What a busy 'it's okay not to be okay' kind of week!
If your children receive a certificate, a word of praise, a pat on the back or sticker, we hope that this will encourage and empower them. However, it's just as important for children to receive red slips. These are forms of communication from staff to other staff about ways that children need education and support. They are NOT punishments and they are NOT irredeemable judgements. When a child has a red slip event, we use it to teach and alert and reflect and restore the relationship that may have been damaged by the behaviour leading to the red slip being written.
Sometimes this is a quick matter of a conversation with the child's teacher. Sometimes we need you to support us in dealing with a pattern of behaviour in your child. Sometimes the child just needs to see my 'disappointed' face or see my disapproving look. But sometimes a long, restorative conversation is needed between children or some longer term intervention and professional help is needed.
It's been a very different 18 months and the world is not what it was. If you believe that your child is genuinely suffering with poor mental health, please do get in touch with us. It's never helpful to apportion blame, but it's always helpful to apportion support and we do want to support you. Thank you for dressing your children in yellow today to raise awareness of mental health issues. You may find the video attached here to be of some use to you in discussions at home.
Nursery - Stars
We have had such a busy week! We have really enjoyed sharing the story of ‘Leaf Man’ and have been on an Autumn walk around the school grounds. We have fished for leaves in the water tray, threaded leaves to make leaf necklaces and made pictures using leaves. We have been finding out about hedgehogs and even made our own out of potatoes.
In phonics this week we have continued to focus on our listening skills and have been listening to the sounds we might hear in our own homes. We have also continued to listen to lots of stories and sing lots of rhymes
Superstar - Harry Huggett
FS - Moon and Mercury
The children have all listened to the story 'Only One You' by Linda Kranz. They have been making wishes and writing them down onto special notes and placing them in a ‘wish jar’ as well as decorating fish with colours and patterns and thinking of words to describe a positive personality trait e.g kind, friendly, helpful, polite, happy. The children have also been comparing sizes using vocabulary such as more, fewer, less, taller, shorter, longer and shorter. They have also been building some fantastic towers describing the differences between them
Superstars - Arthur Skelding, Jenson Binns
Y1 - Galaxy and Venus
It has been a very busy week in Year 1. In English we went on a sensory walk and thought about exciting adjectives to describe Autumn. We then used the adjectives to write our own Autumnal poetry. We have also been thinking about the landmarks we pass on the way to school and plotting these on a map. Scientifically, we have had a taste carousel with sweet, bitter, sour and salty stations. We have been learning to spell words with 'igh' in, and in maths we have been exploring different number bonds and solving problems.
Superstars - Bertie Whisker-Taylor, Albie Cooper
Year 2 / 3 Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune
What a busy baking bread and building Tudor houses week we have had in Year 2 and 3! It was lovely to see the children enjoying baking like Thomas Farinner wearing their homemade chef's hats. The bread was delicious and many of the children have asked for copies of the recipe to take home. This experience led to excellent recipe writing with lots of bossy instructions. We have been wowed by the resilience and patience of the children whilst building their Tudor Houses which reflect their understanding of what houses were like at the time of the Great Fire of London. In Maths this week, the Year Two children have been counting forwards and backwards along a number line in threes and the Year Three children have practised counting forwards and backwards in 50s! They even used a grid which went up to 1,000 which they thought was very grown up. They soon realised that it was easier than they thought; it was just like counting in fives. We have also thought about our physical and mental health in Science and PSHCE finishing with 'Hello Yellow' day where we even asked each other how we were feeling in French.
Superstars - Clarity Coleman, Maya Prosser, Kian Bird
Year 4 Mars and Earth
.This week in year 4 it’s been a very heads down and concentrated hard kind of week as we put 100% effort into our learning to make sure it’s the best it can be. On Wednesday, we kick started our new weekly habit by running on the school field as a part of our Weekly mile. Some of us ran our laps, some walked but we all were able to enjoy the fresh air and make the most of the lovely weather. Throughout the week, we have explored how Vikings lived in their longhouses and what life would have been like. After studying photos we sketched our very own longhouses. In maths, we’ve really been focused as we’re much more confident rounding numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000. What a useful skill!
Superstars - Eliana Cartwright, Evelyn Hare
Year 5 Asteroid and Pluto
Strange as it sounds, for some of our maths, we have been practising subtracting by adding on, in the context of money, which will sharpen our skills in everyday situations of giving and checking change.
In our guided reading novel, Treason, we feel sorry for the main character, who has been forced to swap his peaceful, country home to realise his aunt's ambition of him gaining a position at King Henry's court. We summarised the sights and sounds William witnessed in London, but they only reinforce how much he misses home. Under pressure to impress the king, we wonder if he actually will.
Talking of King Henry, we have been folding, cutting and weaving to create "magic" books in which to record our learning about his 6 marriages. Now you see it, now you don't ( a bit like some of King Henry's wives' heads!). Well done everyone
Superstars - Cuinn Stubbs, Lorenzo Briggs
Year 6 Nebular and Constellation
This week, the children in year 6 completed their Newspaper reports about the Moon Landing, presenting it just like the real thing - we have some budding journalists in year 6. Following the landing of the Eagle, we then looked at the Moon itself, and the once in a lifetime view that the astronauts had on the mission. This then became a setting description written using different grammar features. In maths we have been working on negative numbers and factors and multiples. In topic we have begun researching the different planets within our Solar System, in order to create a non-chronological report and some out of this world artwork. In French we have been learning L'alphabet and then using this to spell our names. Most of us actually agreed that 'w' does appear more like a 'double v'.
Superstars - Ava Swallow, Joey Foster
