Dear Parents and Carers

Children’s Mental Health Week

This week we have been talking to the children about their feelings and emotions and how to recognise those emotions. In the classrooms the children have spent time talking about how to look after themselves mentally and physically and how sleep, fresh air and exercise are really important. If you would like to spend some time talking to your children about what they have been discussing in school you can visit the Place2Be’s website

https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/schools/

Sports at Christ Church

Wednesday morning saw our before school netball club enjoying the beautiful sunshine as they are busy preparing for their first match that is coming up.

This week also saw some of our Year 2 children attend an indoor athletics event at Ashton Park where they took part in a variety of events and came back with ‘gold’ certificates. Well done to all the children who represented our school.

Storytelling Week - Teacher Swap

The children have really enjoyed listening to a range of stories this week and on Thursday afternoon they enjoyed different teachers visiting their classes to share a story of their choice.

Y1 phonics meeting

The Year 1 parents attended a phonics meeting on Wednesday to find out how they can support learning at home and to share information about the Year 1 phonics screening check in June. For those who couldn’t attend please log in to Google classroom to see the PowerPoint that was shared.

Award Winners

Once again, we were proud to gather for our Friday celebration assembly to award our Star of the Week winners, our 50 Value Point winners and some special sports awards. Next week (Thursday) will be our end of term awards assembly where we recognise those children who have achieved the Values Ambassador, Progress and Achievement awards. Well done children.

Arbor migration

We will soon be switching over to a new MIS and school management software provider, Arbor. This will involve an initial migration and transition period and we will write to you in the coming days to share information regarding how to access the various new functions and facilities. The key changes for parents and carers will be to the facilities we use to pay for school meals and visits.

Monday transition

For many children, the return to school on a Monday morning can present various challenges and we often see a clear pattern of heightened excitement for some but anxiety for others. For some children, this transition can be very difficult and we do unfortunately see some negative behaviour changes on Monday morning that both affect learning and well-being. We are currently researching different ways to better support some children in this respect and will share any future developments with you in our efforts to mutually support all children. 

Wishing you all a lovely 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

That’s right – We all ‘took a stroll through the deep dark wood’ this week! For ‘Drawing Club’ we read The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and joined in with the parts that we already knew! We created some wonderful models using playdough and loose parts and drew some fantastic Gruffalo pictures. We loved making and devouring some ‘Terrible Tusks’ and we were brilliant at retelling the story with our friends using puppets and our small world figures. Outside we created woodland walk obstacle courses and enjoyed playing with some ‘Gruffalo Crumble!’

We thought of the woodland creatures we knew and used "My First Book of Woodland Animals" by Zoe Ingram to learn more about them. We also learnt about some animals that we had not heard of before. Animal habitats and homes gave us lots to discuss and we worked well together to build some of our own. We also read a book called ‘Fox in the Dark’ and learnt about nocturnal animals.

Pairs and doubles were our focus for maths this week. We read "Simon Sock" by Sue Hendra and enjoyed making pairs and then using this information to help us know if a number was odd or even. We doubled numbers by using mirrors to help us and we also used a magic doubling pot!

In phonics we learnt ‘air’ and ‘er’ this week and looked at some double letters in words.

What a wonderful woodland week!

To mark Children’s Mental Health Week, we spent some time as a class discussing the different emotions and how we can utilise our understanding of them to help manage big feelings. The theme this year was ‘know yourself to grow yourself’ so we got to know ourselves a bit better by asking ourselves questions like ‘what am I most proud of?’ and ‘what do I do when I get frustrated?’. We then labelled a drawing of ourselves with self-regulation techniques that we find useful.

We celebrated National Storytelling week by making bookmarks, comic strips and writing our own stories to raise the profile of reading for pleasure. We practiced the art of sharing stories by learning our very own shortened version of How to be a Lion in literacy. We learned the story off by heart and drew a story map using pictures which will help us to write it into our books next week.

Finally, all of the teachers in the school did a story swap so we had two new faces read us their favourite story book!

In Year 2, we have been continuing our journey with multiplication and division, focusing on how to group objects. Through hands-on activities, the children have learned how to group items into equal sets to help them understand these important mathematical concepts. Whether it’s creating groups of toys, blocks, or counters, the children have grasped the idea that multiplication is all about repeated addition, and division is the process of sharing or grouping equally.

We have also been diving into the concept of abstraction in our computing lessons, which is a key part of computational thinking. The children have been learning how to simplify complex problems by focusing on the essential details and ignoring unnecessary ones. By breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable parts, they’ve been able to create step-by-step instructions for computers to follow. Using real-life examples, such as organising a classroom or creating a treasure map, the children have started to see how abstraction helps make problems easier to solve. This skill is laying a solid foundation for their future learning in programming and problem-solving.

Year 3 have been hard at work this week learning all about seasonality and sustainability in DT.  After exploring climate zones and seasonal fruits and vegetables, they mocked up a seasonal tart design before practising their cutting and grating skills.

Lastly, they made some delicious apple tarts.  Well done Year 3 (and thank you to Ms Rochford for her hard work organising it all!)

Year 4 have made some noise this week—literally! Diving back into our body percussion music unit, they worked hard to compose The Sounds of the Rainforest, carefully considering tempo, dynamics, texture, and structure. With cleverly incorporated loops, their performances were truly fern-tastic!

Meanwhile, in Literacy, the children were on a mission to save the Amazon rainforest, writing powerful letters to the President of Brazil. After last week’s fiery debates, they were rooting for change, crafting passionately persuasive arguments that could make even the most stubborn loggers leaf the trees alone!

We also raided a brand-new history topic: Who were the Anglo-Saxons and why did they come to Britain? After exploring their reasons for making the journey, we started uncovering the fascinating things they left behind. From fierce warriors to fantastic wordsmiths, Year 4 have had a truly historic week!

In Geography this week, we have been trying to answer the enquiry question, ‘What is a river?’ We started by exploring the features of a river and then carried out some digital fieldwork using the website Digimaps where we were able to map the River Severn.

We thought about the water cycle and the important role rivers play. We also learnt about estuaries and why they proved such an important place for wildlife. Finally, we discussed the impact of our urban landscapes on rivers and the effects of flooding. We looked at Bangladesh and were able to chart the average rainfall and thought about why the country is so affected by flooding.

Literacy has seen us exploring suspense writing, focusing on different features which we will include in our own writing next week about climbing the Khumbu Icefall on Mt Everest.

What a fantastic week!

Mrs Williamson is incredibly proud of the independence and maturity Year 6 has shown this week.

As we begin preparing for SATs, Year 6 have been creating learning posters, working through special booklets, and reinforcing their daily lessons at home. A huge thank you to a generous parent who provided us with a Times Tables Rock Stars subscription – this fantastic resource will help support learning in school and homework and Year 6 can’t wait to climb the leader board to ‘Rock Hero’!

We loved seeing Miss Eaton in 6EW. She came to read to us during story time swap as part of this week’s National Storytelling Week. Her story choice helped further remind us of the importance of determination and resilience, through reading the book Big People, Big Dreams: Pelé. Pelé’s journey from practicing football with a makeshift ball to becoming a global icon reminds us that hard work and perseverance lead to great achievements. Just like Pelé, we are putting in the effort to reach our goals!

As part of Mental Health Week, we explored the theme ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself.’ We discussed what makes us feel nervous or relaxed, what we enjoy learning and what makes us laugh. We reflected that understanding ourselves is a powerful way to grow, build connections and support those around us.

In class, we have been diving into decimals in maths and drawing inspiration from an exciting animation to create some superb writing in literacy. It’s been a fantastic week of learning!

On Thursday afternoon, group of 18 Year 2 children participated in an exciting athletics competition at Ashton Park Secondary School, where they competed against seven other schools. 

With energy and determination, they took part in both running and field events, showcasing their incredible skills. From fast-paced sprints to impressive field performances, each child gave their very best effort. Their teamwork and enthusiasm were evident throughout the whole afternoon, and their hard work paid off as they proudly won the gold, bringing home a well-deserved victory for Christ Church.

It was a such a memorable experience for the children that highlighted their talent, dedication, and spirit - well done guys!

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