TRANSFORMING LIFE CHANCES

Dear Parents and Carers,

This week we have seen the return of more children to the school, which has been really pleasing. We were asked by the Government to bring more children back if we could do so - having some Year 5s join their bubbles has

increased our sense of normality in these abnormal times.

You may have seen that the Government have announced their thoughts on the return in September. Over the next few weeks we will be giving each aspect of the guidance careful consideration and as always, working to

make decisions that ensure that our Children are able to safely return to a full and rich curriculum. Once we have more information on the plans, we will of course ensure that we share these as soon as possible with our families.

Whilst we share more widely transition arrangements and information for September, it may be useful to begin to

consider other areas that will be needed when we return. These are things such as purchasing and preparing school uniform, shoes and PE kits as well as any work that you would like your child to do over the holidays to help

them return. The BBC Bitesize and Oak National Academy websites do offer some further support for children during these time and they might be of interest for our families to maintain some learning during the summer

months. However the biggest area that children must work on is reading. Reading widely and reading often will significantly help to prepare children to return.

We will be sending home the curriculum newsletters shortly and we will update the school website with our

curriculum plans for September, so where possible children can prepare for their new topics in September. We fully anticipate that the introduction of Seesaw in September will help parents to support their children more easily with 'catching up' on missed learning opportunities, so please sign up and continue to watch this space

With two weeks to go until the end of this academic year, it is with a heavy heart that we have missed those

important events such as sports day and our Year 6 leavers’ production and leavers’ events. If you have anything sporty that you have done at home that you would like to share, please send a picture into the year group email accounts. Year 6 are working on a special video to end their time with us - we can't wait to see all of their faces

and messages soon!

Take care - Stay safe - Have a great weekend!

Mrs J Murphy Executive Headteacher

Child first – Aspire – Challenge - Achieve 3rd July 2020

Polite Reminder Over the last few days, we have had a number of parents on site carrying/walking their dogs.

Please be reminded that dogs are not allowed on site.

EYFS

It has been lovely to welcome some more Reception children back. In

Reception this week, we have been continuing our learning and have really

enjoyed seeing new friends in our bubbles. We have been practising our

writing skills by writing sentences using our very best cursive writing ready for

Year 1! We have also continued to work on our Phase 3 and 4 sounds and all

our tricky words, which we can remember really well now. We have been using

our Maths skills particularly in the outside area, where we have been adding up

the various toys that we are using. Well done to everyone who is working hard

at home, we really love seeing the progress you are making on Tapestry, so

please keep uploading!

Year 1

This week in Year 1 children have been coming into school with huge smiles on their faces showing us they are

happy to be back! They are now settled and are aware of the new rules and routines. In Thinking Academically,

children have been focusing on sequencing the story ‘The Grufallo’ using adjectives and then making their own

main character and alternative endings. In Maths, children have been making their own clock and learning how

to tell the time. In Thinking Healthy, children have been sharing their goals and what they would like to be

when they grow up. In Thinking Artistically, we have been using our Green Hats to make backgrounds for our

front page of our own book using pastels. Our P.E challenge this week was how many high knees in 30 seconds.

Miss Oravcova managed to do 24, Freddie managed to do 26 .Well done Freddie! In Thinking Globally, we have

been learning about what Victorian houses looked like and comparing them to modern houses. We have been

looking after our tomatoes and we have also found a few potatoes in our outdoor garden. If you are working

from home, thank you for your photos and videos. Keep up the fantastic work! Please continue to send in your

photos and videos of yourselves engaging with your home learning.

It has been lovely to welcome some more Nursery children back to the

morning bubble this week. In Nursery this week, we have been continuing

to enjoy learning in both our indoor and outdoor areas. We have been

exploring our fantastic outdoor area and enjoyed climbing and riding the

bikes. We have also enjoyed making music outside together, but at a safe

distance! During our indoor learning, we have been creating amazing

pictures using chalk and different collage materials. Keep looking out for

the Tapestry challenges - we really enjoy seeing your progress.

Year 3

Another busy week, both in school and at home, completed. This week has

been a strange one with a complete mix of weather, allowing us to enjoy

learning outside at some points and then digging out our rain coats the next!

Wherever you are completing your home learning, we hope that you are

enjoying the topics and challenges that you have had so far this term. We

continued reading ‘The Water Horse’ by Dick King-Smith. The Year 3 team find

that the story is a real ‘page turner’ and read it in complete suspense - we

hope you feel the same way.

We can see that Joyce is enjoying the story as she has sent lots of her work, including Guided Reading. Within

Joyce’s Guided Reading tasks, she has asked questions about the text and challenged herself by recognising

the content domains of her questions, which is something we have been developing in school. We have also

received a great selection of work from Simione and Jenson. We were particualrlly impressed with the

interesting facts and predictions Simione made within his Science lesson. We also really enjoyed looking at

Jenson’s Maths work to see that he had successfully cracked a difficult code.

Year 4

Year 2

Isn't this term flying by? It is great to hear about what you are getting up to at home - I've seen lots of children

baking yummy snacks, going for bug hunts, taking scenic walks and writing letters to their friends and families. I

was also emailed a great photo of some figures Mihails from Spruce class made this week with his siblings,

which were very creative! I have been super impressed this week with your knowledge of addition and I can

see that lots of you have a really good understanding now – next week is subtraction! I've also loved seeing

your English work based around the book "Sally and the Limpet". Lots of you were able to carefully consider

the characters feelings and show great empathy and understanding towards them, so you have been using

your Habits of Mind. In Science, you have now moved onto looking at habitats, which we did visit in Term 1,

right at the beginning of Year 2!

We are now half way through Term 6 and the Year 4 team are pleased that you have

all been remaining open to learning during this strange time! Please remember to

keep checking the school website for further activities – you are all capable of

pushing yourselves during these last few weeks and we look forward to seeing your

submissions.

We hope that you have been enjoying the home learning tasks that

have been set this week. It was fantastic to see some of the work sent

in via the year group emails and keep the connection going between

home and school. We were particularly impressed with the writing in

the picture below – the Year 4 team can see that you have tried hard

to persist with your learning! Well done for including a variety of

conjunctions to make your writing more interesting. The drawing of a

Native American, which has some very detailed labels to make your

ideas clear, also amazed us.

It was interesting to see your opinions on our P4C this week that said,

"Should zoos have reopened earlier?” There is never a right or wrong

opinion in P4C and it is great to be able to offer your own thoughtful

and insightful opinions. I have not been to a zoo since they reopened

but I did manage to watch some online virtual tour videos of zoos on

the Wildwood Trust website and the Colchester Zoo website - they

even showed the penguins, which are my favourites!

Year 6

This week, Year 6 have started a new writing project and are starting to

plan diary entries, imagining they have been in Mexico celebrating the ‘Day of

the Dead’ we have already drafted some fantastic ideas and are looking

forward to seeing how their diaries come out. Some of us have been enjoying

painting sugar skulls already, while the rest of us look forward to trying this

later in the week! In Maths, we have been continuing to revisit algebra,

applying our past knowledge to new situations and using our skills to tackle a

range of problems. For our humanities this week, we have been looking further

into ancient Maya life and researching what life would have been like for them.

We have taken on the role of either a noble, peasant or slave and used the

‘Perspectives’ key to consider how they may have seen life differently from one

another.

We have also had a look at some Mayan objects, using the ‘Prediction’ and ‘Different Uses’ keys to guess what

they could have been used for. We have also been enjoying the beautiful weather and taking the opportunity

to spend some time outside and exercise. The children have been creating, imagining and innovating while

coming up with new games they can play outside at a safe distance. This has involved a new wide range of

activities including dances and socially distanced ball games! We are proud of the Year 6’s positive attitude in

these new situations.

Year 5

It has been an exciting week for Year 5 with three more bubble groups entering school for the first time in

three months. The students have had the opportunity to engage with learning in the school environment and

the Year 5 bubble leads have said they have had a fantastic time and all have settled in really well. Whilst this

has been going on at school, home learning is still being produced by members of staff and we are so proud of

our home learners who are engaging. With two weeks left of school it is important to keep up the good work

both in and out of school, stay safe and keep working hard. We would like to thank the Year 5 Bubble teachers

for leading the school learning, the feedback has been really positive.

Here is what two of our Year 5 pupil’s had to say about coming back to school:

Whitney - I have really enjoyed coming back to school for many reasons, even if we have to social

distance. I also enjoy getting to see funny teachers and getting back into a classroom. Last but not least,

is that we can be some were else than home.

Henry - When my mum told me that I was going back to school I was thrilled. It’s great that small groups

of us are back because we have been away from our normal school environment for three months. I am

so grateful that the school has allowed us to return. In conclusion, I am very happy that I have returned to

school.

ss

.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zh9v382

In our curriculum, we offer the children opportunities to experience their learning in a wide range of ways including (among

others) trips and visitors to our school. Unfortunately, we are unable to do this with everyone at home; however, we would

like to provide you with a range of enrichment opportunities, which are popping up across Medway, Kent, The United

Kingdom and globally.

We are pleased to share the following opportunities:

Although we may not be able to go on holiday this year, we are able to virtually explore other countries. This enrichment

experience provides pupils the experience of 5 National Parks in America who are offering virtual tours you can take from the comfort of

your home: https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/national-parks/virtual-national-parks-tours

This summer, it is likely that many of our families will be visiting the beach. With more people staying within the UK over the

summer holidays, it is likely there will be busier beaches than ever before. We have already seen the influx of beach goers in the past few

weeks as restrictions have lifted and the summer weather has arrived. In order to help your children stay safe whilst on the beach, here are

some water safety resources: https://rnli.org/youth-education/water-safety-from-home including a primary teaching pack.

This week, The Economist Education Foundation have uploaded more resources to their website

https://economistfoundation.org/resources/ about Black Lives Matter. In response to the protests for racial equality that are happening all

over the world, The Economist Education Foundation have published two educational resources for 9-year-olds and upwards. They

recommend that adults work with pupils on these activities, so that they can manage sensitive conversations and questions as they arise.

Enrichment experiences do not necessarily have to be online. Although it is fantastic that we have access to so many brilliant enrichment

experiences online, enrichment experiences could be anything from learning an instrument, to taking a trip to learning about local

history or experiencing new cultures. For example, reading about a subject of interest or something new is such a fantastic enrichment

experience - enrichment is anything that fosters a learning experience.

This week in P4C, we have all been looking at the question of whether zoos should have been allowed to reopen

earlier. Despite zoos now being open, following lockdown restrictions, some zoos were closed for 3 months. During the long periods the zoos were closed, some owners were concerned they wouldn't be able to open due to

the loss of income and the cost involved in feeding the animals. In P4C, we have been exploring whether zoos should have opened earlier, alongside exploring the concept of zoos on the whole and what their purpose is,

allowing pupils to explore their own opinions about zoos. It would be fantastic if you could continue these debates and discussions at home.

Things to talk about at home:

Have you been to a zoo? Can you discuss your experiences together and what you thought about the zoo. Some visitor attractions have not had staff at work during the lock down period but zoos have, why do you think

zoos need people working there all the time, even when they're closed?

Please find below some helpful links that Mrs Studniarz has found that you may find useful!

Remote learning and completing

school activities are important, but

there are plenty of everyday

activities that count as learning too.

How many can you do in one day?