Assembly

Some wonderful work was shared in assembly today. Each year group presented some work they were proud of.

Year 6 have been recreating scenes from 'Millions' and described the activity in each shot. Class members represented Damian, Anthony and other characters in a tableau.

Using Freeze Frame

Housepoint certificates were awarded. Blue House gathered the most this week, but Red House are winning for the term so far.

100 Housepoints

Maisie keeps missing the Housepoint photo because of her violin lesson:

100 Housepoints

Oliver ran part of the London Marathon, representing Havering
insert pic




The stories discussed in assembly today were:
Kensuke's Kingdom - Michael Morpurgo
Millions - Frank Cottrell Boyce

School Council visit Havering Council

The School Council went to the Town Hall to meet the Mayor of Havering & to learn about our local democratic process.

They were greeted by the Mayor & Madam Mayoress.

The Mayor talked about his role, his regalia and the links to Parliament. Pupils were able to try on his robes and hold the Mace.

The pupils sat in the Council Chambers, and learnt how to conduct an orderly, formal meeting. They learnt some techniques that they will bring back to their in-school meetings.

After refreshments, it was time to return to school on the train.


The current School Council will finish their term of office in July. New councillors will be elected in September by their classmates.

UJS School Council 2015-2016

Assembly

It was another busy assembly this morning. Visit the Twitter feed on Friday mornings @UpminsterJS for as-it-happens updates.

The art competition on the theme of 'Spring & Summer' has been judged. All entries are being exhibited - has your child seen them?

The winner: a 3D summerscape using seasonal items by Sia

Second place: 'Tree' by Maya

In third place: James' watercolour bluetit

Hundred Housepoint certificates were awarded - congratulations to everyone on their achievement

100 Housepoints

We also had a 200 certificate to award - will anyone make it to 300 by July?

200 Housepoints

All members of the Girls' football squad stood up to receive a round of applause. Miss Beqiri and the entire school are very proud of them; they have played with 'grace & pace' all season to achieve some fantastic results, and are great role models for the younger girls.

Girls' Football Final

The girls have had an amazing season this year. And after the brilliant win against Elm Park Primary, the final against Parsonage Farm School was incredibly difficult. 

Miss Beqiri is especially proud of the outstanding effort, skill and sportsmanship shown by every single girl in the team.

We may have not won the Cup, but the grace, pace and the relentlessness with which the girls play is rarely seen even in the World Cup. UJS Girls are an astonishing team who works tirelessly together in every match, game and practice. 

Semifinal success

The girls' football team were outstanding on Tuesday 19th April in the home semi final game against Elm Park Primary. After a defence heavy first half, they got their confidence back and attacked from all sides.

The game ended with UJS girls winning 2-0 and through to the semi finals on Thursday 21st April. 

Assembly

Assembly was busy today, and for the first time we tweeted out what was happening 'live'. To see the full details visit our Twitter feed @UpminsterJS

Meanwhile, here's some highlights:

Stand up if you've achieved 100 or 200 Housepoints...

Housepoint certificates

We were also delighted to receive our Healthy School accreditation this week.  Staff and pupils have worked hard to gain this award. We thank all the families who are helping the children to understand and make healthy choices in their lives. Mrs Zweistra isn't happy to stop at Bronze though, in September we will be going for silver status.

Healthy School

This wasn't all; music certificates, charity donations, moving vehicles, cuckoo songs and much more were packed into the assembly before morning lessons.

Don't forget the Big Pedal starts this week. Older pupils remember when UJS won the challenge a couple of years ago, with the prize of a visit by a BMW stunt biker.

Spring term sporting success

The children have once again performed brilliantly during the spring term in many sporting events ranging from hockey to swimming and to representing Havering at the London Youth Games in both boys and girls football.

UJS Spring 2016

The results last term were:

• Year 6 hockey (2 teams) – Winners and runners-up

• Year 4 Hockey (2 teams) – Winners and 3rd in group

• Year 6 Tag Rugby (Oakfield’s Six Nations competition) – Winners

• Swimming Gala – Runners-up having made 7 of the 8 finals

• Tag rugby year 4 (2 teams) – Plate winners and Shield runners-up

• London Youth Games Boys’ Football – Joint 13th

• London Youth Games Girls’ Football - Joint 5th

                                                                  

Sport Relief 2016

We had a whole-school effort for Sport Relief on Friday 18th March 2016. The challenge was an obstacle race with a twist - tied to a friend.

Notable individual and group fundraising efforts include (in no particular order):

• Class 6W
• Zak Thake
• Teddy Wollard
• The staff cake sale
• Mrs Wyer
• Class 5Z
• Seb Lewis
• Niamh Pridie
• Frederick Cooper
• Lexi Attewell
• Sophie Lucas
• Holly Robins
• Florence Cooper
• William Mead
• Maya Bryan
• Chloe Kelly
• Grace Horne

We would like to thank all the pupils, staff, parents and sponsors for supporting our activity this week. Top marks to Mr Stanley for the organisation of the event. Final total: £1,476.67.

Assembly

It was a very busy assembly today.

Mr Woodford did some exercise to launch our Sport Relief activities.

After burning some calories he then judged the entries in the staff bake-off.

Mrs Mordew's entry

We would like to congratulate everyone who has achieved housepoint certificates this week

And we have a lovely big bottle for our Hearing Dogs collection. Can we fill it up? Loose change can be taken into class or put in the bottle at the Office Window

loose change for Hearing Dogs

London Youth Games - boys' football

On Wednesday 9th March the UJS boys' football team went to Crystal Palace to play in the London Youth Games football tournament. The boys were representing the borough as Havering Hurricanes.

UJS boys represent Havering

We were put into a group of four teams. In our first match we drew 1-1. Then in our second match we played Kingston and drew that match 0-0. Finally, we played Chelsea, and won that 3-0. In our group we finished joint first, but came second on goal difference.

We went through to the next round and were put into another gruop of four teams. In our first match in the group we lost 2-0. We drew the next march, and lost the last one.

Michael Tarbuck - 6R


The team were supported by staff, parents and Governors. Mr Fitzgerald, in a dual role of Governor and Grandad said: 'the boys played as a team, kept their shape and were aware of their own and others' positions. They played all of their games with a great team spirit, but made one or two errors which cost them overall. It was a wonderful day out for the boys, they were a pleasure to be with. The team were well behaved, respectful and polite, and coped very well with the chaos on public transport that day.'

The Owl and the Pussycat

Class 3C perform Edward Lear's poem.

Translating poetry

As part of poetry week, I translated a poem from English to Mandarin.

Selina Lu - 5Z

Celebration & Poetry Assembly

 What a busy assembly today! Here are some photographic highlights; performances of some of this week's poetry can be seen on the Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Mr Ansell performed some brilliant Michael Rosen poems 

- ask your child about 'Beans' and 'the Torch'

200 Housepoints by March is a major achievement. We were delighted to award three certificates this morning.

Sixteen children have achieved an impressive 100 Housepoints

Our amazing football teams have had a great week representing Havering at the London Youth Games

A talented young guitarist received a Merit in his exam

The swimmers had a great week in the pool

Year Six performed TS Eliot's 'Macavity: The Mystery Cat'

Year Five perform as a group

Year Four classes performed a verse each

Talking Turkeys

5S perform Benjamin Zephaniah's 'Talking Turkeys' as part of Poetry Week

On The Ning Nang Nong

Class 3GM perform Spike Milligan's poem as part of the UJS Poetry Week.

At the River

Performance poetry with Val Bloom

Poetry Week @ UJS

Poet Val Bloom is in school today as part of our Poetry Week.

We've all learnt some Jamaican Patois, and performed some of Val's work with her.

Year 5 & 6 then moved into the library for smaller group workshops.

More information about Val can be found on her website: http://valeriebloom.co.uk/about/bio/


Come back to this page for regular updates during the week.

Rotary shoebox gifts

Before Christmas we filled shoeboxes of gifts for children and families in need around the world.

Mr Ansell launched the shoebox appeal with an assembly.

Shoebox Assembly

Rotarians George Larkey and Geoff Furzland attended the Christmas Concert and thanked everyone for making the gifts.

Presenting the gifts

The boxes are filled with many useful items and toys which Rotary will send to children in need  from different parts of the world.

Mr Larkey returned with his colleagues Terry Monk and Colin Davies to start the 80+ boxes on their journey. The boxes containing gifts, toys and useful items are being shipped overseas.

Gifts to the world from UJS

Mr Woodford, aided by representatives from Year 6, handed the boxes over to the local Rotarians who will forward them to the team that ships them overseas. The President and members of the Rotary Club of Hornchurch and Upminster said 'we would like to thank all the UJS children and families for supporting the scheme and spreading joy around the world.'

Celebration Assembly

Celebration Assembly 26 February 2016

Well done to all of these children for their excellent work. These are the children who shared their learning in assembly today and we hope to share this with you via our Blog each week!

Year 5 have been working with the London Borough of Havering to investigate the air quality around the school. They placed Nitrogen Dioxide tubes around the main streets and the park of Upminster. These tubes measured the air pollution.

They also looked at different types of lichens as they indicate air quality. Lichens are a cross between fungus and algae.

After 8 weeks the Nitrogen Dioxide tubes were analysed and they were used to produce a map to show pollution around the school. To improve the pollution around the school it was suggested that we have more plant containers in front of our school.

The children also created leaflets and posters about air pollution. You can see some of the posters in the photo. You can also see the banner that was created using the children's posters. Our school won the competition for the whole of the London Borough of Havering and Aaryan and Isabelle's posters was chosen as the best overall! Fantastic!!

By working on this project the Year 5s have been supporting our School Vision by learning about 'the world around us' and about our 'community'.

Year 3 children shared the vividly colourful rainforest art work and Year 5 shared their Clarice Cliff clay containers. Year 5 will be using these for their World War II Victory Party later in the term.

 Today we also announced our winning success at the Six Nations rugby tournament at Oakfields. That's a big trophy - I think we are going to need a larger trophy cabinet. Well done to all those who took part.

These children all received certificates for passing their music exams. Very well done!

6R have been learning about sequences in gymnastics and have created a video showcase. Also, the video was produced and edited by a pupil in the class - Christopher. Well done everyone - lots of our School Values in action here! (Unfortunately, the video is too large to upload to this Blog).

Year 4 have two classes to share next week. I hear we may be getting some video footage from 4J?

Tag rugby champions

Upminster Junior School had a Six Nations rugby competiton. We played as England. Our first match was against Oakfields - it was six to them and six to us. Then we played three other schools and won them all.

UJS Tag Rugby team 2016

There was some excellent opposition, overall we won with 21 points. This is the third time that UJS have won this tournament. We are delighted to keep the trophy for another year.

Robbie Lee-Weedon - Year 6