Phase Two – Page 7 – Connecting school and home

4th October 2019

Year Five become Sports Leaders

Another week done… this term is flying by. Just like our Science learning in Year 5! This week we learnt about the Greenwich Meridian and the different time zones around the World. Time really does fly when you’re having fun.

We also really enjoyed our visit from WHS last Thursday and are looking forward to our visit there on Thursday 10^th October 2019.

One of the perks of being in Year 5 is the opportunity to be a Sports Leader. Our training and preparation is well underway and we had a great session with the Merton Sports Leader representative last week. We learnt how to set up a drill and how to explain and demonstrate it effectively.

This week we planned our own drills and created our own sports cards showing these.

We’re looking forward to trying out our drills soon. We’ll be leading lunch time clubs and helping Year 2 and 3 with their PE in no time.

Have a great weekend!

Miss Dyer and Year Five 🙂

27th September 2019

Reading Mania

Reading fever has well and truly hit Year Six. Have a look at what we’ve been reading and come and ask us about our books, we might have a perfect recommendation for you..

Some of us have so enjoyed the first book that we’ve immediately started the next in the series!

Some of us are reading the same book!

These two were recommended these books by their friends.

Some of us prefer to have the actual book, but some of us prefer to read on a kindle. What do you prefer?

27th September 20192nd October 2019

School Council 2019-2020

This week we elected our School Councillors, congratulations to our newest members of the School Council team:

Year Four :

Year Five:

Charlotte and Reiss

Year Six:

Henrietta and Sam

We look forward to hearing about all of their wonderful ideas throughout the year, so remember to look out for what the House Captains have been up to in the coming weeks!

27th September 201927th September 2019

Year Six

Good Afternoon all,

This week in Year Six has been a roller coaster -with everything from House Captain presentations to one-eyed giants. I know that the children and House Teachers (including myself,) very much enjoyed hearing the presentations of all the House Captain candidates. The children presented to their houses confidently and responsibly, taking into account all of the personality traits that are needed to be a successful House Captain. These character traits were evident in all who went forward for the role, but only two captains can have the leading role in each house. So, our House Captains for 2019-2020 are:

Cecil: Faris and Ollie

Churchill: Helena and Shiann

Spencer: Kalvin and Talia

Wilberforce: Tarran and Timo

Congratulations!

Once House Captains have been allocated, many other important school roles can be assigned. These are essential jobs in order to achieve the excellent running of our school. Our Year Six school roles for the term are:

Stars and Charmers Computer leads: Adriaan and Joel

Stars and Charmers Display leads: Liz and Olva

Blog Team: Milia and Katya

School Botanist: Joel

House Merit Lead: Lily-Grace

Tech Team: Jai, Abbeer, Cammy and Reece

Art Monitors: Calvin and Liz

Paddy’s Assistant: Sarah

During our English lessons, we have been reading about Odysseus’s visit to Polyphemus’s cave. After being repulsed but certainly intrigued by the story, we wrote our own scripts portraying the narrative.

Here are some of our scripts (let us know what you think):

Cyclops Sebastian

Cyclops Ben

Polyphemus Ollie

Odysseus and The Cyclops Helena

Despite the rain, we still had an excellent PE lesson with Paddy in the hall. Well done to Spencer House who won the indoor games this week!

The Year Six Curriculum Map for Autumn is ready and can now be found here.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and are well rested and ready for next week, which will undoubtedly be another busy one!

Miss M and Year Six 🙂

27th September 201927th September 2019

Year Five

As we approach the end of September, Year Five have been keeping themselves very busy. This Thursday we warmly welcomed Wimbledon High students into our class. They were here to help lead some science experiments all about our Space Topic.

“They were really friendly, I enjoyed working with them.” Rocco

“We did an experiment where we span a ball around our heads on a rope. This was to investigate how planets orbit. We found that the closer the ball is on the rope, the quicker it orbits. So, the closer a planet is to something, the quicker its orbit.” Harry and Liana

The Topic Overview for Autumn term can be found here.

Next week, we have our second Sport Leaders course, but more about that next week! I hope you all have a restful and enjoyable weekend.

Miss Dyer and Year Five 🙂

20th September 2019

Happy Saint Matthews Day!

Saturday 21st September 2019

Did you know that the name Matthew means a gift from God?

We celebrated St Matthews Day early with an extra afternoon playtime on the field. It was so lovely to see all the children playing together on this special day for our school.

20th September 2019

Year 6

Hello All,

It is been so wonderful having you back in my class again Year 6. Although there are lots of similarities to the class I said goodbye to in July 2015, I am pleased to report that a lot of growing up has happened since then and every day I am more and more impressed with your wisdom, kindness and friendship. It has also been great getting to know those of you who have joined since I taught in Year One, so thank you for welcoming me. You have tackled the first three weeks of term like pros. Being at the top of the school comes with a lot of responsibility and so many of you are rising to the challenge. One challenge that many of you faced this week, was the interviews for Head Boy and Head Girl. For those of you who applied, your letters of application were very well thought through and Mr Quinn and Mrs Sullivan have informed me that all of you came across excellently in the interview. I have no doubt that it was a very tricky decision. However, the role can only go to two children, so I say a huge congratulations to Henrietta and Sam, I know that you both will take on this important role with humbleness, integrity and enthusiasm.

Our Fantastic Head Boy and Head Girl Candidates

But the week has not simply been filled with deciding important roles, earlier in the week we published our Lonely Planet guides to the Greek landscape. These are now being proudly displayed on the wall and I am becoming increasingly tempted to book my next holiday. Here are a few of the guides that were created (thank you to Mrs Carroll for the super display):

Year 6 has also been rocking out this week with our new music topic: Classic Rock. We have been listening to a range of rock classics but our main focus has been learning how to sing ‘Living on a Prayer’ by Jon Bon Jovi. I know that Year 5 are also learning this song, so year 6 get practising because just before half-term we need to win the ‘Phase 2 Rock Out.’ Here is the link to the song below, so you can bring out those air guitars at home!

Anyway I best get off, the Rugby World Cup starts today and I want to watch the opening ceremony! Have a great weekend and see you on Monday!

Miss M 🙂

20th September 201921st September 2019

Choosing a reading book … where to start?

I know that it can be impossible to know where to start when it comes to choosing a reading book, but last year I discovered the lists of ‘100 books for Y3/4 and Y5/6.’ These are lists of recommended books created by the brilliant Ashley Booth and adapted by the wonderful Mrs P .

The lists are full of great texts: classic novels, books which came out when I was at school and which I devoured, and some debuts by brilliant authors currently publishing amazing books for children each year. Lots of the books are the first in a series so pupils can get hooked on a certain character or setting and read sequel after sequel. There are a few books which overlap between lists and some non-fiction or poetry books included. It’s important that children can read books appropriate to them, so the lists are called Red (Y3/4) and Blue (Y5/6) rather than named by year group.

It’s also important pupils know that this is not a challenge – 100 books in Y5/6 would be 1 book a week. Very few pupils (and teachers) would manage this. Instead, we have stressed that these lists have great recommendations for books to read.

To enhance pupils’ engagement with the 100 books lists, Year 6 children are members of a weekly book club. This is an opportunity for them to join in and discuss the books on and off the list. This means we have the whole of Year 6, as well as the teachers, communicating about books and reading. There is a real reading buzz in the Year 6 classroom: we take selfies with our latest books, discuss each other’s books as well as give reviews and recommendations (with no spoilers!). Book club is something that we are hoping to role out across the whole of Phase 2 in the coming months, but even if you’re not part of a book club, I hope we can keep the reading momentum going throughout the year and encourage more children to find a book they love.

Please note that the books in red text are the books we read in class, so careful not double up and read them at home too!

100 books to read Red

100 books to read Blue

I hope this is useful and I look forward to hearing about the books you are enjoying! If you are particularly enjoying one of the books on the list, why don’t you comment below so that other people could read it too?

Miss M 🙂

20th September 2019