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Today’s message – an update (Thursday 13 January 2021)

We try to alert you the day before if we become aware of weather conditions that may affect school openings, although we don’t make any decisions until the morning. Even then, though, it’s a tough call.

When we make the decision, we base it on two main factors: the current weather and the forecast.

Based on these two factors, there’s a very high likelihood that school will be closed tomorrow. This is based on the current amount of snow and the forecast for continuing sub-zero temperatures over night and throughout the day tomorrow. Travel conditions will be dangerous for you and for our staff.

Many schools in the area have already made the decision to close. Please begin to make arrangements now so that you’re prepared – as I say, it’s very likely.

The situation in school is made more challenging at the moment because we need to have different staff to support children in their different bubbles. To try to prevent the spread of coronavirus, we can’t mix children and we can’t move staff. Children in school can’t join with others and be supervised by a limited number of staff who have managed to get to school; adults can’t move to support children in another bubble. (A simple example is that if three children from one bubble are in school, we’d have a minimum of two staff to support and supervise. However, if the three children are from three different bubbles, we’d need at least double the adults.)

Don’t forget you can access home learning here on the website: go to the Learn more section and select Home learning from the drop down menu, or click on this link. (It would be best in most cases to do lessons from Thursday or Friday.)

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Pantomime time

What a busy day we have had!

“Oh, no, you haven’t!”

“Oh, yes, we have!”

This morning, in between other school work, we have been decorating our clay jar decorations, and in the afternoon we watched the pantomime about Rapunzel.

Class 3/4 want to say a BIG thank you to the PTA for enabling us to watch the panto this afternoon. Here are some of the things that we said about the show:

Daisy: Thank you so much for letting us watch the pantomime. My favourite character was the dragon and Rapunzel.

Olivia: I enjoyed it because it was super funny.

Jack: It was extremely exciting. I loved the dragon!

Ellie: I enjoyed the bit of the video when the dragon said, “My name is Geoff.”

Mia: I think it is funny when the woman drank the baby potion.

Eliza: The best bit was when the prince and Rapunzel got married.

Louie: I enjoyed it when they all sang.

Leah: Thank you for buying this amazing play – it was brilliant!

Edward: Thanks for the play and thanks for everything. It was super funny.

11 December 2020

This week, the whole school has the same Creative homework, which should be returned by Thursday 17 December.

The children are invited to respond to something from either a cultural or a spiritual perspective.

I can present a review of a book / TV show / film or something else cultural.

We’d like children to present their responses about a recent book they’ve read, film they’ve watched, piece of art they’ve looked at, piece of music they’ve listened to – anything cultural in fact.

We’re interested to read some sort of description (a summary, for example) and then your child’s opinions. This review might include pictures, an interview (your child could write a fictional script between himself/herself and the artist, for example), a letter (eg to or from a character, or perhaps even the author) – anything which might include your child’s responses!

However, your child might prefer to do the following:

I know what a faith celebration means to me.

Over the course of this term, some children in school may have celebrated a religious festival of some sort.  This might have been

• the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha
• the Sikh and Hindu festival Diwali
• the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, coming up in December
• the Christian festival (of course, celebrated by many non-Christians) of Christmas
• and the Chinese New Year festival, coming up

There are lots of other festivals and celebrations, which you and your child together might want to reflect on.

We invite children to respond to the sentence above – they might include a recount (like a diary entry), pictures, an interview (perhaps in a script).  Your child might also choose to research a completely unknown festival, or they might even think about creating a brand new festival, one that everyone will celebrate.

Of course, there are many other ways in which children could respond. Children should be ready to celebrate their learning as part of their homework review by Thursday 18 December 2020. 

Christian Value: Friendship

This half term, our Christian Value has been friendship.

We have thought about how we can be a good friend and what we can learn from the Bible about friendship. We learned that Jesus teaches us to be a good friend to all – he told a story about how the good samaritan was a friend to someone who was supposed to be his enemy.

In our reflection areas, we had two challenges: a friendship flower and how to be a good friend.

For our friendship flower, we thought about who was a good friend or someone we were thankful for and wrote or drew a short thank you thought or prayer for them.

We took the friendship finger challenge and thought about all the things that make a good friend. We thought about how we could be a better friend.

Foundation stage have also been learning all about our Christian value of friendship. They’ve created a friendship tree and friendship stones whilst thinking about the qualities they would like in a friend.

Look out for next half term’s Christian value: perseverance.

Potion Commotion

As always, Foundation have had another fantastic week!
This week, we entered into a wonderful world of wizards and witches.
At the writing table, the children created their very own potions. Some of the children had a go at writing a list of ingredients.

In Literacy, we’ve been reading Potion Commotion by Peter Bentley. When reading the story, the children were great at listening for the rhyming words – it is a book full of rhyming words! The book is about a little witch called Betty. She ends up making a big mess when putting just about everything into her cauldron to make a potion. Betty’s potion grows and grows and spreads all over the town! 
Talk to your child about the story and see if they can remember what happened at the end.
Linking to the potion theme, we decided to be scientists and make our very own hubble and bubble potions.
We did four experiments using five ingredients: oil, water, bicarbonate soda, energy tablets and vinegar – the classroom spelt lovely!
The children observed what happened and recorded their findings.
Ronan – “It’s bubbling.”
Connor – “It’s fizzing.”
Daisy – “It looks like a tornado.”
Beau – “It’s not bubbling.”
We talked about what a chemical reaction is and that bubbling is a sign of a chemical reaction.

In phonics, we’ve learnt more  sounds: m, d and g.
Here’s a link to the Jolly Phonics songs.
The children are doing really well in phonics and love doing the drum roll before I show them the new sound – it creates a lot of excitement! Some of the children are starting to segment and blend cvc words, for example, sat, mad and pin.
The children went on a sound hunt around the classroom. They were encouraged to say the sounds when they found them.

F2 – Please remember to practise the sounds in their sound book and their words in their word passports.

In maths, we’ve continued looking at number 2. On Thursday, I dropped all of the counting bears all over the floor – silly Miss Marsden! The children had to collect two bears and put them on their ten frame. The children moved the bears around on their ten frames and checked that it still showed two. After half term, we will finalise our number 2 learning and move onto number three.
F1
The F1 children have also continued with their phase one phonics activities. On Tuesday, they had to watch carefully to different body sounds and pass it around the circle.
On Wednesday, the children went on a musical instrument hunt around the outdoor area. When a child found an instrument, they talked about its sound and compared it to the other instruments.

What else have we been up to?
We made playdough spiders.

In the sensory area, the children enjoyed melting the frozen hands!

Next half-term, we will become story tellers and look at some traditional tales. The children will come up with actions to help them retell the stories. We’ve chosen traditional tales because they usually follow a typical structure and include lots of repeated phrases.  Here’s a clue to help you guess one of the books we will be looking at…  It will help with our number three learning. 

Here are some pictures of the displays in our classroom…
Foundation Parents
A Parental Partnership presentation will be uploaded onto the class news page on Monday 2nd November.

I hope you all have a lovely half-term break!

Home-Link Challenge

01 July 2020: Home Learning

Happy Wednesday!

Today’s learning…..

Year 5 and 6 maths

Use the Topmarks website to play ‘Hit the button.’ Put your times table knowledge to the test.

Your learning for today is about multiplying mixed numbers.

Multiplying mixed numbers

SPAG: colons

Watch this video and read about colons.

Then, complete this activity. 

Living and Learning: I can make healthy choices

On Monday, we looked at healthy eating. Yesterday, we did some exercise to make our bodies healthy.

Today, we’re thinking about keeping our minds healthy.

Follow some of the links below and have a go at some activities.

Calm Zone 

Meditation

Yoga video

Week commencing 29 June 2020: F1 Home Learning ‘Pirates Love Underpants’

This week’s story is one of the very popular books from a series of stories written by Claire Freedman; they’re all about aliens, dinosaurs and pirates that love underpants!

We hope you enjoy listening to the story about a crew of cheeky pirates that are looking for some golden treasure.

Pirates Love Underpants

We hope that you enjoyed listening to the story.

• What was your favourite part?
• Did any parts of the story make you laugh?
• Can you remember which animal was waiting underneath the bridge?
• How did the pirates trick the rival pirate crew to steal the treasure?

Here are some activities for you to try that are linked to the story.

Creative

Have a go at making your own pirate hat, patch,  telescope or treasure chest.  Before you start, gather together some cardboard boxes or tubes from your recycling pile.  You could cut out the shape of a hat from an opened out cereal box or you could simply roll up some paper to make a telescope. A clean, empty egg box would make a great treasure chest. It can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it!

We’ve added a few links if you need some help or a starting point.

 Music

This week, we thought we’d share another of the songs we enjoy listening to before home time at Nursery. It’s called ‘Port Side Pirates’. We hope you enjoy singing along at home.

Mark making

Every good pirate needs a map! Draw where the pirates have hidden the treasure on the island. Is it next to a tree or in a cave? How will you show where the treasure is? That’s right, X marks the spot.   When we were little, we used to use a teabag to stain the paper to make our treasure maps look really old. Did you?

Role play

Grab your hats, telescopes and treasure maps and come aboard! We’re sure that you can make a pirate ship on your bed/sofa/picnic blanket and enjoy sailing the Seven Seas together. What can you see through your telescope? Is that a desert island ahead? Look for the landmarks on your map and go and find some treasure! Ahoy, Maties!

Mathematics

• Investigate capacity using a selection of different containers, bottles and tubs. This activity might be a good one to do in the bath or outside with a bucket or storage box full of water. Children love to play in the water and investigate pouring and filling containers. As they pour, talk to your child about which containers/bottle holds the most/least water. Is it nearly full? Half full? Empty?  If you have a funnel or colander in the kitchen, let children explore using these too.  If you want to add to the discussion, you could put a hole in one of the bottles. What happens to the water as you try to fill the bottle?
• Treasure hunt – Hide 5 coins outside. As children find them, ask how many there are left to find. Once you have found 2 coins, how many are still missing?
• Listen to this counting story about ’10 Little Pirates’ . Can you join in each time and work out how many pirates are left each time?

Physical development

Can you walk the plank at home?  Have a look in your garden or whilst on a walk in your local area to see if you can find something to practise balancing along to ‘walk the plank’. You might have a plank of wood that you could lay along the floor, or you could use a rope or rolled up blanket. Children will enjoy carefully balancing along it and then jumping off the end.

Scavenger hunt

Can you find something that is… red/blue etc…   circle/triangle shaped    something shiny/dull   something that makes a loud noise/quiet noise…

Perhaps your grown-up can think of more items to hunt for!

Don’t forget to send pictures of your home learning to:

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

Our daily message (19 June 2020)

Before the end of the school year, teachers will host some Zoom meetings for children who remain at home.

Some background

The meetings will be with groups of children from the class. They’ll be a one-off chance for children to re-connect with the teacher, classmates and with learning. We think this is important for our friends still at home during lockdown, especially since we now know they won’t be returning until September, all being well.

One or two of you have been asking for teachers to deliver lessons by Zoom since the start of lockdown. We didn’t pursue this for two main reasons: safeguarding and effective teaching. (We have other reservations about Zoom to teach, too, but these are the main ones.)

We’re still not convinced Zoom (or any online video conferencing service) is an effective way to teach large groups of younger children online. It might work well for older children, but the important two-way dialogue that we have in school would be hard to re-create and sustain in a Zoom meeting.

There were some unpleasant stories at the start of lockdown that highlighted safeguarding concerns. However, Zoom has introduced improved security features. We’ve researched how best to secure the Zoom meetings; we’ve consulted colleagues who have begun to use it; and we’ve trialled it amongst ourselves. We’re now confident that Zoom can be used securely.

Next steps

The next steps are simple…

If your child is still learning at home, and you’d like your child to be part of a Zoom call with their teacher and some of their classmates, email your child’s teacher. By now, most of you will already have emailed – the teacher’s address is something like joebloggs@spherefederation.org (first name, last name and then @spherefederation).

When you email, you’ll need to provide the name that will appear in the Zoom call – the teacher won’t allow anyone into the meeting if they’re not expecting them. Ideally, the name would be the child’s first and last name, but it can be your name. (And please make sure the name is appropriate.)

The teacher will decide a date and time for this to happen – it’ll happen before the end of term. They’ll send an invitation with the log-in details back to you. We’re sorry – there can’t be much flexibility about the date and time.

How to prepare

For younger children, your child’s teacher will have a chat and read a story. For older children (Y3-Y6), the teacher will ask a couple of questions which will include questions related to home learning:

• What home learning have you felt most proud of?
• What learning have you made most progress with at home?
• What sort of learning routine are you in?

It would be great if your child has thought about these so they’re able to answer a question like that.

Some more details

• Meetings will be with groups of children from the class: no more than 10-12 children.
• The meetings are only for those who are home learning.
• Teachers will have a list of pupils and appropriate Zoom name in advance to allow people to enter.
• Two members of staff will be present throughout the Zoom.
• A parent / carer should be present at home, although you don’t need to be on screen throughout the meeting.
• Teachers will continue to make occasional phone calls home, too, but you might not get a call during the week teachers do their Zoom.
• The meeting will last about 15-30 minutes, depending on the size of the group.
• Some Zoom features will be disabled: the chat function, the record function, and the ‘re-name’ function will all be disabled.
• Participants will all be ‘mute’ on entry; teachers will manage the Zoom meeting by ‘unmuting’ children one at a time.
• Our school rules will still apply (including We respect everyone).
• Your child can be part of the Zoom but choose not to talk – no pressure!
• Teachers are aware of actions to take if a child doesn’t follow ground rules, school rules, instructions: this could include disabling video of anyone who is not following rules, for example.

11 June 2020: Home Learning

Good morning, year 3 and 4!

Maths

Today, year 3, have a look on this BBC bitesize page to learn all about fractions on a number line.

Year4, here are your answers to yesterday’s maths problem. Today, have a go at this circles problem – watch Mrs Welsby talking about it here.

Reading

For your reading task, watch this video of Mrs Welsby all about Mr Botte’s mystical shoemaker’s shop. The answers to yesterday’s learning are also in that video.

Science

Head to Oak National Academy to learn more about Plants. Throughout the lesson, you will be asked to pause the video to complete tasks (just like when we do a video lesson). Don’t forget, you can go back and listen to bits again to help you fill in the answers correctly. Have fun!

9 June 2020: Home Learning

Phonics

ear, air, ure sound revist…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zvq9bdm

Use the link above to find the video for each of the trigraphs in phase 3. Watch the video and press the arrows to answer the questions.

Maths

Tens Frame Number Problems

You will need objects to use for counting, two ten frames (print or you can make/draw one)

Can you solve these number problems?

Indie has 12 pieces of chocolate, she gives 2 pieces to Elizabeth. How many pieces of chocolate does she have left?

Thea has 7 pom poms and Georgia has 6 pom poms. How many pom poms do they have altogether?

Charlie has 4 cars, Grayson has 2 cars and Joshua has 3 cars. How many do they have altogether?

Challenge: Iris has 6 oranges. She gives 2 oranges to Francesca and 2 oranges to Dylan. How many oranges do they each have?

Literacy

Yesterday, you watched Mrs Palmer pot a plant. Now it’s your turn. Can you think of something to do/make that you will be able to write some instructions for? This could be making a model, making a smoothie, baking a cake, drawing a picture, washing your hands.

Once you have an idea, talk about what you need to do/make your activity?

Have a go at doing/making your activity.

Whilst you are doing your activity think about what happened first, next, after that, finally?