I would like to start by saying a HUGE thank you to you all for supporting us over the last two weeks with lateral flow testing your children. We have had nine classes hit 30% of positive cases in the last two weeks and we so appreciate parents helping us by proving their children’s negative LF results for seven days. We only have three classes left that are having to do that for part of next week. The number of positive pupil cases across school has now significantly decreased. We do have further staff who have tested positive this week but again, this is starting to improve overall.
Let’s hope we can return to a more settled school in the next few weeks. What I can say is that we have been so super proud of how well the children have coped with changes of staff and routines in school. Their attitudes have been fantastic.
So, even with all of the Covid cases in school, I am very happy to be sending you an up-date of happy news below!
Nursery
In Nursery, the children have been having a fabulous time learning about penguins and winter weather. They were amazed to learn that penguins come out of eggs and that they couldn’t fly.
When gardening, the children found some tiny eggs in the garden, and they are now very proud parents to some baby snails!
All of the children have been really kind and helpful to each other, continuing to make strong friendships while welcoming the new children too. They are loving their daily time on the running track. They all try and do more laps than the previous day and love counting how many laps they have done to add to our running sheet.
Reception
All of Reception are really enjoying having Jacob in to teach them Rugby on a Tuesday. He commented this week on how they are all coming on with their throwing and catching skills. The children are also really enjoying using the big apparatus in the hall on a Friday. The forest school group are enjoying their sessions with Mrs Humphries. They are using the outside space lots for messy play and sand and water activities as well as some PE. The children have also started their computing this term with the help of Ben, our IT technician, and are getting really good at manipulating different programmes on Purple Mash to make pictures.
Year 1
Year 1 have started a new history topic about houses and homes. As part of this, they have used the laptops to create Great Fire of London pictures. They have been learning about cavemen homes and have been doing their best cavemen impressions by painting using a stick!
They have been working very hard in numeracy with addition and subtraction and are getting really good at it now!
Year 2
The children have loved going on the running track at the start of every playtime and some children have been doing 6 laps a day! They’ve loved looking at Michael Rosen poems in Literacy, thinking of their own humorous rhymes and performing poems.
Last week they designed and made some amazing moving vehicles in DT. This week, they are having a computing week and they’ve made a great start to online safety by reading and responding to emails about Barnaby Bear and including pictures in their replies.
Year 3
The children in Year 3 have started their new whole class text ‘Paddington’ which is going down really well with the children. They’re using different skills to explore each chapter before and after reading. One of the children in Year 3 has had a couple of new hamsters and she has been giving daily updates and 3P are really quite invested as a class.
The children have been learning about impressionism and how Monet liked to paint landscapes and gardens. We have also finished our final Terrible Tudors lesson. The children found Tudor sports very strange and unsafe along with many of the other things Tudors did!
Year 4
In Year 4 the children have been LOVING their new topic in History which is The Vikings! They have learned about where the Vikings fit on a British timeline and where they came from. The children are all very enthusiastic.
The children have also been doing some coding in computing. Each lesson they come back talking about which shapes they have made on the laptops using their coding skills.
This week they are writing newspaper reports about a Viking invasion and are continuing to look at the creation stories for both Christian and Jewish people.
Year 5
Year 5 did some beautiful work on Blue Monday creating jars full of positive affirmations. We have made a lovely display of the work. They are also enjoying some hockey lessons in the fresh air as well as gymnastics lessons in the hall. Year 5 are really enthusiastic about the running track again.
We set off balloon rockets in science, which they loved, and found very exciting! The Y5 staff are really proud of the children and how they have shown maturity and resilience over the last couple of weeks.
Year 6
Year 6 would like to celebrate how wonderfully the children have coped with their current change of circumstances and being taught in classes. They have been fabulous!
They’re also especially enjoying their current geography topic of Brazil and the Amazon Rainforest and have covered a range of areas including: human and physical features, urbanisation, migration, deforestation and indigenous tribes. They have linked areas of Art and Science to the topic, learning about habitats and the Brazilian artist Romero Britto.
In Maths they have enjoyed learning algebra including algebraic expressions.
In English, the children have worked extremely hard on independent non-chronological reports (also linked to the geography).
We do hope you have enjoyed reading about all the wonderful learning each year group has been doing. We have so much planned for the rest of the term too!
Mrs Sixsmith