Welcome to the final newsletter of the Spring Term. Please read on to find out what the children have been learning this term, and get a sneak preview into what is planned for the Summer Term...
Parent Questionnaire
Thank you to all the parents and carers who completed a questionnaire at parents’ evening. We were delighted to hear that overwhelmingly your children feel happy and safe at school with 97% of respondents saying they agree or strongly agree.
We take on board the many suggestions about additional school trips and after school clubs – this is something we are looking at increasing – watch this space!
We also appreciate the feedback that you would like to be better informed about what your children are learning. With this in mind, we are developing a termly overview for each year group that will be shared with you at the end of each term ready for the following term.
F1 and Beehive
As we come to the end of another term, we would like to celebrate what your children have achieved. We started the term with some new little faces to add to our already established cohort of children. Well done! You have all settled in so well and have already begun to form some lovely friendships.
This term has seen us celebrate Chinese New Year with a full Chinese banquet for the children to try. They loved using their senses to smell, touch and taste the exotic treats. We have learnt that they all love a prawn cracker!!
The children loved learning about the dinosaurs and quite a number have remembered what the word extinct means, so well done!
We have been learning about animals that live on land and in the sea and transport that travels on land, in the air and on the water. They have loved the sorting activities that we have done and have even extended their use of language by answering questions in full sentences.
We have recently had a visit from some welcomed chicks. The children have watched the eggs like a hawk to see when they would crack, and to our surprise, we had 9 eggs that made it to chicks. The children have been so gentle when holding them and see them as part of their class, so it will be very sad to see them go.
We hope you liked the Mother’s Day cards the children made. We had been looking at the parts of a flower and had some interesting discussions about what plants need to live. Some of the children even did some observational drawings of daffodils. They looked beautiful.
As we start the summer term, we are hoping that the weather improves, and we can start our planting in the vegetable garden. Last year the children were able to enjoy quite a few vegetables that we had grown, and we are hoping to have a similar success this time round. We will be exploring the land of mini beasts and hopefully having a visit from some caterpillars. We have the Purple Pig Farm to look forward to and at the end of the term our graduation when some of the older children graduate up to reception. We look forward to seeing you again next term and wish you a Happy Easter.
F2
F2 have had a very busy half term. We have been learning a story during Talk 4 Writing called 'The Enormous Turnip' and have become experts in retelling the story and innovating it too. We have been retelling the story, creating masks for the characters and also doing some planting outside. We have been looking after our plants and making sure they have been watered every day. We have also been doing some cutting to sequence parts of the story.
In maths we have been working on comparison and finding one more and one less than specific numbers. Parents and carers, this is something you could support with at home and help us to recognise numerals and amounts, then try to quickly recall one more or one less. We have also been comparing two sets and seeing which has more and which has less, which could be done whilst playing at home, preparing meals, setting the table etc. We have also been learning about 2D and 3D shapes and recognising their properties. Please help your child to keep spotting shapes and naming them.
In Jigsaw we have been finding out more about being healthy and have talked about healthy foods, the need for sleep, the importance of exercise and have also been thinking about which adults help to keep us safe.
We have been learning about Important People and will be creating portraits of King Charles and also finding out about the important people in our school and community, as well as the roles they have. We have also been learning about an artist called Andy Goldsworthy and creating our own artwork, using natural materials.
Outside we have been working on turn taking and sharing with the bikes, go-karts and scooters. Each vehicle has a numbered parking space to park on and everyone is remembering to write their name on the list to show they would like a turn. We use the sand timer to measure each turn on the vehicles and to help us know when to stop and park up.
One of the highlights of this half term has been looking after an incubator with 10 eggs. In F2 we managed to hatch 9 chicks, 7 boys and 2 girls. The children have thoroughly enjoyed watching them grow, handling them carefully and thinking about names for them. Lots of the children have also felt inspired to write and create, writing them messages, making them models etc. We were sorry to say goodbye to our chicks but they have a lovely farm that they are going to live on, so will be happy. A big thank you to all the parents and carers that popped in to meet the chicks, the children have been very proud to show them off.
Next half term we are going to be learning about growing plants in our science work. In our history work we will be learning about 10 Downing Street and about the job of being Prime Minister. In our maths work we will be continuing to work on one more and one less, as well as number bonds and which numbers can be added together to make 5 and also 10. Phonics work will be matched to individual children's needs and children will continue to bring home reading books or reading sheets to work on at home. Many of our children are benefiting from having Read Write Inc video links sent home to match their child's level. If this is something you would like please speak to your child's class teacher.
Some of the stories we are going to be reading next half term are the following: Mr Gumpy's Outing, The Elephant and the Bad Baby, Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell, Elmer, There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly, Five Minutes Peace, Greta and the Giants, The Heart and the Bottle, The Three Little Pigs. It would really benefit your child to start becoming familiar with these stories, so a library visit over a Easter would be a lovely way to help their learning. Do let us know if you manage to read any of the above stories to your children so we can celebrate in class.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
WANTED!
EYFS are currently updating their continuous provision areas and are in need of lots of resources to make the areas exciting and engaging. If you have any of these things that you no longer use, we would be very grateful to take them off your hands...
- Small world figures (animals, people, settings etc...)
- Corks
- Shells
- Kitchen utensils
- Tubes
- Small rug
- Baskets (wicker, plastic, wooden...)
- Children's chairs
- Puppets
- Dressing table with mirror
- Baby cot
- Weighing scales
- Clock
- Hair dryer/straighteners
- Hats
- Shoes/slippers
- Artificial flowers and plants
- Jewellery
- Vintage suitcase
- Magazine rack
- Children's magazines/comics
- Lamp
- Light fitting
- Handbags
- Fascinators
- Cake boards
- Fabric/ribbon
- Aprons
- Recipe books/cook books
- Unused diaries/Calandars/notebooks
- Unused stationary
- Pestle and mortar
Thank you so much 🙂
Year 1
The children in Year 1, have had another very busy short half term. Again, they have worked hard with all their learning and should be very proud of themselves.
In T4W, we have enjoyed innovating the story of the ‘Rainbow Fish’. The children showed lots of creativity in their new ideas for the story. In history, the children have shown a real interest in learning about the life of our local hero – Amy Johnson. They have studied the Easter story in RE and explored why this is important for Christians. In geography, we have compared England and Wales as part of our topic on the UK. The children have thoroughly enjoyed our art topic exploring printing. We created our own prints based on the artwork of Keith Haring. Please see the photos below.
After Easter, we are looking forward to learning about plants in science and more work in geography on the UK, when we will go on to explore Scotland and Northern Ireland. In maths, we will be continuing our work on calculation. Look out for more homework about this so you can see what the children have been learning about in the classroom.
We had hoped to invite parents and carers in, this half term, to listen to us singing. But unfortunately, due to the short half term, this has not been possible. However, once the children have learned their new songs in music after Easter, we will be in touch to invite you in, so that the children may perform for you. We are looking forward to learning songs that tell the story of Jack and the Beanstalk!
Year 2
In Y2 we have been looking at instructions and we have been busy writing instructions to make silencing dust - all of us teachers have our fingers crossed that it will work! In maths we have worked really hard as we have moved onto adding and subtracting using the column method. We have found this very tricky and we will definitely need to do some more work on it in the summer term. Watch out for some 'how to' photos later in next term! We have also been trying hard to learn our times tables using TTRockstars and we have started to create our own heat maps which show which tables we're good at and which we need to learn.
In science we have had great fun making circuits and we all know that we need a battery, a bulb and some wires to make a circuit work. For our final experiment we tested different objects to see if they were conductors (the bulb lit up) or insulators (the bulbs didn't light up). Please ask us what we found out. We are also writing an explanation about how to complete this experiment as part of our T4W this week.
In geography we have been learning about Africa and we are currently creating a double page spread with all the information we have learned. In history, we have continued to learn about the stone age and we now all want to visit the Orkneys so we visit Skara Brae, which is a stone age settlement. In computing we have also started on a new topic which has never been covered before so our teachers have had fun learning alongside us.
Alongside all our curriculum work, we have also enjoyed dressing up for World Book Day and Comic Relief. We might be biased, but we think Year 2 looked amazing in their costumes. As part of our World Book Day celebrations we were lucky enough to meet Suzy Senior who wrote 'The Hotel For Bugs'. We asked her lots of questions and she even sent us an email as there were too many to answer on the day.
#WeMadeThisHull
A new #WeMadeThisHull project is here after the huge success of the Autumn quilt that was displayed in Princess Quay. This project is around the need for unity in a time of apparent disunity and what was needed to make it happen in our wider community of Hull.
We often say that Hull is an ‘open book’ and ‘what you see is what you get’ but are we willing to welcome everyone (those born here and those not) into our home of Hull – and what does our home of Hull look like?
So, my home is your home comes from a Spanish saying, mi casa es su casa – please treat my home as if it were your own while you are here. Ma maison es ta maison (French) Is e mo theach do theach (Celtic) Twój dom jest moim domem (Polish) Dein Haus ist mein Haus (German). Same phrase, different language – same sentiment.
Where does the welcome begin? At our front door of course! Whether that is literally the front door to our house, flat, caravan or tent, or maybe our workplace, school, community centre or city boundary. Or the front door in our head – the willingness to welcome – otherwise all of those doors will stay firmly closed.
To the project...
It’s front doors, lots of them please. It could be your front door, or a front door you would like to have, be as creative as you like and use what you like to make them.
We would like your front door to open to reveal a welcome message in your home language (if that’s not English, a translation would be helpful too!). It may be a traditional welcome, or a personal message you would like to convey. It could be like this…(we’d love a front door like this!) or however you like.
They need to be A5 (half of A4) folded in half to make it stand up and it would be great if they are on card to give a bit of strength please.
Please return doors to school by Tuesday 9th April so we can wave a magic wand and make it ready to show Hull one big welcome!
Year 3
This half term, Y3 have enjoyed looking at the wonderful world of insects across some of our subjects. In science, we have studied the life cycle of a caterpillar and how to tell the difference between an insect and an arthropod, labelling the features that set them apart. Fittingly, our talk for writing topic was a non-chronological report on strange creatures, describing their habitats, their diets and their funky features! The children created these creatures by combining insects together and demonstrated their skills of using generalisers, determiners and subordinating conjunctions.
In reading, our text has been "Bug in a Vacuum", in which the children strengthened their empathy and inference skills, working out how the bug felt as it tried to live life inside a hoover.
Our history topic this half term has been Ancient Greece and we have learned about how the first democracies were created and how even within the Greek Empire, city states like Sparta and Athens could be both very similar and very different in many aspects.
As geographers, we discovered that there were 3 types of farming, including arable, pastoral and mixed. We looked at where in the uk these types of farming are done and even discovered why there are so many sheep in Wales.
Next half term, we are looking forward to learning more about Ancient Greece, William Morris and plants to name a few things.
PTFA
A massive thank you to all parents who have supported us over the past term, with donations and ticket / gift purchases, etc. Also a big thank you to all the parents who kindly gave up their valuable time to support our recent disco, which was a huge success thanks to our team of volunteers. We know how valuable time is and we really appreciate it!
Without parent/carer support events are harder to provide for the enrichment of our children. Hopefully we will be able to hold the following events next term:
- family bingo night
- movie night
- Summer festival
Watch this space...
Year 4
Year 4 have had a great half term, completing our two week swimming block. Mrs Underwood and Mr Salvidge are extremely proud of the courage and resilience from the children during each session. We have continued from the Roman Empire and begun looking into the Byzantine Empire and their achievements.
We have had a focus on space for T4W, T4R and science this half term, where the children have immersed themselves into the topic and shown great knowledge.
We are looking forward to the brighter, warmer weather and the summer term where will be looking at the text 'Beetle Boy' in T4R and how the little boy copes with his father turning into a beetle. We will also be starting our unit of 'light' in science, where children can use their design and technology knowledge from last term to create circuits and delve into natural and artificial light sources.
We look forward to continuing to work with Mr Keith from Choral Hull, practising our singing skills and developing the school choir.
Year 5
Y5 children have had a busy and interesting few weeks. In early March we visited St Luke’s church in Willerby where we learned about some of the features of a church from Reverend John Telford. We enjoyed the walk to the church in the early spring sunshine too!
We are currently enjoying our swimming lessons at Albert Avenue Swimming Pool. The swimming teachers have commented on how well the children are behaving and how much effort they are putting into the lessons; this will result in some great progress in swimming ability.
As part of our music curriculum, many of us took part in a special opera written for children - Hansel and Gretel. This was performed as a live concert at Grimsby Auditorium. The reviews were fantastic!
In the classroom we have been learning about Antarctica and the famous explorer Ernest Shackleton; read extracts from the novel Kensuke’s Kingdom and learned about early Christianity in history. All teachers have been particularly impressed by our recent piece of extended writing that was produced on chromebooks. This was a set of instructions about how to survive in the Antarctic.
Next term we are looking forward to learning about cities and rivers in geography, the Vikings in history and evolution in science. We will also find out about Charles Darwin.
Year 6
As always, we continue to be impressed with the attitudes of our Y6 students. They are continuing to display admirable learning behaviours which will be a basis for an excellent start to their secondary education. In our writing lessons, we have created engaging newspaper articles about a crime that happened enroute to grandma's cottage. The children particularly enjoyed drafting and improving their pieces on Chromebooks, just like real-life journalists would! We are developing our understanding of writing in character by thinking as the perpetrator or victim within the crime, creating an in-depth diary entry. Our maths lessons are very much focused on key maths skills, tackling reasoning maths problems and 'unlocking' exam style questions.
In RE we have enjoyed learning about the Jewish festival of Passover. We will be developing this knowledge by making links with Ramadan and Easter.
In science, we have started exploring the importance of photosynthesis. We understand that this process is essential for life on Earth - how fascinating! We have continued to develop our knowledge of how plants reproduce by dissecting a daffodil, where we identified both the female and male parts of a flowering plant - the children found this extremely interesting.
We look forward to continuing to develop our knowledge of WW2 and how this unfolded; we will explore the home-front and lives of evacuees. Next term, we will also continue to engage with our design and technology, where we will be creating an alarm system, through C.A.D (computer aided design). We will also continue to explore a challenging rhythm from the well-known film, Pitch Perfect, where we will be rehearsing 'When I'm Gone', also known as 'The Cup Song', ready to perform to you at the end of the summer term.
We wish the children and their families a well-earned Easter break before returning refreshed for the Year 6 SATs. We know how ready our Year 6s are!
THE LAUNCH PAD
In The Launch Pad we have been busy shining bright! The children have made a magnificent celebration of all the amazing qualities and strengths on the how we shine display.
Our new Wellbeing Wall
The new wellbeing wall has really caused a buzz! The children have been exploring ways of being mindful and taking care of their own wellbeing. The children have spread random acts of kindness around the school, learnt new ways to self regulate and calm, explored positive relationships and shared things that make them joyful in peer art and created their own 'Mindful Moments' boards.
Why Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a really useful skill for children to develop as it helps them to become aware of their feelings and thoughts and deal with those tricker ones that may overwhelm them. Mindfulness can also improve wellbeing in general, vital for good learning.
In the summer term, I would really love to take some of the children's art out into the great outdoors, well the school field! If you have any wooden lolly sticks or any wooden crafting supplies, you no longer need, please could you consider donating them to The Launch pad? They will be gratefully received, thank you.