Friday 20 December 2019

Dear Parents

Yesterday was Christmas Party day, and as ever it was really lovely day of fun and laughter for everyone. It is a great tradition of St Wulstan’s and I know there are many parents who remember the day from their own childhoods. The children, although very excited, were very polite and we were so pleased to hear all the ‘thank yous’ when Father Christmas arrived with a gift for all. We were very grateful he took time out of his busy schedule to call in to visit us!

Today Fr Stephen Squires joined us to celebrate our final Mass of the year which was a lovely occasion. After Mass we were able to award our termly awards to children in Year 6 and the 100% attendance certificates to seventy children across the school. Well done children! Congratulations to our Year 6 children Sienna awarded the trophy for Christian Example, Olivia A awarded the trophy for Service to Others and Jenny, awarded the Friendship, all greatly deserved.

The Reception Class staff have wriitten a short piece to share the fun learning they have had this term.

We’ve been very busy this half term in Reception learning all about night time and space during our ‘What happens when I fall asleep?’ topic. We’ve read lots of wonderful stories linked to our topic but our favourite was ‘Whatever Next’ by Jill Murphy. We had fun acting out the story and demonstrated our fabulous writing skills by making a list of items that we would like to take on an adventure to the moon. Our writing was so brilliant, that it was hard to believe we had only been in school for 11 weeks!

With the weather turning colder we followed the children’s interests and spent time looking at what happens during the winter. We explored the outdoor environment and were so excited to find ice covering our tuff tray outside! This led to us exploring ice using all of our senses and investigating how and why ice melts and ways we could make it melt faster. We used the ice that was outside to create different structures such as ice palaces, inspired by the love of the film ‘Frozen’.  

Over the last two weeks we’ve been busy preparing for Christmas. Our role play area transformed into Santa’s workshop overnight and our children have turned into busy Christmas Elves! A real highlight of this half term was our first Nativity. The children all looked wonderful in their costumes and sang so beautifully; we were incredibly proud of all of them! 

The Year 1 children have been exploring our splendid skies during this half term. We began our topic with a “nature’s treasures” walk. We enjoyed exploring our local area and spotting signs of seasonal change and how the weather has changed as well as the impact it has had on our local environment. We have also enjoyed looking at extreme weather and the impact it has – particularly heavy snow! In our English work we have explored poems about the wind as well as writing our own weather poems. We also explored climate in different countries and looked at similarities and differences. Finally we have become weather watchers and recorded the weather each day. Our topic came to an end with us becoming television weather presenters! The children are all hoping that we have a white Christmas!

Year 2 have enjoyed their first term in Year 2 by sharing the wonderful world of Beatrix Potter! Our focus has been reading and comparing the wide range of exciting tales and scientific learning about the real lives of the animals in her stories. Year 2 have been out and about around school and the local area regularly, including walks to the shops to post letters and various habitat and nature walks to help the children learn more about some fascinating British creatures. We were very fortunate to meet a real weasel on the playground and were fascinated in our English and science lessons as we learn about these feisty creatures. We have had an exciting term and have developed so many new skills.

Year 6 have had a very exciting half term studying our science-based ILP: Blood Heart! We learnt all about the inner workings of the heart and the circulatory system. Then we looked at blood in more detail: what its job is and what it consists of. Using golden syrup, vegetable oil and milk, we made our own blood samples and looked at the specific job of each component. To deepen out learning about red blood cells, we looked at different blood types and how this is determined by protein markers on the surface of the red blood cells. Using our Maths skills, we calculated which percentage of the population belonged to which blood type and then drew a pie chart to show this.

During our PE lessons, we examined how exercise can affect our heart rate. At the beginning of each lesson, we counted our heart-beats for fifteen seconds then multiplied it by four to give us heart beats per minute. We did this for our resting heart rate, heart rate after the warm-up, after intensive exercise and after the cool down. We recorded this in a table. In a Science lesson, we used this data and plotted it onto a scatter graph. Examining the results, we were able to discover exactly how our heart rate is affected by exercise and why this happens. This then led us to look at problems with the heart. We investigated what affects blood flow and whether or not the diameter of blood vessels would influence this. We planned, carried out and evaluated this investigation using paper straws with different diameters then timed how long the ‘blood’ took to drain out of the cup. This led us on to discuss how our blood vessels can change in diameter because of life style choices we make. In particular, we looked at how smoking cigarettes can negatively affect our health.

The finale to this unit was the heart dissection. We applied all the skills and knowledge we have learned to dissect a pig’s heart.

Phew! It has been a busy half term and we are all ready for a break! Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Rest and relax as much as you can to return to school ready for lots more hard work!

Finally, we have the grand total of PTA fundraising during the month of December- a massive £ 1550. This has been raised through the Christmas Fayre, raffles at the Nativity and cake and chocolate sales. It is a true example of amazing effort and teamwork on behalf of the PTA and we are extremely grateful. Thank you to everyone involved and of course to everyone who has donated or bought.  The Trim Trail will be installed in the New Year with money raised over the last couple of years. Thank you!

A reminder to check next term's calendar on the school website. This has been updated for the Spring Term and includes a date for Confirmation Preparation, Parents information evening for online safety and educational visits for the children.

I’d like to end this week’s newsletter, on behalf of the staff, by thanking all of you for the many lovely Christmas cards, messages and gifts you have given us and wishing you all a happy and holy Christmas. It has been a very busy term and I think the children (and staff) are all ready for a well -deserved break. School closes today for the Christmas holiday and re-opens for the children on Tuesday 7 January.

With every best wish for a happy and holy Christmas and a very happy 2019 from all the staff.

K E Savage

Principal

Masses in the Parish this Christmas
St Wulstan’s: Christmas Eve
5.00 pm Carol service
5.30 pm Vigil Mass of the Nativity
Christmas Day
10.00 am Christmas Day Mass of the Nativity
Holy Family: Christmas Eve
8.00 pm Carol Service
8.30 pm ‘Midnight’ Mass of the Nativity

Emmaus CMAC
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