We hope you had a lovely half term break – it is great to have everyone back safe and feeling refreshed (we’re especially liking some of the new haircuts we’ve seen!).

As discussed with the children prior to the half term, we will be upping our ante this half term in preparation for the forthcoming SATs and the all important transition to secondary school, which is coming around so fast – we can’t believe that Year 6 only have a term and a half left here at All Souls! As a result of this, a few changes have been made to our timetable to allow for a greater focus on English and Maths. This imbalance will, of course, be addressed next term.

In addition to this, we have also started our morning sessions, which currently run on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (8.00am – 8.30am). It was great to see so many this morning and I hope this dedication continues. Over the next few weeks, children can expect to receive more homework at times, depending on their needs. I expect all homework to be completed with 100% effort and encourage children to become more independent in seeking further support in areas which they need to revise. I have updated the class page with some useful websites.

Below is an overview of what we are up to this week:

English

We have just finished reading The Railway Children and have enjoyed doing a variety of activities in relation to this – check out our news report videos! Our book reviews highlight how much we have enjoyed reading this classic text. After watching the film version today, we started debating whether the book is better than the film and will be using this as our inspiration to write a discursive text based on this motion. This will be a great opportunity for us to show off the SPaG skills we have been learning too!

Maths

We are putting in a lot of effort this week in maths to understand how to convert between fractions, decimals and percentages and also find percentages and fractions of amounts. We are starting to realise how lots of areas in maths rely on other skills and therefore how important it is to be constantly revising our times tables and related number facts.

RE

We have compared the lifestyles of Lazarus and The Rich Man and identified reasons why Jesus taught this parable. Next week, we will be learning the parable of the Samaritan Woman.

Geography

We have been learning the features of a youthful river and will move on to its features in its middle-age next week.

Music

We were extremely excited when Mrs Hartwell revealed to us the title of our end of year performance: Ali Baba and the Bongo Bandits. We started learning some of the songs and all got a little bit excited! Next week we are also going to start learning how to play the steel pans… Watch this space!

Science

Our topic this half term is Electricity – we will be exploring how to create circuits and plan our ow investigations.

PE

PE remains on a Tuesday and Friday this half term – Dance led by Mrs Cooke and Hockey led by Mr Youson. Please be organised and ensure you have all necessary kit (including footwear) with you on these days.

I am looking forward to meeting with you all next week at the Open Evening to discuss the progress the children have made so far and provide the opportunity for you to see their hard work. If you have not yet returned your preferred time slots, please do so, so that I can try to allocate appointments to suit all the best I can. As always, if you wish to contact me in the meantime, please do not hesitate to come and see me or drop me an email.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs Jo Hartwell.

Andy and Louis:

Rosaleen, Ella and Keavy:

Issy and Conrad:

Luke and Keon:

Malaika, Berri and Libby:

Aliscia and Dylan:

Georgina and Emma:

Nathalie and Drew:

Hector and Mia:

Jack and Owen:

Ryan and Kayden:

Joe and Ciaran:

Rafae and Ethan: