Piglet: "How do you spell love?" Pooh: "You don't spell it, you feel it!"

Please can we say thank you for your kindness and understanding this week. The children have all tried to work hard and continue with our daily routines and learning, even though many of our classmates have not been able to come to school. Yesterday morning we had a good discussion about how to keep ourselves and each other happy and well. Obviously we are all having to take each day as it comes, but we have made a plan of things that we can do to keep ourselves busy learning over the coming weeks.

The whole class are sending their love and prayers to those families who are already in self isolation and the class has not been the same without you all. We hope that you are all well and know that we have all been thinking of you.

Following Government guidelines, from Friday afternoon, the school will be closed for the majority of children. Miss Hornby will have been in touch with families in special circumstances whose children will come into school on Monday.

For those learning from home, we will be posting daily learning challenges here on our blog. These will be linked with the Year 3 learning objectives and will continue to develop the children’s knowledge and skills whilst at home over the coming weeks. We will also be posting a list of great websites to use which should also keep that learning ticking over. The children have come home with 3 books - one to be used for maths work and jottings (red cover with squares), one for writing based tasks (this could include English, RE, Science, History, Geography etc - green cover with lines) and one for art work (green with coloured blank pages). Please do use these, as we will be looking at them together as a class when we return to school to see what has been achieved. Please remember best handwriting and presentation, as we will be looking for pen points when we get back to school. Also think about how you could achieve learning character points too.

Please, please, please do stay in touch with us.  We can’t wait to see what the children will be getting up to at home and really want to celebrate achievements with you all. Contact can be made through our emails:
l.brisco@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk and k.edmondson@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk but please do be mindful that we may still be in school or may be working from home and so might not be able to respond straight away. Parents, please do also contact us with any questions or queries - we are here to help!

Let’s Celebrate

Well done Jacob M, you have been a real ‘Co-operative Roger Robin’ with many “Bobby Bee” traits this week. You have shown focus and enthusiasm in every lesson and have worked well with your partner and as part of a team.  We really hope this continues when we return back to school. Well done Jacob!

John Joseph, what a focused ‘Cooper Crab’ you have been this week. You have answered lots of questions in creative ways and shown what a deep thinker you can be. You have listened carefully to all of your teachers this week and kept going, even when learning has become tricky and challenging. Well done, we are really proud of you!

Our French Star this week went to the whole class. Wow!! Well done children.

Our PE Stars were James and Julia for outdoor PE.  Mason, Isabella, Lena and John Joseph were our Gym Stars. Well done to all of you.

Handwriting Stars this week were Kiefer, Kia, Grace and Isabella. Well done—keep practising these skills when you are off school.

As a school, we are wishing each and everyone of you well at this uncertain time.

Stay safe and God bless,

Miss Edmondson, Miss Brisco, Mrs Nel, Mrs Carter and everyone here at Our Lady Star of the Sea

“Sometimes when we are generous in small barely detectable ways, it can change someone else’s life forever.” Margaret Cho

Another lovely week, with lots of exciting learning

This week we have continued to read our novel, The Iron Man, and we are still loving it! We always seem to stop at a cliff hanger and we just want to hear more. The children continue to show lots of enthusiasm. Our addition and subtraction skills are coming on a treat with the children being able to exchange to help them when adding and subtracting across the columns. The children have continued to solve word problems and explain their working out. This week in science the children have looked at forces.  In PE we had a beautiful yoga session this week with all of the children totally engaged in the moment. Well done children we are all so proud of you.

We have continued to think about our Lenten Promises and the virtues of Generosity  and Gratitude and we continue to try to apply this throughout the day in class. The children have also continued to try to do those little jobs at home and to bring in the money that they have earned for doing them. So far we have raised over £70. We are so grateful for all of your support with this. Thank you.

Certificates

This week I am so pleased to be able to award our certificates to Jacob O  and Abi. Abi was awarded a concentrating Cooper Crab certificate this week. You have been so focused and ready to get on will all of your work this week and you always try your best. Well done. Jacob was also awarded a concentrating Cooper Crab because he too has been very focused and hard working this week. You are always enthusiastic and manage your distractions well. Well done to you too. Keep up the good work both of you.

This week’s French Star was Amber. Well done. Keep up the good work.

PE Stars were Grace and Christian. You were both very focused.

This week we did 2 outdoor sessions (because of Parents’ Evening) so we had more PE Stars, rather than Gym Stars. So our second set of PE Stars went to Jessica and Julia. Well done girls.

Yoga Stars were Saul and Holly.  Well done children we had such a beautiful session and you were both so focused on your own relaxation and inner peace. Well done.

Reminders

Friday morning Lenten Masses at 8am. Please try to come along and share this special time of prayer with us.

Sacrament of Reconciliation Tuesday 17th March at 6pm. School uniform please. Please make sure that the “Making Things Right” book is completed before Tuesday. Please bring to school on Tuesday so that we can share these in class. Thank you.

This week’s Lenten Challenge is vacuuming the floor for 20p. Don’t forget that you can also do any previous challenges and also any of the other jobs on your jobs list.

Yellow group start their multiskills sessions with Mr Nay next week Thursday morning 8am.

Have a lovely weekend. God Bless.  The days are getting longer, let’s hope that the sunshine continues to shine on us.

The Year 3 Team

"We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation..." —Seneca

Another very busy but exciting week with lots of learning!

It was lovely to see everyone at the Welcome Mass last Sunday. The children have really embraced the opportunity to share in the Tuesday afternoon sessions. The catechists have all shared their delight at the children’s enthusiasm and thoughtfulness. Just one more Tuesday session before the children will celebrate their Sacrament of Reconciliation. (March 17th at 6pm)

This week we have continued to read our new novel, The Iron Man, and we are loving it! The children are bubbling with enthusiasm and are demonstrating great curiosity and imagination. In maths we have continued to investigate addition and subtraction (2 digit numbers to and from 3 digit numbers). The children have been solving word problems and explaining their working out. This week in science the children have enjoyed investigating light.

We have continued to think about our virtues of Generosity  and Gratitude and we are trying to apply this throughout the day in class. It’s amazing how many little things the children do throughout the day without even realising it. This afternoon in our Class Council we shared all the things in class that have made us feel happy this week and there was so many things . So many things to be grateful for. So many things that we have managed to change since September that other people appreciate. Well done children. Keep being generous. Keep making other people happy. They have also been very generous with their time and the jobs they have done this week and already we have raise lots of money for CAFOD. Thank you for your generosity and support.

Certificates

This week I am pleased to be able to award our certificates to Hollie –Rose and Thomas. Hollie-Rose has been awarded an enthusiastic Bobby Bee certificate this week. You are always so excited about your learning Hollie-Rose and you are also very resilient and always try your best. Well done. Thomas has worked hard with his reading, writing and maths work this week. You have been really focused Thomas and really enthusiastic about your work—great PE too! A well deserved Cooper Crab certificate for you.

This week’s French Star was Kiefer. Well done. Keep up the good work.

PE Stars were Kai, Jayden and Amber. Some lovely co-operative work from Jayden and Amber.

Gym Stars were Jacob O, Lena and Jack. Some lovely co-operative work from Lena and Jack

Reminders

• Friday morning Lenten Masses at 8am. Please try to come along and share this special time of prayer with us.

• White group have 1 more week of Multiskills next Thursday morning.  8am with Mr Nay.

• Preparation for Reconciliation, Tuesday afternoon after school until 4:45pm. Please remember to bring your “Called to Change” books back to the session with you.

• Book Fair, continues tonight after school and also Monday straight after school. Don’t forget to use your £1 voucher.

• Sacrament of Reconciliation Tuesday 17th March at 6pm.

  Have a lovely weekend. God Bless.  Let’s hope that the lovely spring sunshine, that we have had recently, continues to shine on us.

  The Year 3 Team

“You will discover that you have two hands, one to help yourself and one to help others.” Audrey Hepburn

What a fabulous week we have had. It has absolutely flown by and I can’t believe we have been back a week already. Mrs Harrison is so proud to hear that they have come back to school so focused and ready to work — and work we have!!!

This half term we are focusing on the virtues of generosity and gratitude. We have been thinking about all of the ways that we can be generous and we have realised that being generous with our time and our love and kindness is really important and something that we can all try hard to improve upon. We have also looked at how we can be grateful for all of the little things that happen every day.

This week we have started our new novel, ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes. Already we have asked a multitude of questions about what we are wondering about the text,  drawn annotated diagrams, written a brief description about where we think the Iron Man came from and how he arrived, found exciting description in the text and thought about our own vocabulary and description linking to the text, and we have only read chapter 1 so far! It’s so exciting and we are really curious to find out more. In maths we have continued our work on addition and subtraction using 3 digit numbers. We have finished off our Roman topic, investigating roads and also thinking about the reasons why the Roman Empire came to an end. In RE we have thought about what Lent is and how we can try to change during Lent to become more like Jesus, we have linked this to the topic of reconciliation and our preparation to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We have all made our own Lenten Promise which we are going to try hard to keep to throughout Lent. (Can you guess what their Lenten Promise is? Have you noticed any extra jobs being done around the house these last couple of days?)

Lent

Today in Class Council we have discussed ways that we could help others during Lent. We have written our Lenten Promises, started to pray for our Prayer Sponsors and thought about how we can raise money to give to others who are less fortunate. This year, as a school, we are raising money for CAFOD. We have thought about all the extra jobs that we could try to do at home and wondered if maybe we could ask for small amounts in payment for these jobs so that we could then give the money to CAFOD. As a family could you please discuss this and agree on a list of jobs and a price list for these jobs. We have thought about jobs like tidying up, making the beds, loading the dishwasher/washing up, vacuuming the carpets, dusting, mopping, sorting out the recycling and taking out the rubbish but we are sure that you could think of lots more as a family. It was also suggested a lovely massage for mum (or dad) and baking biscuits to sell to friends and family, and bringing in that money. We hope that you will enjoy sharing your ideas as a family and working together to help others in need.

This week the extra challenge is to make everyone’s bed for 20p.

Please could money for jobs done each week be brought into school and we will complete a donation chart showing what we have raised as a class. Many thanks in anticipation.

Certificates

This week the children have all worked hard and we are delighted to give the certificates to… Jayden and Olivia. Well done children.

Olivia received the Kiki Chameleon Certificate for being such a creative learner. You have such lovely ideas Olivia and you choose your vocabulary and description carefully to entertain the reader. Well done!

Jayden received the Cooper Crab Certificate for concentrating so hard this week and for being such a focused learner. Well done Jayden—keep up the good work!

We are also very pleased that Jayden was awarded the French Award for the week. Madame Jefferson was very proud of your super conversation in French and your focus and enthusiasm during the lesson.

Well done also to Abi and Isabella who were our Gym Stars this week. Your creativity and determination really do help you to learn and achieve.

Reminders

• Welcome Mass on Sunday morning (9:30am) for all those who are taking part in the Holy Communion programme.

• Friday morning Lenten Masses start next week at 8am. Please try to come along and share this special time of prayer with us.

• White group have 2 more weeks of Multiskills on a Thursday morning.  8am with Mr Nay.

• Preparation for Reconciliation, Tuesday afternoons after school until 4:45pm. Please remember to bring your “Called to Change” books back to the session with you.

• Just to clarify—PE days are back to Tuesdays and Wednesdays and PE kit can be worn all day on these days. Please could we have shorts for our indoor lesson on Wednesday?  Thank you

• Also just a reminder that full school uniform or school PE kit should be worn each day, so that the children show that they are proud to belong to our lovely school family. Many thanks. (We are getting some deviation from this both in uniform and PE kit which does not look as smart as our uniform worn proudly does.)

Have a lovely weekend. God Bless. See you on Sunday!

The Year 3 Team

Half Term Already!

Wow what an exciting week in Year 3 we have had this week! We started the week planning and producing the last outcome of our writing process of the ‘snowman’- many thanks to Amber and John Joseph’s parents for delivering the DVD at such short notice, you really did save the day! We have been focusing a lot of our attention on the Romans this week and had a wonderful school trip on Wednesday in Lancaster. The children have learnt and gained so much from this visit.

On Thursday we welcomed Craig McCann to school and we had a great time although the exercises were really hard!! The children loved being in their chosen sports strips and I know they found meeting the athlete extremely inspiring. Thank you for all the money raised through your sponsor forms.

I just want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you for all of your support since September, your children have been a pleasure to teach and I have loved every minute of seeing them grow and blossom. I know this will continue as they are in great hands for the rest of the year, although I will miss them all dearly. However I will make sure I keep in touch and have promised to bring the baby in to meet them all.

Can I also thank everyone for their kind words, well wishes and thoughtful gifts for the start of my maternity leave, it is much appreciated.

Take care and have a lovely half term.

AWARDS

Thomas thank you for being such a resilient Sadie Spider on Thursday during our coaching session, your determination and your ‘I CAN’ attitude was lovely to see.

The other reward went to the whole class for making my time in Year 3 so special. They have grown so much in their learning and maturity and I am so proud of what they have all achieved individually.

REMINDERS

Please see homework page for this half terms homework.

Tuesday 25th February is the 1st Reconciliation session for children and parents

First Wednesday back is Ash Wednesday- please join us for Mass- we set off at 9:30am

What a wonderful day we have had!

The children had a wonderful day at Lancaster City Museum learning all about the Romans …

'The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts' Marcus Aurelius

I can’t believe we have only one week left until half term, the weeks seem to fly by, but when we look at Year 3 books, there is so much learning within them! This week the children have immersed themselves in creating their own versions on the Snowman and the Snowdog. They have loved watching this beautiful film and re-creating it with their own description and new vocabulary and wow what writing they have produced. Mrs Nel and I could not believe the sounds of moans when the dinner bell went, as they just wanted to carry on writing (this was definitely the first time ever!). There has been a real buzz in Maths this week, as the children have been adding and subtracting multiples of ten crossing the boundaries in to the hundreds and tackling some tricky puzzles.

Our Romans study in History has got in to full flow, with the children pretending to be Celtic Spies observing and exploring how strong the Roman Army actually is. The children worked in groups as spies and one by one had to go to the pictures around the edge of a Roman Soldier and report back to their fellow spies with their observations so that they could draw an accurate picture. We also learnt all about Boudica, one of the Celtic tribe’s queen, even making a human time graph of the events in her life and how it led to an uprising against the Roman Empire forces.

Paralympic Visitor

On Thursday 13th February, Craig McCann (a Paralympic fencer and cyclist) will be visiting our school to talk to the children about his sporting journey and how a brain tumour that had developed, led him down this path. The children will be sponsored to take part in a fitness class alongside Craig in the morning, and then to continue in a sporting event in the afternoon. On this day, the children can come into school wearing the sports kit from the teams that they represent outside of school or some sportswear of their choice. So many of the children are involved with clubs in our area, it would be great to see just how many there are. Some examples could be football strips, gymnastic or dance outfits, however all the children must be appropriately dressed in order to take part in school’s usual day (they need to be warm enough), particularly playing outside and participating in sport throughout the day. Sponsor forms have already been given out, so please check your children’s bags. The money we w ill raise will contribute towards the improvements on the trim trail outside.

Reminders:

International Online Safety Day is on Tuesday 11th February- we will be talking about identity and how to keep safe online.

‘Meet the Romans’ school trip on Wednesday 12th February- please could all payments be made before 31st January.

Blue group on Thursdays 8am with Mr Nay

Marsden are the winners this half term and get to wear their house colours on Friday 14th February.

The awards this week go to …

Harriet thank you for being so creative in your writing, you have used wonderful description and vocabulary to tell your story and it has been wonderful to see how you have used all of our grammar skills in your independent work!

Kai this week you have impressed us with how you have been ready and willing to approach all of your work this week with great determination and independence- you must keep this up as you have made such progress across the curriculum.

Have a lovely weekend and God bless`

'Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless' Mother Teresa

Another week that has flown by as the children have been so immersed in their learning. When I look through their books, I can’t quite believe how much work we are getting through! Mathematics has been very exciting this week, look at crossing over to the tens boundary within a 3 digit number, the children have loved problem solving with this and discussing which strategy is best to use. The children have worked hard on their sentence structure within English lessons, practicing their use of coordinating conjunctions in compound sentences and have now started to create more complex sentences.

We have continued our learning in electricity in Science this week, making circuits, exploring ways to add switches, buzzers and motors. The children have absolutely thrived during these hands on sessions. Our History kick started with a visit from emperor Claudius and they made excellent decisions when they acted as his advisers, asking the question why did the Romans invade?

It was lovely to meet with you all on Wednesday and celebrate the wonderful progress all your children have made, I am sure you are as proud of them as we are.

Reminders:

‘Meet the Romans’ school trip on Wednesday 12th February- please could all payments be made before 31st January.

Blue group on Thursdays 8am with Mr Nay

The awards this week go to …

James thank you for being such a Curious Clara Clown Fish, you have wowed us this week with how deep you have took your learning in Science asking all of the right questions!

Jacob O you are such a Bobby Bee in your enthusiasm and desire to learn which makes you very exciting to teach- you always show positive body language and always have a smile on your face!

Have a lovely weekend and God bless`

'Curiosity keeps leading us down new paths' Walt Disney

Today we looked at one of our new virtues for this half term… curiosity. We explored various quotes about the importance of curiosity and being active in our learning as well as our faith and how it is our curiosity and desire to ask questions that brings us closer to God. We explored and discussed how the disciples were curious to follow Jesus, how we are all curious as we listen to His teachings and of course we are always asking questions about God’s beautiful creation.

The children have been showing great curiosity in their learning all week, and we have been most impressed with their desire to learn and their active participation. We have now finished our class novel ‘The Ice Cat’, the children have loved this book, exploring all of its themes and have responded so deeply. Once we finished we then had the most amazing conversation of how ‘the ice cat’ was actually a representation of the main characters feelings. I can’t wait to see how they put all of this depth in to their writing next week!

In Maths the children our showing great curiosity at looking at the different methods involved when adding numbers that bridge, deciding on the strategies that work best for them! Science yesterday, was a whole morning of the children experimenting and exploring their curiosity through making circuits and electricity- they loved experimenting on which circuits would light the bulb and when it wouldn’t asking the vital question of why not?

Reminders:

A letter went out today about our school trip on Wednesday 12th February- can we please make sure payment is made by 31st January

Parents day on Wednesday- I am most looking forward to celebrating your child’s achievements!

Blue group starts next Thursday 8am with Mr Nay!

The awards this week go to …

Jess thank you for being such a Curious Clara Clown Fish, you have wowed us this week with how deep you have took your learning and that is because you ask all the right questions and actively search to find our more or think deeper- well done Jess, we are very proud of you.

Max you are such a Bobby Bee in your enthusiasm and desire to learn and are now channeling this enthusiasm the right way- well done Max keep it up!

Have a lovely weekend and God bless

‘If we all did the things that we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves …’ Thomas Edison

Wow another exciting week of learning in the year 3 classroom ,with lots of focused Cooper Crabs! There is such a difference when we look at the children that started in September to now- they seemed to have matured and grown so much, especially in their learning- we are so proud of them all! We have LOVED our class novel this week, the children have been collected vocabulary, predicting what happens next, deducing information from the text and thinking deeply about what the author is showing us. In fact, the year 3 team have been blown away by the children’s depth of thought, which showed in their writing this week, where they all wrote a diary entry as the main character Tom. During this the children used what they found out from the text, but also added personal details to give more of an insight to the characters feelings. In Maths this week we have been looking at adding and subtracting larger numbers and started to bridge over the hundreds, which can be a tricky task, but the children are managing really well! In RE, we are continuing to look at the sacrament of Reconciliation, acting out situations that we may come across and how we can problem solve and resolve through asking forgiveness. In Science the children wowed Mrs Nel with how enthusiastic they were when they created a ‘human’ circuit! We love learning about electricity!

Next week we look forward to finishing our class novel and then using what we have learnt and the vocabulary we have gathered to begin writing our own stories. We will also be starting our Celts to Romans History topic next week, which we know the children will love.

Have a lovely weekend and God bless,

The awards this week go to …

Evie thank you for being such a focused Cooper Crab, concentrating in class,participating in lessons and producing much more work- well done Evie!

Isabella you have been such a creative Kiki Chameleon this week, with your wonderful diary entry, using all of your knowledge of the book, great characterization and using all of our grammar skills- what progress you have made!

'Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God'

Happy New Year! It was so lovely to welcome back all the children on Monday, after what felt like a long holiday! The children have come back refreshed, refocused and ready to learn. In fact, this week has been my favourite week with Year 3 so far… they have all come back so eager and excited to learn that every lesson has been exciting and I feel like we have fit in so much learning. We are all so proud of them.

This week we have begun our class novel, a little later than we had hoped as we got carried away with our dragon learning, however after Christmas, ‘The Ice Cat’ novel seems a perfect way to start the new year. The children have embraced this novel as we have explored all the beautiful descriptive phrases and vocabulary in the first chapter, they have raised such deep questions about what they wonder about the plot and discussed the answers to some key questions. It is at this point where you can really see how much progress the children have made in their reading! Please continue with how much you are reading at home, as all the hard work IS paying off, not only are they making progress, you can see how much more they are enjoying their reading, which is such a joy to see.

In grammar we have continued to collect and use prepositions, which you will see on the homework, but we have also started to look at main clauses, and spotting them in complex sentences. In Maths were are continuing with our addition and subtractions, reasoning and playing with number continuously. RE this week, we have started to look at the sacrament of Reconciliation, in preparation for Our First Holy Communion.

Mass today was beautiful, the children prayed so reverently and it was lovely to celebrate as a whole school the start of a new year.

Most children have come back to school smartly, as you saw in my last blog and Miss Hornby’s before Christmas, that we would like to see the children dressed according to our school uniform policy. Specifically, it is so important that children please where the correct school jumpers to school (no hoodies or other such jumpers), the correct type of trousers and FULL school tracksuit on PE days please. As a refresher, please read the following guidelines to help you, found on our discover page, under ‘things to remember’.

On behalf of the year 3 team thank you so much for the thoughtful Christmas gifts. They were all incredibly heart warming and kind.

Thank you to everyone who signed up for Parents Day on 29th January. If you haven’t already please make sure you do, as this is the only time I will get to meet with parents. Many thanks.

Have a lovely weekend and God bless,

The awards this week go to …

Jacob thank you for being such a focused Cooper Crab, concentrating in class,participating in lessons much better and developing your resilience.

Hollie Rose what an enthusiastic Bobby Bee you are! You have become such a Maths Monster, developing your resilience, focus and even doing extra maths at playtime- we are very proud of you!

'The beauty of Christmas is not in the presents but in the His presence' Matthew 1:23

What a magical week we have had in Year 3! Amid all this weeks festivities we have still continued with our learning, Maths has continued with our reasoning in addition and subtraction and we have now finished our Arctic Geography topic. This week the children have wrote some wonderful reports on Polar Bears, using all of their skills and language features from their non-chronological report learning in English.

The children have worked so hard this term and we are very pleased with the progress they are making. Today we have given the children their new ZPD codes for their reading books and all of them made sure they had a reading book to read over Christmas. All children have made good progress in their reading, but this must continue, so please over the Christmas period read frequently together and discuss the text, it helps more with their learning than anything else. We have gifted each child with a new bookmark before they left, with the quote ‘a book is a gift that you can open again and again’- how true this is!

Miss Hornby spoke to the children today in assembly about the need in wearing the correct school uniform that is in line with the school’s uniform policy- please see the website homepage for Miss Hornby’s blog.

We started the week off beautifully with our Christmas Carol Concert, where the children sang their hearts out and stood so smartly, we were all so proud of them- I am sure you will all agree that both performances were magical. On Wednesday, we then danced our socks off and had lots of fun at the Junior Christmas Party! Here are some of the pictures we took on the day!

Have a wonderful, relaxing and holy Christmas!

The awards this week go to …

Mason Thank you for being such a focused Cooper Crab, concentrating in class, managing your distractions much better and developing your resilience.

Jess what an enthusiastic Bobby Bee you are! You have clearly loved our Geography topic and it has show in your work- well done!

Important information:

Year 3 parents day will be slightly different to the rest of the school- it will be held on Wednesday 29th January, booking appointments will live first week back.

'I wish the world was twice as big- and half of it was still unexplored' David Attenborough

What a lovely week we have had in Year 3 this week! We started the week ready and eager to explore a freezing place in Geography- we got on our scarves, hats and gloves, preparing ourselves for a chilling adventure as we learnt about the Arctic. The children this week have learnt about the countries that make up the Arctic circle, the climate of the Arctic, what physical features are found there and all the animals that live in this polar region. The children have loved this topic and it has been a pleasure to see such Bobby Bee’s in the classroom! We are looking forward to putting all of our work on non-chronological report writing to good use, as we write a report on a polar bear. In Maths the children have continued to problem solve and reason in their addition and subtraction and in RE the children have looked deeper in to the birth of Jesus Christ and the visit of the wise men.

On Tuesday we had the pleasure of watching the KS1 Nativity who told the story of the birth of Jesus beautifully through their words, song and of course dance moves- it truly felt like a celebration of his arrival. Then on Wednesday Year 3, along with the rest of Key Stage 2, went to rehearse at church ready for our Christmas Concert next week. This was Year 3’s first time at church to practice and we were so proud of their patience, cooperation and of course how they sang- in fact Mrs Gregan complemented them, saying they were one of the best Year 3 classes at a concert rehearsal- so well done Year 3, lets keep it up next week! There are just a couple of songs we need to practice, so please over the weekend encourage the children to sing a long and learn the songs that have been shared on Year 3 homework page.

We are looking forward to sharing this concert with you next Tuesday- you are in for a real treat!

We loved seeing the array of Christmas jumpers in the classroom today and even had our very own catwalk!

The awards this week go to …

India Thank you for being such a focused Cooper Crab, concentrating in class and managing your distractions.

Olivia what an resilient Sadie you are! You always have a go, manage distractions around you and when you make a mistake you seize the opportunity reflect and learn from your mistakes.

Important information:

Christmas concert on Tuesday 17th at 2pm and 6:30pm at church. Please drop your child off and come in at 6:15pm

Wednesday Christmas Party- Party clothes (dancing shoes trainers are best!!). You may bring in a treat for example, a chocolate bar or packet of crisps. Please bring a drink too this can be flavoured but not fizzy. We have great fun at the party - I’ll post pictures!

Friday 2pm finish

'Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world' C.S.Lewis

This week has been all about our writing. We started the week off by showering our thoughts and ideas of the characteristics of each of our dragons- what they look like, where they are found and their unique characteristics. Once we had gathered enough information, the children then wrote their first independent non-chronological report on their chosen dragon. I can’t wait to get marking them! In Maths we are continuing with our addition and subtraction and in RE we have been looking at the true meaning of advent, reflecting on ways we celebrate this special time, in particular the symbolic meaning to the advent wreath. Today we have started our Geography topic on the Arctic, which will be our big focus over the next couple of weeks.

Advent Mass was beautiful once again this morning, with so many families coming to share this time of reflection. Please don’t forget that the last Advent Mass is taking place Next Friday at 8am in the hall. At this incredibly busy time of year, it is important to take time for ourselves and be reminded of the true reasons to celebrate at Christmas.

The awards this week go to …

Thank you Amber for being such a Curious Clownish learner- for asking all the right questions and always wanting to find out more.

Julia you have been such a Kiki Chameleon- well done for showing your creativity in your writing and doing extra writing at home!

Important Information…

Christmas Cards - We had a great chat in class today about Christmas cards and how every year at Christmas, instead of spending money and sending out cards, it is a much kinder idea in the season of Advent to collect the money and choose a Cafod World Gift to buy from us all. We agreed that the children could create or buy one card for the class and then donate any money they would spend on cards to our collection. As we get enough money, we will look at the World Gifts as a class and decide on the ones we would like to purchase for those less fortunate than ourselves.

Christmas jumper and silly sock day on Friday 13th December - Year 5 have organised the event and are hoping to raise over £1000 for local charity Brian House. On this day, children can wear their own clothes with a Christmas jumper and/or silly socks for a small donation of £1.

Our Key stage 2 Christmas performance is on Tuesday 17th December at 2pm and again at 6.30pm. The songs they sing are beautiful

Party day Wednesday 18th December. Drink (not fizzy) and fun snack (chocolate or crisps)- PARTY CLOTHES- sensible shoes for serious dancing!

'Advent increases our hope, a hope which does not disappoint. The Lord never lets us down' Pope Francis

Another lovely week has passed again in Year 3. The highlight of the week had to be on Wednesday, when we joined a member of our class and her family at the very special occasion of her Baptism. The mass was beautiful and the children loved every minute of welcoming another member to our Christian Family. Afterwards the conversation that was had in the classroom was wonderful, as I could see all that we had learnt about this sacrament and its symbols from the previous half term- well done Year 3 and thank you for being so supportive and reverent.

Lots of learning has also taken place this week, continuing our focus on addition in Maths, especially looking at number bonds. Each day this week we have worked together to produced a paragraph towards our non-chronological report on the Thunder Dragon and then the children have then used this structure to write their own paragraph on the Sun-Blazer Dragon. It has been lovely to see how the children have used their creativity but also following a structure that works to help plan and format their own ideas and writing. The outcome has been very impressive- I can’t wait to see what they produce next week in their independent piece. In RE we have been pulling apart the prayer ‘The Hail Mary’ and learning about the meaning of each of the words and then the incarnation, focusing on how Jesus is both divine and human- the children’s depth of comments never cease to amaze us.

The awards this week go to …

Thank you Esme for your much improved focus in class, immersing yourself in your reading and offering in depth comments in RE.

Saul you have been such a Kiki Chameleon- well done for showing your creativity in your writing!

Important Information…

A gentle reminder that children please need a snack for the morning, as it is a long morning before lunch time. Could I also make a plea for HEALTHY snacks please- no chocolate or crisps. If you need some inspiration or ideas for healthy snacks please go to our discover page, under the section ‘daily things to remember’.

Our Key stage 2 Christmas performance is on Tuesday 17th December at 2pm and again at 6.30pm. The songs they sing are beautiful

Our Advent masses are every Friday morning - at 8.00am in school. Please come and join us - it is always such a lovely time.

Friday 13th December is Christmas jumper and/ or silly sock day! This is a Year 5 initiative, who are aiming to try and raise as close to the £1000 mark as we can for Brian House!

Party day Wednesday 18th December. Drink (not fizzy) and fun snack (chocolate or crisps)- PARTY CLOTHES- sensible shoes for serious dancing!

'You are precious in my eyes' Isaiah 43:4

What a lovely week we have had in Year 3! I must start by saying how proud we were of all the children for their wonderful performance on Tuesday. The children spoke out so confidently and loudly and their acting skills were very impressive, especially as they had so many lines to learn. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed sharing it with you all. What an important message it had too- remembering that we are all different and unique because God made us that way therefore we should all accept and value one another differences, and as Jessica said beautifully on the day as her character Eli ‘and I don’t make mistakes’.

We have had a great week of learning this week, continuing to look at non-chronological reports and the features we need to include once we start our very own next week. In Maths we have been focusing on the commutative law and the whole-part model representation, which the children have grasped excellently. In RE we have looked at The Visitation and focused on the Hail Mary, its meaning and even writing our own version of the prayer. Today we had a visit from Father Peter in preparation of India’s baptism that we will be attending next Wednesday. This is such a special time for India and her family and we feel honoured as a class to be get to be there and be a part of it.

This week Jack, Harriet and Saul delivered a wonderful liturgy in the chapel on how we must help one another- it was so beautiful to see the children praying with such reverence.

It was lovely to see so many of you at our curriculum evening last night and sharing all about how we develop mastery and resilience in Maths during school. There was such a buzz around the school, it was lovely to see!

The awards this week go to …

Thank you Holly for being such a reflective Lizzie Ladybird working so hard to improve your handwriting, spelling and presentation. ,

Stephanie you have been such a Bobby Bee! Showing great enthusiasm and going above and beyond in your learning, doing extra work at home and fully immersing yourself in your learning.

Important Information…

Our Key stage 2 Christmas performance is on Tuesday 17th December at 2pm and again at 6.30pm. The songs they sing are beautiful

Our Advent masses begin next Friday morning - at 8.00am in school. Please come and join us - it is always such a lovely time.

A whole lot of competitive fun!

This morning, the Year 3 sport club had great fun (and a little bit of maths along the way). The children were tasked with moving in different ways to collect the balls in the middle of the hoop, however, the balls all had different values. The children had to be strategic in their collection to make sure that their team collected the highest value balls! The children worked really well together and support each other constantly.

"Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness."

Wow what a day today! Thank you so much for helping us raise money for such a worth cause- Brian House. The other bonus is that we got to spend the day in our PJ’s with our friends. Today we have been ‘dragon pet-shop owners’, discussing and writing all about the best way to look after a dragon- there are some definitely interesting ideas! All week this week, we have been learning about a particular type of dragon that I am sure you have heard all about at home and some of you may have even seen … The Manchester Ridge-back. The children have worked hard to story map, learn actions and can now recite the non-chronological report all about this dragon. See if the children can tell you any fascinating facts about it, if they haven’t already, as there is quite a buzz in the classroom.

In Maths this week, we have started to count up in multiples 4’s and 8’s, looking at the mathematical connection. We have also started addition, firstly looking at the whole, part model and how calculations are drawn from this representation. They have made an excellent start!

We have been practicing our assembly this week, and the children have made a really good start at learning their lines, so thank you. Could you please make sure you practice this weekend, focusing now on expression and definitely volume with them. We have also been practicing the song every day, if you have time also to go over the song with them to make sure they know it, it would be much appreciated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRjDBd6tBBY

Next week we look forward to our curriculum evening. If you would like to learn more about Mastery in Mathematics and how we develop a growth mindset, then please come along for a fun evening. We have example Maths lessons showing small steps in each of the junior classes, a variety of Maths puzzles, Mrs Hotchkiss is giving a guided tour of our school website and much, much more.

The awards this week go to …

Thank you Jack for being such a focused Cooper Crab for working so hard, managing your distractions and being ready to learn every week!

Grace you have been such an enthusiastic ‘Bobby Bee’! We have loved seeing your enthusiasm and enjoyment of learning!

Important Information…

Our class assembly is on Tuesday 19th November 9:10

Curriculum Evening is Thursday 21st October 6pm - 8pm.

Thursday’s sports club with Mr Nay is the white group- 21st November and 28th November 8-8:45am.

'Faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward of this faith is to see what you believe' St Augustine of Hippo

The title of our blog this week is extremely fitting for all of our learning this week … faith has been the centre of most of our lessons... In RE we have looked further in to the Annunciation, looking at Mary’s difficult decision but immense trust in God, it was only through her devout faith that she found the strength the accept God’s will. The children’s responses to this have been so deep and heart felt. We have also been looking closer at what it means to be faith-filled, analysing quotes and we even studied the story Charles Blondin, a famous tightrope walker who showed great faith in what he did, but also asked faith from his audience … ask the children what he asked of the audience. We learnt that there is a real difference in talking about our faith compared to how we can act on our faith.

We have now started to collect evidence of dragons, so be aware! In English we are now looking at starting our non-chronological report unit, where are focus is… dragons to begin with. Today we have looked at the story we are learning, as part of our talk for writing approach and over the next couple of weeks we will innovate this and create our own dragon report. It is all very exciting and I think a few children have even found a dragon’s nest in our environmental garden! Miss Brisco is ready with the telescope for children that want a go at spotting any flying around!

We have now started our assembly, the theme is all about how we are all unique, difference and special … we are all precious in His eyes. It is, once again, about having faith in ourselves, others and most importantly God. Children now have their lines to learn for next week please and the song is also there to learn on the homework page. We look forward to sharing this with you.

Today the flu vaccines were given to the children who were given permission back in September, they were all super brave.

The awards this week go to …

Thank you

Christian McKenzie for being such a focused Cooper Crab for working so hard, managing your distractions and being ready to learn this week!

John Joseph Shaw you have been such a ‘have a go’ Tommy Turtle! We have loved seeing your confidence grow and your enjoyment of learning this week, good boy for having the courage to get your hand up more this week.

Important Information…

Our class assembly is on Tuesday 19th November 9:10

Curriculum Evening is Thursday 21st October 6pm - 8pm