Dear Parents,
It has been glorious weather this week but the smiles from the children returning to school have been even brighter than the sunshine. The first week back has seen children immersed in their learning straight away and I hope they have been sharing their exciting news with you at home. During our celebration assembly, it was a pleasure to congratulate Reception class on their first week, and also celebrate a number of musical grades and LAMDA awards that were taken over the summer.
Communication
We have been informed that some parents are finding our emails in ‘junk’ folders. Please ensure you check that you are receiving all communications and contact the school office if you are unsure.
Meet the Teacher
On Tuesday 12th September, at 6.30pm, there will be an event in the Performing Arts Centre for parents to meet staff. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. Please note that this event is for parents only.
Tennis
If you would be interested in your child joining Newmarket Tennis Club, please read the information leaflet here.
Reception
The children’s transition into Reception this week has been seamless, and it has been wonderful to see everyone so happy and enthusiastic about their learning. ‘Dinosaur Day’ on Thursday was great fun and the children had a fantastic time taking part in a dinosaur stomp, making their own shape dinosaurs, and learning some key dinosaur vocabulary! The children were also introduced to three very special dinosaurs who will be supporting them to be effective ‘Learnadactyls’ during their time in Reception. Excitement is building for ‘Superhero’ week, next week too! We cannot wait to see who we can spot flying round the classroom.
A very big well done to everyone in Reception, for a fantastic first week at Fairstead House. Have a very well-deserved rest this weekend, ready for more fun next week!
Year 1
What a fantastic first week we have had! Our new topic is ‘Around the World in a Term.’
After making passports, we boarded Fairstead Airline’s flight 446 to South America after going through the strict security measures. We watched the onboard safety video before watching the plane take off through the pilot’s window!
When we looked out of the windows, we saw many of South America’s most famous sights, including the Andes, the Amazon Rainforest and the Amazon River. Next week, we will be learning about the different strata of the rainforest.
We are keeping track of our trip around the world on our world map in the classroom.
Year 2
Welcome back! We have had an amazing first week settling into the routines of Year 2. The children have been using their creativity to design paintings that reflect their colourful personalities, Mandela inspired hands and have seen work by the artist Bev Doolittle to begin our artistic journey ‘Into the Woods’. The children have been learning all about nouns and took to the field with their ‘camera’ to record as many nouns as they could find. We then expanded our learning to think about adjectives that would describe the troll from under the bridge! There were some wonderfully creative expanded noun phrases. In maths we have begun our look at Place Value with lots of hands-on learning. The children have come back with such enthusiasm and excitement – it has truly been a great start to Year 2!
Year 3
Year 3 have started the year with enthusiasm and big smiles on their faces! With the big step up to KS2, the children have had lots of changes to get used to this week. They have been navigating the KS2 areas in the main school building and now know where everything goes. In the classroom, the children have been finding out all about their new topics and units that will be studied this term. One of the highlights of the week was exploring the new Chromebooks. This resulted in lots of excitement and made everyone feel very grown up! We launched our new topic – the Ancient Maya! We already can’t wait for our lesson next week. In maths, we have been representing and partitioning numbers using objects and resources. In English, we have already started to develop our comprehension skills. Year 3 also experienced their first training session at King’s Ely during their Games lesson. What a fantastic start to the academic year, Year 3!
Year 4
It is wonderful to see the new Year 4s in school. They have come back with enthusiasm and have settled into their new classroom well, despite the heat. I have loved seeing them at games lessons where they are taking on the role of demonstrating what they learnt last year to the new Year 3 pupils. A great start. We have a lot planned this term and I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday to give you more details. Until then, have a great weekend and enjoy the weather.
Year 5
Year 5 started their new topic on forces this week and were keen to get into investigating how to measure the mass of different objects using newton meters. Reading measurements off different scales was a bit tricky at first.
Pupils made predictions about the mass, measured and drew conclusions about what might affect the mass of an object. What is it about a material that affects the mass? Hmmm.
Year 6
Year 6 have had a very busy first week back: guided reading and comprehension (The Jungle Book); maths revision lessons (writing numbers in words and figures with seven or more digits); descriptive writing (Gangsta Granny); choosing ambitious vocabulary and employing a range of writers’ techniques (rhetorical questions, alliteration, onomatopoeia etc) in the opening paragraphs of a story entitled ‘It’s a mystery’; the weekly 10-minute times tables challenge; ICT presentations about themselves (‘Mr Peace, did you know…?’); choosing independent research topics (e.g. bearded dragons, Vietnam, horses etc); starting their Year 5-6 history lessons (How We Used to Live: The 1950s and 1960s); designing marble runs with three levels of challenge…and so much more! Phew!
Thank you, Year 6, for demonstrating such enthusiasm to learn. You have had a super first week back! I’m looking forward to the rest of your presentations on Monday – we were having so much fun in DT this afternoon that we simply ran out of time! Over the weekend, continue to think about Year 6 roles and responsibilities and don’t forget to prepare your House Captain speech for House Assembly next Thursday!
Have a lovely sunny weekend!
Michael Radford