Atwood Newsletter 26th April 2024

It has been an exciting week with ducklings and cave men visiting us, children visiting the woods and pupils building the solar system.

In Reception and Nursery, there has been lots going on and you can read about what the children have been up to on the website here:

https://www.pegasusacademytrust.org/news/eyfs/atw-early-years-news-ducklings

This week, Year 1 have finished researching and writing about lions. They found out lots of amazing facts about lions and wrote them carefully in their information booklets. They then drew pictures of lions for the front cover of the booklets. In maths, the children have been working with numbers up to 100. They used hundred squares to find one more than a given number and partitioned the numbers into tens and ones. They also used atlases to find different countries in Africa and described where they were using the vocabulary ‘North, South, East and West’. In Science, the year group made observational drawings of plants then labelled the different parts and wrote what their function was. In art, children used their mask designs to begin making African masks using papier-mâché. The children also had a nice surprise when they were invited to see the newly hatched ducklings in Reception. Pupils even had the chance to stroke them!

This week, Year 2 have been writing their own adventure stories using inspiration from ‘Rosie’s Magic Horse’. In Maths, the children have finished learning about time before moving on to measures next week. In Thematic, the children have been learning about the features of seascape paintings and exploring how to create different moods using colour in preparation for creating their own seascapes. In whole class reading, the children read ‘Who swallowed Stanley?’ before discussing the dangers to our wildlife and environment of having plastic in the ocean.

The highlight for children in Year 3 this week was the visit of our cave man experts. The children enjoyed a truly immersive experience learning all about how people would have lived in the Stone Age era. The children looked fantastic in their skins and enjoyed sitting around the fire listening to ‘Twig’ and ‘Scuff’ talk about how they lived. The children watched them gut and cook a fish and learned how to make string from animal’s tendons. They also learnt about making fire from rocks and using sticks or bones as needles to stitch clothes made from animal skins.

In Year 4 this week, the children went to Kingswood as part of their learning about Living Things and Habitats. They spent the morning on a scavenger hunt of trees and flowers; bark and leaf rubbing; collecting different leaves and petals that had fallen onto the floor; sketching bluebells and anything else of interest and sketches of different habitats and the organisms the children found there (under a log: worms, woodlice, moss…). The children then made woodland crowns from the things they’d found. Elsewhere, in Maths the children have continued to learn about fractions – adding mixed number fractions. Next week, they will be moving on to decimals. In History, the children learnt about the 8 compass points in relation to the Anglo-Saxons thinking about which direction they travelled to Britain from. They have also been swimming and begun to write an explanation text about the complex yet magical process of how bees make honey. What a busy week!

In Year 5, the children were learning about the scale of the solar system. They used various fruits to represent the different planets and then had to extend their learning on to the filed to try and build a scale model to represent the vast distances between the planets. The children were amazed by what they discovered. In their computing work they have been using a programme called 2Design to create and build 3D models of cars.

This week, Year 6 have been having fun with torches and investigating light by conducting an experiment to show that light travels in a straight line. They have continued with their ‘Wolf Brother’ narrative using their writing skills to set the scene, create atmosphere and move the story along with concise dialogue. In maths, the children have been solving problems with time. The year group are enjoying athletics in their P.E lessons and have immersed themselves in their Ancient Greek topic by researching different artefacts.

BREAKFAST CLUB.

From September 2024 we have some new changes to Atwood’s breakfast club provision. In an effort to offer more flexibility to parents we will be lowering fees and extending the age range that can access the childcare. We have decided that the breakfast club will now be run ‘in house’ although we will continue to employ SAS staff to ensure some continuity. Breakfast club fees will be £5 per day and will continue to run from 7:30am until 8:45am. If you need any further information please contact Suzanne Christopher our Extended Services Leader via email schristopher@pegasusacademytrust.org

SPORTS NEWS

This week the Girls’ Football team had a match against Kenley School resulting in an impressive 8-0 victory. Well done girls!

Today a group of Year 1 and 2 children visited Old Palace prep school to take part in a Multi Skills Festival. Luckily, the sun came out as they took part in dribbling, throwing, catching, running and hurdling events. The children were great ambassadors for the school and really improved their skills throughout the day.

We have also been hearing in assembly about the exploits of many of our budding sports stars who have been playing in finals and winning matches with various clubs at the weekend. Even if we can’t mention them all here, we love to hear about the children’s sporting successes and can celebrate them in assembly so please let us know when your children have been doing remarkable things.