Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...
- KS1 and KS2 Sports Day Results!
- Year 6 Cake Sale
- Supersports Update
What a lovely week with gorgeous weather and a full calendar. A special mention to our Reception children who had their first trip this week. Hyde Hall is a lovely place to visit and we always seem to have the best weather!
Sports Day News Incoming...
So the points have been added together and checked, and double-checked. We are pleased to announce the positions and team points from the Key Stage 1 and 2 Sports Day and Picnic.
In first place overall was… drumroll please… the red team – Windsor! Windsor won in Key Stage 2 and were second in Key Stage 1 which meant they took the overall honours. Congratulations Windsor!
In second place was… Stirling! Stirling won Key Stage 1 but were fourth in Key Stage 2. Well done Stirling!
And in third place… it was a tie between Caernarfon and Stormont. Great job!
So what does that mean for points?
1st Windsor = 100 points, 2nd Stirling = 80 points, 3rd Caernarfon and Stormont = 60 points.
There were no Celebration Assemblies today as had a company called Rocksteady visit us. Therefore, these points will be added next week when we come together. The excitement builds...
Rocksteady is a company providing music lessons in school where children form rock bands. This morning we had a whole school assembly, followed by workshops for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. Information will come to you next week about how you can book lessons if you are interested. It was a very musical week as we had different instrumental lessons for Years 4 and 5 on Monday too!
Have a great weekend!
Mr. McClay, Principal
Year 6 Cake Sale
Year 6 are holding a cake sale on Tuesday 1st July 2025. Donations of cakes would be greatly appreciated, please start bringing in donations from Friday 27th June if the cakes are pre bought. Cakes will cost between 20p and 50p. The children will have the opportunity to purchase cakes on the day. Please send change in with your child to class as the cakes will be brought round to classrooms.
Diary Dates
July
- Thursday 3rd - Open Evening & Portico Art & DT display 3:30pm-5:00pm
- Friday 4th - KS1 Borough Sports
- Year 6 Transition Day
- Wednesday 16th - PTA Summer Fayre & Inflatables 3:30pm-6:00pm
- Monday 21st - School Discos
- Y3/4 3:15pm-4:30pm
- Y5/6 4:45pm-6:00pm
- Wednesday 23rd - Year 6 Leavers Assembly 9:15am
- Last Day of Term
Travelling Book Fair Competition
We are excited to announce that from Monday 30th June – Friday 4th July, we will have our very own Travelling Books book fair and we are giving away vouchers! 5 children have the chance of winning a £5 voucher to go towards a book of their choice.
All entries need to be handed in to the class teacher by Monday 23rd June and the winners of the £5 book vouchers will be announced during our celebration assembly.
EYFS/KS1 - Children need to design a book cover for a story of their choice. They can adapt a book cover from a known story or they can create a book cover for their own story. Book covers need to be bright and inviting and make the reader want to pick the book up. Happy designing!
KS2 - Children need to create a book cover and blurb for a story of their choice. They can use a previously read story or they can let their imaginations run wild and come up with their own their own design. Book covers need to be bright and inviting and blurbs need to be informative but not give too much of the story away. Try to use a ‘show, don’t tell’ approach when writing your blurb. Happy creating!
If your child would like to take part in this competition, please tell them to speak to their class teacher who can provide them with a design template.
Summer Reading Challenge
Nursery
This week in Nursery the children have been enjoying the creative table. We provided them with a selection of mask templates in lots of different shapes and sizes and allowed them to create their own designs. The glitter came out and covered everything. The children enjoyed being creative and of course, wearing their masks around Nursery throughout their session.
We also visited the environmental garden with Mrs Wheatley. We tried a little bit of pond dipping and looked at colours in nature. We were surprised how many different colours there were. Back in Nursery garden, some children had shown an interest in rolling and tumbling so Mrs Warner provided the large PE mats for them to practice moving in different ways. We have enjoyed another busy week.
REMINDER: If your child stays in Nursery all day, please provide a sun cream labelled with their name which we are happy to apply ready for the afternoon session.
Letters sent home this week
Reception
Our visit to Hyde Hall was fantastic! The children loved exploring the grounds, looking at plants and smelling them. They collected various natural items to make bookmarks as well as some group artwork. There were opportunities to explore the texture of various seeds and plants, collage a butterfly, make a clay decoration, plant seeds and use watercolour pencils for an observational drawing of plants. It was a very busy day, but very fun day.
We have been speaking to the children about getting ready for Year 1 – can you believe it!
REMINDER: Please ensure that your child has a water bottle in school and that their jumpers and cardigans are named. Thank you
Letters sent home this week
Whole School - Parent Portal - 24.06.2025
Year 1
Wow, what another busy week it has been in Year 1.
In English, we continued to work on creating sentences to form a narrative and we finished writing our own versions of The Storm Whale. The stories we wrote were fantastic and our teachers were extremely proud of how hard we worked.
In maths, we have been learning to find one more and one less than a number up to 100. We tried really hard however we found it quite tricky crossing the tens e.g 49 - 50, 79-80 etc. This is something that many children require additional work on and something you can help your child with at home.
Science saw us consolidating our learning about materials. We carried out a whole class investigation to see which material is best to build a house for the 3 Little Pigs. We discussed a question for our investigation, made predictions, considered how we would carry out our test and how to make it a fair test. Ask your child to tell you the result!
Wren class finished their Tingatinga art work and thoroughly enjoyed this project. We hope you enjoyed seeing them when they came home and listening to your child tell them all the steps they took to make their final piece of artwork.
REMINDER: As the weather continues to be warm, please make sure your child has suncream applied before school and comes to school with a water bottle and sun hat.
Letters sent home this week
Year 2
We have had a busy week in Year 2 this week!
In English, we continued applying our diary writing skills. We started our new book ‘Possum Magic’, which took us on a tour of Australia as Hush tried to become visible again. The children then wrote a diary from Hush’s perspective and used time adverbials to chronologically sequence their diary entries.
In maths, we have expanded our learning on pictograms to explore data representations with different keys. The children had the opportunity to draw and interpret pictograms where one symbol could represent 2, 5 or 10 objects. The children applied their recall of times table facts to assist them in interpreting this data.
In DT, we conducted a taste test. This was part of our ‘research’ stage as we are preparing to design healthy wraps this half term. This activity gave the children some ideas about what they might want to include in their own wrap designs.
Letters sent home this week
Year 3
Another busy week this week!
This week in English we finished writing an explanation text about how to look after a Dragon Fruit tree, and so Year 3 are now experts in how to grow and look after a Dragon Fruit plant.
In maths, we used the time to catch up on English and complete some NFER testing, and wow! We have all made so much progress since the last time we did our tests.
Whilst 3A have had their outdoor learning, 3B have continued with their curriculum learning in the afternoons. In PE, we were given a range of equipment and using our team building skills we made up some of our own games and will be sharing these to other groups in a few weeks' time. In science we tested a range of substances with litmus paper to find out whether the substance was acidic or alkali – we had some very interesting results!
During outdoor learning, 3A have been learning all about fire safety. Then later in the week they learnt how to light a fire with wood and a lint. The week was finished off with cooking some bread sticks and marshmallows by the campfire!
Letters sent home this week
Whole School - Parent Portal - 24.06.2025
Year 4
Once again it was another week packed full of wonderful learning for Year 4! In English the children used the magical story of Harry Potter to learn about letter writing! The children thoroughly enjoyed pretending that they were a student at Hogwarts and writing informal letters home to their parents about being sorted into a house, watching Quidditch matches and even attending potions classes! We practised varying our sentence structures and applying fronted adverbials and expanded noun phrases.
In maths we have been busy completing NFER tests, and Miss Gibbons and Mr Smith are very proud of all the children’s efforts throughout the week in order to achieve a great result in their tests.
During the afternoons, we have learned about the melting point of different foods in science, started to design our alarm systems for our shoeboxes in DT and began to create fantastic, detailed posters based on our field trip to Shoebury Park! The children have also been incredibly lucky to have two different musical activities to take part in this week too. Phew!
Letters sent home this week
Year 5
This week has been another fun and productive one for year 5!
In English, the children have really been taking to poetry, particularly sonnets, like a duck to water. Coming up with rhyming words to put into rhyming couplets and later following the structure of an English sonnet to create their own. Inspired by previous learning on Macbeth to write these sonnets around the main characters of the story.
In geography, they have continued work on trade between the UK over time with the world linking in their topography skills to support their work.
During PE, they have been looking at building their communication and teamwork skills during orienteering activities which has certainly given the children a new dynamic to think about.
Letters sent home this week
Year 6
Year 6 have finished their dedicated assessed writing this week. We ended by writing an amusing narrative based on the antics of a group of meerkats who managed to outwit a buzzard and an Insider’s Survival Guide to Year 6.
We have begun to practice our Leavers’ Assembly, allocating parts and lines, the children are all excited at this. Preparations for our Mini Fete are also underway.
Letters sent home this week
Computing
Another fun and busy week in computing this week.
Monday afternoon saw the Year 2 children working hard in their small groups to construct a carousel for a theme park out of Lego. Once they had created the carousel they then worked to create a program using the iPad to control the carousel before being given time to improve their design, either by making the ride more interesting or by changing and adapting the program.
In Year 1 children explored Scratch Jr. practising how to add and delete sprites. This week the challenge was to add more than one sprite, change the background and then program each of their sprites to behave/move in a different way. We had lots of different creations involving invisible animals, talking people and growing and shrinking characters. Well done Year 1.
Online Safety
Nintendo’s long-awaited Switch 2 has finally arrived, blending fresh hardware with fan-favourite franchises. From Mario to Pikachu, the familiar mascots are back – but so too are evolving online features, in-game purchases, and potential exposure to mature content. As ever, it’s essential that parents and educators understand the risks to young players.
Among these are GameChat voice communication, camera-based gaming, and potential access to mature-rated titles. This guide outlines what to watch out for and how to keep children safe, engaged and having fun.
PE & Sport
This week we had several children attending ‘Supersports’ following their Borough Sports events. The sessions placed the top performers of each session against each other across the borough. The competition was incredibly tough with several borough records broken over the two evenings. We did really well and placed in two events, Eddie claiming silver in javelin and Cooper bronze in the ball throw.
A huge well done to everyone who took part. From lessons in school to places on the school team, everyone has worked hard on athletics this year.
Next week we will be sending the KS1 team to their Borough Sports.
Dinner Menu
Week 2
Monday - Beef Bolognaise & Penne Pasta Bake - Vegan Bolognaise with Spaghetti - Jacket Potato with Baked Beans - Cheese Sandwich - Ham Salad Wrap - Cauliflower & Green Beans - Maryland Cookie
Tuesday -Caribbean Chicken & Sweet Potato Curry with Steamed Rice - Vegan Spiced Squash & Potato Samosa - Pasta with Squash & Tomato Sauce - Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich - Cheese Salad Wrap - Carrots & Peas - Carrot & Apple Flapjack
Wednesday - Honey Roast Gammon with Gravy - Vegan Bombay Chickpea Burrito - Pasta with Squash & Tomato Sauce - Cheese & Tomato Bloomer - Ham Sandwich - Roast Potatoes, Seasonal Greens & Carrots - Banana & Cinnamon Sponge
Thursday - Curried Beef & Vegetables with Steamed Rice - Vegan Mexican Bean & Vegetable Savoury Rice - Jacket Potato with Cheddar Cheese - Cheese Sandwich - Chicken Mayonnaise Baguette - Broccoli & Sweetcorn - Cherry Shortbread
Friday - Fish Fingers, Chips & Ketchup - Vegan Boston BBQ 3 Bean Stew with Baked Jackets - Pasta with Squash & Tomato Sauce - Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich - Ham Salad Baguette - Baked Beans & Peas - Vanilla Ice Cream
Freshly Baked Bread: Beetroot & Herb or Wholemeal Bread
Celebration Assembly
The links for our Celebration Assemblies can be found below.
No Team Points today so attendance news rolls over to next week... where we will include the points from Sports Day.
01702 294837 - office@fps.porticoacademytrust.co.uk
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