As we reflect on the passing of the short spring term, it is truly astonishing how swiftly time has flown by. We're delighted to have the opportunity to share and celebrate the numerous triumphs and accomplishments of our school community.
Our Collective Worships focused on two of our school values - Perseverance and Justice.
In the final week of term, seeing the church filled to the brim for our Easter Service was truly heartening! Our Year 6 pupils did a fantastic job recounting the events of Holy Week with confidence, and the school's beautiful singing truly brought warmth to the entire congregation.
Friends of Gilmorton
Our FOGS team's remarkable efforts have brought our community together, raising significant funds for all our pupils. Their relentless dedication ensures huge benefits for our school. Thank you for your support in making these events a success!
Class S by Mrs Moss
Hi everyone!
It really is impressive how much learning we can squeeze into one whole term of EYFS and hopefully even more impressive of how much of that learning I can squeeze into our class’ section of this Spring Newsletter!
Well, here goes…
Spring - 1st half term - ‘Transport through the ages’ and ‘Seasons: Winter’
Topic
To start off the new year we began with our topic ‘Transport through the ages’ and ‘Winter’. We explored the key texts, ‘Mr Gumpy’s Motor Car’, ‘Mr Gumpy’s Outing’, ‘The Night Iceberg’, ‘The Naughty Bus’ and ‘The Snowglobe Family’. The children learnt about a range of forms of transport such as aeroplanes, cars, trams, bikes, motorbikes, helicopters, vans, taxis, boats, ships, tractors, lorries, buses, trains, coaches, submarines, hot-air balloons and maglevs, and we explored how some of these have developed over time. The children also completed many activities which included; sorting vehicles/forms of transport by land, sea and air; creating their own 2D shape vehicles and paper plate steering wheels; designing their own London Underground system and drawing the maps for these.
Maths
In Maths, we explored ways to compose and decompose 3, 4, & 5, we realised that different parts can make the same whole and focused a lot on numeral and quantity matching. The children also began to develop their subitising skills by recognising pairs and group quantities, as well as recognising the patterns on a die. We began some work on ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’ and investigated the number facts/bonds to 5. The children also learnt the meaning of ‘equal’ and commented on when they saw an equal amount in two sets of objects.
Phonics
In Phonics, we learnt the pure sounds of the last few letters of the alphabet and some new double consonant sounds (ff, ll, ss, zz). We then used our code knowledge of all the sounds taught to build words with the structures VCC (vowel, consonant, consonant) such as ‘ant’ and ‘end’, CVCC such as ‘lamp’ and ‘mend’ and CCVC, such as ‘stop’ and ‘frog’. In addition to this, we also introduced the children to the ‘sh’ sound just before the February half term. We then explored reading words and word building with the sound structure CVC using this new sound spelling such as ‘shop’ ‘fish’ ‘mash’ and ‘dash’. It’s important to note here, that although these are 4-letter words these are still referred to as CVC words, as each consonant and vowel refers to the sound structure NOT the quantity of letters.
Religious Education
In RE, we found out about the Christian belief that God created the heavens and the earth. We learnt the key events from the creation story found in Genesis 1 and found out that many Christians believe the earth and everything in it belongs to God and that God gave people the job of taking care of the world. The children also learnt that many Christians try to treat God’s name with respect and that Christians believe Jesus told stories or parables about how much God loves them.
During this half term, we also learnt about the Chinese New Year festival. We read the Zodiac story ‘The Great Race’ and learnt about the traditions that take place for people that celebrate Chinese New Year - family gatherings, fireworks, lion and dragon dances, exchangement of red envelopes with money in, spring cleans and much more! We found it all very interesting to learn about!
EYFS also took part in a 6-week Design and Technology cooking programme with Lisa from the Little Cooks Club. The children learnt and developed many cooking/baking skills such as cutting, mixing, and kneading, all whilst having great fun making their banana muffins, pea potato croquettes, and spiced apple cake - to name just a few of their wonderful creations!
We have continued with our Kinetic Letters handwriting scheme and it’s been wonderful to see the children’s writing really flourish. They are beginning to learn to control the size of their letters and better remember the corresponding phrases for the formation of each letter.
This half term we also said goodbye to one of our class volunteers, Mrs Boycott. I want to thank her for everything that she has done for the children over the years and wish her all the best for the future.
A final update that I wanted to include from this half term is that we have started a new weekly writing activity with the children. This is called ‘Mrs Moss’ Golden Ticket’ writing. This writing activity is an independent one where the children have to identify and write what they can see in an image given. Once they have completed this they then exchange their writing for a ‘golden ticket’ to put into a treasure chest. The children have all week to complete this and on a Friday we draw out 3 names/golden tickets from the treasure chest to receive a chocolate treat! It has been a great way to encourage ALL of the children to complete some independent writing and has really shown how far they’ve come with their writing. I am so proud of them!
Spring - 2nd half term - ‘New life/growing’ and ‘Seasons: Spring’
Topic
This 4-week, short but sweet half term focused on the theme of ‘New life/growing’ and ‘Seasons: Spring’ - always one of the favourites of the children of GCPS. We were lucky enough to be given the opportunity again, to hatch our very own class chicks! We were given 10 hen eggs from a local farm and put them in an incubator to watch them hatch and then change and grow over time. The children were fascinated by this learning experience and were very invested in making sure the temperature and humidity inside the incubator stayed the same. It was also mesmerizing for the children to see the chicks moving inside the eggs when we ‘candled’ them. Throughout the half term we read a variety of non-fiction books such as ‘Egg to Chick’ and ‘Chicken and Egg’ and covered the learning of a variety of life cycles such as a hen, frog and the human life cycle. We also read the fiction texts; ‘The Little Red Hen’, ‘Handa’s Hen’ and ‘One Springy Day’. The children completed many different activities which included; following visual instructions to draw a chick, matched mother animals to their young and learnt two songs; ‘Spring Chicken’ and the ‘Seasons Song’.
Maths
In Maths we explored the ‘5 and abit’ structure - the composition of numbers 6-8 and identified 1 more/ less with numbers up to 10. We learnt to explain how to order quantities to 10, reason about which numbers are ‘more than’ or ‘less than’ others and investigated the number facts/bonds to 7. We also began learning the concept of doubling - being able to identify when a double is shown and explain why. In addition to this, the children also used objects and their fingers to make and show double patterns.
Phonics
In Phonics we built and read words with the sounds we have been taught previously and with the sound structures of CCVCC such as ‘stomp’ and ‘flops’ and CCCVC such as ‘scrap’ and ‘splat’. In addition to this, we have continued to learn new sounds - ones which have 2 letters that spell one sound. These are ‘ch’ ‘th’ and ‘ng’ and have been word building and word reading with them with the sound structure of CVC (chip, thin, that, ring, song). It’s important to note here that ‘th’ can spell, what the children know as a ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ sound. The soft one being ‘th’ in words such as ‘think’ or ‘thumb’ and the hard one being ‘th’ in words such as ‘this’ or ‘that’. I hope this helps to clarify the difference between them.
Religious Education
In RE the children found out about the key events from Palm Sunday until Easter Day in the Christian Salvation story. We explored the Christian belief that Jesus saved his people from their sins by dying on the cross and rising again three days later. Throughout this unit the children encountered signs and symbols linked to the celebration of Easter are now able to talk about why these are important for believers. To celebrate Easter we made our own ‘Hosanna’ palm leaves, Easter cards, Easter bonnets, designed our own El Salvador crosses, and made our own Easter ‘gardens’.
As I know the EYFS parents/carers will agree, the children performed their very first class collective worship and they did the most amazing job! Each child remembered their line, spoke clearly and with volume, sang their little hearts out and made Mrs Elliott and I extremely proud. Well done children!
During this half term it was also British Science Week and this year’s theme was ‘Time’. To celebrate this, EYFS completed a Spring walk to see what changes have happened over time/ since we last went for our Autumn walk back in October/November. The children made some fantastic observations such as noticing the buds and leaves starting to shoot on trees and bushes. They also saw daffodils, snowdrops and blossoms growing around the school.
It’s been wonderful to welcome Mrs Deeks, a class/parent volunteer into EYFS this half term. We hope you have felt welcome and we look forward to continuing our learning journey with you.
Looking forward to Summer Term in EYFS
‘Creepy Crawlies’, ‘Around the World’ and ‘Preparing for YEAR 1’
During this Summer Term we are going to be covering the topics ‘Creepy Crawlies’ through non-fiction texts such as ‘Caterpillar to Butterfly’ and fiction texts such as ‘Spinderella’, and ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. We also hope to have our very own Butterfly hatching kit soon and towards the second part of the term we will be exploring our ‘Around the World’ topic through the fiction text; ‘Lost Little Elephant’. We also have a lot of other exciting events coming up this Summer Term - our next class collective worship, sports day and our class trip. I am very much looking forward to it all!
As always, thank you to the wonderful EYFS staff and volunteer team - Mrs Elliott, Mrs Ghent, Miss Smyth, Mrs Taylor, Mrs Parkes, and Mrs Deeks for all of your hard work and support for the children and myself. Another thank you to the fantastic parents/carers of the EYFS children for supporting your child with their reading, handwriting, collective worship line practice and everything else in between at home! I look forward to continue working with you all throughout our last term - Summer Term 2024
Class D - Mrs Temple and Mrs Critchen
What a busy spring term Year 1 we had!
We began by learning about, ‘The World’. We learnt about the United Kingdom, the capital cities and its surrounding seas. We then moved further afield looking at the continents and oceans around the world. We learnt a few songs to help us to remember the countries of the UK, the names of the continents and the oceans.
The children were fascinated to learn about two significant figures in History, Mary Anning and David Attenborough.
It was lovely to see the children so enthused, many bringing in artefacts and books from home and some children even visiting Lyme Regis and the Natural History Museum during their February half term!
In our DT lessons we had great fun learning about the importance of a balanced diet and made rainbow wraps and vegetable kebabs. The best part was obviously eating these at the end!
During science week, we carried out an experiment with jelly- timing how long it took different amounts of jelly to set. Again, the highlight of this was tasting the different jellies that we made.
Our focus for maths has been on using number lines to add and subtract but also filling in the missing numbers on a range of different number lines.
We have also been learning about capacity and volume as well as weight and mass. The children enjoyed having the sand and water trays out in our outside area and using these to compare different measures.
They also used rulers to measure different objects outside and weigh items using a balance scale and non-standard measures.
One of our favourite days of the term was World Book Day. The children loved sharing and listening to stories with a cup of hot chocolate.
In English the children have loved listening to Michael Rosen’s Chocolate cake poem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BxQLITdOOc) and producing their own poems.
Comic relief day was also a great success and we saw some fabulous hair designs. We were so impressed by the weird and wonderful creations!
Looking forward to Summer Term in Year 1
We are looking forward to the Summer term and all the exciting learning that is planned!
In phonics we will be consolidating the sounds that we have taught ready for the Phonics Screening in the week beginning 10th June. Thank-you for all the work that you have been doing with your child/children to reinforce the diffferent spellings of each sound and for reading with them daily. We are really beginning to see the children's confidence in reading growing.
In whole class reading, we will reading, There’s a Rangtan in my Bedroom, and Tango Makes Three, The Lion Inside, Aesop's Fables - The Hare and the Tortoise and The Proudest Blue.
In science, we will be revisiting our learning on animals and humans and will be identifying and naming a variety of common animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. We will catergories more common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.
In PE, on a Friday afternoon, we will be working with Miss Joshi to improve our fundamental movement skills whilst practising and getting ready for Sports Day.
In art, we will be creating in the 3D form using clay, pebbles, blocks and junk modelling. In Design and Technology we will be taught how to use a running stich tomake a handwarmer and then in the next half term, we will be making returning to Food and Nutrition to consider, 'Which vegetable is best?'
Class N - Mrs Waite
What a short but busy term we have had!
In English, we have loved reading the new CUSP scheme books and texts. We started exploring the use of rhyme and nonsense in the poem, The Quangle Wangle's Hat. We then enjoyed, Coming To England. We followed ten-year-old Floella as she and her family sailed from the Caribbean to a new life in London. We enjoyed the vibrant illustrations. This story taught us about how even young people can show courage to overcome adversity. The factual book, The Street Beneath My Feet, was fasinating as it opened out in folds to reveal each level of underground with fascinating facts and pictures.
In science, we have looked at suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, paper , rock, paper and cardboards for particualr uses. We carried out experiments to test the properties of different materials.
During British Science Week, we explored a range of different 'Awe and Wonder' science experiments .
In design and technology, the children thoroughly enjoyed exploring mechanisms in the topic, 'Are Bigger Wheels always Better?' They learnt how wheels and axles work together. They build simple wheel mechanisms and explored how the size of the wheel and position of the axles affects the movement of simple vehicles.
They they designed, made and evaluated their own moving vehicle.
Looking Forward to Summer Term in Year 2
In reading, we will be studying, Great Women Who Changed the World, Aesop's Fables - The Sun and The Wind and the Roald Dahl's classic, Fantastic Mr Fox.
In writing, we will continue to introduce the children to letters which join and we will be encouraging them to also join their writing in their independent writing.
In history and geography, we will focus on castles and the Gilmorton Motte. The children will have continue their learning at a contrasting castle - Tamworth Castle.
Class E - Year 3 - Mrs Spadacinni
Within art & design we selected and combined a range of materials to create interesting textural and visual effects. We used gesso to help our man made and natural objects stick to wood and then using black and metallic paint we gave them an antique look. As well as this we looked at the work of Louise Bourgeois who was a French-American artist best known for her large-scale sculptures and installations. From these designs we used a range of different thickness of wires with other materials to create insects, in pairs.
The highlight of the term was not in the normal hours of the school day but the Year 3 sleepover! Thirty Year Threes enjoyed their tea at The Crown with a short history lesson about the space we were in being the original Gilmorton School. A waitress at The Crown was an ex-pupil and announced that she was part of the first class to do the sleepover - ten years ago!
We then went back to school for outside fun followed by an ice cream whilst watching a fantastic magic show. After torch fun we settled down and actually slept!
In the morning parents joined us for breakfast (kindly cooked by FOGS).
Year three and four have been working hard in a very limited time to put on a performance of Resurrection Rocks. The show contained some super catchy songs retelling the Easter story with warmth and feeling. Year Three sang beautifully supporting the actors of Year Four and they are very much looking forward to their turn on the stage in Year Four.
Looking Forward to Summer Term in Year 3
This next term we will be:-
Reading Operation Gadgetman & The Dancing Bear
Performing poetry and critically reviewing our peers
English writing: Writing a 3rd person narrative story based on animals, writing formal letters to complain and writing dialogue through narrative.
Religious Education will focus on two key questions; How do festivals and worship show what matters to a Muslim? And how and why do people try to make the world a better place?
Science will be looking at the topics of Plants and Light. (Let's hope the sun appears for us to investigate!)
History will involve our visit to Lunt Fort as we study the Romans. The Lunt Roman Fort is the archaeological site of a Roman fort and makes our learning come alive as we explore the fort and become Roman soldiers in training.
Art - Two topics remain - painting techniques and then we return to build on our previous learning of painting and printmaking.
Design & Technology - are two remaining topics are systems where we will explore; How are things powered? And structures;What makes a bridge strong?
Music - Hopefully the glockenspiels will arrive in school and we will be tuneful whilst playing them.
Computing - We will be looking at creating media - desktop publishing. During this unit, learners will become familiar with the terms ‘text’ and ‘images’ and understand that they can be used to communicate messages. They will use desktop publishing software and consider careful choices of font size, colour and type to edit and improve premade documents.
Physical Education. The children will be exploring the equipment in the hall as part of gymnastics and as the term progresses we will get them athlete ready for sports day fun!
I thank the parents and carers for their continued support and look forward to a busy summer term and those parents and carers shining at the sports day by cheering all the children on.
Class I - Year 4 - Mrs Simons
The time just seemed to fly by this term but we still managed to squeeze in a lot of learning as well as a two night residential trip and an Easter play!
Mount Cook 2024
Of course the highlight of the term was the amazing trip to Derbyshire to enjoy a bespoke Viking Experience over the course of three days and two nights. For many of the children it was their first time being away from home and without family, but they blew us away with how brilliantly they coped with it. Despite the sometimes wet and cold weather they all got stuck into the various activities - building a viking longship, archaeological dig, orienteering for runes, archery, throwing, dressing like a Viking, leather craft and, the favourite of many, … making fire! As the night drew in we also enjoyed storytelling around the camp fire. All this excitement was fuelled by great food, comfortable accommodation and the brilliant staff at the centre - but not much sleep!
It was a very special time for everyone and they made us all proud with their friendship, perseverance, teamwork and enthusiasm. Great memories were definitely created and shared!
Easter Play - Resurrection Rock!
Following on from a super time at Mount Cook everyone had to rally together to put on our traditional Easter Play in a matter of days! The children stepped up to learn lines, follow stage direction, use props and catch up with learning the brilliant catchy songs that Year 3 had been doing in our absence. I am sure you will agree that it was a lovely, traditional retelling of the reasons behind Easter. Well done to everyone!
One of the highlights for me was the exceptional art work that the class completed using Kente cloth from Ghana as an inspiration for a textile. Amongst other things they learnt how to weave, print on fabric using stamps they had made, create geometric fabric designs and tie dye. The work was so lovely that we decided to create a presentation board of everything they had made. We also concentrated in textiles for D & T in which we learnt how to sew on a button effectively, cut a buttonhole and use these skills to make a felt pencil case or card holder. In computing, we learnt about photo editing, including cloning, cropping and rotation.
In English, we have written stories based in another culture, for this we chose Sri Lanka as we were inspired by the book we had just read and enjoyed in class reading (The Girl Who Stole an Elephant).
We also revisited persuasive writing and are currently writing explanation texts based around our science learning.
Our current reading book is The Boy at the Back of the Class which we are hooked on! We also reintroduced book talk sessions as a way to widen the reading experience.
In maths, we have spent most of our time on fractions and decimals whilst also trying to complete our times table knowledge ready for the statutory test in June.
In science, we learnt about how the human body carries out digestion, including a study of teeth. We also found out about how animals and plants depend on each other for survival in habitats and food chain systems. A cross over between science and geography saw us learn about the importance of the water cycle - including how we are still using the same water that has been on the earth since the beginning of time!
In RE, we have studied the role of celebration and worship in the islamic faith including the Five Pillars, Ramadan, Eid-al-Fitr, the Qur’an and Mosques.
A lot of our history learning was undertaken whilst at Mount Cook this term where we looked at the topic of the Viking Invasion and Settlement of Britain
We were very fortunate to have the excellent coaching skills of Miss Joshi for outdoor PE this term who led the children to develop their netball and basketball skills. We also did dance, dodge ball and yoga during indoor sessions.
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Looking Ahead to the Summer Term in Year 4
In our final term some of the topics we are looking forward to are:
Science - a physics focus with the study of electrical circuits and how sound travels.
Design Technology - a focus on electrical systems to complement the science unit as well as a Food Technology unit.
Geography - revisiting our previous learning about rivers with an in depth study of the River Nile and also general map skills.
History - a study of the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation.
Religious Education - How celebration is important in the Jewish faith, Salvation and how religions mark important life events.
Maths - Shape, data, time and money as well as continuing to ensure all aspects of number learning are fully embedded.
English - Revisiting and perfecting previous learning on news reports, stories, poetry and non-fiction, revision of spelling rules. Our new class book will be Varjak Paw.
Computing - audio production and coding as well as working on our use of presentational software such as Google Slides.
Music - singing and musical notation using glockenspiels.
Class R - Year 5 - Mrs Bullingham
Even though this term seems to have flown by, we have learned a lot and had fun with it!
One of the highlights of spring term was our trip to the Space Centre. We learned how a rocket is launched into space and what it takes to be an astronaut - something I definitely would not be cut out for! Space is a topic that the children eagerly anticipate throughout the year as it is a fascinating subject. We began by recognising how vast our universe is, and just how small we are. I think this blew a few minds ( including my own, no matter how many times I teach it)!
Throughout our learning journey, we modelled what causes day and night, as well as our seasons. The moon phases can sometimes be tricky to conceptualise, so, as homework, many children completed a moon diary to observe how the moon appears to change shape as we progress through the month.
In maths, we have moved on from fractions (hear all the children cheer!) although we still practise them during muscle memory to help secure our learning. We have moved onto area and perimeter which has helped restore some confidence in maths while also developing our logic and problem solving skills.
We continue to explore a range of texts in both our reading and writing. This term, we thoroughly enjoyed the humour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so much so that we gave our own amateur performance during our class Collective Worship in March - I wonder what Shakespeare would have thought!
This play was followed by us being inspired by stories of those who have overcome others’ opinions of their capabilities in I Am Not A Label. We were left feeling amazed by their achievements.
In the last couple of weeks, we started reading A Wrinkle In Time, which has continued into summer term.
As artists, we have been honing our textiles and painting skills. The first unit was quite abstract, which some of us relished and others found more challenging. We began by observing the patterns found in nature, particularly in many types of bark, and noticed that there are often linear patterns. Through sketching and collage, we replicated those lines before embarking upon our final project. For this, we used different materials to build up a textured collage to represent something in nature. The children were given free rein to create their own art. Our second unit explored how watercolour reacts to different materials such as bubble wrap, salt, glue, oil pastels and washing-up liquid, to name a few. Our final piece was inspired by Five Paintbrushes, artwork created by Jim Dine. We drew five paintbrushes and, where the colour is running off the paintbrushes, added our five favourite effects from our previous experiments.
We have continued to learn more about how Christians decide how to live. The curriculum covered the miracles of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount and the Easter story. Using these texts, we considered what many Christians believe Jesus may have been teaching and why they view Jesus’ death as a sacrifice.
This term’s PE covered dance and gym. We looked at shape in dance and developed an awareness of what every part of our body is doing, from the tips of our toes and fingers to the tops of our heads. Each group choreographed their own performance, some definitely more enthusiastically than others! Similarly, in gymnastics we looked at different balances, engaging our core to hold both standing and floor shapes. In summer, we will be looking at improving techniques in athletics and rounders (my second favourite sport to play after frisbee).
Looking Ahead to the Summer Term in Year 5
In English, we will be reading two new class novels, The Explorer by Katherine Rundell and the classic, Five Children and It by E. Nesbit. In writing we will be creating myths and legends, a biography and writing poems which explore different forms.
In maths we will studying, shape, data, time and money as well as continuing to recapping on fractions and decimals.
In science we describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird. We will describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals.
In History we begin by studying exploring the ancient Maya Civilisation and then compare and contrast the lives of the Maya and Anglo-Saxons in c. AD900.
In Art, we will be using clay to explore 3D art and vessels. In Design and Technology, we will explore how frames are strengthened, reinforced and made rigid before using these ideas to make a model for a refugee shelter. In addition, we will be doing food and nutrition.
I am looking forward to all that the summer term will bring, including all the fun that the sun heralds - our residential and sports day at the top of that list!
Class F - Mr Wyness
What an amazingly quick term Spring was, and yet we covered so much, as those of you who could make it saw when you came to the Year 6 assembly at the beginning of February.
We get to read fascinating and challenging books in Year 6. Spring has seen us finish Rooftoppers and Pigheart Boy, then moving onto the historical account of the Windrush Generation, All Aboard the Windrush, and The Island (a brilliant graphic novel dealing with the concepts of asylum, discrimination and community). We are currently reading Treasure Island, and with it having been written over 140 years ago, and possibly about a time that was just in living memory even then, the language comprehension skills the class have needed are substantial. Reading really is the window into our world, and the more reading children do, the more they find learning and remembering easier, and useful.
In the other curriculum areas we have started:
* Light and Living Things in Science. We have delved deeper into the science behind Light than I have ever remembered before, including different types of reflection, and looking in depth at the links with angles of incidence and reflection. We have also began to think as taxonomists and question hard by which means we are identifying and classifying living things.
* Hinduism. Our unit on ‘Why do Hindus want to be good?’ not only delved deeply into the motivations for Hindus to be ‘good’ in their lives, but exposed the class to the Sanskrit words used and the modern cultures behind these decisions. As always, it is such an amazing resource to have Mrs Raman with us in these lessons, her insights and willingness to answer questions bring a lot of clarity to our learning.
Settlements in Geography, and the aforementioned Windrush Generation in History. We started looking at how and why settlements begin in Human society, including positive and negative factors (water, resources, danger, nearby settlements), and the types of physical and human features that change in our settlements. The Windrush Generation was a key moment in British history, and a great way to reflect on how British society has evolved over the past half-century. While the impact of the Windrush migrants was not enormous in this area, we were able to reflect their experiences with the possible experiences of the Indian communities who came to live in Leicester.
Gymnastics, Crab Volleyball and Tennis in PE.It has been great to see such an improvement in skills and attitudes in PE this term. It is natural; for children this age to be highly competitive in most types of games and sporting activities, but combining the Real PE curriculum with more traditional sporting activities has allowed the pupils to act as each others’ coaches, focus on their development, and not worry about the pressure of performing for others. In particular, we had some fantastic Gym sessions with all the equipment out.
Music and French have been largely an oral affair this term, focusing on learning through voice rather than the written word. I was extremely impressed with the singing, especially the song we had at the class assembly. While we will be returning to written and spoken French this term, a lot of the CUSP French curriculum focuses on those needed, every-day phrases and words.
Without a doubt the big successes for us this term have been in DT and Art. We have done more food technology this year than I can remember doing in any year 6 class in my career. We have had some ... interesting food choices, and some fantastic flavours and creations - I strongly urge you to encourage your child’s creative cooking!
The Vanishing Point and Block art we did last term were building on units from previous years, and were linked into artists such as Shaun Tan, Robert Sabuda and Patrick Hughes: with a new curriculum our class hit these techniques for the first time, and did so impressively. Now, our tidying up skills might be a little suspect, but your children have filled our classroom with marvellous art all year and have shown fantastic progress with new ideas and concepts.
Looking forward to the Summer Term in Year 6
Summer Term is a delicate balance between keeping that core learning going, and having the time to explore the wider parts of the curriculum.
As well as finishing the curriculum, we will be looking at more project and problem based work in Maths, moving to our Summer Athletics programme in PE and, of course, practising for our end of year performance!
We will also be sending out a letter soon covering the important dates for the end of year 6. We hope to build in another water fight, just like last year’s, and we also want to go on a ‘pilgrimage walk’ around Gilmorton as a chance to reflect on the Year 6’s time here, and their memories of the school and village.
We hope you have enjoyed learning about the incredible accomplishments of our school community over the past term. A huge thank you goes out to our devoted staff, whose unwavering dedication has fostered the flourishing of our children throughout this term.