News
Newsletter for the week ending 5th January
Happy New Year, welcome back and please read on to find out what has been going on around the school this week…
Welcome back and a happy New year to you all. It’s been a bust week, starting with all the teachers receiving further training in delivering P4C (Philosophy for Children) lessons. Please note that parents evening for Years 1-6 will be held during the weeks commencing 5th and 12th of March – more details to follow nearer the time.
AROUND THE CLASSES
Happy New Year and welcome back. We have helped to settle our new children into Turtles, enjoyed using the new resources in both rooms of the Unit and talked a lot about our Christmas holidays! We have also painted a lovely sunflower mural on one of the walls in our Book Corner.
We have had a great start back in Year 1, everyone has come back ready to learn and ready to work hard. We all got to tell the rest of the class about our favourite thing that happened over Christmas and then wrote a detailed recount of our holiday. We have also made four New Year resolutions, which will be displayed in the classroom. In Maths we have started looking at place value of teen numbers. In RE we have written about celebrations we have experienced. In DT we have looked at puppets, we drew them and labelled their features.
Happy New Year Everyone! Lundy Puffins have settled in well after the Christmas break and are ready to learn. In English, they have watched a film clip called ‘Baboon on the moon’. They had to compare it to the clip ‘Man on the moon’ that they watched before Christmas – there were some really thoughtful and insightful comments – well done! Next week, they will be writing their own story of the Baboon on the moon. In Maths, they have been looking at money and were able to select coins to total different amounts. They have begun the new topic for the term which is ‘Where in the world is India and what is it like there?’, by beginning to locate India on a world map.
Seahunter have had a great start to the new year. They enjoyed sharing their holiday experience with each other when they returned on Wednesday. We have also welcomed Mr Bishop, a trainee teacher, who will be with us this term. The children have made him very welcome and he has very impressively memorised all their names already!We have all set some goals for the new year and completed some assessments this week. We were particularly impressed by the quality of writing the children produced this week, writing their own stories about a Victorian chimney sweep. We are looking forward to an exciting term. More details to follow on our class page on the website at the end of next week.
HMS Echo have had a busy first week back at school. In class, we had circle time to give the children an opportunity to tell their friends about either what they did in the holidays or what their favourite present was. We also used this as an opportunity to introduce everyone to the new child that has joined or class. Everybody has been very welcoming and kind to her! We then discussed New Years resolutions and why we have them before writing some of our own. The children have carried out some tests, both Maths and Reading. These will be taken again at the end of the term to track their progress. For Science, we have set up a scientific investigation to observe the effects of different liquids on egg shells and compare the effect. The investigation is a representation of the effects on our teeth. The children have written predictions about what they think will happen to the eggs when we have a look again next week. The class have also carried out some elicitation tasks to show what they know about the new units we will be starting next week!
Beechcroft are very excited about starting their new topic on The Solar System. We have already been finding interesting facts about Mercury and comparing this planet to Earth. We are hoping to go to the Planetarium in Bristol later in the term. We have now completed our assessments in maths and reading for the start of the spring term. In maths we have also been learning about the four different triangles and how to find internal angles. We have started to look at the features of persuasive writing and discussing why Pandora would be a good place to visit. Keeping with our space theme we have been looking at the work of Sir Isaac Newton and the laws of gravity. Our P4C question this week, following the story of The Black Tulip, is ‘Can the reward of money make you happy?’.
Year 6 have had a busy week trying to get up to speed again after the break. In literacy they have produced diary entries to show the emotion of an event over Christmas. In maths they have been re-visiting fractions, rounding numbers and have learnt how to multiply fractions. Our topic this term is ‘Wizardry and Magic’ and we have being using our geographical knowledge to solve clues, produce pastel still-life artwork and we have been placed in our wizarding houses. In science we have looked at the vocabulary associated with Evolution and Inheritance. Over the next few weeks, we will be working hard on designing wizarding gadgets, making wands and potions and writing about our inventions.
Best wishes from
Jeremy Cooper and all the staff and children
