New class novel
The children have voted for their new class novel…
Anglo-Saxon Boy by Tony Bradman
It links directly to our new history topic: Romans and Anglo-Saxons.
Help at home: Read this blurb and information about the book.
An action-packed Anglo-Saxon tale of one boy’s journey to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
The story of one Anglo-Saxon boy’s journey to the Battle of Hastings in 1066: Key Stage 2 History brought to life as battle-packed adventure.
1065: Magnus is the son of Harold Godwinson, lord of the Southern Saxons and ruthlessly ambitious claimant to the throne of England. Overnight, Magnus finds himself cast centre-stage in the blood-soaked family feud that led to one of history’s most famous battles.
This is the family tragedy behind 1066: live it with Magnus, as the wolves of history close in on his Anglo-Saxon boyhood.
Living and Learning: I know what democracy is.
During our Living and Learning lesson this week, we discussed…
- the British values
- how democracy is important
- how democracy is precious and what life would be like without it
Democracy means ‘rule by the people’.
In a democracy, like the UK, the people elect the government and have a say in how it is run.
They do this by voting in elections.
We watched this video which explains democracy in a clear and concise way: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z76gr2p#zbxddp3
At school, the children participate in votes and elections:
- voting for the Junior Leadership Team
- voting for class rewards
- voting for the new school charity
Help at home by finding out some facts about democracy in the UK.
Spring term after-school clubs
UPDATE
The following clubs have availability and can still be booked.
The after-school clubs for next term will be available for booking on Monday 29th December ready to start w/c 12 January.
We hope your child/children can get involved with our extra-curricular activities. We will update you with club availability after the holidays.
Please contact the office if you have any queries about the after-school clubs.
Topic: art sculptures
Year 3 finished of the half term with creating their sculptures using the skills they’ve practised.
They’re abstract sculptures because they’re made up of shape, line and colour. They look fantastic and the children were very independent when creating them.
Here are some photos:
Help at home by discussing what type of colours they used.
Write like a poet – British Library
Today, Year 3 had a visitor from the British Library. We learnt a lot about the British Library like what they do, how they are different to a “normal” library and where they are based. Luckily for us, they have a base in Boston Spa!
The British Library have a copy of every single book, newspaper, magazine or even leaflet that has been published in Britain. They want to keep a record of all of these so that in years to come, people can look back and see what things were like over the years.
We read a poem – I Don’t Like Poetry by Joshua Siegel – and picked apart the vocabulary. We discussed what we liked and disliked about it. Then it was our turn to write our own poems. It can be quite tricky just to sit down and write a poem so we played lots of games to help us generate some ideas.
Some of us wrote about our day, our emotions, a hobby we like or just something random! The children really enjoyed it and were desperate to share their writing at the end.
Help at home by playing the word association game. Start with ‘apple’ and see what word the other person can think of that links to it and continue for as long as you can.
Basketball Christmas camps
City of Leeds Basketball Club, who run one of our after-school clubs, are holding Christmas camps locally over the holidays.
Writing: The Dream Giver
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been planning and writing a narrative based on the beginning of this short film – The Dream Giver.
We learnt how to write using prepositional phrases to help set the scene.
…above me…
…on the windowsill…
…inside the golden eggs…
We learnt to write similes to help build the narrative in the reader’s minds.
The stars twinkled like diamonds.
The ballerina danced as elegantly as a swan.
I flew as quietly as a mouse.
The children did an amazing job at writing their narratives! We were so impressed with their ideas. They shared them with Year 5 and Year 5 were too.
Here are a few of the narratives for you to have a read:
Help at home by discussing your child’s narrative and what similes they used.
Living and learning: being me
Yesterday in L&L, we discussed our strengths and weaknesses and set ourselves some targets.
We began by writing down something we’re really good at and proud of ourselves for. We realised that it could be linked to a hobby or it could be a quality that we have.
I think I’m good at climbing.
I’m a good listener.
I’m a great defender in football.
My biggest strength is being kind.
We used these strengths to help us set a target for ourselves.
For example… I’m a good listener so I’d like to challenge myself to listen to my siblings too or I’m a great defender in football but I’d like to get better at attacking too. I’m a strong reader so I’d like to set a target to read one chapter book a month in 2026.
We discussed that our targets should be…
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable/achievable
- Realistic and relevant
- Time-Limited
Finally, we thought about each other’s strengths and gave each other compliments. This can sometimes feel a bit awkward so we practised accepting the compliments with a simple ‘thank you’!
Help at home: ask your child what target they set for themselves. Can you work together to help them achieve this?
Leeds Rhinos festive match
The annual Wetherby Whaler Boxing Day Challenge against Wakefield Trinity is back again this year; and alongside the match children and families can experience family friendly festive fun as Father Christmas will once again take over game day proceedings before returning to the North Pole.
The match day will also feature Santa’s elves and a sing along with Frozen Princesses Anna and Elsa. Plus children can also take part in our half time snowball fight lead by a certain Christmas loathing Grinch!
Use the link to find out more and purchase tickets.
Maths – mastering number
At the beginning of our maths learning, the children spend time mastering number. These are short and sharp sessions that teach the class simple addition and subtraction facts that they can then apply to all their maths.
These have been our focus facts during this block.
We spend sessions spotting patterns, reasoning and practising these facts until we have that automaticity that will help us. For example…
We also discuss commutativity which means that if we swap the parts when adding, we still get the same sum! If we know 4 + 1 = 5, then we also know 1 + 4 = 5. The children love using this impressive mathematical language too.
Help at home: Practise these addition facts with your child and see if they know them with automaticity.