Riches in Christ

Looking ahead this week to the 28th Sunday in Ordinary time, we heard about Jesus' encounter with the rich young man. Whilst he is already fair, honest and respectful, Jesus has one final challenge for him - "Sell everything you own and give the money to the poor. Then come and follow me. You will have treasure in heaven." The young man goes away sad and gloomy - we are told he is very rich!

If we are not careful, our behaviour in school can also become one of hoarding treasures for ourselves (the best glue stick, the nicest whiteboard pen, the firmest football). We have been asking the children this week to become increasingly conscious of the invitation to let go of the urgent, selfish need to have the best and the first for themselves. It is not who we are called to be.

B - 28th Ordinary

Little Pigs!

This week, Year 4 began our new unit on “The true story of the three little pigs”. We found out how the poor wolf wasn’t big and bad after all but simply a wolf with a cold who wanted to make his grandmother a cake only to find he had run out of sugar. Of course, he then travelled to the houses of the three little pigs to ask to borrow some sugar. However, to ensure we could accurately describe this delicious cake he was trying to bake, and that we had used appropriate vocabulary, we simply had to test some cake out ourselves!

Hampers for Harvest

As part of our Harvest celebrations, children from across the school kindly donated a huge range of food items to be distributed among the community. Year 6 had the privilege of getting out and about and hand delivering these goods to the residents in the Bungalows next to our school.

It was all hands on deck as they delivered over 60 carefully created hampers. The children thoroughly enjoyed talking to the recipients, presenting the gifts and admiring all the flowers, ornaments and funny signs on the doorsteps. A resident from Westway gave us a wonderful thank you card praising Year 6 and we were greeted by lots of smiling and very grateful neighbours. Thank you to everyone who brought in a donation, they were all gratefully received.

Cave Painting Fun!

In Year Three, we have been learning about how the Stone Age people made cave paintings. First, they collected objects from the school grounds, such as sticks, stones, feathers, and even a piece of chalk. Then, using sticks or stones, they made their paints by squashing and adding water to soil, fruits, sand or spinach. The students were enthusiastic, with some children deciding to mix natural ingredients to make alternative colours. They drew their design in charcoal and used the paints to colour and add textures. The results were cave-tacular!

Can't stop the beat!

In Music, Year 1 have been exploring different percussion instruments and learning to play them to the beat/pulse of a song. We have enjoyed practicing this skill with, 'If You're Happy and You Know It' and 'The Name Song'. We have also been trying to spot the sound of these different instruments during our listening and appraising sections of lessons, too. As we become more familiar with playing instruments to the pulse of a song, we will start to explore composing our own music. Watch this space...

Love Thy Neighbour

This week in RE, Year 5 were learning about how Jesus summarises the laws given to Moses from God (The Ten Commandments) in two simple statements: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul" and also "Love your neighbour as yourself". After spending some time recalling stories from the Bible in which Jesus teaches us how to love our neighbour, we then set to work considering how we could combine this with working towards the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Common Good, in our daily lives. We had some interesting ideas; each group presented theirs to the class in a creative way. We have lots of budding actors in our midst!

Fiery Poems

In Year 2 we have been celebrating poetry to mark National Poetry Day this week. Linking with our topic on the Great Fire of London, the children have written poems on this year's poetry theme of 'counting'. We researched different facts about the fire so that we could come up with some interesting 'fire number facts'. The children are looking forward to performing their poems!

Autumn Treasures

This week the nursery children have been thinking about autumn. We have been trying to look for signs of autumn, leaves falling down, talking about the colder weather and discussing what colours we might see in the autumn months. This is a lovely topic to explore and relates to so many of our areas of learning; learning new vocabulary, listening to others, creating autumn themed art work and learning about the world around them. This theme will continue as autumn takes hold.

Beebot Business

The children in Year 2 created a set of 4 different algorithms. Before programming it into their Beebot they had to predict where the Beebot would land. They then tested this in groups to see if their predictions were correct. After this, they worked together to create their own floor mats based on a theme along with two algorithms to test their Beebots on their new floor mats. Finally it was time for some problem solving. The children learnt about debugging and with their floor mats they had to add obstacles. If the Beebot landed on or moved through an obstacle on their mat then they had to debug their algorithm; re-writing it so that the Beebot would clear the obstacle.

P-p-pick up a pumpkin

The children in Reception are loving learning our sounds and this week we reviewed the 'p' sound. Look at our pumpkin picking - this was excellent for our fine motor skills - picking up the pips and pushing out the shapes. We also had a go at painting penguins!

What's on locally?

Guildford Spectrum is participating in the Restart a Heart Day initiative on Wednesday, 16th October, offering free CPR training sessions in the main reception area. This annual initiative, led by Resuscitation Council UK, aims to improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests by educating the public on CPR and defibrillation.

Given the 10% increase in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the last reporting year, it’s crucial for communities to feel empowered to perform CPR. The free sessions at Guildford Spectrum will run from 12:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 17:00. No prior experience is needed, and it’s a great opportunity for anyone wanting to learn this life-saving skill.

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