We have had a school full of busy readers!  
Last week, children across the school were immersing themselves in poetry; each year group studied a comedic version of a classic fairy tale from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes.  
Each day, we read the same poem, but was introduced to a different reading skill. On Monday, the children were retrieving information; a skill where they are expected to skim and scan to find the information and pick it out from the text. After children had scanned the text on Monday, on Tuesday they became detectives with inference and used clues and evidence to read between the lines. Wednesday saw our children explaining how meaning is enhanced through the writer’s choice of words and phrases; they began to understand how one word can change the whole meaning of a sentence. Finally, on Thursday, we summed up the poem and explained what the text was really about and what message could be learnt. ​

With the children back at school we want them enthused to read. Not all children find this easy so here are a few tips to support your child at home: ​ 

• Encourage them to read material around the house: books, newspapers, magazines, poetry, the TV guide – even an advertising leaflet will do!  
  
• Enjoy stories with your child – most children love a story and they are never too old to be read to.  
  
• Read little but often rather than rarely but for long periods of time.  
  

• Talk to your child about the story when it is finished. What was their favourite part? Why? Try using one of the skills above to really extend their comprehension. 
  
• Look up definitions of words together – an online dictionary is a really useful thing!  
  
• Visit a library when you can... allow your child to lose themselves in magical worlds.  
  
• Don’t forget Bug Club. If your child isn’t sure how to access this, ask their teacher 
  

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​We have had a school full of very busy writers last week... even without Year Six. 

Year Five have been exploring the process of creating an advert; this started with them planning their ad and creating a script, all the way to filming it using iPads. They had to use their understanding of the features to effectively and creatively produce their end-product: an advertisement for either a drink, chocolate bar or branded shampoo. They thoroughly enjoyed working on their ad and it had cross-curricular links with computing and media studies... hopefully we have some budding producers in the future! 

Last week, Year Four were exploring the non-fiction text-type of instructional writing; they had a focus on writing a text for the current Year Threes – who will be moving-up to Year Four! They explored the features of instructional writing and appropriately applied these features to their writing. A pupil (currently in Year Four) wrote the following at the start of their text. 

Introduction: 

Are you ready for Year Four? Are you prepared for a new challenge? Well, this text is for you! You may be challenged a lot but that is a good thing and you should take advice from somebody who knows.  

Equipment: 

A rubber – to erase mistakes 

Ruler – to underline Dates and WALTs 

Purple pen 

Courage 

Full uniform 

Smiles, to be worn by everyone 

Hopefully, when fully completed, this would be relevant and could be read to our current Year Three pupils. 

Year Three have been focussing on poetry; they have been exploring the features and using them to help create a poem about a monster – which they had created themselves! Some of the pupils have challenged themselves by making their poem rhyme; others have been attempting to tell a story by using a prose-style of poetry. Some of the monsters are particularly scary... even though it’s poetry! 

In Year Two, the children have also been exploring non-fiction texts; they have been creating Biographies about famous chefs. When talking to Year Two pupils about the features, they were able to recall them accurately and they have successfully applied those to the work. Even the teachers have learnt new things about Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver thanks to them! 

Year One have been working on creating their own narrative, using hot air balloons as the stimulus for their writing. They have explored a video with a hot air balloon and have adapted the narrative to create their own version of events. 

Reception have been looking at non-fiction writing and creating facts about reptiles; they have used their own research to aid their understanding of these creatures. Pupils have actively looked for books which could help them create facts about them and have appropriately selected words which best describe them. 

​In the afternoon, on Friday 28th June we had great fun when parents and carers were invited to come into our classes to work with their children on maths problems. The children really enjoyed working with their parents, who also very kindly worked with lots of other children too, showing them some of the type of work we do in school and also facing new challenges we have not attempted before. 

Across the school we used a range of problem solving activities such as challenge cards, Nrich problems, sudoku problems and Buzz Boz activities and played games such as Top Trumps, hit the button and beat the clock.  

It was lovely to see so many parents and carers in school interacting with their children in a Maths environment. There was a lovely atmosphere around the school with parent feedback very positive. Below are a few of the wonderful comments from parents that attended. 

“The children all seemed really happy in school and all the learning was made to be fun!” 

“A really lovely afternoon. It helps me to understand what my child is learning and how I can support them further at home. I also got to see how well she is doing in class.” 

This year’s theme is a connected commonwealth. This is to encourage collaboration to protect natural resources and the environment.  

As a school we also looked at how we could link it to our own cooperative values.  

During the week various activities took place in classes throughout the school. 
  
In Reception, the children looked at how they can look after their own environment and how this can be the same in other countries in the Commonwealth. They then looked at the importance of recycling and sorted a range of different everyday objects into the correct bins.   

In year 1, they tried a range of different foods from some of the Commonwealth countries. They discussed as classes what they thought about different tastes and compared them to the common food that they eat. 
 
Year 2 researched the countries of the Commonwealth and wrote acrostic poems to share learnt information. 
 
In year 3 and 4, they use different resources to find out interesting facts about the Commonwealth and then linked it to the theme. They researched what the Commonwealth is and the importance of it. This led to discussions within class. Year 4 then designed their own flags.  

Year 5 also researched what the Commonwealth is and then took part in a class quiz linking to the research they had completed. They then designed a poster linking to the Commonwealth statement and our school values.  
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In year 6 revisited the Commonwealth and applied this knowledge to our cooperative values, especially how they are linked and how they can apply them to their own lives. They then discussed how all of this can be used to improve their own lives and the environment around them.  ​