Dear Parents,
This week we welcomed Mr Wedgwood back to Fairstead House to talk to the Year 1 children about the history of the school. It was wonderful to show Mr Wedgwood how the school has changed and he was delighted to see the children and share his knowledge with them.
As you will see below, the week has been very busy and I hope the children enjoy sharing their learning with you over the weekend.
Holiday Club
There are still spaces available for Holiday Club during half term. The booking form can be accessed here.
Dance
Over the weekend the children who attend dance club on a Friday afternoon, took part in Formations Dance Company Big Show. Thank you to all the parents who took the children to the show and also to Miss Saxby, who has been teaching the two groups.
Newmarket Day Centre
Representatives from Fairstead House were invited to the grand reopening of the hair salon at Newmarket Day Centre on Tuesday. The centre used the money raised from last year’s ‘Danceathon’ to partially fund the refurbishment. All of the staff at the centre wanted to pass on their deepest thanks to you for the money raised last year, almost £2500! The salon looked wonderful and it will continue to be a popular and highly-valued resource to the older residents of Newmarket. Well done, Fairstead!
Miss Drayton
Informal Tea Time Concert
On Tuesday 9th May, we had our second Informal Tea Time Concert of the summer series. This was another very special concert where we combined pupils performing for the first time and others performing their ABRSM programme for their up-and-coming exams. Some delightful pieces and songs were performed but I would like to mention some of my favourite songs that were sung including Lin Marsh’s Seagull, Roberton’s arrangement of Dalmatian Cradle Song and Carl Davis and Hiawatha Oram’s Ride out the Storm. Congratulations to everyone for a lovely concert. I look forward to our next one on Tuesday 23rd May.
School Council
Last Friday, the School Council held a fundraising event in aid of Cancer Research. Through your generous donations, we have raised over a whopping £850!
Thank you so, so much to those who help us raise this fantastic amount. The Just Giving page is still open and School Council would really like to reach our target of £1000.
If there are any parents or family members, or even friends of the family who would be willing to donate to this incredibly worthwhile cause, please then visit the site here and donate whatever you can.
With enormous gratitude,
The School Council
Nursery
On Thursday morning Foals 1 and Foals 2 took advantage of the lovely sunny weather and spent the morning in the garden. The children explored a range of lovely activities which included painting, splashing around in a water tray and mark making using crayons/chalks. After lots of fun we sat down to do Welcome Time as a big group then had a wonderful snack in the sun.
Reception
The children are thoroughly enjoying their water topic and it has been wonderful to see them so engaged in their learning. They are always curious to discover more! Every day this week, the ‘Busy Bees’ have enthusiastically been measuring and recording how much rainfall we have had in the outdoor classroom. Watching the tadpoles grow bigger and bigger has also created much excitement! The children are doing a wonderful job of caring for these very special pond creatures and are always eager to share their excellent knowledge with any visitors to the classroom! Thank you to Edward’s mummy and Ophelia’s daddy for all their help with our new classroom friends.
The children have enjoyed learning about the life cycle of the frog and have written some super sentences, using time connectives. They have also recreated the life cycle in a range of creative ways and enjoyed learning some fun facts about frogs. Please ask them to share some with you!
Moving and racing as different pond creatures in the forest was great fun too! There were some excellent pond skaters, dragonflies and frogs!
In maths, the focus has been on finding number bonds to 20 and the children have fully embraced their extra challenge! They were also very lucky this week, to be joined by Mr Ducker, who was a super ‘Surprise Reader’. His story was all about nature which was a big hit, as was his fox impression too! Thank you, Mr Ducker!
Year 1
On Wednesday, Mr Wedgwood, a former headteacher of Fairstead House, came into class to tell us about the school in the 1980’s. We asked him lots of questions about the school and then took him on a tour where he told us about the changes the school had been through since he left in 1996.
The children were absolutely delighted to meet Mr Wedgwood and I am really impressed with how well they listened to him- they were enthralled! When the children returned from their lunch time play, they all asked where he had gone and were very disappointed when I said that he had gone home! It was a wonderful experience which will be remembered for some time.
Year 2
Year 2 have packed an incredible amount of learning into our 4 day week! We have begun learning about Samuel Pepy’s diary and why diaries are a source of information about the past. We have looked at what makes a diary and have been detectives to find the elements in an excerpt of Samuel Pepys diary. We were hunting for: proper nouns, past tense verbs, date and sign off and feelings words. In Maths we have begun learning about mass. In our PSHE lessons, we have been learning about friendships and the ingredients we would like to have in a friend. We created ‘Friendship Soup’!
Years 3 and 4
This week, the children in Years 3 and 4 found out about the many wars from Ancient Greek times between the city-states and against foreign enemies. A particular focus was the Battle of Marathon which took place in 490BC. They discovered that the main type of Greek soldiers were the hoplites. These were foot soldiers who fought together as a team. They often had long spears, a large shield and strong body armour. Hoplites fought as a team by staying in close formation. They would often lock their shields together to make a strong wall around them and move in formation with their spears pointing out. This formation was called a phalanx and it was very hard to break into. Can you spot our representation of this in the photos below? The children discovered first hand how difficult it was to move as one and stay in formation. Using reasoning and justification, the children ordered the reasons for the Greek victory against the Persian army. Please ask your child how General Miltiades was victorious with only 10,000 men and how King Darius was defeated with 25,000 men…
Year 5 Music
In our Year 5 class music lessons, we have been studying the 12-bar Blues and chords in Jazz. So far, we have explored and performed a chord sequence using the three primary chords and using the primary chords, pupils have played broken chords, improvised a swing rhythm on the root, improvised a boogie woogie riff and performed a repeating quaver pattern using notes from 1st inversion chords.
Year 6
In our Geography lesson this week, we welcomed Elsie’s Mum. Linked to her work and travels throughout North America, she shared her knowledge of extreme weather and earthquakes via a very informative PowerPoint presentation and enjoyable class discussion. Year 6 look forward to our Thursday afternoon visitors and have been very lucky to receive treats at the end of the day..chocolate and lollipops…and, last week, Tabi kindly bought crunchy ‘Takis’ and sour ‘Ice Breakers’ for us to try! Thank you, Ayva, for bringing in your Dad’s baseball glove too!
In English lessons, Year 6 have concluded a writing unit on diaries. They imagined what it would be like to win a ride on a hot air balloon and wrote two entries that captured their thoughts, emotions and observations before and after such an exhilarating experience. In Maths lessons, this week’s focus has been on pie charts or ‘pizza charts’ (which Year 6 preferred!) It was interesting to see how prior knowledge of fractions, decimals, percentages, angles, protractors and pairs of compasses could be applied to a variety of tasks.
Last week, I mentioned that Year 6 were excited about receiving their leavers’ hoodies which they are looking forward to wearing on next week’s residential trip. Are you sure, Year 6? Going by the weather forecast, it’s going to be wet and muddy! Do think of us all when we arrive at school at 6.30am on Monday for a 7.00am departure! Hollowford, here we come!
Year 6 Music
In our Year 6 class music lessons, we have focused on basic Samba rhythms. Using words to memorise simple dotted and syncopated patterns, pupils created a basic musical structure which had to contain an Introduction using Call and Response, a Break (middle section – the groove) and an End Break. Djembe drums substituted Surdo and Repinique drums but agogo bells and Gaza style instruments were included in the performances. Each group performed and brief feedback was given.
Drawing Club
Children attending drawing club with Mr. Cater have been trying to depict the eye in detail. As you can see from the gallery, there are some budding artists here. Well done to all.
Have a lovely weekend!
Michael Radford