The Chronicle

Junior 6 have started their cross-subject investigation into World War One. In History we began thinking about the start of the war and paid particular attention to the events that led to conflict, as well as the state of Europe at the start of the 20th Century in terms of military strength and alliances. In English, the children started thinking about the Christmas truce and using their descriptive writing skills they began to explore the experiences of soldiers in the trenches during this terrible period of history. We also watched Wargames; an animation based on the book by Michael Foreman. The story follows the experiences of three village boys who enlist in the British Army. We thought about how we might feel if we were enlisted and what effect it might have on us and our families. The children have approached this topic with maturity and curiosity and we have all been so impressed. Keep up the hard work Junior 6!

During Science, Junior 5 have been continuing to learn about different materials and their properties. Last week, Junior 5 investigated to find out which bag would be best to carry their shopping. They tested a paper bag, plastic bag and jute bag using weights, and were enthusiastic to see how much each bag could hold before it showed signs of breaking, or it broke. This week, they are conducting another investigation to discover what kind of material is the best insulator for their lunch box design. Using plastic cups, thermometers, stopwatches, ice cubes and different materials, the children have been investigating how quickly the ice cube will melt with different materials like felt, tin foil, etc.

This week, Junior 4 have been classifying invertebrates by their visible characteristics and features. We planned out a classification key with diagrams, then went out to the forest school area to hunt down as many invertebrates as possible. We found a large variety of different invertebrates and discussed their characteristics which made easily identifiable.  What a great way to learn more about invertebrates!

In Junior 3V we have been exploring recording our learning on ipads using the Seesaw app. In our English lessons we have been learning about synonyms and how we can use a thesaurus to expand our vocabulary. We have spent time, both in school and at home, looking up new words and then using these in our writing. This culminated in writing poems to describe the hot, dry Kenyan landscape. We then practiced reading our poems aloud and recorded them using the video function on Seesaw. In mathematics, we have been finding bonds to 100 using a digital rekenrek. This clever tool helps us to visualise numbers to 100 and find the corresponding bonds. It’s been a week filled with fun and digital developments.

Junior 2 amazed the teachers this week with their commitment to their year group assembly. They wowed their audience with a fantastic delivery of a very special message about anti-bullying. ‘Make noise against Bullying, loud and clear. Let kindness and respect always be near, ‘ was the chant that could be heard and we hope that this message is taken by all throughout the year. Well done Junior 2; you have been fantastic yet again this week. Now to get rehearsing for our nativity!

What an amazing time we had at St John’s Museum on Wednesday; it certainly has been another highlight of this term. The Junior 1 team were so proud when the museum staff commented on how impeccably behaved our children were and said how much they had enjoyed hosting us. What a wonderful compliment to receive! We spent the day going back in time to the Victorian era, working in the kitchen and school room, as well as being transported back to the age of gentry and servants. The children had so much fun doing the washing; they grated the soap, pumped the water and used the mangle before hanging their washing out to dry. The Victorian school room was such a revelation to all the children with the girls and boys sitting separately in rows whilst using their slates to write. They then marched up and down outside before coming back in to recite numbers aloud together, for maths. Everyone soon realised how strict the teacher was!

Reception have been busy learning new letters again this week – their enthusiasm as we move into Level 3 sounds is lovely to see as the children busily blend sounds to read, and segment sounds to write single words, captions and simple sentences. They are working hard, and spending time last week to reinforce letter formation and pencil grip has really helped. The maths work proved equally interesting as we got tied up in some lovely mathematical language. We explored the concepts of 1 more and 1 less this week… and whilst the question, “if you have 3 biscuits, and I give you 1 more… how many will you have?” is SUPER easy… the reverse statement, “4 is 1 more than…?” is much harder!!!  Luckily, we used frogs, bricks and blocks to work it all out, and didn’t need to eat biscuits in the process! 

This week in Nursery the children have been learning about Diwali. They each made their own diva lamp out of salt dough, which they then painted and adorned with sparkles galore.

During Phonics, the children have been listening to the traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood. They have loved using the masks in class to act out this story. The children were understandably keen to decorate a biscuit with icing sugar and sprinkles, to place in Little Red Riding Hood’s basket, to cheer up poorly Grandma.

They have also been practising their scissor skills, cutting out pictures of food to put in the basket for Granny. We have a special scissor mantra to help us cut efficiently: ‘keep your thumb on top; tuck your elbow in; spare hand turns the paper’.

The autumn weather was glorious on Wednesday, which gave us chance to cook porridge for Goldilocks after last week’s damp squib of a day. We sat together on the forest floor and chose from a selection of toppings: goji berries, crystallised ginger, golden syrup, cinnamon sugar, chocolate chips. How did it taste? Absolutely delicious!