The Chronicle

This week Junior 6 have been thinking about choices and the consequences that come with every choice we make. We began by reading the Story of the Fall from the book of Genesis and discussed the actions of Adam and Eve and the consequences that came from their choice to take the apple even though they had been told not to. We then looked at a range of fictional scenarios where we had to consider what the right choice would be in each case. We thought about how even when we make the right choice, sometimes the consequences may not always be positive and how we need strength and courage to do this. We finished this section of our RE unit by watching some poetry by Michael Rosen from his Big Book of Bad Things and identified times when we have made incorrect choices and also when we have listened to our ‘inner’ voice and made correct choices.

Junior 5W have proudly completed their Protective Behaviours course. We have enjoyed class discussions and sharing opinions on a range of topics, all designed to help us feel safe at all times. Discussions about how far feelings of being scared are fun, and when it tips into feeling so scared that our Early Warning Signs are triggered, it was very interesting to us all. It showed how we all have different emotional responses and all of these need to be respected and validated. We explored closing our eyes and visiting our safe place in our minds and then visualising these through drawings. We now all have an updated network of adults who we trust and can talk to about anything, even if it feels awful or small which is a key message of the scheme.

After making a range of musical instruments and pan pipes, Junior 4 tested out string telephones. We all went outside and worked in pairs, sending a range of secret messages through our plastic cups and along the string to our partners. We learnt that when you talk into the cup your voice sends sound waves inside the cup, vibrating the bottom of the cup. The sound vibrations are transferred to the string, across the string and into the bottom of the other cup, where they are then heard. We all had fun testing these out!

Junior 3 have been loving the Stone Age lessons this week as we have linked it beautifully with Science and been discussing the types of food that a Stone Age person would eat. Along with our Food Diaries, the children have learnt that we eat quite differently from our ancient ancestors, although fruit and vegetables did form an integral part of their diet too. Ms Holmes brought Mesolithic bark-platter in for the children to look at. We found mushrooms, berries, seeds, leaves and fruits as well as chicken, bran and grains. Most of the pupils felt that they may still not have enough energy to chase a woolly mammoth around the hills! In English, we spent a happy hour in Forest School using our five senses to help us imagine a Stone Age setting. Great fun – but we all decided we would definitely need our animal skin clothes if we were spending the nights outside in the chilly autumnal air. Trainee teacher Mrs Lavelle led a fantastic Science lesson on sugar in children’s drinks – what a shock we all had to find out how many teaspoons of sugar are in some of our favourites!! Our Collective Worship session led by Junior 5 had us all thinking about how we can better ‘love’ our fellow-man. Well done to all!

In Junior 2 our Science lessons are taking off with great imagination and environmental awareness. We have discussed materials around us and we have been on a material investigation tour around the school. We are keen to find out the properties of materials, what things are from and learn how they are used. Is it a suitable material for the right job? We also created our material monster using recycled materials. What a great week we have had!

Mathematics this week in Junior 1 saw the introduction of a part-whole diagram, the addition symbol, fact families and number bonds - phew! In English we wrote speech bubbles for the Little Red Hen and then helped her to express how sad she was in a letter to the animals when they did not help. Over in Science we continued exploring our senses, this week it was touch. Using only our hands we had to feel and describe an object from the classroom to the class to see if they could guess what it was. We then sorted materials according to their properties – such as smooth, bumpy, rough etc.. and learnt about what things we can or cannot touch. Finally, as October is Black History Month we began to find out about Alma Thomas and her wonderful art work.

This week in Reception we have been starting to write words and sentences in our books. The children have been trying so hard in phonics and have now shown some amazing letter formation! In Maths we have been matching and sorting objects into lots of different groups and noticing how items can be the same and different. We have also started collecting for the local food bank. Thank you to all of the families who have already donated so generously.  Reception have also had a visit from Road Safety Officer Louise to teach them about how to cross the road safely.