History: The Great Fire of London
In year 2, we have started out History topic and we are learning all about The Great Fire of London. We are using a book, Vlad and the Great Fire of London, to stimulate our learning. (This is a YouTube link. Top tip for watching YouTube with your child: go to the settings cog along the play bar and turn off autoplay – this avoids an inappropriate clip coming up automatically, and helps to discourage your child from passively watching clip after clip.)
We have started by talking about the topic vocabulary, which you can see below. Help your child at home by exploring the information on the BBC bitesize website.
History: Athens vs Sparta!
Today, Year 4 held a debate over which Ancient Greek city state was better – Athens or Sparta.
The children used the city state fact files they’d made in the previous lesson to debate over topics including the economy, education, women’s rights and the government.
We learnt some top tips for debating:
- Have confident body language.
- Prepare arguments to counter your side’s weaknesses.
- Use key debating vocabulary (e.g. “You make a good point. However…”).
- Listen carefully to the other side so you can respond appropriately.
- Project your voice.
Although Athens won the debate, all children demonstrated brilliant debating and oracy (speaking and listening) skills. It was fantastic!
Help at home: Practise the top tips for debating at home. Should children have to go to school on weekends? Should video games be allowed in school?
Autumn term clubs
Handwriting and spelling
In Year 2, in preparation for joining their letters, we are beginning to teach the children cursive handwriting.
This handwriting guide, which the children have brought home this week, shows the order in which we will be practising these letters.
Well done to Seerat who has already had a go at writing the alphabet using cursive handwriting at home.
Also, in addition to the weekly spellings, we have been checking the children’s spelling of the tricky words from Year 1. These are words that are commonly used in writing but you can’t always your phonics knowledge to help to spell them.
The children will be bringing this learning home so you can see which of these words they need to work on. Putting these words in sentences would be great practice to do at home.
Any questions, please do come and ask us.
Help at home: use these prompts to ask your child what we have been learning so far in Year 2.
We are historians!
Y6 have kicked off their history topic in style!
We’ve learnt about the Stone Age and Bronze Age so far where we have created some fact files of key information.
We presented our findings to our classmates which also really helped us remember the key information.
Help at home by discussing the main differences between the Stone and Bronze Age. What were the key innovations?
Living and Learning – I follow the school rules.
The first week back to school brings lots of new routines and ways of doing things but there are something that haven’t changed!
Our three school rules:
1. We’re respectful.
2. We’re ready.
3. We’re safe.
We reminded ourselves of these rules in Year 3 and what these rules might look like across school. Here’s what we came up with:
How can we be respectful?
- We can listen to each other.
- We treat each other fairly.
- We look after the school and its belongings.
- We use kind words.
How can we show that we’re ready?
- We can have eyes on the speaker.
- We can have empty hands.
- We can have silent voices when someone is speaking.
How can we be safe in school?
- We can walk inside and outside when moving from one place to another.
- We can have kind hands and feet by keeping them to ourselves.
- We can stay where an adult can see us.
These three school rules are really important for everyone in school, not just the children. They make school a happy and healthy place to be.
Help at home: How can be safe at home or while out somewhere? Discuss what you could do to stay safe and what can be done if you ever feel unsafe!
Science: We are Physicists!
In Science, we have been exploring the impacts of friction and air resistance.
Here are the definitions:
We first tested which object would have the least amount of friction on a surface: an ice cube or wooden cube? Our prediction was that the ice would be the quickest therefore it has the least amount of friction. Our scientific enquiry type was ‘fair and comparative’ tests.
The children then went on to test air resistance (or drag). We tested that if our surface area increased would it slow us down or speed us up? Bin bags were our equipment of choice, have a look at our experiment:
Not only did we found out that an increased surface area means more air resistance therefore, we ran slower with the bin bag than without, but we also had a lot of fun doing it!
Help at home: Discuss different scenarios that are impacted by friction and air resistance.
Living and Learning: Rules
This week, in Living and Learning, we’ve been focussing on rules. We’ve looked closely at our three school rules and discussed why they’re important and how we can demonstrate them around school.
We should look at the speaker to show we’re ready and respectful.
We should always use our manners and say please and thank you.
We need to walk slowly and sensibly around corners so we don’t hurt ourselves or other people.
We’ve had some really interesting discussions this week about why we have rules and what would happen if there were no rules. It’s been great to hear your children’s ideas.
Following our school rules will make our school a happy, healthy and safe place to learn.
Help at home – think about our three school rules and talk with your child about what they might look like or sound like. Compare them with your rules at home. Are they similar? Are they different?
Autumn 1: Week 1: dates for your diary
Welcome to Reception Class.
The staff are very excited to see you all again.
In our classroom there will be:
Miss Lowry (class teacher)
Mrs Boulton (teaching assistant)
Mrs Kaur (teaching assistant)
Mrs Pawlak (teaching assistant)
Our classroom is all set up and ready to go.
We hope you and your child are as excited as we are about this new chapter in your child’s life. We hope you have been provided with all the information you need, but please ask if you are not sure about anything.
The First Week
After your child’s transition days, school will begin at 8.45 and finish at 3.15.
Please wait by the gate to our outdoor area and one of us will come to greet you.
At the end of the day, please wait at the gate of the Reception outdoor area. In order to ensure your child’s safety, we only let the children out as we see the parent /carer who is collecting them at the end of the day. As we are still getting to know you, this may take a little time at the beginning of the term so please bear with us.
If your child is being collected by somebody else, please tell us or phone the office. We will ask whoever is collecting your child for the password you chose.
Key information
I will post on our class news page every Friday to give you an update on what we have been learning about that week.
Please email in photographs of things that you do out of school with your child. This could be woodland walks, finding shells on the beach, baking etc.
Our class email is: moortowneyfs@spherefederation.org
PE will be on a Friday. Please ensure that your child comes to school in full school PE kit.
Library will be on a Thursday. Please ensure your child comes to school with their library book on this day.
We will assign new reading books on a Thursday. Please make sure your child comes to school with their reading record book on this day.
Dates for your diary
This year we will be offering various opportunities for you to find out more about Early Years at school.
There will be after school meetings with your child’s teacher.
There’ll be stay and learn sessions where you can come into school and be part of a lesson and then find out how you can help at home.
Then, opportunities to pop into school to share your child’s learning journey book with them.
We hope that you can join us for as many of these sessions as possible.
Welcome to Reception
An invitation to this event was emailed to you back in July but here is a reminder.
Come into school to find out some basic “need to knows” about life in Reception.
17.09.24 – 6pm – 6.30pm
Stay and learn sessions
This is an opportunity for you to come into school to find out about the Early Years Curriculum and watch your child learning in school.
Phonics Phase 2 and coffee morning –10.10.24 9-10am
Number 1 – 13.11.24 9-9:30am
Phonics Phase 3 – 14.01.25 9-9:30am
Fine Motor and coffee morning – 03.02.25 9-10am
World Book Day- 06.03.24
Number 2 – 18.03.25 9-9:30am
Learning Journey Drop In’s
An opportunity to “drop into” school and share your child’s learning journal with them.
Learning Journey Drop in 1 – 03.12.24 and 05.12.24 Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm
Learning Journey drop in 2 – 28.03.25 and 01.04.25 Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm
Learning Journey drop in 3– 08.07.25 and 10.07.25 Times – 8.45 am-9.15am and 3.15pm-3.45pm
Living and Learning: rules
At the start of the new school year, in our Living and Learning lesson, the children have been reminded about rules and the importance of rules in our daily life. This also links to the British Value of rule of law.
Before focussing on our school rules, we started by thinking about…
Why do we have rules?
What rules can you think of?
What places have rules?
Who makes the rules?
Rules keep us safe.
Rules stop people doing bad things.
It is a rule to not go too fast in a car.
The police help people follow the rules.
In our school we have three school rules.
Three, two, one, stop is one of the most important instructions the children will hear at school.
Following our school rules will make our school a happy, healthy and SAFE place to learn.
Next week, we will be thinking about our rules about online safety at school. Your child will bring home their Being online – acceptable use agreement for pupils and parents/carers which should be read through, signed and returned to class.
Any questions, please do ask.
Help at home – think about our three school rules and talk with your child about what that might look like or sound like in the classroom, the playground or at lunchtime. Here are some examples the children thought of. Being ready would mean looking at the speaker, being respectful would mean laughing with not laughing at someone and being safe would mean washing our hands before lunch to stop spreading germs.
