Learning In Action

Junior 6

This week in Junior 6, we have continued with our novel Oranges in No Man’s Land and have focused on Chapter 2 where Ayesha’s family find a home with other refugees. We have taken this theme and thought about it in more detail, considering what life might have been like as a refugee and trying to understand the concept of migration as a whole. We learnt that there can be push and pull factors that cause people to migrate from the violence of war, destruction and famine on the one hand to the pull of job opportunities, better weather and education on the other. We heard about the real-life experiences of people who have been forced to leave their homes and people who have made the choice to leave because of the attraction of what another place has to offer.

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Junior 5

J5W are thrilled, and a little bit scared, to be learning about the Terrible Tudors! This week we have been looking at how clever Henry VIII was by uniting the country after decades of the Wars of the Roses. By marrying Elizabeth of York, Henry, a Lancastrian, merged the two houses into one. We learnt that the famous Tudor Rose symbolised this unity by including the white rose of York with the red rose of Lancaster. We all agreed that it was a very shrewd move on Henry’s part to bring peace to England after years of bloodshed. We can’t wait to learn more about the infamous Henry VIII and his six wives next week – what an interesting character he was!

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Junior 4

We have been treated to a major refurbishment of Crackley Hall’s school library and have now acquired some amazing books to add to our already established collection, thanks to a very generous donation from the PTA.

Mrs Steeples, TA and librarian, who organised and renovated the new library, said that when Year 4 sampled the delights of the library, they all absolutely loved it!  Said a delighted Mrs Steeples, “I was blown away by the excitement and enthusiasm of the Year 4 pupils as they enjoyed their first experience in our new library. It was amazing to see how keen the children were to choose their own books and spend time in such a quiet and relaxing environment with blankets and soft cushions to hand.”

All year groups will have a time tabled slot to spend time in the library.  It will also be open during lunchtime for the children to further enjoy this enhancement to their learning. Our sincere thanks go towards the PTA for contributing to the funding of this programme.

 

 

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Junior 3

Junior 3 have been digging deep this week thinking about synonyms for ‘said’ and reporting clauses. Pupils came up with ‘declared, argued, answered, murmured and bellowed’  to name but a few.

We have enjoyed building speech bubbles and thinking about different conversations our characters from Egyptian Cinderella may have had.

In Art, Junior 3H are beginning to make their Egyptian cartouches in soft clay. The pupils loved learning about how the clay can be manipulated, cut and carved to create symbols and hieroglyphs. Busy, busy, busy!

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Junior 2

Junior 2 have continued their journey into China by learning all about the differences and similarities between the capitals of England and China. They also learnt about the landmarks which can be found in and around London and Beijing. The most exciting part of their Geography lesson was when they built their very own Great Wall of China, thinking carefully about how their structure could bend whilst remaining upright. In English, we have continued with our story The Magic Paintbrush by learning how to add ‘er’ and ‘est’ to adjectives, to turn them into superlatives. What wonderful expanded sentences the children have produced! Our Science lessons have led us to begin our focus on food and healthy eating. This week, the children have learnt about the different food groups and what these food groups can do for us and our bodies. They were very surprised to hear that we should all be eating five portions of fruit and vegetables every day!

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Junior 1

A lovely display was finished just in time for our open day this week all about animals found in the Arctic and Antarctic. Some very interesting facts were found out about polar bears.  Did you know that they can run as fast as a horse?! In Art we are developing our colour mixing skills with paint and have created some wonderful birds, painted with on the primary and secondary colours. Mrs Armitage is becoming a firm favourite and we can all now retell the story with actions and use a story map to help us keep track of where we are and what comes next. The VR headsets were a favourite this week. They gave everyone the opportunity to see what a Viking longship looked like, before we started to make a model of one in history.

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Reception

This week Reception have been continuing with our Amazing Animals topic. We read the story Lost and Found and thought about animals that live in Antarctica. The children loved finding out about the animals who live there and how they survive in the freezing cold! They also thoroughly enjoyed saving the animals from their icy igloos created in our school freezers!

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