In reception the children have been working together and becoming more settled as they begin their journey through school. The children are really enjoying using the home corner, looking after the babies and making dinner for their friends.  The children have been practising writing their names using a variety of different resources such as glitter, flour and shaving foam. In phonics they are learning a new sound each day and also enjoying singing and joining in with the actions to the jolly phonics phase two song.  Sophie said, “I like singing a a ants on my arm”. ​

​Wow, what a busy few days of writing we have had this week and it is only Wednesday! Talking to teachers and pupils it seems as though we have been full steam ahead with our writing this week and here is an overview of what different year groups have been completing; hopefully, I can get around to seeing some of the amazing work I have heard about!
 
Over to reception!
In reception this week, we've been looking at houses and homes. We received a letter from the old woman who lives in a shoe asking us to design a new house for her and her children. We have been labelling different parts of our designs using sounds we have learned in phonics. We have been practising our name writing, too. That sounds fabulous! I would like to see some of these labelled homes!
 
How about our wonderful Year Ones? Well... In Year One, they have been looking at non-fiction writing – Instructional writing to be exact. They have been writing instructions on how to make a peg car. They have been looking at ordering instructions and creating their own versions! I hope they are easy to follow I need a new car!
 
Our final KS1 year group: our brilliant Year Twos! They have been exploring their favourite animals and discussing reasons why they believe theirs is the best in the class! Pupils have then challenged themselves to create their own Kenning poem based on their most favourite animal! I wonder if any of their favourite animals matches their teacher’s favourite?
 
Time for an update in our first KS2 year group – Year Three! Children in Year Three are aiming to complete a diary entry based on their class text: Ug. Pupils have been exploring different methods to help memorise various parts of the story, including: story mountain planning, acting out parts of the text and they have been focussing on different elements of grammar to help their writing.
 
Year Four appear to have been writing to future pupils! In their classes, they have been exploring what it means to be a member of Year Four and how pupils can contribute positively to their learning as well as behaviour in the playground. They have then written a letter to future pupils, telling them all about how awesome Year Four is, as well as what makes a great pupil!
 
Travelling back in time, Year Five have been recounting events from their past selves – their inner Vikings! Something has happened to them during their Viking lives and they have been recounting exactly what it was that happened. Pupils had a disagreement and there was only two ways to settle disputes during the Viking times: a holmgang (duel to the death) or a fight to first blood. Not only have they recounted the events that occurred, pupils reenacted what happened in their battle.
 
Our final year group: our hardworking, committed Year Sixes! Looking back to life as an evacuee during WWII, pupils in Year Six have been writing in their evacuee journals! Pupils have been working hard to consider what it might have been like to be evacuated during the war. By considering thoughts, feelings and emotions, pupil have written an entry into their diary exploring all of the different things going on in their heads during this time of uncertainty in their lives.
 

4JP have written some wonderful letters this week. 











Dear Mr. Bennett,
 
I am writing to explain why we should let our caring, helpful alien classmate Ben, stay in our school.  I found him outside with his shining glistening spaceship.  I know it sounds a little bit off but he can help us with Year 4 learning.  First I helped him speaking English, so now he can help us, he is very smart.
 
I know he is funky but he makes people happy.  He listens really well in class.  Ben will never hurt anyone, his heart is as soft as a couch.  One reason Ben should stay is he keeps our tables tidy and spotless.  He can turn as beautiful as a flower if someone does not like him.  One day he helped everyone be quiet in class so that they can hear Mr Powell.  How fantastic is that!  Everyday he listens so that he never gets confused.  When it was PE he was so energetic that even Mr Powell couldn't catch up with him.  Ben works hard and never gives up.
 
First, Ben could help teachers so they don't have to be worried about their old dusty laptops.  At the end of the day he stays at school to clean up.  He can fix the bathrooms and see who leaves them messy.  However, Ben could also be a supply teacher if anyone is ill.  Faster than a blink, he can teach with a whiteboard and everyone of us will understand.  Second, he tells us interesting things about his crazy, magical, magnificent, massive planet.  What a great way of learning stuff!  Wouldn't that be great?  Third he can look back and see if anyone is cheating on their tests.
 
Ben will make ETPS better by helping to pick up litter, tidying our classroom book corners and dusting the IT equipment.  Wouldn't it be amazing to have a more caring, magnificent, and precious aliens turn up at our school?  We would be as magnificent as a clean perfect butterfly.  If Ben didn't come we would as sad as a lonely hippo.  Don't you want positive, thoughtful things in this school?
 
From your kindest,
 
IK  4JP


​

​​Dear Mr. Bennett,
 
I am writing to you with a question.  I have found an extra little detail to our school, I've found an alien in the school bins.  It looked lonely but friendly.  It's name is Ben.  He told us that his ship crashed in the field and he got out when we came into school.  He is a good role model, he has wings and healing powers.  How strange!  He distracts people to not be naughty in class.  He helps people when they're tidying up.  He hands out reading records, tucks in chairs and puts glue lids on to help teachers.
 
I know Ben looks dirty and he has funky colours on but once he has had a wash and got a uniform on you will understand he is perfect.  He has the best handwriting and a MASSIVE brain!  He has good reading, if you heard him read you will get your mind blown!  You will even level him up to Year 6 level reading.  If you are stuck on a word, he will tell you.  Another brilliant thing about Ben is his maths is amazing, he can do his 6x, 8x well, he can do them all.
 
One reason that Ben is good for teachers is he is amazing at colouring and drawing.  He magically puts all the children in line in one second.  At lunch, he hands out all the lunchboxes, but gives spas to the teachers.  How unfair!  Although, lucky for you as you don't get to play outside.   He helps listen to children read and when we all go home he does all the cleaners work.  He is like flash, as he cleans all the classes in seconds.  That's cool right?
 
One special reason why Ben makes our magical learning school special is how he exemplifies our lovely co-operative school values.  Magnificent Ben loves to discuss his work because it inspires him to help learn.  Ben shows this by being Ready, Safe and Respectful.  This is amazingly cool because he can make everything ready to go.  In addition, Ben likes to help around school as he gives teachers their favourite chocolate, for example Mr Powell loves Maltesers so he will give him them.
 
85% of the teachers in the school believe an alien would be a good addition to the class.
 
Kindest regards,
 
AD 4JP



​

​Dear Mrs Dawson,
 
I am writing to explain that our new awesome, purple, green, blue, friendly, helpful classmate Boogie from Party Space must be allowed to join our lovely school.  We found him in the woods.  You should know that Boogie is non-mean, smart and when get hurt he will help us.
 
The best reason why Boogie is wonderful for pupils is how Boogie always focuses well in lessons, happily tries hard with activities and persistently perseveres when things are tough.  How kind!  The second reason why Boogie is positive for pupils is Boogie always helps pupils around our classroom by helpfully pushing chairs under tidily tidying away before lunch and kindly placing lids on glue sticks.
 
One awesome thing about my classmate Boogie is he has begun to share with us cool fantastic old pictures of his past.  What a great time to learn about strange places!  Would it be great to have a smart alien join our class?  A different thing about Boogie, whenever he is around, he replaces Mr Powell's old slow laptop with a faster new one so that greatly helps Mr Powell teach us.
 
Next reason why Boogie makes our school a better places is how they exemplify brilliant co-operative school values.  Boogie loves to discuss his old school, be very kind and makes new friends.  This is awesomely cool because he could help others when they are hurt.
 
85% of the teachers in the school believe an alien would be a good addition to the class.
 
Kindest regards,
 
PG 4JP

It has been great to see children enthusiastically exploring their new science topics so far this term:

• Year 1 have begun to learn about everyday materials. The children have learned the difference between objects and the materials they’re made from and started to classify items by their material, such as; wood, glass and plastic.

 

• Year 2 have been learning the difference between living, non-living and dead. They went on a hunt outside to find different objects and then sorted them into the three groups. Also, they have learnt what a micro habitat is - they went on the search for micro-habitats around the school and observed the types of animals that live there.  

 

• Year 3 have begun to explore the topic of rocks, alongside their history topic of The Stone Age. In science lessons they have learned about the difference between igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and will soon be learning about how fossils develop. They have had great fun examining real rocks for this topic.

​

• In Year Five this term the children have been exploring materials and substances. This week, pupils have been looking at soluble and insoluble substances. Pupils have been working in small groups to decide whether particular substances would dissolve or not. Within their groups, they had to decide whether the following substances would dissolve: glitter, sand, sugar, salt, cous-cous and vitamin tablets. Once they had made their predictions, they were then given a cup of water and the substances to prove whether their predictions were accurate or not. After that, they wrote their findings into their books and drew a diagram of their experiment.

 
Finally, this term Year 6 have started to investigate the topic of electricity. The children have thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with the equipment: creating series and parallel circuits; analysing why some circuits may not work; and discovering the affect voltage has on the brightness of a light bulb. 

 the start of every school year, pupils from Y1 to Y6 begin their maths learning by looking at place value. A selection of learning they do within this unit of work: Y1 work to secure their knowledge of place value within 10; Y2 work with numbers to 20, then 50 then 100 and have a focus on part/whole models (partitioning numbers); Y3 work with numbers up to 1,000; Y4 learn about numbers up to 10,000, round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1,000 and are introduced to Roman Numerals; Y5 compare and order numbers to 100,000, continue to work on rounding numbers and further develop their understanding of negative numbers; Y6 improve their knowledge and understanding of numbers to 10,000,000, adding and subtracting negative numbers and rounding numbers. 
Pupils then move on to working with some or all of the ‘four rules’ of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. 
If you would like to look in more detail at the Schemes of Learning we follow in our maths teaching and learning, you can visit our school website or look at this area of the White Rose Maths website:  https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/primary-resources/primary-sols/  
Here are examples of work from Y2 and Y6: ​