Mrs Deadman
Teacher (mornings)/ Assistant Head
My favourite book is Black Beauty by Anna sewell. Having been an avid horse rider for most of my life, I was over the moon when I first discovered this book when I was around ten years old. I remember the excitement of turning the first page and feeling like I was being transported back in time to something quite magical. Black Beauty is a touching story told from the view point of a black horse who recounts the tales of his life. From his simple beginnings as a foal in a meadow through the ups and downs and twists and turns, Black Beauty tells his own story which illustrates the importance of kindness towards animals. I have read this book so many times and I can honestly say that the more I read it, the better it gets!
Mrs Provis
Teacher (afternoons)
My absolute favourite book is The Magic Faraway Tree, written by Enid Blyton. I have such fond memories of reading this as a little girl, imagining that I too would climb to the top-most branches of the tree in search of a different and exciting world. The book follows 3 children who discover new worlds; sometimes they would have wonderful adventures, other times they would get themselves into a bit of a pickle! My favourite character has to be the Saucepan Man with his funny hearing and of course Moonface. How amazing it would be to slide down his slippery-slip! Now, my own children are reading this book and I hope it will create some wonderful memories for them too
Mrs Warne
Support Staff
I love to read! My favourite book of all time is The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I remember loving it when it was read to me and I have read it to my own children too.
Autumn 2
Welcome back everyone, we hope that you’ve had a wonderful half term! This is the final half term of 2024 and we have lots of exciting things planned as we prepare for our Christmas celebrations.
During Autumn 2, in maths, we will be focusing on multiplication and division. We will be learning about common multiples, factors, prime numbers, square and cubed numbers. We will then move on to fractions where we will be learning how to: add and subtract fractions with the same denominator, add fractions within 1 and with a total greater than one, add two mixed numbers, subtract fractions and subtract two mixed numbers. Our maths is taught through a mastery approach, giving the children time to explore the concept being taught using concrete resources before moving on to pictorial and then more abstract concepts (CPA approach). We will continue to encourage the children to practise their number recall through weekly 99 Club challenges and TT Rockstars battles as well as daily Flashback 4's to encourage retention. We will continue with regular arithmetic practise- the purpose of this is to expose the children to a range of calculations and to help with the retrieval and retention of key number facts.
Our science topic title for this half term will be ‘Electrifying Electricity’ This unit builds on from the Year 4 Electricity unit. Children will learn to represent circuits using symbols in a diagram. They will learn about two of the most important scientific inventors in the field of electricity – Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Children will get the opportunity to develop their understanding of what electricity is and how to measure it.
Our English for this half term will be based on the book ‘The Lost Happy Endings’ by Carol Anne Duffy and Jane Ray. In this unit, children will develop and keep characters consistent through description and link this with the characters or plot. They will engage the reader through selecting effective grammar and vocabulary e.g. manipulating sentence length and use of figurative language before showcasing their learning by writing their final outcome: To write a traditional tale focusing on describing settings, characters and an alternative ending - pupils will write the story of a character who mistreats others which leads to their own demise.
In Whole Class Reading, we will continue to explore a range of texts and genres and we will continue to practise applying the key reading skills. In addition to this, we will be continuing to develop our love for reading by sharing our Class Read at the end of each day.
In RE this half term, we will be thinking about the question ' Why is the Torah so important to Jewish people?’ In this unit, the children will continue to build on their learning in years 3 and 4 where they focussed on learning about Judaism. This unit explores the importance of the Torah for Jewish people. Pupils will recap what Jews’ beliefs are about God before exploring the significance of the Sefer Torah and how this impacts on the daily life of Jewish people. Pupils will also get the opportunity to explore and make connections between Jewish commandments and how Jews live. To round off the unit, pupils will be looking at some differences between Orthodox and Progressive Jewish practice, before making connections and weighing up the value of tradition, ritual, community, study and work in the lives of Jews today.
Our PE for this half-term is going to be netball. This ‘Netball’ unit will teach your class the skills players need to play both in defence and attack. The children will learn how to pass and catch the ball using a range of techniques. Defensively, they will develop their skills of marking including one-on-one marking. Offensively, they will learn how to get free from a defender using skills such as the dodge and straight lead run and the skill of pivoting. They will also learn the technique for shooting and how to do a toss-up. Different netball rules will be covered each week and there will also be a focus on playing as part of a team and evaluating their own and others’ performances.
For our music lessons this half term, children will be singing a range of Christmas carols to an audience. They will show control, phrasing and expressions when singing and will be able to sing in solo/ ensemble contexts. They will also demonstrate how to sing in harmony and as part of a canon.
In our computing unit this half term, we will be focusing on how to use spread sheets. The use of spreadsheets has a strong link to mathematics. Children will explore simple formulae calculations before moving onto using more complex formulae calculations. Children will explore probability, they will understand how we use spreadsheets in ‘real life’ and they will create a computational model.
In Design Technology the class will design and make a sensory light box for children, using classroom and household materials, to include a light source, powered by a circuit which will be safe and suitable for young children to play with.
In Art , children will be designing and making a Christmas decoration using plaster of paris.
In our French unit this half term, Year 5 will be focussing on ‘Where I live’. In this Unit students will revise basic opinion vocabulary that was introduced in Year 3. Students will learn new vocabulary to talk about hobbies and combine these with the opinion vocabulary and time phrases to understand and form longer phrases. At the end of the Unit, students will learn about how the holiday season (Christmas and New Year) is celebrated in another French-speaking country – Canada!
Year 6 will be focussing on ‘Paris’. In this Unit students will continue to learn key vocabulary for getting around town, while also exploring the city of Paris. The Unit starts with a cultural lesson about Paris where students will have a chance to explore some of the city’s most famous attractions. Students will also re-visit the imperative form of the verb, learning how to give simple directions to find their way around town. At the end of the Unit, there is also a cultural lesson where students will learn about Christmas markets in France!
Finally, in PSHE, we the year 6s will be focusing on ‘Celebrating Difference’. Children will explore different perceptions of what people think being ‘normal’ means. The children talk about differences and similarities and that for some people, being different is hard. The children talk about bullying and how people can have power over others in a group. They talk about strategies for dealing with this as well as wider bullying issues.