Our canopy of trees are really blossoming this week, we are so fortunate to have such a lovely tree lined school site which affords us a wonderful environment to enhance our learning and playtimes. We are encouraging the children to look after the plants and flowers and to not pick them. Please support us with this during drop off and pick up times.

The Governors shared news this week that Mr Mark Oldfield has been appointed as the new Head teacher of our school for September, 2024. This allows a good amount of time for the transition of information and planning for the next academic year. Mr Oldfield will write to introduce himself in due course.

Coughs, colds and the common childhood viruses are still circulating. Have you heard of slapped cheek, we have had a few cases reported to us. Please visit the link for further advice and information.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/slapped-cheek-syndrome/

Pre-school children starting school September 2024: 

Please remember to accept your offer by 30^th April. If you know of anyone who did not get their school of choice for their child, please let them know we have spaces as it is a low birth-rate year citywide.

Inset and Academy Days:

Monday 22nd July - INSET day, children not in school

Tuesday 23rd July - INSET day, children not in school 

Monday 2nd September - INSET day, children not in school 

Tuesday 3rd September - INSET day, children not in school 

PTA Quiz - 17th May

The PTA are searching for a Quiz Master to host our annual extravaganza on Friday 17th May - can you help us? 

We need a bubbly character to join two PTA assistants on the night! 

Can you help us? Please email the PTA…  [email protected] 

We have had another busy week in reception. We started the week with our 2^nd yoga session with Carolyn. We spent time being calm and still and learning some new yoga poses. We read ‘The Naughty Bus’ by Jan and Jerry Oake, a book about a naughty London bus that went on an adventure. We enjoyed talking about the illustrations and using the book to make predictions about what the bus might do next. One of our favourite pages was when the bus fell into the pond. In Literacy we used the illustrations from the book to write simple sentences, ensuring we remembered our finger spaces. 

In maths we have continued learning about numbers beyond 10. We have been really focusing on the tens and ones in the teen numbers, using Numicon to make the teens numbers. We have been counting to 20 and beyond. We had great fun learning to ping pong count in pairs to 20. 

In our Jigsaw lesson we have been learning about families. We have talked about who is in our families and shared photos of our families. We then used our drawing skills to draw our families. We showed respect and kindness by listening to our class when they were talking about their family. 

We have had a great week in reception and made all the adults very proud.

In literacy this week the children have been busy practicing our own shortened version of Orion and the Dark ready to write it into our books next week. Together we drew a story map and learned actions to help us follow along with the story as we read aloud. We were really impressed with Year 1’s storytelling and imaginative ideas for the actions.

In maths we represented numbers from 20-50 using a range of manipulatives such as bead strings, Base 10 and Numicon. We then estimated on a number lines to 50 and went outside to draw our own.

In science we have continued learning about plants by understanding the different parts of the plant its function. Did you know that it’s the leaf’s job to collect sunlight and turn it into food that helps the plant to grow? We ventured into the outdoor classroom on Tuesday to plant our own individual nasturtium flowers – we haven’t seen any green shoots poking out yet but we’re hoping we might after the weekend.

We started learning about the Victorians in history lessons this week. We began by looking at photos of famous landmarks in Bristol, some taken in the past and some taken in present day. We were challenged with the task of matching the old and new photo of the same location which was more difficult than you might think as lots has changed over the years! We then explored Victorian artefacts loaned to us by the Bristol museum. Some of the items in the box included a ceramic hot water bottle, a slate and chalk, and even old sweetie tins. It wasn’t clear what some of the items were which, again, highlighted how different things are now to how they were in the past.

In Year 2 we have been finding out about the work of Vincent Van Gogh, known for his colourful and expressive artwork. Ready for painting later this term, we have been looking at his bold brushstrokes and use of colour; we used oil pastels to create our artwork in his style. We studied Van Gogh’s sketches and paintings of the sea created ‘en plein air’  we even found that under a microscope grain of sand had stuck to the paint! 

In our music lesson we discussed instruments which can be found in the different sections of an orchestra. We listened to some music and tried to identify what instruments we could hear. We also described how the music made us feel and whether we liked it or not.  

In maths this week we have been continuing with our work on fractions and on Thursday we used the sharing method to find a third using counters.

Week 2 of term 5! We are continuing Wild Robot for these first few weeks as the children have been enjoying it so much. This week the focus has been a newspaper report. This has really highlighted the progress the children have made in stamina, vocabulary and creativity in their writing over the last terms. These will be finished next week and we look forward to sharing them with you. In history we have started our latest topic ‘Riotous Royalty’ where we study British monarchs through the ages. This week we have looked at Queen Anne, Queen Victoria and the modern royals. The children are fascinated by the wild ways of our historical royals and lead to a heated debate on the union of Scotland and England!

Year 4 loved their trip to Beggar Bush this week. They threw themselves into the axe throwing; aimed for victory in the archery and carefully hammered their crafting skills into making mallets in the forest area. They behaved impeccably and showed awesome teamwork throughout the day!

This week in sketching we discussed how different sketching pencils give different tones (lightness or darkness). We recapped different sketching techniques learned last week – stippling, cross-hatching, scumbling, etc. We drew bananas, tomatoes, or both in our sketchbook. We aimed to make our drawings as realistic as possible – with really pleasing results.

Year 5 and 6 are looking at Georgian Bristol this term in History and started their topic very enthusiastically this week, researching and learning about George Pinney. They created mind maps about him and discovered lots of information about his links to the slave trade. Some really thoughtful discussions were had and the mind maps look great! Next week we're moving on to the Transatlantic Triangle. Do ask your children what they've been learning.