The Chronicle

Rehearsals are well underway this week as Junior 6 prepare for their production of Peter Pan at end of the year. The children have worked so hard over the Easter break to learn their lines and watching their rehearsals has been a treat. It is so brilliant to see the children confidently expressing themselves and showing us all their skills and talents. We are so excited to watch you grow into your roles and transport us to Neverland. Keep it up J6!

What an exciting beginning J5W have had to this term! The class made a smashing start to their involvement in the Summer Production of Peter Pan in their first music lesson back. Teaming together with J3H, the children started to learn a song and their first dance moves as pirates of the sea. Although combining singing a new song with some deft choreography from Mrs Paphitis was certainly challenging, J5W were brilliant role models to the younger children, showing off their true pirate style.

Junior 4 have returned from their 3-week break with renewed enthusiasm, continuing their love for learning and motivated by some much needed sunshine! In History, the children used toilet roll to improve their understanding of chronology. Each small group used the perforations in the roll to demonstrate a change in century and then added significant historical events, to complete a ‘Viking Timeline’. It was lovely to see everyone return from their Easter break and we are all excited for the many adventures that the Summer term has in store for us!

J3H have arrived back after the brilliant Easter break raring to go. Times tables are back on the agenda plus ‘weight’ in Maths and Greek Myths and Legends in English, which is always a firm favourite with the pupils. From the Minotaur and Icarus to Jason and the gods, the pupils devour the stories hungrily. Currently, we are exploring the story of Daedalus and Icarus, that daring duo who created colourful wings from feathers to escape the wrath of King Minos of Crete. The children are finding our about different versions of the story and are relishing the artist’s interpretations of this famous myth. We will investigate cartoons as we build up a myth of our own. Happy days!

In French, the equally famous Madame Westerman has been exploring tricky vocabulary this week – Ms Holmes was delighted to hear one of our pupils speaking beautifully en Francais, as she entered the classroom! What a treat.

We shall continue our Science investigation into Rocks and then Fossils as the box of gemstones arrived this week – great excitement…..the display case always prompts gasps of ‘ooooh’ and ‘wow’ from everyone. Methinks we have some budding gemmologists in Junior 3H. Have a great weekend everyone!

Junior 2 have had a brilliant start to the Trinity Term. The children are very excited about our Rainforest topic, and we enjoyed sharing some projects completed over the Easter break. In English, we are using The Tin Forest book, and the children have found this book quite magical. The Tin Forest by Helen Ward is a beautiful and poetic fable written about an old man who lives in a Tin Forest, otherwise known as a rubbish dump of unloved things nobody wants anymore. The old man wishes for a better place to live. With his own initiative, will he make this junkyard into a wonderland?

The children have enjoyed participating in PE, practising our throwing and catching, ready for our summer sports, including rounders and cricket. We are very excited about all the learning we will be doing this term.

Junior 1 have settled into their last term of the school year with such maturity and a willingness to learn new things. Everyone has enjoyed reading our new focus book Handa’s Surprise and it has been interesting to see how such a simple storyline has captured the children’s imagination. Everyone completed a book review with both classes giving it a firm thumbs up! There was great excitement on Tuesday when Mr Vaughan organised the eagerly awaited interhouse football tournament with Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus all competing to be the Junior 1 champions. We are so proud of how well the children took part with an equal amount of competitiveness and respect for one another’s team. Our Science lessons have also been a huge success with the children discovering some interesting facts about moths and butterflies. Did you know butterflies come from a chrysalis whereas moths have cocoons, or moths have short, hairy antennae as opposed to the long strait antennae of a butterfly? We can’t wait to find out more interesting facts next week!

This week the children have started their new topic on ‘Going on a Trip’. The children have enjoyed sharing photographs with each other of a trip they have been on and produced some fantastic writing about holidays they have been on in the past. The children started to compare types of holidays and looked for similarities and differences in their experiences.

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