Year 4 Newsletter

 Last week, Year 4 began publishing their Viking myths in preparation for the book launches we have coming up this week. Many children were able to show off their fantastic computing skills and enjoyed reading back through the fantastic stories they had created.

In our History lessons, we discussed the different legacies that the Viking's had left behind. We discovered that some of the words we use today were actually invented by the Vikings! Who knew that the words 'egg' and 'Thursday' were so old?

Our science lessons have involved us recapping the digestive system and talking about the different functions each organ has.

Year 4 Newsletter

 Wow, what a busy week it has been in Year 4!

Writing

We have just started writing our own Viking myths in our Writing lessons. It has been fantastic to see so many children's creativity come to life as they imagine themselves as a fearless Viking God or Goddess. We have discussed our striking features and why we are Gods that should worshipped by the Viking society!

Topic

Finding out about the Vikings has really inspired so many children in Year 4 and it has been wonderful to see so many of them immersed in this topic. We spent last week looking at Alfred the Great, discovering what made him great and how he unified the country between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings. Using freeze frames, we explored what Alfred's life might have been like and how he worked tirelessly to improve Britain. 

Science

Wow! This week Year 4 have been making poo! Yes.. Poo! We used everyday materials to create the digestive system and replicate the journey that food goes on when travelling through our bodies. We were amazed with how the children threw themselves into this experiment and many of them acted like true scientists. 

Year 3 Newsletter

 Year 3 Newsletter

Topic

In topic, we have explored the importance of the Amazon Rainforest and its role in helping to prevent climate change and help us to breather. Additionally, we explored what crops we import from all over the world and what we specifically import from these hot, humid and heavily rained in areas. To do this, we took a close look at the packaging of this fruit and found their locations on a map. We even got to try some of these exotic fruits!

Science

As we near the end of year 3 science unit "plants", we are still continuing to push and challenge our learning. 

This week we have become experts in pollination and the process that follows. We also investigated what types of creatures can be pollinators and the importance of the role they play in helping plant life to grow.

Some key words we have learnt this week are: 

• nectar
• pollen
• attract

Reception Newsletter

The Reception children loved taking part in Equality Week. They immersed themselves in a book called And Tango Makes Three, about two male penguins who fell in love and had wrote their own versions of the story during their literacy lessons. The children then continued on with the penguin theme and learnt all about the life cycle of penguins. We looked at the features of penguins, labelled pictures and made their own collages and illustrations of the birds with oil pastels.

 

In maths we have been looking at doubling and relating it to odds and evens. The children did really well with this and were able to show us their own doubles and not-doubles with unifix cubes and Numicon. We were talking about the odd Numicon pieces looking 'odd' because they have a bit 'poking out'!

In our RAW lesson this week, we've been looking at homes. How homes are different all over the world and why. We then tried to make a home for Bertie the Owl and discussed what a good home would need. Some children then made their own homes out of junk modelling, drew their own homes and labelled them and went outside and made Bertie a different home choosing any resources they could find. And last but not least, we've been looking after all the beans that we planted and making sure they've got enough water in all this heat! Another busy, but fun, couple of weeks in Reception!

Year 6 newsletter

 Another busy fortnight for year 6, who are, as ever, working their hardest in their lessons - and on their burgeoning acting careers, as we rehearse for our end of year production. 

In science, the children have taken their understanding and knowledge of evolution and adaptation and begun their own scientific investigation on how these theories apply to plant life. Using baby spider plants, we decided to change one key variable on sustaining plant life to see how this could impact growth. Some children have decided to change how much light the plant will have, some to change the amount of water, some the temperature of its environment - and some the type of soil. We are hugely excited to record our findings scientifically - against our control - and challenge our own initial predictions. The knowledge the children have taken from this unit is hugely impressive, and they should all be immensely proud of their scientific working skills.

In reading, we have stepped into the fascinating world of ‘The Nowhere Emporium’ - this wonderful tale of magic and mayhem has us all gripped, and the children are showing their trademark curiosity when encountering new characters, new settings - and new vocabulary.

Our Amazing Places topic has set the year group on a virtual world tour! They are so fascinated by different countries - and this has expanded into learning more about culture, language…and building general knowledge about capital cities, continents, and famous landmarks on a daily basis. We are sure they would ace a round on MasterMind.

Even in their free time, the children are busy around the school - helping with sporting events, creating pieces of breathtakingly beautiful art, devising games for their younger school mates….and, as you can see from the below, helping harvest a very impressive crop of radishes from the school allotment!

Well done, as always, year 6 - what a positive week you have all had.

Reception Newsletter

 What a first week back! We had such a lovely Jubilee Day, which involved learning all about the coronation of Queen Elizabeth and taking part in lots of royal activities involving making crowns, painting corgis for our royal display, having our photo taken with 'Queen'  playing Pin the Tail on the Corgi, and eating our special Jubilee lunch. 

        

We've also introduced the children to a new counting resource called the 'rekenrek'. These are used throughout KS1 and into KS2 and the children worked really well with them, using their super subitising skills to help them see how many counters there were. 

We also had a wonderful visit from Exotic Explorers, who brought in some exciting minibeasts for the children to touch and even hold. The children were so brave and loved every minute, learning some really interesting facts at the same time. 

Year 3 newsletter

 Year 3 newsletter

Science

In science, we have been discovering and learning about flowering plants and their lifecycles. To help us understand how these amazing things live, we have planted many seeds and even created a strawberry patch!

Topic

In topic, we have travelled to Brazil and begun to explore the geographical features of the country. We have compared manmade landmarks to amazing natural spaces and investigated how we can identify these. We also researched the Amazon River and how to identify this colossal natural feature by re-enacting the tributaries, main river and the basin.

Maths

In maths, we have become experts in all things measurement and begun converting millimetres, centimetres and even metres! We used real life objects (and even friends) to put our skills into practise!

Year 3 Newsletter

 Year 3 newsletter

Science and STEM

This term, we have been lucky enough to have a day dedicated to STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). In year three, many of us have dream jobs that are heavily influenced by STEM. We spent the morning investigating different jobs and skills needed to be successful in this area.

We also participated in a variety of different activities to explore the different aspects of this such as: 

• planting a variety of seeds including pumpkins, peas, broad beans, radishes and many more!
• Exploring and identifying different plants around the school field using iPads
• Meeting and interviewing a blacksmith and inspecting the work he creates with his tools.
• Becoming experts in Mary Anning's work and removing "fossils" from ice blocks.
• Experimenting with reactions and forces using bottle rockets.

Reception Newsletter

We have had an interesting couple of weeks in Reception. The children loved last week's Science Days where they got to experience lots of different types of science. We looked at density in liquids, we went on a nature walk and enjoyed the science outside and we made our own playdough, observing what happened when we mixed different ingredients together. We were also so lucky to have a visit from The Royal Institute, who put on a very exciting show for us!

This week, we have been discussing healthy eating and talking about the Eatwell Guide and the rainbow of foods, where the children try and eat as many different colours of food as they can. We introduced the different food groups as well and encouraged the children to try and think of as many different types of carbohydrate, protein etc as they could. 

The children have really impressed us with the way they embraced learning about doubling in Maths this week! They loved using mirrors to press up against cubes and show the double amount and some children were even able to write the corresponding number sentence! We also made double patterns on  a giant butterfly with some shiny gems!

Year 1 Newsletter

 In Year 1 we have had our geographer's hats on and having been learning about coastal areas and the things you might find there.  In groups, the children labelled pictures with the different features they could see such as sand, cliffs, sea, pier, harbour, lighthouse, dunes and much more!   

                        

We had an awesome time on our whole school Science days!  We learnt all about STEM skills and thought about which of these skills we might need in jobs that we would like to do when we're grown ups. Siddhi's mum came to visit us and taught us about the skills she uses as a pharmacist.  She uses lots of different STEM skills. 

We had great fun with a waterlily investigation, making predictions and observing what happened when we put a paper waterlily with closed up petals into a tray of water.  The petals opened! 

 Then we did our own waterlily investigation in groups, changing one thing each.  Groups chose to change the material of the waterlily, the type of liquid, the depth of the liquid or the shape of the waterlilies to see if this affected the time it took for the waterlily to open. 

The children have been amazing scientists!

Continuing on our science day learning, we went outside for a minibeast hunt, looking for all sorts of beasties! We searched high and low, looking carefully on trees, under leaves and logs and in the long grass. 

With our artist's hats on, we discovered the seascapes that the wonderful Rachel Bennett creates!  In the immersion room, we shared what we liked about the paintings.  Back in class we continued our discussion and wrote our thoughts and feelings about the paintings around images on sugar paper. 

'I like this one because it makes me feel like I'm underwater.'

'I can see seaweed and waves crashing.'

'This is my favourite because it's like a beach.  There is the sky and clouds, then the sea and the sand at the bottom.'

'I like this one because of the shades of blue that she has used.'

Paintings by Rachel Bennett