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Macaws Class

Class News Autumn Term 2026

11.9.26

Dear parents and carers, 

This is the first Macaws class email of the new year. What a week it has been, it's been so wonderful to really meet and get to know your children.

I hope you all had a fantastic and restful summer break. It has been so lovely to welcome the children back to school after a long six weeks off and it is safe to say that our learning has kicked off to a brilliant start! The classroom atmosphere has been wonderful and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all of the children. They have settled in brilliantly and brought so much enthusiasm to the classroom already.

This half term in English, our key text is 'The Iron Man' by Ted Hughes. Children have started to explore this text in their English classes this week and used their skills of prediction and retrieval to show an understanding of the start of the story. We are all wondering what will happen next: will the Iron Man be good or evil? Where has he come from? Why is he here? We have also been thinking about our fundamental writing skills as we return to school; this will help the children when they complete their first few pieces of assessed writing in the coming weeks.

In History this week, we have dived headfirst into our 'locality' and Dunstable's significance in history, seeing the changes the town has undergone in the last 150 years. In the coming weeks, we will delve deeper into local buildings that go back centuries. The children's enthusiasm and curiosity have truly brought the lessons to life, with children sharing their local knowledge aiding in the further exploration of the town we call home.

This term in Geography, we are diving into our exciting new topic, "What's Around Me?". Over the coming weeks, the children will be using maps and atlases to explore urban and rural environments, identifying key similarities and differences between different locations. As part of this topic, we will also be conducting a local area study with hands-on fieldwork, directly connecting our geography skills to our History learning as we discover Dunstable past and present.

We have kicked off the topic this week, and the classroom is already buzzing with fantastic questions and curiosity. We are so excited to see where their learning takes them over the rest of the term!

Homework will be set from next Friday (18th September) and will be on Doodle spelling. Children will have their Doodle logins in their planner. Homework is due the following Wednesday (23rd September).

Please find the weekly PE and swimming schedule below:

  • Weekly Swimming: Every Tuesday. Please ensure your child comes to school with their complete swimming kit on this day. Children can wear their PE kits on swimming days.

  • Macaws maths PE: Every Tuesday.

  • Peacocks maths PE: Every Wednesday.

  • Red Kites maths PE: Every Thursday.

On their designated PE days, children should arrive at school wearing their correct PE uniform. 

Macaw of the week has been awarded to Lilly, for fantastic effort and being a great role model for some of the younger members of our keystage.

Handwriting hero and heroine have been awarded to Max and Loshini. It's great to see both of them taking pride in their work and really making an effort with their handwriting.

Thank you

Mr Wildman

25.9.26

Dear parents and carers, 

It's crazy how time has flown, since the last class email. I'm sure the children have told you about the learning they have been doing in the past weeks. I would also like to highlight that lots of the children have been so very brave to apply for the ambassador roles, standing in assembly and reading their speeches to the rest of the school is daunting even as a adult, I am so proud of all those that did apply.

 We have had a fantastic start to our Music lessons this term as we explore the 'R&B' genre! The children kicked things off by listening to and appraising a variety of classic R&B tracks. It was wonderful to hear so many of them share how they recognize these songs from car journeys with family and love singing along,leading to brilliant class discussions! Our main focus song for this half-term is 'Let Your Spirit Fly' by Joanna Mangona, and we’ve been diving into its history to see how R&B has evolved over time. The classroom was absolutely buzzing this week as the children put their learning into practice and started playing notes on the glockenspiels! To top off a great week, we’ve also been enjoying some lively sing-alongs to tracks by Avicii, who is our Music Hero of the half-term. We can't wait to see their musical skills grow as the weeks develop!

Children have really enjoyed their start to our Science topic this half term where we have been exploring the topic ‘Forces’. Children have learned about push and pull forces and have worked practically to explore friction and magnetism. They are full of scientific vocabulary that is helping them to understand and talk about this unit of work and it has been wonderful to see them work scientifically to complete fair tests and also work together in small groups with opportunities to take turns, share, listen to each other and negotiate. 

Our young tech enthusiasts have hit the ground running in Computing. Throughout the first few lessons, we have explored what the internet is, looking into the World Wide Web and the differences between a website and a webpage. We have also been able to incorporate a skills lesson to hopefully allow the children to make individual progress regarding their Chromebooks. The children's ownership over their own progression has been truly special to witness, with many of our digital leaders and other children helping those who haven't necessarily used the Chromebooks before, fostering a wonderful classroom environment of learning.

Our swimming lessons have been hugely successful over the last two weeks; we are extremely proud of all the children as we know some children are less confident in the skills but they are all pushing themselves each week to make progress - well done! Just a couple of reminders about swimming: please ensure that, if children are not able to take earrings out and put them back in, no earrings are worn to school on Tuesdays as they should not be worn in the pool and the tape that the children would normally use in PE will fall off in the pool. Adults are not allowed to take earrings out or put them back in. Also, please ensure your child has a swimming cap if they have long hair - thank you to those of you who have remembered this in the first few busy weeks of term.

Homework this week will be set on Doodle maths and due in next Wednesday. This is in addition to the daily reading and TT Rockstars activities we ask all children complete.

Macaw of the week has been awarded to Archie for trying his hardest when it comes to all his learning and the way he has helped others over this week with their learning.

Handwriting hero and heroine have been awarded to Freddie and Anastasia. It's great to see both of them taking pride in their work and really making an effort with their handwriting.

Thank you

Mr Wildman

9.10.26

Dear parents and carers,

Another two weeks have passed, and more strides have been made as far as the children's learning and progress. Macaws have been singled out numerous times in assembly over the last two weeks for our amazing behaviour, and It just goes to show that the class is showing others how amazing we can truly be. 

I am looking forward to seeing all of you next week during the Children's Learning Review Meetings, where I will share more of the individual successes with you all.

In Art this half term, we have been looking at the work of the famous Andy Warhol. The children began with an artist study, learning all about him, his life and his work. It was through this artist study that the children learned he has a famous piece of art based on soup cans! The children then studied a range of food packaging themselves and also explored and experimented with different colour combinations. We will be moving on to creating our own pieces of Andy Warhol-inspired work in the final weeks of the half term. 

Our Lower Key Stage 2 PSHE lessons have been fantastic recently! We have continued to explore different types of relationships and what makes a healthy, positive friendship. Last week, we were lucky to have the SCARF workshops visit us, where the children focused on maintaining a healthy balance in their lives and discovered wonderful strategies to look after both their bodies and minds. The children were exceptionally engaged throughout, and it was lovely to see their enthusiasm, they even finished off the session by creating some beautiful origami paper hearts!   

In RE this term, we have been looking at how different religions worship. We have been looking at the buildings themselves, what happens inside them, how people go about worshipping, and some of the key features of these places of worship. 

The children have been using their own lived experiences and things they have witnessed themselves to bring their lessons to life and add more meaning to them. We have also allowed them to explore some of these buildings interactively online, allowing them to truly see what it would be like to be inside these places of worship.

Macaw of the week has been awarded to Alexandra for amazing, sustained effort, and really trying to take our learning to a new level during this week.

Handwriting hero and heroine have been awarded to Carter and Imogen. It's great to see both of them taking pride in their work and really making an effort with their handwriting.

Thank you

Mr Wildman