22nd May 2006

FIrst of all, welcome back to our Year 6 children, who had a great week at the Conway Centre. Miss Wilson, Mr Barker, Mrs Walker and Miss Robinson all gave the children glowing reports and said that the centre staff were extremely complimentary about their behaviour and attitude to the challenges which were presented to them. Well done all thank you to all concerned - you are a credit to our school! We will let you know as soon as possible, a date for our presentation.

This is the last week before our Whit break and it is another busy week. In LIteracy, we will be looking at writing our own performance poems. Last week, the year 5 children gave a fabulous rendition of 'Ten Dancing Dinosaurs'!! We will post some of our ideas here over the holidays for you to read!

In numeracy, we will be doing some maths investigations and challenges, to really get our brains thinking. Year 6 children will be beginning some of the transition units, which have been arranged to help with their move to St Gregory's. They will also be starting a transition unit for Science, which will be completed on their day visit to the high school.

In science, we will be completing our work on healthly lifestyles, by looking at the effect of alcohol, smoking and drugs on the body. The children may ask some quite challenging questions at home, so, in anticipation of this, here is a list of websites that we will be using in school, that may be re-visited at home.

http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/grow/drugs_alcohol/poll_alcohol.html (what Kids say - opinions)
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/grow/drugs_alcohol/alcohol.html
(information about alcohol)
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/grow/drugs_alcohol/know_drugs.html (information about drugs including alcohol and tobacco)
http://www.brainpop.com/health/personalhealth/smoking/ video and on-line quiz about smoking (username Worrall; password; Worrall) watch video and answer the quiz questions

Our Year 6 children will be bringing home an important letter this week. It requests your permission for the children to watch the video about puberty after the holidays. We will also be joined by the school nurse on the day, to facilitate the discussion. You may wish to withdraw your child from this and we would request that you do this in writing, by 30th June. There will be an opportunity for parents to view this video beforehand, on 22nd June at 4.00pm in the ICT Suite. Please indicate on this letter if you would like to attend.

On Wednesday afternoon, there will be a mass for the Ascension at 2.30pm. You are most welcome to join us in the hall. We finish on THURSDAY this week, with Friday being an INSET day for staff. We would like to wish you a happy and safe holiday, and look forward to returning for our final half term.

15th May 2006

WELL DONE to all the children in Year 6 who completed their SATs tests last week! They remembered everything they have learned, not just this year, but in all their years at St Vincent's and they tried their very best. A big thank you to all parents who helped and supported the children, through a very busy and stressful week. Well done to the year 5 children too, who completed the optional SATs tests. These will be marked and moderated by the staff in school and will form the basis of our work in the final half term.



This week, sees the year 6 children going on their annual residential to the Conway Centre in North Wales. They will be taking part in some amazing activities and are extremely excited (judging by the conversations on Friday!) We hope to bring you some photographs and video footage when they return on Friday.


Year 5 children will be working with Mrs Worrall and Mrs Riley this week, on a fantastic project called 'Passport to the World'. We will be researching about different cultures around the world, what they eat, wear, listen to, temperature etc. Some of the questions they will be investigating are:

Where is this place?
How do people travel to, from and around this place?
What does this place look like?
Natural and man-made features
Why do people visit this place?
What foods do people eat?
What jobs and activities go on in this place?
How have people made use of or changed the environment?
What changes are happening now? For better or worse? Are there any local issues related to land-use?
What is it like to live here?
What do you like and dislike about this place?
What do the people who live here like and dislike?

You could help by starting some of this research at home, by visiting some of the these websites:
http://www.channel4.com/apps26/learning/microsites/E/essentials/geography/units/passworld_bi.shtml
http://www.mrdowling.com/
http://www.btinternet.com/~tonypickford/gg/webenq2.htm

By the end of the week, each co-operative learning team, will be expected to present to the rest of the group, information about their selected country. We hope to have some food tasting on Friday, although I have been told, they really don't want to try frog's legs!!!
It would be really helpful, if you could provide some holiday photographs or holiday brochures to help with our display work. Thank You!!

7th May 2006

This week, the year 6 children will be taking their SATs tests and the year 5 children will be doing their optional tests. We wish them every success in these important tests.
If there are issues which you feel may affect children, particularly during this week, then please do not hestitate to inform a member of staff as soon as possible. Many thanks.