Week commencing 31st March 2025
This week we had an amazing immersive experience called Desperate Journeys; we were very grateful for the opportunity to be involved in this exciting new workshop. Our session took us on a journey as if we were refugees and developed our understanding of how people across the world struggle and suffer during this process. The staff there praised the class and said how engaged they were and how they were able to empathise with the characters. We were encouraged to think about the proverb "walk a mile in someone else's shoes" as it encourages empathy and understanding by urging you to consider another person's situation and experiences before judging them. Parts of the session were not always easy as it was so realistic, but the children’s resilience shone through – well done St David’s class.
In our English, we have been writing letters and I was so impressed by their thank you letters that they have been sent off to various places that have impacted us recently: Magistrates Association, Wildlife Trust, SkillZONE, Dazzle and The Music Works. The children have such high expectations of themselves and are trying so hard with their handwriting – many are aspiring to achieve their pen licence soon!
Week commencing 24th March 2025
It has been assessment week at school and everyone has shown resilience and determination to be the best that they can be; I am proud of them.
In RHE this week, Mrs Barron took the class to the hall and worked with them on first aid considering DRABC (Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing and Circulation). Lessons like this build on the skills that the children already have and develop them further too.
Our History lesson focused on Empire Windrush and the experiences of people who voyaged to the UK in the 1940’s. The children showed empathy and understanding towards the scenarios that we looked at, and demonstrated to me how welcoming they would be if it happened now.
On Thursday 13 members of the class went to the Mock Trials at Stroud District Council. The whole class has worked on this and encouraged our team to be the best that they could be. We felt overjoyed, as our defendants were found not guilty! We now await the results in the next few weeks. I know that Mrs Connolly and I were very proud of them, and how well they represented themselves. I’d like to say a big thank you to Mrs Connolly for her care, consideration, expertise and time helping with this event (and club); and to the parents who gave lifts too. A few quote from the children…
Charlotte said her best bit was, ‘When we got not guilty and when we first walked into the room as it was massive!!!’.
Jed said, ‘I enjoyed being interrogated’.
Samuel stated, ‘I liked it when we were not guilt, because I felt like I did a good job’.
Alice stated, ‘I love the chief and cross-examination as I felt nervous and then more confident’.
We are looking forward to another busy week next week…
Week commencing 17th March 2025
A quieter week than last week but still very productive in Year 6. We have been designing at least 3 ideas for our DT project – making a vehicle with a pulley. We are confident that our designs will work, meeting the design brief and we are excited to be creating them for our Reception buddies!
In Science this week, we had great fun considering adaptations and looked at Darwin’s finches to enable us to understand this further. We undertook an experiment where we thought about which implement was the ‘best beak’ to pick up our ‘food’! The children’s concentration was great!
Currently, our English work is linked to letters, with a focus on formal and informal language choices and when to use them. Lots of us are trying very hard with our joined handwriting at the moment and are showing our high expectations and resilience; many people would really love to earn their pen licences!
We have been using all our measurement facts this week in Maths as we are focused on converting measures. The children have impressed us with their remembering skills as these are facts that they need to know – 1000m in 1km, 100cm in 1m, 1000g in 1kg etc.
In PE (hockey), we have focused on developing our skills through a selection of games – these then lead into mini matches. The children are now using these skills throughout the lessons. On Friday, we moved on to Football and will continue with this until the end of term.
Finally, I would like to say thank you everyone who is tackling their SPaG.com homework – please keep it up. If you’re having issues getting on please let me know.
Week Commencing 10th March 2025
This week the class have been incredibly busy as it has been Science Week and we have also been on a trip. I feel that we have been showing our REACH values this week. We have had lots of aspirational people in, and we have had a high level of confidence whilst doing several activities such as programming micro:bits. Here, we also needed resilience, as some elements were tricky! We ended the week working with our Reception buddies to make wind turbines.
I asked the children on Friday morning for quotes about what they enjoyed…
Bertie – I personally enjoyed going to Skillzone because it taught lots of things about how to live and travel safely. I also enjoyed programming the micro:bots because we learnt how to make them do things. I enjoyed the talk about Renishaw and Airbus too.
Isla C – I loved it when we went to Skillzone because the village looked so real and it taught us skills for our future and our life.
Megan – I have enjoyed DT as we were practising making pulleys and wooden frames for our big project at the end of the term. We were allowed to safely use the saws, hot glue guns and electronics by ourselves. We had to work out how to create a working pulley with the materials we had.
Alice – I enjoyed learning Garage Band as I’m able to let my creativity flourish through music and deepen my appreciation for music and an understanding for how much effort is put into famous songs.
Oscar – I enjoyed the Skillzone trip because of all the special effects and the fire behind the door! It was extremely thrilling! I would do it again if I had the chance!
Grace – I enjoyed doing micro:bit because we did a rock-paper-scissors tournament with our robots. We got a random symbol (rock, paper or scissors) by shaking them.
Week commencing 3rd March 2025
It has been a great week in St David’s Class. We have started to look at our new DT topic and the children drew some great annotated drawings of gears and pulleys to enable them to develop their understanding of these. Our new topic links in well with our work that we did with the KNEX workshop last term and our previous DT project – we’re always building links in year 6!
The children have finished their artwork this week and many are very proud of their final ‘surreal’ pieces. We have some very confident painters in the room; many children showed real resilience when layering the paint to create the effect that they wanted.
Our skills and confidence have grow relating to hockey and this week we focused on our passing skills – short and long distance, as well as our ability to work in mini teams. Lots of the children are showing their skill and having high expectations of themselves.
Last but not least, World Book Day (one of my favourite days of the year!). The costumes were excellent; the reading for pleasure sessions longer; and and the poems created sensational – well done Year 6. They all showed empathy when considering the emotions that we were focused on (worry, embarrassment and zeal), as a result, the outcomes were thought provoking and honest.
Week commencing 24.2.25
Here is what the children had to say about our first week back…
Jed – "I enjoyed playing hockey because I discovered that I could defend."
Lyra – "It was great making a periscope in science as you could see the reflection in the mirrors and therefore see the object."
Tansy – "Art was great because our paintings didn’t need to make sense because they were surreal!"
Sidney – "I enjoyed finishing off our surreal art; my piece is linked to the earth – it has variety of objects sticking out into space."
Bertie – "PE was enjoyable because I learnt how to attack well and got tips from other players."
Annabel – "I have been really enjoying surreal art because we have been learning how even when you’re absolutely not knowing what to do it can be unusual and it works."
Theo – "It was great to interact with the Year 5 class during PE."
Arthur – "The periscopes in Science were fun to make as you were able to look around corners and over things to see objects."
What a great first week back! Roll on week 2!