From the Head of Primary 30.10.2021
Welcome back!
What a positive start we have had to the second half term with everyone getting straight back into the routine of their lessons and working super hard! Popping into virtual classes this week, I have seen some fantastic lessons and students that are fully engaged in their learning. Of course the F1 and F2 students are busy being physically back in school and loving every second of it!
This week the ‘Spotlight is on….
Year 6’
Each week, Year 6 students complete a reflection on their learning where they focus on what they have enjoyed that week, where they have been challenged and what Qualities of Mind they have shown. So when Ms Hitchen asked us for our ‘Spotlight on…’ input, we naturally turned it over to the students – we hope you enjoy their reflections/thoughts/comments:
During the week, we have started a new book called ‘Pig Heart Boy’. The story is about Cameron, a boy who has physical problems, needing a pig’s heart to survive. We have been discussing questions about the book in groups. I am extremely excited to know what is going to happen next and how the doctor is going to do a heart transplant surgery. Fion
What has challenged me the most in Year 6 so far, is writing my measures of success and writing the Julian Chapter in English because I had to dig deeper and do some deep thinking about what I wanted to write. It took quite a bit of time to think about it, but I did try my best. Planning made it easier for me because it helped me organise my thoughts and prioritise the way I present information. Janesse
This week I enjoyed writing my own Julian chapter for English because I found it really fun to write whatever was in my mind and what I thought about Julian. I also enjoyed starting reading the book ‘Pig Heart Boy’ as I think it is going to become very interesting and I am going to love It! This week I was challenged when I had to write my own Julian chapter because I tried to make it quite interesting and informative. I also tried to aim for quantity as I am not a fast typer. Eshaana
For maths we are doing fractions now, last week we learned how to subtract and add them and now we are learning how to multiply and divide them.Sometimes I still get confused in lessons but I am okay. We are currently reading a book called Pig Heart Boy in English and last week we just finished reading the book Wonder which was really fun because it is about a boy who is different from other people. Ada
In Maths, we used our knowledge of fractions that we learnt last week to help us in our multiplying and dividing work. We separated into three groups as usual to complete our task. It was super interesting learning about how to divide and multiply fractions, we learnt about the four steps that we have to remember when multiplying and dividing fractions. Fion
For Topic, we did three 30-minute challenges. The first one was a 30-minute T-shirt challenge and we had to mark as many different organs as we could on the T-shirt, the second challenge was to list down all the organs we knew and how they worked. The last task was to find some interesting facts about organs. One fact that I found out was that our heart beats about 100,000 times a day. Doesn’t that sound interesting? Fion
In the eye dissection presentation, it wasn’t pleasant but yet was fun to see. I really loved learning the facts about eyes or animal eyes that I didn’t know about! I learnt about the eye lens on the eyes and the difference between the human’s and cow’s eye (the eye they were using to do the eye dissection)! They said the cow’s eyes had that type of shiny bit at the back of theirs, but for us humans, there’s none at the back of ours! Overall, it really didn’t make me feel that well just looking at them doing the eye dissection, but it was really exciting and entertaining though! Janice
I was really fond of this event because it gave me knowledge about the eye and watching the eye dissection was interesting and intriguing. The Year 13s were dissecting a cow’s eye and they took out the retina, the black liquid that was oozing was called the vitreous humor, and the lens which is behind the iris of the eye. It seems like the dissection is very complicated to do and needs proper and specific instructions to do this accurately without any mistakes. Janesse
This week I enjoyed task 1 in the topic task when we did the “T-shirt challenge” because I had a chance to see my friend so it was super fun. Yanis
The Year 6s really enjoyed their experiences this week despite being online. They continue to challenge themselves in their learning and are always surprising us by how resilient and creative they are. We would also like to thank the Year 13 students and Ms Service who gave us the opportunity to experience something new this week. What a brilliant week of learning!
Take a look at our amazing organ T-shirts.
Watching the Eye Dissection
The ‘Life after Lockdown’ competition has proven to be a huge success with lots of students and one parent capturing some of their ‘firsts’ as things start to get back to normal. It was a difficult choice but the following pictures have been chosen as October’s winners:
Thank you and congratulations to Samaira in Y1, Alicia in Y1, June Ann in Y2 and Samaira’s mum, Helena, for their amazing photographs! It definitely looks like you have been making the most of your freedom!
You can begin to add photographs for November, here from Monday:
Life after Lockdown
Please make sure you include a name, year group and a caption. Remember this competition is open to the whole community; students, teachers and parents. So get sharing!
A reminder that next week is a four day week due to the public holiday on Thursday. Wishing all who celebrate a:
Have a wonderful weekend.
Take care.
Ms Karen Hitchen
Acting Head of Primary
