Year 6 are currently learning about evolution and this week we’ve been discovering about Darwin’s Finches. We got to pretend to be different birds with different beaks as we raced against the stopwatch to eat various sources of food. We discovered that the “fine tweezer” birds were better adapted to eating small seeds like rice but that the “kitchen tongs” bird was more suited to big seeds such as marbles.

3AS have been building stone circles and finding out how Stone Age people may have used them as calendars. We looked at how shadows changed with the position of the sun and found out about how the sun rises in different places depending on the time of year. In this way, Midsummer and Midwinter could be found.

Year 2 and LB1 have been following the adventures of Charles Darwin on HMS Beagle. This week Mr Darwin experienced a volcanic eruption, an earthquake and a tidal wave (all a true story!) before venturing high up into the Andes Mountains where he discovered fossilised seashells. 

We then looked at some fossils, including ammonites, coral and seashells before having a go at trying to work out what a dinosaur may have looked like from just its bones. 2MG also had time to produce some beautiful ammonite watercolour paintings.

Today  in Theme Year 1 made our own Bayeux Tapestry. We enjoyed being Medieval knights and defending  the castle we made.

We have been honing our fine motor and brush skills with a piece of abstract art.

In Maths we have used what we have  learnt this term to make numbers in different ways. We used whole/part models, ten frames and wrote numbers in words. Some of us used pictures to make subtraction stories and we wrote addition and subtraction sentences. 

We’ve been learning how to read a thermometer this week as we measured the temperature of hot water as it cooled. We then plotted our results on a time graph. Most of us hadn’t used this type of graph before but we soon got the hang of it.

Putting bones together the right way must be hard enough if you know what the animal looks like but it is even trickier when the animal has been extinct for over 66 million years! That didn’t stop 3AS from trying to interpret their bag of bones today. Starting from exactly the same set of fossils, we came up with some different ideas. However, we were not the only ones as we found out about how scientists over the last 150 years have changed their ideas about what an Iguanodon  may have looked like when alive.

“There are some fantastic teachers who go above and beyond for the children and support the parents”

“It’s a strong curriculum.”

“My child loves coming to school because the staff give encouraging feedback.”

“The school doesn’t just focus on the academic.”

“There’s strong behaviour management.”

“I like the ethos of the school, caring children, teachers are kind and caring.”

“My child feels well supported at school”

“Nurture team support the children excellently”

“I am really happy with the holistic approach taken by school to care for my child’s emotional health to ensure he can fulfil his potential academically”

This week we celebrated Chinese new year.  We watched some beautiful Chinese dancers.  They danced a fan dance and an umbrella dance.

We tried Tai Chi with 1SH in the hall.

We made Chinese lanterns and dragon masks.

We also tried Chinese food including;- noodles, rice, spring rolls and rice crackers.

We were given a red envelope to take home with us, with a special treat inside. 

Freddie and Alex brought in ornaments from different countries for show and tell.