West Leigh Juniors Weekly News 16th january 2026

Letters sent home this week

• Year 3 - Residential Letter - 14.01.2026

Year 3 Knowledge Organisers

• Year 3 Science - Knowledge Organiser - Forces
• Year 3 Connected Curriculum - Knowledge Organiser - Gods & Mortals

• Year 3 & 4 RSE Meeting Video

PE Days Spring 1

3T

• Indoor PE - Tuesday
• Outdoor PE - Friday

3H

• Indoor PE - Wednesday
• Outdoor PE - Thursday

3L

• Indoor PE - Monday
• Outdoor PE - Friday

3M

• Indoor PE - Tuesday
• Outdoor PE - Thursday

Swimming

• 3H - Monday
• 3L – Tuesday
• 3T – Wednesday
• 3M – Wednesday

Year 4

In English this week, we have studied the sequel to last week’s Brilliant Book - The Day the Crayons Came Home. The children have thoroughly enjoyed writing their own postcard, in the same style as the author, from a crayon who has been left behind. They have also identified the features of diary extracts and then planned and written a diary from the viewpoint of a different writing implement. Negative numbers, line graphs and converting between measures has been a large focus in maths this week.  Some children consolidated their knowledge of metric measures before converting between them. The key focus has been line graphs as this skill will also be developed in future lessons on the weather patterns in geography. The children have had to study and interpret a range of graphs. Some groups have even produced their own line graphs using supplied data!  Within our Connected Curriculum lessons, we have been looking at the physical features of Italy and the UK.  Using a range of sources, the children located a range of geographical features, noting similarities and differences between the two nations. We have also been exploring ingredients used to make pizza.  The children evaluated the smell, texture and taste to support their decisions when they come to design their pizza! It was a gaseous week for science!  As scientists, the children had fun observing the effects of different gases within a variety of scenarios and recorded their findings in the form of labelled diagrams. 

Letters sent home this week

• Year 4 - Residential Letter - 13.01.2026

Year 4 Knowledge Organisers

• Year 4 Science - Knowledge Organiser - State of Matter
• Year 4 Connected Curriculum - Knowledge Organiser - Don't Forget Your Passport

• Year 3 & 4 RSE Meeting Video

PE Days Spring 1

4B

• Indoor PE - Friday
• Outdoor PE - Tuesday

4E

• Indoor PE - Monday
• Outdoor PE - Thursday

4SW

• Indoor PE - Wednesday
• Outdoor PE - Thursday

4C

• Indoor PE - Monday
• Outdoor PE - Tuesday

Swimming

• 4B - Monday
• 4SW - Monday
• 4C - Wednesday
• 4E - Friday

Year 5

Despite a week of mixed weather, our resilient Year 5 pupils have fully embraced a wide range of engaging learning opportunities. In maths, the children reviewed and developed their addition and subtraction strategies. They built on prior learning by using rounding to check calculations, explored number lines as a method for checking subtraction (particularly with money) and tackled increasingly challenging problems, including missing number calculations and multi-step reasoning. The children have been highly engaged in their narrative writing, inspired by Danny MacAskill’s dramatic ascent of the InPin. Using the Skye ridge as a setting, they revisited the key elements of effective storytelling, focusing on tension, character development and differing viewpoints. Planning, oral storytelling and drafting opening scenes helped them strengthen both confidence and written outcomes. In science, learning moved from sexual to asexual reproduction in plants. The children explored the different types, identified plants that reproduce asexually and compared the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Our Fragile Earth topic brought some hands-on (and foamy!) learning this week. After learning about tectonic plates, the children investigated convergent, divergent and transform movements using paper plates and shaving foam to model earthquakes, volcanoes and mountain formation. They documented and annotated their findings before concluding the week by researching volcano types and presenting their knowledge in colourful fact files. A memorable week — and very fresh-smelling classrooms!  

Year 5 Knowledge Organisers

• Year 5 Science - Knowledge Organiser - Life Cycle
• Year 5 Connected Curriculum - Knowledge Organiser - Fragile Earth

• Year 5 & 6 RSE Meeting Video
• Menstruation video

PE Days Spring 1

5G

• Indoor PE - Tuesday
• Outdoor PE - Wednesday

5A

• Indoor PE - Friday
• Outdoor PE - Monday

5N

• Indoor PE - Friday
• Outdoor PE - Monday

5F

• Indoor PE - Thursday
• Outdoor PE - Wednesday

​​Swimming

• 5N – Tuesday
• 5F – Tuesday
• 5G – Thursday
• 5A – Thursday

Year 6

Building upon their reading and learning from last week, the pupils applied many of the narrative techniques used by Michael Morpurgo in the engaging short story The Giant’s Necklace, as the inspiration for an epilogue for the story. They were able to incorporate many highly emotive elements to great effect. Following this, they read the powerful and emotive short story, The Long Walk, which will be central to their learning in English next week.   Following previous learning about Karl Linnaeus's system of classification, the Year 6 pupils have been expanding their vocabulary and understanding of the intricate manner in which living things are categorised. To showcase their newfound knowledge, they researched invertebrates and creatively presented their findings. Within Connected Curriculum, they have learned about the major biomes around the world and how they are linked to climate. They have also had the opportunity to make comparisons between two biomes, studying them in greater detail. Within this topic, they have also been introduced to the artwork of Henri Rousseau as an initial inspiration for this term’s artwork. They have also selected an animal to become the focal point of their artwork and practised drawing and refining their composition of the animal.