Friars Weekly Newsletter friday 9th may 2025

Nursery

This week has felt a lot shorter, with only being a four-day week. However, lots of learning has still taken place. We started the week talking a little about VE day and the children had remembered some of the information shared previously. Following on from this, they enjoyed walking around the school seeing all the decorated classroom doors. The children recognised the war planes, union jack flags and bunting and made connections with street parties and of course the great British afternoon tea and cake. We also enjoyed our first stay and play session with parents this term and within that had a chance to decorate our own cupcakes in red, white and blue.

REMINDER: Information about Nursery Sports Day went out this week so please look out for the letter so you are aware of what will happen and timings.

Reception

It has been a wonderful week in Reception. The children have enjoyed being outside, making recipes in our mud kitchen, using the construction equipment in imaginative ways and exploring how to make various items move in the water tray.

The children have learnt about rotation in maths this week, by rotating shapes to make them fit in puzzles. They have also explained which shape in a set is the odd one out.

We are continuing to revise all of our Phase 3 digraphs and trigraphs in our phonics lessons, using them in longer words.

REMINDER: There have been a lot of unnamed jumpers and cardigans left in class. If your child is missing any please speak to us.

Reading books and library books are collected in every Thursday.

Letters sent home this week (via ParentPay)

• Reception - Sports Day - 09.05.2025

Year 1

Although it has been a shorter week, we have been super busy with our learning! In maths we have been exploring how to group and share objects and numbers. In English, the children have been looking at the structure of their sentences and how to use “because” to extend further. This week we had a special water safety assembly lead by Steve from Essex Police. We learned all about how to keep safe at the beach, including how to float if you needed to in an emergency and the importance of always having an adult with you in the water. We had a brilliant time on VE Day - designing (and eating!) cupcakes, decorating our Year 1 doors collaboratively and learning about the significance of the day. Have a lovely weekend!

Year 2

A short week, but still a very busy one! In English, we wrote an independent piece of writing to show our teachers the skills we have learnt during Year 2. The children amazed us with their use of descriptive phrases, conjunctions and correct punctuation.

In maths, we have explored unit fractions such as ½ and ¼ well as non-unit fractions ¾, 2/3 and 2/4. We have begun using TT Rockstars to develop our quick recall of the timetable facts. The children can access this at home using their Numbot usernames and passwords.

We have had lots of fun creating pieces of art for our ‘VE Day Door Decoration’ competition entry. We have made flags and bunting and added the children’s portraits to our door – all saying ‘Thank you’ in different languages.

On VE Day we enjoyed decorating our own cakes to celebrate the day – thank you to Mrs. Stephens for the cakes - Yum!

Year 3

We all love a four-day week! Despite only being at school for yet another four-day week, Year 3 have still been working extremely hard in their learning.

In English, we looked at and researched Nonsense poems and by the end of the week we write on own, and they were pretty fantastical.

In maths, we started out new topic on money. The children did really well to remember their learning about money from Year 2. We recognised and counted money and will doing some more around this topic next week.

In science, we looked at little more in depth about plants and how they are able to grow. We cut up some celery, looked at the cross section and then drew and labelled the phloem and xylem.

We managed to get a few more run-throughs of our class assembly too and we are showing how much we are looking forward to it by all the lines that have been learnt off by heart already.

Lastly, we designed our pizzas in preparation to make them over the last two weeks of this term. We honestly can't wait to create, bake and eat some delicious pizzas!

REMINDER: Please encourage your children to learn their lines and to practise the songs that we sent home last week.

Class assembly will be on 23rd May.

Year 4

Year 4 have managed to cram in an incredible amount into just four days this week! In English we began a two-week topic on explanation texts. We pulled apart the features in our first session. We then made plans to create our own cracking contraptions for Wallace and Gromit, when we received a letter telling us that Wallace’s blueprints and inventions were all stolen from his home! (We suspect Feathers McGraw may have had something to do with this!) We can’t wait to write our explanation texts on our made-up contraptions next week.

In maths, we continued our unit on decimals and looked at how to represent tenths and hundredths as fractions and decimals.

In foundation lessons, 4G completed some of the sessions that 4S did last week, as we have swapped over for outdoor learning! We looked at playing our ‘Train is a’coming’ on glockenspiels in music, explored Pop Art in art, and continued with our rounders in PE. Of course, we celebrated VE Day on Thursday together, where we enjoyed decorating our cupcakes and other events in school to commemorate the 80 year anniversary.

4S enjoyed their survival skills and fire-lighting in outdoor learning this week too.

REMINDER: With the times tables check fast approaching, please continue to encourage your children to complete their homework and continue on TT ROCKSTARS at any given opportunity. We saw some great progress in our recent results, and we are confident we can push this even further!

Year 5

This week, the children were lucky in having a wonderful day out at the Tower of London. We walked to the station and got the train to London Fenchurch Street. We walked over to the Tower and admired the poppy display for VE Day. Mr. Axelson, who works at the Tower, then spoke to us about the history of the Tower and discussed the ravens. We then went straight into the Crown Jewels and stood in amazement at the sights before our eyes! We stopped for lunch and explored the Tower. We walked through the White Tower, Bloody Tower, Torture at the Tower and the battlements and memorial sites. We came back by train. The children all represented our school beautifully!

In our history learning this week. we have explored Tudor education, diet and clothing further which helped our understanding during our trip. The children are showing great progress with their music ability and composing skills with our K-Pop song. Through our English this week the children are preparing a newspaper article which will centre around the Battle of Bosworth, which they have enjoyed learning about!

Not to forget with the busy week we've had...the children are also looking forward to VE Day celebrations.

Year 6

This week, we have faced our last preparation for SATs next week with a focus on developing good quality answers in our reading comprehensions. We have worked on fractions, percentages, order of operations and movement of shape in maths. With a history focus, we used the VE Day celebrations to create some great display work. Our art this week has been developing our study of Hokusai further and exploring water colour paint.

Computing

This week in computing, Year 4 really got to grips with the BBC Micro:bit and started to program it to collect data. They created the code to use the sensor to measure the temperature, then were able to move the Micro:bit to various places to see how warm/cold it was in different locations.

Year 1 showed off their digital paint skills by using Paintz to create some Union Flags, ready for VE day. It was no mean feat, with the number of diagonal blocks needed and colours on top of colours, but they did it!

Year 2 continued with their data unit and looked at turning tally charts into Pictograms. They collected data on favourite mini-beasts, then used the J2e program to create an electronic pictogram. Many extended themselves and went onto create further pictograms.

Online Safety

From using them for communication, work, shopping and entertainment, devices such as smartphones, laptops and the rest are now deeply ingrained into modern society. Small wonder, then, that young people – who’ve grown up surrounded by such gadgets – can sometimes struggle to put them down, switch them off or keep themselves occupied without them.

While limiting our screen time may require a great deal of restraint, the effort can be rewarded with significant benefits to our physical and mental health. Our #WakeUpWednesday guide has simple tips for helping to manage the amount of screen time in your household – encouraging the whole family to spend more quality time together and live in the moment.

PE & Sports

The weather has continued to be suitable for outdoor sports and meant that children have enjoyed our amazing outside environment. There have been some great athletics skills being developed with throwing and running as well as summer games, such as rounders and cricket.