The first week back after a break is never easy, but we’re so proud of the determination and positivity the children have shown this week. Despite the mornings being cold and dark, the children have been coming into school every morning smiling and raring to go.
Read moreYear 5 Weekly Blog 12.01.23- ' Every time you tear a leaf of a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas''
A Happy New Year to you all and it has been a brilliant first school week of 2024. Learning has begun straight from the first minute and has not stopped all week. The children have settled back in really well and have picked the school routines back up very quickly.
We kicked off the week with a Geography themed day with the focus being all things North America. The children used the atlas’ to recap the continents of the world and to also identify the countries of North America. This was then followed by some additional research into the USA and how it is separated into states.
On Tuesday, we began our eagerly anticipated space topic in Science. We discussed what we already knew about space and any curious questions that we want to find out. This was helped by the inflatable planets up in our classroom- which was the focus for lesson as we discussed the planets that make up our solar system and learning the correct order of these.
On Wednesday, we started our new writing topic of Sci-Fi, where we looking at all the different components of sci fi and reenacted a specific sci-fi story. We then looked at how we could improve the writing of this story and how we could add more description. In RHE, we looked at the feeling of ‘under pressure’ and how this might look in different social scenarios. We then used role play to show the different ways of implementing pressure both spoken and unspoken.
The focus for PE this week was to prepare for the upcoming athletics tournament next week. The children had a go at attempting all of the events in the competition and there scores were recorded in order for them to try and beat their best score.
We finished the week off by starting our new class novel- ‘The Windrush Child’. This book is based on the true story of many children a part of the Windrush generation. The book focuses on the struggles of foreign families living abroad and how racism has impacted their lives. The girls football team also got to play their rearranged tournament. The girls battled the cold conditions and played excellently- drawing 1, losing 1 and winning 4 games.
Let’s Celebrate
Rex for being an enthusiastic learner: Who knew how much you loved space! From the moment we started our new science topic, you have shown such excitement and focus for this area of learning. You have also contributed to our lesson by providing your own knowledge to our discussions. This has been brilliant to see!
Cora for being a determined learner: It is clear to see that you have been practicing your times tables over the holidays as you have become speedier and more fluent when practicing this week. You have been focusing on those trickier times tables and using what you know to work out what you don’t know. Great Work!
Virtue Butterflies: Our new virtues for the half term are eloquent and truthful. Our butterfly this week goes to Esther for being so eloquent during our prayer times. You really use this time to reflect and connect with God and you do this in such a peaceful and respectful manner.
Lunchtime Certificates
Role Model of the Week- Arthur
Marvelous Manners- Luke
Notices
Indoor Athletics Competition- All children taking part have been informed and information regarding this is available on the sports page.
Telescope- As we’ve started our space topic. Each child will have the opportunity to take our telescope home for a week to explore our universe. The telescope will go out on a Friday and will need to be returned by the following Friday.
Playground Blogs- Mrs Mather’s lunchtime awards will now go out on the weekly blog along with the playground blog being uploaded half termly.
'Keep shining, the world needs your light.'
Reception Blog - Friday 12th January 2024
Read moreYear 2 Weekly Blog 12/1/2024 -"God is so good to give us new days and New Years since He knows we need so many times to start over."
Who is this??? Find out what we got up to this week ….
Read moreYear 5 Homework- Due Thursday 18th January
Spellings
The focus this week has been spellings with the ee sound which is spelt ei. The first 9 spellings focus on this with the final 3 being previous tricky words that we have covered.
receive
deceive
ceiling
receipt
conceit
seize
protein
caffeine
conceive
determined
familiar
persuade
Maths
Will be on IXL to practice our factors work. Children are to jot down their ‘factor bugs’ to help present their work and any further jotting such as their times tables are advised.
K3- Identify factors
English
In English, we have been reading/analysing a sci-fi story to look of how we can improve the chosen word classes (noun, adjective, verb and adverbs). Our focus has also been to choose the appropriate word to fit the context.
S2- Using stronger verbs
Welcome back!
Welcome back to nursery everyone, and a Happy New Year! I hope all had a fabulous Christmas and managed a little rest too. It was so lovely to see how the children were happy to be back at nursery.
We have started this year finding out about ‘dinosaurs’. This was the children’s request and we have learnt so many facts already. The children are really growing their brains!
If you click on the button below you will be able to see everything we will be doing this half term. Perhaps you can get involved at home too. I will be sending home little challenges for you to do.
As you can see we are going to be extremely busy! All this on top of what the learning we so on a daily basis!
Worship
Religious Understanding.
This helps children to understand why the Bible is so special to Christians, showing us that Jesus loves us and is a role model for us to copy in loving one another. We discussed the Gospel account of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet, showing that He loves us and is a role model for us to copy in loving one another.
We looked at our Bible in nursery and then challenged ourselves to be good role models to one another and show Jesus’ love in all that we do.
Michelle’s blog
Hello everyone and welcome back. I hope you have all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year. It has been lovely listening to the children excitedly telling us all about their experiences over the holiday period.
Thank you so much for all the lovely cards and gifts, it is very much appreciated. We hope you all liked your boxes.
This week we have begun a new topic, by request of the children we will be learning all about dinosaurs. As you know, some of the children are already experts in dinosaurs, so I expect they will be teaching us grown ups a thing or two. We have begun by looking at the different types of dinosaurs and have explored and investigated their differences and similarities. We then discussed our favourite dinosaur and had to tell our friends why we had chosen that particular dinosaur. Mine is a Parasaurolophus, because I like the idea that it used its horn to make a noise. Maybe you could draw a picture of your favourite dinosaur and bring it in next week. This is a good game to play with your child, it made us do lots of thinking, growing our brains as we investigated and asked lots of questions about dinosaurs. Click here.
We have continued to practise our letter sounds, we really do know quite a few now. We have not forgotten them over the Christmas holidays! We have also really enjoyed our PE lessons this week, as we now do PE on a Wednesday as well. We are getting so good at putting our shoes and socks on now and nearly all of us can now zip up our coats. With practice we know that we will all get there!
Have a lovely weekend everybody and we will see you next week,
Michelle
Cherry tots
As well as practising our Fundamental Movement Skills we have also started ‘Cherry Tots Dance. These are activities with words, actions and music designed yo help young children to recognise and react to their moods and emotions. This week we have been ‘Sad and Glad’ cherries and ‘Quiet and Mad’ cherries.
Emma’s Blog
Happy new year to you all, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and new year. I've really enjoyed listening to the children talking about what fun they got up to over the holidays.
As we approach the end of our 1st week at nursery of 2024, you are not going to believe what we have been up to. One word... Dinosaurs! This half term, to start of our brains growing we will be learning all about dinosaurs. As you can imagine, the children are very excited.
As we become paleontologists and dinosaur explorers. We have been digging and searching for fossils and bones in the sand, using our small brushes and mini spades to search with. The children found different sizes of bones and were trying to work out, by the size and shape, which part of the dinosaur body they came from. The children enjoyed doing this, so we decided to make our own fossils out of salt dough. The children helped to make the dough and we used different parts of a dinosaurs body, or fossils, and printed them into the dough. When it dries out, we will add a bit of colour to them and then hide them in our sand for the children to dig and search for. Here is a link to see some facts all about fossils. Click here.
We have also become dinosaur explorers. Andy the explorer, on cbeebies, has inspired the children and nursery ladies to go on a dinosuar hunt in the school woodland trail. We had to look for dinosaurs hiding in the bushes or up trees. We were so happy and relieved that we found the nine dinosaurs that had escaped from nursery! We put them all safely back in our explorer's backpack and took them back to nursery. The children and nursery ladies had so much fun!
We have been exploring what different dinosaurs eat. Those that have only a diet of meat are carnivores, those with a vegetarian only diet are herbivores and those who eat both are omnivores.
Which one would you be?
On Wednesday, something very exciting happened and the children couldn't believe there eyes. We found a dinosaur egg in nursery!
The children are going to keep it safe and look after it and we will have to wait and see what's going to happen to it. I will keep you all posted.
Have a 'roarsome' weekend,
See you all on Monday
Emma
Andy’s Adventures
Dinosaur facts, want to know more, click here
Parent questionnaire
Each year we send out a questionnaire for your feedback about nursery. We are always seeking to improve our practice so if you could take a few moments to complete it we would be most grateful.
Lastly, I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and I will see you on Monday for even more fun and learning.
God Bless
Barbara
Year 4 Weekly blog Friday 12th January 2024 "The path is illuminated by the light within you."
What a lovely first week back for the new year! Children really seem to have grown over the holidays. This week, we started with a whole school assembly all about letting our light from within shine outwards to help others. Children thought about how they would like to share their unique light this year. On Wednesday, we went to church to see the new year in. Year 4 children sung their hearts out and looked after the younger children with such care.
We have had an exciting week of learning. In number mastery, we have focused on the 12x table. We will soon be ‘Going for Goals’ to master every times tables fact, ready for our multiplication check in June. We have also been comparing and ordering 4 digit numbers. In History we have started our new topic on the Anglo-Saxons. Children began by creating their own Anglo-Saxon society called Angleton. They found out about homes, way of life and society structure in these times. In Science we started our new topic (States of Matter) by making ice-cream. We saw our liquid mixture turn solid and then investigated the properties of solids and liquids. It was very successful - they all came out like ‘Mr Whippy’ and were delicious! Next week - gases! In English, we wrote our second persuasive letter in response to our novel, ‘The Butterfly Lion.’ All in all a very productive week indeed.
Let’s Celebrate!
This week, a Bobby Bee certificate went to Daisy for always giving her all and buzzing for enthusiasm in learning. A Sadie Spider certificate went to Lorenzo for working on his resilience and trying so hard in lessons. Joshua received a Lizzie Ladybird certificate for striving to improve in all he does. Well done!
Eloquent and Truthful butterflies
This half term, our virtues are ‘Eloquent and Truthful.’ This week our butterflies are Logan for showing such maturity and respect in church and Beth for showing such maturity when making ice-cream
Other stars!
PE stars this week were Beth and Teddy for super gymnastics and participation
Lunchtime role model of the week was William
Marvellous Manners in the hall - Rose
Swimming stars were Lorenzo and William - super listening and improvements
Notices
Please click the button below to read an important letter about the Reconciliation and Holy Communion programme this year. Then fill in the form below that.
Trip- ‘Cosmetic Chemistry’ 23rd January. Children will be travelling by coach to UCLAN, Preston, where they will take part in a day of Science in the laboratory, linked to our Science topic of solids, liquids and gases. Please pay on Parentpay. Children will need a packed lunch in a plastic bag for this trip unless they are normally school lunch - in which case Jackie will make them one.
Wednesday 20th March Shakespeare Playmaking festival at Hodgson High School. All children from Year 4 will be performing scenes from ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ with other local schools. Children will get a coach in the morning and rehearse there all day. They then need to be picked up from Hodgson at 3:00 for an early tea and brought back at 5:00 to Hodgson ready for their performance at 5:30-6:45. I thought I would give you early notice of this. As it stands there may only be space in the Hodgson hall for one paying adult. Tickets are not yet available.
Have a lovely weekend. If you have any questions about the above, please do not hesitate to ask.
Mrs Lyons, Miss Hennessey and Mrs Carter
Year 6 Weekly Blog - 'The best is yet to come. The start of a New Year is the chance to rewrite your book.'
Welcome back…
Wishing you all a very happy new year. It has been so lovely to welcome the children back to school this week, despite the bitter cold. The most important part of any school is the people within it. We have loved seeing the smiles and listening to all of the wonderful stories that the festive season has brought. On Wednesday we walked down to church to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. It was an opportunity for the children to spend a few minutes in silence reflecting on what a miracle the baby Jesus was. Father Peter spoke about the gifts that the wise men brought and asked us all to reflect on how we use our gifts to make our world and community a better place.
The children have been thinking about what 2024 might look like for them. The children have all reflected on their year ahead and thought about their new year’s resolutions- what do they want to improve this year and what are they going to do to achieve this. They are all going to come across some monumental experiences and opportunities this year. Some of them will be challenging, some will be exciting, some they will be anxious about. Whatever happens, they know they have the skills to tackle it with great resilience and determination. I have to say, they have all come back to school extremely well rested and ready to take on all the challenges they come across in their learning- I am so proud of them this week, they have worked so hard!
This half term, we are looking at what it means to be a Eloquent and truthful learner. Both of these qualities will be really important as we journey towards half term, expressing our ideas and learning but also being truthful with ourselves and others in what we hope to achieve and what we need to do to get there…
This week we have done lots of work on rounding in Maths, to the nearest 10,000 and 100,000 as well as working on the accuracy of our arithmetic work. Our focus in English has been heavily on our writing, where each day we have written a paragraph on our class biography of Henry VIII. Over the last few weeks we have collected lots of biographical vocabulary, ideas and cohesive devices, so it was great using them in our own writing. We each had our own marking key to work off to, which we used to ensure we had all the necessary elements within each paragraph. This writing stage has been very much guided and modelled to them, we have worked together to bounce off ideas and help one another. Next week, they will start to gather information ready to write their own biographies where they have the opportunity to use these skills independently. They have a research task as part of their homework that they will need to help them with this next week- please check the homework as this is to be handed in slightly earlier. This week in indoor PE we have been practicing and developing our athletics events and trying to beat our personal best in speed bounce, standing long jump and triple jump.
End of Year Assessment
This year, the SATs tests will take place the week beginning Monday 13th May. I have had a conversation with the children this week, discussing what our plan of action is, to best prepare them. They know that the pace of learning will ramp up this term as we try and get everything that we need to cover, completed. This is the first time that we have discussed them as I am a great believer that Year 6 is not just about the SATs. However, it would be unfair if the children did not prepare for the tests properly.
The children know that there is nothing to be worried about and they should not feel anxious about taking them, all they need to do, is their BEST as their best is ALWAYS good enough. Please do not run out and start buying SATs materials, I will provide everything that you need and these will be targeted to the children and their current learning.
We will in the next couple of months arrange a meeting where we can discuss SAT’s and offer ideas as to how best you can help your child to prepare them. If anybody does have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Leading Learners
Well done to Harvey and Owen this week.
Harvey you have thoroughly got involved in learning this week and pushed yourself to be better each day. You have listened carefully in lessons, applied this to your work and managed those distractions really well this week- keep this up! We have been so proud of how reilient you have been and how yyou have shown great independence in your work- Keep up with your positive approach!
Owen, you work tirelessly in lessons to be the best you can be and I love teaching you as you are always so focused and engaged, with your great attention to detail- you most definitely keep me on my toes! Your thirst for learning is contagious and how you strive to challenge yourself in your work.
Lunch Time Awards …
Marvellous Manners awards … Daisy
Role Model of the week … Connor-Sean
Borwick Hall
The next payment towards our residential is now live on ParentPay, please ensure this next instalment in paid by Friday 9th February. Any problems or questions, do please come and see Mrs Nel in the office or Mrs Gregan.
Helpers in the mornings:
This week and for the first week back after Christmas we have the following children helping to take the younger children to their class:
Tabby Evan Owen Leon
Notices
Indoor Athletics Competition- Will take place on Tuesday 16th January at Stanley Park Sports Centre in Blackpool. Those that have been picked will have been informed and information will be on the sports page.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Mrs Harrison, Mrs Webster and Mrs Barker
Year 6 Weekly Home Learning 12.01.24
SPELLING:This week our focus is on words ending with ‘cious’. Once you have practised there is also a Purple Mash quiz set for you to test yourself at home. I have also set a 2Do on Purple Mash, where you will find some downlaodable flash cards, that may help you if you want to print them off:
Mrs Barker’s Spelling Group
Answer away because change different does
MATHS:
Complete the following IXL strands on adding fractions with the same denominator:
M2 Add and subtract fractions with the same denominator using number lines
ENGLISH
This needs to be in school on Tuesday, as the research you do will be used in class to aid your writing in class. I have set a Purple Mash to do for you and we can print this at school to go in your book.
Please research Rosa Parks ready to write a biography on her in English lessons next week. Think about the following titles:
Early life and family
Education and working life
Experiencing Injustice
Fight against persecution
Later life and legacy
Year 1 Weekly Blog 12.1.24 'Nothing can dim the light that shines from within'
Welcome to our weekly Year 1 blog. Please read on….
Read moreIndoor Athletics Competition at Stanley Park Blackpool
This will take place on Tuesday 16th January from 1:00- 4:00. We will be providing a coach to transport the children down to Blackpool- however children will need to be picked up from the Stanley Park Sports Centre Blackpool at 4:00pm. Parents are allowed to watch as there is seated stands inside the sports hall. Children are to come to school in their PE kits and to bring plenty of water. Any children with asthma will need to bring their inhalers.
Year 4 homework to be completed by Thursday 18th January
Maths
This week, we have nailed all the facts for the 12x table. Please go on TTRockstars each day for 5 minutes - it is set for the 2x 5x 10x and 12x tables. Also complete IXL unit F13 on the 12x table.
Spelling
We have started to learn about homophones. Here are the 20 we have covered this week
there, their, they're, hear, here, quite, quiet, see, sea, one, won
bare, bear, sun, son, to, too, two, be, bee, night, knight
Complete the purple mash spelling quizzes set. Then in your homework book, see how many of these homophones you can use in a paragraph of writing on a subject of your choice. It could be linked to something we have done in class, like Anglo-Saxons or making ice -cream. You must use the correct homophone for the correct meaning. Here is a little example below:
In the quiet of the morning, as the sun rose, my son woke me. The night before, a bear had attacked our village! There were broken fences and some hen coop was broken too! Two of the chickens had escaped to the nearby river. you could hear each bee buzzing angrily. The bear had disturbed their hives….
Reading
You have a new target set. Please make sure you are enjoying a good book and are ready to quiz soon! Also, could you please check at home to see if you have any school books. We have many Harry Potter books missing from our library!
Music
Practice your new note, G and the sequence of notes B, A and G. Also our new song on Charanga.
Spring 1 Extra-Curricular Calendar
With this half term being such a short one, we have not over-loaded the calendar, but instead tried to ensure that there are opportunities for participation across the year groups.
Choir will resume on Monday with a really exciting focus - The Big Sing. On Tuesday 5th March, the choir will be joining schools across the district to perform at Lowther Pavilion for The Big Sing.
There are two multi-sports clubs for this half term. One for Year 1 & 2 on a Monday morning and one for Year 3 & 4 on a Wednesday morning. Please sign up for these below.
Mr Nay will be resuming his football club after school, starting next Friday. The last cohort have 2 more sessions of their block, then a new one will start. If anybody else would like to get involved, please do!
Year 3 Homework - Tuesday 9th January
Maths
This week we have been looking at 3 digit numbers and what each digit represents in the number . Can you complete the maths in your homework book. It’s just like the work we’ve done in class
Science
This half term we will be learning about electricity and circuits.
Watch this video and design an electricity safety poster.
How to be safe around electricity - BBC Bitesize
Spellings
y that sounds like short i
mystery syllable cymbals cygnet Egypt gym pyramid mysterious hymn
Your spelling quiz will be on Monday 15th January
Spring term - Year 2 Homelearning to be handed in on Monday 15th January
Getting curious about countries this half term!!!
Read moreFencing for Spring 1
This half term, fencing will be available for all children in Year 1 & Year 2. The club will take place on a Friday morning; starting next Friday 12th January. The children selected will need to be in school for 7.55am on Friday mornings for this half term, in full-PE kit. The cost of the course is £20 for the 5 weeks, which will need to be paid before the first session. The payment will go live on Parent Pay next week and a text will be sent.
Year 3 Weekly Blog 21.12.23- The light in a child’s eyes is all it takes to make Christmas a magical time of the year!
This final week has been a whirlwind of Christmas joy. Thank you so much for joining us on Monday evening at church. The children’s telling of the Christmas story through song and scripture was simply beautiful.
Read moreYear 5 Weekly Blog 21.12.23- ‘The best Christmas gift is to realise what we already have’
We are finally here! Here’s to the end of the final week of our longest half term and also the final school week of 2023! Although it was a shorter week than most, the week was still filled with lots of festive celebrations (with a little bit of work alongside it all). Our week started off with our Christmas concert performance at Church. Anyone who was able to attend any of the performances would sure agree that the children were absolutely fantastic. They blew us all away with their singing and it really was a joy to watch.
On Tuesday, our KS2 Christmas party took place with lots of fun, joy, dancing and laughter. The children’s behaviour and manner throughout the whole party was brilliant which allowed them to really enjoy the moment. We did try and limit the sugar intake throughout the day after the onslaught of cakes after our bake off so I am hoping the children were okay later that evening. On Wednesday, our wonderful catering team put together a fantastic Christmas dinner for us all in which we all enjoyed together.
Our final day consisted of us coming together one last time for a collective worship and for us to reflect on the journey of advent. After a full class tidy up and a very competitive Christmas quiz, we finished our day with a Christmas film. The Year 5 team wish you all a very happy and merry Christmas and we look forward to seeing you in 2024!
To finish our forces topic off in Science, we looked at the force of ‘upthrust’ and how rockets use this to overcome the power of gravity. We made our own rockets using just elastic bands and kitchen roll tubes and we looked at how we can improve our rocket to allow it to travel faster through the air.
Here our some pictures from the children’s enrichment afternoon last week with Mrs Lyons- in which there was lots of festive baking taking place.
Let’s Celebrate
Erin and Esther for being learners of the term- You two have really displayed all of our learning characters this year. You both are such lovely girls and you are both so enthusiastic for your learning- which makes you excellent learning partners.
Bella and Roseanna for being faith-filled and hopeful learners- The way you two conduct yourselves both in and out of the classroom is excellent. You have such a calming and loving character in which you never have any issues out on the playground- but are always solving problems.
Notices
Homework- Please check the homework blog for tasks to do over the holidays.
Monday 8th January- School will re-open.
"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!"
Reception Blog - Friday 15th December 2023
Read moreYear 2 Homework for the Holiday - Making Memories
Miss Drummond and I have listed a set of memory making activities! Have fun…..
Read more