Eagles Class
Class News Autumn Term 2024
27.9.2024
Dear Parents and Carers,
It has been another lovely two weeks in Eagles Class; the children have continued their strong start to the year with their focus on their learning and fantastic learning behaviours. We look forward to seeing many of you at the class assembly this coming Friday (4th October) when we can share some of this lovely learning with you.
In English, we have continued to read our key text, 'Windrush Child, by Benjamin Zephaniah which tells the story of Leonard, a boy who makes the journey from Jamaica to England in the 1950s. Our writing focus for this week and next week is a poem which will tell the story of Leonard's experience on the ship as he makes his journey towards his new life and all of the emotions that come with it. The children have shown an amazing ability to really understand Leonard's feelings and we are excited to see the final outcomes in their writing!
Music lessons have been filled with lovely voices and harmonies as we learn our song of the half term, 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams. Those of you who are familiar know that this song has some tricky backing vocals with high pitches but the children have been amazing at learning the lead and backing vocals to sing in their lessons. We have also been developing our musical theory knowledge by becoming more comfortable with musical notes on the stave; this is something we will continue to work on so that the children can read the music they will be playing on glockenspiels and compose their own rhythms.
History has been a very popular subject with the children this half term; they are really enjoying our topic of World War Two. This builds on the knowledge they have from Lower Key Stage Two; it was lovely to hear so many children able to recall their learning from previous years. So far, we have looked at the events leading to war and the allies and axis powers as groups.
Well done to all the children who put themselves forward for a school responsibility over the last couple of weeks. This can be a nervous experience for some children so it was wonderful to see so many children wanting to push through the nerves and show their passion and desire to contribute to school life in another way. The votes will take place and be announced over the coming weeks.
Last week, some of the Year 5s took part in Bikeability. We received wonderful reports from the instructors about their fantastic behaviour and listening skills. It is always nice to see so many children able to progress their bike and road safety and be more confident cyclists on our roads.
Have a lovely weekend - let's hope the weather is kinder to us!
Mrs Francis & Miss McGoldrick
15.11.2024
Dear Parents and Carers,
Lots of fantastic learning has taken place in Eagles class over the last couple of weeks and it has been lovely to see all the children engaging so well in their learning.
As you are aware, we have celebrated Maths Week this week. Next week also sees the exciting event of Times Tables Rock Star day. You will have already received information about this. Children are invited to come into school on Monday dressed as a Rock Star!
Alongside this, we are pleased to announce that there will be a Times Tables Rock Star competition launching on Monday. This will be a competition that is played across all KS2 classes across our trust. It will pop up when your child logs in and is called the 'Winter Battle'. This will run until the 5th December. Remember to log in daily everyone!
In Science this half term, we are studying a biology topic 'Living things and their habitats'. Last week, we started the topic by recapping learning from Lower Key Stage Two. We thought about how living things can be classified into plants and animals; we then focused on the five types of vertebrates: mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, amphibians. We then looked at a range of methods for classifying animals, for example Venn diagrams, Carroll diagrams and classification trees. As the half term goes on, children will look at the life cycles of a range of vertebrates and invertebrates and comparing them based on their similarities and differences. We will also look at reproduction in plants. Our scientist this half term is Jane Goodall; the children will be creating a fact file about her and her achievements as the half term goes on.
History this half-term has seen us continuing with our theme of World War II. Children really enjoyed learning about rationing during (and after) the war, creating some lovely fact files to explain why rationing took place, what it looked like and what items were actually rationed. We were amazed to find out that some children grew up never having seen a banana! This past week, we were delighted to take part in an online lesson hosted by the Blue Cross, discussing the role of animals in WWII. As I’m sure you can imagine, this topic was loved by many children and they were fascinated to find out all the facts that were shared with us. I think one of the favourite stories though had to be about a Great Dane called Juliana. She won a Blue Cross Medal for saving her family by putting out a fire started by an incendiary bomb. I wonder if you can guess how she managed to do this – I’m sure your children will take great delight in telling you!
Finally, as the weather gets colder, we would ask that children bring in their coats every day so that they are able to go outside for their breaks – many thanks for your help with this.
Eagle of the Week has been awarded to Bertie Parr and Myles Bliss-Radmore. Handwriting Hero and Heroine has been awarded to Shreya, Rosalie, Jasmin and Max.
Have a lovely weekend with the family,
Mrs Francis & Miss McGoldrick
29.11.2024
Dear Parents and Carers,
Some lovely learning has taken place over the last couple of weeks, alongside some great magic moments such as the choir trip to The Royal Albert Hall and our whole key stage trip to Hendon War Museum as part of our History learning.
In French this half-term, we have been learning to tell the time. Combining our great maths and languages skills, we have learned how to tell the time to the hour, half past, quarter to and quarter past the hour. I have been so impressed with the way in which the children have picked up this new skill; if you are heading over to France at any time, then you will definitely have some great time tellers alongside you! We will continue our French learning this half-term by researching Christmas customs both in France and French-speaking nations, which I am sure the children will thoroughly enjoy finding out about.
In Music, the children have been creating their own compositions to the stimulus 'The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse' by Charlie Mackesy. We have explored the book version of this wonderful story and thought about the different characters. Then, we watched short extracts from the video version and considered how music and sound effects had been used to bring the viewing experience to life! The children have worked in small groups to create their own compositions to different extracts which will be put together into class compositions. We are looking forward to performing these compositions in a couple of weeks in our end of half term showcase.
We have also been rehearsing for our Christmas performance in the key stage. Without wanting to ruin any surprises, the rehearsals are going extremely well with the children really getting into singing and learning lines to be performed.
Thank you to everyone who has restocked their children’s pencil cases with equipment for essential learning tasks as per the email sent out last week. I have had an influx of children to the ‘shop’ in Eagles class and am pleased to say that stocks of the handwriting pens, glue sticks and green pens are starting to dwindle (which is a good sign!). Children have asked for basic sharpeners and highlighters to be added to the stock in the ‘shop’ so these will be available soon as well. Thank you for your support with this.
Eagle of the Week has been awarded to Ayla. Handwriting Hero and Heroine has been awarded to Felicia, Millie, Bertie and Alexander.
Enjoy the weekend together as the preparation for Christmas begins!
Mrs Francis & Miss McGoldrick
Class News Summer Term 2025
Dear Parents/Carers
It has been wonderful to welcome the children back after the Easter holiday and we have all been impressed with how well they have settled back in. Although this is a very short week, we have already started on lots of our new topics for the term ahead.
In PSHE, we have been discussing how to be our best. Children worked in groups to produce a short news report focusing on one of the five ways to wellbeing – connecting, being active, taking notice, keeping learning and giving. To create their news report, children thought about their own strengths and then led on a particular task such as coming up with interview questions, presenting or supporting others in the group. We’re looking forward to exploring our PSHE lessons further this term, where the children will think about their future aspirations and goals.
We have lots of budding architects and designers in our Key Stage, as demonstrated in our art lessons, where the children looked at different types of building and focused on particular elements that intrigue or inspire them. They were very excited to learn about their brief for the term ahead: to design a sustainable beach house, which will include developing children’s watercolour skills too!
Last term, we started reading our new text in English, Friend or Foe by Michael Morpurgo. We have enjoyed discussing our impressions of the different characters and thinking about what evidence there is in the text to back-up these impressions. The children have been able to use their knowledge gained from our learning of WW2 earlier in the year to help them to understand different vocabulary in the text.
We have also started our next class read. In Eagles, we are reading ‘Race to the Frozen North,’ by Catherine Johnson, which follows the true life story of orphan, Matthew Henson, who became the first American to reach the North Pole. You may not have heard of him before because he was forgotten and ignored for so many years purely because of the colour of his skin. A life of adventure on the high seas and in the Arctic awaits us! I have also thoroughly enjoyed listening to the children share their book recommendations as part of our ‘book chat’ too, with many children finding new authors and books because of this.
Eagle of the Week this week has been awarded to Bertie. Our Handwriting Heroes and Heroines are: Felicity, Nahul, Alexandra and Laila.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend with your children,
Mrs Francis & Miss McGoldrick