Welcome to our first newsletter of this academic year. As we approach the Christmas holidays, it is a pleasure to reflect on all the remarkable achievements we have achieved so far this year. The start of the year began with us welcoming our new EYFS pupils, who have seamlessly blended into our school community. We are very thankful to our Year 6 pupils for helping our EYFS children by becoming their buddies. Year 6 students wrote notes and left photos in the EYFS classroom, reminding the younger ones they always have a friend at school.
As part of our vision to strive for excellence, since August, in Key Stage 1 and 2, we've altered our curriculum to highlight explicit vocabulary instruction, key knowledge, subject-specific skills, and research-focused teaching methods. This blend has yielded exciting outcomes for our pupils, as shown in the class pages below...
Last academic year, we focused in depth on six of our school values: Generosity, compassion, courage, forgiveness, friendship, and respect. This year, in both school-wide and classroom Collective Worship, we've delved into the importance of thankfulness and trust in Christianity. We explored this through Bible stories, dramas, and prayers. Many enthusiatic pupils have organised and led our school-wide worships, providing enjoyable moments for everyone and prompting deep reflection on the worship themes.
Year Three took the lead in our Harvest Festival at All Saints Church. They conducted a service delving into the concept of living fruitful lives (Mark 4.3-9) and prompted us to reflect on our gratitude for everyone involved in the production of our food.
School Sports
As a school, last year, we proudly achieved the School Games Gold Award. This would not have been possible without the dedication of our pupils, parents and KS2 staff who have given up their time to represent, support and attend the vast range of school competitions.
This academic year, we have continued to enter many local sporting competitions and in each event we have showcased our Gilmorton values.
F.O.G.S.
This year has witnessed a remarkable array of events organised by our dedicated FOGS team. Each event requires an immense amount of planning and preparation. On behalf of every member of our staff, students, and parents, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the entire FOGS committee. Your commitment and the time you invest significantly contribute to strengthening our school community and enhancing our educational provisions.
In addition, I'd like to express ourgratitude to all of our wonderful parent body for supporting each event so exceptionally well. Your active involvement and enthusiasm make a significant difference, contributing to the success of every occasion. We are truly fortunate to have such a supportive community. Thank you for your continuous support, and we look forward to more successful collaborations in 2024!
Since September, we have raised a staggering ...
F.R.I.E.N.D.S Class pages
Class S - From Mrs Moss
I cannot believe how quick this autumn term has gone! It’s certainly been a very exciting one for us in EYFS. We started the year off with lots of ‘getting to know you’ and ‘all about me’ activities. We shared our ‘special bags’ with items from home and explored our family trees through photos. We looked at where we live in Gilmorton and the surrounding villages and made our homes out of junk modelling materials. Using these, we then made a 3D model of the village/surrounding areas. A huge thank you to Mrs Ghent for taking the lead with this project - the children really enjoyed it!
In Maths this term, we have explored lots of new mathematical concepts such as subitising - the ability to just ‘see it and say it’ - for quantities up to 5. With quantities that we cannot subitise, we’ve practiced one-to-one counting and know that the last number we said identifies how many are in a set. We’ve also investigated the composition of numbers up to 5 e.g. 3 can be made up of 2 and 1. We’ve practised recognising and representing quantities in different ways, such as on our hands, using objects or displaying numerals. We’ve looked at the concept of ‘wholes’ and ‘parts’ by investigating our own bodies and familiar toys - making the connection that whole things are often made up of smaller parts and that the whole is, therefore, bigger than its parts.The children have also been introduced to the language of ‘more than’ and ‘fewer than’ when comparing quantities/sets. We have used ‘fewer than’ rather than ‘less than’ because the focus is on countable things.
I know if you asked the children, “What have you learnt in maths this term?”, they’d probably just respond with, “The Number Rock Song!” Haha! BUT, as I’ve mentioned above, you can see it is SO much more than just ‘the number rock song’. It is really impressive just how much we’ve covered since the children started school back in September. They’ve coped fantastically.
In Phonics, we have nearly learned all the pure sounds of the alphabet ('x' and 'y' after Christmas, along with other sound spellings, of course!). With the sounds we have learned so far, we have been segmenting to spell/word build CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) three-letter words, such as 'van,' 'fed,' and 'jam.' In addition to this, by learning to identify these sound spellings, the children are more confident in blending to read a range of three- to four-letter words containing the sounds taught.
I am SO impressed with how well the children have picked up Phonics. It’s such a joy to see them flourishing with their reading, and the progress they have made has been phenomenal. A shout-out to our wonderful parents/carers of EYFS for your support with this. Without the reading practice at home, it would not be possible. Please keep this up to enable your child to reach their full potential in reading AND writing. We will be doing a lot more writing in EYFS after the Christmas break.
We’ve also made steady progress through our Kinetic Letters handwriting scheme. During these sessions - which are/have been twice a week, the children are introduced to a new letter to practice forming. With each letter there is a rhyme that follows our scheme - Kinetic Letters. The children always listen and concentrate so well when the letter formations are modelled to them. We then put on some calming music for the children, to find a space in the room, and to quietly practice their letter formation independently on their whiteboards.This twice weekly session is the only time when there is virtually pure silence in the room…which is rare for an EYFS class!
A highlight from our autumn term has to be our Diwali learning. We learnt so much from our very own Mrs Raman (Year 6 Teaching Assistant) and completed lots of exciting activities. We made traditional Indian sweets from milk powder and condensed milk and caramel. We made rangoli patterns out of coloured rice powder and designed our very own hand mehndi patterns. We also enjoyed dressing up in traditional Diwali celebrational clothing and some of us performed some ‘stick’ dancing. A very enjoyable day that I’m sure lots of us will remember.
Another couple of highlights that the children thoroughly enjoyed this term was the ‘Snow White’ performance by M&M Productions and the few weeks ‘run’ up to our Nativity performances. I’m sure we’re all in agreement of how amazing our little 4 and 5-year-olds were, in terms of singing, remembering lines and remembering cues of when to go off and on stage. I am so proud of each and every one of them - it was challenging for all but it really did pay off! The children have loved the countdown to Christmas and they know the Nativity story so well. They’ve been using knitted, ceramic and wooden Nativity sets to support them to retell the story to each other. This last week, we’ve also completed lots of Christmas crafts and activities which have really got the children excited! We made snowman cards, christmas window stencils, christmas party hats, paper plate reindeer faces and our 2024/25 calendar! Mrs Andrews… we need more glue please!
I want to end by saying a huge, special thank you to Mrs Elliot, Mrs Parkes and Mrs Boycott for their continued support in our EYFS class this term. It’s been a little different from our ‘normal’ but they’ve stepped up to help and support the children brilliantly and I am very grateful for them all.
To the parents and carers of our EYFS children, thank you also for all of your continued support this term. It doesn’t go unnoticed and I really appreciate it! I wish you and your wonderful families a happy, merry and safe Christmas break. It’s well deserved for all and I look forward to seeing you again in the New Year.
Class D - Mrs Temple and Mrs Critchon
The children have transition into Year 1 with enthusiam and have settled well into the new learning routines.
The children have continued to build upon and extend their phonics knowedge from EYFS into learning about the 'Extended Code'.
They have worked hard to build words and read words containing long vowel sounds by, 'Saying the sounds and reading the word.'
As well as learning about how each sound can be spelt, they have also used their kinetic handwriting letters to write simple dictation sentences.
In English, we have been studying lots of new books from our new reading Curriculum. Most recently we have explored the classical book, 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' by Beatrix Potter. All the children were enthralled by the story and many brought in their own versions from home to share. Mrs. Otway loved having an enthusiastic retelling by some Year 1 bus children whilst waiting in the bus hut. In addition, the chidren learnt a bit about Beatrix Potter's life using an extract from her biography.
PSHE this term has been the unit, 'Valuing difference' where we have been thinking about what makes us all special and unique. More recently we have been reading a lovely book about different families and the children thought about their own families and who is special to them.
We would like to thank the parents for continuing to support with reading at home. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and we look forward to workng with you in the New Year.
Class N
The children have adapted well to the changes in Year 2 and we are incredibly proud of their resilience and enthusiasm to learn.
In Maths, the children have continued their work on place value working with numbers up to 100. They have they used this knowledge to add and subtract 2 digit numbers with practical resources, symbols and written methods. Recently they have started to learn the multplication facts and they are doing well with their X factor.
They are excited about the launch of TTRockstars as they have just received their logins and passwords (stuck in their diaries). I wonder what RockStar status they will become when they get back from the Chirtsmas break!
In phonics and spelling, the children have continued to learn the various ways of spelling the sounds. In adidition, they have have been introduced to building, reading and spelling polysyllabic words.
In handwriting, they have been practising their letter formation, ready for being taught how to join their letters after the Christmas holidays.
In computing, there was a lot of excitement in the room as the children all had their own Netbooks. They logged on and explored their Google Classroom and began to explore the information technology which is around us in school.
They enjoyed working on their mouse control when completing the colouring activity!
In their first art block, applying previously acquired skills, the children used a range of marks to represent mood and movement. They started to explore shape and texture through expressive mark making in response to a piece of music and descriptive language. They used the Swirl by Swirl by Joyce Sidman (illustrated by Beth Krommes) and The Great Wave by Véronique Massenot (illustrated by Bruno Pilogret) as the starting point for their own artwork
In their first Design and Technology unit, the children were challenged to create a patchwork house using over stitch. It was the first time some of the children had tried sewing and they did remarkably well. Thank-you to the extra helpers who ensured a less stressful afternoon of needle threading for both the children and the staff!
Year 2 wish you all a very happy Christmas.
Class E - From Mrs Spadaccini
Year Three have completed a very long but incredibly busy and successful term.
The new curriculum kick-started with the children learning new painting techniques of impasto, sgraffito and tonking during their art lessons. These were used to produce some great end of unit artworks.
Another art unit covered printing where we learnt how to use a printing slab and roller. The children made a variety of printed marks including: monoprinting and block printing.
Science was next and the topic of rocks - learning about the three different types of rocks as well as their properties and uses. Although the, 'Rock Song' was not part of the new curriculum, we made time so as not to disappoint at our Year 3 Autumn Collective Worship as it has become a Year 3 anthem.
This year, in music, other songs were learnt and sang in rounds, the children performed these brilliantly - even taking it in turns to conduct the singing.
In History, we learnt about the three different eras in the Stone Age and then we progressed up to the Iron Age after exploring the Bronze Age. We learnt about the findings of archaeologists such as the Cheddar Man and the Ameysbury Archer, as well as about ancient monuments such as Stonehenge and Skara Brae.
In Geography, we have learnt the cardinal and intercardinal points of a compass.
In the school grounds, using a compass, we were able to see what was in those directions from a given point.
We discussed whether the things we could see were physical or human features (I recall doing some of these aspects in my A level lessons!)
The children loved the Design Technology unit that covered ‘food’ and have since asked for more lessons like this! In this block, pupils considered what a balanced diet is. They made three products that are often bought pre-made or highly processed. They made stewed apples and berries and served it with toasted oats and yogurt - only three blue plasters were needed! Flavouring popcorn was next with lemon and lime being a strange favourite. The claw method was perfected by the end of the week with homemade chips being made, again with different flavourings! Apparently we didn’t make enough!!
The nutrition knowledge which the children learnt in Design and Technology fed into our science topic, Animals including Humans. In this Biology unit, we explored the following three questions: What effect does the food we eat have? Where is my skeleton and what does it do? and Where is my muscles and what does it do?
In Computing , we developed our understanding of digital devices, with an initial focus on inputs, processes, and outputs. We also compared digital and non-digital devices and introduced computer networks, including devices that make up a network’s infrastructure, such as wireless access points and switches. Finally, we discovered the benefits of connecting devices in a network. Our second unit was great fun using a range of techniques to create a stop-frame animation.
Religious Education saw us build on our learning in Year 2 of The Creation, in particular that of what Christians learn from the story in Genesis. Recently, we have looked at Hinduism and explored the question - What do Hindus believe that God is like? Mrs Raman has answered a lot of questions!
I'm not sure how we managed to fit English and Maths in with all of the above, but over the term, we have looked at several texts in our reading lessons: 'Pebble in my Pocket,' 'Leon and the Place Between,' 'Greta and the Giants,' as well as the poem 'T’was the Night Before Christmas.' The children have loved the texts and have almost got used to me saying, ‘The answer is always in the text!’
After starting with a recap of the basics within writing, we wrote a poem on emotions that included assonance, similes, rhyme and alliteration. In adidition, we have planned, drafted and imporved a first person narrative description, a non-chronological report based on fossils (linking to science), a letter of complaint and a historical story based on an Iron Age hillfort being under attack!
In Maths, we have solved problems involving place value and written methods for addition and subtraction. We have used 'annoying' times tables songs to learn our 4 and 8 times tables as well as 'tricks' to help our X Factor scores rise. Lastly, we looked at multiplication and division and hopefully we understand how they work together.
Merry Christmas from all of the Year 3 staff and children.
Class I - by Mrs Simons
A very busy term, as always, which has seen Year 4 embrace the challenge of the new curriculum and try out some new topics. There have been so many topics that it is hard to know where to begin!
The highlight for the children so far has been Food Technology! Everyone enjoyed making bread rolls, testing homemade pizza and soup and practising their grating skills. The children’s bread rolls were delicious and I have heard of many more being made at home! My homemade soup was less well received, unfortunately, and was beaten hands down by Heinz in the class poll 😄
We have learnt about the Anglo-Saxons in history and used this as the main topic of the first Class Collective Worship of the year. In geography, we have studied how rivers are formed and also the importance of Lines of Latitude and Longitude to how the world is divided, the climate zones and time zones.
In Religious Education, we have discussed the importance of the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - in retelling the life of Jesus as well as learning about the Trinity and Incarnation. Understanding of the classification system and interdependence of the plant and animal worlds as well as exploring the different states of matter have filled our science curriculum. We put our acting skills to the test by becoming solids, liquids and gases on the playground! Computing has led us to learn more about how the internet works and how to program a turtle to make shapes. Music has seen us learning about the 8 beat system of bhangra, the instruments used to make traditional Indian music and to even compose our own using the Music Lab app - that made for a very noisy afternoon - and also how to sing in unison using sea shanties and folk music.
We will enjoy our last week completing the last bits of the Autumn term curriculum, trying out our hinged box making skills in Design Technology, going to the Pantomime, feasting on Christmas lunch and a few other festive activities!
Merry Christmas from Year 4!
Class R - from Mrs Bullingham and Mrs Otway
Wow! Once again, a term that seems daunting in length when looking at it in August has completely flown by! Year 5 have been incredibly busy with the revised curriculum, becoming more knowledgeable across each subject and learning to apply their skills in new areas.
In art we have been learning about and practising the techniques used by different artists. In our first module, we used charcoal, pencil and erasers to practise subtraction drawing in the style of Frank Auerbach - that was a messy lesson! We then used viewfinders to look more closely at some of Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s work before creating our own abstract paintings in his style.
Our second module focussed on Andy Warhol’s printmaking. The children found this to be a bit frustrating to begin with as they learned to make their incisions the correct width and depth to ensure their design was visible when painted but not so deep that they went all the way through the polystyrene. Once they got the hang of it, their final peices were fantastic.
We have covered properties of materials, animals including humans and begun investigations into forces during our science lessons. We have had opportunities to observe some experiments and have a go at others ourselves. The children are extremely eager to learn about space, which will come after February half term. I must admit that it is one of my favourite science topics too!
As in previous years, we began maths with place value and addition/subtraction (which the children flew through confidently) before being hit with square, cube and prime numbers (my favourites) and then fractions. I am excited about the launch of TTRockstars as knowing your times tables takes half of the thinking away from fractions.
We have read two fantastic books in English. We especially enjoyed the first, Shackleton’s Journey, as it was not only a well-written story but also an excitingly illustrated book, which allowed us to immerse ourselves in the arduous voyage those explorers undertook. Alongside these we have written narratives, poems, a formal letter and a balanced argument.
In Geography, we have been learning about the different biomes across the world by considering the characteristics of each and also the wildlife that may be found there. We have loved investigating these on Digimaps, which has given us the opportunity to see patterns in the locations of the biomes.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Class F - by Mr Wyness
This has been a fantastic term, with the Year 6s really stepping up to the rigors and demands of the curriculum. They have shown excellent resilience, perseverance and adaptability - and an amazing ability to talk about almost everything! Thank you to all of the parents, carers and family members who came and saw our Class Collective Worship. It’s an important part of our curriculum that our pupils gain a growing confidence when writing and performing their own work. While not everything works every time, it was brilliant to see them show off their own ideas in front of a great audience.
We have covered six different writing genres this term, and we have seen some truly lovely phrases, word choices and paragraphs. What really makes writing special is when you read from a pupil an idea that they have modified from a book they have read, or included extra factual information they have found out themselves. This really makes writing come alive, and you can so clearly see those writers who have read around the subject - even just a little bit. We have also read three excellent class books: Rooftoppers, Pigheart Boy, and the picture book How to Live Forever. The illustrations in the last book had us enthralled for hours, and even now we know we haven’t found every little detail and surprise in those pages.
We have covered the core content of Maths now - place value; the four operations; fractions decimals and percentages. This has meant the pupils now have a solid foundation to move on and look at other concepts. They have really understood how important Times Tables are - we are using them almost every day! We will be covering the rest of the curriculum next term, including the start of simple gentle SATs revision.
In Science we have looked at 3 big topics - Electricity, Circulatory and Digestive Systems, and we are just starting Light. Without doubt, the Circulatory and Digestive systems were the favourite as we got to take a frank and in depth look at these areas. This included being able to have a look at sheep’s hearts to actually experience the structures we had learnt about.
Other favourite lessons have been Music, using BandLab for Education, where pupils have been able to use samples to create their own music, as well as Food in DT.
We were looking at healthy street snacks from around the world, and we made burritos, samosas, and hummus with pitta bread. The classroom stunk of garlic for about 3 weeks after. In PE we have been learning about Basketball, Netball, Gymnastics and Dance. I have to give a huge amount of credit to the class, who have thrown themselves into the Dance with a huge amount of enthusiasm - and this paid off at the school disco, where Y6 were clearly the best dancers. We have only had one unit on Computing, but we have had fun with spreadsheets - yes, you can have fun with spreadsheets! The pupils learned about data entry, using simple formulae, inserting charts, and various approaches to copy and pasting.
We have a SATs meeting for all parents and pupils on Monday 15th January at 6pm. We look forward to seeing you all there. We are approaching a time of the year where your continuing, positive support of your children makes an enormous difference at school, so thank you for all that support.
Thank-you
Well done on getting to the end of the newsletter! Finally, on behalf of all the staff and pupils of our Gilmorton Chandler Primary School, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
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