A visit from a Dragon...

This week, the children in Reception had a lot to clear up at tidy up time... only, none of the mess was made by them! The children were shocked to find lots of screwed up tissues all over the floor, some with burnt holes right through the middle. It was all very puzzling, until we found a letter...

To Reception

I am sorry I made such a 

mess in your classrooms

I have a bad cold and keep 

sneezing out fire!

From Mr Dragon

The children cleared up the tissues in no time, making sure they washed their hands afterwards! Harley suggested that we should try to make the dragon feel better, so we decided to write letters to him to advise him on how to get well. The children suggested that he get lots of rest, drink plenty of water and eat fruit and vegetables. Neirin added, "if he is very poorly then he could go to the doctor who might give him some cough mixture". Zak thought the dragon might even need some ice cream to sooth his sore throat!

P4C club: let it snow...?

Today in P4C club, the children turned up full of excitement for the snow! Forming two groups, the children had to either argue that "Snow is good" or that "Snow is bad". They made posters in their teams and used their posters to structure a debate.

 For each new idea a child put forward, the teams received a point! Bonus points were given when a child followed on from what someone was saying, demonstrating excellent communication skills.

David Walliams Art Gallery - Year 6

Today, the Year 6 children visited the David Walliams Art Gallery in the immersion suite. They were brainstorming adjectives, compound adjectives and noun phrases for all the characters. Using alliteration, the pupils were then asked to name them all! 

Reception: World Book Day

Children in Reception turned up to school today kitted out in the costumes of some of their favourite story characters for World Book day! Many brought in their books and enjoyed sharing their stories throughout the day.

 As a cohort, we are focusing on the story 'Boogie Bear' by David Walliams this week. We will be producing artwork and captions inspired by the story, and will be getting into character in the immersion room when we take part in some drama and dance.

Does everyone have access to clean water?

Year 1 have been reflecting on all the ways in which we use water every day.

We then learned that in some places in the world, people don't have access to clean water. We watched a video about children in Zambia who have to walk a long way to collect water from a well where the water is not clean. We decided we would like to raise money for WaterAid so that they can build more pumps and so we wrote about the work that they do.

Year 1 Book Week: There's a Snake in my School!

This week Year 1 are reading 'There's a Snake in my School!' by David Walliams.

We started the week by imagining how we would feel if someone brought their pet python to school! We used drama to show how we would react and we then wrote our own page from the book to describe how the other pets reacted when they saw Miranda's snake, Penelope! We can't wait to read the rest of the story!

Year 3 Done Class Hand writer of the week

Well done Roseline and Gabriel for your wa and wo hand writing joins.

'You can split both odd and even numbers in half'. Agree or disagree?

At the beginning of our Maths lesson today Miss Millar made the statement that you can split both odd and even numbers in half. We voted with our feet to show if we agreed or disagreed with her. As you can see in the first picture the majority disagreed as they felt you could only split even numbers in half as with odd there would always be one left over. However, throughout the session we discovered that if you split the spare one in half when sharing an odd number both groups would have an equal amount and therefore you can split odd numbers in half as well, you just wouldn't have a whole number! By the end most of us agreed with Miss Millar and we were able to share our reasoning as to why this was. Some great speaking and listening skills used in Maths today!

Year 2 Newsletter

We've had a great start back in year 2. In English the children have been immersed in a beach setting and have planned their own beach to describe for our hot task. We have started learning about fractions in Maths and are already mastering our knowledge of halves. In Science we have started our new unit on habitat and we looked at different habitats in our school to see if we could find things that are living, have never lived and have once lived. We are looking forward to world book week at school and can't wait to design our own world's worst child!

Year 4 Newsletter

This week in Year 4 we have worked scientifically to plan an experiment to investigate factors that dry clothes quicker. We were challenged when it came to fair testing because we realised that if we dried clothes outside, we were potentially changing two variables at once! We have also successfully added and subtractions beyond one whole with the help of bar models in maths and we have started our new literacy unit, explaining how to survive in Antarctica.

Spring 2- Week 1 Year 3

After a short break the children have come back to school in great spirits. Although it was only a 4 day week the children have shown outstanding perseverance and worked hard in all their lessons. In English this week the children written their own adventure stories and we are now learning a new story which we will be focusing on in our writing over the next few weeks. In maths this week we have been learning more about 3D shapes. In science the children are now looking at healthy balanced diets and what different food groups are involved. Finally in topic the children have been learning more about the events of Pompeii in AD 79 and have created their own comic strips to show the key events. We are all looking forward to seeing everyone's wonderful outfits for World Book Week on Monday!

A baby visits Year 1!

In RE we have been learning about belonging to different groups.  

We wondered how families prepare for a baby who will soon belong to a new family.

 Baby Tia came into Year 1 to visit.  Her mummy told us about all the things they had to get ready before she arrived.  The children had written questions to ask her and then wrote up their findings.

 This is what they found out; She had an octopus toy, she doesn't have a dummy, her big brother makes her really laugh and all she has at the moment is milk.

RE in Year 6 - newsletter

The Year 6 children are exploring the beliefs and practices of Buddhism during our RE lessons.  They are beginning to use religious and moral vocabulary to identify and describe key features of the religion. Today they completed an eight spoke wheel based on the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path. This led on to a PSHE lesson where we discussed the right ways of living including making choices regarding our speech, thoughts and actions. 

Teen Number Rap!

We have been learning about teen numbers in Reception this week! To help us remember what they look like, we have been listening to the Teen Number Rap.

At home, see if you can spot teen numbers in the environment. The trickiest ones are 12, 13 and 15 - they don't follow the same pattern as the other teen numbers!

Don't forget, if you are still practising your numbers to 10, you can practise finding these too! Door numbers, number plates and road signs are perfect hiding places for numbers.

Happy number hunting!

Fantasy world in Reception

This half term, children in Reception are going to be sharing stories based on Fantasy, to follow on from the excitement they had for their traditional tales topic! We have started the topic off by sharing the story of Zog by Julia Donaldson.

The children have loved engaging in role play activities in their CIP!

P4C club

In P4C club today, we have been thinking about how we can enhance our school environment by introducing "questions to think about" during lunch times. We designed table top displays to place on the dining hall tables to prompt discussion.

Some questions included:

What is your favourite food and why?

Would you rather meet a polar bear or hug a rat?

Would you rather live in a house or in a tent?

Spring Term 1- Riley Class

This half term has flown by with so much going on in Year 3. Riley class have learnt a lot about their topic of Natural Disasters and are specialists about Volcanoes. The children have really enjoyed their science investigations into human and animals skeletons. Riley class had their class assembly, we went to the literacy festival and thrived during the activities in maths week, especially the escape rooms! The children all deserve a good break- we look forward to more adventures next half term!

Year 4 Literature Festival

Yesterday Year 4 visited the Bishop’s Stortford College Literature Festival! Author, Jo Cotterill, spoke to us about her newest series of books called Electrigirl! We had the opportunity to ask her questions about her inspiration to become an author, why she chose to write about superheros and about the electrigirl books in particular. A great afternoon was had by all!

Today I reflected on my life as a polar explorer...

Last week, year 4 wrote their hot tasks (a diary of a polar explorer). They were so convincing that you could be mistaken for thinking that they were written 100 years ago by the brave men who conquered Antarctica.

What if water couldn’t freeze?

After debating this question, Year 4 used clues to construct Antarctic food webs. Then we considered the effect of global warming on krill and how this might impact the food web.

Parachutes in Reception

The children received a letter today from a boy called Jim. He told us that he and his brother Jack climbed the beanstalk together. After meeting the giant, he went to run and climb back down the beanstalk, but Jack had already chopped it down! The children were tasked with helping Jim escape from the clouds and land safely.

After some discussion about using gliders, helicopters and even trampolines, Layla suggested that parachutes might be a good option, and Foster agreed, saying that "it slows you down" so that you land safely.

The children followed instructions about making parachutes in their choosing time, and after this, they decided to test them out! Here are some videos of the children testing them in the outdoor area.

Year 3 Volcano Diamond 9

Year 3 spent the afternoon being historians and finding out different facts about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
They were given 9 consequences of Vesuvius erupting and had to order them on a diamond nine in order of the worst consequence for the people of Pompeii down to the least bad consequence for the people of Pompeii (and the consequences they thought came between).
Children were given additional Breaking News updates throughout the lesson and then had to discuss and readjust their ordered consequences based on the information they had just been given.

The Trojan Horse Workshop - Lichtenstein

Please find attached a video link of the children performing a chant they have learnt and constructed themselves during an Ancient Greece workshop.  It was super impressive! A special thank you to Mrs Moore and Mrs Millward for leading this workshop.

The three billy goats gruff

This week at nursery we are reading and learning about "the three billy goats gruff " and today we started our week with reading this traditional tale together, looking carefully at the features of a troll. In choosing time we worked in pairs, groups and independently to make junk model trolls using boxes, collages materials, glue and tape! 

The afternoon children made a huge model together!  Some of the children used playdough to make troll model and others used pens, paint and paper! 

Orchestral manoeuvres from Moore class

Since the start of Year 4, Moore class has been learning how to play string instruments (violins, cellos and double base) with Mrs Emma White from the Hertfordshire Schools’ Music Service. We were thoroughly impressed with their efforts and progress. As proud parents and teacher looked on, the children were obviously enjoying themselves immensely. Well done Moore class and thank you Emma White.