Parrots Class

Class News Autumn Term 2024

13.9.2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

What a fantastic week and a half we have had back in school! It has been a joy to get to know each of your incredible children and grow together as the new Parrots Class. It can sometimes be overwhelming coming back to school after having six weeks at home, especially for our new year one children, but the resilience and bravery displayed by the children has been outstanding. A big congratulations to all!

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.

Please remember we now have a new lunch ordering system in place. School dinners need to be ordered 24 hours in advance via the ParentMail app. We would like to thank you for helping your child choose a dinner at home. This has made lunchtime at school a much smoother transition and it has allowed the children more time to play!

We would also like to remind you 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; this includes all soft toys.

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

Finally, Top of the Tree for the last two weeks has been awarded to Hanna and Holly-Rose. Our Handwriting Heroes and Heroines for this week are Rojus and Maja.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

Mrs Bilenkyj and Mrs Rankine

 27.9.2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

Another two weeks have flown by in Parrots Class, with the children showing increasing resilience towards their learning. Let’s dive right in!

The children have made a fabulous start to their English learning in KS1 learning the poem ‘The King of all the dinosaurs’ by Paul Cookson. All the children have thoroughly 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 shared 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!

Finally, Top of the Tree for the last two weeks has been awarded to Max and Ella. Our Handwriting Heroes and Heroines for the last weeks are Frankie, Sofia, Max and Lucy.

Take care and we’ll see all of your wonderful children on Monday.

Mrs Bilenkyj and Mrs Rankine

11.10.2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

In KS1 we have had another fabulous two weeks completing some exciting learning activities. We are sure you will love reading this week’s newsletter! 

Over the last few weeks, 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 PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and 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 next week  on Thursday 17th October.

Lastly, we have been incredibly lucky to have had such an enriching and enjoyable visit to the zoo this past week! As a team, we all want to thank you all for your continued support! It was such a wonderful opportunity to visit the animals. There were lots of opportunities to discuss what continent the animals are from - this linked perfectly to our Geography learning. It was also brilliant to see and talk about the offspring of the animals. We were lucky enough to see a brand new baby rhino and baby giraffes, if you ask the children I am sure they will be more than happy to share how old they are and what they are all called! A highlight of the trip was definitely being able to use the skills we have been learning in Art to draw the animals, they even posed for us which was amazing! 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!

Finally, Top of the Tree for the last two weeks has been awarded to Arthur and Frankie. Our Handwriting Heroes and Heroines for the last weeks are Noah, Summer, Kira and Rojus.

Have a lovely weekend - we look forward to seeing your wonderful children on Monday!

Mrs Bilenkyj and Mrs Rankine

 15.11.2024

Dear Parents/Carers,

What a lovely start to the half term. The children have all come back to school ready to learn and have been working so hard. We are so proud of each and every one of them! 

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.

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 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!

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? Next week, we will spend some time focusing on the four countries that make up the United Kingdom. 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.

In Design Technology this half term we are designing and creating a moving picture. Over the last two weeks, the children have been looking at different moving mechanisms in our classroom and exploring how they work. They then created a slider and lever template. You are sure to be thrilled when you see the moving pictures at the end of term! 

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. 

Finally, Top of the Tree for the last two weeks has been awarded to David and Rocco.L. Our Handwriting Heroes and Heroines for the last weeks are Hanna, Maximus, Reina and Otis.

Have a lovely weekend with family and friends.

Mrs Bilenkyj and Mrs Rankine

Class News Spring Term 2025

24.1.2025

Dear Parents, Carers and Parrots class, 

Our amazing learning has been continuing nicely in KS1 and we have really enjoyed watching all the children get stuck into every aspect of the curriculum. They are working so hard and we are so proud of them all! 

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.

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. 

This last two week's Top the tree are Sophie and Maya. Well done for being a fantastic role model. This week's handwriting hero and heroine are Chloe, Rocco, Poppy and  Sharleez. 

Have a lovely weekend and the KS1 team all look forward to seeing the children on Monday morning. 

 

Mrs Bilenkyj 

 7.2.2025

Dear Parents, Carers and Parrots class, 

All the children have been working hard in KS1 and we have really enjoyed the last few weeks of learning. We are so proud of them all! 

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). 

The last two week's Top the tree are Nova & Carter. Well done for being a fantastic role model. This week's handwriting hero and heroine are Arthur, Rocco.F, Kira and Sophie. 

Enjoy your weekend!

 

Mrs Bilenkyj 

28.2.2025

Dear Parents, Carers and Parrots class, 

Welcome back! We hope you all had a fun and restful half term. It has been a pleasure to see all the amazing children back in class. They have been working incredibly hard already! 

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 DT 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.

Well done for all those children who are working fantastically on Numbots and TTRockstars - we can see a real improvement in your maths, please keep up the good work. Just a reminder to all that this is something that children should be doing daily as it helps with their fluency and understanding in maths.

The last two week's Top the tree are Reina & Sharleez. Well done for being a fantastic role model. This week's handwriting heros are Sofia, Carter, Tomasz and Sara. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs Bilenkyj 

28.3.25

Dear Parents, Carers and Parrots class, 

Welcome back everyone! We are now in the Summer term and we are really excited to continue our exciting learning.

Our first week back has been a short one but filled with lots of excellent learning. 

This week the children discovered five magic beans in their classroom and set to work making predictions about how and why they may have arrived in school. It was such good fun and all became clear when copies of the fairytale ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ were delivered to the Key Stage 1 classrooms. The children enjoyed acting out parts of the tale and ordering pictures as they became familiar with retelling the story orally. This will hopefully help the children  when they come to write their own versions of the story. In addition to this the children have each planted their own bean seed in an attempt to grow their own beanstalks. After all, who wouldn’t want their own adventure in the land of the clouds?!

This half term the children have also begun a new History topic ‘Seasides: Holidays in the Past.’ The children will be investigating What it was like to visit the seaside over 100 years ago and started by examining an old postcard. In preparation for a future activity with the children we would like the children to bring in a photograph of them at the seaside. Please let us know if you need any help with this.

This half term we are revisiting our learning about everyday materials and are thinking about their properties. We are really excited to be linking this to one of our favourite stories - The Three Little Pigs! We considered all the materials that the three little pigs used and had some brilliant discussions about how some were more practical than others. Ask your children about which they would prefer to live in - they had some wonderful reasonings!

We will continue to learn about what materials are most suitable for and will also spend some time revisiting the seasons, looking at a tree in Spring!

In Geography this half term we are learning about seasides and coasts which set the children up nicely for our exciting magic moment trip to Walton-on-the-Naze next half term. In our first lesson this week we started with looking at the United Kingdom and each country's capital city. The children each used a range of maps to support their learning to be able to label a map of the UK.

If you are hoping to do some more maths at home with you child/ren, here is a great link to some fun and engaging online learning: https://ictgames.com/. Have fun learning and let us know what you get up to - we would love to hear you get up to.

The last two week's Top the tree are Poppy & Kira. Well done for being a fantastic role model. The last two week's handwriting heros are Holly-Rose, Otis, Frankie and David. 

Enjoy your weekend and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday! 
Mrs Bilenkyj 

9.5.25