It has been a quiet half term for our Junior Leadership Team. School Council have collected suggestions from their classes for what they would like to have in school as the PTA have some money to spend. There were lots of good suggestions - a new climbing frame was popular along with equipment for Podcasting, basketball hoops and a quiet room for playtimes.  

Our librarians were fantastic helpers during National Storytelling week. The library was open at lunchtimes for children to write their own stories and some of our librarians ran this event for Mrs Light-Rowsell.

YR  had an exciting start to the half term building houses like the ‘Three Little Pigs’. They have enjoyed some very muddy OWL sessions digging for worms. During their Chinese New Year celebrations, they cooked noodles and tried different sauces. They also challenged themselves to eat the noodles with chopsticks which is not as easy as it looks! There have also been some visitors to YR this half term which included Shelley the turtle!

Y1  had a tricky Maths challenge where they had to arrange triangles to make one big triangle so the numbers that touch add up to 10. They had to use trial and error as there was a very specific way of completing it.  In Art, the children have been busy creating collagraphs and printing using ink. Building up to this, they used different textured materials to make their collagraphs thinking about their previous learning around lines, shapes and textures to create an image that could be printed on paper.  In Computing, pictograms were made using an app called PicCollage. The children worked in groups and showed great resilience and computing skills. During OWL sessions Mrs Isaac has been impressed with how the children can describe different birds and the children have enjoyed using the zip line, mud slides, mud kitchen, bug hunting, tree climbing and den making!

Y2 have been exploring stance in PE and how this can help us to balance. They worked in groups to create balance sequences on benches. As geographers, they looked at the similarities and differences between Whitby and Bournemouth. They had keen eyes and were able to spot human and physical features and record them in their books. In Maths they had great fun learning about money and how to make different amounts using different coins.  OWL sessions have been focused on bird watching. Bird feeders were made to encourage lots of different birds to visit Oakfield during the RSPB schools bird watch. They have also had fun in small groups climbing, making dens, bug hunting and in the mud kitchen.

Y3  have been finding out about rocks and fossils. They have made sketches of ammonites and turned them into some wonderful prints. They have used a sorting chart to group different rocks and thought about their properties. A very important meeting was 'attended' at Lyme Regis Council to discuss a proposal for building a statue to honour Mary Anning. The people at the meeting had very clear reasons why Mary Anning is an important person and why she should be remembered. During OWL sessions, various tools have been used to make vehicles, first sawing to make the block, then loppers to make wheels and hammers to attach them.

Y4 have shown great resilience and collaboration in their P.E lessons on balancing and jumping. They have worked together to create a sequence of movements, which is much harder than it looks!  The children have also been great artists this half term. They have looked at how to create both warm and cool landscapes using their understanding of the colour wheel and how the colours compliment each other. Different techniques have been used to show atmospheric perspective and with stronger colours being used in the foreground and faded in the background. There have been some fantastic examples in their sketchbooks.

Y5  been focusing on food this half term! They have learnt how to use 6 figure grid references to locate farms in our local area. Did you know that the topography of our land is ideal for mixed farming? They have cleared the raised beds in the allotment area chosing a variety of frutit and vegetables they would like to grow. After an exciting visit to Asda, Mr Durrant and Mrs Sinclair helped the children with peeling, chopping and cooking a range of vegetables into four tasty dishes.  In Art, the children have explored different shading techniques using pen, pencil, ink and chalk. They also looked at work by Rembrandt and discussed the way light and dark is used for effect!

Y6 have been busy in class learning about the Titanic and electrical circuits. During OWL sessions they have learnt how to make kindling, collecting wood and using the flint and steels to light the campfire. They have all whittled a stick to wrap bread dough around. Their damper bread was cooked over the hot embers and enjoyed with a cup of hot chocolate. Tasty pancakes have also been cooked!

The week beginning Monday 29, January was National Storytelling week. In school, the library was open every lunchtime for children to read, write, retell and act out stories.  At home there were opportunities for you to draw/write/ sing/ tell /act a story based on the picture/video stimulus shared. A writing competition was also launched for all children to take part in. The theme is 'thinking up your own world' - can you write a story, poem or play, set in your own, imaginary world? There is still time to enter with the deadline being Friday, 23 February. The winners will be announced on Friday 1, March!