This week’s newsletter for Rossall Junior School and Nursery.
YEAR 6
| ‘All we ever get is gruel!’ has been heard chanting from the Year 6 classroom this week as we explored the life of a child in those vile Victorian workhouses. Our research has certainly made us appreciate the ‘food, glorious food’ we enjoy in the Rossall Dining Hall every day. To support our topic work the class has enjoyed reading the book, ‘Street Child’, about a young boy and his struggle to survive in Victorian London, and how he inspired Thomas Barnardo to support and educate the young children living in poverty. On a brighter note, as the sun was shining, we decided to take our Maths investigation outside to the Astro-turf, where we measured the area and perimeter of everywhere our trundle wheels could roll. The support for each other was superb and by the end of the lesson we ‘considered ourselves’, experts! |
YEAR 5
| It seems like we have never been away! The weeks are flying by and I cannot believe that it is Newsletter time already. As always we have worked and played hard this week. We have mastered multiplication of fractions and have used our skills to solve some tricky word problems. We gazed in awe at the Apollo 11 launch and wondered how on earth the astronauts heard anything above the roar of the engines. The children also enjoyed learning about the Wright brothers and their quest to fly. We watched a video clip about both their successful inventions and the failures that led them to those achievements. The Wright brothers said of their upbringing, “We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity.” This is true of Rossall, the children love learning because they have ownership and are involved in their learning. The passion that they show, the questions that they ask and the work that they then produce, shows that they are truly becoming life long learners. |
YEAR 4
| We had a lovely finish to our first week back in school, visiting Rossall Kitchen last Friday! The children excelled themselves, they listened carefully to instructions, cooperated well, baked some delicious looking cakes and even got stuck into the washing up, too! We even got to practise our division and fractions as the children divided their cakes equally! In the classroom we have been adding and subtracting fractions, re-writing reported speech as direct speech and have been thinking about how animals can adapt to the habitat they live in. The children showed their creativity in designing a new species found on Rossall Beach that had a series of special adaptations to help it live and survive there! The children have also impressed me with their knowledge of what our planet is made of as we find out more about the tectonic plates and what can happen when they collide! |
YEAR 3
| What a fun filled week of learning in Year 3! We’ve been really hands-on in Science, starting the week by planting our own radishes and then on Wednesday visiting the Senior School to see their greenhouse and identify some interesting plants! In Maths we have finished off our unit on length by solving word problems with metres, centimetres and millimetres. In English we are building our skills as non-fiction writers, learning to use headings. Finally in our topic Protect the Planet, we have learnt about endangered animals and plastic pollution; we’ll be finishing off the topic by discussing what we can do to make a difference and help the environment! Well done for a fab week Year 3. |
YEAR 2
| Year 2 have continued reading Major Glad, Major Dizzy! This week we have travelled with the soldiers from 1890 through to 2010! We stopped off in 1940 to learn briefly about World War II and 1960 to have a look at what household items looked like in this era. We wrote an informal letter, addressed to our Grandma’s, asking curious questions to try to find out more information about life in the past. In Science, we have learned about healthy eating and a balanced diet. We evaluated meal plans and gave tips on how to make diets healthier! |
YEAR 1
| The mixture in weather this last week has definitely helped the Year 1 children with our Topic work and to understand different types of weather; wind, hail, sun, rain and rainbows. We have looked at different places around the world and learnt about their climates. We thought about what you might need to take on a trip to different places around the world and learnt lots of new vocabulary too, from monsoons to avalanches to the equator! In Maths, we have started our new unit on measuring. We have been measuring and ordering ourselves against each other, and measuring objects in the classroom. We have also been able to measure our sprouts that have started to grow from our beans that we planted last week, and will be measuring them every few days to see how much they have grown. In Language, we have continued with the mouse on his journey to find his ROAR!! We also found out something surprising about the strong, mighty King of the Jungle. He is actually scared of mice…even the smallest, quietest, meekest ones! |
RECEPTION
| This week we have celebrated Global Recycling Day and learnt about the importance of recycling in looking after the future of our planet. We read a fantastic story, ‘The Messy Magpie’ which talks about looking after your environment and recycling as much as you can. It was a great way to introduce the topic to the children. Following on from The Messy Magpie, we put the moral of the story into practice with a recycling sorting activity where the children physically sorted pictures into what the correct type of recycling was for each item. We combined these with ideas from the Global Recycling Foundation to have a fun, engaging and interactive day that could have a massive impact for the future! The Global Recycling Foundation has also encouraged schools to lead a litter pick-up in their local area and invite children to get involved in cleaning up the planet in a hands-on yet fun way. So, on Thursday afternoon, Reception went out and around our school to pick up litter. The item of rubbish we found most of … disposable masks! |
NURSERY
| Sandpipers have really enjoyed the story of ‘Shark in the Park’, they even ventured out to the beach to see if they could find a shark with the binoculars they had made. Unfortunately, no sharks were to be seen but they did, however, find something they had not seen before – a starfish. Watching the children look in awe and wonder in what this creature was, was amazing to see. We are so lucky to have the access to the beach on our doorstep and the outdoor classroom teaches them things you cannot learn inside. The sanderlings have enjoyed the tuff tray full of peas – yes peas. The staff introduced this to their play to make messy play safe and for all children to be involved. They enjoyed squashing and squishing the peas between their fingers, improving their fine motor skills and a few may have got eaten! The warm weather has made it possible for the babies to also go to the beach and explore the sand between their fingers. Pre-school enjoyed celebrating St Patrick’s Day. They even learnt a spot of Irish Dancing after watching River Dance on the interactive white board. The children went out to find a rainbow in the hope that there was a pot of gold at the end. All the way around school they went but sadly, no rainbow was to be found. However, on returning to Nursery, the rainbows the children had painted that morning had gold at the bottom. It must have been the leprechauns who visited whilst we were out. Pre-school has also managed a couple of trips to the beach this week and enjoyed looking for objects that the rough tide had left on the sand. Lots of starfish were to be found alongside fish that the gulls must have missed. Maybe next week we may even find real treasure if we are lucky! |
AWARD WINNERS
| RECEPTION – This weeks certificates of achievement go to Oskar and Fox. Oskar has demonstrated on several occasions this week how much he cares about his friends and wrote ‘my friends are my family’ in a recent activity. Fox has made fantastic progress in his reading, decoding unknown words and reading with more fluency and confidence. Headmasters Awards also go to Darius and Alicia for completing beautifully written pre cursive handwriting this week.  YEAR 1 – This week’s awards winners are Matilda and Annaiya for super reading and phonics work. Well done! YEAR 2 – This week’s award winners are Jude for super enthusiasm in his learning this week, and Lara for treating everyone with kindness. YEAR 3 – This week’s certificates for Year 3 go to Cara and Jude for being curious scientists and using great observation skills in our plant activities!  YEAR 4 – Lincoln for being a thinker and solving fraction problems in Maths, and Jacob for being knowledgeable about the earth and what it is made of.  YEAR 5 – Charlotte for fabulous work in Mathematics and Bailey for showing super resilience.  YEAR 6 – Aarunima for outstanding effort and enthusiasm, Shamini for outstanding conduct and being a role model to others, Kacey for marvellous maths skills, and Sophie for outstanding effort and enthusiasm.  Well done to all! |
