: Blog items
Date: 26th Jan 2024 @ 8:37am
We have had another great week in Year 1! We began our week with an exciting History lesson as we explored the Titanic in more detail. We used our knowledge so far to investigate what made the unsinkable sink! We wanted to go beyond a simple answer, and explored more than one explanation. We worked in teams to read a variety of explanations to why the ship sank, we then used our investigative skills to explore which answers were most likely. We used all of the ideas to help us create our own sophisticated explanation of why the disaster occurred. We started to understand how the quickest answer is not always the best, we really needed to think about all of the possible explanations before articulating our own informed ideas. I have loved seeing such enthusiasm when we are exploring this topic, Year 1 have shared such fantastic thoughts and ideas!
In Maths this week we have come to the end of our ‘Place Value’ unit. We completed this unit by using all of our knowledge on counting within 10 and 20. We put our understanding into practice as we explored number lines to 10 and 20. We discovered the meaning of halfway and put this STAR vocab into our learning as later on in the week we had to focus on the start, halfway point and end of different number lines. We then used this understanding to estimate on a number line, we explored the meaning of estimate as another STAR vocab word. We had fun estimating the amounts of different things in the classroom! We then compared numbers within 20, by using greater than and less than symbols, we then made the numbers usingmanipulatives.
This week in RE we read another story from the Bible. We read ‘The Calming of the Storm’. We are beginning to understand why Jesus is so special! We were fascinated by his amazing life performing miracles and how his miracles show that he is the son of God. We put ourselves in the Disciple’s shoes by re-enacting facial expressions and exploring how they might have felt on the boats.
Have a lovely weekend Year 1!
Date: 25th Jan 2024 @ 3:55pm
What an exciting week we have had!
For RE this week we have completed our theme of stories Jesus told by listening to the story of Noah’s Ark. The children enjoyed creating their own rainbows and thought of a promise they could make to God to help look after the world and people around us.
The children were so surprised on Monday to find the Home corner had been turned into a space station! On Tuesday we discovered and Alien had landed in the classroom and had to use our detective skills to find out where they had gone and what they looked like! The children discovered a small friendly Alien called ‘Beegu’ had been hiding in the classroom, the children have enjoyed creating Alien pictures and describing what Beegu looks like! We went on a search to find Beegu’s Mum in the outdoor area, following any clues that we came across. Once we found her the children enjoyed making space rockets to help Beegu and her Mum get back home. I wonder what other adventures Beegu will get up to.
In Maths we have been looking at weight and capacity. The children have enjoyed exploring the weight of different items around the room using scales to see which is lighter and which is heavier. We realised that just because an item is big, it doesn’t always mean that it’s heavy!
We hope you all have a lovely weekend and see you all next week.
Miss Dalley and the Reception team
Reminders:
Wednesday 31st January and 7th February - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Thursday 8th February - Reception Health Screening
Friday 9th February – Finish for half term
Monday 19th February – Return to school
Date: 25th Jan 2024 @ 9:49am
In Writing, we started to read Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Selfish Giant’ as our focus text. Towards the end of the week, we discussed how Wilde writes about the weather and seasons as proper nouns and noted how he uses personification for a more powerful effect. We connected our thinking to other examples of where we have seen this in the media, including Marvel characters (e.g. Thor, Storm) and Disney Films. The children are now currently working on creating a short piece of text that personifies a season or weather type(s) of their choice.
As mathematicians, Mr King’s group have continued their learning on algebra, this week balancing questions with more than one variable and also finding the nth term. Next week, we will be moving onto finding equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages. Mrs Martin’s group have had a week of consolidating all the knowledge they will need for SATs arithmetic papers. They have revised many topics – from long division to multiplying fractions! Next week, they will be moving onto number problems.
Our weekly Spanish lessons have continued with the children continuing with their new ‘Space’ topic. This has been a great way so far of recapping some of their Y5 Science knowledge! We have also started our Science unit on electricity, where the children have recapped on their Y4 knowledge of the topic and began learning how to draw electrical circuits.
In PE, we have continued with our athletics trials – this week, trialling for the running events – and also commenced our gymnastics unit. To begin this topic, we focused on counter balances and counter tension. In addition to this, a special ‘well done’ to those children who represented our school in a table tennis tournament at Formby High School and emerged as the overall winners! We also saw our dodgeball team taking part in a tournament at Stanley High School on Thursday, where they accumulated many victories as well. What a great effort on the sports front!
A busy and enjoyable week – have a great weekend, everyone!
Date: 24th Jan 2024 @ 1:24pm
Well done Nursery, what a super week we have had!
Continuing with our theme ‘Winter’, there was a particular interest in Penguins so we have enjoyed learning a little more about them. We also enjoyed the story ‘Blue Penguin’ and then the next day we found Blue Penguin had left our very own eggs to look after. The children had to build nests, practice balancing the eggs on their feet and waddle around like a Penguin. We also waddled like a penguin to lunch (which was incredibly funny) and took part in a penguin themed yoga session. The children also created some fabulous paintings and drawings of penguins.
Please can you ensure your child has a warm coat, hat, gloves and a FULL change of clothes including underwear and socks in school at all times and that it is clearly labelled with their name, thank you
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Molloy, Mrs Bevin and the Nursery Team
Reminders:
Wednesday 31st January and 7th February - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Friday 9th February – Finish for half term
Monday 19th February – Return to school
Date: 24th Jan 2024 @ 10:49am
We can’t quite believe it’s Friday again! Time sure does fly when you’re having fun!
Year 4 were set a task this week to reflect on their understanding of Wisdom, take inspiration from the wise people we have been thinking about and instil wisdom into their everyday lives. With this challenge in mind, the children have been using their judgements to choose right and wrong in different situations and sharing their knowledge with others to help them make wise choices.
In RE, we identified clues in artwork which suggest that Jesus has authority over the others illustrations that can be seen in the artwork. We were quick to realise that Jesus is stood above or in front of the others in the illustrations, is painted in white and often has a graceful, angelic and powerful pose.
Using a checklist to ensure we have all elements needed, we created sentences including speech to show what the characters in our story ‘Escape from Pompeii’ might be saying to each other. We had to remember to always start our speech with a capital letter and include punctuation before closing the speech. It was great to hear how many variations of the word ‘said’ we could identify to make our speech sentences just that little more exciting to read. We then used a range of words to describe the mood in different points of the story and planned a diary entry to sequence how the eruption of Mount Vesuvius unfolded. Next week, we are going to include speech when writing diary entries and continue to include fronted adverbials to help sequence events in time order.
To support our practise towards the Multiplication Check, we have joined the Emile Education Times Tables competition this week, taking on the football themed contest answering multiplication questions against other schools. We have loved increasing our speed and answer accuracy to help score points for our class. Our fingers are crossed we can top the leader board this week! We have connected our understanding of using column multiplication in Maths, to now multiply a three-digit number and a one-digit number. Year 4 truly have mastered the steps they need to take in order to multiply accurately using this method. Later in the week, it was time to introduce division and practise using the bus stop method to help us to divide. Next week, we will continue to use the bus stop method to support our division calculations and draw upon our knowledge of different written methods to find the most efficient method to use to solve calculations.
We also took the time this week to remember those who suffered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution. We created a flame to represent the candles we lit in class in remembrance and explained why it is so important to mark this Memorial Day. In Science, we investigated what components were needed in order to make the current flow around an electrical circuit and we even unpicked the make up of a volcano, labelling the different parts on a diagram.
Year 4, you have worked your socks off this week! We hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Date: 20th Jan 2024 @ 11:33am
What a busy week we’ve had in Year 3! The children were so excited to find out that they will be leading the Easter Service at St Peter’s Church this year. We have already started practising our songs and they sound fantastic. We have also been very fortunate to start singing lessons this week with members of the Liverpool Cathedral choir. They brought such joyful songs to our classroom and had us all out of our seats copying actions and we sang our hearts out. We look forward to their return next week.
During Maths, the children have been challenged this week by multiplying a two-digit number by a 1-digit number (with no exchange). They have persevered and met the difficult calculations head-on. Next week, we will introduce multiplication with an exchange. The children are also growing in confidence with the 8 times tables. Super work Year 3!
We are enjoying our English writing book ‘Stone Age Boy’. We learnt about the different job roles that Stone Age people had. The children discussed which jobs they would like to do if they lived during that time, the most popular choice was ‘spear throwing practice’. The children were introduced to the present perfect verb form, they then experimented orally by changing past tense verbs to present perfect. Next lesson, we will plan and write a report for the Stone Age community leader, detailing everything that they have done during their day in the Stone Age community, focusing on applying the use of the present perfect.
We started our Art topic this week, Sculpture and 3D: Abstract Shape and Space. During our first lesson, we studied artist Robert Morris and learnt what defines ‘sculpture’. We were introduced to new vocabulary: structure, sculpture and three-dimensional. The children were then challenged to create and build a 3D structure that stands up on its own.
The children are thoroughly enjoying our Stone Age topic in History. This week we moved further along the timeline, and we have reached the Bronze Age of 3300 BC. The children could identify the most significant aspects of the Bronze Age culture, then they could apply their knowledge of the significant features of the Bronze Age to critically evaluate a film. Next week, we are diving headfirst into the Iron Age.
We ended our week with a fantastic workshop where we learnt all about Chinese New Year and the fantastic traditions surrounding the celebration. The children learnt some phrases in Chinese and created a traditional Chinese dragon.
Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing all your smiling faces on Monday.
Reminders:
Tuesday 23rd January - Siblings School Photos
Wednesday 24th January - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Wednesday 31st January - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Wednesday 7th February - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Date: 19th Jan 2024 @ 3:31pm
What a very busy week we have had!
For RE this week, continuing with our theme of stories Jesus told, we listened to the story of Joseph’s colourful coat. The children enjoyed creating their own coats using collage and acting out the story in the home corner.
At Forest school this week, the children were given the task of using a checklist to look for different signs of winter. The children worked really well as a team on their hunt outside. We then talked about why we may not have seen all the signs on the list that day.
As part of our theme ‘Winter’ the children have enjoyed a variety of different stories such as ‘A thing called snow’ and ‘The lights that danced in the night’ by Yuval Zommer. We talked about the types of clothing we may wear in the winter and then how they are different to the clothes we wear in summer. Later in the week we looked at different arctic animals. We talked about why they are suitable to the habitat they live in.
In Maths this week we have continued to explore the number 5. The children have looked at recognising how many is missing from a whole quantity of 5 and used a 5 frame to help them to work it out. Great maths work everyone!
On Friday we had a visit from Star sports for a multi sports taster session. We had so much fun playing different team games. Thank you so much for Adrien for a fantastic session.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend and see you all next week.
Miss Dalley and the Reception team.
Reminders:
Tuesday 23rd January - Siblings School Photos – John Howard Photography (information to follow)
Wednesday 24th January - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Wednesday 31st January - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Wednesday 7th February - Parent Teacher Meetings School Hall
Date: 19th Jan 2024 @ 8:13am
We have had another fantastic week in Year 2!
Have you seen the dragon yet? Year 2 are obsessed with finding the sneaky dragon hiding in school. To help, we created wanted posters, using a variety of expanded noun phrases to describe what it looks like as well as how it moves. Unfortunately, Mr Essery didn’t believe us when we told him so to ensure he was on board we all wrote him a letter encouraging him to look out for it and to help us find it!
In Reading, we continued with our story, The Dragonsitter, and were shocked to learn that the dragon ate the rabbit. We focused on developing our comprehension skills, using highlighters, we identified the answers in the text before attempting to write full sentences to answer the questions.
In RE we learnt about another incredible miracle Jesus performed, Feeding the 5000, talking about how sharing is important in any situation. We discussed how by Jesus blessing the food, he was able to feed everyone and have enough left over to share further. After we used our flow thinking map to retell the story in more detail.
In Geography, we learnt about the weather and climate in Kenya and compared it to ours. After we identified what clothes we would need to take as well as what items we would not need to take such as a woolly hat!
In PE. We continued with our two new topics, Fitness and Team Building. During fitness, we focused on jumping for longer periods of time, increasing our stamina each attempt we made. We discussed how being fit isn’t just eating well and running around, instead it is developing our breathing and stamina in a variety of exercises. In Team Building, we were given different animals, and working together, we had to find each other without speaking. The children focused on how the different animals moved as well as the noises they might make.
We ended our week on a high with a fantastic visit from the Confucius Institute at Edge Hill who delivered an excellent workshop to explain all about Chinese New Year. In addition, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to make Chinese Lanterns.
Reminders
- Our school trip is on the 6th February 2024, please see School Money for payment instructions
- Our PE days will contine to be on a Monday and a Thursday
Date: 18th Jan 2024 @ 5:24pm
We have had another fantastic week in Year 1! We enjoyed lots of new learning and had fun exploring our new topics.
We started our week with another exciting art lesson, as we worked on our sculpting skills. We practised our cutting and sticking skills as well as our creative thinking. We have been re-creating sculptures in our continuous provision areas, using a variety of materials such as blocks, play dough, and Lego.
We put our historian hats on as we explored evidence from the Titanic. We needed to prove whether statements made about life on board the Titanic were true, so we analysed a variety of pictures taken on the ship. We used our investigative skills to work out what was true and what was false, we loved this task! We had some interesting thoughts about 1st 2nd and 3rd class passengers, we couldn’t believe the difference in their living conditions!
We enjoyed another fun-filled PE lesson this week as we used a parachute to work as a team. We used our communication skills to work together to complete specific goals. We tried moving our arms quickly, slowly, low to the floor and high up. We had a great time playing cat and mouse and worked as a fantastic team to support each other throughout.
In RE this week, we re-enacted ‘The Calling of the Disciples’, we used our recall skills to discuss the story and explore how Jesus is so special. We focused on the word miracle and understood that Jesus performed many miracles! We used our drama skills to retell the story in groups. This was a great way to put ourselves in the shoes of Jesus and his disciples.
Have a lovely weekend everyone, thank you for all of your hard work.
Date: 18th Jan 2024 @ 9:58am
Another busy week in Year 6!
In Maths, Mr King’s group started a new unit on algebra. The children picked up the fundamental concepts very quickly and were able to solve some tricky equations in a short space of time – well done! They particularly enjoyed the range of problem-solving questions provided this week, including a task that involved them working out the values on DC and Marvel and Top Trump cards from given from algebraic equations…although they disagreed with several of the heroes’ ratings! We will be continuing to challenge ourselves with this topic next week. Mrs Martin’s group learned how to do long division this week before moving onto BIDMAS. Two very tricky topics but the children picked them up very quickly! Thank you to Mr Hirst for supporting us this week; he has been able to work with many of the children 1:1 as well to supplement their learning in this week’s lessons.
As writers, the children were tasked with writing a class blog. The children analysed previous entries from this year, identifying the range of punctuation used, as well as technical vocabulary. They then used a tree map to decide on a few subjects / class events that have taken place this year before creating their own entry. Developing our understanding of the English language further, we have also focused on subordinating and coordinating conjunctions as part of our SPaG revision. On Wednesday, the children enjoyed listening to songs about each tense and also learning how to make zines to record their notes. Many children said they would like to create more zines in the future for other topics in different subjects!
This half-term, we have commenced our new Geography topic, ‘How do we compare with Africa?’ Last week, we learned about Africa as a whole continent, which included following directions to locate all 54 countries on a map. We learned how diverse Africa is and how it can also be divided into five regions, which we were given time to research. This week, we focused on one particular country: Uganda. The children could recall our link to this country – and the town, Kalule, in particular – with the project set up by St. Peter’s Church and local community. As part of our initial investigation into what Kalule is like, we used pictures taken by Rev. Anne, Miss Morris and Miss Giles on their visits to see what we could deduce about aspects such as climate, wealth, culture and landscape. We then concentrated on the physical and human geographical features of Uganda and Kalule and compared them with England and Formby.
PE this week has seen us revisiting athletics. The children will be taking part in trials for an upcoming tournament over the next few weeks and will have the opportunity to put themselves for various events, including running, throwing and jumping.
On Friday, we were treated to two workshops on Chinese New Year from Edge Hill University. We heard stories, made lanterns and found out what a ‘dragon dance show’ entailed...a rather unique end to the week!
The children are aware of how to access their homework for next week – either on SATs Companion or in their books. Spellings have also been set. If your child is accessing their homework through SATs Companion and needs additional support, please remind them that there are support videos attached to the tasks. It is strongly advised that the children watch the video before attempting to complete the task.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Date: 17th Jan 2024 @ 10:31am
What a wonderful week in Year 4!
After recognising what authority looks like to us, this week, we identified Jesus’ authority in a range of Bible stories. By reflecting on Bible stories such as Jesus calms the storm, it became evident that Jesus has authority over humanity, as well as creation and life. In stories, it was clear that his authority is respected and admired by others, all hoping he will assert his authority to benefit them.
Later in the week, it was time to compare our lives with the life of a Roman child. We focused on the activities, games and jobs Roman children carried out and found similarities and differences to our lives. Using fronted adverbials, we created a diary explaining what Tranio, the Roman child in our story, did at different points of the day. We have been working incredibly hard to ensure our paragraphs consist of one or more sentences grouped together, which share ideas centred around one subject or element of our writing.
To support our multiplication calculations when multiplying two and three digit numbers by 1, we have learnt how to use the grid method and column multiplication method. We have completed lots of fluency questions to become confident in using these methods and at the end of the week, selected the method we felt most confident in using to support us in completing problem solving questions.
We have been very fortunate to start singing lessons this week with members of Liverpool Cathedral choir. They brought such joyful song to our classroom and had us all out of our seats copying actions and we sang out hearts out. We look forward to their return next week. In addition, we welcomed visitors from Edge Hill University who delivered a workshop to explain all about Chinese New Year. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to make Chinese lanterns and take part in the traditional Dragon dance.
A huge thank you to our Reading Ambassadors for sharing some Inclusion and Diversity books to read in class. We loved exploring the books this week and selecting our favourite to become our whole class read. To support our understanding of Volcanoes, we have also been reading an information book packed full of interesting facts about earthquakes, tectonic plates and the layers of the Earth. Our writing in English in bursting with technical vocabulary to describe volcanoes, as we have transferred vocabulary and facts learnt in our Guided Reading lessons, to our English lessons.
A reminder that a Parent briefing for the Multiplication Tables Check will take place next Tuesday in the Year 4 classroom. Information will be shared regarding what the Multiplication Tables Check is, and how you can support your child further at home.
Have a wonderful weekend, Year 4!
Reminders:
Tuesday 23rd January - Siblings School Photos
Wednesday 24th January - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Wednesday 31st January - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Wednesday 7th February - Parent Teacher Meetings School Hall
Date: 16th Jan 2024 @ 3:53pm
WOW what a busy week we have had, we welcomed to the class two new friends who soon settled and were having fun!
As part of our theme ‘Winter’ theme the children have enjoyed a variety of different stories. We have talked about the types of clothing we may wear in the Winter and then how they are different to the clothes we wear in Summer. The children enjoyed sorting different the clothes and talking about why they would or would not wear them in the winter. After reading the story ‘Winter Sleep’ the children were inspired to make bird feeders to try and attract different birds into our outdoor area. The children enjoyed creating the bird feeders using pinecones, lard and bird seed, they are very excited to use binoculars and the bird checklist to see which birds we can spot. We particularly enjoyed singing along to ‘The Winter Hokey Pokey’ learning lots of new actions to help keep us warm.
Please can you ensure your child has a warm coat, hat, gloves and a FULL change of clothes including underwear and socks in school at all times and that it is clearly labelled with their name, thank you
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Molloy, Mrs Bevin and the Nursery Team
Reminders:
Tuesday 23rd January - Siblings School Photos – John Howard Photography (information to follow)
Wednesday 24th January - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Wednesday 31st January - Parent Teacher Meetings in the School Hall
Wednesday 7th February - Parent Teacher Meetings School Hall
Date: 16th Jan 2024 @ 10:34am
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As temperatures dipped this week, our efforts in class most certainly did not! Here is a snapshot of just some of our many highlights…
Our Maths learning involved visualising and recreating a range of increasingly complex 3D shapes using multilink cubes. Using a 2D image representation as our guide, we had to work together with our shoulder partners to construct as many shapes as possible to earn as many points as we could. Our other Maths lessons built upon our long multiplication learning from the previous week as we were introduced to the column method for long multiplication. After mastering this method, the children will have the luxury of choice in deciding which method they prefer (column or grid multiplication) when tackling such questions.
In English, we began our writing focus text for this half term, which is titled ‘Arthur & the Golden Rope’. We have enjoyed reading the beginning of this rather unusual myth as well as using it as a stimulus to write a short Norse poem containing adventurous noun phrases and linking in relative clauses from last week’s learning too.
In our Collective Worship, we continue to focus on our monthly value of ‘Wisdom’ for January. We explored a variety of different quotes which shared some advice, life tips or could generally be considered wise. A particular favourite was “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” We enjoyed hearing and unpicking these different examples and such quotes as the above encouraged us to be the very best version of ourselves that we can be.
In Science, we continued to learn about forces and focused particularly on air resistance. As part of this lesson, we constructed paper aeroplanes and had to consider the forces acting upon them in flight as well as how to streamline our designs further in order to ensure greater success.
To conclude a busy week, we were visited by the Chinese Confucius Institute from Edge Hill University who led some exciting workshops ahead of Chinese New Year. Yunchen taught us about the origins and the customs of the celebration before we moved onto creating our own Chinese lanterns. The fun didn’t stop there as we were treated to a Dragon Dancing Show in the afternoon alongside our friends in Year 4 and Year 6!
A tremendous week and wishing you all an enjoyable weekend!
Reminders
-Homework for Maths and English continues to be set via Mirodo and should be completed on or before the following Wednesday (24th January).
-Weekly spellings are accessible via Google Classroom.
Date: 12th Jan 2024 @ 8:12pm
We have had a brilliant first week back in Year 3! I am so impressed with everybody’s hard work and enthusiasm this week.
We started the week with PSHE, where we had a lovely discussion about how aspirations, dreams and goals can give us a sense of purpose. Over the coming weeks, we will be covering how setting achievable but challenging goals can help us learn new skills, step out of our comfort zone and feel proud of our achievements along the way.
In History, we have continued our fascinating topic of the Stone Age, where we reminded ourselves of all the fascinating things we learned last term before moving on to the Bronze Age next week.
We have been working so hard during our maths lessons this week. We are continuing our topic of multiplication and division. The children will be moving on to the 8 times tables next week, so if you wish to do additional work with your children at home there are lots of additional resources on Google Classroom.
In English, we started the ‘Stone Age Boy.’ Using the clues given, we predicted what the story might be about before discovering the title of the book. We drew upon the Stone Age knowledge we had previously learnt in our History lessons to guess the title correctly. We also had lots of fun creating dialogue between the two main characters and acting out their first meeting.
We started the exciting book ‘Iron Man’ in our Guided Reading lessons. We enjoyed discussing words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination. The children are looking forward to continuing to read this book.
This Spring term, we will be delving into the world of Dodgeball and Outdoor Adventurous Activities during our PE lessons. This week the children had a great time during OAA, in which they needed to work together in teams to compete to win fun challenges. Key skills such as clear communication, balancing and teamwork were needed to achieve the final goal. We can’t wait for our next OAA lesson. In Dodgeball we will be focusing on the main attacking and defending skills, specific throwing and catching ball skills, as well as different methods and techniques used to dodge the ball.
All children across the whole school are encouraged to read each day both in and out of school. Some additional recommended Reading at Home resources can be found here.
Thank you for a wonderful first week back in Year 3!
We look forward to seeing you next week.
Date: 12th Jan 2024 @ 3:53pm
Happy New Year to everyone and we hope you had a lovely Christmas. We have loved hearing about all the children’s news about the holidays.
For RE this week we have enjoyed learning all about ‘Epiphany’ and the end of the Christmas season. We reflected on the importance of the star that guided the King’s to baby Jesus. On Thursday, Caroline kindly came in to tell the children the story of ‘Jonah and the Whale’ to introduce our new RE topic of ‘Stories Jesus Heard’. The children have since enjoyed acting out the story. Thank you so much for a lovely session.
The children also enjoyed listening to different stories all about the ‘New Year’ and talking about how this is celebrated. This brought us to start thinking about what our own New Years resolution can be.
In maths we have been looking at the composition of 5. The children have enjoyed taking their learning outside to play different games to help us find out how 5 can be made. Great work everyone!
This week in art the children have explored dot paintings. We looked at the artist Yayoi Kusama, and talked about different ways we could make dot art work. The children then created their own finger print firework paintings.
All children across the whole school are encouraged to read each day both in and out of school. Some additional recommended Reading at Home resources can be found here.
We hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you all on Monday.
Miss Dalley and the Reception team
Reminders:
Tuesday 23rd January - Sibling school photos (information to follow)
Date: 11th Jan 2024 @ 8:46pm
We have hada brilliant first week back in Year 1! I am so impressed with everybody’s hard work and enthusiasm this week.
We began our week with a fun and exciting maths challenge, as a part of our new unit on Place Value we have been exploring 20. We started by racing each other to get to 20 in a dice game. We used our counting skills to move up and down the number line 20, focusing on one more and one less. We enjoyed some practical work using lots of different manipulatives to make numbers within 20, such as rekenreks, counting bears, cubes, and dice! We were able to develop a good understanding of numbers within 20 and can’t wait to put this knowledge to use next week as we explore 20 even more.
In art this week we began our new topic on sculptures. We were able to develop some new skills as we created our very own sculptures! We were so excited to share them with you all at home. We used our cutting, sticking and creative skills to create our colourful sculptures.
We had an interesting new object in year 1 this week, that made us all very curious! We had lots of questions about the ship living in our classroom, we spent a few days wondering why it was there and what it was for. We then discovered that it was part of our new History topic The Titanic! We began our topic by exploring what the Titanic was and why it is so famous. We shared lots of brilliant thoughts and ideas and are so excited to learn more about this fascinating topic!
In PE this week we started our new topics Team Building and Gymnastics. We loved working together as a team to complete fun and exciting challenges! In Gymnastics, we explored travelling movements, and we were blown away by some of the skills we had in Year 1!
All children across the whole school are encouraged to read each day both in and out of school. Some additional recommended Reading at Home resources can be found here.
Well done on an amazing week Year 1! Have a lovely weekend.
Date: 11th Jan 2024 @ 11:10am
In Maths, we revised topics from last term and recapped various arithmetic methods, including fractions, percentages and decimals. We also learned about the mean and the method for finding the average of a set of numbers. We were very impressive and even managed to work out how to give the answer as a decimal when the total of the numbers isn’t divisible by the number of values we have.
Wednesday welcomed another Computing Day, this time exploring the world of virtual reality! To start the day, we recapped on our knowledge of online safety from last term; we felt this was important after Christmas, given that children may have received new electronic devices. Following recent discussions in class on diversity and representation in media, we reminded ourselves of ways in which we can have a healthy ‘online life’ and to be aware of subtle gender stereotyping and influencing we may encounter on social media. Then, moving onto our VR topic, we used the iOs application, CoSpaces, to follow various algorithms and design our own virtual reality. We had to design an aesthetically pleasing environment, including characters, as well as multiple scenes and actions. The use of audio was encouraged too! On Friday afternoon, we then presented our virtual worlds and explained the features we had included. Well done, Year 6!
As artists, we had a great lesson on photomontages. We selected images from magazines, newspapers and the Internet to experiment with composition and create interesting layouts. We had great fun showing off our creativity and creating a new image by using a combination of other images – check out Twitter for some of the finished pieces! In addition to this, we also looked at abstract art through photography. ‘Macrophotography’ was our STAR vocabulary for the lesson as we had to compose close-up photographs of a natural form – in this case, it was the inside of either a pepper or orange – and sketch the photos we had taken in a quadrant. Following our superb sketching of lizard eyes back in Autumn 1, it was fantastic to see more of the children’s drawings – this time focusing on a more specific aspect of an overall image.
The children are aware of how to access their homework for next week – either on SATs Companion or in their books. Spellings have also been set for next week. If your child is accessing their homework through SATs Companion and needs additional support, please remind them that there are support videos attached to the tasks. Reminder that all children across the whole school are encouraged to read each day both in and out of school. Some additional recommended Reading at Home resources can be found here.
A great first week back in 2024 – covering lots of different curriculum subjects! Have a fantastic weekend.
Date: 10th Jan 2024 @ 1:26pm
Happy New Year! We absolutely loved seeing all of the children’s happy, smiley faces on Monday morning and hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas break.
This week, we were shocked to discover some mysterious footsteps and some unusual eggs! We knew we just had to investigate further and find out who they belonged too. To help up we carefully wrote some descriptive sentences for other people in case they had left them by accident. After, we made our first prediction as to who they belonged too, we had some great ideas from dinosaurs to the Easter Bunny! Later in the week, we learnt that they belonged to a…dragon! We were so shocked to learn that they might still be in the school and Mr Essery had found them on the cameras! To stop other classes getting eaten we decided to make some posters using commanding language!
In our Guided Reading lessons, we found out that we were going to read a book called, ‘The Dragonsitter’ by Josh Lacey. To help us, we started by looking at some of the new vocabulary we might encounter, matching the definitions to the word and writing them on our writing bookmarks to help us remember them in the future! We cannot wait to find out what happens in the first chapter!
In History, we started to explore our new topic, ‘Is Kenya really that different to the UK?’. To start with, we created our own circle maps, identifying our prior knowledge, before recapping what we had learnt in previous topics by naming and labelling the different continents and oceans on a map. After, we identified where Kenya and the UK was and were shocked to see how far away it is compared to us.
In Science, we also started a new topic on Living Things and their Habitats. To help us with this topic we first had to identify the difference between living things and dead things.
All children across the whole school are encouraged to read each day both in and out of school. Some additional recommended Reading at Home resources can be found here.
We are so proud of how you have returned after such a long break, have a lovely weekend!
Reminders
- Please note that our PE days are now a Monday and a Thursday.
- Recorder lessons take place every Monday, please bring your recorder to school, they will be returned after the lesson.
Date: 10th Jan 2024 @ 1:11pm
Happy New Year to everyone and we hope you had a lovely Christmas. The children have returned to school with big smiles and full of excitement sharing news about their holidays.
For RE this week we welcomed Caroline into class for our first Godly Play of 2024. It was lovely to welcome Caroline as she told the children the story of ‘Jonah and the Whale’. Thank you so much to Caroline, the children love it when she visits us.
The children have enjoyed listening to different stories all about the ‘New Year’ and talking about how they celebrated with their family and friends. We also discussed what month the New Year starts and that we are now in the year 2024. We talked to the children about how sometimes people like to make a ‘New Year Resolution’, this means a promise for something you are going to do for the year ahead, it may be that you want to make new friends, keep your bedroom tidy or even learn a new skill such as fastening your coat or riding a bike. The children had lots of different ideas about what they may like to do.
All children across the whole school are encouraged to read each day both in and out of school. Some additional recommended Reading at Home resources can be found here.
Please can you ensure your child has a warm coat, hat and gloves in school at all times and that it is clearly labelled with their name, thank you
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Molloy, Mrs Bevin and the Nursery Team
Date: 9th Jan 2024 @ 3:44pm
A Happy New Year to you all! It has been a delight to welcome Year 4 back into the classroom this week and we sure have had kicked things off with a bang!
To acknowledge of Collective Worship value of Wisdom, we identified the qualities wise people share and used critical thinking to discuss ‘Do you have to be clever to be wise?’ We discovered that although we do need knowledge, our experiences and judgements are what give us wisdom. With a focus on Authority, we began our RE topic by comprehending what authority is and experiences of authority in our own lives or in professions of people around us. We concluded that the King, Government, Police and teachers all hold authority as they have the power or right to give orders and make decisions.
It is apparent that our focus on volcanoes this term is a huge interest and we are intrigued in all aspects of the curriculum to discover more about volcanoes to support our learning. In English, we have discovered a wealth of vocabulary this week to describe volcanoes and the environments they might be found in. We have defined and illustrated words such as barren, tremors, eruption and pumice, in order to remember their connection to volcanoes and how we can use them in our writing. Using conjunctions, we formed sentences to explain what happened in the opening of our story ‘Escape from Pompeii’, ensuring that we used a range of conjunctions and stayed away from the word ‘and’ as much as we could. We considered the words in the story which would need to be considered in order to create an image of the setting, spotting vocabulary that explained what could be seen, heard and smelt in the Roman town. Using our ideas, we formed a descriptive piece of writing to tell the reader what they would be able to see, hear and smell if they were to visit Pompeii. Next week, we will compare our lives with that of Tranio, the Roman child in our story, and create a diary entry of his daily life.
Connecting our understanding of multiplying by 10, we began the week by multiplying numbers by 100. We discovered that in order to multiply by 100, we need to move our place value counters two columns to the left. Using our knowledge of place value and how the digits move on a place value grid when we multiply by 10 and 100, we recognised that to divide by 10 and 100, we simply moved our counters to the right instead. Using our knowledge from the week, we completed word problems by recording the multiplication calculation we needed to complete and demonstrating the multiplication on a place value grid. Next week, our focus moves onto written methods and how we can use the grid and column method to support us in multiply two- and three-digit numbers.
In Geography, we discovered that the Earth is made up of four layers; the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. We identified what each layer’s substance is and the distance from the Earth’s crust. PE saw us taking on a defence game of dodgeball. Working as knights, we had to defend our castles from the incoming cannon balls and aim for the opposition’s defences. It was also time to bring back a classic board game in PE, as we took on the TSP Cluedo challenge. We used our orienteering skills and process of elimination to discover which TSP teacher committed a crim in our school. After discovering that electricity comes from different sources, we created a Tree Map to show how appliances in our classroom and household are powered. We discovered those that are mains powered and battery powered before moving onto consider renewable and non-renewable energy.
All children across the whole school are encouraged to read each day both in and out of school. Some additional recommended Reading at Home resources can be found here.
We look forward to seeing you next week, Year 4. Have a great weekend!
Date: 9th Jan 2024 @ 1:36pm
Wishing you all a Happy New Year and all the very best for 2024!
It was great to welcome back the Year 5 children who were recharged and refreshed after an excellent (and lengthy) festive break spent with loved ones. It is fair to say that we made the most of this first school week of 2024 and it was great to be back together as a class team once again. Here are just a few things that we got up to…
Our new writing theme allowed us to delve into the world of Norse mythology. We expanded our vocabulary and explored the many weird and wonderful beliefs of the Viking people. We enjoyed expanding our vocabulary as we labelled and decorated our own Yggdrasil World Tree before employing impressive thinking skills to create a brace map of the ‘three levels of the universe’ (according to Norse mythology). This knowledge will serve us well as we delve further into all things Norse as we begin our new class text. Our Geography learning also connects seamlessly with our new writing focus where we will be exploring the Scandinavian countries.
In Maths, we have been learning a method for long multiplication. The children have honed their understanding of the ‘grid method’ and can apply their skills with much greater confidence and accuracy. Well done to you all for your resilience and accuracy when approaching this method!
In RE, we also commenced our new unit titled ‘Jesus the teacher’. For this opening lesson, we first reflected on our teaching and learning experiences throughout our lives so far. Using our ‘brace map’ (thinking map), we selected three teachers who were responsible for teaching us an important skill or fact that will always stay with us. A lot of deep and meaningful reflection took place as the children chose a variety of teachers from: school itself; their families; sports clubs that they attend: their friendship circles and even wider!
A great school week to properly welcome in 2024. Enjoy your weekend everyone and see you all on Monday!
Reminders:
-Year 5 PE days for this half term are Wednesday and Friday.
-Year 5 swimming lessons will recommence on 31st January and subsequent Wednesdays following the re-opening of Formby Pool.
-Maths and English Homework has resumed and has been set, as usual, via Mirodo on Friday 12th. This should then be returned on or before the following Wednesday (January 17th).
-Spellings have been set from this week and the weekly test will take place next Friday (19th).
-For more information on what we will be learning about this term, please click here.
-Some recommended Reading at Home resources can be found here.
Date: 19th Dec 2023 @ 5:21pm
..and just like that, it is the end of 2023!
I am sure we can all agree that it has been a wonderful term, full of fun and laughter! We have had so many incredible memories to look back on and so many to look forward to.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your generous, thoughtful gifts, both Miss Dunbavin and I are very grateful. I would also like to thank you for making my first term so special, I can't wait to see you all in the New Year!
If you wish to continue any learning over the holidays, please see Google Classroom for Christmas activities.
From both of us here in Year 3, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
See you in 2024!
Date: 19th Dec 2023 @ 11:02am
..and just like that, it is the end of 2023!
I am sure we can all agree that it it has been a wonderful term, full of fun and laughter! We have had so many incredible memories to look back on and so many to look forward too.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your generous, thoughtful gifts, who knew you listened to us just as much as the kids do! Thank you from everyone in team, Year 2.
It is with a heavy heart that we have to say goodbye to the fantastic Miss Martin who is leaving us for a new and exciting adventure. We have been very lucky to have had the pleasure of working and learning with her over the past two years and have so many magical memories with her. Everyone in Year 2, children and staff, wish her every luck in her new role and know that she will come back to visit us soon!
From all of us here in Year 2, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Date: 19th Dec 2023 @ 7:58am
On Monday, Caroline came to talk to the children about the symbolism of the Christingle. The children learnt that the orange represents the world. The red tape symbolises love. The sweets and dried fruit represent all of God's creations. The lit candle represents Jesus's light in the world. The children then enjoyed making their own Christingle to take home. Thank you, Caroline, for a lovely session. On Tuesday, our Year 6 buddies came down to play some games and have some festive fun with us.
What a fantastic term we have had! We are so proud of each and every one of the children for all their hard work this term. Thank you for all your continuous support and we hope you all have a lovely well-deserved break. Thank you so much for all the kind messages, cards and gifts that we have received. We are extremely grateful.
Have a fantastic Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Please see our updated virtual classroom, the link can be found below.
Miss Dalley and the Reception team
Date: 18th Dec 2023 @ 8:29pm
That's a wrap for 2023! What a wonderful first term we have had in Year 1.
This term we have enjoyed making many memories, learning lots of new things, and practising some fantastic new skills. I am sure our school Twitter reflects how much fun we have had! I am incredibly proud of how much Year 1 has achieved so far, and I cannot wait to see how much more you can all aceive in the New Year!
I wanted to say a huge thank you for all of your support and for your kindness this Christmas with the wonderful gifts.
I wish you all a very well-deserved break, and hope you enjoy an amazing holiday filled with Christmas magic! Thank you for making my first term so special, I can't wait to see you all in the New Year!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Miss Law and the Year 1 team.