High Expectations
We are borrowing the theme of expectations from this week's Gospel passage (The Baptism of the Lord). As John the Baptist spreads the message of repentance and baptism, the crowds become excited - is he the one they have all been waiting for? Is John the Messiah? Will he force the Romans back to Rome and be the hero of Israel? Lots of different groups of people had their own expectations of what God's anointed one would achieve in the world.
This week offers us an opportunity to explore the expectations that others have of our lives and the expectations we have for this new year. It is helpful to reflect on what we anticipate the future might hold for us and how we can begin to make that positive picture a reality by our own thoughts, words and actions today.
What do you want to be when you grow up blog version.movFuture Expectations!
Reception have just begun their new topic, "People who help us". To kickstart their journey of discovery, they spent a day sharing and comparing the kinds of jobs they think they might like to do when they're older.
Here are some fantastic examples...
Searching for the perfect present
As part of their new English unit featuring 'The marvellous fluffy squishy itty bitty' by Beatrice Alemagna Year 2 took a trip to the shops.
In the book, the character 'Eddie' visits different shops in a hope of finding something that is 'fluffy, squishy, itty and bitty' as a present for her Mum's birthday.
So as an experience lesson Year 2 visited our local shops to help influence and inspire their own writing.
Setting the expectations
Continuing our theme of expectations, Miss Moore and Miss Nicholls led this week's witness worship, giving us a sense of the many areas of life that place expectations on us: parents, school, even the Church.
They introduced us to the role of the Pope and the particular contribution of Pope Francis in helping the worldwide Catholic family understand the way that God calls us to live and build us his kingdom here on earth.
It helped us all to recognise that expectations can be a very helpful way of guiding us to make happy, healthy choices that improve our own lives and the lives of people we encounter.
Looking for patterns
Year 4 embarked on a new art topic this week, exploring pattern. Children used different types of pen to create the width of the lines. They were allowed to use whatever shapes they wanted as a starting point and connect them using interesting mark making. Simple but effective!
Winter Wonderland
Year One were very excited to see a brand new place appear in the school on Monday. The three classes got a chance to explore this icy wonderland and also play with our winter themed provision. We had igloo building, icicle measuring and we even made some melted snowman biscuits.
The children are now beginning to use all of these ideas to create a story about a fictional ice planet. They are concentrating on using adjectives to describe different nouns and will be writing their first independent story on Friday.
Around the world
This week in Year 3, as part of our new Geography topic about 'The World we live in' the children started by revisiting their knowledge of the 7 continents and seas and locating them on an atlas. The children had fun completing a world atlas puzzle showing them the tectonic plates of the world. They then had the extra challenge of drawing a simple memory map of the world labelling the continents and seas correctly. It was a challenge but one they all rose to it and put in their best efforts. Well done year 3!
Book Recommendation
Year 6 were left stunned by this remarkable homework submission from Alex. The task was to complete a book review but Alex went further, inspiring his audience to take a step into the world of his chosen text, "Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters" - a modern mythology story.
The time, dedication and devotion to reading earned Alex a Headteacher's Award - congratulations!
Exceeding Expectations
Many congratulations to this week's Witness Award winners:
Alice
Ben
Joseph
These wonderful young people have gone above and beyond this week, impressing their class teachers with their readiness to meet and exceed the expectations placed upon them. Well done, thank you and congratulations children!
