Children have been busy thinking about the significance of Remembrance Day, They started the week with an assembly looking at the importance of Remembrance Day and why poppies are worn by people. Children had a chance to reflect on thoughtful questions and offer their ideas during the assembly.
 
On 11th November, Year 2 and 6 represented the school at the local service held at the Bata War Memorial. During the service conducted by Canon Paul, two children laid wreaths from the school, alongside Mrs Coates. Year 6 children then read some prayers before reading the names of the Bata fallen. During the two minute silence, at 11 o'clock, the whole school also stopped and paid their respects to the courageous men and women who have fought in the wars to allow us the freedom we experience today.
 
During the week, each class in key stage 1 and 2 took some time to think about peace and what that means through images, words, poems and messages. They then decorated and embellished white poppies with these ideas. Reception painted poppies and placed the names of the Bata fallen on them. All of these poppies are being collected together to be made into wreaths to be displayed in school. 

​In 2DG this term, we have enjoyed listening to the sounds of fireworks and used these to create onomatopoeia poems. The different sounds really helped with creating atmosphere in our writing. We have started to look at diary writing and how this can express feelings alongside recounting events. Fortunately, Mummy Pig visited us and we helped her to write diaries for her three little pigs and how they felt when they were forced to leave home!
 
In maths, we are busy focusing on the different strategies for the four rules. We have been learning our multiplication tables for two times tables and remembering these important facts off by heart. This can help us with related division facts this week.
 
Our teachers were very proud of us during the Remembrance Service. We showed our respect during the two minutes silence and enjoyed being choosen to represent the school at this important service. We then created white poppies with images and words related to peace which will be made into special wreaths to be displayed in school.

This week something amazing happened in Reception! We had a mysterious object crash land into our outside area.  We all went to have a look at the object and used lots of adjectives to describe what we could see.  We all made a prediction about what we thought the mysterious object could be.  Some of our ideas included a robot, a car, a spaceship and a bus.  On Thursday our week then got even more exciting: we discovered footprints in our classroom! We focused on our learning of using adjectives to describe and described what we could see.  On Friday we were told that Mr Dunne had spotted a friendly alien in our classroom, we were very excited!  We have really enjoyed our introduction to Space and have already produced some fantastic pieces of learning.  
We have also been looking at bonfire night. We learnt about why we celebrate on the 5th November, and talked about our experiences of fireworks. We also created our own firework pictures. 

Our second half term in year 2 has had quite a busy start. We are now beginning to prepare for our Christmas production and will soon be learning lines, songs and dances!
We have begun learning and enquiring into our new central idea for this term ‘influential people can shape a community’. Our learning has been led by our new interest in Robin Hood. We have looked into the communities in the story and have compared them to our own local community. We have even held a debate about whether or not he was a good person!
We have also been invited to join members of the local community to remember the fallen soldiers of the First World War at the remembrance service led by Canon Paul and the Royal British Legion. 

​In the last week of the half term Year 5 wrote explanation texts. These were based on the upcoming Hindu festival, Diwali. Diwali is the festival of lights and the children greatly enjoyed researching this topic. In pairs, the children worked together to research different aspects of Diwali to be able to explain what the festival is about. The internet and textbooks were used as part of their research. They used PowerPoint to present their work.