A great first week back and after a very wet week it was finally nice to see some spring sunshine today.
This week, the children in Early Years have been busy solving crimes as they learn about the police and other people who help us. Elsewhere in Nursery, the children have been learning all about bees and planting some seeds. You can read more about their exploits on the website.
https://www.pegasusacademytrust.org/news/eyfs/atw-eyfs-news-burglaries-and-bees
This week, Year 1 have read the poem ‘The Sound Collector’ by Roger McGough. The children drew what they thought the sound collector looked like and learned a favourite section of the poem. On Friday, the children performed part of the poem making sure to use expression, rhythm and actions to enhance the performance. The children also learnt to find the difference between different numbers and solved a range of addition and subtraction problems, using key words to determine if they needed to add or subtract. Finally, the children carried on exploring the properties of different materials in Science and created group posters about recycling. The whole class book this week was ‘Pattan’s Pumpkin’.
The children in Year 2 have been writing and performing their own versions of ‘Don’t do that…’ poems taking inspiration from Michael Rosen’s ‘Don’t put Mustard in the Custard’. In maths, they have been learning about equivalent fractions and in science they investigated which materials would be best for repairing a hole in a bucket.
On Monday, the children in Year 3 had a ‘hook day to introduce their new topic ‘Like a rolling stone- The Stone Age’. The classes spent time in forest school wood whittling, making fires and building dens. The idea behind this was to give them an experience that would demonstrate how hard it was for people of the stone age era to hunt for food, to keep warm and to make shelters, especially in awful, cold wet weather! The children also collected materials to create their own paints in the afternoon for a cave painting activity. They learned about how the stone age people used drawings to tell stories of their experiences as a way to communicate. It was really messy but everyone had a fun time. Both classes have also visited Sanderstead library.
In Year 4 this week the children have been revisiting the book, The Barnabus Project: that they used for whole class reading before Christmas. It is the story of a character called Barnabus, half-mouse, half-elephant who was created in a lab along with other hybrid characters. The grammar focus has been to punctuate speech accurately and so the children have been writing speech between Barnabus and his friend, Pip the cockroach. In Maths, the children have been looking at different units of metric measurement and understanding how to convert between them. mm, cm, m, km and in Reading the children have started ‘Varjak Paw’ by S.F.Said which tells the story of a Mesopotamian cat. He is different in many ways from the family of cats he lives with and loves hearing stories about his ancestor, Jalal. The book is already really captivating the children with its incredible characterisations.
In Year 5, the children have been reading ‘Robot Girl’ by Malorie Blackman as well as starting to look at ‘The Sleeper and the Spindle’ by Neil Gaiman. In science, the children have been investigating the reproductive parts of plants by dissecting daffodils and examining what they find inside.
This week, Year 6 having been studying Macbeth and writing descriptive pieces based on the setting of the famous play by William Shakespeare. They have also been experimenting with perspective drawings to use as a background for their new thematic theme book for ‘ Ancient Greece!’
SPORTS NEWS
Well done to Courtney who on Sunday took part in a 3V3 Tournament with 3V3UK Croydon as part of his Sunday team R&R Under 10 Cobras. His team beat all 6 teams in the group stages, going on to win the Quarter Finals and then Semi’s into the final winning 6-3 and receiving a trophy.
Elsewhere, George and Izzy turned in great performances in the Croydon Schools’ Swimming Gala Finals. George came 6th in his event whilst Izzy placed 3rd in the butterfly and an incredible 1st Place in the breast stroke. Well done to both of them.
BOOK WEEK
The week beginning 4th March will be our book week in school. We will be celebrating all things book related and we have an author visit lined up too. On Thursday the 7th, World Book Day, we will be inviting the children to come in to school dressed as a favourite book character or something related to reading and books. Whilst we would encourage you to be creative, please note that this is not a competitive event and there will not be any prizes for costumes. We would also discourage people from rushing out to spend money on expensive costumes. Have a look at home and see if you have something ready to go or something you can repurpose.
PARKING
Please can I politely remind parents that the car park for the Methodist Church is not to be used by parents when dropping and collecting children. The car park is for the use of people on church business or those dropping off to Little Angels Day Nursery. This means that there are small children in the car park. Please help to keep them safe and our neighbours on side by parking elsewhere. Even better, as the weather warms up, walk or scoot to school.
And finally…
It is with sadness that I must share the news that Miss Standing has decided not to return to Atwood following her maternity leave. Miss Standing has been a long serving pillar of the Atwood community having worked at the school since 2007. Although this is sad news for the school, we understand her decision to spend more time with her family and we wish her all the best.
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Please check because new dates are being added below
- Week Beginning 4th March: Year 5 Whitgift Project week
- Tuesday 5th March: Year 2 Trip to London
- Thursday 7th March: World Book Day
- Thursday 7th March: Year SATs Parents’ information meeting at 3:30pm- Details to follow
- Friday 8th March: FOAP Mothers’ Day Event
- Saturday 9th March: South London Harriers Cross Country event
- Monday 11th March: Parents’ Evening
- Wednesday 13th March: Parents’ Evening
- Wednesday 13th March: School Council to The Houses of Parliament
- Thursday 4th March: FOAP Uniform and Book Sale
- Saturday 16th March: South London Harriers Cross Country event
- Monday 18th March- Wednesday 20th March: Year 5 Carroty Wood Residential
- Friday 22nd March FOAP Disco
- Tuesday 26th March: Rocksteady Concert 9:15am (Rocksteady Tuition parents only)
- Thursday 28th March: Singing Concert 3:15pm (Singing Tuition parents only)
- Thursday 28th March: FOAP Easter Egg Hunt
- Thursday 28th March: Last day of spring term
- 29th March – Good Friday – School Closed
- Monday 15th April: Return for summer term
- Week beginning 13th May: Year 6 SATs week
- Thursday 20th June: Atwood Sports Day
- Saturday 22nd June: FOAP Summer Fair
- Friday 12th July: FOAP Disco for Years Reception to Year 5
- Thursday 18th July: Year 6 Leavers’ event
- Friday 19th July: Last day of term
