3rd July 2006

You were fantastic!

What a busy week we had, but a very successful one. Everyone who visited the art exhibition thoroughly enjoyed themselves and lots of compliments could be heard by our visitors to school. If you were unable to visit the exhibition on the day, then you are still able to purchase them from school until 7th July, at a cost of £5.00.

Sports Day

On Tuesday morning of this week, we shall be holding our junior sports day, (weather permitting!) The children have been practicing their individual races and we have some really accomplished athletes! The children have looked very smart in their PE kits this week - thank you! Please ensure that your child has a water bottle, a hat and plenty of suncream. Should we be unlucky enough to have rain on Tuesday, then it will be held on Wednesday morning.

Joseph

We only have a couple of weeks left before the end of term production and the rehearsals are coming along really well. We have been thrilled at how much the children have taken the idea of a production of this scale on board, and we can assure you of some surprises!! We would be grateful, if the costumes could be in school by Friday of this week, so that any alterations may be made.

FOSV Barbeque

This Friday sees the annual barbeque being held in school. The Friends have organised lots of activities for the evening, which looks like being another successful evening. If you are able to offer any help with refrigeration, face painting or any other help, please contact a member of the Friends.

Conway

The medical forms and payment slips for September's Conway trip were sent home on Friday. It would be helpful if those forms could be returned by Friday of this week. Also, if you wish to make payments in installments, then if they could be sent into school on MONDAY MORNINGS in order to help with administration. Many thanks for your support.

REPORTS

Your will receive your child's report this Friday, along with the results of their SATS for Year 6 and Optional SATS for Year 5. There is a comment sheet inside the report for you to make any comments about your child's report. The children have worked really hard all year and it would be great to have your comments in their files to pass up to high school. For the year 5 children, you will also be notified of your child's teacher for next year.

26th June 2006

THANK YOU!

Thank you for your patience this week, as there has been lots happening in school. With an art exhibition, communions, end of term production, environment project, a visit to high school AND a football tournament to prepare for, the children have been extremely tolerant and have behaved superbly!

This week remains as busy as ever, but we are sure that we can rely on the children's mature behaviour and attitude, to help us all get through a successful week.

Art Exhibition

On Wednesday, you are invited to view some of art work which the children have produced over the last couple of weeks. I am sure you will agree, that we have some budding artists in our midst! You will be able to view your child's artwork in the school hall between 3 - 4pm in the school hall on Wednesday and also between 7 - 8 pm. If you would like to purchase your child's framed artwork, at a cost of £5.00, then you may order them between these times, for collection later in the week.

Joseph Production

Preparations are now well underway for our end of term production and the children and staff are amazed at how much extra time some of our cast members are putting in to rehearsals! Children now have had all parts and costumes allocated. Should you require additional guidance as to what is required, please speak to any member of the 5/6 team as soon as possible.

PE Kits

A request from all staff!! This week, all the children will be practising for sports day. We would ask that ALL children have appropriate kit in school, including footwear (pumps or trainers) which fits. PE kit, as in the school uniform policy, should be a plain white t-shirt (or one with the school logo) and royal blue shorts. Many thanks for your co-operation with this.

Weblinks - Numeracy

This week, we will be assessing all the year 5 children on their end of year objectives. If you would like to reinforce some of the activities at home, here are some online activities to support our work on ordering decimals and area and perimeter.

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/mathsgames.aspx
Maths games to calculate area and perimeter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/gameswheel.html
probability – fish game

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/shockwave/games/laddergame.html
ordering decimals

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/phase4_20030829/Mathematics/Keystage2/Numbers/Anintroductiont/Introduction/default.htm
Online activity which demonstrates how to calculate the missing decimal. The children will be using this in class, so they should be familiar with the format.


Congratulations to everyone who took part with the football tournament on Friday. You were fantastic ambassadors for St. Vincent's. Let's hope England play as well later this afternoon!!

19th June 2006

What a busy week we have ahead of us! Year 6's will get their first taste of high school this week, when they will be visiting St. Greg's on Tuesday. They have some great activities lined up, including some amazing science work! I am sure that we will hear all about it on Wednesday when they return !

Environment project

I am sure that many of the children will have told you all about our environment project, which we are starting this week. We have taken some photographs of the path outside school and have decided that we are going to do something about improving it, as well as creating some attractive areas in our school grounds. As part of the Network Learning Community, other schools are undertaking similar projects, and the outcomes will be presented in the Autumn term.
The children have come up with some amazing ideas and we have already had many offers of parental help. We will have a clearer picture of the exact help that will be needed by the end of this week, and we should be able to put dates to tasks. A huge thank you for your support so far with this.
Just to give a little bit of 'food for thought', have a look at the photograph above and see what we have been looking at...
This project will enable us to develop our formal letter writing skills and also help to develop speaking and listening abilities. Hopefully, the children will be a part of developing something which they could come back and visit when they have moved on to high school!

Numeracy

This week we will be completing our work on angles and shape and space. The children really enjoyed the gorilla game last week and all managed to estimate the correct angle and force.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be assessing all the children in year 5 to ensure they have achieved all the end of year objectives. Please keep an eye on their individual diaries, for a personalised list of how you could help out at home. If you would like to make a start, then www.mathszone.co.uk provides a list of the key objectives for the end of year 5.

End of Year production

We are rehearsing really hard for our end of term production of 'Joseph' and nearly all of the children have been allocated a part. As it is the last time that the year 6 children will be involved in a production, they have been given the main roles. Costume lists will be given out this week to all children. If you have any difficulty in obtaining a suitable costume, then please let a member of the year 5/6 team know as soon as possible. There are a number of fancy dress websites on the internet for busy parents!!

Art Exhibition

This week, we shall be making our artwork, ready to be framed for the art exhibition in a couple of weeks time. You will be invited to view all of the children's artwork and you will be able to purchase your child's artwork framed for a reasonable charge.

Please see last week's blogspot for a list of websites which help to support your child's learning this week.

Diary

Just a reminder that on Thursday at 4.00pm, there will be an opportunity for parents of children in Year 6, to view the EPR video in the ICT suite. Please inform us if you would like to attend.

Also, Saturday of this week, sees our year 3 children make their First Holy Communion. If would be lovely if some of the older children were able to support them by singing in the choir at the 9.30am mass on Saturday.

Some of our year 5 children, will be taking part in a football tournament on Friday. We wish them the very best of luck!

Many thanks for your suport in what looks like a very busy last few weeks!!

12th June 2006

Welcome back after what has been a beautifully sunny break! Please remember to bring hats, suncream and outdoor PE kits to school for this half term.

We have a very busy last few weeks in school before we finish for the summer, and we will be starting the hard work of preparing for our end of term production this week. When the parts have been allocated, the children will bring home a list of what they should need for their costume. In the meantime, all the children will need 'glittery pom-pom shakers'...a la cheerleader style - all will be revealed!!

Numeracy

The children will be working on a variety of maths investigations this week. To this end, I have included a number of websites which I will be using to help with our numeracy lessons this week.

http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/protractor.html
whats my angle using protractor

http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/online/angle.swf
guess the random angle

http://www.hqprimary.co.uk/gorilla/
gorilla game

http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/P/puzzlemaths/tangrams_game.shtml
tangrams – remember to rotate the shapes to fit into the grid.

http://www.crick.northants.sch.uk/Flash%20Studio/cfsmaths/Tangram/tangram.swf

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Flash%20Studio/cfsmaths/Toolkit/Toolkit.htm
for use with the interactive whiteboard in class

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Flash%20Studio/cfsmaths/Triangles/triangles.swf
sort the triangles

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Flash%20Studio/cfsmaths/quad/quad.html
sort the polygons into the carroll diagram

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/Flash%20Studio/cfsmaths/goal2.swf
Ode to the world cup! Guess the number you need to divide by and see if you can score a goal!

Literacy

We will be writing and analysing examples of narrative this week. Just to get you back in the right frame of mind for writing again (remembering to use VCOP!) here are a few websites to get you started...

http://www.midlandit.co.uk/education/writingtips.htm
You can find some really good story writing tips on this interactive website. You culd even publish your own.

http://www.innovationslearning.co.uk/subjects/english/activities/literature_comp/lit_comp_home.htm
Online comprehensions

http://www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/owl/OWL5Book1/1/story/index.html
http://www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/owl/OWL6Book1/1/story/index.html
Interactive stories

Science

We will be investigating Changing State, which means looking at the similarities and differences between solids, liquids and gases. Let's hope for more sunshine, so that we can conduct some of our experiments outdoors!
Should you wish to go over some of the activities again at home, here are just some of the websites that will go over the objectives that we will be investigating in class...

http://www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk/Curriculum/Millionaire/scimill1.htm who wants to be a millionaire game for solids, liquids and gases
http://www.innovationslearning.co.uk/subjects/science/activities/sol_liq_gas/home.asp interactive game for solids, liquids and gases.
http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/droplet.html water cycle game - journey of a water droplet
http://www.kidzone.ws/water/ water cycle information
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/riversandcoasts/water_cycle/rivers/pg_02_flash.shtml water cycle animation
http://www.fossweb.com/modules3-6/Water/index.html online experiment for evaporation, predicting the optimum conditions

Homework will commence again next week. The children will have this week to decide with their co-operative learning teams, who is responsible for bringing in particular resources for their Greek project.
Many thanks for your continued support.