Rufford Park Primary School

Weekly Update-8/3/24

Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog

Weekly Update-1/3/24

Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog

Hello everyone,

In English, we have been working on writing a persuasive letter which relates to Fairtrade farming. We have taken on the role of a Fairtrade farmer, and we are writing to a farmer who doesn’t work with Fairtrade. The aim of the letter is to persuade the non-Fairtrade farmer to become a Fairtrade farmer by explaining all the benefits of working with Fairtrade and what the organisation can do for them. The children have been working incredibly hard on these, and so far, there has been some excellent and persuasive pieces of work that have been produced..

In computing, we have started our unit of work on photo editing. This week, the children learnt what photo editing is all about and why it is done. Additionally, they also learnt about what it means to crop an image, to rotate it, to mirror and copy an image and what composition and exposure mean in relation to photos and editing.  They then practised doing a range of these edits to a picture of a swan on a lake using an editing programme. The children absolutely loved it and they really enjoyed seeing the different results of the different edits that they could apply to the image.

On Wednesday, the children had a special visitor come to school. This was James Ketchell, who is an adventurer and motivational speaker. The children really enjoyed listening to the stories about his adventures, which includes climbing Mount Everest, hearing about the records he has set, the challenges he has faced and how he overcame those challenges. They also enjoyed the workshop with James where they got to ask him lots of questions, try on mountaineering equipment and try some delicious food that he uses when out and about in the mountains.

Take care,

Mr Kyriacou :)

Weekly Update-23/2/24

Mr Kyriacou (n.kyriacou) on: Beech Tree Blog

Hello everyone,

This week, we have continued reading our class novel (Illustrated Stories of India) which the children have really enjoyed. We are continuing to work on a range of reading skills, especially inference skills, and it's been fantastic to see the children being super reading detectives and using the clues in the text to make great inferences and produce detailed answers to the questions being asked. Well done!

In English, as part of our unit of work on letter writing, which will revolve around Fairtrade farmers, the children did some role playing, with some children playing Fairtrade farmers, some playing non-Fairtrade farmers, some playing buyers and some playing the role of the supermarkets. The aim of the game was to get the children to understand how Fairtrade can benefit a Fairtrade farmer, especially with the amount money they receive from their produce, and how that can support them positively in different ways. We then compared this to the amount of money that the non-Fairtrade farmers received and how that would impact them in a negative way. The children really enjoyed the game and also understood how those different farmers would feel, depending on if you are Fairtrade farmer or not. They showed these emotions brilliantly with their acting. We have also been looking at the features of formal letters.

In science, as part of our unit of work on light, our first lesson revolved around light sources. We discussed what light is, what the term light source means, understanding the difference between natural and artificial light, looking at lots of different examples of natural and artificial light sources and highlighting and discussing any misconceptions about whether something is or isn't a light source and why e.g the moon is not a light source because it is actually just reflecting light from the sun.

Take care,

Mr Kyriacou :)