Friars Weekly Newsletter friday 4th april 2025

As we come to the end of the spring term we are increasingly proud of what the children are achieving both independently and in small groups. More and more children are counting beyond 20, some can count back from 10 and many are becoming familiar with the phonemes we introduce each week. Have a lovely holiday and we look forward to the summer term.

REMINDER: We hope you have all enjoyed our stay and play sessions this term and of course our wonderful Easter bonnet parade. Please keep an eye out for next term's dates.

Reception

This week, the children have enjoyed learning about Easter and new life. We have looked at some Christian artefacts and discussed their importance to Christians. There have been lots of craft activities throughout the week including making chicks that pop out of eggs, making nests in our garden, using chalks to make patterns. The children also enjoyed solving a hidden message problem in the garden. Our maths sessions have focused on 3d shapes, their properties and shapes within our environment. Our phonics sessions continue to review previously taught digraphs and reading them in longer words. Please keep reading at home – that really helps. Have a restful break.

Year 1

We have had a lovely end to our term this week. In English, we have been out for a spring walk and looked for spring nouns in our outside area. We then thought about adjectives and verbs connected to the nouns. Finally, we learnt about adverbs and tried to include some in poems. Great job everyone!

In maths we completed our work on capacity with some tricky problem solving. We then recapped 2D and 3D shapes. At the end of the week, we moved on to recapping doubles.

On Wednesday, the children were treated to the dress rehearsal of the Year 5 assembly. The children sat beautifully and listened carefully to the wonderful performance. Well done to Year 5.

Starling completed their DT projects this week and took them home. We hope you enjoyed seeing them. They also showed creativity making easter chicks in an egg using split pins.

Wrens had a wonderful week with Mr. Brady in the environmental garden. They were looking for signs of animals and creatures around the garden. Then they sat quietly to listen out and look for any creatures, they had to be quiet so as not to scare any away.

We hope you have a wonderful Easter break and look forward to seeing you all in the summer term. Don’t forget we will come back to school on the Tuesday so the children will need to be dressed for PE.

REMINDER: Please ensure your child brings a water bottle to school every day.

Year 2

This week in English, we have continued our journey on the Titanic. However, disaster struck! Our ship hit an iceberg and the children had to make their way to the lifeboats to be saved by the rescue boat. Luckily, we all managed to get on the lifeboats and then we recorded the events of our busy day in a diary entry. We used time conjunctions to sequence events chronologically and used paragraphs for each new event that happened in our chaotic day!

In maths this week, we reached the end of our mass, capacity and temperature unit. We had some more practice using measuring beakers to measure volumes of water and then we added and subtracted different volumes to and from our amounts. We then explored how to read a thermometer to identify temperature. The children discussed what places might have a high temperature and which may have a low temperature.

At the end of the week, we began making our toy cars, which we have been researching and designing over the last half term. We brought our designs to life using cardboard, wooden dowels, straws and a lot of creativity! The children were so impressed and proud that they managed to make their own moving car.

Year 3

What a lovely end to the spring term! The weather has been amazing this last week, and we have been busy finishing off lots of different topics in preparation for out new ones in summer.

We finished out topic of mass and capacity in maths and we really impressed our teachers with the ability to answer a range of questions based on reading scales, working out word problems and much more.

In English we finished our letter to Mr. McClay to persuade him to let us grow a dragon fruit tree in the school grounds. We hope he says yes, as we would love to grow our very own dragons to look after!

We finally finished the topic of earthquakes and volcanoes and found it really interesting over the last term. We have become quite knowledgeable about all things earthquake and volcano related.

In science, we have been looking at light and shadows. This week we investigated how we can change shadows, by making them smaller and larger. We discovered it was dependent on how close or far away an object was from a light source.

Lastly in geography we did some research based on Chile. We researched similarities and differences between the UK and Chile; during this we found some really interesting facts.

REMINDER: Well done to everyone for accessing Reading Eggs and TT Rockstars at home.

Year 4

Year 4 have completed some fantastic learning during the last week of term!

In English, the children built upon their knowledge of creating an advert to create a persuasive text to encourage people to visit North Carolina! We used iPad’s to research the different regions of North Carolina, found out what activities and landmarks North Carolina has to offer and then produced an advert to include things like alliteration and even customer reviews! The children loved this activity so much they wanted to create adverts to visit different countries!

In maths, we carried on learning about fractions, exploring equivalent fractions families using a fraction wall. The children enjoyed the practical side of learning about fractions this week.

On Thursday, the children made the most of the beautiful weather and took a short walk to the Garrison to learn about its importance during World War II! We found out what some of the buildings were used for and we were amazed that Winston Churchill actually visited the Garrison too!

It has been a fantastic spring term for all of Year 4 and we do hope the children enjoy their well deserved time off.

Year 5

This week, Year 5 have been working with graphs in maths, plotting their own data onto line graphs. In English, they have been writing narratives from the perspective of a man trying to stop some escaping octopuses, embellishing their sentences with prepositions and short, powerful phrases. They concluded their exploration of climate zones, climate change, and rainforests with a final look at deforestation. In art, the children expanded their skills using watercolours, focusing on careful application and blending of colours.

Year 6

This week, we have completed our work in DT by reviewing the electronic games. These have been great fun to make and we have enjoyed playing them after.

In writing, we have been using dialogue in narrative to create tension between characters and see how it moves our writing forwards.

For maths, we have focused on different areas of learning in preparation for tests.

For geography, we used our understanding of OS maps to map out the school and orientate ourselves according to known locations.

Our science, this week, was developing understanding of how medication and drugs are designed to affect how our bodies work; the benefits and dangers.

REMINDER: We have our Year 6 SATs and Ilam Hall meeting on the first day back. Please come to the Key Stage 2 Hall at the end of the day for a 3:30pm start. After talking about SATs, we will then move onto the residential trip. At this point, any parents with children not attending will be free to leave. Thank you.