Attendance since September

Overall school attendance: 96.4%

Overall absence: 3.6%

Unauthorised absence: 0.7%

Charity donations

Thank you for all your generous support of our charity fundraising activities last term.  I thought it would be beneficial to give a quick summary of the charities we supported.

Macmillan Cancer Research - Open Day coffee morning and cake sale (£127.78).

Worcester Salvation Army - Harvest Festival collection, hot chocolate and toast week (£78.00) and Christmas Carol Service donations.

Children in Need - Sale of Children in Need merchandise and Children in Need "Run Pudsey" event (£2,205).

Maggs Day Centre - Reverse advent calendar - socks collection.

Please be aware that Children in Need are experiencing some delays with the production of the medals for the "Run Pudsey" event and we are still awaiting the arrival of these in school.

Street Tag

Thank you to all the families who supported Street Tag last term.  We have now received £50.00 for finishing in third place on the Malvern Hills District Council Leaderboard. This money will be spent on some new resources to continue to encourage the children to be active at break and lunchtimes.

Congratulations to Oak who were crowned the winning house in our School Street Tag competition.

It was lovely to welcome the children back to school this week and hear all about their adventures over the Christmas holiday.  I must thank you all on behalf of myself, Mrs Lench and Mrs Roberts for all the lovely cards and gifts.  They were very much appreciated.

I don't know if it had anything to do with the plummeting temperatures this week, but we found a visitor hiding in the school fridge.  It turned out to be a baby penguin who had lost his way and wasn't too sure how to get home. This week he has been getting to know the routines of our classroom and finding out a bit more about what it is like to live in Abberley.  He isn't too sure Abberley is the best place for him to live as he is missing the sea, so he is going to explore a bit more of the United Kingdom and report back what he finds.  In the meantime, we are going to be finding out a bit more about penguins using some non-fiction (information) books.

In RE, we started a new topic this week on special stories.  I brought in some of my children's favourite stories from when they were younger and we enjoyed sharing them as a class.  It would be lovely if your child could bring in their favourite book from home for us to read together.  Thank you.

Following the phonics assessments we undertook at the end of last term, we have restructured our reading groups and the reading books that the children are bringing home are matched to their new level.  Whilst the children can find it a challenge initially when moving to a new reading level we are confident that in a couple of weeks they will be reading these books fluently.

Please be aware that we are still continuing with outdoor learning on Tuesdays although this may be a shorter session due to the colder weather.  PE is also still on a Thursday and this half term we are doing gymnastics.

Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely Christmas break. Just wanted to start with a quick thank you from Mrs Birch, Mrs Roberts and myself for all the lovely Christmas cards and presents, they are greatly appreciated.

This week in English, we have been reading "A Squash and a Squeeze" by Julia Donaldson. The children have really enjoyed the story. We’ve discussed the events in the story and the children have been working on sequencing these events. They’ve also answered some comprehension questions based on the story, which has helped deepen their understanding.

In maths, we’ve been focusing on partitioning numbers into tens and ones and writing these in expanded form e.g 56=5 tens and 6 ones, 56=50+6. The children also learnt how to use a place value chart starting with base 10 resources as a practical way to represent the numbers before moving on to using written digits. We have also been looking at how to partition numbers flexibly in order to make different combinations that add up to the whole, for example 56= 40+16.

In geography, our topic this half term is 'What is it like here?'. The children used Google Earth to locate different places around the world. They had a lot of fun finding our school and looking at aerial views of different locations. We’ve also discussed important keywords such as ‘aerial photographs’, ‘bird's-eye view’, ‘location’, ‘town’, ‘country’, ‘city’ and ‘village’.

In science this half term, we’re looking at everyday materials. The children did an excellent job identifying materials such as wood, metal, plastic, glass and rubber this week.

PE this half term is on a Tuesday and Thursday. Outdoor Learning will be on a Monday.

Timetable

Monday: Wellies and a coat suitable for the weather

Tuesday and Thursday: PE kits

It was lovely to welcome the children back after the holidays and see them keen and ready to learn.

In maths this week, the Y3 children have been learning about multiplying by 10. We have been using place value grids to show that all the digits in a number move one place value column to the left when multiplying by 10. They do not just add a zero! The children have grasped this really well and have even written some calculations on the classroom window! Y4 children have revisited multiplying by 10 and we moved on to multiplying by 100. Again, place value column grids were invaluable when completing these calculations as the children can physically move the digits to reinforce their learning.

In science, we have continued with our topic of 'Light'. The children learned the words transparent, translucent and opaque. They then carried out an investigation into which materials let light through and were able to use their new vocabulary to identify which the materials they had chosen were.

In geography, the children started their new topic of 'Are all settlements the same?' We also recapped the capital cities of the UK, before moving on to looking into the different types of settlements and using aerial photographs and OS maps to identify them.

In music this week we have started our new project, Samba. We listened to Samba music, identifying the instruments we heard and how they were played. We learnt the melodic phrases used in the song and performed the rhythm using a variety of different percussion instruments.

In computing we are building upon our previous knowledge of coding using ScratchJr by extending our coding skills with writing algorithms using Scratch. Today we experimented with altering sprites, changing backgrounds and adding sounds. Here is a link to scratch if you would like to explore more at home Scratch - Imagine, Program, Share

The children have made an impressive start to the term in English. This week we have read a variety of poems, discussing what we enjoy about the language the poet has chosen and what happens when we read and hear the poems. The children then further analysed the poetry, looking for features such as imagery, rhythm, rhyme and similes. The children will be using tools such as imagery and similes to write their own poetry in future lessons.

In English, we’ve started our new unit on Alice in Wonderland, where the children are innovating the classic story by creating their own original characters and settings while still following the same story structure. This week, they have written their own version of Chapter 1 and I’ve been incredibly impressed by the quality of their writing - some truly creative ideas have come to life! It’s been wonderful to see their imagination and writing skills flourish.

In maths, we’ve continued focusing on operations, with a particular emphasis on division. After a recap on division, we transitioned into short division and the children have really grasped these concepts. I’m proud of how well they have done this week and their hard work is paying off. Next week, we will move on to further explore long division.

In science, the children began a new unit on electricity, where they’ve been learning about electrical components. This week, they practiced drawing accurate scientific diagrams of components and wiring them into complete circuits. They’ve shown great enthusiasm and understanding in this hands-on learning activity.

In geography, the children launched a unit called "Why Oceans Matter." In their first lesson, they explored global trading routes and examined the crucial role oceans play in connecting countries and facilitating trade. It is a fascinating topic and they’ve shown great curiosity in understanding the importance of oceans.

In DT, the children began their new topic on bridges. They experimented with creating bridges from card and tested how much weight each structure could hold. They’ve enjoyed this challenge and it’s been exciting to see them apply their problem-solving skills.

In music this week, we started our new project, Arctic. We looked at how composers created programmatic music to describe a story or scene. We listened to Vivaldi's Winter and discussed how the stringed instruments were used.

Abberley Friends Association

Tickets are now on sale for the Silent Disco on Friday 14th February from 4pm in the village hall! With new surprises and lots of fun activities, it’s going to be brilliant!

Tickets are £6 each including disco entry, a hot-dog and unlimited squash. Additional goodies will be on sale including slushies, glowsticks and sweet bags.

All proceeds go to the school! Please book early! You can buy tickets and find further information here
https://www.pta-events.co.uk/abberleyfriends/index.cfm

Please see below information within the community but independent of the school