Our first English text this half term is a Talk4writing unit based on the poem ‘The Cave of Curiosity’. We memorised the poem before planning our own versions of a playful poem. Watch out for our poems which are going to be entered into the Young Writers ‘Wonderverse’ competition.

We have been enjoying a range of grammar games at the start of our English lessons.  One of our favourites is ‘Human Sentences’, where we have to match up half sentences to make sure they all make sense.

In Maths, year 4 have been learning about area and perimeter. We have enjoyed drawing our own shapes and exposing their area and perimeter.

Our after school gardening and Eco-Quest clubs are proving very popular this Alf term. We have enjoyed being outside in the allotment and the nature garden. Gardening club got to taste some of their produce, everyone got to take home some new potatoes, radishes and mint which had been grown in our allotment.

We completed our learning about animals and their habitats in Science by carrying out a range of experiments to explore the challenges faced by various animals in their natural habitats. We discussed what humans can to do minimise or prevent these challenges.

Our Beyond the Physical unit this half term is Duel, Win, Lose. We have been working on a variety of invasion games during our lessons.

This half term’s focus sport is Ultimate Frisbee. We have had great fun learning how to control the frisbees and we are looking forward to playing simple games with them.

Our new music unit is all about Jazz. We are learning about the different styles of Jazz music and how the style evolved over time. We have been using the glockenspiels to play some simple call and response Jazz music.

In Life Skills, we have been focussing on Money. We have been learning about the importance of saving up for a goal and have learnt about simple budgeting.

Our new art unit is a craft and design unit called ‘Fabric of Nature. We have begun by drawing our own representations of images from the rainforest. We then used these to create mood boards bringing together our images, pictures from gardening magazines and swatches of fabric which fit with our chosen colour palettes. 

Our new Religion unit is all about the events between Easter and Pentecost. We have been exploring how the Gospels give us a first hand account of the early days of the Christian Church and have been discussing ho the Holy Spirit helped the early Christians and how it continues to help us in our lives. 

Our Bible Studies Scripture this half term is Luke 24:13-49. This Scripture tells us about the apostles encounter with the Risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

We began our new History Topic with an Anglo Saxon Experience day. We had a visit from the amazing DanTastic, who took us on a whirlwind tour of Anglo Saxon life. We got to handle some fantastic artefacts, which really helped to bring the past to life for us.

During the day, we also learned to write using Anglo Saxon runes. We had a great time writing our names and seeing if the class could guess who it was. We then wrote secret messages in runes for our friends to decode. In this workshop, we also found out about 'Illuminated Letters', and we tried our hands at creating these.

Our final workshop focussed on Anglo Saxon art and craft. We looked at the techniques used by the Anglo Saxons, then had a go at designing and creating our own Anglo Saxon style brooches.

Life Skills: This half term’s SUMO unit is ‘Remember the Beachball’. We thought about the importance of considering other people’s perspective during an argument so that we can see both sides of the story. We created pieces of collaborative art where all our small pieces combined together to create one big picture.

In Design Technology, our topic is Structures: Constructing a Castle. We will be studying the key features of castles, then designing our own structures using 3D shapes. We will need to think of ways to ensure our structure is strong and stable.

On Ash Wednesday, Father John came into school and we had a beautiful service led by the GIFT Team to help us reflect on the meaning of Lent. 

In Holy Week, we led our school community through the journey of the Stations of the Cross. This was a wonderful, prayerful and peaceful time of reflection and was well attended by our parents, governors and parishioners. The children read their Scripture, reflections, prayers and encouragements beautifully and the children chosen to act out parts did this with the appropriate dignity and solemnity.

Everyone looked amazing in their costumes for World Book Day. We had a great time taking part in the BBC Live Lesson and being part of the Big Live Read with thousands of other children in schools across the country. We also played Book Bingo - which made us research different types of books, in our class reading area, in our school library and by searching the internet. 

We also took part in the Request Show with Michael Rosen which was organised by Children’s Book Show - it was great fun to be able to join in performing some poems alongside the famous poem. 

Year Three have begun the half term studying Capacity in Maths. They will then move on to focus on calculating with money, before looking at time to end the half term.

Year Four have been learning to convert units of time and have been solving problems involving durations of time. They will then move to to study decimals, using tenths and hundredths, before applying this knowledge to calculate with money.

Remember to encourage your child to complete the set tasks on Mathletics to support their learning in class.

Our first Religion topic this half term is ‘Community’. We will be exploring different communities and the roles played within them. We will then think about Jesus and the community he created with his disciples during his time on Earth.

Our Bible Studies Scripture this half term is Matthew 14:13-21 - Jesus feeds the Five Thousand. The passage reminds us that Jesus cares about our physical and spiritual well-being and that nothing is impossible for Him. Our accompanying song is The Joy of Giving, by Ken Bible.

Our French topic this half term is school (L’Ecole). We have started to learn the nouns to name various items of school stationery. We have looked at why the determiner (un/une) changes in French for masculine and feminine nouns.

Our Life Skills lessons this half term are linked to Citizenship. We began by focussing on the importance of recycling and reusing materials and the benefits doing this brings to our environment.

Our Beyond the Physical topic this half term is 'Run, Jump, Throw. Our first lesson focussed on three running skills: running with speed and control, running quickly in
different directions, competing with and against others. 

Our focus sport this half term is cricket. Rory from Lancashire Cricket Foundation has been teaching sessions focussing on cricket skills. We have also got an after-school cricket club with Rory.

In Science, our new unit is Biology: Living Things and their Habitats. We will be learning to classify animals using sorting keys and we will be finding out all about adaptations to animal habitats.

In Science, our unit is Sound and Hearing. We are learning about how sound travels through the air and how our ears convert sound waves into signal which our brain can understand.

In Religion, our unit is ‘Building Bridges’, which focusses on the theme of reconciliation. We are exploring how we can build bridges of friendship and actions we can take to make up with friends if we have a falling out.

Our Bible Studies Scripture this half term is Jesus Heals a Roman Officer's Servant (Matthew 8:5-13). We will be exploring how Jesus recognised the Roman Officer’s faith and how this was rewarded.

Life Skills - this half term we have been focusing on the British Value ‘Individual Liberty’. We discussed our rights and responsibilities.

In Computing, our first unit is ‘Comparison Databases’. We are learning about how information is stored, filtered and presented. We are also comparing paper-based databases with computerised information storage systems and discussing the pros and cons of each method of storage.

In French, our unit is ‘Weather’. We are learning the days of the week and we will be using these to create a weather diary to record the weather across the week.

We are continuing our Whole Class instrumental lessons in music this half term. Our unit focusses on Calypso music and we have been interested to learn the history and origins of Calypso music.

Life Skills: LKS2 are taking part in the Hummingbird Project this half term. It is an initiative run by the charity MedEquip4kids which is helping us to focus on happiness and gratitude. Each week we complete a task in our happiness journal.

Our Geography unit this half term is ‘Australia’. We are exploring the human and physical characteristics of Australia and making comparisons between there and the UK.

Our first English unit this half term focusses on the short film ‘Umbrella’. We have enjoyed exploring the range of emotions portrayed by this very powerful film without words.

In Maths, Year 3 and 4 are both working on division. Year 3 are beginning to use the formal method to divide two-digit numbers and Year 4 are moving on to dividing three-digit numbers with remainders.

In PE, our Beyond the Physical unit is Agility, Balance, Co-ordination. 

Our focus sport this half term is 'Kinball', an exciting new sport which has been  introduced by Mrs Fisher as part of our involvement in the Salford School Sports Partnership.

Life Skills: our SUMO unit this half term is 'Hippo Time is OK'. We are learning about the importance of taking some time away from difficult situations to help ourselves to calm down and process before moving on. We are learning about different ways we can look after ourselves and ways we can practice mindfulness.

We spent an afternoon in pilgrimage round the Advent Prayer stations led by our wonderful GIFT Team. This was an opportunity to explore the true meaning of Christmas using all of our senses.

As always, our Carol Service was a beautiful time, which we shared with our parents, carers, governors and parishioners. Children led the service with readings, hymns and songs, and a tableau to demonstrate the Christmas story.

We have had a wonderful Advent Season, building up to Christmas with a range of activities which have helped us to understand the true meaning of Christmas whilst also having a lot of fun!

Party Day was brilliant. We played traditional party games in the classrooms, then had a disco in the hall.

We enjoyed sharing a delicious Christmas dinner prepared by our fantastic kitchen staff and served by our teaching team.

Our LKS2 choir children visited Pemberton Fold Care Home to sing to the residents. It was lovely to see the residents responding so well to the visit and to know that we had brought such joy to them before Christmas.

We had a very special visitor when Santa came to visit school. Everyone received a lovely present from Santa which gave us something to read over the Christmas holidays!

In Science, we have been studying Electricity. We began by thinking about the difference between battery and mains electricity and how different appliances run off these. We then began to explore circuits and create our own circuit diagrams using symbols. To finish, we investigated conductors and insulators and made our own switches using a range of materials.

In the first of our art units this half term, Light and Dark, we explored using white and black paint to create tints and shades. We used these different colours to create a 3D effect when painting.  We also learnt to use different tools and painting techniques to create effects in our artwork.

We used a range of objects to create compositions for still-life paintings. We thought about positioning and how it affects shadows within the piece. We then used all our painting skills to paint our still-life compositions.

Life Skills: Our second SUMO focus was 'Change Your T-Shirt'. We focussed on ways we can change our mindset when things happen to us, so that we can reach a more positive outcome. We decorated T-shirts with positive slogans which we thought of to help us remember the concept.

Our Religion unit was 'Advent: Visitors'. We explored the Christmas story in great detail and ended our unit with a pupil planned and led reflection about our learning.

Our Bible Studies Scripture was The Annunciation to Joseph  Matthew 1:18-25. We explored how Joseph would have felt at different points during the passage and reflected on his commitment to being Jesus' earthly father.

Life Skills: we had a visit from the Salford Road Safety Team, who reminded us about the importance of Being Safe and Being Seen during the winter months when it gets dark early. Everyone was given a reflective star to attach to their coat or school bag to help us be seen this winter.

Life Skills: We have been looking at the British Value 'Mutual Respect' this half term. We worked in groups to explore how we can show respect to others and how we expect others to show respect to us.

Life Skills: in Anti Bullying Week, we explored the theme of Choose Respect. We linked this to our British Values studies this half term. 

At the end of term we brought our Experience Passports into class and shared the experiences we have enjoyed so far. Some children shared photographs and videos of their activities outside school. Others talked about how they had played board games or built a den with their family. Lots of children had embraced the idea of preparing food for their family.

In Music, our unit was Developing Singing Technique through Viking Songs. We learned about how notes can be used to represent rhythms on staff notation and combined given elements of notation to create and perform our own Viking songs in groups. 

Our second Art unit was 'Power Prints - we explored the work of Henri Matisse and used his preferred techniques to create collages as a basis for our printing patterns. We then used our printing techniques to create Christmas Cards. 

In Design Technology, we combined our studies of electrical systems with our ideas for a 2025 calendar. We researched images and created our designs before building a circuit to add a bulb to illuminate the finished product.

In Science, our first topic is 'States of Matter'. We have been engaging in a range of fun investigations to help us learn about the differences between solids, liquids and gases. 

In Religion, we are learning all about 'Family'. We are studying the history of Jesus' family tree and learning all about His ancestors and how their belief in God shaped their choices in life.

Our Bible Studies text this half term is from the book of Genesis. We are learning all about the story of Creation and how the Bible teaches us about God's plan for the Earth and all those who share it. Our core Gospel Value from this text is 'Stewardship' and we will be reflecting on what we can do to take better care of God's amazing creation.

We are excitedly engaging in our whole class instrumental lessons in Music this half term. We have been learning all about staff notation and have been learning to play simple ostinato rhythms on the glockenspiel. We have learned about 'Gumboot Dancing', a popular tradition in South Africa, and we are enjoying learning the Gumboot Dance song and playing along on our instruments.

Our first History topic is 'The Romans'. We have been finding out about the location of Rome, and learning how and why the Romans managed to travel so far and wide while creating their empire.

In Computing, we are learning all about using the block coding language 'Scratch'. The year fours have been excellent role models, helping the year threes to understand how to combine coding blocks to give instructions to the on-screen 'sprites'. 

The year threes have been very excited to begin learning French, and the year fours have been excellent at sharing their prior knowledge with their new classmates. Our first topic is 'C'est Moi' and we have been busy learning all about greetings and how to ask and answer simple questions about ourselves when we meet someone new.

This half term's SUMO principle is 'Fruity Thinking'. We have been looking at ways we can develop our mindset to be more positive, and how we can offer ourselves and others positive words of encouragement to keep us motivated.

In PE, our Beyond the Physical topic is 'Inspire, Create, Perform'. We have chosen a jungle theme for our dance topic, and have been thinking of a range of different movements to represent different jungle animals.

Our core sport PE this half term is focussing on Basketball skills. So far, we have focussed on dribbling the ball, pivoting to turn and different types of pass including: ‘chest pass’ ‘over head pass’ and ‘bounce pass.