The smell of toast and fresh fruit wafted through the school this week as Year 6 gathered together for their SATs breakfasts ahead of their assessments. The children have been exemplary in their approach to the week; very sensible and calm and ready to give the papers their best effort. Thank you to the staff team and parents/carers who have prepared and supported the children on their SATs journey. On the final day, the rain stayed off, just about, for the children to have an afternoon in Victoria Square and a sweet treat.

We have lots of activities planned for the final four days of term 5 next week. Remember on Friday, 24^th May school is closed for children.

The PTA have prepared a fun quiz evening for adults tonight, all funds will go towards a replacement Pirate Ship, we will share further details next week.

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 

We very much look forward to seeing you at the PTA Quiz tonight!

Details for Campest will be released soon. Please save the date 12-14th July!

Over the last two weeks we have keenly continued our learning on transport! Last week we were introduced to the history of the bicycle and tried ordering the different bikes from oldest to newest. We whizzed about on ‘Wheels Day’ which everyone thoroughly enjoyed and much to Mrs Petter’s delight we had the privilege of seeing a really beautiful motorbike, up close, in our outdoor area! We asked a lot of thoughtful questions and really enjoyed hearing the engine revving! Thank you so much Liam for bringing your wonderful motorbike in for us to see.

This week we have been discovering different types of boats and what they are used for. We learned about the RNLI and how they rescue people. In our classrooms we took boats into our play building, drawing and crafting them. We made some lovely boat pictures using the loose parts. On Wednesday we carried out some super science and explored floating and sinking. We discussed what can cause things to sink or float. Then we tested different items and gathered our results.

We are making waves with our writing! In our yellow books, this week, we drew our own boat. Then we used adjectives to describe them. We made a really great effort and have impressed our adults with some lovely pieces of work. 

In maths we have been focussing on sharing and grouping. We chose a number and worked out if we could share it equally. We explored grouping by putting farm animals on the grass patches and buttons on the gingerbread men. We were able to discover if a number was even or odd by seeing if we could share it equally into two groups.

As always, a busy couple of weeks! Well done everyone! We are looking forward to the week ahead!

Year 1 have been learning all about the life and influence of famous Victorian Isambard Kingdom Brunel. We learned that Brunel designed the Great Western Railway, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the Box Tunnel(the longest tunnel in the world at the time) and, of course, the SS Great Britain. Year 1 wowed with all of the fantastic facts they included in their fact files about the SS Great Britain and Brunel.

In History lessons we heard from Lancelot Merivale Gibbs (who lived at Tyntesfield House over 100 years ago) and looked at some of the toys that he would have played with in his Day Nursery. We discussed how they are different to toys today and we had lots of fun figuring out how to use them. Some of favourites included the flick books, spinning tops and the zoetrope – an optical illusion that creates a moving picture!

This week year 2 have been learning to tell the time. We started with o'clock and half past. We then moved on to quarter past and quarter to. By Thursday we were using our clocks to tell time past the hour in five minute intervals! In our PE lesson on Friday we came together to practise our bowling and defending skills. We played a game called 'rolling rocks' in which each team had to aim to knock over the opposing teams targets while also defending their own. It was lots of fun and got quite competitive but year 2 had so much fun working together as a whole year group.

It was that time of year again when we get to visit beggar bush! We had everything crossed for a dry visit and we just about managed it. The children absolutely loved the activities and it goes without saying toasted marshmallows were the biggest hit. We saw amazing team work, listening and outdoor skills on show and we are looking forward to our next trip in Term 6. We have also started a new text in Literacy ‘Arthur and the Golden Rope’. The children were sad to see the back of Wild Robot however, we have been blown away by the engagement in our new story so far. We have kicked things off with some innovation and have started to create our own stories. They are FAB and we cannot wait to share them.

007 would be proud but ‘Q’ better beware because year 4 are coming for your job! This week’s challenge was to design, make and advertise a discreet yet powerful gadget, fit for a super spy! The children’s creativity was really on show as they created gadgets such as: spy glasses with inbuilt x-ray lenses; a lazer disguised as lip gloss and motorised rocket shoes to propel the user to victory!

Year 5 have enjoyed programming with the BBC mirco:bits this week. We have created outstanding animations using looped images, coded variables to create polling machines to ask questions which had a yes/no/maybe answer and recorded the data using the micro:bit and even created a pedometer to count how many steps we were taking. It has been great to see so much problem solving going on, especially when we had to hand out code to another pair who were able to change it before handing it back to us so we could identify and debug the code.

SATS are over; Year 6 couldn’t be happier! After the final test, Year 6 celebrations began by everyone being given their leavers’ hoodies, a vibrant rainbow of colours that captures their excitement. Year 6 can’t wait for all the amazing activities planned for the upcoming weeks. Congratulations to all for taking this week in their stride. When asked, highlights of this week were:

“Sweet treats.”

“Everything.”

“The end.”

“Being able to see everyone in the morning for breakfast.”

“Unlimited breakfast!”

“Support from our teachers.”