Middle Department Notices and Reminders

World Book Day

Thursday 2 March is World Book Day! We are celebrating this national event by transforming the Drawing Room and the Junior Hall into two huge bookshops provided by the Travelling Book Company. Pupils will have the chance to browse the books and make purchases.

As part of this national celebration of reading, each pupil will receive a £1 book token, redeemable against any book purchased on 2 March.

As in previous years, we invite all pupils and staff to dress up as their favourite character from a book, and we ask that £1 is donated to the World Book Day charity via this link Thank you to everyone who has already donated.

This Week in Year 3

Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day!

The eagerly awaited Beechwood Pancake Race gave the Year 3s another chance to compete alongside their Houses for the prestigious Golden Frying Pan Award. The slightly drizzly weather did not dampen their enthusiasm and everyone competed and cheered and applauded their Houses. It was the first time the Year 3s had been able to compete and we were joined by the Year 2s, which was a lovely chance for the 3s to support the younger ones. An excellent morning of outdoor fun and team spirit!

Maths

Year 3 have been having fun in maths, measuring, adding and subtracting length and converting between units. They have enjoyed the hands-on activities and any excuse to get up and walk around measuring and estimating was met with great enthusiasm and enjoyment. If you are able to reinforce this learning at home, we know they would love the opportunity to help you estimate and then measure the lengths of rooms or furniture! Any pictures can be added to the google classrooms for extra credits!

Forest School

As only two of the three classes had Forest School this week, we will save the pictures for next week, when 3P has had their session. The weather is turning a little wet, so could we please request that the children bring their waterproof trousers, not just their base layers, as well as a water proof coat. School coats may be worn, but they do tend to get a little dirty. Underfoot, the ground is muddy, so please do send their boots into school in a plastic bag, ready for bagging up at the end. 3P will have their Forest School session next Friday, on 3rd March.

Looking to later in the term, we also have a Year group session booked, postponed from last term, due to the snow. This session will be on Monday 20th March. We won’t have Christmas music but it will be an excellent opportunity for the whole of the year to come together for a morning of fresh air and laughter. .

World Book Day

We are very much looking forward to World Book Day on Thursday. There is still time to get your costumes sorted for Thursday! It would be lovely if everyone could dress up.

Kind regards

The Year 3 Team

This Week in Year 4

English – Poetry

This week the pupils in Year 4 read lots of poems by the poet James Carter. In groups, they then worked collaboratively to perform a choral reading of his poem ‘What Stars Are’.

We hope you enjoy our videos of our performances!

Some children were so inspired by James Carter’s poetry that they went home and wrote their own poems. They then brought these into school and shared them with their class.

Here is Evie, Haotong, Seb J and Stella’s performance of ‘What Stars Are’:

Stella’s Acrostic Poem

Stella is my name,

Tricks and jokes I love,

Enjoy life is what I say,

Learning is fun,

Let your heart show the way,

And always be true to you

Rub out all the unkindness

Open up to friends

Be thankful

Be you!

The Year 4 Team

This week in Year 5

This week in TPR lessons in Year 5, the pupils have explored the importance of the Torah scroll and the Shema prayer in the Jewish faith.

They were fascinated to learn more about the role of the trained scribe, or sofer, who writes each of the 304,805 letters by hand, an undertaking which may take almost two years to complete. Even one error in transcribing may make the Torah invalid and mean that the scribe must start again. The pupils started to write some of the Shema prayer out themselves, some of them even attempted to trace the characters from right to left, as they would be read.

Beyond the classroom, as well as pancake flipping, the children have been buzzing with the news posted by Mr Kneller on the Google Classrooms that our Summer residential trip will be to a wonderful new lakeside activity centre in Norfolk. It is a friendly, family-run centre that boasts comfortable accommodation and fabulous activities to develop team-building and confidence in our pupils. Please make a note of the dates for your diaries: 12-16 June 2023. We will host an information meeting at the very start of the summer term to tell you more but, for now, here is a sneak preview of our destination here

Well done to all of our Year 5 team for their energy and enthusiasm as they have returned to school this week.

We wish you all a relaxing weekend.

The Year 5 Pastoral Team

From the Middle Department Library

Villains Academy by Ryan Hammond

Villains Academy is a great new accessible series packed with fabulous illustrations throughout. It follows Class Z, with Bram, Skele-Tony and the Tooth Hairy, as they start at Villains Academy, the most prestigious evil school in the land. Werewolf Bram doesn’t really feel like a villain but the coveted Villain of the Week trophy is up for grabs so perhaps he can dig deep to achieve glory.

This spooky funny adventure should appeal to fans of Loki and Grimwood.

The Library Team

Head’s Commendations

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

	Nurture	Inspire	Engage
Year 3	Isaac K	-	Charlie M, Louisa L, James R
Year 4	-	Farran H, Olivia W	-
Year 5	-	-	Harry L, Evie C,