This Half Term’s Learning

This half term, our students have been engaging in a range of exciting subjects and activities. In English, we have focused on writing newspaper articles, where students have developed their skills in reporting for example using the 5W’s, direct and reported speech and rhetorical questions. They also created detailed character descriptions to bring stories to life, focussing on figurative language (POSAM - personification, onomatopoeia, similes, alliteration and metaphors), parenthesis and third person. We also considered our character’s personality and demeanour and how that would affect a description about them.

In Maths, we have covered several key topics. We began by learning how to add and subtract fractions with the same denominators, helping students build confidence in working with parts of a whole. We also explored multiples of 10, 100 and 1,000 and how we can use our knowledge of these to aid us with other calculations, enabling students to solve larger problems more efficiently. We then took our learning from this and applied it to the inverse operation of division and used this to aid in more complicated questions.

Our Science lessons have been full of practical elements, as we studied the properties and changes of materials, encouraging students to investigate how different materials react and change in various conditions. We began the half term by recapping their previous learning and classifying different objects based on their properties. We then moved onto looking at different types of reactions (reversible and irreversible) and carried out investigations based on burning and dissolving. We finished off by looking at how we could separate solutions and how we can rank materials based on their hardness.

In History, students have delved into the fascinating worlds of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. They have investigated what life was like for these people, including their daily routines and beliefs, as well as the impact they had on Britain. We also explored whether the Vikings truly lived up to their vicious reputation or if they were misunderstood; examining their culture beyond the image of fierce warriors. This has led to some thought-provoking discussions and deeper understanding of these ancient civilizations. To deepen our understanding of the Vikings we also welcomed the amazing Mr Dilly into the school to engage the children in a workshop about who the Vikings were and some of their beliefs.

It’s been a term full of learning and discovery, and we look forward to continuing our journey in the next half term!