Attendance

Merlins - 94%

Kestrels - 97%

Kingfishers - 94%

Skylarks - 99%

Wrens - 92%

Well done to Skylarks for nearly reaching 100% this week. I wonder if any class can achieve 100% next week? 

Top Tip for the Week

Please look at this chart below and think about the impact of missed school days on your own child's learning.

Children in Need

It is Children in Need day on Friday 17^th November and we are asking the children to come to school dressed as a superhero, both real and imaginary, in return for a donation of £1.

We will be selling Pudsey merchandise in school as from Monday 13th if children would like to bring money in.

We are also excited to tell you that we have signed up to be part of the runPudsey challenge. This involves the children challenging themselves to raise £10 (or more!) through taking part in a physical activity. During the afternoon of Friday 17^th, we will be holding a fun run and the children can complete as many laps as they wish. 

As parents, you will need to sign up your child/ren to take part: 

https://www.runpudsey.co.uk/school/abberley-parochial-vc-primary-school 

Our school code is: 1271 

Every child who signs up and takes part will receive a medal, which will be sent to school after the event.

Reminders!

• Please return your orange data sheet if you have not already done so.
• Please submit your payment of £10 for the panto.

Thank you.

It was lovely to see the children back after their half term holiday and they have settled back into school well.  We are very excited about our new topic "Festivals and Celebrations".  This week we have been learning about the celebration of Bonfire Night and the children enjoyed sharing their experiences of going to bonfires and firework displays.  We learnt all about the history of Bonfire Night and how Guy Fawkes tried to blow up King James and the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder.  We made some lovely firework paintings with Mrs Postlethwaite thinking about the colours and shapes we used.  Later in the week at Forest School we used natural materials for some outdoor art and the lovely autumn colours allowed us to create some fantastic bonfire and firework pictures.

In maths this week we have begun to look at the concept of 1 more and 1 less and practised counting on and counting back.  We are also working on our number recognition and writing and ordering numbers.  The children are continuing to show good progress in their phonics and we will complete our single letter sounds next week before moving onto adding s to make a plural and consonant digraphs (2 letters 1 sound).  We have been learning a lot of new tricky words over the last few weeks so please use the green phonics books to practise these at home with your child.  Thank you.

This week in English for Year 2s we started our new book 'Meerkat Mail'. The children made predictions from looking at the front cover. They listened carefully to the story and answered comprehension questions. They have also being learning what story settings are. They used adjectives to describe a picture of a different setting from the book.

In maths, Year 1 have been solving addition word problems and figuring out what information is important to be able to solve these. They have also been identifying missing parts, for example ___ + 2 = 10. Both year groups have been practising their number bonds to 10. Knowing their number bonds to 10 and being able to recall these accurately and quickly will help them in all areas of maths. Year 2 have been adding by making 10. They have also added three 1-digit numbers and using bonds to 10 to do this quicker.

In history, we looked at a yearly calendar. The children recalled special occasions throughout the year, such as Easter, Christmas and Remembrance. They added these events to their calendar. We then focused on Remembrance Day. They learned why this is a special event in the year and what is so important about the poppies we wear. 

All Year 2s, excluding those doing Little Wandle, now have a library book suited to their reading level. The children will read these books to you or independently. It is important that they read these carefully as they will be able to do quizzes based on the story before swapping for another book. We will do the quizzes at school until they get used to this new system.

This week we have been getting to grips with addition and subtraction across both 10s and 100s. We have worked hard at perfecting our exchanging process to help us solve calculations.

In English, we have started a new book called the Firework Makers Daughter by Philip Pullman and are working well towards our first piece of writing which will be a recount letter based on the first two chapters. 

This week in PSHE we introduced our new topic of celebrating difference and how people across the world and in the UK have different families and how they are all important.

In geography, we have begun looking at the topic of why humans choose to live on or near volcanoes. This is a fantastic topic that will go into the details of both human and physical geography. In this first, introductory, lesson we looked in detail at how the Earth is constructed and the 4 layers that make it up. 

We have a new topic in RE as well and we are now looking at the Hindu faith.  We have begun by studying some of the symbols of the faith that are important to Hindus. 

Our science topic for this half term is 'Food Chains'. Our first lesson was looking at producers and consumers and the roles these play in food chains. We also recapped the meaning of carnivores, omnivores and herbivores.

In English this week, the children have used the story mountains they created before half term, to write their suspense narratives based on Ruskin entering the sewer to hunt for the Krindlekrax. They have used a literary technique called 'DASH?' paragraphs to help them create atmosphere and tension. D is for description, A is for action, S is for speech, H is for how their character is feeling and ? is for a rhetorical question or cliffhanger. Using this as an aid means that the children are focussed on these points and it helps them to keep their writing on track.

In maths, we have moved on to dividing by 10, 100 and 1000. Once again, our place value grids were invaluable in helping the children see how the digits of a number move when dividing. The work we completed on multiplying by 10, 100 and 1000 meant that the children knew how many place value columns the digits moved, depending on if they were dividing by 10, 100, 1000 or even 1000000!

It has been an absolute pleasure to welcome the children back to the classroom after a weeks rest. I hope everybody had an enjoyable half term break. This week the children have been introduced to our new book which will be the basis of many of our English writing lessons. ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ by CS Lewis is a fantastic classic novel which draws together so much of our learning, particularly our learning of World War II and evacuation in history last half term. This week we have read the first two chapters of the story and have been introduced to the main characters as well as Mr Tumnus, a friendly faun, or so we think. We have used some very interesting language and description to describe this wonderful world.

In maths, we have begun our new topic of fractions. This week the children have been finding equivalent fractions as well as simplifying fractions into their lowest terms. Next week we will be finding equivalent fractions on a number line as well as comparing and ordering fractions using their denominators and numerators, and we will begin to add and subtract fractions.

Our science topic for this half term is 'Humans and other animals'. Our first lesson was on the circulatory system and before we started the main lesson, the children shared all they knew about the heart. We then looked at how the heart works, the main parts of the circulatory system and describing the functions of the heart, blood vessels and blood.

In geography this week, we have begun our new topic all about The Alps. We used atlases and maps to explore where exactly the Alp mountain range is located and through which eight countries it spans. Next week will be learning about what life is like living on and near the Alps.

In DT this week, we have been exploring the world of toys. We have been learning some very important design vocabulary such as 'form' and 'function' and we have worked hard to understand what role form and function play in the success of a product and its design. This week, the children learnt that they will go on to design a 'steady hand game' of their own and next week we will be putting all our efforts into designing the perfect game for the audience of our choosing.

Please see below information from within the community and independent of the school