All the rehearsals finally paid off as the Year 6 children gave the performance of their lives, firstly to the school in their dress rehearsal but then to their parents on Wednesday evening.
There was a last minute stand in for the part of King John and he really stole the show.
The jokes made the audience laugh and the singing brought a tear to many of the parents’ eyes.
It was a truly memorable occasion.
Our thanks go to the parents for helping with the costumes, to Mr Hayes for the lighting and to Mr Greg Sallis for the sound and drama workshops.
This week has been a week of fitness and reflections.
Firstly, the sponsored bounce, which was organised by the PTA, was great fun. It also involved working as a team with stealth and strategy to enable successful outcomes.
All the hard work which we have done throughout the year was celebrated at the open evening, with past DT, art and science work being on display as well as some of the children’s newspaper reports. It is incredible just how much we have done since September 2021.
Our final St Adrian’s Sports Day on Thursday was a highlight of the week. The children cheered and worked hard for their teams. The results were very close but eventually St Matthew were the clear winners.
The hard work and fun doesn’t end there. Next week, Year 6 will show their production of Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies to the rest of the school on Tuesday12th July and then to their parents on Wednesday 13th July at 7pm. We look forward to another memorable week.
During this term, the children have learned about nets in maths and electricity in science. This week, they designed an electrical steady hand game which relied on having a complete electrical series circuit, placed within a box made from their net with a wire obstacle protruding from the box.
After designing and decorating the nets, an electrical circuit was constructed and attached to malleable wire which would act as an obstacle for their metallic hook to manoeuvre around. If the hand and hook is unsteady, a light bulb will flash.
The whole process was complicated and relied on there being cooperative teamwork, careful listening to instructions and at times some adaptations if at first it didn’t work as expected. Nevertheless, for the bold and attentive, this was no problem and some successful electrical games were assembled.
These will be on display at our open evening next week.
We began a new RE topic this week called Common Good, where we will be learning more about CAFOD and the work they do to support injustice around the world. To initiate the topic, we played a game where the children were in groups which represented different continents around the world. They then learned what percentage of the world’s population each have and then how the world’s wealth, educational, health and food resources are distributed around the world.
The results were shocking and it was clear there is an enormous divide between the richer and power countries of the world.
We will learn how God expects justice for all and how we can do our bit to stand up against injustice.
As a whole school, we have been learning about the Jewish faith In particular, Year 6 have learned about Rosh Hashanah (The Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur ( The Day of Atonement).
As well as learning about these special and significant Jewish days in class, we took part in a workshop with Ruth, a Jewish teacher who used artefacts and told us of her experiences as Jewish person who celebrates these days.
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, which will be celebrated this year on 25th September. It is an opportunity for a fresh start. Before Jewish people ce;ebrate their new year, they ensure that anyone the yave wronged through the year, they apologise to so that when they start the new year they can have a completely new beginning without dragging past wrongs with them.
The day is spent in a celebratory manner with prayer and family time enjoying sweet foods such as apples dipped in honey. This is a symbol to remind us that God’s love is sweet and He provides for us. Pomegranates are used as the seeds represent all the good things we can do for others and to serve God.
The children enjoyed sharing the pomegranate seeds and sharing bread and apples dipped in honey together.
Yom Kippur is ten days after Rosh Hashanah. It is a more solemn day, spent in prayer and fasting for 25 days. The prayers ask God to forgive our sins and to remember the rules He wants us to follow.
A celebratory assembly on Friday, allowed Year 6 to show the school what we had learned. Some children even used the shofar (a ram’s horn) to demonstrate how one of the world’s oldest instruments is used to signal God, the King, is approaching. The shofar is in fact blown 100 times each day of Rosh Hashanah.
Learning about Judaism, a faith in which our own faith is so deeply connected is fascinating. The children were very respectful and interested in knowing more about this religion and culture.
This week, we have made preparations to celebrate our fathers and male role models in our families.
The children have made some lovely Father’s Day cards.
In addition, after a week of practising a song with actions called Thank you Dad, Year 6 enjoyed taking part in the whole school Father’s Day assembly.
Year 6 completed their science topic of electricity by planning and conducting an experiment to discover if the length or number of wires would affect the brightness of a lightbulb in a series circuit. The children worked well together with a partner and showed independence and scientific thinking in their work.
We have begun to work on the summer concert so watch out for that in the coming weeks.
Returning to school this week has meant the children are beginning to realise that they need to make each day count as they are preparing for their transition to secondary school.
We have begun to read our new class book called A Beautiful Lie by Ifran Master which is based on the partition of India in 1947.
This is new learning so the children watched a video and discussed what it must have been like to be a child in India at that time. If you want to know more about Partition, please click on this picture.
The children have begun to become more familiar with newspaper articles in Guided Reading. The children read an article about the Queen’s encounter with Paddington Bear last weekend.
They then used some of the techniques to write their own newspaper article about the miracle of Jesus healing Bartimaeus, the blind man in their RE lesson. We have much to learn to perfect newspaper writing but we have made a good start.
Finally, the children analysed evidence to answer the historical investigation about why so many lives were lost in the Titanic disaster. The children had to choose what they believed were the main causes from the many possible reasons which added to the causes for the perilous accident. The children argued their beliefs with passion and used the evidence after careful analysis.
Auditions for the summer concert have got underway- it has been lovely to see the children grow in confidence and give it their all in both their singing and acting endeavours. I am sure this year’s concert will be memorable.
The children have got through the weeks of SATs. They were magnificent in their positive attitudes. The children have worked so hard and have all done their very best. We are very proud of them all.
During the afternoons, we have had some time to do lots of writing activities. In RE, the children wrote radio scripts for an interviewer to interview St Stephen and investigate why and how he was so brave to stand up for his faith despite being persecuted and threatened with death. The children learned he was in fact the first martyr for the christian faith. The Holy Spirit gave him the courage to speak up for what he believed was right and to share his faith with the people who were attacking him.
The children used their scripts to role play their interviews. They displayed great knowledge and empathy for St Stephen.
Today, the children had a relaxed day having studied so hard for their SATs. Rounders and other games were played, the school provided an ice-lolly for each child and much fun was had by all.
Over the weekend, the children will be busy packing their suitcases for our residential trip to the Isle of Wight. We will endeavour to post pictures on this class page through the course of the week but priority will be given to ensuring all children and staff are safe.
Please pray for good weather, happy and healthy children and staff and safe journeys there and back.
The bank holiday meant we enjoyed a four day school week this week. The week began with a whole school celebration of the crowning of Mary, the Blessed Mother of Jesus. The assembly focused on the many facets of Mary. Year 6 made a beautiful display of pictures celebrating the many facets of Mary Mary the Mother of the Most Holy Rosary. The children who are in the Chaplaincy Team helped Mrs Porter ensure the celebration ran smoothly and reverently.
This week has been mainly focused on revision of maths, grammar, spelling and reading as we get ready to show off all the children know in their SATs next week. We know the children have worked so hard and are going to do themselves proud. We are very proud of them.
Each Year 6 child has many different gifts and talents which are not measured by tests and all of the combined make the class a very special community to belong to.
Let’s pray for them through the weekend and over the next week and ask God to bless the children with His peace, courage and strength so they can be determined, resilient and maintain their self-belief that they can reach their full potentials.
Amidst a hard working week, we had some light relief with a visit from Kate Grey, a Paralympic swimmer, who is now retired. She currently presents disability sport for the BBC.
Kate gave an inspirational assembly about her life in sport, overcoming her barriers and how she has used them to make her stronger. She then called up and praised the Sports Ambassadors to thank them for the contributions they make to the sport in our school. Mr Creaton also had a special mention as our school’s PE Subject Leader.
To begin with, Kate did a warm up with the whole school in the hall and then we all did the daily mile, followed by a photo opportunity with her.
Kate’s key messages were about resilience and being the best we can be. This is such an important message for Year 6 as they are currently working so hard on their SATs preparation. They are learning to learn and rise from their mistakes and to use them to make them stronger.
However, it is important for the children to remember that they have so many talents which are not measured but make them the wonderful young people they are.
So, we will learn from Kate’s example: if we have our eyes set on our goals, put in the hard work and ‘Go for It’ we will achieve our dreams!
The children have come back to school with a positive attitude for making the most of their final term at St Adrian’s. As well as working hard on their SATS preparations the children have had some lighter moments.
St George’s Day
In honour of the Patron Saint of England, St George, the children came to school in their finest red and white clothes.
Earth Day 2022
The class had a great discussion about the impact of our carbon footprint. We analysed all of the activities which we did this morning from when we woke up until we arrived at school: from the electric alarm, electric toast, the cereal packaging, the journey of the milk and production of the cereals and bread for out breakfasts and then our journeys to school. We soon realised that a lot of what we do and eat can have a negative impact on our carbon footprint.
To rectify this, we then thought about positive steps we could take to reduce our impact and be more kind to our beautiful planet. So, we will aim to walk more, use manual toothbrushes, to buy locally sourced food and maybe even have our own chickens for our eggs!
