September 2023 – Pope Paul Primary

Year 6 Week Beginning 25/9/23

September 29, 2023/0 Comments/in Reception, Reception Archive, Year 6, Year 6 Archive /by Margaret Joyce

It has been another very busy week in Year 6.

The week started with great excitement and anticipation, as on Monday, the children finally found out which leadership role they had been awarded!

Some of the children have already been put to work in their new roles- The Laudato Si’ group have met and prepared something for the St Vincent mass on Sunday, the sports leaders have had a meeting with Ms Pringle and the new St Vincent captains, Grey and Lucy, have prepared and led a whole school assembly about the life of St Vincent. The class were all presented with their leadership badges during assembly on Thursday which they are wearing with pride!

In Science, the children continued to explore the question:

Is there a relationship between the type of exercise that you do and the number of heart beats per minute (bpm)?

They organised the equipment that they need and had lots of fun carrying out the test that they had planned the week before.

Today, Year 6 finally got to meet their Reception reading partners. The sun was shining and so the children spent time getting to know one another outside. Year 6 spent some time beforehand reminiscing about the time spent with their own learning partners when they were in Reception themselves and understand that this is is a very special relationship that will continue to build as the weeks progress.

For home learning this week, please write a letter to your reading partner, welcoming them to Pope Paul and telling them all about yourself. These letters will be given to the reception children next Friday.

Please also log on to Mathletics and Spelling Shed for additional home learning. The problems with Spelling Shed have been rectified.

For those of you who are going, I will see you at the St Vincent mass on Sunday. If not, have a lovely weekend!

Ms Pemberton

Friday 29th September, 2023

September 29, 2023/0 Comments/in Archives, Year 3, Year 3 Archive /by Margaret Joyce

This week, the children have been continuing with their work in Maths on regrouping.

In English, we have been building up our understanding of newspapers and the features of the genre. Next week we will explore that grammar aspects of writing this type of recount.

In PE the focus on dodging has continued and the class have been learning to shield a ball from an opponent and turn in different ways whilst in possession.

A highlight this week was in RE the children worked in groups and looked at the symbols used during the liturgy of the Eucharist. They dressed the altar and explained what each item is and means.

Home Learning:

Mathletics and TTRs – please log onto TTRS (Timestable Rockstars) every day to improve your knowledge of your timestables.

Spellings are set on spellingshed

Autumn 1 Week 4 w.b. 25.09.2023

September 29, 2023/3 Comments/in Year 1, Year 1 Archive /by Margaret Joyce

It’s been another busy week in Year 1!

RE

In Re, we looked at the items that are used when preparing the Altar for the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The children found out about the purpose and use of the Chalice, The Paten, Cruets, Candles, Altar Cloth and the significance of their places on the Altar.

Science

The children had fun this week exploring their senses of smell and taste. They were excited to use their sense of smell to guess what was in the smelling pots on their tables. They made some very good guesses and then went onto guessing what flavour crisps were on the plates. Everyone enjoyed the taste testing and it would seem cheese and onion flavour crisps are a popular favourite of the Class!

Maths

This week the children were looking at ordering numbers from the least/fewest to the largest/most. They also had to decide which number belonged in the middle and use their tens frame to prove it.

Seasonal Learning

Last week the children learnt the months of the year and this week they went on to looking at the four seasons of the year. The children enjoyed discussing what type of weather we have in each season and were excited to talk about what season we had Christmas, Easter and Halloween in!

History

This week the children continued their learning on toys and specifically looked at old/new and toys that they thought could be both old and new. They worked in groups and sorted a variation of toys into the categories they thought was the best fit.

Home Learning

Mathletics – please complete the activities set. Children’s log ins are in the front of their reading record.

Handwriting – please complete the worksheets sent home.

Reading – 5-10 minutes a day, please make sure reading books and blue folders are sent in with the children on their reading day and every Friday.

Reminder

You will find your child’s reading day written in their reading record. Please can you ensure their reading book and record is sent in on their reading day (in their blue folder) AND every Friday so we can put their home learning in them for the week. Please note, their reading day will also be their ‘show and tell’ day to ensure all children have an opportunity to take part fairly.

Please find attached a copy of the RHE Ten Ten letter for your information Life to the Full Plus letters to parents Years 1 and 2

Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Poyiadzis & Mrs Barnes

Autumn 1 Week 4

September 29, 2023/0 Comments/in Year 2, Year 2 Archive /by Margaret Joyce

September has flown by and as usual the children have been very busy this week.

In Maths, the children have been learning to balance equations, using pictorial, abstract and concrete approaches.

The children have enjoyed creating Andy Goldsworthy inspired information/art pages in their sketch books. First they painted two pages in their books, with a natural coloured ink. They then used crayon, charcoal and pastel for mark making, before cutting out pictures of natural objects and placing them on the pages along with key vocabulary.

In Science, they have learnt what animals need to survive. They enjoyed sharing their experiences of caring for pets and family members before identifying what they all had in common.

Please find attached the RHE ten:ten letter for your information Life to the Full Plus letters to parents Years 1 and 2

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Pringle

Home Learning

Spelling and handwriting – please complete the handwriting sheet and help your child learn the words in their plastic wallet. This does not need to be returned.

Maths – please complete the Mathletics activities set.

Reading – please read with your child and return their book and wallet on Friday.

Week 4

September 29, 2023/0 Comments/in Archives, Reception, Reception Archive /by Margaret Joyce

Another week of lots of fun and learning in Reception!

Our focus this week was growing up from a baby to an adult and birthdays. We are very lucky to have two babies in our class family. Evelyn, Michael’s sister came to visit on Tuesday and Oliver, Freya’s brother came to visit on Thursday. The children asked lots of questions, for example What do they eat? Where do they sleep? Why do they cry? Then we sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to the babies. After their visits, the children made a shopping list of what babies need and labelled their pictures with the words including the sounds they have learnt. We have made party lists, party hats, made cakes with playdough and paintings and made invitations for our learning about birthdays. The children have been wrapping boxes for presents, demonstrating excellent joining skills. Then they have been writing labels for their presents. These skills will be useful when they are wrapping Christmas presents at home! Outside, we made drinks for a birthday party. Then we ended the week with some party games, their dancing was amazing!

This week the children have learnt the sounds i, n, m and d. Each day we revisit the sounds that we have already learnt and we are beginning to blend the sounds to read words. For example, sat, mat, tap, sit and dad. The children are practising the formation of the sounds by saying the rhymes. Thank you for your support with their home learning.

In Maths, we have been learning about numbers 1,2 and 3. We found 1 of lots of items in the class and we practised writing the number 1. Then we found 1 a partner to make 2 and the children played games rolling the dice labelled 1 and 2. The children made numbers using different materials. On Thursday we learnt about the number 3 and made the number using pom poms. We played lots of games where we counted objects and identified the numbers.

In Religion, we learnt about the Bible and how special it is. The children passed the Bible around, making sure they treated it with love and care. We listened to a story from the Bible about Jesus healing people with his hands. We thought about how we can be kind and caring with our hands just like Jesus. Then we all reflected on how special we all are to God.

The highlight of the week was meeting their Year 6 Reading partners! Every Friday, the children spend time reading and talking to their reading partners.

We have two jumpers aged 5-6 without a name on. If you have lost a jumper, please let us know.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Carey and The Early Years Team

Friday, 29th September 2023

September 29, 2023/0 Comments/in Year 4, Year 4 Archive /by Margaret Joyce

This week, the children in Year 4 continued their Maths learning of Place Value by looking at number magnitude and rounding.

In English, they have participated in a rainbow group writing activity, where they have written engaging paragraphs in ‘newspaper style’ warning residents of the evil Spider and his cunning plan.

In RE, the class looked at the Liturgy of the Eucharist and reflected on how the Eucharist is the summit and source of our lives through water colour art.

In Science, they wrote diary entries as a piece of food, naming the most important parts of the human digestive system, explaining their functions along the way.

In PE, we moved on to ‘shielding’ as a new skill which the children practiced through 3 sports: football, basketball and tennis.

A huge well done goes to the children, who performed in their first class assembly with excellence this Thursday! Lovely reading and acting; I was very impressed with their maturity and sense of responsibility! No rest for us though, as we immediately move onto practicing for our class Mass on Wednesday, 11th October in the morning. Parents are welcome!

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Varga

Home Learning	Due back on Tuesday, 3rd October 2023
Spelling	Words with the prefixes ‘il-‘, ‘im-‘ and ‘ir-‘ https://www.edshed.com/en-gb Please log into your EdShed account and practice this week’s spelling words
Reading	https://readtheory.org/auth/login Please log into your ReadTheory account and complete 2 activities, alternatively download the attached documents for reading comprehension: In a Minute- text In a Minute- questions In a Minute-answers
Multiplication	https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check Please spend 15-20 mins practicing your mixed multiplication facts.
Study Ladder	https://www.studyladder.co.uk/ Please log onto your Study Ladder account and complete the Science activity assigned in your Pod, focusing on Human digestion.

Year 5 – 28/09/23

September 29, 2023/0 Comments/in Year 5 /by Margaret Joyce

PE: Keeping possession of the ball

Music: Percussive cup accompaniment to What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor

Here is the link to the video so that you can practise at home:

Next Wednesday, we have our class Mass, in the Year 5 classroom, to celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. Please do join us.

Children, please practise the following hymns for the Mass:

Home learning for this week:

Maths

Mathletics assignments:

· Converting to Roman Numerals to 1000

· Converting from Roman Numerals to 1000

· Roman numerals to 1,000 (Quest)

Reading

5 tests on Readtheory or 20 minutes of reading per day

Spelling

Log on to Spelling Shed using your EdShed login, and play a variety of games to practise this week’s spelling rule: Words ending in ‘-cial’

· artificial

· beneficial

· crucial

· especially

· facial

· glacial

· judicial

· multiracial

· official

· special

See some of you at the St Vincent Mass on Sunday, and the rest of you on Monday.

Miss Donatantonio

Friday 22nd September, 2023

September 22, 2023/0 Comments/in Archives, Year 3, Year 3 Archive /by Margaret Joyce

Another week has whizzed by!

In Maths the children have been working hard in their fluency lessons revising number work and place value. In Maths lessons the children have continued in building upon their place value understanding to notice what changes and what does not when they count in ones, tens and hundreds from a given number within the number range.
They have been provided with a variety of opportunities to represent numbers in different ways
using resources, pictorially, using language and symbols.

Our English unit has come to an end with the children completing their own fables. They have thought carefully about the conjunctions and speech dialogue to create some wonderful pieces. Next week, we will move on to our next genre: newspaper reports. These will be based on The Tortoise and the Hare so you could refresh your memory of the story:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/english-ks1–ks2-aesops-fables-the-hare-and-the-tortoise/zbmj92p

Our RE learning has been focused on the Sacraments of initiation. The children looked at symbols of each of them and what they mean. We also learnt about the four parts of the mass. It would be wonderful for them to see each of these in the handout at mass on Sunday.

In PE the children have been working on developing their skills of dodging and in French learnt the names of various parts of their bodies. We finished the lesson by learning the ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’ song in french which they really enjoyed. The Egyptians is a well liked topic and as such, we have learnt two new songs: Two piles of stones and Tutankhamun. ( This song, with its distinctive Egyptian flavour, introduces the legendary child king Tutankhamun.) The children have learnt how the ancient Egyptian civilisation began and have begun to learn about the Kingdoms of Egypt.

As part of our cup stacking team building activity, the children have been busy practising building a pyramid stack and pairs competed against others in the class to find out who could stack the quickest! If your child asks you for 6 cups, make sure they are not breakable!

This afternoon we were treated to a panto performance in the hall. What a great way to end the week!

Can we remind you to ensure that your child’s reading book is in their bag as a number of children forgot their reading logs and reading books this week. Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McNamara Mrs Lines

Home Learning this week:

Mathletics Activities with a focus on Place Value have been set.

TTRs Log onto account and practise.

Spellings on spellingshed.

Year 6 Week Beginning 18.9.23

September 22, 2023/0 Comments/in Year 6, Year 6 Archive /by Margaret Joyce

The children have had a very busy week filled with lots of lovely learning opportunities.

On Tuesday, they had a very special online lesson with Collette from the Safer Streets team. She held a workshop based on:

Active and sustainable travel
Seatbelt safety
Highway street design
Engine idling

She finished her session with a quiz and the children were able to demonstrate a clear understanding of how to keep safe on the roads and pavements.

In English, the class began their new unit of learning, based on the book Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian. This book has been our end of the day whole class read since the start of term. It is about a little boy who is evacuated to the country as Britain stands on the brink of the Second World War. The book itself fits wonderfully with our current learning in History too.

In Maths, Year 6 have been solving problems with negative numbers and have been rounding numbers to the nearest: 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, 10,000,000.

In RE, the children have been learning about the three Sacraments of Initiation, and the symbols, words and actions associated with each of them.

In Science, the class have continued their learning about the circulatory system and have planned their own comparative test which will be carried out next week.

In History, the class learnt about the Zeppelin crash in Potters Bar on October 1st 1916 and how the crash impacts residents even today. They discovered that our play area at Oakmere Park is themed on this historic event and that two streets are named after the man who shot it down (Tempest Ave and Wulstan Park).

Today, many of the Year 6 children sang at Ms Steff’s mother’s funeral. Both their behavior and singing were exemplary with many of the funeral party and parishioners commenting on how impressed they were. Well done children, you made us very proud!

This afternoon, KS1 and KS2 were treated to a theatre production of Alice in Wonderland; it was very exciting and a lovely way to finish the week!

Home learning this week is:

Mathletics– Recapping learning- rounding numbers. I have also set a ‘Quest’ for those of you that want a challenge.

Spelling Shed

SPaG.com– Grammar test and expanded noun phrases.

Daily reading for 20mins

In History on Monday, we will be learning about the national evacuation event. Please do a little background reading and/or online research over the weekend, to prepare yourself with some knowledge before the lesson.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms Pemberton

Friday, 22nd September 2023

September 22, 2023/0 Comments/in Year 4, Year 4 Archive /by Margaret Joyce

The children in Year 4 consolidated their understanding of Place value and looked at various ways to practice their multiplication facts. In English, they have written diary entries from a new character’s point of view recalling key events from our class book, The Spider and the Fly before revising speech punctuation as their grammar focus. In Art, the class practiced mark making as part of their new drawing unit, whilst in RE, they learnt about ways of welcoming as a lead up for their later learning about the Sacraments of Initiation. We also started practicing for our assembly centered around the life and work of St Vincent de Paul. In Science, the children reconstructed the entire digestive system consolidating their understanding of the role of each basic part and in Computing, they looked at network switches and their role to keep networks safe.

This afternoon, the children were treated to Alice in Wonderland by a marvellous theatre company…Year 4 were glued to the set!

The class assembly is next week :Thursday, 28th September 2023. All parents are welcome!

I hope you have a lovely weekend,