It was a busy morning for the children in Year Three today as the children were joined by a host of parents who were all eager to learn more about how we teach writing in the year group. The morning started with Mr Geach presenting information to the parents in the hall where he explained about the expectations for Grammar that is applied in Year Three before being shown the teaching sequence and the reading, speaking &listening and writing practise that goes into getting the children ready to write. After that the parents joined the children in their classrooms where they helped the children sort fronted adverbials and used these to improve sentences in a report about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. The children and parents applied their understanding of fronted adverbials to write some sentences of their own. It was an active morning which hopefully gave the parents an insight into what their children are learning in class. Thanks to everyone who came along to join in the fun!

As the children in Year Five took part in their dress rehearsal of their ‘Oliver’ production in the upstairs hall, the children in squirrels were joined by the lovely Mrs Cheema who taught them all about Islam as a faith and the 5 pillars. The children have been learning about what it means to be a Muslim, and this was a first hand follow up as Mrs Cheema showed them a prayer mat, prayer beads and some clothing worn by Muslim men and women. Hiba, Zahraa and Wajeeha, from KS2, talked about their faith and how they practise it, including how Hiba and Zahraa use Mrs Smiths room for midday prayers. It’s Ramadan at the moment so they also talked about what that meant to them and their daily lives. The children listened carefully and Mrs Cheema was very impressed by their behaviour.

Outside, it was a particularly rainy Forest Friends session for the children in Squirrels, Rabbits and Badgers but that didn’t stop them getting stuck in to the activities with enthusiasm! Year One created their own pullly systems to move objects along in the woods whilst Badgers created their own mini habitats for a range of creatures using natural resources foraged in the forest.

As the community room played host to more ‘RockSteady Workshop’ music sessions, the children in Aspen were learning details about days in the lives of Anglo Saxons. They worked in pairs to research and write about daily tasks, jobs and pastimes.