Dear Parents,
This week the children in Years 5 and 6 shared their residential trip with the school and parents in assembly. The enjoyment of their time in Derbyshire was very clear to see and the photos were amazing. It generated much excitement in the younger years, who are looking forward to taking part in such adventurous activities as they progress through the school.
Also this week the House Cricket competition took place on Wednesday afternoon at Chippenham Cricket Club. The batting and bowling was very good and the level of play was superb. Despite close contests, Buckenham were victorious!
In our celebration assembly this morning, the children who attend dance club on a Friday afternoon performed to the school. They were very confident and demonstrated how much they have learnt over the term. Also in assembly, we celebrated various successes, including a record number of house points! Well done to all.
ABRSM Exams
This term, we entered 18 candidates for ABRSM exams. 13 candidates took digital exams earlier this term and today our last 5 candidates took face-to-face exams at King’s Ely. So far, we have received outstanding results with almost everyone being awarded a merit or distinction.
Nursery
Ponies 2 are buzzing to share with you our wonderful bee day on Thursday. We were excited to welcome the grandparents of a Ponies 2 child, who are beekeepers. They shared with us lots of interesting facts and stories about their bees. We loved seeing all of the artefacts, including a bee smoker, a section of the hive, beeswax candles, and honey. We learnt so much, but we were most amazed to find out that bees have five eyes and that the drones only live for six weeks!
In preparation throughout the day we have also explored a bee themed sensory tray, made bees using playdough, pipe cleaners and googly eyes. We have also started some bee themed art work printing with bubble wrap to create a hive, and using pen with watercolours to create the bees that live there. In music we created our own story about bees through movement and music. We will continue to explore these activities over the next few days.
Reception
It has been such an exciting week in Reception!
The children were very excited to visit Year One and meet Miss Drayton for ‘Move Up Morning’ on Wednesday. They returned to class with lots of smiles and loved sharing their news!
On Thursday, the children had a wonderful day in Felixstowe. The morning was spent visiting the Coast Patrol Office and meeting some inspirational volunteers! The children shared their knowledge of how to keep safe near water and discovered even more. Exploring a real lifeboat and trying on life jackets was very exciting too! Thankfully the rain had stopped by lunchtime which meant everyone had a wonderful afternoon on the beach.
The week ended visiting the library which was our last class visit of the year. We now look forward to our fun-filled final week together.
Year 1
In PSHE, we have been learning about the changes animals, including humans, go through in their lifetime. To begin, we played the baby quiz! It was great fun looking at all our cute baby pictures and discussing the changes we have been through. Next, we created our own life cycles and thought about what we might look like or do in the future. Lots of us are already looking forward to retirement!
Year 2
Year 2 have had a very exciting week all about Ice Cream!! We have made tally graphs and bar charts, transferring the data between the two, we have debated our favourite ice lolly and practised how to write for persuasion. Next, the children designed their most amazing, totally unbelievable, out of this world ice cream treat and labelled the elements. After the labelling, the children used their noun phrases, amazing adjectives and some similes to plan a letter. They had to write me a letter persuading me to try their ice cream treats above all others – my mouth was watering at the end!!
On Wednesday, the children had a lovely morning with Miss Hunt in Year 3. It is such an exciting time, but also comes with quite a lot of change. We have had lots of discussions about our feelings and talked about any worries the children may have. Miss Hunt put many of their minds at rest as well.
We wrapped up our week with some observational drawings, created an ice cream folding surprise and created a symmetrical sketch of a sunflower.
Years 3 and 4
In DT, Years 3 and 4 have explored the pull-along toys that Ancient Greek children played with and compared these to the designs and materials of modern day examples. They then designed their own pull-along toys that included a cam to create a wobble as they move. In the making process, they encountered some minor problems and made adjustments to ensure their toy worked well. They are extremely proud of the results and enjoyed testing them out!
Class Drama
In our class drama lesson with Years 3 and 4, we explored the use of transition within The Lion King JR. Pupils were shown how to transition into tableaus and, working in groups, they did so very effectively showing young Simba transitioning into adult Simba. Pupils also created freeze frames from the story for example ‘The Stampede’ and the ‘Circle of Life’. We also looked at how the use of space impacts theatrical storytelling, both through staging and design. We finished our lesson with a new game called ‘Who has the Power’ and this gave each pupil the opportunity to explore how space affects power and relationship.
Years 5 and 6
It has been a busy penultimate week! As well as completing end of year assessments, Years 5 & 6 practised their class assembly at the start of the week and performed enthusiastically to parents on Thursday morning. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend. On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Salt and Mr Everitt organised an exciting Key Stage 2 house cricket competition which the children in Buckenham House were delighted to win.
On Thursday, Years 5 & 6 had a ‘Day at the Races’. We visited the National Stud in the morning, had a tour of Newmarket racecourse in the afternoon and ended the day cheering on the riders in the 2.00pm and 2.35pm races from the grandstand. Thank you to the parents who were able to join us.
Year 6 had their leavers’ lunch today. Huge thanks to Chef and her team for making two gigantic pizzas and the fanciest Arctic roll I have ever seen! Everything was so tasty and the children were ever so grateful. Keep practising your speeches for Prize-giving and Speech Day, Year 6, and make the most of your final week at Fairstead!
Have a lovely weekend!
Michael Radford