Willow Tree Primary School

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Weekly Update (30/04/21)

5 May 2021 (by Miss Topping (chloetopping))

Click the date to read the news this week.

Dear Parents & Carers,

Update from Mr Perkins

It has been another very busy week in school and time seems to be flying by! I have been around school popping into lessons on reading and it has been fantastic see the children's learning and how engaged they have been. Just this week I have been in a lesson about the Jobberwocky and watched a fantastic performance of it outside today.  It really is one of the highlights of my day when I can see how much learning is happening across school and see how much the children are enjoying their lessons.

I have asked each class to share one learning experience from their class this week.  It is important, even in these still difficult times, that we continue to celebrate our successes and joy from learning.  I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I have.

It's the long bank holiday weekend so enjoy the extra day at home!

Attendance week commencing 30th April

Attendance

Nursery

96%

Reception

100%

Year 1

93%

Year 2

100%

Year 2M

96%

Year 3

96%

Year 4A

93%

Year 4H

97%

Year 5

94%

Year 5/6

99%

Year 6

97%

Learning experiences this week

Nursery have been learning new, key story language and features of the traditional tale, The Three Billy-Goats Gruff. We acted out the story and joined in with repeated phrases. In our natural outdoor classroom, we decided to grow our own ‘grass head’ trolls and discussed what the grass seeds needed to help them to grow. Later in the week, we watered our previously planted sunflower and bean stalk seeds and noticed that they had started to grow green shoots! We really do have green fingers in Nursery! 

Reception have created a lasting Legacy for generations to come. We have planted lots of baby trees in an endeavour to improve our local environment. The trees will eventually provide homes and shelter for all kinds of wildlife.

Year 1 this week, we have been learning about the seaside during our Art lessons. We have been analysing art depicting this, sharing our analysis with our peers in class, and designing our own personalised cover pages for this topic! We have also been learning about what a “horizon” is and creating our own scenes of a horizon, using watercolour paints.

Year 2 have had a wonderful learning experience. In our science, we investigated how germs spread. We split the children into groups and selected one child to be ‘the germ spreader’ using glitter as our germs we covered the spreader’s hands with germs and asked them to play as normal with their group. We discovered that depending on our contact, the germs spread easily on our equipment, through our group and even onto other children in the area. We looked at our hands using magnifying glasses to see where the germs could lodge and looking again, we noticed that even after we had washed our hands that some germs remained. In fact, if you look carefully, you may even see some glitter around the school! We now know the importance of washing our hands thoroughly.

Year 3 have started their new topic about the Romans. We have been looking at the spread of the Roman Empire and the life of a Roman soldier. In art we have been investigating mosaics from this period and finding out about how they were made. We have designed a simple mosaic in our sketch books that was based on a real Roman mosaic border. We will start to make a paper version of it next week.

Year 4A have had a wonderful time exploring the Jewish faith this week. They have peered inside a synagogue, identifying all the different items and religious artefacts you may find there. To cap it off, they created their own stained glass windows, using common Jewish symbols as their inspiration. 

Year 4H this week, we have had a fantastic week learning about how to structure an information text. We are building up to write a non-chronological report based on the ocean. We also had our second session swimming and many of 4H have already overcome so many challenges! We've loved our PE lesson with our new sports coaches Mr O'Connor and Mr John. We can't wait to get even better at Athletics. In Maths, we've all been able to round to 10, 100 and 1000 and compare and order numbers. What a week we've had!" 

Year 5 have been working so hard on their current 'Steps to Read' topic on poetry.  We have studied 'Jabberwocky' by Lewis Carroll.  The children used reading strategies to analyse the poem and then they learnt and performed stanzas, even adding drama and instruments!  We are very proud of them! 

Year 5/6 have been enjoying PE sessions this week with a focus on athletics, in readiness for Sport’s Day. Wednesday’s session was all about improving our technique in relay races.

The sessions have been really enjoyable and we are improving our fitness levels too! (Look out Usain Bolt!! You have competition!) Please remind children to come to school in their PE kits on a Monday and Wednesday and bring a sweatshirt or cardigan as all of our sessions are outside!

Year 6 In science we have been developing our knowledge of electricity. As well as researching some of the key scientists we have been learning about electrical circuits and the symbols that we use when drawing scientific circuits. We are looking forward to building circuits next week!

Packed Lunches

Would you please ensure that the children’s lunches brought to school are healthy, the only drinks allowed are water and they should not be bringing in any fizzy drinks. Thank you.

ParentPay

The children will bring a letter home on Tuesday 4th May which has your unique activation code to allow access to the site. Please look out for this letter. If you have any queries please contact the School Office.