Poetry Basket: Chop chop
Welcome to our first Poetry Basket performance! Each week our Reception pupils learn and perform a new poem. We practise throughout the week before sharing our performance video every Friday. This week, we’re kicking things off with Chop Chop! Enjoy!
Science – air resistance
This half term in Science we are investigating forces. We know that the strand of science we’re learning is Physics.
We have already learnt about friction and how it can affect the speed of an object. This week, we looked at air resistance. First, we compared how a flat piece of paper and a scrunched up piece of paper fell through the air.
Then, we investigated the effects of air resistance on ourselves. We timed ourselves running across the playground. Afterwards, we ran holding a binbag behind our heads. We found that air resistance slowed us down and we could not run as fast.
Help at home by discussing other forces that children can experience.
This week’s poem – Goldilocks
This week our poem was called Goldilocks by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt. It’s a poem inspired by the famous fairy tale. This week, there was no new vocabulary so we focused on our prosody – the expression we use when reading aloud.
Farewell Year 2
What a great year we’ve had. It has been a pleasure to teach all the children and see how much they have progressed and matured over the year. We shall miss them!
We would like to say a big thank you for all our kind and generous gifts and cards that we’ve received this week and thank you for all of the support you’ve given this year.
We hope you all have a happy, healthy and safe summer holiday.
Mrs Taylor, Mrs Palmer, Mrs Simpson and Mrs Rothery
Sports day 2026
We had a great sports day this week with Year 2 helping in the morning and competing in the afternoon. Everyone tried so hard and encouraged each other. We are very proud of all the children’s efforts.
I fell over when I did my race but I got back up.
Red team didn’t win. It’s fine. Maybe we will win next year.
I enjoyed it because we did fun races with our friends.
In the relay race, everyone was determined because they wanted to win.
What I liked about sports day was that I had fun for the whole day!
Living and Learning: body image
As part of our Living and Learning curriculum, we use a focus on self-esteem to promote a positive body image with a strong emphasis on appreciating and celebrating everyone’s unique qualities, talents and abilities.
We want the children to feel proud and confident about who they are and to value their own and each other’s individuality.
Firstly, we talked about what makes us special. This could be something physical or personal.
I’m special as I going to be a good big brother.
I’m special because I am good at maths.
I’m special because I can swim.
I’m special because I’m good at helping others.
Next, we discussed why we have names and what if everyone was nameless?
We have names because we are unique and special.
We need names as we wouldn’t know who people are.
Then, we considered why we like different activities.
We like different activities because we are different people.
Not everyone likes the same thing because we are all different.
It would be boring if everyone liked the same things.
Finally, we thought about why we look different and what things we can change and what things we can’t change about ourselves.
It’s always great to hear the children discussing and sharing ideas in our Living and Learning sessions and circle times.
Help at home: We read the text, Your Body is Awesome. Ask your child what is brilliant about their body?
Living and Learning: RSE
Over the last 3 weeks in Year 3, we have explored the differences between male and females and different stages of life.
Sometimes we might need a change and change can seem scary when it’s new. We looked at the different stages of human life and the class discussed how our lives change over time.
For example, when we are born, we have no responsibilities and our grown ups look after us constantly. As we grow older, we have more freedom and we realised that with freedom comes more responsibilities like cooking for yourself, having a job and learning to drive.
Growing and changing is good because there is lots to look forward.
Growing and changing is good because we can try new things.
Help at home by discussing a change that is coming up soon. How do you feeling about moving up to Year 4?
Summer 2: Week 2
On Monday, the children used percussion instruments to bring We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen to life. They explored different instruments, discussed which sounds best matched each part of the story and worked together to create sound effects for the grass, river, mud, forest, snowstorm and cave.
This week, we deepened our learning about numbers to 10. We built whole numbers from different parts, investigated doubles, and revisited how to split numbers into equal groups. We enjoyed spotting patterns, identifying odd and even numbers, and discussing why some numbers can be shared equally while others have an “odd one out”.
In literacy, we continued to get to know The Night Pirates by Peter Harris. We thoroughly enjoyed using prosody when retelling the story. Enjoy watching our retelling video!
Learning Journey drop-in
Thank you to all the parents and carers who have returned their learning journey drop-in slips. We’re looking forward to see you all on Monday and Tuesday next week. If you’ve not yet signed up, please let me know on Monday morning so that we can get your child’s books ready for you to view.
Living and Learning: Staying Safe Week
This week is a themed week all about staying safe in lots of different areas of life. We’ve had learning based around safety at home and visitors in talking about safety around water and the road.
Have a look at what we’ve been up to in Year 3:
Monday
D:Side came in to talk to us about smoking and vaping. We learnt about the laws and history of smoking and vaping and how we can protect ourselves from the harmful chemicals inside these things. We practised not giving in to peer pressure by thinking of an excuse as to why we shouldn’t smoke.
Road Safety – Road safety is essential whether you are walking, cycling or in a moving vehicle! There are many things we can do to keep us and others around us safe.
- Wear a helmet when cycling or scootering.
- Wear a seatbelt if there is one available.
- Stay seated if on the bus.
- Don’t distract someone who is driving.
Travelling somewhere by being active is a great option. Not only is it better for us, mentally and physically but it’s better for the environment too!
The children recapped how they can be safe around the road. The Green Cross Code:
THINK
STOP
LOOK
LISTEN
Tuesday
We had visitors in to talk to us about different bacteria (the good and the bad). We saw how bacteria transfers from one thing to another and how to wash our hands thoroughly. Help at home: Sing happy birthday twice while washing your hands!
Keeping our personal hygiene up is really important to stop spreading bacteria and virus’ to each other. We saw how soap helps to stop this spread. Black pepper acted as our germs…
Wednesday
Safety at Home – Home should be a safe and comfortable place to be but there are things that can be risky or unsafe. We identified things that could be unsafe and how we can make good choices around them! For example: a kitchen has things that can be hot (ovens, kettles) or sharp (knives) but when we’re with a trusted adult, they can help us stay safe when we’re helping cook.
We had a visit from BMMA – British Military Martial Arts. Many of the children have been to this club before so they were experts. BMMA could be used as self defence if we felt unsafe. However, BMMA will not be necessary in most situations.
Thursday
Water Safety – Rivers and Canals Trust spoke to us about safety around different types of water. We must if we or someone else is in trouble:
- Call for help
- Do not climb in the water
- Stay calm
- Float like a starfish
Germ Warfare – Visitors came into show us exactly what it looks like when we clean our hands.
Offline and Online Safety – Our digital footprints are something we need to think about as these could affect us years later. Not everything that we see online is or true fact so we must be critical users and tell a trusted adult if you’re unsure or you feel unsafe!
Living and Learning: the importance of exercise
Our latest Living and Learning sessions have been all about the importance of exercise and how we need to keep active to keep our bodies and our minds healthy.
During the school day, here’s some ways we move our bodies:
Travelling to and from school by walking, bike or scooter
Wake Up Shake Up
Running around at playtimes
PE: basketball
The NHS guidance states that children and young people should ‘aim for an average of at least 60 minutes (30 minutes in school and 30 minutes out of school) of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week’. We know that the exercise we need to do to achieve this, should increase our heart rate.
We spent part of our lesson moving our bodies!
Help at home – try a new physical activity out of school – maybe a local junior park run, tennis lessons or have a look at our local physical activity guide for more ideas!