Let’s take a look at some of the learning from this week … 

The children have been fully immersed in their new core text, A Seed in Need and have been busy getting their hands green by planting grass in their mini-gardens. There has been so much excitement in the air as the children design their own houses to place in the gardens once the grass has grown! It has been wonderful to watch them understand the world around them by applying their scientific knowledge; watering and caring for their plants with great dedication. We’ve also loved hearing them recall previous stories, such as comparing their kidney beans to Jack and the Beanstalk as they watch for the roots to appear. A huge thank you to the parents who have been so keen to engage this half term; your generous donations of seeds and offers of help have given the children even more to look forward to!

In Literacy this week, Reception have continued their journey through the core text Goldilocks and Just One Bear. To deepen their understanding of the story, the children created detailed story maps to highlight key events. It was a joy to watch them retell the tale using these maps, especially as they practiced using new sequence vocabulary such as "first," "next," "then," and "finally." Meanwhile, in Maths, the children have been building their confidence with numbers beyond ten. Using various resources, they explored different ways to compose larger numbers. 

Year 1 turned into young scientists this week as they kicked off their new topic, ‘Animals Including Humans.’ The children have been busy classifying various creatures into animal groups and determining whether they are carnivores, herbivores or omnivores. They have also been introduced to the concepts of vertebrates and invertebrates, mastering plenty of tricky new vocabulary along the way. Over in English, the focus has been on the art of storytelling. The children have been developing their sequencing skills through the use of story maps, working hard to retell key events using conjunctions to link their ideas together.

It has been a week of perseverance in Year 2! In Maths, the children have continued their work on fractions, focusing on recognising quarters and thirds. Despite these being tricky concepts, the children used their knowledge of denominators to find fractions of a number and refused to give up when the challenge increased. In English, the class turned their attention to safety by writing their own guides on how to escape a fire. They practiced using imperative "bossy" verbs to ensure their instructions were clear, direct, and helpful.

Our Year 3 pupils have had a fascinating week exploring the world of politics in their English lessons. The children have been researching different political parties, specifically looking at the Labour and Conservative parties and their "party promises." They held thoughtful discussions regarding the similarities and differences between the two, with a focus on their plans for education, health and the environment.

In Maths this week, Year 4 has been diving into the world of decimals. The children demonstrated a fantastic grasp of the topic, explaining that a decimal is a number smaller than one and that ten tenths combine to make an integer. We have also seen a brilliant effort in times table practice across the year group. Many children are now successfully using "anchor points" such as square numbers and the 5 and 10 times tables, to help them navigate and solve much trickier multiplication problems.

Year 5 have been refining their writing skills in English this week, focusing on "reference chains" to add cohesion to their work. By finding different ways to refer to the character Ade, the children were able to elegantly describe how his relationship with his mother changed over time. In Maths, the class showed great confidence in reading and plotting coordinates. By mastering key vocabulary such as origin, intervals and the x and y axes, the children were able to solve complex problems and even explain the logic behind missing coordinates.

The mystery continues in Year 6 as the children remain gripped by the events of their core text, Alex Rider. The classroom has been full of theories regarding the fate of Ian Rider; River suggested that the presence of a gun at the funeral meant Alex was a target, while Jake argued that the villains would want Alex alive because he holds too much information. It is wonderful to see such high levels of engagement and critical thinking! In Maths, the children have put in a tremendous amount of work recapping shapes, coordinates, and ratio, making excellent progress across the board.