The final push…

SATs week is nearly upon us…. We are VERY prepared now and had a practice in the hall on Wednesday so that all the staff and children could experience what it’s going to be like next week. Year 6… you have NOTHING to worry about. Just go in and do your best, like you always do.

In the meantime, it’s going to be a boooootiful weekend so I hope you all get outside and enjoy the sunshine. Good luck to the Pearces who are taking part in a sponsored walk in Arundel on Sunday to raise money for the charity that helped care for lovely Max. If anyone would like to sponsor them, I am sure Emma P will happily provide details. It’s for a very, very good cause.

A lesson in kindness

We often chat in class about the need to be kind to others and, especially as the children will soon be starting at their new schools and meeting a huge range of new people, allowing everyone to have their say became a subject of discussion this week.

I told them that, when training to become a teacher, one of the really important lessons I had to learn was to give people the time ( indeed, the chance) to reply to questions, even it took them a little time to summon up the courage or to get their words in order before they spoke. I then showed them the following clip of the actor Michael Sheen being asked questions by a group of people. The clip, I believe, absolutely sums up the art of kindness and inclusion…. If the link doesn’t work, just google ‘Michael Sheen Leo’ …

https://youtu.be/n8-f07KT_jo?si=728Uz5NqE9p2V4wY

Chortle!

Although it is certainly true that Year Six are having to work very hard at the moment, we still have plenty of time for fun. The class were given some instructions to read and, like the fabulous, obedient people that they are, they followed those instructions precisely!! Sorry, Olivia and Eleanor… it was just so funny to watch!

Plaistow to Plaistow

Oh goodness, we have just had another wonderful visit to ‘the other Plaistow’ in London. Year 4 and Year 6 headed off by train and tube to see our friends at Plaistow Primary School, Newham. We had such fun meeting one another, seeing their lovely school and eating and playing together.

Personally, I find this trip provides the most heart-warming moments. We experience that initial feeling of being ‘different’, but then we realise we have so much in common and just want to make friends. We adults sometimes have so much to learn from children!

Thank you to all the brilliant parents who helped us make this trip such a success. We couldn’t do it without you!

Building bridges…. Literally!

Year 6 have been learning about different types of bridges and, today, have been given a challenge. In groups, they have been given 25 paper straws of 40cm in length, two large sheets of newspaper and 2m of masking tape.

They have then had to design and build a bridge long enough and strong enough to span a 40cm chasm! Later, we shall test them ( using weights) to see whose is the strongest!

Deluxe?!?!

Year 6 have been trying to perfect their instruction writing this week. We started off by writing a set of instructions to make a ‘deluxe sandwich’… This proved to be very interesting as only two people mentioned the use of a knife! We then followed one another’s instructions with disastrous results…. The photos give you an insight!

We then learnt how to improve our instruction writing, had another go and Mrs Powell felt very reassured that we didn’t in fact all come from homes where we spread butter with our hands!

Growl!

Year 6 have had great fun learning about the painting, Surprised, by Henri Rousseau. We have made leaf mobiles using a variety of artistic techniques, and then, inspired by Aboriginal art, we made tiger faces. They look fabulous. The class will be able to explain WHY we looked at Aboriginal art at our art gallery on Monday. Everyone has also written a haiku poem linked with the artwork. Well done, Year 6!

Arctic training

Year 6 started their Arctic training for their new Frozen Kingdom project today. We learnt that explorers pull tyres to replicate pulling their sledges across the ice fields. This helps them build up the strength and stamina needed for when they start their exploration.

Thanks to Mr Relf, we were able to use some big tyres to set up a relay in the playground. Some of us found it much easier than others ( I’m honestly not thinking of you, Miss IM!!).

We hope to tweak this experiment, using two or three tyres and working in teams! Our thigh muscles are going to get HUGE!!!

Bought v Homemade?!

In Year 6, we have been comparing the nutritional values, ingredients and taste/appearance of shop-bought v homemade whole meal bread. Homemade won on all counts ( although not quite a total landslide win - a few members of Y6 preferred the floppy shop-bought bread to the loaf made by Mrs P’s 89 year old parents!!). The most striking difference was in the number of ingredients - 15 for the purchased loaf compared to 5 for the homemade version!!

Recycling can be fun

Year 6 enjoyed spending time helping Letty sort our playground recycling bin into the various different types of materials to aid recycling. To calm down the various squeals, children wore gloves to help sort out the bin’s contents and they all worked really well together to separate all the different packets and wrappers. Thank you to Letty for giving your time freely.

Fairy/pixie/elf dens….

This week has been all about the school play in Year 6 but we have still been doing lots of work. We have been spending time carefully evaluating lots of historical sources in our Great Escape project; we have been learning about the terribly sad bombing of Petworth School during the war ( there is a graveyard in Petworth where you can visit the graves of the children and staff who died. It is a very poignant place - it is just behind The Stonemasons Inn, and there is a memorial near the pub too)… and we have been making doors for fairy/pixie/elf dens to be hidden in the trees around the playground. It has been really lovely seeing the class work so nicely together and some of us are trying hard not to think about the fact that we have only one week left together…

Plaistow, London, visits Plaistow, West Sussex

Year 6 had a fabulous day on Monday when our friends from Year 6 at Plaistow Primary School visited us. After tours of the school plus a few ice-breaker games, we went on a walk to the woods. Stiles were met with intrigue and confusion! We then did some fire lighting on the school field and enjoyed making ‘s’mores together. For the adults watching, it was just wonderful seeing children from the two Plaistows playing together as if they’d known one another for years.

A bundle of trundles!

Year 6 grabbed all the trundle wheels and meter sticks this week for maths outdoors; they were challenged to produce an accurate, scaled plan of the school playground. This caused quite a lot of confusion at first but, after lots of detailed measuring, they have produced some fabulous plans which will go on display in the classroom.

Sun… and fun!

Year 6 we’re blessed with fabulous weather for our residential trip to PGL on the Isle of Wight this week. How luck are we?

The children really pushed themselves to try things that they didn’t think they could do. Both Ms Smith and Mrs Powell were hugely impressed by everyone’s behaviour and attitude, and we even managed to get everything packed up on the final day without Mrs Powell’s stress levels elevating too much!!

Lots of people were open to trying different food, sleeping in funny bunk beds in wooden cabins and generally getting along with everyone else. We are super proud of you and loved having the opportunity to spend time with you all. Well done, Badgers! xx

SATs are over!!!!

Year 6 celebrated in true doughnut style when they emerged from their final SATs paper this morning! We are all hugely proud of all their hard work and are really looking forward to getting stuck into our World War Two topic now. We have lots of things to look forward to in the final few weeks of Year 6. Mrs Powell is just looking forward to having a sleep without waking up thinking about grammar or algebra!