Weekly Blog

Each week, I will add a short update about what we have been learning. Click the link below to access this year's weekly blog and find out what we have been up to.

Weekly Blog (2019-20)

Below, you will find out what Kestrel Class got up to in the 2019-20 academic year.

George's Whodunit.

Many of you enjoyed the whodunit I set on Thursday. George certainly did and has created his own for you to solve. This is the case of... Who Stole Thomas's Lunchbox!

You can respond on the class blog or through the home learning email.

I have changed the secondary school names and subsequently the clue associated with it. 

Name              M/F        Doing                           Year         Age         In September

Sammy            F           Nosebleed                     6              11          Richmond

Tyla                  M          Intervention                   6              11          Richmond

Charlie S         M          Learning English           6              11          Richmond

Imogen            F           In Wren                          6               11          Richmond

George            M          Reading                          6              11          Passmore

JJ                     M          Intervention                   6              11          Richmond

Archie A          M          In Wren                           6              11          Appleton

Gracie              F          Intervention                    6              11          Richmond

Issac                M         Learning English            6              11          Richmond

Isabelle            F          In Wren                            6              11          Richmond

Orsen               M         In Nuthatch                     6              11           Lakeview

Antek               M         Reading                           6              10           Passmore

Ophelia            F          Nosebleed                       6              10           Richmond

Scott                M         Learning English            6              10           Richmond

Jamie               M         Intervention                    6               10           Richmond

Jacob               M         Intervention                    6               10           Appleton

McKenzie         M        Nosebleed                       6                10           Richmond

Kieran              M         Intervention                    6                10         Longdean

Emily                F          Reading                          5                10         Year 6

Mason              M         Reading                          5                10         Year 6

Ned                  M          Intervention                    5                10         Year 6

Ellie                  F          In Wren                           5                 9           Year 6

Takara              F          Reading                          5                 9           Year 6

Lilah                F           Intervention                    5                9            Year 6

Archie S          M          In Wren                            5                9            Year 6

Sam                 M          In Wren                           5                 9            Year 6

William            M          Reading                          5                 9            Year 6

Meadow          F           In Wren                           5                 9            Year 6

Honey             F           Reading                          5                 9            Year 6

Charlie W       M           Intervention                   5                 9            Year 6

Hattie              F           Intervention                   5                 9             Year 6

Aidon             M           In Wren                          5                  9            Year 6

Max                M           In Wren                           5                 9             Year 6

Dougal           M           In Wren                          5                 9              Year 6

Mr Hake         M           Fixing Chair             Caretaker       41             Staying

Mr Clarke       M          Teaching English     Teacher          21             Staying

Mrs Lewis      F           First Aid                        TA               57             Staying

Mrs Hayes     F           Intervention                   TA              56             Staying

Mrs Amphlett F         Teaching Maths          Supply          55             Staying

Mrs Shepherd F        Reading                           TA             55             Lydeard ST Lawrence

Clue 1

Translate from Morse code to find out whether female/male?

- …. . / … ..- … .--. . -.-. -/ .. … /-- .- .-.. .

Clue 2

If there are 0-2 correct, they are 21 or over.

If there are 3-5 correct they are 10 or 11.

If there are 6-9 correct they are 9.

World war 2 started in 1940?

The Shang Dynasty started in 1066 AD?

There are 4 angles in a Parallelogram?

Is the punctuation in this sentence correct

A poem has to rhyme?

Angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees?

Winston Churchill was Prime Minister after Neville Chamberlain?

A pentagon has 5 sides?

The werds in this sentense our spelte correctly?

Clue 3  

Unscramble these letters to find why at the school.

Htye rewe ta hte hooscl casuebe yhte rea eayr ixs.

Clue 4

Use code B=H, C=I, D=J etc, then rearrange letters to find where they will be in September.

BKGOGKQR

Week 39 (13/07/20-17/07/20)

This week Steve the snake shed again and i played Fortnite for ages on Saturday and Sunday and played prop hunt in Fortnite creative with Sammy, Scott, Mac, Charlie, Kyle, Jamie and Antek. It was super fun coz i turned into an apple and hid on the roof. Also I did do other stuff but they are not exiting and it is mostly about Fortnite because i play that four days of the week.

Isaac

Lock down has been strange! Its annoying that the last day of school has to end in my bedroom rather than laughing with my friends! I just want the world to be back as it was! Thank you Mr Clarke for being my teacher this year even though I haven't seen you in person for most of it! I am looking forward to being taught by you next year. I hope you are all well 

Thomas

I would like to start of by saying IT’S THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! This week was an ok week until my mum told me that we are going to Legoland – then it turned into an AWESOME week ! I am so excited! Since Tuesday I have had my head down studying the map of Legoland Windsor. My favourite ride I’ve seen so far is Laser Raiders and we are also staying in the Legoland hotel with a pirate themed room! I love Lego and it has practically got me through lockdown so to go to Legoland Windsor is amazing!

My family and I have got lots of fun things planned in the summer holidays like Legoland, Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm and going to Longleat Safari! Although we are still in lockdown for now, the clouds are clearing slowly and once we get to August we are allowed out properly!!!!

I hope everybody has a great summer and stays fit and healthy! See you in September.

Dougal

Hi Kestrels,

I just wanted to say well done for getting through this term - it's been the strangest time in our generation and one you will never forget. I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts and seeing what has been going on since some of you have been back at school. It's really made me smile and made me feel part of the class even though I've not been able to come in.

For the Year 6s - I hope you have a wonderful picnic today, you've certainly got beautiful weather for it! I'm really sorry that I can't come in but I've got to stay at home for now to protect Pippa. I am thinking of you all. Good luck for secondary school - I'm sure you will all love it and for those at Kingsmead I may see you around so please say 'hi'.

For Year 5 - I can't wait to see you all back at school in September as Year 6s. It's going to be a great year, especially since we will all appreciate school, and each other, a lot more having had to work on our own for so long.

Have a brilliant summer, full of safe adventures, relaxing times and doing your favourite things.

Mrs Gee

this week has been really weird as it is our last week and i have enjoyed being at school and are leaving assembly was really sweet and mrs gees massive quiz was great and i came 5 Antek 4 Sammy 3 Imogen 2 and Charlie first thank you all year fives for your incredible kind  messages

Mac

This week has been a great week. I have enjoyed my last few days as a year six. It has been very fun. I loved the leaver video! 

Goodbye!

Imogen

I’m sad today it’s my last day .I will miss you guys all teachers and students by guys.

Archie

bye have a great time as year 6 a great one

Jamie

Today is the last time i will ever post on the blog. *sad music plays*. Also it is the last time i will be in this classroom. *sad music intensifies*. Also, its the last time i will be in this school, i think. *sad music intensifies EVEN MORE*. so bye! have a good summer holidays and a good rest of time in school. *sad music stops*.

[You can come back and visit us *happy music starts*]

Charlie S

I would not like to say bye but i have to. These 8 years in this school have been amazing but its time to start a new chapter. I wish i could see you all because its soooo hard to say bye. I wish i could stay but i just cant you will all be great and good luck to the next year 6s and everyone else

adios

Antek

Week 38 (06/07/20-10/07/20)

This week i didn't do much coz of lock down so i can't think of much to write apart from it is only 1 week till SUMMER HOLIDAYS

Isaac

Day 1: Sleeping 

Day 2: Went to school to see Sandwich 

Day 3: hugging my dog (Coco)

Day 4: hugging my cat (Charlie)

Day 5: Writing this thing [and I am sure you're enjoying it!]

Ophelia

I’m so bored once again I’ve been doing nothing but at least I had fun at school I can’t wait until September so I can have all my friends playing with me 🤩🤪🤩🤪🤩🤪🤩🤪🤩🤪🤩🤪🤩🤪🤩🥳🥳🥳🤓

Ned

Not a lot has happened. On Monday I did a tour around my school.

George

my week this week we had millions of ants in the bathroom but luckly we have a nother bathroom.and desmorning i saw snail trales in the house but we are putting and power in the bathroom.

Archie S

My week has been good as I've been in school again (YAY) and I have also I have heard the news that I am going to France (DOUBLE YAY) and that we were going with our Auntie and Uncle (TRIPLE YAY.) I am actually writing this blog post right now in school. I don't know what I have been up to. So pretty much my  days have been.

• Get up
• Lie in bed 
• Get out of bed
• Eat breakfast 
• Look at the work 
• Get dressed 
• Do my teeth
• Either go to school or stay at home 
• Do work 
• Have break 
• More work 
• Lunch 
• Do work again 
• Go outside 
• ??????

So that is a shortish description of my week

Will

This week I have been  doing home schooling with reading the book Dog man and cat kid in the mornings and some maths and English during break we have been playing Lego and Sylvanian Families . For the last few days our cousins have been coming down there names are Evie and Guy . They came down because gran was getting a new carpet . Evie and Guy  might be coming down next Thursday Anyway we all (Evie and Guy) went up into the yard to play on our scooters we stayed for tea . We had ham sandwiches , Tomatoes , sausage rolls , crisps and a Fab (ice lolly). Today I'm at school tipping up this 

Ellie

Saturday: I passed my C~test with a solid pass I beat 13 year old's 

Sunday: I didn't get out of bed till 3 on the afternoon 

Monday: I came to school and wrote about a haunted prison 

Tuesday:I saw Ophelia and me and her have new nicnames Ophelia's is cat and I'm jade 

Wednesday: I played fortnite by myself

Thursday:I came to school 

Friday: i wrote this 

Sammy

My week

Monday: played games

Tuesday: Played games

Wednesday: Football, work and played games

Thursday: school, Work, football and played games

Friday: wrote this and did work 

Antek

Yesterday we did a science lesson and we cleaned coins with mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, horseradish, vinegar, water, water and fairy liquid. To see which cleaned it the best it was all different from person to person i found horseradish cleaned it the best the worst was ketchup for me because it just stained the coin red and made it look ugly.

Mac

Ketchup, mayonnaise, horseradish, vinegar, water and soapy water, mustard, who would have thought they would clean your coins? well they do! We did child labour for Mr Clarke cleaning his 68p. it was fun tho

Charlie S

I did my work play FORTNITE 5 HOURS and cleaned coins

Jamie

we did bark rubing and that is it today [so far]

JJ

This week I have:

• made a clay pumpkin with metallic paint and rose gold dots
• cleaned coins using mayonnaise, vinegar, horseradish, mustard, ketchup, water, water and fairy liquid, (mustard was the best for me.)
• made some aesthetic colour cards (pink, orange, yellow, lilac so far) for the shoe box thing for Kingsmead
• made some edible cookie dough... twice 
• bark rubbing

stay safe 

Imogen

Hi guys today I'm getting a Koi  carp at Blackdown garden centre and its quite expensive. It's going to join my Koi fish family in the pond.

After that I'm going to travel half an hour to play cricket with my friends.

Archie A

monday: new school tour

Tuesday: Minecraft

Wednesday: my friend getting me to make crash bandicoot in minecraft

Thursday: Painting pebbles and more Crash in minecraft

Friday: Writing on class blog!

George

I would like to start of by saying I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S WEEK 15! Anyway, in todays blog, I am very excited because after shielding for just under 4 months, on Sunday I finally get to go out! Yay😊. I am going to Hound Tor on Dartmoor! If you can’t tell already, I am so excited! I am going with my family and my Auntie and Uncle and their two dogs, Bramble and Dodger, and its going to be FUN!!!!!!!!!!! We might find letterboxes or geocaches but it doesn’t matter because we are just going out!!!!!!! I’m even excited about going in the car because I haven’t been in a car since the 20th March!!!! How mad is that???

As usual I have enjoyed all the schoolwork this week, especially looking back at my achievements this year and I’m looking forward to the summer holidays! I’m also excited about coming out of year 5 and coming into year 6!

Hope everybody is still fit and healthy.

Dougal

Hi guys

We have been playing hide-n-seek in the maize fields, when we go on our daily walk. It has about five fields of maize to play in!

I have been playing skywars in minecraft and doing school work.

Thanks for the extra maths Mr Clarke. It was definitely tricky!! I can't get spelling shed to work so please could set some spellings at the beginning of the week, thanks. My mum has insisted that I ask for this.

Jacob

Week 37 (29/06/20-03/06/20)

It was my birthday on Wednesday and i was really excited i got a fitbit which i was not expecting an a mp3 player and a couple of other things like a 49% of a quad bike and i did 17,000 steps on Thursday.

Mac

This week I have really enjoyed Maths and English but especially English because I liked looking back over this year.On Tuesday we went over to one of my best friends because she is moving back to Australlia .Since the start of lockdown I have now done 281.35 miles on my bike.I especially enjoyed Monday as I was at school and it was reallly fun . I have had a great week so far 

Meadow

This week was quite fun coz i bought cherries for the first time in 3 years and yesterday i got the jellie skin in fortnite because he is my favourite. Person in  the whole of fortnite. 

Isaac

Yo, I played fortnite everyday of da weeeeek cuz I did. i regret everything I bought because i spent too much money. I need to controll myself!!! thats my weeek, goodbye

Charlie S

This week was kinda boooooring (as you can tell from the title) but we did play rounders and my team won. It was by 3 and my team was Charlie.S Jamie me and JJ

Antek

On Monday I went to a fishery’s called Stafford moor fisheries and cort 11 carp .one of them was 7 pound 8ozs (My PB)

Archie A

This week I have:

• Played rounders
• Made an origami envelope 
• Ordered some things on line 
• Found out that I really like blackcurrant jam 
• Taken Willow and Thatcher out on a few walks   

Yeah and that was my week

Stay safe 

Imogen

I'm bored this is my week:

Day 1: stroking the cat

Day 2: living 

Day 3: lying on my bed

Day 4: st

Ophelia

This week:

1.Played FORTNITE 

2.Played FORTNITE with Scott,Issac and Mac 

3.Trained for my C~test 

4. Played FORTNITE with Jamie and Charlie.s

5.Vets coming to give shadow his check over 

6.Doing my C~test hope it go's well 

P.S I'm getting a cat 

Sammy

At this point BORD IM VERY BORED ive been at school on a Monday Wednesday and Friday and sometimes Thursday I haven’t been doing much but I just can’t wait till Saturday cause I’m going to have a sleepover because it’s the 4th of July 🎉 🎉🎉🎉 🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈I’m so Exited

Ned

My week has been fine. For school work my mum introduced me to a maths app called my maths where I have been been doing my maths from. I have also been writing to my grandparents alot. I have been spending ages in the pool and in the garden. I have also been playing with my lego and playmobil. I have also got into a habbit of doing my school work on my sofa! Infact I  am writing this there now. I have been doing my practice papers dad sent me and scored 9\10 yesterday. My week has been pretty much the same as all the others. 

Thomas

My week has been good as the work has been fun. I've been on loads of 1km runs. I do the runs at least 4 times a week. Recently my mate Harry came over and we had loads of fun. Also when harry was over we had delicious tandori chicken from our pizza oven ,and then the dads went fishing at Wimblebal lake and then I stuffed myself with Eton Mess. Overall my week has been good.

Hope you are getting on well,

Will

I would like to start off by saying…………... IT’S TWO WEEKS ‘TIL THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS! Party! Anyway, in this week’s blog I’m going to write about my new, awesome Lego City police set! The box is so big, and it is even deeper than my hand. I’ve been saving up for ages and instead of getting dojos at school I get stamps at home and each stamp is worth 20p. So, I’ve saved up those and my pocket money and bought it! I am so happy I got it. It is definitely worth the amount of money! I got it on Thursday (yesterday) and there are ten packs, and 6 instruction booklets. I have already done 5!

Dougal

It’s lovely to read all your Friday blogs to see what you’ve been up to. I’m sad that I can’t be in school to see you all but I do always read the blog!

This week Pippa and I have baked orangutan cupcakes with a buttercream filling as part of Pippa’s orangutan project - they were delicious!! 

Mrs Gee

This week, we went to Weymouth, there were four cruise ships. 
We had fish and chips on the beach, we saw three horses on a beach ride.

We helped my dad to plant a herb garden and flowers . Of course , I have done all my school work.

Izzy

1. We went for a walk around the Reservoir with some friends IT TOOK 3 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

2. We took our campervan to the MOT and it reminded me of our 3 month trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3.  We did schoolwork

4. We are gonna clean out our Campervan 

5. I am  writing this...

All in All this week has been fun and boring at the same time 

Sam

Week 36 (22/06/20-26/06/20)

This week i have not done much apart from playing roblox and i have also done my work as usual. There is nothing else to do apart from eat, watch TV and play video games

Isaac 

This week as been a mega week! First off, this afternoon my sisters and I are going into our new, giant paddling pool! I am so excited because when we got the paddling pool it rained for two weeks or it wasn’t hot enough☹. Now it is hotter we can go in!

Secondly, on Monday all of my BBF’s (Best Bros Forever -  Thomas, Max and Sam) surprised me by turning up outside my house!!!! We had a really nice chat together through my window (they stood in my front garden!). It was a lot different than usual though because they were all wearing masks and standing spaced out but we did talk about lego and Star Wars so it was cool!

Thirdly, this week the government said people that are shielding can go out with six people or less outside from the 6th July! That means I can meet up with my Auntie and Uncle and go up to Dartmoor geocaching and letter boxing! Mum has already fixed a date for later in July and I’m REALLY looking forward to it! From the 1st August we can go to the same places as other people if we want to, as long as COVID hasn’t got worse again.

Hope everyone is still fit and healthy!

Dougal

As always my week has been great. I have been doing my school work as usual and playing lego. I have been putting all my best sets and creations together and made my own tropical paradise with my private jet, mansion, penthouse, yacht\harbour, a beach, a waterfall with a garage behind and loads of spaces to park my Ferrari, limo and flying car. It is amazing! I have made the frog and it jumped 4cm which was a bit disappointing. I also made an amazing ginger cake for fathers day. For task two on today's mission I drew my favourite spot in the garden which is by the pond.

Thomas

This week has been another normal week. Today i made a frog and i am in the middle of making a frog family! I drew a picture as well of my hand holding a daisy in the sky. I am also enjoying today's art day! 

Stay safe 

Imogen 

We made some frogs 

We went to wimbibell lake

JJ

On Thursday, me and seven friends made a big pyramid and used 20 tiers for the pyramid hope you are well. 

Archie A

My week was good, we made origarmeeeee frogs out of paper. Mine is called Bob sr, Jaimies is caleld bob jr

we drew, it was good until I drew grass.

Charlie S

My week has been really good I have enjoyed going into school like always and it was really nice to see Kieran because I have not seen him in ages I liked drawing the nature and making a leaf, pumpkin and something else that I can't remember out off clay hope everyone else had a good week as well that is all from me this week over and out.

Mac

This week I have really enjoyed Maths and English but mainly Maths because I love multipulication and factors.On Wednesday I finshed Dancing The Charleston [which I mentioned last week in my blog]. Now I'm reading Malory Towers . On Sunday night we met up on goggle teams with our very close friends from Lanzorote 2 years ago [ Wendy , Ben , Alice , Emily and Sophie]. Plus in 4 weeks time we are going to mersea with them , Mersea is a little island with a caravan park , long bike rides loads of beaches kayaking and paddle-boarding. On Friday I went in my pool, it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cold.

Meadow

Week 35 (15/06/19/06/20)

This week has been SUPER BUSY!!!! We have had the first birthday and mine next🎁🎁🎁🎉. Then we will celebrate my older sister's. We have just celebrated my dads birthday today and he is 44!!

The work has been really fun and I have now got the hang of it all...

Dads birthday was REALLY FUN and we had ALOT of sweets this morning 'cause me and Eliza my (sister) got my dad a huge pack of sweets (look at picture...) and we thought we should exchange our B day presents. Eliza bought me a huge jar of Sweets and I got her some clothes!!!( VERY nice bro)

We have gone swimming in our 8foot pool (SO NICE) and have done some walking aswell...

That's all from me SAM🎉🎉🎉🎉😆😎🥎⚽️🏀🏈

Sam

Today i really enjoyed doing the science experiment and i really liked achieving a bottle flip because i am not the best at them so i was really pleased with myself I hoped all off you enjoyed it as well hope you are all safe Mac

today we did bottle filliping.

When you did your 25 flips you add 50 mills each time and i really enjoyed it.

We spoke to some people we are going ti see in our secondary school 

We asked them some questions and they answered them 

JJ

This week has been very fun. Yesterday, Antek, JJ, Charlie, Mac and I made a short film about a monster. It was very funny. Today, I also enjoyed the bottle flip challenge. 

Stay safe, 

Imogen

CHEEESE! We did an experement and talked to people at kingsmeed. My favourite cheese is extra mature chedda! its tasty. it has to be cathedral city cheese or its NaStY

Charlie

In school it has been very fun apart from the thunder and rain. Me Charlie JJ Imogen and mac all did a movie called monster and JJ was the monster. The movie is about a group of friends that (me and the twins) go into a shop not knowing what was going to happen. Then the monster attacks but they manage to escape. Then few days later they go to the garden but he is there so they ran but i got stabbed. Then i stood up and we captured him. We put him in jail but little we did know...he is like thanos and he sent us to a differant dimension. 

Antek

hi guys this week i have done school and at school today i did a water bottle flip experiment

Archie

On Tuesday a shed arrived so that we could keep are kayaks, bikes and are black boxes [which have pet food, sawdust, straw and hay in] so as soon as it arrived my dad lettered everything so it was easy to put up but when he did that i went inside and bought the 2800 vbuck battle pass then had 2 games and went back outside to help we had to first attach some beams to the skids which are the things that you can carry it around if you have it in a field but we are keeping it in the same place. Then we put some long pieces off wood that were all notched and grooved and then nailed it on. Then we could not carry on because of the start of the storm because we needed to use power tools but they can't get wet so we went in under are patio and i got my water-proofs on and had some fun in the rain and then the rain got harder and harder until it turned into hail so i had to get animals put away so i herded the chickens back in there house so they didn't get scared then i put the guinea pigs away then are drain failed and there was 5cm of water on the ground so i had to brush the water away but when i went and checked are ditch and there was a stream of water running down the driveway and it had moved the gravel to make a white water river it was so flooded down are way but it is all fine now. I hope your week has been as good as mine that's all from me over and out.

Mac

hello everyone... hahahahahahaha i am laughing..... whilst typing this post...... hahahahahaha 

also... there was a man shouting in the cops, so we started shouting at him again, we found his dog and helped him find his fog... YAY!!! The dog was cute... i named him Bob... hahaha 

Imogen

This week i watched the Fortnite live event ( It was sososossoosososososoosososos cool ) and did my school work. Also on Wednesday i woke up first thing to get the update for chapter 2 season 3 done. In the afternoon i played Fortnite and caught a shark ( do not worry the shark was not a real one) and bought the 950 vbuck battle pass. In the end i accidentally killed killed the shark by riding it into a bridge and it started to attack me so i had to shoot it with a P90.  

Isaac

hi im getting a cat called smuge it my kitten i played the fortnite doms day event it was weard but hay ho i played it with mac isacc and scott but maccie unfotunetly go kicked out the game  we like the new map and you can rid a sharks 

Sammy

Today we did the water flipping challenge. It was very fun as we are at school and we all did it together. On Wednesday we had heavy rain at our house after school. After the rain had stopped both our courtyard drains were blocked and it was like a swimming pool. I've been at school on Monday and Wednesday as well as today. At school it has been really fun as I have got to see all of my friends again. After all the hard rain I am very thankful that the good weather is coming for the weekend and next week. I am currently in the middle of the geography 50 points that I am doing at home. At school I am in the middle of writing about on extinct animal that is not a dinosaur. I chose the Megalodon. The bottle flipping challenge has been one of the funnest operations yet. This morning we played a really fun game of scattegories with the KS1s as well as the KS2s.

Hope you are all getting on well in lockdown,

Will

This week has been OK but, in my blogs, I usually always have something to write about, but now its week 12 I cannot think of anything to write about! So, I will update you on the latest news! Oh wait, there is no news! After 12 weeks of boredom me and my family are STILL shielding! I am so sick of shielding! If they say that shielders are going to have to carry on shielding I will CRY!  Why cruel world, why???????

Only joking - it is not that bad, but I have run out of things to talk about! There was a very awesome thing though, I saw a very cool LAMBORGHINI drive past our house! It was yellow and so smooth! It was AWESOME! It was going so fast I could only catch a glimpse of it but I saw the sign and it was definitely a Lamborghini!

Hope everybody is still fit and healthy!

Dougal

On Monday my grandma came over to our house so we went in our field and did some pony riding and also did all my school work for the day. On Tuesday we did our school work and went on a walk around the village. Wednesday was miserable weather for the afternoon, but in the morning we did most of our school work. We had lunch then when we finished we had a full on storm for two or three hours, so me and my family were in a rush because we have a drain at the bottom of our yard but does not work. So our horse stables got flooded an inch or two with water, so then we fixed that but the ponies were still in the field stood by the hedge with bucket loads of water and hail the size of a small grape on them. We got them in the stables that were still a bit damp! Then we went to see if our road was flooded because it normally is in heavy rain. So we went down the road and walked through the flood. In the deep part of the flood my foot got damp and I remembered my welly had a hole in! On Thursday the morning was reasonably dry but in the afternoon it rained very hard again. We also did more school work. Today I've done all my work apart from task six but will do it after this.  We went on a walk this morning and our cats live in our barn and do what they like, so when we were walking from our neighbours our cat showed up, but then got chased by a dog that was also on its walk. 

P.s I saw lightning on Wednesday and baked a chocolate Victoria sponge on Thursday which is patterned!

Kieran

This week:
Monday: Bike ride🚴🏼‍♀️   Tuesday: Went on a walk to see the horses🐴 
Wednesday: Made some bread Thursday: Watched finding dory  Friday:Bottle flipping mission

I did all my school work.

Izzy

This week I have really enjoyed maths and engilish but espially maths as I loved the arifmancy test .On friday really liked the bottle flip task Ifound out that 3 quarters full works  the best I landed ir pn 9 and then 11!!!!!!. On Saturday Ialso did my online Jiu Jitsu classes ON ZOOM .Earlier this week I finshed Harry Potter and the phlosiphers stone . Now I am reading a book called DANCING THE CHARLSOTON! . It's about a 10 year old girl callled Mona and her aunty who makes dresses for lady  somerset but all that changes when ladt somersey dies , will Mona get the life of glamer she really wants ?{it is by Jaqiline wilson.

On sunday [fathers day] me mummy and daddy went down to dunster beach and then on to blue anchor where daddy and I almost got stuck in sinking sand

Meadow

Week 34 (08/06/20-12/06/20)

My family are currently renovating a house which was left in a horrible condition with wall paper that was falling of and the grass was 1m tall. The plumbing was terrible but at least I got to kick down the door with no help. The worst bit was the electrics they are in a unsafe condition that will light up on fire🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥. It smelled of cat pee because they The person had 6 cats and moved out for no one to take until a year later and that was us. It will hopefully be done in 6 weeks and we In the house

Tyla

Saturday: Played Fortnite in the morning with Mac and got shadow Meowscles and not much else for the rest of the day.

Sunday: Played Fortnite again in the morning with Scott, Mac and Sammy and got ghost Skye and not much else for the rest of the day.

Monday: Work and not much else 

Tuesday: Work and then in the afternoon I played Fortnite AGAIN (It is sososososo addicting, i see how so many people like it) with Mac, Sammy and Scott.

Wednesday: I did work again then in the afternoon, you guessed it, played Fortnite and trapped Sammy in a box and she got killed from the storm. I played with Scott, Sammy and Mac.

Thursday: I did work and it was alright then i played a game after lunch that is called Shell Shockers. It is where you are an egg and you have to shoot the other eggs and there are game modes such as capture the spatula and other things as well.

Friday: Work and I am still doing work coz this is work on the work page coz it is school today and we have to do work but can't go in school for obvious reasons, well you can but i don't want to for obvious reasons and obvious reasons, so obvious reasons to obvious reasons.    

OBVIOUS REASONS BYE

Isaac

This week was wild. A digger came and dug out the area for our new patio and dad and the man took down the ancient 🍎 🌳 and the mud that we had to have flattened out last time the digger came to our 🏠 is being taken away. The good thing of getting all the mud moved is that wildlife is roaming around more like birds 🐦 and rabbits 🐰 and  Mabel, our dog (aka the Rat!) has been chasing the wildlife. Our front room is having the floor dug out so a damp proof course and insulation can be added. We are all squeezed up in the kitchen to do our work which is ok but challenging but we get through it so that is my week so far.

Jacob

This week has been a very good week! For the last few of weeks, Jemima and I have been getting some parcels from something called The Archive of Unsolved Mysteries! They send us a parcel every week and in each parcel, it gave you clues to solve! In the next parcel it told you if you had got the last parcel right! Turns out that it was a mystery about Egypt! There were three guys trying to get in to the Pharaoh’s tomb but when they entered the tomb, one of them got cursed! ☹ We had to work out what happened and how to break the curse. In the last parcel there was a stone and we had to use a spoon and paint brush to dig out what was inside to solve the final part.

It was so fun doing it and I really enjoyed it when each envelope arrived!

Dougal

This week I have really enjoyed Maths and English but mainly Maths because  I love fractions.I have also started re-reading the Harry Potter series and I'm two thirds way through the philosophers stone {the first book}.I have also done some more homelearning quest one of them is write an infomation page about an extinct animal but not a dinasour I chose the tasmanion tiger.I've also made a couple of animation's .on Sunday grandma came over for a barbaque and due to new rules we didn't have to social distance 

stay safe

Meadow

Week 33 (01/06/20-05/06/20)

The previous, week has been great fun ,as always,. Although I have been finding the work easy, so told my dad and he ordered a year 6-7 practice paper, and to my delight yesterday ,after much effort, I scored 20\20!   I have also built a lego penthouse which includes, a lounge, a kitchen, a terrace\hotub, an indoor pool, a bedroom and a helipad with a helicopter!

Thomas

In school me, Charlie.S, Imogen, JJ, Mac, Jamie, Archie.A, Mrs Haise, and Mr Clarke are having soooooo much fun because there is only 9 of us in the class. We have been doing are work like you but with more fun. I sit next to JJ And we have been having fun learning. Mrs Haise made a bbq and Charlie S ATE 10 BURGERS!!!!!! I only had 3. [I should add that the final sentence was a joke!]

Antek

This week, I have been in school with 6 other children Imogen, Charlie S, Antek, JJ, Archie A and Jamie. We have had great thing this week and it was great 

Thank you, Mr Clarke and Mrs Hayes!

McKenzie

This week I have gone to school for yesterday and today. It has been very fun. I have made a leaflet about 'Top 6 places to visit in Somerset' and stuck a picture of an adorable pig on the front of it. I have also enjoyed playing some football (even though I can't kick the ball in the right direction). 

Stay safe

Imogen  

This week has been a very good week (as usual) and I was very excited about two things! The first thing is that my Lego pick-a-bricks came on Monday - and for about 5 minutes I stopped all my schoolwork and watched my mum wash all the bricks! There were all sorts of bricks I ordered and after my mum had washed them all, we lay them out on the trampoline (when it was still hot) to dry! At lunch time it was all dry, so I sorted it into different boxes, and I labelled the boxes so I know where to find each brick! It was so fun! My Mum and I counted how many bricks I ordered, and I ordered 454 bricks out of my savings!

I was also very excited because I have built this massive three-layered Lego house from my pick-a-bricks! The bottom layer is a dining room and a kitchen with a jail door leading to all my treasure! The second floor is my Lego minifigure’s bed and lounge! It has a sofa, four beds and a pop out window to stand in! The third and final floor is a flat roof that has massive speakers so you can PARTY! It also has a brilliant balcony to watch over the house! Outside the house, there is also a car park!

The house is made with special pieces so you can take a layer off at a time without it breaking.

Hope everybody is still good!

Dougal

It was alright. I made a lego Zombie Apocolipse car thing and yesterday i set up a camera trap. I have also got my pro gamer set up for the fortnite live which is on Saturday ( if they don't put it back a week!!!!!!!!!! AGAIN!)

Isaac

Hello to all my fellow class mates I have had an average day I came to school with my only friend here Ophelia I did my boring work and then we did some more drawings we had lunch  ( we had cookies for snack ) and we claimed half of the field to play on them we had  football mach against Mr Clarke's team.

Sammy

It has been a very boring day Sammy and i have been doing more drawings and it is a day closer to riding,Freyja has  been calling Sammy her big sister and i wish that was true we claimed half of the field Sammy and some other people have been playing football.

Ophelia

Recently I have been painting pebbles, they look fantastic. Ollie has been doing some too⭐️
We can go out now that dad is better from coronavirus🌸 We have done some baking, today (5.6.20)we had pancakes. We used to have a big paddling pool but it got a puncture, mum bought a bigger one that has 2 tonnes of water in (that is what Elliot thinks) 🌊 The horses and the calves are still there👍
I FaceTimed my cousin Gracie on Monday

Stay safe

Izzy

Week 32 (18/05/20-22/05/20)

This week I haven’t really been doing much because my Dad  has tested positive for coronavirus , we have been playing in the garden with the water slide. Before he tested positive we went on a walk to see the horses , the owners of the horses have put calves in another field , they are so cute ! Also over the weekend we went on a walk at Cothelstone.

Stay safe🌸

Izzy

This week I've been going on my gymnastic bar I got for my birthday [I love it !]. I've found the work a little harder this week and my Daddy had to order me a new book because I used up all the pages.I have facetimed Lilah loads this week as we gift each other on sumdog. Which I enjoy but now I'm addicted to it..I also finished my book I was reading the famous five book one . Tonight I'm watching the first Harry Potter film as I got them for my birthday and I've also finshed the last book Harry Potter and the deathly hallows .

STAY SAFE

Meadow

Well the week has been hectic for us. We had concrete being poured for our house extension on Monday and Tuesday so we managed to avoid school work for those days but mum made us catch up on Wednesday! I found the riddles hard but enjoyed the challenge. 

My inner sloth came out today for task 2 so I got Zeke and Xander to complete the task. I did manage to cyc!e a few laps though!!

Hope everyone is well.

Jacob

Yesterday I went to the beach with my 3 brothers and when we were walking we saw a camera and on bbc ten we saw my self On TV.Also this week we went on some walk and bike rides and went in the paddling pool.

Harvey

This week has been a very good week (as always) - I have loved all the work especially the first task on Friday; it was the best task EVER! Tuesday was the best day of the week and I’ll tell you why! During lockdown I’ve been building a lot of Lego things but I’ve noticed that I haven’t got enough of some type of bricks. At Lego shops you can buy a pick and mix of Lego bricks, but I can’t go out anywhere now because of lockdown ☹! On Tuesday though, my mum found out that you can do the pick and mix online – it’s called Pick a Brick! So, I used my birthday money and picked loads of bricks and now they are coming during half term! I am so excited because I’ll be able to build so much more stuff.

Stay safe. Have a great half term everyone!

Dougal

I haven’t been on the class blog for ages so I have a lot to talk about. Me and my brothers have been camping in the garden in a tent ⛺️, we have been playing in the garden, we’ve planted some sunflowers, spinach, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers and sweat peas, we’ve been going on bike rides and we’ve been doing work.

Lilah

Week 31 (11/05/20-15/05/20)

This week, I have been working with the children in school as well as Miss McCulloch and Miss Mason. We have had a busy week, including supporting the children with their online learning, completing other activities (such as making an internal combustion engine) as well as playing football. As Mason has said, I have a good curling skills! 

On Tuesday, it was my birthday, so we celebrated by having cake! Miss McCulloch made lovely chocolate butterfly cakes as well as an Oreo cheesecake, and Archie brought in a Victoria sponge, which was lovely! On Thursday, the 3 adults created the video (with quite a few outtakes) of us setting you the video challenge. I (accidentally) left the iPad at home having thought I left it at school, so on Friday morning, we had to quickly recreate it. Ophelia loved Miss McCulloch's outtakes!

I was also quite lucky to see so many of you last week, either in school or in the vicinity. It was great getting to speak to some of you too!

Last week me and my family went down to some rivers and caught fish 🐟.my dad caught something that looked like a see through scorpion. Later that day I started feeling sick🤢 but I recovered quickly😅.

We also went down to Dunster beach🏖 because some rules have been lifted. We didn't do much at the beach cause it was to windy. My mum found a bunch of sea shell. This week, we are making medieval ginger bread which I will put pictures of them up and my baby sister is coming over to play in the hotub.

Tyla

This week I went on a some walks and went in the pool. I have went to the beach but not in the sea.I have stayed inside and played games withe my brothers and friends.

Harvey

This week has been a very good week (except for Friday morning) with the school work and today’s mission!. This morning I had a little wobble because I was fed up with being at home all the time and not seeing all of my friends at school. I was just wishing something would be normal . After that, we talked about lockdown and stuff and Mummy said it would be normal someday.

Anyway, on Wednesday my family and I got an agility pack that my Mum had ordered online - it has some things we use at school like hurdles, cones and a flexible ladder! We really enjoyed having a good go with it and we also added our own things for a workout like a shuttle run, a 1-minute plank and bunny hops on the ladder. We also played 2 games (with cones); one called Snatch where someone shouts out body parts and when they say “snatch” you try to grab the cone in the middle and whoever gets it wins!!! We did a tournament with that game and I won even though Jemima sometimes plays it at netball!!! Yeah!!! The other game we played was Dishes and Domes where your aim is to turn (if you’re domes) the domes into dishes and it’s who ever gets the most of their thing turned over in 1 minute! We did a tournament for that too and I won again!!! Jemima said, and I quote,  “You got lucky in both games” but in my defence I’m nippy and quick!

That’s all for now hope everyone is still fit and healthy!!!!

Dougal

This week I have done all my Silly SATs work , making family birthday cards using blow pens🍬
Doing evening bike rides with Elliot🚴🏼‍♀️, we have had two barbecues 🔥🍔🌭.                                                     My mum hid Silly sat scavenger hunt questions in the garden.🌷.                                                                         We have been having badminton matches 🏸. 

Izzy

In the past week I have been doing many awesome things.  On Tuesday we went on 8KM bike ride. We rode to a strawberry farm and bought three packets. They tasted absolutely AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! They were probably the best strawberries I have ever had. Later that day me and Annie wrote a song it is still a work in progress though. Two days later on Thursday I woke up early and got all my maths done. Then I had some spare time in the afternoon after doing my other lessons. So on our patio there was loads of moss growing in between the cracks of the bricks and the bricks themselves needed a wash. So we got out this AWESOME hose. It is incredibly strong. So strong it could take someone's eye out and maybe even kill a mouse or hamster. It brushed aside the the dirt and moss like a broom brushing specks of dust. It is so POWERFUL I needed to weir safety goggles to protect my eyes from flying clumps of mud. It was AMAZING!!!!! 

Tonight we are having another quiz and Thomas is hosting. Tonight we are also having a Casino night and we have to get dressed up to come in it will be like Las Vegas! We are going to play roulette!!! Hopefully I have a good chance. That is pretty much everything so. 

YOURS Max

This week Sammy and I have been drawing a lot of drawings in total we have done 53.        

45 are mine 

Ophelia

This week I have done 225:5 miles on my bike , so 25 more than last week .I have also done Joe Wicks accept today because you-tube crashed !This week I've found the work a bit harder [especially in engilsh]. I really enjoyed drawing my charcters for my story ,they both come with fact-files.For art I've been doing a model of earth for 50 points and I'm also doing my first aid book for 50 points . On Wednesday me and lilah both went on sumdog and kept on gifting each other [It was really good fun].On Saturday it's my birthday and I'm really exited

Hope every one is well

MEADOW

The previous week has been like the others during lockdown. I go to the pool every day in the afternoons and do my work in the mornings. This week’s work has been really fun, I especially liked doing the coordinates. I have continued playing with my pirate ship and rediscovered my cars and played with them. I have ,like the other weeks, enjoyed the work and spare time.

Thomas

This week i haven't been up to much but i have done some gardening [ I planted courgettes, tomatoes, carrots, swiss chard, brussel sprouts and a few other things ]  and have gone online shopping. I got two skirts and a pair of joggers from Zara.Have a nice day
Hattie

This week we haven’t been u to much apart from doing loads of work and tonnes of playing. A week ago I told you we were getting a puppy big news were getting it today it will be called Simba and we got it a bed but one of our other dogs ( Wilma) who is 13 won’t like the puppy because she will think Simba is an intruder and also Wilma has taken Simbas’ bed. It is my grannies birthday next Monday and we will all have a fun ( socially distanced ) time. I haven’t really got much more to tell you so hope you had a good week.

Sam

Last week me and my family went down to some rivers and caught fish 🐟.my dad caught something that looked like a see through scorpion 

later that day I started feeling sick🤢 but I recovered quickly😅.

We also went down to Dunster beach🏖 because some rules have been lifted. We didn't do much at the beach cause it was to windy. My mum found a bunch of sea shell 

This week we are making medieval ginger bread with i will put pictures of them  and my baby sister is coming over to play in the hot tub.

Tyla

Week 30 (04/05/20-08/05/20)

I hope you have all had a great week. On Friday, it was VE Day, and I know many of you took part in Operation Victory and had a great day on Friday. We had a 'Stay at Home' street party, where everyone spent the day in their front gardens - although we did go in to watch Churchill's speech! I had made my lovely scones the day before, so we got to eat them! Next door had made their own scones too!

For VE day, I made a paper chain using red, white and blue strips of paper. Charlie made a flag. I also finished my titanic and tested it in our hot tub. It floated for a while but we couldn’t keep it in the water for too long otherwise the cardboard would fill up with water and make it sink. Luckily, it didn’t sink, but the keel, the part underneath the boat, filled up with water and went really soggy, so I have to repair it. The back of the boat also got wet and soggy. I also made a chocolate cake which was delicious, although it was quite sickly. 

Imogen

Last week we made a raspberry cheesecake. I weighed out all the ingredients and it with my mum. We have also been out on our bikes which was fun. on VE Day my mum was at work and i was at my Nan's house and we went out the front and had some drinks and snacks. I played with Meadow on her mini trampoline and also done gymnastics, we had lots of fun. We stayed out until 9.05 and then my mum came home at 10.00 then i went home and went to bed. The next day me and my mum played games.

Aidon

Last week was a very good week and on Friday my family and I all celebrated V.E. Day. Earlier in the week, I made some bunting and a programme of events for the day. First thing in the morning, we hung the bunting outside our house and then at eleven o’clock we had two minutes of silence when we stood on our doorstep.  At lunchtime, we ate our sandwiches whilst watching the history off V.E. Day with Winston Churchill’s famous speech declaring then end of the war. At 4 o’clock we played some old-fashioned card games. We played Newmarket which is a gambling game - we only played with one and two pence - and it is really fun. The second game we played was called Rummy and you have to collect either sets of cards eg all the Kings or all the twos or runs of card eg five, six, seven of spades. Taking turns, you take a card from the pile and then gently play a card down.

Next, my sister and I did a quiz on Zoom with our friends and it was our turn to make up the questions. It was good fun and we even had a round all about V.E. Day. At 8 o’clock we had dinner, which was pizza, with the Queen’s speech and then we all sung along with We’ll Meet Again. That was what we did on V.E. day!

At the weekend we played lots of board games, watched films and had fun. For a few hours it was like it was normal.

Hope no one is bored yet and that everyone is still fit and healthy.

Dougal

We have still been on a lot of walks to see the horses (we have photos of them). For VE Day our neighbours and us sat on our driveways. We had sausage rolls , crisps and pizza swirls. For drinks  I had lemonade 🍋 and my parents had wine🍷. During VE Day we put up our tent in our garden . We slept in it , we heard owl , insects and foxes throughout the night. Me and my family played a board game called Cluedeo. My cat Mollie , has been sleeping most of the day, she will be 16 on May the 24th !

Izzy

The first thing I did on Friday morning was to make decorations for ourparty. We had large origami Pom-poms and sphere decorations which we hung on an umbrella where we were having the picnic. Once we'd done that we hung up bunting on the fences of our terrace. After that, I made flags out of card and straws that had the Union Jack on them. Next at around ten o'clock we made crowns and head bands out of card and they were all coloured with red blue and white. I made a paper Union Jack out of little bits of card then stuck them together and I put the flag on my crown. 

When we finished making hats we saw that the clock had hit 11 o'clock. So quickly we switched on the TV and turned on BBC. Then for the next two minutes there was SILENCE!!!!!!

Once the silence had come to an end we went to our kitchen to bake a cake because the one we had baked the day before had been burnt. At the same time Annie was making a Victoria sponge. I was making a butter cream cake. Once the cake was in the oven we waited about twenty minutes before we took it out again. Next, we started to make the butter cream. Once it was made we squirted some butter cream on one of the cakes, then we placed the other cake on that one. Then we squirted little dots on the top to make the icing. Next we cut out the letters VE from a piece of paper to make a template. We then poured sprinkles over the template and when we took it of the cake read VE in sprinkles. 

When baking was finally over me and everyone else rushed upstairs to turn the TV on and watch Winston Churchill's V.E day speech. We waved our flags the whole way through. After a while the speech ended. We decided to make our grandparents some head bands and bring them some cake. So we road down on our bikes. When we came home it was time for the picnic so we set everything up and got the cake out. It was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few  minutes after we had another quiz with our friends. That time Dougal and Jemima were hosting. In the quiz me Esme and Annie came second by about three points. Once the quiz was over we played a few games like Splat and Beer pong (with soft drinks). Then about an hour later after watching the episode of horrible histories called Heroic home front, we had dinner. It was tomato pasta. Once dinner was over we all toasted marshmallows over a fire and had s'mores. We did stay up until 9:30 but we forgot to watch the Queens address to the nation. After that we FINALLY went to BED. 

YOURS MAX

This week, I have done one night of camping and it has been REEEEEEEALY fun. On VE day we went to the farm and had a socially distanced scones, jam tarts and 3 tier cake. Then, we went down to the pond full of trout and we set up our tents and dug a firepit by ourselves. Here is a bit more info. Our dad had an idea for us to do a survival night on our own and then our cousin and auntie came along. I forgot my bag which had the matches and firelighters in it but luckily Alex (Our cousin) brought his survival kit which had a flint thingymajig in it you can start fires with which was really hard but still we did it. Once we had started the fire we went of to fish for trout but they wouldn't bite. When it got darker we put the sausages on the grill and sat round (socially distanced) the fire. When we went to sleep we heard owls,lambs and duck but then fell asleep. Then last night we decided to camp again but our cousin didn't come and me and my dad went home at around ten. In the morning my sister went out fishing and got attacked by a goose who was sitting on eggs. That is my week.

Sam

Last Saturday, me Mummy and Daddy went for a walk across the fields. In one of the fields a herd of cows were graving on some grass . As soon as we entered the field and started walking a white cow with black spots ran towards us with  most of the cows[some stayed where they though ]. When I had almost reached the gate a younger cow came charging towards me . Luckily we all manged to get away in the end . This week I went through my 200 mile point on my bike . That means I've done 200 miles since lockdown started !!. I've really enjoyed English and maths this week . In English I loved writing  my poem . In maths I liked making a table of 3D shapes . On Thursday night me and Daddy went camping in OUR back garden . In the night I heard some really weird noises . Now I realise it was just the train and birds . On VE Day we had a socially distanced street party . We had a picnic on our drive way, it was really fun 

Meadow

The previous week, has been packed with exciting events. On Monday it was May the fourth and was also STAR WARS Day because in the films, before they go into battle, the rebel alliance and the resistance say “May the force be with you,” and May the fourth sounds like may the force. So to celebrate I drew loads of cute pictures of Chewbacca, watched RISE OF SKYWALKER a (Star Wars film) and dressed in my Jedi robes and duelled George.

It has also been fun, because (earlier) this week Granny opened her pool 🏊🏻‍♂️!! So I have been spending my afternoons diving and swimming. As long as we social distance I go over and and spend hours in the water 💦. On VE Day, we went over in the afternoon after having ,in the morning, baked a delicious Victoria sponge cake 🎂. WE HAD GREAT FUN!

I have also been working on a Lego pirate 🏴‍☠️ ship 🚢 over the past four days. It has come along nicely. It now has a deck which can slide aside, revealing the entrance to the dungeon crawling in spiders 🕷, a kitchen below deck, a shark tank and the captains room. 
 

OVER ALL, this week has been amazing fun.

Thomas

Over the last week, I have had my BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! On my birthday I had loads of presents and went on a twelve kilometre bike ride. Most of my presents were Star Wars, Harry Potter ans sports related. On VE Day I had scones and did the two mins silence.The work was fun and challenging so overall the week was ggggrrreeeaaattttt!!!!!

William

Monday: On Monday i didn't do much apart from doing work.

Tuesday: On Tuesday i did work and in the afternoon i played Fortnite and watched youtube. On Monday i had bought 1000 v-bucks and i bought the battle pass.

Wednesday: On Wednesday i did work [of course] and played Fortnite with Mac and Scott. We didn't get a victory royale but we still came second and got TNTina's boom bow.

Thursday: On Thursday i did work again but it was fun because we got to do the VE Day mission. I baked what was meant to be a chocolate layer cake but the icing was too thick and strong and there wasn't enough of the cake so i made it into cupcakes.

Friday: On Friday i baked hot cross buns and a Lord Woolton Pie. The pie was delicious. We didn't really celebrate much but it was very fun.

Saturday: On Saturday i played Fortnite with Mac and it was super fun. Every battle we went matching as Brutus because he is our favourite.

Sunday: On Sunday i played Fortnite and i managed to complete all the challenges which get you Deadpool.

Isaac

Week 29 (27/04/20-01/05/20)

This week, I have been busy sorting out history teaching within the school to make sure are being the best historians you can possibly be. I have also been looking at authors to link to our learning quests as we will soon be having 'Author of the Term'. This led me to the book 'Stange Star', which is set in 1816, so doesn't explicitly link to any of our learning quests, but other books by the author do. However, it was an enjoyable book to read and I am sure some of you may like to read it when we return back to school. It is about a girl who gets struck by lightning and her family goes through many tragedies. In the end, all works out well.

I have also been cooking when possible, I have made a delicious curry and a lovely cottage pie. Today, it is my mum's birthday, so I will try to relax a bit more tonight to try and make it special for her. As the weeks go by, I am seeing more of your work, which makes me so happy! I am also hearing from more and more of you too, which is fantastic! 

Here are your blog posts this week!

This week, we haven't been doing much except farming,fishing and cooking. Well, today has been SO exciting.I'll start at the beginning. We had had a nice morning and dad and me had been farming. When we got back, we begun our school work (LONG DIVISION.) Once we had done our maths we all had a break. In that break mum asked daisy whether she could go and feed the guinea pigs she said "Yes" and went out of the door the next second she burst through the door shouting "WE'VE HAD BABIES," yes we had had unexpected baby guinea pigs. Well after all that we had lunch then after a yummy lunch the post arrived with a parcel addressed to me ,YIPPEE, it was a rounders kit which is SO cool although I don't know who it's from. I've also made a chocolate marble cake which is so good. Now I'm going to play rounders bye!

Sam

Lawn mower

On Sunday , me , mum , dad and Daisy went  outside to our garden to look at our new Lawn mower.  We lost a few screws but found them eventually after quarter of an hour of looking . It took us around 1 hour when it would of taken 15 minutes if we hadn't lost the screws ! After we  had finished  building the lawn mower, mum tried it out but didn't know how to start it.  luckily, I found out how to start it for her so when she tried again it worked ! YEAY !!! Me and Daisy were waiting for ages before mum had finished.  When she had finished the garden looked as shaved as my Uncles hair !!! .

QUIZ 

Every week ,my cousin  Max does a Quiz for the Family.  All his questions are really hard expect the questions about Harry potter. Last Tuesday we came  3rd witch is very good for team Sloth ( I named the team  ) . 

CAKE 

On Wednesday , I baked a cake to do with imperial measurements in maths. It was a lemon cured cake with water icing that was as runny as a lake !!! But It was so delicious . I took some down to  gran and Great auntie Beryl .  

LAST DAY OF THE WEEK 

Today it's my cousin Guy's 13th Birthday !  Because of COVID 19 we wont be able to see him we're skyping him at 3:30 !! YEAY !!

So that's my week for you folks  I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Ellie

Week six has been a very good week and a very surprising one too! This week I have had a hair cut but not at a hairdressers, at HOME! I had to have it at home because all hairdressers are shut because of lockdown and may not open for ages as it would be too dangerous because we are not two metres apart! Even though I can’t have my usual haircut, I’m glad I let my mum do it. I got a MOHICAN (because I am not at school and my mum said it would be something I would remember) and I love it! When my mum was finished, I looked in the mirror! My magnificent, mind-blowing mohican was standing tall and firm! It was as beautiful as a unicorn’s horn!

I also have been going on Zoom with my friends where we can we chat and we also do a quiz that one of us hosts. The host makes up the quiz and we all play, except the host, and there are 5 or 6 rounds.

I hope everybody is ok and still fit and healthy! Bye for now!

Dougal

Out of nowhere,high in the sky,there was a dark cloud moving closer. No! No! NO! Meadow my guinea pig had run into the bush. She had escaped. We were crying our eyes out for ten minutes.We looked in the hedge. I made a guinea pig noise calling her to come out because she was in danger. Ellie,my sister, shook the food bowl to encourage her to come out to have her food.Daddy put on his garden gloves to help catch Meadow.

I was feeling sad and shaky because I thought I would never see her again. Then out of the corner of my eye I thought i had seen her. Could it really be her? We were all quiet so we could hear if she made a noise.

To my utter relief I had found her. My heart was racing. I carefully picked her up and put her in the hutch. I was so pleased to have found her.

From Archie S.

The last week has been really fun I have been growing sunflowers,beans,lettuces and strawberries. The work has been really easy especially the long division. I have tidied my room and made a Tatooine scene from STAR WARS a new hope. I have also baked an amazing banana cake using imperial measurements. Overall this week has been a good week I would also like to request problem solving in maths because I enjoy that sort of thing.

Thomas

This week has been very quick. I have enjoyed taking the dogs out on walks with Charlie. The grass in the field had grown really long, so Charlie and I played hide and seek with the dogs. I have made the most of the nice weather, although we are back to cold and rainy days. I hope everyone is staying safe. 

Imogen 

This week i have been mainly on bike rides that i have really enjoyed. I have been doing my work as usual and on the 3 bike ride we went on we did 16.93Km. Apart from that, I have not done much This week and i hope to do more in the future (staying indoors).

Antek

This week I've been working on a mobile thing people hang above there beds, It's really cool but the strings keep on getting tangled [ which is really annoying   ] . Maths has been really fun and know I actually know what a pint , fluid ounce , ounce and gallon is !!!!!! . English has been enjoyable but I got really stuck on Monday. I've done Joe Wicks every day this week live instead of doing it on catch up .I have also been practising my back-flip on my sofa cushions.

Hope every one is ok,

Meadow 

Week 28 (20/04/20-24/04/20)

It has been a busy week and I am glad that many of you have found the class blog and are enjoying posting on it. If you have not received your login details email homelarning.obn@educ.somerset.gov.uk so I can send it to you.

Here are your blogs for this week.

Another week finished
This week has been another great week. I have enjoyed working on ratio. I have started on my, (rainbow) French aquarium but haven’t got to finishing it. I have also enjoyed creating a poster about coastal features, which is also rainbow. I have drawn a picture of the St George’s Day Dragon.
Imogen

This week, I have been doing lots of work but I have also had time to do some fun things out of school. Every morning of this week we have been doing some P.E. and because I live at a pub, I have a whole car park to do it in. We do 6 laps around the car park, different exercises and a lot of stretches. On Tuesday Annie's English work was to go for a walk around the local area. I went with her and mum. Every now and then Annie had to close her eyes and see what she could smell and hear. When we got back I remembered I still had to do my English work,even though it was nearly lunch,!!!!!!!! In the end I did get my lunch. The next day in the afternoon I was working on my crustacean poster. I went upstairs to grab some colouring pencils when I saw that my Alexa ,from amazon, had a notification. I had also just ordered a Lego Star Wars rise of Skywalker A-wing. I asked Alexa what the notification was  and she said that my ,ego was arriving that very day! I wasn't expecting it to arrive for ages because it was supposed to arrive on May the Fourth, be with you,. Then for a long time I was really annoyed it hadn't arrived. Once I'd finished my school work I went outside. When I decided to go in our paddling pool I quickly put on some sun cream and put on my swimming costume and went in. Eventually, I got out of the pool and I went inside to start waiting for my Lego. Around about an hour later my Lego finally came and I started building immediately. On Thursday me and my sisters started the day with a game of Lego Star Wars. When it got to the afternoon we went in the pool. Me and Annie played with the hose a bit as well. After we got out of the pool we played a game we call Monkey monkey 123. It is basically hide and seek tag. Last night we stayed up a bit late and rode around our car park on our bikes in the dark I took the lights off of my bike and put them on a stick. Then I started spinning it around. Eventually, we came inside and went to bed. Now it is the present day. Today I have written this blog and played some Lego. We have written a quiz and are going to do it with our friends at 5pm on zoom. We are taking it in turns to host each week. Tonight we are going to light the fire pit and roast marshmallows to make smores. Then we are going to sleep up in our den. 

Yours Max!!!

At the beginning of this week, I started reading a series of books (that I was given for my birthday) called Horrible Geography. The first one I read was called Bloomin’ Rainforests - all about animals, plants and deforestation. They are a bit like the Horrible History books, and they make geography a lot more interesting and fun! I have finished Bloomin’ Rainforests and now I am reading Planet In Peril! This week I have also done baking, running and I have enjoyed all the work set (by Mr Clarke) especially the Pokémon work!

I hope everybody is still fit and healthy and remember.............. we are all in this together.

Dougal

This week every day I have completed 5 miles on my bike, that means I have now done 144.25 miles since lockdown started. I have enjoyed Maths this week because I have enjoyed putting a timetable together and the making numbers 1 to 20 out of four number 4's, it was really good fun too! I am still doing the PE with Joe Wicks session in the morning but haven't completed it in fancy dress yet! I have also made some soap this week which smells really nice as I added some vanilla scent to it - I also dried some bluebells and added them to the soap too! I left one on my Grandma's doorstep as a gift and am sending another to my Nanny who lives in Clevedon. I have also the died two t-shirts this week - one is dark pink and the other is a bright banana yellow - it was great fun but really messy!!!!!!!! I've enjoyed facetiming my friends especially the friends I made on holiday in Lanzarote - we meet up on facetime every two weeks on a Sunday night and this week we all played bingo together and I won! :-) 

Meadow

Over the last week, I have enjoyed doing my maths and English ,it has been fun along the way,. I have found the maths we have been doing very fun. The timetable work was very enjoyable and I was challenged on the EXT question yesterday ,It was fun though,! English has been great it is very fun sharing what I have been up to over the past few weeks. The St. George’s day activities were amazing my shield turned out really well. I have also liked to have the spare time after my work to play on the water slide. Overall, this week has been really good

Thomas

This week ( 20.4.20 - 24.4.20)

In the afternoon, after school work I have been going to see the horses that live down the drive. There are three friendly horses, when we go to see them we usually stroke them. Everyday, I go and interact with the hamsters to make sure they aren’t bored (I did a post of fluffy the hamster yesterday).The hamsters love running around, we sometimes make mazes out of Lego for them to explore. Oliver my brother, has started to make a den in the woods! I miss my friends and horse-riding. A couple of days ago, I baked some cakes, they were delicious. 

Stay safe, 

Isabelle

I’ve got three words: WHAT A WEEK!!

To start with this week, me and Ted (my brother) went into school and there were only three people there on one day and eight people on the other! So that day I got quite a bit of work done (by quite a bit I mean shedloads). Starting off with Joe Wicks every day really gets you fired up (not literally) for the day. As well as doing schoolwork, with Ted every Tuesday and Friday we’ve been doing brilliant Andrew Brodie maths lessons (he writes brilliant education books) and to check everything off the list we have also been doing online music sessions with Mr Pomeroy! On Thursday as it was really hot, we just sat outside and read for ages – I am reading The Highland Falcon Thief, which is a mystery book. Every now and then, we’ve been going on tiring (but fun) bike rides and on most of them we’ve been coming back past Nynehead strawberries to see if they’ve got any of their luscious fruit for sale - sadly they are not ripe yet. I’ve been starting early every day so I can do a bit more work and do more of some things on my topic grid. In the garden, we’ve been playing loads of sports including hockey, tennis and cricket. For the first time in ages, we got our stunt drone and remote control helicopter out and played with them. One time I flew the drone over the wall (OH NOOO!!!) into the neighbour’s garden – but don’t worry, we eventually got it back! A few words to describe this week are MARVELLOUS, MARVELLOUS and FANTASTIC!!!!!(!!!)

Will

This is now week five of lockdown and I am finding home schooling easier than the first two weeks (before the holiday). Mr Clarke sets work, each week, online and has created a class blog to see what people & friends have been up to. Also, my dance lessons are now done at home by using zoom. Sadly, I hurt my foot so I wasn’t able to do the lessons yesterday. Even though I am getting use to being at home, I miss seeing everyone and being with my friends. 

Stay safe, 

Hattie

Week 27 (30/03/20-03/04/20)

Another week has passed and you are still working!

This week, I have been looking at how to make our learning quests more exciting. Aside from that, I have loved staying up to date with what you have been up to. Feel free to use the message forms on the website or email the school as it will get to me! Sam has kept me up to date with his sheep and has been very active on the farm. I might need the recipe for the millionaires shortbread - it looked lush... I have been doing some cooking as well making a range of dishes which has been great. When I haven't been working, I've been using my interest of history to provide activities to do. I have done some work on my family tree (which I started at your age!) and have watched a few documentaries on Netflix, the current series I am watching is about the history of castles - it has been very interesting and gruesome! Over the holidays, I might make some sourdough dishes; if I do, I will be able to show you the results on here. 

I have also been in contact with Mrs Gee, Mrs Shepherd, Mrs Hayes and Mrs Lewis, and we are all missing you very much!

Here is what some of what you have been up to:

WOW (!!!!!!!!!!!!!), another brilliant week in the bag even though CORONAVIRUS (!!!!!!!!!!!) is still around. Me and Ted went to school again on Mondays and Wednesdays and had TONS (!!!!!!) and TONS (!!!!!!!) of fun. Doing Joe Wicks was even better and more fun. Even though it was a bit colder this week I still made the most of finally not having horrible rain. On Thursday, we went on a great bike ride and saw loads of brilliant nature. Between all the fun, we had to do work. The work this week was probably five times more fun than last week and last weeks was uber fun! I’ve really enjoyed writing my Jar Man story and doing my Top Trumps cards for rivers. I’ve played a lot of cricket (which I have to be extra careful when batting as there is a nest in a tree) and played Sumdog from time to time so it’s been great. I’ve been keeping in touch with my friends using messenger. Yet again a quick summary of the week has been EXCITING, EXCITING, EXCITING, EXCITING and SUPERB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Will

This week has been a lot quicker. Charlie and I have been making top-trumps cards and have almost finished them. I have also enjoyed making a double page spread about the Shang dynasty and about Crustaceans. My dog (Thatcher) is turning three tomorrow, so we are hoping to make some dog treats for him. I am looking forward to the next week of school but more exited for the Easter Holidays.
 Imogen

Week 26 (23/03/20-27/03/20)

It has been a tricky week for everyone this week. Schools in England have never had to shut like this before (they stayed open during the World Wars), which makes your achievements this week even better. I am proud with the real maturity and independence that you have shown - you are incredible.

I have loved reading your paragraphs about the week and I will place them below for you to read. This week, I have completed a lot of teacher paper work, but have also had time to work on the house, including cutting the grass and cooking some new recipes. I have, therefore, loved all the work which you have sent to me over the past week. When we are back at school, we will have a look at what everyone has got up to. We'll meet again some sunny day - stay safe!

Here are some of your diary entries. Those who didn't want theirs' online, I have read them and enjoyed them just as much as these ones!

This week (27.3.20) I have made three LEGO sets. I have made a big LEGO plane, a LEGO star killer base and a huge LEGO technic Race car (that is the size of this page.) I have also been running a lot up to the cross roads and back with my mum and older sister (Eliza)and then we all did it again with my younger sister Daisy. I mowed the lawn on Tuesday and planted a lot of seeds with my two sisters Mum and Dad as well. We have gone to the farm (LOADS) and last year I tamed my Ewe ( a female sheep) called Nettle so she comes to me. This year I hope that I can do the same with my other Jacob (a type of sheep) called Breta to do the same as her mum. I have driven the gator around the farm a lot and in the shed so dad can feed the cake (a nutritional piece of sheep feed that looks a lot like mini nuggets) to the Ewes whilst I am driving. I am missing my friends a lot and the no social contact thing is really irritating but all in all I am getting along fine and I think being with family more is really good.
Sam!

This first week has been long, but very enjoyable. I have completed many tasks. I have especially enjoyed the French tasks. Charlie and I have started building our boat, we have called it The Titanic. My favourite task that I have completed was creating a collage of water pictures. I also loved the maths work and our subject of water. It has been interesting to find out how many forms of water there are in the world, such as an Oasis and a Mountain Spring, these I did not know of before.
Although I have been doing a lot of work, in our breaks, Charlie, my sister and I have been playing a few games outside. This include hide ‘n’ seek, cops and robbers and much more. We are hopefully doing some cooking soon and are looking forward to it. On Monday our Mum set us a maths quiz, Charlie and I did quite well in it, I won the prize by getting 77/90, Charlie was a close second with 76!
I am looking forward to the rest of time we have and hope to come back to school very soon.
By Imogen

Everyday this week I have been going on 4 mile bike rides which means I'll have done 20 miles in total by the end of this week. I have really enjoyed completing the work which has been set. I've especially liked doing maths (which was on composite shapes). I have also enjoyed our home learning quest, I've almost done one activity for each subject the subjects I have done are French, art, science and PSHE. My break time and lunch time are still the same time, at break and lunch I love doing gymnastics. I have also been facetimeing my family and friends as we can't go to see them. I've also been doing Joe Wicks every morning (accept Monday). It has been rather good but a bit easy if ask me. I have enjoyed working from home so far but I can't wait until school goes back!

Meadow

Dear Reader
It is weird because I’m not going to school and not seeing my friends. I am feeling very sad but it is very quiet and nice at home. The work from my teacher is very well laid out and it is very easy to follow and my Mum is good at helping me but I miss Mrs Hayes and Mrs Lewis. It’s a very tricky time at the moment and I am trying my best to keep fit and healthy by going for a run some days, doing Joe Wicks’ workouts and playing outside in my garden. I am sad because my birthday is coming up and I might not be able to have balloons, a party or CAKE! It is ok though because I know my family will make it extra special and I can have a party when this is over. Most of all I miss playing with my friends at break but it is lovely that the sun is always out!
From DOUGAL

What a week, going to school even though we’re in lockdown! Me and Ted (my bro) had to go to school on Monday and Wednesday because our parents are NHS doctors and children of key workers have to go to school in order for them to go to work and help tackle CORONAVIRUS (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). On both days at school we had huge amounts of fun doing Joe Wicks and playing loads of fun games. We have been allowed to do things that we normally wouldn’t have been able to do in school, because there were only a few of us. So, all in all, the school days have been tons and tons of fun!! At home, I’ve been getting outside loads more now the rain and the horrible floods are long gone. All the work Mr Clarke has set us has been challenging but a lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed finding the area and writing about the Jar Man. Thursday was especially fun as I went for a bike ride with Ted and Dad. On Friday I did about five Joe Wicks workouts before his live stream (PE with Joe), which is muscle burning, but incredibly fun and enjoyable. We have also been working on our hockey and table tennis skills, now that the sunshine is here. As a quick summary of the week it has been FUN, FUN, FUN, FUN and BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Will

This week I have been pretty busy.I have done my 10 fact's about Katsushika Hokusai, labelled the Yangtze river on the Chinese Map and many more things from science and history.I have been doing my math's and English in my CGP books.I have also been doing Spelling Shed,Sumdog and Purple Mash.I have finished my Jar man description and that Jar Life questions. That's what I have been up to last week
I hope you all are well,
From Antek.

Week 25 (16/03/20-20/03/20)

When I started my teaching degree, back in 2016, I never expected to have a week like this. Indeed, when I started teaching Kestrel Class, I planned out most of the year. Unfortunately, this plan will not go ahead as expected. I hope that once this is over, and we have reached the other side, we will be able to all meet again and I hope that we will have some time in the summer term to go ahead with some of the usual end-of-year-6 activities. I hope that we have not had our last day together.

In English, at the start of the week, we continued looking at newspapers. To do this we created a story board for the video The Lighthouse and set out our front page of a newspaper. Unfortunately, we never had the time to finish these, so this will be our first home learning task for English this coming week. The children have looked at formality and writing leads in particular.

In maths, we have finished our topic on angles and statistics. We have looked at using timetables and converting measures of time. This can be a tricky concept as time is not measured in multiples of ten, like many other measures commonly used by the children, such as distance or capacity. The children did well with these questions and were able to apply their understanding to solve problems involving a train timetable.

In history, we started our projects. The children chose a focus for their topic and started their research. To do this we looked at a death mask from the Shang Dynasty and came up with ideas for what it was for (without knowing what it was) and asked questions about the artefact. We then thought about how we can be historians and create are own research project. The children came up with 3 questions about the Shang Dynasty which they could research. One of the tasks on the project grid involves finishing the project. I will put more information about this on the home learning page in due course.

In PE, we continued practising our throwing and catching skills. Our first task was to practise our aim by throwing a bean bag, under arm into rungs of a rope ladder and provide support and feedback to our partner when they threw the bean bag. We then turned this up a notch and made it a team competition, by splitting the children into 4 teams and threw their team's bean bag into the ladder. As the competition progressed, the children fine-tuned their under-arm throw and came up with useful team tactics which simultaneously developed their communication skills. It was fantastic to see the children progress so much within the lesson, and all children had a thoroughly enjoyable time. 

Although you can't go anywhere for Mother's Day (who would want to?!), the children made Mother's Day cards on Friday to help make the day special. The children made some beautiful cards and I am sure you they put in a lot of effort for you. I have a report that one child has given their mum random things from the craft box. Although a hot-glue-gun cartridge may seem odd with mum written on it may seem odd, it shows that they were thinking of you on what was a tricky day for all on Friday. 

The children also painted their oracle bones and wrote letters to their future self. From reading these letters, it is clear a lot of thought has gone into them and there are some beautiful extracts within them which show real care, thought and compassion.

In case this was the year 6s’ last day, I shared with them something I was hoping to do in July. The children had their graduation photo wearing my very own graduation hat. I’m hoping that we will have some time in the summer to complete the other end of year 6 activities and for the rest of the year 6s to have their graduation photo as well. If we do not have the time in the summer, Mrs Barnes and I will plan a special leavers party, when it is safe for it to go ahead.

Over the past 6 months, I have been honoured to teach your children as part of my first class. I have enjoyed teaching every single one of them. Each child has their own individual traits that make them unique and that is why I have loved teaching them. 

I have been able to see them develop to become mature independent children and I was impressed with the maturity that they have handled such a tricky situation. They all responded incredibly when they were given their home learning packs, with some of them starting with the maths work or bringing work to show me on Friday morning. I hope this won’t be the last work the current year 6 children will show me, and that we’ll be back at some point before the summer holidays to share the work the children have completed whilst the school isn’t operational. 

Fortunately, our first topic this year was World War 2, which the children thoroughly enjoyed learning, so I will use that as the basis of this message. 

During World War 2, this propaganda poster was shared by the Ministry of Health. It is still as relevant today as it was then. With the current epidemic, personal hygiene is of the utmost importance. Therefore, we must make sure, that we catch our coughs and sneezes in a tissue of the crook of our elbow and then wash our hands. As the children should already know, we must wash our hands with soap and hot water for at least 20 seconds.

I am sure that, once we have reached the other side, we will meet again some sunny day. Stay safe.

Notes and reminders this week

• The children went home with their home learning pack on Thursday after being shown it in the afternoon, when they started (and possibly finished) one of their tasks. We will make it a priority to make sure those who have not got their pack yet, get it as soon as possible. In the meantime, visit our home learning page for more information.
• To keep this blog going for the rest of the year, the English task every Friday will be to write a paragraph about what the children have got up to that week. This can include the work they complete or any other activities they have got up to. I know Sam will be lambing - it would be great to know more about how he got on. I will compile these and post them every weekend as per usual.
• Well done to Ned, Ellie, Max and Dougal for having the tidiest tables last week.

Week 24 (09/03/20-13/03/20)

We have had a busy week in Kestrel Class, completing a wide range of work!

This week was British Science Week, so to celebrate it, the whole school took part in an investigation to find the best biscuit for dunking - a very important scientific experiment. We spent the whole of Tuesday being scientists and looked at different aspects of writing a scientific report. The first part of being scientists was to work out what we were going to do in our experiment. To do this, we looked at the different variables we could change or measure, before deciding that we would work out which was the best biscuit for dunking by holding the biscuit in warm water until a chunk fell off. The children then made a prediction about which biscuit would last the longest. 

Next up came the fun part, the testing! The children enjoyed holding a biscuit in water, which was important as the rich tea finger was very determined to stay together. Two children held their biscuit in water for an hour, deciding to miss playtime! They are obviously very keen scientists. We completed the experiment 3 times for each biscuit, before working out the mean and creating a graph.

In the afternoon, we wrote our method and conclusion. Mrs Morgan came in to see what the excitement was about, and was very impressed with their knowledge of time connectives, fronted adverbials and imperative (bossy) verbs as well as their scientific understanding whilst writing their conclusions. As the children had worked so hard, they earned an extra playtime once we had finished. A great time was had by all.

We were back to our scientific theme of the half-term, of living things - including microbes and classification on Thursday. This time we looked at the importance of washing your hands. We completed a short experiment to see how UV paint (which represented germs) spreads from person to person by shaking hands. The children got into 4 groups and the paint was put on someone's hands within their group. However, we changed how the painted hands were washed: one with hot water and soap, one with cold water and soap, one with just cold water and one with nothing at all. The children were surprised to see how the paint was spread from one person to another throughout each of the people in their group. However, we did see that washing your hands with hot water and soap got rid of most of the paint. The children then had the chance to see how well they could wash their hands, which had some worrying results! To make sure germs are not passed on from person to person, make sure that you wash your hands with hot water and soap for at least 20 seconds.

In DT, we made our own oracle bones using clay. The children enjoyed sculpting the clay before adding on their inscription we translated last week. We will move on to painting them next week.

In English, we have continued looking at newspaper articles in depth, looking at modal verbs and how the 5Ws (where, what, when, why and who) are used when writing newspaper leads. We will use all our knowledge to write a newspaper article about a video next week.

In maths, we have continued looking at statistics, looking at line graphs, working out the mean and creating and interpreting pie charts. The children completed a survey on Thursday to see what the class' favourite colour was and on Friday turned their results into a pie chart.

Notes and reminders this week:

• With everything that is going on, we will need to make sure that the children are being as hygienic as possible. We have looked at the importance of hand washing in school, so conversations at home will help to consolidate this. 
• The year 5/6 netball team will be playing on Tuesday (17th March). Mr Hake will be there to cheer the children on.
• This week's weekly spellings are below. You can choose to learn the red words in addition to the black words.

Week 23 (02/03/20-06/03/20)

After a busy and exciting week, I am sure we all are having a well deserved rest this weekend.

In English, we have started looking at journalistic writing. Our topic started by looking at the structure of newspapers. To do this, we looked at a range of newspapers and articles before breaking down the structure. On Wednesday, we revised how to punctuate speech. The children were very good at this as we looked at this whilst writing stories and had remembered it very well. This helped us to write an interview between a witness, who had seen frogs fall from the sky, and a reporter. On World Book Day, we used this knowledge to write a newspaper report on the book, Tuesday, which was read by the whole school. On Friday, with Mrs Barnes, the children looked at formal and informal writing. This is important because newspapers include mostly formal writing, but can include informal speech.

Elsewhere, on World Book Day, we used Monet’s lilypads as inspiration for our own paintings. We used a mixture of powder paint and oil pastel. Some children got frustrated with their painting, but so was Monet. He painted the same spot over 200 times, but was only happy with 4 of them!

In Maths, we have looked at algebra this week. Despite being a tricky concept, the children had grasped it by the end of the week, with some of the year 5s eager to join in. The children looked at generating and describing sequences, including using the nth term; finding variables for algebraic equations; what algebra actually means and being able to apply algebra to solve problems. As this is mainly year 6 work, the year 5s looked at sequences and missing number problems ready for algebra next year.

On Tuesday, we had the life bus come to visit the school. Despite being slightly disappointed about not seeing Harold the Giraffe, a great time was had by all. The children looked at what being a friend meant, making sensible decisions and the difference between being passive, aggressive and assertive about decisions. This is important as the children should not be pressured into doing things they do not want to do, such as smoking. After school, there was a session for adults on supporting their children, which I am sure was beneficial to those that went.

Notes and reminders this week:

• It will be a non-uniform day on Friday (13th March). It has been asked that the children should bring in Easter Eggs for Bingo.
• Due to 4-square causing problems at playtime, it has been temporarily banned, whilst alternatives are suggested. This does not mean that ball games are banned, in fact Mason suggested netball practise which has gone smoothly. In the meantime, the children have been invited to suggest games which can be safely played at playtime and lunchtime. If you have any suggestions, Mrs Barnes would love to hear them!
• It is British Science Week this week, and to celebrate, on Tuesday (10th March), we will have a day of science with links to maths (finding the mean and interpreting tables) and English (writing up their method and conclusion). This will be a whole school experiment, which will be completed in other classes as well during the week. Usually, as part of the TAPS project, we focus on individual parts of a scientific report to complete, so this will be a good experience to see progress throughout the year.
• Due to the structure of the week, there won't be any spellings this week. Instead, I ask that the children choose a few of the year 5/6 spellings (click here) that they would like to use in English and attempt to learn them, so they can be used in their writing.

Week 22 (24/02/20-28/02/20)

How are we in March already?

We got straight back to business in our first week back; completing a wide array of tasks.

In English, we have been looking at the progressive (continuous) tense. This is to show a continuous action in either the past, present or future. On Monday, we compared it to the simple and perfect tense and on Friday, we were able to write short descriptions about going to the beach, climbing a mountain and going to the park.

In maths, we have finished learning about percentages and on Friday, we started our new topic of algebra. The class have worked hard to show me their knowledge of percentages and by Thursday could confidently work out percentages of amounts. The year 5s particularly impressed me, whilst the year 6s were doing bikeability, by comparing percentages to decimals and fractions, and using this knowledge to work out percentages of amounts. 

Most of the year 6s were out on Tuesday and Wednesday, taking part in bikeability - how to ride a bike safely on the roads. As I was with the rest of the class, I missed out being able to watch most of it, though I did sneak a peak on the first day whilst the year 6s were on the playground. After an eventful, and wet lunchtime, the year 6s could not practise cycling. Instead, they watched and discussed a road-safety film about cycling. Mrs Hayes, Mrs Lewis and Mr Hake were all impressed with their attitude throughout and despite the odd blip, all of them did very well and were cycling around Oake on the second day.

Not to be outdone by the year 6s' fun, the rest of the class took part in a project over the two days. In pairs, the children, working for an environmental organisation, the children had to create a pitch to present to the rest of the class about why their organisation deserved a £200,000 government grant. The children worked hard to research their organisations (some of which were lesser known), before writing explanations about their organisation and how they would benefit from the grant. On Wednesday, the children pitched to two government representatives (Mrs Shepherd and myself) as well as an audience of representatives from other organisations (the rest of the class) to see who would get the grant. In the end, Thomas and Max from the Butterfly Conservation Trust, won the grant.

On Tuesday afternoon, we also had some fun in PE. To build trust and to understand the new layout of the classroom, the children worked in pairs to guide a blindfolded partner around the classroom as well as under, around and over obstacles. This also helped the children understand what it would be like if they were visually impaired and had to trust themselves as well as other people to help them around any obstacles they may face.

Notes and reminders this week:

• On Tuesday (6th March), the life bus is coming in to share life skills with the children throughout the school. There is a parent workshop after school that day between 3:00 and 3:20. It is only a short session and should be very valuable.
• It is World Book Day on Thursday (5th March). We are not dressing up this year, instead, the children are encouraged to bring in a potato dressed as a book character. This can be dressed in fabrics, coloured, painted, sculpted or in any way you may think of. On Thursday morning, these can be dropped off in the hall to be shared with the rest of the school in our assembly.
• To celebrate, we will be completing a range of activities linked to a book, which the whole school will work on, throughout the day. You are invited in from 2:30 on Thursday to see what we have got up to. If you can't make it, don't worry! I am sure I will be able to share some of the outcomes on here.
• In addition to the above, children will be encouraged to share stories throughout the school on Thursday lunchtime. If your child would like to take part, they can bring in a book from home (please name it) or use a school one to share.
• I will not be in on Friday (6th March) as I am on a course. I will update the site when I found out who will be covering. This is likely to be Mrs Barnes at the moment.
• A shark bookmark of great personal value has gone missing in the classroom. On the off-chance that it has ended up in someone else's book or bag, could this be given to a member of staff at the school, so that it can be returned to the child.
• As part of our morning challenge activities, we have been completing a wide range of questions each day to help practise many skills. As there is a slide for each day of the year, some children have asked for the link to the website. Here it is: https://www.morningchallenge.co.uk/home - note that you will need to login with Google, Facebook or through creating an account. It is free to use.
• Finally... This week, our spelling rule is hyphenated words where the prefix ends in a vowel and the root word also begins with one. Below is the list of spellings we will be covering. Extra words can also be learnt at home.

Week 20 (03/02/20-07/02/20)

We're over halfway through the school year and we are progressing really well.

In English, the children have written their final story of the unit and edited them. The children have worked really hard this week and have created very well-written stories. They have included speech, prepositional phrases, relative clauses, parenthesis and semicolons and I look forward to reading them this weekend! On Friday, once finished, the children shared their story with children in Wren Class, who shared their instructions on how to make a firework. Mrs Morgan even came in and was impressed with what she saw. Those in my class even got to read by the ‘fire’! The children showed real maturity doing this, and I hope we can do this again soon.

In maths, we have finished looking at decimals and have moved onto percentages. In September, decimals was one area which the children struggled to understand. The children have since blown me away with their progress, and on Tuesday, we took part in an investigation involving the Olympics. In this lesson, the children were thoroughly engaged and were able to solve a range of problems.

In science, we looked at how blood and oxygen are transported around the body through capillaries, veins and arteries. To understand this, the children acted out being a blood cell and transporting oxygen to different organs via the heart. The children then went back to the heart before moving on to the lungs (to pick up oxygen) and back to the heart. The children enjoyed modelling this and were able to transfer there learning to writing scientific explanations for their science book.

In PSHE, two PCSOs, Joe and Vicky, came in to give a talk about cyberbullying and what could happen if the children took part in cyberbullying online, on sites such as TikTok. The children showed maturity in the lesson and asked good questions for Joe to answer. Another PCSO is due to come in on Tuesday this week to continue talking about e-safety. 

In history, we looked at the life of the first emperor of the Shang Dynasty, Tang. We read a story before the children had to plan a drama and act it out. The children enjoyed acting and a few groups were able to perform to the rest of the class.

Notes and reminders this week:

• Our spelling rule will be adding suffixes to words which end in 'fer'. I have attached a word list below for children who like to practise at home. I would strongly suggest that the children practise this rule for Friday when we check to see how much the children have remembered.
• It is our class sharing assembly on Friday at 2:30. Come in to find out more about what we have been learning!
• The year 6 bikeability days are in the first week back after half term. The children will be going home with a letter about the necessary bike checks for the children's safety. The majority of the year 6s will be taking part with Mrs Lewis, Mrs Hayes and Mr Hake. I will be teaching the year 5s and the remaining year 6s on these days, as usual, but I will try to make these lessons as fun as possible! 

Week 19 (27/01/20-31/01/20)

As we approach the half way point of the school year on Wednesday next week, I have seen the children's progress and potential develop since September. They are becoming more independent and mature as the weeks go on.

In English, we have looked at embedded clauses and relative clauses this week, which despite being very similar, have their differences. The children seem to have grasped the idea that both add parenthesis to a sentence, but relative clauses start with 'which', 'who', 'whose', 'where' and 'that'. Using their understanding of these grammatical concepts and the ones learnt over the past few weeks, the children have then planned their story which they will share with Wren class.

In maths, we have moved on to decimals. This is a concept, I discovered was one the children struggled with earlier on in the year, but is one they are now starting to grasp. The children have shown real eagerness to achieve success in this topic and I am looking forward to giving them an exciting activity, which will involve applying a lot of what they have learnt about decimals (this is a relative clause), next week.

In PSHE and computing, the children have looked at being kind online and have started planning a video to share about e-safety. The children have really got into this and are looking forward to creating their videos which we will hopefully be able to share with you soon! 

In science, following my course on Tuesday, we looked at what makes up a good scientific conclusion before writing our own based on the experiments we did the week before. The children have blown me away with the detail in their conclusions - especially as this is a new concept for many of them.

In RE, we have continued with our topic of Judaism, this week looking at Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies. The year 5s, who learnt about Judaism last year, showed great understanding and were able to apply their understanding to the coming of age ceremonies, especially in the diary writing task given to them at the end of the lesson. 

To finish this week's review, I have to congratulate George, Gracie, Izzy and Takara for writing 'highly commended' poems in the Anne Frank Creative Writing Competition. The children all received a certificate and a copy of Anne Frank's diary at a celebration event on Monday night. It was lovely to see the children's smiles as they walked on stage. I have attached copies of the children's poems below. We will hopefully enter again next year.

Notes and reminders this week:

• Year 6 bikeability letters need to be returned by this Friday (7th February). This is a great experience for the children to learn about how to ride bikes safely. The bikeabilty course will take place on Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th February. During these days, I will teach the year 5s and the year 6s who have not returned their letters as usual.
• On Wednesday, we will be visited by two PCSOs who will talk to the class about e-safety, especially around the use of TikTok, and how it impacts the children.
• The year 6 children are completing a set of SATs questions to help understand which areas the children need support with. I will look into this during the half term holidays and get back to you about how you can support your children. One area which you could work on at home is angles - as many children appear to have a weakness with this. We will cover this between now and the tests at school.

Week 18 (20/01/20-24/01/20)

Another busy week has come to an end! 

This week, in English, the children have written and edited their losing tale stories. The ones I have marked thus far, have been interesting and well written. They have included prepositional phrases and speech to add interest to their stories. It is clear that many are getting the hang of writing speech as a lot of the children have punctuated the spoken sentence correctly! Towards the end of the week, we looked at semicolons and how to include them in writing stories. 

In maths, we have looked at how to multiply and divide fractions. The children have grasped this well and are ready to move onto decimals and percentages next week. 

As part of our learning quest, we looked at the story of the Chinese New Year which originated from the Shang Dynasty. We read the story of the Jade Emperor and worked out what year we would have been born in. From there, the children found out more about Chinese New Year through an information text and by answering questions about it. This was to celebrate the new year of the rat!

In science, we looked at the tricky concepts about how water and nutrients are transported around the body. To find out more about osmosis, each child was given a gummy snake and gummy cherries to measure before putting them into water. To develop our scientific thinking, we made a prediction about what would happen to the sweets. The next day, the children were excited to see that their snakes and cherries had got bigger - many of the children's predictions. The children also noticed that the snakes had lost some of their colour. This represents how water travels through a semi-permeable membrane and is absorbed by the body. 

In PSHE and computing, we have looked at how to stay safe on the internet, especially on social media. From these lessons, the children worked together to create the Kestrel Class Online Safety Agreement which you may have seen on one of our windows. This covers privacy and kindness amongst other themes. Using the online safety agreement will hopefully support our class stay safe on the internet and being respectful to their peers within the class. 

In RE, we have looked at why Abraham/Abram is important to Jews, as well as Christians and Muslims. The children came up with good observances about his story. They discussed how Abraham followed God's plan and believed in him so much he would sacrifice his own son, Isaac, for him - though, fortunately, he didn't have to.

Notes and reminders this week:

• The year 6 children were sent home with bikeability letters on Wednesday and I believe these were emailed out as well. If the letter hasn't come to you or has been misplaced, please contact the office.
• I will not be in on Tuesday 28th January, as Mrs Kimsey and I will be at a science course ran by Bath Spa University aimed at developing the learning of science through scientific enquiries. This seems to be a new step for the school (hence the excitement in science at the moment). The class will be taught by Mrs Gannon, who spent a few months training in Mrs Kimsey's class last year.
• Despite being slightly warmer this week, the children still had to walk to the village hall for PE. I would still suggest that the children wear jogging/tracksuit bottoms to help them stay warm on the way up.

Week 17 (13/01/20/17/01/20)

This week, we have continued learning about our learning quest - The Shang Dynasty - as well as narrative writing, fractions and much more!

In English, we have continued looking at the Tear Thief, especially how Carol Ann Duffy (the author) has used speech and prepositional phrases. This has modelled how the children can include these in their writing to great effect. We looked at the rules required for using dialogue, including inverted commas, new speaker: new line, Capital letter at the start of spoken sentences, reporting clauses and ending spoken sentences with punctuation. Following on, we looked at how using prepositional phrases in sentences made the writing much more interesting to read. Prepositional phrases start with prepositions (which indicate place, time or direction) and end with an object (the thing/place something is happening to). The children came up with some incredible sentences including these, it was a joy to read them! On Friday, we looked at planning our own stories incorporating both of these grammatical and punctuation techniques. The children will write these next week.

In maths, the children have continued their work on fractions. This week we have looked at adding and subtracting fractions as well as mixed and improper fractions. The children have worked hard on an area many children had low confidence in. This hard work has lead to an increased understanding which is great to see.

On Tuesday, a fireman from the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service came to visit our class and gave a talk on fire safety. The children were responsible and asked questions about staying safe at home. To stay safe, it was suggested that the children ask their parents to test your fire alarm to make sure it works. They also learnt not to pick anything up if the fire alarm goes off; even pets as they have animal instincts and will hide away from the smoke for the fire service to rescue them. We also learnt that it is important to keep toasters away from the bottom of cupboards, even if that means moving them to a safer space whilst using them and putting it back.

As part of our learning quest, we looked at chronology, including how and why the dates go backwards in BC times. The children learned that AD means Anno Domini - meaning 'The year of our Lord' and that BC means 'Before Christ'. Using this information we were able to put these years in context, looking at a few Shang rulers reigns during the dynasty.

In PSHE, we have continued to learn about staying safe online. This week, we looked at what information you should think about giving when asked online. However, when in doubt, it is best to ask a trusted adult. We will continue to learn about staying safe and will create videos in the coming weeks about how to do this.

In RE, we have started our topic of Judaism by looking at what the children already knew. The years 5s impressed with their knowledge from last year, which we will look to develop this year by looking at what Jews believe about God and the covenant as well as looking at Jewish texts, including the Torah.

Notes and reminders this week:

• Due to the cold weather, the children will need jogging/tracksuit bottoms for PE at the village hall. If there is wet weather due, a change of socks would be a good addition to the children's PE kit. Please make sure these trousers are named along with a change of shirt and shoes.
• Our spelling rule next week will be words ending in -ant/-ance/-ancy. If you would like to support your child, this would be a good area to work on.
• If you have any worries, please feel free to discuss them with me after school or by booking an appointment through the office. Please note that we have staff meetings on a Tuesday and federation maths training on some Wednesdays this term, so appointments won't be available every day of the week. Short discussions would be okay on these days.

Week 16 (07/01/20-10/01/20)

I hope you all had a calm and peaceful Christmas and are ready for a new year and a new decade! Despite only being at school for 4 days this week, the children have worked hard, shown real maturity and have got up to quite a lot.

In English, we have been looking at writing stories about emotions. On Tuesday, we looked at how sentences are formed with different nouns and verbs; looking in detail at the different types of nouns. The children learnt about proper nouns (names), concrete nouns (physical objects), collective nouns (words for groups) and abstract nouns (things you can't physically touch, like emotions). To improve our own writing we looked at how we can edit our work to make it even better, for example, through the use of paragraph strips. On Friday, we then read at the story The Tear Thief by Carol Ann Duffy, making predictions and inferences as well as asking questions about the text. We will use this book over the coming weeks to develop our own writing.

In maths, we have been looking at fractions this week; specifically looking at the relationship between fractions and decimals. The children have shown real enthusiasm in this topic and are developing their understanding of fractions. Next week, we will move on to adding, subtracting and multiplying fractions.

In PSHE, we have been looking at the importance of e-safety, discussing how easily posts can be shared with other people and how posting something could be taken out of proportion. During the lesson, I showed the children the Net Aware website created by the NSPCC, designed to show the risks of different social media platforms. To use this website, click on the link above and type in the name of the social media site. From talking to the children, it is clear a sizeable proportion of them are on social networks, such as TikTok. Due to this, we discussed the age rating of the social media platform and the need to have a private account - which many of the class who are on social media do have, but not all of them. As some of the children are on TikTok, I have attached a parental guide created by the National Online Safety learning hub.

Notes and reminders this week:

• Four of our class have been shortlisted for the Somerset Anne Frank Awards. In December, we wrote poems about an extract from Anne Frank's diary. I will write more about this next week, when I have notified all of the shortlisted children. 
• When we got changed into our PE kits this week, it was apparent that not everyone has the full PE kit to change into. The children need this for personal hygiene reasons - especially in upper key stage 2. Some children did not bring a PE kit this week, can you ensure they have their kit next week.
• Our PE day this week will be Thursday only this term, so please make sure your child(ren) have their kit on this day. However, I would encourage the children to have their kit in school everyday in case we need to get changed for other lessons (we had to for science this week to ensure no 'blood' was on their school uniform).
• The Kilve residential for next year's year 5/6 (this year's year 4 and 5) has been booked for Wednesday 9th to Friday 11th September 2020. The cost will be £160 per child and due to this expense, the office is looking to set up payments in instalments to make it easier to pay. More information about the trip will be released in due course.
• I will not be in school on Wednesday 15th January. Mrs Amphlett (supply) will be taking the class in the morning and Mrs Kimsey in the afternoon. The children are used to both of these teachers.
• This term, we are learning different spelling rules. We will have a lesson on a Monday which will involve learning the rule before applying it to spell words and practise their handwriting. I aim to see how well the children remember the spelling rule on a Friday. As some children have asked about homework, I would suggest this is an area you can support your child with at home by recapping the spelling rule and using it to spell words. 

Weeks 13-14 (02/12/19-13/12/19)

Over the past few weeks, we have been very busy drawing all themes to a close. 

In English, we have moved onto writing poems to enter into the Anne Frank writing competition. The children have been writing poems about this quote from Anne Frank's diary: Looking at the sky, the clouds, the moon and the stars really does make me feel calm and hopeful… Nature makes me feel humble and ready to face every day with courage. The children have been very keen to write poems, incorporating the senses, similes and metaphors to make their poems as inspiring as possible. The children will be finishing their poem this week before submitting it in time for the deadline.

In maths, the children have been consolidating their understanding of the four operations, ready to move on in January. We have also been completing a full set of SATs papers (will finish them on Tuesday) to gain an understanding of their current attainment. I hope to have the time to run through the papers with them at some point this week. These test will also help to identify weaknesses to focus on next term to develop their mathematics and English understanding. 

In PE, the children performed their taekwondo performance to the rest of the school. Every class from Nuthatch to Kestrel took part in this performance on Thursday and enjoyed watching each other perform. The children especially enjoyed watching all the teachers and TAs perform - thankfully, I did not record that!

Notes and reminders this week:

• Thank you to everyone who came to the carol service on Thursday. I will soon be uploading a video of the service on YouTube for those who couldn't make it or would like to watch it again.
• A reminder that the children need a full change of clothes (jogging bottoms and shirt) for PE for personal hygiene reasons.
• It is winter, so please ensure the children have a jumper and coat in school at all times.
• There will be a Christmas sing-a-long on Friday afternoon for parents of children in Wren and Kestrel Class, feel free to come along and join in!

Week 12 (25/11/19-29/11/19)

The children have had an enjoyable week this week!

In English, they have been able to demonstrate what they have learned about diary writing by creatively coming up with their own entries. From fictional characters, favourite memories and famous people, the children have all worked hard to showcase their ability. I look forward to marking them this weekend!

In maths, we have moved onto division this week. The children have recapped their understanding of short division and been able to apply it to solve questions. We will be moving onto long division next week. It may be a long process, but we hope by the end of the week the children will have grasped it! I know some of the year 6s learned how to do it last year, but it is always good to recap skills before applying them.

You may have noticed (or been told), on Thursday, we had a special guest - Sharon from the Somerset Heritage Centre. Sharon came with three activities to complete; including putting out an incendiary bomb with a stirrup pump. The children certainly enjoyed this activity and getting wet! The other 2 activities included a recap of rationing and evacuees. The children were fascinated by the old toys and the baby's gas mask. A few even tried on some old WW2 boots - that were very heavy! At the end of the day, Sharon commented on the knowledge the children have of the topic. Our learning quest has certainly captured the children's imagination this term!

In taekwondo, the children have been learning a routine to perform to the rest of the school in the coming weeks. The children have worked hard to practise their skills needed and may be able to show of their moves at home!

To finish, today (Saturday, 30th), four of the year 6 children took part in the Wellington School Maths Challenge  against 47 other schools from Somerset and Devon. Charlie S, Imogen, Mac and Kieran worked together to answer some tricky maths problems - I will share some of them with the class to see what they make of them! Despite not finishing in the top three, the children scored 14 points - with many of the other schools scoring around 10. They should be pleased with how well they did.

Notes and reminders this week:

• It is getting cold! Please ensure the children have a coat in school for playtime and lunchtime.
• A few of the children have not been changing their shirts for PE; this is needed for personal hygiene reasons. Please ensure your child has a change of shirt as part of their PE kit.
• The windows of the old building will be replaced next week, so part of the playground will be busy. The children will need to walk through the playground to the classroom at the start and end of the day. 

Weeks 10 and 11 (11/11/19-22/11/19)

We have had a busy past-fortnight in Kestrel class. 

As part of Remembrance day, the whole school came together of a minutes silence on the playground with Sammy and Mckenzie ringing the old school bell inside the hall. In English, the class came together to make a poem based on the short film, Beyond the Lines - a film about D-Day.

Last week, in English, the children worked really hard to write a diary entry about the trip to Dunster Castle. I have enjoyed reading them and can see the progress the children have made as well as how much they enjoyed the trip. This week, we developed our understanding of writing in chronological order with fronted adverbials, writing about description and, most recently, writing about emotions and feelings. To link with our quest, the children have read selected entries from the Diary of Anne Frank, which the children have been keen to discuss.

In maths, we have developed our understanding of multiplication with key concepts, such as factors and prime numbers. From learning these concepts, we have then applied our knowledge to mathematical theorems, such as Lagrange's Four Square Theorem! The children's mastery of these concepts has taken great leaps which is incredible to see.

As part of our learning quest, the children have been looking at rationing and have, therefore, been cooking dishes from the during the war. The children made the National Loaf, Woolton pie, potato scones and eggless sponge. After cooking, the children enjoyed getting to try what everyone had made this week and evaluating them. Woolton pie split the class (who either loved it or hated it) with the other dishes better received. Due to popular demand, I have uploaded the recipes below:

To round of the week, it was our sharing assembly on Friday which I hope was enjoyable to those who came to watch. To those who couldn't make it, the children read out their diary entries about the air raid and Dunster Castle, blackouts, rationing and cooking before singing 'Run Rabbit Run'. It was up to the children what they read out and they enjoyed preparing the assembly for you.

Notices and reminders this week:

• WE ARE IN THE GAZETTE THIS WEEK! A picture of the whole class at Dunster Castle is in the newspaper published 21st November (Thursday gone). Thank you to Mrs Smith who notified me on Friday. Should you want better quality photo, see me as you cannot copy or print a photo from the website for safeguarding reasons. I will try to display a copy in the classroom. If any of the children make it into local newspapers let me know, so we can celebrate it as a class!
• It is getting colder, so the children will need a jumper and coat at playtime and lunchtime (hats, scarves and gloves would also be good). Jogging bottoms for PE would also be good - especially when walking up to the village hall!
• As always, there is a weekend TTRockstars battle to help the children practise their timetables.

Week 9 (05/11/19-08/11/19)

Despite being a shorter week due to INSET, we have got up to a lot in Kestrel Class this week.

What better place to start than our school trip! On Wednesday, we all dressed up (including all the adults who came) in WW2 costume and were evacuated to Dunster Castle. When we arrived in Dunster, we had to walk through the village and a steep hill to the Castle. Inside, we learnt about the castle's role during the war as a hospital and the Lurtrell family who owned it; before splitting into our groups for our activities.

The children took part in 3 different workshops to place themselves in the midst of the home front during the war. One of these workshops included working out what three items we would take with us if we were evacuated today. Many electronic gadgets were chosen, but so too were a few sports balls and a few things to remember their parents with (granted not everybody chose to do the latter)!

The second, included a lady who lived as a child during the war share her experiences of her childhood. The children listened with intent as she told us about rationing and being in their air raid shelters at school to way beyond the end of the day... She also told us about the Christmas present her dad gave her when resources were tight. He gave her a Noah's Ark he had made out of pipe cleaners which she then taught us how to make. The children enjoyed making their Noahs and the next day, Scott brought in some more characters he had made at home! From speaking to the children, many enjoyed listening to her and her first-hand experience of the war.

The third activity involved reenacting what some soldiers would have done on the castle, searching for German planes and boats between the castle. In the distance, we saw Steep Holm Island and Flat Holm Island which was the base of many soldiers during the war - in addition to the castle - to keep the country protected by the enemy. After keeping lookout, the children became code-breakers on the keep of the castle and then were taken down to the crypt as the air raid siren went off to keep safe. We kept morale high by singing Run Rabbit Run - which we have been learning at school - and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.  

Back at school, we have continued from where we left off before the half term, focusing on multiplication and diary entries. We have recapped what a diary includes and have planned our next piece of writing about the trip to Dunster.

Additionally, we have started our preparation for the Key Stage 2 carol service by singing one of our songs - which I'll keep as a secret for now! I know a few members of the class were disappointed not to be doing a Christmas play this year; however, this was a whole-school decision which considers the amount of time we would have for other curriculum subjects. Despite this, in the summer, we will be performing a play. Regarding the Carol Service, Mrs Lemon and I have chosen a range of songs and have also asked the children to think of some songs they would like to perform as well. Mrs Barnes has also chosen some pieces for children to read.

Reminders and notices this week:

• Thank you to everyone for supporting the school trip to Dunster. The children enjoyed the day and learnt a lot as well!
• Mr Hake has told me how well the children took part in the inter-school rugby and dodgeball events this week. Everyone who took part is a real credit to you and the school.

Week 8 (21/10/2019-25/10/2019)

Wow, we have reached the end of the longest half term of the year and everyone deserves a well-earned rest! I enjoyed meeting you all at parents evening this week to talk about your child and possibly showing you this blog – I hope your expectations are met with this post.

Despite it being the final week, that did not stop us from working! In English, on Monday, we finished and edited our letter to President Roosevelt to encourage him to join the war. The children worked really hard with these and have shown progress from the first letter they wrote. On Tuesday, an air raid siren went off in the middle of the lesson – I’ll let this video show you their reaction…

Once the children had scrambled into their Morrison shelters (under the tables), they wrote diary entries to describe the air raid. From having a brief look, I saw really good entries, so I look forward to marking them more thoroughly during the half-term holiday. Fortunately, no bombs hit the school!

In maths, we have focused on multiplication this week; specifically focusing on the grid method to develop children’s knowledge of multiplication before we progress to other methods. As part of our fluency lessons, we have also looked at what equals means and came up with the definition ‘the same as’ as well as developing our knowledge of decimals and fractions – one of our targets to progress with. The children have also enjoyed taking part in times tables relays where the children have competed against each other in teams to solve 12 multiplication calculations in the quickest time.

In history, we have moved on to The Blitz and how people stayed safe. The children participated in a class discussion before making their own Anderson Shelters. The insides were very fiddly to make; however, many of the children persevered with a little help (and guidance to follow the instructions!) and finished them on Friday afternoon which was a nice way to end the half term.

It has been incredible to watch the children's progress in taekwondo - not only with the physical moves, but also with their confidence. At the beginning, many children nervously took part; however, this week all of the children plucked up the confidence to perform a running-front-kick in front of their peers having practised the jumping-front-kick beforehand. Here are some examples that were caught on camera! 

Notices this week:

• I hope you all have a great half term! The children come back to school on Tuesday the 5^th November as the Monday is an INSET day.
• The homework for the holidays is on Purple Mash. I gave the children their logins and included them on the letter I gave you on parents evening, so hopefully everyone should be able to login. I can see many children have completed the homework which is good to see. I will provide feedback through the website later this week and again next week.
• On the second day back (Wednesday 6^th November), it is our school trip to Dunster Castle. It would be great to see the children dressed as evacuees as this would really bring the experience to life. We have made labels at school, so each child knows where they came from. The children will need to bring a packed lunch!
• It is the school's Guy Fawkes Night in cooperation with Oake Manor Golf Club on Saturday 2^nd November. Gates open at 5 and the fireworks start at 6:30. There will be plenty of food served, so you can make a night of the festivities. I will hopefully be there too, so I hope to see many of you there.

Weeks 6-7 (07/10/2019-18/10/2019)

We have had a great past fortnight in Kestrel Class. 

Over the past half-term, we have been taking part in the NHS' Step into the NHS campaign; learning that there is no such thing as 'boy jobs or girl jobs' as well as learning about the more than 300 jobs within the NHS. As part of this campaign, the children in Kestrel class have planned their competition entry to say 'thank you' to everyone who works within the NHS. The children have come up with many ideas from songs to pictures and posters which I am sure will be well received.

In English, we have (almost) finished our topic of letter writing. Recently, we have learned about the use of the subjunctive form for wishes and advice, so we could apply it to our writing. Despite being a tricky concept (even Justin Bieber couldn't use it), the children took this in their stride and have created incredible pieces of writing. I look forward to reading their final letter to President Roosevelt in World War 2; once the children have edited and evaluated their work.

As part of our quest, we have explored Operation Dynamo (the evacuation of Dunkirk) and the Battle of Britain. This learning has allowed us to understand how the latter was a turning point in the war. Some children were enthused enough to continue their research at home and hats off to Max - who wrote 2 pages of his findings!

Two extra pieces of information:

• Parents evening is this week. I handed out the times to the children at the end of the day, so they should have made their way home. If you are unsure of your time, come and see me and I can check for you.
• Our school trip, after half-term, will be to Dunster Castle to take part in their World War 2 workshops. Letters went out on Friday and need to be returned to the office next week. We are really looking forward to it and to add to the excitement, I have asked for the children to dress as evacuees - however, no great expense is needed. The children will need to bring their own lunch; feel free to make this World War 2 themed as well, but this is not necessary. 

I've noticed 'rugby fever' has hit the playground with the Rugby World Cup currently being played; I hope the children enjoyed this morning's result and are looking forward to the semifinal. 

Week 5 (30/09/2019-04/10/2019)

We've had a very busy week this week preparing for the Harvest service at the church amongst continuing with our learning of World War 2 and addition!

As part of our quest, we have been researching about some of the evacuees who came to Oake, Bradford-on-Tone and Nynehead during the Second World War. We found many of them came from London and some stayed in the local area.

This led us to planning and writing informal letters as evacuees to send to parents describing the journey from the city down to rural Somerset, being chosen by their 'new families', going to their new houses and going to their new school. The children worked really hard writing these letters and many would tug your heartstrings as their parents!

In DT, we finished and evaluated our gas masks. They look great decorating our classroom!

Week 4 (23/09/2019-27/09/2019)

This week we moved on from poetry and place value; moving on to letter writing and addition, but staying with similar themes for the prior weeks. 

In English, the children focused on writing letters from the perspective of different characters from 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin'. These will be the starting point as we learn how to write formal and informal letters focusing on World War 2. On Friday, we used our knowledge of grammar to discover that letters are written in the active voice and we will build our knowledge of this on Monday next week. 

As part of our quest, we have used primary records, such as the 1939 Register (courtesy of Find My Past - if you would like a subscription speak to me and I can let their representative know). The 1939 Register was used by the British government to create a snapshot of the civilian population on the 29th September 1939 and is, therefore, a brilliant record to find out who was living in Oake, Bradford-on-Tone and Nynehead on that day. We learnt about how it was filled in and created a copy for ourselves along with national identity cards. As the first wave of evacuees came to the countryside at the beginning of September, we were able to discover the names of the evacuees that came to our local area - some even educated in the old Oake school - now our school hall. The children were very excited when they had found one! We also discovered the names of the local soldiers who perished during the war. We will continue to remember these people throughout our quest. 

At the end of the week, we performed The Pied Piper of Hamelin in our sharing assembly and shared some of the gas masks we have made in DT. The majority of it is shown below. Due to memory issues with the iPad, the final two stanzas were not recorded. I will film the final two stanzas and upload them to the website sometime during the week!

Weeks 1-3 (02/09/2019-20/09/2019)

In English, we have been performing 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' - a poem by Robert Browning. The children have worked hard to develop their performance skills - from warming up their mouths to projecting their voice (without shouting)! During the third week, the children were put into small groups and given a section of the poem to perform. We look forward to sharing the poem with you during our sharing assembly on the 27th September.

We have begun our World War 2 quest; kicking off by looking at what caused the war and what the UK's reaction was including the evacuation of children; known by the government as 'Operation Pied Piper'. The children were shocked to find this out, but did discuss the similarities and differences between the poem and the WW2 operation, such as the children being taken away to 'paradise' (or the countryside). I look forward to taking our quest forward!

In maths, the children have been focusing on place value and have been able to apply their understanding to a range of problems. We looked at using the RUCSAC technique to help develop our problem solving skills and this seems to have had an effect! 

The children have worked hard over these 3 weeks and have shown their willingness to be part of a community. I look forward to teaching them over the year (or 2)!