Year 6 - National Parks of the United Kingdom
Today, Year 6 used an atlas to explore the national parks of the UK. The children investigated where the national parks are located and discussed why tourism is such a big industry in these areas. The children also explored how the UK benefits from tourism, including job opportunities, support for local communities and the protection of natural environments.
Year 3’s Young Authors levelling up their writing
We’ve just finished our class version of The Last Bear, and the writing is looking fantastic. The Year 3 authors have been busy "levelling up" their sentences by using expanded noun phrases to describe the icy Arctic and adding fronted adverbials to make their story openings really exciting. They’ve also included subordinate clauses to add extra detail and making sure their speech punctuation is great to help the characters' voices come through. They writers have used their purple pens to edit and improve every sentence. It’s been brilliant to see their work become so much more descriptive and exciting!
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Reception class visit the Rose Garden
Reception class enjoyed their visit to the Rose garden. They looked at all of the Advent art and some of the children were proud to see their artwork. The children sang carols together and they all went to the playground as a special treat.
Year 1 RE: Advent Trail
This afternoon Year 1 took a visit to Whitehall Park so that we could see all of the Advent Art created by our school, which fit nicely into our RE topic surrounding the true meaning of Christmas. As we walked to the park, we thought about the Nativity story. Once we arrived, we discovered that the Wise Men brought Jesus three special gifts: gold (to show respect that Jesus was a king), frankincense (to show that people would worship Him) and myrrh (to show that Jesus would understand suffering). We tried to see if any of the artwork showcased the Wise Men. We discussed that most precious gifts are not expensive, but they have thought and meaning behind them. We also thanked God for the most special gift of all, Jesus.
Whole Class Worship - Joy
This week of advent, our focus is Joy. We began by recounting the advent themes we have explored so far: Hope and Peace. Mrs Ham chose Lyla from Year 4 to come to the front to light the three advent candles and she highlighted some of the ways our school family have brought joy to others over the past few weeks. It was heartwarming to hear about some of these, including the Reception class nativity, Year 1 and Year 2’s Christmas Cracker, the choir singing at Acer Lodge care home, and Year 4 writing letters to the residents, plus all of those who have been supporting our latest charity campaigns. We reflected on what true joy looks like and how we can sometimes forget about the simple things when our minds are preoccupied with expensive gifts and the hustle and bustle of the season. Our focus was brought back to the gift God sent - his only son - and how Jesus’ incarnation was the joyous gift that changed our world forever.
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Year 5 - RE
Year 5 have been practising their presentation of learning for Friday’s church service. The focus is on peace and how the message of peace can be found in the two nativity stories in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. We have already made triptych drawings telling the stories and the script compares Luke’s message of a humble saviour to Matthew’s message of a king descended from Moses and David.
Year 5 - Geography
In Geography we have explored the physical aspects of mountains including how they are formed and their unique climate. Now we are moving onto the human aspects, studying the lives of people who live on them. We found out about the harsh lives of farmers who live near Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Everest, and how they have to supplement their income through tourism while dealing with the challenges of their isolated rural existence.
Year 5 - Whitehall Park
On Tuesday, we visited the rose garden at Whitehall Park to see the wonderful Advent art made by the talented children of St Barnabas. Afterwards, we took advantage of the dry weather by spending our break time on the swings.
Year 5 - Elf on the Shelf
Unfortunately we have had some problems in the last 2 weeks with a naughty elf causing all kinds of mischief. At various times, Alfie the Naughty Elf has hidden glue sticks, blocked the clock, messed with the cushions and eaten all the biscuits. Hopefully these Christmas shenanigans are not distracting the children too much, who continue to work hard all the way up to the holiday.
Whole School Worship - The Big Announcement
We have started our week singing our favourite Christmas songs and enjoying, The Big Announcement’ Story where Angel Gabriel came to Mary to say that she would carry the son of God. Mary was then referred to as Blessed Mary as God had bestowed this blessing upon her. We also lit our third advent candle that symbolises joy.
Year 2 - We met Father Christmas
On Friday we had a fantastic Christmas party and met Father Christmas. We were so pleased to receive a special gift from him.
Reception: Christmas Cards
Reception class have really enjoyed making Christmas cards for their loved ones. They have made some super cute penguin cards using different coloured paints. The children all wrote their names inside and are looking forward to giving them to their loved ones this Christmas time.