Spring term Issue 21: 23rd February 2024
Dear families
It has been a great start to the term with visits to the Florence Nightingale Museum, tea-tasting, entries to the Sky Arts competition beginning and much more.
Please take a look at the curriculum newsletters you will receive shortly giving an overview of the learning in your child’s year group this half term.
Our last parents evening is taking place on Wednesday 28th February – if you haven’t booked a slot yet, please do.
You would have received a parentmail email with a survey link this week. We would be very grateful if you could spare a few minutes to complete the form. This allows us to get input from as many families as possible.
And finally, World Book Day is nearly here- Friday 8th March! Children and teachers dress as one of their favourite book characters and join in book related activities to get excited about reading. You will have received information about the Extreme Reading Competition and the Multiverse Comic Competition – this is reminder that these close on Monday 1st March. On Monday children will be given a ‘Read for Good Readathon’ pack, which is a wonderful way to raise money for children in hospitals.
In the meantime, have a great weekend
Alli and Joe
Upcoming Diary Dates
Reception
This week in Reception, we have been learning about using the correct language when comparing quantities and explaining to each other how we know who has more or fewer things.
It’s a Drawing Club week… we’ve been reading Superworm and learning some super ambitious words like ‘indestructible’ and ‘calamity’. We have drawn some amazing secret bases and invented escape vehicles and monsters… always labelling them with codes and passwords.
Outside the children have been making some brilliant structures with our loose parts, they are getting really inventive and improving their problem solving skills.
Next week we are starting our Planting and Growing projects. Please bring in empty clean yogurt pots (small or large) to plant in. We would also welcome packets of seeds and compost plus any bedding plants you could spare to brighten up the Reception garden. And as the weather improves, cushions are popular too.
Year 1
This week, we explored odd and even numbers and discovered what happens when we partition them. Using counters, we partitioned even numbers and found that they can be partitioned into two odd parts or two even parts. When we tried partitioning odd numbers, we realised that they can only be partitioned into one odd part and one even part!
Year 2
Yesterday, Van Gogh went to the Florence Nightingale Museum and met Florence herself! We had the most fantastic time and loved trying on nurses’ outfits from Victorian times as well as modern times. We learnt about the conditions in Scutari Hospital during the Crimean War, and then acted out what Florence Nightingale did to change the hospital for the better! It was an amazing day and we loved every second of it!
Year 3
This week in year 3, we were asked to apply for the role of tea tasters. In order to get the job, we had to pass a variety of tests. First we had to identify the flavour and aroma of a range of teas and then we had to create our own tea and make our own labels using lots of fancy, new vocabulary. Finally, we had to design a tea box to put our new teas into. Some of the teas we tasted were not to our liking, but we tried them anyway and had jolly good fun along the way!
Year 4
We have started learning about electricity this week in Year 4. First, we looked at pictures of different household items, and we spoke about their properties and what materials we think they are made from. Then, in groups, we made links using our scientific hexagons- most of us linked appliances, such as a washing machine to a switch circuit. See us in action!
Year 5
This week our Year 5 students have participated in a recruitment induction program for NASA. The children have been given their own identity badges and have researched the history of NASA. Their first job as NASA recruits is to write their own website report. We are looking forward to reading the finished products.
Year 6
This week in Year 6, we have been learning more about the suffragettes. We travelled back in time to 1905 and to the Old Free Trade Hall where Annie Kenny and Christabel Pankhurst were about to interrupt a Liberal Party Meeting. On arrival, they realised their banner was too large and perhaps not as an effective slogan as they had hoped, and so, they decided to cut the banner to create, the now iconic, ‘Votes For Women’ slogan. Later in the week, we learnt how the actions of the suffragettes led some to prison – we acted as Medical Advisors, using the passive voice to write medical reports, outlining the conditions faced by the women during this time.
News from the Art Studio…
This week in the Art studio, Years 5&6 were researching British birds and making observational drawings using a variety of mediums. They will be using this research over the next couple of weeks to create an artwork of a British bird that will be entered into the Sky Arts’ Access Art competition with Nancy and Jim Moir. Fingers crossed!
Music this week…
Year 1 are starting this half term thinking about conversations in music. How does one instrument respond to another? The children experimented having a glockenspiel conversation; the main rule was they couldn’t play at the same time as the other person.
Year 2 were revisiting the difference between crotchets (walk) and quavers (jogging) and practised writing the correct notes to follow word rhythms. For example
Walk, walk , walk, jogging =
Year 3 children are learning about Salsa music and dancing. They practised moving their feet to a simple forward, forward, back, back formation before identifying the different sections of a Salsa song we will be learning. There will also be the opportunity for playing the Ukuleles to accompany the song.
Year 4 were making sound effects this week. Looking at a short clip from the Pink Panther, they had to select instruments and play them at precise times to give effect to the actions that were happening on the screen.
Year 5 returned to their recorders this week. They are going to be learning a new blues song which introduces note D and has a swing rhythm throughout. They were also composing a base tune to be played underneath the drum grooves composed last term.
Year 6 have started to look at identity through music. We are thinking about artists who have used music as a platform to express their identity or to share a message with the listening audience. We listened to Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat.
Stars of the Week
Stars are celebrated because they have demonstrated the school values, or gone above and beyond.
Well done to all our stars this week …
World Book Day Competitions
Have a great weekend. See you next week!