Our blogs

Reception - Friday 23rd September 2022

Date: 23rd Sep 2022 @ 4:06pm

We have all had another amazing week in Reception. We are all remembering our routines and showing great concentration doing our morning activities. (Which was a new addition for our routine this week)

We started learning Phonics this week. We have all learnt the sounds s, a, t and thought of our own words that begin with these sounds. Next week we will be learning the sounds p, i, n.

Thank you everyone for coming to our 'Meet the Teacher' last night. Enjoy retelling stories using the books and please still bring in your book bags everyday so we can read with the children too. We're giving you a little longer to complete the tasks, therefore the next time they will be changed is Monday 3rd October. 

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Year 6 Blog Friday 23rd September 2022

Date: 23rd Sep 2022 @ 3:48pm

Welcome to Year 6 weekly blog.

On Friday, we celebrated all the children that will be representing the school as a Digital Leader, Eco Team or part of the School Council. The leaders (in Year 6) are very excited to start working with them all. Next week, the Reading Ambassadors will begin their roles by helping the infants to read. 

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• We have been learning how to use our times tables as related facts to answer questions like 0.4 x 500 = ? We have also used number lines to show why numbers round up or down to 1, 10, 100, 1 000, 10 000, 100 000 or even a million.
• In English we took another scene from Aladdin to construct our own dialogue and focused on the rules of speech marks within a story.
• In Art and Computing, we learnt how to use digital media to create artwork of self-portraits. The finished results are amazing. Please check out the Year 6 gallery to see.
• In PSHE, we continued our ‘mental health’ topic by looking at different scenarios that can happen over time and how that affects our feelings and emotions.
• In Music, we have been learning how to use recorders with various songs.
• In French, we recapped the French vowel sounds and actions. Then we played some games to practise reading words with the vowel sounds in. After that, we completed our piece of writing 'Tout sur moi' - All about me, checking that all the adjectives agreed with their nouns and all verb forms were correct. We are getting much more confident to pronounce our French writing correctly - C'est super! 
• In Science, we looked at the data we gathered last week about the trees in the school grounds and came to a conclusion about which trees were most common. Then we used all our new knowledge and vocabulary from the last couple of weeks about trees to make a Classification Key - a flow chart used by scientists to identify living things. 

Home Practice

Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings (-ible / -ibly words)

• Sumdog (-ible / -ibly wk 3)
• Horrible, horribly, illegible, illegibly, impossible, impossibly, incredible, incredibly, possible, sensibly, terribly, visible, invincible, edible, indestructible

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of 100, 100 and 250 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 numbers then back again in 100:

645, 745, 845, 945, 1 045, 1 145, etc

and in 200:

645, 845, 1 045, 1 245, etc          

Start with different numbers and count up and back in 250s:

1 850, 2 100, 2 350, 2 600, etc      

• Sumdog (Times Tables x4, x6, x8 week 3)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on 4s, 6s and 8s.
  • (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Place Value week 3)
  • This week’s learning is to continue practicing place value with finding more or less with different powers of 10.
  • For further maths work, please visit the ‘Maths Training’ section which you can find in the tasks box on the left of the main screen. This will enable your child to push their learning further with the skills that Sumdog has given them, following a recent diagnostic test.

Year 4 Blog Friday 23rd September 2022

Date: 23rd Sep 2022 @ 3:36pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 23^rd September 2022

A very busy week in Year 4! Here’s what we have been learning:

In English, we continued reading our class novel ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’.  We described the moment that Michael fell into the sea and his thoughts and feelings at this time. We also tried to use ambitious vocabulary and a variety of co-ordinating conjunctions in our writing.

In Maths, we learnt how to accurately use a numberline to add and subtract numbers.  We also identified step sizes in sequences and then continued the sequence as accurately as we could.

In RE, we heard the story of Esau and Jacob, and discussed their differences -especially how Jacob managed to get God’s blessing!

In PE, we warmed up by running in teams in a 'relay race'. We also continued practising our ‘pass then move’ skills.  We then used these skills in small games of netball. See our pictures in the gallery.

In PSHE, we further explored self-esteem by identifying positive things about ourselves and explaining how they contribute to our self-esteem.

In Science, we discussed how to group or classify animals according to their characteristics. We especially revised our learning about the 5 vertebrate groups – mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. You can see our learning in the gallery.

In French, we recapped the French vowel sounds and actions. Then we played some games to practise reading words with the vowel sounds in.

Home Practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters.  Find the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 100’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you have got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 100’s

For example, start at 0 and count up to 1500 and back again 

0   100   200   etc                      1500   1400   1300   etc

For example, start at 278 and down up to 1878 and back again

278    378    478           etc              1878   1778   1678   etc

Times tables

You should have been given your times table target this week. Please therefore practise this times table in preparation for your test next week, on Thursday (29^th September 2022).  Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?

Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk

It is crucial that you learn all of your table facts as this will help you with many aspects of maths.

Spellings

Your spellings next week are all homophones.  You have also brought a paper copy home with you, so that you can practise these every night during the week.  Please remember to use neat joined up writing and check them very carefully once you have written them! We will be practising these spellings in class too. Your test will be on Friday 30^th September 2022.

main             mane            piece           peace           fair             fare

plane            plain            there           their           they’re       

here            hear            heel             heal

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 3 challenges on Sumdog:

• A spelling challenge based on the spellings above
• A maths challenge adding and subtracting numbers mentally
• A times tables challenge based on the 5 and 10 times tables

Please make sure you log on and have a go!  Little and often is the key to success!

Please also have a look at our galleries which some of our learning this week.

Have a fabulous weekend

The Year 4 Team

Year 2 Blog Friday 23rd September 2022

Date: 23rd Sep 2022 @ 1:04pm

We have had a very busy week of learning in Year 2. A huge well done to everyone for listening so well and working so hard. In English, the children have worked on using joining words (conjunctions) to extend their sentences. They have written some great sentences using and, but, or, because, when, that and if. They have also written super stories based on our book, Flat Rabbit by Bardur Oskarsson. In Maths, they have been finding 1 or 10 more/less than a given number and comparing numbers. The children have thought about what God’s dream for them might be and decorated a star in RE. They made birthday cards and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in French. Mrs Whitworth played her saxophone to the children during Music time and they thoroughly enjoyed it. The children learnt about habitats during our Science lesson and drew a picture of their favourite animal in it's habitat. They thought about why it was a good place for the animal to live.

Reading

In Year 2, children should read for at least 15 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.

You could write down these new words in a word book and find out what they mean. It is amazing to see the list grow, something to be very proud of, especially when children realise how many more words they understand and can use!

Please date, sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it. For Example - 14.09.22 Max’s Box. Read to page 6, really enjoying the book or good sounding out of tricky words or struggled with the word – because/finished the book. MG.

Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.

Reading resources:

Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.

If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.

Username: sto2

Password: 1234

Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.

Spelling

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday (30.09.22). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

It is useful to write the words down on the spelling sheet, but also to call the words out and spell them out loud using the letter sounds or names. Learn them in a different order, not just how they appear on the list below.

You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by next Friday 30.09.22.

This week’s spellings:

wheel               graph

whizz               flew   

whirl                screw

when                their

phew                could

Maths

At home, count forwards and backwards in twos, starting from 2 or 40. Write them down as you say them and see what patterns you can spot. Are they odd or even numbers? For a challenge count past 40, see how far you can go!

You will have a 2x tables, and 1 or 10 more/less than challenge on Sumdog to complete by next Friday 30.09.22.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Have a lovely weekend.

Year 2 Team.

Year 1 Blog- Friday 23rd September

Date: 22nd Sep 2022 @ 9:56am

Welcome to your Friday blog!

Thank you to everyone who came to our Meet the Teacher meeting. Please find the PowerPoint attached at the bottom of this blog.

English

This week our story was all about the Large family trying to be a bit more healthy. We had discussions about healthy food and exercise. We wrote our own recipe for a cake and did some lovely independent writing about how the family tried to get fit. We tried really hard to write on the lines and put finger spaces inbetween our words.

Phonics

We have been revising our Phase 3 sounds, sh,ch,th,ee,or. Next week we are starting our Red Rose Phonics sessions.

Maths

This week we have been comparing amounts and using our Maths vocabulary of equal, fewer and more. We have been using the practical equipment again to make numbers up to 29 with 10s and 1s. We have also been looking at one more and less then counting in 1s forwards and backwards from different starting numbers.

Play Place Value basketball. Click here. Choose numbers up to 29.

Science

We talked our senses and how they help us to make sense of the world around us. We also learnt about which part of our body is associated with each sense.

We went outside on a senses walk then recorded what we had found by drawing and writing.

R.E.

We have been learning about the wonderful world that God created and how we can do our part to look after it. We learnt that we could recycle, plants trees or even just put our rubbish in the bin when we've finished!

P.E.

This week, we focused on our bouncing and catching skills. We loved seeing which team could pass to each other the fastest!

See the pictures here.

P.S.H.E.

We learnt about the word 'unique' in PSHE and how every single one of us is different in our own way. We played a game to see what we like and dislike and then sorted pictures into 'I like' and 'I don't like'. 

Art

We continued to practise using the sketching pencils. We focused on pattern making and copying patterns. It look a lot of resilience and patience!

Geography
We have been looking at the different parts of our school and grounds. We remembered our learning from a couple of weeks ago when we talked about human and physical features. We took photos and used these to make a plan of our school and grounds.

Outdoor Learning

This week we have had some fantastic sessions. We have been building dens, finding slugs, snails, worms, beetles, caterpillars and even a frog!

Our teamwork and communication was amazing! 

Thanks if you have sent in a pair of named wellies for your child.

French

 We practised asking and answering questions in French then played some games to practise numbers and colours. We learnt a French nursery rhyme and joined in with the actions. 

Music

We did some singing and then we got out the Boomwhackers to play "You Are My Sunshine ".

We couldn't finish the week without imagining we were in the Large family. We had a lovely time sharing a story and of course...........a piece of cake!

We remembered The Queen and her family in our prayers this week.

Sumdog challenges

Phonics - phase 3 ee and or

Maths - one more and one less

Continue to count on and back from 0 to 20. Start at different numbers, for example 4, 5, 6, 7. Then 11, 12, 13, 14.

Please practise number formation too. We are working hard to make sure all of of our numbers to 20 are correct!

Year 5 Blog Friday 23rd September

Date: 22nd Sep 2022 @ 8:19am

Welcome to your Friday Blog. 

We have had a wonderful week in Year 5.

Despite having only 4 days, we have done lots of amazing work and we earned lots of Golden Tokens. This meant we had a lovely Golden Time on Friday afternoon.

We have been looking at dialogue (speech) in English. We have been learning the rules and have had a go at writing our own dialogue between two characters from the book. Everybody has done really well. Look out for speech in your reading books. 

In maths we have been ordering and comparing numbers and placing them on a number line. We will continue with this next week and will be introduced to millions. 

On Thursday we had our 'Wonderful World' assembly. We heard a story called 'One House For All.' It was a lovely story which celebrated everybody's differences. It spoke about different countries, languages and cultures. 

We started a new topic in art. We are looking at an artist called Jo Quigley. In our art lesson we looked at lots of different pieces of art by Jo Quigley. We talked about what we could see and came up with questions about the art. We will be creating our own piece of art in the style of Jo Quigley. 

In French, we recapped the French vowel sounds and actions. Then we played some games to practise reading words with the vowel sounds in. Then we learnt how to name the school subjects and used our new vocabulary in a sentence with our opinion eg J'adore le francais et les sciences mais ma matiere preferee, c'est le dessin.

Check out or PE gallery to see us practising some indoor athletics. 

Home Practice

Reading

Read out loud to somebody at home for 20 minutes every night. Look out for dialogue (speech). Put on voices where characters are speaking. Talk about the puncutation used and different words for said. 

Counting

Count out loud in:

9s from 0 to 108 and back again. 

0, 9, 18, ... 

7s from 0 to 84 and back again. 

0, 7, 14, ...

100s from 124,000 to 125,000 and back again. 

124,000          124,100          124,200          ...

Times Tables

Everybody has now been given their own individual times tables target. Please practise every night. Listen to songs, write them out, play on Hit the Button, say them out loud in the car, etc. Targets will be reassessed each week. 

Spelling 

Here are your spellings for next week. Most end with -ible or -able. There are also some which we have all been struggling with in our writing so need some extra practice. 

horrible          terrible          possible          invincible          adorable          enjoyable          valuable          identifiable          incredible          sensible          reliable          respectable          recognise          probably          different 

Sumdog

Complete the Sumdog challenges:

2 x maths challenges 

1 x spelling challenge 

Have a fantastic weekend!

Year 6 Blog Friday 16th September 2022

Date: 16th Sep 2022 @ 4:07pm

Welcome to a Year 6 weekly blog.

We have had individual and sibling pictures taken this week with everyone looking super smart in their autumn uniforms. They should take a couple of weeks to come back to us, if you are thinking of ordering any.

Our leadership roles have started this week, along with buddying. The Year 6s are showing great responsibility and are so far doing an excellent job at being role models for the school.

This week’s learning in Year 6:

• We have continued our place value knowledge in Maths through comparing, ordering and rounding whole numbers and numbers with three decimal places.
• In English we took the good and evil characters of both Aladdin and the Moor to write in role, making sure we kept good control over the style for each. We then watched a clip from the new Aladdin film (the cave of wonders) to write a descriptive action scene.
• In Geography, we introduced our topic, Mountains, and used atlases to search for the largest mountains ranges in the world and where they are located.
• In PE, we decided to alternate the learning from invasion games to athletics, helping the children to focus on the skills of running and throwing, and working together as a team.
• In Art, we completed the sketches of our self portraits. You can view these in our Year 6 gallery.
• In PSHE, we introduced our topic of ‘Mental Health’ through a discussion of what it is, and how we can help identify it. Then we looked at strategies of reducing mental anxiety.
• In French, we wrote a first draft of a piece of writing about ourselves, using a bilingual dictionary if needed. 
• In Science, we discussed the 6 types of scientific enquiry and matched a question to an enquiry type. Then we recapped all the new leaf vocabulary that we learnt last week and used the words to play 'guess my leaf' with a partner. We then went outside to investigate which tree is most common in our school grounds. We also presented our data in a bar chart. There was some very careful graph drawing - well done, year 6. 

This is the first week of our Home Practice. Please complete the following tasks by next Wednesday:

Reading – Use your Home Reading to read every night for 30 minutes. You also have a Reading Journal/Diary that must be used for the title of the book and any reading challenge chosen.

• You may change your book any day between Monday and Wednesday

Spellings (-able / -ably words)

- Sumdog (-able / -ably wk 2)

• enjoyable, unavailable, changeable, noticeable, unbelievable, probably, considerable, unacceptable, comfortably, respectable, dependable, incapable, unachievable, uncomfortable, miserably

Maths challenges:

• Counting:
  • This week we have been counting in decimal steps of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.25 Try to do the same out loud or with paper.
  • Draw a line with some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers as you count up or down, then double check it to make sure you have said the correct numbers.
  • g. Start with different numbers and count up 10 numbers then back again in 0.1:

5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, etc

and in 0.2:

6.5, 6.7, 6.9, 7.1, 7.3, 7.5, 7.7, etc          

Start at a number with two decimal places like 8.12 and count up 10 numbers and down again:

8.12, 8.32, 8.52, 8.72, 8.92, 9.12, etc        

Now try to count in 0.25 from 7 and 23 and 54:

7, 7.25, 7.50, 7.75, 8, 8.25, etc

• Sumdog (Times Tables x4, x6 week 2)
  • Each child has their own tables target which they should know. The Sumdog challenge may relate to their target but this week we have focused on 4s and 8s, which will be great practice for the future. (Every Tuesday there is a tables test).

• Sumdog (Place Value week 2)
  • This week’s learning is to practice questions on the value of each place and be able to round numbers up to 1 000 000.
  • For further maths work, please visit the ‘Maths Training’ section which you can find in the tasks box on the left of the main screen. This will enable your child to push their learning further with the skills that Sumdog has given them, following a recent diagnostic test.

Reception Blog Friday 16th September

Date: 16th Sep 2022 @ 3:54pm

We have a great week in Reception!

We have all come in and remembered our routines from last week. We have done lots of name games to learn all of our friends names. In Art we have have painted a picture of ourselves. During our first PE lesson, we focussed on getting changed and did very well.

We had our first Music Lesson with Mrs Winter, we sang nursery rhymes and clapped to the beat of songs.

We also had our first French lesson with Mrs Quilliam. We looked at the globe to see where we live and where France is. We all managed a whole sentence in French - Je m'appelle..... I am called ..... and listened and joined in with the songs Frere Jacques and Meunier tu dors. We also learnt au revoir - goodbye. 

On Friday we went to Golden Assembly with the whole school and had our first Phonics lesson about the sounds.

See you next week!

Year 4 Blog Friday 16th September 2022

Date: 16th Sep 2022 @ 3:53pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 16^th September 2022

Another fabulous week in Year 4. Here’s what we have been learning this week:

In English, we wrote a character description of Michael, the main character in Kensuke’s Kingdom.  In addition, we wrote a ship’s log – we tried to use words we had learnt from the novel and write in the style of Michael Morpurgo.

In Maths, we compared whole and decimal numbers using the greater than and less than symbols ( < means less than and > means greater than).  We also practised rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. Later on in the week, we investigated adding and subtracting 1, 10, 100 and 1000 from different numbers. This was especially tricky when we needed to bridge the tens and hundreds. In addition, we have being playing ‘Exchange up’ and ‘Exchange down’ which has helped with our understanding of number. Have a look at our learning in the gallery.

In RE, we learnt about Jesus’ human family and discussed the names we recognised from the Bible. We also retold the story of Abraham and tried to include reasons for the choices he made.

In History, we started our Romans topic.  We looked at different books about the Romans and shared what we already knew.  Then, we wrote down some of the things we would like to learn throughout this topic.

In PE, we continued practising our throwing and catching skills.  We then used these skills in small games of netball. Have a look at the pictures in our gallery here.

In PSHE, we agreed ‘ground rules’ which we must all abide by when taking part in discussions. We also started our first topic, self-esteem, and considered what makes a person happy and what helps to build self-esteem.

In Science, we went outside and looked at different types of leaves. We then brought some leaves back into the classroom and classified them in different ways.

In French, we recapped numbers and did our best to recall the numbers without having to count up.  Then used bilingual dictionaries to do our first piece of writing this year about ourselves.  These are already on display and look great!

Home Practice

Reading

Please read for 20 minutes each evening to an adult at home.  Make sure you discuss the story and the characters and try to find out the meaning of any new words too.  Reading every night will help you read more fluently and with understanding. 

Counting

This week, please practise counting in 10’s – draw a line and some marks on it like I do in class. You could write the numbers down as you count up.  When you count down, cover the numbers up, say the number, then reveal what you have got written down to check you’ve said the correct number.

Count in 10’s

For example, start at 0 and count up to 120 and back again 

0   10  20   etc                      120   110   100   etc

For example, start at 157 and down up to 207 and back again

157   167   177        etc              207   197   187   etc

Times tables

You should have been given your times table target this week. Please therefore practise this times table in preparation for your test next week, on Friday (23^rd September 2022).  Ask someone at home to test you on your tables – can you recall them quickly and accurately?

Remember you can also practise your tables playing Hit the Button and timestables.co.uk

It is crucial that you learn all of your table facts as this will help you with many aspects of maths.

Spellings

Next week we will be learning how to use an apostrophe correctly when it shows possession therefore there are no words to learn.  We will be learning the rules for using an apostrophe when the noun is singular.

For example: Tom’s coat was in the classroom. (The coat belongs to Tom)   

Jane’s hat was blue. (The hat belongs to Jane)

James’ (or James’s) dog was called Bingo. (The dog belongs to James)

We will be practising this each day in class and you will be tested on this rule next Friday (23^rd September 2022).

Sumdog challenges

You have been set 2 challenges on Sumdog:

• A maths challenge ordering and comparing number beyond 1000
• A times tables challenge based on the 2 and 10 times tables

Please make sure you log on and have a go!  Little and often is the key to success!

Thank you for attending our Meet the Teacher meeting on Tuesday evening.  We have attached the PowerPoint below.

Have a lovely weekend.

The Year 4 Team

Year 3 Blog 16th September 2022

Date: 16th Sep 2022 @ 1:33pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog

This week we have been working hard in all our subjects and are continuing to shine as juniors!

We have been enjoying The Twits and have been looking at speech in the story. This has helped us to write in full sentences, remembering to write one idea at a time. The children acted some scenes out and even wrote their own scripts. 

In maths we have been learning how to use a number line and partition to add and subtract 2 digit numbers. This has been tricky but everyone has worked hard and made super progress with this new strategy. 

In our PE we have been learning some new tactics and strategies to pass the ball in a game of netball. We explored bounce, chest and lob passes. Have a look at our gallery to see us in action.

In our Stone Age learning we have been asking some great questions about life in Stone Age Britain. We also had a go at telling some stories about ourselves through cave paintings. Have a look in our gallery here. 

Home Practice

Reading

Read every night for at least 20 minutes. Regular reading is a great habit to get into. It will make all the difference as your children move through the juniors, allowing them to access more and more of our curriculum.

Spellings

Your children will have brought home a spelling card with their spellings to practise.

We have been learning to apply our phonics knowledge to our spellings and finding patterns. Eg. If I can spell corn, I can spell born, torn, worn.

We have also added some ideas on how to practise these at home. They are also available on Sumdog, little and often is the key!

Maths

We have set two maths challenges this week on Sumdog. Please practise the two times tables to improve accuracy and recall speed. We have also set a challenge on reading and counting three digit numbers.

Please also practise counting regularly to build up number fluency.

Count forwards and backwards in 10s from any 3 digit number. 

Eg. 157, 167, 177,187, 197, 207

Have a lovely weekend

The Year 3 Team

Year 2 Blog Friday 16th September 2022

Date: 15th Sep 2022 @ 4:20pm

Year 2 have done so well over the last couple of weeks. They have settled in quickly, understanding all the rules and routines so well. We are really impressed with how much they love to learn and how hard they work during lesson time. We have had so many people on gold, double gold and even triple gold!

In English, the children have retold the story of The Bear and the Piano and written some of their own character descriptions. They have sequenced the Five Little Fiends story and focused on sentence structure. In Maths, they have worked with base ten, counters, arrow cards and straws to help them with their understanding of place value. We have started our new topic in RE – Beginnings. We read the creation story and thought about how wonderful our world is. In PSHE we are looking at – what makes a good friend? The children thoroughly enjoy PE and are showing strong fundamental skills.

Reading

In Year 2, children should read for at least 15 minutes every night and talk about the book. This will help with understanding the text and learning new words.

You could write down these new words in a word book and find out what they mean. It is amazing to see the list grow, something to be very proud of, especially when children realise how many more words they understand and can use!

Please date, sign and leave a small comment when you have read with your child and make it clear that you have finished a book, then we know we can change it. For Example - 14.09.22 Max’s Box. Read to page 6, really enjoying the book or good sounding out of tricky words or struggled with the word – because or finished the book. MG.

Reading books are changed every Wednesday. You will receive 2-4 books depending on their length, they should last the week, if you read a little each night. However, if you need to change a book at any other time, we will change it as needed.

Reading resources:

Oxford Owl – This resource has an exciting range of carefully levelled books to help children learn to read and really enjoy it.

If parents and children decide to use this resource, we ask they access phase 5 books. Go to https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/ and select ‘my class login’. Scroll down to the ‘eBook Library for Letters & Sounds’. You could also explore the rest of the site and read books from the Oxford Owl eBook library or listen to audio books.

Username: sto2

Password: 1234

Resources for questioning your child while they are reading - https://www.literacyshedblog.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/ks1_reading_vipers.pdf

In addition to this, reading a good bed time story to your child is so worthwhile and really helps towards a lifelong love of reading.

Spelling

Please practise these spellings for your quiz on Friday (23.09.22). A sheet will go home every Friday with the spelling list on. This is for home practise only and can be kept with you.

It is useful to write the words down on the spelling sheet, but also to call the words out and spell them out loud using the letter sounds or names. Learn them in a different order, not just how they appear on the list below.

You will have a Sumdog challenge on these words to complete by next Friday 23.09.22.

This week’s spellings:

boy                value

bird               draw   

third              saw

blue               looked

true                called

Maths

At home, count forwards and backwards in tens. Write them down as you say them and see what patterns you can spot. For a challenge count past 100, see how far you can go!

You will have a 10x tables, and place value challenge on Sumdog to complete by next Friday 23.09.22.

Sumdog

Log in at www.sumdog.com

Have a lovely weekend and remember school is closed on Monday 19th September - The Queen's Funeral. See you all on Tuesday 20th September.

Year 2 Team.

Year 1 Blog - Friday 16th September 2022

Date: 15th Sep 2022 @ 10:35am

Welcome to your Friday blog!

All the children have settled in so brilliantly - we can't believe it's only been 2 weeks!

We have been extremely busy this week!

English

We have been learning through the stories of The Large Family. We have described the characters, made puppets, talked about the stories and written some sentences.

We will continue these stories next week. We are really enjoying the books - they are very funny!

Phonics

We have been looking at where all the children are up to with their phonics . They have all been trying really hard with their morning jobs as as soon as they enter the classroom. We have been looking at sh, ch, ee and ea, ay and ai.

Maths

We have started our Red Rose Mastery lessons and the children have been so engaged with their learning. They have been using practical equipment to make numbers up to 29 using 10s and 1s. they have used 10 frames with counters, bundles of straws and Base 10. We have also been counting in 1s up to 100 - making sure we pronounce the teen numbers correctly and 20, 30 and so on, twenty not twenny!

R.E.

This week we have learnt about our families and how each family is different. We listened to some music about being a part of God's family and drew a picture describing how God looks after us.

P.S.H.E.

We made our class rules together this week. We talked about how we should be looking after our classroom, and each other! Finally, we talked about how to be good listeners on the carpet.

P.E.

We continued to improve our fundamental skills. We focused on running fast, skipping and underarm throwing into hoops. We all worked very hard!

Geography

We talked about our journey from home to school. We drew our own map of our route.

Art

Last week, we learnt about the different sketching pencils that we can use. So this week, we practised using them to shade on a piece of paper. We saw the differences between the pencils and how some are darker than others.

Science

We talked about what is the same and what is different about humans and animals. There were some great contributions to the discussion.

Computing

We had so much fun in Computing! We learnt how to turn a laptop on and how to type using the keyboard. This was the first time that some of us had used a laptop too, so it was great to see the high levels of enthusiasm! See the pictures here.

French

In French, we recapped numbers and colours and how to say our name and how old we are. We listened to a story in French about a birthday party and sang some familiar songs. 

Outdoor Learning

We have loved our learning outside. We collected leaves and other natural materials to make pictures. We also went on a walk to collect leaves and we matched them to colour cards. Finally this week we collected leaves and looked at a simple identification sheet to see if we could name the trees the leaves were from.

See our pictures here.

Music

 We did some singing outside and played some games together.

PLEASE SEND IN A NAMED PAIR OF WELLIES WHICH WILL BE KEPT IN SCHOOL

TRIPLE GOLD

Your child may come home and say they have been on 'Triple Gold'. This means they have been spotted 3 times in the same day following our golden rules. They then go to sign their name on Mrs Wood's door !

Sumdog challenges

Phonics - ch and sh words

Maths - Read and write numbers to 20

Count on and back from 0 to 20. Start at different numbers, for example 4, 5, 6, 7. Then 11, 12, 13, 14.

Practise quickly recalling number facts, for example 6 is 0+6, 1+5, 2+4, 3+3 ,4+2, 5+1, 0+6. practise for other numbers.

Year 5 Blog Friday 16th September 2022

Date: 14th Sep 2022 @ 6:11pm

Happy weekend everybody and welcome to your Friday Blog. 

Here is an update of our learning this week. Below is the Home Practice. 

Our learning this week 

We have had a wonderful and busy week in Year 5. 

On Wednesday we went for our first swimming lesson. We were put into groups and then all got the chance to wet the teachers with our best cannonball. 

We have continued to read our class novel 'Goth Girl.' We have met some very strange and interesting characters. We are currently working on our own gothic style story including our own setting and characters. Everybody has been trying really hard to make sure they include our Year 5 learning in their writing. 

In maths we have been comparing and ordering 6-digit numbers and numbers with 3 decimal places. We have used place value counters to help us with our learning. We even did a little bit of algebra in one of our lessons. Everybody has done so well. 

In geography we have been learning about the UK. We have been looking at the different counties of England, and have used the 8 compass points to describe their location. We enjoyed looking at maps online and in an atlas, and were proud to talk about where we have visited ourselves. 

We wrote some beautiful poems in RE about what makes us unique. We love the fact that everybody is different and has their own special talents and qualities. It was really nice to share our poems and learn new things about each other. 

We finished the week with science and the Golden Time we had earned throughout the week. We carried out various investigations in science to answer the question 'What is a force?' Check out our gallery to see us in action. 

Home Practice

Reading:

Read out loud to somebody at home for 20 minutes. Tell them what you have read in your own words. Talk about the different characters. 

Counting:

Count out loud in 6s from 0 to 72 and back again.

0, 6, 12, ...

72, 66, 60, ...

Count out loud in 1,000s from 23,401 (twenty three thousand, four hundred and one) to 33,401 (thirty three thousand, four hundred and one). 

23,401                      24,401,                         25,401 ... 

Count out loud in 10,000s from 196,612 (one hundred and ninety six thousand, six hundred and twelve) back to 96,612 (ninety six thousand, six hundred and twelve). 

196,612                        186,612                         176,612 

Times Tables:

Next week you will be tested on different times tables and then given your own individual times table target. 

Please practise your times tables ready for the test on Thursday. Hit the Button is a good website to use. 

Spellings:

Here are your new spellings. You have also brought home a paper copy to stick up and practise every night during the week. When you are writing out your spellings, it is important that you are writing in neat joined up handwriting. It is good practice and will also help you to remember the spellings. We will be practising and going over the rules next week in class. 

doubt          island          lamb          solemn          thistle          knight          thumb          numb         

autumn          whistle          debt               isle          knowledge       surprise        interest                   

Sumdog:

Please complete the challenges on Sumdog. 

There are two maths challenges and one spelling challenge. 

Have a fantastic weekend :) 

Online Safety Update

Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 5:42pm

With your children returning to school, it is a great time to review online safety in your homes and make sure we are all up to date with developments in the online world. At St Oswald's, all classes will be beginning their Online Saftety learning where they will learn all about safe practices online in the following areas. 

Self image and identitiy

Online relationships

Online bulllying

Health, Well-being and lifestyle

Online reputation

Managing online information

Copyright and ownership

We will blog regularly to keep you updated with developments in the online space, sharing platform guides and links to expert training for you to keep your children safe when exploring the internet. Below you will find a guide on some back to school online safety tips for children.

To access a huge range of information on the National Online Safety website click the link below and join our school online safety hub.You will get access to videos, training and guides to keep you informed of the best practices in keeping your children safe online.

http://nationalonlinesafety.com/enrol/st-oswald-s-catholic-primary-school-pr45eb

Reception Blog Friday 9th September

Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 3:46pm

Wow! We have all settled into school extremely well and completed our first week of school.

A big well done to everyone in Reception for coming in by themselves, making new friends and joining in all the new routines.

Have a look at some of the things we have been up to.

Year 3 Friday 9th September 2022

Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 3:42pm

Welcome to the first Friday Blog of the school year

We have had a great first week back at school. Everyone has settled in so well and enjoyed all our learning this week. 

We have started our new story, The Twits by Roald Dahl. We wrote our own character descriptions and planned some pranks for our writing next week. Everyone is taking great care with their presentation and spellings.

In our maths we have been looking at 3 digit numbers and place value. Everyone has had a good go and joined in with our whole class discussions. Have a look at our learning here.

Mrs Quillliam kicked off our Science this year with a super outdoor session exploring plants around school. We will be learning about plants throughout the year, using our Nature Journals. Have a look at our gallery to see some of our fantastic outdoor learning. Next week we begin our topic on Health and Nutrition.

We also started our history topic, The Stone Age. We read some Horrible Histories and talked about when the Stone Age was and what it was like to live then. 

Thank you for attending our Meet the Teacher meeting on Thursday. We have attached the PowerPoint below.

Today, Fr Michael visited us and blessed us for the coming year. Everyone was very thoughtful and shared some lovely ideas.

We had a very special Golden Assembly as we took some time to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We had a minute silence and said some prayers for the Royal Family at this difficult time. 

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Home Practice will begin from next Friday. Sumdog is still available and continue reading your new books!

Have a lovely weekend

The Year 3 Team

Year 6 - Friday 9th September 2022

Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 3:40pm

Welcome to the first of Year 6s weekly blogs.

Well done to all the pupils for completing their first week of Year 6. They have all been exceptional in transitioning into the routines and getting used to the expectations of this new year. Congratulations to everyone for receiving a leadership role, whether that be as school ambassadors, sports captains, eco team, reading ambassadors, school council, science ambassador, golden team or digital leaders.

Thank you to everyone who has worked hard to complete their summer holiday autobiographies. They read really well, with some becoming very brave to read it out loud to the class.

We were also very fortunate to have Father Michael visit our class with a special blessing. As a Faith in Action reminder, please do check the rota for when your child has been chosen to read in church. We also had a very special Golden Assembly as we took some time to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We had a minute silence and said some prayers for the Royal Family at this difficult time. 

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This week in Year 6:

• We have improved our place value knowledge in Maths through identifying, comparing and partitioning whole numbers and numbers up to 10 million.
• In English we are reading ‘Aladdin’ by Phillip Pullman. The children have used clues to predict what this edition may be about and have written well as the new version of Aladdin.
• In Geography, our first lesson focused on using atlases to search for various cities around the world, and using coordinates to help others identify them.
• For RE, we have begun our first topic of ‘Loving’ and what the class believe unconditional love means to them.
• In PE, invasion games is our theme for the next few weeks, focusing on improving our throwing and catching skills and starting to develop advanced tactics to give an advantage for the attacking team. We have used the rules of Netball and Handball to explore this through.
• In Art, we have begun our sketching topic with our first self-portrait, focusing on the proportion to help it look more realistic.
• In French, we revised how to describe ourselves, ready to write next week.
• In Science, our new topic is called Classification. We searched the school grounds to identify trees. We learnt lots of new scientific vocabulary to describe leaves.

As mentioned during the ‘Meet the Teacher’ meeting on Wednesday, we are to start the Home Practice officially from next Friday.

However, there are two important points to mention this week:

1. Reading – your child will have received their first few books this week. Please encourage to read as often as possible, working up to 30 minutes a day. This will help greatly in all areas of the curriculum.
2. Spellings – your child will also come home with spellings this week. There is nothing to do with it other than practice a few before Monday. The learning of these spellings will begin on Monday, with a spelling test every Friday.

The slides for 'Meet the Teacher' presentation is attached to the bottom of this blog.

Have a great weekend Year 6!

Year 4 Blog - Friday 9th September 2022

Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 3:39pm

Year 4 Blog

Friday 9^th September 2022

Welcome to the Year 4 Blog.  We have had a fabulous first week back at school and the children have settled down very well to their new routines, teachers and learning.

Each week the Year 4 blog will include a brief summary of our learning and the children’s Home Practice to be completed during the week. Home Practice will start next Friday (16^th September 2022).

In the meantime, we have sent some spellings home tonight. We will discuss and investigate these words in depth on Monday.  However, please feel free to look at these words over the weekend. The children will be tested on these spellings next Friday (16^th September 2022). Please also continue to read with your child every evening.  You child will be given an individual tables target next week.

Here is a brief outline of our learning this week:

In English, we started our new novel Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. We made predictions about the book based on the cover and blurb.  In addition, we wrote reasons for and against sailing around the world.

In Maths, we learnt about place value especially tenths.

In Science, we went outside to look at the fruit, berries and seeds we could find on trees.  We drew pictures and described what we could see in our Nature Journals.

In PE, we practised throwing and catching skills and played mini games of netball.

In RE, we started our first topic about ‘Families’. We looked at a family tree and then drew a picture of our own families in our book. We also wrote what we enjoyed doing with them.  In addition, we reflected on the 70 years of service Queen Elizabeth has given and wrote very thoughtful and respectful prayers.

We also had a very special Golden Assembly in school as we took some time to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We had a minute silence and said some prayers for the Royal Family at this difficult time. 

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Enjoy looking at the photos in the gallery which show the children walking around the school grounds and completing their Nature Journal.

Please remember your Meet the Teacher Meeting in the hall at 6.30pm on Tuesday 13th September 2022. We look forward to seeing you there.

Year 5 Blog 9th September 2022

Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 3:35pm

Welcome to your Friday Blog. 

We have had a wonderful first week in Year 5. We have worked hard, played hard and been kind to each other. We were delighted to earn 46 golden tokens for our hard work and teamwork which gave us 23 minutes of Golden Time on Friday afternoon. We played a team game outside called Kick the Can and then watched some children sing and do magic tricks. It was a fantastic celebration of all of our hard work throughout the week. It takes the whole class to earn the tokens so it is a real team effort. 

In maths we have been looking at 6-digit numbers and numbers with 3 decimal places. We have been using place value counters to make different numbers and have been solving problems involving the numbers. Everybody has done so well and tried their best!

We have started to read our class novel Goth Girl. We have identified the novel as a gothic style novel. We have looked at features of gothic novels including where they are often set, the different types of characters you would usually meet, and things that might happen in a gothic story. We have been looking at how the author develops the different characters and are working on developing our own characters. We have been looking at spellings with the letter string ough. Everybody has brought a spelling sheet home to stick up. We will practise these in school next week and everybody will practise writing them out at home too. 

Today we had a very special Golden Assembly in school as we took some time to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We had a minute silence and said some prayers for the Royal Family at this difficult time. 

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We can't wait for another super week next week, and are excited to earn as many golden tokens as we can!

Well done Year 5. 

Have an amazing weekend! 

Year 1 Blog- 9th September 2022

Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 3:35pm

Welcome to your first blog of Year 1.

All the children came in looking so smart and ready to learn.

We have all been really golden !

Our learning has been great in English, R.E.,Phonics, Maths, Geography, History, French, Music, P.S.H.E., P.E. , Art, Outdoor Learning and Computing! Phew- what a lot of learning! From next week we will give you more detail about what we have been learning in each subject area. We will also set some Maths and Phonics challenges on Sumdog.

Today we had a very special Golden Assembly as we took some time to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We had a minute silence and said some prayers for the Royal Family at this difficult time. 

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Please try to read every night- we change the reading books every Friday so please make sure the reading books and signed diary are in school on that day.

Please remember your Meet the Teacher meeting in the Hall on Tuesday 20th September at 6.30pm. We look forward to seeing you there !

Year 2 Blog Friday 9th September

Date: 9th Sep 2022 @ 12:49pm

Welcome back to a new school year. We hope you all had a lovely summer.

What a great first week back in Year 2! Everyone has settled in really well, the children are so enthusiastic about their learning and we have seen some great work.

Today we had a very special Golden Assembly in school as we took some time to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. We had a minute silence and said some prayers for the Royal Family at this difficult time. 

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Next week we will be sending home the reading books, spellings and you will find the home practice tasks on this blog.

We look forward to seeing you at 'Meet the Teacher' next Thursday 15th September at 6.30pm.

Have a lovely weekend

Year 2 Team

Year 6 Blog - Friday 22nd July 2022

Date: 21st Jul 2022 @ 11:37am

Welcome to our last blog of the year.

Year 6 have had a great final week with super performances on Monday and Tuesday for the Joseph production. Check out St Oswald’s TV to enjoy the performance again and again.

It was lovely for us all to gather together for the Leavers Mass on Wednesday, with special thanks to Father Michael for giving us his wishes of hope for the future.

The Leavers Assembly had a few parents in tears with great memories shared and excellent hopes and dreams – we cannot wait to see what your children achieve in the coming years.

On Thursday, we took a trip to the Liverpool Cathedral to complete our Faith in Action and to remember the time this class have spent together these past 7 years.

I have had an amazing time teaching you all and I wish you all the best at All Hallows’ and beyond.

Mr Mears

Year 3 Friday 22nd July

Date: 21st Jul 2022 @ 11:10am

Happy Holidays

We have had a brilliant last week to end our school year. We have created some more animations, using all our skills and creativity. We have also been reading the playscript of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The children have loved finding out what happens to Harry after he leaves Hogwarts.

Over the holidays, continue to read every night and the Sumdog platform will remain open for practising all your maths and spelling.

Well done for an amazing year of hard work and lots of fun. You have done such a great job during your first year in the juniors and should feel extremely proud! 

We'd also like to say a massive thank you for all your support throughout the year. Your children have been amazing and have had a great year of learning experiences, making some wonderful memories along the way. We hope you all have a lovely summer break and enjoy the sunshine.

Year 2 Final Blog - Thursday 21st July 2022

Date: 21st Jul 2022 @ 9:08am

A massive well done to everyone in Year 2. You have all worked so hard and made great progress this year. We have thoroughly enjoyed watching you learn and grow. You are definitely ready for the juniors and the new exciting learning that will come in Year 3. Please read, read, read as much as you can and enjoy it. If you want to do some maths, there's always Sumdog training for you to do.

Have a fun, happy and safe summer holiday. 

Miss Gravili, Mrs Sheen and Mrs Whitworth.

Year 4 Final Blog - Friday 22nd July 2022

Date: 21st Jul 2022 @ 9:03am

A final blog to wish each and every one of you a happy, restful and safe summer holiday.  We have had a fabulous year getting to know you and have loved teaching you. You will be just as amazing in Year 5, but please pop in and see us every now and again.

Keep reading as much as you can over the holiday.

Best wishes

Mrs Tipping and Mrs Dexter