Year 3
The children have returned to school with great energy, and no shortage of conversation! It's been wonderful to see their enthusiasm.
Our next spelling test will take place on Wednesday. We’ll be resuming our handwriting and optional homework tasks from next week.
Our Star Reader Challenge got off to a promising start, though a few children still need a little encouragement to meet the target. Please continue to support your child with their daily reading and remember to log it in their reading record - every little entry helps!
The children have dived into our Ancient Greek topic with real enthusiasm. In history, we explored the legacy of the Ancient Greeks - from their contributions to astronomy and language to architecture and the Olympic Games.
In English, we delved into the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, creating vibrant story maps to help us retell the tale and learning the text map. In whole-class reading, we tackled Theseus and the Minotaur, bringing it to life with plenty of dramatic flair and answering comprehension questions.
The forces are with us in science! The class did brilliantly identifying examples of push and pull, understanding how unbalanced forces cause movement, and even designing their own imaginative toys that use these principles.
In RE, with Mrs Chittock, they ended the unit demonstrating understanding of the idea of Christians as 'people on a mission'.
Miss Spinks introduced our lively new music unit – Chinese New Year and Dragon Dance - which sounds lots of fun, and involved mask-making!
Meanwhile, Mrs Crook has been getting us sports-day ready with some energetic athletics sessions. (Don’t forget, Sports Day is on 18th June!)
In French, we tackled number calculations - who knew maths could sound so much more fun when conducted in another language?
Wishing you all a restful and, hopefully, sunny weekend!
Claire Murphy
Year 4
Welcome back to our last half-term. This year has flown by so fast, only 6 and a bit more weeks to go. The children returned very excitable but as the week progressed, they have settled back into routine. So, our learning this week;-
Maths - We started the week on calculation to remind them of the new methods learnt. We then moved on to a unit about money. With Mrs Harper, the children were learning about years, months, weeks and days.
English - We have started innovating our text from last term 'Escape from Pompeii'. And with Mrs Harper, the children worked on a reading comprehension, looking at different poems about rain.
Computing - We looked at the four areas of computational thinking: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction and algorithms. The children completed some fun, 'unplugged' activities which required them to use these different skills.
Topic - We started to look at the different classes of passengers on the Titanic in preparation for understanding whether their class had an influence on their chance of survival.
RE - The children looked at the 5 T's of Christian Mission.
Have a great weekend
Mrs Chittock and the year 4 team
Year 5
In English, this week we have started to look at formal letters of complaint. The children wrote a letter to Mrs Shipp complaining about a fictitious residential trip so I could see what we needed to work on for the next few weeks. Our main focus is getting the tone and level of emotion right. A lot of our initial complaint letters were verging on unhinged (but they were very funny).
In Maths, we have learnt how to reflect shapes through horizontal, vertical and diagonal mirror lines. We also had some small group catch-ups for long multiplication. It was lovely to spend some time with the children watching them calculate.
We started our new history topic this week: how the Victorians revolutionised medicine. This week, we learnt about what the Victorians actually knew about medicine and the causes of disease (not much!) and how this led to some interesting 'cures'.
In Computing, we learnt about how not everything on the internet can be trusted. For about 30 minutes, Y5 all happily believed in tree octopuses because the website looked good and had working links. We had an interesting discussion about why people might choose to spread misinformation on the internet.
In Science, we thought about forces. We labelled some pictures with all the forces we thought might be interacting in each scenario. In RE, we looked at a song we often sing at Easter time, 'Risen'. We found links between the song lyrics and the gospel accounts of the resurrection that we read before half-term. We then thought about why the resurrection is such an important idea for Christians.
In PSHE, children learnt about the dangers of smoking and the associated health risks. Apologies if anyone received an anti-smoking lecture from their child - they were told that adults each make their own informed choices but, apparently, children know best!
Next week is our Bikeability sessions. A separate email has been sent with additional information Y5 wanted parents to know. It is a really enjoyable week for the children. It's slightly less enjoyable for me, but I've never liked change!
Have a great weekend,
See you on Monday!
Miss Rutter, Mrs Marsh and Mrs Nichols.
Year 6
Year 6 have had a busy and exciting week filled with reading, writing, geography, and creativity!
In our English lessons, we have been reading more of Chinese Cinderella and were surprised by a dramatic twist in the story. This has led us to begin planning a balanced argument based on a key moment in the book, where we will be weighing up different viewpoints and using evidence from the text to support our ideas.
In geography, we’ve been learning about how deserts are formed, including the role of climate, weather patterns, and landforms. We’ve had a closer look at Death Valley, exploring why it attracts adventurous visitors but also presents serious dangers. As part of this topic, we have started writing survival guides to help people stay safe in such extreme environments—these include tips on hydration, heat protection, and emergency planning.
Finally, we’ve been putting our performance skills to the test as we rehearse for our end-of-year play. The excitement is building, and we are working hard to learn lines, develop characters, and bring the show to life. We are so impressed so far.
We’re proud of the effort and enthusiasm Year 6 continues to show as we approach the final stretch of the year!
Nuala Gilmore
