Spring 1

What a lovely and exciting half term we have had in school. The children have celebrated Healthy Schools Week and enjoyed covering all their learning from the Relationships and Sex Education curriculum. The children enjoyed a visit from Freddie Fit who worked hard training our current and new Play Leaders so that they can lead our Wake Up Shake Up sessions and play activities for our younger children at lunchtime.

Our Debating team were victorious at the Mossley Schools’ Partnership Debating Society this week where they argued against the notion “This house believes that the legal age to vote should be lowered to 16.’ Our team had worked hard to research all the pros and cons and they had a special well done mention from Mrs Matthews at Mossley Hollins for their teamwork. We are incredibly proud of our team – Jack, Lily N and Lucille.

Our Y5 and Y6 Athletics teams also did extremely well in the Tameside Athletics competition. They demonstrated great skill and fitness in a range of events and came in third place with only a couple of marks away from securing second place. Well done to our teams.

This week the children celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week and have been thinking about what it means to belong. Following our assembly on Monday the children chose a challenge for the week and had to think of a way they could help make someone else feel that they belong. They have also completed a range of activities linked to belonging.

In Nursery the children have been learning about Winter. They explored the snow at the beginning of term and enjoyed playing in it and making a snowman. They took part in our Healthy Schools Week and read the story of Handa’s Surprise. They enjoyed examining and tasting the different fruits that Handa had in her basket. 

This half term in Reception the children have been learning all about dinosaurs, with a focus on the story Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp. They have enjoyed exploring this topic through stories, play and imaginative activities. The children have also been learning about winter, observing seasonal changes on their winter walk and having fun playing in the snow. They have also learned about Valentine’s Day, sharing who is special to them and exploring how they can show love and kindness to others.

Year 1 have enjoyed exploring watercolours in Art and have created some super paintings. They have also been working hard making doubles and near doubles in maths. Finally, they have completed science experiments using their senses. 

This half term in Year 2 the children have been engaged in a range of exciting learning activities across the curriculum. In Science, they have been learning about the importance of healthy eating and personal hygiene. They examined a variety of food packaging and learnt how to use the traffic light system to make healthier choices. They also carried out a germ investigation to explore how quickly germs can spread from one person to another and were surprised by the results.

In Computing, the children have been using our new Bee-Bots to create their own algorithms and maps, developing their early programming skills. In English, they designed their own pirate dinosaurs and wrote non-chronological reports about them, based on the text Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs.

They’ve had a fantastic half term in Year 5 filled with creativity, learning and lots of enthusiasm! In English, the children thoroughly enjoyed their Twisted Tales unit. They loved re-enacting The Three Little Pigs, bringing the story to life with wonderful expression and teamwork. They also explored their new class book, The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, comparing it to the traditional tale and discussing the clever twists in the story. To finish the unit, they even used technology to create a video speech from the “Big Good Pig”; the children did an amazing job using persuasive language and performing confidently on camera!

In Design and Technology, the children became budding engineers by coding micro:bits to create their very own animal temperature monitors. The children showed great problem-solving skills and resilience as they worked through the coding challenges.

They also marked Children’s Mental Health Week with a series of thoughtful lessons focused on calming strategies and wellbeing. The class explored different ways to manage big feelings and designed their own posters to promote positive mental health. It has been a busy and rewarding half term, and we are so proud of all the children’s hard work and creativity!

In Year 6, as part of their science learning, the children have been looking at classification and the famous taxonomist Carl Linnaeus. They thought about how to categorise animals using a flow diagram and then extended their learning to the Linnaeus hierarchy, eventually inventing their own hybrid animal to classify using this ladder.

In maths this half term, the children have been exploring ratios before moving on to begin their decimals topic. They have used counters, cubes and practical activities such as games and baking to enhance their learning and understanding around this topic.