Year 6 Weekly Blog - 'Don't be afraid to take on the biggest of challenges, they offer the greatest reward.'

Yesterday we celebrated the Jubilee year as a community at church. This was a beautiful way to mark this special year and look at ways we can all be pilgrims of hope. Father Peter, talked us through the beautiful meaning behind the logo. We looked at the four figures, representing all of humanity, coming from the four corners of the earth. They embrace each other to indicate the solidarity which should unite all peoples. The figure at the front is holding onto the cross. It is not only the sign of the faith, but also of hope, which can never be abandoned, because we are always in need of hope, especially in our moments of greatest need. There are the rough waves under the figures, symbolising the fact that life’s pilgrimage does not always go smoothly in calm waters. Often the circumstances of daily life and events in the wider world require a greater call to hope, but God’s love for us will always give us the anchor that we need. We then talked about all the ways that we can be pilgrims of hope, whether this be through prayer, going to church, kindness or spreading our love.

We have reached the end of a very busy and full half term. I know I say this most weeks, but I really am in awe of the work that the children are completing and the expectations that they have of themselves. Whether it be Science, Maths, RE or Art, the children always get fully stuck into their learning and become immersed by what they are being taught. I am so very proud of them all.

Online Safety

In the midst of our busy week, we devoted a large amount of conversation time to online safety. Tuesday was National Online Safety Day and we took part in the BBC live lesson on online safety. On this day, children from all over the country will have been looking carefully at their online behaviour; hopefully they will have learnt a thing or two. We looked at what scams and phishing are, and ways that we can spot them! We have also looked at social media platforms, there age restrictions and how the internet can influence our behaviour, thoughts and feelings, both negatively and positively. We have had some extremely interesting and open conversations around these topics!

Where has our learning taken us this week?

English - ‘Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo.’ This week we have explored Romeo and Juliet’s first encounter and written a recount in role- very romantic! In Maths we have been focusing on our long multiplication and using this to problem solve, then we have started with our long division practice- this will be ongoing now, so please do not worry if we are not 100% confident with this just YET- we WILL get there, we just have to be Sadie Spiders! In RE we have learnt what happens during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, in particular how we are offering our lives to God during the offertory.

This week we have filmed our version of the prologue for Romeo and Juliet- this will be ready to put on the blog first week back, but here is a sneak preview of our the play in 30 seconds and a few photos of our drama in the hall…

Being an active and curious learner.

I am sure the children have come home to tell you that this week we sat our first mock SAT’S papers. They have completed these with great resilience and such a positive attitude. This has not been completely new for your children, they have regularly had a go at example questions, however this is the first time they have completed a whole paper. After half term, we will continue to complete the Maths and Reading, but they all understand the importance of this and I am sure lots of lessons will be learnt which will enable us to build and move forward together as a class. Once they have completed these assessment, they will of course be marked and handed back to them where they will be encouraged to think about their progress and where they want to be next time they take a set of papers. Marginal gains is what it is all about. Over the next few weeks, the children will be bringing folders home, with their papers in them. This is their opportunity to share their work with you, to purple pen, celebrate their successes and reflect on their mistakes. At this point, it is really important to remember that the Year 6 curriculum has not been fully covered yet and we still have plenty of time. Please celebrate your child’s achievements and help them to develop their own targets. You may also find, over the next few weeks, past papers or SAT examples may come home as part of their homework. This can be completed the best way you see fit- whether this is alongside your child, independently or even, if they independently start and then go over their answers after. Homework is not always about assessing your child, this is done in class, homework is all about consolidating what they have learnt in class, revising and practicing skills they will need, so this may not always be formally marked, but what they have gained from carrying out these practice papers will have helped them greatly.

Delving deeper through talk …

How can you keep safe online?

My Happy Mind…

What are you grateful for this week?

Helpers in the morning for after half term:

This week we have the following children helping to take the younger children to their class:

Arthur Erin Niamh Faye


Notices

  • World Book Day 6th March- dress up, there are many different ideas that Mrs Gregan has put on her blog, to make this not an expensive event!

  • Back to school on Tuesday 25th February.

  • Homework over half term- read lots and practice your multiplications- are you still green on your heat map on TT Rockstars?

  • LET’S GET CREATIVE

    Two creative tasks for you to do over half term:

    1. Can you design and make a special lenten box for your Reception partner. This needs to be a specially designed and decorated container that you can give to your partner the 2nd week back after half term ready for them to take home and collect money during lent for our chosen charity. Think about what your partner likes and what their interests are, this may help you when planning what to do- refer to your partners card they wrote for you. You could make your box out of any plastic container, cardboard box, it is up to you- just make sure it is fully cleaned out first! Below is a reminder of your partners and a little inspiration:


  • Have a a restful half term.

    Mrs Harrison, Mrs Webster and Mrs Barker


This week...

We have reached Spring half term already, hasn’t it gone quickly? It has been such a busy six weeks, as we do just as much work as we would do in an eight week half term…but we do have lots of fun.

When we return after the holiday we will be exploring ‘changes’ which occur in our environments- Spring, weather, habitats and the natural world to name a few. We will also be going on the journey to Easter along with the whole school community, finishing with Holy week on the last week of the term. This is always an emotional time for the children and the staff. Click on the button below to see our planning.

Worship

This weeks Gospel talked about ‘trust’ (Luke 6:17,20-26). We discussed that there can be lots of things that can trouble our hearts but trusting in God frees us from worrying in this life and assures us of a life forever with God… Jesus wants us to trust in God.

We then sang a new song called ‘I trust in Him’. Click here to sing at home

This week Steph read a story about ‘The Big Umbrella’ that liked to gather people underneath in…no matter who you are. Click here. It reminded us how Jesus gathers us all in too…we could be gathers of people and follow Jesus. It is a wonderful story and opens up some great discussion. Steph and the children have made an umbrella to hang in nursery with us all safely gathered in. Take a look.

Lenten boxes

As in previous years we are asking each child during half term to make and decorate a Lenten box. We will then swap them with our partner class (YR3) in readiness to take home and fill as part of our Lenten almsgiving, the children did lots of helpful activities at home to earn money for their boxes. Last year was a bumper year, we collected lots of money to donate to worthy causes. All boxes should be in school by Monday 3rd March. Good luck and enjoy!

Online Safety week

All this week we have been talking about the digital world from how to stay safe online to how much screen time we should all have. We watched a short video about Smartie the penguin and his new birthday present. We learnt a rhyme about what to do if something worries us online. Click here and then scroll down to access the EYFS A and B stories.

Parents here’s a link you may find useful too, click here.

Little Hearts Matter

This week I sent home an invitation to take part in our charity event- Dress up Week- week commencing 3rd March. Every day that week the children and nursery staff can come to school in fancy dress and pay £1 for each day. If you can give more that would be fantastic!

We are hoping to collect donations that we can gift to the Little Hearts Matter charity. LHM is there for families like Annie’s, our nursery friend, to support them though every step of their half a heart journey, we want to help.

Everything they do at Little Hearts Matter is made possible through the support and generosity from people like you. So let’s make this event fun and helpful. Thank you in anticipation.

Click on the button below to hear from Annie.

Forest school

Last Friday it was our turn to go to forest school…such great fun. We made a huge den to sit inside and sing songs and play musical instruments, Miss Lavelle even played her ukulele. We then made pop corn over the fire pit and drank hot chocolate. Take a look

Emma’s blog

Hello everyone, 

This week has been about online safety week. We have been looking at how we can be safe on our tablets, and what to do if something goes wrong, or we click on something we shouldn't. We now know we have to tell a grown up. Here is a short video about how to be safe. Click here.

The children have decided to take their learning outside by practicing writing letter sounds on the ground with chalk. Some of the children made tracks for their friends to follow and to find 'x marks the spot'. The children have been imagining there was gold, money, or chocolate treasure to find.

The children have also been practicing fundamental movement skills by kicking, throwing underarm and overarm, and catching balls with each other. It is all quite tricky, but the children love ‘having a go’ like Tommy Turtle. The children love Mr. Nay and Mr. Murray’s PE class.

The children really love a book called Wolfs Coming, and Barbara set up a small world area with the theme of the book. I brought a game in, where a wolf is hiding in the bin. The children had to get the rubbish out of the bin without waking the wolf, but if he woke up, he would jump out at you! The children loved playing the game, and so did the nursery ladies.

Have a lovely half term see you all in a week.

 Emma

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s blog. We have had a shorter week this week, but I think we have still managed to pack in lots of learning.

We have explored numbers this week, practising our counting and ordering skills. We love a challenge and this week the challenge has been to put the numbers in the right order. Some of the children found this tricky, so any practice they can get at home will be hugely beneficial. Here are some games to try at home over half term. Click here.

In Prayer and Liturgy this week, our word of the week was Love. The children were very passionate as they talked about the people that they love. We also painted hearts and shared some sweets with one of our friends who needs a little help with her heart. We were excited to discover that for World Book Day we can dress up all week, with donations going to help other children who need a little help with their hearts too. We had some very animated conversations about costumes, I can’t wait to see everyone in their finery. We watched the Love Monster who had a little trouble sharing. Click here.

Have a lovely half term everyone.

Michelle

Lastly, don’t forget that school doesn’t open until Tuesday 25th February, we will see you then

Have a restful week with your loved ones.

Stay safe and God bless

Barbara

Year 5 Weekly Blog 13.02.25- ‘ The love that flows through your heart will purify your spirit’- St Valentine

What an end to our first half term of 2025. With our religious theme being the ‘Pilgrimage of Hope’, as a school, we went on our own pilgrimage to Church to celebrate this and to officially bring in the new year with Father Peter. To spread hope, love and kindness consistently throughout your life can be tricky and to live within all the beatitudes is even harder. Our focus this week in our RE lessons has been Pier Giorgio, known as ‘the boy of the beatitudes’, and evaluating his life into why he later became a saint.

This week, we also celebrated ‘Online Safety Day’. We were lucky enough to take part in BBC’s live lesson which included some interactive tasks along with some very important information. This years theme was ‘Too good to be true’ with us looking into how to spot potential scams online.

Our third enrichment session of the year took place with Year 5 grafting hard outside in a painting/gardening session with Mrs Hotchkiss and Mrs Mather.

This week we have also been learning…

  • English- Writing our independent sci-fi story based on the plot of E.T

  • Maths- using our mastery of number skills to apply these to bigger square number questions and recapping factors and primes.

  • Science- Putting our space knowledge to the test in an end of unit Kahoot quiz.

  • Music- Blending colours with music by listening to the instrumental versions of popular songs and associating these with particular colours.

Conversation starters

My Happy Mind: Now we have finished our ‘apricate’ module in My Happy Mind, is there anything or anyone who you are more grateful for now then 6 weeks ago?

Class Novel: Our class novel takes place in 1950’s Britain in which the children have started to realise that certain rules/laws were different back then. Are there any big rule/law changes that your parents or grandparents have lived through. If so, what do they think of these changes? Have they worked out for better or worse?

Notices

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog and keep helping your child with any work that they are struggling with- especially our spellings. It is important to make sure we are reading for at least 15 minutes a day at home to keep broadening our vocabulary, description and sentence structure.



  • Class Library- After a huge clear-out and revamp of our school library, we have started to rebuild our own class library in Year 5. Book series seem to be really popular and we have discussed some of the children’s favourites. If have any old series of books that you would recommend to read , then we would hugely appreciate any donations. Please ask your parents before bringing any books in to donate.



  • PE Days- Our PE days have changed slightly with our outdoor session being on Mondays and our indoor session on Wednesdays.



  • Fidget Toys- If this has not been discussed with your class teacher, then any sort of fidget toys are not to be brought into school. Please can bags be checked incase these have been left in from the weekend. Trading cards and chewing gum should also be kept at home.



  • Half Term- School will then reopen Tuesday 25th February.



  • Trip to Manchester Friday 28th February- This will take place during the first week after half term. Details regarding payment are live on parent pay. Children will in their normal school uniform and will have to be in school around 8:30am. Depending on traffic, we should be back at school between 3:30-4:00. A text will go out to parents as soon as we get back on the M55 when travelling back to school.



  • Trip to The Grand- During the next half term, we will be going to watch Year 4’s performance of their Shakespeare production at the Grand in Blackpool. We will be using public transport for this trip so the cost of the ticket has been uploaded to Parent Pay.



  • Lenten Boxes- Please check the homework blog in regards to lenten boxes for our Year 1 buddies.

Painting and Mixed Media- Portraits

And so we come to the end of another half term. I cannot believe we are half way through the school year! This half term, our focus has been on painting and mixed media and how we can incorporate this into self portraits.. The children have had so much fun exploring what mixed media is and how it can be used to create a piece of art. Through combining painting skills with pastels, crayons, photographs, lots of imagination and acetate, they have certainly enjoyed having fun with their images! Texture has played a huge part in developing our skills, enabling the children to bring their artistry to life and create a wonderful self portrait. Next half term, we will be moving on to Structures and bridge building.

Painting and Mixed Media - Paint My World

And so we come to the end of another half term. I cannot believe we are half way through the school year! This half term, our focus has been on painting and mixed media and all the different ways we can produce a work of art. The children have had so much fun exploring what mixed media is and all the tools we can use. From mud painting to collage, responding to music, there has never been a dull moment in art! Through exploration and discussion, the children are developing their skills certainly enjoyed having fun with their all of their pictures! Next half term, we will be moving on to Sculptures and 3D.

Painting and Mixed Media- Light and Dark.

And so we come to the end of another half term. I cannot believe we are half way through the school year! This half term, our focus has been on painting and mixed media in the form of Light and Dark. The children have had so much fun exploring what mixed media is and how it could be used to create a 3D effect in their art work. Through their Knowledge of Primary and Secondary colours, the children have been able to use tinting and shading to develop their skills further. We have looked at proportion and why it is so important and how to create a composition to which is aesthetically pleasing to the audience. We finished off with a collaborated still life composition, working in small groups to compile, then painted individually, where the children made their own informed choices as to which media or mixed media they would like to use. Next half term, we will be moving on to electrical systems.

Painting and Mixed Media-Artist Study

And so we come to the end of another half term. I cannot believe we are half way through the school year! This half term, our focus has been on painting and mixed media and how artists use an array of media to produce a finished piece. We have been looking at various artists from David Hockney to John Singer Sargent, studying their inspiration behind their work - there is a story to tell behind every piece of art. To deepen understanding, we have been reasoning why certain colours were used to add effect, shared our opinions on how they make us feel and justifying our reasoning. The children have recreated art works in response to their studies. Group work has aided in collaborative compositions which were photographed and then gone on to form the basis of their own artwork. As we continue this unit after the half term, we will share opinions on how they make us feel and why. They will then draw on the artists for inspiration to plan and compose their own piece using media of their choice.

Once completed, we will then move on to Electrical Systems - Steady Hand Game.

Painting and Mixed Media- Colour Splash!

And so we come to the end of another half term. I cannot believe we are half way through the school year! This half term, our focus has been on painting and mixed media and how we can incorporate this into our work.. The children have had so much fun exploring what mixed media is and how it can be used to create a piece of art. We have focused on the three Primary Colours and how they can be used to create Secondary colours. We have experimented in so many different ways as to how this is possible! We have learned that adding more of one colour, will determine the shade of secondary colour. We have looked at works by Jasper Johns and Clarice Cliff to inspire us to recreate their methods used, enabling the children to bring their artistry to life and create a wonderful piece of art. Next half term, we will be moving on to Sculpture and 3D and Craft and Design.

Painting and Mixed Media- Life in Colour

And so we come to the end of another half term. I cannot believe we are half way through the school year! This half term, our focus has been on painting and mixed media and how we see life in colour. The children have had so much fun exploring what mixed media is and how it can be used to create a piece of art. Through combining painting skills with pastels, crayons and collage to create textured pieces with in their work. Texture has played a huge part in developing our skills, enabling the children to bring their artistry to life. We finished off with a collaborated collage, working in pairs. Next half term, we will be moving on to sculpture.

Year 5 Half Term Homework- Due Thursday 27th February

Reading

All of the children have been set a target to either reach a certain page of their book or to complete their book over the half term. Let’s start the new half term off strong as we strive towards 12 million words!

Punctuation and Grammar

Each week, the children will complete 10 SPAG questions to keep on top of their reading and writing practice.

Maths

We have just started our new unit of factors, multiples and primes which is heavily times tables based. Make sure to keep practicing your times tables on TTRS- 5 minutes a day is all you need. Complete the following IXL’s

D6- Choose the multiples of a given number

F1- Multiply 2 digit numbers by 10 or 100

G1- Division facts for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10

Lenten Boxes

As we approach Easter, the time has come to get the arts and crafts out and to prepare a lenten box for your Year 1 partner. These will be exhcanged on Ash Wednesday which is March 5th.

Free play gives children an outlet to express their emotions and feelings and helps them develop a sense of who they are. = Joan Santer and Carol Griffith =

I cannot believe that I am writin, not only my third All Stars Blog, but our half way point of the school year! I cannot thank you, the children and staff for all the support you have given us since September. The club, is growing and growing, as we welcome new members. We have had Mr Nay and Mr Murrey join us this term, to provide physical activities. Not to mention, our youngest members of the Our Lady family Nursery, it has been an absolute joy to have them with us. They have joined in so well with the other children and settled in so quickly, it is as if they have been with us since September!The children are such a delight and it is wonderful to have those moments at the end of the school day to relax, wind down and “just be”. Breakfast club, with those chilly,early mornings and the smell of warmed pancakes and toast and a calmness for the start of a new day. We quite often have staff bobbing in to say good morning to the children, whichn is so lovely- we really are one big family.

We have had an action packed half term, starting off with Burns Night- I have to say, I was surprised how many children enjoyed the Haggis! Next came Chineses New Year, where we decorated snakes, had a selection of foods for the children to try. We have developed our Under the Sea display which is looking fabulous! But more importantly, the children can just be, relax and have that all important down time before and after a hard days work.

Painting and Mixed Media- Prehistoric Art.

And so we come to the end of another half term. I cannot believe we are half way through the school year! This half term, our focus has been on painting and mixed media in the form of Prehistoric Art. The children have had so much fun exploring what mixed media is and how it could be used to replicate a cave painting. Through combining painting skills with pastels, charcoal and the creation of their own homemade paint using spices, flour/water base along with lentils, rice and couscous to create textured pieces of art. The use of natural resources, has helped the children no end to understand how and why Prehistoric man created paintings. We finished off with a collaborated handprint cave wall using negative and positive prints working in small groups. Next half term, we will be moving on to craft and design.

Year 1 Tea Dance

Our Year 1 class will be performing at Marine Hall on Tuesday 11th March. We are super excited with what we have put together and cannot wait to share it with you. There are 10 schools who will be taking part. The children will be transported to and from Fleetwood by coach, but tickets are now live for you to book. Click on the button below to book your seats.

Tickets are allocated by Marine Hall and the Wyre and Fylde Sports Partnership - we have no control over those. Last year there was some families who were not successful in getting tickets and we put on a coffee morning tea dance in the school hall for all. We will do this again this year too.