Growing Artists!

We have had a wonderful time in art this half term, focusing on our drawing techniques to produce various botanical pieces of work. From observational drawing, shading, frottage and scientific study to produce amazing pieces. The children are such wonderful budding artists!

Marvellous Marks!

 

It has been so delightful welcoming Reception into the Create Room. This half term, the children have been busy exploring different media and mark making. From wax crayons to chalks and felt tips, we have thought about various marks we can make using different methods. The children have loved these sessions were very proud of their work.

Tell a story!

This half term has been an utter delight working alongside Year 2. Through the exploration of marks, observations, texture and characterisation, the children have taken a journey to create their own story through art. Each week building on previous learning to create their own book.

Make Your Mark!

What a joy it has been this half term, experimenting, exploring and investigating various media and mark making. The children have taken part in independent and collaborative tasks using new techniques to create pieces of art. The children have been so proud of what they have achieved and created, they are all such budding artists!

Make My Voice Heard!

 

This half term, we have been exploring an array of artistic influences. From Mayan art to Street art and Chiaroscuro, we have studied how, through art, we can make our voice heard. We have looked at how symbols within art can have an impact and how powerful these can be and come up with their own symbols to represent themselves. Using their knowledge and skills learned throughout the term, they will complete their own artistic piece after the half term break. It has been wonderful to watch they children grow in their artistic talent and I cannot wait to see how they will develop this further through the year!

Year 5 Weekly Blog 17.10.24-

And just like that, we have arrived at the end of our first half term of the year (it’s scary to think that Christmas is on its way). Regardless of the weather, it has still been a fun yet productive final week of autumn 1. On Monday, to celebrate completing our first unit of ‘My Happy Mind’, we put our arts and crafts skills to the test to make some ‘HAP Hats’. I’m hoping that these hats made it home in one piece for all of you to see. Our ‘My Happy Mind’ Champion for this week was Joseph, who wore his badge with pride and really looked after it this week- thankyou Joseph.

In certain lessons, it was about wrapping up our knowledge in that subject with some evaluation quizzes in which the children relished this and whizzed through their questions.

In History, we continued with the Battle of Marathon and analysed this as historians to look at the different verisons of this famous story. The children had to use the evidence presented to find the clues and answers to specific questions in order to assess the credibility of the story.

In English, we have continued in reading our class novel of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, surpassing Chapter 6 of our exciting childhood classic.

Notices

  • Sports Club Opportunities- Information for Autumn 2 clubs are available on the sports page of the blog.

  • Homework- Please check the homework blog for work to do over half term.


Have a wonderful half term break.

From Mr Cornwell, Mrs Barker and Mrs Tierney

Year 5 Weekly Blog 11.10.24- ' You are not weak for struggling, you are brave for facing your battles face on'

It has been a action-packed and fun-filled week in Year 5. On Wednesday, we began our second year of enrichment opportunities with each class going to another teacher to take part in an activity of their choosing. To kick things off, Year 5 took the small trip to their previous classroom for some card games with Mrs Lyons, where they learned a personal favourite of mine- Gin Rummy.

On Thursday, it was ‘World Mental Health Day’ in which we collaborated this with ‘Hello Yellow’. Our focus of the day was to stay informed what mental health is, what can cause mental health illness. We talked about the importance of talking to trusted adults and not bottling up any upsetting emotions and how we can maintain a positive mental attitude. The children then had some self-reflection on their own personal qualities and what makes them happy. The children then got to take part in my enrichment opportunity of ‘quiz mastering’ where they used their knowledge to battle through the quiz. We then ended the day with some arts and crafts by creating some happy yellow emoji bookmarks, something that the children can then take home.

We then ended our week in coming together in faith with our annual harvest mass. Thank you all so much for your generous donations- they really are appreciated. In English, it has been a full week of independent writing of our story based on ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. Lots of sore hands this week with pages and pages of writing. The children have certainly earned their half term break.

In Maths. We have been doing lots of rounding and looking at numbers up to a million and focusing on rounding to digits across the place value chart. Children have enjoyed the challenge of applying these learnt skills into some problem solving and reasoning style questions.

In History, we have built on last weeks knowledge of Athens and Sparta to look at one of the most historical events of the Ancient Greek times- The Battle of Marathon. With lots of information to process including opposition, reasoning and strategical warfare, the best way to retain this information was to reenact the battle itself. With the class being split into Athenians, Spartans and Persians, they travelled across seas and battled hard on the Bay of Marathon. Big shoutout to our Philidipphies for their commitment to their role in running many laps around the school playground.

Conversation starters

In ‘My Happy Mind’, we have looked at how certain tasks can be fearful for us but have a low level of danger, which can send our amyglada into overdrive.

This may be :

  • the dark

  • public speaking

  • heights

This week’s question, “How do you calm yourself down when you’re feeling stressed?



Let’s Celebrate

Josh for being an enthusiastic and brave learner: We are all so proud of you Josh- representing the school football team! You have worked really hard in the training sessions leading to this and you were so happy to be playing alongside your classmates in the Our Lady’s shirt- collecting all of your stats from the game. Make sure you transfer this enthusiasm into the classroom.

Charlotte for being a reflective learner: You are a child who just loves learning Charlotte, especially displaying your learning in your books. This is why you set yourself high standards when it comes to presentation. Even though you are a terrific writer, during our independent writing you are still asking for help when you need it because you want to get the best out of the learning opportunity. Great work!

Virtue Star of the Week: Our virtue start of the week goes to Finley. You are just so attentive towards your classmates Finley. Such a kind and considerate soul who really takes everyone’s concerns and thoughts into account. You have shown this throughout many of our teamwork tasks this week.

My Happy Mind Champion- Tommy



Lunchtime Certificates

Role Model of the Week- Finley

Marvelous Manners- Ciaran

Notices

  • Sports Club Opportunities- Information regarding this is available on the sports page of the website. If interested, please complete the forms to register your child for a specific club.



  • Parents Day Appointments- This will take place on Friday 18th October. Bookings have gone live on ‘the cloud’ which is available on Mrs Gregan’s weekly blog.



  • Half Term- School will close on Thursday 17th October at normal time. School will reopen on Monday 28th October.



Have a wonderful weekend,

From Mr Cornwell, Mrs Barker and Mrs Tierney

Autumn 2 Extra-Curricular Clubs and Opportunities.

Please click on the button below to see what is available this half term and what your child can sign up for. As always, we will rotate options throughout the year to give all children access, whilst also looking at the competitions taking place. If you child attends the All Stars Wrap Around Care at school and would like to take part in the clubs, please still complete the form so that we can amend registers. Children will be able to attend All Stars before of after the clubs.

We are tweaking what we offer through Judo Education and now offering it as a permanent club where the children will compete and grade. This is really exciting and a lovely development for our school. The children who sign up will be the same children throughout the rest of the year. This will be run direct through Judo Education.

It is lovely that our choir is back on with Miss Woodend as we approach Christmas. Every Thursday, from the second week back, Miss Woodend will be leading a group of children from Years 4, 5 & 6. We are so excited to see what you do! This will then lead into the Big Sing Festival in Spring.

Autumn 2 extra-curricular timetable

Please sign up to the clubs using the buttons below.

Year 5 and 6 indoor athletics
year 3 & 4 indoor athletics
year 1 and 2 indoor athletics
judo club for competition and badges
year 1 & 2 football with cn - £25 payable
year 4, 5 & 6 choir

This week...

All things Harvest this week!

We have been talking about God’s Wonderful World and how it allows us to grow foods to eat. We found out how food was harvested and stored for the Winter months and how we should be grateful. We watched a couple of short videos. Click here for Harvest Time Down on the Farm and here for What is Harvest Festival?

We even made our own bread and ate it for snack! Everyone said it was delicious! We found our about wheat and how to make bread with my friend Pip, click on the button to see the slides. Maybe you could make some bread at home too!

Pip finds out about bread

We also danced the Harvest Samba, click here to dance at home!

We had great fun mixing our own playdough too!

Harvest Festival with Reception

Such a wonderful celebration! It was so lovely to be together as a whole Foundation Stage. We found out about Harvest Festival and talked about the generous donations we had collected and why?

To finish our assembly we said a prayer to say ‘thank you’ to God for giving us the world to live in and for the opportunity to grow such fabulous foods. We then danced the Harvest Samba all around the hall…and played instruments! It was joyous!

After worship we all had a BIG play in the nursery garden…together. It was magical!!

If you fancy a Harvest Story at home click here!

Emma’s blog

Hello everyone,

Summer has definitely gone now, and autumn is finally here, but it hasn't stopped the children from having fun.

Our nursery garden is full of Autumn colours and leaves. There are still plenty more to fall too, that means lots of sweeping! Never to miss an opportunity to be creative the children have been turning the leaves in to leaf people! They have brought them alive by gluing the leaves onto paper and adding faces and body parts! They look fabulous!!!

Here's an Autumn song. Hope you enjoy singing along to it. Click here. 

To continue working on our fine motor skills, the children have been having fun making dens using lots of different fabrics and large pegs to hold their den together. The children found it a bit tricky, as the pegs were quite wide to grasp, but they kept on trying, just like one of our learning characters, Sadie Spider…try, try, try to catch that fly!!!!

To further challenge the children’s fine motor skills we have been having a go at a fun finger and hand strengthening activity…stretching their hand muscles. The activity involved stretching hair scrunchies over a large cup, just like putting a sock over their feet. I will also be sending this activity home for you to practice, so have fun! It will help the children to put their socks on independently after PE sessions…good luck everyone!

Have a wonderful Autumn weekend and I will see you all for our last week before half-term.

Michelle’s blog

Welcome to this week's blog everyone.

We continue with our brain growing as we have been developing our pincer grip. We do this by taking part in lots of activities where we have to use our fingers to grip and pick up. I hope you have been enjoying the Evil Pea game that has been going home. I have enjoyed hearing the children tell us about how they played it at home with their families. This game helps children to develop a pincer grip, which they will need to become confident writers. We have lots more games planned, so they children can share their learning at home.

This week we have noticed that Autumn is definitely here. We have explored and investigated the leaves in the garden and have noticed that they are changing colour. Why not go for an autumn walk and see what you can discover. Here are some ideas.

Have a lovely weekend 

Michelle 

Wow! What a fabulous week!

It’s hard to believe we have nearly been at nursery for half a term! Can I remind everyone that nursery will close on Thursday next week for the half term holiday, we return on Monday 3rd November. Make sure you have a good rest because we will be starting number work (cardinality and counting) and sounds (phonemes) when we return!

The cardinal value of a number refers to the quantity of things it represents, e.g. the numerosity, ‘howmanyness’, or ‘threeness’ of three. When children understand the cardinality of numbers, they know what the numbers mean in terms of knowing how many things they refer to. Counting is one way of establishing how many things are in a group, because the last number you say tells you how many there are. Children enjoy learning the sequence of counting numbers long before they understand the cardinal values of the numbers. Subitising is another way of recognising how many there are, without counting.

Don’t panic, it’s fun!

Have a lovely weekend and stay safe.

God Bless

Barbara

Year 5 Homework due Thursday 17th October

Compulsory Homework

Reading

Lots of children are close to their reading target for the half term, just two weeks left so lots of extra reading at home.

Times Tables

Lots of TTRS to make sure we are super sharp and speedy on our times tables- these will come in handy this year. The children’s TTRS logins have been stuck on the inside of their homework books.

Spellings

Our spellings have changed slightly in that we are aiming to achieve more retrieval across our spellings. The children have been given a spellings practice sheet, which is to be completed as evidence of practice. Each child has also been given two spelling test sheets to practice over the week in order to identify which words require more focus.

  1. where

  2. room

  3. food

  4. minute

  5. special

  6. popular

  7. chatting

  8. knitted

  9. shredding

  10. grabbed

  11. rhyme

  12. signature

  13. mischievous

  14. appreciate

  15. environment

    Mrs Barker’s group

    1. key

    2. saw

    3. bird

    4. where

    5. room

    6. food

    7. minute

    8. special

    9. popular

    10. skipping

Optional Homework

Music- The Blues

Ask your parents if they are interested in any blues songs?

Play with ‘Expressions Test’ with them and see how similar/different your thoughts are with your family (starter activity in lessons)

Listen to some of the biggest/best blues songs to be made– can you choose a favourite and tell me why.

 History- Ancient Greeks

There are so many Ancient Greek Gods/Goddesses. All with amazing abilities and qualities.

Create a set of Top Trumps Cards– Ancient Gods Edition.

Choose your own stats and battle against your friends.

Science- Materials

Pick a material in your house and analyse its properties (ticks and crosses)

 examples of properties:

-Hard or Soft?

-Rough or Smooth?

- Transparent, Translucent or Opaque?

-Flammable

-Magnetic

 My Happy Mind

Do your parents know about the different parts of the brain (HAP)? Can you teach them this so they can learn something new?

Happy Breathing is a technique used to calm us down when were stressed or scared. Teach your family how to do this and write down when you have used this technique

Year 6 Weekly Blog - "Small seeds of Gratitude will produce a harvest of hope"

Harvest is a time of thanksgiving and gratitude; to thank God for the things we have and all that God has given to us. Our liturgies this week have been centred around this and our RE this week looked also at the smallest seed- the mustard seed. Year 6 have been reflecting on the parables that Jesus shared with us that taught us about the Kingdom of God and how this can start off so small within us, but as we love and follow in Jesus’ footsteps this can grown in to something more powerful.

This week we had a beautiful litrugy led by a number of children, all about the courage that God gives us…

When I reflect on the week, I am so proud of the amount of learning Year 6 are getting through. They are working so hard and trying their absolute best in every lesson! The big push has been reading this week, as there were a number of pupils that are not reading or quizzing regualrly enough, and the children have responded really well to me setting them targets when they should be quizzing by- please encourage them at home to relax and have quiet time out with a book!

In our English lessons, we are loving our class novel and seeing how the mysteries unfold. We have written diaries in the perspective of the main character and next week they will get feedback on this, but I have had a quick look and I am excited to get reading! In History we have been looking at the highs and lows in Catherine Aragon’s life, making our very own human graph and even looking for evidence in a letter from Henry to Anne Boleyn- was it a love letter?

My Happy Mind

This week in our My Happy Mind session we had some fun, using our knowledge of the three parts of the brain: The Hippocampus, Amygdala and the Prefrontal Cortex. We played a game of ‘TEAM-HAP-SNAP’, seeing who was first to match all the characters working together!

Kidsafe

This week, we have completed our 5th and final Kidsafe lesson, before our recap in summer term, about hearing parents/carers arguing. Please click the button below to find out more detail about this lesson.

Please click the button below to find out more detail about this lesson.

kidsafe lesson 5

Year 6 had a great afternoon at enrichment with Mr Cornwell for the ‘BIG QUIZ!’ …

Delving deeper through talk …

What is the Kingdom of God? Can you retell one of the parables and explain its meaning?

My Happy Mind…

Why is it important for all three parts of the brain to work together?


Helpers in the mornings:

This week Year 6 will only be helping on Thursday and Friday. We have the following children helping to take the younger children to their class:

Liam Luke Cora Ella


 Castlerigg:

Thank you to you all for getting in the medical forms- all information has now been sent off. Children will find out next Thursday who they will be sharing rooms with etc. Castlerigg have confrimed they do not need the actual duvet- children just need to bring a single duvet COVER or a sleeping bag. I will post the final details that you need to know, confirming times and reminding you of anyhting they need to bring on the blog next week- it’s getting exciting!

Castlerigg Powerpoint

Leading Learners

Well done to Elsie and Gabriella and this week.

Elsie, you are such a reflective learner Elsie and this is what makes your work fly! You lsiten to feedback and respond, trying hard to improve all the time. We love the way you can also independently reflect on your own work without promting, always eager to edit and use that purple pen!

Gabriella- you have impressed us this week with how hard you have tried to complete your work, no matter how challegning you have found it. You have kept on going, not given up and all with a smile on your face! We see how hard you are trying Gabriella and we are so proud.

Attentive and Discerning butterflies

This half term we will be on the lookout for all the children that are attentive in the way we look at the world and in others, taking the time to notice the big and the small things each day. We will also be spotting children who are discerning, who choose the right decisions with integrity. These children are the role models of the school. This week we thank Archie for being attentive and discerning to help others.

Lunch Time Awards …

Marvelous Manners awards … Isaac

Role Model of the week … Sophia

Notices

  • Please do visit Mrs Gregan’s blog for important information.

  • Have you booked your tickets for the dance show?

  • Could you please collect and bring in to school boxes, egg cartons, tubes (not toilet roll) - basically anything suitable  for constructing  their models in DT next half term!

  • Have you booked your parent’s day appointment for next Friday? Don’t forget we break up for October Half term on Thursday.

  • please encourage children to complete homework on time and handed in on Wednesdays- it is great preparation for High School