Newsletter - Summer Term - 29.05.18

Cottesmorians have taken advantage of the long exeat break, returning bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and with batteries recharged, ready for all that lies ahead. The momentum builds as we approach exam week and with Sports Day following close behind, they’re all set for the challenges which await them.

Academic News

The week before exams is always a very charged one, both academically and emotionally. After a three-day break to recharge their batteries, the school has returned in good form, ready for the week of exams next week. Those in the third form and below have been getting advice from their pastoral tutors this morning to listen carefully to what their teachers are saying this week, in the knowledge that these teachers set their exams. Those doing CE or CE trials are boning up on the most vital pieces and their teachers will be question spotting — often done by analysing the papers from the last five years and seeing those that haven’t cropped up for some time.

The pupils will be raiding the school stationery shop to make sure they have enough pens, cartridges and pencils to withstand the rigours of next week. Several have already taken the necessary measures. Tancredi announced this morning that he had a new super pen “not a LAMY, not a Parker” that would enable him to do well next week. Let’s hope it works for him! The tension in the build up is palpable and the teachers use their expertise honed over many years to keep the balance right between thorough and meticulous preparation of the pupils and not over stressing them. Mr Rogerson’s mindfulness exercises will be in full swing as the countdown to next Tuesday begins.

Sports Round-Up

Athletics
The last week saw some serious preparation out on the sports field too, as the heats got under way in readiness for Sports Day. There’s always plenty of sporting rivalry and competition, nicely balanced with a friendly edge. We hope that the British summer will return in good time for a fantastic day of friendly camaraderie and family picnics.

This week our fixture card resumes, so it’s ‘good luck’ to our boys and girls for the Wednesday and Saturday cricket fixtures.

Pre-prep news
A wonderful day out was enjoyed by everyone at Hampton Court Palace last week. Set in 750 acres of beautiful and historic parkland, it’s just one of the palaces where Henry VIII held court. There was a great deal to explore both indoors and out, to keep our young historians occupied!

The Scholastic Book Fair comes to the Pre-prep this week and there will be lots of time throughout the week for the children to peruse all that’s on offer, then choose their books.

Preparations for our Pre-prep summer concert which takes place next week are well under way. Parents and guests will be very welcome to join us on Friday 8th June at 2pm in the hall and afterwards for some tea.

Here’s the latest class news:

Reception
This week the Reception class will be writing a news report from their home book work and displaying their work on the wall. They will think about what makes a newspaper article interesting to read. In ICT the children will continue exploring J2code to create an animation. They will have a go at using shapes to create a castle scene on paper and will be ordering numbers to 20 and beyond. Pupils will be continuing to develop their adding skills in Maths, as well as discovering the capacity of a variety of containers.

Year 1
This week Year 1 will be writing thank you letters to Hampton Court Palace following the visit there last week. In Maths the children will be working on numbers up to 100 and looking at patterns on a 100 square. They will also be continuing with their addition and subtraction work using numbers up to 100, as well as continuing to work on their 3D castle models.

Year 2
Pupils in Year 2 will continue to learn about the life and work of Claude Monet this week by looking at the book ‘Sunshine and Waterlilies’ by Steven Packard. They will write 3 questions that we would ask Claude Monet focusing on the difference between a statement and a question. They will also describe their favourite place from memory using interesting adjectives and varied sentence openers.

In Maths the children will be using doubles and number bonds to add three 1-digit numbers; using number facts to 10 and 20 in number sentences and finding complements to multiples of 10. If the weather is good, in Science the children will be exploring the grounds to look at various plants that are growing in our locality and recording their findings.

Year 3
This week Year 3 will begin a new English unit focusing on the characteristics of persuasive writing and will read The Promise by Nicola Davies. There will be discussions about the language and devices used in this that make it a powerful story; these include metaphors, similes, variation in sentence length and repetition of words and phrases. The children will also practise extending sentences using subordinating conjunctions, before beginning to look at persuasive language devices.

In their Maths lessons the children will complete their work on fractions by adding and subtracting fractions and solving word problems. In RS they continue to learn about what we can tell about the character of Jesus through reading the Gospels. In History Year 3 will discuss what life was like for children in Tudor times. During their Science lesson the children will explore how light is reflected from surfaces. In Art they will continue to build their Tudor houses.