In The News

​On Wednesday 6th March, Year 4 children walked to St Matthew’s and St. Luke’s church to learn about Ash Wednesday and Lent. George thought the trip was really good as he learned lots of information about Lent. Bruce learnt that the purple cloths in the Church meant a time of preparing. I don’t think any of us knew that information.
Reverend Lissa Scott showed us lots of artefacts linked to this time of year in the church. Many of us didn’t know that the ashes that are put on people’s heads on Ash Wednesday were last year’s palm crosses which were burned.
 Matthew said, “I loved learning lots of information about Ash Wednesday and Lent. Reverend Scott was incredibly knowledgeable.”
Olivia Said, “I didn’t realise that some Christians count all the Sunday in Lent and others don’t when they are giving up something.”
She also told us the Easter story which many of us already knew. However, we were allowed to asked questions and to explore the church which we all thoroughly enjoyed. We also got juice and biscuits which was a really kind gesture.

This week we have been learning how to give clear instructions and used this to learn how to make pancakes.  We all had to give Mrs Robson (Robot) instructions.  The first instruction was to crack the eggs.  As you can see we weren’t clear at first but got much better as we worked through the recipe.  

After we had learned how to make your own pancakes we all got the chance to flip the pancake. This was very funny!  Some of us were very good at it and some of us were not quite so good. 

To finish off our busy afternoon we have been learning how to slice fruit using a bridge hold and how to use a grater.  We have created delicious toppings to add to our pancakes. 

During RE day, we studied pilgrimage and learned about the Hajj. It is one of the 5 pillars of Islam and every Muslim is expected to make this journey to Mecca in their lifetime. Many famous people including Paul Pogba (Manchester United footballer) have made this journey.
 We recreated the 7 stages that are performed during the Hajj.  These include:

• Washing (wudu) in a ritual way and dressing in all white so everyone is equal (no Gucci tracksuits here!).
• Walking around the Kaaba in Mecca seven times.
• Running between two Mountains searching for water.
• Camping outside at Mina, praying and reflecting.
• Finding stones at Mount Arafat to throw at three pillars which represents getting rid of bad thoughts, actions and deeds.
• Returning to Mecca to walk around the Kaaba seven times again.
• Shaving off our hair (which we didn’t do!) and then celebrating together.

The children enjoyed the role play activity and discussed how it would feel to be part of this massive event.  The understanding of how diverse we all are was discovered during our discussions throughout our day.

A group of children from year 5 pupils got to experience life as a 22 year old on our maths trip to Inspire2Learn. 
We chose our dream job and spent the day as a 22 year old; buying cars, holidays, a house, food and a day out.  We had to think carefully about our monthly costs and if we could afford it with our salary. 
​All pupils showed great attitude, respect and involvement and were even lucky enough to win bonus rewards, which gave them more money to spend each month!
All the children learned valuable life skills and thoughts for the future when they grow up. 
Nikkita said, “I would save the money I have left over at the end of each month by putting it into a savings account.”
Cole said, “I would buy the things that I need rather than the things that I want all the time.” 

​We visited the Head of Steam Railway museum to learn about how Victorian’s would travel on their holidays to the seaside.  We looked at the different jobs that people did on the railway such as the train driver, ticket collector and fire man. We handled some objects and discussed how they were used. After, we were able to explore the museum and had lots of fun finding answers to questions. The Locomotion was there and we were amazed to find out that it was the first passenger train but it only travelled 10mph. We sat in the large train carriage and pretended that we were on a journey to Saltburn – it was very cramped. We had a fabulous time but all agreed that our trains are much comfier… and faster!

​Year 4 are learning about Christmas around the world. To start the topic we visited Waterstones to learn about how Christmas is celebrated in many different countries. We found out many interesting facts about different countries and learnt how to say Merry Christmas in 8 different languages!
Do you know Christmas dinner in Jamaica is barbecued goat, in Mexico children go knocking on doors for treats and presents and in Holland children leave clogs outside their homes to be filled with presents?
Steve (from Waterstones) also read us a fabulous Christmas story called Mince Spies. We all felt sorry for the brussel sprouts as they believed they were no-ones favourite Christmas food. However, it turned out that Santa Claus loves brussel sprouts.
We also completed a trial around the Cornmill shopping centre we had questions to answer about different objects in the shop windows for sale and we had lots of maths questions to solve too.