: Blog items
Date: 30th Apr 2024 @ 9:36am
As another week races by, it is now chance to reflect on just how much we have managed to fit into this time! Once again, the Year 5 children have worked really hard and with excellent resilience, energy and enthusiasm. Well done to them all!
In Maths, we have been focused on finding and calculating angles on a straight line and around a point. We also practised the language of clockwise and anticlockwise as we took part in some drills which involved us following directions to move North, East, South, West and everything in between. Not only that, a Quiz Quiz Trade activity allowed us to cement our angles understanding and apply our knowledge alongside our friends with support and coaching where needed.
In English, we have been exploring environmental awareness using our focus picturebook, ‘The Paperbag Prince’. The children have been using modal verbs and cohesive devices (such as conjunctions and fronted adverbials) as they have written descriptive paragraphs about a toxic wasteland before then progressing on to writing a letter expressing their outrage to the local council.
We are well underway with our brass instrument lessons with Mrs Hughes from Sefton Music Service. Our first few sessions have been familiarising with our new instruments, whether trumpet, baritone or trombone. We have also enjoyed some old favourites including the Forbidden Rhythm game where we all know, “Don’t play this one back!”
Enjoy the bank holiday weekend, Year 5! See you back in class on Tuesday 7th May!
Reminders:
-Homework continues to be set via Mirodo (as usual) for this week and spellings will continue to be set via Google Classroom.
Date: 22nd Apr 2024 @ 4:37pm
The children enjoyed celebrating ‘Earth Day’, they listened to the story ’10 things I can do to help my world’. They then collected litter from around the school grounds and we discussed ways we can help our environment.
We have also continued to enjoy exploring our theme ‘Under the Sea’, we listened to the story ‘Commotion in the Ocean’. We loved listening to all of the rhyming words and discussing all of the different creatures that live in the sea. We have also enjoyed looking at a variety of objects around the classroom and deciding if they will sink or float? We were surprised to notice that just because an object is big it does not mean it will sink!
Our Catterpillars are now in their Cocoons / Crysalis and we are patiently waiting to see what happens next.
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Bevin, Mrs Molloy and the Nursery team
Reminders:
Friday 24th May – Break up for half term.
Monday 3rd June – Return to Nursery.
Date: 21st Apr 2024 @ 8:23pm
And, just like that, we are in our final term of the year! It has been truly a pleasure to see all the children return to school with exciting stories of their Easter adventures! We cannot wait to see what this term has in store for us!
In English, we started our new text, ‘The Last Wolf’ by Mini Grey, and were intrigued to learn that this was certainly not your average Little Red Riding Hood story, it was one with a twist! To help us predict what happens later in the story, we first had to investigate some STAR vocabulary; extinct and endangered, this helped us make sensible, educated predictions about what the story has in store for us. After, we worked on writing a list of rules for Red Riding Hood using contractions to improve our writing. Next week, we will focus on adding the suffixes -er and -est to adjectives to compare later using them for descriptions of the different characters in the story.
Our Maths topic this term is Fractions, and we took this week to connect our learning back to Year 1, building on our prior knowledge, and recognising half whilst simultaneously using the ½ symbol. This week we focused on finding half of given amounts as well as half of given shapes. Next week, we will first look at half in terms of a clock as well as identifying and finding ¼ whilst using the corresponding symbols to match.
In Geography, we connected our learning back to previous topics and Year 1 and reminded ourselves of the 7 continents and the corresponding 5 oceans. This will give us a firm basis to build on when we begin to look at our own coast and beaches and the changes that have occurred overtime.
In Music, we had to say goodbye to the wonderful Miss Dillworth who finished off her fantastic lessons with a wonder practice of our upcoming song for our potential future performance. After, this we also learnt about a fanfare, and how, using tuned and untunes instruments you could build up your fanfare in a group.
We completed 13 laps of our field over the course of the week, in support of the London Mini Marathon. Working together to cheer each other on, we all felt a sense of accomplishment when the last person crossed the finish line!
If you would like to complete extra Maths practise at home, please use this link to access free workbooks covering topics from our Maths learning this year:
https://whiteroseeducation.com/parent-pupil-resources/maths/free-downloads#download
As well as this, there are lots of additional resources on the Learning from Home section on the school website.
Have a wonderful weekend, Year 2!
Reminders;
- There will be a mufti day next Friday as part of the school’s efforts in Uganda, donations of clothes, toys and pencil cases will be greatly appreciated.
- PE days continue to be a Monday and Thursday.
Date: 21st Apr 2024 @ 12:03pm
What a wonderful and busy first week back. It was lovely to see all the children back in and happy to see their friends and teachers.
In Maths, we have been exploring the denominators of unit fractions. From Year 2, the children know about halves, quarters and thirds and are now looking at fractions with other denominators. Children understand that a fraction can be seen as part of a whole and that to find a unit fraction, they divide the whole into equal parts. They then were able to identify the role of the denominator, appreciating that this shows how many equal parts the whole has been divided into. This step explores unit fractions only, with the focus being on the denominator.
‘Journey’ by Aaron Becker is our new English writing book this term. The children were shocked to learn that it is a wordless picture book and they will be creating the story together by looking at the illustrations. To begin the children made predictions about what the story could be about using the cover and the blurb. We were introduced to the protagonist and studied the first two pages, focusing closely on how the author depicted her. We used our thesauruses to find synonyms of sad.
Our History and Art topics align with this term as we focus on the Ancient Egyptians. In History, we used our circle map to first write down anything we already knew about the Egyptians. We worked together to find where the Ancient Egyptians are placed on our class History timeline, and we discovered that the Ancient Egyptian timeline runs parallel to the British Stone Age through to the Iron Age. We moved on to exploring the characteristic features of Ancient Egypt, recognising, and comparing these features to modern day. We look forward to continuing our Egyptian journey and delving further into one of the most colourful ancient civilizations next week.
In Science, we became true ‘Rock stars’ as we started our new topic ‘Rocks and Soils’ this term. We had a fantastic time making systematic and careful observations using magnifying glasses. From our observations, we could compare and group different kinds of rocks based on their appearance and simple physical properties.
With 2.6 miles to compete over the week, we took to the field each day to complete 13 laps in support of the London Mini Marathon. We showed true resilience and determination as we motivated one another to cross the finish line.
If you would like to complete extra Maths practice at home, please use this link to access free workbooks covering topics from our Maths learning this year:
https://whiteroseeducation.com/parent-pupil-resources/maths/free-downloads%23download
Super work this week Year 3! Enjoy your weekend and we look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 😊
Date: 18th Apr 2024 @ 8:24pm
Welcome to the Summer Term! It was great to welcome back the Year 5 children after very varied and exciting activities during the time off that were great to hear about. This week, we achieved so much and really did pick up where we left off. Here are just a few highlights…
A particularly enjoyable and memorable event this week was the #kNOwKnifeCrime campaign run which took place on Wednesday morning. Schools from across Sefton participated in a relay event from school to school where each were handed the ‘bleed control kit baton’ before taking it to the next school. We were so proud to have runners from Year 5 and Year 6 completing the run from Trinity St. Peter’s to Formby High School and the atmosphere and spirit created by all pupils as Freshfield Primary arrived to TSP with the baton was a joy to see. Well done to all involved – raising much needed funds and awareness for the most worthy of causes!
In English, we have commenced our new focus book for this half term. It is titled ‘The Paperbag Prince’ by Colin Thompson. Before reading even the first page, we did a lot of work exploring the upcoming themes and content of this picturebook. Much of this linked to the environment and the importance of reducing both pollution and waste on our planet. To unpick this further, we watched several videos, including David Attenborough’s Blue Planet, which showed the horrors of plastic waste in the ocean and the detrimental effects that this is having on marine life. This led to many passionate discussions and many thinking skills were used as we reflected using green thinking hats and also completed a Diamond 9 model to help further guide our reasoning. We look forward to getting stuck into this book from next week!
Our Maths work has focused on measuring angles with a protractor and a particularly fun lesson involved measuring and checking different sized angles that we had drawn onto our own tables alongside our shoulder partners. Accuracy was the key and this led to many dojo points being awarded too! Next week’s Maths will further focus on angles, including reflex angles as well as recognising angles on straight lines and angles around a point.
In RE, we have focused on different world religions. Linked to our British Values of mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths, we explored the key beliefs and customs of the five major religions in the world. Those being: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism. The children enjoyed discussing each religion and further applied their understanding of the values that are most meaningful to their believers.
Have a brilliant weekend, Year 5 - I look forward to seeing you on Monday!
Reminders:
-Year 5 PE lessons will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week for this half term. Please ensure that your child attends school in their full PE kit on these days.
-Please also note that homework has been uploaded as usual to Mirodo as it will be each Friday throughout this term. As previously, the homework will be set each Friday and should be completed on or before the following Wednesday.
-Weekly spellings have also been uploaded to Google Classroom, which will be tested next Friday (26th).
Date: 18th Apr 2024 @ 8:18pm
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Our final term in primary school has officially commenced!
As the SATs near, we have continued to enhance our reading comprehension this week as we have focused on particular skills such as identifying the genre; giving evidence for personality traits and retrieving specific vocabulary.
As mathematicians, Mr King’s group have been working on measurement and identifying missing angles in various shapes. Mrs Martin’s group have started work on data handling, looking at different graphs such as pictograms. It has become extremely clear to the class that to solve most Y6 reasoning problems, we need to have the knowledge of mathematical facts to then make connections and implement a strategy. Therefore, it is very important that we are taking the time to learn the facts on our knowledge organisers.
Perhaps the highlight of the week has been the kNOwKnifeCrime relay event that has taken place across the whole of Sefton this week - ahead of the London Marathon this weekend. On Monday, we re-watched the assembly by the kNOwKnifeCrime charity; this was led by Laura Hughes, sister of Colin McGinty, who was stabbed to death in 2001. Their goal has been to raise enough money to raise bleed control kits or packs for all Sefton schools with the conclusion of their fundraising being a relay between 80+ schools across Southport, Formby, Crosby, Bootle and Maghull.
This week, all the children made posters in the charity’s colours and even had a visit from Laura herself on Tuesday afternoon, where we were able to give her a standing ovation. Wednesday was the event itself, which saw Freshfield Primary children running to our school to pass over a bleed control kit for us to then take to Formby High School. Upon arrival at our local secondary school, we were greeted by a cheering crowd and choir. It was incredible! Well done to the whole Year 6 class; each one had an important role to play, whether it be running, creating banners or welcoming Freshfield Primary onto our playground. Some of our children were also able to be ambassadors for the kNOwKnifeCrime charity by explaining its relevance and goals on BBC Radio Merseyside!
Even though only a small group could run to Formby High School, all of the class has been running this week as we have been taking part in the annual mini-marathon. On Friday, we were able to conclude our laps on the field…a successful end to the week!
The children are aware of their homework for this week and their weekly spellings have been set on Google Classroom as usual. Mr King’s group have the task of learning as many Y5/6 statutory spellings as possible! Please do also encourage your child to also work through the practice assessments set on SATs Companion.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Date: 18th Apr 2024 @ 5:13pm
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We have had a fantastic week back in Year 1!
We began our week with a new Science topic on Plants! We started by exploring a variety of plants, using our prior knowledge to identify some familiar plants. We discussed our favourite flowers and trees, and had a look at some more unusual plants. We sorted lots of images into plants and not plants, which allowed us to address any misconceptions. We are lucky enough to have a beautiful garden of plants in Year 1, which we explored as part of our learning, we were so amazed with their growth over the Easter holidays! The bright colours make our area look fantastic!
In Art this week we used various resources to practice colour mixing. We learned all about the primary colours and experimented mixing blue, red and yellow tissue paper, paint, coloured crayons and more. We created our own pieces of Art work using colour mixing to see which other colours we could create, it was lots of fun! We then explored this skill further by practising colour mixing throughout the week during Continuous Provision.
We discovered the meaning of Capacity and Volume in Maths this week, as we continued our measuring unit. This topic was excellent for working practically and using our estimating skills. We began by exploring different sized containers, with a focus on understanding the vocabulary – Capacity and Volume. We had a brilliant understanding of this, and quickly put that into practice by experimenting with water. We progressed our learning later in the week to work with various non-standard units of measuring such as sand, water and cubes. We discussed which containers we expected to have the greatest capacity, and compared the volume of different sized jugs and bowls. This has been a really great topic and we have enjoyed using our prior knowledge of non-standard units of measurement to effectively explore new mathematical concepts.
We had an extra special History lesson on Thursday, we introduced our new topic all about Toys! We are going to be exploring toys of the past, as part of our Children then and now unit. We were extremely excited to unveil which familiar toys were hiding in the feely bag, and were amazed to find some very unfamiliar toys were in there too. We used our enquiry skills to work out which toys were from the past and which toys were from the present. Following this we even had the chance to try out some of the old toys, and can’t wait to share all of our learning with our parents and grandparents, we have lots of questions to ask!
Enjoy a great weekend everyone! I look forward to seeing you all on Monday.
Date: 17th Apr 2024 @ 6:02pm
Welcome back after the Easter break, we hope you all had a lovely time off. The children have enjoyed talking about what they have been up to over the last two weeks.
The children have also spent some time learning all about ‘Eid’, the children learnt that Eid Al-Fitr means ‘the feast of breaking the fast’, which is a celebration that happens when Ramadan ends. We also talked about how we know that Eid Al-Fitr is here when we see a new crescent moon in the sky. The children have also enjoyed recalling previous learning about Ramadan.
The children started to notice that lots of the trees have started to get blossom. We talked about the different changes we notice across the four seasons. The children them had a go at creating their own watercolour painting of pink cherry blossom. Well done everyone!
On Wednesday we all got onto the coach and off we went to Knowsley Safari Park. We enjoyed a guided tour around the park, learning different facts about the animals. We then watched the sea lion show and met two sea lions called Arthur and Louis, who amazed us with their tricks. We then made our way to the Birds of prey display where we saw eagles, hawks, vultures and owls. What an amazing show this was! We then ended our day with a hidden habitats workshop where the children learnt all about the habitats that some of the animals live in. What a fantastic day we had. Reception you were amazing, we are so proud of you all.
Reception took part in a Mini marathon in support of the London marathon. We all ran around our outdoor area throughout the week to complete our laps. Well done everyone.
Reminders
Wednesday 24th April - EYFS profile meeting - 3:20pm in the Reception classroom
Friday 26th April - Mufti day - Donations for Uganda
Date: 17th Apr 2024 @ 12:57pm
Welcome back to our first week of the summer term and we hope you all had a lovely Easter break.
This week we have loved being back with our friends having lots of fun! We have also enjoyed starting our new theme ‘Under the Sea’ we began by discussing what the children thought lived under the sea and how they know these things. The children have also enjoyed making hand-print crabs in our creative area.
They also enjoyed talking about their experiences of going to the beach and paddling in the sea. The children particularly enjoyed using blue, green and white paint to explore the different colours they could make, this will be the fabulous back ground for our under the sea display.
The children have also enjoyed running laps of the big field as part of our ‘Mini Marathon’ event.
We hope the sun shines over the weekend!
Mrs Bevin, Mrs Molloy and the Nursery team
Reminders:
26th April – Mufti Day – Donations for Uganda
Date: 16th Apr 2024 @ 11:34am
What a fantastic first week back we have had! It was so lovely to see all the children back and enjoying spending time with their friends, excited to hear all about the new things we will be learning this term.
This term, our focus turns to looking at different churches in RE and considering if all churches are the same. Through research, we discovered this week that not all church buildings look the same from the outside but some have similar features according to denomination. We also used religious vocabulary to names features of a church we already knew from visiting St Peter’s and Holy Trinity Church.
We have continued to develop our knowledge of decimals in Maths. We now understand that when dividing, numbers can be shifted into the tenths and hundredths and we must show this by using a zero and decimal place before the number. We also recognised how to make a whole using tenths and hundreds. Next week, we will identify the fractions for a half, quarter and three quarters, we identified the correlating decimal and rounded decimals to the nearest whole.
Our new focus book ‘Where the Forest Meets the Sea’ by Jeannie Baker connects to our Geography and Art topics this term and is full of beautiful illustrates to showcase the wonders of a rainforest. We have explored the sounds associated with a rainforest and used descriptive language to outline what our senses could see and hear. Later, we took sentences from the book and changed the pronouns to ensure there was a varying range of pronouns used. Next week, we will be creating our own glossary of words in the book to unpick STAR vocabulary and consider the use of tense when describing the rainforest tin the past, present and future.
The classroom filled with excitement and determination to achieve a BINGO this week, as we explored a range of books from our reading corner in order to find different criteria on our bingo cards and to discover an interesting read to start the term.
In Geography, we focused on identifying the location of rainforests on a world map. We first identified the line of the equator and learnt that the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn are located above and below the equator line and it is within this zone that the rainforests are located. Our Science topic surrounding living things started with the use of classification charts, as we classified living things by considering which of the statements we could agree were associated with each plant or animal.
Using the artist Henri Rousseau as inspiration, we explored his famous painting ‘Tiger in a tropical storm’ and discussed the techniques used in the image. With our sights set on making the animals in the forest scene ‘pop’, we made our colour choices and began making the parrots drawn in our forest scenes stand out amongst the over growth. In PE, we began to take on the sport of Baseball, learning what the game entails and the names of the bases, key players and batting style we need to use.
With 13 laps to complete over the course of the week, we took to the field each day to complete laps in support of the London Mini Marathon. Whether we chose to run, walk, skip and jog, we ensured we motivated each other to cross the line and never give up.
If you would like to complete extra Maths practise at home, please use this link to access free workbooks covering topics from our Maths learning this year: https://whiteroseeducation.com/parent-pupil-resources/maths/free-downloads#download
It has been so lovely to have you back, Year 4! Have a restful weekend.
Date: 27th Mar 2024 @ 7:07pm
The Easter break has arrived!
Despite being a short week, we still managed to teach plenty of the curriculum…and beyond! This included two excellent workshops on Monday on lifesaving skills and an introduction to sign language. The latter was particularly interested as we had previously watched a news story on CBBC Newsround about sign language lessons being integrated into primary education in the future.
It was a very close 'class vote' to choose our next class novel..especially after the success of "The Final Year"! After looking at the front covers, reading the blurbs and then finally the first page of each potential book, we decided on "The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh" by Helen Rutter.
As computer scientists, we enjoyed some coding practice on Wednesday through our ‘Computing Day’. We explored the game, Crossy Roads, thinking carefully about its features and what makes it a good game. We were then introduced to the iOs app, Hopscotch to allow us to explore some of our STAR vocabulary: event, command, loop, random and range. Following this, we had apply our knowledge by using the app to create our own version of Crossy Roads. All the children were able to do this successfully, with some even managing to set various levels of difficulty and additional levels for their game!
In PE, our yoga and swimming sessions continued. ‘Well done’ to so many of the class, who also opted to participate in the trials for our tag rugby team on Tuesday morning. We think that is the quickest a large group of children have ever grasped the rules of the game!
On Thursday, we attended the whole-school Easter Service at Holy Trinity Church, where we were able to watch the Year 3 pupils perform the Easter story. We also enjoying joining in with several hymns and songs - which we have been practising each week during Sing and Praise - including ‘He Lives in You’ from The Lion King and 'Jerusalem' from The Nativity. The children thought so highly of the service that they sang these songs on the walk back to school!
The children are aware of their homework tasks and please recall that additional tasks have been set on SATs Companion for over the Easter break. The virtual classroom has also been attached to this blog. Please be aware we are not suggesting all of these resources are to be utilised and that the children's mental health is always the priority. However, as some parents and children have asked for additional resources to support them over the Easter break, we are sharing with all in case any other children would like to further revise over the holiday period.
We hope you all have a lovely Easter break!
Date: 27th Mar 2024 @ 5:00pm
Wow! Another term is complete! What a great Spring term we have had in Year 1, I am so proud of how hard you have all been working. We have made lots more memories and learnt lots of new skills!
We began our final week with a new Maths topic on Mass and Volume. Within this topic, we started by focusing on our STAR vocabulary, learning the meaning of words such as heavier, lighter, greater than and less than, as well as mass and weight. We had a great understanding of heavier and lighter, which was highlighted as we illustrated our ideas of heavy and light objects. We came up with some fantastic examples, for example, the Titanic, small cubes, trees, humans, and classroom furniture. We used measuring scales to have a go at measuring some objects so that we could physically see how the balancing scales work. We had a brilliant understanding of this and shared lots of great ideas as we discussed them as a class. I look forward to continuing this topic in the summer term.
In Geography this week we travelled to our final destination on our trip around the world! We found ourselves in Antarctica, the coldest continent of them all. We explored lots of interesting features of Antarctica and were amazed by some of the fascinating facts. Some of our favourites were that people often only visit for periods to complete research, there isn’t much to do there apart from seeing the animals, it very rarely rains and it is classed as a desert!
We took part in lots of Easter fun this week, getting into the holiday spirit. We got stuck into an exciting Easter egg hunt around our school field, where we ran around to find different coloured eggs that we later decorated with our own designs. We used our creative skills to complete some Easter crafts that we couldn't wait to share with you all at home! Our baking skills were put to the test as we made some yummy chocolate nests, we focused on teamwork during this activity and we took turns creating our tasty treat. We have been utilising all of our Art and DT skills to create beautiful cards and Easter baskets to bring home for you all to see. We really hope you love all of our creations!
Sadly, this term we are saying goodbye to our beloved Mrs Millington, I wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Mrs Millington for all that she has done for our Year 1 class. We are going to miss you very very much and will cherish the memories we have all made with you this year! We wish you lots of good luck in your next role, we know you will be amazing!
Have a brilliant Easter holiday everyone, you all deserve a lovely break and a restful 2 weeks. Thank you very much for all of your ongoing support, I look forward to seeing you all in the summer term, ready to make some more wonderful memories. Enjoy!
Date: 27th Mar 2024 @ 2:46pm
The Spring term has flown by! Well done to all the children for their consistent hard work and determination over the past few months. They have embraced new learning opportunities with enthusiasm and resilience. Our classroom has been filled with lots of laughter, learning and singing this term.
We concluded our Design and Technology unit by designing and creating fantastic eCharm pouches. Ensuring we understood the key features of a pouch, with consideration for the overall theme and the user. We used a template when cutting and were able to select from and use a wider range of tools and equipment needed to complete the task accurately. We finished by evaluating our ideas and products against our original design criteria and considered the views of others to improve their work.
We had lots of fun as we became keyboard adventures during our Computing unit this term. In an age of touch screens, we must still learn important mouse/trackpad skills, plus typing quickly and correctly. We were introduced to the QWERTY keyboard, how it got its name, and why it is arranged in that order. We enjoyed testing our typing speed on a computer keyboard versus an iPad keyboard. Of course, we also had a super time playing different typing games that helped to improve our typing speed.
We had been preparing for our Easter service for the past few weeks. On the last day of term, we showed the rest of the school alongside our family and friends just how hard we had been working to make it an incredible service. Our singing, acting and dancing were incredible, and it was a truly wonderful way to end this term.
Before heading home for a well deserved break, we had a visit from the easter bunny who had us all up dancing and singing. We left for Easter break with our hearts full of gratitude and tummies full of easter eggs.
We hope you have a peaceful Easter and look forward to seeing all your smiling faces next term.
Happy Easter from team Year 3 😊
Date: 27th Mar 2024 @ 1:25pm
Wow, what an amazing term we have had. Reception you are all amazing!
This week learnt all about how people celebrate Easter and the children talked about what they were doing over the weekend. The children then made their own Easter nests and took part in an Easter hunt. On Wednesday we went over to S.t Peter's church for our Easter bonnet 'WOW' service. The children took part in a parade to show off their amazing bonnets that they had made. The children sang three Easter songs with their friends in Nursery and three of the children said an Easter prayer. Thank you to Anne and Caroline for a lovely service.
On Thursday, Reception had a very exciting visit from the Easter bunny! We could not believe our eyes! What fun we had.
I have attached a link for the Reception class Virtual classroom below to access learning related to next half terms themes.
We hope you all have a lovely Easter break and see you all soon!
Miss Dalley and the Reception team
Reminders:
Monday 15th April - Return to school
Date: 27th Mar 2024 @ 8:32am
A fun and typically busy (albeit shorter) week to bring an end our Spring Term!
In our English learning, we were extremely proud to write up the “top copy” of our biographies on Commander Chris Hadfield for our Author Books. Accompanied by some watercolour artwork, the children worked hard to present their work in the style of a biography whilst also ensuring that their handwriting was neat and showcased their best. After all the hard work actually writing was complete, the children were able to use their creativity to structure and organise their layout and paragraphs as they thought best. Very impressive - take a look at the picture above if you need further proof! We were also delighted that Chris himself took the time to “like” our work on Twitter/X!
In Maths, we have been focused on arithmetic practice and Easter related problem solving. After half term, we will move onto measuring angles using a protractor before progressing onto coordinates and translation of shapes and points.
The end of the week brought lots of Easter fun as we were paid a visit by the Easter bunny, which included plenty of dancing. We completed some fun Easter artwork too and the children also sang beautifully in the Key Stage 2 Easter Service led by Year 3.
A fitting end to the week with Easter just around the corner! The Year 5 children deserve an enormous amount of credit for all of their efforts throughout this term and we hope they enjoy and make the most of their well-deserved break. Wishing you all a safe and enjoyable time with your families. See you in the summer term!
Reminders:
-PE lessons next half term will take place every Wednesday and Thursday.
-There is no set Maths and English homework for the Easter break, however the Year 5 ‘Virtual Classroom’ has been updated and attached to this blog, which includes links to a variety of websites and resources. All pupils' individual passwords can be found on Google Classroom. Don't forget, there is also the ‘Practice’ section on Mirodo where the children can choose any topic they wish to practise for Maths, Reading, SPaG or Science.
-School re-opens on Monday 15th April.
Date: 26th Mar 2024 @ 5:10pm
And just like that, it is the end of the Spring Term!
On Monday, we got into the Easter theme creating our own unique Easter cards. We started by carefully looking at a few designs before creating our own interpretations of chicks to eggs! The Easter theme continued throughout the week with a fantastic, with a fantastic Easter egg hunt and a visit from one very cheeky bunny!
We finished off our DT projects on Tuesday and created some incredible Ferris Wheels, we are so proud of everyone’s hard work and determination in creating their wheels but most importantly we have been blown away by your superb teamwork skills, well done, Year 2!
We finished off our diaries on Wednesday and what fantastic pieces they were! We cannot wait to start our next book, The Last Wolf, by Mini Grey!
It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to the wonderful Miss Lunt who has supported us all throughout the last year. We will forever be grateful for help and kindness and wish you all the best in your new role as a counsellor for children.
From all of us here in Year 2, we hope you have a wonderful Easter break full of love and laughter. We cannot wait to see you in April!
Please don’t forget to utilise the Virtual Classroom attached to this blog!
Reminders
- Our PE days will not change in the summer term and will continue to be on a Monday and Thursday. Please ensure your child comes to school in their PE kits on these days.
- As we approach the summer months, please can we ask that your children come to school with a water bottle and where possible a cap.
- Children can, if they wish, wear the summer uniform when we come back. Please refer to our uniform policy for more information, should you need it.
Date: 25th Mar 2024 @ 10:32am
We the end of the Spring Term upon us, we spent some time reflecting on our fantastic achievements and our goings on this week.
This term, we have been working hard to consolidate our knowledges of our times tables ahead of the Year 4 Multiplication Check. We have found that we learn our times tables best through games such as Battle Ships, Monopoly and Top Trumps. We also found a great resource which enabled us to make times tables fortune tellers which meant we could continue to practise our times tables at break times and through the school day.
We have thoroughly enjoyed reading the story ‘When the Giant Stirred’ and took pride in immersing our own characters into the story this week. Applying our knowledge of fronted adverbials, dialogue and expressive language, we showcased our learning this term by re-writing the story with our own character in mind.
On Thursday morning the children were shocked to the Easter Bunny hopping around school. We had a fun time dancing along with the bunny and spreading some Easter cheer.
What a wonderful way to end the term by taking part in our Easter Service led by the fantastic Year 3 children. It was amazing to watch their performance and see their incredible acting and singing come to life. We did a great job supporting Year 3 with the lovely songs in our service and celebrating this wonderful time of the year.
Please find our updated virtual classroom attached to this blog to support optional Home Learning over the Easter holiday.
What an amazing term we have had, Year 4. Go make some incredible memories with your family and friends this Easter and we look forward to seeing you back on Monday 15th April. Best wishes from us all x
Reminders:
- School commences on Monday 15th April.
- Clarinet lessons continue in the Summer term.
- Year 4 PE lessons remain on Wednesday and Friday each week.
Date: 25th Mar 2024 @ 10:19am
We cannot believe we are finishing for the Easter holidays, we have had the best time this term learning new things and most of all having fun with all our friends!
On Wednesday it was our Easter Bonnet and WOW service. The children paraded to Church wearing their bonnets and enjoyed singing songs to their family and friends. Anne and Caroline also told the Easter story. Thank you both for your hard work.
We continued our learning all about Easter back at Nursery. The children enjoyed listening to the Easter story and talking about how they celebrate Easter at home. The children also learnt all about the significance of Hot cross buns, we talked about how the bun signifies the end of Lent and that the cross is to signify Jesus died on a cross. The children enjoyed tasting hot cross buns and singing along to the song ‘Hot Cross Buns’.
On Thursday morning the children were shocked to find two Easter Bunnies in our outdoor area, they played in the sand pit, climbed on the pirate ship and even rode on the bikes. They did leave behind a yummy Easter bunny for all of the children in Foundation Stage.
Please see or updated virtual classroom attached to this blog if you would like to explore any of the themes we will be exploring after the half term.
We wish you all a restful and enjoyable Easter. We can’t wait to see what the Summer term brings.
Well done Nursery!
Mrs Molloy, Mrs Bevin and the Nursery Team
Reminders:
Monday 15th April – Return to Nursery
Date: 24th Mar 2024 @ 9:12pm
And just like that, we finish our final full week of the Spring Term!
In Maths, we explored both weight and volume, starting the week by carefully measuring various items from around the classroom ensuring we were using the correct units, grams. After, we added weights together, to work out the total mass of various items which in turn allowed us to compare items using the terminology; heavier, lighter, and equal to. By the end of the week, we had begun to investigate volume in more detail. We compared various amounts describing and comparing them by stating whether they were full, nearly full, half full, nearly empty, and empty. We loved getting hands on for this working together carefully so not to spill the water!
In English, we began to plan for our final piece of writing, a diary entry written as if we were there during the blitz! We carefully discussed what we wanted to include in each paragraph and identified things that could be happening around us. To support us without writing further, we learnt about adverbs, and how they are used to describe verbs.
This week we had our penultimate recorder lesson, a lesson that will be sorely missed after the half term! This week we performed for our peers and demonstrated the skills we had developed over the past few weeks. We cannot wait for our final lesson, next week.
We loved our DT lessons this week, where we finally saw our creations and designs come to life. Working closely in teams, and using stiff cardboard, we carefully cut out the different pieces required to make our wheel and base. Using masking tape, we carefully constructed the main elements, which was a lot hard than it looked! Next week, we will connect the wheel and base before finally adding out pods to create the finished product. Watch this space!
From all of us here in Year 2, we hope you have a wonderful last weekend before half term begins!
Reminders:
- Year 2 will continue to work in the portable cabin until we return after Easter.
- The KS2 Easter Service (led by Year 3) will be at St. Peter’s Church at 9:20am on Thursday 28th March.
- Thursday 28th March is the end of term and a 1:00pm finish
Date: 23rd Mar 2024 @ 12:38pm
Another busy week in Year 3!
In Maths, we started looking at fractions. We reminded ourselves how to work out the numerator and denominator and the difference between a unit fraction and a non-unit fraction.
In English, we continue to work on our 'big write' using the key features of an information leaflet. We have thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Big Blue Whale’ this term and are looking forward to finding out what book we will be reading next term.
In RE, we retold the Easter story and created a flow map to sequence the events. We also learnt about the different symbols of Easter and what they represent. We enjoyed researching how countries around the world celebrate Easter. We were intrigued and loved learning about Ramadan, and how Muslims won't eat or drink during the hours of daylight. This is called fasting. Ramadan remembers the month the Qur'an (the Muslim holy book) was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
We took our Geography lesson outside this week as we learnt what a delta is. The children created a HUGE river of facts about the Nile, the delta and life in Alexandria. Well done Year 3!
To end the week we went on an 'eggciting' Easter Egg hunt! On the sound of the horn, we raced around finding tokens around the school to exchange for an Easter treat. We had a cracking time!
Reminders:
Thursday 28th March: Easter Service led by Y3 @ St Peter's Church 9.20 am.
Date: 21st Mar 2024 @ 4:51pm
The weeks are flying by, we can’t believe it’s nearly the end of term!
The children had their final visit from Caroline as part of our Lent programme. Caroline brought her friend Peter the palm tree to tell the children about what it was like on Palm Sunday. Caroline told the children about ‘the last supper’ and the children talked about what they would eat if it was their last supper. Caroline then talked to the children about the meaning of Easter and told them the Easter story. Thank you Caroline for another lovely session.
This week the children have enjoyed learning all about ‘Ramadan’ and the religion of ‘Islam’. The children discussed how followers of Islam are called Muslims, and that Muslims believe there is one true God called ‘Allah’. We also learnt that ‘Ramadan’ is a period of fasting not eating or drinking during daylight hours. The children also enjoyed looking at similarities and differences between the Muslim faith and the Christian faith, there were more than you would think!
The children have been practicing songs for the Easter Bonnet ‘WOW’ service next Wednesday and we can’t wait to perform them to all our family and friends.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend and see you next week.
Miss Dalley and the Reception team
Reminders:
Wednesday 27th March – FS Easter WOW Service and Easter Bonnet parade at St Peter’s Church at 2pm.
Thursday 28th March – Break up for the Easter holidays 1pm
Monday 15th April – Return to Reception
Date: 21st Mar 2024 @ 4:49pm
We have had another fantastic week in Year 1!
This week began with a focus on length and height. In Maths we started to explore length, by looking at how long and short a variety of objects are. We used STAR vocabulary such as Length, Height, Longer and Shorter to describe different familiar objects. We had a go at comparing the length of classroom objects such as books, pens, and natural resources. This allowed us to practice using our STAR vocabulary before moving on to measuring. Our next step was to measure the length and height of objects using non-standard units of measurement. We enjoyed measuring our height by using cubes, we estimated how many cubes tall we might be, and then tested it out, we were shocked at how tall we were! 29 cubes long! We then moved on to measure our favourite classroom toys and other resources using non-standard units of measurement such as paper clips, glue sticks and pens. Finally, we took our understanding of length and height and began measuring objects using standard units of measurement. We enjoyed this unit of work and demonstrated an excellent understanding of length and height.
In DT this week we completed our Puppets! We had so much fun during this project and are very proud of the skills we have developed over this half-term. We can’t wait to share our final products with you all!
To make the most of the wonderful weather this week, we explored our outside area this week as we planted more beautiful flowers, using our gardening skills to make our planting beds more colourful for the Spring! We demonstrated our SHINE values as we nurtured our outside by brushing the leaves and cleaning our most loved areas. We discussed how important it is to respect and care for our classroom environment and we did this with so much pride. We had so much fun taking part in continuous provision activities outside to enhance our learning throughout the week. We are so excited to explore the sunshine even more as the summer months begin!
Date: 21st Mar 2024 @ 10:30am
As the half term draws closer, let us take a look at some of this week’s highlights…
Coming to the end of our RE topic, we summarised the key Christian values of trust and forgiveness making the connection that Christians believe that they can trust Jesus. We recalled the events of Holy Week and Easter, before remembering incidents of betrayal in the Easter story, through the actions of Judas and in movies we like to watch.
It was time to start our story writing in English, to create our own versions of our focus text ‘When the Giant Stirred’. We began by planning the opening, build up, problem, resolution and ending to our stories and noting any dialogue we would expect our characters to have in each part of our story. We ensured we thought about the possible fronted adverbials we could use to help set the scene or time of day events were taking place and how we could use a range of nouns to make our writing more exciting to read. Each day, we ensured we wrote a chunk of our story to form a paragraph so our stories went on a slow and steady, yet detailed journey, from start to end.
This week in Maths, we have explored how to find fractions of given quantities or amounts using bar models to help us understand how many parts the number is split into and what amount is within each part. We then identified tenths on a place value chart and began to understand tenths as a decimal and fraction, noting the jump on the place value chart when we divide a one-digit number by 10 or 100.
Within our Guided Reading story ‘Ariki and the Island of Wonders’, Ariki is a young girl bored with her interminable lessons on waves and constellations. We were shocked by Ariki’s feelings towards learning about constellations, as we find them pretty cool.
We continue to shine in Mrs McArdle’s clarinet lessons! We now understand how to construct our clarinets and are building speed in doing so, the sounds we are producing are becoming more of a perfected tone and we are even incorporating a range of notes by moving our finger position on the instrument. Our History lessons have also been packed full of evidence hunting, as we focused on the push and pull factors that show reasoning for Saxon settlement and we uncovered the mystery of the empty grave in Sutton Hoo. This week we delved deeper into the story of how Christianity to Britain and it took about 70 years for English kings to give up pagan ways and become Christian.
There was only one way to end the week… with an Easter Egg Hunt! On the sound of the horn, we set off finding tokens around the school to exchange for an Easter treat!
Before we take on the last week, Year 4, have a wonderful weekend!
Date: 21st Mar 2024 @ 10:23am
Another busy week in Year 6!
In Maths, Mr King’s group have been revising how to find the perimeter and area of compound shapes, as well as how to find the area of triangles and parallelograms. Mrs Martin’s group have been focusing on angles – particularly how to use angles in terms of direction.
As scientists, we celebrated British Science Week and Brain Awareness Week by learning about the brain and how it can change over time. We learned that neurons are cells in the brain, which send signals within the brain and throughout our body. The signals tell us what to do, like to drink when we’re thirsty. We learned how groups of neurons make connections with each other when we learn something and how over time, our brains changed based on our experiences. We then drew these growing connections that are collectively known as the ‘connectome’. In our Reading sessions, we also learned about a range of scientists: Marie Maynard Daly, Charles Darwin and Alan Turing.
In Geography, we have been exploring the natural resources that are available on Earth and how they are distributed. There has been some lively debate about whether using non-renewable resources just because they are widely available at the moment or moving over to renewable resources, even if it is initially very expensive, is the best way to go. We have also looked at the impact on the environment of the choices made about which resources to use and it is fair to say that we have some strong opinions (and wonder why the generation in charge of decision making do not see things so clearly!).
PE has seen us continue with our yoga and swimming sessions while our Spanish lesson involved an assessment to see how much we have remembered over the last half-term.
To conclude the week, the children enjoyed taking part in their annual, 'Easter Egg Hunt'. This once again saw them running around the school grounds on the hunt for ticket numbers - which corresponded to eggs back in class. The even was also compèred by two rather large 'chicks'!
The children are aware of their homework for this week and their weekly spellings have been set on Google Classroom as usual. Please do also encourage your child to also work through the practice assessments set on SATs Companion.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Date: 20th Mar 2024 @ 5:13pm
Well done Nursery another busy week!
This week the children enjoyed their ‘Godly Play’ session with Caroline. She talked to the children about Holy week and the meaning of Easter and they listened to the Easter story. A big thank you to Caroline for all you do and the children have thoroughly enjoyed you visiting. We are all very much looking forward to our Easter WOW service next week, don’t forget your Easter Bonnets!
We have continued to enjoy learning about Spring and new life, so you can only imagine how excited they were when on Monday three Lambs came to join us in our outdoor area for the day. The children were able to observe and feed them and they listened to two of the children who talked to us all about the lambs that live on their farm. The children have also enjoyed talking about when they have visited a farm and what they saw there. We have also played a game of guess the baby, where the children have had to match the different animals to their babies!
Well done Nursery!
Mrs Molloy, Mrs Bevin and the Nursery Team
Reminders:
Wednesday 27th March – FS Easter WOW Service and Easter Bonnet parade at St Peter’s Church at 2pm.
Thursday 28th March – Break up for the Easter holidays 1pm
Monday 15th April – Return to Nursery