Thomas Willingale School and Nursery
Autumn Term
Dear Reader,
Apologies but a technical glitch means that we have lost all the previous content on this page, prior to 9.10.2023.
Week of 18.12.2023
Our final few days of term and what fun we’ve had! Monday was production day; we walked to Debden Park to watch their Christmas production: The Christmas Takeover: brilliant! Then, in the afternoon, we watched the KS1 Nativity which was just wonderful!
On Tuesday, we had a Computing morning, catching up and finishing our unit about Bletchley Park and famous computer scientists.
Finally, today, Wednesday, we had an amazing Christmas singsong assembly with Mr and Mrs Bartels-such joy in the room.
We’re now chilling with a movie and some games before our Christmas lunch.
It just remains for us to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of new years, see you all in 2024!
Christmas jumper day!
Week of 11.12.23
Our final full week before Christmas and the great work continues. In Maths, we have been subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions. Great excitement with the new Year 6 learning as we divided fractions by whole numbers - super growth mindset from all.
In English, we have done a writing assessment - a letter from Lady Macbeth to Macbeth persuading him to kill King Duncan. Again, super effort from all and the children really enjoyed this task.
The Christmas fun continued with our Carol Service for parents and it's been like Santa's workshop up here today with cards, calendars and baubles to be made!
Looking forward to a Christmas show in Debden Park on Monday and the KS1 Nativity performance here too. Christmas jumpers and Christmas lunch to enjoy also!
Forest School Fun
Christmas Carols
Cards, calendars and baubles!
Almost forgot: the Christmas party!
Week of 4.12.23
It's December and what a week we have had - assessments and Christmas!
The children have displayed a fabulous attitude to the testing and in many cases have relished the opportunity to show us what they have learned. In amongst the week of testing, we have enjoyed some festive fun: Santa cha cha cha, a panto and the Santa dash. Enjoy all the photos which clearly show how much fun we have all had.
Many of us were also very lucky to go to The Royal Opera House on Wednesday to see the world famous Royal Ballet perform The Nutcracker - what a treat, just out of this world and a memory for us all to treasure. Again, more photos to enjoy!
Lots more Christmas fun to look forward to next week as well as more great learning: we will continue to look at fractions in Maths and in English, we are building up to writing a persuasive letter as Lady Macbeth to Macbeth!
Christmas fun!
Week of 27.11.23
Another great week in year 6, broken mid-week by No Pens Wednesday! Either side of this great day, we continued to read the story of Macbeth and had the opportunity to act a scene on Wednesday.
In Maths we have been adding and subtracting fractions, easy when the denominators are the same, a bit trickier with different denominators. On No Pens Wednesday, we enjoyed some shape art and really used our brains to avoid using pencils! Enjoy the photos.
Practice for our Christmas Carol performance continued this week and we’ve been busy learning the words.
In My Happy Mind we have been exploring relationships and the benefits of good friendships.
Christmas Angels to Deck the Hall
Week of 20.11.2023
Another busy week in year 6. In Maths we have been getting to grips with fractions, converting from improper to mixed and vice versa and then being able to order fractions too. This will all help when we move on to adding and subtracting fractions next week.
Great fun in English, we finished and edited our monologues and then had the opportunity to get into character and deliver them-some Oscar winning performances were enjoyed.
In art, we produced some watercolours of The Heath from Macbeth as we’ve started reading a version of the play. We look forward to finishing the book next week and doing some drama on No Pens Wednesday.
We finished the week with Crazy Hair Day-wow, some amazing efforts in Year 6, enjoy the photos and have a great weekend!
Crazy Hair Day
Week of 13.11.23
Yet another busy week in Year 6. We had our final session with Darren from Ignition Arts and explored working as part of a team, so important as we move through life. The team is just as important as the leader. Sometimes we just have to let it play out!
This week saw us write our monologues as one of the contenders to the crown in 1066. We will edit and perform them next week, very exciting!
In Maths, we have continued to look at numbers and explore factors and multiples and we will use this knowledge to help us simplify fractions next week (factors) and to add and subtract fractions (multiples to find common denominators).
Finally, our art tied in with history as we created pictures of The Bayeux Tapestry, our source of evidence for The Battle of Hastings.
Art
Mental Health Workshop
Week of 6.11.2023
In Maths, we have moved onto prime numbers and square and cube numbers. We have had fun exploring the properties of these numbers and represented these numbers using multi link. We are looking forward to learning about the order of operations (BODMAS) next week.
in English, we have begun learning about The Battle of Hastings, perhaps the list famous battle in English history. Our focus has been the various contenders for the throne and next week, we will be writing monologues as one of the contenders.
Science has been great fun:we investigated the effects of sugar on our bodies. Yeast mimicked our gut bacteria and we added sugar so that we could see the effects of the gas (CO2) that was produced. It caused the balloon to expand, this is the effect it has in our colons.
Another great week, and many finished it today by taking part in a tag rugby tournament.
Science
Maths
Week of 30.10.2023
Welcome back after half-term and a particularly warm welcome back to Miss Dennis-great to have you back.
As well as Halloween fun this week, we have been concentrating on long division in maths, we’ve all cracked it and applied our skills to problem solving.
In English, we returned to our gladiator work and wrote our character flaw stories. Next week sees us learning about a monumental battle in English history, the very famous Battle of Hastings.
We began our mental health workshop with Darren from Ignition Arts. We explored how we feel if we’re excluded from a group and how we can ensure that we’re aware when others are on the outside and what we can do to bring them in. Lots more to look forward to.
Finally, we made our poppies, ready for Remembrance next week…have a look, they’re lovely.
Mental Health Workshop
Poppies
Week of 16.10.2023
Our final week of term began with Parent Consultations and then it was straight into lessons on Tuesday. The children were excited to be writing their Windrush poems and their work has been truly outstanding - emotive and thought provoking. They will make a fabulous display and the whole class will receive the Star of the Week certificate for their efforts.
The hard work continued in Maths with LONG DIVISION!! What a great start we have all made; this will continue after half-term.
We celebrated Harvest this week and parents were invited to watch. Some lovely singing and great reading of poems and prayers meant that we all considered the message of harvest and how we can help those who may not be as fortunate as ourselves.
Finally, we painted our clay hearts and decorated our Windrush poems in Art. Enjoy the photos of a productive week.
What a great half-term, enjoy the break and we look forward to seeing you all (including Miss Dennis) back on the 30th.
Harvest Festival
Our Clay Hearts
Week of 9.10.2023
Week 6 already and it has been a big week: our first round of assessments in Year 6. We did some old SATs papers in Maths and English and all of the children approached each test with a great growth mindset. It is still early days in Year 6 so these scores will just grow and grow as we progress through the year.
We had our Black History Month workshop this week. We looked at discrimination by doing freeze frames of unkind behaviour due to people seeing a difference in other people. We explored opinions from the past, times when black people were seen as different and less important. Was that fair? How does that make us feel today? Do we still see discrimination today? Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate how far we have all come but a reminder of what still needs to be done to improve our society - we all have a part to play.
Things got very messy in DT, we made our hearts of clay – building on our knowledge from Science and using the sketches we drew last week.
Finally, we wish Miss Dennis well with her recovery; we miss her but look forward to seeing her back in school soon. We are enjoying having Miss Pollard back with us in Year 6!
Enjoy the long weekend and Mrs Holland is looking forward to meeting the Poplar parents on Monday!
Black History Month Workshop
Our Hearts of Clay!
