Post on 13-Sep-2020
St Thomas of Canterbury End of Spring Term Children’s Newsletter 2016-17 Page 1
Dear Parents Happy Easter to you all! I hope you enjoy this Easter offering – the term in pictures as written by our School Council mentors and put together by the Publicity Team in Year 6. Thank you to all of them and to Miss Botham and to Mrs Grove who have coordinated the work. My thanks to you all for your continued support and encouragement for your children in their learning and for the School and I wish you all a wonderful Easter. I look forward to welcoming every one back on Tuesday 18th April 2017… Neil Lewin
St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School Where every child is special
The Children’s Newsletter Spring 2017
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EYFS Spectacular Spring Term We went to the Natural History Museum as a school trip and we
got to see dinosaur bones and touch some real fossils.
We learnt a lot about dinosaurs, we really enjoyed it.
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We made some Easter baskets and we put some paper Easter
eggs in them.
We made some space rockets and some dragons for Chinese New
Year out of multi-coloured paper, it was great fun.
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We made lots of cakes and sandwiches for the grandparent’s tea
party that we got to eat, it was delicious.
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In year 1 we went on a school trip this term to the
Victorian Playhouse in Guildford. We have been
learning about the Victorians in history and we
now know that when they were at school if they
were noisy they would get hit with a stick. While
we were at the playhouse we played with some
Victorian toys like Jacob’s ladder. We also made
some hats out of blue sugar paper. When we got
back to school, the next day we went to the
computing suite and picked a Victorian and
modern picture to compare.
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In maths we have been learning our 2, 5 and 10
times tables. We made some balls out of play
dough to help us count.
We have also been practising our handwriting and
spelling in class. We are trying to make our
handwriting neater by making it smaller. In
spelling we are practising our tricky words.
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This term year 2 went to Wimbledon. We went to Centre
Court and learnt some interesting facts. We also visited the
museum and saw the glamorous trophies. We all came home
with beautiful t-shirts they had designed, medals and
Wimbledon hats. We had an amazing day!
Year two’s topic this term is heroes and heroines. In this
topic we learnt about Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole and
Edith Cavell. We learnt about what they did and how their
lives affected the lives of other people. This interesting topic
is ended with an exciting celebration when we will dress up as
our heroes and heroines, take part in three difficult
challenges and have party food.
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Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
We had an Alice in Wonderland tea party
for our celebration of our topic which
was Journey to Wonderland. We
designed, made and ate our savoury
tartlets in DT furthermore we ate
chocolate cake and jelly; they were
delicious!
Guildford Trip
Year 3 went on an exciting trip to the
wonderful town centre of Guildford: we
saw a secret underground shop which
was very old and we saw a model of the
shop. We learnt some new facts about
Guildford for example: Lewis Carroll died
of flu-did you know that?
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St Thomas’ Marathon
When we did our mile (to raise money for Water Aid) Year 3 had a
slight advantage because we had Miss Botham running it with us.
We had to run 26 miles over the course of 26 days, a mile a day. It
has been great and we can’t wait to find out how much we have
raised!!
Dapdune Wharf
On Wednesday we visited
Dapdune Wharf in Guildford. It
was great, we learnt about the
River Wey and how locks work.
We did a Science experiment and
learnt that the oranges went
fastest in the middle of the river
because there was friction at the
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banks. Our favourite part was the pond dipping and bug hunting!
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St Kea’s Class Worship
Our class worship was about temptation. It involved the temptation of Jesus and a
scene of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The scene of The Lion, The Witch and
The Wardrobe included Edmund when he was tempted by the White Witch.
Jesus was tempted by the Devil in the dessert and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. The
Devil tempted Jesus to do three things, turn stones into loaves, jump off a temple and
worship the Devil. We learnt that this is why Christians give things up for Lent.
We enjoyed practising and performing the assembly and hope you enjoyed it too!
Adventures in York
We loved our trip to York this term. Our favourite part was staying in the Youth Hostel
with our friends because we spent time and talked to them. Our first dinner there was
mash and sausages. Once we arrived in York, our first activity was The Dig where we
dug up artefacts in the sand pit with mini trowels. We also looked at bones and
fossilised poo. After the dig we sent to Clifford’s Tower and climbed up the steep steps
to see the beautiful views of York. The York Minster was amazing and beautiful and
inside there was a dragon’s head and we learnt about the cauldron of Holy water. We
learnt a lot in York! The chocolate shop was fantastic and full of chocolate that was
delicious.
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The Year 4 Vikings Museum
On 21 March 2017 the Year
Fours held our Viking
Museum where there were
fleets of longboats and
weapons. Artefacts/replicas
of helmets were solid metal,
making them look like Vikings
ready to raid. Year 3 children
enjoyed visiting our Viking
Museum. They learnt lots
about Viking long ships and
houses as well as weapons
and armour and jewellery.
We were asked questions
that we had to answer, like:
“When did they first raid
Britain?”, or “Where did they
come from?”
As the day went on, our
mums and dads came to look
at all our hard work. We felt
very proud of ourselves. It
was fun making the models
although it took a very long
time! The parents closely
examined the artefacts, as the Powerpoint came on to show the pictures of York.
We have also been pretending to be a Viking or a Monk and wrote our own diaries of
what happened and how we would feel during the attack.
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Computing
In computing we learnt how to use probots and program algorithms to tell it what to
do and where to go. We also learnt coding and played a Viking long ship game. It was
very hard and a bit confusing but we persevered and completed it.
St Pius Stations of the Cross
This term we visited St Pius
to learn about the 14
Stations of the Cross with
Mrs Carter. We learnt how
hard it was for Jesus while he
carried the cross because
people were not always kind
and didn’t believe he was
the Messiah. As we travelled
around we sang a prayer
while we focussed on the
pictures were sometimes
quite sad.
After our visit we recreated
our own Stations of the
Cross in class, adding an
extra one, which was Easter
Sundays. We had an
amazing time making them
in Art. During that, we drew
the Station then water
coloured it. Finally, we did
the extra detail and finished.
We had great fun!
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Writers’ Day
On Tuesday, 21 February 2017 some of us went to a Writers’ Day. The organiser was
an author called Graham Taylor. It took place at a school called Queen Eleanor’s. Mrs
Carney came with us. Lots of other schools were there including Bushy Hill, Queen
Eleanor’s, Boxgrove and Tormead. When we got there we did a character study about
Graham Taylor and our best friend. We wrote about genre with our bedrooms then
had a delicious lunch. Afterwards, we had to write a murder or romance story. Finally,
Graham told us a story called Hariah Mundi.
Scream Art
In art we were studying the face of Edvard Much in his worldwide famous painting
“The Scream”. First of all, we started sketching and drawing how we would feel if we
were on a rollercoaster. We were all told that our pictures had to be as realistic as
possible, and that later on in the series of lessons we were going to be adding colour to
our pictures. Before we started with darker colours, we made sure that all of the
larger pieces of the artwork were filled in with colour. It was all tremendous fun! We
drew and drew, coloured and coloured and, soon, they were all finished.
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The Football Tournament
Our Manager was Mr Kitcatt. We were playing at St. Joseph’s. Our first match was
against Burpham. Unfortunately, we lost 2-0 as they were just too good for us. We
had a team chat after the match. Our second match was against St. Joseph’s. They
were a hard team, but we played our best and won 3-0. After that match, we went
straight on to the pitch to play Worplesdon where we beat them 2-0. After that
match, we were very happy that we had won!
The Science Day
A few of us went to Westfield Primary School in Woking where we learnt about
evolution of animals and humans. We went on 21 March 2017 and we held loads of
different creatures. We were taught about Charles Darwin and L’Mark, how animals
evolved from other common ancestors.
We held new animals, such as snakes and cockroaches and did role plays and were told
not to have a cricket as a pet.
After lunch, we were told about human evolution. It was about how we evolved into
who we are now.
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The Highwayman workshop:
The children of year 5 have done a lot of acting and
speaking this term. In our Highwayman workshops,
some of us got to try on the clothes and we got to
experience the setting and feelings of the characters.
We learnt about the types of people who would have
lived in those times.
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The Highwayman picture:
To picture the settings and the view of the Highwayman, we
drew a picture with pastels of the Highwayman coming up to
the old inn door.
The Highwayman poem:
The poem is about a Highwayman who falls in love with Bess,
the Landlord’s daughter. Meanwhile Tim the Ostler was in love
with Bess too, and he was very jealous of the Highwayman, but
the Highwayman had to go. Bess waited for him, but she heard
King George’s men coming to the old inn. They came in and
drank the Landlord’s ale, and then they went to Bess’ bedroom
and tied her up. They pointed a gun at her breast, and made her
face the window to see when they killed the Highwayman (her
true love). Bess kept moving around, and suddenly the tip of her
finger touched the trigger of the gun. She heard the
Highwayman coming so she shot herself to warn him, with her
death.
Passion Play:
Our Passion Play was a great success and we all enjoyed
performing it to our audience on Wednesday and Thursday. It
was very special because it was Mrs Ratcliffe’s last one; we
hope you enjoyed it too.
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In computing we have been making an advert for our chosen books. We made them by using windows movie maker. We used images
from the internet and made our own captions. We chose music to suit our advert to give it more impact.
In our art lessons we have been focussing on sculptures and to help us with our learning a sculptor called Michelle came in to show us some of her work- that day we made sculptures out of recycled materials. The sculptures had to be something related to a midsummer night`s
dream for example: the cheeky Puck sitting on a toadstool or Oberon telling everybody what to do! Come and see them in our school art
gallery, The Canvas.
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In our English topic we have been writing about the play called A Midsummer Night’s Dream. During our topic we had a workshop
where we all acted out this amazing play by Shakespeare. The narrator of this play was a lady called Mrs Miggins. We did lots of
pieces of writing such as: a narrative as Puck and a scene description.
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One of the most exciting things we have done in Year 6 is the G live musical festival. In this amazing performance there was an orchestra including brass and strings, a group of recorders and a choir singing a
story telling the rate audience about all the people suffering in Africa. It was an amazing experience for everybody in school who
participated.
In science we have been focusing on the human body. We have been learning how the human heart takes blood around the body and
what is in blood and what it does. One of our lessons in science was measuring our pulse rate before and after exercise; we worked out
that after exercise our pulse rate goes up.