Year 5 - Steam Trip

On Wednesday 16th January, we went to Steam! After a rather long journey, we arrived and were all in awe when we saw the first train, the North Star, designed by George and Robert Stephenson.

Our first activity was all about the evolution of the railways in England, mainly that of the Great Western Railway. We learned about Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Robert and George Stephenson and Daniel Gouche, all engineers involved with the designing of railways and locomotives.

During this activity, we learnt about the roles of navvies – these were the men who did all the hard work, the digging, the pick axing. They were able to use dynamite to blow up land too! They were paid in beer and bread; occasionally they would get money tokens too.

We then learnt a few things about bridges and why they are used, how they are designed and we even got to build some! These will be very useful when we begin designing our own bridges.

After lunch, we had time to explore the museum. We were able to learn about the workers, the importance of the railways during wartime and how the women continued the work that the men had started. Not only did we learn all of this, but we were able to walk under a train, drive a train and work in a control centre. All that in a day!

Year 1 - mass, weight, diaries and journeys

Our penultimate week of the autumn term has been a productive one! Children in Year 1 have enjoyed watching the Year R nativity at Level 10 church and loved showing off their festive jumpers on Friday!

In maths, we have been learning about mass and weight. The children have been comparing objects to see which are heavier or lighter, and exploring the idea that just because an object may be larger, it may be lighter than a smaller object. They children have used balance scales to compare the weight of objects using non-standard units. Next week, we will be revisiting time and learning to compare whether things take a longer or shorter time (minutes) to complete.

We have planned and written a diary entry based on the book, ‘Billy’s Bucket’, including the grammar taught, such as contractions (e.g. didn’t, I’ll) and the regular past tense suffix ‘ed’. We will be editing and improving our work on Monday.

In RE, we have been exploring the idea of ‘journeys’ and thinking about thoughts and feelings before, during and after journeys. We have read the story of Baboushka and her journey to see baby Jesus, which didn’t turn out as planned. Next week, we will be thinking about the journeys of the key characters in the Christmas story.

On Friday, we welcomed parents/carers to the Year 1 classrooms to play the games that we had made for the home learning project as part of our Toy Story topic, as well as the games we had made in class. A huge thank you to everyone for supporting your child and sharing their enthusiasm for their wonderfully creative games!

Next week, we will be enjoying our Christmas parties on Thursday afternoon – thank you for signing up to bring a food contribution. The children have requested that we have a ‘pyjama’ theme, which will be great fun!

We will be sending home children’s work that has been displayed next week, please could your child bring in a suitable bag/carrier to transport these items safely home.