The Chronicle

This week in Art, Junior 6 have begun to create some fantastic artwork using oil pastels in celebration of the season of Pentecost. Inspired by the phrase ‘Wind Beneath my Wings’, the children brainstormed some ideas about what form they believed the Holy Spirit might take. After settling on a design, the children created their art using oil pastels. We were amazed by how bold and bright the images were and how they were full of fire and movement. Well done children, you worked carefully and meticulously to create some fantastic pieces of work!

Junior 5 have been busy this week, and in amongst all of the school events, they have all been working hard to practise exam techniques and the kind of tasks that they might be asked to complete. They have all demonstrated an excellent attitude towards their learning and, as a result, they are improving their confidence in these situations.

It hasn’t been all hard work in the classroom though, as it has been lovely to see the children get ready for sports day, building healthy rivalries and preparing for a day of exciting competition. Keep it going Junior 5, we think you are all amazing!

Having made their bespoke tea and described it vividly, as part of our English lessons, Junior 4 have now been learning how to use persuasive devices to advertise their tantalising product. Slogans, rhetorical questions, and an array of figurative language have all been used and transcribed onto their attractive 3D tea boxes. Well done, Junior 4 - you are all budding entrepreneurs!

Junior 3 have become budding journalists this week by learning all about news reports and how to write one. The children enthusiastically talked about their previous knowledge of news reports and then, in their talking partners, discussed where they would see one, their purpose and what they might include. For their independent task, the children then matched the features of a news report to an exciting example of a report about Icarus, linking to their history learning about Ancient Greece. Features learnt included: headlines, bylines, use of the past tense, emotive language, facts, quotations, photographs and captions. What an exciting new writing genre this was!

It’s been another busy week in Junior 2. During Maths we have been learning all about different ways to tell the time to the nearest half an hour, quarter past and quarter to and, of course, o’ clock. Whilst it was tricky at first, we managed to learn a very useful skill and will keep practising to accurately tell the time. In addition to our end of year tests, we have still been writing creative alternative endings to the Tin Forest story. We loved how the children incorporated their learning in Geography into their English work. Science this week has been great fun too, as we have been learning all about how plants grow and what they need to become healthy and strong.

Minibeast fact files have been our focus in English this week, with some amazing results. After learning how to set out a fact file and use headings and sub-headings, we wrote one for worms, snails and honeybees; learning lots of new information along the way - such as the longest recorded worm was as long as an Olympic swimming pool!

Science had us outside observing nature, linking in nicely with our English work. We spotted worms and snails, but no bees this time.

Over in Maths we looked carefully at the coins and notes that we use when shopping and discovered how to make different amounts using only the coins that are in circulation.

We went back in time to the 1950s, 60s and 70s to discover what sorts of toys were popular back then in our history lesson. There was a lot of excitement when they realised that Star Wars toys were very popular in the 1970s.

As we continue our topic on going places, both Reception classes have been journeying in different ways - from diving deep into the ocean in a submarine, to exploring tribes in Africa. Ms Holmes encouraged some of the children to make some fantastic pencil and pastel drawings of tribesmen in art, focussing on the figure and form, as well as using warm sunny colours to reflect the environment; whilst in our writing we reflected on the story Billy's Bucket. Looking inside the bucket, Billy spotted creatures under the sea - from sharks to whales, and we wrote our own story about what we might see if we chose a bucket to look into.