This week’s newsletter for Rossall Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep School.
YEAR 6
| So here we are, almost at the end of Year 6 and our final half term in Prep School. We have so much to look forward to and enjoy over the next few weeks with our Exhibition, Prize Day, Sports Day and Fixtures, Outdoor Activities Trip and the Year 6 Garden Party, the time is going to zoom! Our final topic on ‘Milestones in Our Life’ has already created some lively class discussion about memorable moments in our lives, and the children have enjoyed sharing their embarrassing, proud and funny stories with their friends, as well as their cute bay photos in their striking milestones collage. Final touches to our display boards have been made in preparation for our al fresco ‘Under the Sea’ Exhibition to be presented to the other classes on Monday. Then it is time to deliver ‘Flour Babies’ to each member of the year group to treasure for a week and not let out of their sight. This is a PSHE experiment on parenting and responsibility that the Year 6 children love (at first!); apologies in advance for the embarrassment if you have a bag of flour accompanying you to the local shops or restaurant! This half term is certainly going to be fun, exciting, and probably a little bit emotional at times, especially for the teacher! Let’s make it extra special, Year 6. |
YEAR 5
| Albert Einstein said, “Time flies when you are having fun!” I am tempted to stop having so much fun with Year 5 just to slow time down a little! I cannot believe that we have begun our last half term together. We spent some time reflecting on our very unusual year this week and as always the children astounded me with their comments. Although the last academic year has been anything but normal for our children, I am happy to say their memories are largely positive ones. Whether it was dancing to YMCA, taking part in online talent shows or coping with the myriad of technical challenges we all faced, they looked back with pride at how they faced and overcame each and every challenge that was thrown at them. We have also begun working on our new topic, Benin and have already listened to some fabulous African music and created some beautiful art showing the magnificent vistas and animals of Africa. We are looking forward to learning more in the next few weeks. We have continued to practice measuring angles with our protractors and we are all now becoming very proficient at it! Our new book, ‘The Hunter’ has proved an instant hit and has already provoked some fabulous discussion around the topic of hunting. |
YEAR 4
| They say that ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ – all I can say is that I must have had a lot of fun with the Year 4s, as this year has gone so quickly. Here we are then, starting the final term before the summer holidays and we have so much to look forward to and lots of learning still to do! The Year 4s are already intrigued by our new book ‘Blue John’ and are busy planning some dramatic stories set in a cave with a goblin mountain king – I can’t wait to read them. We have been thinking about electricity in Science and what we know about this powerful force, that is so important in our modern lives. Jessica brought in her plasma globe and it was very exciting to actually see ‘electricity’. We are now all looking forward to hopefully having the opportunity to visit the Senior School Science labs to carry out our own electrical experiments and investigations over the coming weeks. |
YEAR 3
| It is hard to believe that we are in the final half term of the year and we only have 4 weeks left together in Year 3! We have had a fantastic week to start off the final leg. In Maths, we started learning about angles, and have been learning to recognise and draw obtuse, acute and right angles. Our final science unit of the year is Light and Shadow: we went on a hunt for light sources around the school and discovered that we need light to see things through our feely-bag investigation. In English, we began our final book ‘Zeraffa Giraffa’, and we wrote beautiful blessings for the giraffe at the start of her journey to France from Egypt. This links in seamlessly with the last part of our Ancient Civilisations topic, learning all about how the Ancient Egyptian civilisation was built along the River Nile. Well done for a wonderful week, Years 3! |
YEAR 2
| Year 2 have had a great week back in the classroom. We have started to read our new book in Literacy, Grandad’s Secret Giant and we have been thinking about what adjectives and noun phrases we can use to describe different giants. We have also started our new topic, Sun, Sea and Sand and have learned the definitions of coast, sea and ocean. Over the week, we have also been collaborative working on a piece of artwork that we took a photo with to go into the time capsule as Year 2’s item. We had lots of fun painting the rainbow with just our fingertips and worked together to choose which materials to use. |
YEAR 1
| In Year 1, we have started our new and final unit – Blast Off! We have a new class book called ‘Toys in Space’ by Mini Grey, but before we start reading it we have been asking and writing questions that we would like to find out about space. We have watched video clips of the moon landings and the Mars Rover and imagined that we are astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. We have used this as a stimulus to write our own story about going to space. We were very pleased that as part of our learning we were able to visit the Astronomy centre and ask Dr Lister some of the fantastic questions that we had written earlier in the week. These are just a few of them: – How does a shooting star shoot? – Who made space? – What is the moon made of? – How hot is Mars? (Or cold as we found out) We also got the chance to go to the planetarium and look at the night sky. Dr Lister showed us some constellations and we joined up the stars as a big dot to dot. In Maths we have begun our new unit on Numbers to 100. We have been investigating number patterns, finding 1 and 10 more or less than a number and partitioning numbers into tens and ones, using base 10. We have also used the giant number square in the playground and challenged each other to find the given numbers on the number square. |
RECEPTION
| Whether it’s learning the constellations or the planets of the Solar System, there are many ways we can get children interested in stargazing. We are lucky enough to have our very own astronomy centre at school, where we have access to the right accessories which makes a big difference. Our session this week was led by the amazing and very talented Dr Nick Lister, who listened eagerly to the children’s questions about space and the night sky. He prompted their interest by asking them about what they could see, or what they already knew. Dr Lister built on their curiosity but didn’t overwhelm them with too much information. The children took part in a mix of astronomical activities and learnt that the Earth moves to create day and night in different places, 1 million earths can fit inside the sun, the sun is a star and we are now going to stargaze at night to look for certain stars that we learnt about. We were all very brave as it was very dark inside the planetarium! Back in the classroom, there were lots more questions and I’m sure you got some more at home but never be afraid to answer with “I don’t know, but that’s a brilliant question. Let’s look it up together.” We also hoped to see the partial solar eclipse this week but the weather spoiled those plans … but not to worry, the children now know about the plenty of other astronomical wonders they can see in the sky! Happy stargazing! |
NURSERY
| Sanderlings have been exploring the natural world this week through a variety of activities. They have enjoyed planting different vegetables in their garden, whilst exploring the texture of the compost and practising their gross motor skills by watering their plants. Mrs Beddis has also brought in some stick insects for the children to explore and it was lovely to see their fascination and interest. The Sandpipers children have embraced their new book focus ‘The Tiger who came for Tea’, with lots of picnics in various locations around the school grounds. They have also been busy making their own tiger stripes using collage materials, paint and various tools. The theme of tiger stripes has also spread to the playdough area where the children have made stripy patterns, using different coloured playdough. Our Preschool, school leavers have eagerly awaited their first swimming lesson sessions which started on Wednesday, as well as enjoying their weekly visit to their new classroom with Mrs Trippier. Preschool has also created their own ‘paddling pool’ in the garden where they used water trays lined up together to paddle their feet in, on warm weather days, our children enjoy using the resources available to them to create new experiences and to investigate how their ideas will pan out. The children enjoyed going on a bear hunt around the grounds, where they explored the ‘long wavy grass’ and ‘deep dark forest’.. although we didn’t find any bears we certainly enjoyed ourselves. On World Ocean Day the Preschool children took a walk to the sea wall at different tide times, to learn all about the ocean and how to keep safe when the tide is changing. What a busy week it has been for us! |
AWARD WINNERS
| RECEPTION – This weeks certificate of achievement go to Rocco and Alicia. Maths this week was a little tricky as we introduced lots of new vocabulary but Rocco persevered and even repeated the task until he fully understood the concept. Alicia thoroughly enjoyed her experience in the Rossall kitchens. She listened carefully to instructions and was very sensible when handling various kitchen tools. A budding bake-off winner!  YEAR 1 – Ryan for excellent effort and enthusiasm when working with Miss Cross and Stanley for writing a super space story. YEAR 2 – Ben and Nilanth for superb problem-solving in Maths  YEAR 3 -This week’s Year 3 certificates go to Annabel and Hollie for showing true perseverance across all of their learning.  YEAR 4 – This week’s Year 4 certificates go to Molly and Emily for their enthusiastic and positive attitude to all aspects of school life. YEAR 5 – Vivian for excellent Science.  Headmaster’s Awards for Alicia and Charlie for Super speeches about the environment  YEAR 6 – Esteban and Michael (6R) for being good team players and encouraging others, and Jasmeet and Alicia (6S) for outstanding leadership qualities.  |
WEEKLY MENU
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SPORT
| Cricketers in Winning Form Versus Kirkham The Year 5 and 6 Cricket teams were delighted to welcome our friends from Kirkham this week for two eight-a-side matches. Conditions were perfect as the Rossall opening batsmen took to the field to begin their innings. Kirkham was clearly an experienced team, bowling accurately and showing excellent awareness in the field. However, fine batting from Rossall helped the team amass 49 runs for 3 wickets in the twelve overs. In reply, Kirkham began strongly but the Rossall attack was firing and wickets tumbled! With one over to go Kirkham needed ten runs to win. Rossall could sense victory and with superb bowling and energetic fielding steered the Rossall Rhinos to an impressive victory, Kirkham scoring 38 for 6. Well done, Rossall for a superb team performance.  Rounders vs Kirkham Grammar Our friends from Kirkham played rounders against us on Wednesday on our home turf. We fielded two strong teams that comprised mainly of Year 6 with some additional Year 5 girls. There were some fine displays in the field, with some outstanding bowling, catching, throwing and decision making. Equally, our batting was superb. Rossall Reds won by 16- 10 and Rossall Whites were just pipped to the post losing by half a rounder! Well done girls – another disciplined performance from you all!  Tennis Triumph for Year 4! Rossall entered two teams into the Mini Tennis tournament that was held at Moorland Tennis Club this afternoon. Each child played six singles matches in total against schools from all over Fleetwood, Thornton-Cleveleys and Poulton- le- Fylde. The points were accumulated throughout the tournament, so every point counted. Rossall Red team were delighted when they were announced as the overall winners! The progress every child made throughout the tournament was nothing short of outstanding. As always, the Rossall children competed with dignity, determination and respect. A big thank you to our Wyre School Games Organiser (Lee Cadwallader) for organising yet another seamless event. Also, a massive thank you to the umpires from Hodgson School for officiating with such maturity and confidence.  |
TOP TENNIS COACHING FOR PUPILS IN YEARS 3-6
| We are thrilled that Top Tennis Coaching will be hosting morning tennis sessions for our students in Years 3-6. Beginning on Tuesday 27th April we are running a 5 week coaching program for students at Rossall School Year 3 & 4 – Tuesdays, 7.45-8.30am Year 5 & 6 – Thursdays, 7.45-8.30am at the Rossall Sports Centre. Head towww.toptenniscoaching.co.ukto book your child’s spot! |
