Friday 21st October

Good afternoon everybody - Happy Friday!

 What a final week to the half term, ending today with a superb sharing assembly, thank you to those of you who could join us - the first one for two years!  
This week, Hazel class have been working hard and have produced some super creative writing  based on the story of the Princess' Blankets, this has become a fabulous display in the corridor.   We have worked hard in Maths, looking at mental maths strategies, addition and subtraction with numbers that have greater than 4 digits and rounding to help us estimate the answers. 
The children have enjoyed their Music session with Miss Boyce this week, really getting to grips with the steel pans and their R.E. session with Miss Penny. Those of you who were able to join us in the hall this afternoon for the Sharing Assembly, will have seen how far they have come with 5 weeks practise - they were amazing!
 We enjoyed another super P.E. session today with Mrs Edwards. Today the children put their skills to the test with a mini netball tournament.

We also completed our exciting challenge linked to the London Marathon.  As you know the London Marathon is run over 26 miles. To celebrate this, all of Key Stage 2, took place in a mini marathon, which is a tenth of the size at 2.6 miles.  We ran this this week, even in the wet!

New spellings are out, the paper copy is out and the digital copy is on Dojo.   There is a digital copy of this half term's Wider Curriculum Home Learning on Dojo and the website.  For this, there is a choice of activities, I would like to see 1 completed activity by Monday 31st October, which is the first Monday back after half term. Although this is our optional home learning, the activities are creative and fun and there is lots of time to complete this so I would be delighted to see some really good quality pieces. (See photos for examples)
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  In terms of home learning, I have sent a letter home tonight outlining expectations, as well as a recording sheet for time spent on TTRS.
Can I remind everybody that the expectation is that children read for at least 10 minutes at home every day, this can be magazines, newspapers, manuals, cookery books, as well as their reading books, as it is all reading. This is to promote reading for pleasure as there is nothing better than a good book. Remember, that you are your child’s greatest role model, so if they see you enjoying a good book, it really promotes good learning habits.
  I would also like children to spend time working on their times tables, which are vital in so many areas of the Maths curriculum.  They can do this through Times Tables Rock Stars, on which, I would like the children to spend 25 minutes a week, this can be 5 minutes every day, or blocked to fit around what you are doing at home. I have posted a list of great websites to practise on for over the half term break. (If children can't remember their password to log on, ask them to tell me and we will record it in their Reading Record for them.)
 
 Our own Lionesses (Girls KS2 football squad) played in a tournament in Tavistock on Tuesday.  They were superb and did the school proud. They finished in third place respectively (both teams) out of 14 squads - look out Beth Mead and Lucy Bronze.

The children will bring home their Usborne Book Fair purchases today - the Fair was really weel supported and meant that the school received over £400 in books because of the avid book purchases that families made, so thank you.

Next week is half term, so I hope that you will all have time to relax, do some great fun things together (one could be FONTs Scarecrow Trail) and just spend quality time together.  Don't forget the clocks go back an hour on Sunday 30th - nobody wants to be an hour early for school!

Have a great week.
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See you on Monday 31st October
 
Mr F