​Last week, the majority of Year Six had their transition week; there were various schools attended by the pupils which helped to give them an experience of what secondary school is truly like. The pupils took part in a plethora of lessons, including the following: English, maths, science, history, PE, RE computing and many more. Pupils also looked at the importance of mental health throughout their transition week; they explored how mental health impacts many people within an academic environment. Those who attended St Clere’s had the experience of getting a bus from East Tilbury – this replicated the route which most of the pupils would take to get to their secondary school. All pupils were made aware of the expectations for their secondary schools, irrespective of location. 

Harley, who visited St Clere’s, told us the following: “I really enjoyed transition and I the way they taught PE and Science was extremely enjoyable; this was because we were mainly in smaller groups which we were able to choose.” 

Sara, who visited William Edwards, said that: “I really liked it there and I felt more grown-up. My favourite lesson was PE because we did a lot of activities and I am looking forward to going there next year.” 

​We have had a school full of very busy writers last week... even without Year Six. 

Year Five have been exploring the process of creating an advert; this started with them planning their ad and creating a script, all the way to filming it using iPads. They had to use their understanding of the features to effectively and creatively produce their end-product: an advertisement for either a drink, chocolate bar or branded shampoo. They thoroughly enjoyed working on their ad and it had cross-curricular links with computing and media studies... hopefully we have some budding producers in the future! 

Last week, Year Four were exploring the non-fiction text-type of instructional writing; they had a focus on writing a text for the current Year Threes – who will be moving-up to Year Four! They explored the features of instructional writing and appropriately applied these features to their writing. A pupil (currently in Year Four) wrote the following at the start of their text. 

Introduction: 

Are you ready for Year Four? Are you prepared for a new challenge? Well, this text is for you! You may be challenged a lot but that is a good thing and you should take advice from somebody who knows.  

Equipment: 

A rubber – to erase mistakes 

Ruler – to underline Dates and WALTs 

Purple pen 

Courage 

Full uniform 

Smiles, to be worn by everyone 

Hopefully, when fully completed, this would be relevant and could be read to our current Year Three pupils. 

Year Three have been focussing on poetry; they have been exploring the features and using them to help create a poem about a monster – which they had created themselves! Some of the pupils have challenged themselves by making their poem rhyme; others have been attempting to tell a story by using a prose-style of poetry. Some of the monsters are particularly scary... even though it’s poetry! 

In Year Two, the children have also been exploring non-fiction texts; they have been creating Biographies about famous chefs. When talking to Year Two pupils about the features, they were able to recall them accurately and they have successfully applied those to the work. Even the teachers have learnt new things about Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver thanks to them! 

Year One have been working on creating their own narrative, using hot air balloons as the stimulus for their writing. They have explored a video with a hot air balloon and have adapted the narrative to create their own version of events. 

Reception have been looking at non-fiction writing and creating facts about reptiles; they have used their own research to aid their understanding of these creatures. Pupils have actively looked for books which could help them create facts about them and have appropriately selected words which best describe them. 

​In the afternoon, on Friday 28th June we had great fun when parents and carers were invited to come into our classes to work with their children on maths problems. The children really enjoyed working with their parents, who also very kindly worked with lots of other children too, showing them some of the type of work we do in school and also facing new challenges we have not attempted before. 

Across the school we used a range of problem solving activities such as challenge cards, Nrich problems, sudoku problems and Buzz Boz activities and played games such as Top Trumps, hit the button and beat the clock.  

It was lovely to see so many parents and carers in school interacting with their children in a Maths environment. There was a lovely atmosphere around the school with parent feedback very positive. Below are a few of the wonderful comments from parents that attended. 

“The children all seemed really happy in school and all the learning was made to be fun!” 

“A really lovely afternoon. It helps me to understand what my child is learning and how I can support them further at home. I also got to see how well she is doing in class.” 

​This week in Year 3 we have been learning how to stay safe at home and outside. We went on a Road Safety walk on the streets around our school. We learnt how to cross a road safely with and without a crossing. Even when we are walking along a pavement we learnt that we need to be careful of driveways, especially when they are hidden by hedges.  

We had a firefighter in to talk about preventing fire and staying secure in our homes. We were instructed to go home and check we had working smoke alarms and make an action plan for if we ever had a fire at home. We were surprised to learn that the fire service will come out to anyone’s house in Essex completely free to fit a smoke alarm on each floor.  

We also learnt about railway safety, so now know why it is important that we only cross a railway track at a crossing and still look and listen for trains. We found out that some railway tracks have 25,000 volts of electricity running through them at all times of the day and night but also the electricity can jump three metres! 

On Friday our parents and carers joined us for a fun Maths afternoon. They helped us play lots of different games and solve problems. We were able to show them how we learn in lessons and teach them some of the strategies we use to solve problems. 

​This term Year 1 have been focusing on the life cycle of a bean plant. At the beginning of the term we planted some beans and have been recording the growth of our beans as a class. This week, we began measuring our beans where our tallest bean plant has grown to be a staggering 30cm tall! Additionally, we have carefully examined the complex network of the roots that have entangled themselves around the cotton wool and have discussed and completed a range of activities to understand what plants need to help them grow big and strong. Year 1 have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the life cycle of a bean plant where they have expressed their excitement through discussions and various activities. 

In 2MH this week we have continued looking and learning about food. In DT we made Rocky Road biscuits in groups with our teacher. We had to follow a recipe and take it in turns to follow each instruction carefully. We also learnt about food hygiene and where different foods come from around the world.  In English we have been writing instructions on how to create a medicine just like in George’s Marvellous Medicine. We had to use imperative verbs to tell people exactly what to do. In Maths we have been working outside and solving lots of problems.  ​

 This half term so far has been an exciting one for 3CB! Last week we got to practice a number of different skills such as juicing, chopping and straining while making our very own fruit smoothie. We had a selection of fruit to choose from and in our group chose the fruit we all liked best. It was very messy but we created a lot of juice (from some fruits more than others) and got to try it at the end of the lesson.  

This week we also made our own salt dough, there was flour everywhere! We spent a long time kneading our dough to ensure it was the right consistency as we were using to it to make a model. We were modelling a coastline which we have been learning all about. We were discussing how erosion effects our coastline and using this knowledge to create an arch, a headland, a stack, a stump and a beach. 

In 3DL’s English lessons this week we have been writing informal letters using the features we learnt about last week. As our class book this term is The Iron Man, we have been writing letters between the main characters; The Iron Man and Hogarth. We needed to imagine we were the character so needed to think about how they would feel and what they would say to their friend. 

In Science we have been learning about different food groups. We used the Eatwell Plate to plan a balanced diet for one day. We found it quite tricky sorting some of the food into one group because many foods can fit into more than one group.  

We made a fruit smoothie in DT, which was fun because we didn’t use a blender. Instead we pureed the fruit through a sieve after cutting it up using the bridge technique. We enjoyed tasting our finished product but found it was hard work for not a lot of smoothie! 
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In RE we have been comparing religious stories from Christianity and Judaism. In groups we acted out the story of Passover. We looked at how the stories relate to the festivals of Christmas, Easter and Pesach. In addition, we thought about how these festivals are celebrated by their followers. ​