Upon entering into Advent, this week has been full of creativity as we prepare for Jesus’ coming. The classroom has been resounding with angelic voices whilst practising and recording songs for the Advent and Carol services, and the children have been doing lots of art depicting the Incarnation. Look at some of the beautiful artwork they have produced!

In English, Year 6 were imagining themselves as WWII evacuees and practised freeze-frame role plays that helped them to write in role as children on their way to their new homes away from the cities.

Those children who have lines in the KS2 Advent Service need to learnt their lines off by heart for Monday so that we can video record their parts. Here are the parts.

Maths	Tasks assigned on Mathletics: ·        Contracted multiplication ·        Long multiplication ·        Modelling percentages
Reading	30 minutes on https://readtheory.org/
Spellings	This term’s spelling words revisit the official Year 5/6 Statutory Spelling List: sincerely existence frequently correspond bargain secretary forty explanation guarantee yacht twelfth rhythm definite awkward embarrass
SPaG	Tasks assigned on https://www.spag.com/ ·        Probability words ·        Fronted adverbials (A)

This week has been anti-bullying week and so yesterday the children role-played cyber-bullying scenarios, after which we discussed the best course of action if we were to find ourselves in similar circumstances. It was reassuring to hear that the children understood the importance of reporting cyberbullying incidents to a trusted adult, rather than retaliating.

Year 6 are still loving both the karate sessions and hockey lessons and continue to develop their skills in the sports.

We made gratitude jars this afternoon for our wellbeing session. Each week, the children will add a slip of paper with something they are grateful for into their jar.

In Maths, we were learning how to find fraction, decimal and percentage equivalence, whilst in RE we have been using Lectio Divina to help us pray with passages from scripture. In English, the children imagined they were WW1 soldiers in the trenches and each wrote a letter home to their loved ones. Heather and Jamie very kindly brought in memorabilia from their relatives who fought in WW2, including war medals, a recipe book and fuel ration coupons. Thank you so much for sharing this with the class.

This week’s home learning:

Maths	Task assigned on Mathletics: ·         Fractions to decimals ·         Fractions to decimals 2 ·         Common fractions as percentages
Reading	30 minutes on https://readtheory.org/
Spellings	This term’s spelling words revisit the official Year 5/6 Statutory Spelling List: accommodate aggressive conscious desperate environment equipment especially exaggerate harass hindrance muscle opportunity physical recommend stomach temperature

It has been a special week back for Year 6, as on Wednesday we were lucky enough to celebrate our class Mass with Fr Shaun on the theme of Remembrance. It was a beautiful Mass, with fantastic answers given by the children during the Homily. Thank you to those who read so well and to Ava, Heston and Emilia for sharing their very moving poems in our post-Communion reflection.

To make the most of the glorious autumnal weather we had this week, the class did an autumn scavenger hunt in the grounds, and used their finds to make a piece of autumn nature art.

In PE, we started hockey sessions with Miss Pringle. This week’s focus was all about keeping possession. The class are looking forward to developing their skills over the coming weeks.

Here is this week’s home learning:

Maths	Task assigned on Mathletics: ·         Simplifying fractions ·         Equivalent fractions on a number line
Reading	30 minutes on https://readtheory.org/
Spellings	This half term’s spelling words revisit the official Year 5/6 Statutory Spelling List: according government sufficient community persuade determined sacrifice appreciate immediate disastrous committee marvellous queue signature shoulder
SPaG	Tasks assigned on https://www.spag.com/ ·         Direct speech punctuation (B) ·         Apostrophes & plurals (B)

Enjoy your weekend.

Miss Donatantonio

The main focus this week has been to finish the drafting and editing of the children’s short stories. The class has worked so hard ensuring their stories are the best they can be, and I am looking forward to reading the finished pieces which will go towards their Year 6 writing portfolios.

In Maths, the children enjoyed developing the skill of prioritising information in puzzles and problems. I was so impressed with how enthusiastic the children were to get onto each challenge.

In Science, we are nearing the end of our topic on the human body, so this week we learnt about the effects of drugs on the body. It was a lesson full of excellent questions and discussion, and the children were surprised by the many different effects drugs can have on the brain.

In Art, the children continued learning about Impressionism, with this week’s emphasis being on the use of complementary colours in Impressionist paintings:

In PE, the children were jumping for distance. They were set the challenge of jumping the equivalent of their height and they had an island hopping race to put their horizontal jumping skills to the test:

Here is the meditation we listened to for our wellbeing session today:

Home learning for this week:

Maths	Task assigned on Mathletics: ·        Lowest Common Multiple ·        Greatest Common Factor
Reading	30 minutes on https://readtheory.org/
Spellings	This week’s words contain a silent k or w: knee knight knowledge knock knife knuckles wriggle wrong write wrestle answer sword
SPaG	Task assigned on https://www.spag.com/ ·        Subordinate clauses & conjunctions (B) ·        Apostrophes & commas (A)

Have a great weekend!

Miss Donatantonio

This week has been Healthy Eating Week and so we have been looking at the different aspects of living healthily:

• Eat More Wholegrains
• Vary Your Veg
• Drink Plenty
• Move More
• Be Mind Kind

Here are the Year 6s comparing fibre content in wholegrain vs non-wholegrain carbohydrates:

And here they are working different parts of the body to ensure that they ‘Move More’:

For Vary Your Veg, they taste-tested butternut squash and raw pepper with avocado. (For those asking for the butternut recipe, see the end of the blog)

Meanwhile, the school began ‘Karate Wednesdays’ and enjoyed their first session in martial arts:

For this week’s plant learning with Mrs McDonald, Year 6 were observing ways in which plants in the grounds were adapted for reproduction.

In Art, we began our topic on Impressionism. This week, the children focused on mixing and matching colours in Monet’s Japanese Bridge:

Today, St Vincent belatedly celebrated their saint’s feast day. Thank you and well done to Bella and Thomas – the St Vincent House Captains – for providing treats for the members of St Vincent house.

Well done on another brilliant week!

Miss Donatantonio

This week’s home learning:

Maths	Tasks assigned on Mathletics: ·        Estimation: Add and Subtract ·        Estimate Products ·        Estimate Quotients
	Here are the instructions to create a Prodigy account in Miss Donatantonio’s classroom: 1.      Go to www.prodigygame.com/play 2.      Click ‘New Student’ 3.      Enter the Class Code: B1EAD0A
Reading	30 minutes on https://readtheory.org/
Spellings	This week’s words follow the ‘i before e except after c’ rule: ceiling conceited conceive deceive deceitful perceive receive receipt
SPaG	Task assigned on https://www.spag.com/ ·        Apostrophes & plurals ·        Subordinate clauses & conjunctions

Slow-cooked butternut squash recipe

• 1 bag frozen butternut squash
• Drizzle of olive oil
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp mixed ground spices
• salt and pepper

Put all ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on high for about 3 hours until soft. Could also be roasted in the oven for about half an hour at 180°C.