Author: Linda Farruggio

Friday 25th April 2025

Friday 25th April 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the Summer Term. I hope that you enjoyed the Easter Break and that you are ready for the term ahead. I know that the children are and, the term began as always, with a themed week linking the learning across the school.

This week the children have been learning all about ‘How the World Works’, with a focus on computing and coding. Using the latest Lego technology, children in Key Stage Two have been building robots and programming them to do a variety of tasks, whilst children lower down the school have been learning how to write codes and to programme software to make things move! The children have greatly enjoyed their learning as was demonstrated in a special sharing assesmbly today.

Attached to this letter you will find a list of the dates in the diary for the term ahead. You will also have received a welcome letter from your child’s class teacher, sharing the learning for the term ahead. Do please keep these safe; if you should lose your copy then do see Linda for a replacement or check on our website.

Below is a summary of the learning that has taken place across the school this week.

Early Years
We have really enjoyed our themed week in Early Years! We learned what ‘coding’ and ‘sequencing’ means and explored the different ways we could make our Code-a-pillar move. Everyone shared nicely and showed great patience when waiting for their turn to use the code-a-pillars. We have a good understanding of how the world (well the code-a-pillars) work now!
Year One
Year One have had great fun this week learning all about beebots, algorithms and debugging. We began this week by learning what an algorithm was and the importance of writing instructions in order – we practised this by ‘programming’ our classmates and giving them a set of instructions to complete a task in the classroom. On Wednesday we were introduced to beebots and we learned all about the language of coding. We experimented with the buttons on the beebot and giving the beebot instructions to travel from a starting point to an end point. We then used our artistic talents to create a road for the beebot to travel with a starting point and a parking space. We created sights along the way for our beebot to travel past such as a shop, a playground, a cinema, a swimming pool etc. We then used our coding skills to create an algorithm that would tell our beebot how to travel from ‘start’ to ‘p’. We also enjoyed having the opportunity to share all of our learning at the sharing assembly on Friday.
Year Two
This week in Year Two we have been celebrating Themed Week. Out Theme this half term is ‘How the World Works.’  We have been using the programs Scratch and Logo to create algorithms. They children found this very challenging and had to put their brains to the test to ‘debug’ any faults in their algorithm. It was tricky at times but the children really enjoyed their learning.
Year Three Year Four
Year Three have been learning to code using loops this week. We created a number of programs exploring limited repeat loops and forever loops, using precision and care to create programs that would draw regular polygons or make a character dance. We used the x and y axes to make our frogs jump up and down. Finally, we created original catching games using all of the knowledge we had built up over the last few days. A reminder as well that swimming begins for Year Three on Tuesday; please make sure that your child is at school by 8.55am at the very latest. We need to leave precisely on time to make our lesson on time, and any late arrivals will need to stay at school. Thank you in advance!

 

This week in Year Four we have been getting to grips with  forces, motions and interactions using our new Lego BricQ Motion sets to build and make them move. As part of our learning, we have been developing our ability to work in teams working in groups and developing our turn taking skills, in both a practical sense, but also when listening to the opinions of others. We experienced a number of ‘aha’ moments in the class as we battled through the challenges to experience successes!
Year Five
Our Themed Week, ‘How the World Works’ has been a great introductory week to start summer term. The children have had the chance to explore new robotics equipment – Lego Spike – where they completed tutorials on how to program various components such as colour sensors, motors, distance sensors  and more. They followed detailed instructions on how to build their robot and used logical, computational thinking to write algorithms to code movements for their robot.
Year Six
We’ve hit the ground running in Year Six… After a successful two days in the holiday, attending Easter School, we are armed with a greater understanding of how to tackle tests and we are making the most of every opportunity to rehearse these skills. In maths this week, we have revisited coordinates, perimeter and area, and we’ve also touched on algebra. In English, we have been thinking about how an author creates an image in the readers mind with the words they weave, and we’ve also been revising different word classes gaining a greater understanding of collective nouns, synonmys and antonmyns and prefixes and suffixes. We’ve packed an auwful lot into our first four day week of the Summer Term!

 The house point totals for this week are:

 GARRISON 29  AUGUSTINE 39
 FRANKLIN 39  DICKENS 41

On a final note, a reminder, next Wednesday 30th April, Peter Truesdale, our Chair of Governors and I will be holding two meetings to update parents on the campaign to save our school, at 9am and 3:30 – we do hope that you are able to attend one of the sessions.

Kind regards

Mrs Warland

Head Teacher

 

Dates for the Summer Term

 

Tuesday 22nd April                Term Begins

How the World Works – Themed Week

Monday 12th May                   Key Stage Two SATs Week

Friday 23rd May                     Year Five Class Assembly

Term Ends

 

Monday 2nd June                  Term Begins

Friady 6th June                      Year Four Class Assembly

Friday 13th June                     Year Three Class Assembly

Monday 16th June                   Assessement Week

Spelling Bee

Wednesday 25th June              Year Three Sir John Soane’s Museum

Friday 20th June                     Year Two Class Assembly

Friday 27th June                     Year One Class Assembly

Summer Fair – TBC

Tuesday 1st July                      Sports Day

Open Evening

Wednesday 2nd July                Open Evening

Thursday 3rd July                   Open Evening

Friday 4th July                       Reception Class Assembly

Thursday 10th July                  Year Six Production

Thursday 17th July                  Year Six Leavers’ Service

Friday 18th July                     Term Ends