Dear parents and carers,

It has been another fantastic fortnight in Parrots class as the children continue to thrive in Key Stage One. It has been lovely to see the children showing such care for each other and as a result during Thursday’s special celebrations assembly we saw a record amount of nominations for our kindness and caring cup; fantastic! The children make it so difficult to choose an overall winner which I think you’ll agree is a great problem to have.

During our science learning, we have continued with our theme of ‘Animals Including Humans’ and began to study the diets of different animals. See if your child can tell you what a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore is or even name a few examples? The children also sorted animals into two different groups looking at the similarities and differences of pets and wild animals. They did a brilliant job and so we discussed why some animals make better pets than others. Some children wondered whether keeping sharks would be a good idea and we all agreed a no on that one (especially Great Whites)!

In P.E., the children have been busy learning new skills, and it’s safe to say that the kickboards — used for practising turns — have been very popular! The children have definitely enjoyed the freedom of running across the hall for once and it has been wonderful to see the children so engaged and enjoying their learning. We are very proud to see the children measuring their achievements by their own efforts and dedication to keep making improvements and not by comparing themselves to others; this is a sure way to success for all of our children.

In R.E the children have been busy finding out about the special holy book for Jewish people- The Torah. Having read and even acted out some stories from the bible the children were surprised to find out that the writing in the Torah is written in Hebrew and read from right to left but that some of the stories are actually the same as in the bible. The children had a lot of fun making a Torah of their own and writing special messages.

Over the last couple of weeks in geography the children have been finding out more about Kenya. A highlight was definitely finding out about the Maasai tribe and having their own jumping contest on the school field just like the tribe themselves; fabulous!

Thank you so much to those of you who have already brought in some toilet roll tubes for our wonderful art learning. This will greatly help with our end of unit creation of a rain stick! If these could continue being brought in we would really appreciate it. Thank you for your support with this, the children can't wait to get creating and share their masterpieces with you!

Finally, our Perfect Parotts over the last two weeks have been Pearl and Adien. Well done for always trying your best and for doing everything with a smile; you are both fabulous additions to our wonderful class. Our handwriting heroes have been Alia, and Alena. Well done for all your efforts in our handwriting sessions to try your very best and make improvements each week on your handwriting.

All that is left to say is have a lovely weekend with your beautiful families.

Kindest regards

Mrs Ball, Mrs Rumbelow, Mr McAleese 

Please can you remind your children that they are not allowed to be bringing toys to school. Thank you for your support with this. 

 24.10.25

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we come to the end of what has been a fantastic first half term, it has been an absolute pleasure to see how brilliantly the children have settled into Key Stage One. They have all worked incredibly hard, showing such resilience and enthusiasm for their learning which has made us all feel exceptionally proud. We have already seen them make such fantastic progress this year, and their wonderful attitudes are a true testament to their hard work; something I am sure you are just as proud of at home.

Our science lessons, for our topic ‘Animals including humans’  truly came to life with our fantastic trip to the zoo! It was amazing to see so many different animals up close and we had lots of brilliant discussions about their natural habitats.  We also paid close attention to what they ate. See if your child can remember what the giraffes were munching on or what sort of food the Lions would have eaten for their lunch.  Back in the classroom, the children used everything they had seen to create some incredible animal profiles, which showed off all their knowledge. 

Our geography learning has continued to  take us all the way to Africa this fortnight as we began to answer the big question: 'What is life like in Kenya and how is it different to the UK?'. We had some fantastic discussions comparing the wild animals of the savannah to our local wildlife and looking at the differences between towns, houses, and traditional mud huts. The children were brilliant at spotting whether a picture was from Kenya or the UK and did a super job sorting them into their books.  Maybe you could ask your child to tell you one big difference they learned about between Kenya and the UK.

In RE, we have been learning about Judaism and some of the important stories from the Torah. To understand the incredible story of Moses, we became actors and brought the tale to life right here in the classroom! The children acted out key moments, from Moses being found in the basket to bravely leading the Israelites to freedom. They were fantastic at showing the different emotions throughout the story, which led us perfectly into learning about the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses. We had a brilliant time comparing these important rules to our very own 'Class Commandments', and we were very proud to see that many of our ideas about being kind, telling the truth, and respecting others were already there! Why not ask your child which part of the story was their favourite to act out?

Finally, our Perfect Parrots over the last two weeks have been Jessica and Elektra. Well done for always trying your best and for doing everything with a smile; you are both fabulous additions to our wonderful class. Our handwriting heroes have been Maria, Georgio, Freddie, and Vivyan. Well done for all your efforts in our handwriting sessions to try your very best and make improvements each week on your handwriting.

A quick note on homework for the half-term break: We have set a special project on Google Classroom (in your child's usual base class) to celebrate Black History Month 2025. We hope they enjoy this lovely activity and can't wait to see their brilliant work after the holiday! 

All that is left to say is have a lovely half term holiday with your beautiful families and we look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 3rd November

Kindest regards

Mrs Ball, Mrs Rumbelow and Mr McAleese

 14.11.25

Dear Parents, Carers and Parrots class, 

What an amazing beginning we have had to the final half of the Autumn term! The children have come back refreshed and excited to learn, something that has been wonderful to see. We are so proud of how well they are settling into Key Stage One and as we begin the countdown to Christmas (we can’t believe how quickly this is coming round)! We are excited to begin practicing for our Nativity performance! Thank you so much for supporting the children learning lines and songs for this; I am sure they will share with you all they are practicing!

Well done to all the wonderful children who are really trying their best, they are a credit to you all! Perfect  Parrot for the last few weeks have been Marcus and Ivy, well done for being such wonderful role models and learners. We recognise how hard you work and how you always try your very best. Congratulations to Filip , Leighton, Chloe and Christopher for being our handwriting heroes and heroines, the effort you put into your presentation and letter formation has been noticed and you should be proud of how hard you have worked!

Celebrating Children in Need was a lovely way to support such a wonderful cause! We had a lovely assembly explaining the importance of supporting and helping children - you are our future and what a bright future it will be! We were also able to participate in Michael Rosen’s poetry celebration! It was a wonderful way to inspire the children and ignite a passion for poetry. He performed some hilarious and feel good poems about food - ask your child what their favourite moment was! It was also such a brilliant way to demonstrate how a love of reading is essential to our wellbeing and empowers us to live full, happy lives! 

Geography this half term is all about the world around us and the differences seen at the North Pole, South Pole and the equator. To explore the world around us we went on a scavenger hunt to explore what we could find around the school environment which was a great opportunity for the children to demonstrate their knowledge of our community. We were then able to draw a map of the school and begin to develop one of our key skills of map making in Geography! Over the next few weeks we will be comparing our environment to how different it can be at the top, bottom and middle of the Earth - exploring Ecuador and the equator!

We are thinking all about seasonal changes as well as materials in Science this half term. We have recapped our learning of trees by looking at the school trees on the field, exploring how the leaves have changed colour and how some of them are falling off! We also looked at leaves and the differences between deciduous and evergreen trees - ask your children what each tree is and what makes it so special!

Our History topic: learning about toys from the past has continued and we are looking forward to a  wonderful time visiting Wardown museum next week! Seeing all the old toys will really bring our learning to life and it will be fascinating to explore the differences between old and new toys, and to be able to see how a museum is curated. We will take inspiration from this as it will really help us when it comes time to create our own museum display of toys in the classroom! 

Well done for another smashing few weeks, we truly have had a wonderful whirlwind of a time- we can’t wait to continue our learning for the rest of the half term! You’re all superstars, have another lovely, restful weekend, we can’t wait to see you again for another incredible few weeks!

from

Mrs Ball, Mrs Rumbelow and Mr McAleese

 28.11.25

Dear Parents and carers, 

Firstly, a massive thank you to those of you who have been sending in costumes for our Christmas production of ‘Born in a Barn.’ We have been excited to see the stage go up at the beginning of this week and the children have been doing a wonderful job in their rehearsals; you really are in for a real treat! Thank you also to parents who have been supporting their children with their lines and where to come in on their scripts at home; we have been really impressed at school with their efforts. Just to clarify for anyone who is unsure, Year 1 are our amazing choir and have been asked to dress as their chosen barn yard animals. Please note these do not need to be bought costumes; they can wear clothes in the colour of that animal and a mask/head wear/tail etc. bird, sheep, cat, cow, pig. Please speak to Miss. Slough or any of the Key stage 1 team if you need help with any of this.

Alongside rehearsals, the children in Parrots have had a great time last week playing maths games with the children in Upper Key Stage 2. It was so lovely to see the sense of community we have at Lark Rise in action as our Year 5 and 6 children explained games they had designed and spent time helping our children to play with their friends. There were lots of smiles and even some siblings that had the chance to play together which was very lovely to see. It was definitely a fun way to end Maths week. See if your child can tell you about some of the other active Maths activities they played in their morning Maths classes too.

We have been very fortunate over the last two weeks to have had some grandparents visit us in Key Stage 1 to support us with our history learning. The children discovered an old train set that was a firm favourite and even got to see a set of wooden blocks that had been handmade and handed down through three generations of family and is still going strong; amazing! The children really enjoyed seeing old photos and listening to tales of when our two Grandads were young. Both talks were very special moments indeed. This will also really help us when we come to make our own toy museum next week. We would love your child to bring in a toy for this event on the 11th of December. We will be creating a toy museum with all three classes so please let them bring in something they like to play with but not too precious to display (and I’m sure we can make some time to play with them too!).

In music the children have been learning a special Christmas song ‘Somewhere in my memory.’ By John Williams. It featured in the film Home Alone and some of the children were able to recognise it straight away. We will be performing the song as a whole school before the end of the Christmas term in a special assembly. The children thought about how it makes them feel and what the lyrics mean. They sound absolutely angelic singing this song and we can’t wait to hear what it sounds like with the whole school and a percussion accompaniment.

Finally, our Perfect Parrot this week is  Evelyn Ireson for being such an amazing member of our class; listening well, sharing ideas and being a fantastic role model to her peers. Our Handwriting heroes have been Joshua and Christopher.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend.

from,

Mrs Ball, Mrs Rumbelow and Mr McAleese

 12.12.25

Dear Parents and Carers,

What a busy but great term we have had! The children have worked so hard and made some amazing progress.

We must start by saying just how incredibly proud we are of the children for their fantastic performance of our Christmas production, ‘Born in a Barn.’ The performances have been the absolute highlights of our week! A massive, heartfelt thank you to all of you who supported us so brilliantly by sending in such wonderful costumes—the barnyard animals, angels, shepherds, kings, and Mary and Joseph all looked spectacular. We also know how much time went into helping the children learn their lines and cues at home; that support makes a huge difference to their confidence. I’m sure you will agree all that practice paid off and it was a joy to see them shining so brightly. They really did give it their all, and their singing was absolutely beautiful. It was a very special occasion for our Key Stage.

Back in the classroom, the festive learning has continued in our RE lessons. This week, the children thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on task of making their very own Christingles. It was a wonderful, practical activity that really helped us to explore the deeper meaning of Christmas. We discussed why this season is so important to Christians and unpicked the symbolism: the orange represents the world, the red ribbon symbolises God’s love, the sweets and dried fruit represent God’s creations, and the candle stands for the light of the world. The classroom smelled delicious, and the children showed such respect during our discussions about faith.

We have also rounded off our History topic in style by creating a ‘Toy Museum’ in the classrooms using the children’s own toys. It was lovely to see such a variety of favourites brought in to share. It was great to see the children applying what they learned earlier in the term; they worked very hard to write detailed labels for their exhibits, just like the real ones we saw at Wardown Park. They had to think carefully about how to explain their toy to a visitor, describing materials and how it is played with. It was a fantastic way to link literacy skills with history, and they took great pride in displaying their items.

In Design and Technology, creativity has been flowing as the children worked on their hand puppets. We have been so pleased with their resilience. Sewing is not an easy skill, and there were certainly some tricky moments! However, the children didn't give up straight away, even when cutting the felt was difficult or threading needles was fiddly. It was truly lovely to see them supporting one another during these lessons; we saw so many examples of friends helping friends to thread needles or offering encouragement.

A huge, special thank you must go to Kit’s wonderful Grandma who came in to support Miss. Sheldrick with the sewing session. Having an extra pair of hands (and expert sewing knowledge!) was invaluable and helped the children achieve such great results.

Finally, our Perfect Parrots was Lilli-Mae Doyle. She has received this award for being such an amazing member of our class; always listening well, sharing their ideas with confidence, and being a fantastic role model. Our Handwriting Heroes have been Aria and Adien. We are really impressed with the care you are taking with your presentation.

We hope you have a wonderful, restful weekend after such a busy week.

From 

Mrs Ball, Mrs Rumbelow and Mr McAleese 

Class News Spring Term 2026

9.1.2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back! I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable break. It has been an absolute pleasure welcoming the children back into the classroom this week; the school has felt full of energy and excitement once again.

We are so impressed with how quickly the children have settled back into their routines. This week has been all about reconnecting with friends and diving straight into our new learning. Here is a little glimpse of what we’ve been up to during our first few days:

In history, we have begun our new topic The Great Fire of London. The children used images from the past to become detectives and find out about where and why the fire began. We have also started our key text in history ‘The Great Fire’ by Emma Adams. The children have enjoyed looking at the hauntingly beautiful illustrations that have depicted the fire.

This week, we officially launched our new Science topic, "Living Things and Their Habitats." The children have been busy learning about what makes something "alive" and what animals and plants need to survive. To kick things off, we took our learning outside! We spent some time exploring the school grounds to identify different micro-habitats. The children loved searching under logs and stones to find minibeasts and discussing why a damp, shady corner is a perfect home for a woodlouse. It was wonderful to see them using their "scientist eyes" in the fresh air!

We’ve already seen some fantastic effort across the board, but we would like to give a special mention to our first award winners of the term:

• Our Perfect Parrot: A huge well done to Sriya! She has been a real “Perfect Parrot” this week as she settled in so well to a new school and class. and Chloe before Christmas, as she always spread positivity and showed a wonderful attitude towards her peers. 

• Handwriting Heroes: Congratulations to Robyn and Lilli-Mae. They have come back with such focus, taking incredible pride in their letter formation and presentation.

It promises to be a busy and rewarding term ahead. We have attached the new curriculum overview to this email so you can see the exciting projects we have planned.

As always, thank you for your continued support. Please do catch me at the gate if you have any quick questions, or feel free to book a time to chat if there is anything more specific you’d like to discuss.

Warm regards,

Mrs Ball, Mrs Rumbelow and Mr McAleese 

Notes;

Children will have English / RWI homework given to them today. It is due on the first Wednesday of the following week (14.1.26). Thank you in advance for all your support with this as well as reading at home with your child and support to use TT Rockstars and Numbots. It really does translate into fantastic progress in the classroom when children are consistently supported with these at home as well as at school.

 23.1.26

Dear Parents, Carers and Parrots Class,

What a wonderful start to Spring term we have had! It has been incredible to see how settled and adjusted the children are within the Key Stage. Their effort and willingness to try their best is an inspiration to us all! It was also really lovely to see so many adults during parents' evening - we all absolutely love talking about your wonderful children and their achievements with you!

It is becoming increasingly difficult each week to choose just one child to be our Perfect Parrot because we can honestly say that every single child tries their very best. However this week there needs to be a special mention of some fantastic children who truly have gone above and beyond!

Our Perfect Parrot: A huge well done to Isla! Her attitude to her learning and friendships is admirable! Well done to Maria for having a wonderful outlook on her learning and quiet resilience that allows her to truly shine!

Handwriting Heroes and Heroines: Congratulations to Cole, Evelyn and Cason, Jessica. They demonstrate an amazing focus and always try so hard with their presentation and formations.

Our Geography learning has truly taken flight as we dive into our new topic: London! The children have shown wonderful enthusiasm, particularly as we look forward to our upcoming school trip to the capital. Using digital tools like Google Earth, we have been identifying the countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom. We are also exploring the difference between human and physical geography, focusing on iconic landmarks such as the London Eye, the River Thames, and Buckingham Palace. To support this learning at home, you might ask your child if they can recall any of these landmarks or identify the famous resident of Buckingham Palace! 

Art this half term is learning all about Henri Rousseau - we discovered that he was a French artist who lived from 1844–1910. His most famous works depict lush, dreamlike jungle scenes filled with exotic animals and vibrant flora. Interestingly, Rousseau never actually left France; he drew inspiration for these "jungles" from visits to the botanical gardens and zoos of Paris, as well as from postcards and travel books. While he was initially mocked by critics for his "childlike" technique, he eventually became a major influence on the Surrealists and was highly admired by artists like Pablo Picasso. He is also an artist who taught himself how to paint! He didn’t allow others' opinions of his art to stop him and showed true resilience, trying hard to improve with every stroke of paint! We have had the opportunity to study his paintings features and had a go at drawing oversized flowers, using different greens to depict the forest with clear outlines of plants.

This half term, our classroom has been transformed by the frosty magic of our class novel, The Snowman by Michael Morpurgo. We have truly relished the opportunity to delve into this heartwarming reimagining of a classic tale, exploring its themes of friendship and wonder. While we haven’t been quite lucky enough to be blessed with a blanket of real snow outside our window, it has been such a delight to bring the winter atmosphere indoors! We have had some wonderful, animated discussions about the art of building the perfect snowman. This inspired the children to become expert teachers, carefully drafting their own sets of  instructions on how to build a snowman. It has been a truly enchanting story to share in the wake of the Christmas holidays, and we have all been swept up in the shimmering magic of the novel. It has certainly warmed our hearts during these chilly winter weeks!

Well done for a truly inquisitive last few weeks! We cannot wait to see what we will continue to learn over the next few weeks!

Have an exciting, joyful and rejuvenative weekend!

From,

Mrs Ball, Mr McAleese and Mrs Rumbelow 

Other notes: 

If your child is in Miss. Slough's English group, your child is able to access the school library every day (if they wish) to change their book/s independently. They all know which shelves they are allowed to use as we have previously practised in school and again this week. First thing in the morning is a great time as it is usually quite quiet there and the room is next door to Hummingbirds class so the children can access this easily from our key stage. Please let me know if your child is struggling with this as it is really important that the children are reading daily.

Book Club is also a lovely way for your child to share their favourite books and talk about them with their peers. This helps to develop their speaking and listening skills and love of books at the same time. Please can you encourage your child to bring in their books on Thursdays to be able to participate in this. 

 6.2.26