Have a relaxing and enjoyable half term.

Although Term 3 is a short one, it has been busy, and this week has been no exception.

And the sickness bug has really hit us, with seven off in one class for a couple of days, and nine off in the other.  We were counting them in each morning, and wondering how many we might lose at lunchtime.  The decisions to postpone the disco and this morning’s whole school assembly were definitely the right ones, and hopefully might have helped to ensure that your half term break is healthy.

In Maths we have reached the end of fractions, although everyone will probably need a reminder at the start of next term before we move on to decimals and percentages.  There has definitely been a bit of confusion here and there – we will aim to remind them of the basics before moving on.  We are also preparing some video content to help parents help their children with maths, which should be available in the next few weeks.

Literacy this week has been a mix of SPaG (colons and semi-colons), reading comprehension (Greek myths) and creative writing.  The creative work towards the end of the week was in (optional) pairs and was peer-reviewed – everyone got the chance to read and comment on others’ work.  There was some weird and wonderful stuff produced, and some lovely comments from other students appreciating the efforts.  The collaboration was carefully managed to ensure that everyone benefited and the sum was greater than the parts.  Next term we will start work on a Jeremy Strong story called This is NOT a Fairy Tale.

We finished basketball this afternoon with some small-sided games.  We move on to tennis next term.

PSHE this afternoon looked at the issue of stereotyping – especially in relation to the workplace.  Your children cottoned on to the issue very quickly and there were some very sensitive discussions about preconceptions some people may have relating to nurses, soldiers, doctors, footballers and engineers.  There was also a lively discussion about the primary school teacher with highly visible tattoos!  Most thought he looked pretty OK.  Tempted?  Better ask Mr Hirst first…

In Computing they looked at the ancient PigPen cipher – so-called because the letters are arranged in ‘pens’ and the geometry of the pen is then used instead of the letter itself.  We will spend another week on that, then move on to web design or blogging.

One highlight of this week was the inter-house competition.  It was a ‘draw-from-memory’ challenge.  They were given 15 seconds to view a baby elephant and then had to draw it from memory.  Two further 10-second exposures were allowed.  There were some stunning efforts and four were put forward for the team points competition.

Important Note – Swimming

Please note that Year Five will be swimming next term.  Our swimming day is a Wednesday, so children will need swimming kit, a towel, and hat.  Goggles if they need them.  Swimming is in our own pool.  Dr Loader’s class will be swimming on Wednesdays 21st and 28th February, and 6th March.  Mr Andrews’s class will be swimming on 13th, 20th and 27th March.

Have a relaxing week and we will see you on Monday 19th February.

Y5 Team