Dear Parents and Carers

It has been another busy and exciting week at school, with lots of wonderful learning taking place both inside and outside the classroom.

Last weekend, our Reception children took part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, where they were encouraged to observe and record bird sightings in their surroundings. A big well done to all the children for their fantastic efforts!

We have been working hard to enhance playtime experiences for our children. This week, we introduced a lunchtime skipping area, complementing the outdoor dance club run by Shine twice a week. It has been wonderful to see the children enthusiastically learning to skip—even some of the Christ Church School staff have joined in!

Additionally, we have implemented a football and basketball rota to ensure all children have the opportunity to enjoy time on the court. Alongside this we have introduced a calm space indoors for games and mindfulness colouring and drawing to support children who need some time indoors. We are already noticing improvements in confidence, teamwork, and turn-taking skills among the children.

Looking ahead, we will continue working with the Pupil Council and PTA throughout this term and into Term 4 to further develop our play areas and activities.

On Wednesday 29^th January we celebrated Luna New Year, as part of this celebration the children enjoyed a Chinese menu. As always, we are grateful to our catering team for the decorations and effort they make for our theme days.

Next week is Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week. The theme this year is ‘know yourself, grow yourself.’ We will be spending time in our classes and in assemblies talking about our emotions and how to express ourselves and express our feelings.

Term 4 parent/carer meetings

The Term 4 parent/carer meetings will be held on Wednesday 26^th March and Thursday 27^th March. This is an opportunity for you to find out how your child is progressing. We will be sharing the link for booking your appointments in the next few weeks.

Wishing you all a happy weekend ahead.

Kind regards

Mark Oldfield

Inset and Academy days for the rest of the year (these are days when school staff are in training involved in other school oepration - children are not in school on these days):

• Friday 23rd May - Academy day
• Monday 21st July - Inset day
• Tuesday 22nd July - Inset day

The week in Reception began with ‘Robin’s Winter Song’ by Suzanne Barton and ended with ‘Snow birds’ by Kirsten Hall. 

The focus of the learning and provision was about birds which coincided with the ‘Big Garden Birdwatch’ starting on the 26^th of January. Some of the children went above and beyond and brought in some extra bird watching evidence from home – impressive!    

The children have been observing, drawing and painting different garden birds as well as finding out about the process of migration. Linked to their learning about Winter, Reception made their own bird feeders to help our feathery friends to find a tasty snack when the ground is frozen!   

To add further excitement to the Reception learning experience was Lunar New Year which began on Wednesday the 29^th of January. It is the year of the ‘snake’ so do keep a look out when out for some of the great activities we had in the classroom and for events that are organised for children at Bristol museum.    

In maths this week the children have been finding, representing and making 6,7 and 8 using loose parts, picture cards and dot plates. They have also used the ‘Numberblocks’ characters to support their learning.

Another whirlwind of a week of learning in Reception.  Well done everybody!

They say there's only one way to be a lion... false!!!

This week in Year 1 we have started a new book called "How to be a Lion" by Ed Vere. It follows the story of a lion who is not like other lions, instead, he is gentle, kind and doesn't want to chomp Marianne, his best friend, the duck. We began by exploring the main character, Leonard, coming up with adjectives to describe his unique personality. We also stepped into Leonard's shoes by writing speech bubbles for his character. 

In maths we have been learning to find one more and one less than any given number between 11-20 and to locate numbers on a number line.

In geography, we learned to name and identify the five oceans on a world map.

This week, Year 2 had a fantastic time in their RE lesson, where they got creative and made their own mezuzahs. They learned about the significance of this Jewish tradition and enjoyed crafting their versions with care and imagination.

The children have also embarked on an exciting writing adventure by starting their own versions of their class story. Their new stories are entitled, "Axel and the Secret of the Sun." Everyone worked their socks off to  include time adverbials and similes, making their stories come alive with vivid descriptions.

This week, Year 3 have been learning all about ‘light’ in science!

They started by exploring the difference between natural and artificial light and had a great time using iPads to complete a sorting activity.

To wrap up, we used a QR code to connect them to a quiz, which felt a bit magical! The students loved testing their knowledge this way.

They also learned how light helps us to see and how it reflects off different surfaces, making them visible. Additionally, they discovered how light is blocked by objects, creating shadows that change in length depending on where the light source is positioned. It’s been an exciting week of explorative science learning!

Year 4 have been on a real journey of learning this week!

In RE, we explored the big question: Why do some people think that life is a journey? We started by reflecting on our own life journeys and the people who have guided us along the way. Then, we welcomed a special visitor who taught us all about a key milestone in the journey of a follower of Judaism: Bar and Bat Mitzvahs! The children were fascinated to learn how young Jewish people prepare for this important event, what happens during the ceremony, and how life changes afterward.

Meanwhile, in Literacy, we gave voice to the forest by performing "For Forest" by Grace Nichols in small teams, before crafting our own beautifully moving poems. Our poetry took us on an emotional journey—some pieces were powerful, others peaceful, but all were filled with creativity.

We then branched out into the topic of deforestation, planning and taking part in a lively debate. With some arguing for and others against, the children used their most persuasive points to battle it out—proving that Year 4 are not only talented poets but also tree-mendous debaters!

It’s been another busy week in Year 5.

In Maths, the children began a new unit on Fractions and have blown the adults away with their amazing skills multiplying fractions. They even built up to multiplying an integer by a mixed number fraction! Wow.

In Literacy, we finally read the end of Ice Trap, which had an incredible ending. Shackleton and his men truly had an epic adventure. The children loved working in groups and learning some of the story to retell to the class with amazing actions, incredible intonation and especially awesome expression!

Finally, in Art the focus has been on David Hockney and his landscape paintings. Year 5 have produced the most stunning responses to his work and you can see they have truly been inspired by his abstract, bold use of colour and texture.

Our completed versions of David Hockney’s ‘The road across the Wolds’ 1997

This week, Year 6 loved getting together with our Reception buddies to celebrate Chinese New Year. We found out more about this special time and made red lanterns. 

In literacy lessons, we enjoyed acting out our interviews before swapping to write newspaper articles on the event we have been reading about: ‘The Friends who Crossed the Border by Balloon’. This tells the story of two families who, in 1979, travelled in a homemade balloon from East to West Germany.

In science lessons, we experimented to find out more about the force of gravity. We found out that gravity is a non-contact force caused by objects with mass pulling each other. We experimented with identical bottles and found that identical bottles fall at the same time – mass and weight have no effect on the speed at which an object falls.