School News Issue16–Friday 8th January 2016
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Friday
Dates for your diary
Friday 12th February: School closes at 3pm for half term.
Monday 22nd February: School re-opens – please note there will be no Breakfast Club today.
Thursday 24th March: School closes at 3pm for the Easter holiday. No After School Club today.
Monday 11th April: School re-opens – please note there will be no Breakfast Club today.
Monday 2nd May: School Closed – Bank Holiday.
Friday 27th May: School closes at 3pm for half term.
Monday 6thJune: School re-opens.
Wednesday 20thJuly: School closes at 3pm for the Summer holidays.
FOCS meeting on Friday 15th January at 1.30pm.
Lots of exciting and fun things planned. If you haven't received one and would like a copy of the agenda please email
If you can't make the meeting feel free to send comments and ideas by email.
Headteacher Awards
Imogen H (Emerald) for lively writing about Christmas
Grace (Emerald) for wonderful writing
Imogen E, Holly (Emerald) for lots of detail in their writing
Mae, Sophie (Emerald) for great presentation
Will, Elen, Abbie, Sophie, Freya, Rosa and Evan (Ruby) for a brilliant Mario leaflet
Will, Lily, Leah, Daisy, Ezra, Reuben, Rose, Lucy and Evan (Ruby)
for fantastic diaries about a best ever Christmas
Daisy, Sterling, Louisa, Evie, Freya and Rosa (Ruby) for excellent Mario stories
Alfie, Pearl and Rose (Ruby) for great theme park letters
Alfie, Harry C, Evie and Freya (Ruby) for great theme park costs
Lily (Ruby) for brilliant times tables
Aston (Emerald) for loads of awesome holiday homework
Philomena (Emerald) for brilliant times tables during the holiday
Lois (Amethyst) for great Pung Fu
Lois and Macy (Amethyst) for correcting Mr Frost
Leah (Amethyst) for marvellous mathematics
Lois (Amethyst) for great accuracy in mathematics
Maddy (Emerald) for taking such good care of Colby baby guinea pigs during the holiday
Emily W (Amethyst) for being the Gold Medal winner in mental mathematics
Rhianna and Courtney (Amethyst) for being the Silver Medal winners in mental mathematics
Charlotte (Amethyst) for being the Bronze Medal winner in mental mathematics
Emily S and Joe (Amethyst) for accurate measuring
Emily W (Amethyst) for good understanding of a fair test
Jadzia and Magdalena (Amethyst) for helping a little person when she fell over
Lois (Amethyst) for awesome estimating in maths
Rhianna (Amethyst) for being Star of the Day
Emily S, Oren and Courtney (Amethyst) for answering an impossible maths question
Lucas, Ezra, Evie, Alfie, Milly and Rosa (Ruby) for reaching the final in the Spelling Bee
Mitzie (Ruby) for winning the Spelling Bee
Rose, Sterling, Evan, Ezra and Daisy (Ruby) for brilliant acting of a Roman myth
Sterling, Lucas, Louisa, Louie, Abbie, Daisy and Axel (Ruby) for excellent reading
Lucy (Ruby) for passing the Olympic Times Table Challenge
Isabelle (Emerald) and Pearl (Ruby)
for representing Dragons brilliantly at the House Swimming Championships
More Headteacher Awards
Elliot (Amethyst) for super spellings
Phoebe (Amber) for fabulous phonics at home
Beatrice and James (Amber) for brilliant times tables at home
Charlie and Oliver (Amber) for being really kind to a younger pupil
Tom and Joe (Amethyst) for awesome computing work
Jim (Amethyst) for brilliant brackets work
Charlotte (Amethyst) for helping Rachel
Emily S (Amethyst) for being Star of the Day
Alastair and Danny (Emerald) for awesome computing
Maisie (Emerald) for amazing maths
Abigail (Emerald) for helping others with maths
William (Emerald) for brilliant times tables
Alastair (Emerald) for brilliant times tables
Jasmine (Emerald) for lovely writing
Aston (Emerald) for beautiful writing
Joshua, Philomena, Maisie, Mae and Luke (Emerald) for awesome literacy
Ruby S, Melody, Oliver, Lily, Joshua and Samson (Sapphire) for fantastic number bonds
Samson and Alex (Sapphire) for brilliant handwriting
Thomas, Jacob, Jamie and Isabel (Sapphire) for amazing news-writing
Ruby E (Sapphire) for sharing an interesting stone
Rudi (Sapphire) for showing different materials and objects for science
Alex (Sapphire) for an amazing Christmas scrap book
Jessie (Sapphire) for a great robot picture
Joel (Sapphire) for fantastic Christmas Day writing
Joel (Sapphire) for really tricky Spanish words
James and Oliver (Amber) for beautiful singing of Happy Birthday
Samuel, Jack R and Rhys (Amber) for great independent letter work
Florence F (Amber) for amazing pattern making
Year 6 Bikeability
Please remember to return your slip regarding Year 6 Bikeability on Monday, if you have not already done so. Please return a slip, even if your child does not want to participate. Thank you.
Guitar Lessons
Mr Burgoyne has places available for guitar lessons this term. Please let him know if you are interested. What a great New Year’s Resolution it would be to learn to play the guitar.
Colby Curriculum
Class curriculum information is printed below. It will give you information about the subject areas your child will be studying this term. Please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher if you have any questions about what your child is learning at school.
Amber Class
Welcome back to a New Year and a new term in Amber Class. The children have been sharing their holiday news and all seem to have had a wonderful and restful break. They have come back into school happy and ready to learn.
This half term our topic will be about ‘Dinosaurs’!
In English we will find out Dinosaur facts by looking at non-fiction books, the internet, top trumps cards and pelmonism games. We will create our own dinosaur characters, write a story and use them as a basis for role-play. Using poems, we will explore rhyming words and write a class poem.
In Maths Yr R will learn the place value and order numbers to 20;recognise and use all coins to 10p in role-play; compare 2 weights using non-standard units; tell the time on an analogue clock to the hour; count back from 20 to zero and read numbers to 20.
In Maths Yr 1 will work on numbers one more or 1 less than any 2 digit number; recognise coins to £1 and find totals of 2 and 3 coins; estimate weight and use standard and non-standard units to compare; tell the time on an analogue clock to the half hour; work with odds and evens and doubling numbers.
There will be lots of cross-curricular activities to enjoy too which will include:
- Comparing dinosaurs: what they eat, habitats and size, and with animals today
- Making masks, puppets & models from a wide selection of materials
- Role-play; being archaeologists and dinosaur hunters
- Matching dinosaurs using different criteria, making dinosaur biscuits
- Using percussion instruments to make ‘dinosaur music’
- Playing team and individual games based on a dinosaur theme.
Mrs Williams
Sapphire Class
The new topic for Sapphire this half term is the Sonoran desert. We started our learning about the desert with a virtual flight to this area of North America. The children observed the landscape and they started building a classroom desert display based on the experience. They will carry on adding to this display as we learn more about the animals and the plants of the desert.
Our literacy work will be linked to this topic and we will be focusing on information texts while developing children’s grammar and punctuation skills further. Year 2 children will begin bringing home a little bit of grammar and punctuation homework to help extend their understanding and boost their confidence.
In mathematics we will be returning to basic mathematical skills: understanding number, place value and ordering numbers. Following this, we will carry on developing calculation and problem solving skills. Then we will be focusing on times tables, division and again using these calculations to solve problems. Just before half term we will be exploring 2-d and 3-d shapes.
In science we will be learning about light and sound. We will be looking at light sources and shadows and how increasing hours of light affect our weather patterns in the spring. We will also have fun with different sounds and will be linking this work to music this half term. In our science lessons we will also be developing the children’s investigative skills further and thinking about different ways they could find an answer to a given question.
Our art will be linked to our Sonoran desert topic, in PE we will be focusing mainly on gymnastics and in RE we will be learning about Judaism.
Mrs Ward
Emerald Class
This half term Emerald Class will be creating our very own Imaginary Worlds inspired by the book ‘How to live forever’ by Colin Thompson. It’s an amazing book and one that the children were mesmerised with last term. We will be focusing on our story writing and with it our writing targets.
In maths this term we will be looking mainly at written methods of the four operations, measuring, shape, doubling and halving and lots of problem solving.
In our topic sessions we will be building our imaginary worlds out of papier mache before using our science skills to create a simple circuit to add something to our planets.
In PE we will be playing some new games as well as trying to make some of our own, before having a go at teaching others. We will be continuing Rugby sessions on Tuesdays and will carry these on during Thursday afternoons. Emerald will also be doing lots of post-Christmas fitness training!
Each day all children in class will have time to practice their spellings and punctuation, times tables, reading, problem solving, leadership and team skills.
I have set up an Emerald homework tray in class. All children will know where this is and can take whatever they want to complete their work. Any work brought in will be recorded on our wall chart to earn prizes and parties!!
If you want to know more specifically what you could do at home to help your child then please come and see me.
Thanks
Mr B
Ruby Class
Welcome back and a Happy New Year to you all.
In literacy we will be looking closely at spelling, punctuation and grammar by looking at different homophones, (words that sound the same but have different meanings and spelling eg. to,two and too), commas to mark clauses and speech marks. We will also look at taking notes and writing non-fiction texts about The Romans. We will also be continuing with our weekly writing tasks and achieving their individual targets.
In topic we will study the Romans and will investigate important events on a timeline, where they invaded and look at how the Roman Empire was formed. We will also look at what Romans did for entertainment and make some traditional Roman food. We will also look at mosaics from Roman times and make our own mosaics.
In maths we will continue to do our times tables challenge. It would be great if you could encourage your children to practice these each week by bringing their copies home. We will also be looking at how we can show data in different ways, different types of measures, adding and subtracting, telling the time and using timetables. We will also be having a day a week looking at problem solving.
In science we will continue to look at separating materials and irreversible changes. Our music lessons will continue throughout the term and Rugby will also continue until at least half term. In computing we will be looking at data by using spreadsheets and databases. In RE we will continue to study Hinduism and will discuss inspirational people, including Gandhi and the Dalai Lama.
Mrs Towers
Amethyst Class
It’s lovely to be back for the spring term. I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and thank you for all the lovely gifts and cards. We’re all raring to go with what is a shorter, but a massively hard working term.
This half-term term the class will work on lots of non-fiction writing skills, for example, tone and style along with themes across texts and links in paragraphs. Punctuation features more heavily this half term also. The punctuation and grammar is followed up with two pages from the homework book for Year 6 (arriving shortly).
Maths will involve building competency with the year 5/6 curriculum allowing children to demonstrate even better scores on practice tests that will thoroughly prepare them for the National Tests. Homework continues to be 4 pages from the homework book every week, but children may wish to complete more as we can get the next level book when they feel confident.
Year 5s are welcome to complete IXL units linked to what we are working on in class, but as ever, this is not compulsory.
Science involves us building on prior knowledge of animals and humans, specifically the way internal organs function and healthy lifestyles.
Every week we will make time for some discussion of current affairs knowledge whilst encouraging children to be able to make discussion and form opinions whilst being able to back them up.
Mr. Mead will teach as usual on Tuesday afternoons and children will complete a variety of Pung Fu Challenges to develop their confidence with punctuation. Liz continues with ICT and organising data into spreadsheets that we have derived from our geography work, which is finding out about and comparing cities round the world.
PE is gym - building core strength, balance and control. The games lesson is once again outdoors with Spencer the excellent rugby coach. Once again, change of clothes for Tuesdays please!
Year 5s will continue with their keyboard lessons. I hear they are coming on really well.
This term we will design, build and test wooden buggies. The special skills focus is on cutting and joining pieces of wood, particularly reinforcing corner joins.
Do keep encouraging your children to read - it really does help, along with lots of tables practice. Just to remind, year 6 homework is set on Wednesday and collected the following Tuesday.
As ever, please ask if you have any questions about the above.
Many thanks,
Mr. Frost
Christine Mead
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