The Chronicle

Junior 6 have been studying the trailblazer Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. In the first movement of Winter, Vivaldi brilliantly conveys the biting cold, gusting wind, trembling bodies, and chattering teeth on his beloved violin. In their Music and Drama lessons, Junior 6 explored the music, closed their eyes, and imagined cold winter scenes. The children discussed how the music was constructed. In Drama they moved to become trees that changed shape, size, and direction with every eight counts. The children then worked in small groups to create the same effect as Vivaldi; for example stamping their feet to represent teeth chattering in the cold. They filmed their performances, watched the videos, and analysed the performances, looking at what made each one effective.

Junior 5 took on the responsible role of leading the first children led Mass of the year, celebrating the Harvest Festival. Each and every one of the children read beautifully, and Father Kevin was extremely happy with their contribution to school life. As the first half-term of Junior 5 heads towards its end, these children have so much to be proud of. They are a wonderful group to teach and have earned a well-deserved two-week rest!

This week in Junior 4 we have been tackling tricky subtraction of two 4-digit numbers with more than one exchange. Mrs Cowlishaw's group used lots of manipulatives to see how the exchange from hundreds to tens, or tens to ones worked, and demonstrated this to each other. We have also been learning abut the interesting life of Lucius Septimius Severus, the first Black Roman emperor, as part of Black History Month. 

This week in Junior 3 we were introduced to Stonehenge. We drew parts of Stonehenge in our sketchbooks using different media to see how well each worked. Using inspiration from art books on Stonehenge, we used chalks, pencil, felt tips and oil pastels. We then used a step-by-step guide using chalks which were blended and smudged together, creating a sunset picture of Stonehenge, which was linked to our Stone Age topic in History. We will soon be looking at the artist Jean Michael Basquiat to link in with Black History Month, when we will be using pencil then oil pastels to create work inspired by the artist.

This week, Junior 2 have been working hard to compare and order numbers and perfect their number bonds, not only to 10, but extending this knowledge to bonds to 20 and 100! We have used tens frames, part whole models, numicon and the Rekenrek to represent our understanding and have loved spotting patterns. Our recording has been systematic and careful; two skills that we know are very important to our success in mathematics.

In our English lessons, we have had a writing focus this week, using all our knowledge of Rapunzel to write diary entries as though we were her, trapped in a gloomy tower. We have read so many different versions of Rapunzel this half-term, and this has inspired our most recent artwork which has seen us collaging a variety of different Rapunzel’s – each one unique and with her own story to tell. We just need to add her beautiful tresses, and they will be complete.

Saint John’s Museum was the place to be on Wednesday this week when Junior 1 had a day trip there. They had the most wonderful time in the Victorian classroom learning the 3 ‘R’s, using a slate to write on, chanting the alphabet and numbers and going outside for an exercise drill with ‘Miss Roach’ or Ma’am as they were taught to call her. In the kitchen they experienced life as a laundry maid with ’Charlotte’ who taught us how to grate the soap, pump for water, use a dolly in a dolly tub and a mangle to squeeze the water out of the clothes we had to wash. It was much harder work than we imagined and we were glad we didn’t have to spend all day doing it like they did in 1888. There was also a chance to look at how differently people lived by looking at two beautiful models of houses; one rich, one poorer and compared clothing of the Victorian times too. It was an amazing trip with memories that will last a lifetime.

This week Reception have been learning all about their bodies and senses. They were all good at naming parts of their body and so we then looked at using our five senses to explore a variety of fruit. They had a go at identifying fruit, by touch, smell, taste, and sound alone. This was harder than it looked! They were able to show empathy for people who might not have all five working senses. They developed their language to describe the fruit, using words such as 'bumpy,' 'sweet,' 'smooth,' 'soft' and 'sour.' They talked about their favourite things to smell, hear, taste, see and touch. Reception later went on to use their bodies and the fruit in class to help them in Maths, making patterns. They made active ABAB patterns such as clap hands, nod head. They also made some repeating patterns using apples, pears and potatoes to print patterns.