Welcome to Falcons.

We are a mixed Year 5 and 6 class of enthusiastic, curious and kind pupils who love to learn.

You can follow our adventures in learning and find all sorts of helpful information below.

Book changing

Don't forget that books from our reading scheme can be changed on Fridays. Each child will be issued three books at a time. One book must be brought to/kept in school for daily independent reading.

Christmas Experience

We left our little bubble, this week, for a visit to church and a Christmas experience with Reverend Helen and her team. The children recreated the nativity story and impressed everyone with their reflections on the meaning of Christmas and the importance of equality. Well done, Falcons.

Art Day

The Falcons had a wonderful day exploring Prehistoric Art and exploring different mediums. We used charcoal and chalks to recreate Stone Age painting and turned our classroom into a cave. We also thought about simple human form and studied changes in body and head shape and features of early man. Then we looked at the work of Antony Gormley and used clay to create our own forms.

RE Day

Today, the Falcon’s investigated the question, ‘Has the meaning of Christmas Changed?’. We started the day by thinking about what Christmas means to us and the children created some stunning mind maps of their ideas. They then turned these ideas into Word Art of the Chrome Books. After break, we studied the first Christmas and why God sent his son to Earth. The children made story maps of story and then produced a Word Art based on the original meaning of Christmas. After this they made a Christmas mobile using their word art and words that connected both representations.

Finally, we prepared and debated the statement - Christmas the best holiday - where the children we are to use their learning from the day to reflect upon the key aspects of Christmas and it’s meaning.

23rd November,

Our Science question last week was, ‘Is it possible to clone a potato?’ So we decided to give it a go. We might have 30 more potatoes soon! 

19th November

Today the Falcons celebrated their hard work and super learning attitudes with a reward of a Pyjama Day. Being cosy in the classroom in our PJs, slippers and dressing gowns didn’t, however, stop them working hard as they have kept up a high level of intense learning all day. Way to go Falcons!

Daily Mile in nightwear didn’t slow them down either. You can see the effort on their faces. 

13th November

In maths, we have been learning about the order of operations BODMAS however our teacher set us a challenge to draw visual representations of the questions. It was harder than it looked as a few people kept trying to draw lots of counters but we persevered with some great results. Take a look below.

November 10th 

The Falcons have been thinking about what helps them learn and who is responsible to making sure these things are in place. Everyone was a little surprised to discover that everything that helps them learn is something that they can be responsible for either individually or as a class. For example: making sure they have eaten breakfast, working silently when doing independent learning and doing homework.

20th October 

The Falcons have been thinking about how to present their work in ways that supports their learning. They know this is a skill they will need in secondary school, at university or college and in the world of work. It all seems like a long way off but they children are keen to be responsible for their learning.
They have been focusing on:

- neatness and layout

- use of diagrams and labels

- use of tables and boxes

- underlining headings and sub-headings

- highlighting important words and facts

- asking and answering questions

Below are examples from humanities and science books. The children were extremely keen to share work they were proud of.

30th September,

The Falcons have been enjoying learning about space in our science lessons. They can explain solar and lunar eclipses; how the moon, sun and earth move around each other; name and describe the different planets (in order from the sun); discuss the evidence for and against the Earth being spherical and more. In art we created our own images of a fantasy solar system using chalk pastels to give shape and shadow to the planets. the results are stunning and left the Falcons making 'ohhs' and 'ahhs' when they saw their work presented together in a display. However, we also wanted to have a 3D model of our Solar System in school so we are creating a huge one using papier-mache. Take a look at our work in progress.

In geography we are learning about biomes. We are focusing on six of the main biomes, where they can be found, what causes different biomes and what landscape, flora and fauna we would expect to find there. It was wonderful to see a number of the children using vocabulary they learnt in geography to explain their thinking in an English comprehension assessment. Making connections between learning is an important skill.

A new challenge has been launched in our classroom. Each week Ms Parks is looking for a master mathematician - this isn't someone who finds the answers quickly but is someone who can explain their thinking and processes using drawings, models and detailed written descriptions and reasoning. We have our first master thanks to his brilliant description of why he chose to use a numberline to solve a subtraction question rather than column methods (the numbers were near the next hundreds). The trophy stands proudly on the winner's desk all week.

18th Sept

We've now had two full weeks of school and the Falcons have settled back into school life incredibly well. Their focus and effort in maths has been particularly impressive as they have responded well to the new maths scheme we have introduced. Power Maths is part of the Active Learn family but teaches maths using a mastery approach enabling the children to apply their learning to a wide range of senarios and problems. Explaining thinking and using models to support understanding is key to mastery of maths so we have been doing a lot of maths talk. This is an example of an exchange that took place on Friday (T=teacher, S=student).

T: What is missing from this diagram?

S1: The intervals haven’t been quantified (This is a fabulous answer using specific and sophisticated vocabulary)

T: What is a negative number?

S2: A number below zero

T: So is…… 0.15 a negative number?

S3: No it’s bigger than zero. That’s a decimal number

T: Ok, so what is the difference between a negative number and a decimal number?

S3: A decimal number is between 2 numbers. A negative number is below zero.

T: So can we have negative decimal numbers?

Various students call out excitedly, “Oh yeah!” “Yeah!” “I hadn’t thought of that before”

T: Who thinks we can have negative decimals? (Some hands up)

T: Who thinks we can’t have negative decimals? (Some hands up)

T: Who’s not sure? (some hands up)

T draws a number line on the board, marking positive 1.1.

T: Can we have negative 1.1?

Students exclaim or nod in agreement with much pair discussion.

T: When might we see negative decimal numbers in real life?

S4. Maybe for temperature? So negative degree celius between whole negative numbers.

Impressive thinking and explaining Falcons!

This week we also took at trip to the Church to visit the new River Room. The children were very impressed by the modern new extension and loved the river window and bi-fold doors. We worked together to re-write Louis Armstrong's 'It's a Wonderful World' to reflect all of the positive things we feel has come out of the global Covid-19 lockdown. We will share with you when we've practised singing it.

4th September

Despite all efforts to have a normal start to the year, it just didn't go as planned as our teacher (Ms Parks) was in quarantine. However, that didn't stop the incredible Falcons making a brilliant first impression and rising to the challenge of having some of their lessons taught remotely thanks to our huge Interactive Whiteboard and some clever use of Teams and PowerPoint (we think our teachers learnt quite a lot too during lockdown).

We've been reflecting on the changes in school and in our own lives and thinking about how we can make this year the best one ever. We have been talking about our emotions and how to show how we are feeling using the Zones of Regulation. We tested out some different ways of regulating our feelings so that we are able to get ourselves into the right mood for making the most of school.

In Science we are learning all about space. We've been investigating what causes a lunar eclipse but, best of all, we have started making a giant model of the solar system!

Mrs Hornsey helped us to try out a new way of learning in maths, it was incredibly helpful to see the models and images for each concept.

Roll on Week 2 - the Falcons are ready to learn...