The Chronicle

In their current History topic, Junior 6 have been learning about the Victorians and the reign of Queen Victoria. We looked in detail at the power of the British Empire during the 19th century and how it was used to strengthen Britain’s economy at the expense of others. We also explored what school would’ve been like for children during this time. We looked at what Victorian lessons may have looked like, what children would be using in their lessons and the cruel punishments that children might have received. We then used all our research to write our own reports. Keep up the hard work Junior 6, well done!

Junior 5 have been busy working hard in every lesson and we absolutely love their enthusiasm, curiosity and wonderful creativity – we have some amazing artists! This week in Science we have been learning about the different phases of the moon. After learning why the moon seems to change shape, we then had fun demonstrating our knowledge using oreo biscuits, whilst explaining terms like, ‘waxing gibbous’ and ‘waning crescent’. We think that they are all amazing and we are all very proud of what they continue to achieve.

This week in Junior 4 we have been continuing our investigation into sound, how it travels and how we hear. Our journey through sound led us to further experiment how sound travels through vibrations, and to show this, we create string telephones using string and plastic cups. We trialled the phones in different positions and found out that for sound to travel properly, the string needs to be tight. We ended the lesson with a write-up to show what we had done and note what we had discovered.

Junior 3 have been learning about the democratic voting process this week when electing their class school councillors. Children who wanted to, made their campaign speeches to the class and told us why they would make a great school councillor using words like kindness, helpfulness, creativity and sacrifice. Junior 3W even had to have a revote as two names came out with an equal number of votes! Later on in the week, Junior 3 actually became Stone Age hunter-gatherers during their practical history lesson in the hall! In groups, they hunted and gathered the foods they would need from around the hall and then sorted them into seasonal groups.

Junior 2 have fully immersed themselves in our English lessons this week. We have been looking at expanded nouns and how these, along with adjectives, can make our work really exciting to read. We have made a ‘Wanted’ poster for our dragon, and the children loved sharing their ideas with each other to create fabulous posters. We have also used instructions on how we can trap a dragon. The children are so excited about this topic, especially as we have now introduced Spinach the class dragon, who is keeping a very close eye on us all! This story has certainly motivated us all, as well as helping with our creative writing.

History was a hit this week, in Junior 1, when we learnt about Tudor homes. They all recognised these infamous buildings, as we are lucky enough to have so many in our surrounding area. After learning how they were made, they created a picture using black and white paper, adding in details like the tiny windowpanes and wonky doors, just like the real Tudor houses. In Geography we had a map of an island, and we followed instructions to find different features on it using prepositions to help, knowing your left from your right helped in this lesson! Maths was fun too, as after a couple of lessons looking at ordering, we learnt about ordinals and how they describe the position rather than the amount. We learnt how to write first, second and third as numerals and had a great time playing an interactive game to help show our understanding of them.

One of the things which both Reception classes have been enjoying this week has been their Maths lessons – from noisy games of ‘Snap!’ to matching animal shadows, and putting together sets of cutlery. It has been all about finding things the same, sorting objects into groups, finding things that go together and spotting pairs. We are quite sure that everyone at home will be pleased with how good they all are at finding matching socks now – there will be plenty of help with the washing this weekend! 

This week the children have been exploring numbers to 3, finding ways to compare them and represent them in different ways. We have also enjoyed pretending to go on picnics together.

We have started to think about the signs of Autumn and had a go at creating some pumpkin pictures, using apples to print with. We also made some spider pictures using our handprints.