Miss Hamalis’ Bulletin – Monday 25 November 2024

You can view all events for the year in the school calendar via our Parent Portal: SchoolBase login. Your calendar view should already be filtered to display the Junior School events and events which are specific to your daughter’s year group. 

The ‘School Calendar Parent View’ button shows the complete calendar, which can be viewed by each month, week or day. Events also appear on the right-hand side of the home page under ‘Forthcoming Events’ and the monthly view of the calendar also appears at the bottom of the home page.  

Festive Activities 

Girls need to be collected at an earlier Friday dismissal time and taken to the Winter Fair by a parent/carer. As the Winter Fair is an after school event, all children must be accompanied by a nominated parent/carer even if they normally self-dismiss. One parent can be nominated to take multiple girls; please let their Form Teacher know any altered arrangements before Friday. Please note, that in order to make the entry as smooth as possible, some Friday pick-up locations for some Forms have been adjusted. Please see below for the information as we will be  operating a strictly one-way system.

To help with dismissals, parents must inform Form Teachers (before Friday) of collection arrangements. This includes those who are helping at the Winter Fair and require another adult to collect their daughter(s) on their behalf. Please be reminded that all after school clubs/wraparound care provisions will be cancelled due to the Fair (there will be no Mini Owls or Late Owls). 

Dismissal times and locations are as follows:

• 2.50pm: Reception (dismissal from Reception Outdoor Area) Reception parents/ guardians to enter the school via the black side doors to collect their daughter(s) from the Reception outdoor area. 
• 3.00pm: Year 1 (dismissal from Reception Outdoor Area) Year 1 parents/ guardians to enter the school via the black side doors to collect their daughter(s) from the Reception outdoor area. 
• 3.00pm: Year 2 (dismissal from main gate). Year 2 parents/ guardians collect their daughter(s) and enter the Winter Fair via the black side doors. 
• 3.10pm: Year 3 (3F dismissal from 3F classroom and 3J dismissal from 3J classroom, via 3F/3J terrace doors). Year 3 parents/ guardians enter via the black side doors to collect from the terrace. 
• 3.20pm: Year 4 (dismissal from main gate). Year 4 parents/ guardians collect their daughter(s) and enter the Winter Fair via the black side doors. 
• 3.25pm: Year 5 (dismissal from main gate). Year 5 parents/ guardians collect their daughter(s) and enter the Winter Fair via the black side doors.
• 3.30pm: Year 6 (dismissal from main gate). Year 6 parents/ guardians collect their daughter(s) and enter the Winter Fair via the black side doors.

This is the final week to donate to the Alexandra Wylie Tower Foundation’s food bank. If your daughter is in Waterlow House, please ask her to place donations in one of the blue, labelled ‘Food Bank’ collection bins in the courtyard. 

Suggested items for donations include: washing tablets, tinned/canned produce, pasta (and sauces), rice, spices, olive oil, juices, stocks, cereals, sugar, salt, tea and coffee. Please ensure all items are long-life produce, as regrettably, fresh items cannot be donated. Clean sauce pots (from your favourite takeaway), egg cartons and tupperware are also helpful donations as it helps the food bank volunteers to share out items. 

Many thanks in advance to Waterlow for all your support!

Please note that the following clubs will be cancelled over the next two weeks. This is in addition to any that, unfortunately, may need to be cancelled on the day: 

• Thursday 28 November: Years 4-6 Cooking
• Thursday 28 November: Years 5&6 German (Senior School)
• Thursday 28 November: Years 5&6 Netball  
• Friday 29 November: Key Stage 1 Multisports
• Friday 29 November: Years 3&4 Football 
• Friday 29 November: Key Stage 2 Karate 
• Monday 2 December: Year 1 Gymnastics 
• Monday 2 December: Year 2 Bee Netball 
• Monday 2 December: Year 2 Gymnastics 
• Tuesday 3 December: Years 3&4 Gymnastics 
• Wednesday 4 December: KS2 Gymnastics Squad
• Thursday 5 December: KS2 Gymnastics Training Squad
• Thursday 5 December:Years 4-6 Gymnastics (Senior School)
• Friday 6 December: Key Stage 1 Multisports
• Friday 6 December: Years 3&4 Football 
• Friday 6 December: Key Stage 2 Karate 

Thank you to all of our Year 1 and Year 2 (Key Stage One) parents who joined us for the Mathematics and English talk last week. We hope you found it informative and gained some helpful tips on supporting your daughters at home. Please click on the links for the Mathematics and English presentation slides if you would like to learn more about how our Key Stage 1 girls learn and grow. 

We utilise Read Write Inc. (RWI) Phonics to teach the girls the sounds in English, the letters that represent them and how to form the letters when writing. RWI Phonics includes reading books written using only the sounds they have learnt at each level (and a small number of separately taught tricky words). The girls will quickly feel confident and successful. Here you can find lots of free resources to support your child’s learning, including kits and flashcards to support your daughter’s reading development at home.

Miss McHard (English Lead) explained how the girls are using ‘Fred Fingers’ to help them to spell green words from the RWI scheme. To use ‘Fred Fingers’ with your daughter at home, first model how to pinch the sounds, referring first to this supporting video. 

Teachers also follow a process for handwriting through RWI which begins with the teaching of the letter families and then develops into the joining of handwriting. Attending parents requested a copy of the RWI Handwriting phrases to support further handwriting practice at home. Furthermore, should you wish to purchase extra resources to support your daughter to develop her hand muscle strength and handwriting at home, we recommend the following CGP resources:

Handwriting Daily Practice Book Bundle: Reception – Autumn, Spring & Summer Term

KS1 Handwriting Daily Practice Book Bundle: Year 1 – Autumn Term, Spring Term & Summer Term

KS1 Handwriting Daily Practice Book Bundle: Year 2 – Autumn Term, Spring Term & Summer Term

Our series of curriculum talks, led by our Subject Leads, continue this term and next. These in-person sessions, open to all parents and carers, will provide an overview of the curriculum in the key areas as outlined below. You will gain insights into what and how your daughters will be learning throughout this academic year and beyond. As this is a valuable opportunity to engage directly with our Subject Leads and to ask questions about the curriculum, teaching approaches and how to best support your daughter’s learning journey at home, the sessions will not be recorded. If you would like to attend one of more of these in-person evening talks, please sign up below using the linked Google Forms. 

Schedule of Talks:

• Year 3 – Year 6 Mathematics and English: 27 November, 6.00pm – 7.00pm in Fairseat Hall
• Reception – Year 6 Music: 14 January, 6.00pm – 7.00pm in Fairseat Hall
• Reception – Year 6 PSHE and Emotional Management: 23 January, 6.00pm – 7.00pm in Fairseat Hall

We look forward to welcoming you and appreciate your ongoing support in helping your daughter achieve educational success, as we strive for all of the girls to be ambitious, realise their full potential and become the very best versions of themselves.

We have collaborated with TooledUp Education: an invaluable digital library of evidence-based resources on all aspects of parenting, education and family life. Founder, Dr Kathy Weston, has collated the best and most up-to-date research from around the world and distilled it into usable, easy to understand resources which can be instantly applied to daily life. Channing Pin: cha0706

For more information about this resource, see the dedicated section below. 

For upcoming TooledUp courses and events please click here. 

• Monday 2 December 1.00pm ~ Visual Stress: A Behavioural Optometrist Answers All Questions
• Wednesday 4 December 7.30pm ~ When Parenting Styles Conflict
• Thursday 5 December 12.00pm ~ Menopause and Neurodiversity

Wallace Chess’s holiday chess camps are both engaging and educational, designed to ensure that after an action-packed week of chess, your child’s skills will have improved significantly. With over 18 years of experience running chess camps, Wallace Chess knows how to create a perfect blend of fun and learning.

This year’s camp promises to be full of excitement! Children will explore chess tactics and strategies, enjoy the ever-popular “joke time” and take part in outdoor activities like football and other games. Tailored for children aged 5 to 12, the camp caters to everyone – from complete beginners to seasoned tournament players. Families can choose between their Regular Camp or their Elite Camp.

Camp Details:

Dates: 16-19 December (Monday–Thursday)
Timings: Half-day: 9.00am–1.00pm, Full-day: 9.00am–4.00pm

Locations: Swiss Cottage, Kensington (St. Mary Abbots Centre)

Both locations offer Regular and Elite Camp options. While families can select between half-day and full-day sessions, bookings are only available for the full week.  Click here to reserve your spot!

Please find the email contact details of the staff: JS Key Contact information. Please could we ask that your specific query is directed to the appropriate individual and anything of a more serious nature is directed to a member of the Senior Team. Please note that Miss Hamalis needs to approve all requests for absences so please send them via the Junior School Office: jsoffice@channing.co.uk. 

In order to prevent unnecessary awkwardness and/or embarrassment, please remember to address members of staff by their title and surname. 

Please be mindful that staff may not pick up emails immediately (teachers will, of course, not be checking emails when they are teaching, running clubs or supervising pupils at break and lunchtimes) and may choose to take time to investigate the matter before responding. However, they will endeavour to answer your queries within 24 hours. Please do not think that a lack of instant response means a lack of interest on the part of the member of staff. 

Please note that staff are not expected to reply to emails outside normal school hours, weekends or during school holidays. If you have an emergency which needs to be dealt with before school next opens, please email: jsoffice@channing.co.uk. Please do not send communications or information to communication@channing.co.uk or info@channing.co.uk. 

As the weather turns colder, please ensure your daughter comes to school wearing either a Channing coat or a warm alternative in brown, black or navy. We also recommend a Channing Bobble Hat and a Channing Scarf  to keep her cosy. These items are available from our uniform supplier, Uniform4Kids. Thank you for your support in keeping the girls warm and comfortable this chilly season.

We have noticed an increase in the number of girls wearing claw clips to fasten their hair, particularly in KS2. These clips can pose a safety risk as they may cause injury during break times and in PE. Additionally, they are not as secure as hair bands, and the girls often need to re-fasten them throughout the day. To ensure everyone’s safety and to keep hair securely tied back, we kindly ask that only hair ties, bands and/or clips in the appropriate Channing colours (black, brown and Channing blue) are used. 

To help prevent the spread of head lice, if your daughter’s hair sits below her shoulders, it must be fully tied back using brown, black or Channing blue hair ties, bands and/or clips. No nail varnish, or jewellery should be worn (unless for religious reasons) and only small plain stud earrings are permitted (small hoops or sleepers are not to be worn for safety reasons). Analogue and digital watches are permitted; whilst fitbits and smart watches are not.

Pupils are invited to enter the prestigious Young Art competition for a chance to exhibit their work at the Oxo Tower Art Gallery next Spring. Children can enter an A4-sized painting, drawing or print based on this year’s theme ‘Faces & Places’. The school will cover the entry fee of £3 (maximum of one entry per person) and proceeds go to a specific research project into childhood cancers at UCL Great Ormond Street. All artwork must be brought into school by Friday 10 January. Entries should have the artist’s name, year group, DOB and school clearly displayed in block capitals on the back. It is also a good idea to add a sentence explaining what is depicted overleaf. We have enjoyed success in this competition in previous years, so we cannot wait to see what our pupils can produce this time around. 

The Harry Potter-themed Winter Fair is taking place after school this Friday 29 November. Buy your tickets for the girls and your families.

The school will be transformed into Hogwarts for a wonderful wintery afternoon, where the girls and their families are invited to discover the magical world of Harry Potter, with a never-before-seen-in-Hogwarts visit from Santa!

The girls are invited to wear Harry Potter or festive fancy dress to school all day on Friday 29 November.

Please note that all after school clubs/wraparound care provisions will be cancelled due to the Fair, and all children must be accompanied to the Fair by an adult.

The charity fundraising raffle for GOSH is now live. Buy your tickets to be in with a chance to win a fantastic prize. All proceeds will go to Great Ormond Street Hospital’s Gastroenterology Department. The raffle will be drawn at 4pm this Friday at the Fair.

Prizes include: family pass to Church’s Farm, Spurs tickets, Dishoom meal voucher and hamper, Wizard of Oz On Ice tickets, photography session, tea party with Miss Hamalis, beautiful gold bangle, comedy tickets, Pacifica beauty products, Everyman cinema tickets, gym passes and much more.

Last call for baked goods for The Three Broomsticks Cafe at our Winter Fair on Friday! 

If you are kindly planning to donate homemade or bought cakes, biscuits or mince pies to the Christmas Hogwarts-themed cafe, please note here what nut-free donation you will bring, and thank you in advance! All donations can be left on a table in the courtyard on Friday morning.

The CA is excited to announce that North London Laughs Charity Comedy Night will be returning to Alexandra Palace Theatre with a star-studded line-up on Sunday 9 February 2025. The night will be in aid of The Gastroenterology Dept at Great Ormond Street Hospital and 100% of funds raised will go towards this fantastic cause. Watch this space for more info on the line-up and on sale. 

• Friday 29 November, 4.00pm – Charity Raffle for Great Ormond Street Prize Draw, tickets here.
• Friday 29 November, 2.50pm-5.00pm – Winter Fair, in school, details on Classlist and tickets here.
• Tuesday 28 January 2025, 7.45am – 8.30am – PreLoved Uniform Sale, Courtyard.
• Sunday 9 February, evening – North London Laughs Charity Comedy Night, Channing parents offered first-access to tickets.

Following our declaration of a climate emergency and in line with our commitment to improve the School’s environmental sustainability, editions of the Channing School Magazine are now produced and distributed digitally. We are therefore delighted to share with you the digital version of this year’s magazine which you can read here.

We are aware, however, that a number of families enjoy receiving physical copies of the magazine and some have kept every edition since their daughter(s) joined the School! To avoid printing copies that will ultimately go to waste, we are asking that families request a hard copy by midday on Wednesday 4 December 2024.

To order a printed copy of the school magazine 2023-24, please click here.