News
Newsletter for the Week Ending 28th February
Please read on to find out what has been happening in and around the classes this week…
AROUND AND ABOUT THE VILLAGE
Coronavirus
Please see previous news article for information.
AROUND AND ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Dates to Remember
5th March World Book Day – come in pyjamas for your bedtime story.
13th March Sports Relief – wear sportswear for a donation.
11th June Sports Day & 16th June reserve day if needed. More details to follow.
Uniform
I reminder to please check your children are wearing the school uniform. Trainers tend to appear instead of school shoes and headband 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 we have continued our theme of transport and looked at buses. We read the story ‘The Naughty Bus’ and created our own stories using sensory items such as custard and jelly. We have painted pictures of buses and made 3D models of them using clay and boxes. On Tuesday we celebrated pancake day, making our own pancakes and on Wednesday we spent the afternoon in The Jungle with Jayne and Lucy from Forest School transporting materials around the jungle and playing with different pulleys.
Year 1 have had a great first week back and have been excited to start our new topic all about Dinosaurs. In Writing we have written about a tea party and started our new writing sequence based around ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’. We have discussed what we liked and disliked about the story, and we have written questions to ask the characters. In Maths we have been counting in 2s, 5s and 10s and we have been solving problems using these skills. Our Philosophy session this week used the book ‘The Bog Baby’ we discussed the question ‘Why did the children lie to their Mum?’. In Science we thought of different ways of sorting animals into categories, such as furry and not furry or whether they live in water, the air or the land.
Lundy Puffins have begun their new topic for the half term: Explorers. In English they have been reading a book about the life of Amelia Earhart, in their topic work they have looked at the explorer Christopher Columbus and compared life in his time to life in the present day. They have been ‘explorers’ in art and have found items in the jungle to make a print on a clay tile. They have enjoyed a session in the jungle where they were in role as early explorers and had to work in teams to decide what to take with them and what roles they would have. In Maths they have looked at dividing by 2, 5 and 10 and how this links to multiplication. In their philosophy session they read the book ‘Bog Baby’ and asked ‘Why did the children lie; is it ever ok to lie?’
Seahunter have had a great week back at school. They have started to work on a new text in English; ‘The Beasties’ by Jenny Nimmo. They discussed their likes and dislikes and spotted patterns in the text before working in groups to learn and perform parts of the story. Linked to this work, they have also worked hard in the art studio with Abby to start designing and making sculptures of their own Beasties (imaginary creatures) that will be used to write their own stories. In Maths, they have done some impressive learning as they have discovered decimal numbers and how they work. They have worked with pizza images sliced into ten equal parts to explore the idea of whole ones and tenths. Now they can count in tenths, write decimal numbers and have started to add and subtract them. Finally, they had a great time outside on Wednesday, learning how to use tag belts for rugby. They played several games of Ruckley Tag, which is a game where they have to cross the pitch without having their tags taken. They developed some impressive weaving and dodging skills! We are looking forward to putting them into action in some mini games next week.
This week in Maths, the children in Year 4 have been learning how to represent and write equivalent fractions. In English, we have learnt and remembered some of our new text ‘Until I Met Dudley’ focusing on the skills the author uses. We have then learnt to use these skills in our independent writing. Our new topic for this half term is ‘Ancient Greece’ so the class have looked at some images and have come up with some questions that they would like to find out over half term. For Philosophy, we listen to Aesop’s Fable ‘The Boy who Cried Wolf’ as our new value for this half term is ‘honesty’.
Year5 have started their new topic on ‘Space’. They can now name the planets in order from the sun and began to find out key facts about these planets. The class had a fantastic trip to ‘We the Curious’, in Bristol , where they took part in a space workshop and visited the planetarium. There were many other scientific opportunities and activities to take part in, learning other science during the day. A successful day and thank you to all the adults who helped us have an amazing day.
In maths the class have been finding out about equivalent fractions and in literacy and topic work has looked at the astronaut Neil Armstrong.
Year 6 have been working on expanded noun phrases and the active and passive voice in Literacy – the text we have been using is ‘the nameless holiday’. In maths, we have completed work on Algebra as well as going over past SATs questions – some children are really starting to link all their learning together which is great to see. In science, we have been identifying and naming parts of the circulatory system and trying to find our pulse. I have been encouraging children to start revision at home and to ask if they are stuck whilst there is still time to secure learning. Please encourage them at home too – there are many online revision sites – the BBC revision pages are a good place to start. We had a visit from the Police Community Support Officers this week, talking to the children about their responsibilities and using social media. Many children have access to this and are messaging each other – they were told to make sure that they have privacy settings on private, only to message people they know and to only ever send messages that they are happy for you, us and grandparents etc to see.
Have a wonderful weekend everybody and we look forward to seeing you next week.
From Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children.
