The Chronicle

This week in RE we have been thinking about the psalms and prayers we use during Mass and in our own quiet times, to better connect with God and others. The children created their own Psalms centred around their own personal connection with God, thinking about what we are grateful for and being honest about the mistakes we all make sometimes. The children were brilliant earlier on in the week when they led the Leavers' Mass, sharing with us their talents for the performing arts. It is so marvellous to see the children continue to behave in such a mature way and take pride in their hard work. They are always superb role models for all the younger children throughout the school. You are superstars Junior 6, keep up the hard work.

Over this half-term, in English, Junior 5 have been practising their comprehension skills in preparation for next year (Junior 6). They have been using dictionaries to research new vocabulary to help them understand the text better. The children have been writing continuations of stories, ensuring that they include DADWAVERS in their writing to create interesting pieces. By using new and different sentence starters, changing the font size and including stylistic devices, they are making the story exciting for the reader.

This year, Junior 4 have been amazing, impressing us in so many ways and whilst it will be sad to see them move on, we are excited to see them continue to flourish in Junior 5. This week, they have continued to work incredibly hard, achieving some encouraging scores in their end of term Maths tests whilst also having fun trying to build the tallest towers in Science. On Wednesday morning, they learnt their new Junior 5 teachers and then the following day, children enthusiastically donned their house colours, all pushing to achieve victory at Sports Day – we even had the privilege of seeing Mrs Jackson-Mayne join the long jump event! Well done to every single pupil of Junior 4 – they are all brilliant.

This week Junior 3 were tasked with the exciting STEM challenge of building a Monstrance. Pupils have learnt about the religious ornament, called a Monstrance, in their RE lessons. It is used to ‘demonstrate’, hold and show the host and the priest uses it at the service of Benediction. The children had to make a Monstrance that was at least 25cm tall, contained a place for the host, was highly visible and beautifully decorated, whilst also being safe.

Teachers were extremely impressed with how the pupils worked together to first, choose their materials and make a design, then begin creating and refining their idea. ‘It was fantastic to see the pupils, change and improve their models when they didn’t quite work’, commented Mrs Jackson Mayne.

Da Vincis were awarded to all of 3V for their amazing collaborative work on this STEM project.

Junior 2 have had a great week taking advantage of the Outdoor Classroom where we looked at a variety of leaves, comparing them with each other. We have discovered a leaf that has only one blade is called a simple leaf while a compound leaf has two or more blades attached to the petiole. After collecting and comparing leaves, we created a 3D hedgehog picture. We have also been lucky enough to use the Forest School; so much fun was had as we built a house using crates and string and we helped each other by working in a team. That’s what Junior 2 are good at, helping each other and working together. Well done Junior 2!

We can’t quite believe that this was our last full week in Junior 1, time has flown by and we are all a lot taller and wiser than we were a year ago. There were some special activities that went ahead this week; the most exciting was a STEAM Day where everyone had the opportunity to make a cloud spotter and a butterfly suncatcher, which looked beautiful in the warm sunshine. In RE we had a special lesson making prayers for those who we felt were the most special to us and sent them on their way by blowing them into bubbles – how creative! We also had our moving-up morning and everyone was thrilled with their new teachers; we all had fun completing different activities and getting to know new people. Now, with only three days left, we will prepare ourselves for the next chapter in our lives and say goodbye to Junior 1. We will miss you all, we’ve had so much fun together and have loved seeing you grow.

Reception have amazed us this week with their maturity and confidence. They have been working hard to make a piece of work to show their new teachers for next year and spent some time in their new classes on Wednesday. We have seen them grown so much over the year and make such amazing progress. We can’t wait to see them shine in Junior 1!

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