News
Newsletter for the week ending 17th January
Please do read what has been happening in all classes this week, because there is such a variety and much to ponder. This week has included children raising and discussing in P4C (Philosophy for Children) lessons questions such as ‘Are we all the same?’ and ‘If you are told not to do something, should you do it anyway?’. This second question raised by Year 2 when learning about Mary Seacole (read on to find out who she is), whilst another class are currently researching women who have changed the world and if you havent already guessed our Value for this half term is Inspirational. Additionally, all classes are getting deeper into the whole school topic on health, including learning about significant plagues throughout history!
AROUND AND ABOUT THE VILLAGE
Bingo Night For CRY (Cardiac Risk for the Young) at the Pollyfield Centre
Jenny’s Beating January’s Blues Bingo for CRY Friday 31st of January.Jenny is running the London Marathon again for CRY and to help her reach her fundraising target she is hosting a charity bingo night. Please come along to beat the January blues. Great prizes and raffle. Doors open at 6:30 with eyes down at 7:15. For more info contact Jenny by phone: 07817961518 or email: jenebarnett198@msn.com
AROUND AND ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Uniform
I reminder to please check your children are wearing the school uniform. Trainers tend to appear instead of school shoes and headbands and bows become increasingly colourful and large! I have spoken to the whole school about it and individuals if required and the repsonse from the children has been excellent. If you are unsure please click here to see what is acceptable uniform and if you are still unsure please do call us before buying new.
Communication
Please ensure that we always have your current contact details, including address, email and all telephione numbers. Thank you.
AROUND AND ABOUT THE CLASSES
This week FSU have spent a bit of time looking at winter and where this fits into our seasons. We have described pictures of winter and sorted pictures into the correct seasons. We have made snowmen using various different media and practised our cutting skills to make snowflakes, we have also painted pictures of animals that live in the Arctic.
This week Year 1 have continued our work with Oi Frog! We sorted sentences into commands and questions and then wrote our own commands and questions. We thought of actions to help us remember the text and then we learnt about rhyming words and put them into sentences. In Maths we are looking at adding and subtracting numbers to 20. We have added by counting on and we have used our number bonds to 10 to help us work out number bonds to 20. We have been learning about Grace Darling and thinking about what was different when she was alive. Our Philosophy session used the book ‘Under the Same Sky’ and we discussed the question ‘Are we all the same?’.
Lundy Puffins enjoyed showing you their Maths work on Friday and thank you very much for coming in. Parents were sent a text message via the school messaging system about this event, so please see Mrs Bettiss to check she has your correct number if you didn’t receive one to ensure you are aware of any future sharing events. This week in English, they have worked hard to write their Baboon on the Moon stories and will complete them next week. In Maths, they have moved on to multiplication and have looked at equal groups and added equal groups. They will begin to learn the 2, 5 and 10 times tables by heart, so any help you could give at home to support this would be most welcome. In their topic work, they have learned a little more about Grace Darling and now know why she was an inspirational person. In our Philosophy session this week, they found out about a lady called ‘Mary Seacole’. She wanted to go and help injured soldiers in the Crimean War and was told that she wasn’t allowed to go. She was so desperate to help that she went anyway. The question discussed was: If you are told not to do something, should you do it anyway?
Seahunter have been working on new English and Maths topics this week. In English, they wrote some amazing reports about the life of Mary Anning having watched a short film about her life. They took notes and used them to write their report. They have then worked in small groups to become experts on one of the women from ‘Fantastically Great Women who Changed the World’ by Kate Pankhurst. They have found interesting facts, asked questions and taken part in some role play as their chosen woman. In our topic work, we are looking at Marie Curie, answering the question ‘What did Marie do for us?’ They have asked some amazing questions, which we hope to be able to answer throughout our topic work. After their research and discoveries they will be experts on her life and be able to write their own book in the style of the fantastically great women book. There is a lot of hard work ahead but the children are very enthusiastic and determined!
This week in Maths, HMS Echo have continued to work on time. We have looked at understanding days, months, weeks and years and converting between different units of time. Next week, we will be starting our new unit ‘multiplication and division’. For English, we have read our new class text ‘Winter’s Child’ and discussed our likes, dislikes, puzzles and patterns, and looked at the skills the author has used to learn from these. In Topic, we have continued to research into rationing during WW1 and also researched some wartime recipes. For Philosophy, we read about some women from ‘The Great Women of the World’ book.
Y5 have been writing some fantastic stories based on a young boy trying to escape the plague in London. They have really thought about using good vocabulary to make their stories interesting to read. In maths we have been looking at formal methods for doing multiplication and ensuring we there are secure strategies in place for getting accurate answers. In topic we have been finding out about the role of doctors during the plague of 1665 and what cures they were suggesting (being covered in mercury and put in an oven to bake didn’t sound very appealing!). In RE we listened to the story of the ten plagues in Egypt and also more about Hindu places of worship.
Year 6 have been back to routine this week after Maths Week. In Maths, they have been working with fractions, decimals and percentages again – trying to make even more connections with some tricky problems. In Literacy, we have begun ‘Pig Heart Boy’ be Malorie Blackman which also links in with our topic on work on health. In Topic, we are looking at how discoveries in medicine over the last 300 years have had an impact on the life expectancy of people in Britain – we hope to have many P4C type discussions about some of the controversial issues raised. In Science, we have continued with evolution theories and examined fossils. We also began Booster classes on Wednesdays, which were well attended and all those who came worked really well. The group who represented school in the athletics qualifier did us proud and although they didn’t qualify for the next round, performed fantastically – well done!
Have a wonderful weekend everybody and we look forward to seeing you next week.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children.
