Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...
- Careers Week 2024
- Year 5 Church Visit
Our penultimate week of the school year has revolved around ‘careers’. Careers Week 2024 has been a great success with lots of visitors to the school. Most of our visitors were able to be with us in person and some were onscreen. Either way, we have learnt a great deal about the different jobs that are out there. Hopefully the children have been inspired to think more about what they would like to do when they are older. Please see the Careers Week write-up further on in the newsletter.
Year 6 had a lovely day on Wednesday with their ‘Extravaganza’! The Year 6 pupils welcomed children from across the school to their fete and much fun was had. Well done Year 6. It is hard to believe that on Friday next week, we will be saying goodbye to the Year 6’s. ☹
The week has finished with our PTA Summer Fayre - we hope that you really enjoyed it! Thank you again to the PTA for their wonderful work in organising and supporting the school.
Of course, this weekend all eyes turn to the Euro 2024 Final on Sunday evening. Can England finally win a major tournament 56 years on from 1966? Here’s hoping. See you all on Monday when our finger nails might be a little shorter and I might have a few more grey hairs. Let’s hope we’re all smiling. Come on England!
Mr. McClay, Principal
Toys in School
We have a lot of equipment and resources in school to keep the children busy at break and lunch times. Please can we ask that children do not bring toys or play items into school with them. Recently some children have brought in pots of slime and putty. When children bring in such items, they are confiscated and returned to children at the end of the day. It is far easier if they do not come to school in the first place though. Thank you.
Diary Dates
July
- Monday 15th - Nursery Stay & Play
- Tuesday 16th - Year 6 Pizza & Film afternoon
- Wednesday 17th - Meet the Teacher Lesson
- Year 6 Water Fight
- Thursday 18th - Y6 Leavers Assembly 9:15am-10:00 (KS2 Hall)
- Friday 19th - Last Day of Term
- Meet the Teacher lessons for 1MV moving to 2W and 4S moving to 5L
- Monday 22nd - INSET DAY
September
- Tuesday 3rd - INSET DAY
- Wednesday 4th - First day back for children
Nursery
The Nursery children loved the ‘Little City’ visit at the beginning of the week. They fully immersed themselves into different work professions from chefs, vets, beauty therapists, firefighters, post workers and construction workers. We even had a few astronauts. This sparked lots of discussion during nursery group time and children talked about what jobs their parents had and what they would like to be when they get older. Nursery children also enjoyed the Year 6 extravaganza where they were able to take part in fun activities and games with support from the older children. It is always so lovely to see the different age groups working together. Of course, we cannot forget the football. Some children made their own England flags to wave and support their team on Wednesday night.
REMINDER: Monday is our last Stay and Play for this year.
Reception
Reception fully immersed themselves in Careers Week this week. On Monday we went to Little City and spent an hour role playing the different jobs in the city. We talked about why we need jobs, what jobs our grown-ups do and what jobs we might like to do when we grow up. We’ve enjoyed the England Fever; looking at the different teams and where their countries are on the European map and understanding that the world is split into continents. We’ve made flags, paper shirts and enjoyed practising our football skills; maybe you’ll see one of us at Euro 2040!!
REMINDER: It’s our last week next week! No PE on Tuesday.
Year 1
Year 1 enjoyed the Little City visit. The children got to role play various professions and all had lots of fun. In English, we read The Storm Whale in Winter. The children spoke about the events in the book and wrote about them. We have consolidated some key maths skills this week, if you want to practise adding and subtracting using numbers within 100 over the summer that would be good. Our RE sessions this half term have focused on a range of different creation stories, this week we challenged the children to create their own world, with some super results.
Year 2
What an interesting week we have had! It has been Careers Week and we enjoyed a fabulous session with Little City, where the children could experience work within different industries. Our children particularly enjoyed the hair and beauty salon and the cafe. The garage was very popular too – with many budding mechanics trying out their skills. We even had a rocket to experience being an astronaut, but thankfully none of our children actually took off! We had a wonderful Teams Meeting with Mr. Burgess who works in the tractor and machine industry. Did you know that a tractor takes two and a half days to build? The children were fascinated when he described the journey of his career, which all started by playing with tractors in the sand pit when he was at school!
REMINDER: Please return any reading or library books that you still have at home. (including any that you may have from last year!)
Year 3
What an interesting week we have this week!
We have really enjoyed listening and interacting with a range of different people telling us all about their jobs and what they do as part of Careers Week. We had a lady from the Natural History Museum telling us about her 3D design job and how they get the displays ready for the public.
We had some meetings online explaining what happens in the Tractor Plant in Basildon, and a video to watch by an actor.
On Wednesday, we had a songwriting workshop, we had time to create our own lyrics and performed them to our classes.
In English, we have been writing letters to Year 2 telling them all about the interesting things they will get to learn about next year. In maths we have recapped on all our number skills from throughout the year.
Unbelievably next week will be our last week!
REMINDER: Any reading books or library books to be returned to school as soon as possible please.
Year 4
It has been an incredibly busy but very interesting week. We have done our very best not to let the weather interrupt our plans.
This week, throughout the school, it has been Careers Week. A week like this enables the children to get an idea of the different jobs that are available. In Year 4, we had a talk about being a 3D designer at the Natural History Museum, being a nurse, being in charge of huge warehouses and managing large properties, not just in the UK but also across Europe and managing a car showroom. The children listened well to the talks that were given and then were given the opportunity to ask questions.
On Wednesday, Year 4 had a music workshop with the YMCA. In just 30 minutes, they created the lyrics and chose the chords for a song which they then wrote and sang.
Inbetween our workshops, the children were learning about quadrilaterals and polygons in maths, melting different food items in science to measure their melting points and finishing off their rooms ready to put their alarms in.
It may be the penultimate week of the year but with the Year 6 extravanganza and the summer fayre happening on Friday... we’re definitely not slowing down!
Year 5
This week, Year 5 started the week with a fantastic trip to Friars Baptist Church just across the road from the school. The children went with some questions about creation they had prepared the week before. The staff there congratulated the children on their behaviour and explained the questions they sent over were very detailed and showed they had thought deeply about the topic. Jane, the lead organiser, said again how they were really chuffed with the quality of the questions our children gave.
We continued with our maths lessons on negative numbers and our English lessons on non-chronological report writing when we could, but due to careers week, there were some changes to our timetable. On Tuesday, the children wrote letters of application to Mrs Halls for Year 6 responsibilities including: team leader and librarian. On Wednesday, we attended the Year 6 games/activities. We spent a fun-filled 30 mins interacting with their stalls and getting a sweet treat. Thursday, saw us receiving a visit from Emily Levy (a solicitor) to learn about the career. And of course, we ended the week with the super Summer Fayre!
Year 6
The Year 6 Extravanganza was a huge success! Well done to all of the children.
Although we only have one week remaining we still have lots happening. On Tuesday it is our pizza and film afternoon - with pizzas provided by the PTA and cooked by Mrs. Stephens. On Wednesday it is the water fight in the afternoon. The children should bring in a change of clothes for the water fight. Afterwards, they will be able to change back into their uniforms. Only water guns please - no water balloons/bombs. On Thursday morning we have the Leaver's Assembly to parents and carers which starts at 9:15am. We hope you can make it. Not long left...
Computing
Year 1 this week have returned back to using the desktops, so they could practise logging in and out of the computers. They then used Word to do develop and improve their typing skills. They typed up an “All about me” factsheet, ensuring they used capital letters, full stops and underlined their title. This will help them be “Year 2 ready”.
Year 3 have been working on debugging programs, looking at a code that is deliberately wrong and seeing if they can make alterations to correct it. They also learnt the term “debugging” goes back to very old computers that had real-life bugs in them and needed to be “debugged”.
Year 4 have been modifying a “catch the shark” game on Scratch, where they could add characters and code them, so a user needs to click on a shark before it disappears. Similar to the “whack a mole” game. They really had fun doing this.
Year 5 have been designing their own quiz, using the “if .... then .... else” conditions. Many did a football quiz, asking questions such as “Who is the best footballer?” If the user answered correctly (according to the programmer!), the Sprite would respond with one thing, but if they answered incorrectly, the Sprite would answer something else.
It was also lovely to see the children supporting each other with their coding, offering assistance if their friend needed help or got stuck on a piece of code.
Year 6 have been Coding their Mircrobits to undertake a surface temperature investigation on the playground. This is part of the national BBC Microbit playground survey, with results being submitted directly to the BBC.
Microbits are a fantastic way to do cross-curricular work, as a computing lesson can often double up as a science, maths or geography lesson.
PE & Sports
Our usual PE lessons this week but no competitions. After busier weeks... a quieter one.
Outdoor Learning
4D had outdoor learning, where they learnt about a variety of different cutting equipment and had the opportunity to use them as well as cooking over an open fire.
REMINDER: Next week will see Year 2 heading outside. On Monday and Tuesday 2S will head outside and on Wednesday and Thursday it will be 2G! Please make sure your child is dressed and prepared whatever the weather.
Careers Week
What an exciting week it has been for the children!
We have budding engineers in Years 5 and 6 who want to work on planes, trains, F1 cars and robotics. We even had a Year 5 child wanting to develop the first ever electric plane! Year 4 were really enthused by Dan from Group 1 BMW – he told the children about all the different routes into the industry and the selection of job roles available. They were then very excited to sit in a very luxurious car.
Year 3 children have also had an interesting visit from a physiotherapist and occupational therapist.
Year 5 were lucky to have a cooking workshop and found out there are lots of ways to use cooking as a career. Year 2 and 3 also had a video tour and talk from Ollie about CNH in Basildon. The children saw different machines that are used and what to look out for when they’re walking down the road or going for a drive.
Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 also had a very exciting time in Little City, playing at a number of different job roles.
Thank you to all our visitors that have been in – let’s see what next year brings!
Year 5 Baptist Church Visit
Year 5 were very lucky in visiting Friars Baptist Church on Monday afternoon. The children were welcomed by Jane and her team. We recapped together our learning that had taken place linked to different initiation ceremonies in a range of religions and we then focused further on Baptism. The children had devised some questions for the team at the church to answer and elaborate around. Jane and her team explained how impressed they were with the deep level of thinking that had gone into the questions. After our discussion the children were invited up by Mark, the youth worker, to look at the baptism pool. The children found out about how the water is made holy, what baptism is for as well as why it is important to some people. After this exploration we revisited our thoughts about Creation. At school we have compared a range of different creation stories from religious and non-religious viewpoints. This led on to some questions for Jane and her team. The children discussed whether all Christian people believe the world was created in seven days as well as what was created within each day. Our Year 5 children listened very well and responded to answers with further questions showing great enthusiasm.
As a Year 5 team we were very proud of their efforts at the church and we all enjoyed a lovely end to our year of RE teaching.
Dinner Menu
Week 2
Monday - Pork Sausage with Mashed Potato & Gravy - Vegan Sausage with Mashed Potato & Gravy - Pasta & Tomato Sauce - Cheese Sandwich - Ham Salad Wrap - Sweetcorn & Baked Beans - Chocolate Rice Krispie Cake
Tuesday - Chicken & Sweetcorn Pasta - Vegan Sweet & Sour Vegetables with Steamed Rice - Baked Jacket with Grated Cheese - Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich - Cheese Salad Wrap - Carrots & Broccoli - Mandarin Jelly
Wednesday - Honey Roast gammon with Roast Potatoes & Gravy - Sweet chilli Stir-fry mushroom & Vegetable Noodles - Wholewheat Pasta & Tomato Sauce - Cheese & Tomato Bloomer - Ham Sandwich - Seasonal Greens & Peas - Vanilla Ice Cream
Thursday - Beef Keema with Turmeric Rice - Vegan Layered Vegetable & Sweet Potato Bake - Baked Jacket with Baked Beans or Salmon Mayonnaise - Cheese Sandwich - Chicken Mayonnaise Baguette - Carrots & Sweetcorn - Apple Flapjack
Friday - Breaded Fish Fingers with Chips & Ketchup - Vegan Fajita Wrap with Chips & Ketchup - Pasta & Tomato Sauce - Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich - Ham Salad Baguette - Peas & Baked Beans - Lemon Drizzle Sponge
Freshly Baked Bread - Garlic & Herb or Wholemeal Bread
PTA
A busy, busy week getting ready for our Summer Fayre. The response to our new raffle ticket system has been fantastic! By the time you read this newsletter, our fayre will be over and done! Watch this space for updates!
Celebration Assembly
The links for our Celebration Assemblies can be found below.
No assembly today due to Careers Week so teams points will be shared on Monday. Then... we will have another assembly next Friday to announce the 2024 winners of the Friars Cup! Only a week to go...
Community
In July we are hoping to host some career events for our children. We are looking for parents/carers/family members or friends who would like to come and talk to our children about ut their jobs. Think you can help or know someone who can? Please drop me a line etaylorbrown@fps.porticoacademytrust.co.uk
01702 294837 - office@fps.porticoacademytrust.co.uk