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Hummingbirds Class

Class News Autumn Term 2024

13.9.24

Dear Parents and carers,

Welcome to the first email of the year from Hummingbirds Class. What can I say except how truly amazing Hummingbirds class have been so far! They have really impressed all the adults in the key stage and we have absolutely loved spending time with your beautiful children getting to know them better and resettling them back into the routines of school. The year ones have done exceptionally well with this and I am proud to say our Year two’s have been the most fantastic role models; well done everyone!

We started our Science learning off this year with the theme ‘Animals including Humans.’ The children began by matching animals and their offspring and looked at inherited features. We then had some interesting discussions on why it is sometimes tricky to pair an adult and their young like in the case of a butterfly. To enrich the children’s learning further we are going to be studying the conservationist Steve Irwin. The children started by looking at a wildlife reserve that has been  set aside as a tribute to Steve for scientific research. See what your child can find out about Steve Irwin at home if you would like to; he’s certainly an inspiring person to help your child engage in their Science learning.

Our very first geography topic this academic year is one the children are going to thoroughly enjoy: Animals Around the World. We started off our learning by discovering what each of the seven continents are called before looking at where each of them are in the world. It was lovely to hear the children's existing knowledge on this topic with many children being able to name and locate the continent in which we live. The highlight of the lesson was definitely the continent song; ask your child to sing it if they remember!

This week, in history, we started the very exciting topic, ‘now and then’. The children were very excited when we came across a basket of belongings that had been accidentally left in our classrooms. We investigated the items and drew our conclusions over who the items belonged to. All the KS1 children demonstrated what excellent historians they are! Finally, we examined some photographs of what school was like in the past and compared it to school now.

This half term we are looking at how we can use lines in art with purpose. The children have been fantastic at creating art through outlining animals, concentrating on their shape and experimenting with different techniques. They have been able to express themselves through their choice of woodland creature and their end result was wonderful as they made some lovely observations on how to create detail with their pencils.

Finally, well done to our first Happy Hummer of the year Kaylan Dawe who has been a true superstar in the classroom and around school; brilliant! 

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and look forward to seeing your child return to school on Monday.

Lots of Love

Miss. Slough, Miss. Skingle, Mr Mc Aleese and Mrs. Harrison 

 

Messages: Please remember that toys are not allowed in school for many reasons but mainly due to the risk of loss or accidental damage which can be very upsetting for the children.

There is no homework this week to help the children settle into their first full week of school. This will recommence next week ☺

Thank you for helping your child choose a dinner at home. This has made lunchtime at school a much smoother transition and allowed the children more time to play! ☺

27.9.2024

Dear parents and carers,

I have to say this half term with your beautiful children seems to be flying past! They have amazed us all with how they are settling in and continue to impress us all with their resilience and kindness to each other. I have to say it’s making choosing Happy Hummer every week particularly tricky! It has been particularly lovely to see them playing together at break times so nicely; well-done children! 

The children have made a fabulous start to their English in KS1 learning the poem ‘The King of all the dinosaurs’ by Paul Cookson. All the children have really enjoyed learning actions to go along with the poem and performing it to their peers by heart; amazing! The children then took their own turns to write some acrostic poetry using some powerful vocabulary choices to bring their poems to life. 

This week, the children of Key Stage One made a shocking discovery in the intervention classrooms; something wild and unruly had been in there and made a huge mess! There were huge footprints all over the floor and It was like something had been having a wild rumpus in there! Thankfully we managed to clear up the mess and then the children settled down to read our new key text that had been mysteriously delivered to school for us all to share. It is ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak. See if your child can tell you all about Max and his adventures in the story:)

The children have blown us all away with their enthusiasm for our geography learning this half term. With the knowledge that we have seven continents and five oceans, we’ve started to delve deeper and discover which animals live where - and most importantly, why! This week, we considered where animals live in relation to the equator. Do they need to live in a cold place or a hot place? The children became experts at sorting a variety of animals into their correct habitat.

During R.E we have been reading parables and understanding what a parable is. As a class, we read the parable ‘The Lost Coin’ and discussed what it feels like when we have lost something. We thought further about the special message within the parable. Then, we discussed the word ‘forgiveness’ and how Christians show forgiveness.

We have been learning all about algorithms in computing this half term and the children have been fantastic when thinking about instructions. They have learned to be very specific - or something might go wrong! They have used their debugging skills in order to correct anything that has not gone exactly to plan and have had a wonderful time navigating how to get across maps. They have even been able to program bee-bots to get them from their starting point to buried treasure!

Over the last two weeks our handwriting hero and heroines have been Bertie Parr, Theo Perkins, Oakley Terry and Sienna Howells . Well done for all your efforts to form letters correctly, presenting your work neatly and for always trying your best! Our Happy Hummer over the last two weeks has been Aila Hussain and Jacob Brandusesc. Well done for all of your hard work, following the rules and being such lovely role models in our class; you are truly fabulous!

We hope you all have a well-deserved rest and enjoy spending some quality time with your loved ones. We look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Monday.

Lots of love

Miss. Slough, Mrs. Harrison, Miss. Skingle and Mr. McAleese

 11.10.2024

Dear parents and carers,

What a wonderful couple of weeks we have had in Key Stage One! We have we had some great enrichment projects like National biology week with a theme of ‘For a better tomorrow’ that saw a wealth of wonderful learning opportunities across the school including a scientist from the Zoo who told us all about his work at the zoo for conservation. Over in Keystage One, we chose to start planting seeds to grow our own herbs for the guinea pigs (now there are four we are praying we have done a good job!). Seeing how important the herbs will be to the good health of our guinea pigs will hopefully inspire the children to take good care of them and consider how they can garden at home or even extend our capacity to grow more at Lark Rise!

 This half term we have been studying the genre of rap music and last week enjoyed having a dance to ‘Rapper’s delight’ by the Sugar Hill Gang to find the pulse! The children listen to different songs each week to strengthen their understanding of the pitch, tempo, rhythm and beat of a song. They are getting more and more confident at listening and appraising music every week; well done children! Our own rap song ‘Hey you’ is sounding great with a mix of singing, rap and playing the glockenspiels. The children are now going to be preparing a performance ready for the whole school for the end of the half term.

Our focus in PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education) this half term has been ‘Me and My Relationships’. The children have blown us all away by their mature approach to discussing their feelings, showing a clear understanding that these feelings can be shown in a variety of ways. Last week, we focused on who our ‘special people’ are, which generated some inspiring conversations between the children. It was a pleasure to hear just how special you and your wider family are to your children. After drawing their special people on a coloured balloon, they now have pride of place in our classroom so that someone your child loves can always watch over them while they’re in school.

In history, we have been learning about what schools were like in the distant past and comparing them to what schools are like today. The children have been brilliant at this and have really enjoyed using a range of primary and secondary sources to help them with their learning.  We are really looking forward to our Victorian day!

We have had such an enriching and enjoyable visit to the zoo this past week! As a team, we all want to thank you all so much for your continued support with this! It was such a wonderful opportunity to visit the animals, discussing what continent that they are from - as linked to our Geography learning. It was also brilliant to see and talk about the offspring of the animals - it was a special treat to see the baby rhino and giraffes, if you ask the children I am sure they will be more than happy to share with you what they are all called! We even found time to use our art skills to draw some lemurs when they finally stayed still! We have loved spending this time with the children and are so proud of how well they represented the school, there were many compliments received from the staff at Whipsnade - well done everyone! Thank you for being absolute superstars! We would like to take this opportunity to thank not only our lovely parent helpers who came with us to support the running of the excursion but also everyone who volunteered. We have some other trips coming up which have been shared with you so if you didn’t come this time hopefully you will be able to come to the next one.

Over the last couple of weeks our handwriting hero and heroines have been Blake Luikaj and Elsie Randall. Well done for all your efforts to form letters correctly, presenting your work neatly and for always trying your best! Our Happy Hummer over the last two weeks has been Izzy Kirwin and Ophelia Dellar. Well done for all of your hard work, following the rules and being such lovely role models in our class; you are truly fabulous!

We hope you all have a well-deserved rest and enjoy spending some quality time with your loved ones. We look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Monday.

Lots of love

Miss. Slough, Mrs. Harrison, Miss. Skingle and Mr. McAleese

 

 Messages:

Please make sure you click 'hand in' when you are submitting your child's homework on Google classroom as it then registers your child's name and shows their teachers that the task has been completed :) 

 25.10.2024

Dear parents and carers,

I can’t believe we are at the end of the first half term together; it seems to have flown by! Over the half term, we have enjoyed reading a range of classic children’s stories with the children in the afternoons. It is clear how much the children enjoy their storytime and it was so lovely to see so many of you at our latest ‘Stop, drop and read’ event. Thank you for taking time out for this; it really did mean a lot to the children. Don’t worry if you were unable to make this one though as we have plans for another later in the year! 

Our key storybook this half term has been ‘Where the wild things are’ by Maurice Sendak. This has inspired lots of the children’s writing this term and we’ve finished with some writing about some wild things of our own. Ask your child to describe their own wild thing or the wild thing they chose to write about in an information report.

In other news, we have rounded off our rap unit in Music with a performance to the rest of the school on Wednesday and the children did not disappoint! It was an incredibly proud moment to see the children sharing their rap which we’ve learned is not an easy thing to do. See if your child is brave enough to perform a little to you as well:)

Our science learning this half term has allowed all the children to really become such fantastic scientists! The children are so knowledgeable about offspring and their characteristics and seeing a Rhino calf at the zoo that was less than a week old opened up some fantastic conversations surrounding what offspring can look like! We loved observing that the calf was not born with a horn and that it grows like our hair! A highlight of our learning was definitely participating in an experiment with blubber and how some animals manage to stay insulated in freezing temperatures. One of the best moments of our science learning was definitely researching Steve Irwin, the children were fascinated by him and how dedicated he was towards his conservation of animals! We are now more confident in knowing the basic needs of survival for animals and loved talking about our own pets and how we keep them alive. Well done everyone, you have shown such enthusiasm and passion for science!

Oh,what a day we all had in KS1 last Thursday for our incredible Victorian day. It was a day enjoyed by teachers and children alike! The children all looked fantastic in their costumes so thank you to you all for putting in the amazing effort that you did. It meant the scene was set from the minute they came into school. When they arrived in class, children were expected to sit in rows. The classrooms were a dark and techless environment. To start our day, all the children were inspected for cleanliness and if they were seen as dirty then they were told to wash their hands. Next, it was time for the 3 R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic) where they experienced learning the Lord’s Prayer and writing with chalk. However, rest assured, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the children! In the afternoon, they were given an opportunity to learn how to play some games from the past. I am sure if you ask your child what they know about schools from the past - they will have lots of knowledge to share! 

The children have certainly finished their first geography topic knowing a lot more about where animals live and have started to demonstrate expert knowledge on why they live there. This week, we presented this very understanding! Some children shared how camels have humps that store water, meaning they can live in hot places such as the desert. Other children shared how polar bears have thick fur to keep them warm in the snowy Arctics! We all then had a blast recapping our knowledge by completing a quiz on Kahoot - I'm sure the entire key stage would agree that you knew exactly when each class was completing their quiz by the excitable noise being made!

 

Finally, over the last two weeks our handwriting hero and heroines have been  Jacob Brandusesc, Sophia Paruit, Ophelia Dellar and Eliana Liscio. Well done for all your efforts to form letters correctly, presenting your work neatly and for always trying your best! Our Happy Hummer over the last two weeks has been Bertie Sands and Edward Horner. Well done for all of your hard work, following the rules and being such lovely role models in our class; you are truly fabulous!

We hope you have a lovely half term and do something that you love. We look forward to welcoming the children back soon.

Lots of love

Miss. Slough, Mrs. Harrison, Miss. Skingle and Mr. McAleese

 

Messages: Homework has been set on google classroom for a whole school science theme. This is due in for the first Wednesday back after half term.

 15.11.2024

Dear parents and carers,

What a fantastic start to the new half term the children in Hummingbirds have had; with some exciting new learning opportunities and lots of whole school enrichment opportunities like maths week, Anti bullying week and Children in Need today. Thinking of which, thank you for supporting such an important cause today and allowing your child to dress up to show their support. We have been so happy to see the children’s growing confidence as they embrace life in Key stage One with their lovely smiley faces; well done everyone!

This term in History the children have made a great start to their learning all about ‘Remembrance’. The children began by thinking about why people are wearing poppies and then went on to make a beautiful wreath to lay at the local memorial in Priory gardens. The children were incredibly respectful and able to hold a two minute silence for those that have given their lives in the war. It was lovely to see them exploring the site to see all the other flowers and wreaths that had been laid in a local service the day before. Thank you to all the parents who gave up their afternoons to accompany us for this; it is greatly appreciated.

Our science learning for this half term is all about the seasons. We have been able to get outside and observe the trees and what happens to them in the Autumn, with the idea that we will revisit later in winter and see if anything has changed. We discussed what else happens in the season of Autumn and had the opportunity to go outside and think about creating hibernation dens for hedgehogs, we all had great fun doing this! The children have a fantastic understanding of the four seasons and are able to discuss what they would be doing and what they might wear in each of them. 

In music this half term, we have started a very special whole school project ‘How does Music improve storytelling?’ The children started by looking at some classic Christmas stories like ‘The snowman,’ and what effect the music had on the children when they watched some key parts of the story. We then looked at what Foley art is (the sounds recreated in films.) The children then had a go at making their own Foley Art using some percussion instruments and everyday items to recreate sounds like the crunching of snow beneath their feet or even a horse  galloping.

Our geography learning this half term focuses all around where the children live. We kicked off our new topic by using Google Earth to zoom into where we live, step by step - our planet, our continent, our country and, finally, our town! Can your child remember any of the answers? We then spent some time focusing on the four countries that make up the United Kingdom. Our classroom is now beautifully decorated with four flags, proudly crafted by the children. At the end of this half term, the children will need to know their home address. We would appreciate any support you can give your child in knowing this; it will not only help to develop their geography skills, but their ‘street smart’ skills too.

Over the last two weeks our handwriting hero and heroines have been Eliana Liscio, Ophelia Dellar, Kaylan Dawe and Trixie King. Well done for all your efforts to form letters correctly, presenting your work neatly and for always trying your best! Our Happy Hummer over the last two weeks has been Edward Horner and Sophia Paruit. Well done for all of your hard work, following the rules and being such lovely role models in our class; you are truly fabulous!

We hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to welcoming the children back to school on Monday.

Lots of love

Miss. Slough, Mrs. Harrison, Miss. Skingle and Mr. McAleese

MESSAGES: 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 an in-school Numbots competition launching on Monday. This will be a competition that is played across all EYFS and KS1. This will run until the 5th December. 

29.11.2024

Dear Parents,

What a busy couple of weeks we have been having in Key Stage 1. Our Christmas play rehearsals  for ‘A Midwife Crisis’ are off to a flying start and the children have been amazing; we can’t wait for you to see what your talented children have been up to!

In Science, we have been learning about the four seasons - Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. We have been thinking about the many things that are different in each of the seasons - animals hibernating, changing of the leaves on the trees and the differences in weather; just to name a few. The children have also been learning about why we have different seasons. Just last week, the children were learning about what happens during the Winter months. We spent some time thinking about animals hibernating. As a key stage, we went outside and spent time building hibernation dens for the animals in our local environment. The children thought carefully about what animal they were building a den for and what type of shelter they would need. Some children even added some food into their dens for the animal that may take up refuge in their dens. We all thoroughly enjoyed spending some time outside. 

We have been fantastic at becoming digital painters this half term and have been exploring how we can create art on the computer. Understanding all the tools and how they work is a skill the children were brilliant at picking up. They have shown how creative they are and also how they are digitally minded and able to use their knowledge safely. We have also been exploring the concept of online bullying and how we should always be kind - even online! 

On our walk into Dunstable a few weeks back, we had our eye out for any physical and human features. Can your child explain to you what the difference is between the two? Back in the classroom, we have now gone into even more detail about these two words and sorted some examples into these two categories. The children were brilliant at explaining that beaches are physical because they are created by nature whereas The London Eye (and other landmarks) is human because it is made by just that - a human!

In R.E., we have been learning about how Christians celebrate Christmas. We started with reading the nativity story and discussing each event that took place. Then, the children had a go at working in groups to recreate the nativity story. They all enjoyed using puppets to get into character.  

Please note that if your child is in Year 2 and in either the Blue or Grey group for RWI they will also be receiving a paper based reading comprehension homework task titled ‘VIPERS’. This homework will need to be completed each week. It will be sent home on a Thursday and will need to be handed back by Friday the following week to Mrs Bilenkyj. You can support your child with this reading comprehension task. There is no expectation that they complete this independently. They will need to write their answers to the questions. Please ensure any pieces of paper handed in with the homework are named.  This homework is vital for our Year 2 children as reading comprehension is an important skill that will enhance their reading development. Please note children will still need to complete their RWI homework each week on Google Classroom. Thank you all for your support with this. 

Finally, our Happy Hummers for the last two weeks have been Maddison Edmonds and Marcus Chelaru. Well done for trying so hard with all of your learning and being the amazing stars you are! Handwriting heroes have been: Daisy McCulloch, Marcus Chelaru, Izzy Kirwin and Pearl Coote. Well done for all your continued efforts with your writing.

All that is left to say is have a lovely weekend with your families and we look forward to welcoming the children back into school on Monday.


Kind regards

Miss. Slough, Miss. Skingle, Mrs. Harrison and Mr. McAleese

 16.12.2024

Dear Parents,

What an amazing couple of weeks we have had in Hummingbirds class! The children have blown us all away with our Key Stage One production of ‘A Midwife Crisis.’ We are all so incredibly proud of the hard work and determination that the children have shown while practising for our nativity and they were more than incredible; I’m sure you will agree. It was fantastic to see the confidence from all of our children and especially our Year 2’s who did such a wonderful job of bringing all of the humour and beauty of the play to life. Well done also to our Year 1 choir who sang beautifully; we all loved the dance moves too! We can’t wait to see you in your roles next year! Thank you parents and carers for working on lines at home and supplying costumes - it has been such an amazing experience that I know the children have enjoyed - well done again we are so proud!

In music this half term, the children have been extremely busy not only learning all of the songs from our Nativity but also making little compositions to go with the story ‘The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse.’ They have used a variety of instruments from bells, glockenspiels, drums and even a plastic bag! We can’t wait to show the rest of the school what we have been doing in our performance assembly next week. It has been such a busy half term filled with music that we have barely had a chance to study our musical hero of the half term this time around so maybe you and your little ones may like to have a boogie at home to James Brown's song “I got you! (feel good)”.

It has been so lovely to see the children all use their knowledge of the seasons in order to compare the characteristics of each. It has been especially lovely being able to compare the state of the trees in the Winter versus the Autumn. We are really excited to return to this learning in Spring and Summer to make even more comparisons and scientific observations. 

As our geography unit is coming to an end, we have written the most incredible letters to Santa Claus. Not only did the children share their address with Mr. C, but they were also able to describe the wonderful town in which we live: Dunstable! The children were able to comment on both human and physical features within Dunstable meaning that Santa is now very well informed on what he will fly over on his visit in just under two weeks’ time. What a wonderful purpose for writing to bring all of our geography knowledge from this half term together!

In R.E., we have continued to learn about how Christians celebrate Christmas. We have learnt about advent and have been lucky enough to have an advent calendar in our classroom for the children to enjoy and take part in. Before the end of term, we will be finishing up our learning by making our very own Christingles and thinking about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. Wow! We have really enjoyed our R.E. learning this half term. I am certain the children will have so much knowledge to share with you!

Finally, our Happy Hummers for the last two weeks have been Sienna Howells and Christopher Stavropoulos. Well done for trying so hard with all of your learning and being the amazing stars you are! Handwriting heroes have been: Aila Hussain, Viyan Patel, Zackariya Anwar and Freddie Chilcot .

All that is left to say, as Autumn term draws to a close, is how much we have enjoyed getting to know and teaching your lovely children so far this year. Autumn term can be a tricky time for the children across the school as they embrace the changes of new classrooms and teachers but I am so incredibly proud of all of our ‘Happy Hummingbirds’ as they have done so well settling back into school life with us and are thriving. I’m sure we will get a chance to say it to you on the door but just in case we don’t; we hope you all have a very Merry Christmas from all of us in Key Stage One and look forward to welcoming the children back in the new year.

Kindest regards

Miss. Slough, Miss. Skingle, Mrs. Harrison and Mr. McAleese 

Message: On Friday the 20th December the children will be having a Key stage Christmas party to celebrate all of their hard work and efforts in the Autumn term. If you wish to send in some snacks to contribute to this, all donations would be gratefully received:)

If your child also wishes to bring in a game to play during the afternoon on this occasion for this they are more than welcome to.

Class News Spring Term 2025

 24.1.2025

Dear Parents,

It has been another amazing two weeks in Key Stage One with lots of fantastic learning opportunities for the children to enjoy. It was lovely to share your child’s progress with you all at parents’ and carers’ evening this week so thank you for taking the time to share your child’s learning journey with us. I hope you all found this useful. 

This term the children in Key stage 1 have been learning some map skills starting with using a compass to complete some challenges on the playground. See if your child can tell you the mnemonic that we used to remember the points on a compass (Naughty Elephants Squirt Water). Some children even had their own mnemonic which was fantastic. The children then looked at what is meant by an ‘aerial view.’ Lots of the children remembered our special 50th anniversary photo taken last year on the field with a drone by one of our parents which was a great way to aid understanding. The children then made their own aerial view plan of our classroom which was quite tricky but they did remarkably well. 

This week was particularly exciting as the children had a Geography Field trip starting at the top of the downs. We walked a route all the way back to school looking at all the human and physical features on the way to prepare ourselves for creating our very own maps back in class. Wish us luck for the next part as being a cartographer can be very tricky!

In history, we continued to find out all about Rosa Parks and how she impacted the Civil Rights Movement. We read the story ‘If a bus could talk’ which told the story of the day Rosa decided to stand up for her rights through the eyes of the bus!  See if your child can tell you what happened in the story. We must also mention a special thank you to Kaylan’s Mum who gifted our Key stage a special treasury of the ‘Little People Big Dreams’ anthology which featured Rosa Parks and allowed us to find out even more about her life. I’m sure we will all enjoy sharing the rest of the amazing people featured in this book during our class story times. We also discussed Ruby Bridges and how she was just the children's age when she entered an integrated school - she was incredibly brave and inspiring!

Our science learning has been exciting for the past 2 weeks as we have been exploring the characteristics of different materials. The children have been fantastic at differentiating between a material and an object, which has allowed them to explore why a certain material might be chosen to make something. They have also done a brilliant job of distinguishing between a natural and man made material - they loved discussing how to make glass, see if they can tell you how to make it! They then had the opportunity to create a bridge, thinking of the structure of material and how we can make it stronger by using shape! We even experimented with different materials to see what the stretchiness of the material was. Well done to all our lovely scientists!

In P.E we have been working on our gymnastics skills. The children had an opportunity to use some of the climbing equipment in the hall to work on some key climbing, balancing and jumping skills. They have impressed us with their knowledge on how to make different shapes with our bodies. For example, star, tuck, straddle, dish, arch and pike. Then, they focused on how they can turn these shapes into movements using jumping and rolling. I am sure your children will love to demonstrate some of the shapes to you. Why not ask them if they can use a rolling or jumping movement alongside their shapes? Watch closely for their transitions between jumping/rolling and their shapes.

Finally, our Happy Hummers for the last two weeks have been Blake Luikaj and Winter Hughes. Well done for trying so hard with all of your learning and being the amazing stars you are! Handwriting heroes have been: Izzy Kirwin, Viyan Patel, Jacob Brandusesc, Christopher Stavropoulos. Well done for all your efforts in class to practise writing so beautifully.

All that is left to say is we look forward to welcoming the children back into school on Monday. Have a lovely weekend.

Kindest regards

Miss. Slough, Miss. Skingle, Mrs. Harrison and Mr. McAleese

Messages:

Could we please ask that you share the school dinner menu with your child if they are choosing a school meal as sometimes the children are asking to choose a different option and were not aware of the choices beforehand. Thank you in advance for your help with this:)

 7.2.2025

Dear parents, 

This week has been Mental Health Week with a focus on 'Know Yourself. Grow Yourself.’ This  has given the children time to identify their different emotions using the film ‘Inside out’ to support their understanding. The children were able to talk about the things that bring them joy and then design their own different ‘personality islands’ as they took time to think about all the different things they love doing and people that matter to them. See if your child can show you what they designed.

In History, we have continued to learn about inspiring women from the past. After learning about Rosa Parks and her ‘small act of defiance’ on a bus that led to some major changes in America in the 1950’s and 60’s, we then went on to find out about Ruby Bridges. We found out that Ruby was also a civil rights activist and as a child found herself being the first African American to go to an all white school in Louisiana. Her bravery led to the desegregation of schools. We all agreed schools in England today are very different and the children were able to talk about how at Lark Rise we have rules that uphold our rights to be happy, safe, included and to be able to learn. 

Although there have been parts of these two amazing ladies' lives that were very sad for us to learn about, we have all enjoyed hearing their happy endings and the impact that the legacy of these two beautiful souls will have for future generations to come.

In Music, we have been busy celebrating Bob Marley's Birthday with a very special live event on Thursday with the whole school and many other schools around the world; how amazing! The children have really enjoyed his uplifting music and sang beautifully with millions of other children. I hope your child was able to tell you all about it or even sing!

In PSHE we have been continuing to learn how important it is to advocate for ourselves, making sure that we know who our trusted adults are and exploring the concept of what we are comfortable or uncomfortable with. We were lucky to have a special assembly delivered by Mrs Waterman who told us all about the NSPCC and their campaign of ‘speak out stay safe’ . We learned it is ok to use our voices and speaking up for ourselves is so important. 

In R.E this week, we have finalised our learning on Judaism by looking at the celebrations of Shabbat and Hunukah. We have connected our learning from the first weeks when we looked at special objects and have spent some time seeing where these are placed within these special celebrations. 

Finally, in Art the children have been exploring colour theory and now know how to mix the primary colours to create the secondary colours. The children have also created beautiful spreads in their sketchbooks using different mediums to recreate one of Kandinsky’s famous paintings, ‘Squares with Concentric Circles’ (1913). 

Our Happy Hummers over the last two weeks have been Elsie Randall and Dollie Hayes. Well done for trying so hard with all of your learning and being the amazing stars you are! Handwriting heroes have been: Sophia Paruit, Winter Hughes, Oakley Terry,  and Elsie Randall. Well done for all your efforts in class to practise writing so beautifully.

All that is left to say is we look forward to welcoming the children back into school on Monday for our last week together before the half term. We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Kindest regards

Miss. Slough, Miss. Skingle, Mrs. Harrison and Mr. McAleese

 28.2.2025

Dear Parents and Carer,

Welcome back to the first fortnightly email of the half term. The children have made such a positive start to the week and we are so pleased with all their efforts to achieve their best in lessons and most of all show such kindness to each other. Hummingbirds class have a new kindness basket inspired by reading a class story called ‘Kind’ by Axel Scheffler. Every time the children show acts of kindness they can add a bear to our basket. We have decided that when the basket is full we will celebrate with a special treat. Our new whole school value this term is ‘respect’ and Hummingbirds started off the week by thinking about how we can show respect to each other. They are doing a wonderful job as you can already imagine of being respectful to each other and showing respect for the things in the classroom; well-done everyone!

This half term our musical hero is Kate Bush and the children began learning to sing one of her greatest hits ‘Running Up That Hill’ in our music assembly this week. Have a listen at home together and see if you can sing along too.

 In our music lessons this half term we are learning a Bossa Nova Latin style track called ‘Round and Round.’ This presents an integrated approach to music where games, the dimensions of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch etc), singing and playing instruments are all linked.

In P.E the children have enjoyed starting their jungle yoga; see which poses they can show you and have some fun being monkeys together!

In science this half term, we are learning about living things and their habitats from all around the world. This week, the children started to look at what a habitat is. The children were then tasked with using their observation skills to identify different trees. For this, we had a real life tree surgeon come into school to talk to the children about how they could identify trees. We then went outside to complete an audit of the trees on our school grounds. The children really enjoyed having an expert come into school! I’m sure your child will enjoy telling you all about the identifying features of lots of different trees when you are next out on a walk! 

Next up is Design Technology! Firstly, we would like to thank anyone who has already brought in toilet roll/kitchen roll tubes. We still need lots more for the children so they can make their final product in a few weeks, so please could you kindly keep sending them into school, it is very much appreciated. This half term, the children will be designing and making a chair for Baby Bear from the story, ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears.’ This week, the children completed the research phase of our Design Technology learning, which is where they researched existing products (chairs) and evaluated them. 

This half term our Religious Education and World Views learning is focusing on the Easter story and how it is a symbol of new life for Christians. We were able to retell the story to our friends and explored how it might inspire Christians due to the resurrection of Jesus after he was crucified. It was fantastic to listen to the children discuss how important hope can be and how we should always be open to listening to others opinions.We can’t wait to explore this story further. 

For Geography we are off to India! We had a fantastic first learning all about India and its place in the World - we were able to utilise our skills by using an Atlas and located it on the map - even finding New Delhi which is its capital city. We then created a Jam Board with all of the facts we learned about India. We are so excited to explore more of this vast country and can’t wait to see what other pieces of information we learn.

This week and the week before half term our handwriting heroes were Viyan Patel and Aila Hussain. Well done for all your brilliant efforts to improve your handwriting and write neatly in your books. Our Happy Hummers over the last two school weeks have been  Blake and Oakley who have been wonderful role models; always trying their best to demonstrate the Lark Rise values. 

Finally, I would just like to say I hope you have a lovely weekend together and that the sun shines for you all. We will look forward to greeting the children all back in school on Monday.

Kind regards

Miss. Slough, Miss. Skingle, Mrs Harrison and Mr. McAleese.

 14.3.25

Dear Parents,

What an amazing two weeks we’ve had!  I have to start by saying how incredibly proud we all are of our lovely Hummingbirds for their brilliant assembly last week. Thank you so much for all of your support helping the children to learn their lines and coming into school on the day to watch. Of course this week we also had some special visitors in and whilst we are unable to inform you of their specific judgements until the report has been finalised, we are incredibly pleased with the feedback we have received. I would like to personally thank any parents who took the time to share their experiences of the school so positively and those who even took the time to write about everything. It has been really special to hear about all these lovely comments. I would just like to share with you all how amazing your lovely children have been during this visit and always and how proud I am to serve in such an amazing community.

This week has been science week with the theme of ‘Change and adapt.’ We kick started the week with a fantastic assembly by Mrs. True and then watched a live lesson about changes on a farm. We joined owners Ruby and Lufti as they took us on a walk to help look after all their animals and learn about all the ways they fight climate change on their farm. We also did some deep sea Yoga in P.E to find out how sea creatures change and adapt. See if your child can show you the starfish pose!

On world book day, there was a buzz of excitement as the children found out that we would be creating our own spells linked to our key text this half term - ‘The spell Thief’ by Tom Percival. We started by finding some good sturdy wands on the field in the form of sticks and then decorating them with stars. The children loved thinking about what magical powers they would like to have and it was a fabulous day punctuated by ‘STOP, DROP and READ’ which is always a firm favourite on this day. Of course a real highlight was having so many parents in to read with their children at the end of the day so thank you so much for supporting us with this event.

During History we have been plotting through the life of Grace O’Malley and have sequenced all of the main events that happened during her time as a pirate sailing the seas! We planned what could have been said between her and Queen Elizabeth the first! Ask your child if they will re-enact this for you! 

In Design Technology we moved on to our next stage of learning which was focusing on developing our ‘skills’ knowledge. In order to complete our final project we need to be able to join two materials together so we spent some time looking at different ways of joining materials. We use masking tape, glue and scissors. 

In Religious Education  we have continued our learning on ‘Easter’ focusing on the story of the Holy Week. The children enjoyed sequencing the events. It was also Shrove Tuesday last week which meant we were able to talk about lent and how this links to Easter and the holy week. 

Finally, our Happy Hummers for the last two weeks have been Oakley Terry and Eliana Liscio. Well done for trying so hard with all of your learning and being the amazing stars you are! Handwriting heroes have been: Bertie Sands, Pearl Coote, Marcus Chelaru and Livvy Filmer. Well done for all your efforts in class to practise writing so beautifully.

All that is left to say is we look forward to welcoming the children back into school on Monday. Have a lovely weekend.

Kindest regards

Miss. Slough, Miss. Skingle, Mrs. Harrison and Mr. McAleese

Messages:

You may have noticed your child coming home with extra Maths challenges. This is completely voluntary spurred on by the children’s love of maths!

 28.3.2025

Dear Parents,

It has been another lovely two weeks in Hummingbirds class with lots of wonderful learning opportunities. It has been fantastic to hear the children’s recommendations for book choices to their peers this week. Please remind your child that if they would like a turn to speak at our book club session on Thursday’s they are more than welcome to bring in a book they are reading independently from home or alternatively one they have enjoyed having read to them. It is a chance to inspire their friends, practise justifying their opinions and summarise books in a simple way.

This half term the children have learned to sing our Latin Bossa Nova style song ‘Round and Round.’ In addition to this, they have been busy learning how to play parts of this song on the glockenspiel using the notes C, D and F. It has also been lovely to hear the children getting braver with their improvisations on the glockenspiels when they have had the opportunity to make up melodies of their own to the song; well-done children!

 In preparation for our Easter end of term assembly, we have also been learning a Key Stage one favourite ‘Spring Chicken’ and as always the children have been full of energy and enthusiasm singing along. See if they will sing you a snippet at home to brighten your day too!

In history, we have continued to learn about the brave and fearless Grace O’Malley and  begun to find out what life was like under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The children used their detective skills to examine a photo of a painting from the time she was alive to see how rich Elizabethans lived.

Our geography learning has taken us all through India and we have had the opportunity for some wonderful magic moments! Last Monday we were visited by Mrs. Berry who told us all about her time and experience of India, showing us images of her time there, sharing stories and even bringing in some items for us to explore! She was fascinating and the children were mesmerised by her, we were so proud of the curious questions they asked her - ask your children if they remember any facts about India!  This week was also equally as magical as we got the opportunity to discuss how the land is used in India for growing food for the local community and the land in the UK is mass farmed for the supermarkets! We then were able to taste some Indian food, including onion bhajis, pakoras, naan and samosas. We thought they were very tasty and loved the smell of all the spices!

For neurodiversity week we have been discussing the importance of children being individuals and had a wonderful assembly from Mrs Hartley celebrating how our brains are all different and work in different ways - we are all wonderful because we are unique! At Lark Rise it is clear that all of the children respect and accept all different ways of thinking, we are so proud of their kindness and ability to have empathy with others - well done all of you!

In P.E we are continuing to learn how to play dodgeball. This week we focused on how to catch the ball during a match. We also discussed the best method for throwing the ball so the opponent doesn’t catch it and get you out! We have also been taking part in some jungle themed yoga. Ask your child if they can show you and name any of the poses. 

Lastly, we read the story ‘Birthday Cake’ which led nicely on to our special visitors that came this Friday. We have been incredibly lucky that the fire service came to visit us in KS1. The children were able to look at the fire truck and listened to a talk on fire safety.  See if your children can tell you all about it!

 

Finally, our Happy Hummers for the last two weeks have been Daisy McCulloch and Pearl Coote. Well done for trying so hard with all of your learning and being the amazing stars you are! Handwriting heroes have been: Edward Horner, Stefan Stavropoulos, Theo Perkins and Maddison Edmonds. Well done for all your efforts in class to practise writing so beautifully.

All that is left to say is we hope you have a lovely Mother’s Day weekend and hope the sun shines for you all. We look forward to welcoming the children back into school on Monday. Have a lovely weekend.

Kindest regards

Miss. Slough, Miss. Skingle, Mrs. Harrison and Mr. McAleese

Messages:

The children have really enjoyed playing some maths games on the website ictgames.com this week (especially funky mummy and shark numbers). So if your looking for a way to help your child sharpen their number skills  whilst having fun, this could be the fun way to do it!