Latest News

Puddle Jumping

Wed 26 Feb 2020 Miss Handley

The Nursery children had a great time hunting puddles to splash and jump in.

Nursery Dance

Wed 26 Feb 2020 Miss Handley

The children have started dance classes with Jane. They enjoyed moving in different ways to the music.

Y6 Robinwood Residential - Day 3

Wed 26 Feb 2020 Mr Loynd

A tired but happy Year 6 were fortunate to have a lie-in this morning at Robinwood, before eating a hearty breakfast at 8:10 am.

Even though we are only at Robinwood until 2:00 pm when our coach departs for home, we have still managed to cram in three action-packed activities before lunch. Team Lava completed Archery, Caving and the Dungeon of Doom, whilst Teams River and Dune both experienced the Piranha Pool, Knight’s Quest and the Crate-building Challenge.

We have had an amazing time. We’ve enjoyed challenging ourselves, working in teams and bonding as a class.

A huge thank you to Matt, Sam and Maddy, our three unbelievably kind and supportive instructors, for making our time here so memorable.

We are leaving now to begin our journey home. Mrs Sabatino, Ms Cervellione and myself would like to thank each and every member of Year 6 for being so well-behaved and for working so hard in adverse weather conditions over the last three days. You are fantastic St. Mary’s Mates and great ambassadors for our school.

Freestylers

Tue 25 Feb 2020 Mr Chadwick

Year 3 are having Dance Lessons this term yet we already have a class brimming with Freestyle Talent. Even though we have only had one lesson so far the children really took to the instructions with enthusiasm and really pushed themselves.

Have a look at the Video in the Resource Page of the website for a flavour of just how good they are already and will become!

Y6 Robinwood Residential - Day 2

Tue 25 Feb 2020 Mr Loynd

Day two at Robinwood has been an incredible experience for Year 6, as our adventures have taken us from tunnels beneath the ground to the skies above us! We have completed assault courses, solved mental puzzles, swung from trapeze and zip wired through the air.

All of our activities have been completed against a backdrop of rain, hail, sleet and snow - as one child commented, “Well we shouldn’t forget the different kinds of precipitation now that we’ve seen them all in one day!”

We’ve visited the Robinwood Tuck Shop and have had our team photos taken. Most importantly, everyone has learnt some new skills and we have also developed some abilities that we already had. Our confidence and resilience have improved, and the love and respect that we have for our Y6 St. Mary’s mates has grown even stronger.

Remember parents, that you can visit our school Twitter page for all the latest video clips of our three Year 6 teams completing their challenges.

Visit our school website again tomorrow for more on our final day at Robinwood.

Y6 Robinwood Residential - Day 1

Mon 24 Feb 2020 Mr Loynd

Year 6 have enjoyed a fabulous first day at Robinwood in Todmorden. After a gruelling hike up the infamous Robinwood hill, we were divided into three activity groups - Lava, River and Dune.

After making our own beds, we had a light lunch before embarking on an activity-packed afternoon and evening. Our resilience, teamwork and problem-solving skills were put to the test as we took part in a range of challenges including archery, zip wire, climbing, crate building and the dreaded piranha pool!

At the end of the day we enjoyed a well-earned tea of either pizza or fish fingers and chips.

Just a quick reminder that you can see video clips of all three groups’ adventures on our St. Mary’s Twitter page.

Check back here for more from Year 6 at Robinwood tomorrow.

DfE Hungry Little Minds Campaign

Mon 24 Feb 2020 Mrs Murphy

Improving early communication, language and literacy development is a key priority for the government and a cornerstone of building a country that works for everyone. Some of the poorest children in the UK start school months behind their peers and the gap can grow through their school years. Children with poor vocabulary skills at age five may be up to twice as likely to be unemployed in their 30s. In July 2018, the Department for Education (DfE) announced the government’s ambition to halve in ten years the proportion of children who finish reception year without the communication, language and literacy skills they need to thrive. As part of this endeavour DfE has launched Hungry Little Minds – a new three-year campaign to encourage parents and carers to engage in activities that support their child’s early learning and help set them up for school and beyond.

On Friday 21st February an expert panel approved several early years apps to help families kick start learning at home. The 6 apps - published on the Hungry Little Minds website – are part of the government’s drive to help parents make informed decisions about the use of technology in creating positive learning environments at home.

The 6 apps include:

Lingumi (For children aged 2-5): Sets of learning games, speech recognition games and video-based games to help with a child’s grammar and getting them speaking their first words early on.
Kaligo (For children aged 3-5): The first digital handwriting exercise book using a stylus and tablet, built using AI and co-created with teachers, occupational therapists and neuroscientists.
Phonics Hero (For school-aged children): Over 850 fun, varied and motivating games take a child step-by-step through the 44 sounds, the reading and spelling of words, and how to conquer sentences.
Teach Your Monster to Read (For school-aged children): Covers the first two years of learning to read, from matching letters and sounds to enjoying little books, designed in collaboration with leading academics.
Navigo Game (For school-aged children): Focuses on developing skills that underpin reading, including phonics, letters and sounds, designed by UCL Institute of Education and Fish in a Bottle.
Fonetti (For school-aged children): The world’s first ‘Listening Bookshop’ interacting with children by giving visual cues in real-time as they read aloud and highlighting where the most support is needed.

For more information head to https://hungrylittleminds.campaign.gov.uk/#information

KS2 Music Day

Fri 14 Feb 2020 Mrs Murphy

Today our KS2 children had a music day. They started by listening and appraising music, then did a composer study of British composer Elton John. We created a timeline of composers, from classical composers such as Vivaldi to modern day composers including Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga, listened to their music and compared them to each other. After we looked at notation and composition; creating our own compositions with both instruments and on Purple Mash.

Finally we looked at the artist Kandinsky, who created his art work as he listened to classical music. We reviewed some of his work before taking part in a carousel of art; using different media to create Kandinsky inspired art work, all whilst listening to different genres of music.

St Mary's World Book Day

Thu 13 Feb 2020 Mrs Kinman

Year 3 Archaeologists & Rare Fossil Hunters

Thu 13 Feb 2020 Mr Chadwick

The brave archaeologists in Year 3 had an experiment to undertake today. We have been transported to a rare scientific find and they had to use their knowledge of rocks and fossils to excavate a rare find (chocolate chips) carefully without breaking the fossils.

We used tweezers, paintbrushes, magnifying glasses, sharp sticks

and safety glasses to help with the excavation. Work was painfully slow as we realised the million year old rocks would break up very easily and we desperately wanted to keep them intact.

The champion archaeologist was in fact Joshua who excavated the most fossils whilst keeping his rock almost completely whole.

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