"Pupils behave well. They play happily together and consider each other’s needs very well.""Parents are right to be pleased with the quality of teaching at the school.""Pupils learn well because the work they do provides good levels of challenge and helps them learn new skills."100% of parents said they would recommend this school to other parents"The curriculum supports pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development effectively.""Pupils get off to a good start in early years."

Herons class (Year 3/4) 2019-20

Miss Snook, Mrs Brennan-McCord, Mrs Wright and Mrs Linehan

What a Week for Herons! Friday 20th March 

What a week! Despite it all, Herons have remained fairly calm and have completed some super learning. 

During our Maths lessons, we identified tenths and hundredths as fractions and investigated what this would look like as a decimal. The children used base 10, representations and place value charts to help them. 

I was super impressed in Literacy this week! The class have planned, drafted and written their own narratives based on a child's experience in the Iron Age. I really enjoyed reading all their ideas and so pleased with the progress they have made. 

Topic included lots of research about life in the Iron Age. In Science, we found out all about the fossilisation process and the children completed a tricky ordering activity. 

We also enjoyed our laps of the running track and played a game of benchball, which the children seem to really like. 

Thank you for all your hard work so far - stay safe and try to learn something new : )

Thinking of you all. 

Our Learning This Week! Friday 13th March 

This week has been another busy week in herons class. On Friday, the children came in their sports gear and ran for 20 minutes around the track as part of our Sports Relief Lapathon! 

In Guided Reading we have been looking at the book 'Hubert Horatio' by Lauren Child. The children really enjoyed the style of the book (similar to David Walliams) and have been using their retrieve VIPER to find information. During Literacy, we have finished writing our class version of  'Bronze Age Kid' ready for our own narrative writing next week. We have been trying to include a range of grammatical features such as prepositions. 

Maths has been productive! The children have found out a rule for working out non-unit fractions of amounts and have spotted a simple pattern when adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator. The class also had time to practise their multiplication tables and recap column methods of addition and subtraction. 

In Science we researched Mary Anning, a significant fossil hunter, as well as finding out how soil is made, showing this in a diagram. 

As part of our Topic learning we used the computers to carry on our PowerPoint all about prehistory and used watercolours to paint a Bronze Age scene. 

Well done to Harriet, who is our star of the week this week! Harriet is always getting on with the task in hand and showing others how it's done! Super!

Enjoy the pictures! 

Spellings this week (cian ssion) 

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World Book Day (and other stories)! Friday 6th March 

On Thursday, we welcomed a wide variety of character into herons and spent the day celebrating books! We read together, made our own books and completed the world book day quiz.

In Maths, we have continued our work on fractions and focused on ordering and comparing them and have begun to find unit fractions of amounts. Our knowledge of equivalent fractions from last week really helped us with this. 

During Literacy the class have contributed to our version of Bronze Age Kid. The children came up with some super ideas and have used some great language in their books. This is linked with our Topic lessons about the Bronze Age and how Bronze was made and used 4,500 years ago. 

We started playing Hockey in PE and enjoyed another round of Friday University to finish the week. 

Well done to Lucy, who is star of the week this week. Her writing has improved in both appearance and content! She has worked so hard since coming back from half term and has been a friendly member of Herons. 

Spellings this week are Scientific Rock Vocabulary

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It's equivalent! Friday 28th February 

We have been continuing our Maths work on fractions this week and have explored equivalent fractions! The children understand that equivalent means 'the same' and that equivalent fractions have the same value. We spent some time using resources, representations and our times table knowledge to help us!

To start our new Literacy unit, we read the book 'Stone Age Boy'. It took us some time to become familiar with the plot and characters as well and vocabulary and the features of a narrative. Our Topic work will help us write 'Bronze Age boy/girl' next week as we have started to look at the Bronze age and the changes that took place in Britain. 

On Thursday, the children enjoyed their French lesson (transport names) and Hinduism (Rama and Sita) learning with Mrs Brickwood! In Science, the class are now learning about rocks; they started grouping natural and man made rocks this week.  

We enjoyed a musical end to the week because on Friday we had a woodwind performance from some music teachers. They played some great tunes and showed us how woodwind instruments work! We finished the week off nicely by playing D and E on the Glockenspiel by learning a  song with a slower rhythm and trickier song with a faster rhythm. 

Spellings this week 'tion' 

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It's 1/2 term! Friday 14th February 

Our new theme in Maths is....FRACTIONS! We begun by exploring fractions of shapes focusing on halves, quarters and thirds. We spotted that unit fractions always have a numerator of one compared to denominators, which have a numerator of at least two! Towards the end of the week the children could count in fractions, spotting the pattern along the way. 

In Literacy, we spent some time researching the true story of the findings of 'The Amesbury Archer'. The grave, which was found in Wiltshire. near Stonehenge contained a skeleton that was about 4, 500 years old! The children used these facts to compose a newspaper article independently.

On Monday, the class recapped and created their own food chains and learnt the scientific vocabulary: Producer/Autotroph, Consumer, Predator, Prey, Carnivore, Herbivore and Omnivore. A few children created a food web because when some animals become involved in the food chain, it gets a little complicated! 

In of Topic lessons, this week the children really enjoyed themselves when making a Stone Age needle pouch AND getting to watch 'The Croods'! A wonderful end to the first term in 2020. 

Well done to Lilly - May for receiving star of the week this week! Her newspaper was so well presented and she is becoming very mature when responding to challenges that come her way. 

Enjoy the photos below - have a wonderful week!

Spellings this week (gue/que) 

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Spectacular Stonehenge Friday 7th February 

In Topic this week, the children got creative and made their own artwork of the prehistoric monument 'Stonehenge'. Some of them even had the sun setting as it would on Midsummer Solstice. This also influenced our Literacy work. We wrote an article altogether about the discovery of the huge rocks! 

In Maths we began my looking at kilometres and created our own treasure maps. Later, we found out how to calculate perimeter, (the outside) which uses adding and the area, (the inside) which uses multiplying. Previous knowledge and multiplication facts certainly came in handy this week - the children just need to remember to put the correct units. 

In other areas, the children enjoyed some Hindu meditation in RE with Mrs Brickwood, identified the 5 different types and functions of teeth in science as well as score some baskets in PE. 

We also enjoyed a special in class assembly with Claire, who will be helping us in church on Sunday. We look forward to seeing some of you there ready for 11!

Congratulations to Seb, who is our star of the week this week! Seb has been so engaged with all of our Stonehenge work and is starting to apply this attitude of learning to other areas of the curriculum! Super job Seb!

Spellings this week (measurement vocabulary) 

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Measurement in Maths Friday 31st January 

Our learning in Maths this week has been all about different metric units of measure. We used rulers and metre sticks to measure lines and objects into mm, cm or M. We can also covert units of measure to help us order lengths. 

During Literacy we have looked at a newspaper article about a prehistoric site found in the Orkney Islands. We have annotated the features and vocabulary and have begun innovating. It was fun coming up with our own catchy headlines. Our grammar focus was making sure to use a capital letter for all proper nouns. 

In the afternoons, we had a great PE lesson with pacesetters and learnt all about the digestive system in Science. Topic consisted of a lot of research about the Mesolithic period of the Stone Age and the magnificent prehistoric site of Stonehenge. 

Well done to Sephie, who received star of the week this week! Sephie regularly challenges herself in Maths and completes really tricky tasks with such a positive attitude! 

Spellings are sh sound 'ch'

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Poems, Police and Partitioning Friday 24th January 

We had a visitor this week, in the form of police officer Kev. He came into our class and gave an assembly all about what to do if we don't feel safe, who we can talk to and what sorts of things police officers have to do! 

I was lucky enough to read some brilliant poems this week - the children have been using everything they have learnt about poetry and woolly mammoths to create some great literacy work. 

Dividing has been the focus of our maths this week. We have used the part whole model to partition larger numbers into multiples of a number making it easier to divide. 

In topic we learnt all about the types of activities stone age people had to endure in order to survive! We then ranked them and explained which we thought was most important and why. Then we looked at some more cave paintings for clues about the people who may have lived in that cave!

We played some dribbling games in PE including dribble limbo and dribble rounders. Hopefully we can shoot some baskets next week!

Blessing is our star of the week, she goes above and beyond in her writing to do more than expected! Her mammoth poem was epic. 

Spellings this week - ch for k sound  

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A Mammoth of A Week Friday 17th January

The children seem to be really engaged with our topic this term! As part of our learning this week; we created a cave painting using images of ones archaeologists have found all over the world of either Mammoths, Bison or A Sabre Tooth Tiger. We also spent time learning about the Woolly Mammoth - the children made a mini model and created a factflie, which will become very useful next week.

In Literacy, we have been looking at the different language used in poetry; we have used a variety of word types appropriately to help us make a class version of a poem we have named 'The Elephant'. Maths has been tricky this week but the children have worked hard to work out multiplication calculations using the grid method or the expanded method. We also spent some time playing 'hit the button' which is free on topmarks (a really good game for practising times tables!). 

The children now know all about the 7 nutrients that humans need to keep healthy, as this was our Science focus this week. The class grouped lots of different foods and concluded how important it is to have a balanced diet. 

Seth was awarded the star of the week this week because he has been working really hard in Maths and has had a more positive attitude to learning.

Spellings this week - a recap of the suffix OUS (sorry for the previous mishap!)  

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An Atomic Start to the Year! Friday 10th January

Welcome back! Although the children were here for only four days, lots of learning has been squeezed in!

As part of our Stunning Start, Atomic Tom gave us a visit and told us all about food chains; we played a really fun game in the hall to help our understanding. We then dissected some Owl pellets and found little bones from: Mice, Shrews, Moles and Rats. We spent some time looking through some books about the three prehistoric periods of human history; we learned that we only have about 2000 years of written history. The Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age are what we are looking at this term and the children worked in groups to research how we find out about these periods of prehistory! 

In Maths we recapped multiplying and dividing by 0, 1, 10, 100 and 1000 and practised lots of different times table and began to spot patterns. 

During Literacy, we looked at a poem called 'The Crocodile' By Lewis Carroll. The children quickly became familiar with the snappy (pardon the pun) rhythm and this will help us create a class version next week. In grammar we found different word families and used prefixes and suffixes to create our own. 

Well done to Jack, who received star of the week this week, he has come back this term ready to learn and is putting so much effort into his learning. 

Spellings this week are all 12 months of the year. 

Happy Christmas! Friday 20th December

This week we continued our instructional writing and the children wrote their own sets of instructions on how to get to a magical place. We solved mysteries in Maths and learnt about water resistance in Science!

On Tuesday, the children also made some Christmas hats and enjoyed the Christmas lunch in the hall! This was after a Christmas celebration in church, where the children sang and read beautifully. 

As part of our Fabulous Finish, the whole of KS2 took part in a leaders debate as each class have been learning about a different invader. We then voted who was the most powerful, influential and best leaders. The results were,......Powerful: Vikings, Influential: Romans and Best Leaders: Saxons!

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Spellings this week use the long a sound (ai)

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A Christmas Treat! Friday 13th December

This week we were lucky enough to watch Wrens and KS1 classes perform their Christmas productions to us! We also performed our own puppet show versions of the nativity to Mrs Marsh and Mrs Brickwood as part of our RE learning about the Christmas Story.

In Maths we have tried really hard to multiply and divide by 0, 1, 10, 100 and 1000 which is trickier than it seems as it involved decimals! Lots more practise! During Literacy we have had lots of fun to create some instructions on how to get to the North Pole! The children have a great imagination and they definitely made a Christmassy read!

We also used our new water colours to make Christmas Cards and recapped everything we have learnt about the Romans by creating a timeline. 

Well done to Charlotte L, who is our star of the week this week! She has worked so hard since September and has made some great progress in her reading. 

Spellings this week are root words. 

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Christmas is coming... Friday 6th December

December is well and truly here! In class this week, we have created our Christmas Wreath decorations, begun Christmas card making AND received some early gifts (thanks to the PTA for full filling our wants and wishes!). 

We also had some assessments to complete in Reading and Maths. The children worked hard and tried their best on these so well done! We also looked at representations of multiplication and used lots of resources to group things together to help us divide. 

In Literacy, the class got busy writing! They wrote some great narratives as part of their hot write and squeezed in a cold write all about instructions!

We recapped all the inventions the Romans have given us as well as rehearse a puppet show about the Christmas Story! 

Well done to Holly, who received star of the week this week! She took care over her assessments and has contributed in class with confidence. Brilliant work!

Spellings this week are contractions

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A Wonderful Week! Friday 29th November

This week we have introduced Multiplication and Division! The children have been getting to grips with the 3, 4, 6 and 8 times tables and understanding the concepts of the two operations. Briefly, we had a recap on time. I was really impressed with how confident most of the children are at reading an analogue clock to o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to the hour. Please keep encouraging this at home. 

In Literacy we have planned our own narrative ready to write up next week! The class have a great imagination and came up with some super adaptions of traditional tales. Hopefully the children will use these to write some stories next week and include speech marks (another aspect we have been working on!). 

During Science we designed our own experiments to test the impact air resistance had on a handmade spinner. We came up with some great ideas and found out what happens if you change the weight, height or surface area. 

We are looking at the works of the French Artist 'Georges Seurat' and created a colour wheel in his style. The children used cotton buds to apply and mix paint to match the pointillism effect. 

We even had time to start creating a puppet show with Mrs Brickwood about incarnation, learn about the Roman Bathing experience AND complete a heart pumping circuit in PE.

Well done to our star of the week this week! Antonio has been working incredibly hard and is getting so much more out of his learning - thank you for all your hard work and contributions this week Antonio :) 

Spellings this week - all the children have the suffix sion

Have a lovely weekend. 

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Keeping Our Feet On The Ground Friday 22nd November

In Maths this week we have finished off our unit of work on addition and subtraction, hopefully this will help the children in all areas of Maths as we continue through the school year. 

During Literacy we have started writing our problems and solutions for our class adaptation of 'Hansel and Gretel' making sure we include different types of conjunctions, speech, adverbs and using a or an properly!

Science was exciting this week! The children tested 3 'meteorites' -an orange, a gold ball and a marble - to investigate which made the deepest crater! In order for the children to understand this we learnt that gravity is a force which pulls things towards the Earth's core.

In topic we explained why Romans built roads in Britain and how they did it! We also had time for PE, RE, French and music! 

Star of the week this week is Lilly! Lilly has a great mindset and used this to crack some very tricky Maths problems - well done!

Spellings this week - common errors

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Our Learning This Week Friday 15th November

In Maths this week we have been working extremely hard to understand addition and subtraction with 3 and 4 digit numbers. We are now working towards using the formal methods. 

During Literacy we have written an introduction for our adaptation of Hansel and Gretel. We have also looked at speech marks and subordinate clauses so that we can start to include more grammar features in our writing. 

In Topic we researched Roman life in Britain and made a magnetic game in Science. We also produced some great RE work with Mrs Brickwood. 

We have been very active in PE completing an indoor circuit as well as completing some team Rugby Relays!!

Well done to Hannah, who has truly earned star of the week this week! Hannah has been working so hard in Maths and is such a kind and helpful friend. 

Spellings this week are different prefixes.

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An explosion of knowledge! Friday 8th November

What a week! The children have made he most of their break and have been working extremely hard this week. 
 
In our Maths lessons we have recapped adding and subtracting 1, 10, 100 and 1000 from a given number and have begun to look at formal methods by using jottings and equipment.

During Literacy, we have moved on to looking at narratives, we have started to look at the story 'Hansel and Gretel' by Anthony Browne, an adaptation of the original.

Throughout Guided Reading sessions the children have used their retrieving skills to work out the culprits of the Gunpowder plot!

Rugby was introduced to use in PE this week and despite some cold hands most of us were smiling!

On Thursday we spent the day learning with Mrs Brickwood, We produced some wonderful pictures in RE, used the internet to research and made a fact file all about our Scientist for this term 'Sir Isaac Newton'. 

Have a great weekend!

Spellings for this week are different suffixes

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Please Miss Snook Friday 25th October

In Literacy lessons we have been working on the poem 'Please Mrs Butler' by Allan Ahlberg. The children fully immersed themselves in this quick poetry unit and got to write their own poems in a similar structure! They were very funny! Some children also took to the stage and bravely performed theirs poems with great expression.

During Maths, the children have been having a go at adding and subtracting 3 and 1 digit numbers which has been a bit tricky when crossing the tens. We also had fun in Science and made our own compasses using a magnet and water! 

We took a very short trip to the school car park and went inside the lifebus. The lady spoke to use all about human organs, friendship and technology. Our half term of PE was rounded off nicely with routines in gymnastics and invasion games in netball. 

Well done to Rose, who is star of the week this week! Rose has worked so hard on her handwriting and wrote an epic poem. Well done!

Thank you to all the parents who came in this week for parents meetings, it was great to meet some of you for the first time (properly!)

Happy Half Term!

Spellings (ure) 

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A week full of learning! Friday 18th October

An exciting start to the week this week! On Monday, we visited Towcester Museum and learnt all about Roman fashion, hygiene and leisure! The children behaved brilliantly and enjoyed all the activities on offer. 

In literacy, the children have been planning, drafting and writing their setting description of Mount Vesuvius, using the book 'Escape from Pompeii' to help us. We have also begun our unit on addition and subtraction. This week we worked on adding and subtracting multiples of 100 to another 100 and then to a 3 digit number. On top of this, times table rockstars was launched! The children have received a login to access the website/app which will help them with learning the vital 12x12 times tables! 

During our Science lesson, the children got to explore using magnets to find out which material were magnetic! They were fascinated with magnetic field created by iron fillings and the fact that we couldn't get some of the magnets to 'stick' together! 

Well done to Matilda, who is our star of the week this week! Matilda always works hard and tries her best. Thank you! 

Spellings this week y for i 

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Hard At Work! Friday 11th October

During our Maths lessons this week, the children had a go at estimating on a numberline, partitioning and even solved some place value riddles! The children have worked really hard in their Maths lessons and I hope that this place value knowledge will help them with the next Maths topic! 

In Literacy we have been looking at similes and personification to help us write our setting description text. We came up with some fantastic ideas to describe an avalanche using our senses to inspire us. 

In Topic we found out all about Boudicca, which will be useful for our Museum trip on Monday! We also had ago at shooting through the Netball hoop in PE (before the rain got to us!) AND even had time for a Science experiment to test friction. 

On Thursday, we took a trip down to Wrens! The children in Herons read a child a story to launch our reading buddy sessions - it was lovely to see the children choose a story that they might've enjoyed when they were younger! 

Well done to Annabelle, who received star of the week this week! She also works well in lessons but this week her writing was pretty spectacular!

Spellings this week are OU 

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Legendary Learning! Friday 4th October

In Literacy lessons we have started looking at settings descriptions. We picked out the key features from a description all about a forest fire including: Similes, Personification, Repetition and Alliteration (would you believe it)! In Maths we have been rounding to the nearest 10 and 100, which considering this is a new concept for most children, they have done really well!

In the afternoons, we had fun in topic designing Roman Mosaics! Holding shapes and improving our Netball passes in PE as well as RE with Mrs Brickwood. 

Well done to Harry this week, who is our star of the week! Harry has shown an amazing attitude towards his learning this week and has been a fantastic friend! 

Spellings this week use the suffix UN 

 

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Cabbages and Greens! Friday 27th September

In Literacy lessons this week, the children have been researching planning, drafting and writing all about Roman Villas. They have produced some informative reports all about the type of homes Romans built when they arrived in England over 2000 years ago. Maths has been busy too! We have begun to use <>= signs to order and compare 3 and 4 digit numbers as well as play some games to recap our place value knowledge. ,

Our Harvest visit to church was successful. Thank you for all your kind donations for Towcester foodbank; also thank you to any parents who attended the service, we hope you enjoyed our contribution of 'The Good Samaritan'. 

Well done to Curtis this week! Curtis has been a superstar, helping tidy at break and lunch as well as trying really hard in lessons and being a great friend. 

Spellings this week are the prefixes 'dis' and 'mis' 

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From spellings to sunshine... Friday 20th September

What a fantastic week we have had in Herons this week! From our spellings on Monday morning to our wonderful Friday playtime in the sun!

The children have been continuing to develop their place value knowledge in Maths this week by representing numbers on a number line and counting 1, 10, 100 or 1000 more or less. In Literacy we have innovated an information text all about Anglo - Saxon houses ready for our independent work next week; along with lots of work on conjunctions. In Science we began looking at the forces 'push' and 'pull' as well as exploring the style of Artist George Seurat! 

Today was our first Friday University session, the children got to enjoy either: Yoga, Spanish, Origami or Animation! 

A shout out to Owen this week! Owen is our star of the week because he has been using some wonderful vocabulary in our Literacy lessons. Well done!

Spellings this week use the suffix 'tion' 

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Making Numbers! Friday 13th September

This week's Math's focus has been getting the children to represent numbers in different ways. We used lots of different resources and drawings to show 2, 3 and 4 digit numbers. During Literacy lessons, we have been learning all about information texts and identifying the features. 

In Topic we looked at where the Romans came from and even had a go at decoding Roman numerals! On Thursday afternoon, we were lucky enough to have fun in French with Mrs Brickwood. 

Congratulations to Charlotte, who is star of the week this week! Charlotte has come back to school with a great attitude and is enjoying her reading! Fab!

Spellings this week use the suffix 'ly' 

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Welcome back! Friday 6th September
This short week has been all about launching our topic for this term 'This is my land'. Key Stage 2 will be learning all about invaders; Herons will be focusing on The Romans! We have played invasion games, designed and painted shields and have gone on an artefact treasure hunt. 
We have also been busy practising key spellings and getting used to our new class. 
This blog will be updated weekly with spellings and photos of the week! 
I hope you all enjoyed the summer break and are ready for the new academic year.

Miss Snook