Attendance

Overall school attendance: 97% Overall absence: 3% Unauthorised absence: 0.4%

Well done to Year 3. Together as a whole year group you have the least number of missed days out of the whole school. An accumulation of 12 days since September. Can you keep this lead up?

Today we celebrated the 45 pupils who have missed no time from school since September. This is excellent attendance. I wonder how many pupils will achieve this between the new half-term and Christmas holidays? 

Street Tag

Please keep Street Tagging over the half term holiday.  It is the ideal time to get out and about and earn more points to boost Abberley up the Leaderboard.  If you are not already registered for Street Tag there is still time - please see the flyer below.

If you are an active member of Street Tag please keep reading for exciting ways to earn bonus points.

Power Hour: Earn triple points during this high-energy hour! Now available 2 times a day. More info at https://streettag.co.uk/blog/boost-your-points-with-power-hour

Sync Your Fitness Tracker: You can easily turn your indoor and outdoor steps into Street Tag points by syncing your fitness tracker with the app.

PE Codes for Extra Points: PE codes can now be given out to children after completing their PE lessons, or homework, or for showing good behaviour at school, rewarding them with 1,000 Street Tag points.

To redeem a PE code:

1. Open the Street Tag app
2. Go to the main menu and select "Playground"
3. Click on the "PE code" option
4. Enter the code
5. Press “Earn Street Tag Points”

The exclusive PE codes for this month are :

ActiveOct_GEOP
ActiveOct_UYAN
ActiveOct_KTJX
ActiveOct_TXXK
ActiveOct_QHEU
ActiveOct_MUOI
ActiveOct_PRMU
ActiveOct_TYSC
ActiveOct_RLFQ
ActiveOct_WDGH

Book Fair

Thank you for supporting our school book fair this week - we have earned over £200 of free books and counting so far! You can still get involved using this link to shop, which will remain open until midnight on Sunday: Linktr.ee/beausbookshop (select the top link that says Abberley School Book Fair).

It was lovely to be able to meet with parents this week and share the progress the children have made since they started school in September.  They have all worked very hard this half term and  should be very proud of what they have achieved.

This week things have been a bit spooky in Wrens.  We were cooking up potions in the mud kitchen, making Halloween decorations in the craft area, creating a monster fashion show on the stage and using our fine motor skills to create spider's webs at Forest School.  It has certainly been a busy week.  On Monday we learnt how to safely chop fruit and vegetables to make our own fruit salad and pumpkin soup.  The children really enjoyed this cooking activity and seeing the process of creating food from the ingredients that we purchased on our walk to the shop last week.    We have also been looking at maps and the children drew some fantastic maps to show the route of our walk. We certainly won't get lost on any future trips! On Wednesday we did some lovely observational drawing of some pumpkins with Mrs Postlethwaite and we were very impressed at how carefully the children looked at the size, shape and colour when creating their drawings.  On Thursday we enjoyed our final PE lesson of the half term focussing on ball control. Hopefully these skills will come in handy during the house football tournament!

This week the children have been completing their phonics assessments and we have been very impressed with how well the children have picked up the sounds we have learnt.  We are beginning to apply this knowledge to blend sounds together to read words.  Following these assessments, we are restructuring our reading groups to ensure all the children are reading at the appropriate level. The children will not therefore be bringing home a reading book over the half term holiday. They have however chosen a new library book and there is also a new sheet in their orange phonics book.  This sheet details the phonics sounds which will be taught the first week back after half term.

I hope you all have a very happy and restful half term holiday.  If your child has anything they would like to share with us about their holiday we would love to see their Proud Peacock sheets.

In English this week, we continued reading "George's Marvellous Medicine," spending time focusing on imperative verbs and time adverbials. The children also completed a writing assessment using a picture prompt. It was great to read some really creative ideas within their stories.

In maths, we have been concentrating on learning our number bonds to 10 and 20. We have been practising these through songs and rhymes and practically making the bonds. Also this week, we have started to practise how to add two numbers together accurately.

In geography this week, we enjoyed a lovely walk to the village shop. On the walk the children identified various human features, such as houses and the clock tower. They recorded their observations using tally charts. When we got back to school, the children presented their findings using a pictogram.

There is no maths homework for Year 2 this week. Orange phonics books and Little Wandle reading books have gone home.

Timetable

Monday: Wellies and a coat suitable for the weather

Thursday & Friday: PE kits

In maths this week, Y3 have been learning about complements to 100 and how to look at the ones first before the tens to avoid making 110! The children also learned about using inverse operations to check their answers when working with addition and subtraction.

Y4 moved on to area in maths this week. We revisited their learning from Y3 about what area is and how we can find it by counting squares. We then looked at counting the area of rectilinear shapes and comparing the area of different shapes.

In geography, the children completed their end of unit assessment on our topic of 'Who lives in Antarctica'. The children have really enjoyed this unit and finding out more about Shackleton and his expeditions.

In music this week, we have performed our rhythmic phrases as part of an ensemble. As part of our performance, we clapped the rhythm used in our phrase or performed it using the glockenspiel. Well done everyone!

In computing we used all the knowledge we have learnt from our online safety lessons to create a 'Super Cyber Hero'. Their magic powers taught us top tips of what we need to do to stay safe online.  

This week, Merlins completed their formal letters of complaint addressed to the headteacher, inspired by the themes in our class book, *Wonder*. In their letters, they presented three compelling arguments for why further action should be taken to combat bullying and promote kindness in Beecher Prep Middle School. Alongside this task, the children engaged in a writing assessment based on a spooky picture prompt. I’ve been truly impressed by their imagination and creativity throughout these writing activities.

In mathematics, we focused on multiplying and dividing by 10, 100, and 1000. The children also explored prime numbers, prime factors, square numbers and cube numbers, enhancing their understanding of these key concepts.

In geography, they collaborated to write a formal report on their fieldwork study regarding noise pollution, outlining their findings and suggesting ways to improve conditions in our village.

In DT, we finally completed our stuffed toys and the children took time to reflect on their finished products, discussing what they enjoyed, the techniques they used, and what they might do differently in the future if they were to create them for a second time.

In music this week, we have performed our group animal composition using glockenspiels and a variety of untuned percussion. Well done everyone!

Additionally this week, all children participated in a house football tournament, demonstrating enthusiasm and teamwork. We are incredibly proud of their efforts.

Raring2Go autumn magazine
https://magazines.raring2go.co.uk/herefordandworcester/autumn2024/