A - 29th Ordinary

The Law of Christ

We looked ahead to the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) in Celebration of the Word this week. We heard how the Pharisees attempted to trick Jesus by asking him a political question about paying taxes to Caesar. However, Jesus responds by explaining that it is right to abide by the rules and laws of the land you live in and this does not prevent you from serving God too. Our Tool of St Joseph this week was the Fundamental British Value - The Rule of Law. We reviewed again our school rules ("I am ready, respectful & safe") and how we have a duty to uphold these and to support others to understand them and abide by them too.

In the net!

Last Friday, our Year 6 netball team took part in a girls' tournament at Tormead School. Despite being one player down in their rotation (and therefore having less time to recover on the sidelines) the team gave it their all and played brilliantly.

They won all four of their group matches comfortably, even against some strong opposition. The tournament ended with an all-Xavier final against St Thomas’. St Joseph's continued to show the excellent play and teamwork they had demonstrated throughout the tournament, emerging as the winners!

Congratulations to every player for their determination, resilience and fantastic teamwork. A huge thank you should also go to Mrs Cavaller, who came in on her day off to help accompany the children. What a wonderful way to start the netball season and end the week!

Back in time...

To enhance our history topic of ‘The Stone Age’, Year 3 visited Butser Ancient Farm on Thursday 8th October. Enjoying the autumn sunshine, the children spent all day outside taking part in fascinating, hands-on activities. We began by sitting around a real fire in a Stone Age roundhouse and looking at the materials used to build it. After this, the children loved being archaeologists; digging in the soil and identifying what they had found: bones, bits of pottery, rocks etc. Crushing chalk was also a popular activity as the children carefully used wooden hammers to create a fine powder. This was then mixed with soil and water to make ‘clunch’. Rolling up their sleeves, children were able to use the ‘clunch’ to help build a wall. Everyone was very sensible when using flint to smooth a piece of chalk and collecting a leaf to make the chalk green. We then used the flint again to carve in a picture. Another activity during the day was moulding a clay/mud pot and decorating it using a feather. The children showed impeccable behaviour and impressed the staff at Butser with their knowledge - well done Year 3!

Discovering Autumn in Nursery

This week in Nursery, we have been exploring the wonderful signs of autumn and discovering how the world around us changes as the seasons begin to turn.

The children have been noticing changes in the weather, observing the beautiful colours of the leaves and spotting how they are beginning to fall from the trees. Through our discussions and observations, we have been developing our understanding of the world, encouraging curiosity and helping the children to make connections with the natural environment.

We have enjoyed playing autumn-themed "I Spy" games, looking for seasonal treasures such as hedgehogs, acorns and pinecones. These activities have supported the development of our communication and language skills as we introduced new vocabulary, described what we could see and shared our ideas with others.

Our autumn discoveries have also inspired a variety of creative crafts using a wide range of materials. The children have been exploring different colours, textures and techniques, developing their fine motor skills, creativity and expressive arts and design.

It has been a lovely week of hands-on learning, sparking curiosity and helping the children develop their confidence as they explore the world around them!

The Whole of Ten

With the use of tens frames, Year 1 have been busy learning and understanding number bonds to 10. The children quickly identified that using tens frames helps us as, if every square is filled, we have made 10. We looked at making 10 with two parts and then swapped the parts around to see how than affected the whole.

Exploring Perspective in Year 6

This week, Year 6 explored the fascinating concepts of horizon lines, vanishing points and one-point perspective, creating some truly fantastic pieces of artwork. The children learned how artists use these techniques to create the illusion of depth and distance, transforming flat drawings into images that appear three-dimensional.

Using their understanding of horizon lines and vanishing points, the children carefully constructed their own one-point perspective cityscapes. They followed the key principles of perspective to draw roads and buildings that seemed to disappear into the distance before adding intricate details and vibrant colour to bring their designs to life.

The classroom was filled with creativity, concentration and enthusiasm as the children developed their artistic skills and experimented with this new technique. The final pieces were outstanding and clearly demonstrated their growing understanding of perspective, with many children producing work of an exceptionally high standard. We were incredibly impressed with their effort, attention to detail and artistic creativity. Well done Year 6!

Roma

Children in Year 4 were dreaming of warmer climates this week, writing a holiday brochure about Rome using persuasive techniques, ambitious vocabulary and verb sentence starters. Leonardo's example uses a wide variety of persuasive techniques such as rhetorical questions, powerful adjectives, statistics, exaggeration and repetition to make his writing successful for this purpose. Great work!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Rainy days have never stopped Reception children and they’ve certainly enjoyed the huge puddles this week! We developed our communication and language skills by rehearsing and singing songs about water whilst splashing away...and then Scarlett even came to join in with our fun outside too! Developing children's repetoire of traditional and popular rhymes helps to reinforce the phonolical awareness they have been building over the last few weeks, as well as being excellent for their mental health.

Teddy Tones

This week in Art, Year 2 have been using tone and texture to create observational drawings. They used different tools to make light and dark tones, and different materials to add texture. To create drawings, we gave the children some teddies to sketch. They looked for the simple shapes such as the oval arms or round faces, and then went back to create the textures. The outcomes were inspiring!

Law Abiding 6G

Our thanks to St George's Class for a beautiully arranged worship this morning, focused on the Fundamental British Value - The Rule of Law. We heard how democracy (another British Value) is a key factor in how we decide who makes our laws and how our country responds to changes in the law. We prayed for those responsible for making and upholding the laws of our land and we reflected on how God uses rules and laws to show us how much he loves us. We enjoy a rendition of "The School Song" from Matilda as a reminder of what happens when rules don't work! It was a very memorable gathering. Thank you 6G!

Lawful Witnesses

Congratulations to this week's Witness Award Winners, who have demonstrated a deep understanding of the need to respond to the school's rule, "I am ready, respectful and safe." Taking care to uphold this culture means that everyone at St Joseph's can enjoy the very best experience possible. It was such a joy to see so many children celebrated for this important contribution to our whole school community. Well done and God bless you!