Ways to Help: Guidance on Spelling

All pupils from Year 1 - Year 6 bring home spellings on a Monday night. These need to be practised for 15mins Monday to Thursday so that they are ready on Friday for their test.

However the process is about more than just learning a lists of spellings:

• valuable chance to help your pupils with their learning at home
• develops habit of regular, purposeful practice to improve at a specific goal
• increases the range of their vocabulary

Below is a simple guide on how you can help to make learning the spellings a more enjoyable experience for you and your child. These techniques can also help to ensure that spellings are being learnt for life and applied in all their written work, not just the test.

Captain Underpants Book Review

listen to ‘Captain Underpants Book Review’ on Audioboo

Adventure Trail & Sandpit Take Shape

It has taken a little longer than expected as we have kept developing the trail as it is laid. Now there are a whole range of activities for the pupils to do: balance beams; tyre steps; monkey bars and giant hurdles.

Yesterday we put 60 tonnes of sand into the new giant pit. Hopefully the remaining sand will be in by the end of the week. On Friday the flower circles that mark the start of the path are being delivered... and then that is almost it!

A place to play, a place to imagine, a place to just enjoy five minutes peace - we just can't wait for the children to get started making it their own.

Pupil Value 2: Do your best in every lesson

Well done to these hard working pupils who have impressed their teacher with the way they take pride in everything that they do. When you look through their books, each one of them displays neat handwriting, carefully drawn diagrams and well completed tasks. You clearly are doing your best in every lesson!

Dragon Rider Book Review

listen to ‘Dragon Rider Book Review’ on Audioboo

Fact Hunters: Chemists, footballers & saliva

Sandra Diaz
Did you know that the term chemist is linked to alchemy? Traditionally, the science of alchemy was once considered to have sprung from great Egyptian figure named by the Greeks "Hermes Trismegistus"

Ellis Curtis Rich
Did you know that during the 1966 World Cup, key members of the tournament winners England were West Ham players, including the captain, Bobby Moore; Martin Peters (who scored in the final); and Geoff Hurst, who scored the first, and only, hat-trick in a World Cup final?

Sophie Hann
While you are talking you are likely to be ‘spitting’ out up to 300 tiny droplets of saliva per minute!

Animal Artwork

In the KS2 Art Club the children have been exploring mixed media and observational sketching. Using African wildlife as the stimulus the children created some stunning images. First they had to practise their skills before creating the final piece of artwork.

Look closely at the designs and you will see that there are many techniques being used for the pictures.