Moulton CEVC Primary School Parent Portal

A Message from Mrs Shipp

It has been a lovely week in school, full of engaging learning and special moments.

Reverend Chris led a brilliant Collective Worship earlier in the week, captivating the children with a buzzer game all about staying on the right path - even when the 'buzzes' of life try to knock us off course. A huge well done to the brave children who took part in front of the whole school!

Later in the week, we explored the important topic of summer water safety, thinking about potential hazards and how to help someone safely. I was so impressed by the thoughtful and sensible contributions from the children. We are looking forward to the Open the Book team leading Collective Worship on Monday.

Mrs Crook’s wife is expecting a baby very soon, and she will be taking a week’s parental leave to support her family. This means her club will not run during that time. We will explore whether other staff are available to cover, but this may not be possible. If a club is cancelled on the day it is due to take place, we will notify you via text message. With this in mind, it may be helpful to have a back-up childcare plan in place over the coming weeks. I am sure that you will join me in sending Mrs. Crook and her family your best wishes.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve welcomed several visitors to school, including the Local Authority and candidates for our maternity cover teacher post and school business manager position. Your children have been a credit to you - they’ve shown excellent manners and interacted so kindly and confidently. Every visitor has commented on how impressed they’ve been. I have felt extremely proud.

As we head towards the end of term, we know that uniforms and shoes can become worn out or outgrown. Please don’t feel under pressure to replace items immediately. Sensible, neutral alternatives are absolutely fine - do what you can. That said, we do know that some children see this as a golden opportunity to test the boundaries and try their luck with fashion items! We’ll gently and good-humouredly challenge those choices, as always! We have LOADS of used uniform in our lost property - do take a look.

Please do not arrive at the drop-off zone before 3:10pm. We have seen a rise in parents arriving as early as 3pm, and this is causing safety concerns due to traffic build-up. If this continues, we may need to withdraw the drop-off zone for some classes to reduce traffic. Year 6 parents - thank you for continuing to arrive at 3:20pm; this really helps.

Please do take a moment to look at Mrs Barker’s poster below about our upcoming Neurodiversity Coffee Afternoon, featuring a guest speaker from Suffolk Family Carers. It will take place in the school hall on Tuesday 16th July at 2:15pm. Everyone is welcome - and yes, there will be nice biscuits!

We’re really looking forward to the Summer Fair later today - it’s set to be a fun-filled event, and we’d love to see as many of you there as possible!

Thanks to the PTA fundraising, we’ve been able to purchase some new stage lighting that will make our performances shine even brighter. If any parent with a van is able to help us recycle the old lighting equipment and the old library sofa, please get in touch. We’ll handle booking the Recycling Centre appointment - we just need a little help with transporting the items. Thank you so much in advance for your support!

If your child is going to be absent from school, please contact us as early as you can. This helps us amend the registers promptly and ensures we can meet our safeguarding responsibilities around unexplained absences.

At the end of this term, we will be saying a fond farewell to Mrs Troughton, one of our much-loved teaching assistants, who is retiring after eight years of dedicated service at our school. Mrs Troughton has brought a wealth of Speech and Language expertise to her role, supporting countless children with patience, care and skill. Beyond her professional talents, we will also greatly miss her wonderful sense of humour, her warmth, and the fun she brings to our school. We wish her all the very best for a happy and relaxing retirement – she leaves with our deepest thanks and very best wishes.

Wishing you all a happy and restful weekend - see you on Monday!

Year 3

We’re officially past the halfway mark of our final half term together (how did that happen?). As I look back, I am so proud of the progress your children have made. I’ve no doubt they’ll continue to thrive in Year 4. Understandably, some nerves may flutter - new beginnings often bring butterflies - but they will soon find their feet. To help ease this step, we’ve got two transition afternoons coming up, which I am sure they will find exciting and reassuring. Meanwhile, we’ve been hard at work…

In English, we've been immersed in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, and the children have begun crafting their own takes on this tale. Let’s just say about half the class has decided their mythical creatures must live to tell the tale - we’ve got a room full of budding conservationists! They're weaving their ideas into our text map beautifully, showing off creativity and structure in equal measure. It’s a beast of a task but they are tackling it heroically (puns intended).

We’ve stepped into our new unit on shape, exploring turns (clockwise, anticlockwise, quarter, half and full) and angles (right, acute, and obtuse). Now we're sharpening our skills, measuring and drawing in centimetres and millimetres.

Science took us outdoors this week to experiment with friction. Using my homemade ramps, the children tested how different surfaces affect motion. They’re learning to think and work like scientists - carefully adjusting the ramp angle and recording their results.

In history, we continued learning about Hippocrates, the ancient doctor whose ideas arguably paved the way for modern medicine... and a few that raised some eyebrows! The children created vibrant mind maps showing everything from early medical ethics to patient observations. The concept of the four humours (blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm) definitely sparked a few “ewws” and plenty of questions.

Our Ancient Greek vase designs are ready for next week’s charcoal artistry. Meanwhile, in music, their dragon masks are complete, and they are mastering pentatonic rhythms! In computing, they got to “remix” existing animations in Scratch - tinkering with code blocks to create some wonderfully weird and inventive new sequences.

Mrs. Chittock continued her thoughtful work on Sikhism with the class, while Mrs. Crook channelled their energy into a lively and competitive games session. Let’s just say no one went home without rosy cheeks!

We hope you've all got your raffle tickets at the ready for the summer fair; we can’t wait to see you there!

The Year 3 team (Miss Murphy, Mrs Dobson and Mrs Troughton)

Year 4

Hello all, another sweltering week completed with the possibility of another one next week. Please, please, please make sure your child has a hat, even if the day starts cloudy and is predicted to be cloudy. This is the UK. The weather changes on a pin. The only place on the field that is shaded is the edge along the hedge. This edge is narrow, and the children are nearly sitting on stinging nettles. All for the sake of a hat, please send one in on a Monday morning and ask your child to keep it in school until Friday, then it won't be forgotten on a daily basis. Or, you could buy one from school for just £4.50, and it could stay here all the time.

The air conditioning has been on to aid our learning this week and the children are coping really well. I do ensure that it is set at 18/19oC to make sure it's not too cold for them. On Thursday, Mrs Shipp led an assembly about 'Keeping Yourself Safe Near Water', something that is really important for children to be aware of especially when considering where we live and how much open water there is around us, and with the heat making us all want to seek water to cool us down.

Our learning this week;-

Maths - We started the week with the end-of-year assessments for arithmetic and reasoning, and then we went on to starting a unit on statistics, accurately using scales and interpreting bar charts.

English - The children had a last chance to finish their invention writing, and then we moved on to the next focused text style - explanation texts.

DT - The children continued glueing together their slingshot car chassis and designed the body ready for next week when we will make a net for the body of their car.

Titanic - We used a table of statistics to identify different factors based around class and nationality, helping to inform our understanding of whether it was class or nationality that had an impact on the survival or death of passengers.

RE - Continuing with our unit on Sikhism, the children discussed in more detail the meaning of equality by noticing things that were the same or different about one another.

I hope you all had a lovely time at the Summer Fair, and it wasn't too hot.

Have a lovely weekend. Keep cool and safe

Mrs Chittock and the Year 4 team.

Year 5

This week in history we learnt about the work of Dr John Snow. He helped identify the true cause of Cholera and then pushed the government to make lots of changes to improve public health and sanitation. Amazingly, he managed to do all this in 4 years!

In PSHE, we thought about all the different ways adults can make money, talking about the pros and cons of each method. In English, we planned and typed out a formal letter of complaint about a terrible visit to a restaurant. In maths, we have done lots and lots with angles. We have classified, estimated, measured and drawn angles.

On Thursday, we had a go at solving some missing angle problems on straight lines and around points. We also learnt that where two straight lines intersect, opposite angles are the same which made solving some of the angles around a point easier!

Rehearsals have continued. We are beginning to feel more confident with our lines, knowing when to come on and off the stage and we are getting the dance choreography down. Hopefully you all received the costume letter that was sent out last Friday. If not, just email me (joanne.rutter@moulton.suffolk.sch.uk) and I'll send you the document. Rehearsals will ramp up next week - it's out last full week before we perform it!

I'm pleased to say all of our 'deep end' swimmers have achieved the Gold personal safety award! Next week, 6 children from the shallow end will be heading to the deep end to give it a go! Jane and Corinne have been so impressed with Y5's behaviour, attitude and progress during this term.

Have a lovely weekend- I hope to see lots of you at the Summer fair

Miss Rutter, Mrs Marsh and Mrs Nichols

Year 6

Year 6 have had a creative and busy week! In maths, we’ve been exploring our Spirals Project, investigating fascinating patterns such as the Baravelle spiral and the Fibonacci sequence. The children have been amazed at how maths can be found in art and nature!

In geography, we've been learning about desert environments, focusing on how plants and animals have adapted to survive in such extreme conditions. From cacti to camels, Year 6 have discovered the incredible strategies used in these harsh habitats.

Tuesday was Animation Day in computing – a real highlight of the week! The children planned and created their own animated sequences, bringing their ideas to life through digital storytelling.

Alongside all this, we’ve been rehearsing… a lot! With our end-of-year performance fast approaching, Year 6 have shown great dedication and enthusiasm in preparing to shine on stage.

Well done, Year 6 – a brilliant week of learning and creativity!

Nuala Gilmore