The RE topic for the first four weeks of the summer term in year 3 is Pentecost. We will learn about the Ascension, how Jesus promised his disciples the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit was spread amongst His followers. We shall explore how the Holy Spirit inspires Christians, spreading energy; and how the Gifts of the Holy Spirit help Christians lead good lives and serve others. A new way of living was established after Pentecost. Reflecting deeply and carefully about this topic will help children understand how their daily lives are influenced by the Holy Sprit and scripture.
These are the key words and themes of the topic: fire, warmth, wind, energy, power, gifts, Holy Spirit, Rosary, Glorious Mysteries, Pentecost
In Luke, 4: 18-19, we are reminded of how we should use the Gifts of the Holy Spirit to serve others and our community:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasises our share in this Pentecostal gift:
“Those, who with God’s help, have welcomed Christ’s call and freely responded to it, are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world. This treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors. All Christ’s faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer.”
(CCC Prologue )
Prayer and Reflection
Father, pour out your Spirit
upon your people,
and grant us
a new vision of your glory,
a new faithfulness to your Word
and a new consecration to your service,
that your love may grow among us,
and your kingdom come:
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
(Prayer of preparation for Vatican II)
Home Learning
Think about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
Wisdom – that is the gift to be sensible and not to jump to conclusions but be thoughtful.
Understanding – enables people to be compassionate and to take time to find out and be able to appreciate what is happening.
Counsel – means using wisdom and understanding to come to a good decision about something.
Fortitude – there are times when everyone needs to be brave in standing up for what they believe to be right and holy.
Knowledge – without knowledge you cannot make right judgements or have an understanding. It takes practice to have true knowledge.
Piety – this is about reverence and respect for God, for one another and for oneself.
Fear of the Lord – this gift enables people to recognise the awe and wonder of God and be amazed by the love and goodness of God.
R E Homework
Create a montage or picture to depict one, some or each of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Show, through words or pictures or both, how the gift is used by believers today to serve others. You may want to quote from the scripture we will be reading at school to show how people are inspired by the Holy Spirit to use and share these Gifts.
Matthew 28: 1-10, John 16: 5-7, 1 Corinthians 12: 4-8, 11, Acts 1: 6-11, Acts 2 1_18, 43
You could draw your ideas, or create a collage, or use another medium to represent your ideas. You could include symbols of the Pentecost on your piece of work – flame, wind, a dove, the colour red.
We look forward to seeing your individual pieces of learning, which are due in by Wednesday 11th May.
Easter has been celebrated in many different ways this week. Year 3 have joined in the whole-school events, including the Stations of the Cross and celebration on Wednesday. Well done to Sophia and Pauric who were the Easter Art winners in year 3. The children loved seeing the chicks, which as well as being very cute are symbols of the New Life of Easter, represented by Jesus. We hope you like the Easter cards the children have brought home. In RE, throughout the week, the children have been reading the scripture and exploring the feelings of the different characters’ from their various points of view. Here are the children role-playing scenes from the Garden of Gethsemane. Can you see who is playing Jesus saying, “I left you for one hour and you could not stay awake…” and who are the soldiers coming to arrest Jesus; and who is playing Judas identifying Jesus to the soldiers? The children thoroughly enjoy role-play and are very good at showing emotions in a “tableau”. Today the children considered the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made, for love; and what they can do, for love. Tomorrow they will play the parts of journalists interviewing witnesses of the events all those years ago.
We have continued to explore ways to add and subtract money. The children have been very adept at applying calculating methods – such as using number bonds to 10/100, partitioning and compensating – to money. If you have any opportunity to use money over the holidays, that would be really useful, as would using analogue clocks to tell the time.
The children can take the beautiful new books home now. I’ll send home a spring-themed bookmark for everyone tomorrow, so they have something to mark the page they are on without needing to fold the page/put something thick inside the book etc.It’s also useful to remember that carrying the water bottles separately, out of bookbags, is a good insurance policy to not spilling water over the bag’s contents, including the lovely new books.
From what the children say, there are lots of exciting things planned this holiday, from foreign holidays, to seeing family to having a fun time at home and the local parks. Whatever you do, I wish you a very happy holiday and holy Easter.
On Saturday, 2nd July, six of our pupils went to represent the school in the Annual Six-a-side Girls Football Competition. This is a competition aimed at Year 6 pupils but is open to all age groups and school sizes. Some large schools in the competition have around 90 girls to choose from to make their team. We were very much minnows in a pond full of sharks.
Our first match was against Alban City School. The girls fought hard with Ruby stepping up to take the goalkeeper role. She may be in Year 4, but Aoilbhe was not going to be pushed around whilst older sister Keeva ( our captain) marshalled the defence. Maddison was up and down the pitch shutting down opponents or supporting the attack. I thought we had signed Fred Astaire for a moment when I looked at wonderful, beguiling footwork from Jess. This was a really tight match but not as tight as the intricate angle with which Lara, teased home the winner ( one nil to St Adrian’s).
Our next match was against Samuel Ryder Academy. This is a much larger School and it showed. The girls fought valiantly, none more so than Lara, whose goalkeeping kept us in the game against the Ryder onslaught. We were two nil down but Ruby gave us a glimmer of hope when her rocket from the edge of the box could not , in spite of last ditched effort by the a Ryder defender, be kept from bulging the net. Alas 2 – 1 is how the score finished.
Our final game was against another large school and tournament favourites, Fleetville. Not only is this school bigger, but also, fielding year 6 girls, they were physically bigger as well and put us to the sword.
Our girls did us proud and , against the odds, managed to come third in our group. I couldn’t ask any more of them.
.Check out the new kit
District Sports
This Tuesday and Thursday was the district sports. Pupils fromYears, 3,4,5 and 6 took part in a mixture of track and field events.
Year 5 Netball
This week, our Year 5 netball team played against a Year 6 team from Bowman’s Green and came 2nd.
Year 5 and Year 6 Football Finals
Football Reports
Aidan and Patrick reporting – The Road to Colney Heath
Year 5 Six-a- Side Tournament (The Preliminaries)
Match report 1
St Adrians FC Vs Maple FC
St Adrian’s 2 – Maple 0
Kick Off
Aidan took the kick off passing out to Leo who later passed to Patrick ,whilst Aidan made a run through the middle but when the pass came, Aidan miss touched it. Moments later, Luca had a nice shot to make it 1-0. Maple took the kick off. Moments later Leo took the ball off the player and made a quick pass to Aidan who accidentally kicked the ground.
Half time
Substitutions: Melville – Dara and Michael – Luca
Straight away, Maple took a quick break away. But it was defended by Patrick’s great defending. Soon Patrick made a great ball to Aidan who shot but it was saved but not caught, so Leo could get the rebound to make it 2-0. Full time came just after Leonardo’s one in a million save to keep it 2–0.
Pundits preview
Hello Aidan, how do you feel about the game?
I think attacking is not that great but defending is brilliant because everyone is making an effort to keep a clean sheet. So overall a great performance by both sides.
Michael, do you think we can play better football?
Yes,maybe a bit more shots on target and also midfield need to drop a bit more.
Thank you Patrick reporting.
Match report 2
St Adrians Vs Colney Heath
7-0
Kick off
Michael passed it to Leo whilst Luca was running down the line to make an option for Leo. Then he made the pass to Luca who played it to Michael who had a clear open shot on goal to make it 1-0.
Colney Heath took the kick off ,Michael won it minutes later out-skilling the defenders to make it 2-0 .to St Adrian’s .
Once again Colney Heath took the kick off and ran clear but Patrick used his strength to knock him off the ball. Later Patrick played a great ball to Luca who had a smashing shot that could have broken the back of the net to make it 3-0.
Then 4-0. Then Melville scored a great bottom corner goal for 5-0
Half time
Substitutions
Aidan-Leo
Melville-Patrick
Straight away Aidan scored a goal through the keepers legs for 6-0
Then he hit the post to get the rebound to make it a whopping 7-0
Ouch that must of hurt for Colney Heath.
Pundits preview
What do you think about the game?
We’re through, come on! Yay.
By Aidan,Patrick and Michael
The road to Colney Heath
The Final Tournament Year 5 Six-a-side Tournament (The Finals)
We all thought we were going to win the 6 A Side Tournament because of our performance on wednesday but we didn’t realize that these teams have been training for years.
The first game unfortunately we lost 4-0 to Garden Fields.
But we didn’t give up. Then in the next game, Luca scored , but then they come back 1,1.
Then Michael scored the winner to win the game to make it 2-1.
In the 3rd game we drew 1,1 with a late equalizer and we all thought we deserved it. For us, we were quite unfortunate. We lost 2,0 to Killigrew and I think we stopped playing well as soon as we lost 4,0 to Garden fields. But this was the first tournament we have played and we think most of the schools have played a lot of tournaments before. We came 7th out of 10 teams but, if we won the first match, we could have come first place or at least 4th place. But our passing was a little bit bad at the first match and we were all doing our own thing and we did not have a plan. But we got better throughout the matches. We have very good players on our team but we didn’t work as a team but we will be better next time .
By Dara, Luca and Melville
The St Albans City Cup Semi Final and Final (Year 6)
The game had kicked off with Bowmans Green starting with intensity and giving us an indication of their style of football.It was going to be a tough match.
It was a balanced game,both sides having their share of chances and within the first five minutes Bowmans Green scored the opener.An exquisite threaded pass from the central midfielder to play the left winger in through on goal. 1 v 1 who would come out on top? Dylan,the great goalkeeper or number nine the wonderful winger?It was a brilliant finish and a well crafted goal from Bowmans Green. The crowd cheered loudly,leaping and jumping in exultation.
Not long after, Bowmans Green scored a second it was going to be tough to come back from this.The colossal central defender played a remarkable pass which went beyond everyone and perfectly dropped to number nine who took the ball astoundingly round our main goalkeeper James and shot as one of our solid defenders,Joe, desperately tried to stop the goalbound shot with a last ditch slide but was unable to keep it from out of the net.2- 0.
After half time Luke did some magical footwork, got round all the defenders and calmly slotted the ball past the Bowmans Green goalkeeper.It was a sensational goal! Some minutes had passed and some beautiful football from Paolo and Luke created a goal scoring opportunity which Paolo hammered in the net.2-2! We could win this
Extra time was a game of tennis back and forth but still no winner. Who would win? Penalties came along and St adrians took the first penalty. Paolo up first, to put St adrians in the lead, and he scored a world class penalty 1-0.Bowmans Green scored a decent penalty, unsavable for James.Next was our star sticker Luke who thumped his penalty into the back of the net. Bowmans Green missed their second penalty -unfortunate for them. Up next was Dylan to put us in the lead. A good penalty but a better save from the keeper.How did he keep that out?
2-2.Bowmans Green’s next pen was fantastically saved by James so it was still 2-2- this game was up for grabs.Theo took next and placed his penalty into the top right corner. It was 3-2 St Adrians.We could win.Bowmans Green scored their next penalty which made the score 3-3.Lewis up next to send St Adrians to the final of the district cup smashed his penalty into the side netting of the bottom left corner. St adrians to the final of the district cup!
It was an astonishing, neck – in – neck football match but St Adrains came out on top! Next is St Columbas in the final.Can we win that too?
Report by Theo.
The St Albans City Cup Final St Adrian’s V St Columba’s
We kicked off knowing what our job was. After a slow start from both teams, St Columba’s showed us what they’re made of and scored the opener 1-0 .
Then St. Columbus scored another goal ( 2 – 0 ). We really had to come back from this one now but it won’t be easy but we thought we could do it when Sonny ( our centre-back) scored a free kick from in line with the centre circle to make it 2-1. St. Columba’s scored another one when a former St Adrian’s student put the ball in the net with the very last kick of the game.
Report by Joe
Final Score St Columba’s 3 – St SAdrian’s 1
Our Year 6 Heroes showing their medals.
Kate Grey Visits St Adrian’s
At Assembly on Monday, as part of our role as Sports Ambassadors, we gave a talk to the school about the Daily Mile and upcoming visit from Paralympian , Kate Grey, on Thursday. When the big day arrived, the whole school was very excited to do the Daily Mile and hear the inspirational talk from Kate.
Kate was very kind and told us all about her life growing up after losing her arm to a sausage machine on her parents’ farm. She was only two years old at the time.
Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she said she saw it as a new challenge and did all sorts of sports and activities. In fact, the only thing she couldn’t do, was the monkey bars. When she went swimming for the first time at the age of 4, she found it difficult but was determined to get better while along the way, learning some important life skills and making new friends. She became so good that she represented GB at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and won a Silver & Bronze medal in the World Championships in swimming. At the end of her talk, we then asked her all sorts of questions about her life journey.
She said how physical exercise had really helped her and that being active every day brings all sorts of benefits. She then led a warm up in the hall which was tiring but fun. Then the whole school went outside to run the Daily Mile (8 laps of our field) .
This week, schools all over Hertfordshire have been encouraged to do the Daily Mile. Quite a few of us realised that it is not as easy as we thought to run a mile but we are determined to get better with practice.
Kate helped us realise next time we have a challenge or think we can’t do something, we should remember what she said and never give up.
On behalf of St Adrian’s, we want to say thank you for coming to our school Kate Grey.
The Sports Ambassadors
Game on!
This week St Adrian’s were represented brilliantly by the girls’ football team at Skyswood. Both teams played with skill and great sportsmanship, with the final score 3-1 to Skyswood. Well done to the whole team.
Tuesday saw St Adrian’s attending the Oaklands Quicksticks Hockey event, for the first time. Two teams represented the school: the “Compete” team played 9 games and the “Aspire” team 8 games so it was a full day. Every child who attended showed energy, commitment, excellent sportsmanship and good humour. Not only did they all enjoy the hockey itself, it was also great fun to meet friends from other schools, compete against them and also compete against the schools’ neighbours, namely Mandeville and Prae Wood. Well done, all the year five pupils who attended. We are all very proud of the way you tried something new and represented your school so well.
It was wonderful to see so many important family at this morning’s assembly. Year 3 were very excited to perform the two poems they’d worked collaboratively to write. All the words and actions were their own and they listened and shared each other’s ideas, to come up with the final versions you saw today.
They have also been busy creating something else for the many Mums, Grandmas, aunts and important women in their lives, but that will be a surprise for the weekend.
We have started to learn about money – how you can make amounts differently and use different ways to add them up. Money is something which really benefits from practical use, for which there’s been little opportunity the last few years. So if there aren’t many real-life opportunities, playing at shop – or Monopoly, or the many Orchard Toys games which are available in all good charity shops – can be a good substitute. One question we answered this week was “Why is there no 79 pence piece?”
Spellings for homework are on Google Classroom. Please do let us know if you have any problems accessing it. There’s no printing or submission requirements – just information for you to use. If you’d like to send a message saying how you’ve got on, or any problems or queries, please do so.
The class library now has some AMAZING books in it. They will start to be sent home next week. A record book will keep a note of all books which go out and to where. It would be wonderful to keep the books rotating as much as possible, so as many children as possible can enjoy them.
I’m sorry – no photos this week. Last week looks like being busy and varied and I will look to post some then.
Have a lovely weekend and, in particular, Mother’s Day.
Today was a very exciting Friday. The children looked amazing in their red outfits, and the sun was out to add to the atmosphere.
In RE, we thought about how raising money for Red Nose Day shows that we represent Jesus. We considered the verses from 2 Corinthians 9 – “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” We talked about charity and that doing what is beneficial for everyone, not just ourselves, should be part of our lives, in the same way that Jesus did good for others as part of his daily life. Jesus used the gifts he had to help others; and we can be like Jesus by sharing what we have. This doesn’t need to be huge gestures or large sums of money, but actions and contributions which we can do willingly and happily, like Jesus did for us.
Year 3 has its own rockstars! Neve and Austin were two of the band members in the Rocksteady workshop today. The rest of us provided the backing percussion and singing and we all had a great time. I was very proud of year 3 as they joined in with gusto and volume and then returned to thoughtful, calm learning in the classroom. Well done, year 3: a exciting and productive day to end the week with. Wishing you all a relaxing weekend and let’s hope the sun stays out.
Books have been arriving since Friday before last and are making a huge difference to year 3’s reading corner. Thank you so much for your generosity, which will directly impact the children’s enjoyment and learning at school. The reading corner is in a process of transformation. We’ve made space for your books while also keeping record of this year’s World Book Day, to remind children of the books they all enjoy and which their friends could also enjoy.
Here is an update: there will be more changes to come….
We celebrated the growing theme in this year’s Science Week in year 3 by comparing the elasticity of different objects – in other words, what is the stretchiest – a sock, an elastic band or slime? This meant making slime, a task year 3 were more than game for. They combined the materials which combined irreversibly. We were fascinated to find out that some slime stretched for metres – and could have gone on longer, if that had been practical – and some broke very quickly. We also found that if you carefully kneaded and pulled the slime, that made it more elastic. Strict health and safety guidelines were followed throughout. Well done, year 3, like all good scientists, you stayed safe and observed very well. Also, you all learnt collaboratively very well.
Another aspect to science week in year 3 is to “ask a scientist a question”. I showed the children a picture of a real scientist – my son, who recently started his career in a Biochemistry lab. As I explained to the class, everyone in year 3, who would like to, could do the same, by doing your best at school in science, taking opportunities to explore the world around you, remaining curious and open-minded. Never stop asking questions! Already one class member says he would like to become a palaeontologist, which is a fascinating field to work in. My son would love to hear of any questions year 3 might having about being a scientist, working in science, or studying science after school. Please email me any questions, or post them on Google Classroom or tell them to me at school, by the end of this week. Friday morning is going to be busy already, so we’ll share any answers next week.
The photos show some of the enthusiasm in year 3 this morning.
Experimenting with the consistency…
Team work is bestThis slime could have gone on and on….We found out the most socks were much less elastic than slime.Measuring and recordingAlistair doesn’t make slime at his lab! But he does enjoy his work as a scientist and would be very happy to answer questions about studying science after school or working in science.
Year 3 looked fantastic today, particularly the Mr Foxes! One of the particularly great things about their outfits was that many of them were made from home things, which had been carefully selected so the children could play a character they found very interesting or admirable. Like other classes, year 3 is in the process of revamping the reading corner. The children played a part today by making bunting about their favourite books. Emphasis was put on spelling every word correctly, starting every proper noun with a capital letter and also describing the book in a “strapline” or three key words. I shared my favourite book – “Little House on The Prairie” which I described as “girl’s adventurous life-story”. One piece of bunting describes “George’s Marvellous Medicine” as “funny, energetic and weird” – I quite agree. Another says for “Fantastic Mr Fox” – “Looking for food, What a disaster that’ll be soon!” Here are a few other pieces, to give you an idea of the care the children took with them…
As Mr Haynes said in his email yesterday, the class library could really do with some more, up-to-date texts so children can really benefit from the wealth of literature around now. If you would like to contribute, here is the link from his email: https://amzn.eu/bXpVAyq . Thank you.
Here are the children in their marvellous outfits, showing their bunting and focusing on book reviews they wrote. They also did well, collectively, to answer questions in our “literary quiz”.
The range of books the children brought in was wide – fiction, non-fiction, adventure stories, stories about school. Roald Dahl and JK Rowling featured quiet strongly. We talked about reading being the single-most important activity you can do for yourself: not just for knowledge, academic achievement and vocabulary building, for also for imagination, creativity, enjoyment, mindfulness and to share with others. Keep reading, everyone!
On Tuesday of this week Year 3 celebrated St David’s Day, which they did in style with their red white and green outfits. We even had a very spectacular dragon! They learned to say Happy St David’s Day in the Celtic Welsh language, Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!
On Ash Wednesday Y3 joined in receiving The Ashes with the rest of the school in a whole school Ash Wednesday Liturgical Assembly led by Brother Nelson and attended by parents. They will be thinking about and making their Lenten promises soon.
The children in year 5 will develop these skills through a game which was novel to most of the class – Danish Longball (also known as Swedish longball). This is a fun-packed game to practise the skills of batting/kicking, catching and running while also being a good team player and sportsperson. It’s like crickets and rounders but the pace is faster and (nearly) everyone is involved. The diagram below shows what the play area typically looks like. This week year got the hang of running to first base and back to home to score a point while the fielders passed the ball to each other as quickly as they could. We are looking forward to introducing more rules in the coming weeks as well as running around in what will surely be warmer weather, cheering each other on to team success.
In the meantime, other classes are enjoying a return to gymnastics, indoors. It’s been a long time since children could enjoy jumping, balancing and rolling in the gym and it’s fantastic to be doing these activities again. It’s essential that children are attired safely and comfortably for gymnastic activities, so please make sure your children have gym shorts and T-shirts in school all the time for whenever they are needed. Thank you for your support.
