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The Good Shepherd
Catholic Primary School
“I am the Good Shepherd; I know my own and my own know me”. John 10:14"
Year 2 - St Bernadette
MATHS: using coins and notes to calculate change
In Maths, the children have been learning about money. They have explored different values, coins and notes, as well as equal amounts, exchanging and calculating change.
COOKING: learning different cooking techniques
Year 2 have been busy cooking up lots of culinary delights this term. The children have been learning about different cooking skills and techniques including chopping and weighing ingredients.
ART at Kite Studios: returning to 1666 and Great Fire of London
Year 2 visit Kite Studios each week for their art classes. They are making lots of cross curricular links to History (The Great Fire of London in 1666). The children have designed and created model houses, and have explored a range of artistic mediums including drawing, painting and ceramics.
READING: exploring Rapunzel and traditional fairytales
Reading features frequently inside and outside the classroom. The children have been learning about 'Rapunzel' (Bethan Woolvin) and have been exploring traditional fairytale characters this term.
CATHOLIC LIFE: collective worship in the Mary Garden
In Collective Worship, the children have been using the Mary Garden in the playground to learn about prayers, blessings and Catholic values.
GYMNASTICS: working on balancing, coordination and flexibility
In gymnastics, the children have been developing their balance, coordination and flexibility. During the sessions, they rotate between each station so that they spend an equal time developing each skill.
Ash Wednesday
Year 1 were happy to participate in Ash Wednesday where we were blessed to have Father Mark come and speak to us.
Spring Show and Tell Topics & Days
Black History Assembly
Today, KS1 and KS2 held a Black History Assembly. Each class completed study of an inspirational person from the local area.
Year 1 - Adelaide Louise Estelle Hall
Year 2 – Mary Seacole
Year 3 – Fanny Eaton
Year 4 – Dr John Alcindor
Year 5 – Ellen and William Craft
Year 6 – Gandhi
Knowledge Organisers
Long term Curriculum Map
Understanding the World
Understanding the World is one of seven key areas of learning in the EYFS. It involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology, and the environment. As such it is the area that links most to science, history and geography.
Our On the Move topic allows us to think about how transport has changed over time. The children start thinking about the long, arduous journeys made on donkeys and camels over the Christmas period and question why trains and planes weren't used. They contrast this with transport today that they are familiar with. We read a whole range of books that allow us to think about these in detail. These include: Rosie's Walk, the Naughty Bus, the Train Ride, Mr Gumpy's Outing and Up, Up, Up.
Children think about their own journeys to school and try to map out their routes, remembering what they pass and how many roads they cross on their way to school and back.
They learn that vehicles need certain features to enable them to move on land, in water and in the air and experiment with these, noticing pushes and pulls as significant factors whether playing with vehicles with wheels, pedals, sails or wings.
The icy mornings have also given us the opportunity to think about the weather. Our penguins in the ice has made children ask lots of interesting questions about penguins. Can they fly? Do they live in the North Pole? What do they eat?
I'll add some photos of the children in action as I take them.
Transport over time, books, games, planning routes and making chutes, investigating pushes and pulls ...
Exploring changing states in the natural world ...
Spring term curriculum maps - On the Move and Long, Long Ago
One of our much loved books this week is Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper. Cat, Duck and Squirrel live in an old, white cabin in the woods with a pumpkin patch. Every day Cat slices up some pumpkin, Squirrel stirs in some water and Duck tips in a 'pipkin of salt' to make perfect pumpkin soup for a cold evening. We tried it ourselves. First we found an enormous pumpkin in the garden; the children got all the cooking equipment ready and tied their aprons by themselves; then they got to work with chopping up the onions and the pumpkin with a VERY SHARP knife! When every thing was chopped up small. We added all the ingredients to the saucepan and got stirring! Thankfully, unlike the story, there were no arguments between the children! All of the children tried the soup. Some liked it more than others!
There are some photos in here too of children exploring dark and light with torches and glow in the dark planets and stars in our dark tent!
Expressive art and design is one of four specific areas within the EYFS and covers the development of children's artistic and cultural awareness supporting their imagination and creativity. Participating in drawing or crafts with a large choice of materials and no strict guidelines allows them to build confidence in their own creativity. At Kite Studios, we had a fantastic time, looking at the work of artists and using a range of media to express our own ideas. Here are some photos of the children in action:
Kite Studio 2021
It was lovely to have the opportunity to take the children to the Holy Ghost and St Stephen, our parish church, this term. We had a walk around the church, learning about the font, the altar, the confession box, the statues and the pictures represented in the stained glass windows. The children behaved beautifully and we ended our visit with our morning prayer and practised genuflecting. Here are some photos from our visit.
We had some fabulous costumes for our All Saints Day parade. Can you guess which saints the children were dressed as?
Reception curriculum maps for Autumn term
The children seem settled in their new school environment and are enjoying their weekly timetable. We have regular carpet times, where children learn to sit and listen attentively and participate in class dicussions. Every morning at 10am storytime takes place and then the door is open for free access to the garden. Before lunch, at 11.15, we learn a new phonic sound each day and revise the ones from the days before. After lunch at 12.45 we have a daily maths session.
Tuesdays is outdoor PE - multiskills, Wednesday is gym in the hall. For the last three Thursdays the children have gone to Kite Studios for workshops where they have been using a wide range of tools and materials to develop self-portraits! I hope you'll be able to get to their mini exhibition on Thursday 30th September after school and see how much fun they've had and what a wonderful creative journey they've been on. Below is a selection of photos from our first few weeks to give you a feel for our environment.
A super start to our new school year...
Here we are eating lunch for the very first time in the hall. We always have the choice of different vegetables and salad with our lunch every day. Puddings range from yoghurt and fresh fruit salad to home-made brownies and crumbles.
Music and PE sessions have started too. Here are some photos of us in the big playground with Patch, our multi-skills teacher on a Tuesday. On Wednesdays we do gymnastics with Mrs Henbrey in the school hall.
We painted backgrounds then drew and placed ourselves onto our very first school paintings!
Last day in Nursery
We have had a very productive year and we celebrated with a picnic in the garden.
This year we have been becoming closer to Jesus.
We have learned about our faith through role play, stories, small world play and classroom worship.
Summer Fair/Birthday Bash
Garden Fun
World Book Day - We enjoyed dressing up and celebrating.
Reading
We love sharing books and listening to stories.
Expressive Arts and Design
Expressive arts and design is one of the seven areas of the early years foundation stage and is used to develop a child's imagination, creativity and their ability to use media and materials. Children do this in range of ways including singing songs and making music, dancing, playing with colours, textures and design. All these approaches to expressive arts help children to represent and understand their own feelings and ideas.
Above and below you will find a range of photos that cover some of the expressive arts and design skills that the children learn and practise in our classroom and garden.
Snow Day - we loved playing on the snow.
Christmas Celebrations
Mathematical Development
We have many opportunities every day to count, spot patterns, look for shapes in our environment. We are able to recite and recognise numbers that we see.
Every week we take turns to cook, bake and prepare food
