Our Primary students have started 2021 with enthusiasm and determination; excited to start new topics and ready to learn new things. In assemblies this week the children have been learning about hope and considered what they are hoping for this year – this ranged from hopes to get better at something, hopes for a pet, their hopes for future careers, and hopes for other people.
Year 1 have delved straight into poetry and have loved making their own dictionaries and looking up what unfamiliar words mean. In science they had fun designing their own wormery and are looking forward to building their very own real life wormery in the upcoming weeks.
Year 2 have been discovering characters’ feelings and behaviour through role play in their English lessons. In Geography, the children have been researching what is found beneath our feet and exploring the different layers of the earth.
Year 3 have also been studying poems; they eagerly read a poem about a monster eating their teacher and are keen to read more poems like this! Light and shadows is Year 3’s new topic and using a torch, a dark classroom and chalk they have created some wonderful silhouettes. They are hoping that the sun shines next week (and gets warmer!) so that they can do some experiments which include the sun.
Year 4’s have begun their new topic about the Ancient Greeks. They shared with each other all the things they already knew about this ancient civilisation and wrote down some questions about what they hope to learn. Questions ranged from how many gods and goddesses there were, to what they used to eat!
Year 5 have been focusing on their guided reading skills, seeing huge progress with their inferencing skills and have also enjoyed some creative writing too. In Maths they have continued their work on fractions, whilst also ‘brushing up’ on their quick-fire mental maths recall.
Year 6 English lessons have focused on reviewing grammar and establishing a strong knowledge base for parts of speech and sentence types, in order to progress the children’s writing to a more developed standard. This week they have also covered the main features of newspaper articles, and next week they will plan and create their own articles based on a historical event. As they cover a range of different text types, the aim is that they demonstrate a fluent use of variation in their writing, including sentence types, sentence starters, sentence lengths and vocabulary.
It has certainly been a busy week of learning for everyone and we hope that everyone enjoys a restful weekend before another exciting week at Britannica begins!
Katherine Mustoe
Vice-Principal and Head of Primary
