Year 5 Weekly Blog 08.11.24- ‘To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die’

What an action packed week it has been for only our second week back after half term. After first recognising the 24 character strengths of the ‘Celebrate’ module of my happy mind, the children were tasked with the job of reenacting one of the 6 chosen virtues- collaborating these 24 character strengths with a little role play. Later in the week, we got to compare our chosen reflections of our own personal strengths to the official ‘My Happy Mind Character Strengths Test’ online.

The main focus of the week came on Tuesday morning with our class assembly. With not so much time to prepare for this, the children showed lots of courage, flexibility and determination leading up to and on the day of the assembly. The theme of the morning really was portrayed excellently by the children and how teamwork and kindness should look both in and out of the classroom- now it is time to put this into action in our day to day schooling life.

On Wednesday, this saw us go out into the community to complete our first trip as the eco-council of the school. We took the short walk to Beauclerk Gardens for a bulb planting session with the Fylde Rangers. The children were eager to put the work in straight away with us planting over 200 bulbs in just 1 hour!

In English, it has been all things relative clauses this week with the children grasping a really good understanding of what these are and how to apply this creatively to our writing. I am excited to see these being used in our next creative writing piece.

In Maths, we have now breached into a new place value column- hundredths. We used physical representations to compare the value of this to tenths and ones.

Conversation starters

• Can you remember which character strengths you ticked as your strongest? Discuss this with your parents and see if they agree. Can you find the list of 24 strengths online and get your parents to pick their top 5.

• Geography: We have looked at lines of longitude and latitude this week. Discuss with your parents when you have been abroad on holiday. Do they remember the time difference compared to the UK?

Let’s Celebrate

Virtue Star of the Week: Our virtue star of the week goes to Tilly. You are such a calming presence in the class Tilly and you are such a kind friend. When one of your closest friends needed help this week, you didn’t panic or stress. You calmy found your class teachers and helped to really defuse potentially stressful situation. Thank you so much for this.

William for being a focused learner: Managing distractions is such a tricky challenge to overcome, especially as a nine year old, and yet you manage to do this with ease and ignore those around you who could cause you a distraction. Keep being a role model to both our Year 1 children and for your Year 5 classmates.

Hugo for being a co-operative learner: You were not just chosen to represent in the school for the football tournament because of your ability but because of your attitude and maturity shown to sporting activities this year Hugo. Even when the games weren’t going our way or you were waiting to come on, you didn’t moan or sulk, you just got on with it. Another role model to the class on how to behave in sporting activities.

My Happy Mind Champion of the Week- William

Lunchtime Certificates

Role Model of the Week- Poppy

Marvelous Manners- Rory

Notices

• Homework: Make sure to check the homework blog and make sure homework is handed in on time.

• Coats: Now the weather is starting to drop and we edge closer towards winter, can all children have a coat with them to make sure they are protected when out at break times.

• PJ Day: Our annual pajama day will be on Friday 15th November. Bring £1 to wear your PJ’s for the day and to help raise money for Brian House charity.

• Own Clothes Day: To celebrate the arrival of December and the festive period, then children can wear their own clothes and also bring in a bar of chocolate into school for £1. This will take place on Friday 29th November.

• Christmas Bake Off: Last year went so well, we just had to do it again! All things Christmas with cakes, bakes and jumpers on Friday 13th December.

Year 4 homework to be completed by Thursday 14th November

Reading

I am so pleased with your renewed reading focus Year 4! You are loving your book club books and many of you have already finished and quizzed. Its the perfect time of year you get cosy and enjoy your book!

Maths

Please complete TTRockstars each day. Also please learn these facts off by heart that we have practised in mastering number

1x12

2x12

3x12

4x12

5x12

We have focused on measures this week. Why not have a look at your different measuring items in the kitchen - weigh some things, measure liquid in ml - explore what a litre or a kilogram looks like or feels like?

Spelling

In your best handwriting, follow the instructions on the sheets. Collect words like we did in class. Make it your aim to be a super speller.

Flute

This week, keep practising Abies Blues.

Optional Home Learning this half term

Here are some exciting tasks linked to our learning this half term which you may choose to do. Look out especially for pyramid building in history!

Year 6 Home Learning 7.11.24

Homework should be completed and brought back to school for the following Wednesday

Maths- Please keep going on TT Rockstars- 5 minutes every night! In your books please also complete the maths questions that are stuck in. We have been doing this in class, so the children should be able to have a good go at this!

Reading- All children should be reading for at least 20/30 minutes at home every night- let’s get to our targets before Christmas!

Spelling - Please complete the spellings rules sheet in your books- we will practise these throughout the week in class but you also need to practise them at home ready for our quiz on a Thursday!

OPTIONAL HOME LEARNING FOR THE HALF TERM TO ENHANCE OUR CURRICULUM

Year 3 Homework- Wednesday 5th November

Spellings

This weeks focus is homophones and near homophones - words that sound the same but have a different spelling and meaning, It is important that the children know the meaning of these words as well as the spelling so that they can chose the correct spelling in our spelling quiz.
Spelling quiz will be on Monday 11th November

1. know

2. pour

3. knew

4. there

5. you’re

6. their

7. they’re

8. quite

9. quiet

10. your

Reading
Please try to read for 10-15 minutes at home each day - the children have made a great start and are already moving up our target board.

Purplemash
Purplemash log ins are in the front of homework books. Each week I will set ‘2dos’ link to our learning in class.
Time, addition and subtraction task have been set this week - these are optional tasks.

TT Rockstars & Numbots
Please keep logging on, practising times tables and number skills makes a huge difference. Can you recall number facts speedily?

Autumn Term Optional Homework

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Year 5 Weekly Blog 01.11.24- The more you celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate'

What a first week back it has been! The start of our longest half term of the year has begun and it has flown by. It has been a slightly different week, with Mrs Harrison taking the class for the first three days of the week. During this, the children have been doing lots of reading into our class novel with the us coming towards the end of the fantastic story. They have also started their new grammar topic of relative clauses and looking at different ways we can add extra information to our main clauses.

We also began our next module of My Happy Mind which is all about celebrating our minds and focusing what we are good at. We did this by analysing the 24 character strengths that we all have and self-reflected on which strengths we possess the most of.

In Maths, to prepare for our money topic, we have been looking over our place value of going smaller than ones. We have looked at the relationship of ones and tenths and how we can represent this in various representations. The week has also been heavily focused on preparing for our class assembly, with the children jumping straight into script reads, drama and singing. This will be performed on Tuesday 5th November at 9:15am and 9:35am.

We began our first Geography topic of the year with the focus being on the world map and the countries within. We started by recapping our knowledge of the worlds continents and oceans and linked our previous holiday destinations to a world map. We then finished off by testing the children’s knowledge of flags- especially those who have very similar flags to close by nations.

Conversation starters

• Can you remember which character strengths you ticked as your strongest? Discuss this with your parents and see if they agree. Can you find the list of 24 strengths online and get your parents to pick their top 5.

• Do you remember the 5 really tricky flag questions I put you to the test with? Can your parents get 5/5 on this too!

Let’s Celebrate

Virtue Star of the Week: Our virtue star of the week goes to Beth. This week you have taken your own time in your breaks to help organise other children’s book folders- to make sure that they are not scrunched or folded. The children really did appreciate this and it was such a thoughtful thing to do.

Lilly for being a focused learner: Your attitude towards your learning is always spot on Lilly, even when we have changed our seats- your focus has still been at the level we expect of upper juniors. Excellent work.

Gus for being a determined learner: Mrs Harrison has been super impressed with you this week Gus. You have really applied yourself throughout all of our lessons this week- especially in your grammar work in English.

My Happy Mind Champion of the Week- Louis

Lunchtime Certificates

Role Model of the Week- William

Marvelous Manners- Isioma

Notices

• Year 5 Class Assembly: Our class assembly will be on Tuesday 5th November starting at 9:15am. The children will perform their assembly again at 9:35am on the same day.

• A- Team Football Tournament: If your child plays in the A team for the school football team , then please read the blog on the sports page regarding this for more information. This will take place on Tuesday 5th November.

• Book Look: This will take place on Friday 8th November, starting at 9:15am. If you’re available, please come down for a lovely coffee and book look morning.

• PJ Day: Our annual pajama day will be on Friday 15th November. Bring £1 to wear your PJ’s for the day and to help raise money for Brian House charity

Year 4 Weekly blog Friday 8th November, "The greatest architecture is the building of character."

It has been a lovely first week back in Year 4. Children have moved on to the Celebrate’ unit in ‘My Happy Mind.’ Children have started to notice their key character strengths and also those of others. We have been strength spotting all week!

In RE, children learned about Joseph in Egypt and reflected on how God brought good out of evil and joy from sadness. They then wrote a lovely prayer about their own faith, hope and love.

In maths, we have been working with manipulating multiples of 100 up to 2,000. Now we are understanding this in the context of measures. This linked really well to our Science—as we have moved on to the topic of States of Matter. This week we were thinking about how all matter has mass and volume and using our measuring skills.

We have finished our French unit on describing by doing descriptions of our friends—their height, hair colour, eye colour and personality. In Geography we have learned about time zones and analysed what time it will be in different countries comparing with GMT.

In English, children have learned about formal and informal language. They have been doing some performance reading and have learned how to write dialogue. They have also learned how to justify their own opinion about events in stories.

Here are some pictures of our week:

CONVERSATION STARTERS:

1. Now we are focusing on states of matter in Science, do you know what solids, liquids and gases are? Can you think of any examples?

2.My Happy Mind - this week has been about beginning to recognise your character strengths and those of others. These are not about what you can do but what you are like and which qualities you possess, for example patience, love of learning, zest, teamwork, friendship, kindness, gratefulness, respect, fairness, curiosity.

This week’s question, “ What do you think might be your top 3 strengths? Is there a character strength you would like to build on?

 This week in our Kidsafe lessons, children have learned about parents/carers arguing. Please read the letter below.

Let’s Celebrate!

This week, our learning certificates are as follows:

Ava received a Lizzie Ladybird certificate. I notice how much you are striving to learn and improve in all you do. You are doing things with such care and effort—this is really showing in the quality of what you do.

Hugo received a Sadie Spider certificate. You are becoming such a hardworking and diligent young man. You bring the same level of determination into everything you do.

Our virtues this half term are intentional and prophetic - intentional in choosing right choices and standing out for what is good. This week  Myles received our star. You always listen to your conscience Myles and strive to be a role model in all you do.

PE champions in year 4 this week: Louie and Phoebe

Flute stars this week: Heath and Hugo for improved playing.

French star - Isaac for brilliant work!

Heath has been our Happiness hero this week - starting our day by sharing a happy thought. Thank you.

Lunchtime awards:

Role model: Ava

Marvelous Manners: Liam

Notices

Wellies: Please could children bring either a pair of wellies or a pair of old trainers into school in a named plastic bag? This is so they can access the field in Winter.

Cosmetic Chemistry trip Tuesday 5th November- Please be in school on Tuesday promptly at 8:45am. PE uniform can be worn - or school uniform. If children are travel sick, please take any usual precautions eg bracelets, tablets and let me know. We should be back on time for school pick up as normal.

Mrs Mather is collecting boxes and tubes for the children’s DT topic. Please bring in any you can find.

Book Look - Thursday 14th November 2.15pm

Friday 15th November PJ Day for Brian House

Have an enjoyable weekend everyone.

Mrs Lyons and Mrs Carter.

Year 5 Homework due Thursday 7th November

Reading

New half term which means reading targets have reset- can you reach yours before we break up for Christmas?

Times Tables

Keep up to date and super speedy with your times tables- lots of TTRS!

Spellings

1. favourite

2. library

3. surprise

4. chosen

5. given

6. February

7. guide

8. stomach

9. bruise

10. muscle

11. awkward

12. privilege

13. neighbour

14. immediately

15. determined

    Mrs Barker’s group

    1. never

    2. motor

    3. have

    4. our

    5. little

    6. favourite

    7. library

    8. surprise

    9. chosen

    10. given

Assembly practice

It is vital that we use this weekend to practice all of our lines and the lyrics to our song.

Children doing bidding prayers (Lorenzo, Gus, Grace and Isioma) you do not have to memorise these- they will be given to you on a sheet.

Song- Lean on Me by Bill Withers.

This will be played on playback speed of 1.25

This will be up to 3 minutes of the song.

This week...

Wow, what a week! We have hit the ground running. We have now started to learn our letter sounds. This week we have introduced m, a, s, t, d. More information on how we say and write the sounds can be found here, please take five minutes to find our more. Resist the temptation to race a head we will be taking it slow and steady and will not move on in haste. We will be sending home two sound mats this week for you to reinforce the sounds we are learning at home.

Here are a few short videos to work through over the next couple of weeks:

‘m’ click here

‘a’ click here

‘s’ click here

‘t’ click here

‘d’ click here

If you keep going back to the videos and spot objects around your environment it will help your child to remember! Also using your sound mat have a go at practising writing the sounds. Remember to say the rhyme as you write and to use duck fingers! Good luck everyone!

Meet Zero the Hero

We have started our Maths Mastery learning too! We met Zero the Hero.Ask you child how many ‘0’ is! Click here to watch.

We learnt that 0 means nothing…not even 1!

0 has no blocks…no blocks at all!

0 is one less than 1!

I have sent home a picture to colour in. When your child has finished send it back to nursery so that we can celebrate! Which brings me nicely on to this half terms My Happy Mind!

Why not ask your child if they can write this number the rhyme goes like this…‘round in a loop like an empty hoop’. Don't forget those duck fingers!

My Happy Mind

This half term we will be exploring our Character Strengths. Click on the button below to find out more and how you can support your child at home.

We will be creating a celebration board to documents everyone’s strengths. Watch this space!

Emma’s blog

Welcome back everyone, I hope you all had a fantastic break.

We have been very busy at nursery growing our brains and having lots of fun too!

It has been lovely seeing how the children have got right back into nursery life, learning, playing, helping and caring for each other, and most importantly, being kind to one another.

As it’s a new half term we are finding out about our bodies. Did you know, we all have a skeleton which is made up of 206 bones!!? We have been learning about our major organs, how to look after them by eating healthy foods and doing lots of exercise.

We played a game where the children worked their brains to sort which foods were healthy or unhealthy. Healthy foods got the 'thumbs up' group, and unhealthy foods got the 'thumbs down' group. The children agreed that they have unhealthy foods on their treat days.

To continue with the thread everyone had fun dancing to the skeleton song. We learnt how our skeletons bones are connected to another bone! Here is the song to enjoy at home. Click here.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. See you all on Monday for more brain growing.

Emma

Michelle’s blog

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's blog.

I hope you all had a wonderful relaxing half-term.

We have jumped head first back into our learning this week. This week we have started learning our first letter sounds. We are also making sure we work those muscles in our hands and fingers that will enable us to be fantastic writers. Both Emma and I have been sending home activities to do at home to get our funky fingers strong. Please do look out for these activities in your child's book bag and please send it back for your child's next nursery session.

We have also had lots of fun learning about our bodies, starting will h our skeletons. The children needed some convincing that they all had a skeleton but we have learnt that we have 206 bones in our skeletons. We sang this song click here.

We were all fantastic on our trip to the library for story time. The librarian was impressed with how well everyone sat and listened to the the stories. 

Our learning continues as we have started to learn about numbers, starting with zero the hero.

Have a look lovely weekend everyone 

Michelle

Our trip to the library

On Wednesday we all went to St Annes Library for story time. It was quite a long way to walk but we did it!! We were all a bit tired when we got back though!

The Librarian read some spooky stories…oooooh!! The children sat so beautifully and did excellent listening. I was so very proud of them.

Click here to listen to one of the stories we read.

Fireworks

On Wednesday we started our fire work pictures. We started by making a HUGE splatter painting in the garden….sorry is everyone went home splattered, I know I did. We intend to do some ICT splatter pictures next, these shouldn’t be so messy!

Such fun! We are going to see how many colours we know the names of! Click here for the colour song! See how many colours your child can name…

Next week we are going to make a colour investigation table…we can’t wait!

If you are having fireworks at home or going to a bonfire remember to stay safe. We have been talking about the dangers of bonfires and fireworks. Click here for short video.

Worship

This week we read the parable of the Good Samaritan. Click here to watch and discuss at home. We have been trying to be even more kind and to love our neighbour as we would love ourselves…that’s what Jesus would want us to do.

Purple Mash

Purple Mash is an award-winning cross curricular website for nursery and primary school children, enabling them to explore and enhance their knowledge in a fun and creative way. Hosted online and compatible with all tablets and computers, it delivers an exciting mash-up of curriculum focused activities, creative tools, programs and games.

This we we will be sending home instructions on how to access the the website and also your childs unique login code. Keep a look our for work that is set from your childs key person too. Enjoy!!

Phew, I think that some of what we have been doing at nursery this week…we have achieved so much more!!! I think a well earned rest is in order thei weekend.

Have a lovely weekend everyone I will see you on Monday for another busy week!

Stay safe and God Bless

Barbara

Year 6 Weekly Blog: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16)

Let your Light Shine

This has been the theme of our week and we have done a lot of reflection, discussion and work around this at Castlerigg. How we can let God’s light shine through us and be the work of his hands. We have grown in our relationship with God through prayer, adoration and celebrating mass together. All of the workshops we have compelted have been centred around how we can use of talents to let God’s light shine through and how these are shown through our relationship with God and of course each other. Every member of staff have praised Year 6 on their behaviour, enthusiasm and engagement during their time away - they have been an absolute joy to take away. Mrs Gregan has said, they have been one of the best groups to take away, as they have been so patient, enthusiastic, kind and reverent. They loved seeing the children so engrossed in their prayer and reflection- they really have been a credit to you all. I have particulary enjoyed hearing all of the stories and sharing these special moments with them too, as they have come back telling me all about it! One of their highlights was the time by the lake, where they foucsued on the views and the sounds of God’s creation.

Back at school the children have been responded to their time away by wrtitng a diary entry and using water colours to portray their time at the lake…

A few more magic moments from the week …

Helpers in the mornings:

Next week we have the following children helping to take the younger children to their class:

Layla Ben Isaac Rose

Leading Learners

Well done to Ben and Michael and this week.

Ben, we really loved spending time with you this week, you are such a reflective and spiritual person; we learnt a great deal more being with you. You make people smile and you are an incredibly kind friend. Never change that intentional quality; we love you for it.

Michael- What a wonderful time you had in Castlerigg – you were enthusiastic about everything (even walking to the lake). Positivity is contagious and you are positive about everything, even when things aren’t going your way or you find something difficult. Well done!

Intentional and Prophetic butterflies

This half term we will be on the lookout for all the children that are intention in their actions. Children who make conscious decisions for the greater good. We will also be spotting children who are prophetic, who choose the right decisions with integrity and who display them publically. These children are the role models of the school. This week we thank Ella for being intentional and prophetic to help others.

Notices

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

• Parent Book Look opportunity will be on Wednesday 13th November 2:15pm

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

Year 4 homework to be completed by Thursday 7th November

Reading

Let’s really put some energy into our reading now. Many of you are in a book club and have targets for how many chapters to read. Even more importantly than this, be ready to chat to other members of your club about the characters and events so far in your story

Maths

Just 4 questions on the sheets going over things we have learned this half term.

Spelling

In your best handwriting, follow the instructions on the sheets. Collect words like we did in class. Make it your aim to be a super speller.

Flute

This week, you learned the note A. Have a go at ‘Abies Blues’ which uses both notes - on Charanga.

Optional Home Learning this half term

Here are some exciting tasks linked to our learning this half term which you may choose to do. Look out especially for pyramid building in history!

Year 3 Homework- Wednesday 30th October

Spellings

This weeks focus is common exception words - those tricky words that have no pattern, we just need to learn them!
Spelling quiz will be on Monday 4th November

1. every

2. busy

3. who

4. improve

5. arrive

6. answer

7. enough

8. thought

9. question

10. differently

Reading
Please try to read for 10-15 minutes at home each day. New ZPD’s are in the front of homework books.
Targets have been reset…Go!Go!Go!
Can you get into 100% club this half term?

Purplemash
Purplemash log ins are in the front of homework books. Each week I will set ‘2dos’ link to our learning in class.

TT Rockstars & Numbots
Please keep logging on, practising timestables and number skills makes a huge difference. Can you recall number facts speedily?

Autumn Term Optional Homework

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Football Tournament - Tuesday 5th October

Next Tuesday, there is a football tournament being held for A teams across Fylde, ran by the Schools Sports Partnership. We have decided to enter our team.

The tournament will be held on Tuesday 5th November from 12.30pm - 4.00pm at AKS on the fields. All parking needs to take place off site on either King Edward Promenade or Inner Promenade.

The children will have their lunch before leaving for the tournament, please collect your child at 12.30pm from school and take them to AKS. Mr Nay and Mr Cornwell will accompany the children there. Please could you let Mr Corwell know who is collecting your child, if it is not you, their parent. They need to be in their school football kit, shin pads and football boots and plenty of layers for this chilly weather. Please ensure that they have plenty of water and snacks for the afternoon.

The children, staff and parents are representing our school on the day, we need to ensure that we are respectful to all there.

The boys playing in the tournament are:

Archie, Liam, Benjamin, Ben, Rafe, Lorenzo, Logan, Rex,

Where does the light come from in your life? - Castlerigg Day 2

This has been a key message for us today at Castlerigg - Where does the light come from in your life? Yesterday was all about how we shine our light and today, reflecting on others and what we are grateful for in our lives.

Before bed last night, we had the most incredibly experience - night time prayer. The chapel here at Castlerigg is the old stable building, which is perfect as we prepare for the arrival of Jesus this Christmas. Daisy, the youth worker here, took us through a section of prayer and used the story of Narnia to illustrate it. Here she compared the character of Aslan to Jesus Christ, who too sacrificed himself for the good of his friends. It was incredibly moving and it took me a while to recover after; as you can tell from the images below. We then snuggled up and listened to a bedtime story from Lily. A rather lovely end to our first day.

This afternoon we headed off to the lake for some much needed reflection and fresh air. The children found out about places of interest in Keswick, headed to Derwent Water to skim stones then wandered to Fitz Park for some time together. It was so lovely to take in the views of the lake and spend some time in God’s world. The children were great.

After a delicious tea of pizza, wedges, salad and fruit, we are now getting ready to settle down for mass in the chapel. The children have written bidding prayers and are ready to sing.

Enjoy your night and we will see you tomorrow. We are departing at 2pm so should be back at school for 4pm - we will keep you posted!