English: Blue John

This week, we stepped into the shoes of authors and crafted a wonderful narrative inspired by the tale of Blue John. Using the moment of the stone’s creation as their prompt, the children produced some truly impressive descriptive writing. They especially enjoyed examining real crystals and gemstones to spark their imaginations.

To help their narratives shine, we focused on a number of key writing features:

• Fronted Adverbials: Children had some fantastic examples - High above the rumbling cavern, a faint light flickered…
• Expanded Noun Phrases: The ancient, glittering crystal cavern shimmered with colours unseen by human eyes.
• Direct Speech: “You must protect the light within you,” she whispered softly.
• Alliteration: We loved the example - Glowing gems glimmered gently in the gloomy chamber.

Guided Reading

Our Guided Reading lessons continued with Ted Hughes’ classic, The Iron Man. This week’s task was to imagine and write our own final chapter. The biggest mystery to solve? The Iron Man’s stupendous plan! The children rose brilliantly to the challenge, creating everything from eating a huge diet of metal trees to epic battles in the sky. Their creativity was fantastic!

Learning Means the World: Democracy

Our Learning Means the World topic took us into the world of democracy and citizenship. One of the highlights was forming our own political parties!

• Each group created a party name, designed a logo, and wrote a manifesto outlining their values and aims.
• Children discussed the qualities that make a strong leader, such as fairness, good communication, and the ability to listen.

Maths: Arithmetic and Reasoning Challenges

Maths this week centred around checking our progress. Children completed arithmetic and reasoning assessments, showing fantastic determination—especially when tackling multi-step questions. They applied their knowledge of place value and multiplication with confidence. Our next step is to revisit any areas that need strengthening so everyone feels secure moving ahead. The more times table practice they children have at home the more confident they will become!

RE

In Religious Education, we explored the Sikh idea of Seva, meaning selfless service. We discussed how people from different faiths support their communities without expecting any reward. Afterwards, the children planned thoughtful ways our own class could offer a service—from cleaning up the school grounds to being playground friendship heroes. Their sense of kindness and community was wonderful to see.

This week your child will bring home a letter with what they will need to wear under their costumes for the Christmas Performance. Please bring these to school in a named carrier bag by Thursday 4^th of December.

 

Key dates:

The Angel who nearly missed it all: Dress rehearsal (all costumes must be in school!) Monday 8^th December

Christmas Performance: 2pm and 5.30pm Tuesday 9^th December. Y4 children to be at Holy Trinity Church at 5pm and Y3 children to be at church 5.15pm.

 

Christmas Party Wednesday 17^th December. Children are welcome to come to school in festive clothes!