Topic – Design and Technology

We’ve been experimenting with different 3D shapes to find out which one is the strongest.

Through our testing, we discovered that the cylinder was the strongest individual shape—it held an impressive 26 books before collapsing.

Next, we each built a cylinder, then combined our cylinders as a group to test if a team structure could hold more books than a single one.

Together, our group’s structure held over 50 books!

Then we took it a step further and combined all the cylinders from every group to build a superstructure. Amazingly, this superstructure supported more than 80 books.

From our investigation, we learned that a strong, stable structure usually has three important features:

• Low height

• Wide base

• Flat base

We also found that adding more cylinders helped distribute the weight more evenly, allowing the structure to hold significantly more books.

Help at home: Can you remember the three key features to create a stong, stable structure?

Reception to Year 1 information meeting

As the weather becomes brighter and we near the end of the academic year you may be thinking about your child’s next steps as they journey into Year 1. Moving to Year 1 is perhaps a less significant change for children, and that’s because we’re a happy and healthy place to learn where we all know each other.

A zoom meeting for parent’s starts our transition process, here you will meet the Key Stage 1 staff and find out about the Year 1 curriculum.

The zoom meeting is on Monday 30 June at 6pm please follow the link that will be emailed to you.

The next step is for your child to spend some time in the Year 1 classrooms. They’ll meet the teachers and join in with the learning, they’ll get a taste of what it’s like to be in Year 1. The whole-school transition, later in July, completes the process, by spending a morning with their new class teacher.

This is a really exciting time of year, moving on and taking those next steps whilst continuing to strengthen the effective learning behaviours they have established in Reception.

Sharing a Shell

What a week to return! We’ve had a great week our focus book was Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson and the children took great delight reminding me of all the Julia Donaldson books we have read together.

We’ve continued our learning on coastal habitats this week, by taking a closer look at rockpools and some of the sea creatures you may find in them. We’ve worked as a team to make a class rockpool adding in crabs, seaweed, fish, sea anemone and bristleworms. Just like the characters in the story.

Maths; counting and recognising the pattern of the counting system

This week, we’ve revisited our some of our key counting skills. Here are some of the skills that we have practised:

• tagging each object in a group of up to 10 objects (1-to-1 correspondence)
• knowing number names to 10 and their order (stable order principle)
• knowing that the last number counted gives the total in the set (cardinal principle)
• counting up to 10 things that can’t be seen or tagged, such as jumps, hops, sounds, etc. (abstraction principle)
• understanding that the quantity remains the same when (up to 10) objects are counted in a different order (order irrelevance principle)
• developing strategies to keep track of what has and has not been counted (e.g. rearranging objects into a line, moving objects as they’re counted.)

Phonics 

Summer 2 week 3 has focused on:

Phase 4 words ending –s /s/
Phase 4 words ending –s /z/
Phase 4 words ending –es
Longer words

Poetry Picnic

This week’s poem is the traditional rhyming song- The Big Ship Sails

The big ship sails on the ally ally oh,
The alley ally oh,
The alley ally oh.
The big ship sails on the ally ally oh,
On the last day of September.

The captain said, ‘It will never, never do,
Never, never do,
Never, never do.’
The captain said, ‘It will never, never do,’
On the last day of September.

The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,
The bottom of the sea,
The bottom of the sea.
The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea,
On the last day of September.

Have a happy and healthy weekend and thank you as always for your support.

Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Mrs. Small and Mr. Smith

Junior Warrior

Well, what a fantastic afternoon our Year 6 children had on Friday. All of our Year 6 children completed the 3k (although it felt longer) Junior Warrior course that was lined with tricky, challenging and very muddy obstacles.

It was a superb way to celebrate our Year 6’s coming to the end of their time at St James’ – they displayed teamwork, support and camaraderie. Mrs Cairns and I were so proud of the children. A huge thank you to all the parents who helped with transporting the children to and from the event!

Philosophy Friday – 20.06.25

Philosophy is thinking deeply.

Every Friday, we start our day with some time to wonder and ponder.

We’ve a different question each week – there’s no obvious right/wrong answer and no underlying moral message. All children are given the opportunity to contribute their ideas and give reasons for their thoughts.

This question sparked some interesting discussion and debate.

I agree because family is everything to me.
– Izabella

I think the best thing in life is nature and that’s free.
– Athena

There are some good things in life that cost a lot of money.
– Woody

Friends are the most important thing and your family too. They’re both free.
– Arthur

Help at home by discussing this week’s Philosophy Friday question with your child.

Daniel and the Lions’ Den in RE

This week in RE, Year One have been learning about a very brave man called Daniel. We read the story of Daniel and the Lions’ Den and talked about how Christians believe that God sends messages and special people called prophets help to share them.

We thought about Daniel’s message and decided it was:
“Trust in God.”

The children made fantastic lion masks and enjoyed acting out the moment Daniel prayed to God in the lions’ den.
They also shared what their message to others might be if they were a prophet!

Class Novel

Year 3 are determined to finish our last class novel of the year by a well-loved classroom author, Onjali Rauf. Here’s the book, protected always by our loved Latin mouse – Minimus!

The Letter with the Golden Stamp puts us in the shoes of Audrey – a young girl with a lot to carry on her shoulders. Her mum is ill and it’s Audrey’s job to take care of her, and her two siblings, whilst keeping it all a big secret. But that’s not all. There’s a suspicious house across the street that might be spying on Audrey and her family.

At the moment in our novel, Audrey is trying to communicate with the stranger across the street. She’s received a scruffy note asking Audrey and friends to wash the dirty car outside the house for £2! Audrey is also busy trying to make sure her family have enough to eat, and shop keeper Mrs Davies and Mo the postman are helping her out.

Help at home: 

Audrey is currently doing something that is wrong (shoplifting), but she’s doing it for a caring reason. Talk to your child about whether her choice is ever ok, even in Audrey’s circumstances. Could Audrey go about her problems in another way? Who could she ask for help? Who could we ask for help in and out of school if we need it?

RE – Daniel and the Lions’ Den

In RE, we’re learning about messages.

Christians believe that God sends them messages through prophets. Stories in the Bible tell of prophets – inspired teachers who spread the word of God.

This week, we’ve read the story of Daniel and the Lions’ Den. The story teaches Christians about the importance of faith in God and that God will protect those who trust him.

The children enjoyed acting out the story and reflected maturely on the important of trust.

Help at home by discussing faith and trust with your child. What does trust look and feel like?

Living and Learning – I understand there are different types of families

Today, we explored how all families are unique in their own special ways.
We read The Great Big Book of Families by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith. After the story, we talked about an important question: Are all families the same?

We discovered that families can be very different:

Some people live with their grandparents instead of their mums.

Some families have pets.

Families celebrate different holidays and traditions.

Some families speak different languages at home.

Even though our families may look and live differently, we learned that what really matters is how much we care for one another.

We also shared ways we show love and care to our own families:

“I take care of my little sister by pushing her on the swing.”

“I cuddle my cats.”

“I give my sister her milk.”

“I play with my dog at my uncle’s house.”

“I make things for my dad and sister.”

It was a lovely reminder that every family is special and caring for each other is what makes a family strong.

Living and Learning – Relationships

To start this half term, our Living and Learning focus has been relationships. We’ve learnt about 3 key areas:

• respecting differences between people
• understanding that we all have different needs
• understanding that there are different types of families

Respecting differences

In this session, we explored the differences between boys and girls.

Sometimes, stories, TV and people say that ‘boys do this’ and ‘boys do that’. The children were able to demonstrate their knowledge that boys and girls can do the same tasks and enjoy the same things.

We also learnt about the PANTS rule. The key points are:

• pants are private
• always remember your body belongs to you
• no means no
• talk about secrets that upset you
• speak up – someone can help

Help at home by discussing the PANTS rule with your child. Explore the resources on the NSPCC website (along with lots of other helpful advice and support).

Different Needs

We all have different needs and we all need different types of care. We discussed the needs that people might have at different stages of their life and who might care for them. We explored different kinds of care:

• fulfilling basic needs
• playing
• loving
• medical
• listening
• physical
• emotional
• social

The children showed fantastic maturity and impressed me with their sensitivity when discussing people’s needs.

Help at home by discussing different needs with your child. You could use this stem sentence to help: I care for ______ by ______.

Different families

We started this session by sharing who was in our families. That was enough to realise quite how different families can look!

There are lots of different ways to be a family. Family is special no matter what it looks like. The important thing is that people in families care about each other.

We discussed how children can seek support when they’re worried about members of their family. Help at home by discussing trusted adults with your child. Where can they seek support at school and at home?