Moulton CEVC Primary School Parent Portal

Year 3

This week in Year 3, we have been pleased with the children’s spelling scores and their progress in times tables. Well done to everyone for their hard work. We would really like to see a strong push on maths targets and reading. It would be fantastic to have high home reading figures and to see children becoming increasingly confident, quick and accurate in recalling their maths facts. Unfortunately, reading figures have been disappointing for a second week, which is something we are keen to improve.

In English, we have begun a fun new unit on persuasive writing. The children have been studying leaflets to identify the language, literary techniques and features that make them effective. As part of our whole-class reading, we explored a text about Go Ape - a local attraction - and the children were tasked with identifying persuasive techniques such as alliteration, repetition and the use of imperatives (I discovered they would make excellent voice-over artists for adverts!).

We also completed comprehension work based on a text about Colchester Castle and Museum. This is an area where we feel there is room for improvement, so we may begin sending home short comprehension activities along with guidance on how best to support your child. Regular reading at home, along with discussions about vocabulary and meaning, is incredibly valuable.

In History, we have started learning about how Newmarket became the home of horse racing. This builds on our understanding of the physical and human geographical features that made it an ideal location. We went all the way back to 1605 and King James I—whose enthusiasm for ‘outdoor pursuits’ was so great that he even had to be petitioned to return to Parliament to govern the country!

Our budding botanists showed fantastic enthusiasm in Science this week as they identified the male and female reproductive parts of a flowering plant - impressive work. In RE, the children began a new unit on Christianity with Mrs Chittock, starting with the thought-provoking question, “What is religion?”

In PE, the children continued practising for Sports Day, while in Music they worked with Miss Spinks to use their voices to convey different moods and emotions, all while singing the same verse of a song. In Computing, we extended our understanding of computer networks and practised moving folders across the school network – successfully, with no accidental deletions so far!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

Miss Murphy and the Year 3 team

Year 4

Another week completed. Some things swapped around but for a great reason. On Thursday afternoon, we took part in a Dalcroze workshop which is about music and movement, understanding music by feeling it and allowing our bodies to move and feel the changes in tempo, speed etc. The children really enjoyed it.

This was in preparation for the playground proms happening next week on Thursday afternoon. With this in mind, the children WILL NOT be doing PE next week. Alongside all of this, we have been busy demonstrating our knowledge.

In our learning this week;-

Maths - Two assessments, one arithmetic and one reasoning. Looking at time in hours, minutes and seconds. Finding the difference between negative and positive numbers.

English – Three assessments, reading, grammar and spelling. The children found the reading paper quite hard, lots of them didn't finish it. I feel this is mainly due to a lack of stamina for reading. When your child reads they need to be reading for 20 - 30 minutes each time, this will build their stamina for reading so that their ability to read matches the demands of SATs in year 6. Their reading comprehension Wednesday this week was about food groups.

RE - We started looking at a unit about Humanism. We firstly discussed what the word Religion means, and then we thought about 'Golden rules' to live by.

French - the children were looking at numbers and were doing calculations using the numbers written in French.

Topic - Pompeii - the children looked at the timeline of what happened on the 24^th August 79AD to Pompeii when Mount Vesuvius violently erupted, burying Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Please make sure that your child has a hat next week. The children are on the field and there is very little to no shade.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Chittock and the team

Year 5

In English this week, we have been investigating some of the main characters in Oliver Twist. We made inferences about them based on how actors had portrayed them and some extracts about them. We had great fun on Tuesday and Wednesday where we made the world a stage and acted out some parts of the play. There were great attempts at cockney accents. We were so impressed with how the children embodied the characters by changing how they were moving and speaking. One team even had a freestyle rap in place of the "You've got to pick a pocket or two" song!

Yesterday, we planned a meeting between Oliver and Bill Sikes – this was going to be very different from how he met Dodger and Fagin! There were lots of good ideas. I am sure they will produce some wonderful writing next week when we get to it.

In Maths, we have been learning about the equivalence between decimals and fractions. We've calculated some decimals from fractions (which is easy if you can create an equivalent fraction with a denominator of 10 or 100!) We've been practising the fraction decimal equivalents that we should just know (half, quarters, fifths....) to develop our recall of these.

In History, we learnt about what Britain was like when Victoria became Queen. There was huge disparity between the classes and the genders. The children were shocked to learn that the Victorians deliberately made workhouses as horrible as possible, and that rich children were nearly a foot taller than poor children, just because they'd had better, more consistent diets!

In Science, we learnt about avian and reptilian life cycles. Although both animal classes lay eggs, their life cycles differ once the egg is laid! In Computing, we learnt about search engines. They were most surprised by the fact different search engines search different parts of the internet.

On Thursday, we had a workshop with Hamish from Playground Proms. We learnt all about dynamics and tempo while putting actions to some different classical pieces. I was so proud of how Y5 joined in and followed all his complicated instructions. It was a lovely afternoon.

Have a great long weekend. We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Tuesday!

Miss Rutter, Mrs Grosvenor and Mrs Marsh

Year 6

We’ve had another busy and productive week in Year 6 as we continue our SATs revision.

In maths, the children have been focusing on line graphs, symmetry, and developing their confidence with arithmetic practice. It has been great to see their resilience and determination when tackling increasingly challenging questions.

In GPS (grammar, punctuation and spelling), we have revised key grammatical terms, ensuring the children feel secure in their understanding. Alongside this, we have continued to revisit important reading strategies, helping pupils to approach texts with confidence and precision.

In writing, the children have been working hard on their non-chronological reports about hobbies, applying their knowledge of structure, cohesion and formal language.

In geography, we have been mapping the locations of rainforests around the world and beginning to think about their global significance.

In science, the children thoroughly enjoyed conducting experiments using gelatine to demonstrate osmosis and diffusion—a fantastic hands-on way to bring scientific concepts to life!

Yesterday, we were lucky to have a fabulous assembly with Hamish from Dalcroze, where the children were challenged to follow instructions and recognise patterns. It was a brilliant session and the children rose to the challenge admirably.

The children are also very excited about our post-SATs party, which will take place on the Friday morning after SATs week. This year’s theme is the 1980s! Costumes are completely optional, but they certainly add to the fun.

A gentle reminder that learning continues after SATs. We will be completing key pieces of writing in the following weeks, which are essential for your child’s end of Key Stage assessment. Missing pieces of work can mean missing objectives being evidenced, which can make a real difference at assessment boundaries.

Home learning this week focusses on: