Christmas Friendship Photos

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Year 1 had some group photographs wearing their hats with their friends after their Christmas performance.

Christmas Friendship Photos

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Year 2 had some group photographs wearing their hats with their friends after their Christmas performance.

Christmas Nativity!

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Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 took part in a Christmas Nativity learning a script, acting, singing songs and dancing.

R.E. Nativity

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Year 1 have been acting out the Nativity in class during R.E.

Looking for shapes in our environment

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The children were learning about circles and triangles and went on a shape hunt around the school.

Remembrance Day

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Year 1 and 2 have painted poppies onto pebbles in remembrance of the soldiers who fought in the war. We held a special assembly in the Peace Garden and had a two minute silence.

Ukeleles

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We have started our ukelele lessons with George in Year 5. Miss Clapp was very impressed with how much we had remembered from last time!

Science - Dissolving

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We have been looking at materials in science this half term. We made predictions of which materials would dissolve in water and then tested them. We then came up with ideas of how we could separate the solutions and tried them out. We found out that the only way to separate a salt/water solution is to use evaporation.

Gymnastics - Balance Routines

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Year 5 spent the first half term working on different types of leaps and jumps, specifically focussing on stag jumps and split leaps. We then put them into a sequence with balances and travels to create a balance beam routine. Well done to the children who took the photos!

Black History Month Badges

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As part of our ongoing work about diversity and equality, Year 5 have been looking at the reasons that Black History Month was started. We designed and made badges to show our support to people of all colours and backgrounds.

R.E. Baptism role play

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Year 1 have been learning about what happens at a Baptism and how a child is welcomed to the Church. They set up the classroom and used different props to act out a family, with their baby, being Baptised in the Church.

Computing - Using Beebots

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Year 1 have been trying to set instructions for their Beebots and direct them home on a grid. They have also had a go at 'debugging' their directions if they are incorrect.

Maths Activities

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The children have really enjoyed taking part in the maths challenges they were given in class.. They have been learning to compare groups by size, weight, capacity, height and by different amounts.

Making Music

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In music we have been learning about the music from South Africa. We have learnt to play 'Head, hands and heart' on the glockenspiels. Mrs Ford has been very impressed with how well ALL the children can play in time to the music!

Baggy Trousers

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In Dance we have been learning a dance to 'Baggy Trousers'. We have been having fun moving in time to the music and trying lots of different new ways to move! We'll hopefully a video soon!

Maths is fun!

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We have been learning about subtraction and addition and we were finding out about all the fact families.

Bog Babies!

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We have been reading 'Bog Baby' by Jeanne Willis and Gwen Millward. Inspired by the 'Bog Baby' we created our own creatures out of clay reading to write stories about them!

How to make a woolly mammoth

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We have been learning all about instructions. We made our very own woolly mammoths from the book 'How To Wash A Woolly Mammoth'. This allowed us to follow instructions and think about the features of instructional writing.

Bug Hunt

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The children went on search around the school grounds for different mini-beasts. They all had a great time searching through the different habitats and discovering more about the school as a home for different creatures.

Gattegno Charts

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We have been practising using a Gattegno Chart to represent numbers and add and subtract multiples of 10s, 100s, 1000s, 10,000s, 100,000s and millions!

Exploring our environment

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Reception have enjoyed exploring their new environment

Peace Garden

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Our first visit to the Peace Garden

Science - Testing our Senses

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Year 1 tested their senses by smelling, hearing, seeing, touching and tasting different things! They then completed a table using describing words.

Collective Worship

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Year 3 and 4 had their first Collective Worship session together in the hall. It was very prayerful as we listened to the Gospel and thought about how we could show that God's light is shining through us each day.

Mary's Birthday

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Year 4 made cards to celebrate the birthday of Our Lady and then processed to the Peace Garden to visit the statue of Mary.

International Peace Day

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Year 1 and 2 went to the Peace Garden in their bubble to celebrate Peace day by gathering together and reflecting on what peace means and what it feels like.

Computing - using directions

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Year 1 went outside to practise their directional language like move forwards, backwards and turn right and left. They directed their partners across a grid.

Science - Investigating Materials

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We have had a great start to our learning in Year 5. This half term, we are looking at materials in science. We designed and carried out fair tests to see whether the materials were permeable, flexible, magnetic and hard.

Class Friendship

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Year 1 have been talking about what makes a good friend and showing this is different ways.

Year 4 Maths Place Value

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Year 4 were working hard using different mathematical equipment to explore four digit numbers

Maths counting and sorting

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In our first week, Year 1 have been sorting and counting objects to 10.

Tadpoles

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The tadpoles have arrived! They are very sad that they can't be in the classroom at the moment with Year 2, but Miss Clapp is telling them all about how wonderful you all are! Keep checking here to see how our tadpoles are changing. You can keep a diary every day!

Shared reading with Yr 6 for World Book Day

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Mr Jackson took Year 6 to visit Reception class. The children shared books together. The Year 6 children were all very kind, helpful and encouraging of the Reception children. The Reception children listened well and had a go at reading themselves. It was a great shared experience.

Painting and pastels outside

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We had some daffodils on our easel outside. We practiced using watercolours and pastels to paint them. Some children painted other flowers and some painted other pictures like people and houses.

World War 2 work by Year 5 Spring 2020

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The children have been studying World War 2 in preparation for the residential visit later on in the term. Here are a few pieces of work that have been completed. We are all very proud of our class and work.

Abbotts Hall Farm

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Year 1 visited Abbotts Hall Farm to learn about how to grind wheat to make flour and then add water and oil to make bread. We cooked them over an open fire and tried to make butter too! In the afternoon we went on a bug hunt with nets, pots and magnifying glasses and found caterpillars, spiders and other insects.

Cross Country 2.3.2020

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An amazing 44 children attended the School Games Cross Country event at Tabor High School. In cold and mucky conditions, the children from years 3 to 6 all worked hard to battle for the top spots. We had many top 20 finishes! Well done to all who took part.

Maths activities

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Year 1 have been re-capping their Place Value to 50 with 2, 5 and 10 times table games, more than less than activities, completing number sentences and using different resources.

World Book Day

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Year 1 celebrated World Book Day by dressing up, taking about their characters, learning how to be a story detective and doing some buddy reading with Year 5.

Potato Planting

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Year 1 have started their potato planting by 'chitting' some potatoes in February and putting compost into bags to plant them in March.

Changing state

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During our topic in Science, we investigated the difference between solids and liquids. But what is cornflour and water? A solid or a liquid? We had fun getting 'gloopy' finding out

Parkour 25.2.2020

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6 children from Year 6 went to Kinetix Academy in Witham to try out the sport of 'parkour'. It was clear to see, the children had a fantastic time.

The Last Supper

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Year 1 acted out the story of the Last Supper, helping to set up with props and costumes. They showed good use of key words, good body language and great expression!

Outdoor construction - the Magic School Bus

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We have been reading 2 books from the Magic School Bus series. Outside, the children worked together to build bus and rocket models. We counted down to launch the rockets and described what we saw on our adventures.

Aylmerton

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Material hunt!

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Year 1 went on a material hunt around school to find different materials made of wood, metal, plastic, glass, paper and fabric.

Sharing and helping in R.E.

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Year 1 designed, decorated and shared biscuits with each other as part of our R.E. topic of 'Special People'

Year 1 visit a Building Site

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On Wednesday 29th January Year 1 walked down Gilchrist way, and up to a viewing platform where some new houses are being built. They asked lots of questions to the builders and saw different materials and machines being used!

Christmas fun

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Making cards, collage wreaths and a fabulous Nativity show.

Topic: Anglo Saxons

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We made Anglo Saxon Houses from cake, chocolate, polymer clay, lego and wood. We have also made Grdendel eyes from the story of Beowulf!!

Colchester Castle 20th November 2019

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Year 4 journeyed to Colchester Castle to explore the museum's Romans in Colchester day. They explored the various artefacts, attended a tour of the Roman vaults and built a Roman villa and an Iron Age roundhouse. What a great day!

Zoolab Animal Visit

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Year 1 had a visit from animals at the Zoolab and touched, held and found out about a giant african snail, a hissing cockroach, a tarantula, a snake and two rats!

Dressing up bears and fundraising for Children in Need

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We had great fun dressing as 'P' for Pudsey! We didn't want to leave the bears out, so we spent the week making fancy dress outfits for them too.

Creating Mini Compost Bins

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We explored how soil is formed in Science. We then created mini compost bins to explore the different parts of the process.

Year 6 Visit to Braintree Museum

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The Year 6 class dressed as Victorian children and had a classroom experience. They then toured the Museum and looked at Victorian artefacts.

Remembrance Day 11.11.19

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We talked about why we wear poppies and made our own using different types of paper before joining the rest of the school for our two minute silence.

Thank you cards, letters and flowers

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We read the story 'The Jolly Postman' this week, and spoke about what gets delivered in the post. We thought about why people send cards and gifts, and thought it would be nice to say 'thank you' to all the people who help us in our school. The cards and gifts were very much appreciated by the staff, and some children designed them for home too.

UK Parliament Week 2019

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To celebrate UK Parliament Week, Year 2 created their own political parties and designed their own manifestos which they presented to each other. We then had a secret ballot where everyone voted for the party they would like to see represent them. Congratulations to the SDP (The Superdog Party!) who won with a narrow majority. Their ideas for ice cream and golden time after every lesson proved very popular!

R.E. Role-playing a Baptism

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Year 1 set up their classroom like a church with an alter, chairs and a font. They dressed up and acted out a Baptism using the special symbols they have been learning about.

Practical Maths

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We use a variety of resources to help us understand during our Maths learning. Here was are using place value counters to develop our understanding of place value.

Balances and shapes in PE

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In PE, we have been creating sequences using different balances and shapes.

Investigating rocks

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As part of our Science learning, we investigated the properties of different types of rock.

Keep On Reading with Mr Kemp

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Mr Kemp visited us to talk about our Keep On Reading book, 'The Boy With The Magic Numbers'. We had a lot of fun and beat him in all the quizzes!

How big?!

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We used 150g of plastecene to work out the relative sizes of the eight planets in our solar system. We found out that all the planets could fit into Jupiter two and a half times over. It is huge!

Rocket Mice

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Year 4 enjoyed investigating how high the mice would go when propelled from milk cartons. There were some excellent ideas and a lot of fun was had by all.

PE

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This half term, Year 2 have been looking at contrasting movements in dance: fast/slow, high/low, big/small.

English / Drama

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In preparation for writing our diary entries in the role of Florence Nightingale, we thought about how she may have felt at different points in her life. We used drama to create 'freeze frames' of these moments.

Maths

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We looked at how many tens and how many ones each two digit number had.

Science

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We worked scientifically to sort the photographs. We looked for clues to match the baby bears with the adult bears.

Ice play

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We froze different things in ice and saw what happened as it melted. We learnt about what happened to water as it froze and thawed.

Leaf biscuits

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After our Autumn walk, we enjoyed making Autumn leaf coloured biscuits. We learnt about hygiene when baking, and helped to mix the ingredients. They tasted yummy!

'Dough Disco' and 'Squiggle While You Wiggle'

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Every day children participate in Dough Disco - a fine motor skill dance and movement activity using playdough. This helps the children to gain strength in their fingers and hands in preparation for writing. Children have now also been introduced to Squiggle while you wiggle, which is another music and movement activity to develop gross motor skill movement in the shoulders, arms and wrists.

Mark making

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Children in Reception class are encouraged to mark make in in many different places. At this age, children want to explore and try things out, so we encourage them to use different tools both in and out of the classroom. Our new whiteboard wedges have proved popular for this.

Money treasure hunt

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We went hunting for treasure! We found lots of coins in our outside area. We counted the coins, compared them, and talked about which ones were worth the most. Lots of fun :)

Autumn treasure hunt and exploration

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We went on a walk around our school grounds to see how the beginning of Autumn was affecting the plants. We found lots of different leaves, acorns, pinecones and twigs for our tuff tray.

Rocket Mice Experiment!

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Year 1 had a go at making their own mice and seeing how they could get them to fly. They made predictions, labelled diagrams and wrote up their results.

Rocket Mice!

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Year 5 have been using their working scientifically skills to investigate their questions about forces using milk bottles and rocket mice.

Rocket Mice!!

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Year 5 used their working scientifically skills to test out their questions using milk bottles and rocket mice. Lots of great discussion with the looking at results planned for next week

Making Gerald the Giraffe

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We read the story 'Giraffe's can't dance'. Lots of children helped to make a model of Gerald.

Space Day! Visit from New Horizons Planetarium

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Today we were finding out about space, meteorites, the space race and toys from the 1950's and 1960's.

Art Club visit to an Exhibition

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Children in the Art club visited the Braintree Library on Wednesday 9th October to see a local artist Denise Coles. They listened to how she had made the pieces, saw her exhibition and asked her some questions.

Using Beebots in Computing

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Year 1 have been using their directional language to draw instructions for their Beebots to follow different routes.

Our Moon investigations.

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Year 5 used flour, cocoa and various objects to simulate meteorites hitting the moon's surface to see the size or crater and ejecta that formed. This helped with our undertsanding of how craters on the moon were actually made over the last 4 billion years!!

Sorting and Counting in Maths

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Year 1 have begun to sort and count different objects in class, thinking of ways to make it easier and if there is more than one way of doing it.

Year 5 Geography

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We have been looking at the River Axe and trying to put photos of its source to mouth into the correct order. Do you know where a river starts? Do you know how a river starts? Year 5 do now!

Isle of Wight Day 1

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Butterflies

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Over the last few weeks we have been looking after some caterpillars. They started off small, then grew by eating. The caterpillars soon transformed into beautiful butterflies. We released them into the Peace Garden, watched by Mrs Jackson and Year 1 children and staff. Some Reception children wrote and read prayers to say thank you to God for our butterflies.

Making Pancakes!

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Year 1 cut their fruit into halves and quarters before putting on top of their pancakes, adding yoghurt or honey. They also did a taste test and evaluated their work.

Boydell's Farm Trip 2019

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We had great fun at the farm. Not even the rain showers could dampen our enthusiasm! The children were polite, showed interest and respect for the animals and farmers.

Junk modelling and creative creations

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In Reception we enjoy making and creating crafts together. Recently we have been making under the sea crafts and we are currently working on making a submarine with Miss Carton.

Games for physical development

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Reception Class love getting outside to play, especially when the weather is good. We have lots of outdoor equipment to get our whole bodies moving.

May Procession

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St. Francis School took part in a May Procession with Father David which started in the hall, continued to the playgroud and into the Peace garden. We sang to 'Ave Maria', prayed and listened to the Gospel.

Outdoor Learning Day!

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On 23rd May Year 1 and 2 took part on Outdoor Learning day with scavenger hunts for wildlife, shadow tracing and plant measuring.

Abbotts Hall Farm

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Year 1 and 2 went on a school trip to find out more about the Essex Wildlife Trust. Year 1 went on a Farm trail and explored the hedgerows and fields with crops, wild plants, insects and evidence of animals along the way. We learnt about how wheat is ground to make flour and after lunch, had a go at making our own bread using the oil from the rapeseed we saw growing. We cooked our flatbreads over a fire and even made some butter!

Yoga from 'Cosmic Kids'

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Reception class enjoy having yoga sessions together. Yoga helps us to follow instructions by listening and doing at the same time. It helps us to feel relaxed and calm. We have good strength, control and balance when we are young and all do a great job.

Djembe drumming workshop

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Reception class enjoyed their Djembe drumming workshop this week. We learnt to follow a beat, make different sounds and the importance of listening to the instructor. Lots of happy smiles and enthusiasm.

Djembe Drumming!

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Year 1 played some Djembe drums and learnt how to use their hands as tools to create different sounds, practised their rhythm and pretended to be different African animals.

Music Performance

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Year 1 performed their song 'Round and roun' to Year 2 showing their good singing, dancing and instrument playing on the glockenspiels!

The day the zoo came

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We had a Zoos4You visit this term. Here are some of the animals we saw.

Building bridges for Science Week

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Years R, 1 and 2 worked together in science week. We read the story of the 3 Billy Goats Gruff and were challenged to make the strongest bridge so the goats could move safely. We tried different materials to investigate which would be the strongest. Great teamwork!

Things that grow

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Reception children went to the peace garden to look for things that grew and changed. We talked about the changing seasons and how that affected plants. The children drew and wrote the things they saw which grew and changed.

Nationwide visit

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Year 1 had a visit from Nationwide to talk about the value of money and how to save it, finishing our topic of Financial Capability. We painted our own piggy banks and thought about what we would save our money for.

Designing and Making an Undergarment

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Year 1 have read the story of 'The Queen's Knickers' and have designed their own underwear garment for their own story. They have been choosing materials, drawing round templates, cutting out and practised sewing so far!

Puppet Morning!

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Year 1, joined by Year 2, had a fantastic morning watching a puppet show, making their own puppets and learning how to become a puppet master. They even used them to help with their quiet reading in the afternoon!

Science - Testing the properties of materials

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Year 1 have come to the end of their Material topic and have been testing different materials and their properties to find out which would be the best material to use as an umbrella!

BMX 20.3.19

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5 children from Year 4 got to experience BMX at Becker's Green School with Jools from XLR8 bike school.

Cross country 26.2.19

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46 children took part in the KS2 Cross Country event at Tabor

Science week

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For Science week, Year 1 enjoyed learning, stroking and holding Zoo animals that came to visit us and about neurons in our brain passing messages and making new connections when we learn!

Uh oh! Why are there angry crayons in Year 2?

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We came in from breaktime to find lots of giant and angry crayons had taken over our classroom! We used our reading detective skills to try to work out why!

Zoo4U Visit to launch Science Week 2019

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Year 2 are authors!

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Year 2 rewrote their own versions of Traction Man and they were fabulous!

Money Sense Workshop

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We had a visit from Nat West Bank who helped us to understand and learn about money. It was a very enjoyable session.

World Book Day in Year 1

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Year 1 did a fashion parade as their character, drew and coloured in their book, dressed a potato and wrote their own story after getting inspiration from the author and illustrator Jeff Kinney.

World Book Day 2019 - Dressing up fun!

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All of the children came dressed up as thier favourite book character - can you see who we were?

World Book Day 2019 - Potato Book Characters

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A selection of the many wonderful potatoes that were transformed into favourite book characters for World Book Day 2019.

Our Material Hunt

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Year 1 went on a hunt around school to find different materials and wrote their objects down in their tables under the correct columns.

Year 2 - Computing - Beebots

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This half term, we have been thinking all about programming computers by writing and debugging algorithms.

Geography in Year 2

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This half term, we have been using maps and satellite images to compare different continents and the living things that live there. Ask us to sing our continent song!

Art in Year 2

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This half term, we have been looking at the work of L.S. Lowry. Lowry only uses five colours in his work so we have been looking at mixing colours to see how many different ones we can make. We will then be using these techniques to create a final piece.

Colchester Castle Trip

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Year 4 went to Colchester Castle to find out about the Romans in Colchester. We looked at artifacts and how the Romans influenced British society. It was a great day!

Nativity dress rehearsal

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The children performed their Nativity show so well, we were all very proud! These are a few photos taken in the dress rehearsal.

KS1 Christmas Production

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Year 1 and 2 performed 'Stable by Starlight' for their Christmas Production this year.

Braintree Museum

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We went on a trip to Braintree Museum to learn all about the local history and geography of our town. While at the museum, we went on a tour of Braintree Town and learnt about many interesting historical sites. We also became archaeologists and discovered what different artifacts can tell us about life in the past. We also found out all about John Ray and his work.

Year 1 and 2 at Colchester Zoo!

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In November, Year 1 and 2 visited Colchester Zoo to see lots of different animals they had been learning about. They experienced some penguins and even met Father Christmas!

Mi Bootcamp 31.10.18

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Year 3 and 4 went to John Bunyan school to take part in a Bootcamp activity session. They did lots of activities including tug of war and throwing battle ropes!

Remembrance

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We made stained glass window poppies for the whole school Remembrance memorial. We talked about what the poppies represented.

Science - Sorting Animals

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We have been looking at animal body parts and sorting different animals into Venn diagrams. We found some interesting things!

Centenary Poppies in our Peace Garden

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As a school, each pupil made a poppy to be planted at the foot of our cross in the Peace Garden for the 100 Year celebration since the end of World War 1. We held a special assembly on Friday 9th November and held a minute silence to remember those who fought and died for us.

Remembrance Day Art

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We made vases of poppies for Remembrance Day by using a balloon as a base and pasting images of poppies on to it with PVA glue. After giving it a day to dry, we popped the balloons and were left with a beautiful vase. Year 3 made poppies to put in our vases ready for the Remembrance Service.

Handa's Surprise Food Tasting

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Year 1 tried some new foods following our Handa's Surprise story we have been learning in English. We tried some banana, orange, mango, passion fruit, pineapple and avocado!

Y2 Science - Properties of Materials

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In Year 2, we have been investigating the properties of materials and why this might make them better for certain jobs. We have been looking at absorbent and waterproof materials.

Soundproofing

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In our science topic on sound we investigated how to stop sound from travelling. We used different materials to see which was the best at absorbing sound.

Matisse Art

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We had a visit from Braintree Library who taught us about Henri Matisse and his cut-out art phase. We created our own versions and hopefully some will be chosen to be displayed in the library!

European Cookery

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We made a range of dishes from different European countries to support our topic of Europe. We performed a range of processes and then we tasted the food in class. Delicious!

Keep On Reading with Mr Kemp

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We were given a book to take home for someone to read to us. We were then visited by Mr Kemp who challenged us to a quiz about what we had read in the story, 'The Boy Who Sprouted Antlers.' We won all the rounds!

Cave painting

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We have looked at cave paintings and what they can tell us about life in prehistoric Britain. We then created our own cave wall and painted an animal in the style of the prehistoric cave paintings we have explored.

Music

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In Year 3, we have been enjoying learning to sing and play the song 'Let Your Spirit Fly'. Here we are learning to play it on the glockenspiels!

Matisse Art

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We looked at the work of the famous artist Henri Matisse and learnt all about his life. We then created our own artwork in the style of some of his most famous pieces.

Music

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We have been enjoying learning to play and sing the song 'Let Your Spirit Fly'. Here we are learning to play along on the glockenspiels!

Maths - Counting Objects

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In Year 1 we used different objects such as Numicon, Diennes and cubes to help us count.

Maths - Sorting Objects

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In Year 1 we were sorting different objects in different ways during our Maths lesson.

Take One Picture Library Exhibition

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As a school, St Francis exhibited artwork from each class in the Braintree Library during the Summer of 2018. We took one picture called 'Olympic Track' by Roy Neiman and responded to it in different ways producing scultpt

Properties of rocks

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In Year 3, we have been learning all about different types of rocks. We carried out an investigation to compare the properties of different rocks. We tested their durability, permeability, density and if they were hard or soft. The most surprising thing we saw was the floating pumice rock!

Virtue of St Francis

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'Joy' is the virtue of St Francis in Year 1 and, for St Francis Feast Day, we made smile masks to spread our joy showing our happy, glittery faces!

Art - Texture Hunt

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Year 1 went on a texture hunt around the school to try and name an object, describe its texture and sketch an example of it.

RE

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We acted out key words from a Psalm showing love, sharing, respect and safety in our Family topic.

International Peace Day

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For International Peace Day, we held our assembly in the Peace Garden singing Shalom.

Year 5 Anglo Saxons

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Year 5 have been making Anglo Saxon Houses- we think that the village is coming along quite nicely!

Maths - Beadstrings

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In maths, we looked at using beadstrings to help us identify where to put numbers on unmarked numberlines.

English

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We have been looking at how we use the -ed suffix to change the tense of the verbs in our sentences. Because it was a beautiful day, we decided to work outside!

Science - Sorting Photos

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The children have been looking at how baby animals look similar to their adult parents. The children sorted pictures of bears, deciding which baby matched which adult bear. They used lots of language to explain what was the same and what was different. The children then looked at a picture of Goldilocks and tried to think of what her parents might look like.

English - 4 sentence stories

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In English, we revised sentence structure at the beginning of term by writing a story based on just four pictures.

History - Work with Timelines

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In history, we have been learning about Significant Individuals not within living memory. The children looked at facts about Florence Nightingale and put them onto a timeline.

Playdough Making

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The children all made dough ready for our daily Dough Disco!

RE / Art

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In R.E., we have been looking at Beginnings. We looked at the Creation story and decided to use nature to show this through art. The children created some fabulous creations in the Peace Garden.

Girls’ football tournament 24.5.18

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Yesterday the girls’ football team went to Lyons Hall to play football against 5 teams. It was a great success for our first tournament. Unfortunately we lost the first game but then we went to tie the next game. Although we lost and drawn a game, we beat John Bunyan 2-0 to us, Rosie and Olivia B both scored during that match, all the girls try their best to win this game! In the last game we drew against Great Bradfords. At the end of the tournament we ended up with 5 points coming 4th out of 5 teams. Lyons Hall and Great Bradfords both had 8 points, but it came to goal difference of 1 goal and Great Brafords won the tournament. After, many girls were inspired to carry on playing football and would love more opportunities to do this. By Rosie and Olivia B

Swimming

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The school swim team, made up of children from year 3 to year 6 entered the BDPSSA swimming gala. With fantastic swims by the whole team, they managed to win the small schools competition and come 3rd place over all out of 6 teams. Fantastic!

Rounders

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A group of year 5 and 6 children went to Notley High School for a rounders tournament. It was great fun and the children played really well managing to win 2 matches out of the 4 they played. Well done everyone.

District Sports

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KS2 children took part in District sports at Tabor High School. They showed great sportsmanship and put in 100% effort.

Teddylympics

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Year 1 attended the Teddylympics at Ramsey Academy. It was a great afternoon and we all enjoyed the activties.

Celebrating the RAF 100 flypast

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In Reception class we all watched the flypast to celebrate 100 years of the RAF. We learnt about what the RAF did and the different planes. We made our own planes and then had a competition to see which would fly the furthest. We had great fun.

Air Ambulance

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The Air Ambulance made a landing on our school field to attend to a patient in a nearby street. The crew were very grateful to use our field and Doctor Ali and Paramedic Scott came to talk to the children about their jobs. We than gathered in the playground to watch the helicopter take off on its next mission!

Performance

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Year 5 gave a performance of their ukulele skills to the rest of the school today. A great rendition of Smoke on the Water and Eye of the Tiger.

What a week!!

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Year 5 have been working hard on their times table rockstars with Sean now in the lead with a speed of 0.47 seconds per question!! Six children achieved their Olympic Challenge certificate- which is 100 questions in 3 minutes or less! Carlo then only went and won the year 5 Masterchef competition for local schools by cooking pasta with anchovies and olives. Sounds delicious!

Year 2 - Take One Picture

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As part of a whole school stimulus, based on the painting 'Olympic Track' by Leroy Neiman, Year 2 have been working on different pieces of work inspired by the painting.

Party Planning Maths Investigation

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We read the book Spaghetti and Meatballs where Mr and Mrs Comfort try to organise tables to sit 32 guests. We then became party planners and investigated all the ways we could arrange 4 tables and how many guests could sit at each arrangement. We tried to work logically. As an extra challenge, we tried to spot patterns and work out how much money we would raise if each guest had to pay five pounds each. Great problem solving Year 2!

Year 5 Taster Day at St John Payne

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Year 5 had a taste of secondary school on 27th June when we went to St. John Payne School in Chelmsford. We were there with 220 other year 5 children and got to experience: Science, Art, DT, English and PE. We then had a question and answer session. Great fun was had by all.

Egyptian Day

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Year 4 enjoyed a wonderful Egyptian Day where they experienced a wide range of activities in the role of a slave. They made a range of objects and then in the afternoon, they had a feast and performed in front of the Pharoah. What a great day!

Boydell's Farm Trip

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On Monday 11th June, Reception Class visited Boydell's Farm. We had a great day learning about all of the animals!

Southend Sealife Adventure

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On Monday 11th June, we went to Southend Sealife Adventure as part of our 'Under The Sea' topic. When we first arrived, we enjoyed a rock pool talk, where we got to touch a starfish and find out a bit more about how these fascinating creatures eat by doing the starfish dance! We were then able to enjoy the various exhibits of the aquarium. Some of our favourite creatures were the axolotls, sting rays and upside down jellyfish. We were really lucky as the weather was beautiful all day which meant we could enjoy the outside exhibits as well, such as the penguins and otters. After lunch, we had a delicious ice cream on the beach before hunting for shells and building sandcastles.

Year 2 Design & Technology - Cooking!

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In Summer Term 1, we made mini frittatas and fruit muffins. We tasted different ingredients before designing our final recipes. We practised lots of skills including measuring (linked to our maths this week), grating, chopping, whisking and mixing. We then evaluated our final products and deciding what we might change for next time. Yum yum! Watch out Gordon Ramsey!

Year 2 Art - Abstract Selfies!

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In Summer Term 1, we have been looking at line and colour in art. We have been looking at using a colour wheel to choose complementary and contrasting colours. We used what we had learnt to create abstract selfies in the style of the contemporary artist, Sandra Silberzweig. What amazing artists Miss Clapp has!

The Queen's Knickers

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In Year 1 our D.T. work in the Spring Term was designing and making our own knickers for the Queen. We selected some suitable material, cut out two pieces from templates, sewed them together using some wool as thread and decorated.

Bassistry Arts

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Bassistry Arts visited our school and we had a fantastic time learning all about rhythm! We were able to play a traditional Spanish beat as a group and learned to sing and dance in time to a song. We then performed our song for the whole school in the afternoon assembly!

ICT Scratch Junior

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Year 1 have been working with the Scratch Junior programme in the Summer Term. We have been working on our directional language of right, left, forwards, backwards, turning right and turning left to create algorithms to enable a sprite to move within the programme.

Keep On Reading!

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We have been really lucky this year and had 4 visits from Mr Kemp as part of his 'Keep On Reading' programme. We were given a book to take home which our parents could enjoy reading to us. We were also given a selection of questions to discuss with our parents once we had read the book. Mr Kemp then visited us and challenged us to quizzes to test our knowledge about the books we had read. We won every quiz!

Flotsam Trays

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We have been looking at the picture book 'Flotsam' by David Wiesner as part of our learning in English. 'Flotsam' is all about a young boy who finds a camera on a beach and the magical pictures it contains. Before we read the book, we explored our Flotsam Trays and discovered a variety of different objects that might wash up on a beach like the camera. We used our inference and deduction skills to decide who the objects in each tray may have belonged to. We had trays for a fisherman, a pirate, an explorer and more.

Opening of Peace Garden

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On 11th May we had the new School peace Garden officially opened and blessed by Fr. David. This is now something for the whole school community to use for prayer and reflection.

Design and Technology - Egg Cups

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We researched current egg cups on the market and then designed our own. We thought about who would use our egg cups and designed a poster to persuade them to buy it. We then made and painted our egg cups using clay. We used our learning from science to remember how to shape the clay in different ways! After we had made them, we evaluated our designs and thought about what went well and what we might do differently next time. They were fabulous!

Easter Gardens

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Thank you to all the parents for their amazingly generous donations of materials for our Easter Gardens! As you can see, we used them to make the most beautiful and thoughtful representations of the Easter story. We chose different signs and symbols from the stories of Easter to represent in our gardens.

Year 2 are Authors!

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Year 2 worked really hard to design a new character for their own versions of Traction Man! Look at our wonderful books that we wrote. Year 2 are certainly authors!

Computing / Geography / Maths

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We combined geography, computing and maths to program the Beebots to move around mats. We created algorithms, tested them and debugged them if they didn't quite work. We used lots of maths talk including, quarter turn, half turn, clockwise and anticlockwise. Great work Year 2!

Uniform

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We are proud of our school uniform and visitors often comment on how smart St. Francis children look.

Coding with Rapid Router

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We have been learning to code this year. We used Rapid Router to learn the basic concepts of coding.

Music

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We have been enjoying learning to play the glockenspiel this year in class.

Braintree Museum

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We went on a trip to Braintree Museum to learn all about the local history and geography of our town. While at the museum, we went for a Braintree Town Tour and saw many interesting historical sites. We also became archaeologists and discovered what different artifacts can tell us about life int he past. We were also able to enjoy a look at all the exhibits of the museum before finally learning about John Ray and his work.

Our Values Felt Banners

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These banners were made by the children over 3 days in May 2017 - they are now proudly displayed in the school hall.

Fire Safety Talk

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Year 1 had a Fire Safety Talk about the history of fire fighters, how to be safe around fire and precautions to take.

Easter Rehearsals

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Our Easter production rehearsals were in full swing when the photographer passed through the hall to take a few snapshots!

Art

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We looked at paintings created by artists of Malawi, which we were finding out about in our Fairtrade topic, and recreated them using paint and also chalk. Most of the class thought that the chalks were the most effective.

Year 4 Ukulele

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In the Spring term our music lessons were taught by George who showed us how to play the ukulele. We even tried to play versions of Smoke on the Water and Mamma Mia.

Our Trip to the Victorian Museum

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Year 1 went to the Braintree District Museum in the Summer Term to see what life was like for children in the Victorian times. We were taught some English, Maths and Geography by a strict teacher who gave us slates to write on and wooden desks to sit at. We handled some artefacts over 100 years old and found out what they were used for, before exploring different galleries around the Museum. I was very exciting and very different to how we are taught today!

Baptism

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In the Spring Term, Year 1 were learning about Baptism with the key symbols and items used. As a class we acted out a Baptism to show all we had learnt.

Year 5

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Year 2 went on the Polar Express!

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In December, Year 2 were excited when the Polar Express arrived in class! We had wondered if anything would come along the mysterious tracks that had appeared in the classroom. We saw wolves howling, winding mountains, we made foot prints in crunchy snow and ate hot chocolate fudge. Come and read our recounts of our trip!

Year 2 RE / Art

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We used natural materials to create some artwork to celebrate the beauty of God's creations. What fabulous pieces they were!

Year 2 Science - sorting seeds

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We observed a variety of seeds very carefully with a magnifying glass and then thought of different ways we could sort them. We then chose our favourite two seeds to draw and compare. Great work, Year 2!

Play Equipment

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All of this, and more, was purchased for the children to use in playtimes by Fundraising events.

Mercury Workshops

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