The sun has finally come out and we are starting to see the first signs of spring around the school as the daffodils start to bloom. The children have returned to school refreshed and ready to ealrn and we’ve had a busy week of activities.
In Nursery, the children have been having fun with the parachute:
https://www.pegasusacademytrust.org/news/eyfs/atw-nursery-news-phonics-parachutes-and-beanstalks
This week, the Reception children turned into detectives after a visit from Burglar Bill. You can read more here:
In Year One, the children started the week by counting from 20 to 50 forwards and backwards. They then moved onto understanding 20, 30, 40, 50 and used a variety of resources to help them with this. Next, they counted by making groups of ten and then used this knowledge to group into tens and ones. During English, the children looked at a poem called ‘The Sound Collector’. They learnt a verse from the poem in groups and made sure they used lots of prosody when performing it to the rest of the class. During their thematic learning, the children looked at many different maps and discussed the features they could see. They also looked at the symbols on a map and talked about what these represented.
This week, Year Two read ‘There’s a snake in my school’ by David Walliams. The children learnt about subordinating conjunctions and used them in their sentences about Penelope the python. In Maths, the children learnt how to add two two- digit numbers bridging through 10. In Science, the children have started their new topic of ‘Plants’ and in Thematic they learnt about Samuel Pepys, debating whether he was an accurate eyewitness for the Great Fire of London.
In Year Three in English, the children have been analysing the poems of Joshua Seigal focusing on different poetic devices with a particular focus on his poems ‘I Don’t Like Poetry’ and ‘New Baby’. Joshua Seigal’s poems are very comedic and the children have had lots of fun performing these! In maths, they have been working with fact families, looking at the inverse of multiplication equations and finding the division ones to match. Pupils are becoming experts practising their fluency with 3 and 4 times tables! In science, the children are continuing to delve deeper into their understanding of the internal structure of the world learning about the crust, mantle, outer core and the inner core. Ruby Class have been hard at work preparing for their Class Assembly on the Victorian era which they shared with parents and the whole school on Friday while Jade Class fully immersed themselves in their new topic of the Stone Age. They started with a Stone Age day in forest school, whittling some sticks and making ‘natural paints’ for cave painting
Year Four have been looking at fractions this week. They have been thinking about equivalent fractions and adding fractions with the same denominator. In English, the children have been reading Varjak Paw and writing sentences with possessive apostrophes. In science, the children have been thinking about animal habitats while in art the children have been creating ornamental initials as seen in Mediaeval texts
In Year Five the children have started reading Robot girl- by Malorie Blackman. This short sci-fi has a great twist at the end and we look forward to seeing what the children think of it. The children have also been studying the life of Jane Goodall. In their thematic work, the children have been looking at crime and punishment and thinking about how it has changed over time.
This week in Year Six, the children had a visit from a Shakespearean company linked to their learning in English; Macbeth. During the visit, the children were immersed in an active workshop and acted out roles based on plays written by the famous playwright; William Shakespeare. The children thoroughly enjoyed the captivating experience and showcased their brilliant acting skills. This visit really helped to bring the alive all their learning in school. In maths, the children have been learning about angles in and using a protractor to measure angles around the classroom.
Sports News
A busy week for Atwood netballers with two matches back-to-back!
The first was against Howard Primary school and to make it more exciting, it was a double header! The girls worked together so well and achieved a starting win of 5-0 and then went on to a 2-2 draw in the second half.
Following that, on Wednesday we welcomed Regina Coeli to play. Having played them before, we knew we would have a competitive game ahead of us. It was fast paced and the girls scored 5 goals but unfortunately not quite enough to win. However, what stood out the most was the team spirit – it was noticed when our team congratulated their opponents and were supportive of them as well as their own friends. A huge testament to our Atwood values! Congratulations to Autumn and Amber who were voted players of the match and a big well done to all those that played – Honey, Alicia, Izzy, Tekarra, Madison, Zara and Lexie.
On Thursday the girls’ football team had a match against Gresham meaning that for some girls this was their third night of matches in a row (albeit across two sports). The girls battled hard against a team with a couple of very good players. In a tight first half the girls had managed to respond to going a goal down to fight back to 1-1 before conceding another goal just before half time. Again, the girls pushed hard in the second half but unfortunately lost 4-1 by the final whistle. Despite the result, it is clear to see the development of the team and the improvements they are making.
Parking
Please can I remind people (again) to be respectful of our neighbours when parking close to the school. I have received a number of complaints from local residents about parents blocking access to driveways and parking inconsiderately. Now that the warmer weather is on the way, perhaps people could choose to walk to school and avoid having to find a parking space. Alternatively, park a bit further away from the school and walk the last part of your journey.
On a similar note, for those parents who use the car park to drop off their children at breakfast club, please can I request that you park in the space across the front of the school rather than in the designated bays. Thank you.
Ramadan
Over the coming month, many of our families will be observing Ramadan and we are aware that some of our children might be fasting with their families. We would like to support any children or families with this so it is good if you can let us know if your child will be fasting in school. Please speak to your child’s class teacher.
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Please note that, in order to facilitate staffing for the Year 5 Carroty Wood residential, some changes have been made to Parents’ Evening days and Orange Class Assembly.
Friday 28th February: Ruby class assembly
Friday 28th February: Year 3 Warlingham library visit (Jade Class)
Thursday 6th March: World Book Day
Friday 7th March Mufti celebrations for World Book Day
Week beginning 10th March: Year Whitgift Project
Monday 10th March: Year 2 London Trip
Week beginning Monday 17th March: Year 5 Carroty Wood Residential
Monday 17th March: Parents’ evening
Tuesday 18th March: Parents’ evening
Friday 21st March: Year 4 Walk to Kingswood
Friday 21st March: Green class assembly: Please note change of class
Monday 24th/ Tuesday 25th March: Red class, Orange class and Year 5 Parents’ evening.
Monday 24th March: School council trip to Houses of Parliament
Tuesday 1st April: Class Photos
Friday 4th April: End of spring term
Tuesday 22nd April: First day of summer term
