: Blog items
Date: 23rd Feb 2024 @ 3:35pm
We hope everyone had a lovely half term and are ready for the fun that lies ahead as we run up to Easter.
For RE this week, Caroline kindly came into join us for Godly play and told us a story ‘The Wise man and the Foolish man’. This taught us God’s message that ‘If you listen to me and practice what I say, then you will do really well in life.’ Thank you for a lovely session Caroline.
In forest school, Reception listened for environmental sounds and signs of Spring in our surroundings. We then enjoyed playing a game of ‘1,2,3,where are you?’ What fun we have had!
We began the week with the transformation of our role play into a safari jeep with explorer resources, as this half term we will be learning all about ‘Animals from around the world’. This week we began our journey in Africa, the children looked where Africa was on the world map and then learnt about the animals that live there. We particularly enjoyed exploring the different habitats that the animals live in. We can’t wait to see where our learning takes us next week!
What a busy and exciting first week back! Enjoy the weekend and we will see you Monday.
Miss Dalley and the Reception Team
Reminders:
Wednesday 28th February WOW Service at St Peter’s Church – Celebrating Mother’s Day
Wednesday 6th March – Mother’s Day Present Room
Thursday 7th March – World Book Day
Date: 21st Feb 2024 @ 9:35pm
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What an incredibly busy first week back, full of excitement!
When we arrived at school on Monday, we experienced a range of unusual sounds. Working together, we discussed and identified that the sound was coming from a school of whales and were amazed at how they communicated. After exploring the front cover of our first story, ‘The Morning I Met a Whale’ by Michael Murphurgo, we predicted what we thought the story would be about as well as its genre and book type. Before we started to read, we decided we wanted to learn more about whales, writing detailed letters to our chosen expert Sir David Attenborough to find out more information. Next week we switch books for a short period looking at the ‘Big Blue Whale’ by Nicola Davies.
We also focused on this text in our Reading sessions, exploring the interesting vocabulary within the text and how the author used this to create suspense and an interesting narrative. We compared this fictional story to an interesting article about three whales that got stuck in the River Thames. We focused on our comprehension skills in this session, retrieving information from the text.
In Maths, we have been continuing with measurement using mm, cm & m. Exploring equivalent lengths, comparing lengths and adding and subtracting lengths. Next week, we will be introduced to perimeter for the first time. We will learn that perimeter is the distance around the outside of a closed 2-D shape.
We explored the River Nile this week in our new Geography topic for this term. We began this topic by working in groups to assemble a jigsaw to reveal a picture of the River Nile as seen from space. We then discussed what we know already about the River Nile. Using ‘true or false’ statements we used our thumbs to indicate whether we thought the statements were true or not. The answers were never revealed so we were challenged to use our River Nile eBook and atlas to find out the answers to the statements. We are looking forward to learning lots of exciting facts about the River Nile this term.
Mrs Hughes was back this week for another incredible drumming lesson, it has been, and always will be, one of our favourite lessons. We continued to work together to develop our tempo and rhythm to create a fantastic piece. We cannot wait to see how we develop over the next five weeks!
In RE, we started our new topic, ‘Exploring the Sadness and Joy of Easter’. We had to first identify where the Easter story fell within the bible and also in relation to ‘The Big Frieze’. We focused this week on ‘Palm Sunday’ and looked at how and why we celebrate as we do we also enjoyed learning about how other cultures around the world celebrate ‘Palm Sunday.’ We identified that the Easter story related to the ‘Salvation’ part of the ‘Big Frieze’. This linked closely to our Collective Worship focus of ‘Joy’ and allowed us to fill our own jars full of joy thinking carefully about everything and everyone who brings us happiness.
Have a fantastic weekend Year 3!
Date: 21st Feb 2024 @ 8:06pm
Our ‘Spring 2’ half-term has officially commenced!
In Maths, Mr King’s group have reviewed their assessment papers from last half-term and now started a new topic on ratio. Mrs Martin’s group have worked hard on converting between fractions, decimals and percentages. In our Reading groups, all the children have used song lyrics throughout the week to decipher meaning and answer various inference questions. They seemed to really enjoy this!
In Art, the children have started a new topic and this week focused on experimental mark marking. This was a good opportunity for the children to revise last year’s topic on the Mayans as they explored expressive drawing techniques from this period before creating some of their own.
As athletes, the children loved starting our tag rugby sessions, which initially saw us focusing on our passing and catching skills. This was perhaps trickier than expected as many of the children had never held a rugby ball before; however, by the end of the session all the children were able to show a good understanding of the basics. They were able to pass down a line while still moving at a good speed. Well done, Year 6!
A special ‘well done’ to those children who competed in the athletics tournament at Greenbank High School on Tuesday. We were placed in the ‘bigger schools’ tournament and competed against the largest schools in Formby and Southport. After a long afternoon of track and field competition, the results were announced and…we placed second! Amazing! Back in school, the children were praised for their efforts, but also their sportsmanship and manners as they conducted themselves brilliantly. Well done, team! Another extra 'well done' to the girls' football team, who competed once again against local primary schools. They are continuing to impress us with their grit and determination. It is wonderful to see so many Year 6 children having already represented the school in a sports team this year.
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: 21st Feb 2024 @ 12:59pm
And just like that, we are half way through the year!
The children have had an excellent start to the second part of the Spring Term and have persevered in everything they have done.
In English, we started the week by exploring the STAR vocabulary that we would find in our new story; ‘Major Glad and Major Dizzy’ by Jan Oke. We discovered that some of the vocabulary was quite dated, which means that it was used more frequently in the past, to help us understand the words further we found words with the same or similar meaning. Later in the week, we explored progressive verbs and using the images in the book to write a series of sentences to describe what was happening on the different pages.
In Maths, we continued with our topic ‘Multiplication and Division’, exploring the 2, 5, and 10 times table. The children also explored doubling and halving numbers linking this to their 2 times table. To finish the week, we explored odd and even numbers identifying how they link to the 2 times table. Next week, we will explore the 5- and 10-times table as well as dividing by these numbers. This will be our last week on Multiplication and Division.
In DT we started our new topic, ‘Mechanisms: Fairground Wheel’. The children started by exploring a series of images of objects with wheels and identified how the wheels were attached as well as what they needed to move and rotate. After, they were introduced to their project, they are going to make their own Fairground Wheel! Looking at a series of fairground wheels, the children identified the different parts; a wheel, pods, seats and an axel, to name a few. They then began designing their own, labelling it carefully.
In RE we commenced our study of Easter and discussed how Easter has many symbols such as the cross, Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny which represents it clearly. We discussed how the Easter story itself starts much earlier than Easter weekend and started by breaking the story down into smaller chunks. This week we focused on the middle part of the story, The Last Supper. We reflected on the story and identified that the symbols we can take from it are; bread and wine, which symbolise Jesus's body and blood.
Reminders
- PE days continue to be on a Monday and Thursday, please arrive at school in your full PE kit.
- Recorder lessons take place every Monday, children need to bring their own recorder to school each week. Unfortunately we do not have spares, if your child does not have one, they will not be able to take part in the lesson. Recorders can be purchased on School Spider.
Date: 21st Feb 2024 @ 10:24am
What a fantastic first week back!
With Ash Wednesday in our thoughts, we then reflected on how Lent allows Christians to remember Jesus’ fasting in the desert and the things we would give up as a test of our self-discipline. Our focus in RE is to focus on trust and betrayal and how this can be seen in the Easter story, but first we needed to understand what the two terms meant. To do this, we had such fun guiding our trusted friends around our trim trail… blindfolded of course! Continuing with our focus on trust and betrayal in RE, we watched clips from popular children’s movies and discussed the times we could see the characters displaying trust or moments of betrayal. Clips included the trust Wendy had in Peter Pan when taking her first flight and the betrayal Lotso showed to Woody in Toy Story 3.
Fractions have been our focus in Maths, reminding ourselves of how to represent a whole and beginning to find patterns on number lines to be able to count beyond 1, by adding and taking away fractions. It has been important for us to connect our prior knowledge to recall terms such as equivalence, denominator and numerator. Next week, we will begin to partition mixed numbers and compare and order mixed numbers. With a big focus also on Times Tables this term, we are working hard to complete a daily Multiplication Times Table Check and use our school value of Hope to beat our score each day.
It was time to discover what our new book is for the term and make predictions regarding the setting, character and plot in this term’s English book ‘When the Giant Stirred’. By looking at two variations of the front cover, we soon identified the importance of using expanded noun phrases to describe and specify. We found rich vocabulary to help us use topic specific nouns such as Macaws, Loggerhead Sea Turtles and the Pacific Ocean. Next week, we will use the Moana film to help us understand the duties of villagers and begin to complete diary entries, using fronted adverbials, to outline the daily goings on in the tribal village.
On Monday, we were introduced to our new musical instruments and Mrs McCardle discussed with us the different parts of the clarinet and how we can make a sound using the wooden reed inserted into the top of our mouth piece. She showed us how to put the pieces of our clarinet together and the way in which we need to blow into the mouth piece to make a sound. Each week, we will be working hard to learn some musical compositions which we can shared with our loved ones at home later in the year.
We also had a great afternoon creating a Science experiment that enabled us to create the effect of an erupting volcano. By mixing vinegar, Bicarbonate soda and fairy liquid… with a course a splash of red food colouring… our volcanoes bubbled up and out of our volcanoes craters and created a flow of lava trickling down the sides.
A jam-packed week, Year 4. Have a restful weekend!
Reminders:
If your child would like to take their clarinet home after their Music lesson each week, please confirm permission by emailing the Year 4 email account (y4@tsp.sefton.school).
Multiplication Times Tables Check Practise resources can be found on Google Classroom, alongside additional Maths and Reading learning that can be completed at home.
PE days this term are Wednesday and Friday therefore, Year 4 should come to school in their PE kits on Wednesday and Friday.
Date: 21st Feb 2024 @ 10:15am
What a fantastic first week back we have had!
We began our week with our new RE topic 'Easter'. We explored features of Spring and discussed new life around us. We went on a beautiful Spring walk to hunt for signs of Spring, we were amazed by the sprouting plants in our outdoor areas. We loved looking for different varieties of flowers and took some pictures to give us inspiration! We discussed how nature is coming alive after sleeping through winter, and recreated this in a beautiful piece of artwork. We looked at various plants as they grow through the seasons, and picked our favourite to draw. We took so much inspiration from our wonderful outdoor areas!
In DT this week we practiced some new skills by joining various materials. We explored the ways in which materials such as felt can be joined together using tools such as safety pins, staplers and glue! We had a go at developing our skills by trying each tool and discussing which one we prefer. We are extremely excited to continue developing these skills as we work on an exciting project!
In Maths this week we completed the last of our Addition and Subtraction within 20 topic, we consolidated our learning by using a variety of models to answer addition and subtraction sums. We used Part whole models, bar models and ten frames to support our understanding of addition and subtraction. We explored using number bonds to add and subtract as we looked for patterns, we learned how we can use our number bond facts to work out a variety of number sentences within 20. We then put this into practice as we completed lots of missing number problems!
We began our new topic in Geography this week as we focused on France. Our topic 'Around the World' allows us to explore wonderful countries all around the world! We began by discussing the most famous landmarks, cuisine and traditions within the beautiful country of France! We created our own French flags using a variety of materials, and tried to recreate the Eiffel tower out of straws! We enjoyed exploring this and can't wait to learn much more about our wonderful world.
Well done this week Year 1! Have a lovely weekend.
Date: 20th Feb 2024 @ 8:27pm
We hope you had a fabulous half term and are excited for the half term ahead.
We began the week by going to Forest school, we spent some time talking about the changes in our environment and how did we know it was nearly spring? The children enjoyed exploring the area around then to spot signs of spring, we saw Daffodils snowdrops and crocus. If you are out on a walk why don’t you see what other signs of spring you can see?
On Tuesday we were very excited to find a treasure map with some clues. After following the clues and finding all of the pieces we finally found a treasure box chest with a story book ‘Pirates are Coming’. The children loved listening to the story and then spent some time later in the week discussing what they knew about Pirates and also looking at and talking about their own treasure boxes.
This week we have also been learning all about ‘Dental Health’ we talked about our experiences of visiting the dentist and why it is important to look after our teeth. On Wednesday were lucky to have a visit from a local dental practice, they talked all about how to keep our teeth clean, gave us some facts about our teeth and what foods are good for our teeth and ones we should avoid or have a little at a time. We also took part in a colouring competition and four of our friends won prizes for their pictures. We all took home a goody bag for us to use at home this included a toothbrush, timer, disclosing tablet, toothbrushing chart, book and stickers!
Well done Nursery!
Mrs Molloy, Mrs Bevin and the Nursery Team
Reminders:
Tuesday 27th February – Pirate Day
Wednesday 28th February WOW Service at St Peter’s Church – Celebrating Mother’s Day
Wednesday 6th March – Mother’s Day Present Room
Thursday 7th March – World Book Day
Date: 20th Feb 2024 @ 10:44am
We welcomed back a well-rested Year 5 on Monday following our half term break and it was great to see them all! As always, we started the week by sharing our experiences during the week off and also familiarising with our new shoulder partners and table partners in class.
Following that, it was business as usual as the children picked up where they left off last half term by working with impressive resilience, effort and enjoyment across so many different subjects.
Our RE journey delved into the key concepts within Christianity. We explored a range of illustrations that represented a different aspect of our religion. The children connected their knowledge brilliantly to interpret what these pictures attempted to represent. After revealing the answers, the children were then tasked with ordering the Christian concepts according to the bigger story of the Bible itself.
In Science, we had a particularly fun and active lesson as we learned all about gears, levers and pulleys. As part of the lesson, we had to search the school hall to find a range of facts, diagrams and examples of different mechanisms to then sort into their correct sections. Great fun was had with excellent teamwork and scientific discussion on display throughout!
In a hard-working week of Maths, we have been practising finding fractions of amounts as well as adding and subtracting fractions. Next week’s lessons will move onto further understanding equivalences between fractions, decimals and percentages.
A really excellent and exciting week to begin this new half term. The weekend now awaits and we will see you all on Monday. Enjoy!
Reminders:
-Year 5 PE lessons will take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays each week for this half term. Please ensure your child attends school in their full PE kit on these days. Swimming sessions will continue each Wednesday for part of this half term with the last session for Year 5 being Wednesday 6th March.
-A polite reminder that the correct PE uniform should be worn: Charcoal ‘V’ neck grey sweat shirt with school logo, charcoal grey jogging pants or black shorts, white T shirt or white polo shirt, black pumps or suitable trainers. Further information regarding uniform can be found on the school website - https://www.trinitystpeters.org/serve_file/8270897
Date: 11th Feb 2024 @ 1:15pm
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In English, we started to plan our version of the story ‘The Stone Age Boy’. We thought carefully about where and how our new character would end up in the Stone Age as well as our problem and resolution. At the end of the week, we used our plans to begin writing our new stories. The children ensured their writing was to a high standard by adding adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions throughout. We cannot wait to add them to our author books.
In Maths, we have been measuring mad this week. We understood that whilst metres are used to measure longer distances, it is still possible to measure these distances in centimetres or millimetres. We discussed why choosing the appropriate unit or measuring equipment is important before measuring an object or length. We will be continuing our length topic after half term.
We had a fun filled Science afternoon this week. The first part of the afternoon took a mysterious turn! Using torches and objects from around the classroom we investigated how shadows were formed using our scientific language of transparent, translucent, and opaque. We had so much fun. We then moved on to the final part of our topic ‘Mirror, Mirror’. We discovered that mirrors are good at reflecting light because they have a smooth surface, and glass sheet with a shiny metallic backing. We used our new scientific vocabulary to identify that mirrors are opaque.
Music went out with a bang this week! Continuing our drumming lessons we have been practising how to maintain a steady beat. Understand the connection between tempo and pulse and perform at different tempos. We are excited to continue our drumming lessons after half term.
This term we have had so much fun during our P.E. lessons in Dodgeball and OAA. We learnt the fundamentals of teamwork, problem solving and orienteering in our OAA lessons. During dodgeball, we worked hard to develop our catching technique against faster balls. Working on our ‘ready position’, making sure always to keep eyes on the ball and to pull the ball into our body as we catch it.
You have worked so hard this term well done Year 3! Have a super half term and we look forward to welcoming you back after a well deserved break.
Date: 8th Feb 2024 @ 7:49pm
What an exciting week we have had in Year 1! We have spent our last week of this half term having so much fun completing our topics and making wonderful memories!
We began this week with an afternoon focusing on all things computers! We explored the inside of a computer and discussed hardware and software. We then had a go on the iPads and learnt how to upload pictures. We practised using QR codes and discussed how to take photographs carefully and respectfully. We then enjoyed taking lots of beautiful photos of each other and loved uploading them to our class account. We even had the chance to share the pictures as a class and talk through our favourites. We discussed what email is and how we should communicate safely online. We had lots of brilliant ideas about being kind and being cautious when being online. We then had a go at writing our own email and shared it with our friends and family.
In PE this week we have had lots of fun! We completed our final challenge as a part of our Team Building topic, we used our communicative skills to keep balloons up in the air. We then used our teamwork to carefully move a balloon from one end to another, we found this really tricky and even came up with some tricks to not drop the balloon!
Our highlight this week was our Titanic-themed day, we enjoyed lots of activities on Thursday as we put all of our learning into a day of fun! We began by creating our own tickets for the ship, we then read a story about a tiny mouse on the Titanic, we found this fascinating! We enjoyed a Titanic-themed PE lesson as we played a game of islands but this time we were racing to get onto a lifeboat! We imagined what it would be like to be first class, second class and third class as we travelled around the ship. We had a wonderful lunch as we boarded the Titanic ship! We enjoyed a picnic and spent the afternoon creating newspaper reports, learning to draw the Titanic and recreating the impressive ship in our Block Play area.
You have all blown me away this week with your fantastic knowledge and brilliant attitude towards learning, well done Year 1! Have a lovely half-term everyone.
Date: 8th Feb 2024 @ 4:32pm
We cannot believe it is half term already. Reception you have been amazing!
This week the children have been learning all about ‘Chinese New Year’. We talked about how it is celebrated, enjoyed watching a dragon dance and read the story ‘The great race’. We then discussed similarities to how we celebrate New Year, such as having firework displays. We all sat together for a lovely Chinese banquet for the opportunity to try different Chinese foods whilst listening to Chinese music. It was lovely to see the children having a try of the different foods! We took part in lots of different creative activities such as Chinese writing, lantern making and making Chinese fans. What a fun week we have had!
In maths the children have been using their subitising skills when looking at different dot patterns of 6,7 and 8. They were challenged to match the ladybird images together with the same number of spots. We noticed that if we look on each side of the lady bird the two amounts of dots present a way that the number is composed. Great maths work everyone!
On Tuesday for 'Safer internet day' we welcomed our brilliant digital leaders to our class to talk to us about how to be safe when using the internet. They then kindly taught the children how to use the Beebots. Thank you so much digital leaders!
On Friday the children learnt all about Valentine’s day. We enjoyed listening to the story, ‘Guess how much I love you’ and talked about people that we love. The children then made heart shaped pancakes to enjoy together as an early celebration of pancake day.
We hope you have a lovely half term and see you all soon!
Miss Dalley and the Reception team
Reminders:
Monday 19th February – Back to School
Wednesday 28th February WOW Service at St Peter’s Church – Celebrating Mother’s Day
Wednesday 6th March – Team TSP Mother’s Day Present Room
Thursday 7th March – World Book Day
Date: 7th Feb 2024 @ 12:43pm
Wow, half term really has come around quickly. A big well done to Nursery you truly are super stars, we hope you enjoy the break and see you after half term!
We have enjoyed learning all about ‘Chinese New Year’ or ‘Lunar New Year’. The children have spent time listening to stories and comparing it to how they spent New Year. The children took part in food tasting and dragon dancing which they loved.
On Tuesday the children celebrated ‘Safer Internet Day’, they were thrilled to welcome the Digital leaders who have worked hard learning a special presentation for our class. We then talked about who we should tell if there was something that upset us on the internet and it’s good to talk about it.
Ahead of Valentine’s day next week the children enjoyed listening to the story ‘Guess how Much I love you’. They have created love bug biscuits using Oreo’s and made a special picture using their handprints to send to those they love. What a lovely way to end the week.
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.
Well done Nursery!
Mrs Molloy, Mrs Bevin and the Nursery Team
Reminders:
Monday 19th February – Back to School
Wednesday 28th February WOW Service at St Peter’s Church – Celebrating Mother’s Day
Wednesday 6th March – Team TSP Mother’s Day Present Room
Thursday 7th March – World Book Day
Date: 7th Feb 2024 @ 10:54am
What a great final week of the Spring 1 term!
This week in RE, we identified how authority is symbolised in a range of different religions. We specifically focused on the Torah and discovered how it contains many laws that guide Jews on how to live a life that pleases God. We also connected our learning with the value of Wisdom, discussing how the Torah is the main source of wisdom to help Jews improve their relationship with God and to live good lives. To continue our focus on Joy, we created our own prayers in class to thank God for all the things around us that bring joy to our lives. Our prayers focused on showing our gratitude to God for the feeling of great pleasure and happiness when we are filled with joy - that feeling when you just can’t stop smiling or jumping about.
After unpicking the story ‘Escape from Pompeii’, this week, it was time to plan and write our own versions of the story. On Monday, we began by recalling the original story, splitting it into 5 parts; the opening, build up, problem, resolution and ending. We were great at retrieving key vocabulary and historical language from the text, that we could use in our own writing. Following this, we planned our story using the first-person point of view, writing as if we were Tranio, the main character in the story. We then took to our Author books to showcase our incredible writing this term. We sure did connect our understanding of volcanic eruptions to create our artwork, before carefully copying across our imaginative and historical stories.
In Maths, we have been focusing on perimeter and made our very own Peri the Snail to support us with our measurements. With our snails attached to a highlighter, we used the highlighter to leave a snail’s slithering trail around the edge of the shape to measure the shape’s perimeter on a grid. We then moved onto measuring the sides of a rectangle with a ruler, before recognising that the measurements of opposing sides of a rectangle are the same.
To celebrate National Football Week, we learnt how to play a game of Crab Football. Keeping in the crab position, we aimed for the bench in order to score a goal. Our TSP Sports Ambassadors have also been on the look out for a ‘Player of the Match’ during our breaktimes and PE lessons to award those showing great sportsmanship or skill development when playing the sport.
A huge thank you to our Year 5 and Year 6 TSP Digital Leaders who helped us to understand the importance of Safer Internet Day. They shared some great tips and tricks on how we can stay safe online, before we watched a remake of the Goldilocks story to spot some mistakes Goldilocks carries out when filming her actions in the three bears house. We also completed an Hour of Code, watching tutorials of how to use the programming software to code characters to complete different actions and support us in building our very own farms.
Attached to this blog is also this month's Virtual Classroom - once again with links to various websites that can further support home learning. You can also find the Year 4 Virtual Classroom on Google Classroom.
We wish you a restful and enjoyable half term!
Date: 7th Feb 2024 @ 9:16am
We now halfway through our final year of primary school!
As athletes, we concluded our gymnastics unit this week by bringing together all of the knowledge and skills we have learned this half-term and putting them into a short routine. All the children did amazingly well with this and some groups’ ideas for their presentations were particularly impressive. We had a ‘Mission Impossible’ themed routine and another that symbolised the parting of a friendship…all while including various movements, rolls and balances! Furthermore, we have enjoyed celebrating Schools' Football Week by taking part in a 'crab football' tournament during Thursday's PE lesson and concluding our art unit on photography by sketching a close-up photograph of a footballer of our choice.
This week included Safer Internet Day on Tuesday. We prepared for this on Monday by revising technical vocabulary linked to Online Safety (filtering, phishing etc) before discussing problems we may encounter online. On the day itself, we were treated to a presentation from our very own Y5/6 Digital Leaders, who highlighted how technology has changed over time and the pros / cons to this.
As authors, we completed our non-chronological reports on fictitious animals. The children continue to impress us with their finished pieces and have certainly shown this half-term that they are capable of writing for a variety of purposes and range of audiences.
Assessments have taken up a large part of this week with the children sitting past SATs papers for Reading, Maths and SPaG. We have had several discussions around these, highlighting that these papers are designed to be sat in May and that there are objectives we haven’t covered or revised yet; this is just an opportunity to see how we can improve on our results from September and December and to identify their own areas of improvement once they receive their scores back. The children have shown excellent focus and determination while sitting these assessments and should be very proud of their efforts; it has been fantastic to see them expressing their pride and sense of achievement when realising how much progress they have already made since the start of the year.
Please read the message on School Spider regarding Y6 home learning over the half-term break.
Have a great half-term break, everyone!
Date: 6th Feb 2024 @ 9:57am
What a fantastic week to end this half term! It has flown by in record time and there is much to be grateful for and to reflect upon.
Our week started with a particularly proud moment as families of the Year 5 children were invited into school on Monday afternoon to watch a clarinet showcase concert. The performance detailed the musical journey that the children have been on since first picking up their clarinets in Year 4. The children had the opportunity to showcase many of the pieces that they have been learning, of varying difficulty and styles, and were met with a well-deserved, rousing round of applause at the end. Well done to them! Thank you also to Mrs McCardle from Sefton Music Service for supporting the children so brilliantly throughout their time learning clarinet. Some of the children are keen to continue their tuition in extra sessions in Year 6 and they will have this opportunity should they wish.
As Safer Internet Day was during this week, we have had a range of different opportunities linked to promoting the safe and positive use of digital technology for children. The children explored their online lives and a range of discussions and online scenarios were presented to them where they had to apply their learning to reach a safe solution. This inspired many conversations about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively. A particular highlight of our Safer Internet focus was undoubtedly the chance to delve into the world of ‘Interland’. This Google-produced adventure game enabled the children to become fearless explorers of the online world across a range of islands including: Mindful Mountain, Kind Kingdom, Reality River and Tower of Treasure. Each island linked to a key element of online safety and the children had a blast working their way through each whilst thoroughly enjoying the journey. If you require any further information regarding Online Safety, please visit our Online Safety section on the school’s website.
In RE this week, we completed an evaluation of our learning throughout this half term which was focused around Jesus as a teacher. The children’s responses showed such deep, considered thinking and demonstrated the impressive learning throughout this topic.
In Maths, we focused on fractions and particularly ordering and comparing fractions with different denominators. As with so many aspects of Year 5 Maths, times table knowledge is so key for identifying these patterns quickly and efficiently. Remember, practice makes permanent so the best way to improve multiplication skills is to ensure full confidence in all times tables up to 12x12. After half term, we will continue to focus upon fractions whilst finding equivalences to decimals and percentages too.
Also in Maths, we have been busy participating in the North West Sumdog Contest where the children were challenged to answer 1000 questions before the contest door slammed shut on Thursday evening. The children displayed excellent determination and positivity and the team spirit throughout Year 5 was just amazing to see. We are over the moon to WIN the contest out of all of the schools in the north-west that entered. An amazing achievement!
In English, you could hear a pin drop in the Year 5 classroom as each child was determined to make their final writing pieces the very best that they could be. We were tasked with writing our own Norse-style myth, using inspiration from our class focus book, Arthur & the Golden Rope. The children also had the task of accompanying their work with some artwork and illustrations. The final versions are impressive and testament to the creativity as well as hard work and effort that the children have showcased throughout this half term.
So that’s that! Another half term passes by and a well-earned rest for this hardworking class of children awaits. Make the most of it everyone and I look forward to seeing you all in a week’s time. Enjoy!
Reminders:
-Weekly spellings have been set as normal and will be tested after the half term break.
-There is no set Maths and English homework for next week, 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.
-As per the message on School Spider, the Year 5 children will have their PE sessions after half term on a Tuesday and Wednesday (swimming). Children should come to school in their full PE kit on these days. Swimming will continue for part of the next half term and a message update will follow to confirm the end date when finalised.
Date: 3rd Feb 2024 @ 9:19pm
We have had a busy week in Year 1!
We started the week with a new Maths topic focusing on Addition and Subtraction within 20. We built upon our prior knowledge of Addition and Subtraction within 10, using our understanding of part-whole models and number bonds. We enjoyed lots more practical work as we practised adding by counting during a game of snakes and ladders! We explored patterns by jumping up and down number lines 1-10 and 11-20, we loved using the giant number line in class. We used number sentence lolly sticks to put our skills into practice by working out sums independently. We are growing so much in confidence!
In art this week we had an exciting project! We used lots of old newspapers to create a giant spider! We loved putting in lots of time and teamwork across the week to complete our class spider.
We celebrated National Storytelling Week by engaging in an imaginative activity. We read the story ‘You Choose’ and created our very own world on paper. We ‘Dreamt up a World’ by discussing and considering our dream home, clothes, form of transport and much more! We shared some fantastic ideas such as living in a big, beautiful castle, travelling in a hot air balloon, and having wild monkeys as pets! We created the most amazing pictures as we illustrated our dream life, we shared these with each other as we discussed the power of storytelling.
In History, we continued our learning on ‘Why we remember the Titanic’. We used our enquiry skills to work out why more people weren’t saved from the Titanic. We looked at multiple reasons and rated them based on their probability. We used a spectrum to place each reason based on which are the most and least plausible.
Enjoy a lovely weekend Year 1, you all deserve it!
Date: 3rd Feb 2024 @ 10:24am
We have had another fantastic week in Year 3.
Our week began with a journey to the Stone Age. We had a special visit from Archaeologist Dr Hill who brought an incredible collection of artefacts from the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic Age. The children had the opportunity to get up close and personal with genuine Stone Age artefacts. They were thrilled to get the chance to hold a Woolly Mammoth tooth and we couldn’t believe how big a Megalodon tooth was!
In Maths, we have been looking at lengths. We started by reminding ourselves of our past learning from Year 2. We then asked some key questions: Where should you start measuring from on your ruler? What is the length in centimetres? What is the length of in metres? What is the length of in metres and centimetres? Would you measure the length of the classroom in centimetres or metres? Why?
In English, we finished our book and enjoyed the ending of ‘The Stone Age Boy’. We have been developing and applying our knowledge of inverted commas and mastering past and present tense in our writing. Next week, we will use the story mountain to help us plan for our big write. In our Guided Reading lesson, we are also coming to the end of ‘The Iron Man’ we are looking forward to the big battle between ‘The Iron Man’ and the ‘Space Bat-Angel-Dragon’ monster that has invaded Earth.
In History, our Stone Age topic ended in the Iron Age. We used an aerial photograph, to speculate as to what some holes on the ground might be, before annotating an artist’s reconstruction of Danebury Hill Fort. Using the zones of inference technique; pupils work out what they know confidently, what they can infer, and what they need to enquire further to understand fully. They then helped the ‘Hopeless Curator’ to work out what the objects found at Danebury might be. We finished our lesson with the children designing an interactive App for an iPad to help people work out from a picture what life was like in the Iron Age.
During our Science lesson, we recognised that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect your eyes and skin from the sun. We learnt that the Sun is made of gas and is a star. The children solidified their learning by creating a leaflet to explain the dangers of the sun and what can be done to protect themselves from it. Next week, we will be investigating that shadows are formed when light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. We will predict where a shadow will form in relation to an opaque object and a light source.
Have a wonderful weekend Year 3!
Date: 1st Feb 2024 @ 5:20pm
And just like that, we are in February! Where did January go?
As always, we have worked incredibly hard in Year 2 this week and have shone in everything we have done.
This week in English, we focused on writing in the past tense. We learnt the different spelling rules for adding the suffix – ed and identified a range of verbs that are irregular and do not follow these rules. As we move into next week, we will build up to our ‘Big Write’, an adventure story with their own characters and destinations.
In Maths, we continued to explore multiplication with a special focus on arrays. The children explored the different multiplication sentences they could write by identifying the different rows and columns in the array. After, they created their own! As well as this, we focused on making equal groups by grouping objects together. We started by using counters, practically, before moving on the grouping using pictures. Next week, we will continue with our topic, and will be exploring dividing by 2 and 5 as well as the 2- and 5-times table.
In RE, we continued to explore the various stories of Jesus. This week, we looked at his first miracle, turning water into wine. We loved this story and worked together, using role play, to recreate the story before preforming them for our peers. It was so much for to recreate, adding actions and voices along the way!
In PE we continued with our fitness topic and this week, we had a plank off – something that has been highly requested – it was amazing to see so many children hold the plank for over 2 minutes but we did have two incredible super stars who managed to plan for an incredible 7 minutes! Well done, everyone!
In Art, we continued to explore texture, using the primary colours, and discussed how this adds more detail to our art work.
In PSHE this we focused on identifying things that made us unique and how that is something to celebrate. As a class, we discussed how highlighting these differences, in a negative way, can have serious consequences and make our friends feel a range of emotions. We all realised that it was important instead to celebrate our friends’ differences, and just like Reverend Anne said in assembly, be someone else’s light – brightening up their day.
Reminders
- Our school trip is next Tuesday. Please can children bring a disposable water bottle to school on this day.
Date: 1st Feb 2024 @ 4:50pm
What a very busy and fun week we have had!
This week in RE, the children have enjoyed listening to the story ‘Daniel and the Lion’s den this led to the children talking to each other about a time they had been brave. The children then enjoyed making lion masks to remind them of these times.
The children have enjoyed learning all about Neil Armstrong by using the fabulous book ‘Little People Big Dreams – Neil Armstrong’. This then led us onto learning about Tim Peake and his journey into space, the children especially enjoyed watching his space walk and the children were fascinated! The children then came up with a list of things that they would need to take on a space mission.
The children began the week with a visit to Forest school. The children were given the task to find different natural resources to make a snowman. We even gave them some hair! The children then enjoyed playing a game of ‘1,2,3, where are you?’ What a fabulous time we had!
In maths we have started to explore the numbers, 6,7 and 8. the children have been looking for different resources that represent each number and used their sorting skills to put them into groups. Great work everyone!
We look forward to seeing you next week for our last week before half term.
Miss Dalley and the Reception team
Reminders:
Wed 7th February – Parent Teacher Meetings in the school hall
Friday 9th February – Finish for half term
Monday 19th February – Back to School
Date: 1st Feb 2024 @ 10:00am
In Maths, Mr King’s group focused on conversions between fractions, decimals and percentages while Mrs Martin’s group have been solving calculations involving fractions and multiplying decimals by whole numbers. Next week, the children will be doing their next round of assessments to see how much knowledge they have retained so far!
As authors, we have now moved onto our fourth piece for our author books this half-term…we have been working incredibly hard indeed! This week, the children have been tasked with creating their own hybrid creature. Firstly, they used an online app to combine various animals and generate an image (which they certainly enjoyed!) and then used one of our thinking maps to organise the information they intended to share about their creation. Towards the end of the week, we looked at non-chronological reports and we are now in the process of writing our own for our fictional, fantastical animal.
In Science this week, the children have continued their learning about electricity by learning about three types of variables: independent, dependent and control variables. They then designed their own investigations and chose what their independent and control variables would be. As linguists, we focused on masculine and feminine adjectives linked to ‘Space’ before translating Spanish sentences that included a variety of these adjectives.
In PE, we revised how to do various rolls - including barrel and straddle – before focusing on forward rolls and working our way through a progression chart which showed how to work up from a basic forward roll to a more complex one. The children were able to themselves different challenges, such as rolling with no arms and starting in a handstand position. Later in the week, they then moved into the backwards roll, which some children actually found slightly easier. It was great to see lots of children raising their hands at the end of the lesson to share how they felt they had made progress within the lesson and demonstrate something they were proud of.
A special ‘well done’ to those girls who represented the school in two football tournaments this week. They achieved many match wins and should be very proud of how they conducted themselves during both events.
Another busy week! Have a relaxing weekend, everyone!
Date: 31st Jan 2024 @ 9:24am
Here is a snapshot of some of this week’s learning in Year 4….
With a little help from some friends from Sesame Street, we learnt all about Shabbat, the Jewish Day of Rest. We discovered that Shabbat happens each week from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. During Shabbat, Jewish people remember the story of creation from the Torah where God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th day. Using a flow map, we sequenced the things that happen during Shabbat including family meals, prayers at the synagogue and drinking from the Kiddush cup.
It was time to write letters this week in English, showing off our knowledge of the events that unfolded in Pompeii after tremors could be felt on the ground. It has been heart-warming to see how passionate the children are about our book ‘Escape from Pompeii’ and the historical language they have used in their writing. Connecting our learning back to our speech writing checklists, we also took to the challenge of including speech in our writing. Our letter writing concluded by answering a critical question - should the children return to Pompeii? It was great to hear the debates the children formed surrounding the question and the powerful justification they wrote to support their answers.
To celebrate National Storytelling Week, we have been re-watching our favourite short films and adding our own narration to the clips and voices to the characters. Our narration has brought emotion to the scenes and enabled us to describe the journey of events throughout the film.
We grasped how to use the Bus Stop method in Maths, to provide us with a quick and efficient method for working out division with larger numbers. In this method, we placed the number to be divided under a bracket (or bus stop) to separate it from the number to be divided by. To fully understand this method, we ensured we connected our learning with our known Multiplication facts to calculate how many times a number goes into another number e.g. how many 8’s in 40. We know this method will come in useful when dividing 3-digit numbers and when solving word problems. With knowledge of four written methods to support our calculation, we were given the challenge of selecting the correct method to use to answer a selection of arithmetic calculations; we picked from column addition, column subtraction, column multiplication and our newly learnt bus stop method.
Continuing our focus surrounding volcanoes in Geography, we learnt all about the 3 different types of volcanoes and how we can identify them based on their physical features. Using Google Earth, we identified volcanoes around the world and decided whether they are a Cinder, Shield or Composite volcano.
Bench Dodgeball has been a class favourite this week. We love the new rule which allows us to catch the ball when stood on the bench to gain our place back on the team. In Science, we have investigated how to keep a bulb alight in a circuit and discovered how to connect our electrical components in order to make a motor and buzzer work. In Art, we have explored how to use a range of tones to give a drawing texture, shadows or emphasis on key areas.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend!
Date: 30th Jan 2024 @ 8:41pm
We have had the most amazing time this week, well done Nursery!
On Monday, the children hunted for the 4 pieces of a jigsaw in the classroom that led to the clues of a favourite book by Julia Donaldson ‘The Gruffalo’. We then retold the story of the Gruffalo using the characters, using repetitive phrases and language from the book. What great storytellers we had!
The children have continued to retell the story of ‘The Gruffalo’ using the story tuff tray. The children have enjoyed our Gruffalo themed areas, making Gruffalo crumble, painting and making the characters from the Gruffalo. The children took part in the Gruffalo themed PE, we made sure we jumped with bent knees like the Gruffalo, moved quick like the mouse, high like the owl, quiet like the snake and far like the fox!
Well done Nursery!
We simply can’t believe that is nearly half term, have a lovely weekend!
Mrs Molloy, Mrs Bevin and the Nursery Team
Reminders:
Wed 7th February – Parent Teacher Meetings in the school hall
Friday 9th February – Finish for half term
Monday 19th February – Back to School
Date: 30th Jan 2024 @ 10:28am
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February has arrived and another week flies on by! This week has been typically full of learning and fun opportunities which also coincided with ‘National Storytelling Week’. Here is just a snapshot of some of our learning below…
As it is National Storytelling Week, we explored world building within various book series, video games and films that we love. Many examples included Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Avatar and many more. We considered how the creator would map out various aspects and features of their unique storytelling worlds before the story itself unfolds. Inspired, we created our own storytelling worlds, letting our imaginations take us into these new lands of endless possibilities.
In Collective Worship, we commenced our new monthly value of ‘Love’, which we have connected closely to our school value of Nurture that refers to being kind to ourselves and others. We watched a video titled ‘Love Has No Labels’ which showed us that love exists in so many different ways. The video challenged us to always be open minded and work to stop bias and prejudice in the world around us.
Our main focus in Maths was on converting between improper fractions and mixed numbers. To practise this, we used lots of games including a whole class loop game, Blooket and a version of UK gameshow, ‘Mr and Mrs’ (however retitled as Mr/Miss Improper Fraction/Mixed Number). There was lots of hard work throughout and hopefully the children can apply their understanding within this week’s Mirodo homework too. Next week, we will move onto adding and subtracting fractions.
We completed our class writing focus book, ‘Arthur and the Golden Rope’, this week too. It is fair to say that nearly all the children fell for the twist at the end as our main character was thought to have been gravely injured by Fenrir the wolf before some magic was revealed to have saved the day. We loved reading this picturebook together and exploring the various features and elements of Norse mythology throughout. Our work this week included lots of thinking map work to analyse Arthur’s various quests as well as breaking down the key elements of the story. Next week, we will start to plan a Norse adventure myth of our own!
A fun week and I hope you all have equally fun weekends too. See you Monday!
Reminders:
-A Year 5 Clarinet performance will be taking place on Monday 5th February at 2:30pm in our school hall. The children will showcase a few of the pieces that they have been learning as part of our Music curriculum offer using this instrument. Please enter the hall via the KS1 playground entrance at the front of the school and the children can be picked up and taken home directly following the performance. It will finish in time for normal end of the school day arrangements.
Date: 27th Jan 2024 @ 11:35am
What another fantastic we have had in Year 3!
We started our week with RE, continuing our topic ‘Jesus, the man who changed lives’ We started to unpick the question ‘What is change?’ We reflected on what has changed in our lives and how changes can be physical as well as emotional. We then discussed why change is important. Next week, we will look at Jesus’ twelve disciples as we unpick their stories, comparing their lives before and after they met Jesus and how their lives changed.
We are thoroughly enjoying The Iron Man book for our Guided Reading lessons. On Wednesday, we imagined how we would react if The Iron Man appeared in Formby. Asking ourselves; Where might he go? What might he do? What would he eat? How would people react? How might reactions differ? In our Thursday lesson, we focused on identifying noun phrases within the text to describe how the Iron Man appears to Hogarth. Next week, we will be delving further into our novel as we discuss alliteration, become local newspaper journalists and create some fiercely fantastic headlines.
In English, this week we started by using our 4c double bubble diagram to compare Stone Age food to Modern Day food. The children considered what foods are eaten, how it is cooked and how it is preserved for eating later. Using this to support their writing the children wrote a comparison using past tense for Stone Age and present tense for now. Later in the week, introducing the present perfect form the children concluded the week by planning and then writing a report for the ‘community leader’ detailing everything they had done during the day in the Stone Age community, focusing on applying the present perfect. Well done Year 3!
It has been a busy week in Maths, the children have been working hard and persevering with dividing a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number using flexible partitioning. It was a tricky concept to grasp at first, but we didn’t give up and used our learning curve to keep pushing through until we mastered the concept. Next week, we will conclude this unit by focusing on dividing with remainders and solving problems which will include positive integer scaling problems.
We are having so much fun in our Spanish lessons learning about ‘la fruta’. In this unit the children are learning 10 fruits and have been introduced to simple opinions ‘I like’ and ‘I do not like’ through interactive games and songs. By the end of this unit, the children will have the knowledge and skills to be able to say which fruits they like and do not like in Spanish.
In Science, we asked ‘What is reflective light?’ We discussed that we can see things because light is reflected. Light travels in straight lines. When light from an object is reflected by a surface, it changes direction. We continued to investigate looking at materials and how some reflect better than others. Smooth, shiny surfaces such as mirrors and polished metals reflect light well. Dull and dark surfaces such as dark fabrics do not reflect light well. We solidified our learning by creating an information poster to encourage children to wear something reflective when they are outside in the dark.
We also took the time this week to remember those who suffered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution. We created a reembrace poster to highlight the reasons why it is so important to mark this Memorial Day.
Have a restful weekend and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday.
Date: 26th Jan 2024 @ 4:38pm
What a magical week we have had this week, full of laughter (lots of singing) and fun!
Monday brought recorders, an what fun we had there! We love it when Mrs McCardle comes into school and have been working hard on practicing where we place our fingers to produce different sounds. We cannot wait for next week!
In English, we have worked hard to develop our use of adjectives. We focused on describing the dragons in the story, and our own characters describing both their physical features and their characteristics. As well as this, we started to develop our understanding of expanded noun phrases to add extra information. As well as this, we focused on writing in the past and present tense, remembering that if it is in the past, it has already happened and identifying how we change our verbs as a result.
In Maths, we started our new topic, Multiplication. We started by connecting our learning back to Year 1 and recapped how to identify the different groups, as well as how many were in each group. After, we explored the multiplication sign, and talked about how it means, lots of or groups of. This allowed us to write our own multiplication sentences for various pictorial and abstract questions. We also learnt how, unlike addition, you cannot flip the numbers round as it has a different meaning. It was mind blowing for some!
In Art, we explored colouring mixing. We started by using water and the prime colours, mixing them and seeing the results. We saw how the colours mixed to create secondary colours and how by adding more or less on a specific paint allowed the shade to change. After, we went on a nature walk, collecting a range of natural objects, to use as inspiration. We worked hard to look at the different textures and discussed what resources we could use to replicate this. Using the prime colours again, and black and white, we used a range of martials to recreate the different objects.
In PE, we continued to focus on developing our team work skills. We worked first as a whole class, then in small groups, to pass a hoop around the circle, timing ourselves as we went. To make it more challenging, we donned blindfold (our jumpers) passing the hoop round the circle again but supporting our friends as we went. It was so much fun, a true highlight of the week!
We ended our week with a fantastic multi-sport taster session for a new club, starting after half term, which allowed us to practice a range of different sports.
Reminders
- Our school trip is on Tuesday 6th Children will need to bring a water bottle to school but packed lunches will be provided.
- Please, where possible, ensure your child’s water bottle is in school.