Hawks Class

Class News Autumn Term 2024

13.9.24

Dear Parents and Carers,

A warm welcome to everyone to Hawks Class! It has been an absolute pleasure to welcome some children back to our lovely class, as well as all those moving up from Lower Key Stage Two. The children have settled in really well and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each other last week, before moving into our English and Mathematics classes and foundation learning this week. I have been impressed with the way in which the Year 5s in particular have quickly responded to the new routines and procedures in Upper Key Stage Two, with all classes feeling settled and ready for learning. Talking of learning, we have some fantastic topics coming up this half-term and hopefully you have managed to take a look at these on the overviews which were sent out recently – these will give you a great overview of all the areas of learning coming up.

We have been enjoying using our Chromebooks across the curriculum and have spent time learning how to use them safely and responsibly. In computing, children have been learning how to effectively organise their Google Drives. This task helped children to take a trip down memory lane, when they found videos and work they had created in nursery and reception. These have now been safely stored into their ‘personal’ files. Now that drives are in order, children will start working in teams in computing to create an app to tackle climate change.

In History, we will be looking at the topic of the Second World War, focusing on the key enquiry question of: ‘How do we know what it was like to live through the war?” As you can imagine, this is an extensive subject and we are delighted that we will be extending this History learning through the whole of the Autumn term; this will allow the children to fully engage in and understand the topic in more depth. If you have any memorabilia (i.e. old war ration books, medals, letters etc from great grandparents) that your child would like to share with the class, we would be more than happy to ‘show and tell’ these – we would, of course, take great care of them! There is definitely something about seeing and handling
primary source material that makes history learning feel so real.

In Science this half term, we will be deepening the learning that the children have from Lower Key Stage Two as we look at the topic of Forces. This is a well-loved topic in Upper Key Stage Two as the children will have lots of opportunities to work practically and scientifically. This week, we started by learning about gravity and the children were able to use Newton meters to look at the force needed to pull a range of different classroom objects; some great creativity was seen here! As the half term goes on, we will continue to learn about our scientist of the half term, Isaac Newton, and continue to learn about a range of forces.

Hawks of the Week has been awarded to Ayana who enjoyed hot chocolate and a story with Mrs Lang. Our handwriting heroes and heroines are: Xavi and Isla.

Wishing you all a very happy and relaxing weekend together,

Kind regards,

Mrs True and Mrs Rowe

 27.9.2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been another lovely two weeks in Hawks Class; the children have continued their strong start to the year with their focus on their learning and fantastic learning behaviours. 

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 of 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.

Hawk of the Week has been awarded to Freddie and Esther. Handwriting Hero and Heroine has been awarded to Zain and Wiktoria.

Have a lovely weekend - let's hope the weather is kinder to us!

Mrs True and Mrs Rowe

11.10.2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

The weeks really are flying by; it's hard to believe we are soon going to be thinking about our first half term break of the academic year. The children have continued to show their amazing learning and behaviour over the last two weeks.

This week, as you may have heard, we completed our first set of assessments of the year. These are to help us as teachers inform our lessons so that we can tailor as much as possible to the needs of the children. The children have all done amazingly at showing resilience and determination this week; we hope this springboards their confidence in all the things they can already do! 

We have also been celebrating Biology Week this week. Our theme this year has been 'Biology for a better tomorrow'. As a key stage, we have set up a compost bin in our eco-area. This will be filled with fruit peelings from across the school, teabags from the staff room (there are lots of those!) and other organic materials from around the school grounds. The children very much enjoyed digging for worms to put in the compost bin; we are excited to be able to make our own compost on the school grounds and develop our love for sustainability even further.

In Geography, we have continued to learn about the United Kingdom this week. The children had a fantastic opportunity to choose a human feature of the UK to research and present in a group. There were lots of ‘team roles’ given out so that the children could collaborate towards their shared goal; they then presented their own chosen features to the class using their oracy skills.

Our History topic of World War Two has continued with the topic of evacuation. The children have interpreted a variety of primary and secondary historical sources to compare the similarities and differences between them and think about their validity. Some great historical skills were used and the children definitely ended the lesson with a renewed understanding of what life in wartime was like for children.

It was lovely to see so many of you at our class assembly this morning; I am sure you are amazed at how much learning the children have managed to pack into our first half term of the year while settling into new routines and enjoying their friendships. I look forward to talking to you in more detail next week at the Learning Review Meetings.

Hawk of the Week has been awarded to Sunny and Rhys. Handwriting Hero and Heroine has been awarded to Bradley and Chloe.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs True and Mrs Rowe

 25.10.2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

In PSHE this half term, we have been looking at friendships. The children spent a few lessons working collaboratively. Under timed pressure and with limited resources, they had to build the tallest tower they could that would stand up by itself. My favourite teams were those that didn't give up and worked together towards a shared goal. The children then moved on to thinking about negotiation and compromise. The class were split into two teams who wanted the same 'all-powerful orange'. However, the teams soon realised that one group only needed the orange peel and the other group only needed the flesh. Once they realised this, the solution was easy as the teams needed different things. What a lesson in the importance of listening to someone else's needs to come to a compromise that suits everyone. We have also looked at how to be assertive and the difference between being assertive and rude, why it is okay to be assertive and different methods of showing this. We have also thought about our emotional needs and different ways these can be met.

We have been so impressed with how the children have been using their Chromebooks so sensibly and effectively in class. Central to our use of the Chromebooks is the teaching of internet safety and this is something children learn alongside their computing lessons. This half term, we have been learning about online relationships and the importance of safe and effective sharing. We have discussed various scenarios and thought about how we could apply these to our own lives. It has been wonderful to see how confidently children can discuss important safety issues around technology. I'm sure you would be impressed if you asked them to share what they have learnt. The children have also completed their Apps for Good ideas. The children have thought so creatively about these and we look forward to submitting entries into the national showcase. 

In French this half-term, we have been reviewing our learning from last year to make sure we are able to hold a simple conversation with others. Phonics has also played a part in our learning as we have looked at some basic French phonemes to help us with our reading and writing in French. In the latter part of the half-term, we created our own ‘traditional’ French high street with a café, boulangerie, boucherie and mairie to name but a few key places. Having created this, we then learned basic French directions to help us navigate around our high street by asking for and then giving directions. Très bien everyone!

Hawk of the Week has been awarded to Frankie. Handwriting Hero and Heroine has been awarded to Dylan and Ellie R.

Have a lovely half term - enjoy this special time with your lovely children. They all deserve a huge rest after such hard work this half term; I look forward to welcoming them back to school after a wonderful week off!

Mrs True and Mrs Rowe

 15.11.2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

Lots of fantastic learning has taken place in Hawks 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 History this half-term, we have been 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!

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.

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.

Hawk of the Week has been awarded to Daria and Bradley. Handwriting Hero and Heroine has been awarded to Oliver and Ayana.

Mrs True and Mrs Rowe

 29.11.2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

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.

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. 

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.

Hawk of the Week has been awarded to Daria. Handwriting Hero and Heroine has been awarded to Samuel and Isla.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs True and Mrs Rowe

 16.12.2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

What a fantastic two weeks we have had in Hawks class, culminating in our lovely Christmas performance at the DCC on Wednesday evening. Thank you all so much for your support on the evening; it was very joyful for all of us watching the children sing, perform poems and thoroughly enjoy the whole experience. 

As we wind up to the end of the Autumn term, we are rounding up lots of our learning across all the subjects. Our class novel in English for the half-term, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was really engaging and a great read for this time of the year (especially when we had the snow a few weeks ago and the children were exclaiming that it felt like Narnia!). We are hoping that we will get the chance to watch the movie of the book in the last week of term which will round up this lovely reading experience. 

In History, we have continued with our learning relating to World War II. The subject of the Holocaust was discussed and covered very sensitively and in an age-appropriate manner; the children were very responsive to understanding some of the key lessons we can learn from how people treated each other. The whole topic was then rounded up by considering how different groups of people were affected during World War II, with children showing great understanding of the impact of the war. 

In Geography, the children became researchers when they created a double-page fact file on how mountains are formed. The creativity they showed with presenting these was wonderful. The children have also worked on their research skills for our science learning, by creating a fact-file of our scientist of the term, Jane Goodall. Ask your child if they can tell you all about her fascinating life!

In Computing, we finished our learning on systems and networks and have become even more confident in understanding how search engines work and how companies can pay advertising to influence results. Along the way, we have been learning about interesting careers in technology such as website and content designers and search engine optimisers. I look forward to next term when we will be learning more about programming. 

As this email lands in your inbox, we will have made gingerbread biscuits after a joyous afternoon of festive baking! This is the end-point of our work in Design and Technology, where the children were tasked with creating a class advent calendar, which included a biscuit and a window for their final creation to hide behind.

With one week of the term to go, I want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year with your fantastic children. However you are celebrating, I hope you make lots of amazing memories - see you in January!

Hawk of the Week has been awarded to Luke. Handwriting Hero and Heroine has been awarded to Damian and Amber.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs True and Mrs Rowe

Class News Spring Term 2025

 24.1.2025

Dear Parents and Carers, 

What another wonderful two weeks we have had in Hawks Class. The children have been really engaged in all of their learning; their behaviour has been amazing as always. It was lovely to see so many of you at the children’s Learning Review Meetings this week; I always love talking to you about your children’s progress.

Last week, the Year 6 children sat assessments in Reading, SPaG and Maths. Mrs Francis, Mrs White and I are all extremely proud of the effort and hard work that children put into these assessments throughout the week; I am sure the children will agree it was all worth it when they saw their amazing results. Please ensure you have seen your child’s results that are in their planner to be able to track their progress. Well done to the Year 5 children too - they spent the week consolidating some of their Macbeth learning which culminated in a showcase of acting out Act 1 Scene 1 to the Year 6 children on Friday afternoon last week!

Speaking of Macbeth, the children have been at our fingertips as we have progressed throughout the plot of the different Acts of the play; they have absolutely loved every twist and turn as we have made our way through the ‘Scottish Play’. Fantastic predictions have been made throughout our reading about how the prophecies from the first scene may come to fruition. We will be finishing Macbeth next week so please do talk to your children about how they predict the play will end. 

This half term in History, our topic is the Vikings. We have spent the first few lessons familiarising ourselves with when and where the Vikings were in England and why they wanted to raid Britain. This week, we looked at how Vikings were warriors and the different features a good Viking warrior had. Our learning on this topic will progress throughout the Spring Term and take us up until Easter. We will be learning all about the impact that the Vikings had on life in Britain and what leftovers we still have today!

Hawk of the Week this week has been awarded to Bradley. Handwriting Hero and Heroine goes to Gabriela and Samuel.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs True and Miss Turan

 7.2.2025

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Over the last few weeks, we have sadly finished our reading of Macbeth. I write ‘sadly’ because reading a book together is such a wonderful experience and getting to the final word always feels like the end of a great adventure. We thoroughly enjoyed Macbeth, the twists, turns, and treachery. Seeing the children’s faces as they realised what was happening in the final part of the play was truly magical. We are on to the next exciting read now as we explore Pandora, a fictional planet where bioluminescent species range from six-legged animals to other types of exotic fauna and flora. The children will be using this knowledge to create their own non-chronological report on Pandora.

In science, we have been learning all about Earth and our solar system and have been excited by the very timely news of a planetary parade, where during the month, six of the planets will align to create a celestial spectacle! I shared with the children images I took of Venus, Jupiter and Mars (on a very simple camera). If you would to take part in some star gazing, I really recommend the free app Sky View Lite.

In computing, the children have continued to create their games using Microbits. I’ve been really impressed with the children’s ability to think creatively and to code. As well as developing creative games, they have also developed their team working skills and have shown great progress in being able to solve problems together as a team. Next week, we will be playing the games they have created.

In history, we have continued with our learning of Vikings and have enjoyed finding out more about the skills they had and how they built and sailed in their longboats. Children have summarised their learning so far by writing a diary account from a Viking who had just raised Lindisfarne. Ask your child to tell you all about this brutal raid and how and why Vikings carried them out.

This week, we have had a number of visitors in school, looking at a range of curriculum subjects, children’s learning and safeguarding. As usual, the visitors were blown away by the learning attitudes, behaviours and amazing recall from the children. They really showed off what amazing children they are each and every day - they are all a credit to you!

Hawk of the week has been awarded to Wiktoria. Handwriting Hero and Heroine has been awarded to Elizabeth and Damian.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend with your lovely children,

Mrs True and Miss Turan

 28.2.2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been lovely to welcome your children back in to school this week; they have settled back in to their learning beautifully. A particular well done to the Year 6 children who have started to come in at the earlier time of 8:30 this week. They have been extremely focused in their extra learning; thank you for supporting your children with this. This has meant a routine change for the Year 5 children in the mornings too; they have adapted incredibly well to this too.

We have got stuck back into the Vikings this week to continue our topic after last half term. The children are now moving on to think about the impact that the Vikings have had on our lives in England today. We began this week to think about the structural changes to England that took place as a result of the Viking invasion; we will be moving on this half term to look at what Viking life was like.

In Music, our musical hero of the half term is Kate Bush, who we will be celebrating in our music assemblies. In our music lessons, children have started to learn to sing 'You got a friend' by Carole King. This is a challenging ballad with a wide range of pitch to sing; so far, the children have shown great potential in their confidence in their performances.

In science, we started our new topic looking at properties and changes in materials. This week, we looked at the different states and the children created diagrams recapping their knowledge from LKS2 on solids, liquids and gases. We recalled the key processes of melting, evaporation, condensation and freezing and then worked in groups to explore properties of materials. We also started to learn about our scientist of the term, Chien-Shiung Wu, AKA the first lady of physics. Ask your child to tell you all about what makes her story so amazing. 

Geography for this half-term will take us to the coastal regions of the UK as we consider ‘Changing Landscapes’. To begin our investigation question, we thought about the different types of weathering that can change the landscape: physical, chemical and biological. A bottle of frozen water and some bicarbonate of soda mixed with vinegar helped us to visualise what can happen out there in the elements. We will move on to think about specific coastal regions and understand how coastal features are formed in the next couple of weeks.

Hawk of the Week this week has been awarded to Amber. Handwriting Hero and Heroine goes to Damian and Ellie M.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs True 

 14.3.25

Dear Parents and Carers, 

We’ve certainly had a busy week! The children have been absolutely wonderful in welcoming our special guests and telling them all about their learning at Lark Rise Academy. We are so proud of their behaviour and how they have continued to show their excellent engagement and enthusiasm in our lessons. 

In science, we have been learning all about the properties of materials and investigated whether sugar dissolves fastest in oil, water or alcohol. To investigate this, the children put an M&M in the different solvents and used their observational skills to see what happened to the solute after 1 minute, 3 minutes and 5 minutes. See if your child can explain to you what happened and how this learning links to real-life. 

Who should be paid more: a doctor or a footballer? That’s the question we posed to the children in our PSHE lesson, where we discussed what should determine a person’s salary and whether certain professions are more deserving of higher salaries than others. Although we had different opinions, the children showed wonderful listening skills and were very respectful of different views. 

In computing, the children have been learning all about online safety, focusing on online bullying. We have explored how ‘banter’ can quickly turn into bullying and how to react if they or another child are being bullied online. The children have retained so much of their learning from previous years at school and are able to speak really confidently about how to report any concerns online. This week, the children also spent some time looking at a new bulletin produced by the Digital Squad (made up of some Digital Leaders and Safety Squad representatives). The bulletin, which can be accessed on the Chromebooks, gives tips on how to use the Chromebooks safely and efficiently. The children even included video tutorials on how to use certain shortcuts on the Chromebook!

As well as looking at online bullying, our main focus this term is on databases. We have been comparing the differences between paper and online databases and how databases can be useful in everyday life. The children have learnt how to sort and search data effectively online. 

Next week, we will be carrying out our mock SATs in year 5 and 6 to help prepare our children for forthcoming SATs. 

Hawk of the week has been awarded to Ellie. Handwriting hero and heroine are Samuel and Izzi.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend, 

Mrs True and Mrs Rowe

 28.3.25