This Week in Year 3

Ancient Egyptians

Thank you so much for the overwhelming response to our request for volunteers for Egyptian Day in Year 3. Your support is always fantastic! We are very much looking forward to seeing all of the costumes! 

In class, we have been learning about mummification and have had a great time making our own mummies – messy but brilliant fun! 

Matches vs Kingshott

The final inter-school  matches of this term were played on Thursday, with  both the boys and girls playing at home. The weather kept fine and Jack, once again, showed excellent team spirit by taking the official match photos.  

Forest School

3O’s delayed Forest School session will be held on Thursday 17 November, just before their Games lesson. Please could 3O ensure that they take their games kits home on Tuesday, as they have swimming on Wednesday, then come into School in their Games kits. 

Year 3 Christmas Market

Christmas is fast approaching and we are looking forward to a very festive last few weeks of this term. With this in mind, Year 3 have once again decided to set up their own winter wonderland Christmas Market for the children in Year 1 to visit. 

In previous years, this has been a very enjoyable collaboration between the Junior and Middle Departments as we capture some of the festive spirit.  More information will be placed in the Google Classrooms. 

Dates for your Diaries

• Our Christingle service is on Friday November 25th from 3.30 – 4.00. We consciously timed the service to allow for any Junior School pick ups. Younger siblings are very welcome to come to the service and it will be held in the Performance Hall. 
• The House Matches and Christmas Fayre are on Saturday 3rd December
• There will be two performances of our Christmas production on either Thursday 8th December (3pm-4pm) or Friday 9th December (9.10am-10.10am). 

 Warm regards

Una Oatham, Libby Mann, Sophie Porter and Pauline Pope

The Year 3 Team

This week in Year 4

English

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?  Most of us, apparently.  For as long as stories and folktales have been told, the wolf has appeared as a villain or monstrous foe.  Year 4 took this enduring image and used it to inspire their character descriptions involving an encounter with a wolf.  The children worked hard to consider what well-chosen adjectives and phrases would work best to describe a wolf’s movement, appearance and sound as well as the atmosphere created in its presence.  Enjoy the examples below!

Science

Having studied the human skeleton, Year 4 undertook an investigation to see what we could learn by collecting data on arm lengths.  Do boys have longer arms than girls?  Does being older mean you’ll have longer arm bones?  These were the two key questions chosen investigate.

With the data safely recorded, children were taught how to graph the data to help spot patterns.  Presenting the data did help answers our questions but also helped guide discussions around the importance of having a large sample and diverse range of date to make accurate and truly scientific findings.

This week in Year 5

We have had a fantastic term of PSHE lessons so far, with our Year 5 children approaching the topics of ‘Respect and Bullying’ and ‘Harmful Substances’ with maturity and their undivided attention. This week, we have had some really interesting discussions around the topic of ‘Harmful Substances’ and their effects. The children really enjoyed playing an Odd One Out game to determine which substances are harmful, sparking some debate about which substances are legal and illegal, and a card game to match the harmful substance to its effects.

In preparation for next week’s National Anti-Bullying Week, Middle Department Assembly also had a PSHE focus this week. The children enjoyed listening to the story of the ‘Troll Stinks’ by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross. It is a take on the fairytale, The Three Billy-Goats Gruff, and is about Billy Goat and his best friend Cyril who decide to mess about with the farmer’s mobile phone, taking selfies and playing games. Then they find the number for a troll. Their Grandpa Gruff says trolls are bad, so Billy and Cyril decide to get their own back by sending mean messages. We talked about why the goats thought the troll was horrible, were they right to think she was, and whether there is a difference between being unkind to someone’s face and being unkind online.

In support of the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s National Anti-Bullying Week and to express and celebrate what makes us unique, we would like to encourage all children (and teachers!) to wear odd socks every day next week. This year’s theme for the week is Reach Out, and we will be encouraging the Year 5 children over the next week to think about who they can, and do, reach out to when they are feeling sad or if they notice someone being unkind to someone else.

Rock Music – who gets your vote?

Year 5 have been studying Rock Music in their Music lessons this term. Each class has prepared a performance of a classic rock song for this years ‘Battle of the Classes’!

This year’s competition will be judged just like Strictly – with 50% of the vote made up by the judges scores and 50% from the audience vote! Voting closes on Sunday 20th November with the results being announced the following week in an assembly.

5B – Rocket Man by Elton John
5CB – Rockin’ All Over the World by Status Quo
5D – Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen
5K – We are the Champions by Queen

You can access the Voting Form here.

From the Maths Department

Barvember 2022 is here and we are delighted!  White Rose will be sharing five problems every school day in November, which we will be using in lessons to explore the magic of using a bar model to problem solve. We will have weekly winners from all those who have displayed the technique successfully.

Lots of problems will be shared on our Twitter account and we welcome ‘grown ups’ to have a go! We were successful in winning some prizes last year, Mrs Oatham was overjoyed  when she received a Tiny toy.

The thinking behind the process is to use the bar model when solving a plethora of problems as it helps pupils to think about a problem from another point of view.

We hope you will all enjoy putting your thinking caps on and giving a problem a go. To warm you up we have a few problems to solve at your leisure here!

Good luck!

Mrs Groeneveld
Assistant Head of Maths

We’re celebrating Maths Week England by taking part in a friendly times tables (and division) competition. The competition runs from 07:30 GMT Monday 14th November to 19:30 GMT Wednesday 16th November. It’s all done online via play.ttrockstars.com.

Children can play in any gamemode with every correct answer to a multiplication or division question, earning themselves, their class and the school a point. The Times Tables Rock Stars platform will calculate the class average (the number of correct answers per pupil in the class who play during the competition hours, subject to a daily 60-minute limit (see below)). Winning classes in the school and in the competition as a whole will be the ones with the highest average.

To support player wellbeing, there is a daily time limit of 60-minutes per player. In other words, each player can earn competition points for up to 60-minutes between 0730  and 1930 on Monday 14 November and between 0730 and 1930 on Wednesday 16 November. Once the player goes beyond 60-minutes of play on that day, they will still earn coins but will no longer earn points towards the competition.

In the spirit of the competition, please don’t play on their behalf but by all means encourage and support them to the extent that it doesn’t cause high stress levels or impact on family plans.

Good luck and happy rocking!

Marion Wright
Head of Maths

From the Middle Department Library

Birdsong by Kaya Balen

Katya Balen won last year’s Carnegie Medal with ‘October, October’, and has had two of her books nominated for the Yoto Carnegie Medal 2023. 

Birdsong is Balen’s short story nominated publication but what it lacks in volume it certainly makes up for in content.  In Birdsong, Annie is slowly recovering from a terrible car crash which has left her with damage to her hand that prevents her from playing her beloved flute. Without access to her natural solace of making music Annie retreats inward. Furiously exploring the scruffy scrubland outside her new flat Annie meets Noah who introduces her to the blackbirds’ nest he is protecting.

Gradually Annie begins to take an interest and the blackbirds’ wonderful song reignites her love of music and enables her to express herself through it once more. Balen’s careful and sparing use of words and her eloquent expressions makes this a beautiful as well as a moving book to read.

Head’s Commendations

Congratulations to this week’s recipients of Mr Balfour’s Commendations: