In RE this week we have been studying the second account of the Creation story from Genesis 2. We know that this account was different to the first account as it went into more depth about the creation of humanity. We had a deep discussion about how these accounts from Genesis are not to be taken literally, but more poetically, to help us to understand that God created the earth. Together, we dissected the second account, focusing on individual lines and quotes and having open discussions about our interpretation of these words. I was so impressed with many of the class and their ability to articulate their opinions, whilst also respecting the opinions of others. One child in the class discussed the symbolism of God using ‘dust from the ground’ to create mankind, and how this could represent how we are part of the earth and it is our responsibility to look after God’s creation (lovely link with Laudato Si there!). Using all of this discussion and note taking, each of them then wrote a homily, explaining their interpretation of the Creation story. This week we had our first group to lead their shared worship. Thank you to Matilda, Martha and Beaux for leading this week’s worship so beautifully…
Here is what we have been up to this week…
In Maths we have continued to focus on place value. We have been identifying numbers on number lines, ordering and comparing numbers, rounding numbers and we even touched on negative numbers.
In English we starting our first unit on Biographies. Our starting point was to look at the word ‘biogrpahy’ and what it actually meant. We created a semantic map to dissect its meaning. We then proceeded to look at the biographies of Walt Disney and Torvill and Dean. We are starting to create a toolkit on things that we will need to include when we write our own biography.
In History we continued to look at historic censuses to see if we could gather any information on Victorian children and their lives. Although theydid provide some information that helped build a picture we had to also rely on other resources to help us understand what the life a Victorian child, who worked in the workhouses, was like. We explored ‘Big Questions’ that we wanted to find the answers to about life in the workhouses.
In Computing we had our first lesson on coding. I gave the class a variety of different codes to decipher and we had great fun trying to crack them (see pictures below!). We then linked this into World War 2 and how coding was used., especially at Bletchley Park. This will be an ongoing focus in our computng lessons.
🌟 AWARD WINNERS! 🌟
The Golden Award went to Jackson for trying so incredibly hard with all of his learning this week.
The Writing Award went to Natalie for her well-written homily in RE.
The Maths award went to Matilda for her great ‘Fluent in 5’ work in the mornings.
This week’s Our Lady’s Top of the Rock’s Leaderboard:
The new BEBCMAT Rock Stars Super League competition started this week and runs till the 24th October Good luck everyone!
Our school is currently in 6th place out of 12 schools in the trust and we have scored 220 points (school average score) so far.
1st Fionn Year 4 1908
2nd Aibhin Year 6 1330
3rd Matilda Year 4 717
4th Amelia Year 4 646
5th Jacob Year 5 542
Well done to everyone on our leaderboard this week!
📆Dates For Your Diary📆
Thursday 18th September @ 2.50pm ‘Meet the Teacher’ This wil be a lovely opportunity for you to officially meet me, and vice versa. I will be able to outline some key information about the Year 6 routine and expectations.
Friday 26th September ‘European Languages Day’ Year 6’s country is Belgium, so children are invited to come into school dressed in the colours of the Belgian flag: black, yellow and red.
📌Notices📌:
PE days- Wednesdays this half term.
Water bottles-these need to be filled and brought in each day and taken home to be cleaned at the end of each day. Each child in the class was provided with a school water bottle-please can you ensure these are the bottles that are brought in daily and not their own water bottle from home.
Spellings- I gave the class a spelling test this week and they will come home with their spelling lists to practice next week. New spellings will be given on a Friday and they will be tested on them the following Thirsday.
Reading books - we have not completed our STAR Reading tests and each child has been given their ZPD range. I have said to the children if they really want to read a book that is not in their range, this is not a problem! Please ensure they get their reading records signed every time they read at home.
Homework- Please find details on this week’s homework here.
Head Boy & Girl - All those who have shown interest in being Head Boy or Girl this year will need to prepare a speech to deliver to teachers & pupils. I have asked that those interested write their speech at home and bring them in next week. I am happy to proof read any speeches and/or give tips/prompts! The applicants will be delivering their speeches during our Award’s Assembly on Friday 19th September.
Other roles & responsibilities- In Year 6 every child in the class will have a responsibility. All of the class will be prefects and we also have roles such as librarians, dining hall monitors, digital leaders, assembly set-up team…. I think it is really important for all the children to take on more responsibility as they enter Year 6; this is also good preparation for high school!
Contact information- if you need to contact me for any reason, please email using year6@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk.
✝Wednesday Word and TenTen Newsletter
Please have a look at this Parent Newsletter linked with our weekly whole school and class worships…
WEDNESDAY WORD Please follow this link below to access the Gospel Readings for the forthcoming week, there are also some fun activities to complete, this is a fantastic family resource to share and celebrate with your child at home.
At Our Lady's we like to support our parents/carers in Online Safety matters
Keeping children and young people safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing society today and it is all of our responsibility to ensure that children are educated to make positive, informed choices when they are online.
This month’s online safety guide gives helpful advice about…
What Parents and Educators Need to Know about conspiracy theories. The latest update to the DfE guidance document, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (KCSIE) identifies the safeguarding concerns posed by conspiracy theories. This guide will help you to understand the risks, spot the signs, build children’s resilience and safeguard against the harmful effects of conspiracy theories.
We hope you find these guides informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all. Thank you.
We hope you have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Murphy, Mrs Owen & Miss Andrew
