Kestrels 2021-22
Mrs Meredith
Thursday 21st July 2022
What a great end to the term for Kestrels class. Even in their last week, our year 6's worked hard. Completing final end of year assessments, battling the heatwave, completing their charity event to raise funds for Ukraine and finally pulling off an amazing leavers assembly.
Good luck with your next ventures Kestrels. You will all be fantastic. Now have a wonderful summer and a well deserved rest.
Friday 15th July 2022
We started the week making preparations for our leavers assembly film - sharing great memories and reflecting on our time at primary school is a good way of getting ready for moving on.
In history, we completed our investigation into why the sun and moon were so significant to the Mayans. In PSHE we completed our unit on healthy relationships. We identified the key stages of grooming and how to protect ourselves from this. We learned how to ensure that we keep ourselves safe as we become more independent. We also deepened our understanding into what makes a healthy relationship in order that we can recognise when relationships don't feel safe or respectful. In science we investigated the angle of reflection and applied this knowledge to our own periscopes!
We ended the week with most of us completing our transition days at Sponne.
Kestrel Stars: Special mention to Henry and Emily who have been incredible helpers this week both with younger children and around the school - Thank you!
Friday 8th July 2022
We started the week revisiting 3d nets in maths as we designed packaging for our bakery products. We had to consider tolerances and where to position designs on our nets in order that our finished product design was accurate.
On Tuesday, we enjoyed our KS2 sports day. We all competed hard for our house completing our carousel of sporting challenges before running in the year 6 flat races. We showed great team spirit throughout!
In history, we analysed the Mayan societal trends and developed our understanding of their society's hierarchy before learning about why astronomy and the sun and moon in particular were so important to them.
In PSHE this week we started to learn about healthy romantic relationships - we discovered that these relationships are similar to all other relationships and that respect, a balance of power and consent are really important. On Thursday, the school nurse came to complete a session on puberty. The children were extremely mature and asked some brilliant questions.
In R.E. we learned about Karma and even created our own designs to represent this important concept.
Kestrel Star of the Week: This week we celebrated with Curtis who has completed an amazing week of learning. Well done Curtis - we are really proud of you!
Friday 1st July 2022
This week we started the first of our maths projects for the term. We Started our own bakery and used the mathematical skills of proportion and measures to scale up production to ensure that we planned the appropriate ingredients. We learned about the concepts of profit and loss before using our knowledge of percentages to calculate the best value items to purchase for our order of cupcakes.
In ICT we learned how to use different styles of quiz questions in order to create a Kestrels general knowledge quiz, while in D.T. we designed and made a truss bridge as part of our study into supporting structures.
On Thursday, we were joined by Mrs Turton from Sponne, who completed an additinal transition lesson for those children attending Sponne next year.
In history, we learned all about the structure of the Mayan society. We found out that it is as hierarchical as the Egyption society with priests enjoying the highest status and in geography we completed our end of unit assessment based on our in depth study into the Amazon rainforest
Kestrel Star of the Week: This week we celebrated with Charlotte Q, who completed a fantastic geography assessment. Well done Charlotte!
Friday 17th June 2022
Another week has flown by in Kestrel class.
We started the week with a special visit from some of the Sponne staff that will be supporting most of our year 6's next year. Children had the opportunity to find out some more about their new secondary school as well as ask important questions.
In geography, we have been learning how the Amazon Rainforest contributes to the global water cycle and in history we have been discovering how the Mayans were heavily influenced by their belief in many gods. In PSHE, we reviewed vita strategies to keep ourselves safe online and completed our individual cybersafety pledge. In R.E. we reflected on how religion can be a support to people as they journey through life's ups and downs.
In science we reviewed the impact that exercise can have on our heart rate and how to represent this graphically. Whilst in literacy, we have started to plan our discussion text on 'Should we chop down the Amazon Rainforest?' In art, we completed our ink paintings and finally, we ended a very warm week with our second archery lesson.
Friday 10th June 2022
Kestrels have completed a great week of learning after the half term break.
In geography, we are continuing to learn about the Amazon Rainforest. This week, we have looked at the impact of human activity upon the Amazon - most notably deforestation. We have analysed deforestation trends from the 1970s to date and identified the role that humans have had in accelerating or decelerating the rates of deforestation.
In history, we started to learn about the The Mayans. We developed our history skills by using our previous knowledge of ancient civilisations to help us ask historic questions before developing our chronology skills to create a layered timeline.
In literacy, we have started to learn about discussion texts - we have identified the key features of this genre and we have learned how to use a range of conjunctions to link or oppose key facts ensuring that our writing remains unbiased.
This term we are lucky to be receiving specialist coaching in Archery and we enjoyed our first session on Monday. On Thursday we joined with our Heron reading buddies to share our information leaflets on oral hygiene as well as sharing stories together.
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with Lara this week as she is a role model for working hard in our class and has produced some excellent work in both history and geography.
Friday 27th May 2022
This week in Kestrels class, we have been focusing on writing a recount text based on our recent residential. We started the week by analysing the features of a recount before planning and writing our own. As we have been drafting and editing our work, we have been making sure that we include all of the writing skills that we have learnt this year.
In geography, we completed our fact files on the tribes of the Amazon Rainforest and we completed our end of unit assessment in science.
In preparation for our jubilee celebrations, we have also been learning how to complete several Maypole dances - We completed the intricate plaiting correctly on Friday - Well done Kestrels
On Thursday, we supported the village's efforts to ensure that it was free of litter for the bank holiday festivities. We completed litter picking at the park and along Calvert Road and Close. The children were incredibly sensible and made a fantastic contribution by clearing several sacks worth of litter!
On Friday lunchtime we enjoyed wearing our jubilee crowns for our whole school picnic and in the afternoon, after our Maypole performance, we had great fun decorating shirts, tops and flags with jubilee patterns.
Kestrel Star of the Week: This week we celebrated with Edward. Edward has been working incredibly hard on his writing and has produced an excellent recount. Well done Edward.
Friday 20th May 2022
Kestrels had an exciting time on their residential this week. On Wednesday morning, we set off for our three day stay at Whitemoor Lakes in Lichfield alongside Silverstone and Blakesley Primary schools. We had an amazing time completing a range of challenges including abseiling, climbing, highropes, kayaking, buggy building and even learning circus skills. We all pushed ourselves to overcome our fears and felt proud of our achievements. It was wonderful that we could once again enjoy this residential and we realised how lucky we were this year! Take a look at our photos to see us in action!
Friday 14th May 2022
This week was SATs week for Kestrels class. I was incredibly proud of each and every Kestrel as they approached these assessments in a calm and mature manner. This week was a real opportunity for the children to showcase all that they have learnt and I am confident that they all gave their absolute best this week.
To celebrate all of their hardwork, we had a day of fun on Friday with team games and a shared picnic.
All of our Kestrels were stars this week!
Friday 29th April 2022
Kestrels have completed yet another packed week of learning this week.
In literacy, we completed our non chronological reports on North and South America and the children should feel proud of the quality of work that they produced. Our grammar focus this week has been tenses; we have embedded our knowledge of the progressive tense and developed our understanding of the perfect tense.
In science, we learned how animals adapt to their environment and adapted our own animals to best suit an altered environment.
In art, having appraised a piece of rainforest art, we designed a printing plate for our rainforest inspired prints.
In maths, we have worked on using metric and imperial measures to solve a range of problems. We have also been revising angles and applying this knowledge to solve missing angle problems.
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with Emily this week as she is a wonderful role model in our class for determination and great learning behaviours. We are super proud of you Emily - well done!
Friday 22nd April 2022
Refreshed after the Easter break, Kestrel class got to straight to work this week.
In literacy, we have been writing our non-chronological reports on North and South America making sure that we maintain a formal tone throughout. In maths, we have been completing more algebra problems by solving two step equations and working systematically to find missing values.
In geography, we started our in depth study of the Amazon by learning about the location of rainforests and what creates this amazing biome.
In science, we learned about inherited characteristics as part of our study into evolution and inheritance and in art we appraised techniques used in woodcutting before creating our own relief image for printing purposes.
We ended the week perusing the books that will be available as part of our book fayre. There looked like some great reads and our wish lists were full!!!
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with Jack this week, who has produced some super writing for his report and has also made excellent progress in maths. Well done Jack!
Friday 1st April 2022
We had a great last week of term in Kestrel class.
In maths we learned all about algebra; we formed expressions, substituted values and completed algebraic equations. In geography, we learned about tectonic plates and how the movement of these plates affect the human geography of North and South America by creating mountains and volcanoes.
In R.E., we completed our Understanding Christianity unit - Salvation. We learned how Christians can be inspired by the concept of sacrifice and salvation.
In science, we have been completing some experiments to understand the conditions under which bacteria growth can be slowed or increased.
On Thursday we enjoyed joining the rest of the school at church to take part in our Easter Service.
We ended the week completing our writing for fun challenge by composing a series of class blogs and sharing another wonderful reading buddies session with Herons class.
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with Charlie this week who has been working hard all term to contribute to class discussions and helping to move our learning forwards. Well done Charlie
Friday 25th March 2022
This week in Kestrels we started to plan our non chronological text. We considered our audience and our purpose for writing. In maths, we solved a range of percentage problems ensuring that we used bar models to support our thinking.
In geography, we extended our understanding of biomes by learning how plants and animals have adapted to survive in certain conditions. In R.E we learned about Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant and drew comparisons between the servant and Jesus.
We celebrated with Charlotte this week, who has been focusing really hard on re-calling key knowledge in Geography and R.E. this week. Well done Charlotte; your hard work is paying off.
Friday 17th March 2022
We focused really hard this week in Kestrels as we completed some important assessments across a range of subjects. We should all feel really proud of our achievements this week and know that all of our our hard work is paying off!
In maths this week, we learned how to complete more complex percentage calculations and in geography we learned all about biomes and which ones are situated in North and South America. We also had great fun completing a yeast experiment in science as we started to understand more about microorganisms and how some effects of bacteria can be helpful!
We ended our week by writing to our french penpals and perfecting our rugby skills!
Kestrels Star of the Week: This week we celebrated with Sophie who has been an absolute trooper this week - keeping focused even when things are challenging! What a role model to all of us you are Sophie!
Friday 11th March 2022
Another week has flown past in Kestrel class!
This week we were really pleased that our second group of children could complete our deferred transition lesson at Sponne. They made some amazing pencil cases as part of their design technology lesson and thoroughly enjoyed their lesson.
In maths, we have been learning how to convert and compare fractions, decimals and percentages. We have all pushed ourselves hard and all of us have been reasoning and problem solving with this skill. In literacy, we learned how to use adjectives to accurately describe when writing factually and we researched facts to be used in our non-chronological text about 'The Americas.'
In science, we started to learn about micro-organisms and produced clay models to show the difference in structure between bacteria, fungi and viruses. In R.E. we learned all about mosques and how this special building supports Muslim's ability to worship god. -
In music, we continued to learn how to play Jazz in the style of Burt Bacharach as well as develop our improvisation skills. We ended the week with another fantastic rugby session from the Saints rugby coaches.
Star of the Week : We celebrated with Georgie this week, who has produced some excellent work in reading and maths. A brilliant effort this week and every week Georgie - Well done!
Friday 4th March 2022
Another full week this week as Kestrels completed some excellent learning.
In geography, we learned how to analyse the population density of North and South America before graphing total population figures by country. We learned where the most densely populated areas are and that many of the physical geography features of these continents directly influence where people live.
In science, we learned more detailed sub classification of mammals and in R.E. we learned about the importance of charitable giving to muslims as well as the advice that they get from the Qu'ran.
In literacy, we learned to distinguish between the formal and informal voice and in maths we learned how to find fractions of amounts.
On Thursday, we had great fun enjoying all things related to reading as part of our 'World Book Day' celebrations.
Kestrels Star of the Week: We celebrated with Carter this week, who has been working incredibly hard over the last few weeks and has produced some excellent work in maths and geography - well done Carter!
Friday 25th February 2022
Kestrels had a great start to the term this week.
We tackled some challenging geography as we learned about the physical geography of rivers. We also used digitalis to locate the source and the mouth of the River Nene before measuring its length. Finally, we learned how to locate some of the key geographical features of South America.
On Wednesday we spent an excellent day at Irchester Country Park; completing sessions on survival skills and orienteering. All the children immersed themselves in the activities and represented the school brilliantly.
In maths, we reviewed and applied our skills at calculating with fractions before moving on to calculating fractions of amounts. In literacy, we learned how to use colons to separate independent clauses and to complete our week, we enjoyed our first rugby session delivered by The Northampton Saints coaches.
Kestrel star of the week: This well we celebrated with Lara who is an incredible member of our class in many ways - a great friend, a role model for learning and someone who delivers her best whatever subject she is tackling - well done Lara!
Friday 11th February 2022
In Kestrels this week we had another full week of learning. In maths, we moved onto multiplying and dividing with fractions; we are now really confident in calculating with fractions. In literacy, we started to revise the features of non-chronological reports. In geography we moved on to look at the continent of South America in more detail. While in R.E. we learned all about the Muslim commitment of completing a pilgrimage. We also completed our last Hockey lesson of the term with our Freestyle coach.
As part of Internet Safety week we learned how to recognise the behaviours of unsafe adults and keep ourselves safe both online and in the real world. As part of Mental Health week, we reflected on how connecting with people can help with our mental well being: We considered who we have in our lives that can support us and enable us to be more resilient to life's ups and downs. We also learned how to think more positively by re-framing our self talk and finally we thought about the sort of positive messages that we could share with others to make them feel more uplifted.
Kestrels Star of the Week: We celebrated with Emily this week, who is without doubt a wonderful star in our class. Emily is an exemplary student and a role model in terms of behaviour. We are lucky to have you as part of the team Emily!
Friday 4th February 2022
We had a wonderfully varied week this week in Kestrels. First of all, we completed our first set of mock SATs papers throughout the week. We all did really well for our first attempt and hopefully feel much more comfortable with what to expect in May. In geography, we identified a range of human and physical features across North America and further developed our mapping skills to locate these using a range of map types.
In R.E. we learned about one of the five pillars of Islam (fasting) and completed an in depth study of Ramadan. In maths we learned how to subtract mixed numbers with and without number lines.
In art, we learned how to sculpt using clay using a range of techniques including how to smooth and blend the clay to ensure an even finish. This was quite a tricky challenge but we persevered well!
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with Charlie this week who completed her assessments amazingly well. Well done Charlie, we are really proud of you!
Friday 28th January 2022
In Kestrel class this week we completed our persuasive letters to Giant. The quality of our writing was excellent and we should feel proud of how our writing is developing.
In maths, we started to deepen our understanding of calculating with fractions by adding and subtracting mixed numbers. We developed our fluency before tackling some tricky reasoning and problem solving challenges.
In Geography, we started to learn about the individual countries that make up the continent of North America - Did you know there are 23 countries in total? In science, we learned how to create our own branching database in order to sort and classify birds and butterflies. We learned that careful observation and devising the right type of question were key to ensuring that specific species are identified. In R.E., we learned about the ritual and significance of prayer to Muslims and in art we used acrylic paints to add colour to our clay work.
Star of the Week: This week we celebrated with Sophie, who is a wonderful role model to the whole class in terms of her attitude to learning. However, this week she also produced an excellent example of a persuasive letter. Well done Sophie!
Friday 21st January 2022
We have really worked hard this week in Kestrels. In literacy, we have planned and started to compose our persuasive letters inspired by the book 'Giant' by Juliet and Charles Snape. In maths, we have begun to calculate with fractions - working firstly on adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators.
In geography, we have been understanding and calculating time zones across North and South America; further re-enforcing the scale of these two huge continents. In science we have been learning the classification routes for plants and in R.E. we have been learning how the 5 pillars of Islam inform the daily lives of Muslims.
Kestrels Star of the Week: We celebrated with Rose today who has shown a significant improvement in her confidence when completing her maths learning. Well done Rose. All of your hard work will pay off!
Friday 14th January 2022
We have had another great week of learning in Kestrel class. In science we have learnt about the 5 main kingdoms into which all living things can be classified. We classified a range of living things into these kingdoms as well as researching sub categories of classification.
In maths, we have been delving deeper into fractions. We have been finding equivalent fractions, converting between improper fractions and mixed numbers and finally comparing fractions by ordering them on a number line.
In literacy, we have been learning a range of skills in preparation for writing our persuasive letter. We have been writing with persuasive openers as well as using emotion, exaggeration and modal verbs to persuade. In R.E., we learned about the core beliefs of Muslims and in french we developed our ability to describe others using plural conjugations of the verb to be and plural adjectives.
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with Edward this week who has completed a fantastic week of work focusing himself in all of his lessons. Well done Edward keep up the fabulous work!
Friday 7th January 2022
Kestrels came back to school with a really positive attitude! It was lovely for us all to be back together.
We started the week by diving into our new geography topic- Amazing Americas! We learned how to use our digital mapping software in order to locate North and South America. We learned how to use lines of latitude and longitude to provide precise locational references as well as using measuring tools in order to understand just how large these two continents are.
In maths, we have started our unit of work on fractions. We represented a range of common and improper fractions and used pattern spotting and generalisations to start to compare the relative size of fractions. We ended the week by exploring equivalent fractions.
In science, we reviewed our understanding of sorting and classifying animals before learning about Carl Linnaeus who created the first classification system for all living things as well as the still used bi-nomial naming system.
In literacy, we have begun to learn the features of persuasive letters and in guided reading we have begun to develop our summarising skills.
Star of the Week: We celebrated with Charlotte today who produced an excellent cold write persuasive letter and has made great progress in her writing this year.
Friday 3rd December 2021
We have had a very scientific week this week in Kestrel class. We have been designing and conducting our own scientific experiments on electrical circuits and then we ended the week with a visit by Atomic Tom! Tom taught us all about the difference between static and mains electricity before helping us to conduct some experiments based on generating static electricity, understanding its effects and how to discharge it! We had great fun ( see our pictures below) and learnt lots including the fact that there are circa seven octillion atoms in a fully sized human being! Thank goodness we only need to know numbers up to 10 million!
In literacy, we finished our narrative texts. We have worked so hard to complete this extended piece of writing and we should all feel incredibly proud of the standard of our writing. In history, we learned about the common crimes of poaching, smuggling and highway robbery in the Stuart era. We worked in teams to learn why these crimes were common in society at this time and how they were punished. We then applied this knowledge to understand the trends in the unfair treatment of the poor and the targeting of the rich across both the medieval and Stuart eras. In R.E. we used our understanding of Jesus's great commandments and the Ten commandments to design our own rules to ensure that people live with freedom and justice.
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with Carter this week as he has been working incredibly hard on his writing and has produced an excellent narrative text showing great maturity and improved technical competence. Well done Carter!
Friday 26th November 2021
The hardworking Kestrels have smashed another week of learning!
In literacy, we have started to write our narratives based on 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes. We have all chosen different main characters and have been working hard to ensure that we re-tell the story from our characters perspective. In maths, we have been learning how to use long division. We have been generating division facts using a range of mental strategies as well as completing our calculations accurately.
In R.E. we compared the ten commandments from the old testament with the two great commandments from Jesus in the new testament. We then considered how following these commandments might bring freedom and justice for Christians. In history, we learned about the gruesome punishment for treason used to punish the perpetrators of the gunpowder plot in the Stuart era.
In music, we appraised and compared two more old school hip hop tracks before perfecting our performance of this terms rap - 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air'
Kestrel Star of the Week : This week we celebrated with Sianne. Sianne is not only an amazing member of our class but is an incredible writer who has been working extremely hard on her narrative this week. Well done Sianne!
Friday 19th November 2021
Another varied week in Kestrel class. In maths, we have been working on our formal methods of division learning how to interpret remainders when solving word problems. In literacy, we have been planning our narrative based on 'The Highwayman' and in reading we have been learning how to make comparisons across a text.
In history, we started to learn about crime and punishment in the stuart era. We learned all about the crime of witchcraft and how the witch hunters identified and punished witches. In R.E. we reflected upon the meaning of the ten commandments and considered: why they were needed; which commandments would be hardest to adhere to and which commandments would make the biggest difference to society.
On Thursday, we enjoyed reading with our buddies from Herons class and we ended the week with a visit from our local PCSOs where we discussed keeping safe locally focusing on road and personal safety.
Kestrel Star of the Week: This week we celebrated with Emily; Emily is an amazing learner in our class. She is always pushing herself to deliver her best and produces work to an exceptionally high standard - well done Emily.
Friday 12th November 2021
We have been working hard in Kestrels this week. In literacy we have been learning how to use semi-colons and a range of relative pronouns before applying these to our narrative writing. In maths, we have been solving multi-step problems using long multiplication before exploring the language of division. In history, we learned how the actions of Henry VIII impacted crime and punishment in tudor times, while in R.E. we applied our knowledge of the story of Moses to the big question of 'How can following God provide freedom and Justice?
In science, we started to explore the components of an electrical circuit and in PSHE, we learned strategies to stand up to bullying behaviour.
On Thursday, we joined the rest of the school for our special remembrance service lead by The Royal British Legion. A special mention must go to Yoann, Elizabeth and Georgie who made wonderful contributions to this service.
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with Jack this week who has been making a significant effort to join in with class discussions this week which has made improvements in his independent work - well done Jack!
Friday 5th November 2021
Kestrels have had a fantastic start back to the new term. In guided reading, we have been immersing ourselves in our new focus text 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes. We have been enjoying the drama and tragedy contained within this ballad poem and are looking forward to using it to inspire our narrative writing over the next few weeks.
In maths, we have been perfecting our skills in long multiplication. We have become fluent in our formal written methods and we have also been reasoning and problem solving. In science, we looked at the history of electricity before we start to learn about circuits, while in R.E, we started our new topic 'People of God.' The special person that we learned about this week was Moses. In music we started to look at a different genre of music - Old school hip hop with a particular focus on the 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air! We enjoyed appraising the style of music and this particular song before learning to sing and perform it.
Our P.E. focus this term is football and cross country. You can see some action shots of us on the pitch below!
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with George this week, who has excelled in his history and RE assessments as well as producing some phenomenal writing this week! Great job George, we are really proud of you!
Friday 22nd October 2021
Kestrel class had a wonderful week of learning for their last week of term. In literacy, we completed our setting descriptions of the city scene from the short novel 'Way Home' by Libby Hathorn. In maths, we worked on multi-step worded problems and in R.E. we considered the messages from the 'Sermon on the mount' in relation to charitable giving.
We also completed our ICT unit on coding where the children learned how to use timers and countdowns as well as functions to design a series of games. The children were great at debugging their codes and working collaboratively to ensure that we all enjoyed success. In music, we learned all about pop ballads. We listened and appraised a range of ballads from the 50's to modern day with a particular focus on the artist Adele. The children learned how to identify a pop ballad by understanding its features before learning to sing, play musical parts on the glockenspiel and improvise music. Finally, in art, we produced some amazing watercolour cityscape silhouettes by applying our skills of using harmonising colours .
Kestrel Star of the Week - we celebrated with Taylan this week who has been working particularly hard on his written presentation recently with excellent results - great job Taylan!
Friday 15th October 2021
Another great week for Kestrels this week as we moved on to look at a specific type of punishment from the Tudor times. Having learned all about a scold's bridle we went on to infer what this type of punishment might indicate about how society viewed women during this era. In literacy, we have been improving our writing skills by refining our use of adverbials and prepositions as well as developing our ability to write cohesively, and in maths we have been learning about formal methods of addition and subtraction for whole and decimal numbers.
In art, we completed some amazing prints inspired by the street artist Banksy and in R.E, we were reflecting on what Jesus would do about being generous - we learned about four Christian charities and considered how the teachings from the sermon on the mount may inspire Christians to support a given charity. We have also been working hard on our gymnastic skills this week focusing on controlling balances while using a range of equipment - have a look at us in action below!
Kestrels Star of the Week - We celebrated with Lara this week, who is an amazing learner in our class. There isn't s single lesson where Lara isn't thinking carefully and producing her best work. However, this week I have been so impressed with Lara's growing confidence and competence in maths. Well done Lara!
Friday 8th October 2021
This week, we have started to look at setting descriptions in literacy. We have analysed our model text by unpicking key features and have worked on writing using personification. In maths, we have started to look at adding and subtracting larger integers and in reading we spent some time developing our predicting skills by ensuring that we justified our thinking with evidence both stated or implied.
We took part in a virtual question and answer session with Sir Robert Winston this week and were thrilled when some of our questions were selected to be answered. In science, we explained how nutrients are transported around our body while in history we learned about crime and punishment in Norman times and considered how unfair the justice system was at the time for the poorer members of society.
In PSHE, we learned some skills to help us be more assertive while in French we were focusing on the appropriate pronunciation of words ending with a consonant and applying these to expressions that describe us.
We ended the week with a wonderful return to St Bartholomews church to take part in our Harvest festival service. As a school we were reflecting on how to be thankful for and respectful of our planet. Kestrels service contribution was an environment rap which the children learned and performed well.
Friday 1st October 2021
We completed some excellent learning this week. In our reading lessons we used our inference skills to draw conclusions about the personalities of a range of different characters from our class novel 'Outlaw' by Michael Morpurgo. In literacy, we completed our character descriptions of 'The Sheriff of Nottingham' - we made him sound suitably threatening! Whilst in maths, we moved onto understanding negative numbers. To support our conceptual understanding of what happens when you add and subtract negative number we used a number line based game involving hot air balloons, puffs of air and sandbags - See our photos to find out more!
In History, we found out just how little is recorded about our country's legendary character Robin Hood and we started to understand how bias and perspective can influence how historical events are recorded. In R.E. we considered what Jesus would do to make the world a better place by applying our knowledge of the sermon on the mount to current world problems.
In art this week, we further developed our skills of perspective drawing by producing some fabulous perspective ink paintings of Venice. I think we have some budding artists in our midst!
Kestrel Star of the Week: Congratulations goes to Elizabeth this week. Elizabeth only joined us a few weeks ago but has already made a big impact on the class in terms of her contribution to learning! Well done Elizabeth!
Friday 24th September 2021
We completed another packed week of learning in Kestrel class. In literacy, we learned how to write cohesively to deepen our level of description for our character descriptions before innovating a description of the outlaw Robin Hood. In maths, we have moved on from ordering decimals to look at rounding whole numbers. We have been working hard to improve our reasoning skills, using key sentence stems to support us in our explanations.
On Tuesday we took part in a careers in the classroom live session with a former warrant officer who shared his experiences of serving in the Royal Artillery having joined as a school leaver aged 16. The children asked some great questions and reflected well on the various aspects of a career in the military.
In science, we conducted predictions about the impact of various forms of exercise on our heart rate and in R.E. we learned about the Christian charity ' The leprosy mission and how their work reflects the way in which Christians put Gospel teaching into practice. In PSHE we learned how to stay safe online by maintaining healthy online relationships.
On Thursday, we completed our second reading buddies session with Heron's class - we think their reading is getting better and better - well done Herons!
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with Yoann this week, who is a real inspiration when it comes to learning in our class. Yoann never stops pushing himself to deliver work to an exceptional standard and we are so proud of his achievements - Well done Yoann!
Friday 17th September 2021
Kestrel class completed an excellent week of learning this week. In history, we learned about crime and punishment in the Anglo-Saxon and Viking era. We learned all about trials by ordeal and the concept of compensation by paying 'weregild' that was used at this time. In science, we learned all about the digestive system and had great fun using models to improve our understanding of how food travels through our bodies and nutrients are absorbed.
In Maths, we were looking at ordering numbers upto 10 million before understanding the value of decimal numbers while in literacy we were working on a range of skills to improve our descriptive writing - namely expanded noun phrases and figurative language.
In P.E. we developed our balancing skills in gymnastics and commenced netball by looking at a range of passing techniques. As part of our study of gospel texts in R.E we looked at how Christians may choose to interpret healing miracles.
It was great to take part in our first singing assembly of the year too - re-familiarising ourselves with some of our favourite songs.
Kestrel Star of the Week: We celebrated with Tillie this week, who has been an amazing example to us all of how to learn in Kestrel class. Tillie is always listening and contributing to class discussions and is thus able to move her learning forward - well done Tillie!
Friday 10th September 2021
It was lovely to welcome the children back to school on Monday and Kestrels class settled into a busy first week. In history, we started our study of crime and punishment through the ages by learning all about the Roman era. We found out that the Romans used extremely harsh punishments to deter crime and we learned about the gruesome details of crucifixion.
In R.E. we started to learn about Gospel texts and focused in particular on 'The sermon on the mount.' We completed our own interpretation of the teachings that Jesus made and we began to consider how Christians reflect upon their own actions by considering the question 'What would Jesus do?'
In science, we reviewed our understanding of the skeleton, muscles and digestive system before looking at the heart and explaining how it works.
In literacy, we assessed our spellings and our ability to write a character description as well as using our predicting skills in reading to think about our new class novel. In maths we started to explore the value of numbers upto and beyond a million.
We enjoyed our first gymnastics lesson with our new sports coach on Thursday before completing art where we learned about perspective drawing. We ended the week thinking about negotiation and compromise in PSHE and set ourselves our own independent targets to improve our ability to do this.
Star of the Week: Congratulations to Henry, who has had a fantastic start to the term. Henry has been a real role model for focused learning in all areas of the curriculum this week - well done Henry!
Congratulations must also go to our newly appointed house captains and vice captains.
Red - Captain Lara Vice George
Blue - Captain Ethan Vice Carter
Green - Captain Georgie Vice Charlotte
Yellow - Captain Emily Vice Sophie
