Class News

Below are examples of write-ups from all of our classes this year which they contribute to our newsletter, showing how global our learning consistenly is. You can see how learning is woven around the central ideas that classes mention, and how the progression of these ideas throughout children's learning journey at our school give them a strong foundation for developing into globally minded citizens who care for our planet and all those who inhabit it. 

Year 6 - Chaffinch Class

Year 5 - Kingfisher Class

Kingfishers have been very busy the last few weeks! We really enjoyed art week and learned several new skills, expanding on our knowledge of collage making and creating more intricate designs. The children were brilliant at choosing different textures to match what they wanted to create. We created landscapes of the Amazon rainforest that showed all four layers: The emergent layer, the canopy, the undergrowth and the forest floor- ask your children to tell you about the animals that live in each of these levels! We also spent some time learning how to make music through ICT. The children used a program called scratch to create repeating loops of different sounds. When the sounds were build upon each other they were able to create a rhythm and a beat. 

Our central idea this term was how geography can impact the location of human settlement and we have enjoyed learning about an historical human settlement in South America called Machu Picchu. The children were able to go on a virtual tour of the site and learn about when it was constructed, why it was built and the Inca population that built it!

Year 4 - Blue Jay Class

Year 4 have been busy this term with the excitement of Young Voices and Art Week being particular highlights. 

Young Voices gave us the opportunity to perform with hundreds of other schools and thousands of voices as part of the world's largest choir. We had the most amazing experience!

Art Week saw us able to learn new skills and link these to our inquiry 'People migrate and explore in response to opportunities and challenges'. Mr Elias came and showed us how to work with clay in order for us to create our own Roman pots based on designs that are hundreds of years old. We have been looking at the pros and cons of migration, creating balanced arguments. We have also looked to the past to find out more about migration. We really loved this definition of migration: A long journey to a new home is called a migration. Migrating animals generally go back and forth between summer and winter homes. When people migrate, however, they often are changing homes permanently. 

Much of human history is the story of migrations. 

We have focused on how the Romans migrated, looking at maps to discover more about the spread of the Roman Empire and have spent time investigating the legacy of the Romans. We have described this as what they have left behind. Did you know the Romans invented roads, cat's eyes, heating systems (including underfloor heating), plumbing and the calendar that we use today.  

Year 3 - Woodpecker Class

This term we have been thinking about how the geography of the Earth has impacted on human survival.  We have been learning all about volcanoes and volcanic eruptions including the recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland and some from History including the destruction of Pompeii, Italy. The children have thought carefully about why people may choose to live near volcanoes and some of the cons of being so close.  We have  also used our central idea to inspire some artwork. We used tiles and grout to create some mosaics as found in the ruins of Pompeii and painted pictures in the style of Hokusai's Great Wave showing tsunamis. 

Linked to this, the children have produced some superb writing this term. They have created an excellent non-chronological report and a really interesting narrative story based around a volcano erupting .

The children have had fabulous fun learning to play the pentatonic scale on glockenspiels and have even managed to compose some of their own pentatonic melodies.  They also used digital technology in order to hone their compositions and performances. 

To finish off the term we are attempting to make some prototypes of flood proof houses by putting houses on stilts. We will be using tools such as hot glue guns and saws and taking in to account the health and safety requirements that go alongside these tools. 

Year 2 - Blackbird Class

We have had an incredibly fun term in Blackbird's class. Our central idea this term has been how 'significant events improve our understanding of the world', therefore we have been researching and discovering information all about The Great Fire of London. Our book is called Vlad and The Great Fire of London and we decided to jump into Vlad's shoes and understand how it might have felt to experience this horrendous disaster. We took inspiration from Samuel Pepys and wrote a diary entry about what we would have seen, heard, smelt or even felt. This meant that we had to think of lots of descriptive language.
It has been a brilliant week for art, we have focused on our sketching skills and using different gradients of pencil to create different effects. As our focus is The Great Fire of London, we decided to sketch Tudor buildings and use mathematical skills to think of different shapes that we can see. On top of this, we also looked at what happens when we mix colours to create different shades of orange for our flames. We are looking forward to doing more of this!

We have been designers this week, as we are designing and creating our own Tudor houses; we have incorporated science by conferencing about what different materials would be most suitable to represent our houses. 

Year 1 - Sparrow Class

Sparrow class has been exploring their community as part of our inquiry into the idea that ‘Communities are improved when people work together’. Our geography and science inquiries have taken us around our local areas to look at seasonal change in trees as well as practise our map reading skills. Sparrow class have used this opportunity to take action and improve our community by bringing litter pickers as we walk around to help keep our environment clean. We hope we have inspired the people who saw us to do the same!

Sparrow class finished the term demonstrating their fantastic creativity during our school art week. The children learnt collaging techniques and created pictures of polar bears in the style of our class story ‘Leaf’ by Sandra Dieckmann. Leaf is a story of a polar bear who is far from home and is helped when a community works together. This story has inspired us to research polar bears and write amazing fact files about them where we have learned about the danger facing these animals from the warming arctic. Our inquiries have led us to learning about what we can to do help. Sparrow class have written letters to the rest of the school to tell them what we are doing to save energy and look after our environment and asked them to do the same.

In maths, Sparrow class have been growing with confidence in their understanding of place value, working on their numbers to 20 and using tens frames and number lines to add and subtract. Finally, Sparrow class have been learning greetings in Spanish and bravely sang a Spanish song in front of the rest of the school in our singing assembly. ¡Bien hecho Sparrow Class!

Reception - Robin Class

What an exciting and busy term Robins have had! The central idea for this term has been, ‘Improving our communication skills helps us to better express ourselves and understand others’. We have embarked on literacy adventures with the following stories: The Lion Inside, There’s a Dragon in Your Book, Stuck, Cave Baby and What the Ladybird Heard. These stories have not only enhanced the children’s understanding of communication but also fueled their imagination - especially when a dragon visited our classroom!

In maths, Robins have been learning all about the composition of numbers 6, 7 and 8. It’s fantastic to see how much the children’s confidence with numbers has grown this term. Robins have also been learning to double amounts to ten and compare the size and weight of objects. In phonics, we have almost reached the end of Unit 2+, the children are now beginning to use their phonics knowledge to write words and short captions independently. 

Nursery - Duckling Class

We have had such a fun and busy term following our central idea of  "how different forms of transport can take us on many different journeys and keep us connected to others."  We have explored lots of different space themed stories to ignite the children's curiosity about the universe and spark their imagaination. Our favourite book so far is " Whatever next" written by Jill Murphy; this is where our journey to space began leading us to learn about the different planets in the solar system. We have made role play resources to dress up as astronauts with helmets , suits and boots, we have practised counting down from 10 as we prepared for our imaginary rocket launch. We have also learnt that the stars we see at night make patterns called constellations. Guided by their own curiosity, the children crafted their own star art using different materials like glitter, paint and paper to recreate the constellations they had learnt about. The highlight of our star adventure was when the chidren had the opportunity to name their very own star, the children carefully selected names that held a special meaning to them. From Twinkle twinkle , sparkle star and dragon star. Each star name created was a personal reflection of the children's imagination. 

Where will our next journey take us?