Head’s Up!6 November 2026 (by headmarton) |
Weekly news from Mrs Deakin
What a busy first week back at school!
We have lots to celebrate this week, including our Year 3 and 4 dancers performing at the Eaton Bank Dance Festival, Reception achieving 100% attendance, fantastic family support for our Book Fair and our children proudly wearing their poppies.
A big thank you to PC Andy Cornell for delivering today's informative Online Safety Parent Surgery and to all families who attended. Children in Years 5 and 6 also took part in Workshops with PC Cornell today too. We will share further information from him when received.
We look forward to welcoming Year 3 and 4 families to ‘Tea, Toast and Together Time’ on Monday 9th and Monday 16th November at 9am, where you can meet Mrs Jones and Mr Swinburne and enjoy reading with your children.
A few reminders:
- Parents' Evenings: Monday 23rd and Wednesday 25th November, from 1.30pm. School remains open, but children may leave early following their family's appointment.
- After-school clubs: All clubs finish during the week beginning 16th November, except KS2 Choir and ASM.
We ran out of time for Celebration Worship today - but please don't worry we will do this on Monday!
Weekly news from busy classes:
Reception: Such a fantastic start to the second half of Autumn 2 in Reception! The children have been captivated by our exciting fireworks topic, creating vibrant firework displays using a range of chalk marks, shapes and patterns. They loved imagining the spectacular sounds their fireworks might make, with Miss Forster impressing everyone with her wonderfully unique and dramatic firework sound! The children also enjoyed bringing the story of Bonfire Night to life through role play, helping them to understand its history while learning the importance of staying safe during the celebrations. Reception ended the week with exploring the characters in our next story - The Little Red Hen. They developed lots of good times about what the characters might do and why. Let's hope they love the story as much as we do!
Year 1: have started our English topic with the story of Nibbles the Book Monster. Unfortunately, Nibbles has nibbled many items in our classroom and the children have been busy helping Officer Lee by exploring the crime scene. I think they will be very busy helping him to catch Nibbles over the next few weeks. We have started our new science topic by exploring a range of materials and in computing we are talking about what digital devices are and how we use them. We are starting our art topic with firework pictures as we explore mixing primary colours to make secondary colours. What a super start back to a fun filled term! Christmas planning is well underway so listen out for our new Christmas songs that we will start practicing in the coming weeks.
Year 2: We have had a lovely first week back after half term! In Maths, we have been focusing on addition and subtraction, practising our skills and building confidence. In English, we have been revisiting our PVPG (phonics, vocabulary, punctuation and grammar) to prepare us for our upcoming writing topic all about minibeasts. In RE, we have been exploring why the birth of Jesus was such good news and comparing how this special news might have been shared with how we receive and share good news in the world today. It has been a great start to the new half term, and we are looking forward to all the exciting learning ahead! This is a busy term and Christmas planning is well under way. Your children will start coming home and singing some new Christmas songs soon!
Year 3: It's been brilliant having the children back in Year 3. This week in Maths, the children have been getting stuck into column subtraction. After much practice they have made brilliant progress. Literacy has seen us almost complete our non chronological reports on their fictional animals. Literacy has been linked to science as children have been learning about human bodies as well as animal bodies. You should ask them where their hinge joints and ball and socket joints are! En Francais, Les enfants have been studying some verbs to use with Je peux. And finally they have learned more about the different eras of the stone age in History.
Year 4: I am thrilled to have returned to work this week after maternity leave with the pleasure of teaching our lovely Year 4s! I have loved hearing all about what you have been up to since September and getting to know you all better! This week we have got stuck into our new Maths topic of Multiplication and Division and we have been excellent at using our mathematical understanding of inverse to spot connections between numbers. We have also started our new class novel “Queen of Darkness” which will support our writing this half term. Our next genre will be a persuasive letter from the perspective of Boudicca! I also had a lovely opportunity to watch some of our Year 3 and 4 children rehearsing for their evening dance show at Eaton Bank. It was fantastic to see their confidence, talent and hard work shining through. What a treat to get a little sneak peek too! It’s been a week full of smiles. Year 4 - Thank you for making my first week back so special! I also look forward to seeing some parents at our Tea, Toast and Together session on Monday! - Mrs Jones
Year 5: Have had another busy and engaging week, with plenty of exciting learning taking place! One of the highlights was an online safety workshop led by PC Andy from Congleton Police, which linked beautifully to our PSHE learning and helped the children think about how to stay safe online. In English, we have begun a new writing unit in which the children are imagining themselves as Viking warriors, writing instructions to help fellow Vikings raid an Anglo-Saxon settlement! In History, we have been discovering how Mercia rose to become the leading Anglo-Saxon kingdom, while in Maths we have successfully completed our topic on multiplication and division. The children have also been developing their basketball skills in PE and continuing to refine their sketching techniques in Art. Finally, we have been busy preparing our class worship for next Wednesday, when we will reflect on Remembrance Sunday and the important work of the Royal British Legion.
Year 6: What a fantastic first week back in Year 6! It has been lovely to welcome everyone back after the half-term break, and the children have returned refreshed, enthusiastic and ready for all the excitement that the Christmas term brings! In maths, we have made a start on our new fractions unit, building on our existing knowledge and preparing to tackle some more challenging calculations. In English, we have continued developing our atmospheric descriptions of Camp Green Lake, exploring how figurative language, including similes, metaphors and personification, can help bring our writing to life. In French, we have been reaching for the stars as we learnt the names of the planets! We have also begun an exciting new Design and Technology project, exploring mechanisms and starting to design our very own toys featuring moving parts. In history, we have travelled back in time to Ancient Rome to investigate crime and punishment, discovering how laws were enforced and how criminals were treated thousands of years ago. It has been a brilliant start to what promises to be a busy and festive half term. We are looking forward to all the wonderful learning, celebrations and Christmas excitement still to come!
Do enjoy all the local bonfire and firework displays this weekend and keep safe,
Nevin Deakin