News from the Middle Department

This week in the English Department

The Madhatter’s Tea Party

On Tuesday 14^th March, pupils in the Middle and Senior Departments were cordially invited to join the English Department for a Mad Hatter’s Tea party. This was to celebrate their success with the Accelerated Reader programme this term. Pupils enjoyed a sumptuous afternoon tea, prepared by Emily and her team, followed by some fun party games and music. The pupils had a wonderful time, and the biscoff cupcakes were an incredibly popular choice!

Well done to:

Sophia U, Lila N, Jack B, Haotong G, Luke M, Luke W, Adhya R, Eleanor P, Aria D, Izzy M & James B.

Mrs Wilkins

This Week in Year 3

What a busy week Year 3 have had! We have fitted in Science Week, chick eggs,  Pi Day, Forest School, Reading Buddies with Year 2, preparations for a much-delayed Christmas market with the Year 1s, House Matches, a visit from a group of Woodlanders who came upstairs for the first time ever to interview us, as well an amazing concert by our choir and Musical Theatre! Far too much for one newsletter, so we will spread our news over two weeks.

Science Week

Science week was an excellent opportunity to explore different aspects of science. We linked some of our activities with the School production theme of detectives and learnt about fingerprints. We used charcoal and sellotape to create and record prints of our own fingerprints and then tried to identify whether they were mainly composed of whorls, arches or loops. Messy but lots of fun and a great learning experience. 

Reading Buddies with Year 2

Year 3 were visited this week by Year 2 for a Reading Buddies session. It was truly heartwarming to see how seriously the Year 3s took on their role as the older children. They acted with great maturity and we felt very proud of them. The Year 2 children read to the Year 3s, who asked them the meaning of words and complemented their skills; they then swapped over and got the chance to share their good understanding of intonation. The 2s were then given the chance to ask their buddy a question about Year 3 and finally they were able to show their buddies the other year 3 classrooms before heading off for lunch. Both year groups showed real Beechwood values and so we will definitely arrange another session next term. 

Forest School

Forest School

Despite the weather, Year 3 managed to brave the elements and get outside into the woods. They spent their session working with a palm drill to create holes in wooden disks. They learnt how to keep safe, how much pressure to apply and how long it took to drill one hole! A useful lesson!

Chess Tournament

There has been a real buzz in Year 3 this week, as the Chess Tournament started with great enthusiasm. Many children entered – so many that Mr Darcey will have to continue into next week, as the numbers battle to the final two. There was much chat about playing against a ‘Fourer’ or a ‘Fiver’, as the competition was spread across the three Middle Department year groups. 

Charlie M wrote: “My experience of chess is ‘fun’ and when I saw the sheet I signed up straight away. I have had two matches in the tournament and I have won both of my games so far – but in the future, it is looking risky! I have good talent and I just hope that in the next few games I will be one step ahead.” 

House Matches

Thursday’s weather was just perfect for the House Matches. Thank you to all the parents who were able to come and cheer them on. The children really enjoyed competing with their Houses and all played very well.  Please see the pictures below: 

And finally…

We are looking forward to welcoming the Year 1s up to our postponed Christmas Market on Thursday. If you have any more items for the market, please send them in before Thursday. We will be spending some time in our maths lessons revising money, but if there is any occasion over the weekend that they can count change then this will help them become more confident when dealing with change. 

As you will have been informed, Mrs Oatham will be supporting the Year 4s and going on the Aylmerton trip next week for four days. We are very lucky to have Mrs Mann coming in to 3O for the days she is away. She will be in for a while on Monday afternoon, so you may have the chance to see her then. 

Have a lovely weekend!

The Year 3 Team 

This Week in Year 4

Year 4 Pi Day

Year 4 fully embraced Pi Day and had lots of fun! We started off with a Zoom assembly and took part in an online Pi Day quiz. Then it was straight to our Maths lessons where we sung lots of different Pi songs, completed an online Pi jigsaw and created our very own Pi-Scapes. 

Thank you to the Maths department for the Quiz and sharing lots of fun Pi-ideas with us!

4R Geography

In Geography this term, 4R have been learning all about continents. They work collaboratively in pairs to research a continent and create a presentation about it. They then showed the class their ‘masterpieces’ and shared their most interesting facts. The class then gave them constructive feedback about their presentations. 

Aylmerton Information We are so excited about our trip to Aylmerton – we cannot believe that we go on Tuesday, the time has flown by. There is a great buzz in the year group and we know that the pupils are almost as excited as we are! As shared previously, Miss Mac will be leading the trip and Mrs Routledge will be her deputy. We are also accompanied by Mrs Plummer, Miss Bailey, Miss Stredwick, Mrs Greenwood, Mrs Oatham, Mr Bullock and Mr Le Bas. This is a fantastic team and we are all really looking forward to our time away with Year Four.

Travel Arrangements

On Tuesday, please arrive at School no later than 08:20. Pupils should go directly to the steps at the main reception with their luggage where they will be met by staff going on the trip. You are welcome to wait outside and wave us off, we are aiming to leave as close to 09:00 as possible. If your child is prone to travel sickness, please give them their medication before they come into School.  

We hope to return to School at around 17:00 on Friday but we will you keep updated on any delays. 

Communications

Technology permitting, we will aim to post a brief overview at the end of each day and some photographs on our Middle Department twitter account which you can find using the twitter handle @BWPMiddle_Dept. Do please ‘follow’ us, but please bear with us as the Wi-Fi in Aylmerton can be a bit unpredictable! 

If you need to contact us during the trip, please phone the School (daytime number: 01582 840333) who will then relay a message to us. In an emergency, or if you need to contact us outside of normal School hours, then please call the centre directly on 01263 837759 or the school mobile on 07519 737305. 

The Year 4 Team

This week in Year 5

This week in Year 5, we celebrated PI day in style, along with the rest of the school! After the whole school Pi Day Assembly, all of the Year 5 pupils immersed themselves in Pi-related activities in their Maths lessons.

Mrs Balfour’s group created a PIper chain with over 200 links, by designating a colour for every digit and reserving the one and only black paper link for the decimal point! Mr Reading’s group headed outside as they paced out semicircles on the tennis courts and then the radius of their semicircle and then headed back inside to calculate the relationship between the measurements. Mr Dixon’s group created beautiful PI sky lines, using the digits of pi to determine the height of the sky scrapers and Mr Lambert’s class made use of a specially-constructed pendulum as well as playing an intriguing game involving pencil throwing!

We were very impressed by those pupils who managed to learn and recite a very large number of the digits of PI Well done to Louis for reciting over 100 digits (super quickly!) and to Ismail who managed a fantastic 180 digits.

Particular congratulations go to the members of the choir for a beautiful Choir Concert on Tuesday. It was absolutely lovely to hear their singing after all of those early morning rehearsals hidden away behind closed doors. It is a busy time of term for our musical and artistic children and our best wishes go to our Year 5 pupils involved in the rehearsals for Emil and the Detectives. We are looking forward to watching a performance in school next week.

Looking ahead, we are delighted to let you know that we have a Forest School afternoon booked for Friday 24^th March. We will post details on the Google Classrooms but we have our fingers crossed for fine weather as we head outside for some year group fun and learning and say a year group goodbye to Mrs Balfour.

We wish you all a very happy weekend.

The Year 5 Pastoral Team

STOP PRESS – Congratulations Jovan

Jovan made the model for the Elizabeth Tower competition run by the UK Parliament.

It was made from Oreos, foam, glue and tin and able to be lit up from inside. Jovan’s tower was chosen as a runner up from hundreds of entries in the Build your own Big Ben competition. He won a selection of London and Big Ben goodies and is very proud of his achievement.

Head’s Commendations

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

From the Middle Department Library

Valentine Crow and Mr. Death by Jenni Spangler

Valentine Crow and Mr Death offers an interesting, warm and funny take on the topic of death.

Twelve-year-old Valentine Crow has lived his entire life at the Foundling Hospital. Now, he and his best friend Philomena are leaving to begin their new lives as apprentices – but Valentine has been assigned to Death himself. Valentine finds himself in an impossible situation when his best friend’s name appears on the list of souls to take. Can he fight Death to save her soul, or does fate have other ideas?

An engaging read for confident readers able to compartmentalise this interesting topic.