Reception very much enjoyed their literacy focus book ‘Room on the Broom’ and were inspired to tell the story through drama or by creating story maps. There are so many characters in the book with their own part to play that each individual pupil has a firm favourite. For want of a better name I call the collective group of heroes that save the day the ‘drippy monster’ and we had endless fun trying to recreate that special moment! Year 2 are impressing me with their purposeful approach to their learning as the term gets underway; new planners handed in, ready with their whiteboards at 8.46am for the first lesson of the day. Year 1 too have made great strides in their learning and their independence is also growing as they rise to the high expectations of their teachers. There is always an excited buzz around their classrooms as they participate in discussions, share flipped learning (their particular super power) and wait for friends in other classrooms to skip off to break or after-school activities. Pre-School visits are good for the soul, not least because of the warm welcome but also because the learning environment is so exciting. A focus on positional language (prepositions) was in evidence. The main activity was adapted in the moment as staff assessed each child’s level of development in this area and this will of course continue now in provision so that the skill can be levelled and supported going forward. I must remember to stand ‘beside’ the bridge when the bikes are being used!
Year 3 - This week, the children have continued to work hard on solving some mysteries that have happened around the school. Some strange photos appeared like the ones from the book ‘The Mysteries of Harry Burdick’ but this time at Edge Grove. The children have begun to write their own mystery story based on the photos and are trying hard to include the skills they have learned this half term in their writing. In maths, we have continued to explore our times tables with a focus on the 8x tables. The children have looked at patterns that link the 4 and 8x tables and are beginning to use known facts to derive unknown facts. Light and Shadow is our new theme for science and it has been fun exploring which materials are transparent, translucent and opaque. You could get your child to show you some examples of each in your home. With our Egyptian day coming up, please look at the Information Letter for information regarding costumes for the day. Year 4 - We have had a brilliant week in Year 4 revising our times tables through word problems and puzzles. The children have shown how much their times tables have improved and we continue to encourage them to build upon this fantastic progress using Times Tables Rockstars.
In English the children have continued to focus on the novel ‘How to train your Dragon.’ They have enjoyed writing their own stories based on inspiration from the story. They spent time planning their writing in order to develop their creative ideas coherently.
In Science we completed a class experiment investigating levels of Carbon Dioxide in fizzy drinks. The children found this both informative and amusing and the overflowing sprite served as a good discussion point around fair testing. The children concluded that Sprite was by far the fizziest drink!
The Year 3s and 4s enjoyed their first calligraphy session in Japanese club this week. Last week they counted up to 20, and this week saw them learn the stroke order for the following Japanese ‘kanji’ characters: sun, moon and mountain. Year 5 - The weather may be getting colder but that has not stopped Year 5 from keeping active. In English lessons, Year 5 has been reading 'Kensuke's Kingdom', and had mixed feelings of envy and pity when protagonist Michael was pulled out of his comfortable school to sail around the world on a whim! This inspired a debate of the pros and cons of home-schooling. Below are 5 Blue working hard in their planning stage, preparing for their debate on Friday. The pupils have worked very hard to research, build and develop their arguments, but which side will come out on top? Home-schooling: a good thing or a bad thing...what do you think?
In maths lessons this week the children looked at place value, ordering decimal numbers and fractions with the same denominator. By the end of the week year 5 were busy adding and subtracting improper fractions and mixed numbers. Ask your child to explain the difference between the two. There have been wonderful smells coming from the DT cooking classroom this week as some of the year 5 pupils were busy cooking delicious pasta in a vegetable sauce. We hope the children have kindly shared some with you! The other half of the year group have been busy creating their own Batique inspired sea life designs in their textiles lessons. In history lessons year 5 continued to learn about Thomas Beckett and his relationship with King Henry II. Whilst in geography lessons the children used their understanding of grid references to work with a four number grid reference in order to locate various places. Alongside rugby and football fixtures, year 5 were excited to start playing ‘ultimate frisbee’ in their P.E lessons, the windy weather this week has certainly helped their aim! Congratulations to Louie for his upcoming role in the American TV series ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’. Louie will be playing the part of a young Jimmy Simpson and the show will be on tv this Spring.
Well done to Ellie who played in the Hertfordshire under 11 girls team at the National Plate finals last weekend. The team showed fantastic poise and focus and their hard work was rewarded as they won the National Plate.
Year 6 - Year 6 have had another busy week, with matches and lessons in full swing. Within PSHE this week they have studied Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech and discussed the difference between dreams and goals, setting themselves SMART targets for this term.
In English the pupils have been continuing studying the novel Clockwork and have created drawings of Dr Kalmenius. You can see a photo of Alex Dacres’ and Emily Pullen’s brilliantly annotated drawings below.
In Maths the year 6’s have been learning about Algebra. They have been focussing in particular on; simplifying expressions, substitution, expanding brackets and solving one step equations.
In Science they have been looking at the different states of matter and explaining how state changes occur. They will soon be undertaking their Bunsen burner licence exams and are all very excited about this opportunity.
In Baccalaureate this week, the Year 8s enjoyed their first Socratic Seminar. Designed to develop their higher order critical thinking skills, this style of dialogue and debate enabled the teachers to take a back seat, and allow the students to lead the conversation! The groups were divided into participants and observers, meaning that each and every child was involved. We look forward to seeing the pupils’ communication and thinking skills progress with each Friday seminar.
Another great week on the rugby pitch and on the netball court. You can view the match reports here.
Music - Another wonderful start to my week teaching at Pre-School! Pupils explored their speaking, whispering, shouting and singing voices. They particularly enjoyed engaging with their shouting voices to replicate Tiger Ted! It was amazing to see them understanding the differences and how beneficial the art of music is in developing them to use their ‘big voice’! Miss Saville & Miss Rice were blown away.
Rehearsals for the year 5 & 6 musical Peter Pan are underway and year 6 students will know their casting this week!
*Student achievement * - We are very proud of Sofia P in year 5 who received a distinction in her Grade 5 Music Theory exam. An outstanding result and one to be very proud of. Well done Sofia!
1-1 music lesson information
There are 2 spaces to learn to play the bassoon! an endangered instrument and a very beautiful one. Listen to the Mozart Bassoon Concerto for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaV1jauwbaA There is also availability to play the drums. Please contact Mr Leutfeld on kleutfeld@edgegrove.com or Miss Saville on jsaville@edgegrove.com to sign up. Please note the music@edgegrove.com email is now an inactive email address. Photography - Photography Module have been looking at the composition of their photographs that they took last week. Once looking at their photographs they are now understanding what it takes to take a good original unedited image. They then moved onto using the colour select tool which allows them to keep part of the photograph desaturated and then adding colour to other parts. Great work this week from Kavish, Arjun and Raneem.
Photography Elective were editing their photographs this week after feedback from peers last week. As they made their edits all of them have realised how the original composition of a photograph makes a huge impact. Next week the photographers will be out taking photographs again focussing on composition.
Drama - Another busy week in the drama department! Year 4 have been looking at the myth Medusa and we did a whole class WHOOSH to help us understand the story and create 8 freeze frames.
Year 5 are busy creating their jingles, scripts and slogans for their TV adverts and hopefully will film them next week. Year 6 auditioned for Peter Pan this week and I have been so impressed with their mature and positive attitude that they approached the auditions with. The casts will be announced this week! The rotation group have been looking at the 7 Deadly Sins and creating freeze frames to depict them and the Elective group have been looking at Greek Theatre and the story of Helen of Troy.
We are delighted to invite you to participate in the 2022 Edge Grove Golf Day to be held on Friday 20th May 2022 at Aldenham Golf and Country Club. We would like to encourage golfers of all standards to join us. The day includes tea/coffee and a breakfast roll before you start, 18 holes of golf followed by a 2 course sit down lunch. The cost of the day is £65 per person. If you would like to secure your place on a team or submit a four ball, please click here to book your place. If you have any questions please email Sue Maughan on smaughan@edgegrove.com.
Tickets are now on sale for the Edge Grove Big Apple Ball taking place on Saturday 2nd July. Click here to book your tickets.