Happy Friday parents, carers and children!
We've had a busy yet fun week and the children have worked hard with focus, thoughtfulness and imagination.  Their stories are complete in draft and I will share some of the excellent writing they have been doing in the gallery below.  The children are showing confidence in maths lessons and have been focusing on sharing their understanding verbally as well as in their books using "I know that..." sentences to explain their reasoning.  This emphasis on talk has been reflected in an oracy lesson in which we really thought about the skills of speaking and listening and how important these skills are for learning and for life!  We made a set of 'talk rules' which we will use to help us improve our class discussion and debating.  You will have seen some of the great still-life painting they did in art with Miss Chauhan and hopefully you also enjoyed the Samba drumming posted on the School Dojo page.  Thank you Mrs Mathews; they loved that and were brilliant.  We enjoyed Lacrosse again on Monday and also dodged the showers and the balls in dodge ball this morning with our Saints coach Mr Stronge.  Only four more days of school until these children will be starting their last term of primary school - can you believe it?!
Homework has been set this week, which is to create something for our reading corner display.  The details of this homework can be found in Google Classroom.  In addition to this, the children chose 10 homophones as spellings to learn this week.  I hope they will also be reading regularly at home and will send me a photograph of them in their favourite reading place.  

We have had some fun with Red Nose Day today with children wearing red, some wearing their official red nose and others with some very artistic face paints.  We had a Red Nose Day quiz this afternoon and watched a video to understand what sort of causes the money raised by this event might help.

This week we have learnt more about human evolution in science and completed our short unit on converting measure.  We have now started learning how to find the area and perimeter of 2d shapes as well as the volume of cuboids.  We will be remembering some of our algebra to use formulae to do this.  In English, we have begun writing an overcoming the monster story inspired by Beowulf. We are writing a class planned story at the moment and then children will go on to write their own invented story.  I'm sure we shall have some gruesome tales to tell!
We have enjoyed two PE lessons this week, which children were surprised about but I did remind them that this is what we are required to deliver.  In one session we used some of the new PE equipment that Mr Foreman has invested in for the school to play Lacrosse - it was a first for me and for most of them and seems like a really enjoyable and accessible sport.  Then today, Mr Stronge from Saints set the class some problem solving challenges in his PE lesson - great fun to watch!
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Next week, we will have PE on Monday and Friday - La Crosse and fitness based challenges.  We hope for some dry weather so the children can start using the field for playtimes.  I have set spellings for them to learn which are a review of some of the spellings taught during lockdown as well as three personal spellings.  They have brought these home with them and I have asked them to find their homework folder over the weekend so we can start using that again.  There is no other homework this week but it would be good if they could fins some time to enjoy some reading and to practise their times tables on TTRS.
​Have a great weekend!

 As the children left tonight - some of them said "It doesn't feel like it's been only a week, it feels like we've been back for ages!"  I'm not entirely sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but I'm going to have a positive mind set and decide that it means they already feel back into the swing of school and have settled back well.  The evidence certainly seems to suggest that.  It has been a really lovely week - the children have been happy, relaxed sociable and calm all week.  We have done lots of practical activity as well as lots of activity to check in on mental well being as well as easing back to a good standard of learning and focus.  I hope to continue to integrate practical activity with their written work but have stressed the importance that they are able to switch from activity and group work to focussed independent work so that all skills are developed to an appropriate standard in readiness for secondary education. 

This week we have been inspired by Amanda Gorman's poem The Hill we Climb.  If you haven't heard it click on the link below to watch her recite it at Joe Biden's inauguration speech.  Such stirring stuff from a young woman!  We illustrated some of the most meaningful phrases as well interpreting some with movement.  We have also returned to our 'Overcoming the monster' story of Beowulf and made some gruesome monster faces and used drama to respond to Kevin Crossley-Hollands version.  We have begun work on measures and had a go at estimating the capacity of the school pool to varying degrees of success - however some children had some excellent strategies for estimation and some showed good knowledge of volume and capacity and how they were related.  In science we have been recapping on our evolution and inheritance topic and today, we investigated bird beaks and learnt how Darwin's theory of evolution was supported by the different beaks of the Galapagos finches.  We also had our first real-life PE lesson with Mr Stronge.  It was good to see EVERYONE joining in the team games with respect and cooperation.  We have read our own books every single day this week and have also started our new class novel - Skellig - one of my all time favourites!

I have not set any homework for this week - they've done enough of that for a while!  However, I today checked that they all still had their Home Reading Diaries and gave new ones to anyone who didn't.  Please make sure your child continues reading regularly, even if this lapsed in lockdown, and notes their reading in their diary to be checked at school once a week.  Children could also be using Timestable Rockstars at home and next week I will set spellings too.

Thank you everyone for being so amazing during lockdown - although only a few children brought home certificates today, really I could have given out loads more as they were all fantastic!  I hope you have an enjoyable weekend.

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This is my last blog before all the children return to school on Monday and I can't wait!   The children who have been at school during lockdown have been absolutely fantastic but I am so looking forward to having the whole class back together again.  On Monday, children will need to bring their own equipment to school:  A black handwriting pen, a pencil and rubber and some colouring pencils or felt pens.  We will need to keep the classroom well ventilated and it can be quite cold so please make sure children wear plenty of layers under their uniform.  They should enter the classroom via the back door as they were before Christmas and bring their coats and bags into the classroom with them.  We will ease back into normal routines next week with plenty of opportunity to reflect and look forward.  I am keen to get them off of those screens and getting them talking to each other in real life!!

We have had a good final week of blended learning.  We have had fun with stories this week while celebrating World Book Day.  I really enjoyed our Google Spookathon Meeting with Hazel Class on Thursday where the children had the opportunity to read their 100 word ghost story.  Some great stories from both our class and Hazel Class.  Lots of children have entered the World Book Day 'toilet roll challenge' - winners will be announced next week.  At school, the children have done a great job of clearing up the orchard ready for us to use our fantastic environment for some outdoor learning this spring and summer.  They were rewarded with some delicious melting marshmallows toasted on our new fire-pit kindly donated by a Year 6 parent. I have seen many children at home have also been helping out in the garden and getting things ready for spring which is surely here now.  

Have a great weekend everybody - Have a look at our pictures from this week featuring Miss Boyce's art challenge, WBD outfits, toilet rolls, fitness gurus