Middle Department News

This week in Year 3

What an exciting week we have had in Year 3 following our lovely long Bank Holiday weekend!

On Wednesday, we hosted an information meeting for Parents and children to explain how our Wellyboot Camp will work. We are thrilled to be in a position to host this residential once again this year and are praying for good weather! The children are excited and trepidatious in equal measures and for the staff, it really feels like we are getting back to normal. The information sheets, including the questions arising from the meeting will be in the google classrooms. If you have any questions, please do contact your class teacher.

We hope you all enjoyed the Poetry Performance this morning – all the children have worked extremely hard and were so keen to show what they can do! Any nerves soon disappeared once the children saw you in the audience, and we hope you agree it was quite a performance! Do enjoy the photos below.

Have a lovely weekend,

The Year 3 Team

Note from Matron

Unfortunately, headlice have made a reappearance in Year 3. Please refer to this Fact Sheet for further information.

This week in Year 4

There was lots of excitement and a few nerves amongst the Year 4 children this morning, as they waited eagerly to perform the poems that they have been rehearsing in Drama. All of the children really enjoyed performing and made Mrs Hegarty very proud! We hope you felt the same way too! Photos from the combined Year 3 and Year 4 Poetry performance can be seen below:

After the excitement of our residential trip at the end of last term, we are now fully back into the swing of things in Year 4 and our new topics for this term in English and Science are well underway.

This week the children have been using their understanding and knowledge of recount texts to begin to prepare to write about their most memorable day ever. It was a real pleasure to read the notes the children made for their homework about the many exciting things Year 4 get up to!

In Science, we are getting stuck into our new topic ‘Sun, Earth & Moon’ and we’ve started trying hard to get our heads around the concept of space in general! We’ve also been using some mnemonics to help us remember the order of the planets.

Our Vikings unit of work in history lessons is well underway and the children have been spending some time looking at Viking longships and discussing the role they played in helping the Vikings become great explorers and conquerors.

After half-term, on Friday 10th June, we have our annual visit from our very own Viking, Thorulf Hammrsson. Details about the visit plus some suggestions about a Viking costume will be sent out next week.

A few reminders:

Forest School next week will be 4K

For PE,  this half term, all classes will be doing athletics so will need outdoor trainers, PE top and shorts and a hoodie. Please can you also ensure your child also has a pair of indoor trainers incase we need to go inside the sports hall due to poor weather conditions.

For Games, all children will be doing cricket. For lessons and matches, children can wear their cricket whites or, if you do not have cricket whites, they can wear their school PE kit plus outdoor trainers.  If you have any questions regarding Games this term, please contact Miss Hamilton. (a.hamilton@beechwoodpark.com) 

Google Access – please can we ask that you make sure you child knows their login details so they can access their Google Schools account. We are beginning to introduce some new learning platforms this coming term and there are quite a few children who are not aware of what their password is for their accounts.

Finally, don’t forget, if your child did anything ‘Wow!’ over the Easter holidays, please do let us know and we can add it to our ‘WoW’ Wall and also add it to their Beechwood Park Achievement Award book.

Have a lovely weekend!

The Year 4 Team

Note from Matron

Unfortunately, Head Lice have made a reappearance in Year 4. Please refer to the Fact Sheet for further information.

This Week in Year 5

We have managed to pack a great deal into these first days of the Summer Term in Year 5!

The pupils have responded with great maturity and insight to the new History topic of World War II, adding plenty of their own ideas and facts to class discussions to reflect their prior knowledge, their wider reading and, in some cases, their family connections with this extraordinary part of world history. We love hearing these personal reflections and finding out whether grandparents remember rationing or clothing coupons, whether there are family stories about life at home during the war or even in the armed services. We are always delighted to receive news and see copies of photos!

In Science the physics topic rotation continues so that all pupils will have explored light, sound and electricity by half term. Here are just a few photos from today’s lesson:

The English classrooms have been buzzing with persuasive language tasks and we were particularly impressed to hear that Joe S in 5B has recently written to UK supermarkets to challenge them to review their policy of bottle top recycling after seeing an impressive approach to this problem abroad. Joe has promised to let us know whether his persuasive arguments have effect and whether the supermarkets respond. In French, Year 5 have been studying “La Maison”; they have learnt the prepositions to describe where items of furniture are in their house. They read “Ou est Spot?” to revise their vocabulary and used actions to reinforce their learning – see an example here.

On the co-curricular front, it has been special to see both boys and girls in cricket whites heading out for their first matches in the sunshine (nearly…) and working hard on batting, bowling and fielding skills.

This half term is a short one, as we know, and so we are already looking towards the assessments just before half term to ensure that we support the children by preparing them carefully in lessons and through prep tasks. The assessment timetable is posted on the Google Classrooms for all four classes. Please help us by encouraging your children to take these tests calmly. There is no need at all for hours and hours of revision: little and often is the key as the tests draw closer and teaching staff will guide the children as to the best approach. The pupils are fortunate to have a wealth of online platforms to turn to: Century Tech, Planet BOFA, TT Rock Stars, Corbett Maths, Atom Learning: there really is always plenty they can do if they would like to boost their confidence in a particular area.

Looking ahead to just after half term, we are also busy planning the residential trip to Aylmerton Outdoor Education Centre in Norfolk. We know that for many children this will be the first time staying away from home and that it is a big step but, from experience, we know only too well what a wonderful opportunity a residential trip offers to develop independence and confidence and to build memories together in a beautiful outdoor environment. We look forward to seeing those of you who are free to join us on Thursday 12 May 1630-1700 to share some more information.

Thank you to all parents for helping to make the start of the Summer term run so smoothly and to the BPSPA for organising the disco which the children absolutely loved!

The Year 5 Tutor Team

Summer Exam Timetable

Please click here to see the Year 5 Summer 2022 School Exams Timetables

From the Middle Department Library

Legendarium by Jennifer Bell

Jennifer Bell’s hugely anticipated sequel to Wonderscape is released this week.

Jennifer herself thrilled the Middle Department with tales of Wonderscape, and how the game will continue in Legendarium. In this new edition, Arthur, Ren and Cecily are once again thrown into the future in their in-reality game surrounded by numerous historical legends. They soon discover Deadlock and his plan to recreate a dangerous time-way technology.

With the fate of the universe in their hands, the friends must enter a dangerous iSports tournament that will take them from the lost city of Atlantis to Viking battlefields and subterranean Incan tunnels.

Mrs Messent and Mrs Lott