This week in Reception, we have looked at the story 'Go Away, Big Green Monster', where we have focussed on descriptive language. The children have created their own monsters and verbally described their features. In maths we have looked at properties of circles and triangles and have explored positional language. The children have now been taught all of the set 1 single letter sounds in phonics, videos of the sounds taught are available on Google Classroom.

This week, the children have been exploring number bonds within 10. Using a fun toadstool activity, they were challenged to place 8 spots in different ways and discover all the possible number combinations that make 8. This hands-on task helped deepen their understanding of number bonds and encouraged mathematical thinking in a practical and engaging way! 

Today, Year 2/3 enjoyed a special visit from a Stone Age expert! The children discovered what life was like from the Stone Age through to the Iron Age and had fun exploring history through artefacts, drama and even some cave inspired art. 

We are incredibly proud of our Year 4 children for the effort and determination they've shown during their recent assessments. Their resilience, focus, and positive attitude have truly shone through – well done to each and every one of them! To celebrate their hard work and continue our learning in an exciting way, the children enjoyed a fantastic trip to Cassiobury Park as part of our Geography topic on rivers. The highlight of the day was a hands-on river workshop, where pupils explored the features of a river, investigated water flow, and discovered how rivers shape the land.

This week in Year 5, the children concluded a two-week-long Science project, marking the end of their first unit of the year: Earth and Space. They produced a non-chronological report on the topic, summarising all they have learned, including the order of the planets in the solar system, how the Earth's axis and spin produce day and night, and how its orbit leads to varying seasons. We are incredibly impressed with the work the children were able to produce over the two lessons. 

In our Science lesson, we have explored the world of living things and their habitats, this time delving into the microscopic world of microorganisms. We will be investigating what can affect microbe growth over a period of a week. We collaborated in groups to set up our bread experiment, to see if light, temperature or if the surface the bread has touched can affect the amount of mould that can grow.  We thought carefully about which variables we needed to change to ensure a fair test and make predictions as to what we think might happen!  

The team had a productive session led by Mr Bristow who modelled to the teachers how our new assessment tool can be used. The software identifies specific gaps in childrens learning, enables staff to create groups with shared gaps and then resources the gap for the staff to teach. It is an excellent tool for improving outcomes. Staff have started to use it with maths and plan to expand it further into other areas of the curriculum.