickens were fed by our children for the last time. Then it was off to the Kench Hill Olympics. At 10.30 the children had a minutes silence to  show their respect to the victims and families of the New Zealand mosque shooting at the same time as the rest of the school.