Middle Department News

This week in Year 3

It is wonderful to be back at the start of a new term with the sun shining and the windows open, listening to the happy shouts of the Year 3 children as they play their first Home Match of the term. The children were eager to share their Christmas stories and get back into the classrooms to be together again. They will, no doubt, be tired this weekend, as they have worked very hard.   

The Lent Term  

We have a busy term ahead of us, as always. In Topic, we have moved onto the Geography of the United Kingdom, in science we are learning about rocks and soils, in English we have just started a topic on Poetry and in TPR the children are learning about Hinduism. We have a Hindu Temple visit booked for Tuesday 8th February and will be sending you more information closer to the day.  

Science 

We started our Science topic by using the amazing resources we pass every day and perhaps don’t notice, by becoming Rock Detectives for the afternoon. We hunted around the School Grounds for ‘rocks’, trying to work out why the builders had selected that particular material for each job.  

Here are some photos of our rock hunt:  

Topic 

Our Topic this term is the Geography of the United Kingdom. We have started to learn the location of some of the main cities and have learnt about the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain. We will continue to study maps throughout the term, so this would be a great opportunity to look at any maps at home and work out where in the UK they have visited or where relatives or friends live. Google Earth is also an excellent resource and great for virtual exploration!  

This week in Year 4

Welcome back! After a busy week, we are back in the swing of things and the children are feeling very settled after the Christmas holidays.  

 The highlight of the week has been our opening sport fixtures of the Lent Term with the boys getting their first taste of school rugby by playing in a set of training matches against Heath Mount. Great performances all round from the boys and it was great seeing them implement the key concepts and skills they have been working on in just the few training sessions they have had so far. 

The girls travelled to Chesham Prep to play in their first competitive fixtures of the term in netball. What a brilliant start to the season! All of the U9’s tried really hard with unfaltering grit and determination. It was fantastic to see them implement their passing techniques from lessons. The power and accuracy of each of their different Netball passes has progressed massively and it was impressive how much they have taken on so far. Their coaches can’t wait to see them develop even more as the Netball season continues!

In English, we have begun this term looking at speech marks and commas as we head towards using them in our upcoming narrative writing unit of work which we will begin in a few weeks time.  

Our journey around the human body continued this week in Science as we took time to look at our muscles. Most were quite surprised to find out the location of our largest muscle! Next stop – the heart!

 In our Anglo-Saxon topic, we turned into History detectives this week as we spent a lesson trying to work out what these historical artefacts would have been used for during Anglo-Saxon times – see some photos below:

Year 4 Aylmerton Residential Trip 2022

The Year 4 Form Teachers are looking forward to you joining them to hear all about the Year 4 trip in a zoom meeting from 1730 – 1815 next Wednesday 9 January.  The link for this meeting was in a letter which was sent via email at the beginning of term. Incase you did not received this email, a copy of the letter is in your child’s Google Classroom and the link will also be posted in each of the Year 4 Google Classrooms on the day of the meeting at 1630. 

Nicola Greenwood

This Week in Year 5

Happy New Year from the Year 5 Team!

It has been a joy to welcome the children back into school for what will be their final calendar year as Middle Department pupils! Our Beechwood value for the start of term is ASPIRATION and this fits beautifully with the discussions we have had in our Form groups about our targets and our dreams for the new year. The children are wonderfully forward-looking: ambitious and hopeful. As Form Teachers, we want this term to be one of collaboration, kindness and academic drive as the children move towards the 11+ curriculum and show increasing maturity in their interactions and friendships.

As part of the academic journey, the children take short assessments in English, Maths and in Future Skills (verbal/non-verbal reasoning) at the start of next week. The timetable is posted on the Google Classroom for each form group. We want to make these assessments as stress-free as possible: they will take place within the normal lesson timetable with usual class teachers and in a calm and relaxed atmosphere. If pupils can learn to take tests in their stride now, they will have developed an excellent layer of confidence as they approach senior schools and entrance tests in the future. The imminent launch of Planet BOFA will also offer a big boost to senior school preparations.

The classrooms and co-curricular spaces are as effervescent and exciting as ever this term. Music and Geography form a South American alliance as Samba music and the study of Brazil come together! In Science, the children will spend the next three half terms rotating between light, sound and electricity, all of which are brilliantly stimulating topics offering a wealth of hands-on practical learning. Lacrosse has bounced into the Monday P.E. curriculum and in Maths the focus of the term is on fractions, decimals and percentages and it is always so exciting seeing the children master this topic. There is, of course, a host of other exciting learning opportunities and themes which we will showcase in these newsletters as the term unfolds.

Looking ahead, a date for your Summer diaries is our residential trip 13-17 June 2022. We have made the decision to take Year 5 to Aylmerton this year, rather than to the Isle of Wight. Given that the children have not experienced any Beechwood residential trips due to the disruptions of Covid-19, it seems a more appropriate choice to go to the family-run activity centre in Norfolk, which will involve one shortish coach journey and one group of instructors who know Beechwood well and run outstanding outdoor learning days rather than the multi-transport/ multi-venue experience of the Isle of Wight. We feel confident that the children will enjoy the Aylmerton trip enormously and we will, of course, share more logistical information with you nearer the time.

So, here’s to our collaborative, kind and successful new year in Year 5 and thank you, as always, to all of our Year 5 families for all you do in support of our learning adventures.

Mrs Balfour

Cross Country at York House

Well done to all of those who took part in the York House event on Monday.

The U11 Boys 3rd out of 9 and the the U11 girls 2nd out of 8.  Well done to Erin H who medalled, finishing 3rd in the in the U11 girls’ race.  See the pictures below, alongside their Under 13 team mates.

The next race is next week at Beechwood – we can’t wait!

Miss Hamilton

From the Art Room

Well done to our Year 5 artists who have been experimenting with string block printing – you can see the results below.

Middle Department PE Lessons This Term

Please click on the links below to see the PE timetable for each year group for lessons this term. Please ensure that your child has the correct kit with them for each lesson.

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

From the Library

The Hatmakers, by Tamzin Merchant

Cordelia Hatmaker’s family have been making magical hats by Royal Appointment for generations, weaving emotions and states of mind in with the carefully chosen feathers and furbelows. With the country teetering on the brink of war with France, they and the other Maker guilds are called on to create a wardrobe to promote peace. Cordelia knows how crucial the work is – her father is missing at sea, presumed dead, and she doesn’t want any other young people to feel the same grief. But someone seems to be using Maker enchantments to stir up hatred and division and it comes down to Cordelia and her friends Bootmaker Goose and light-fingered pickpocket Sam to save the day.

Freshly released in paperback, The Hatmakers is an enchanting and mysterious read. Peppered with beautiful illustrations, readers are transported to a Georgian London reminiscent of Jennifer Bell’s Lundinor and into Cordelia’s action-packed adventure.