In Religious Education we have been learning about the importance of Muhammed to Islam. The children had great fun linking facts with actions to aid their memory. Feel free to ask them if they can think of any interesting facts from this lesson. ​

In Computing this half term we have a focus on Coding.  To the average human being, this can seem a little overwhelming, however algorithms are something that we use every day.  Key Stage 1 recently discovered that something as simple as making a jam sandwich or eating breakfast cereal can involve a whole host of instructions, some of which have unintended outcomes if they are not clear enough.
 
Eventually the children progress through using "block code".  If you have ever seen the Computing curriculum in the news then you have probably seen these peculiar blobs of colour being moved across the screen by eager looking children as they attempt to get some object to do something.  One popular app for this is ScratchJnr or its more capable desktop app scratch.mit.edu.  By the end of Key Stage 2 the children are using code to create their own apps.
 

Over the past week, Year Six have been working extremely hard. During English, we have been looking at newspaper reports; some of you might have noticed the Year Six classrooms being decorated as though we had been a victim of a German bombing run during WWII. Here is an extract of a newspaper report about the fictitious bombing on our school during 1941, by John-Joe in 6CP. 

On Thursday 29th October 1941, the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) launched an unprecedented attack on a primary school located on the South-East coast of England. East Tilbury Primary School (Thurrock) was subject to a merciless bombing run by the Nazis; it was an attack which caused vast damage across the expansive land...
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Last Wednesday, we completed our first SPAG test under strict test conditions (as though it were the real SATs).
In maths we have been revisiting both long and short multiplication and division and mastering our skills here, as well as studying the lives of children during WWII.

Over the past two weeks STEM Club for girls have taken part in two exciting experiments. In the first week we became detectives and investigated finger prints. We used magnifying glasses to look at our own and used play dough and cello tape to make a record of our finger prints. We discussed the different shapes we could see and how everyone’s finger prints are different. Last week we joined up with Art Club and investigated monomers and polymers by making our own play dough. We discussed that when we made play dough lots of small molecules join together to make longer chains, resulting in play dough. We followed two different recipes and discussed how they were different or the same.  
There are still spaces for KS1 if you would like to join. ​

With the children back at school we want them enthused to read. Not all children find this easy so here are a few tips to support your child at home: ​

• Encourage them to read material around the house: books, newspapers, magazines, poetry, the TV guide – even an advertising leaflet will do! 
  
• Enjoy stories with your child – most children love a story and they are never too old to be read to. 
  
• Read little but often rather than rarely but for long periods of time. 
  

• Talk to your child about the story when it is finished. What was their favourite part? Why? 
  
• Look up definitions of words together – an online dictionary is a really useful thing! 
  
• Visit a library when you can...allow your child to lose themselves in magical worlds. 
  
• Don’t forget Bug Club. If your child isn’t sure how to access this, ask their teacher.