Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to start by saying how excited I am about seeing you all on March 8th where we can once again be together as a Rhino family in class.

I know many of you may have some questions about school and will be wondering if anything will be different this time when you return. Actually, we have not had to make too many changes and therefore school routines will be pretty much the same as they were during the Autumn term when you were last at school.

Even though this is the case, I have put an information page together for you and your parents to have a look through to remind you of those routines and some of the minor changes that we have made at school.

Rhino Return Information Page

I really hope you are all looking forward to coming back as I know being away from school and working at home has been a real challenge. I just wanted to say how well you have all done and that I have been so proud of you all. It has been extremely rewarding to see you engaging in tasks and sending me in your work. You really should be tremendously proud of yourselves. I also want to say a huge thank you to all of your parents as they have been amazing and so supportive.

I would appreciate it, if you could take some time to complete the reflection sheet below about your lockdown experience, positives and negatives, and bring this back to school with you during the first week back. This will allow us have a class discussion about our experiences and our feelings. Remember, it’s good to talk!

Back to school feelings KS2

Remember as well, if you want to take part in the masked reader activity, then upload your video to your portfolio by Tuesday 2nd March at the latest please and don’t forget to message me on Dojo with your three clues about yourself.

Can’t wait to see you all,

Kind Regards

Mr Glover

On Thursday 4th March it is World Book Day!

To raise the profile of this and to encourage a love for reading, next week I be uploaded a range of additional reading activities and tasks.

I’m also planning on holding a Masked Reader competition on Thursday 4th March. If you would like to be part of this then read the information and instructions below.

The Masked Reader Instructions

Hi Everyone,

Next week we are going to have a go at taking part in some live lessons. I will be holding some ‘zoom’ meetings with the class to conduct some reading sessions linked to our class text ‘The BFG’. The ‘zoom’ will be in the afternoon (1:30pm) so we can all work through the answered questions from the first reading session on the daily timetable. I have sent out the link over class dojo.

From Tuesday, we will also be taking part, each day, in a live lesson hosted by Jane Considine (or Mrs C to the kids!). Jane is an English consultant and has developed a writing scheme called, ‘The Write Stuff’ which we have been using in school. To train staff and pupils how to use the scheme, Jane has previously launched a series of live lessons which we took part in last term and the writing the children produced was brilliant.  So, I’m really keen to be involved again. Jane will take the lead and all we have to do is follow her instructions so it will really help and motivate children during their home learning and take lots of the pressure off you as parents.

The lessons will be broadcast live on ‘You tube’, from Monday at 9:45am but to make things more manageable, I’m going to start these from Tuesday instead so that the videos can be uploaded to the class webpage and then accessed when is most suitable for you rather than being governed by a specific time. All the children will need to complete the activities is paper and a pen/pencil.

I hope you all have had a good first week, as I previous stated, this wasn’t the start to the term we were expecting or wanting. I really appreciate all the hard work you are putting in to support your children and the amount of work you are sharing with me is so lovely to see. The DFE is recommending that primary aged pupils engage in at least 3 hours of work each day, which is why, during this lockdown, I am replicating my daily timetable and class based activities on line for you to share and work through at home each day. Please use dojo as much as you can to send in the work completed as it allows me to see the volume of work being completed and the level of engagement in the tasks set. I know that some of you are also working from home and I understand how managing the remote learning is an additional challenge. If you feel sending in pictures etc is too much, then just a quick list in a message of the activities completed that day is fine. I can still give feedback, encouragement and dojos to the children for their work.

I’m also aware that some of you are feeling under pressure to complete all the activities that are set each day. So to help this situation, I’m suggesting that on a Friday we have a catch up session (‘Free Up Friday’) where any activities that have been missed during the week can be completed so as much as possible we are on track for Monday. I will also put some links to some interactive games and online videos for those of you that need any additional activities.

Is has also been announced this week that the BBC have put together an array of educational programmes that will be aired daily of the CBBC channel (3hrs a day in fact). This is a great idea and is certainly something that you can use while at home. As previously stated, as much as possible we are trying to follow the curriculum with the tasks that we set, but I know far too well that sometimes children just need a break. This would be a break with benefits and could be something that you drop in and out of as you choose depending on the focus of the programme.

Thanks again and keep up the great work. Remember, ‘Teamwork makes the dream work!’

Have a lovely weekend

Kind regards

Mr Glover

Year 4 have been working really hard exploring how to write a Newspaper report. Over the last 10 sessions, we have been planning and writing together all the different elements which the children have really enjoyed.

Today, they had to put all the elements together and produce their very own completed Newspaper report.  When we looked back at all the first attempts, the children were amazed at the progress they have made in their writing.

Well done everyone.

Today, pupils have been learning about climatic regions and how these impact on the weather in different parts of the world. They learnt about the location of the Equator and plotted the different climatic regions on a world map. They all worked very hard and very neatly. Well done Rhino Class.