Message from the school office

The issue with payments for the Year 6 Transition Sports and Reception’s Cluster Music Festival has now been resolved and payments can be made via the Arbor app.

Music lesson and Abberley Acorn invoices will be sent out next week. These are being issued slightly earlier than usual as the local authority moves to a new finance system and requires payments to be processed sooner.

Free School Meals – Check if you are eligible

The Department for Education has recently updated the eligibility criteria for Free School Meals. This means some families may now qualify, even if they have not been eligible in the past.

If you receive Universal Credit, you should apply. We strongly encourage all families to check their eligibility and submit an application.

To apply, you will need:

• Your name
• Your National Insurance number
• Your date of birth

Find out more and apply online here: www.worcestershire.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals

Please note: the application system will be unavailable from 9 July to 15 July.

We had a fantastic time on Wednesday at Sports Day and we were incredibly proud of all the children. They showed great resilience and sportsmanship during all their events.  On Thursday we enjoyed playing games with Pre School in PE and demonstrating that being a good sport means having fun whether you win or lose.

The children have also been busy getting ready for the music festival next week by making some fantastic rocket shakers and some alien headbands.  We are looking forward to seeing their alien outfits complete with spectacular pants next week!  We have also been busy learning our space themed songs and rhymes ready for the festival.

We have been exploring a new space book in Drawing Club.  The children enjoyed the story "Whatever Next" about baby bear who builds a rocket ship from some boxes he finds under the stairs.  We had a go at building our own rocket ship outside in the construction area and took it for some adventures on the moon!

In PSHE our topic is "Changing Me" this half term.  This week we explored how we grow and talked about some of the things we have learnt to do since coming to school.  We also thought about some of the new and exciting things we will be learning as we progress through the school.

This week in English, the children spent a couple of lessons writing a paragraph as though they were writing their letter to the King to persuade him to stop the ban on darkness. The children worked hard to include all the features we have been learning about to make their writing as accurate and as powerful as possible, including conjunctions, adverbs, commas in a list and persuasive language. We then began planning our full persuasive letters, which we will continue to prepare and write over the next couple of weeks.

In maths this week, we continued our learning on fractions by exploring halves in more depth. The children identified half of a quantity and made links to doubling, which they are more confident with. We then moved on to quarters, learning what a quarter looks like as a fraction before finding quarters of shapes and pictures, as well as identifying non-examples. The children also practised finding a quarter of a quantity and discovered how their understanding of halves can help them by halving and then halving again. We ended the week by exploring thirds, recognising them in shapes and finding a third of different quantities.

In science this week, we completed our final lesson on plants by exploring which parts of plants humans eat. We discussed a variety of foods and identified whether they come from the roots, flowers, fruits, stems or leaves of a plant. This led to some really interesting class discussions about where our food comes from and how plants provide us with so many different foods.

In art, we continued our unit on Expressionism by exploring the work of Van Gogh and Cézanne. The children learned about the distinctive styles of these artists before having a go at creating some of their own artwork inspired by Van Gogh’s techniques and use of colour.

Timetable

Wednesday: Outdoor learning - please ensure your child brings appropriate clothing on this day

Wednesday: Swimming kits

Thursday: PE kits - please can those with longer hair have their hair tied up ready

This week in English, the children have been planning a diary entry from the point of view of a character from their chosen illustration. They have explored the thoughts and feelings of their character in depth, focusing on significant emotional events and how these experiences might affect their reactions. They have also considered what their character hopes to achieve in the future and how these aspirations can be reflected in their writing.

In maths, we have continued our work on decimals, concentrating on hundredths and understanding how tenths can be represented as hundredths. The children have used their times tables knowledge to identify links between tenths and hundredths and have explored these relationships using place value grids. They have been developing confidence in reading, writing and representing decimal numbers in different ways.

In computing, our focus has been coding. We discussed the different forms coding takes throughout the school, beginning with the use of Beebots in Reception, progressing to Scratch in Key Stage 1 and now learning about HTML in Key Stage 2. The children were interested to discover how coding skills develop over time and how different programming languages are used for different purposes. Over the coming weeks, we will be investigating how HTML is used to create websites and how code is translated into the content and layouts we see on screen.

In DT, our topic is 'Fastenings'. The children examined a variety of fastening methods, including their strengths, weaknesses and suitable uses. This led to some thoughtful discussions about which fasteners would be most effective for different products. Using this knowledge, the children have designed a book cover that incorporates their chosen fastening and have carefully considered both functionality and appearance in their designs. We are looking forward to beginning the making process over the next couple of weeks and seeing their ideas come to life.

In history, the children explored the large-scale changes introduced by Maharaja Ranjit Singh during the rise of the Sikh Empire. They considered how these developments transformed the Punjab region and discussed the consequences these changes had for the people who lived there.

In English, we have begun our new class text. The children have already made thoughtful initial predictions about the story and have written their own personification poems inspired by the setting, using figurative language to bring the scene to life.

In maths, we continued our work on algebra, focusing on substitution and applying this skill to solve a range of problems. We finished the week by learning how to calculate the mean of a set of numbers and exploring how this measure of average can be used in different contexts.

In art, we investigated gestural drawing techniques and explored how colour can be used to build layers of outline, shadow and depth when creating observational drawings. The children experimented with different approaches to capture form and movement in their work.