Middle Department News 5 May 2023

This Week in Year 3

The summer term started at brisk but bracing trot, with lots of exciting things to do and a few less days to complete them! The Open Classrooms and performance to parents today brought joy to both children and adults alike and were well worth all of the clearing and sorting and practising. Thank you so much to Mrs Hegarty and Mrs Jarvis for organising such a lovely performance and for giving up their free time to help us with extra rehearsals.

We started the day by welcoming parents and grandparents into the Year 3 classrooms into the newly decorated classrooms, to look at the children’s work, and talk to the children about what they felt most proud of in their books.

The children were then able to treat their parents to a joyful performance of poetry and song. Each class had their own poem to perform and then they sang together with confident and happy voices. It was such a pleasure to watch them grow during each practice, culminating in a lovely performance on Friday morning.

The day continued with crown-making in readiness for our Coronation celebrations. We were extremely lucky to have a real crown brought into school by Violet, which had actually been worn in several previous coronations and at the most recent coronation of Queen Elizabeth by her great-great uncle, the Earl of Verulam. It was a beautiful and incredibly special item with a unique place in history and we felt privileged to have been able to try it on.

Please see below for a selection of pictures taken from our glorious Friday:

Next week is the much-anticipated Wellyboot Camp. Thank you to parents and families for supporting us with this milestone in Year 3 by organising the children in their preparation for their adventure. The children are incredibly excited and have asked a lot of questions and found out what to bring and what not to bring and were reassured that it was alright to be a little nervous but that everything would be fine. Thank you to Mrs Porter for organising this so brilliantly. The kit list and other information can be found on the Google classrooms.

Now, we just need to pray for a little sunshine!

Wishing you a wonderful Coronation weekend!

Kind regards

The Year 3 Team

This Week in Year 4

Welcome back! We all hope you had a wonderful and relaxing Easter holiday! It was super to see so many of you this morning at our Open Classroom and concert.

This week Year 4 have been busy rehearsing for our Singing and Group Verse speaking performance. We hope those of you who were able to watch, enjoyed the show!

Year 4 have been learning all about King Charles III and his Coronation this week. We have been very creative and made our own bunting to decorate the Year 4 corridor, created our own collages and even designed some new pyjamas for the King! We hope you like them!

Photos from our week can be viewed here

Wishing you all a wonderful bank holiday weekend!

The Year 4 Team

This Week in Year 5

We are now fully back into the swing of things in Year 5 and our new topics for this term in Humanities and Science are well underway.

As we begin our electricity topic in Science, the question of ‘What is electricity?’ was posed as a starting point. After a bit of investigation and some role playing, the children were introduced to world to atoms, electrons and current!

In the week before half term (Monday 22nd -Wednesday 24^th May), you will be sitting some end of year exams in English, Maths, Science, Future Skills and French.

Some of these exams will be online and some are hand written papers, because pupils will meet a variety of different styles of assessments in Year 6, 7 and 8. The important thing is not to panic: in Year 5 we learn how best to take exams. You do not need to do hours of revision: little and often is the key. You will find that your subject teachers will be setting you revision-style activities for preps in the next few weeks and you will see below some tips for how to revise. Please ask your Form Teacher or subject teachers for more information about these exams at any time.

Year 5 Revision Tips

Try to vary the way you learn things! It makes life more interesting.

Here are some suggestions you might like to try. We are all different and different techniques suit different learners.

Make matching cards: make cards showing key words and their definitions. Try to match them up. Then you can hide one set of the cards (either the definitions or the keywords) and try to say aloud the answer.
Make a washing line and borrow some pegs or paper clips! Try to put your facts in the order in which they happened or in the order they go (e.g. Roman numerals, months in French).
Find an online game to help you practise a topic. BBC Bitesize for key stage 2 has lots of good games and activities.
Make a colourful topic poster with words and pictures. Put it up in your room so you can look at it little and often.
Make a mind map or spider diagram to allow you to develop your ideas and make links. Keep your mind maps safe: you can go back and learn from these and add to them for many years to come!
Record yourself reciting some key facts on an iPad or similar and listen back.
Set yourself a quiz. Leave it for a day or so and then try and answer the questions or you could swap quizzes with a friend.
Highlight key words on a revision sheet then write the key words onto a postcard and practise explaining how the keywords relate to the topic.
Use a revision sheet and mini post-it notes. Cover up the information you want to learn (such as place names on a map) and test yourself. Check your answers by uncovering!
Make yourself a ‘zigzag’ sheet with several columns. Write the vocabulary in French in column 1, then write the English in column 2. Next fold over the first column so you can’t see it and try to write the French, then fold over the paper so you can’t see column 2 and try to write the English. Keep going until you’ve run out of room! This is good for learning spellings too!

To get ourselves in the Coronation Celebration mood, a little bit of crown making was done this morning as part of a whole school event before the opportunity later today to have a bit of a tea party.

Notices and Reminders

In case you were not able to attend the Information Meeting regarding the Year 5 residential trip to Manor Adventures in Norfolk last Wednesday, all information regarding the trip can be found in your child’s Form Google Classroom along with a clothing list and administration of medication form if needed.

Thank you to those of you who have already filled in the online consent form for the trip. If you have not yet done this, you can access the form by logging into the Beechwood Parent Portal, and navigating to Electronic Forms under the INTERACTIVE tab in the top menu bar. Please complete this as soon as possible but no later than Monday 8^th May

If you do have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at c.kneller@beechwoodpark.com

Notice from the Sports Department

After School Sport

If your child attends an external sports club immediately after school and you require them to leave Beechwood Park in their games kit, please email their Form Teacher or Mrs Carley to request permission.

Thank you.

Head’s Commendations

Congratulations to this week’s recipients of Mrs Cussans’ Commendations:

	Inspire	Engage	Nurture
Year 3	Voilet G,	Kyle S	Tommy J, Clemintine W, Oliver G,
Year 4	Evie M, Findlay P, Seb T, Shoma L	Isabella B	-
Year 5	Sam B, Henry F, Izzy M	Lily B, Florence G	-

From the Middle Department Library

The First Shadow Dragon by Lee Newbery

Charlie and friends embark on a dangerous and exciting adventure in the realm of Fargone in this charming sequel to The Last Firefox

After defeating the evil Grendilock and saving Cadno, the last firefox, Charlie Challinor is looking forward to a well-earned rest. But when a familiar face appears from the realm of Fargone, Charlie’s family is once again swept up into adventure.

Along with Lippy, Roo and new magical friend Blodyn, Charlie must travel to Fargone to face the dreaded Draig, the shadowy monster that is slowly draining the life from the land – and uncover the lost secret that links Draig’s history to Charlie’s own .