Rufford Park Primary School

Weekly Update-28/3/24

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

Hello everyone,

This week, the children edited their drafts of their own stories based on Tigers and Cats. They then wrote their final storyboards, along with drawings to go with each part. The children have come up with some really exciting alternative stories, which still retain the two main characters, and they were very exciting to read!

In maths, we have focused on calculating unit and non-unit fractions of quantities and understanding the necessary steps required. It was great to see the progress made over multiple lessons and the huge increase in confidence. The children also focused on reasoning and problem solving questions involving finding unit and non-unit fractions of amounts. This generated great discussions and allowed the children to demonstrate the different mathematical skills that they have been taught in order to solve the problem.

In science, as part of our unit of work on light, we have been focusing on shadows - understanding what they are, looking at how they are created and the type of shadows created when shining light at opaque, translucent and transparent objects. The children really enjoyed experimenting with different light sources and a range of different objects and looking at the type of shadows that were created.

We also completed our class novel (Illustrated Stories from India) which the children really enjoyed. We had a lovey discussion about which our favourite stories were and why.

I hope you all have a lovely break and make sure to stay safe.

Take care,

Mr Kyriacou :) 

Weekly Update-22/3/24

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

Hello everyone,

This week, in maths, we have continued our work on fractions. We have been focusing on converting mixed numbers to improper fractions and vice versa and understanding the different operations required to do so. We have also been working on calculating equivalent fractions using number lines and images as well as using multiplication and division. The children have been working extremely hard on this and have made great progress.

In our writing, we have been using one of our stories from our class novel (Illustrated Stories from India) and we have been sequencing it in chronological order and focusing on the key events of the story. The children then drew images to match each event, and this created their story board. The children were then tasked with changing the story starting with the second event on their story boards. The one rule was that they still had to use the same two main characters in the story. They have now reached the drafting stage where they have written each of their new events and will be editing them to make them as good as possible. Next week, they will then rewrite their entire story boards in neat and draw their new images to accompany each event in their story. They’ve worked very hard on these and have come up with some great story ideas.

In art, the children have been learning all about Rangoli, which links in really nicely with our topic on India and Fairtrade, and they have produced some lovely Rangoli patterns.

In P.E, the children have been training hard for their skipping competition throughout this half term, which will take place straight after the Easter break. They have been practising their individual skipping skills, their group skipping skills and the skip dance.

The children also took part in the production of Oliver this week and they all sang beautifully.

Take care,

Mr Kyriacou :)

Weekly Update-15/3/24

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

Hello everyone,

This week, the children published their persuasive letters where they took on the role of a Fairtrade farmer trying to persuade a non-Fairtrade farmer to become a Fairtrade farmer as well. They provided fantastic reasons about how working with Fairtrade could benefit the non-Fairtrade farmer and I think they did an excellent job with their letters. Well done!

The children have also been busy with assessments this week and I am pleased to say that the results show just how much the children have progressed since the Autumn term. Well done!

In computing, we have continued our unit of work on photo editing, The editing programme that the children have been using is called Luna Pic. This week, on top of the editing techniques learnt in previous lessons, we have focused on changing our image from colour to black and white, altering the brightness and contrast, the hue and saturation, applying a vignette and using the sepia tone filter. We also looked at combining different images into one, copying and pasting and experimenting with the transparency of the image. The children learnt about what each editing technique is used for, looked at examples and then practised using them on their own images. The results were fantastic (see below) and the children have been absolutely loving it!

I am also so pleased to show you some work that one child has been working on from home because they have enjoyed the photo editing lessons that much.

We also had a PSHE workshop (called It’s Great to be Me!) which the children thoroughly enjoyed. Below are the main aims of the workshop for the children.

Finally, it was lovely to meet with all the parents this week to discuss the academic progress of the children.

Take care,

Mr Kyriacou :)