New Residents
Here are the first chicks to hatch in the incubator. There are currently nine chicks that have hatched.
Feel free to come and have a look after school. They’d love to meet you! Be prepared to wash your hands though. We’ve already had a few accidents!
The eggs have hatched!
As we’re sure most of you are aware, Year 3 and 4 and have inherited some eggs this week. We have twelve eggs and so far five have hatched. They are being kept in a same place.
Chickwatch 2012
We now have five chicks that have hatched!
Two of the older chicks have now moved to the brooder box where they have a bit more space to move around. Fingers crossed, we will have a few more by tomorrow morning!
Eggciting times!
Our homework policy
Our Homework Policy was written to support and engage as many learners as we can, and to provide opportunities for others – family, friends – to support in a positive, constructive way. It’s great to see more and more children are putting more and more effort into their homework. Recently, a few parents have asked about expectations. I hope the following will clarify what we can expect and what you can expect:
Talk Time
Teachers have noticed that, in some instances, a lot of time has been taken on the presentation of the Talk Time homework. Children are welcome to do this although it is not necessary. The purpose of Talk Time homework is to encourage a conversation around their current learning. Any notes made in their homework book should simply be there to aid them as a prompt when it is discussed in class the following week. For this reason, teachers tend to give verbal feedback during their talk time session in class. We want our children to be expert talkers, using a variety of sentences and expressions, and able to back up their points or disagree with others in a polite way – this is more important than written notes for Talk Time. Simply: it’s hard to be a good writer if you’re not a good speaker, so Talk Times using ambitious words, useful phrases, interesting sentences is the best way to support your child.
Creative
This is where your child’s creative juices can flow! Creative homework is an opportunity for your child to choose whatever they want to demonstrate some learning. For example, the Y3 and Y4 homework this week is Creative: I can show what I know about food chains. Your child could present all their learning in so many different ways, from a diagram with notes to a story or comic strip. Parents’ and carers’ role is to support, encourage, help but (obviously) never to take over and do the homework! Teachers always look forward to seeing how creative children can be. If you notice the work has not been marked, please don’t worry. Teachers will have looked at and celebrated the homework in another way – the work might have been viewed by the whole class using a visualiser which allows the work to be projected to the whole class and a discussion of ‘stars and steps’ will happen. Peer assessment is also effective – children are very able to share what’s good and what needs improving! These sorts of verbal feedback strategies are often more effective than a written comment because it’s more instant and it makes sure the child understands (and their work is praised publicly!).
Practice makes Perfect
This is similar to what you might consider traditional homework: it may be a worksheet or a writing task (such as Y5’s current homework: I can write instructions). Practice Makes Perfect is useful homework when something has been taught in school but needs consolidation. The work should be fairly straightforward for the child as there should be no need for new learning, so just some encouragement from you is needed. However, it would be a great time to get your child to teach you – they should be able to explain the key points or processes! We use this type of homework less often because usually the best practice is where a teacher can keep feeding back and presenting new challenges when they see it as appropriate. Teachers mark these activities in line with our marking policy.
As always, please ask if you’ve any questions or concerns.
Our Big Topic is….Animal Kingdom
Our topic this term is jam-packed with fun and exciting events which could potentially make this one of the best ever!
We had a special visitor join our class on Monday. Ask your child about Pip and the sort of habitat she lives in.
Year 4 are going to have the opportunity to visit Allerton Grange to create their own animations involving animals. Also this term, Year 4 will be identifying and hunting for animal habitats. This will involve mini-beast hunts locally, as well as looking at habitats all over the globe.
Finally, in response to children’s requests we have crammed even more art in this term! The children’s final piece will be a mud-roc sculpture of an imaginary animal.
A thank you from Mr Redfearn
This is a message to everyone in Year 4 for being so incredible over the past few days when inspectors have been in school. Our SEAL theme this week has been to ‘keep calm or help others to be calm’. The children in Year 4 have definitely helped me to keep calm and should be proud of how mature they have been whilst we have had visitors.
There have also been lots of fun and exciting learning this week with some children even being introduced to lowest common denominators in Maths (an objective for Year 6s!).
Knock Knock!
This week, your child will be sketching some observational drawings. In keeping with our topic of ‘Our House’, they will have the opportunity to look at doors throughout British History as well as developing some essential skteching techniques along the way. Below, you will find doors from the Anglo-Saxon period right up to the Edwardian period. Later on the week, I will upload some of the children’s drawings to see how they compare alongside the real thing. Why not discuss with your child how the features change through the ages?
It’s Moustache Season!
As some of you more astute parents may have noticed, I am currently trying to grow a moustache. I’m not doing very well. In fact, Mr Wilks (who is not growing a moustache) by about 4 o’clock everyday seems to have grown more hair than I have done in 2 weeks.
It’s all for a good cause. I’m raising money for men’s health charities during the month of Movember. It would be greatly appreciated if you could donate to this worthy cause.
However, the purpose of this posting is to ensure that you all know that I have not become lazy and dishevelled. I aim to look like Igor by the end of November, where there will be (to most of the teachers’ delight) a celebratory shaving of the moustache.
Doggie Heaven
Year 4 were treated to a special four-legged visitor today.
Meet Bailey, a 5 year-old dog who just loves to be cuddled!
The class were brilliant with him and Bailey definitely enjoyed his stay. Year 4 learnt all about how to be safe around dogs. They also learnt about what to do in difficult situations around dogs.
Thank you to Dog’s Trust for making it such a fun session.
Hobby Half Day
Check out our fantastic photos of our first Hobby Half Day!
Children from Year 1 to Year 6 had the opportunity to participate in an afternoon of learning something new. The activities ranged from everyday baking and cooking to the unusual: creating their own carbon footprint.
