Newsletters

Hot Chocolate and Toast

The CREW will be serving hot chocolate/squash and toast next week at break times.  The cost, as previously, will be £1.00 and all proceeds will go to the Salvation Army Worcester to support their work with the homeless and vulnerable families.  Please see the timetable below:

Monday - Wrens

Tuesday - Skylarks

Wednesday - Kestrels

Thursday - Kingfishers

Friday - Merlins

Wednesday 8th March - year 5 & 6 boys football

On Wednesday 8th March, boys from year 5 & 6 at Bayton will be coming to Abberley for a football fixture. Please can all of the boys in year 5 & 6 have their PE kit in school. If they have football boots, shin pads and football socks, they will also need these. We plan to play two football matches. One for those who are confident players and one involving those who play less regularly or do not have boots and shin pads. We plan to give all players the opportunity to represent our school in this match.

Kick-off for this match will be around 1.20pm and parents are welcome to come along to spectate. Following the match the boys will enjoy some snacks and a drink together.

World Book Day 2023

It has been lovely to see all the children back after their half term holiday and hear all about their adventures.  

This week has been very exciting and the children looked wonderful in their World Book Day costumes.  We hope they enjoyed all the activities centred around our theme "Down the Rabbit Hole".   

Things have been a bit chilly both inside and outside in Wrens this week as we explored the continent of Antarctica.  We found out where Antarctica is on the globe and looked at some photographs of what it is like there.  Reception made some really good observations when comparing the environment in Antarctica and our own local environment in Abberley.  We decided it would be interesting to go and visit but we wouldn't like to stay too long!  Reception then explored using a cold colour palette to create some fantastic watercolour artwork of the sea and ice.   We also learnt the story of the race to the South Pole and all about the explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott.  We put our writing skills to the test to write a list of equipment he would need for his expedition.  In maths this week Reception have met Numberlines 7 and 8 and begun exploring the composition of these numbers.

Meanwhile, Year 1 have been finding out what happens next to Emma Jane and her aeroplane full of animal passengers in our class book.  We were very concerned to find out that she got caught in a storm and crashed into the sea!  The children showed fantastic imaginations to write some great descriptions of the storm and we are very impressed with how they challenged themselves to use more ambitious vocabulary.  They then constructed story maps to show their ideas of how the book might end.  In maths, we are continuing to explore subtraction and have been looking at calculating subtraction by finding the difference.  This is quite a tricky concept but will stand us in good stead when we move onto looking at missing number calculations in the next couple of weeks.

Please can I ask that any Reception parents who still have their child's learning journey at home please return them to school as we have lots of new fantastic work to stick in.  Thank you!

In English this week, we started our new book. Our book for this half term is The BFG by Roald Dahl. If you have a copy of this book at home and are happy for your child to bring it to school to follow along in class, that would be great. In our first lesson, before the children knew which book it was, they were given a random page. From the random page they had to create questions and predictions on the text. This week the children learnt about 'witching hour' that is mentioned in the first chapter of the book. They got their creative juices flowing by creating some gruesome creatures that could come out in witching hour. They described these and added to their description comparing them to other things.

In maths, we have continued with our measurement unit. Year 3s have been learning how to measure lengths and the rules of how to do this accurately. They have also been comparing lengths. This has involved converting from one unit of measurement to another in order to compare the given measurements. Year 4 have focused on learning how to convert kilometres to metres and vice versa. They then moved on to focusing on finding the area of a shape. With their knowledge of area they made different shapes and identified how shapes can look different and yet have the same area.

In history, we began the topic of the Georgians. The children looked at different pieces of artwork from London Georgian times. From the images they were able to infer what London might have been like in Georgian times and whether they would like to have lived there or not. We then read a segment from a diary entry from 1827. From this diary extract the children drew a picture of what the man writing it could see from his writing spot. 

PE this half term is tennis on a Monday and dodgeball on a Thursday.

In English this week, Kestrels have started reading this half term's book, Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief. As the book is based on Greek gods, the children researched a variety of gods and goddesses to gain an understanding of the relationships between them and their powers. Percy encounters a minotaur in Chapter 4 and we used this as a stimulus for the children to write a description of a mythical creature.

In maths we started our work on percentages. This required the children to draw on their prior knowledge of finding equivalent fractions and the place value system. Once the children understood the percent means per hundred, they quickly made the link between percentages and decimals. We looked at how finding an equivalent fraction with a denominator of 100 made writing fractions as percentages and decimals much easier and straightforward.

In science, Y5&6 have been investigating water. We discussed the different types of water and what these may contain. The children had to predict what would be left behind if various waters (mineral, tap, sea and pond) were left to evaporate and then compare their predictions to the final results.

All the children looked fantastic yesterday for World Book Day and they had great fun taking part in a variety of activities based on Alice in Wonderland.

A reminder that Kestrels now have PE on Mondays and Thursdays. On Monday mornings, the children will be playing tennis outside and as the weather is still a little cool, it would be worth them bringing an extra layer to wear.

This week in Merlins class we have been introduced to our new book 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief'. We started the week by researching a Greek god or goddess to give us sufficient background knowledge of some Greek myths and stories, which will help us understand the story as we read. In GPS, we have revised sentence punctuation, levels of formality and modal verbs. 

In maths this week, we have focused on working with decimals. We have been learning how to identify the place value of each digit and use this to convert these decimals into fractions. We then learnt how to round a decimal number to any given decimal place and then ended the week with using the four operations with decimal numbers. 

In history, we have been learning about what Britain was like in the late 1700s. We focused on the architecture and dress and then explored the various revolutions which were happening at the time including the industrial revolution, the agricultural revolution, and the transport revolution. 

In RE, we learnt of the story of betrayal and conviction which led to Jesus' death. We looked closely at all the individuals that were in his life in the lead up to his crucifixion and considered which of these people should take the responsibility of his death and who was most and least to blame.