Bounce back! During our assembly this week, we read a story with the Year 2 pupils about being resilient and bouncing back and that we never stop trying no matter how difficult things become!
Year 2 have also started taking on their responsibility to be my eyes and ears very seriously and they have set a fine example to the younger children. As they continue to delve further into their Topic of Communication they have become keen researchers as they explored the ways in which animals were used to pass on messages in WW1. The children evidenced their research by writing a fact file or designing a medal for a brave carrier pigeon called Cher Ami.
Year 1 enjoyed their science lesson on materials. They were given the opportunity to work as a team, to listen and collaborate when problem solving. The children identified and described the properties of a variety of everyday materials and were engaged and excited about carrying out practical experiments.
In Reception, the children have been wowing us with their mark making skills as we went on a shopping trip around the classroom. The children listened carefully to the sounds of the items they bought and gave their best go at writing them. Throughout all Forest School lessons this week, the pupils have been looking at the signs of autumn and how the environment changes as the season goes on. They read a story called Little Acorn and then the children continued their learning by going on a nature walk and looking for Oak trees. The children really enjoyed looking high up through the branches and seeing the blue sky above the canopy.
Year 3 & 4 - This week there was much excitement from pupils as some of the Year 3 children were selected to play the first football match of the season against Lochinver House. On Friday parents were invited to come and watch the children in action during their afternoon games lesson. It was wonderful to see so many parents cheering their children on from the sidelines. In Year 3, pupils continued to look at the story of ‘Stone Age Boy’. They spent the week planning their own version of the story and were challenged to include adverbials in their writing. I wonder if your child could identify any adverbials in their reading book this weekend? In maths lessons the children continued their unit on place value. The children took part in activities ordering 3 and 4 digit numbers and partitioning larger numbers into thousands, hundreds, tens and ones. Some of the children challenged themselves to look at 5 digit numbers too. In science lessons the children were naming important organs and finding out what each one of them does. Did you know the biggest organ is your skin? The children were amazed to discover that you lose 200,000,000 skin cells every hour. During form time this week pupils elected an environmental representative from each class. These children will attend regular meetings with Mrs Doughty and will suggest different ways that we can help to make Edge Grove more eco friendly. It was lovely to see so many of you at the Year 3 and 4 parents evening on Wednesday. We look forward to continuing to welcome you all back on site as much as possible over the coming year.
Year 4 had a fantastic Roman Day last week. Sophie G in Year 6 from the Edge Grove Journalist Club has written the following report on the day's activities:
On Thursday 23rd September, the staff and pupils in Year 4 were transformed into Romans for the day. There were soldiers in armour, boys and girls in togas and ladies in long white dresses and golden leaf crowns. A visitor from Horrible Histories came to talk to the children about life 2000 years ago and shared artefacts. When interviewed, one member of staff said, “I thought that the man was very knowledgeable and the children seemed to enjoy the activities as he made them fun.”
“I thought it was very interactive and informative,” said another.
Some of the children who were interviewed made lots of positive comments about their day: good, amazing, I loved it, fun, I learned lots, beautiful, really good, the best. As we can see from the comments, Year 4 staff and pupils had a great day learning from an expert in a fun way. By School Journalist, Sophie G Y6
Year 5 & 6 - It was great to welcome the children back on Tuesday after a long weekend and it has been another busy week. We undertook our first Hymn practice on Tuesday and it was wonderful to hear the voices of Year 3 to 8 singing ‘All things bright and beautiful’. Rehearsals for Matilda have started and the pupils are now building up to audition for their parts, there will be an extra rehearsal on Open Day and I am sure they will impress the prospective parents with their musical and theatrical talents.
In games the Colts football team were up against St Martins whilst the Hockey teams were led by Miss Piper and Miss Nichols for training matches. Additionally, our swimmers travelled to Westbrook Hay for a gala. Well done to all involved and I am sure we will continue to see great progress throughout the term.
Dr Alexander-Passe led two lessons this week explaining how Rosh Hashanah is celebrated. We spoke about traditional foods such as apples and honey, and pomegranate. We even had the opportunity to try to blow the shofar, a ram’s horn. You can see pictures of some of our year 5’s doing just so. A special shout out to Grayson who did this very well! We hope everyone who is celebrating has a very special Rosh Hashanah next week.
In Science this week Year 5 have started learning about the structure of the heart and the Year 6’s are continuing their plant reproduction topic, looking at the difference between wind and insect pollinated flowers.
We look forward to welcoming Year 5 and 6 parents to the welcome evening on Monday and hope that you will enjoy this opportunity to meet your children's teachers and speak with other parents.
In Year 6 maths last week, pupils were very pleased to see Mr Stanley and Mrs Robinson appear in Ms Modha's Maths lesson and no, I don't mean physically! They were encouraged through virtual means to solve a problem posed by their two role models.
Ms Modha also brought science into her maths classroom through learning about rounding. The children were to crack a code which led to an interesting fact about gorillas! Do ask your children the fun fact they learnt this week.
We have started our Health Related Fitness module in PE this term and the pupils have been working extremely hard on their fitness levels. We have also been looking at the different forms of exercise and the pupils are starting to understand how to develop their aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Congratulations to Niccolo who was the top performer on the Bleep Test reaching stage 12. We look forward to seeing which pupil achieves the biggest increase when we retest at the end of this half term.
In English, Year 8 pupils have designed, created and illustrated some very beautiful and powerful pieces of blackout poetry. We have been very impressed with their work in this unique style of writing and illustration.
This week we received the very exciting news that Miss Evans has been selected for the Welsh Rugby squad that will be taking part in the Rugby World Cup this year. She will soon be flying out to New Zealand to take part in this competition and we congratulate her on this outstanding achievement and wish her the best of luck. For those of you who are new to the school, Miss Evans is part of our PE and Games department and she has taken a sabbatical this term in her efforts to make the squad for the World Cup.
It was a fantastic first week of full fixtures and wonderful to see so many parents pitch side supporting their children and the school. We had some excellent results and lots of learning experiences for the season ahead. Thank you to those parents who attended the Year 3 and 4 open games training session on Friday. It was great to meet so many new parents. Congratulations goes to Ellie P who has been selected to represent the Hertfordshire under 11 girls cricket team. Due to her successes over the summer, Ellie has been selected as part of the county team squad without the need to go through the selection trials. Well done Ellie!
Music - Absolute sheer delight (and tears of joy!) was brought to the face of Mr Leutfeld when this new, beautiful addition was delivered to the Apthorp Hall just before school finished on Friday. Possibly the best end to a week ever. Miss Saville & Mr Leutfeld spent the remainder of their Friday afternoon playing and singing show tunes and jazz music on this stunning, new, baby grand piano. We cannot wait to introduce it to the students next week and have some pupils perform on it at the Rush Hour concert. Exciting, musical times ahead.
