News
Newsletter for the week ending 2nd July
Three weeks to go and the end of another academic year will come to a close. This second half term has raced along and we are busy continuing the learning whilst preparing the pupils for their next steps.
This morning the chidlren remaining here spent time with their new teacher and the children in Year 6 continued with secondary transition activites. For more information on what has been going on the classes please read the main section of this article.
The children have participated in their bubble sports days now and all scores are in. The winning house will be announced next week. Thank you again for supportng the children with wearing their house colours.
We wish you all a lovely weekend
From Jeremy Cooper and all the children and staff
AROUND THE CLASSES
This week we have looked at the story ‘Goldilocks and the three bears.’ We retold the story using our best Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear voices. We have designed a new chair for Baby Bear. We drew pictures of bears using pastels and painted them using forks. The children in Dolphins also had a great afternoon on Tuesday working with Gary Sawyer from Plymouth Argyle Football Club.
Another busy week in Year 1. This week we have been learning all about Norman Castles. The children have started to construct their own castle models. So far they have built a Motte and Bailey, and have used papier mache to make their structures solid. Next week we will paint our models and add mini buildings and defenses. In maths, we have to compare and order larger numbers. The children have used practical equipment to build numbers and develop their understanding of tens and ones. In science, we have been learning about human eyes and how they work. The children have enjoyed staring into each other’s eyes and drawing scientifically accurate diagrams. Have a relaxing weekend.
The week started well for Lundy Puffins with visiting storyteller Clive Pig. He entertained the children with stories about life in a castle. They listened really well and it was great to see the enjoyment on their faces as they heard his amazing stories. In English, they have been writing an introduction and extra information for their book about dragons. There is some really great writing and they should be very proud of themselves. In Maths, they have been telling the time and working out how long different activities take in hours and minutes. Some children are finding telling the time tricky, so any support you can give at home with this would be very welcome. In their topic work, they found out the different features of a castle. In the Art Studio, they have been using pens and watercolour pencils to draw castles and dragons
Seahunter have had an amazing week of learning and fundraising. In Maths they have worked really hard with Miss Rose to get to grips with the column method for subtraction. In English they have learnt how to use adverbial phrases to show where something happened and practise putting them in their writing, creating some crazy ideas based on the story ‘I Don’t Believe It Archie’. Kalen worked really hard this week with some friends to bake 50 cookies, 50 crispie cakes and 50 cupcakes to sell so that he could raise money for a basketball hoop on the top playground. He also did a sponsored basketball hoop shoot out, scoring over 150 in 40 minutes! Having written to Mr Cooper and the teachers to arrange the event and ask for funds, he worked really hard to complete the task and so far has raised over £130 but there is still more to come! The class were really supportive with their words, actions and contributions, which was lovely to see. This week, we have seen our value of kindness demonstrated in so many ways, particularly giving up time to help each other out. All the children should be really proud of themselves!
This week Year 4 have started learning about ‘Shape’ in Maths and have looked at turns and angles. In English, the children have practised their editing skills and looked at the multiple uses of a comma. They have also started planning their own version of ‘Firedbird’ to write up next week. In Science, the class have learnt about conductors and insulators and tested out some materials for themselves. In Topic, the children have been learning about Earthquakes and particularly why earthquakes occur in New Zealand. They have looked at New Zealand on a map and located areas where earthquakes with a higher magnitude have happened.
Year 5 have definitely improved their skills in tennis with some amazing rallies in the game ‘Budge’ this week. Not only have skills improved but confidence too. In maths, we are almost at the end of our shape work – looking at translation, symmetry and reflections. Literacy has involved more poetry – some very creative work this week. I think the poem that we’ve had the most fun with has been, ‘I Had A Little Nut Tree’. In Science, it’s the last bit on forces – using simple machines (levers, pulleys and gears) or starting work in Art ready for our final piece of the Arts Award. We are having a real push on making sure we learn spellings for our spelling tests so please encourage your child to look at them over the course of the week. Heading into Year 6, it is also important that timestables are second nature – children should still be accessing TTRS and making sure they know these facts – the Year 6 maths is really tricky if you don’t know your tables – the expectation is that children will learn these in their own time. There are so many resources available online to support this and children do have access to sheets and ideas in school too but it does take time and effort to do it. Please encourage your children to learn the facts up to 12 x 12 – there is no right or wrong way of doing this – the facts are the facts.Thank you to all those who have made payments towards the residential – please sort any outstanding balances before the end of term.
In English Year 6 have been writing about islands. We had to make our writing as descriptive as we could and we also had to make it as fun as possible. We have completed 3-4 island pieces of work this week. In maths we have been doing some tests and we had to do all three tests but it was fine because we did the tests in three days. The tests are our final assessments so we all wanted to do really well. This week we have completed a year 7 science lesson. We learnt the correct scientific names for food chains and webs. This was really fun and getting us ready for next year. For topic we have been learning about Lundy stamps. A lot of them are extremely rare and you can only purchase them when you are sending a postcard/letter from the Island. We are going to send a postcard home when we go! In our leavers books we were cutting and sticking pictures in so that everyone can write something next to their pictures. We have also been working on our transition books which have been really good for learning about our secondary schools. Reporters: Emilie and Amy
