Year 3
What a start to a new term and a new year we have had in year 3! The children have started 2023 with a bang and have been working so hard in their learning. In English, we have began reading 'Beaver Towers' by Nigel Hinton and are loving the characters and the story. We have been working on our prediction skills and used this to inspire our narrative writing by writing what happens next in the story. We have also been looking at non-chronological reports and have been creating our very own witch inspired by Oyin, the evil witch in Beaver Towers. The year 3's have really let their imagination go wild!
In history, we have continued to delve into prehistoric times and have been looking at the Bronze and Iron Age. We have looked at how times had changed from the Stone Age and become archaeologists looking at some of the incredible finds surrounding the bronze age including the Amesbury Archer and a missing bronze age skeleton in Fulwell!
In geography, we have began to look at weather and climate. We have learnt lots of new vocabulary to describe the different weather regions, the clouds and how the shape impacts the weather as well as looking at how wind direction impacts storms. Very technical indeed!
Not only that but year 3 have had a wonderful trip to the Centre for Life for a science topic of light. We loved exploring everything the centre had to offer and our light workshop where we able to learn about Isaac Newton and the impact his work had on light as well as experiments with light boxes in order to create a rainbow (scientifically known as a spectrum)!
Year 5
Year 5 have had a busy start to Spring Term! During our English lessons the children have transformed themselves into Dragonologists becoming experts in a range of different species of dragons. From Ice Dragons to Volcanic Dragons, the children have immersed themselves into this project and their completed Non-Chronological Reports are a credit to all their hard work!
The children have shown fantastic resilience this half term during Maths when building on their knowledge of the written column method for multiplication to successfully multiply large numbers with confidence and as for fractions well who said they were tricky? Brilliant work Year 5!
As part of our topic of ‘Space’ this half term in Science. We had the opportunity to visit the Life Centre and observe through their planetarium experience, incredible satellite imagery and feel as though we were in touching distance of the planets we have been learning about. We were able to explore the robotics used to fix satellites and found that it was a lot harder to control robotic arms than we first thought! All before we had the chance to taste dehydrated and freeze fried strawberries! Who knew astronauts’ food was so yummy!
Year 6
Is it really that long since Christmas!?!?
At this time of year, our minds focus on SATs in May. The Year 6 children have approached this with the correct frame of mind and have shown a real commitment to their own learning. Many teachers have volunteered their own time to support the children in ‘booster’ sessions after school and these have proved to be successful. Don’t worry – it isn’t all SATs. The curriculum continues to be wide and varied and the children are loving the wider curriculum. The buzz of learning in Year 6 is a thing to behold.
Setting children free on still life art is a great opportunity for them to experience the stillness and skill of the artist. The task was designed to be difficult by using a ‘neutral’ palette and having a variety of vegetables and fungi placed in usual positions. Not only that, but the children also had to create the colours required by mixing their own pastels. A huge learning curve required resilience and endeavour. What a successful enterprise.
Later this term, it will be World Book Day when children celebrate all things ‘books’. In school there is a wide and varied bookshelf with fiction and non-fiction books. Classrooms are designed to show a specialism in History, Geography or Science. In Year 6, we have the privilege of reading the fabulous works of Anthony Horowitz (of Midsummer Murders fame). When reading these amazing short stories, there is absolute silence. The children have been engrossed (sometimes grossed) by the brilliant plotting, suspense and fabulous characters and setting. Our curriculum is filled with amazing writing. What an experience!
