'The only time that we have no opportunities, is when we choose not to take them.'

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What a way to finish the half term - an inspirational visit from a Paralympic star. We could not help but be inspired by Craig’s story and how he overcame a diagnosis that changed his dreams. The children were full of enthusiasm and excitement completing a fitness class in the morning, before joining the rest of the school to listen to Craig and the lessons that we can learn from him. Craig made us promise that we were all to take any opportunity that will come our way - who knows what we can achieve. In the afternoon, we continued to take part in all of our sporting activities, completing the 400m and the vortex howler! Sport can open so many doors and teach us so many lessons - I think we have all learnt something from this day. A special thank you to our sport captains and leaders who supported the school during the day. They led activities, cheered each other on, took photographs and showed wonderful organisation skills. Thank you so much children.

Online Safety Day - Free to be me

I could not have been prouder of the digital leaders on Tuesday as they visited each class to help educate the children in our school on how to be safe online. The theme for the day was about being ourselves and not having to change too much whilst online. We discussed how using an avatar of yourself online, is better than a photo and can keep us much safer. The children celebrated their identities and what makes them different and unique. Please visit the online safety page on the website to see the video that our digital leaders put together.

Learning…

In amongst all of the excitement of our visitors and the online safety day, we have packed learning into each day. Myself and Mrs Webster loved reading the passionate letters that the children wrote for homework, from the perspective of PL Travers. If I was Walt Disney, I would be quaking in my boots! We edited and improved them before rewriting them. I cannot read the final versions over half term. In maths, we have continued to look at fractions; comparing, ordering, adding and subtracting them. The children are tackling these head on!

Water Parks

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting on Tuesday evening, I hope you found it informative. I have attached the presentation below for you to look at again. Could any outstanding medical forms be returned after half term? Thank you


Celebrating each other…

At the end of each half term, the children vote for the learners who they want to celebrate. I asked them to consider people who light up and radiate our classroom and someone for progress. Congratulations to Marwa, Maryann and Pedro. The other children said such beautiful things about each of the children, please read their certificates below.

Mock week of assessments…

I have slightly changed the mock week for when we get back due to Ash Wednesday mass and I am out on a course too. So, the first week back we will focus on English and the second week back, we will focus on Maths.

Week 1:

Monday - Grammar and Spelling

Tuesday - Reading

Week 2:

Monday - Arithmetics and Maths Reasoning A

Tuesday - Maths Reasoning B

Have a lovely week on holiday. Please encourage your child to revise where needed ready for the first week back. Success is always about effort…the more that goes in, the better the children will feel. Find time to relax and celebrate the year that the children have had already.

Mrs Gregan & Mrs Webster



Homework to be handed in Wednesday 26th February

READING - . Please keep reading EVERY night at home during the holidays. It is important to read alongside an adult, where they can ask questions about the text and you can discuss events that happen in the book.

SPELLING New spellings to learn for over the holidays:


Potatoes Weight Notice Actual Ordinary Fruit

Think about the different ways I have given you to learn these spellings- which one do you like best? Which one works best for you?

MATHS

Please complete the following subtractions in your homework books by using counting backwards in multiples of tens. If you need to use a number-line to help you like we have been doing in class, please draw them in your books, but most should be able to count this backwards mentally.

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GRAMMAR

Let’s keep working on our complex sentences. Please complete the sentences on the sheet by adding either the main clause or the subordinate clause. Don’t forget to use the subordinating conjunctions we have been using in class: While, when, before, after, because

Year 1 Home Learning 14.2.20 (due 28.2.20)

Maths

Number bonds to 10. The children’s main learning focus over half term is to know their number bonds to 10 fluently and confidently. When I say the number in bold the children should respond with the following numbers. It is is so important that the children understand the relationship between these numbers.

zero ten

one nine

two eight

three seven

four six

five five

six four

seven three

eight two

nine one

ten zero

Ongoing learning on IXL ‘Addition up to 10 and 20’ M.1-M.15.

Science

In science, the children have been learning all about materials. Inspired by the story, ‘A Planet Full of Plastic’, I would love the children to do some more research into plastic. As a class we have discussed how plastic is fantastic, but that sometimes plastic ends up where it isn’t meant to be e.g. oceans, parks etc. The children have been challenged to make an eye catching poster all about plastic, the children can be as creative as they would like.

Reading

Please ensure children are reading every night.

Flash Cards

A few children have now learned ALL of the flash cards. This is a HUGE achievement and I am incredibly proud of their hard work and determination. For these children their new challenge is to spell these words. They will be tested on the spellings of these words once a week and moved onto the next set when they can confidently spell them.

Time to take a break!

Half term already, it’s hard to believe!

I am sure you will agree that since Christmas the children’s learning has soared. We have learnt so much about our solar system we could rival Professor Brian Cox! It sparked a fascination in the children to keep finding out more and more. Learning knows no bounds!

Likewise, our understanding of number has progressed to the point we are now solving quite complex mathematical problems. We plan to continuing our ‘maths mastery’ journey after the half term.

The children have started to use their knowledge of letter sounds (thanks to Read, Write Inc.) to both write their names and to try and spell out three letter words. We are truly amazed at everyone’s thirst for learning.

As always, we are very grateful for the support you give your child and nursery. Working together really does make a difference.

Finally, may I remind everyone that parents’ evening is Wednesday 11th March and the appointment booking form will be available when we return after the holidays.

I hope you all manage to have a restful half term, full of family fun!!

Home Learning - Year 6 Half Term Learning

With our assessments fast approaching, it is time to start preparing ourselves so that we know what to expect. when the tests finally come around. For homework this week, it is time to do a little revision ready for assessment week the first week back:

Spelling - please take your spelling books home this half term. Revise all spelling patterns that we have learnt since September.

English - There is a revision sheet at the back of your homework book - have a look at it. Particularly the tense aspect that you have been previously taught in other year groups.

Use IXL English to help you revise punctuation, word classes and sentence level work. Simply type this into the search bar.

Maths - Have a look back in your maths book at the reasoning questions that you have been answering for homework. What aspect of the arithmetic curriculum needs your attention?

Column addition/subtraction, formal multiplication, multiplication of decimals, short division, long division. Adding and subtracting fractions and multiplying fractions.

This website is brilliant - use it to teach and revise concepts

MATHS IS FUN

Reading - Can you complete the Fantastic Book Awards book? Read the next two chapters of Mary Poppins.

Thinking through Prayer...

Every day children find their way to our prayer board and spend a few moments thinking and reflecting, sometimes to thank God and at other times to ask for His help. Today there were so many prayers to read, obviously the wind has inspired reflection!

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'You have always had the power, you just needed to learn it for yourself.'

Huge apologies, I wrote my blog on Thursday night and it seems to have vanished! Anyway, here it is…

It is hard to believe that we are just one week away from being at the half way point of the school year. Time really has flown. The children are working harder than ever to tackle all of the learning that I am throwing their way at the moment - and surpassing every target possible! We know that we are approaching our end of year assessments, and with so much learning still to do, time is very much valued. For homework next week, over half term, I will be giving the children a list of things that they could revise ready for after half term. These will just be refreshing their minds of previous learning and looking at concepts taught. The children will also be bring their spelling books home. The first set of assessments are just that, I am excited to see how the children do and it will give us a firm plan of action moving forward. Please encourage the children to revisit areas that they find tricky. I will also be putting a maths website on the homework blog that is brilliant for teaching concepts and giving some questions for them to practise.

Water Parks is also fast approaching and this week I have been putting together the pre - course information for the week. Please come to the meeting on Tuesday night at 6pm where I will be handing out relevant paperwork and going through exactly what the children will be getting up to during their week away.

After half term, I will be taking a group of children to Brian House to present them with the donation of money that we have raised as a school. I will choose these children randomly and let the parents know if their child has been asked to go.

Learning Awards

Well done to Anwar and Mati this week who are both really challenging themselves with their learning. Both of the boys are incredibly focused in class and are improving their confidence on a daily basis. Well done boys.

Reminders:

  • Water Parks meeting on Tuesday - 6pm

  • Athlete visit on Thursday in school. Please return all sponsor forms on Thursday/Friday this week.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Gregan and Mrs Webster

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.

What fun we had this week when a crime scene was discovered in our classroom, we came back from lunch to chalk arrows on the floor leading us to a group of mysterious items taken from other places around the school. There were lots of interesting suggestions from the children as to what had happened, there are some vivid imaginations in year 4 which led to Mark and Eli checking the cupboards in our classroom for a Saxon thief and his loot. Luckily, the cupboards only treasures were glue sticks and spare pens. All of this adventure led us to learn about the mysterious disappearance of Saxon items at Sutton Hoo in East Anglia many years ago, we will be continuing with our quest to find out more next week. (Photos to be added shortly).

Read more

'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`

Home learning given out 7.2.2020 to be handed in on 13.2.2020

Flute— Please practise ‘We will rock you’,  ‘Prince of Belair’ and ‘Mamma Mia’ this week on your flute.

Maths—Please play on this game to practise your times tables. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button  Please practise 3s, 4s and 6s. If needed recap on 2s, 5s and 10s. Please write a comment in your child’s homework book so I can see how they are getting on and so I can award them learning points.

RE—As part of my teacher worship this week we discussed how we could help try to combat loneliness in our community, the children came up with some lovely ideas. One of their ideas was to make cards for people who may be lonely and to give these out, I loved this suggestion and Father Peter has very kindly said that we can have a box of them placed at the back of church. Please can each child make at least one card to go in the box (feel free to make more), bring them into school by Thursday and I will pass them on to Father Peter. Make them bright and colourful please children. Inside you could write something like this

To the reader of this card

Remember you are not alone, Jesus is in your heart.

Love the Year 4 children at Our Lady Star Star of the Sea (We are not adding names to keep our children safe).

Spellings— Please continue to practise the spellings given on 3.2.2020 for the spelling quiz on 10.2.2020.