The Chronicle

Junior 6 have had a taxing start to their New Year, with mid-year assessments for both Maths and English: what an introduction to 2023! We have been really impressed with the maturity and diligence of the Junior 6 children in tackling these assessments. Aside from this, Junior 6 have studied contrasting stories and traditions this week in both RE and English. We have compared the stories of the Birth of Christ in the gospels of St Luke and St Matthew, along with researching how Christmas traditions vary across the World. The children were amazed at some of the unusual traditions and routines followed in other cultures and countries. The children understood that some of our traditions are very similar, but that others must seem strange to other cultures, too!

Junior 5 have made a fantastic start to the new year. In Computing, the children have begun to practice their touch-typing skills. They have shown enthusiasm when racing each other in cross country. Junior 5L have been curious when learning about how the Spanish defeated the Aztec Empire. During English, the children have been revising grammatical rules, such as relative clauses; creating some interesting sentences using commas which includes a relative pronoun followed by the additional information. This week Junior 5 have also been supporting each other when answering multiplication calculations.

Junior 4 have come back with gusto, full of energy, so we thought what better time to do a bleep test! In preparation for the forthcoming weeks of PE, the children undertook a variety of physical literacy tests, such as hand-eye coordination, endurance, and agility. Their aim is to see how much they can improve their scores, when they are re-tested at the end of term. It has been lovely to see all of the children return with a smile and hear of their wonderfully festive stories from their Christmas break. We are all looking forward to the excitement of the Lent term!

Junior 3 have kicked off the New Year with a dip into the sights and sounds of Ancient Egypt following our themed focus in English, History, Art and DT. The pupils were excited to be back and very keen to find out more about this thrilling topic. Some of the pupils knew lots already and some were excited to find out more! You can fully expect the pupils to be chattering away at home and in the car as they discover all about The Egyptian Cinderella, Tutankhamun and the Valley of the Kings! Exciting stuff! Did you know that it is just 101 years since the tomb was discovered by Howard Carter?

Pupils have returned fresh and are ready to learn, so we are excited to introduce some further new topics and skills as they enter the second term of Junior 3. Already growing at quite a rate, the pupils will continue their sports on a Wednesday and Thursday – we fully expect everyone to get fit and healthy after possibly a rather ‘chocolatey’ Christmas!

We would also like to welcome our two new pupils Una and Niamh who have joined us and are settling quickly, which is lovely to see.

Happy New Year one and all from the Junior 3 Team.

We are very glad to have Junior 2 back in school and proud of how well they have all settled back into the routine. We have been busy in Maths and learning about money this week. In English, we read The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson and the children have shown great creativity in retelling the story on a storyboard. In PE, we started our Dance topic with pupils working in pairs to create and perform their dances, exploring mood and feeling.

Junior 1 were glad to be back at school, even if it was for only a short week! The busy little bees got straight back into working, developing their phonic knowledge of the spilt diagraph a-e. New topics have begun in History and Geography this term. In History we started to look at the different types of transport that has been around for over 5,500 years! After discovering that people in the past had very different, and sometimes very uncomfortable, ways to travel, everyone was able to recognise modes of transport from the past and present. Over in Geography we have moved on from 'Our Local Area' topic to looking at the UK. By using Google maps we were able to zoom in on the United Kingdom and see how tiny we are compared to the rest of the world – amazing!

It has been wonderful to welcome the children back into school this week. They have been so excited to tell us about their Christmas break and all of their super ideas for adventures in 2023! We have been working hard on our phonics and thinking about what happens in the daytime and nighttime. As always, we showed the whole school how brilliantly we listen and take part in our New Year's Mass. Well done, Reception! What an amazing start to the year!

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