Autumn 1 Week 4.

We had an exciting visitor in our class this week. PC James Smith,  Beat Manager for Gaywood, Fairstead and Reffley, came in to talk to us about his role in the community. There was a lot of interest in the equipment he carried on his person: radio, camera, baton, handcuffs and pepper spray. We were all surprised to learn that, in his 16 years in the force, he has yet to use the spray and often a threat of use is enough to detract from further escalation.  PC Smith has worked in many branches of the police force, but his current role is going to see him spend more time in school, teaching the children how to keep themselves safe, especially online.

Elsewhere in the curriculum we have covered the following:

Maths - four operations with a focus on addition and subtraction.

English - dialogue and adverbs as we build our sentence work.

Spellings - we are looking at the sc sound for s. Spellings are in reading records and will be tested next Thursday.

Science - we went outside to run around and measure our heart rates

History - more about Baghdad and what life was like in the city

Geography - flags and to understand coordinates

Spanish - becoming familiar with the alphabet and pronunciation 

Art - exploration of the Rococo Style.

Autumn Term, Week 1

It has been wonderful to welcome everyone back to Howard Junior School.

5-6H have started the year with a SPLASH, as we took to the pool for swimming lessons.  Both Miss Jacobs and I were delighted to see how many confident swimmers we had. We were especially impressed with how the class conducted themselves. A member of leisure centre staff commented that it is rare to see a class so respectful and quiet and that they were a credit to the school.

This theme has continued in the classroom. 

In Maths, we have been exploring place value in numbers up to 10 million. 

As part of our English, we threw ourselves into dodgeball to recreate the feeling of team sports in person compared to computer games.  Our text driver is an animation called The Present and the main character is obsessed with computer games. We also visited the library to take out new reading books, which we are encouraging everyone to take home and read. Additionally, we have started new spellings, and we will test the children on these next Thursday.

During Science, we have been looking at the function of the heart, including pulmonary and systemic circuits. The work produced by all was superb.

As part of Geography, we dissected the Earth using lines of longitude and latitude and the Prime Meridian.

In history, we have made steps back in time to Baghdad 900CE, as we explore their vast Empire.

PSHE had us focussing on new beginnings and what we want from our year ahead.