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FAO Year 6 leavers and Reception starters

The Shelsleys' Educational Charity

Is one of your children planning to start a new stage in their education this autumn, and do you live within the civil parish of the Shelsleys? If so, then you may be interested in this local charity. The income of the charity is used to support the education (e.g., to assist in the purchase of uniforms, books and sports equipment) of children and young people under the age of 25 who live (or whose parents/guardians live) within the parish of the Shelsleys.

The Trustees will be meeting in August to consider making small grants to eligible pupils or students. These are those either attending primary school for the first time or those starting secondary school/college or university in autumn 2023.

Applications for grants should be made as soon as possible in writing, and before the end of the summer term. All enquiries and applications should be sent by email please to the clerk to the Trustees at this email address - judith_damerell@hotmail.com or otherwise by post addressed to Jude Damerell, Somer Barns, Camp Lane, Shelsley Beauchamp, WR6 6JQ.

This week in Wrens we wanted to say a big thank you for Leo's family for creating a fantastic water wall.  We have had so much fun this week out in the sunshine playing with our new resource.   

In maths this week Year 1 completed their work on fractions by exploring quarters.  We looked at how when we have quarters we have 4 equal parts and we explored finding a quarter of shapes and objects as well as a quarter of a number.  We also made the most of the nice weather to learn all about capacity in the water tray outside. The children showed really good problem-solving skills to work out the capacity of different containers using non-standard measures.  Next week Year 1 will be moving onto looking at Time in maths including the days of the week, months of the year and telling the time on an analogue clock to the half hour. If you have a calendar or analogue clock at home please practise these skills with your child.  Meanwhile Reception have been learning all about subtraction and playing lots of games associated with taking things away.  Next week we will be putting our knowledge to the test to write some subtraction number sentences.

In English Year 1 have enjoyed the next part of the story Jack and the Baked Bean Stalk.  We explored what Jack might be thinking in some of the illustrations as he walked through the rain to buy some food with his last few pennies.  Next week we will be making predictions of what Jack might find at the top of the baked beanstalk.  Reception enjoyed reading the story "What the Ladybird Heard" by Julia Donaldson and wrote some fantastic independent sentences based on the story.  

In PSHE we have started our new topic on Changing Me and thinking about things grow and change including ourselves!  We have enjoyed our role play being a baby clinic and have done a great job caring for the babies including giving them a bath.

Reception are having lots of fun in music this half term with Mrs Mitchell.  All the songs they are listening to are based around the theme of bugs and this week they enjoyed the orchestral piece of music "The flight of the Bumble Bee".  We have also been busy learning our pirate songs for the Early Years Music Festival on Friday 7 July 2023.  

Another busy week in Skylarks! We have been busy consolidating our writing and maths skills and because Mrs Shelley and Miss Hughes were so impressed, we all had ice pops to celebrate our achievements.

Also this week, we have been learning about life cycle of animals and understanding that changes happen as we grow and that is OK. In computing we learnt how to collect data and use a computer to present it as a graph. In PE, we practised skills ready for sports day. In history, we used a chronological timeline to show how Witley Court has changed over time and we learnt some significant events which happened at the court.

Next week we will be starting our new RE unit and a new class book.

Year 3 had the class to themselves at the beginning of the week due to Year 4s being on residential. 

In English, they focused on Greek myths and specifically Theseus and the minotaur. They had to produce inferences and predictions using a picture from the story. They then heard the story and had to retell it to their partner, before reordering the events of the story and drawing pictures to match. They also had a go at designing their own Greek vase. Also this week, they created their own mythological creature and described it. 

In maths, Year 3 learnt the poem '30 days has September' to help them solve questions relating to the days and months of the year. They also learnt about times of day and hours in a day. In history, they carried on with the theme of Ancient Greece and did research surrounding the lifestyle of the Ancient Greeks. 

In science, the children had great fun with the challenge of designing a switch to make a circuit open and close. They put their ideas to the test and had to reflect on why their switch worked or did not work. In pairs they then all created a switch that did work. 

Y4 had a wonderful time on their residential at Folly Farm. The children had lots of fun exploring different habitats and seeing what creatures they could find. They then used this information to work in groups to decide what they wanted to film as well as writing their own scripts using reference materials to help them. The children had different roles within their groups, including producer, cameraperson, scriptwriter and editor. They had to decide on the best location to record their films and try and find the creatures they had decided on. After filming, the children went back into the classroom to edit and record voice-overs for their own films. We were so impressed how the children demonstrated our school values of collaboration and perseverance whilst producing their films, as not only was this a complicated task but it was a very hot day!

It is always a pleasure to take Abberley children on residential and Y4 were no exception. Their behaviour and manners were exemplary and, once again, we received many compliments about them from the staff at the centre. We hope they have told you all about their adventures!

In English this week we watched a short animation about the 'Dreamgiver', who brought good dreams to children by cracking magic eggs onto their favourite belongings. Kestrels made lots of detailed comparisons to the well-loved character of the BFG before creating their own version of the 'Dreamgiver' by changing elements of the story. They produced some wonderful, creative writing full of figurative language.

In maths, we have been looking at Roman numerals up to 1,000. We had to put lots of thought into remembering how to structure our numerals when writing bigger numbers. We consolidated our new knowledge with some tricky crossum puzzles where we had to convert the question out of Roman numerals, figure out the answer to the question and convert it back into Roman numerals to fill in the grid. There were some very puzzled Kestrels to begin with but they all showed perseverance and kept trying!

In science, we researched key scientists who were important in the discovery of electricity. They produced beautiful folded leaflets about their chosen scientist.

In French, we learnt the names for places in school and practiced our listening skills with a quiz.

In computing, we made our own soundtracks to accompany an animation in Scratch. There were some great animations and soundtracks, including one based on our Summer production.

It has been a very active week in Merlin's class this week! It has been Bikeability week where the majority of Merlins class have taken part in the governments national cycle training programme which aims to support children to learn practical skills and to understand how to cycle on today's roads. The Bikeability instructors were extremely complementary of the children's attitude and behaviour and we are very proud of the way they conducted themselves. 

In English this week, we have read more of Wild Boy and have reached the point in the story where Wild Boy witnesses the murder of Professor Wollstonecraft. It is at this point where Wild Boy finds the courage to help solve this mystery and identify the murderer. This week the children have finished their wanted posters which identify and describe the showman, Augustus Finch. They also went on to draw pictures of the other characters we have met and labelled them using quotations from the text. 

In maths, we have practised using scale factor. This is where a shape is enlarged by multiplying all the sides by the same number. The children were able to identify how a shape had been enlarged and also enlarge some shapes of their own given a specific scale factor. 

In History, we have been exploring the early Islamic civilisation and this week we have been looking at what caused the spread of Islam soon after the death of the prophet Mohammed. We have also used clues we have to try to construct what the city of Baghdad would have originally looked like at the time of its conception.

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