The children were excited to be back at forest school this week, particularly to see how the landscape has changed since they’ve been away. Now that we have moved from autumn into winter, the children really enjoyed looking through magnifying glasses at frosty surfaces and icicles in small groups before discussing as a class how they are formed and what will happen to them. They then put their foraging and engineering skills to the test to build dens which could provide welcome shelter for people or animals out in the woods.

Natasha Jacklin, Reception Class Teacher

Year 1 have had a fantastic first week back at school after the Christmas holidays. Keen to put their prior knowledge of number bonds into practice, the children explored the composition of the number ten. Once children have learned their number bonds to 10, they can then apply these to number bonds to 20, number bonds to 100, decimal numbers and beyond, as they allow children to look for and spot relationships between numbers. The children then practised counting up to 20 before considering the numbers in relation to 10 using the symbols for ‘less than’ and ‘greater than’ to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the topic.

Hannah Feery, Year 1 Class Teacher

Working on their spring term flight topic, Year 2 were challenged to find out as much as they could about the pioneering Wright brothers and the impact they had on aviation more than 100 years ago. Using classroom resources with their learning partners, the children discovered that Orville and Wilbur Wright invented, built and flew the first working aeroplane in 1903 before charting how, with the onset of technology, the aviation industry has changed through time. Faced with an array of different aircraft, the children pieced together a timeline of events to show just how air travel has changed over the years, all thanks to the initial efforts of the Wright brothers early in the 20^th Century.

Charlie Millsom, Head of Year 2

In literacy this week, Year 3 tackled a shelter-building project as they created sentences of three – in other words, using adjectives, adverbs and punctuation to turn three small sentences into one longer sentence. Focussing on three key elements needed to build the perfect shelter – such as site, resources and shape –the children worked in small groups to consider how best to sum up their written plan in one coherent and expressive sentence. And having mastered their work on paper in the classroom, displaying an excellent understanding of sentence structure to make their work more interesting, the children got to test out their theories as they took to the woods to build the shelters.

Year 5 historians were challenged to consider the modern-day portrayal of the Vikings and whether or not it is fair and accurate. The children worked together in small groups to discuss what they knew about the public image of the Vikings before being placed in pairs to consider whether a range of statements were likely to be true or false, offering compelling arguments based on their own understanding of the Viking people acquired through books and online research. Year 5 demonstrated great maturity and a flair for critical thinking as they debated common perceptions surrounding the Vikings.

Robert Grech, Year 5 History Teacher

In geography this week, Year 6 investigated the difference between weather and climate. Working effectively in groups of three, the children not only used specific, detailed vocabulary to determine the key difference between the two words but also transferred their maths skills when tasked with labelling different climate graphs. Year 6 then explored the various types of climates around the world, including tropical, arid, temperate and polar climates, each with its own unique characteristics and weather patterns.

Simon Gunn, Year 6 Geography Teacher

7B1 kicked off their new PSHE topic of positive relationships by challenging themselves to see how many different types of relationship they could think of. From teacher-pupil and brother-sister relationships to online gaming friends, the list was long. Recognising this served as a springboard to consider the different qualities required for each relationship to be healthy and how we might begin to see warning signs when they are not.

Zoe Thesiger-Pratt, Head of PSHE

Having learned to talk on the subject of healthy eating toward the end of last term, Year 8 began the new year expressing their thoughts on other aspects that contribute to a healthy lifestyle. The children had to persevere and show resilience as they came across more complex vocabulary, but this is a lovely opportunity for the children to really speak passionately and express themselves on a topic which also links to other areas of the curriculum.

Jo Longshaw, Head of Modern Foreign Languages