The Chronicle

This week in Junior 6, the children have been working extremely hard to prepare for their performance of Faraway Places. The children had a fun and productive day at the theatre on Monday, blocking all the scenes (that they have been working on at school) on the stage, finally being able to use blocks and levels. Tuesday saw our dress rehearsal where the Junior 6 children got to work with the younger children and watch each other’s show. We even managed to have a picnic in the shade as it was such a lovely day. They enjoyed being in costume and on stage with all the microphones, backdrops, lights, and props! Accompanied by a live band, the children performed brilliantly, and all came off the stage saying how exciting and enjoyable it was. Final tweaks have been made over the last few days and there is a buzz of excitement coming from all Junior 6 children.

In Geography this week, Junior 5W have been learning about four and six-figure grid references, and how to use these to find features on a map. They learnt that Ordnance Survey maps are split into a grid of squares, what eastings and northings are, and how to use four-figure, and in some cases, six-figure grid references to locate a given place on a map. We then moved onto compass directions and designed our own maps. We wrote a set of directions and swapped these with a partner to see if they could navigate around our map, resulting in all of us being able to read a map instead of relying on a Satnav!

Junior 4 have had an exciting week! In between rehearsals for the show on Friday. They have been taking part in ‘Money Week’ and have had an opportunity to interview author, Dom Conlon. Dom is a master of metaphor and personification and has written several books to describe nature and animals around us. On Thursday, Junior 4 were lucky enough to join him in a live Teams link. He read from his latest book, Grow, Tree, Grow which is out in July, and listened to the pupils’ reactions on the language techniques in his book, Blow, Wind, Blow. It was superb to see the children interact with the author, sharing their favourite lines and finding out where Dom received his inspiration. We have many budding authors in Junior 4 and a few volunteers read poetry and descriptions linked to the work on trees for the Queen’s Jubilee. Pupils also had the opportunity to show off their writing to Dom with their own tree poems, a description of a volcano and research on Dom’s choice of illustrators.

Junior 3 are loving finding out all about the properties of 2D shapes and this week took their learning outside into the sunshine to explore all the polygons that we could make using sticks. We made octagons, pentagons and even a few decagons.

Junior 3H were racing against the clock this week with flair and style as they tried to complete their design and technology topic of fabric pencil cases. They are learning running stitch, overstitch, cross stitch, and a variety of stitches which Ms Holmes has never seen before! Patience was at a premium as we threaded and rethreaded and rethreaded again. Happy days!

Junior 2 have finished one of the most spectacular weeks of the academic year. Our first performance at the Spa Centre was sensational. Each and every one of the children excelled themselves in terms of their performance, but also in their behaviour in and around the theatre. We are all so proud of you. The children have continued to work hard in between all of our rehearsals and excitement. For example, in our History lessons this week, the children have learned about the impact Florence Nightingale made on our hospitals and on our lives today. We hope the children have a very well-deserved break this weekend, ready for their last full week in Junior 2. 

What a fantastically busy week we have had. Not only were J1H super excited to go to the Spa centre on Tuesday to rehearse for the summer production, but they got to wear their costumes for a dress rehearsal too! This was swiftly followed by a day trip out on Wednesday to the MAD museum in Stratford, where there are so many different pieces of artwork that move and are interactive. We found that time really did fly by when we had fun trying out each activity. This was followed by a picnic in the band stand and a trip to the park where they had a lovely play in the sun. After a calming Thursday,  with Forest School and Art, Friday finally came around for everyone to show off their singing and dancing skills in the summer production, making it a truly awesome week!

As well as preparing for our Summer Concert this week, we have also been busy exploring space and learning about Neil Armstrong – the first person to walk on the moon.  In Maths we have been learning about shapes and exploring how we can use shapes to create new ones – such as using two triangles to make a square.