The Chronicle

This week in Junior 6, we have seen the culmination of an in-depth novel study.  Children were able to choose a novel from a given list and were tasked with reading it and then producing their own 'book in a box'.  Pupils had to paint or colour the outside/inside of the box so that it represented the setting of the book; put in three objects that represented the main character and put in five (or more) objects that represented different things that happened throughout the story. 

We have seen some fantastically creative interpretations of these novels and have now switched our attention to reading a selection of novels based around World War II and evacuation during this time.

This week, our wonderful Junior 5 pupils have continued to read our half-term novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and are thoroughly enjoying its magical atmosphere.

In Maths, we have begun recapping our angle knowledge and seem to be coping quite well overall.

Our Art project this half-term is ‘Pop Art’ and Mrs Clark is certainly inspiring the children to produce some stunning pieces.

Junior 4 have been busy exploring the powers of persuasion in English. The children have identified effective persuasive language from a range of texts including holiday brochures, letters and online debates. Some groups even presented their points of view via TV infomercials and they were extremely convincing! Finally, the children have been writing their own persuasive arguments ranging from the danger of mobile phones to the evil of little girls in the woods (from a letter of complaint from the Big Bad Wolf!)

Watch out, Mr Duigan – letters designed to persuade you to ban school uniform may be winging their way to you very soon too!

This week in RE, Junior 3 have been exploring the Feast of the Ascension. Pupils have combined literacy skills and art work to help them remember this important feast.

In Science, Junior 3 have enjoyed investigating mirrors, discovering what happens when light rays encounter the shiny reflective surface. It has also been delightful to see the progress they have made with their wonderfully enormous feathers, which will eventually result in a spectacular mythical display.

Well done to everyone for yet another excellent week in the classroom. 

This week Junior 2 have been busy using their maths skills for Problem Solving. Applying knowledge can be really tricky and extracting the ‘maths’ from a word problem can prove challenging. We have been using resources to help us this week as a way of seeing what needs to be done. The children have also had enormous fun using the Rapid Recall Maths cards, which check their mental maths at every level. So appropriate during the week we have Number Day!

Work on the Fire of London continues this week in the form of a diary write. Children are also loving our class novel The Great Fire Dogs which tells the story of a turnspit dog called Woofer and his best friend, the King’s dog, Tiger Lily.

Even with a Bank Holiday, Junior 1 have worked hard and been as busy as ever. We have begun to look at fractions in maths. This week we have investigated halves and quarters of shapes. We also had Number Day on Friday where we could wear our own clothes if it had a number on it and some of us even made costumes to dress up as an actual number!

In History, we finished our Viking longboats as an example of an early form of transport and in DT we used card tubes and other materials to make our own type of moving vehicle – some were very creative (I think Mrs Armitage may have had an influence there!)

Our PE lessons have also kept us busy with a lot of practising for Sports Day, developing our skills to get quicker and quicker.

After a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, we eagerly returned to school on Tuesday with a spring in our step. Despite the wet, blustery and chilly weather, great fun was had in Forest School.

We enjoyed playing on the swings, role-playing families and we were so excited when we discovered a beautiful butterfly fluttering amongst us! Continuing on with our butterfly theme, we put pencil to paper and wrote some fabulous caterpillar facts which extended our vocabulary further.

In Maths we have been thinking about shapes, tangrams and spatial awareness. Additionally, our school role-play area is proving a big hit – Mr Duigan had better beware, as there are quite a few prospective Headteachers in the making!