Spring 1 Week 1

Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas. The children were excited to tell us about their holidays.

This week we started learning the Phase 3 sounds. Please complete the home learning each evening to practise saying and writing the new sound. This week we learnt j, v, w and x. If you did not complete the home learning this week, please practise over the weekend. On your child’s reading day they were given a writing book. In this book the children can write about whatever they want. There are more details in the front of the book. Send this back on their reading day so they can share their writing with an adult.

 

It was the feast of the Epiphany on Sunday. This week the children listened to the story of the Three Kings visiting baby Jesus. The children made kings, painted pictures of the three kings, made stars and wrote about the story. On Friday we made star biscuits to remind us that the Three Kings followed a star.

To begin the new year, the children thought about what they wanted to do this year to help to build a better world. They wrote these on stars and decorated them beautifully to go on display in the classroom. Children are already showing their promises in class.

We listened to the story What’s the Time Mr Wolf? Then we talked about what we do each day and the order we do things in. The children sequenced pictures of some of the things we do. Next the children made a list of activities they do each day and what they do during the day and at night.

When it started to snow the children were very excited and filled some pots with snow. Then they left out different containers of water, hoping to find ice the next day! On Friday they thought about ways to keep warm so they built a campfire in the playground.

In Maths, we learnt about the number 0 and went on a hunt around our playground looking for things that showed 0. We found wheels with nothing in them, we compared two crates with some bricks and no bricks, some chairs with something on and nothing on.  Then we looked at subitising- seeing a number without counting. For example the dots on a dice. Then we learnt about different ways of representing numbers. We showed these using pegs, drawings and natural objects.

In our outdoor shed we have a hairdressers. The children had great fun acting out being a hairdresser or going to the hairdressers. They demonstrated great speaking and listening skills.

In our Ten Ten lesson we thought about what we liked, loved and disliked. We discussed how we all like and dislike different things from our friends but that is fine because we are all different but we are all special. The children drew what they liked and what they loved. Click on here to find out more about our Ten Ten topic as part of our RHE (Relationships and Health Education) Curriculum.  If you have any trouble with the attached document please right click your mouse/cursor and click on ‘save as’. Once downloaded click ‘keep’ and the document will show. 

Please send some tissues in as we need lots a this time of year.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Carey and The Early Years Team

Spring 1

Happy New Year and welcome back. I hope you had a lovely Christmas break.

In Year 2, we began our week by learning about Epiphany and made crowns and kings. We also learnt the meaning of Epiphany (showing) and that Epiphany is when the three wise men arrived at the stable with their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

We have enjoyed reading the picture book ‘The panet in a pickle jar’ written by Martin Stanev and discussing what special things we would save in our own jars. Our writing focus has been to use expanded noun phrases, full stops and capital letters correctly.

In Maths, we have been finding halves, thirds and quarters of shapes and amounts.

We have been comparing Antarctica and the Arctic and Geography, looking at their climates, animals and physical features.

In PE, we have been using our problem solving and listening skills to solve problems. I have been very impressed with the children’s team work.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Pringle

Home Learning:

Reading and Spelling – please check your child’s bag for their new reading book and spelling sheet.

Mathletics – log on and complete the home learning on fractions.

English – as part of our planet in a pickle jar learning, please look for 4 or 5 small items that your child can put into a small jam jar in class for display. Items such as shells, a little toy, key rings, a special stone, loom bands, Lego people, small photos, a medal or a drawing are perfect. These items will be returned to you.

 

Friday 12th January, 2024

Happy New Year!

It has been lovely to welcome the children back to school this week and hear about their Christmas holidays.

The children began this week preparing for a special Epiphany assembly led by Mrs Heymoz.  During our first act of worship  of the new year in class, the children thought about the meaning of Epiphany (The manifestation of Christ).  The children reflected on the Christmas story and the important  guests who went to Bethlehem to visit the baby Jesus.  They learned that the Epiphany is when the three wise men arrived at the stable with their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

Click here to see the beautiful crowns they designed for the special assembly.

As we begin this new Spring Term, you can click on the curriculum overview tab (Go to the class page) to see the curriculum plan for this term.  A letter about your child’s reading day etc..has been given to your child to take home to you.  Please note that your child’s reading log and book will be sent home next week.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support in reading regularly with your child at home. It is such an essential part of their development as a reader, and you play a crucial role in nurturing their love of reading.

This week, the children started a new maths unit on statistics, learning to interpret and present data using bar charts.  They have worked extremely hard on this area of maths and they will be encouraged to retrieve information from bar charts, interpret and infer.  Also this week the children started their new history topic on Prehistoric Britain and in computing they were introduced to a new programming environment: Scratch.

In English, the children have begun our narrative unit based on Dick King Smith’s ‘The Finger Eater’. They created some performances from chapter one about the troll.

Our science learning is now all about rocks. We have learnt about the three main types (igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary)and how they are created.

Next Wednesday is our first swimming session and this is one of our PE sessions.  The remaining session is now on a Thursday instead of a Friday.

If you have any trouble with the attached documents please right click with your mouse/cursor and click on ‘save as’.  Once downloaded click ‘keep’ and the document will show.  

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs McNamara and Mrs Lines

PS: Click here for the link for Scratch programming.  Once on the website, click create and enjoy!

 

Home Learning:

Spellings

Mathletics log on and complete the home learning on bar graphs and addition.

TTRs – log on and practise your  times tables.

Spelling shed. The spellings for the next half term can be found here.

Click here to download our Spring Term RHE (Relationship and Health Education) Curriulum.

 

 

Computing Lessons

Lesson 1: Introduction to Scratch

Learning Objectives

  • I can identify the objects in a Scratch project (sprites, backdrops)
  • I can explain that objects in Scratch have attributes (linked to)
  • I can recognise that commands in Scratch are represented as blocks

Scratch 

Key Vocabulary:

scratch, programming, blocks, commands, code, sprite, costume, stage, backdrop

Wednesday 20th December, 2023

Click here for the photos taken: 1, 2,3, 4,5,6

This final week of term has been another eventful one:

On Monday, we had our party day where the children experienced lots of fun activities throughout the day in class, in the Main Hall (run by members of FOPPS) and in the playground (run by the Year 6 sports leaders) and just to top the day off they had a visit from Santa!   Activities such as Christmas limbo, musical chairs, musical statues were among the favourites and the children immersed themselves in the party mode all day.

On Tuesday, the highlight for the children was the Pope Paul Got Talent show which saw Joseph, Solomon, Tara, Amilia, Anna, Grace, Hanna, Sive, Jessica perform in front of the whole school.  Well done to them!

On behalf of Mrs Lines, Mrs Vieyra and myself, thank you so much for your cards and gifts.   We have had a lovely term and look forward to what joys the Spring term brings!

Wishing you and your families every blessing this Christmas.

Mrs McNamara

Please note: Your child’s reading day may change next term.  You will be given a letter in January if this is the case.  All reading logs that have come into school have been kept in school for the holidays and will be handed out at the start of next term.

 

Autumn 2 Week 8

The last week of the Autumn Term was full of fun! On Monday, we had our Christmas Party. We played lots of party games including musical statues, musical bumps, pin the nose on the snowman and pass the parcel. Then we had dancing competitions and had a raffle where the children won a teddy each. With our Year 6 Reading partners, we danced, decorated and ate cakes and played musical bumps. All the children got to meet Santa and had lots of questions to ask him.

 

 

On Tuesday, we wrote letters to Santa and made snowman pictures. In the afternoon, we watched Pope Paul’s Got Talent. Well done to Leo, Harry, Robert, Savannah, Aiveen, Aryia, Lily and Marina for taking part.

 

On Wednesday, we met our Year 6 Reading partners and gave them the cards we made them.

Thank you very much for all of the cards and gifts that we have received.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your families.

This has been a wonderful term where the children have settled in well to their new learning environment. It has been lovely to see how they have grown in confidence.

See you next year!

Mrs Carey and the Early Years Team

Year 6 Last Week of Term

Year 6 have had great fun over the past couple of days!

On Monday, the children had their party day, where they enjoyed playing lots of games, meeting Father Christmas, dancing and spending time with their Reception reading partners. The photos speak for themselves!

 

Yesterday, we joined the rest of the school in celebrating Pope Paul’s Got Talent! Well done to all of the children from Year 6 who took part performing on the stage- you were all fantastic!

Finally, thank you for all the cards and gifts you have given the Year 6 staff, and for the support you have given over the past term- they are very much appreciated.

Wishing you all a peaceful and joyful Christmas,

Ms Pemberton

Autumn 2 Week 7

Another busy week in Reception Class. This week we have been reading and retelling the Christmas Story. The children acted out the story, made angels and stables, used the small world objects to retell the story and made books by sequencing pictures and adding words. On  Friday afternoon, we had a shepherds dinner in candle light. We ate dates, grapes and bread.

We decorated the classroom with angels, snowflakes and lots more in preparation for our Christmas Lunch and our party on Monday. Then we made hats to wear to our Christmas Lunch, we had a lovely lunch together in the class.

In Maths, we have been learning to use and follow prepositional language to describe where something is. We went on a shape hunt, we named the shape and described where we found it.

Outside, we have had Santa’s workshop and the children have been wrapping and labelling presents. They have been busy elves, helping Santa to get ready for Christmas.

 

The children made Christmas cards for their Year 6 reading partners and did wonderful writing inside their cards.

The children audioned for Pope Paul’s Got Talent. It was very difficult to choose only two acts! Well done to all that took part.

Please could you send in boxes of tissues as we are running out.

Remember to wear party clothes on Monday.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Carey and The Early Years Team

Friday, 15th December 2023

Our final full week of the half term has been very busy in Year 4.

The children had an opportunity to watch the KS1 Nativity dress rehearsal before attending their own Christmas music concerts on Monday afternoon. Huge well done to all children participating; your performances were brilliant!

On Monday the Year 3 and 4 children performed for us in a wonderful music concert.  Well done to all the singers and pianists!

On Wednesday, the class enjoyed a lovely Christmas lunch together:

We also spent time on our  D&T project creating prototypes for 2 further mechanisms, before applying these in our final Christmas cards.

Our class talent show on Friday has also been a huge success. Well done to all children who spent time practicing and gathered their courage to showcase their various talents from magic tricks to playing an instrument, dancing and singing! It has been an absolute pleasure watching you using your talents and doing your best!

I have been equally impressed by the home learning handed in this week. The children have done a wonderful job of presenting their learning to the class about special Christmas traditions from their chosen/home countries.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Ms Varga

 

Friday 8th December, 2023

The highlight for this week was Year 3’s part in the Advent Service.  Well done to them for singing, acting and speaking so beautifully during the service.  The children’s reverence and participation was clearly evident and this made the evening special for all.

Candle and Rainbow ornament: Grace and Matilda

Readers: Louis, Federico, Anna, Mikey, Lucas, Fabio, Ruth, Joseph S, Sofia.

Singers:  Sive, Leonie, Amilia, Iustin, Archie (Chorus)  Hugo, Grace, Matilda, Noemi

Nativity: Ayrabella, Erin, Christian, Ariela, Chloe, Jessica, Daphne, Hanna, Joseph C, Tara, Solomon.

 

This week in our RE lessons we have continued to think about the importance of prayer. Lectio Divina means “divine reading” in Latin. It’s a meditative way of reading the Bible in which we let go of our own agendas and open ourselves to what God is trying to say to us. Using the Gospel of Mark 1:1-14 as the stimulus, the children listened to the story of John the Baptist through the 5 steps: reading/meditating/prayer/contemplation and action. Today, the children researched Christmas customs in Trinidad and Tobago as part of our RE Focus Question on  Christmas Customs around the world.  The children also created an advent calendar writing prayers to be read and shared with the rest of the class throughout the advent season.

In Maths the children have continued to build upon their understanding of addition using the vertical  method (using 1/2 regroups) and investigated many ways to embed this.  In our fluency sessions, the children have revisited many of the skills learnt across this autumn term.  Please keep encouraging your child to log onto Mathletics and TTRs and complete the tasks set for them.

In our English learning, we have practised our editing skills and written up our final pieces. Next week we will be writing instructions about how to make the sandwiches we designed as a part of our Design and Technology learning.

During the last week of term, Pope Paul’s Got Talent is returning!  This is an occasion where each child is encouraged to share their talents either on their own or with a partner(s).  Each class will decide upon two entries from their own class that will go forward towards the whole school’s got talent competition.   Please chat with your child to encourage them to participate.

Monday 11th December:   Year 3’s Egyptian Day.

Year 3 will be taking part in a special Egyptian day on Monday 11th December when the children will find out what it was really like to be an Ancient Egyptian. This will reinforce the learning and hard work which has already taken place in the classroom.  The children can be Egyptologists or Ancient Egyptians.

EGYPTOLOGISTS: jeans or shorts, wacky jumper or t-shirt and hat .

ANCIENT EGYPTIANS: ready-made Egyptian outfits are readily available on the Internet e.g. Cleopatra, Pharaohs, mummies, slaves etc.

Alternatively, costumes can be made out of a length of white material. Old bed sheets are perfect!

The children are still to bring a packed lunch or order their hot dinner as normal and wear a jacket or a coat, hat etc.. for playtime.

Home Learning:  RE      Christmas Around the World

Please read the information on the poster attached.  The instructions have also been added to this week’s newsletter

Spelling have been put on spelling shed as usual.