A big thank you to all classes still participating in the Daily Mile even though there have been some limitations with the ongoing building works. The route may have changed slightly but the children are still smiling. Well Done.

A range of clubs have been available for the children to participate in.  Many children are attending at least one club with a large group attending more than one club.  Various children across the whole school have been working with Mrs Smith in the outdoor garden zone to plant vegetables and discuss their importance.
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As part of being a Healthy School, we encourage children to eat healthily at both break time and lunch time.  We have been monitoring what the children are bringing to eat at snack time and have noticed some children are bringing crisps, chocolate and sweets. These are not healthy snacks. 

 ‘Children in England are eating an extra 2, 800 sugar cubes in a year, which is more than the recommended guidelines.   Half the sugar in our children’s diet comes from sugary drinks, sweets, biscuits, cakes, pudding and sugary breakfast cereals’ (NHS Change 4 Life)

The ‘Change 4 Life’ section of the NHS website has lots of ideas for swapping sugary foods for healthier ones - www.nhs.uk/change4life

Lots of children already cycle or ride scooters to school but as ‘The Big Pedal’ is back - beginning Monday 25th March - for two weeks, we will be encouraging children even more to cycle, scoot or roller skate all or part of the way to school.  Class teachers will monitor and record the results. These are then gathered into a database where the school has a chance of winning prizes. Help us sustain our push for healthier lifestyles and win some prizes!

East Tilbury have been very busy with their writing over the past couple of weeks. We have been exploring various things across the year groups and everybody has been working exceptionally hard.  
In Reception, they have been looking at creating sorry letters based around Jack and the Beanstalk; they have taken the role of Jack, who is writing a letter apologising to the giant for stealing from him – What an interesting take on a traditional tale! ​

Year One have been exploring instructional texts for their non-fiction text-type this week. Amazingly, they have been exploring the steps to creating ice cream! They have been looking at the importance of chronology within their work and have been varying their sentences with different openers. Sounds like an amazing week for them... who doesn’t like ice cream? 

Year Two have been working on newspaper reports. They have been exploring the features of newspapers and using what they have discovered to create their own article. The pupils have managed to create a newspaper report based on the incident involving Goldilocks and the Three Bears... I wonder who is blaming who for that incident? 

Year Three have also been working on instructional writing. By using a Pie Corbett-style model they have managed to successfully work through different in-class stations in order to retell a set of instructions; these workstations incorporated all the learning-styles which learners could use throughout a lesson. They have been using these skills this week to prepare for their latest instructional text: How to wash a mythical creature – I wonder how we could wash a dragon without sustaining an injury? 

Year Four have been looking at what makes an effective film review. By balancing arguments between positives and negatives about a film, the year group have managed to effectively argue about both points. The review was based on the short Pixar movie ‘Bao’ and the features were used effectively to create a personal review based on their own opinion. I wonder what the film was like... we will have to read some reviews. 

Year Five have been working hard to explore instructional writing for their non-fiction genre. They had linked their learning into science week: they were writing a set of instructions based on how to make a paper plane. By exploring the features of instructional writing, linked in with their science learning, they were able to create a successful set of instructions. 

In Year Six, they have been exploring instructional writing. The topic of this writing is: How to Annoy your Teacher. This topic has really engaged them in their own learning and understanding of the genre. Pupils have responded brilliantly to this topic; I think that they could be professionals at this. Some of their ideas have been brilliant for a degree in teacher annoyance; some have not (well, for the teachers anyway). 

Year 2 have been continuing their work on fractions this week. We have been busy solving word problems and looking at reasoning tasks. We are all now confident in finding ½ ¼ ¾ 1/3 2/3 of shapes, numbers and quantities. To find these, we have been looking at dividing by the denominator and counting the parts stated by the numerator. We have also started learning our 4 times table in class and have used the Bee Knees Dance Party track on youtube (link below). 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ0T9YScLeM 

In Year 2 we work in English groups rather than our usual classes. This enables us to work on specific skills and our teachers can target particular needs. This week we have written newspaper reports as part of our unit of work on space. We watched the moon landing from 1969 and pretended to be reporters of that time. Some of our newspaper reports will be available to view on the Year 2 website page very soon. ​

In our foundation lessons we have continued to learn about space. The missions we have received allow us to research and train to be mini astronauts following a similar programme run by NASA. We have also developed our historical skills and learnt about significant events and people in history. We will continue with this unit until the end of the spring term, and look forward to sharing our learning at the next project evening.