Reception: Presentation of Learning all about Chinese New Year
This week, Reception class have learnt all about Chinese New Year. Today, they presented their knowledge to the whole school. They shared what they had made and a little bit about Chinese New Year. We learnt that this year is the year of the snake. The children made some wonderful lanterns, wrote Chinese numbers and also painted the animals from the great race. Some of the children even took part in a dragon parade. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with the rest of the school Reception, we learnt lots!
Year 4 - English: Debates
We love a good discussion in Year 4, and with our new English topic being “Debates”, we certainly have a chance to shine! After a little research into deforestation, we recorded some of the reasons mass tree felling occurs, followed by a look at the positive and negative effects. We then went on to sorting the effects into two piles - for and against. It became evident to the children that there were more reasons not to fell so many trees than to continue, we will see what their finished balanced arguments look like.
Year 4 Geography - What are the main features of a rainforest?
Today’s Geography lesson focused on recognising features that make up a rainforest including specific rainforest food and animals. We looked at a range of both food and animals, labelling examples and adding these to our collection. We then moved onto classifying the animals into reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals.
Year 5 - Day and Night
Today, Year 5 embarked on an exciting hands-on activity to deepen their understanding of Earth's rotation and how it causes day, night, and time zones. The children created their own model, using a ball of clay to represent Earth, a dowel to demonstrate its axis tilt and rotation, and a torch to symbolise the Sun. Through this interactive experiment, the children were able to visually explore how Earth rotates on its tilted axis, causing different parts of the planet to experience sunlight or darkness at various times. The children also discussed the significance of time zones and how Earth's rotation impacts the way we measure time across the globe. As the torch illuminated one side of the clay Earth, the children observed how light represents daytime, while the shadowed side represents night. This hands-on approach helped them connect scientific concepts to real-life and why we have day and night.
Year 1 Geography- The Countries and Capital Cities of the the UK
This week in provision, Year 1 have enjoyed making each of the countries of the United Kingdom with play dough and matching each of the countries to the correct flag. They have also completed a jigsaw of the United Kingdom. These activities have allowed the children to make simple observations about the size, shape and location of each of the counties such as England being the largest of all four countries and Scotland being the furthest north. Year 1 are also working on naming the capital cities of the four counties in the UK.
Year 4 Art - Fabric of Nature
Our art this week is inspired by the rainforest. We were looking at the starting points in a design process with a focus on rainforest plants, flowers and animals. We selected images that interested us and then drew our own versions on a 15 x 15cm square. Next we used various media including pastels, chalk, pencil crayon and felt to enhance our designs. The end result was amazing and the children were all super proud of their efforts.
Reception: Challenge Champions
This week in Reception, we are focusing on the story, Sharing a Shell. The children have been really busy in provision completing challenges. They have been attempting to write sentences, strengthening their muscles in the fine motor area, creating rockpools, drawing fish, painting using the skills of Pointillism, counting shells to play a subitise game and moulding the playdough to create different characters from the story. Well done!
Year 2 - Geography
In Geography, we had a closer look at the continent of Asia. I was extremely impressed with the countries we could remember such as Japan, The Philippines and Saudi Arabia! We found lots more out about Asia today such as that Asia is made up of 48 countries. I’m sure the children will remember these facts just as well.
Year 5 - Mountain Life
During geography, Year 5 have started learning about life in the mountains. They began by exploring Lyfta, where they met Simon Mtuy, who lives on Mount Kilimanjaro. Through this platform, the children experienced his way of life, the local culture and how people adapt to living near the mountains. They explored his surroundings and gained insight into his daily life. Afterwards, the children engaged in thoughtful reflection, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of living near a mountain. They considered aspects such as access to natural resources, tourism opportunities and breathtaking scenery. As well as challenges like isolation, harsh weather conditions and limited infrastructure. This reflective discussion encouraged them to think critically about how environment shapes lifestyle.
Year 3- Geography- Locating different climate zones
This afternoon, Year 3 geographers started their climate zones unit. They learned the difference between weather and climate, identified key lines of latitude like the Equator, and explored the diverse climate zones across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Whole School Worship - World Toilet Day
In worship yesterday, we looked through our spirituality windows and out into the world on toilets. We were shocked and saddened to find out that around 700 children under 5 die every year due to poor sanitation. We heard about Jeremiah in Kenya who doesn’t have access to a toilet. In his community, people would mostly use a hole in the ground or a plastic bag, which some people would tie up and throw on other people’s roofs. We talked about how this affects people’s health and shared ideas of what we could do to help. The children then learned about our Toilet Twinning project for which we raised money a few years go to sponsor the building and maintenance of toilets in Nepal, Uganda, Tanzania, and Afghanistan. We reflected on how we should never take our toilets for granted and thought of ways we could save loo paper and water.
Year 4 - Class Worship: How Do We Know Who We Are?
We had an extremely thought-provoking class worship today. We found out about Amur, a Muslim boy in Denmark, using Lyfta. He shared a small snapshot of his daily life and explored the question “Who am I?” The discussion which followed was the perfect opportunity for us to practise our talk tactics and listening skills as we shared our opinions on who Amir is as a person, whether or not we thought he was a good person, and how we could tell. There was a lot of agreement among the children with some building on others’ ideas, and a couple of respectful disagreements.