Oliver Jeffers

Oliver Jeffers class have had a brilliant few weeks settling in to life at school. They have explored our classroom, have been in the hall for lunch and out onto the playground with the older children. 

In class, we have been learning about "Who We Are" and have been learning to form friendships. They have drawn beautiful self portraits and shared family photos, telling each other all about their families. There has been lots of other fun and Miss Hartung and Mrs Sherman are excited for a brilliant year ahead! 

Paul O'Grady

The children have really settled well coming back to school and being in Year 4. All of the children have been excellent within their learning and have been fully engaged in all of their work.

This week, we have been learning about electricity. The children were given a range of different equipment and had to try and figure out how they would put it together to make the bulb light up. The children were fascinated when they were able to figure it out with their partners! The children were then able to figure out how to make a motor spin and how to make a buzzer buzz.

This term, we are lucky to have Mr Paton come in and teach us Hockey. We have started to learn some of the basic skills such as how to hold a hockey stick correctly and how to have control over the ball. We are looking forward to further developing our skills.

In Inquiry, we have been learning about Sikhism. We have been learning about their faith and certain rituals that they follow. We are looking forward to our trip to the Gurdwara to see this in action and to develop our understanding even further.

Steve Backshall

This week, in Steve Backshall Class, we have continued to read our exciting class text, 'Agent Asha' about a fearless young girl who ends up working for the Children's Spy Agency. We learnt about the features we need to write an informal letter and collected challenging vocabulary to use in our own letters. Our letters detailed the adventure Kim had under the sea and persuaded Asha to help solve problems with the Internet. 

In our maths lessons we learnt to partition 4 digit numbers in different ways. We worked on our use of different models to help us explain our thinking. 

Well done Steve Backshall Class for your hard work this week!

Escape Room Experience

Over the last two weeks, Year 6 and Year 5 had the exciting opportunity to experience an escape room challenge that was delivered by David and Lindsay from Medway Council. The children absolutely loved it and enjoyed working together to solve different code breaking problems. All children worked hard to find different strategies and ways to solve the problems and excitingly managed to solve the task! 

David and Lindsay were very impressed by our children and commented that they were one of the best groups they had worked with due to their brilliant communication and team work skills. Hopefully we will be able to organise other oppotunities like this again! 

Blue Peter Book Club

Blue Peter has started a book club which is all about sharing the joy of reading. Every month, they will talk about a different book and will have lots of fun activities, quizzes and challenges. They even have a quiz on their website for children to take for book recommendations if they're not sure which is the right book for them. 

The most exciting part about all of this is that the children can apply for the new Blue Peter Book Badge! This badge has been designed by one of the UK's best known illustrators, Sir Quentin Blake. All the children need to do in order to earn their badge is to share their love of a book they have read by submitting a book review and answering the following questions:

1. Tell us about the book you have read. What do you think about it?

2. What other books and authors have you enjoyed reading and why? 

3. Create a drawing of a character or a scene for the book you have read in question 1. 

Applications are open for children aged 5-15 and it would be great if our children are able to receive a Blue Peter Badge! If your children do take part in this, please bring a copy of their book reviews in to school to share with their classes. 

MMA Free Sessions

Medway Music Association’s FREE Weekly Music Tech Sessions run on Tuesdays 16:30 – 17:30 during term time only and starts again on Tuesday 19th September.

These sessions are for pupils aged 9 – 18 (year 5 – year 13) and cater for complete beginners through to the more advanced.

These sessions will offer pupils the chance to work with an online Digital Audio Workstation - Bandlab. Pupils will learn how to create music electronically and production techniques such as looping, automation and sampling, as well as creating music for specific purposes, e.g. music for adverts, films etc. 

We have attached the registration form for pupils to register now.

Thank you in advance for sharing this free opportunity.

ADHD Awareness Workshop

Medway Small Steps/SEN Connect will be running an ADHD Awareness Workshop for parents/carers on Thursday 21st September, 10am-12pm at the Academy of Woodlands.

In this workshop we will look at:

What is ADHD - terminology and definitions?
Indicators of ADHD?
Assessment and diagnosis process
Supportive strategies and resources

We provide information, advice as well as time for parents/carers to share their experiences and successful practices too. It’s also a great opportunity to meet other parents on a similar journey. Tea and coffee will be provided on the day.

To book a space on this course, please click on the below link. Spaces are limited.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/709312030377?aff=oddtdtcreator

Please note this is for parents/carers only.

Autism Awareness Workshop

Medway Small Steps/SEN Connect will be running an Autism Awareness workshop for parents/carers on Tuesday 19th September (10am-12pm) at The Academy of Woodlands. 

In this interactive workshop we will look at:

What is autism - terminology and definitions?
Indicators of autism?
Assessment and diagnosis process
Supportive strategies and resources.

It’s a great opportunity to meet other parents on a similar journey; teas and coffees will be provided on the day.

Please note due to limited space we can only allow one person per family to attend. 

Please book using the following link:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/700150467897?aff=oddtdtcreator