At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them. This week is always a poignant week as we stop and remember all of those fallen victims of war and conflict. We started our week on Monday with a worship. The children had all made a poppy for the centre focus and we shared prayers for everyone who has been affected by war and conflict around the world.

Please watch the reflection led by our House Captains below.

As part of our reflection, the children all received letters from their ‘pen pals’ from Stella Matutina. Within each envelope was a hand written letter and a carefully knitted poppy. As a community, we were incredibly touched by the time and effort that the residents had spent making these for us. I know that the children will look after them for years to come.

Advent fundraising

Each class in school has been asked to think about how they could raise money for their chosen charity this advent. Year 6 have decided that they would like to raise money to buy the residents of Stella Matutina Christmas gifts from us at such a lonely time for them. I think this is such a lovely thought.

To do this, we will be hosting our own Santa Dash on Friday 4th December. The children can come into school looking like Christmas: festive wear, tinsel, Christmas jumpers, Santa hats…and trainers or wellies as we will be on the field. The class have decided that they would like this to be a sponsored event so they are aiming to collect as many £1 coins as possible. Sponsor forms will be coming out next week.

Learning is lighting the way

This week, we have stopped and reflected on just what we have achieved this year. I asked the children to create a list of things that they can do now, that they could not do back in September. Sometimes this short pause in time can help us reflect just what we have accomplished and can stop us putting too much pressure on ourselves. We have had a great week of learning across the board. In council today, the children had written notes in the box that just said what a fantastic week it has been.

We have used learning coaches this week to demonstrate what a team we all are. Each child has been helping each other to problem solve and calculate in maths. We even had some children teaching Mrs Webster how to calculate tricky long division. In english, we have written a shared diary entry for Romeo and then an independent diary entry for Michael from Skellig, looking at characterisation.

I think the most fun came this week in science when I asked the children to think about inheritance characteristics, what do offspring inherit from their parents? We learnt about this through the wonderful world of Mr Men and Little Miss. If Mr Strong and Little Miss Sunshine had a child, what would it look like? What would the inherited characteristics be? Next week, we will be extracting DNA, I cannot wait to show the children what they will be doing!

With all of this wonderful learning we had to choose 3 learning certificates this week. Well done to Oliver, Reuben and Leila.

Reuben and Leila have been learning partners this week and they have been bubbling in every single lesson. Full of enthusiasm in english, especially with Romeo and Juliet and then the diary of Michael in Skellig. They have been truly infectious!

Oliver has been incredibly reflective this week and really identified what he can now do and how far he has come since September. He too has been incredibly engaged by Skellig and has shown real empathy for the character. Well done Oliver.

I hope that you all have a lovely weekend together. The children are working extremely hard in class. They are doing a fantastic job.

God bless

Mrs Gregan and Mrs Webster