Learning Updates
Year 1
Here’s what we’ve been learning this week:
Phonics We have been assessing the children this week.
*We have been really impressed with their phonic knowledge and how hard they have been working to sound out and blend.
After half term, we will be learning lots of new GPC’s (combinations of letters making sounds).
English Invitations: Cold task (no prior learning): Writing a party invitation to a friend. Finding out the features of an invitation: shared writing. Writing questions words (when, where, who, what).
Assessed Writing: All about a ‘Butterphant’/ ‘Elefly’
Maths Comparing numbers: Fewer, more, the same. Greater than, less than and equal to (< > =). Compare numbers using our new symbols.
Art More work on self-portraits, this time in the style of Paul Klee’s ‘Senecio’, 1922 (warm tone watercolours: red, yellow, orange and brown)
Science Looking at our five senses, we focussed on Touch, describing things by how they feel (rough/ smooth, soft/ hard)
Handwriting We have continued practising lower case letters with the letters c o.
PE with Mrs Crook.
RE Belonging: learning about Baptism. The symbolism of the cross, the candle and the water.
PSHE Trusted adults: thinking of the adults who can support and help us if we have a problem.
Homework: Optional: Read and practice our ‘Number bonds to 10 poem’
Looking ahead: Harvest: The children will be walking to the church on Tuesday morning (20th) for our Harvest festival. Please make sure they have a coat.
Friday 23rd October is a PD day so no children will be in school.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Brandon
Year 2
Take a look at this week’s learning:
English: We’ve been writing an innovated text based on the ‘Big Dreams, Little People’ about David Attenborough. We have also had a fantastic Reading Café about a small fox called Fletcher. Our artwork was great!
Maths: Our focus has been small additions and subtractions (2 digit by 1 digit). We have also rehearsed one more and one less through a dice game.
PSHE: It has been great to explore lots of themes of pupil voice this week and our collective responsibility to listen to one another. We drew special objects and then explained them to our partner. Our partners demonstrated active listening before swapping over. We also discussed an issue that we cared about as a class. We chose lining up and had some great ideas for little changes we could make.
Art: Drawing objects with Mrs Ferrier.
P.E. Moving in different directions with Mrs Crook.
Topic: We looked at what has changed or stayed the same in Bury St Edmunds. We talked about the Abbey ruins and why Henry the Eighth wanted them taken down.
Music: In Music, we’ve spent time exploring three different songs. This week was sounds of the city.
Computing: It was great to build on our confidence and explore debugging our code with Beebots.
Note to parents: I have completed up to date phonics assessments with your child and will highlight some things that can be worked on at home with the resources you will have received in previous years. The children have been working so incredibly hard this term to remember all the sounds from Year 1 and to build fluency with their reading.
I hope that you have a fantastic weekend and thanks again for a great turn out in Reading Café!
Mr T
Year 3
It certainly feels like a Friday today – and a slightly surreal one, as we have just finished designing… Christmas cards! The children are bringing home their festive creations, along with information about how to place an order. There is no need to return anything to school.
A little weekend plea! Please encourage plenty of reading over the weekend. Our reading figures are looking promising, and we could be in with a chance of winning the Star Reader competition next week! Every read counts, so please remember to record them.
It has been another busy and productive week in Year 3…
English – The children completed their instructional texts explaining how to make a marvellous medicine, putting their knowledge of imperative verbs, time conjunctions and instructional writing to good use. They also planned and wrote harvest-themed acrostic poems, exploring descriptive vocabulary to create vivid autumnal imagery.
Maths – We introduced a new formal written method: expanded column addition and subtraction. The children have been learning how to organise their calculations carefully, developing their understanding of place value and preparing for more efficient written methods. You can find examples of this method on the school website.
Geography – We explored why the UK imports fruits and vegetables from other countries, considering climate, seasonality, variety and economic factors. The children are beginning to appreciate how physical and human geography influence the food available in our shops.
Science – We discovered different types of animal skeletons: endoskeletons in vertebrates, and exoskeletons and hydrostatic skeletons in invertebrates. This has proved a particularly popular topic! The children have also impressed Mrs Dobson and me with their enthusiasm for learning about six groups of invertebrates.
RE – The children explored the Bible story of Zacchaeus with Mrs Chittock.
French – We revisited our animal vocabulary and began constructing simple sentences, such as C'est un serpent (It is a snake). It is lovely to see the children growing in confidence.
Music – The children experimented with their voices to create a mountain soundscape.
PE – With Mrs Crooks, the children developed their fundamental movement skills through a carousel of activities, practising coordination, balance and control.
Thank you, as always, for your continued support with learning at home. We are looking forward to a final productive week before a well-earned half-term break.
Have a super weekend!
Miss Murphy and Mrs Dobson
Year 4
What a great week. The children have been really focused on their learning and we have had lots of giggles along the way. To those of you who were able to attend the Reading Cafe, thank you, I know your child really enjoyed you being there, and I appreciate your support for this fun event.
In our learning this week;-
Maths - we have continued looking at expanded column addition and subtraction and have started a unit on multiplication and division.
English - we planned our invention text - our version of the focus text - and then wrote it up. I am so proud of the children as they were writing their wanted posters, on Friday afternoon, and they have all done a really good job. On Wednesday the children had a reading comprehension about
Topic - We looked some more at how the Anglo-Saxons integrated with the Britons.
RE - The children worked in pairs to find a Bible verse which they then read and drew a picture of the moment of 'salvation'. It is really quite tricky navigating through a Bible to find a particular book, chapter and verses.
On Wednesday with Mrs Shipp the children looked at how harvest is celebrated around the world and then made bunting for Reverend Chris to put up in the church.
It has been a very busy week and the children are starting to show signs of weariness, just one week to go, well, four days to be precise! Don't forget on Thursday we will be walking to the church for our Harves Festival Service, please keep an eye out for the weather so that children are appropriately dressed with appropriate clothing for the weather.
We missed out on getting Bookster Bear by just 2 people this week! Spellings will return next week.
Have a great weekend
Mrs Chittock and the Year 4 team
Year 5
This week in maths we have been practising our formal method for addition. We have used column addition to add two 5-digit numbers. We also had a go at adding some decimal numbers, where there were different amounts of digits behind the decimal point. We had to be so careful to make sure we were lining up our digits correctly.
In English, we have been developing our writing by learning to change direct to reported speech. This will be really useful when we come to write our own UFO recounts. We also had a go at writing "Show, Don't Tell" sentences. These sentences really help add description to our writing – and that is so important when writing an interesting recount. On Wednesday, we completed our first writing assessment. The children had to write an information booklet all about a new creature they had discovered.
In Science, we learnt about gravity – what it is, how it 'works', who discovered it and how, and what factors affect gravity. The children asked some really great questions. In RE, we thought about how modern Christians celebrate the incarnation of Jesus. We talked about Christmas, Christingles and following Jesus' example.
In DT, we continued creating our pop-up books. They are looking good so far. We do really love split pins and shiny card! In PSHE, we talked about how to ask for help when we needed it. We thought about who are support systems are and how they help us. We then also talked about supports to keep "up our sleeves" – the emergency services and ChildLine. We had a really interesting discussion about what constitutes an emergency (my running out of peanut butter for my morning toast did not pass the threshold!)
It was great to see so many of you at this week's reading café. I was really impressed with the children's designs – they are a very creative class! Hopefully, next time Mrs Shipp and Mrs Gilmore order more biscuits. One each didn't feel like enough!
Have a super weekend. I'll see you on Monday for our final week of this half-term!
Miss Rutter, Mrs Marsh and Mrs Nichols
Year 6
What a busy and rewarding week we have had in Year 6! From developing life-saving skills and tackling mathematical challenges to celebrating our school community, the children have had plenty to be proud of.
Mini Medics and Mini Mental Health Medics
We started the week with Mini Medics and Mini Mental Health Medics, led by Emily. The children were guided through emergency first aid procedures, learning how to respond safely and confidently in an emergency. They also had the opportunity to think about the steps they can take to look after their own mental health and maintain a positive sense of wellbeing. These were valuable sessions that encouraged the children to think about both their physical and mental health.
Computing
On Tuesday, the children enjoyed a lengthy computing session with Mrs Offley, exploring the mathematical challenge of summing three consecutive numbers. We hope your child will be able to share some of their discoveries with you at home!
Maths
In maths, we have been getting to grips with the mathematical poetry that is long division! The children have been working hard to develop their understanding of the method, building confidence and accuracy as they go. Some have even progressed to tackling calculations involving remainders. We are really pleased with their perseverance as they work through these challenges.
English and Reading
We have now completed our diary-writing unit, in which the children wrote from the perspective of soldiers on the front line. This has given them the opportunity to explore the experiences of soldiers during the First World War and develop their writing in role.
Our reading-focused lesson also explored the battles of WWI, encouraging the children to consider which battle they believed was the most important and, crucially, to justify their opinions using what they had learnt. It was wonderful to see them thinking critically about this significant period in history.
History
In history, we explored how communities came together to support the convalescence and rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. This helped the children understand that the impact of war extended far beyond the battlefield, with communities playing an important role in supporting those returning home.
Celebrating Our School Community
Alongside our usual curriculum learning, many of the children volunteered to act as tour guides for prospective parents. It was an extremely busy time, and we are so grateful to those who gave up their time to help welcome families into our school. They represented the school brilliantly!
A huge thank you, too, to everyone who attended yesterday's Reading Café. Our book, Can I Build Another Me?, celebrates one of our school's core values: individuality. It was lovely to share this message with our school community.
And another HUGE thank you to our wonderful librarians! They read beautifully, supported the technology and coped remarkably well when the microphones decided not to cooperate and they were told they would need to shout! Their enthusiasm and resilience were fantastic.
These events have provided so many wonderful examples of children demonstrating courage, stepping outside their comfort zones and showing a genuine desire to contribute to our school community. We are incredibly proud of them.
A Little Request for Parents and Carers!
I shall now get out my begging bowl!
As part of our longer-term careers education, we would love to invite parents and carers into the classroom to talk to the children about their jobs and career journeys. We are keen for the children to hear about a broad range of occupations and experiences, helping them to understand the many different paths their futures might take.
It would be wonderful if you could share:
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What your job involves and what a typical day might look like.
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The journey you took to get there, including the highs and lows.
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The subjects and skills that have been useful in your career.
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Any advice you might offer to someone considering a similar path.
We would particularly love to offer the children a broad range of careers that reflect the different interests and aspirations within our class.
Please do get in touch by email if you would be willing to come in and speak to the children. There is absolutely no need to prepare a presentation, and the session does not need to be long. These visits have always been something the children really enjoy, and they are a valuable way of helping them begin to think about their futures.
Homework
This week's homework is grammar-based and has been set on SPaG.com. Children who use the Clicker programme will have been given a paper copy to complete instead.
As always, if your child is finding anything tricky, I keep Monday lunchtime free to offer some additional support. Similarly, if homework is proving a little challenging to get started at home, please do let me know, and I can help your child get back on track on Monday.
Have a super weekend, everyone!
The Year 6 Team
