Year 6

This term we have been very busy in Year 6 preparing for our upcoming SATs tests in a couple of weeks. We have been practising our grammar, reading skills and maths as much as possible including working very hard at home over the Easter break. We have all been trying our best and have made very good progress with our learning!

In English, we have been learning about the famous story of Oliver Twist. The story is set in the east end of London and is about a boy heading to the city to make his fortune. We have been writing descriptive pieces which focus on building tension and we have been looking at register in speech. It has been great fun to learn some cockney rhyming slang. Can you work out the meaning of the following cockney phrases?

1. Apples and Pears –
   Example: "I'm goin' up the apples to bed."

2. Trouble and Strife –
   Example: "The trouble's not happy with me."

3. Barnet Fair –
   Example: "I'm off to get me barnet done."

4. Plates of Meat –
   Example: "Me plates are killin' me."

5. Butcher’s Hook –
   Example: "Have a butcher’s at this."

6. Boat Race –
   Example: "Look at the smirk on his boat."

Answers: at the bottom of this newsletter!!

Year 5

5 Willow and 5 Maple had 4 sessions learning about finance as part of our PSHEE curriculum. They were run by a charity called Abacus and volunteers working in finance came to help with the sessions. The children learnt about various areas such as credit and debit cards, wants and needs and how to balance a budget.  5 Oak and 5 Pine will be having their sessions this term. 

   

As part of our learning, we were lucky enough to go to the Lloyd’s of London building. This building is often known as the ‘inside out building’. “This is because all of the pipes, the toilets and the lifts are outside of the building so there is more space inside,” explains Maryam. We got to go on a tour of the building and the children even got to sit in a boardroom! The children really enjoyed these sessions: the final one will be at the Bank of England in June. We can’t wait!   

     

Year 4

In Year 4 we were very fortunate to have Shohreh Bayat, who is an international chess arbiter and was a member of the English national chess team and played for England in the European Team Chess Championship in 2021. Amongst many other achievements Shohreh has also served as the chief arbiter of the Women's World Chess Championship 2020 (WWCC). Every week we have been taught by Shohreh how to play chess and we enjoy this a lot

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We have also been learning about the Rivers of Europe in Geography. We looked at physical features of the rivers and labelled parts of the river system. We drew and labelled the river system. We went on our field trip to look at the Thames River and found the tributaries of the River Lee.

   

Year 3

In the first week back at school after the holiday, 3 Willow visited the National Gallery to look at some world-famous art.  We arrived at their brand-new school visitor centre and were taken on a tour to see three paintings.  The first painting we looked closely at was a still-life painting of lemons.  We spent 15 minutes observing its features, looking closely at what was included and how it made us feel.  Afterwards, we saw two other paintings - one portrait and another landscape - before having lunch.  3 Willow had a great time at the National Gallery!

3 Willow have also been reading The World’s Greatest Space Cadet - a collection of poems by the poet James Carter.  Some of them are funny, some of them have made us ask questions and some of them are serious.  We have practised reading some of these poems aloud in front of the class in groups.  We have watched videos of James Carter reading his own poems and have tried to copy the way he reads poems with expression and fluency.

Year 2

The Art Studio is a very special place for 2 Willow. We absolutely love our time there. We have spent the past few weeks learning about printing, both doing it ourselves and becoming familiar with artists who use printing in their work such as Katsushika Hokusai.

Helen told us he often used Mount Fuji in his work. In this lesson we were printing with our fingers. We had to collaborate, sharing the resources and try new things to make sure we printed with our fingers, using an up down motion as opposed to using our finger like a paint brush!

  

Reception

We have been learning all about Jack and the beanstalk in Reception Willow. We used clay to make beanstalks and castles. We talked about how long and short our beanstalks were.

  

  

We then planted our own beanstalks in plastic bags. Once they started growing we could see their roots and shoots. We drew pictures of them and wrote sentences about them!

 

 

 

 

 

Year 6 quiz answers: stairs, wife, hair, feet, look, face - did you get them right?!