Author: Mr Hayes

We have been busy, getting creative, this week in DT. Learning to use a pattern and to sew using blanket and running stitches, we have all made a felt stocking to hang on our tree.
Next week, we will be applying our skills to create a tree decoration of our own design!

It’s been another busy week for Year Six and it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

On Wednesday, our year six Caritas Ambassadors journeyed to Westminster Cathedral to join children from across the diocese to hear again the Christmas story .

Thursday saw the culmination of all our hard work as we shared the Christmas story ourselves in the key stage two carol service. The children we fantastic, acting out their roles, narrating the story and singing angelically.

This week, in RE, we have learnt about Advent as the Church’s season of expectation of the coming of Christ. We read in Matthew’s Gospel, “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

We made our own Advent promises as we reflect on our lives and how we can move closer to God through the season. We displayed out promises as candles, reflecting out learning about the Advent wreath.

As part of our learning about other major world religions, we have learnt about the concept of karma and belief in the cycle of reincarnation in Hinduism. On Wednesday, we enjoyed a workshop about some aspect of Hinduism led by Christine.

On Wednesday, as part of our learning in History, we visited Hampton Court Palace – one-time home of Henry VIII. It was great to see the places where the history we have learnt about happened. We used all of our history skills to learn from the building, artefacts, paintings and guides what life must have been like at the Tudor court. We had a great time, and no-one was left behind in the maze. A great big thank you to the parents who gave up their time to come with us.

Our learning in RE, this week, has focused on other world religions. We have learnt about the Hindu concept of karma and dharma and how valuing creation is lived through the lives of Hindus.

On Friday, there was an outbreak of spots across the school as children dressed up in support of Children in Need. It was great to see so much creativity in your spotty gear! Thanks also to our parents for their generosity.

It was lovely to see the whole class working together to perform in our Harvest celebration, with our Caritas Ambassadors leading our prayer and reflection. Thanks to all for your hard work and to the parents for the donations to the food bank at Feed.

Thanks also to everyone who supported our cake sale. You raised a staggering £370, some of which we have already spent: on pencil cases for everyone to avoid the complaint of lost stationary, and on a fan in anticipation of warmer days in year six: it is great to enjoy a sunny aspect over the playground, but the summer months often takes the temperature in our room to the mid-thirties. We hope that our fan will make these days more bearable. We still have quite a bit of money left and so are busy planning how to spend it.

I hope that you all have an enjoyable and safe half-term holiday. I look forward to seeing you all when we come back in November.

This week, we have enjoyed printing from the plates we made last week. Our artwork has been inspired by natural themes we have seen in the work of Peter Clayton. We have experimented with printing onto different colour papers and our own painted backgrounds.

Our Caritas Ambassadors are growing into their roles with the children, this week, leading our classes in praying the Rosary.

We look forward to next week, when our ambassadors will be helping us to celebrate in our Harvest assembly and our whole class will work together to perform our harvest song. We would be grateful for donations to our collection of items for the Feed food bank in St Albans which can be brought in at anytime over the next week.

It was great to welcome so many of our families into school this morning to share our class assembly.

We travelled back in time to learn about the life of Catherine McAuley. We also learnt about the beginnings of the Sisters of Mercy, who founded our school. The children shared the Mercy values of Dignity, Excellence, Justice, Service and Stewardship and reflected how we continue to live these everyday through our golden rules. The children did a fantastic job: working together to act out the stories and share their message. They should be proud of what they have achieved together.

To mark National Poetry Day yesterday, we wrote cinquain and haiku on the theme of God’s unconditional love. The children neatly captured profound ideas in just a few syllables.

It’s the end of our first full week and the children are settling in to their new classroom and their new role as Year Six.

It was good to meet with many parents at the ‘Meet the teacher’ morning. If you weren’t able to make it, I am always pleased to meet with parents after school (excepting Tuesdays). You can find a copy of my presentation on the Google Classroom – but I am a visual person, so my prompts may not make complete sense without my narration!

The children have worked together, this week, to learn about our class saint, St Paul. One of the outcomes of this has been a new sign for our classroom door.

Although we have only been back at school for ten days, the children are rising to the challenge of their new topics across the curriculum.