Year 3
It’s hard to believe we have reached the halfway point of this half term! We have a very busy three weeks coming up, with rehearsals, our trip and much more! Look out for details of next week’s bake sale in aid of Comic Relief – Year 3 bakers have been called to action.
Please remind your child that they must record reading 5 times per week. We are not making the top three when it comes to winning Bookster the Bear, as we do not have enough children reaching star reader (6 or 7 reads a week).
We completed innovation texts this week in English – a character description of a girl from the Stone Age. The children have also continued enjoying analysing texts at sentence and word level, as well as other spelling, grammar and punctuation activities. In maths we have begun learning about mass (using scales, grams, kilograms and equivalents masses). Our home learning this week reinforces this. We continue to see wonderful progress in times tables across the class – well done Year 3!
In geography, the children drew precise, scale drawings of a garden, from a birds eye perspective and with a key. They have prepared story boards and planned the audio for book trailers they will make for The Secret Garden, and practised the skill of shading in art. In French, we described some unusually coloured animals, learning that the adjective follows the noun in French, and giving our opinion about whether we liked them or not. In PE the children continued fine-tuning their basketball skills and, with Mrs Chittock, have started looking at Sikhism. It has been a brief introduction to the faith and looking at the importance of treating people equally, no matter what.
Have a restful weekend!
The Year 3 team (Miss Murphy, Mrs Troughton and Mrs Dobson)
Year 4
This week has been full of learning. We have given the play a rest this week, as we don't want to peak too soon! Our star reader percentage was very low this week. I have reminded children that they don't have to read every night with a parent, they can read by themselves. I hope to have a better number for Monday. It doesn't look great at the moment, but it is still recoverable. Just think of the children that are achieving star reader, we are not being fair to them.
If I forgot to say at Parent's Consultations, please could you teach your child how to make their bed, as in duvet cover on duvet and pillow into pillow case. This is one of the first activities when they get to Burwell House!
Our learning this week;-
Maths - we have continued with short column addition and started to look at short column subtraction. With Mrs Harper, they have been identifying different angles.
English - We have invented our text to;- Should people be allowed to live on the edges of Tectonic Plates? With Mrs Harper, they looked at a non-fiction text about Wacky Inventions and answered questions.
Art and Design - we talked about famous architects and their incredible designs.
Topic - We talked about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD and the decimation of Herculaneum and Pompeii.
Computing - the children typed up their data about the temperatures of cities into a database (MS Excel) and started to talk about machines that sense extreme weather.
RE - We have started looking at Sikhism. It has been a brief introduction to the faith and looking at the importance of treating people equally, no matter what.
Next week we will be practising our play more, so final push please for learning lines and don't forget to get the costumes sorted too. Thank you.
Have a lovely weekend
Mrs Chittock and the Year 4 team
Year 5
It feels like I've lived a lot since I last wrote a learning update. The children were brilliant during the residential trip which made it so much fun for all involved. I'm very glad we had last week's weather and not this week's weather. Roll on Horstead 2026!
It was great to have the chance to meet with you all this week during the parents evening sessions. Hopefully you enjoyed the chance to look at your child's books to see what we get up to all day!
We've jumped straight back into it this week. In Maths, we have calculated highest common factors and used these to simply fractions. We've also draw whole shapes and shape patterns when only given a fraction of the shape/ pattern. In English, we have read a non-chronological report about an Ancient Egyptian mythical creature - the sphinx. The children have planned their own version and have been busy writing it during our last 2 English sessions. We've really been focusing on adding detail and explanation to our points and trying to use as much wonderful vocabulary as we can.
In Computing, we've continued with our Scratch games. I found an Australian game developer on YouTube who has made some great tutorials which we had a look at on Wednesday. He's taught us all about 'converting to vector' to make drawing our mazes easier. In History, we learnt about the pyramids, focusing on why the Egyptians built them and why they stopped. We had a think about how they might have done it - but even Egyptologists are a bit unsure on certain aspects of pyramid building. In Science, we learnt about how plants that use asexual reproduction reproduce. My famous (or maybe infamous) spider plant came in from home. If you have had a child come through Y5 in the last few years, you will be harbouring a Spidey offspring/ clone at home!
Yesterday, Y5 took part in their second playmaker session. They were working on their communication skills and thinking about how the area they use can impact the games they play or the sessions they lead. Next week, they will think about how they can change equipment to suit the needs of the people they are working with.
We still need cereal boxes, so if you have any spare please send them in. We will be making our Tutankhamun inspired death masks on Thursday, 27th March so we still have a few weeks to collect them.
Have a great weekend!
Miss Rutter, Mrs Marsh and Mrs Nichols
Year 6
It's been a busy week in year 6.
We have recovered from the exhaustion of Aylmerton - it was a wonderful trip, and we certainly made many memories.
In maths, we have been revising fractions, decimals and percentages, including some challenging reasoning questions.
In English, we have been continuing to learn about the development of the plot and characterisation in Macbeth: it has been great to see so many enthusiastic actors! Next week, we shall have a writing focus which will contribute to the end of year assessment.
In history, we were learning about the role of Martin Luther in the break from the Catholic Church and started to look at what this meant for England.
In PSHE, we continued to look at assessing and responding to risk at home and out in the community.
In RE, we were learning more about the role of the bodhi tree in Buddhism and the journey of the Buddha on the path to enlightenment.
We will shortly be organising the order form for parents and carers to place orders for the leavers' hoodies. Please not that the children have selected the colour navy so that these can be worn in school, so we will only be submitting orders in this colour. There is the option to add names and initials. Again, for these the children can only have the names by which they are known in school, not a nickname, if they are to wear them in school.
Have a super weekend.
Nuala Gilmore
