Head Boy/Girl Speeches

This week, I have spoken to the class about preparing their speeches for Head Boy/Girl, should they wish to apply for the role.

As soon as they have written/drafted their speech, I have said they can bring it into school for myself or Mrs Owen to proof read, if they wish. If they have typed their speech up at home but do not have a printer, please feel free to email it to year6@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk, and I will print it here in school.

This year we are able to read the speeches in front of KS2-these will take place on Monday (13th) morning. We will also record their speeches and send them to KS1 classes so the teachers and pupils can still watch and have their vote. Please ensure you have your speeches perfected and at hand on Monday morning!

I am so pleased at the number of children in Year 6 that are applying for the Head Boy/Girl role….reading publicly, in front of an audience, is a huge skill and confidence boost in itself. In Year 6 ALL pupils will be given a role of responsibility, so even those who are not selected for the role of head girl/boy or deputy head girl/boy, and those who did not apply, will have a duty within the school. This could be digital leader, sports leader, prefect, classroom monitor, for example. We find that it is really important, and valuable, for the Year 6’s to be given roles of responsibility as part of the preparation for High School.

Here are some top tips for when you are writing your speech….

• Introduce yourself-not all children in school will know you by name!

• Talk about your time at Our lady’s so far-What responsibilities have you had? What have you achieved? What good qualities will you bring to the role?

• Talk about why you want the position

• What suggestions do you have to make Our Lady’s an even better place?

• How has the ethos at Our Lady’s help to shape you into the person you are? How will you inspire others in the school? (Growth Mindset-resilience?)

Good luck to all applicants…remember to speak eloquently and confidently and try not to look down at your speech-engage with the audience as must as possible.

Welcome to Year 6!

It has been so lovely to welcome my new Year 6 class back into school this week. We have spent the past couple of days getting to know each other, and learning all about the Year 6 routine and expectations. I have had the most wonderful couple of days, and this class have made a great first impression….I am very excited for the year ahead! I can already see what a resilient, hard-working bunch they are, and I cannot wait to see them all thrive in their last year of primary school!

Today they all completed their first Star Reading test of the year, and have been given their new ZPD. They will be coming home today with a reading book, which is within their ZPD range. Let’s get our first stickers on our bookmarks and get reading this weekend! Below are a few important notices, and from next week I will be able to fill you in on all the learning we have been doing in each subject, when we begin our first units of work.

Notices

• PE will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays so please send the children into class in the PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.

• Water Bottle-the children need to bring their water bottle in daily, already filled with water. They will take their water bottle home at the end of each day to be cleaned.

• Homework will be mainly set online. This will be set via Bedrock, IXL and TT Rockstars. Spelling and times tables practise will also be a weekly expectation, as they will be tested on these every Thursday morning. I will set homework on a Friday (starting from next Friday), which will be due for the following Wednesday.

• Home Reading-the class have their new ZPD for Autumn 1 and have taken their books home today. It is so important that the children are reading regularly at home! Please can you ensure their reading records are signed at home so they can get their stickers on their book marks too.

• Home Learning-if your child is having to isolate for any reason and needs to access home learning, this will be accessible from the Year 6 Home Learning Page. On the day we are informed of any child needing to isolate, it may mean that it will not be until the end of the day that a full timetable of home learning will be available the on Home Learning tab. In this instance, please complete a Bedrock lesson, practice times tables on TT Rockstars, and practice these spellings.

• If you need to contact me, please send me an e-mail to: year6@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to our first full week together!

Thank you,

Mrs Murphy & Mrs Owen

A week of two halves....

Although we only had chance to share the beginning of the week with each other, I have been so impressed with how you have all adapted to the home learning process these past couple of days. Here’s what we did get up to at the beginning of the week….

The majority of our time was spent practicing for our production, with Mrs Murray taking groups down to the hall, in ‘decades’, to rehearse their parts. It is coming along so nicely, and Miss Benson had a chance to work with the class on Wednesday afternoon too; she was very impressed. I am so pleased that we will be back in school on Monday, so we can start recording! Mrs Murray needs to pick up some costumes on Monday, however, so filming will probably not begin until the Tuesday.

Can I please ask that all children bring in any costumes/clothes from home, that we listed a couple of weeks ago. ALL children need a black T Shirt (even if it has a logo on, we can turn it inside out!) and black bottoms. Please can the children also bring their Leavers Hoodie to school in a (labelled) bag with them as we have plans to wear this in one of our performances. Other children have been asked to bring other clothes in too-presenters need smart attire! If we can get all of these in by Monday we can see who has got what, and what we still need, for Tuesday.

This week we also celebrated the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul. We watched a live Mass on Tuesday afternoon. It really does feel like we are sat in the congregation when Fr. Jim streams the Masses live to us! We know that St. Peter was chosen by Jesus to lead the early Christian church. St. Peter and St. Paul are two of the most well-known saints who were most responsible for spreading the Christian message in the days of the early church.

We also had tournaments taking place on TT Rockstars this week, and the class had a chance to access resources such as SumDog and IXL, to revise Year 6 English and Maths units!

Thank you!

I have to say a huge thank you to my class this week for how sensible and respectful they have been. It has been slightly different, with the amazing Mrs Murray taking more of the lead, especially with the production. When the children have been in the classroom with me, they have sat so beautifully at their desks getting on with the tasks set-it has made the few days we were in school such pleasurable ones!

Home Learning

For those who may have to isolate next week, I will update the Home Learning page, ready for Monday morning. Please just complete as much of the work as you can, and send me any work you do manage to complete. I am aware that for some, it may mean you are not in school the day we are recording a scene that you should be in. I know this will be upsetting for you, but sadly we have no other option than to get all filming done by Thursday. Our last week is very busy, and Fr Jim needs all videos by the end of next week to have plenty of time to put it together. We are still hoping to perform some whole class songs, socially distanced on the field, on the last day!

I look forward to seeing the class again on MONDAY! I will be cherishing every moment with them from now until we finish!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

'Family: where life begins, and love never ends.'

The theme of our shared worship this week was ‘families’, hence the above quote. We looked at what the word ‘family’ meant in many different ways. Family is our blood relatives, those close to us that love and support us, our friends, mother/father figures in our lives….and what we all have in common, is that we are all part of The Family of God. It was so lovely discussing what the class would describe as family. One response was ‘those who love us’. I thought this was a lovely thought, rather than just thinking about those we love, it is those who show love to us.

In Maths this week we have continued with our arithmetic work. We have looked at long division, adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators and find fractions of amounts.

In English, we have drafted and copied up our letters to our future teachers. This was a lovely transition task, and not only will their future teachers get to read all about themselves and their concerns/excitements about high school, they will also get a chance to see what superb writers they all are!

In PE this week we had our Sport’s Day! This was lots of fun, and although it was not quite the same without our parents, I made sure to take lots of photographs! These can be viewed at the bottom of this page. When all classes have completed their Sport’s Day we will be totaling all the house team points and will announce a KS1 and KS2 winning house in due course!

AWARD WINNERS!

This week’s Golden Award went to Leo for his resilience this week. Even in the face of a challenge, I have watched you persevere!

The Maths Award went to Sophie for impressive arithmetic work!

The Writing Award went to Angelo for his beautifully presented letter.

A huge well done to Reece & Tom, who received the Bronze medal awards for their drumming today!

Lastly, a huge congratulations to Reuben who was selected as a Year 6 winner of the ‘Musician of the Year’ competition!

NOTICES:

• Please send your child in with a ‘bag for life’, so we can prepare to send work home

• We have been through what costumes we are hoping to provide from the production and which ones we are hoping the children can bring in from home. Please can they start to bring those in as soon as the can

• As mentioned in previous blogs, we will begin filming the production the week beginning 5th July. We may even record one decade on Friday 2nd if we have the costumes we need. As we do not have a live audience we are going to be filming over the course of the week, rather than all the way from start to end. We will record in separate decades to ensure we get their best performances on camera, and Fr Jim has kindly offered to help us merge all these videos together! We are hoping to have the video of the production ready to send to parents and other classes, by Thursday 15th July

• Thank you to all who have sent their Ascent Waiver form back already. I do need them all back before the day of the trip

• We have been reminded of the prevalence of Covid this week with our Reception bubble going down. Please keep to the guidance and if you are at all concerned about the health of your child (even with headaches or flu-like symptoms!), or a member of your household, PLEASE keep your child at home and get a test. We want to enjoy these last few weeks in school together and not with us having to isolate at home. Many thanks for your continued support with this matter - we cannot afford to let our guard down.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Take care.

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

Sport’s Day Pictures:

'Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains'- Matthew 17:20

This week we celebrated the Blackpool Family Schools Year 3 Mass, and the theme was ‘Faith like a mustard seed’ . This mass is usually when all Year 3 classes gather at St. Mary’s to celebrate this special service. However, as this was not possible, due to Covid, Fr Jim recorded the mass so all of the school could join in this special worship. The theme of this Mass was something we have studied in our RE lesson in Autumn term, and it helped us to remember that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed…it starts off really small and yet grows into something spectacular. This is just like our faith…where there is a tiny bit of faith, it can grow to immense proportions, spreading its influence far and wide and benefiting those who it comes into contact with. A seed does nothing until it is planted, just like our faith will not grown unless we live our the Word of God, through our words and actions.

Here’s what else we have been up to this week;

In Maths, we have had a focus on time. We have looked at converting units of time, including; months, days, weeks, minutes, hours, seconds. We have also looked at calculating time intervals and reading timetables.

In English, we started our transition unit. We have looked at the features of informal and formal letters, using examples of each. We then annotated each one to identify what made each letter formal or informal. This is all in preparation for us writing a formal letter to our future high schools. Next week, we will be looking at the structure of a formal letter.

In PE, we have had a practice of our sports’ day, in preparation for the ‘real deal’ next Tuesday morning. Sadly, we are unable to welcome parents into the school grounds, due to restrictions. However, I will be sure to take plenty of pictures!

Our production is coming along very nicely. We have used the afternoons again, to get on stage I we have nearly perfected a fair few of our decades. We will start some recording of the decades very soon! Please keep practicing songs and lines at home!

AWARD WINNER’S

This week’s Golden Award went to Joseph for taking on much responsibility this week and stepping in when someone was needed!

The Maths Award went to Mya for not only being a great learner of Maths, by also being a great teacher on Maths!!

A huge well done as well to Sophie, who received her Bronze Medal for her drumming this week!

Other notices:

• I will be sending a letter home next week, which will detail what we have planned for the last week of school (and their last week of Primary School!). This will include a ‘cinema’ day, a couple of trips out, and a leaver’s party/picnic, and more... The letter will detail more about this

• If any children have costumes/clothes at home, that they will be wearing in the production, please bring them into school so we can see what we have and what we need

• Please bring a bag for life in to school, in preparation for taking work home at the end of the term

• Please ensure you bring your water bottles in daily. As the weather is warmer, it is important to have water at hand throughout the day.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Slater & Murray x

'Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.'

As we enter the last half term (where has the time gone?!), we are using this time wisely to do plenty of revision to consolidate our Maths and English learning. This half term we are also using our time to rehearse for our production, which we will be recording during the week beginning 5th July. The class have made such a great start with this, with many of them already know all the words to their songs and their lines!

In Maths this week, we have been looking at 2D and 3D shapes. Specifically, we have been looking at angles in regular polygons (ask us what a regular polygon is!) and nets of 3D shapes. We have also been continuing to consolidate our arithmetic with our usual morning Maths! Next week, we will be looking at time!

In English, our main focus has been spelling and reading comprehension. Every day this week we have completed an independent comprehension, which we have then marked together. In spelling we have been revising our Read, Write, Inc spelling units, that we have completed over the year, and giving our partners mini spelling tests. Next week, we will begin our transition writing unit!

Much of our afternoons this week have been spent familairising ourselves with the production songs and scripts. Here are the words to the lyrics so the class can be practising at home too, and here is the presenter’s script. Below is a Google Drive link, which contains most of the audios for the songs too. The audio for ‘These Day's’ would not upload in the folder so I have put a separate link for this below. Any songs which will need to be sung with just a backing track, I have uploaded the ‘karaoke’ version, for the class to get used to practising without the singing in the background.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GrUbf_bniiP_tu-GnISJb3EZJrz7WLnr/view?usp=sharing

These Days

AWARD WINNERS

This week’s Golden Award went to Reece for taking on much responsibility this week and really stepping up to the mark !

The Maths Award went to Audrey for her superb Maths work, particularly when working out what amount we started with, when solving fractions of amounts.

OTHER NOTICES:

• School finishes at 1.05pm on Fridays and at 3.15pm every other day

• Next Friday 18th June is own clothes day, with the theme ‘Dress like a rainbow’. We ask for a £1 donation from each child, which will go towards gardening tools and equipment

• Within the next couple of weeks, please can each child bring in a ‘bag for life’ (as they will hold more weight) with their name on it, in preparation for sending work home by the end of this term

• As mentioned in previous blogs, the recording of our production will take place over one or two days during the week beginning 5th July. When the video has been fully put together I will send it to all parents for you to watch from home

We hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray x

'And they were filled with the Holy Spirit.' Acts 2:4

This Sunday 23rd May we celebrate the feast of Pentecost. Pentecost marks the very beginning of the formation of the church. On this day, the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirt and they began their mission to continue Christ’s work, on earth. On that very day, they baptised 3000 people! In our RE lesson we looked at the events of this day, and the class were then given the task to create a ‘freeze frame’ of Pentecost….

Here’s what else we have been up to….

In Maths, we have be doing some more algebra! This class really do love their algebra, and I can relate to this! There is something extremely satisfying about solving algebraic equations, by finding out the missing values…it is a bit like solving a puzzle!

In English, we have planned and written another biography. This time we have all been writing about Thomas Edison, as he links in nicely with our Science topic of ‘Light’. We did our biography unit way back before Christmas so it was a great way for me to assess whether they had remembered how to structure a biography, and include a variety of punctuation, sentence structures and vocabulary.

In Science, we have been presenting our PowerPoints, all about ‘refraction’. I was so impressed with the quality of these presentations; they were extremely informative and very well presented.

AWARD WINNERS:

This week’s Golden Award went to Caitlyn for her positive attitude towards school life-she brightens the classroom with her smile!

The Writing Award went to Liliana for her effective use of sentence starters in her biography.

The Maths Award was given to Vinny for his perfect scores on his mock papers. I also gave a Maths Award to Abigail this week for the amazing progress she has made with her Maths.

The winner of the class Bedrock competition, scoring an astounding 944 points(!!!) was Claire….well done, Claire, I am blown away!! I also gave a little runner-up treat to Reuben and Ryan who scored over 300 points! Well done, boys!

OTHER NOTICES:

• School reopens on Monday 7th June-normal start time of 8.40am

• As the restrictions are easing, Fr. Jim in encouraging those ( who can leave the house) to attend weekly Mass. It would be lovely to see many of you at Mass on Saturday evening or Sunday morning

• Just a reminder that, as it stands, the Year 6 production will be recorded and available to watch virtually. Sadly, we are still not in a position to welcome people into the school hall, at one time. This will most likely be recorded at some point during the week beginning 5th July. After half term, the class will be coming home with songs and/or lines to rehearse

• After half term, we will also have our Sport’s Day. Again, it is unlikely we will be in the position to invite parents along, but I will be sure to take lots of pictures

• I have not set any homework over the half term, but please keep up with reading. You can access Bedrock lessons, whenever you like!

I can hardly believe we will be entering our very last half term together, upon our return to school. Your children continue to make me incredibly proud, and I am in awe of their sheer strength and determination over this past year. Despite all of the (many) challenges they have faced this year, they will be leaving Our Lady’s as resilient young learners, ready to embark upon their High School journey…I could burst with pride!

I hope you all have a lovely couple of weeks off. I will be savouring every moment of our last six weeks together, when we return!

Take care,

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

'Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations...' (Matthew: 18)

Yesterday we celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord. Although we were not able to go over to church, to celebrate this Mass, Fr Jim brought the Mass to us! He live streamed the mass over to school so all classes were able to watch and take part, from our classrooms. It was such a lovely moment, as although we were all still in our classrooms, in our bubbles, it really brought us all together again, through worship. In RE, and through our shared worships in class, we have been looking at the various ways we can be Jesus’ witnesses today, and continue the work that Jesus’ Apostles started. Whether it be through thought, words or actions, there are so many ways we can continue to spread the love of God, on earth today.

Here is what else we have been up to…..

In Maths, we have been looking at some reasoning style questions, reminding ourselves how to convert between measurements, translate/reflect shapes, find the mean and lots more.

In English, we have looked at relative clauses, active/passive voice and the subjunctive. We have also continued with our reading comprehension, putting our inferential skills into practice!

This week we combined computing with science. The class researched the topic of ‘refraction’ and they have made PowerPoint presentations, with their partners. We will be presenting these in our Science lesson on Monday!

‘Mock’ tests….

This week, the class have had a go at some ‘mock’ SATs papers. They have done GPS, Reading and Maths papers. The official SATs are not taking place this year (and rightfully so!) because of the disruptions to the school year…they were actually timetabled to take place this week! Instead, I am giving the class some practice papers to have a go at, which will help towards my overall teaching assessments, at the end of the school year. They will not, however, be the only thing I use to determined these end of year assessments. I have to say I am bursting with pride at how well they have all done on these tests. They have tried so hard this week, and every single one of them has given it their all…what more can I ask for!?

AWARD WINNERS

The Golden Awards went to Thomas and Reece for working so incredibly hard this week.

The Maths Award went to Gabriella for her superb arithmetic skills!

The Writing Award went to Reuben for his well-written diary entry in RE.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I can hardly believe next week is our last week of this half term. Time is going much to quickly for my liking!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

'After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.' Acts 1:9

On Thursday 13th May, we celebrate the Feast of the Lord’s Ascension. The ascension of Jesus was when he ascended back to heaven to be with His Father, leaving his disciples with an extremely important mission. In RE this week, we have planned out and started to write a diary entry, from the point of view of one of the disciples. They were writing their entries, immediately after they had witnessed the ascension of their Lord, Jesus, reflecting on the mission Jesus has bestowed upon them. I am so proud of how well the class have shown an understanding of the events of the ascension, as well as drawing upon the emotions and feelings of the disciples. We will finish these diary entries off next week.

Here’s what else we have been learning this week….

In Maths, it has been all about pie charts!! We have been interpreting them, linking them with fractions and percentages and even drawing them!

In English, we have been focusing on subordinating conjunctions, subordinate clauses and word classes. We have been practising a lot in our GPS books, plugging any of those gaps in our GPS learning!!

In Science, we made periscopes! We then explained the science behind the function of periscopes, and had fun ‘spying’ on people in the classroom…

AWARD WINNERS!

This week’s Golden Award went to Tia for working so hard and contributing to class discussion.

The Maths Award went to Liliana for her superb work in Maths, this week.

The Writing Award went to Analiese for her well-written diary entry, in RE.

Other notices:

• School finishes at 1.05pm on Fridays

• ‘Auditions’ for solo parts in our end of year performance can be done virtually. Please send a recording of your child singing their chosen audition song to the year6@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk email address, before Thursday 21st May. The earlier they are sent in, the better

• I have had a few parents ask me about the end of year performance and when this will be taking place. As it stands, the class will not be able to perform to a live audience in school, due to Covid-19. The plan is to record the performance and send to all parents to watch from home. If anything changes, I will be sure to let you know

• In light of the conversations I have had with the class this week about using appropriate language and being respectful online, Miss Haggerty will be updating the general ‘News’ page with more information about online safety. You can access this blog from here

• We break up from school on Friday 22nd May, at normal finishing time, 1.05pm

Thank you, as always, for your continued support-this is much appreciated. Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

'Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new.' - Albert Einstein

This week, we have been learning so much from our mistakes! In Year 6, we view our mistakes as our first attempts in learning, and use them to further our learning. As we completed a GPS practice paper least week and a reasoning one this week, we have really been focusing on those questions that we struggled with-we have never learnt so much!! I am so proud of how hard all of the class are working, and how much they want to succeed. If they all continue putting in this effort, I have no doubt they will leave Year 6 achieving so much!

Here is some more detail about this week’s learning…

In Maths we have been describing and drawing circles. We have learnt what circumference, radius and diameter are (ask us at home!!) and we have been drawing circles, using a compass. We know that the measurement from the tip of our pencil, to the point on our compass, will always be the radius of the circle we draw. We have also looked at Roman numerals and measuring angles, using a protractor!

In English, we have continued with our focus on GPS and reading comprehension. In GPS, we have looked at past/present progressive tense, subject/verb/object, punctuating speech, and so much more! We have been developing our inference skills, and exploring key vocabulary through our reading comprehensions.

In RE, we have been comparing our own responses with our friend’s responses, to questions we find difficult to answer, from our RE lessons. I was so impressed with how detailed some of their responses were, and they truly showed a deep understanding of some of the questions asked. Questions such as ‘If Adam and Eve did not sun, would we have needed Jesus?’ and ‘How is the bread and wine changed into Jesus’ body and blood, in the mass?’

In Computing we were using the Scratch coding programme to create our own games. We have to follow instructions given, and debug when necessary. Many of us then went on to develop our games further, by adding more code.

In Science we have proved two things, through our investigation. One is that light travels in straight lines and the other in the law of reflection. We used a mirror and a torch to prove this, and then we explained our findings (again, ask us what we found out!)….

AWARD WINNERS

The Golden Award went to Megan and Zachary this week. I gave one to Megan for being such an enthusiastic learning and trying so hard with all her work. Zachary received his for showing what a wonderful friend he is-he is so caring and considerate!

The Maths Award went to Joseph for trying so hard with his Maths-I have noticed huge improvements!

NOTICES:

• Friday finishing time is at 1.05pm

• Please ensure water bottles are brought in daily, filled with fresh water

• This Monday is Bank Holiday Monday, school will re-open on Tuesday 4th May

I hope you all have a lovely (long!) weekend-let’s keep our fingers crossed for more sun!

Take care,

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

'Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.'

Well this week has been a week of growth. We have a growing understanding of many areas of our learning, we have continued to develop our growth mindset and we have grown spiritually, through our questioning in RE. At this time of the year, it is so heart-warming to watch the class grow so much in confidence, as they prepare for their transition to high school-I can see all of their hard work, over the past 7 years, truly paying off!

Here is what we have been up to this week, in more detail….

In Maths, we have had a big focus on reasoning questions. They are always trickier to answer, compared to arithmetic questions, as you often have to work out exactly what the question is asking you to do, before you apply those arithmetic skills. We had a focus on multi-step problems, looking at how to use the information given, to work our what calculations needed to be done. We had to work one thing out first before we could then work out the final answer….after a bit of practice, I was so pleased to see so many whizz through the other questions.

In English, our focus has been GPS! Lots of GPS! After completing a paper last week, we identified our gaps and this is what we have focused on this week. We have looked at plural possession, contractions, semi-colons and adjectives/adverbs. We will continue with our GPS focuses next week too!

In Science, we gave scientific explanations of how it is that we can see objects. We labeled and annotated the picture of us ‘acting out’ this concept, to show a true understanding of how light travels in straight lines, and reflects off objects, before travelling to our eyes.

In PE, we played a new game called ‘Strategiki’. This was a team game, all about strategy. The class really enjoyed this, and demonstrated superb teamwork and communication skills.

In PSHE, we focused on what we know about growth mindset, to categorise thoughts into helpful/unhelpful thoughts. The class then added their own into each category and I was really touched by the ideas they had, and how much they had understood the purpose of the lesson. We know it is not helpful to focus on the negatives and ‘worst-case scenarios’, and much more helpful to highlight the positives in situations, looking at things with a different perspective at times. Sophie came up with a new acronym for PSHE, which I absolutely loved…Positive thought Self-love Hopefulness Energised mind.

In RE, we had the pleasure of doing a live Google meet with Fr. Jim! We had prepared some ‘Ask Fr. Jim’ questions for him, which he answer in a live Q & A session. The children really enjoyed this, and they took so much away from it. Some of the questions Fr Jim were asked, were deep and difficult to answer, but Fr Jim did an amazing job at answering these in a way that the children could understand and I could tell that they really had grown spiritually! This proves my theory: if in doubt, ask Fr Jim!!

AWARDS

Golden Award- This week I gave out two Golden Awards. One went to Ryan and the other Lily. I gave them the award this week for the same reason; they are both superb role models!

Writing Award-This went to Charlie for his increased accuracy with punctuations.

Maths Award-This was given to Tom for the huge progress he has made with his arithmetic.

REMINDERS:

• School closes at 1.05pm on Friday’s

• Please do not wear earrings on PE days (Tuesdays and Thursdays)

• Please remember to bring your water bottles in daily, filled with fresh water

• Please remember to get your reading record signed when you read at home. You should be reading regularly: at least 3/4 times a week

Thank you for all your hard work, yet again, Year 6! Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

'Jesus is the Source. It is from Him the divine life in man finds its beginning.' - St. John Paul II

I hope you all managed to have a wonderful Easter. I can hardly believe we have now entered into our last term of the school year, and, of course, the last term of Primary School for Year 6. They have certainly hit the ground running this week, and we have managed to cover so much! I am so proud of how hard they are all working, and I can tell they are ready to give this last term their all, in preparation for High School.

Here is what we have been up to this week…

In Maths, we started the week looking at ratio and ended the week calculating the volume of cuboids. Their work on ratio really impressed me, especially as this was a brand new concept for them. All of the class now understand what ratio is, and how to represent ratio. We are developing our calculation of ratio, which proved to be trickier for some. We will look at lots of problems involving ratio, over the coming weeks. They were all superb at finding the volume of cuboids, and used the formula, volume= l x w x h, to solve many problems.

In English, we have had a huge reading focus! We have looked over a reading paper that we did before we broke up, and really focused on those questions we found tricky-especially P.E.E questions! Point, Evidence, Explanation! We will do plenty more of these questions, to ensure we know how to answer them in depth.

In RE, we have been showing an understanding of Jesus being the source and summit of life, for Christians. This was why I found the quote from St. John Paul II so fitting this week. It is not the easiest thing to explain so we spent a lot of time discussing what it meant when we refer to Jesus and the Eucharist as the source of life. We compared Jesus to electricity, which powers electrical appliances…in the same way Jesus is our source of spiritual strength, and He empowers us to live out the values of the Kingdom of God.

In PE, we have been developing our throwing and catching skills, through a series of small group games. Next week, we will be applying these skills to teams games.

In Science, we started a new topic on Light. We looked at different light sources, and then identified which were natural sources of light. We had an interesting discussion about the moon being a source of light…ask us at home what our opinion is on this! We then looked at home light travels, to enable us to see things. We now know that light travels in a straight line to an object and the light reflects (or bounces off) the object, and travels in a straight line to our eyes. Ta dah! That’s how we can see the object! Here are our representations of this concept…..

AWARD WINNERS:

The Golden Award went to Grace B for working so incredibly hard in class-I am very proud!

The Writing Award went to Mya for her beautifully written piece of RE work.

The Maths Award was given to Angelo for his superb work on volume of cuboids.

Have a lovely weekend and stay safe!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.' (John 20:29)

We hope you have a Happy and Holy Easter!

Each year group was given two stations of the cross to design. We were given the 1st Station: Jesus is condemned to death and the 8th Station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem. Below is a picture of our Head Boy and Girl, Reuben and Audrey, with our two stations. Fr Jim will be displaying all 14 stations over in church, during the Triduum.

Here’s what we have been doing this week…

In Maths, we have been finding relationships between numbers and then writing this as an algebraic formula. So if we notice a set of number had been timesed by 2 and then had 3 added to them, our formula was 2n + 3. We also started to look at ratio…we will pick this up again after half term.

In English, we have completed and edited our independent write. We just managed to get them finished before breaking up, and I cannot wait to read over them all!

In Computing, we completed another coding activity, using BitsBox. We are now becoming so much more confident with creating algorithms and debugging, that some of us got on to creating completely new codes!

In RE, we have been looking at the Easter Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We refamiliarised ourselves with the events that took place on each of these days and then explained Jesus actions-what did they mean for us? Why did he do this? How has it help to shape our faith?

We have also been watching special assemblies delivered by Miss Haggerty, for each day of Holy Week. It has been lovely to share in worship with Miss Haggerty and reflect on this poignant week.

We also made our Easter cards….

AWARD WINNERS!

This week’s Golden Award went to Theo for being a ray of sunshine! He brightens the classroom with his positive outlook on life and his great sense of humour!

The Writing Award went to Megan for her effective choices of language in her independent write. Her use of similes and metaphors really helped to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind.

The Maths award was given to Lily for her consistently high score with our ‘Fluent in 5’. She also did an amazing job at recognising relationships between numbers and putting that into an algebraic formula.

I would also like to congratulate Ryan this week, as he won our class Bedrock competition. receiving an Easter egg as his prize. He earned the most points, and won by quite a stretch!

A huge well done also goes to the winners of our Partner Points for this half term. Hollie & Theo, Grace B & Audrey and Charlie & Claire, all received a special treat today for winning the most points, for their fab partner work! They were treated to some extra play and and some sweet treats…

NOTICES:

• We return to school on Monday 12th April, and start and finishing times will remain the same: 8.40am drop off and 3.15pm pick up. 1.05pm pick up on Fridays.

• PE days after half term will remain the same-Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please ensure your child is not wearing earrings on these days.

• We have enjoyed some lovely weather this week! If this weather does continue after half term, please ensure your child in wearing sun screen on these hotter days.

• I have not set any homework over the Easter break, but the class are more than welcome to access Bedrock and TT RockStars, should they wish to.

  THANKYOU!

  I have to say a heartfelt thank you to all of my class and to all parents for your support and hard work over this term. it had been a term of ups and downs, but your continued efforts and support have made it that bit easier! I can hardly believe we will be entering the last term of their primary journey, upon our return. We will be sure to make it the best!

  I hope you all have a Happy and Holy Easter-God bless.

  Miss Slater & Mrs Murray x
  
  

'Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God.' - Mother Teresa

Palm Sunday-The Beginning of Holy Week

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, which commemorates the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1–9), when palm branches were placed in His path. This marks the beginning of Holy Week, leading to His arrest on Holy Thursday and his crucifixion on Good Friday. In class, we made origami crosses, which can be taken to mass on Palm Sunday.

Power of Prayer….

In RE, we also had a special reflection, using the power of prayer. During our ‘Express Yourself’ time, at the end of each day, I had noticed that many were sharing their feelings about people who were poorly or who has suffered loss in their family. We took some time in our RE lesson to write our own prayers and intentions, and these are now in our prayer basket. It was so beautiful to hear so many wanting to share their prayers with the class…it made me very emotional!

Farewell Ducks….

Year 5 have been homing ducks for the past couple of weeks, and today was their last day in school. Mrs McVey has kindly shared a video update….

Here’s what we have been up to this week….

In Maths we revised area of parallelograms and then we looked at calculating the mean and interpreting line graphs.

In English, we have finished our guided write. The class are now ready to plan and complete their independent write, based on the story of The Wizard of Oz. I cannot wait to read their final drafts!

Our Spelling focus this week has been the plural, with words ending in o, f and fe.

In PSHE, our focus was on friendship. We looked at the qualities that we look for in a friend and then reflected on the qualities that we possess. It was a really lovely lesson, and so pleasing to hear so many identifying so many of these qualities in their friends from school.

In Computing, we continued with our BitsBox activities, using coding to create apps. I am so impressed with how advanced many of their codes were, and it was so pleasing to see that they can debug, when their codes did not work.

Notices:

• Yesterday, everyone in the class was sent home with a ‘Nature Explorer’ pack. These are for the children to do over half term. I would love it if you could take and send me any pictures of your child completing any of these activities!

• We break up from school next Thursday, 1st April, at normal finishing time, 3.15pm.

• On PE days, please can you make sure children are not wearing earrings.
  

AWARD WINNERS:

This week’s Golden Award went to Vinny for being such a hard-working member of the class. He is also such a kind and considerate young boy, who brightens the classroom!

The Writing Award went to Sophie for grammatically accurate piece of writing this week.

The Maths Award went to Ellie for the huge improvements I have seen with her mental maths.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

'St. Joseph was just a man, a tireless worker, the upright guardian of those entrusted to his care. May he always guard, protect and enlighten families. - St. John Paul II

Pope Francis announced the beginning of the Year of St. Joseph on 8th December 2020, which will run until 8th December 2021 . Today is also the Feast of St. Joseph, and in our RE lesson this week, we made special prayer cards, with the prayer for the year of St. Joseph on the back. We said this prayer together, today, during our worship, and the class used their own prayer cards to recite this special prayer. We will says this special prayer together every week.

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Here’s what else we have been up to this week….

In Maths, we have been revisiting a few concepts that we found tricky from our home learning. We have looked at miles/kilometers, co-ordinates, rounding any number and finding the area of triangles. We have also continued with our daily arithmetic, and I can see huge improvements from everyone in class, with their Fluent in 5!

In English, we have been doing our guided write. We planned a new version of The Wizard of Oz together, using the original book as our planning template. We have been writing our story together and the children have then been innovating the shared write to create their own version. This is all in preparation for the independent write they will be doing in in a week or so.

In Science, we looked over the answers to our ‘Evolution and Inheritance’ topic test. This was a great way for up to plug any gaps-although there were surprisingly little gaps, as they did so well on this test!

In Tuesday’s PE lesson we did the Daily mile again. Before the lesson we looked at techniques for long distance running, and I noticed a huge difference in their running, compared to last week! In Thursday’s lesson, we continued with our gymnastic sequences. This week they had to include a turn, jump, roll and balance in their sequence, which they then performed to half of the group.

Three Good Things-PSHE

In PSHE, we started to fill in our ‘Three Good Things’ diary. This is a diary, where each day we write down three good things that have happened to us, and that we are grateful for. It is said that those who are grateful tend to be happier and healthier and being grateful can even help cope with stress! Every day this week, we have had our diaries out during our ‘Express yourself’ time to share our good things with others!

AWARD WINNERS

This week’s Golden Award went to Reuben for being such a kind and considerate member of the class.

This week’s Writing Award went to Grace B for her great choices of language in her innovated writing.

The Maths Award went to Ryan for his valued contributions during our Maths discussions.

A huge CONGRATULATIONS to Claire, who earned her GOLD! medal in her flute. Not only did she pass, she scored a perfect 100 score! We are all so proud of her!

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

Welcome Back!

Well, it has been so lovely to have the whole class back together this week! They have all been so wonderful and worked so hard, and I am so impressed with how well they have managed to pick up where they left off! Well done, Year 6, you have made me incredibly proud!

This week’s learning….

In Maths, we have had a huge arithmetic focus. After completing our ‘Fluent in 5’ each day, we have then been working our way through andy arithmetic questions we found tricky from our lockdown work. We would then do one together, do one with our partner and then have a go independently. This has really worked, and has boosted their confidence with those concepts they felt unsure about over the past few months. Next week, our focus will be on reasoning, and recapping any of those really tricky White Rose questions!

In English, we have been innovating sentences from The Wizard of Oz. We took the extract from the book where Dorothy meets Scarecrow and they have had to innovate each sentence, to re-write the sentence in their own words. They have done such an amazing job with this, which has prepared us for our scaffolded write next week. In preparation for our scaffolded write, we have also planned our new version of The Wizard of Oz together.

In Science, the class did a post ‘Topic Test’ on Evolution and Inheritance, the unit they covered during lockdown. I am so impressed with their scores and it reflects just how hard they worked during lockdown too! The test was more for me to see what gaps there may be in their learning, but it appears as though there are only a few gaps, overall!

In PSHE, we have introduced an ‘express yourself’ time at the end of each day. After our lesson on Monday, where we were reflecting on the roller-coaster of emotions we have experienced this past year, the class thought it would be a great idea to make this a regular thing. It was so heart-warming to hear the class being so open and honest about how they have felt, and sharing the highs and lows of this past year-this is why we are going to keep these conversations going!

AWARD WINNERS

This week’s Golden Award went to Hollie for working incredibly hard this first week back!

The Writing Award went to Abigail for her superb choices of language, when innovating sentences.

The Maths Award went to Reece for making great progress with his arithmetic this week. His hard work during lockdown is certainly paying off!

BOOKMARK COMPETITION WINNER!

The Year 6 winner for the bookmark competition was Grace K. All winners from each class were then passed on to Miss Haggerty, who decided an overall KS1 and KS2 winner. She struggled so much to decide that she passed the responsibility on to Fr Jim….and Grace won!!! Congratulations Grace, your bookmark will be printed and ALL of KS2 will be given one! Here’s Grace’s winning entry…

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Take care & Stay Safe,

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray x

'I find joy in every day. Not because life is always good, but because God is.'

Thank you!

Well, I have to begin by saying a huge THANK YOU to all parents/carers and children for your support and hard-work over these past couple of months! Coming into school on that Monday, all the way back in January, only to be told school would be closed the day after, was a huge shock for us all, and something we had to adjust to really quickly. And that you did! You all adjusted to the home learning process so well, with your living rooms becoming your classrooms, and your gardens your playgrounds, yet again! I am so incredibly proud of all of the work you have completed these past months, and I hope you are all as excited as I am to be returning to school on Monday. Some of you may be feeling a mixture of emotions about our return, including nervousness. Don’t worry, this is natural! When you have become so used to learning from home, returning to school, after two months, can be like experiencing your first day all over again. I will make sure you all feel back at home on our first day back, and will hopefully settle those nerves within minutes! I think after our first day, it will feel like you have never been away!

Return to School

ALL children will be welcomed back to school on Monday 8th March. Drop off and pick up times will be the same as before for all of Year 6. 8.40am drop off at Thornhill Close gates, and 3.15pm pick up from the same place. On Fridays, pickup will still be at 1.05pm for all of the class. Our PE days will still be Tuesdays and Thursdays. Miss Haggerty has put a detailed blog up on the News page, with more in-depth information about our return to school and the safety measures that will be in place-it is important that you read this before the children’s return. Click here to read this.

Bedrock Competition!

I have copied this information from the Bedrock website….

With the second half of the spring half term split across remote and classroom learning, it’s vital that students continue to learn consistently on Bedrock.

To reward students’ hard work learning important academic vocabulary on Bedrock, we’re giving two lucky students the chance to win a Chromebook laptop, and 50 students will win £10 Amazon vouchers!

Our 52 winners will be chosen at random from all students who earn 120 or more Bedrock Points this half term.

Students don’t need to take any action to be entered – we’ll automatically identify those who have earned 120 points in the time frame. Winners will be contacted via their teacher.

World Book Day

Here are some pictures of your amazing costumes from World Book Day, and some great pictures of you reading in unusual places! I hope you all enjoyed the activities from this day, and remember to send me your Bookmark competition entries by Monday!

Unusual reading spots…..

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, and I look forward to seeing all of your faces again on Monday!

Take care and stay safe,

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray x

'Hope is the light at the end of the tunnel, guiding the way.'

Our Lenten Journey

With the long-awaited announcement on Monday, I felt the quote above summed up the feelings of many this week. There truly is light at the end of what has felt like, at times, an extremely long tunnel! When you pair this up with this week being the first full week of Lent, a special time of reflection and preparation, it really has given us time to reflect on this past year, and look forward to our bright future. By observing the 40 days of Lent, we replicate Jesus Christ's sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days. It is a time to refocus on Jesus as we look ahead to his death on the cross and rejoice over his miraculous return. It is a time for reflecting on what we could do differently or maybe what we could do more of or less of during this time. When we return to the classroom we can display our personal Lenten promises, in our worship area and think of a class Lenten challenge for all of us to share.

Hope….

HOPE! This is what has kept us all going-hope that we will all be together in the classroom again, hope that a vaccine is rolled out, hope that we will soon get to hug our loved ones again, hope that we will one day be able to resume to some form of ‘normality’ again. We have had to put so much trust, hope and faith in God this past year, and it now looks as though the end is in sight. Although we are by no means there yet, and we still have necessary restrictions in place, it certainly felt as through there was a shift this week, in the right direction. And of course, this all begins with schools reopening on 8th March. I cannot wait to have my class back together again, as I have missed you all dearly! It is also important, however, that we keep our school safe which is why all safety measures will still be strictly in place, on the children’s return. So rest assured, the school environment will continue to be a safe place, with rigorous hand washing, mask-wearing, bubbled year groups and staggered start/end times. I will put more information on next week’s blog about the children’s first day back. Miss Haggerty has put more information about our return to school on the News page too.

WORLD BOOK DAY!

Next Thursday, 4th March, is World Book Day! No lockdown is going to stop us from celebrating this special day! I have put all details of home learning activities for you to complete, next Thursday, on the Home Learning page. We have invited all children in school to come in dressed as their favourite book character, so please do join in the fun from home! I would love to see pictures of what you have dressed up as, to add to next week’s blog!

Work from this week….

Here’s some of the from our R & J lesson- ‘conscious thought bubbles’. You did so well at inferring how the different characters may have been feeling, knowing they may have played a role in the deaths of Romeo and Juliet.

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Thank you

Thank you once again for the great work you have been sending in this week. The standard of your work continues to impress me. With just one week on remote learning left, please do make sure you maintain this high standard next week!

Have a lovely weekend-take care and stay safe!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

'Whatever struggle you are facing, God has already equipped you to overcome it.'

Thank you!

Well, we have made it through our first half term of remote learning! Well done! I think it is fair to say we have all faced our challenges and set-backs, but what shines through it all is the strength and sheer determination from you all. I cannot thank my parents enough for the support you have given me over the past 6 weeks, sending me your child’s work and giving them the support and encouragement they have needed to make it through these past weeks. I am so proud of all that my class have achieved academically, emotionally and mentally over this half term-you are all super stars! I am not setting any work over this half term as you all (parents included!!) need a well-deserved break. I have, however, put a few optional activities below, linked with Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of our Lenten journey. I will put the home learning for the week we come back, on the Home Learning Page, next Friday, so you have everything ready for Monday 22nd.

Ash Wednesday 17th February 2021-The Beginning of our Lenten Journey

Next Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a very special time of reflection, leading up to the death and resurrection of Christ. As we are on half term next week, I have just attached a few activities that you may wish to do to mark the beginning of this special period of time. If we were in school, we would be writing our Lenten Promises on this day, so I have also attached the template for this and it would be lovely if you do manage to still write yours. Our promise is a time to reflect on what we could do differently or maybe more of/less of during this time. Perhaps we could be more compassionate towards others, or take more time out for peaceful prayer? Or maybe you feel you need to be more forgiving to others, just as Jesus was. Have a careful think about what your promise could be.

Why is Lent a time to change?- Activity Sheet

Why did Jesus spend 40 days in the Desert?- Activity Sheet

Why do we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday?-Activity Sheet

My Lenten Promise-Candle Template

Some work from this week……

Below are some of the amazing pieces of work from our Romeo & Juliet lesson, advertising your own special potion that could have been used on one of the characters from the play.

World Book Day 4th March-Date for the Diary

Thursday 4th March is World Book Day. Obviously this will be different than other years with school being closed to some children but we will be organising an activity for this day. There will hopefully be a story reading by class teachers as well as a competition. Whether at home or at school, it would also be lovely for the children to dress as a book character (however if in school, please limit to a simple costume with as few ‘loose’ items as possible).

Feedback for this week’s work

Please can I ask that any outstanding work from this week is sent to me by 1.30pm today, so I can ensure feedback is given before the end of the school day. From the end of the school day today, I will not be accessing my emails, as I hope you will appreciate that next week is also a time for teachers to have rest too ( I cannot wait to read the pile of books I have waiting for me! ) I will be accessing my emails again on Monday 22nd February. Thank you for your support and understanding with this.

I hope you all have a wonderful week off, and manage to make the most of your family-time, despite the restrictions in place.

Take care,

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray x

'A child's mental health is just as important as their physical health and deserves the same quality of support.' - Kate Middleton

Children’s Mental Health Week

As we have marked Children’s Mental Health Week, this week, I found the quote above to perfectly sum up my sentiment on this matter. I think that now, more than ever, mental health is so important for us all. I know this is not an easy time for any of us, and our emotions are, for use of a better phrase, ‘all over the place’. Your children make me so proud with how resilient they have been over these past 6 weeks, but I know this cannot have been an easy time for them. The theme for Mental Health Week was express yourself, and I hope you managed to access some of the resources I posted on the blog last week or even just had a discussion about mental health with your child. Talking about your emotions and feelings with others can be a great way for children to express themselves, but I am also aware that, for some children, this is not the easiest thing to do. So being able to express themselves in other ways, whether it be through music, art, dance, writing etc, can be an alternative outlet for them to express their feelings and emotions!

Safer Internet Day

Next Tuesday marks Safer Internet Day-another very relevant and important topic at the moment. On Tuesday, there is an audio lesson and activities for the children to complete on this year’s theme, ‘An internet we can trust.’

Some work from this week…

Letters from Juliet to Romeo:

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One week to go….

With just one week to go of remote learning, before a well-earned break, I must commend my class once again for their sheer determination and perseverance over these weeks. As hard as it has been, trying to teach you and give you feedback remotely, I have sought so much comfort in the knowledge that you are all trying your hardest…what more can I ask for?! Thank you.

Please see the Home Learning page for details of our Google Meet ‘catch up’, next Friday 12th.

I hope you all have a restful weekend, and I look forward to seeing more of your work from our last week of remote learning, before we break up.

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray