Abbey College transition STEM lesson

We were fortunate to start our secondary school transition programme with a wonderful lesson from Mr Austin - Abbey College's STEM teacher. He discussed kinetic and potential energy, before setting the children a great challenge! Armed with a costing sheet (maximum budget £3), they had to work in small groups to design, build and test a balloon car. Great fun was had by all and lots of children are now feeling very excited about their future STEM lessons!

RE - Learning about what is important to Christians - The Disciples

18th January 2024

This term we are learning about who the disciples were; why they are important to Christians; and whether they still exist today . In today's lesson we were learning who the Bible says were Jesus's first followers, the fishermen Peter and Andrew, and why they decided to leave their fishing and follow someone they didn't know.

Science - 7th December 2023

This half term we are learning about light. In our first lesson we learnt how we see things: how light travels in straight lines and how mirrors reflect light helping us to see things. We put this into practice making periscopes. And they worked!

Duxford history trip - 29.11.2023

To round off their WW2 history topic, all the children in KS2 enjoyed a fabulous trip to Duxford Imperial War Museum. They saw an array of Ww2 planes and tanks, a 1940s prefab bungalow, an outdoor air raid shelter, an Anderson shelter and even got to walk through Concorde! It was a brilliant day!

WW2 dance workshop - 13th November

We welcomed a dance and musical theatre expert, Sarah Carr, to our school today for a WW2 dance workshop. Sea Otter class enjoyed learning some moves to 'The Lambeth Walk'. These dance moves will continue to be practised in some of our daily PE sessions.

RE Rights of Passage - 3rd November 2023

This term we have been learning about what Buddhists believe and how this can influence how they live their lives. Today we have been learning about the importance of community and friendship for a Buddhist and have considered why and how it is important for us. We learnt about the right of passage that some young Buddhists celebrate when they join the Sangha.

Newspaper 'reading for pleasure'

To start their new literacy 'newspaper report' unit, the children in Sea Otter class had the opportunity to read and share a selection of newspapers. This helped them to understand the purpose of newspapers and the intended audiences. 

Science - 15th September 2023

Today we were learning about fossils - what are they and what can we learn from them, and how are they formed. We were really fortunate to have a large selection that we could look at.

WW2 history - museum challenge 

The children were placed into small groups and given the role of curators. They were told that they needed to help their local museum set up a display of eight objects to best describe and explain what life was like on the Home Front.

They were firstly given a set of primary source photographs of WW2 objects and, without any support, had to try to identify what the objects were and what they would have been used for. After a while, they were given a set of labels and matched them to the objects in the photographs. Finally, each group chose eight objects that they felt would be best suited for the museum display – ensuring that they had been fair to all groups who had helped the war effort.

History WW2 'Wow day' launch - 12th September 2023

All the KS2 children dressed up as evacuees and enjoyed a fabulous in-school WW2 day. They started by going back in time to September 3^rd 1939 and listening to Neville Chamberlain’s famous speech, before experiencing a carousel of workshops. They discovered the reason for evacuation, what the initial journey for evacuees was like, the items evacuees were allowed to pack and which countries fought in WW2 (Allies and Axis). They also took shelter during a mock air raid and, finally, enjoyed a traditional wartime tea: spam sandwiches, carrots and homemade jam tarts.

Autumn term 2023

2023 - 2024

Summer term 2023

17th / 18th July 2023

The Y6 graduation and a fun bushcraft evening in Ashbeach Common :-) 

12th July 2023

Y6 'moving on up' event at Ramsey St Mary's church

The children had a lovely morning with Mrs Challinor, discussing their secondary school transition and playing some fun games.

23rd June 2023

Silly Science afternoon

The children had an entertaining afternoon learning about science.

15 May 2023

STEM science trip to Ramsey Rural Museum

The children enjoyed participating in a 45 minute maths activity, before spending one hour exploring a range of science experiments. A lovely way to spend the first morning post-SATs!

April 2023

The children had a wonderful opportunity to explore an extensive range of fossils to start their 'Evolution and Inheritance' science unit.

Spring Term 2023

Science: Comparing different soils

We finished the term comparing different soil types.

RE: Who is Jesus and why is Jesus important to Christians?

We were thrilled to have Mrs Challinor back to talk to us about what her Christian faith means to her and to answer our questions.

PE: Quicksticks Hockey

The children are really enjoying working with our PE coach to learn hockey. They are demonstrating super skills, impressive sportsmanship and great teamwork!

Science: Rocks and Fossils

10th March

Learning to make observations and group rocks based on their properties.

Today we have been busy identifying rocks. We looked at them closely; tested to see if they were porous; tested to see if they 'fizzed' with acid and whether they floated or sank in water.  

English: Information texts.

24th February

Today we worked in pairs editing our information texts about dragons.

English suspense stories

Thursday 2^nd February 2023

End of unit oracy lesson (giving writing a purpose)

To complete their unit of English work, the Year 6 children planned, wrote and edited their own suspense stories. They then enjoyed a spooky session in the Hazel House (in Ashbeach Common) where they read their stories to each other by torchlight! All the children overcame their nerves to read aloud, making Mrs Cave and I really proud. They definitely earned the hot chocolate and biscuit treat that followed!

Viking and Anglo-Saxon history in class

Key Question 5: How have recent excavations changed our view of the Vikings?

LT: grasp the significance of archaeological evidence.

LT: identify which sources historians use when making statements which throw a more charitable light on the Vikings.

LT: understand that the Vikings could be construed as traders as well as raiders.

The children had eleven images (showing a range of primary and secondary evidence) to explore. They decided how the images would help them to ‘prove’ a series of statements. This led to a class discussion based on Key Question 5.

Vikings Key Question 1: What image do we have of the Vikings today?

LT: discover precise details about Viking boats.

The children pretended to be a tribe of Saxons living in 815AD, who were fed up with being attacked by the Vikings. They realised that the Vikings had particularly effective boats and wanted to discover the secret of their success. Organised in teams of four they became Saxon spies and worked together to spy on, and sketch, a deserted Viking boat. They then captured a top boat builder called Sven and devised questions to ask him. This enabled them discover what Viking boats were really like.

Our KS2 Viking history day - January 2023

Our ‘wow’ starter

– a Viking history day led by ‘Gripping History’.

Dressed in Viking costumes, the children in Key Stage 2 enjoyed an amazing history day to launch their new unit of work.

Through whole group presentations and class-based workshops they discovered many interesting facts: where the Vikings came from; when they first arrived in Britain (and when they left); the different places they invaded and the reasons for the raids; the traditional outfits worn by men and women; the weapons they used (including a more detailed look at their shields) and how they chose and named suitable settlements.

To finish the day in style, all the children were involved in a mighty playground battle between the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings – a truly memorable experience!

Art: African masks

We made African masks and then painted them - January

Autumn term 2022

Christingle and Christmas activities - December 2022

We were very proud of our Year 6 children who read beautifully during the Christingle Service. In the following few days the children had great fun back in the classroom: making calendars, enjoying the school Christmas lunch and playing traditional games during our Sea Otters Christmas Party!

Our visit to the Gurdwara - November 2022

We had a great morning exploring the Gurdwara learning more about Sikhism and how respect is shown to the Guru Granth Shaib.

The 'Tiny Forest' planting day - November 2022

African drumming and dance - October 2022

The children had lots of fun drumming and dancing with our special guest! By the end of the workshop their smiles were huge!

KS2 Forest School day - September 2022

English poetry writing in action! - September 2022

September: The children really enjoyed creating some emotive poetry. To really engage them they even tried 'animal spotting in the clouds'!

A very sad start to our Autumn Term 2022

We will always be thankful that Queen Elizabeth was our queen. We know she made the United Kingdom a better place and are forever grateful she has walked beside us and our families through the good and bad times.

She sacrificed her own life to serve her people, when she could have stepped back and had more private times.  

Her kindness, her love and her interest in us will always be remembered.

Rest in peace, your Majesty.

Y6 Graduation Day 2022!

Best of luck to you all. You have been superstars and will be greatly missed!

Summer term 2022

Music

This term we have been looking at inspirational female musicians and listening to a range of contemporary tunes. The children worked together in small groups to create their own compositions - with the additional challenge that each piece must last 30 seconds. It was a hot day so we enjoyed doing this in the shade of our school field. Please listen and enjoy!

English

English in action! Today (13.06.2022) the children worked in small groups to investigate different ways to include suspense and an eerie atmosphere in their writing. We discussed ‘using the senses’, ‘turning off the lights’, ‘building tension’ and ‘giving the reader clues’ (‘showing not telling’).

After showing off their  taught skills in a 'gold write' the children (prior to us assessing their independent writing) self-edit their work, then evaluate it with their peers. They read their work to each other ('author's chair') then focus on checking grammar, punctuation and spelling. This helps them to understand that their writing has a purpose and is for an audience. As we tell them, all the best authors check and change their work to make it the best it can possibly be (before revealing it to the wider public i.e. their teachers!)

National Numeracy Day - 18.05.2022

Today in school we celebrated National Numeracy Day. The children in Sea Otter class dressed in maths related clothes and had an afternoon of maths activities. They started with a spot of 'flash' reasoning, then had a 'money related' team challenge to complete (which got very competitive!) They finished the afternoon with a lesson on statistics (linked to climate).

Geography

Seated on a ‘plane’, the children used atlases to find the location of rainforests across the world. Using the giant map on the playground, they placed post-it notes to indicate the key areas and then discussed these in relation to the equator. The following geographical terms were also discussed and chalked onto the map: Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere and Greenwich Meridian line. Back in the classroom, they used this knowledge to label a map. The lesson concluded with information about latitude and longitude.

Spring term 2022

Design and Technology

The class had great fun designing and making catapults (linked to our Roman history work). They worked effectively in small teams and evaluated their products. Testing them in the hall was the best part of all!

English

We had a great drama lesson to hook us into our new English unit (writing an action scene within an historical setting). We stepped back in time to Ancient Egypt (our familiar historical setting from last term) and created some crazy action-packed scenarios! Can you spot the mummies and the unfortunate people tumbling into the river Nile?!

The Romans

We are learning about the invasion of Britain by the Romans. After studying the two attempts by Julius Caesar in 55BC and 54BC, we then discussed the invasion by Emperor Claudius in AD43. To help Claudius decide whether or not to invade Britain, the children became his advisors. They discussed reasons for and against the proposed invasion then, through the means of a conscience alley role-play, informed Claudius of both sides of the argument. After much deliberation, this famous Emperor decided he would invade this cold, rainy island! 

17.01.2022

Should the Celts offer resistance to the invading Romans or beat a hasty retreat? That is the question we looked at in class today. To help answer it, the children became Celtic spies - working in small groups to secretly look at Marcus, a Roman Legionary. Once they had established what he was wearing and carrying, they briefly captured and interrogated him. To finish the lesson, they watched video clips of a Roman re-enactment, in order to discover more fascinating facts about the Roman army. 

25.01.2022

Who was Boudica and why did she revolt against the Romans?

The children saw a photo of Boudica on the Embankment in London and discovered some information about her. Next, the children created a human timeline, to order events in Boudica's life. They then decided whether each event was good for Boudica or not (stepping backwards or forwards to represent their thinking). Finally, the children discussed possible reasons (causes) for her revolt against the Romans and how, despite outnumbering the Romans by 10:1, the Iceni tribe ended up losing. 

09.02.2022

Comparing a Roman town to a Celtic village.

After looking at images of a Celtic village, the children then discovered clues about a typical Roman town. They worked as a team to use these individual clues to create a labelled map. They discussed the differences between the two settlements.

Here are the groups with their completed diagrams.

Roman Mosaic Art

The children in Sea Otter class loved designing and making these beautiful mosaic tiles. 

Spelling Shed Launch!

We launched our new spelling programme in true Ashbeach style! Whilst dressed up in bee colours and stripes, the class enjoyed playing Countdown, completing spelling wordsearches, waggle dancing like bees and - of course - learning how to play Spelling Shed. A 'buzzing' day in Sea Otter class!

Autumn term 2021