![]() Hello everyone, We hope this weekly blog finds you all well! The sun is out and it looks like it's going to be a fantastic weekend for the Summer Fayre. Do please try to attend, even for half an hour, the draw prizes are incredible! So this week in school we have celebrated our Festival of Hope. The focus on Monday was MFL (modern foreign languages), Tuesday Science, Wednesday Art, Thursday, P.E. and Friday Music. Each day we shared with the children, our hopes for them for the future with regards to that area of the curriculum and undertook collaborative activities around it. On Monday Year 6 hosted a morning of French activities in the hall and in the classroom focusing on French games and a pet shop. On Tuesday (due to the power cut) our science activities were scuppered so we made the most of the morning preparing for the Summer fayre and music concert. On Wednesday we took part in a collaborative piece of art and each child designed a feather to be part of very special wings, each inscribed with a wish or saying about the significance of having hope. On Thursday we took part on our Sports Day and supported KS1 with theirs and finally on Friday we took part and performed in the whole school music concert. I would like to congratulate all the year sixes on their fabulous sports day! They were positive, keen, resilient, cooperative and there were smiles all round. It was lovely to see them cheering each other on. During the afternoon, they supported Key Stage One with their sports day and it was commented on how polite they all were. I witnessed them awarding the youngest members of sports day with their stickers after every race and it was heart-warming. They were so kind, patient and encouraging. I was incredibly proud. Well done. To end the week, we had our first music concert since the dreaded pandemic. It was so good to have parents in again and to be able to perform live. Our small class have been a bit shy about performing musically but they definitely pulled it out of the bag on Friday. Check out the performances on our Dojo page if you missed it! As we come to the end of our school year with two weeks remaining the children still have lots to look forward to including a whole school forest day, end of year celebration and leavers assembly with awards. Please return your cream tea invites as soon a possible! Thank you. Look forward to seeing you at the summer fair tomorrow. Here are some photographs of our week together! Hello everyone and welcome to this week's blog. hope you've all had a good week and have had the opportunity to fin out a bit more about your child's next stage of education especially if your child is moving on to Okehampton College.
Maths We began our final unit of maths teaching which is about the properties of shape. This week, we focussed on measuring and drawing angles using a protractor. The children are much more confident now using these and can use their knowledge of acute, obtuse, right and reflex angles to ensure their measurements and drawings are accurate. Leavers' Book This week, we have been writing our own profiles for our Leavers' book as well as taking photographs and interviewing staff across the school. Every child will receive one of these lovely keepsakes at the end of the year which is kindly paid for by FONTS (Friends of North Tawton School). Quad Kids On Thursday, I had the pleasure of taking 2 of our Year sixes, along with other children from Year three, four and five who had qualified, to the Quad Kids Final in Tavistock. The weather stayed fair (mostly) and our children competed with determination, positivity and fairness. Official results will be announced next week but we certainly won some of our heats and looked to have done relatively well against some tough competition. The children were all a credit to the school and it was a really enjoyable morning and a good experience for them using the great facilities at Tavistock college. On Friday, we celebrated Rainbow day with the rest of the school, celebrating inclusion and diversity and next week we will be having our 'Festival of Hope' culminating in Sports Day on Thursday and a music concert on Friday. Have a great weekend everyone. What a fantastic week! The children have scaled heights; walked across high, wobbly bridges; paddled, knelt and stood on surfboards; built sand cities with tunnels leading to the sea; slid down slides, screamed on scary rides and pedalled on boats. And ate the odd ice-cream! The children were a real credit to the school and have all pushed themselves beyond their own comfort zones. They have shown resilience, friendship, team work and courage. And had a really good time! Here are some photos for you to see what they got up to on their week! Hello Year Six Parents/Carers,
We hope this weekly blog finds everyone well and enjoying the wonderful spell of glorious sunny weather! The children have been on top form this week and are working hard in all areas of their learning, especially with the thought of the Year 6 activity week arriving next week! They all seem so excited, which is fantastic to see and there is very much a positive vibe in the classroom. English The children have enjoyed a short storying writing opportunity this week. I have been impressed with their vocabulary and imagination and I can see the progress they have made in their use of grammar and punctuation to structure their writing. They are now continuing with their research for an information text about the human body, which they have thoroughly enjoyed and got to grips with. Each child was able to chose a certain 'system' (circulatory/digestive etc) to research and create their page about. Maths The children have come to the end of their learning focusing on ratio. It has been a really interesting two weeks as at the beginning of the unit, lots of children said they felt a bit daunted, needed support with the language used and needed some time to get to grips with what they were doing. However, that has definitely changed as they all seem confident to tackle problems based around this. After activity week the children will commence a short unit of learning around shape and space. Computing On Monday, the children finished making their games using variables in Scratch. We have some very proficient users of this coding programme in our class who were happy to act as 'experts' and help other less proficient members of the class (like Mrs Ware!). Afterwards, the children had the opportunity to play each other's games and to give their peers some feedback on them. Life Skills We have begun our lessons on Relationships and Sex Education. After the introductory lesson the children have been able to overcome their feelings of embarrassment and have been mature and sensible when discussing puberty and how it affects those going through it. Science We are studying diet and lifestyle in our final science unit. Our first lesson focussed on the seven nutrients we need to have a balance in our diet to maintain healthy bodies. I hope to be able to allow the children to plan and prepare a healthy meal before the end of term if time allows. P.E. A wonderfully hot and sunny P.E. session with our Saints coach Mr Berry took place this week. The children took part in a variety of athletics style activities and had to record their scores/distances/times in order to work on improving them. Activities ranged from hurdles to discuss! We will miss our Saints session next week due to our activity week, and the following week due to transition to Okehampton college, but rest assured we will be putting in lots of P.E practice when we can, before our Sports day: which for KS2 will take place on the morning of Thursday 8th July! Write this in your diary now! History We have finally completed our learning about Twentieth Century Conflict and I have to say I feel the children have learned so much! They completed their end of unit task by designing an information page about the question:" Was World War 2 Inevitable?" and the majority of the children have really enjoyed this. They have said this has been their favourite history and geography learning throughout the year! We hope to move onto looking at 'Globalisation' in Geography after activity week! French This week in French we have recapped undertaking a conversation in a pet shop using the vocabulary we have been practising this term. We hope you all have a fantastic weekend and the children come to school on Monday eager and prepared for their week ahead. Regular updates have been added to the Class Dojo, such as the itinerary for the week, with those all important timings. Please do not hesitate to contact us via the office or Class Dojo if you have an urgent question, however I feel you should be well prepared! Lets hope for some lovely sunshine to add to those final memories of primary school. Thank you all for your support. I am sure there will be lots of wonderful photos in nest week's edition! Miss Ruby and Mrs Ware Good afternoon everyone,
We hope this class blog finds you all well after the excitement of the Jubilee Celebrations. We have had a busy week back in school and here are some of our learning highlights to keep you updated! Forest Schools We had a great afternoon on Tuesday in our second forest schools session. The children were challenged to create an obstacle course using items they found in the environment. The course also included a rope course which they helped Miss Prince to tie before the session began. They then had to use their own obstacle course in races against each other which required teamwork and cooperation as well as physical skills such as balance, coordination, fitness and strength. After that, we had to tidy up and return all the items to where we had found them - some were more keen than others to do this!! English Our English text 'Anatomy' links well to our science topic about organ systems and cells. We have started writing a shared information text all about the heart and will go on to write independently about other organ systems carrying out research and planning our own writing, pop ups and diagrams for a double page spread. Maths We have begun a totally new area of learning for the children in Year 6, and that is ratio. This week we have looked at what the ratio symbol looks like, how we use language around ratio and the link between ratio and fractions. We enjoyed using cubes to get used to talking about it, for example...for every 3 blue cubes there are 2 red ones. We will continue with ratio next week and will look at how it links to scale factors and relative size. History We are tying up the end of our history learning by focusing on the questions, 'what was life like in Germany during the 1930s?' and 'was the Second World War inevitable?' There has been lots of information to remember about this but also we have been thinking about our own opinions and ideas about this perios of history. Transition We had a visit from Mrs Hachipuka from Okehampton College on Wednesday and the children had an opportunity to ask lots of questions about life at secondary school. Questions ranged from which tutor groups they will be in, clubs and buses, lessons and social times, school uniform to what is the most serious sanction for bad behaviour!! Mrs H was happy to answer all their questions and welcomes any further questions you or they may have. The website may answer many of your questions but if there is anything else you can contact her directly or send your questions to us and we will field them on. By the end of the session the children seemed happier and were feeling more excited about this important transition. Okehampton College Year 6 Transition Information - OKEHAMPTON COLLEGE We have lots of exciting events coming up for the children, and we look forwards to sharing more of our learning with you. This week's star of the week is Kit, who has showed great maturity, positivity and has listened well to feedback! Well done Kit, we are proud of you. Have a wonderful weekend and we will see you next week. Miss Ruby and Mrs Ware. Good afternoon everyone, we hope this blog finds you well. Here is a brief update on learning this week!
English The children have really enjoyed reading and imitating Flossie Albright's secret World War 2 diary. They have learnt from more personal stories from World war 2 to complement their learning in history and have been able to write in the role of a child living through this turbulent time in history. The children are working really hard to proofread and perfect their writing and to show evidence of all the year six standards of writing. We will soon have to make a final teacher assessment of their writing which has to be then submitted officially. Maths We have come to the end of our unit on area, perimeter and volume and what a difference a couple of weeks makes! All the children have made great progress in this area and have tackled the problems they have encountered very well. Next week we begin ratio and proportion. Science This week the children learnt about animal and plant cells and their similarities and differences. To support this unit of work about life processes, cells and organ systems, the children have been growing sunflowers so that they can observe their growth and the other life processes over time. As an extra bit of fun I have promised a prize for the tallest/best sunflower. They will be bringing these home for half term and can bring back after half term or at the end of term for the final judging! - No cheating now!! Life skills Our lesson this week was all about drug awareness: the risks associated with using any type of drug and identifying some of the risks and effects of drug use. They were able to analyse the level of risk in different situations, identifying that drugs can affect people in different ways. We discussed how, for some people, drug use can become an unhealthy habit that can be difficult to break and about the support available to help people and where to report any concerns they have. After half term we will begin our lessons on relationships and sex education Quad Games and PE The children thoroughly enjoyed their 'speed cricket' game on the field this week. This saw them pairing up and getting 3 balls each to score as many runs as possible before the next pair took over. Winners were Ollie and Rowan, followed by Jason and Ralfie. It was a lesson of running, throwing and cheering. On Friday morning in the glorious sunshine the children took part in OCRA's Quad games. This consisted of four events: a sprint, a long distance run, a long jump and a javelin style throw. The four girls and four boys with the most points overall from Years 5 and 6 will go on to represent us in the finals in July, so watch this space! The OCRA coaches were very complimentary about our children and said they had seen huge improvements in fitness, resilience and most importantly enjoyment. We have a great team spirit in Sycamore class, something of which both Mrs Ware and I are very proud of. French The children's letters to the school in Blangy Chateau in Normandy have been sent off! We look forward to receiving a reply! The focus of today's lesson was to use their past knowledge of animals and opinions, numbers and greetings to buy a pet from a pet shop. Today there was a huge emphasis on speaking and listening as the children were introduced to new phrases and also some new French culture: using euros and noting how the cost of something is written. They did very well with this and we have some lovely video clips of the children having a go! We hope you all have a wonderful half term break, enjoy the Jubilee celebrations and may we hope for some more glorious sunshine. When the children return we have an exciting, but incredibly packed final 7 weeks of Primary School life. Transition will be made a priority for all children and we have the much anticipated activity week, sports events, Festival of hope and many more! One incredibly important date for your diary will be the Year 6 Leavers Assembly, you won't want to miss it! So write it in your diaries now! Friday 22nd July (we think this will happen during the morning). We would love to see as many family members there as possible to share this special occasion. Happy half term, we return on Tuesday 7th June 2022! Take care and thank you. Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby ![]() Hello everyone, We hope this finds you all well and looking forwards to the weekend! As per usual, the children have had another busy week and this week has seen a return to the usual routine/timetable that we have followed for so long. In English we are reading 'My Secret War Diary' by Flossie Albright, and we are looking at writing diary entries in the style of the author, to fit the time period the book is based in (1939-1945). The children have shown great enthusiasm for this book so far and have really got learning about life in WW2. In Maths we have begun a short unit on area, perimeter and volume. We have focused on finding the area of rectangles, rectilinear shapes and finding the area of triangles. We will continue with this unit next week. In History we have looked at the questions, "Was the Treaty of Versailles Fair?" and "How did Hitler rise to Power in the 1930s?" As you can see, these questions this week will link the end of WW1 to the beginning of WW2 and the children have gained an insight to how they link. They particularly enjoyed learning about 'The Big Three', and how their decisions about repercussions on Germany led to the collapse of the state. They were asked to consider questions such as, 'was Germany solely responsible for the war?' and 'how did the repercussions affect the people living in Germany?'. As part of this history unit, the children have also gained an insight into how Europe has changed geographically/politically since the early 1900s. They are so keen to know more about this and were eager to take part in history this week, asking if we could do it all day! In Science the children have investigated the question, "What are organ systems, organs, tissues and cells?" The children learnt that a cell is the basic unit of an organism and cells work with other cells to do a job, forming a tissue, for example muscle tissue. They learnt that tissues work with other tissues to do a job forming organs e.g. the heart (muscle tissue and fat tissue). This then led onto organs and how they work with other organs to do a job forming organ systems e.g. the circulatory system. They then discovered that organ systems work together to form an organism. In P.E the children have Mr Berry teaching them some more 'cricketing' skills, before using them in a match next week! It was lovely to see them all taking part and enjoy the fast paced atmosphere! This week in French there was great excitement in the class, as the children learnt about the local primary school in Blangy le Chateau, in Normandy in France (who North Tawton is twinned with) and discovered they would be writing letters to the children there to make pen pals! They used the knowledge they had learnt about their birthdays, ages, names, pets and opinions to write a brief introductory letter that will be sent off in half term. As you can see from the photos, the children participated in this with confidence and eagerness! Well done Year Six! On Tuesday the children experienced Forest school for the first time this term. This was a great afternoon of den building, team work, problem solving and resilience. All key skills to have. It's fair to say the children enjoyed it. As you know Mrs Ware and I share the class and everything that goes with it. However, one thing we don't share, are our class story books (class novel). We are both really passionate about children developing a love of reading from an early age and try to immerse them in different types of texts, written by different authors. We both love reading! The story that we are sharing on my days is Wolf Hollow, which focuses on a young girl; Annabelle and her relationship with a new girl Betty. When Betty goes missing suspicion falls on a man called Toby and Annabelle has to do everything in her power to stop the town turning against him. The children always listen so well during this time and we have great discussions about what has happened and what they think will happen! Here are some photos so you can see some of the exciting things we have been doing this week! Have a lovely weekend, we will see you on Monday! Miss Ruby and Mrs Ware ![]() Happy Friday everyone and what a week it has been! The children have absolutely excelled themselves this week, with their maturity, compassion and resilience throughout a week of SATS. They started off every morning with breakfast club in the school hall, where they enjoyed cereals, toast, pancakes, fruit juice and fruit before heading to the playground for some early morning exercise. I still believe this was the best part of the day for them all. Watching them eat together, talk, take turns and enjoy each others company brought a real lump to my throat as they have built such strong relationships despite being a small class. After the indulgence of breakfast and some fresh air came a different test each day. SPaG on Monday, reading on Tuesday and maths on Wednesday and Thursday; where the children calmly and maturely approached each paper with an air of quiet confidence. Watching them made us all so proud of them. During the afternoons they have undertaken a D.T project have created their own playgrounds. This involved designing and researching a playground, creating a footprint and then making it using a whole range of materials and apparatus such as saws, glue guns, bench hooks, doweling, and lolly sticks just to name a few. They all thoroughly enjoyed this and it was so nice to see the different skills the children have coming to light! Please see the gallery below for photos! Friday saw us take a trip to the park and pump track with bikes and scooters...putting our bike ability skills to the test! Ice creams in the sunshine, climbing, hiding, catching, chasing, football, Secret seeker (a game they invented today), laughing and enjoying our time together after a week of hard work. Year Six-you have made us very proud this week! Well done. Enjoy a wonderful weekend together and we will see you all on Monday morning! We hope you all enjoyed the extended weekend and made the most of it! Four week days to cram lots of learning in, instead of five! We have spent the time in English and Maths revisiting areas of learning the children in preparation for next week. They have all really risen to the challenge of identifying areas of learning they each want to get better at, and have grown in maturity in a short period of time. It is lovely to see responsible, resilient and positive children. We wish them every success next week and they each deserve to get the results they are capable of. Science This week we learnt about the organ systems in the body and the important functions they carry out. We also learnt that plants too, have organ systems such as the root system, shoot system and reproductive system. To support our learning about cells, and particularly life processes, we did some planting as part of our science lesson . Firstly, we planted cress seeds so we can observe the life processes of growth, sensitivity and movement. We also planted some sunflower seeds to see who can grow the tallest to celebrate the appearance of the sun lately! Some children also wanted to bring some home to try and grow - if they use the pots they were given they will need to put some drainage holes in the bottom! Computing We are continuing to learn about variables and how they can be used in games. We coded a project involving two variables. The children learnt that variables have a name and a value and that the value can change during the operation of the program but that the name stays the same. History We have continued to learn about World war One and in particular the question, "Why were so many lives lost on the Western Front?". We recapped last weeks lesson about factors that caused the First World War and then went on to look at the Western Front, weaponry, life in the trenches, naval blockades, major battles and propaganda. The children were absolutely fascinated about this, in particular life in the trenches, and have asked to learn more about it. They were horrified to learn about the conditions and the disease, 'trench foot'. The children have been incredibly mature when discussing this topic and have asked great questions. I love the fact they are curious and they want to know more! Next lesson we will learn about the Treaty of Versailles. P.E The children has P.E. with Mr Berry again this week and they began recapping cricket skills. In particular, batting and bowling. They really enjoyed this session and they were eager and cooperative! Well done Year 6. We want to wish all the children a relaxing and happy weekend. Enjoy the warm sunshine, get some fresh air, sleep well and enjoy. We will see the children on Monday morning at 8:15 am for breakfast club in the hall. Thank you. Miss Ruby and Mrs Ware Hello and wishing you all a warm welcome to the summer term 2022- the final term for your children at Primary school. This week across the curriculum we have took part in these areas of learning... REAL PE Now that we have finished swimming, we have an extra PE session at school. We have began our second unit from our REAL PE scheme which is all about using creative skills in PE. On Tuesday, we played seated volleyball and practised seated balance skills. In this unit the children will be able to change tactics, rules or tasks to make activities more fun or more challenging. Saints PE This session now happens on a Thursday morning with our new coach, Mr Berry. He was very impressed with the children's behaviour and sportsmanship this week and is looking forwards to the next few weeks with us. Science Our unit this half term is all about cells in living things. This week we learnt about the 7 life processes which all living things (organisms) have. See if your child can remember them all using the acronym MRS NERG. Later in this unit we will be learning about the different organ systems in animals and plants. History Our unit this half term is called Twentieth Century Conflict and it focuses on aspects of World War 1 and World War 2. The children are really keen to get into this and loved our first lesson. This lesson focused on the question, "What caused the First World War to break out?" The children learnt about the unification of Germany, the international treaties that existed between different countries and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. They were really involved in our discussions and were really keen to know more about this time period but also the geographical and political changes in Europe over the last 100 years. Life Skills We are learning about mental health; what it means and how we can take care of it. During this lesson we explained what is meant by 'mental health'; identified everyday behaviours that can help support our mental and physical health and recognised that we can take care of our mental health as well as our physical health. The children always impress me with their understanding and thoughtful contributions during these lessons. Computing We are using Scratch in this unit of work all about using variables in games. Many of the children are very proficient in using Scratch already but this unit of work allows them to explore the concept of variables to make sure they understand how and why we use them and relate them to everyday contexts. The unit also focuses on the importance of design. French This week the children were introduced to the French alphabet and how to ask the question, "how do you spell your name?". They really enjoyed learning the letters through song and played a game where they had to ask each other to spell their names in French using the French alphabet. Art This week we are focusing on the artist Susannah Blaxhill who is a botanical artist. We have focused on learning to draw poppy heads in her style (linked with our history work too). Congratulations to Eva who is our star of the week! We hope you all have a fantastic 'extended bank holiday weekend' and spend some quality time together. Mrs Ware and Miss Ruby |
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July 2024
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