Junior School News

Once Upon a Book Week

As the school dove into a Book Week frenzy and explored the amazing world of reading, the Junior School celebrated in a range of ways, from arts and crafts to character and book designing. Throughout the week, each class visited a different teacher's classroom to read a shortlisted book and complete a writing task. This included Spiro, How to Move a Zoo, A Leaf Called Greaf, and These Long-Loved Things.

Students also enjoyed a special performance based around the theme Book an Adventure, which encouraged everyone to see the world through the lens of caring for our Earth together as one.

Throughout the week, students created a variety of crafts, such as their very own spiders, postcards, leaves for the loved ones they miss, and memory jars . The week would not have been complete without the annual Book Week parade, which kicked off on Wednesday morning with amazing enthusiasm and inventive costumes inspired by students’ favorite books and characters.

It was beautiful to see all the children playing in their gorgeous costumes, sparking such creative and imaginative play out in the schoolyard. Many students left exhausted from the excitement but already looking forward to the next Book Week and the endless ideas and inspirations to come.

Prep

In Prep, students have been developing their reading by exploring multi-syllabic words, including words that follow a closed/closed syllable pattern and an open/closed syllable pattern, such as robot and hotel.

The Preps have also been developing their sentences by incorporating the connecting word but. The conjunction but changes the direction of a sentence, for example: “It was raining, but we played outside” or “I am hungry, but there is no food in the fridge.”

In Maths, the Preps have been using their addition knowledge to support their subtraction skills, focusing on taking away amounts between 0 and 20. They have also begun their unit on length, in which they have been comparing objects and using informal units, such as Unifix cubes, to measure and determine length.

Year One

This fortnight in Year One, students have been extending their bank of reading rules, being introduced to the “The Boat is Slow” rule, which looks at two ways to represent the long vowel sound o. They have also begun exploring the first two r-controlled vowels, or and ar, as in the words corn, barn, carpet, and morning. Alongside these rules, they have been mapping and remembering the irregular words are and put, which do not follow standard spelling patterns.

In Writing, the Year One students have continued to fine-tune the skill of combining two sentences together with the conjunction and, which means “also.” An example of this would be joining the sentences “Henry loves space crafts” and “Henry loves learning about asteroids” into “Henry loves space crafts and learning about asteroids.”

The Year Ones have excelled in their Maths unit on patterns, finishing with applying their understanding to skip counting, specifically looking at counting backwards and forwards by 2s, 5s, and 10s. Many students found the hundreds chart a great resource for understanding the patterns and repetition involved in skip counting.

It was such a highlight having our Year Six buddies come into Year One to teach us how to make chatterboxes!

Year Two

In Year Two, students have been extending their syllable understanding by exploring the Tiger Rule, in which the first syllable is created by splitting after the first vowel to create an open syllable, as in the words bacon, spider, and raven. This has been followed by the rule High Night, which looks at the spelling igh to make the long vowel sound i, for example, high, night, and flight.

In Writing, the Year Twos have been combining three sentences using conjunctions and, because, but, and so as well as incorporating the use of pronouns in their writing.

They have completed their unit on multiplication and division and have moved into exploring shape, in which students have revised the features of 2D shapes and applied this knowledge to combine pairs and multiple shapes. They have also been defining and identifying polygons, which are any enclosed shapes made of three or more straight lines.

Our Blue Planet

Our Junior students have had an “out of this world” time learning about Earth and Space this term! One of the biggest highlights was making constellations using marshmallows and toothpicks, which was a tasty way to bring the stars down to Earth. They also loved exploring different landscapes, drawing and designing manmade, managed and natural features, and even creating their very own planets, each with unique features, names and details.

In Year Two, to help remember the order of the planets, the students learned the catchy chant “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos” with lots of giggles along the way!

The rooms have been buzzing with excitement as students dove into the wonders of our solar system, learning endless facts and vocabulary around space and showing just how much they love space.

Another favourite activity has been learning about shadows. Students headed outside to trace their shadow shapes with chalk, experimenting with how shadows change throughout the day, bringing science and creativity together in the sunshine.