Class News

Ducklings  - Nursery 

We would like to welcome you all to Ducklings nursery. We have had a busy start exploring the inside and outside environment, selecting our own resources and developing new friendships. Over the next week we will begin to introduce our new inquiry where we will talk  about  what makes a  family. We will learn all about our families in school and how families can be different. Please could you send into nursery a family photo; we will use these photos to create a display.

The children have settled so quickly into their nursery routine over the last week and this has enabled us to start our phonics sessions. We have been singing lots of nursery rhymes and action songs, Our favourite songs at the moment are down in the jungle and old Mcdonald had a farm. 

Well done Ducklings, what an amazing start to your nursery adventure.

Robins - Reception 

Robins have had a fantastic start to the school year, they've settled into school routines and their new classroom so quickly. The children have spent time getting to know each other and exploring their indoor and outdoor environment. They have been thoroughly enjoying the outdoor construction, the water area and messy play.

We have started Phase One phonics which involves lots of singing, playing with musical instruments and listening carefully to sounds, this really helps with listening skills and prepares us before we begin learning letter sounds. In maths this week we have been learning how to match and sort. We have been talking about the different categories we can sort items into. We have also started our first Inquiry. We have been reading a book called 'Families.' It tells us about families of all different sizes, families living in different locations and what different families enjoy doing for fun. We spent lots of time talking about our own families and getting to know eachother better. Some of the children have drawn and painted pictures of their family. 

We have been so impressed with how kind and helpful the children have been towards one another. There has been some fantastic teamwork - especially at tidy up time!

Sparrows - Year 1 

Sparrow Class is off to an amazing start this year! During our first week, we delved into the book 'Do unto Otters' to reflect on how we want others to treat us. We used our insights to craft some fantastic sentences that highlight what we do and don't do in Sparrow Class. We then created our own Otter illustrations by making a painted print of our feet and then adding the finer details. 

We have also embarked on our exciting journey to explore the central idea of our inquiries: "Understanding our history helps us connect to others" by writing about who we are connected to such as our families and important people to us. In our maths sessions, we've been developing our counting skills while also learning various ways to represent numbers – through numerals, objects and words. Finally, we have been looking at the seasons and weather, creating artistic windsocks so we can measure the wind through the year.

Great start Sparrow Class!

Woodpeckers - Year 3 

Woodpecker class have settled back in to school admirably, especially considering the heat! We have been reading a story called 'The boy who biked the world' which the children have loved so far. It has helped us to learn about other cultures and countries and see how understanding these other cultures is a wonderful thing. We have learnt about some of the countries in Europe, The Middle East and Africa. Over the next few weeks we will also be looking at different religions and how they affect cultures and people's ways of life. In maths we are looking at number all the way up to 1000. Children have been using their knowledge of place value as well as a variety of different resources to support them in understanding what the enormous numbers actually mean. 

Most excitingly for the children, they have begun to use their Chromebooks to support their learning in class. I have been so impressed with how sensible and safe they have been while using them. 

Over the coming weeks we are going to be exploring night and day, light and dark in our science as well as continuing with our Spanish and Music.

Swimming was an absolute triumph. The children were superbly behaved and all joined in with huge smiles on their faces. It was a pleasure to see them being risk takers in their learning.

Blue Jays - Year  4

We are all very excited to be back in school and starting our journey into Year 4. We have much to do this year and lots of exciting challenges ahead. We have begun to investigate our new text 'Oliver and the Seawigs' and have made some excellent predictions using the blurb and a single illustration. This has tested our inference skills and we have enjoyed looking for clues. This text is going to help us to explore our new central idea: People can express their critical and creative thinking through language and literature. 

We have also been exploring 'growth mindset' and my having a growth mindset will help us to be independent and successful learners. As part of this we had a go at a new skill and had to show resilience and persevere when we found it tricky. We can all now perform a trick using a single piece of looped wool (a cat's cradle). We used the books 'The Dot', 'Ish' and 'The girl who never makes mistakes' to help us consider how we can change our mindset from fixed to growth and have enjoyed creating statements to encourage others to recognise 'The power of YET!'

In addition to this we have begun our new science topic about sound, picked up our recorders again after a short break, begun to learn the days of the week in Spanish, used subordinating conjunctions in our writing, worked on partioning numbers in maths and so much more.

Kingfisher - Year 5 

Kingfishers have had a fantastic start to the school year! We have started reading a new book called “Floodland” by Marcus Sedgwick which takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the polar ice caps have melted and parts of Great Britain are now individual islands. This has sparked lots of interesting conversation about climate change and what could happen in the future if changes aren’t made. 

In our maths learning we have been focusing on place-value, reviewing old concepts from year four and learning about different ways we can partition and represent numbers. Even though we are in year 5, our times table learning is still very important and we encourage you to continue to practise times tables with your children at home!

In our inquiry unit we have been learning about economic activity and how it affects humans, local communities and the environment. Children have taken part in a debate about the positive and negative effects of economic activity and will soon be writing a balanced argument to address both sides of the argument. We have also gone on a trip to an eco farm that is working very hard to be sustainable and environmentally beneficial to the local area. Children had the opportunity to ask questions about how the farm works and how it impacts the local community and the environment. A brilliant day was had! 

Chaffinch - Year 6

Chaffinch have made an outstanding start to life in year 6; displaying excellent learning behaviours and a thirst for knowledge which will make them very successful this year. We have begun our inquiry 'Engagement with the Arts allows people to better understand themselves, others and the world'; this has sparked keen interest and conversations into what the arts are,  what makes us individuals and the differences people can have. Our class text 'No Ballet Shoes in Syria' has prompted us to consider the lives of others and feel empathy for those who have become caught up in war. 

We have made a successful start to swimming this year; all children bought the correct equipment and were outstanding role models to year 3 who were attending for the first time! Chaffinch displayed the 'growth mindset' skills which we have begun to implement in class, becoming more brave learners in approaching challenges - particularly when entering deeper pools than they had been in previously! They considered how they could tackle any difficulties and have started to understand the power of 'yet'. They may find a task difficult now but only cannot achieve this yet. However, with perseverance, they will be able to overcome these difficulties and succeed.   

Over the coming weeks, I look forward to Chaffinch continuing to grow and apply themselves in all learning as they have in these initial few weeks.