Friday, 4th March 2022

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The children in Year 4, had a fun filled week. They built their shells for their bedside lamps on Monday, whilst on Tuesday, they participated in a very busy Mardi Gras day. They flipped pancakes, decorated masks and sampled some lovely scotch pancakes in class.

On Wednesday, they have received ashes during Mass and thought about their Lenten promises. It has been lovely to see that the children not only decided to give up chocolates or sweets but promised to give up some of their free time as well, to play with siblings or to help out at home.

On Thursday, the class celebrated World Book Day and participated in a ‘parade’, showing off their imaginative costumes and book choices.

In the meantime, they consolidated their understanding of unit, and non-unit fractions of sets of objects and numbers in Maths. In English, they looked at features of historical reports and developed research and note taking techniques. In RE, they used Scripture to reflect on the symbolic meaning of the Stations of the Cross. In Geography, they used atlases and satellite pictures to locate Florida-the Sunshine State and look at its features. In French, they continued looking at specific items of clothing, creating different outfits in French.

Have a lovely weekend after such a busy week,

Ms Varga

Home Learning

Home Learning Due by Tuesday, 8th March 2022
Spelling Spelling Rule 18 – Words with the /s/ sound spelt sc (Latin in origin) (e.g. science, ascent… etc.)

https://spellingframe.co.uk/

Please practice this week’s spelling words before testing yourselves on them.
Reading Log onto Read Theory and complete 2 tasks. Please also update your reading logs and be prepared to present them on Wednesday.

https://readtheory.org/auth/login
Multiplication Please log onto TT Rockstars and practice your allocated tables. Well done for Eliana, our leader, who gained more than 27,000 coins so far! Excellent effort!

https://ttrockstars.com/
English Please be ready to present your A4 plans (1 detailed map+ 1 or more for 2 animal, 2 plant species and 1 inhabitant) about your ‘Land of Neverbelieve’ on MONDAY. Use last week’s blog info and watch the attached clip again, if necessary. Please include lots of details about habitat, diet, dimensions (hight, weight, parts, body parts, special features, climate they prefer, etc)

Year 6 – 04/03/22

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It’s a been an extremely busy but exciting week this week, with Mardi Gras on Tuesday, followed by Ash Wednesday and then World Book Day on Thursday.

Have a look at the fantastic Mardi Gras masks that they made!

We ended the day on a high with a pancake race and a Mardi Gras dance led by Mrs McNamara!

Well done for the fantastic World Book Day costumes yesterday!

Here is this week’s home learning:

Maths Mathletics assignment:

·        Divide fractions
Times Tables Last week, we lost against Year 5 in the times tables battle on TTRockStars.com

Let’s have another go this week. Come on Year 6!
Reading Please complete 5 passages on ReadTheory.org
Spelling To be tested: 11/03/22

Prefixes:

disappoint

disagree

disobey

inactive

incorrect

illegal

illegible

immature

immortal

imperfect

impossible

impatient

 

Practise on SpellingFrame.co.uk (Year 3 and 4 Spelling Rule 4)

Friday, 25th February 2022

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The children in Year 4 came back to a busy week, after their well-deserved holiday.

In English, we introduced our new genre for this half term, non-chronological reports. They looked at exemplar texts identifying text and language features whilst also reading our book for inspiration, Norman Messenger’s The Land of Neverbelieve.

In Maths, the class began their learning of fractions using concrete resources such as Cuisenaire rods and magnetic fraction walls to grasp an understanding of the relationship between wholes and equal parts.

In Science the children planned and carried out their own investigation to test gases and liquids, whilst in Geography they introduced their new topic, the Sunshine State. In RE, we looked at the history of the traditional Stations of the Cross and also began our Lenten preparations. In PE, we introduced Dance as our next area of skills whilst in French, they focused on names of clothing. We also created our shells for our lamps and will plasticine them next week.

Thank you for those of you who arranged parent consultation meetings with me. It has been a real pleasure to share your children’s successes so far. Notes will be sent home soon.

Also a very warm welcome to the newest member of our community, Samarth, who joined our class on Wednesday.

The sun is supposed to be shining this weekend, so have a lovely and safe rest,

Ms Varga

Please see your Home Learning below:

Home Learning Due by Tuesday, 1st March 2022
Spelling Please log onto Spelling Frame and practice this week’s spelling words before testing yourselves on them.

Spelling Rule 17 – Words ending with the /g/ sound spelt – gue and the /k/ sound spelt –que (French in origin)

https://spellingframe.co.uk/
Reading Please log onto Read Theory and complete 2 tasks. Please also update your reading logs and be ready to present them on Wednesday.

https://readtheory.org/
Multiplication Please log onto your TT Rockstars account and practice the assigned tables. We are going to have another benchmark assessment in 2 weeks time.

https://ttrockstars.com/
English https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/542191242611582251/

Please use this link (with adult supervision as it contains other clips as well) to watch the book trailer. We read this book in class so the children should be familiar with the contents.

Using the book and the clip as inspiration, create a detailed A4 plan that you can present in class to use as the basis of your non-chronological report.

On the first page create a detailed map of your Land of Neverbelieve. What shape will the island be? What features will it have? Forest, crop gardens, lakes, rivers, coast, flower meadow, etc…

On the second page, design 2 plant species, 2 animal species and 1 species of ‘inhabitants’. Gather as much detail about these as possible, as you will have to include those in your report.

Be imaginative: marshmallow bush, toothbrush tree, candyfloss flowers, etc… It can be as far fetched as you want to, but you have to be able to describe these in detail:

Where on the island do these grow? How tall are they? what are their stems, leaves, stalks, trunks, flowers, fruits are? Do they need dry or wet climate? How often do they flower? How many fruits do they give, etc.

Same with your animals: where on the island do they live? Be able to talk about their habitat. Describe in detail their body, fur, any special features, like claws, talons, horns, tails, trunks, etc. What is their diet like?

This is a planning activity. So I am looking for pictures (diagrams) with labels and their ideas in bullet points. We are going to turn these into a report in class. I am not expecting full sentence paragraphs, rather a detailed plan that the children can use to build their reports upon. This task might involve researching existing animals and plants which then the children can develop further so it is worth looking at exotic plants or creatures.

The deadline for this task is 7th March Monday. On that day, all children need to be ready to present their plans, so they can start writing their final piece using these notes and ideas.

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

 

Friday 25th February, 2022

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Welcome back!

I hope that you all had a lovely half-term break.

It has been lovely to chat with many parents during the Year 5 Consultations.  For those parents who had technical problems etc…please get in touch via the school office.

It has been a busy week in Year 5 this week.  The children have come into school ready for learning and their hard work and efforts have not gone unnoticed.  We spent some days this week revisiting multiplication in Maths and started work on division.  The children have worked extremely hard on developing their understanding of multiple strategies in multiplication and this week’s homework is revisiting those.  In English, using a picture to prompt our writing, the children worked hard on developing a story start to their ‘Mysterious Door’ narratives.  Alongside selecting appropriate grammar and vocabulary, they edited their work to ensure their choices enhanced meaning and these wonderful pieces have been added to their portfolios.

In our daily worship the children have been examining the prayer of St Teresa Avila and how they can use their bodies to be Christ like people on earth.  They have been very prayerful and reflective and I want to thank those children who have added their thoughts that have enriched our daily discussions.  We examined a painting by Peter Brueghel (1617,) called the Seven Acts of Mercy and the children made observations and reflected upon it. We chatted about our Lenten focus question: How can we build a better world?

In RE we have started  preparing for our topic from Lent to Easter and examined the three practices of Lent – prayer, fasting and giving.  In their RE lessons the children have recalled the importance of Lent in the liturgical year, the practises within the church and the purpose and history of the Traditional Stations of the Cross.

Yesterday, alongside the cold weather, Ti discovered some ice in the KS2 Playground during morning break and made a mini snowman.

Remember, we have a Mardi Gras celebration next week on Tuesday 1st March!
Please could your child wear the Mardi Gras colours of yellow, gold, purple or green to school on
Tuesday 1st March to add to the celebration.

Wishing you and your families a wonderful weekend.

Mrs McNamara

 

Home Learning this week:  Logins have been sent home with your child today

  1. Spellings: words from the Year5/6 Statutory Word List        Please log onto Spelling Frame

and complete the spelling activities assigned to help you learn the spellings below.

awkward, bargain, category, cemetery, committee, communicate, communication, competition, competitive, conscience, conscious, consciousness

2.  Research:  Find out about the Stations of the Cross and present your findings in written and picture form. Click here about the research.

3.  Maths:  Following on from the work we have been doing in class, complete at least four of the following calculations using the multiple-strategies-sheet attached.

27 x 46          64 x 56        75 x 35     345 x 28      546 x 18     667 x .23

Timetables:  Log onto your Times tables Rockstar account and try to beat your personal best!  This week, we are also battling against Year 6!!     RockStars.com    Let’s work together to win!

4.  Read daily and update your reading record.

5.  Log onto SPAG. com

Complete the tasks that have been set on apostrophes and plurals.

Year 6 – 11/02/22

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This week has been Internet Safety Week, during which Year 6 have reflected on their internet usage and how they can ensure they are not opening themselves up to danger and putting themselves at risk when online, especially in the context of gaming and social media.

This morning, we took part in a workshop with OpenView Education, which really got us thinking about the personal information and data that is used and potentially shared by social media apps.

Wednesday was an exciting day for the House Captains, who went on a trip to Westminster to deliver the hats and scarves donated before Christmas to The Passage. Please see the school newsletter to read all about their day out.

We ended the week playing football in the sunshine before seeing our reading partners!

Have a wonderful half term everyone!

Miss Donatantonio

Friday, 11th February 2022

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A huge well done to Year 4 this week for their hard work, especially in English. They have written wonderful myths in class using all their writing tools and the features of the genre covered over the last 5 weeks. In Maths, they have furthered their understanding of parallel and perpendicular lines in quadrilaterals by partaking in a shape sort challenge.

The class also thought about strategies to keep themselves safe online and considered the dangers of online games as part of their e-safety week. Today, they further consolidated that learning by participating in an e-safety workshop in the hall. In Science, the children learnt about the water cycle whilst in art they created beautiful collages bringing together the different techniques they have studied leading up to their final piece.

The children worked very hard this half term and showed great perseverance with their learning. They are kind and dedicated and have been a pleasure to work with. I wish all of you a healthy, restful and well deserved half term!

 

 

We are sad to see Nataniel leave our class and school community but know that he will do very well in his new school and make us proud. I thank you for all your hard work, your happy smiles and your mature learning attitude. We wish him and his family all the best and keep them in our prayers!

Ms Varga

Please carry on reading over the half term and update your reading log when you can. Also of you have the time, please log onto TTRockstars and spend a few minutes practicing your mixed facts.

https://ttrockstars.com/

Reception Spring Term Week 6

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We hope you all enjoyed the class assembly today about St Valentine.

The children have worked so hard over the past week, learning a new song, painting pictures and remembering words and actions; they made us all feel very proud when they performed so brilliantly this morning.

Love has been an ongoing theme in class too and the children have been very busy making love inspired art work and writing Valentines Day cards.

Reception have also been involved in the Internet Safety Week and have had daily sessions focussing on how we can keep ourselves safe online.

Topics covered in Reception were: 

  • What to do if you see something worrying or scary when you are online
  • ‘Think before you click’ on a pop-up or advert
  • What to do if someone tries to talk to you online
  • ‘Don’t believe everything you see or read online!’

This week, we welcomed Prisha and her family to our school community. We hope they will all settle really quickly into their new house and local community.

Wishing you all a restful half term break,

The Reception team

 

Friday, 4th February 2022

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Year 4 had yet another busy week.

In English, the children placed their last Roman myth into context looking at artifacts and maps to gain a deep understanding about the characters and settings. Later in the week, they used that myth to plan their own version upon. The children came up with brilliant ideas and are ready to write their narrative on Monday. In Maths, we have finished conversion of measurements with a practical comparing and ordering lesson before moving on to properties of 2D shapes using precise mathematical language. In Science, they investigated the melting points of different substances, collecting data of temperature in degrees Celsius and time.

On Wednesday, we celebrated Candlemas, Jesus’ presentation in the Temple and created paper lanterns using flame resistant paper bags and scented candles. The children wrote beautiful prayers showing gratitude for qualities that make them ‘Lights in the World’. In Swimming on Wednesday, all pupils were invited to swim lengths in the large pool and they all did very well. In PE, we also worked on our group balances before using apparatus to travel across the floor. In RE, the class reflected once more on where to find God in our words, actions and symbols. In History, they argued about the credibility of primary and secondary sources whilst learning about Boudicca, the ‘Celtic Queen’.

Thank you for facilitating the children to logon to TTRockstars and creating their avatars. They sounded excited about the new resource!

Have a lovely and safe weekend,

Ms Varga

Please see your Home Learning below:

Home Learning Due by Tuesday, 8th February 2022
Spelling Please log onto Spelling frame and practice this week’s spelling words before testing yourself.

Spelling Rule 15 – Words with the /k/ sound spelt ch (Greek in origin) (e.g. echo, chemist… etc.)

https://spellingframe.co.uk/
Reading Please log onto Read Theory and complete 2 activities. Please also update your reading logs and be ready to present them on Wednesday.

https://readtheory.org/auth/login
Multiplication Please log onto TT Rockstars and practice your allocated multiplication tables. We will share progress and leaderboard on Tuesday, 8th February.

https://ttrockstars.com/
Study Ladder Please log onto Study Ladder and complete the assigned activity in your pod, all centered around this week’s focus, sets of parallel and perpendicular line in common 2D shapes.

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

Year 5 Viking Day

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Year 5 had a very exciting day being Vikings   

 

Click this link to see what the children got up to: http://popepaul.herts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Viking-Day-.pdf

                                                           

 

 

Friday, 28th January 2022

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The children in Year 4 had a fantastic week following the theme of Other Faith Week, Hinduism. On Monday, the class visited the Bhaktivedanta Manor in Watford experiencing the Hindu way of life first hand. They had the opportunity to visit the stables, ride on a cart pulled by 2 of the newest oxen on the farm. They fed the cows and later visited the green houses, the meditational pond and the George Harrison memorial gardens. Following the outside tour, the children listened to a presentation explaining the main beliefs of Hinduism and dressed up as Gods and Goddesses. Soon after, we looked around the main buildings, dressing up in more casual every day saris and turbans and participated in one of the daily services. The children were then invited to eat a hearty and healthy lunch of curry, rice, chips and flat bread with a cup of orange juice, all cooked on site using ingredients the community grows on the farm. After lunch, the class took part in face painting where they received traditional symbols of fire, flames, flowers and snakes. The children had a lovely time and their impeccable behaviour was complimented on throughout the trip.

Later during the week, we learnt a little bit more about the main beliefs of Hinduism, the origins of this religion and its most important Gods and Goddesses. In Maths, we finished our learning of measurements, extending it towards weight, capacity and time. In English, the children used comic strips to retell the main events of the Aeneas and the adventures of the underworld myths focusing on single and multi clause sentences. In Science, they investigated gases and answered questions such as what would happen to gases if they are heated or if it is possible to make gases by combining liquids and solids. In History, they looked and the effects of the Roman invasion on religion in Britain, whilst in French, they made links between body parts and movements.

Thank you for all of you who sent in plastic bottles for our design and technology project. If you haven’t, you still have time until Tuesday morning, as we shall start creating the base shell early next week.

Have a lovely and safe weekend,

Ms Varga

Please see your Home Learning below:

Home Learning Due by Tuesday, 2nd February 2022
Spelling Please re-visit your spelling words from the last 2 weeks as they need consolidation. Focus on the 4 ways -ion suffix can be added to root words with different endings.

https://spellingframe.co.uk/

Spelling Rule 13 – Endings which sound like /ʃən/, spelt –tion, –sion, –ssion, –cian (1 of 2)

Spelling Rule 14 – Endings which sound like /ʃən/, spelt –tion, –sion, –ssion, –cian (2 of 2)
Reading Please log onto Read Theory and complete 2 activities. Please update your reading logs and present them on Wednesday.

https://readtheory.org/auth/login
Multiplication Please log onto Maths Chase and spend 15 minutes practicing your mixed tables.

https://www.mathschase.com/

Next week, the children will bring home a letter containing their unique login details for a new resource called Times Tables Rockstars. The reason we decided to purchase this resource as a school  is because it allows us teachers to tailor the children’s times tables activities in an online setting. It measures progress and creates reports about the children’s outcomes, enabling us to consolidate or stretch knowledge accordingly. I will set the link as Home Learning every Friday, but as with every ‘core recall fact’ type of activity, the more the children can do it during the week, the better outcomes we are going to get. For that reason, I strongly advise to ask the children to login for 5-10 minutes, 3 times a week if possible. As Home Learning, I am planning to set particular tables for groups of children, however as free practice the children can access all appropriate games. I am going to share the weekly leaderboard in class and promote the resource by using its reward features, such as certificates, etc. As the MTC (Multiplication tables check) is getting closer and closer (6th June), I would like to utilise all available resources to consolidate and promote the children’s fact recall and I would be grateful if you can do the same at home. As always, I appreciate your continued support with this.
Study Ladder Please log on to Study Ladder and complete the activities in your assigned pod. All activities are based around converting units of measurements, such as time, mass and volume. Although this site labels some of the activities as Y5 and Y6, I reassure you, they are taught in Year 4 and we covered these in class.

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