Friars Weekly Newsletter friday 24th may 2024

Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...

• Updates about our very busy final week
• Status Quo visit on Wednesday 5th June
• All of the usual favourites and reminders

It’s Friday and it’s also the end of the first summer half-term. The weeks in summer 1 seem to have really flown by, leaving us with only summer 2 to go…

A busy week for many of our children but especially the Year 6 children who travelled to the Isle of Wight or stayed home for Southend Week activities.

A four-night residential takes lots of planning and organisation but the benefits to the children are amazing. Every time we take children away, we see them grow in experience and confidence. Our Isle of Wight time was packed full of activities and fun and hopefully the children have lasting memories. It was a pleasure as usual to enjoy the week with the children and I am pleased to share that we had many members of the public comment on the high standards of the children’s behaviour. The staff at our hotel were very complimentary too. A massive thank you to the staff who accompanied me on the trip; Mrs. Brady, Mrs. Kipling, Mrs. Shuttleworth, Mr. Smith and Mr. Leggett. Residentials are simply not possible unless staff are willing and able to leave their own families behind to take excellent care of the children. I know all of the staff are looking forward to catching up on some sleep over the weekend. Zzzzz…

Southend Week was a big success despite the wet weather. The children on the Isle of Wight fared better from the rain. The rainfall in Essex was really heavy at times which meant some plans had to change but that didn’t dampen spirits - the children all had a great time. Thank you to the staff involved; Mrs. Bailey, Mrs. Hodgson and Mr. Brady. Thank you too to Mrs. Halls who helped organise the week.

Full write-ups of the Isle of Wight residential and Southend Week will follow in our first newsletter of next half-term.

Have a superb holiday everyone and see you all back on Tuesday 4th June. Remember that the school is closed on Monday 3rd June. On the Tuesday we have our class photographs and on the Wednesday we have Jeff Rich from Status Quo performing a drumming workshop. Jeff performed with Status Quo for many years and has visited Friars previously. What a very fun return we have in store!

Take care and have fun!

Mr. McClay, Principal

Nursery

Unfortunately, due to the wet weather, nursery activities have been a little bit of a wash out. After having to cancel both our beach trip and sports day the children were feeling a little disappointment. We have however, kept them very busy we other activities. We have been very creative this week creating beach artwork for a corridor display. Children have made fish, shells, buckets and spades using a range of creative techniques. Although Sports day did not happen the children did enjoy using the new PE equipment such as hurdles and foam javelins.

REMINDER: New dates will be set for the beach trips next half term.

Reception

This week, the Reception children have been buzzing about bees! We celebrated World Bee Day on Monday by learning about how they are important. The children have all completed “The Bee Challenge” to make a bee. They have been so engaged and creative making bees in different ways including collage, drawing and junk modelling. Some children even made bee hats and wings! We have been very impressed with the children’s writing and we have made it into a fact book to keep in the book corner. In Maths, we have been practising our recall of number bonds to 5.

REMINDER: There will be no PE on the first day back (Tuesday 4th June) due to class photos. Please ensure that you have responded to the Hyde Hall letter if you have not already done so.

Year 1

The children in Year 1 have really enjoyed learning about Nelson Mandela this week. They understand why he was a significant historical person and have written a short fact file about him. We have completed our African sunset pictures and evaluated them. It was lovely to see the children pretending to be in a gallery looking at each other’s work. Some of these pictures will feature in the Portico art display – which you can view on our open evening next half term.

In maths we have taught the children about directions – forwards, backwards, left and right as well as making quarter, half and three quarter turns.

REMINDER: 1MV have outdoor learning session on Tuesday and Wednesday after half term.

1B have their sessions on Thursday and Friday after half term.

All children must come to school in full school uniform on Tuesday 4th June ready for the school photo.

Year 2

A lovely final week of summer 1 for Year 2! In maths we finished off our topic on time – we practised reading the time to 5 minutes, using the language o’clock, half past, quarter past, quarter to and using 5 minute intervals to count all around the clock. It would be fantastic to see children continue to read analogue clocks at home to consolidate this as it is super tricky!

In English, we showed off our writing skills by telling the story of the little penguin named Geronimo, who dreamed of flying! We made sure to write in full, interesting sentences and use a range of punctuation we have been taught. In RE we looked at the story of David and Goliath and the message behind it. In PSHE we focused on the benefits of ‘Walk to School Week’ and in science we looked at how plants adapt to survive in their habitats. A highlight has definitely been making our giant cardboard sculptures in the style of Barbara Hepworth.

We wish you all a happy half-term!

REMINDER: School Trip – 27th June

2G are still owed a final swimming session, and we will make contact when this is arranged.

Year 3

We have had fun creating a range of poems this week in English. We have used a range of interesting word choices to create our very own poetry and then performed them to class.

In maths we have finished our time topic by looking at durations of time and solving problems using time and reasoning skills.

In art we have designed and painted our Roman shields, we know feel like we could be Roman soldiers and help expand the Roman Empire!

We have finished of our science topic around plants and looked at the different ways that seeds are dispersed.

We hope you have a good week off, relax and enjoy the sun!

REMINDER: Year 3 have PE on Mondays and Thursdays, please make sure earrings are removed on these days. Thank you.

Year 4

Money has been the focus in maths this week. The children have been learning how to write amounts of money accurately and converting between pence (450p) and pounds and pence (£4.50). The children understand that if the pound sign is present in the amount then they don’t write the pence sign as well.

In English, the children have been embedding their knowledge of word classes, antonyms (a word that has the opposite meaning to another like high - low) and homophones (words that sound the same but have different spellings like sea/see or you, ewe and yew.)

In geography Year 4 have been trekking to the Mount Everest base camp and completing a variety of activities on the way. They had to plot the altitude of their climb from various place along the way, learn survival techniques for climbing, understand the importance of prayer flags, write a postcard home to explain their journey and create a page based on research of the Everest base camp. Everyone made it safely home.

In music, the Year 4 children have been playing a variety of tunes on the glockenspiels including, ‘You are my Sunshine,’ ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,’ ‘Ode to Joy,’ and although a little out of season, ‘Jingle Bells,’ which Mrs. Snow particularly enjoyed listening too!

We are looking forward to a well deserved break before the last half of the summer term and the end of the academic year. The children do not have English homework but please do encourage your children to continue to learn the timestables, by playing TT Rock Stars and Hit the Button. We have the National Year 4 multiplication tables check the week beginning the 3rd June and would like to be very successful. This week, Arion in 4D thrashed Mrs. Dyer on Hit the Button by getting 51 questions correct in 1 minute. Mrs. Dyer could only manage 44….but the older you get, the slower your reflexes become. Well, that’s her excuse and she’s sticking to it!

Year 5

In maths this week, Year 5 have been looking at position and direction. This saw the continuation of work on co-ordinates at the beginning of the week. We then moved on to translation with and without co-ordinates. The week ended with symmetry.

In English, the children completed their non-chronological reports about the Tudors and then independently wrote one about the Tower of London. Their writing was very informative and well organised with pictures, captions and fact boxes.

On Monday, we had our last session playing the recorders. The children played Dancing in the Street. All have made very good progress with the individual notes.

In RE, the students made leaflets about initiation ceremonies such as marriage, Bat Mitzvah and Christenings. They were able to transfer their skills of non-fiction writing from English to make their leaflets informative.

Year 6

It was all about the Isle of Wight and Southend Week this week... Please read Mr. McClay's comments at the start of the newsletter and watch this space for full reports in the first newsletter after the holiday.

Computing

This week, Year 1 have consolidated their learning on sorting and grouping by answering questions on shapes and practising their counting skills too.

Year 2 have completed their learning on pictograms and can now present data in different ways. They have also considered when it good (or not good) to share data.

Year 3 have finalised their learning on branch databases, using the advanced settings on the computer and ensuring their branches are even. They could then test their database to see whether the questions were suitable.

Year 5 have been looking at how charts are useful when compiling databases and have considered which sort of chart is the most visually appealing (eg pie chart, bar chart, line graph etc).

Online Safety

A fitness tracker is a wrist-worn device that can measure your level of physical activity during the day. Each fitness tracker focuses on different things but in general, they tend to count steps taken, record sleep patterns and enable activity goals. They can also monitor heart rate, running distance and more. The first fitness tracker was created by Garmin in 2016 but Fitbit popularised fitness trackers for children by introducing the Fitbit Ace in 2018. Now they can be synched to children’s smartphones and used to make physical activity fun for children by giving out virtual badges or encouraging family challenges.

In the guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as unhealthy obsessions, unrealistic expectations and data leaks.

Outdoor Learning

REMINDER: After half term it is Year 1's turn to have some Outdoor Learning fun with Mr Brady! On Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th it will be 1B's turn to get outside. On Thursday 6th and Friday 7th it will be time for 1MV to have some fun!

Please make sure your child comes dressed ready for the weather- school tops please and sensible bottom halves with sensible shoes!

PTA

So much going on right now and lots of exciting plans!

We are looking for donations as we approach our uniform sales for our new starters! If you have any uniform ages 3-6 years old and any Friars book bags no longer required- please pop them into our donation bin!