Headmaster's Welcome

Headmaster's News, Friday 1st May, 2020

May 1, 2020

Friday 1st May, 2020

Dear Parents,

It has been lovely to see all the children on Microsoft Teams this week. It has brought the classes together and there has been genuine delight at seeing and speaking to classmates and teachers which has been incredibly uplifting. We will continue to use Teams to support our Kidblog lessons and more importantly to keep in touch with all our children. We also trialled our first live assembly this week on Thursday! We had over 90 live streams which meant that nearly every child at home was watching. We will aim to have a live assembly each week. The next one is planned for next Thursday at the same time: 3pm. I hope to see as many of you there as possible.

What Have You Been Up To?

Reception
Reception enjoyed listening to the story, Jasper's Beanstalk, read by Mrs Bennett and have completed activities based on the story. They wrote about what they would like to see at the top of a beanstalk, they practised the days of the week and enjoyed a physical activity, pretending to be different beans. They had their first Teams call and enjoyed seeing each other and chatting to their friends. They all sang Happy Birthday to Mohini and she blew out the candles on her cake. Mrs Bennett and Miss Wright are looking forward to their next call with you all.

Year 1
This week, Year 1 has been incredibly busy! From filling containers to measure capacity, to using rulers and tape measures to work out centimetres and metres; from writing creative colour poems to learning about adjectives; From investigating their neighbourhood street signs to learning about Islam and Ramadan. What a week! It was great to see happy faces on Microsoft Teams meetings too! Busy, smiling children and delighted, proud teachers! Wonderful!

Year 2
Year 2 has had a very busy week. The children have been solving maths challenges that have made them really think, they have written diary entries and postcards based on Florence Nightingale and they have loved doing their PE, Art and ICT. In Science, they were given a choice of activities and made wonderful solar systems, fact cards and posters of them heading into space on a rocket! We have even had a solar system wind chime created!

Year 3
Year 3 has been busy since our return online and have stepped up with their involvement and engagement. One of the highlights so far has been our new science topic on Plants. We are all planting something, from broad beans to chickpeas, with a few pumpkin seeds thrown in! We have a special blog post dedicated to our plant diaries and we have shared our pictures with each other, so we can all watch our seeds and plants grow.

Year 4
Year 4 has enjoyed lots of great lessons this week including investigating irreversible changes in Science. Evie was so intrigued by it, she went away and carried on her learning by looking at popcorn - she uploaded a fabulous video of herself explaining the irreversible change caused by heat. Super!

Year 5
Year 5 has been working very hard at Maths and English on Kidblog, in preparation for their move up to Year 6 next year. We have also been travelling back in time to find out how the Mayans lived and, in General Knowledge, we've been researching a famous person of our own choice. Morning Registrations on Teams are a highlight of the day - especially seeing everyone's smiley faces! In HPSED, they played Just-a-Minute on Teams and started preparing for a Balloon Debate.

Year 6
Year 6 has been working very hard this week learning to write and simplify algebraic expressions in preparation for the start of Year 7. They have also been very creative, writing fabulous stories for Mrs Haythornthwaite about The Black Hat and producing art work, descriptions and poems as part of their learning in General Knowledge. They started reading The Silver Sword and had an oral comprehension test on Teams with Mrs Duke. A fantastic week's work from the whole class.

Bank Holiday
Next Friday will be VE Day and Bank Holiday for the whole country. School will be closed on that day and there will be no online learning.

Microsoft Teams Tips
To help everyone and keep you safe

1) Please make sure your mic is turned off if you are not speaking.
2) Keep background noise in the room to a minimum.
3) Only speak when the teacher calls your name.
4) Please let your teacher or parents know if you are concerned about anything you see or hear online.
4) Teams should only be used during the school day with your teacher.
5) Think carefully about the language you use online. You should behave as you would in school.
6) Make sure you are appropriately dressed for all lessons. Pyjamas should not be worn at registration.

Merits
Rec- Lana
1D - Dylan
1W - Arthur
2E - Johnny
2J - Ariana
3M - Pranav
4D - Haya
4S - Sophie
5H - Ibraheem
5M - Sam
6P – Inas

Yours sincerely

J M Duke
Headmaster