Year 6 – 22/10/21 – One World Week

For One World Week, the school has been learning about the upcoming COP26 summit and recognising that our world was entrusted to us by God, but we are now damaging our common home.

In Year 6, we learned about the 4 main goals that Sir David Attenborough deems as being imperative to meet if we are to succeed in turning around climate change. These are:

  1. Phasing out fossil fuels for renewable energy sources
  2. Managing our oceans
  3. Reducing meat consumption
  4. Rewilding the planet

These areas became our foci for the week’s learning.

 

Monday and Wednesday

The children learned about the pros and cons of different renewables. We followed this up on Wednesday by walking to the local solar farm, which generates enough electricity to power 1000 homes in our town!

Tuesday

We learned that there are 3 main factors that play a part in destroying our oceans, which produce over half of the world’s oxygen and absorb 50 times more carbon dioxide than our atmosphere. These are:

  1. Overfishing
  2. Plastic pollution
  3. Global warming

We thought about ways that we can address the problem of plastic pollution on a personal level; that is, ensuring that we reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible. We were then shocked to learn that man-made textile fibres – namely polyester and nylon – are essentially micro plastics. When polyester and nylon clothes are washed, many of these microfibres break free of the clothes, ending up in our water systems and, ultimately, our oceans. We saw this for ourselves by washing polyester fleeces in a bucket full of warm water, and observing the water thereafter.

Thursday

We then moved on to learning about the impact that meat consumption has on the environment. Most memorably, it requires around 2500 litres of water required to raise and graze cattle to produce a single beef burger. Moreover, and quite horrifically, the area of rainforest equivalent to a football pitch is lost every second to deforestation. The reason for this deforestation is, first and foremost, cattle farming. This inevitably destroys ecosystems and leaves millions of animals without a habitat, not to mention the fact that rainforests are crucially the lungs of the world due to the oxygen they ‘breathe’ out.

The children took part in a debate in which they put forward arguments for and against the elimination of meat from our diets. They then thought about steps they could take in their own lives to help address this problem. Some ideas were:

  • Choosing the green option for school dinners at least twice a week
  • Having days or weeks at home that are meat free

Friday

Today, we pulled together all our learning from the week by writing a persuasive letter to Oliver Dowden, our local MP, calling on him to prioritise repairing our damaged world.

We also enjoyed some meat-free chilli that had been slow cooking overnight, following on from yesterday’s learning about the necessity to reduce meat consumption. It definitely got the thumbs up!

The Laudato Si Leaders have been in their element this week, passionately participating in class discussion, coming up with school initiatives to be better stewards of creation, and leading an act of worship in each class over the course of the week. I am so proud of the fantastic role models they have shown themselves to be. This morning, they also led our whole-school assembly, and then this afternoon, the Year 6s joined the Receptions to have a special act of worship to conclude One World Week.

The Liturgy Leaders have been absolute stars throughout this month of October, giving up part of their lunchtimes on most days to lead the Rosary for the rest of the school. Most notably, on Tuesday, they went down to the church to lead the Rosary for the rest of the parish and did an absolutely wonderful job. Well done to you all!

Home Learning

I wish you all a wonderful half term!

Miss Donatantonio

22nd October 2021

We have reached half-term; the weeks have flown by!

In English, the children have continued to work really hard on their research and planning for their biography about Mary Anning, a 19th century self-taught pioneering palaeontologist. The children have spent the last few days composing their biographies based on all their hard work. We’ve looked at the structure and features of other biographies, and have been making sure their  final draft contains all these features that contribute towards writing in a way that makes the reader want to read more. This work will form part of their writing portfolios in class, the children can be very proud of all their hard work. Mary Anning was an inspirational figure.

In Maths the children have started learning about comparing numbers  up to three decimal places, understanding thousandths as well as tenths and hundredths within the place value system. In Religious Studies we’ve been focussing on biblical metaphors, considering and discussing how the children see God and what metaphors they might create for Him based on how he helps them in different situations.

Following on from our work on Mary Anning, Alfie and Kate, together with Mrs Hilton, constructed their own fossils. They were left a few days to harden, and today, the children in year 5 (with all appropriate precautions taken, including safety goggles) took it in turns to chip away at the hardened rocks to discover the fossil inside. Just as Mary Anning would have done, two hundred years ago. It was a very enjoyable experience, as you can see from the photo.

 

This has been One World Week at Pope Paul School, we’ve been considering the impact of climate change and the forthcoming important meeting, COP26, due to begin in Glasgow before the end of this month. Our Big Question to discuss has been: Who Does the World Belong To? and what positive steps they can take to reduce the threat of climate change. Yesterday, the class attended an online webinar run by the WWF (World Wildlife Fund)  to watch parts of the recent David Attenborough film ‘A Life on Our Planet’ covering our amazing oceans, the impacts of climate change, the problems of overfishing in our seas and solutions to these global issues.  The discussion that came from this was fantastic and as a class they took part in the Wild Wisdom Global Challenge learning more about climate change and sustainability as well as putting their wildlife knowledge to the test.

Today, Ela-Maria, Caroline and Johanna, armed with yummy cupcakes and with ‘Go Green’ as their motivation, sold their cakes to a captive audience.  Well done girls!

 

Home Learning:

If you are able to log onto Read Theory (complete the 5 activities set) and log onto Mathletics (complete the decimal activities).

There is a whole school RE Home Leaning which is attached below and also on this week’s newsletter.

Whole School RE Learning

I’d like to wish you all an enjoyable half-term break.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Holmes

 

Reception Class Week Beginning 18.10.21

This week, Reception have been participating in One World Week, alongside the rest of the school. To start the week off, the class reflected and responded to the school’s big question, ‘Who does the world belong to?’ This led to a very interesting discussion, with answers ranging from ‘It belongs to God, because he made it’ to ‘It belongs to my daddy’.

We then thought about how water connects the whole world together, by looking at globes and maps. We also learnt how every living thing on the planet requires water to survive. The children were brilliant and listing all the different things that are made from water such as: tears, sweat, rivers, icebergs, oceans, rain, snow, streams, ponds, lakes, dew. Reception thought about how they could themselves conserve water, by turning off taps when they brush their teeth, having a shallow bath instead of a deep bath, or better still by taking a short shower and by using rain water collected in water butts to water plants.

Continuing with the water theme, Reception also focussed on the bible story Noah’s Ark. The had lots of fun construction their own large and small multi-media arks, making rain makers and rescuing animals from inside ice! The children also used their new phonic knowledge to write about the animals inside Noah’s Ark.

Today, Reception had a very special visitor- Father Shaun came in to teach the children about the Sacrament of Baptism, using role play. The class treated Father Shaun to a rendition of a new song they have been learning ‘My Hands Are Yours’ and they also showed him how they have learnt the school’s Mission Prayer; he was very impressed!

This afternoon, Reception joined Year 6 in a very special Act of Worship, to mark the end of One World Week. Well done to Beau, Lola, Nichola and Cian who led the two classes so well!

Wishing you all a very happy and restful half term break.

See you all on Tuesday 2nd November,

The Reception Team

 

Year 2, Week 6

This week was One World Week. We have been learning about COP26 and what we can to do to protect our world. The children made promises to protect our world, grew cress seeds to encourage people to grow their own food, read books about climate change and made their own posters.

In art the children drew observational sketches of pumpkins and created prints using paint and foam boards.

Please hear your child read this half term and complete the whole school RE home learning.

Have a restful week

Miss Pringle

Week 7

On Monday, we had a tour of the church. The children learnt about the signs and symbols in the church. The children shared their wonderful knowledge of stories in the Bible. The children were extremely respectful while walking around the church.

In Maths, we have been ordering 3 digit numbers. The children played a game to develop their thinking of where different digits go in order to make it a largest number or a smaller number.

In English, the children made a story board to plan their own playscript based on the story The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon. Then they wrote a playscript and edited it. The children applied their learning on adverbs and stage directions.

This week was One World Week. We have been learning about COP26 and what we can to do to protect our world. The children wrote a letter to a Boris Johnson to tell him their thoughts on how we can work together to protect our world. The children grew cress seeds to encourage people to grow their own food. We made posters to encourage people to make good choices in their lives to help protect our world.

On Friday, we had a harvest assembly where we added a lea with our promises to help to protect our world. Today we said goodbye to Anna, we will miss her and look forward to hearing from her. We wish you luck in your new home and school. Thank you for the cakes Anna!

Have a wonderful holiday.

Home Learning

Spellings – nicer, nicest, later, writer, playful, hopeful, careful, hopeless, careless, kindness, sadness, happiness

Whole School Home Learning. here

Friday, 22nd October 2021

The children in Year 4 had yet another very busy week with One World Week activities, a Class Mass and a big writing to complete!

In English, they finished their brochures explaining the benefits of their chosen attractions and using persuasive techniques such as rhetorical questions, over-eggaretation and persuasive openers. The pieces all read very well and sound convincing so well done class!

On Wednesday, we celebrated Mass in our classroom lead by Father Shaun, during which we reflected on Harvest-the gifts of God’s Creation and talked about our responsibilities to keep that Creation safe and sustainable for the next generations to come. The children read with great expression and showed reverence and maturity during Mass. They also learnt a new song, ‘Thank your lucky stars’ from scratch and performed it beautifully on the day. I was and am very proud of you all!

During the week, we also focused on OWW and as part of that we covered important topics such as the upcoming COP26 conference is Glasgow, climate change and global warming, the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest in South America and its direct link to climate change and renewable energy sources. The children watched video clips and used the atlases to locate relevant areas around the world, whilst also using Google Earth satellite images to prompt dialogue about the changing of our world and ways to slow that or stop it entirely. We also planted cress seeds as a way to bring something new and green into our classrooms whilst the children also had an opportunity to look at innovative ways the world could look like in a few years time and design their own ‘Future City’ with wind turbines and solar panels, electric cars and drones being used instead of fuel based vehicles for transportation.

As a closing to this week’s activities and learning, the children have also written their pledges that they presented during assembly and answered our big question: ‘Who does the world belong to?’

Thank you very much for your hard work this half term. I appreciate all your efforts and your positive attitude to your learning in Year 4 so far.

I wish all of you and your families a restful and safe half term holiday and see you back on Tuesday!

Ms Varga

Home Learning:

Please keep up your reading and log anything interesting you read during your holiday.

Please have a look at our Whole School RE learning: here

(We are expecting a design idea only, not an actual monstrance built)

Week 7 w/b 18.10.2021

What a busy half term! Year 1 have settled into their new classroom and routines well and are showing amazing efforts in their learning.

Year 1 joined the whole school this week in exploring the big question:

Who does the world belong to?

The children worked well to come up with lots of ideas and concluded the world belongs to all living things and we are all responsible for it.

Thank you to the Liturgy leaders who led us in a class worship. We enjoyed drawing pictures of what we want the world to look like.

The children made their own pledges on about how to look after the world and presented them during Friday’s assembly.

The children enjoyed learning about their wider world this week and worked well to locate the Amazon Rainforest from an atlas. They were great at quizzing each other on which flag belonged to which country.

We finished our first half term with guided meditation in Religion this week. We reflected on peaceful places where we can be calm and present with God. The children were so respectful and peaceful as they shared their ideas.

The children enjoyed their last week of the Doctor’s Surgery role play area and were very inventive when creating new resources for our Vet role play for after half term. They collected all the patients and gave them their name tags, used pompoms to create food and medicine trays and even made a pet ambulance! Although they chose a monkey as the driver so they are not sure how reliable it will be…

The children are continuing to explore the season of autumn and have made autumn crowns with their collection of leaves.

Home learning

  • Please see the latest newsletter for the R.E. school learning project

I wish you all a safe and happy half term and look forward to seeing you again on Tuesday 2nd November.

Miss Lambie

 

15th October 2021

As I sit here in the Year 5 classroom, smelling the recently cooked Oat biscuits, I reflect on another productive week. Our biographical work has continued this week with the introduction of relative clauses and relative pronouns. Through the children’s written work and presentations to the class over the last week, we now know more about the achievements and legacy of people such as Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong, Leonardo Da Vinci as well as people we may not have heard of before, such as Ruth Harkness.

These presentations have allowed the children to talk confidently to an audience with interest and engagement.

In Maths the children have continued their work on decimals and decimal fractions as well as comparing tenths and hundredths. On Wednesday at swimming the children were buzzing with excitement as they started to swim more independently and demonstrated the skills they have refined over the last few sessions. In PE this afternoon they played team-building games via a multi-skill approach.

In Art this week the children explored observational drawing with a twist: they drew a seashell without being able to see their drawing as their sketch was deliberately covered until they had completed the outline. This activity was very tricky but lots of fun!

In Science, we have continued our Topic on animals including humans by looking at and interpreting growth charts of boys and girls from birth to four years. The children enjoyed looking at how a baby’s weight increases over time.

Home Learning for this week:

  1. Mathletics – log in and complete the activities set.
  2. Read Theory – log in and complete at least five exercises. Well done to those children who have worked hard this week and made progress in their account.
  3. Read for at least 15 minutes a day and remember to complete your reading record.
  4. Spellings for this week: homophones part two:

there, their, they’re,

to, too, two,

affect, effect,

through, threw,

court, caught.

  1. Following on from the Science lesson, the children were asked to find out their birth weight and discuss with you, if possible, what has been noted in their ‘red book’ regarding their early development.

 

Have a lovely weekend.

Mr. Holmes

 

Year 3 were fantastic today at their class assembly! They read their lines clearly, acted well and their singing was beautiful.

In Maths, we have been adding and subtracting 1, 10 and 100 to and from a 3-digit number. We have been using equipment and drawing pictures to regroup when we cross a hundred.

We have continued our learning on play scripts. The children have been reading poems and rewriting them as play scripts. Next week the children will plan and write a play script from a story.

In Geography, the children looked at climate graphs and explained what information the graphs were giving them.

In PE, we focused on the bounce catch and thought of sports we would use it in. The children played a game using the skill that they had learnt.

In Science, we have been looking at skeletons and the functions of a skeleton. The children were excellent at explaining what we would be like without a skeleton.

In Religion, we have been learning about the trinity. We made triangles and wrote God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit on each side.

In Art, we used our observational drawing skills to draw a plant.

Today we said goodbye to Mr Reid. We will miss him lots and wish him well in his new job.

Home Learning

Spellings – tale, tail, prey, pray, weight, wait, which, witch, waste, waist, son, sun

Read Theory – Complete two read theory activities.

Mathletics activities.

Science – Make a picture of a skeleton. How creative can you be? I have given the children black paper. Can they make a skeleton using white paper cut up, pictures of bones or other types of materials?

Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs Carey

Friday, 15th October 2021

This week in Year 4, the children finished off a great piece of persuasive writing, arguing that Purple Beard and his trusted crew mates should not embark on a treacherous journey across the sea. We displayed their fantastic ‘Pirate Postcards’ just outside their classroom. In Maths, the class started a new timed multiplication activity, that we are going to carry on completing daily,whilst in their main lesson, we focused on rounding whole numbers to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand using benchmark numbers and number lines. In RE, we allocated reading parts for next week’s Harvest Class Mass, led by the children and Father Shaun. As next week is also One World Week, their Mass is centred around issues such as climate change and our responsibility to care for God’s Creation. The children completed their first observational art pieces in the form of still life, which are also being displayed in class. Well done, they are looking great!

Have a lovely and healthy weekend,

Ms Varga

Please see your Home Learning below:

Home Learning Due by Tuesday, 19th October 2021
Spelling Please practice this week’s spelling words that follow the previous 2 sets of words with prefixes.

irresponsible, irrelevant, intercity, interact, international, interrelated
Please see the attached sheet, if you would like to use that: Spelling sheet
Reading Please log onto Read Theory and complete 2 activities. Please also update your reading logs and be prepared to present them on Wednesday.

https://readtheory.org/auth/login

Multiplication Please log onto ‘Hit the button’ and spend 15 minutes practicing your mixed multiplication facts.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Study Ladder Please log onto Study Ladder and complete the activities in your assigned pod. The 4 activities are all consolidation of rounding whole numbers (including 4 digit) to the nearest 100.

https://www.studyladder.co.uk/

(Although Study Ladder groups these tasks as Year 5 activities, they are actually covered in the Year 4 Essentials curriculum.)