Week ending Friday 27th May 2022

Good afternoon everyone, we hope this blog finds you well. Here is a brief update on learning this week!

English
The children have really enjoyed reading and imitating Flossie Albright's secret World War 2 diary.  They have learnt from more personal stories from World war 2 to complement their learning in history and have been able to write in the role of a child living through this turbulent time in history.  The children are working really hard to proofread and perfect their writing and to show evidence of all the year six standards of writing. We will soon have to make a final teacher assessment of their writing which has to be then submitted officially.

Maths
We have come to the end of our unit on area, perimeter and volume and what a difference a couple of weeks makes! All the children have made great progress in this area and have tackled the problems they have encountered very well. Next week we begin ratio and proportion. 


Science
This week the children learnt about animal and plant cells and their similarities and differences.  To support this unit of work about life processes, cells and organ systems, the children have been growing sunflowers so that they can observe their growth and the other life processes over time. As an extra bit of fun I have promised a prize for the tallest/best sunflower.  They will be bringing these home for half term and can bring back after half term or at the end of term for the final judging! - No cheating now!!


Life skills
Our lesson this week was all about drug awareness: the risks associated with using any type of drug and identifying some of the risks and effects of drug use.  They were able to analyse the level of risk in different situations, identifying that drugs can affect people in different ways.  We discussed how, for some people, drug use can become an unhealthy habit that can be difficult to break and about the support available to help people and  where to report any concerns they have.  After half term we will begin our lessons on relationships and sex education

Quad Games and PE
The children thoroughly enjoyed their 'speed cricket' game on the field this week. This saw them pairing up and getting 3 balls each to score as many runs as possible before the next pair took over. Winners were Ollie and Rowan, followed by Jason and Ralfie. It was a lesson of running, throwing and cheering. 

On Friday morning in the glorious sunshine the children took part in OCRA's Quad games. This consisted of four events: a sprint, a long distance run, a long jump and a javelin style throw. The four girls and four boys with the most points overall from Years 5 and 6 will go on to represent us in the finals in July, so watch this space! The OCRA coaches were very complimentary about our children and said they had seen huge improvements in fitness, resilience and most importantly enjoyment. We have a great team spirit in Sycamore class, something of which both Mrs Ware and I are very proud of. 

French
The children's letters to the school in Blangy Chateau in Normandy have been sent off! We look forward to receiving a reply! The focus of today's lesson was to use their past knowledge of animals and opinions, numbers and greetings to buy a pet from a pet shop. Today there was a huge emphasis on speaking and listening as the children were introduced to new phrases and also some new French culture: using euros and noting how the cost of something is written. They did very well with this and we have some lovely video clips of the children having a go!

We hope you all have a wonderful half term break, enjoy the Jubilee celebrations and may we hope for some more glorious sunshine. When the children return we have an exciting, but incredibly packed final 7 weeks of Primary School life. Transition will be made a priority for all children and we have the much anticipated activity week, sports events, Festival of hope and many more! One incredibly important date for your diary will be the Year 6 Leavers Assembly, you won't want to miss it! So write it in your diaries now! Friday 22nd July (we think this will happen during the morning). We would love to see as many family members there as possible to share this special occasion. 

Happy half term, we return on Tuesday 7th June 2022!
Take care and thank you.
Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby

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All ready for Quad Games! What a lovely morning in the sunshine.