Lost & Found
Welcome back to school! What better theme to start our academic year than "Lost & Found"? - Now is a great time to label clothes, water bottles and lunch boxes, as we look ahead to the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C).
In this weekend's Gospel we read the beautiful parable of the Prodigal Son. He makes selfish demands, wanders far from home and wastes his precious gifts before finally coming to his senses. On returning home, his father welcomes him back with open arms - he repents and seeks forgiveness.
We are helping the children to understand this week that we can all be like the lost son. When we make poor choices, we must have the courage of faith to acknowledge our fault and trust that we can be redeemed too. We must be honest with ourselves and take responsibility for our actions.
Super Sara!
Congratulations to super Sara in Year 4 who has raised over ÂŁ300 for Great Ormond Street Hospital this summer holiday. Sara was born with hip dysplasia (a dislocated hip that was only diagnosed when Sara turned one). She endured countless appointments, x-rays and two operations, as well as spending six months in a lower body cast. But, thanks to the kindness and professionalism of the team at GOSH, she made a full recovery.
Sara wanted to give something back this summer holiday and so she embarked on the GOSH 50k roller-skate challenge! An amazing story from an amazing child - well done Sara!
Growing Together
In year 6, as part of the new term, we worked together to create a class charter. Taking our theme from nature, we discussed how like acorns growing on one tree, this year we will grow together in one class. Together we agreed how we could grow together in peace and harmony. We collected leaves and acorns to add to our display and thought about how this links to our rights. We then created and decorated our own beautiful leaves. Well done everybody!
Everything in its right place
Year Two have settled in beautifully and hit the ground running with their fantastic learning! Maths has been a big focus this week with the children learning about the value of numbers. How many tens are in the number 34? How many ones are in that same number? We have been using dienes to support our learning on a practical level, but as a special treat the children were also awarded with a selection of sweets resembling dienes, too!
Grammar Games
Year 4's grammar focus was a favourite this week. Children learnt a song to help them remember the different types of nouns and they then enjoyed consolidating their understanding of nouns, adjectives and verbs through a sorting game.
Confidence with the mechanics of sentence structure significantly improves children's ability to write meaningful texts for a range of audiences. We will be helping all children this year to build a broad bank of vocabulary to support them to write successfully.
Back in the game
Year 3 have thrown themselves back into PE sessions this week - dodging the rain to pick up basketball skills on the astroturf: dribbling and chest passes. Back indoors, children were engaged in tactical games - testing and learning from strategic team choices to win points. It has been good to see greater coherence with our PE uniform: plain black joggers and hoodies - no sports logos.
Down to earth!
Year 5 have had a wonderful start to the year and Science especially started with a fun investigation. We were investigating the laws of gravity and how quickly different objects fell to the ground. They enjoyed discovering that mass is not a factor in this - much to their surprise!
Feeling at home
Year 1 have been busy exploring their new classrooms, and getting to know the new adults. It has been wonderful to spend time this week challenging the children in their play. They have risen to this challenge well, demonstrating how they can apply their understanding of number relationships, storytelling and construction to talk about their learning.
May she rest in peace
We spent time in prayer this morning, thanking God for the life and service of Queen Elizabeth II - our noble queen.
We explained to the children that the death of a person can trigger many different emotions in us and that there are many adults we can talk to about our feelings in school.
We explored the amazing life of service that Elizabeth committed to our world, as well as enjoying some of the funnier moments that she celebrated - like meeting Paddington Bear!
It was a beautiful opportunity to mark the death of a remarkable role model.
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