Week Beginning 16th March 2009

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's blog.

We have a really busy week in store so let's get started.

Thank you to all the children who dressed in RED on Friday to support comic relief, you all looked fantastic and your donations were greatly appreciated.

Many of our Year 5 and 6 children are also doing daily fundraising for our adopted charity CAFOD. They have stalls on the yard each playtime and making lots of money for the charity.
Further on in this term we will be organising a fundraising afternoon for the rest of the school were we will all run stalls and activities to raise money for CAFOD as part of our Lent preparation for Easter.

A big thank you to all the children who attended the netball and football tournament at St Gregs. Both teams did very well and their behaviour was very good indeed. Can we also say thank you to parents who gave their time to help with transport.

On Wednesday this week our Year 5 children will be making their First Reconciliation. They will spend the whole day at Church. In the morning they will do lots of different activities based on stories from the bible and in the afternoon they will make their First Reconciliation. Afterwards their will be a service in Church to celebrate. There will be a creche at school for younger children in case parents do not make it back from Church until after 3pm. We send the children our love and prayers in this important Sacrament.

On Thursday this week we will have mass in the school hall. As usual parents are welcome to join us but please be aware that space is limited.

On Friday morning we will have a science specialist in school to perform a science show. This is always a very interesting and enjoyable activity for the children and it comes at a great time as it will be revision for the up and coming SATs.

On Friday afternoon our Year 6 children will spend the afternoon in Church where they will also participate in Reconciliation with Father Richard.

We are also starting booster session this week. We have booster going on for maths, literacy and science. There are 2 boosters for each of the subjects as we have split the children into ability groups.
If your child has been selected to take part in the booster activities then you should have received a letter on Friday informing you of which booster it is and when it will take place.
Booster will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday morning and Wednesday after school. If your children is coming to the morning session they will begin at 8.15am, we will provide the children with some fruit or toast in the morning as they will have to have their breakfast a lot earlier than usual. If your child has not been selected to take part in the booster sessions and you feel that it will be of benefit for them then please see a member of the Year 5/6 Team.

Curriculum......

Literacy

Miss Wright and Mrs Morgan's group will completing a reading past sat at the beginning of the week to see if our reading has moved on.
For the rest of the week we will be focusing on non-chronological reports.
Mr Slavin's group will also be starting a new topic of non-chronological reports.

Try these websites to help....
http://www.coxhoe.durham.sch.uk/Curriculum/Literacy.htm#KS2%20On-line%20Activities%20NEW
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/englishD8.htm

Maths

Mr Barker and Mrs Morgan's group will be completing a SAT paper at the beginning of the week and then using the results to inform our planning for the rest of week.

Miss Wright's and Mr Slavin's groups will be rehearsing mental and subtraction strategies and strategies for adding strings of 1 digit numbers and multiples of 10. Have a look at the following websites:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/addsubtract/mental/flash7.shtml
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/additiontest.html
www.nrich.maths.org
http://www.ictgames.com/technowithflock.html
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/pyramid.html
http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/subtractiontest.html
http://www.ictgames.com/countonconvict.html
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/maths/big%20sums/big%20sums%20subtract.html

Science:

Year 5- Will be finishing off the current topic of Dissolving and aiming to plan their own investigation into the variables that affect dissolving. Children will need to consider what they will change and what they will keep the same and how to plan a fair test.
Year 6- We will be having a 10 minute quiz on Monday looking at the areas 'Forces in Motion' and 'Looking at Life' for the rest of the week we will be going over past SATs papers in order to test their current knowledge, and from this what they need to work on.

P.E Kits- There are still children who are forgetting to bring the correct kit for in school P.E. Can we urge children to remember to bring in their kits and if any items are lost in school children will spend their break looking for them. Please be aware that P.E is a compulsory part of the curriculum as well as encouraging your child to have a healthy lifestyle.

That is all for this week.
Have a good weekend
Year 5/6 team.