The Chronicle

There have been lots of Da Vinci's awarded this week, including in:

Junior 2

• Blythe for Science
• Sienna for English

Junior 3

• Carter for his Science work 
• Julia for her Maths work
• Jay for Maths
• Andrew for Maths and English
• Mairen Steel – English
• Lexi for PSHECE/Citizenship 
• Georgie for Maths
• Ralph for Art
• Kate for Maths
• David Lamprecht for Art

 Junior 5

• Joseph for his English work

The House Drama Competition resulted in Da Vinci's for:

• Arthur, Olivia, Aaron and Elizabeth in Junior 2
• Isabella and Carter in Junior 3
• Elsie in Junior 4
• Jasper and Thomas in Junior 5
• Jorja in Junior 6

The award period for this year has now ended.  Any certificates or merits awarded after Friday 12 June will be carried over into the next acdemic year. Well done to everyone who received an award. 

Junior 6 have been learning about evolution and human intervention in science. This has proved a very thought provoking topic and it has been interesting to hear everyone's views.

History has also been stimulating as we have discussed rationing during WW2 and how our meals now are very different compared to back then.  We wondered what our daytime snacks might have been during WW2!

In English, classes have explored personal layers using Russian dolls as an example. We have had to dig deep, be honest with ourselves and think about the layers that we reveal to different people and how we can portray this as poetry.

It has been lovely seeing the children participate with such gusto in music and have the school hall filled with singing and music once again – just as it should be! We are learning a new song by Miley Cyrus and hope to perform this as part of a whole school Foundation choir.

It has been another super week of hard work and positivity in Junior 5. Niamh and her little brother have been busy growing lots of vegetables in the garden during lockdown. They've grown potatoes, carrots, green beans and strawberries, and they seem to be growing really well at the moment. Niamh has also been learning about muscles and exercises, she tried to do some bicep curls with some tins! 

There has been some great science work about photosynthesis from lots of children across the year group, so well done. 

It was Millie’s birthday on Sunday, and she started the day with some birthday pancakes. Once she’d opened all of her presents, she had an amazing surprise when some of the girls in her year group did a ‘drive by’ with banners, cards and pressies – this was probably the highlight of her day, and she was ever so grateful!  This is definitely a birthday Millie won’t forget in a hurry!

Lots of families in Junior 5 have been getting back to nature: some taking lovely, long walks together, while others are cycling together. Jasper cycled 27 km to Draycote water and back home again; an amazing achievement. Well done, Jasper! Helayna and her family walked 4 miles daily during half term; Maria walked 2 miles through the woods, which sounds delightful, and Maxwell walked 10 miles over the weekend and says he is planning on walking 100 miles during the month of July, for charity (yet to be chosen) – watch this space for updates! Check out the gallery for photos.

Amelia and Leyton celebrated their parents’ anniversary in style – they dressed up and made a restaurant for them to enjoy! 

George is very pleased to announce that he has two gorgeous new Bengal kittens, Esme and Iris. 

Well done to Isabella and Maria for being our Stars of the Week. 

Bronze certificates have been awarded to Jacob and Rupert.  Silver certificates have been achieved by Sam, Scarlett, Freddie, Millie, Francesca, Lily, Henry, Niamh and Henry W.  

The children in Junior 4 have been working on the Norman Conquest and have made some really exciting comic strips of the events of 1066, from the Battle of Stamford Bridge to the Battle of Hastings – it’s all there in their comics. They have been learning about young boys training to become knights, hopefully there will be some Norman shields to see on the Chronicle next week!

Junior 4 have been working on differentiated Time problems this week - telling the Time in digital and analogue and also calculating intervals of Time. Some of us have also been working on Geometry and learning about shapes, symmetry and angles. We have been so impressed with how the children have been navigating Century Tech and housepoints have been rewarded to those who spend time watching the teaching videos carefully in this brilliant learning tool.

In English J4JM have been looking at performance poetry. Using the model of Michael Rosen's conversation poem, 'The Car Trip', we have tried writing and performing out own versions of ‘The Car Trip’ using our personal experiences which has resulted in some very funny poetry.

Junior 4 have also been getting into Character as Jim Hawkins from Treasure Island as part of their Drama this week! Willow and Elsie made very convincing Jim Hawkins. Well done!

 Isabella's poem

This week Junior 3 have continued to immerse themselves in the mysteries of Ancient Greece. They have explored the settings of Greek myths and worked hard to describe them using powerful language and images. They have also found out about ‘reflection’ in science and written messages in mirror writing to send to friends. Some children even wrote their own science quiz! It has been lots of fun exploring all the new language of angles, lines and shapes in maths and we have become very accustomed to spotting mathematics all around us in our homes and neighbourhoods. Great job, everyone.

Highlights from J3V:

J3V are getting very good at sharing our news in our own ‘weekly news time’ and Mrs van Zyl cannot wait to see what great stories, models, toys, and talents everyone chooses to share. It makes everyone feel so much closer. Well done for persevering with your reading and taking the time to listen to each other too. Mrs van Zyl has seen some fantastic drawing and mask making skills this week – keep up all your creative efforts. Congratulations to all of you who have achieved a full Da Vinci this week.

Highlights from J3S:

J3S have been showing great enthusiasm for their reading, especially Seb and Beatrice, whose reading has hugely improved through lots of practice and importantly, enjoyment for a range of stories. It’s always wonderful to hear everyone’s news, including seeing Julia’s model dragons and seeing Joseph’s creative breakfasts that he has been cooking. J3S also learned about democracy in Ancient Athens, where they all took part in a virtual version. After the class voted on the winner, they then voted whether to ostracise the tyrant Mr Stedeford. However, the dog ate all of the voting slips, so they will never know the decision!

Mathlete of the week was Grace 

Junior 2 have been so busy this week testing capacity in maths and thinking about poetry in English! There have been some super 'happy' poems flying around SEESAW and the pupils have really enjoyed thinking about lines, verses and rhyming words.

In Science the children are recalling some of the work from earlier in the year, animals and their young, herbivores and carnivores, and in RE we have all been thinking about the Eucharist in the month where Holy Communion would normally be for the J3s.

PSHECE reminded us that we all want to see each other again but know that we have to stay safe and socially distanced for a while longer. Well done everyone a super-busy and productive week. There is no end to your talents.

Our Mathlete of the week is Sienna.

Jessie has been working hard writing poems this week. As you can see from her smiling face,  she is ready to write some more. We have been looking at weather poems and Jessie wrote a poem telling the rain to go away.

Hopefully the sun will be out next week and we’ll be able to see some of Junior 1 having fun in the sun!

Joseph has considered carefully why Jesus wanted Matthew the Tax collector to be his friend. This led him to think about qualities we look for in friends and how we should treat others. Joseph was keen to share his thoughts with the class.

Charlie has been super speedy with his maths this week and showed how well he can partition 2-digit numbers.

Theo enjoyed some forest school time in Thickthorn Woods in Kenilworth. Looks like a place Andy Goldsworthy would enjoy, the artist Junior 1 are currently studying.

Diya has been showing how to be kind to people in the wider community. She visited the Hope Centre in the middle of Coventry town, a part of the Mosaic Church, where they have a Food Bank. Due to Covid 19, a lot of Food Banks are unable to open.  Diya couldn't hand out goods personally, so this timw she just donated rice pudding tins, biscuits, crisps, runner beans, pineapple and toothpaste. She is going to try and volunteer with her mum next week.

Our Mathlete of the week is Diya.

It has been another fun week in Reception for the children at school and also for our home learners. ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Kinder’ bubbles have worked so hard in their classrooms and had lots of fun playing outside, whilst the children at home have continued with their live lessons.

This week, Reception classes have been learning about a wide variety of zoo animals. They have been writing poems, learning lots of facts and making habitats for them. They even went hiding in the bushes, pretending to be wild animals with the masks they had made! The children have loved listening to the story ‘Dear Zoo’ by Rod Campbell in their English lessons. They wrote a letter to the zoo keeper to tell him how they would look after the puppy and filled out labels to describe the animals in the story. Mrs Olden has also kept the children very entertained during their music lessons with lots of jungle songs and dancing!

In maths this week, Reception have enjoyed learning about odd and even numbers. We explored our surroundings, finding odd and even amounts of everyday items such three shelves on a bookshelf (odd) and four toothbrushes in the bathroom (even). Using practical resources like Lego and pencils we created our own odd and even categories and we also looked at door numbers on houses and decided which were odd and even. Can you spot any odd and even numbers in your house?

This week in nursery we have watched our children grow in independence as they manage the routines and systems in place.  Lunchtimes are especially lovely as everyone sits with their lunchboxes to compare yoghurts, fruit and the content of sandwiches… the conversations are wonderful to listen to, and very funny!  We also heard good news from a couple of our home learners who have been caring for caterpillars… the butterflies have appeared, been admired and have now flown free! 

I hope everyone enjoys a restful weekend, stay safe and stay dry!

 Nursery News