Year 3
It’s been wonderful to see the children settle back into school after the half-term break. They have come back with lots of enthusiasm and energy (and chattiness!)
Our reading figures were a little disappointing, but I’m optimistic that, after a rest, we’ll soon see them rise again. Please do keep up regular reading at home - it makes such a difference. Alongside this, continued practice of times tables and maths targets will really support the children’s progress across the curriculum, as these skills underpin so much of our learning.
We will also be focusing closely on handwriting this term. Any relaxed handwriting practice at home - such as writing shopping lists, notes, or cards - would be very beneficial. I’ll have some handwriting resources available at Parents’ Evening if you’d like to take one home for your child. I very much look forward to meeting you!
English
This week, we enjoyed whole-class reading and explored the features of a non-chronological report about tigers. The children have started learning the text map by heart, which they’re doing with great enthusiasm!
We also focused on pronouns, which the children found a little challenging. You might like to help reinforce this at home by spotting pronouns together in books or conversations.
(A pronoun takes the place of a noun in a sentence. Pronouns are short words like “it”, “she”, “he”, “you”, “we”, “they”, “us”, and “them”. They’re used instead of repeating names or nouns.)
We’ve been working on learning this week’s new spellings - please keep practising these regularly at home.
Maths
We have begun using the expanded column method for addition and subtraction. The children are working hard on lining up their columns neatly, using a ruler to draw an answer box, and remembering always to start calculating from the ones column. Please see the school website for a reminder of the formal written methods we use in school.
History
There has been much excitement in Year 3 as we launched our brand-new topic — The Stone Age! We began by discussing and recording what the children already knew (which, it turns out, was quite a lot!). A huge thank you to everyone who supported the home learning projects about prehistoric animals — they are truly impressive. These projects will not only been a fantastic springboard for our upcoming English writing but have also well and truly whetted the children’s appetites for all things Stone Age.
Science
In science, we’ve been getting down to earth (literally) as we began our topic on rocks. The children learnt to identify the three main types — igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic — and how each one is formed. There were some wonderfully creative ways of remembering them, and a few budding geologists may have been discovered in the process!
Art
The children explored cave art. We researched how it was made, where examples have been found, and why Stone Age people might have created such beautiful and informative paintings.
In PSHE, with Miss Spinks, the children have been thinking about what makes a good or bad relationship. These lessons are so valuable as the children learn to navigate their friends
In French, we’ve been learning the names of animals, creating our own visual prompts and illustrations to help us remember them. The class had lots of fun playing a memory game, which brought out some impressive French vocabulary skills.
In PE, the children began tag rugby. Teamwork and sportsmanship were in full swing — a great start to what promises to be an energetic and enjoyable unit.
Have a great weekend!
Miss Murphy and the Year 3 team
Year 4
Welcome back, it was lovely to walk into the playground on Monday morning and see a blanket of green, yellow, orange and red leaves, it really felt Autumnal, I love this time of year it is so colourful. And then Thursday the school was colourful for our non-uniform day. The children have been excited to return to school and full of chatter. Having said this they have been focused on their work, which is great.
Our learning this week;-
Maths - We have been recapping our learning from last half-term so that we feel secure to carry on.
English - We have started to look at non-chronological reports.
Topic - We looked at the Anglo-Saxon social structure and compared it with today.
RE - The children demonstrated their learning from last term by writing an answer to the question using everything they learnt to inform their answers.
Music - We have started to look at Rock and Roll.
DT - The children have started a unit that will include sewing. This week they looked at fastenings.
Parents' Evenings; 10th, 11th and 13th November.
West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village trip; 21st November.
I look forward to seeing you next week to catch up about how your child has settled into Year 4 at the parents' evenings.
Have a great weekend
Mrs Chittock and the Year 4 team
Year 5
We've had a super first week back. The children have come back brilliantly!
We had a great day on Monday. We started our new topic - the battle for the crown in 1066. We learnt lots of contextual stuff - which territories were involved, where they were, who was in charge of them and some background on Edward the Confessor (the man who caused the crisis). If you are considering watching the recent BBC series about 1066 - DON'T. It is rubbish (historically speaking). I'd found about 12 historical inaccuracies in the first 5 minutes. You know it's going to be bad when a historical series starts with the phrase "Some long time ago.....".
On Monday afternoon, Dr Matt Bothwell from Cambridge University came to talk to us about space and answer all of our tricky questions. He brought with him a meteorite that fell to Earth 20,000 years ago for us to hold (and smell!) We followed this with our own gravity-defying attempts – we used a stomp rocket to prove that mass moves mass! In our official science lesson this week, we thought about the properties of materials. We learnt some new terms and used them to describe why some objects are made from some materials but not others.
In English this week, we have looked at persuasion. We've looked at some adverts to see how clever they are at sending multiple messages. Next week, we will have a look at some famous persuasive speech from history.
In Maths this week, we have focused on column subtraction. The children have been brilliant – they have been so accurate and neat. We even subtracted across a double zero without a hitch!
Hopefully you've had an opportunity to book an appointment to meet Mrs Grosvenor and I next week. We will be ready to meet and chat about your child on Monday 10th, Tuesday 11th or Wednesday 12th after school.
Have a great weekend!
Miss Rutter, Mrs Grosvenor and Mrs Marsh
Year 6
This week, Year 6 have been working incredibly hard across all areas of the curriculum. In English, the children completed their diary hot task, writing in role as a soldier in the trenches during the Great War. They used the planning completed at home to support their writing, and focused on including a range of sentence types as well as authentic historical detail to bring their work to life. We were very impressed with the empathy and maturity shown in their finished diaries.
In maths, we continued to work on the four operations, this time applying our skills to reasoning problems. The children are developing confidence in explaining their thinking and justifying their methods.
Our history learning took us closer to home as we explored the role Newmarket played in the war effort during the Great War. The class were fascinated to discover that Newmarket once had three railway stations and discussed why this would have been so important at the time.
In RE, we reflected on how Christians can live out the words of the Gospel. We considered which ideas might be uniquely Christian and which reflect wider values of simply being a ‘decent human’. This led to rich discussion about community, responsibility, and the difference between helping and serving others.
In PSHE, our focus was on the dangers of smoking. The children asked thoughtful questions and demonstrated mature understanding of how choices can impact health and wellbeing.
Home Learning: This week, home learning consolidates our understanding of squared and cubed numbers and includes a poetry reading task. Both should take no longer than 30 minutes each.
I look forward to seeing many of you at Parents’ Evening next week.
Have a super weekend!
Nuala Gilmore
