The Chronicle

This week in RE Junior 6 have been learning about the story of Saint Paul. We traced the journeys of this incredible figure as he made three missionary journeys to spread the Christian message to non-Jewish communities, including Cyprus, Judea and Syria. The children were tasked with researching one of the journeys of Saint Paul, finding out as many fascinating facts as possible and putting them into an extended piece of writing about how the impact of Saint Paul can still be felt today. The children worked hard in this task, and we were so impressed with their ability to independently research using reliable sources. Next lesson we will be looking at Saint Paul, and in particular how heads of the Catholic church are a direct spiritual link to the original Apostles. Keep up the hard work, Junior 6!

Junior 5 have enjoyed learning cricket this term and have all made excellent progress. This was perfectly demonstrated at their most recent fixture versus King Henry’s, where their excellent attitude helped to contribute towards a brilliant performance. In the boys' fixture, Josh even achieved a hat trick, which happened to be the second hat trick of the season, after Charlie T also achieved this feat with his first ever three balls for Crackley Hall! Well done to all of Junior 5 for working so hard to improve their cricketing skills. We don’t like cricket at Crackley Hall, we love it!

This week, Junior 4 continued with their engineering adventure. They continued their task to construct, design and build towers using simple materials such as paper, newspaper, and masking tape. The challenge was to see who could build the tallest tower that could stand independently and be structurally sound enough to stay standing during our earthquake test. This hands-on activity not only fostered creativity and problem-solving skills, but also instilled a deeper appreciation for the principles of structural engineering. Well done, Junior 4!

This week, Junior 3 have been perfecting their finance skills as we tackle the exciting topic of ‘money’ in mathematics. Having reviewed what is meant by the word ‘currency’, we were amazed by how many different currencies we could name from all our travels. We then explored lots of different ways to make totals, using a range of coins and notes. It was fascinating to see all the different combinations we could come up with, and we got onto some super problem-solving challenges too. Your money is in safe hands with Junior 3.

We have also been becoming ‘experts’ at everything to do with Kapok trees, as we researched some truly fascinating facts about the tree that inspired our core text for this half-term. Do you know what a Kapok tree is? Do you know how tall and wide they can grow, or how many different uses there are for the different parts of the tree, or even how they are pollinated? Junior 3 does; just ask us! We have been using all these incredible facts to begin putting together impressive information pages about the tree in our digital learning portfolios. We are looking forward to next week when we will write our persuasive letters convincing tree cutters that cutting down Kapok trees is a terrible idea. Trees give us so much, and we are greatly looking forward to donning our tree costumes for the Summer Show on Friday to prove it! See you there.

Junior 2 have had a delightful week, as they immersed themselves in rehearsals for their end-of-year show. Despite the excitement and preparations, the children remained diligent, working hard in between rehearsals. In History lessons, the students delved into the remarkable influence Florence Nightingale had on our hospitals and how her legacy resonates in our lives today. That didn't stop their anticipation mounting as their performance date drew nearer. On Friday morning, everyone was brimming with excitement and gave the audience an incredible performance. Congratulations, Junior 2, on yet another busy and productive week!

It was show week this week and in amongst rehearsals and putting on an amazing show for our families and friends, Junior 1 still had time to work their socks off. They covered the tricky topic of turns, positions and directions in Maths, using language such as clockwise, anti-clockwise, left, right, forwards and backwards to help. In English, they developed their rhyming skills by matching two parts of a sentence to make rhymes that then became a brand new rhyming poem. Science and Geography both had the theme of how to stay safe in the sun. Using the ‘Slip, Slop, Slap’ song, it helped them to remember ways in which we can protect ourselves from getting burnt, in light of the weather is getting warmer and the summer holidays are nearly here!

Show week has been so much fun in Reception! We are so proud of how well our children behaved and managed the change in routine, the journeys on the bus, getting used to the theatre and performing for such a large audience. We have had so much fun preparing for this, and I know how excited the children have been to show you what they have been practising - and we hope you enjoyed the performance too! Alongside all the excitement, we have still been busy, working on our writing and phonics, as well as cementing our knowledge of numbers.