Week commencing 30/9/24
Another action packed week in St David’s Class. We have been showing confidence during Maths lessons as well as high expectations as many of us have been getting on to the challenges. We are about to move on to long division next week – our times tables are really important here.
In English we have almost completed our suspense writing – next week we will have two days writing our final piece using modal verbs and parenthesis. The children have impressed me with how much they can remember from last year linking to parenthesis.
In RE we had a chance to do some drama freeze frames demonstrating our understanding of the Abraham and Isaac story. The children thought hard about a challenging story from the Old Testament.
In gardening we dug out another bed ready to plant onions and garlic and also sowed some broad beans in one of our previously cleared beds. The children enjoyed finding beans too! The children are really overhauling the area showing determination and resilience and we are also very grateful to Mrs Gwyer who is coming in to share her expertise and garden with us every week.
Our Geography session focus on why the Stroud area is considered a great place to live and what economic activity goes on here and why. The children had to consider how to persuade someone that the Stroud area is a great place to live.
On Friday we had the chance to go and do an activity with our Reception buddies - making number wands for them to use in their maths lessons when they are counting. The Year 6 children showed great empathy to their buddies and worked with them to create the wands. We were proud of them all.
Week commencing 23rd September 2024
Blog post by Tansy and Alice
So far in art we have studied the Clacton pigeon mural by Banksy in 2014 and recreated it so it could be less offensive to other people. Our topic for art is street art where we learnt how to write our own signatures. Finally, we drew a 3D building.
Next we would like to talk about how for P.E we have been swimming and doing group activities. On Fridays we have got a new coach called Dave; he has been a coach on forest green so we are really lucky.
Mrs Knight -
It has been another full week in Year 6. Our Whole School Mass on Thursday was a great way to start the year and our year 6 readers showed confidence when they stood up to do the readings and bidding prayers – thank you.
In RE we have been working on our Leaders in Faith awards with children considering how our school is distinctively catholic and how scripture can link to our everyday lives and support us. We have really been using our school virtues of faith, hope and love here.
In Geography we have thought about economic activity and what that might be in the local area of Stroud considering the canal rejuvenation and the proposed FGR stadium.
Our suspenseful writing has begun in English and the children have been learning about a variety of techniques linked to this such as show not tell, rhetorical questions, short sentences and pathetic fallacy. Next week they will be crafting their own stories continuing to have high expectations with their handwriting following our new style.
Week commencing 16th September 2024
We had our School Council speeches on Monday this week; the children felt confident to have a go at this opportunity speaking to the whole school. Our new Year 6 representatives were announced in celebration assembly – Alice (Chair), Kacper (Co-Chair), Olivia (Secretary), Annabel and Theo (Class Representatives).
This week in English we have written non-chronological reports based on creatures from the made up planet Pandora. We planned our reports based on a short film trailer linked to Pandora and then worked hard to include relative clauses and expanded noun phrases in our work. Many children have been working on their handwriting and being resilient to ensure that it fits with our new handwriting scheme. I have been so impressed with their efforts so far.
In Maths this week, we have been thinking about decimals and multiplication by 10, 100 and 1000. The children have got great at problem solving and are working hard to prove their thinking using mathematical language, having high expectations of themselves to ensure that they get on to the deepen it.
Friday as always was super busy! We learned about a famous local scientist – Edward Jenner – and the fact that he developed vaccination. An aspirational figure for us! In Outdoor Learning, we replanted the pots around the school and created a compost bucket chain using the compost from the churchyard to refill our gardening beds – the children loved this activity. In PE, we thought about a range of skills considering space, ‘fast feet’, controlled passing and dribbling. We ate lunch with our buddies again too and showed empathy and kindness towards them – this will be happening every Friday.
Week commencing 9th September 2024
Week 2 was another fantastic week in St David’s Class! For many this week our focus has been the house captain elections. The results were very tight and many children were disappointed but everyone showed empathy regardless of the outcome that they received. Mrs Howell’s congratulated them in the hall and I also want to congratulate everyone that stood up and gave a speech showing what it means to REACH in Faith, Hope and Love. Well done to all our captains – I look forward to see you in action.
In Maths, we are working on place value; they have worked hard to be able to order and compare 7 digit numbers. The children are getting much better at explaining their thoughts and reasoning relating to questions thinking of the moto that the answer is only the beginning. We are going to be moving on to decimals next week.
In English, we are just about to start writing our non-chronological report; the children have enjoyed looking at a variety of texts for this. Our main focus is on expanded noun phrases and relative clauses. The children have been working hard to show me that they can confidently recognise and use both of these.
On Friday we met our reception buddies for the first time and got to eat lunch with them too. I was so proud of how well they interacted with them and that they demonstrated our REACH values. We also met one of our new coaches from FGR for PE – he was very impressed with how well the class got stuck into the games and their skills.
Next week we look forward to the School Council speeches!
Week commencing 2nd September 2024
Only a 3-day week but Year 6 have started as they mean to go on REACHing in all areas!
Lots of excitement about the Year 6 privileges – sitting on benches, water bottles at places, pencil cases etc. They have met my high expectations and have started to be excellent role models for the school.
A few activities that we have done this week are: created/completed some aspirational art work for our corridor; written prayers linked to Ladato Si; started our Maths unit relating to place value; looked at non-chronological reports in English; and completed team games in PE – it really has been busy!
I can’t wait for next week – lots of confidence for the house captain speeches!