Middle Department News

This week in Year 3

English: Now that the days are becoming shorter, it is the perfect time for a spooky winter read! We have started a Kevin Crossley Holland’s book, called ‘Storm’ and can’t wait to find out if the ghost that Annie has heard about is real! We have been doing lots of ‘Hot Seating’ to find out about our heroine. Lots of great questioning and some great acting, too!  

Lego Club: This week in Lego Club, Year 3 and Year 4 children were set the challenge by Mr Ip of building the tallest Lego tower. However, there was a twist: the buildings needed to be earthquake-proof!  

 What impressive creations…and they nearly all survived!  

Recently the Sports Department asked the Year 3 girls what they had learnt during their first-ever hockey matches for Beechwood. Here are some of their brilliant and insightful responses:

• • “I learnt not to be a sore loser. We won and the other team were happy for us.” Sienna C
  • “I learnt that it doesn’t matter who you play against, it’s always fun.” Olivia W
  • “Even if you don’t win, it’s still a good game because everyone has fun.” Penelope
  • “I learnt how to take a free hit from the edge of the pitch.” Pippa
  • “I learnt not to cheat and that everyone tries their hardest.” Clara
  • “I learnt to always look for a space where the other team aren’t.” Elizabeth
  • “I used what we learnt in lessons about how to hold my stick.” Elodie

In Art, Year 3 have been experimenting with Collagraphy; a printmaking process in which materials are applied to a rigid substrate. The word is derived from the Greek word koll or kolla, meaning glue, and graph, meaning the activity of drawing.  The results are impressive!

REMEMBER

Our long-awaited Egyptian Day is fast approaching: Friday 19^th November. Make sure you have your outfits ready! You could either dress as an ancient Egyptian, or perhaps an archeologist. We will be in School all day, so it will not impact on any ASAs or music lessons. Please do ensure that children come in to School with a coat and sturdy shoes, for our winter weather.

This week in Year 4

Compared to previous weeks, this has been a relatively quieter week in Year 4.  

Alongside their usual lessons, the children have begun preparations for the upcoming ‘Christmas Cracker’ performance. It’s been tricky keeping our plans top secret but just to give you a teaser, snowmen clowns, hypnotised sheep and a talking donkey have all been spotted moving in and out of the Performance Hall this week! 

In English, the children have been working hard on perfecting their comprehension answers. They have turned themselves into comprehension detectives as they worked particularly hard on improving their ability to answer some of those tricky ‘inference’ style questions. We have looked at a range of texts including cartoons and a John Lewis Christmas advert from a few years ago.

Make Your Own Smoothie! 

This week, we have re-introduced the children to The Beechwood Park Award. The Beechwood Park Award is an opportunity for the children to reflect on their achievements, qualities and skills and guides them to understand themselves a little more. Throughout their time in the Middle Department, the children will be able to record examples from inside and outside School, working towards an end of year award. 

For Prep this week, the children have been asked to have a think about any achievements or skills that they might like to include. These can be things from the end of Year 3 up until now (including the summer holidays!) Please feel free to support your child with this activity and help them to collect any supporting evidence such as copies of certificates or photos.  

 Reminders : 

• As it is getting colder and wetter outside, please make sure that your child is equipped with a school, waterproof coat and a named school hat, scarf and gloves when appropriate.  
• Likewise, for Games, we ask now that the children have appropriate clothing that will keep them warm when out on the playing fields which can be chilly and windy! 
• If you are planning on taking your child out of school for anything other than medical reasons, please can you email Mrs Greenwood and cc your child’s class teacher into the email as well. 
• Please can we ask that your child and their sports coach are aware of the travel arrangements for getting home when playing in a sports fixture, especially if it is an away fixture.  

 Aylmerton Residential – we are really looking forward to our Year 4 residential trip which will take place between 22 March and the 25th March 2022. We will be visiting Aylmerton Field Study Centre which is near Cromer, Norfolk. We would like to invite you all to a short information presentation which will be held on Wednesday, 19th January 2022 between 4:30 and 5:30pm. Further details will follow nearer the time. 

This week in Year 5

It has been noisy and fun in Year 5 this week! The pupils have shown great energy, from pedalling the smoothie bike at break times (and then consuming vast quantities of their hard-earned smoothie reward) to busy investigations into shoes and jelly cube friction in the science labs, from forceful debates in Future Skills to high octane renditions of Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat songs in T.P.R.

It was therefore especially peaceful to come together in stillness and quiet to mark Armistice Day on Thursday, taking a short time to stop and remember those who have sacrificed so much. Our huge collaborative wreath of handmade poppies is on display in the Dining Room and all of the Year 5 classes loved making their own particular segment of the artwork.

Another opportunity to stop and reflect is on offer thanks to Mr Darcy who has coordinated the launch of a WWF initiative to raise awareness of environmental issues through a dedicated website offering online games and activities. All pupils at Beechwood, from Year 5 to Top Form, have been invited to set up an account and take part, although they will need to use an adult’s email address to do so. Although the challenge is aimed at slightly older children, some of the Year 5 children might enjoy taking part if they have an interest in environmental issues. The class codes are all on the Science Google Classrooms and thank you so much for helping them with the logging in process.

Introducing the WWF Wild Wisdom Global Challenge – for Year 5 to Top Form

I’m very excited to tell you that Year 5 pupils are taking part in the “Wild Wisdom Global Challenge”, an amazing competition and learning experience that will help them understand climate change and what they can do to help preserve the planet.

The Challenge is led by the world’s foremost experts in nature and conservation – the WWF and Sir David Attenborough.  Based on the breath-taking content of Sir David’s “Our Planet” series and his film “A Life on Our Planet”, it provides a hugely fun, engaging and different introduction to climate change for students, presented in a way they can understand.

The challenge not only explains climate change, but also sets out the four specific positive actions that Sir David believes can help preserve the planet (and humanity): This challenge will give your child the tools to Discover the truth, see there’s hope and take action.

You can support your son or daughter in the following ways:

• Ask your child about the challenge.
• Talk about what action you can take together.
• And watch the documentaries with them, (if you don’t have Netflix, “A life on our planet” is free on YouTube).

Click the link below for more information.

WWGC_Introduction

Please note that pupils will need to sign in using the user name and password that they created in class.   Please check Google Classroom if you have any queries.  Mr Darcy

Head’s Commendations

Well done to this week’s recipients of Head’s Commendations:

Nurture:  Year 3 – Oliver W-G

Engage: Year 3 – Penelope B,  Henry H, Stella R, Pippa K; Year 4 –   Henry F, Jamie M, Yasmin L-B, Alfred M, Emma T;

Inspire: Year 3 – Lucas M (Year 3); Year 4 – Theadora K; Year 5 – Charlotte F, Albert S, Jasmine E, Baxter F, Alex A-D

This Week’s Library Recommendation

This week’s Library Recommendation is “Explorers at Pirate Island”, by Alex Bell

In their fifth thrilling adventure, the Explorers journey deep into the Bubble Ocean on their quest to stop the evil Collector, but time is running out. They must face zombie skeletons, make a daring rescue from a whirlpool and travel through a dinosaur graveyard, and that’s just to reach Pirate Island.  Once they get there, the peril of rescuing a group of kidnapped children becomes clear.  The combination of fantasy, magic and fast pace draws readers into this latest instalment.