The Eyes of the World on are Us!

The last couple of weeks I have chosen Pope Francis quotes as the titles of the blogs. Pope Francis really does articulate the importance of taking care of our world better than any other. He uses Christ’s examples to highlight the reasons why we need to ‘protect God’s creation’, and this has never been more relevant. This week our Head Boy and Girl braved the elements (it was pouring it down!) and represented our school as part of the CAFOD campaign ‘The Eyes of the World’. I was so proud to see them take our art work and gather with other schools to highlight the dangers that Global Warming is posing on our planet and the adverse effects it has on our world, particularly the poorer countries (who, ironically, contribute the least to problems leading to Global Warming!). Well done Isabella & Declan (and Mrs Hodgekiss) for having Our Lady’s voices heard on this matter….

Here’s what else have been up to…

In Maths we have been focusing on mental strategies for subtraction and the addition and subtracting of decimal numbers, including amounts of money.

In English we have been using Usain Bolt’s biography to retrieve/infer information, identify relative clauses and plan for our guided write. We have now completed a class plan on Usian Bolt, ready to start our guided write: a biography. This is a great opportunity for us to share ideas and model a high quality biography, before we write one independently.

In RE we have continued to look at the life of Maximilian Kolbe and how he selflessly lived his life fulfilling Christ’s missions. We have had in depth discussions about where he got his courage from and how he used his gifts for God.

In Science we have continued to look at the different parts of the circulatory system and today we even made models of this. We will now be looking at heart rate and planning an investigation on how different physical activity can effect our heart rate.

In History we have focused on the key events and dates of the Battle of Britain, looking at the chronology of these events.

In our Sports4Champions PE lesson this week, we did fruit tasting! We were given the opportunity to sample a variety of fruits; some of which we had tried before and others we tried for the first time!

AWARD WINNERS!

The Golden Award went to Onalee for being such a kind and considerate member of this class. Onalee helps to spread the Kingdom of God every day!

The Maths Award was given to Theo for his superb work on addition and subtraction this week.

The Writing Award was given to Isabella for her consistently beautiful presentation.

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Once again, I hope you have a lovely weekend. I cannot believe how fast the weeks are whizzing by…they do say time flies when you’re having fun!

Mrs Murphy & Mrs Owen

PostedOctober 1, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

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EYES OF THE WORLD CAMPAIGN

The eyes of the world are on us this year as Britain hosts world leaders for the United Nations' climate change talks – COP26. They will make important decisions that will shape the future of our global family. Our Lady’s is joining the campaign to call on the Prime Minister to support the world's poorest communities affected by the climate crisis. Hopefully, next Tuesday our Head Boy and Girl will be undertaking their first responsibility and representing our school as Blackpool schools gather in the town centre, in support of this campaign! In class we have been designing our own ‘Eyes of the World’ art, and the Head Boy and Girl will be taking these with them. We need to have our voices heard!

Here’s what else we have been up to this week…

In Maths, we have been focusing on addition. We have looked at what metal methods we can use to help us work our calculations quickly in our heads and also been solving word problems by picking the most efficient method for addition.

in English, we have continued looking at biographies, identifying cohesive devices and using evidence from a text to support our ideas. We have also completed our first assessed piece of writing: a formal letter of application. We took on the role of Walt Disney and applied for a job at Pixar. I will enjoy spending time over the next few days reading through all these letters. This will help to establish our writing targets for our next piece of writing too!

In RE, we have been reading the biography of Maximilian Kolbe. He was a man who lived out the Word of God through his selfless actions, and helped to spread the Kingdom of God. This was our focus: looking at the ways he showed that the Kingdom of God was within him, and helped him to live a life following Christ’s example. We actually saw many parallels between Kolbe’s life, and the life of Jesus.

In History, we have been reading all about the Battle of Britain. We now know much more about what this Battle was, why it took place, and how significant it was. The class made information booklets all about the Battle of Britain.

In Computing, we started to look at coding. We discussed different types of cipher and codes, and why they are used: often to conceal a secret message. In small groups they ten had a go at cracking several different ciphers…I was very impressed!

In PE, we played some team games. Both myself and the Sports4Champion leaders were very impressed with the great teamwork skills shown by all of the class-great communication and strategies.

AWARD WINNERS:

This week’s Golden award went to Jensen for being an incredibly hard worker and superb listener. He is also such a polite and kind young man.

The Writing Award was given to Eliza for her well-written letter in RE. It was beautifully presented too!

The Maths Award was given to Adam for his great work on metal/written addition.

Thank you

Once again, thank you Year 6 for another great week. I know I have put this on every update so far, but I really am so proud of how hard this class work. It is because of this that we manage to cover so much in the week and, most importantly, learn so much!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Murphy & Mrs Owen

PostedSeptember 24, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

We have had another great week in Year 6. The class have continued to work incredibly hard, and I am so pleased with how much we have managed to cover. On top of this, we have also appointed our Head Boy and Girl! I cannot express how proud I was of every single one of those who shared their speeches with the rest of the school, outlining why they think they should be chosen for Head Girl/Boy. It made the decision for teachers and pupils extremely difficult, and the voting was very close. However, I can now announce…

Head Girl- Isabella Deputy Head Girl- Eliza

Head Boy- Declan Deputy Head Boy- Jacob

Congratulations to you all! I know you will all help to lead our school in the right direction and represent Our Lady’s wonderfully.

Well done to all of those who applied too! This afternoon, a role of responsibility was given to every child in the class. I cannot wait to see this Year 6 class take on these responsibilities and show the rest of the school what great role models and leaders you all are!

Here is what we have been learning this week….

In Maths we have continued with our focus on place value. We have been look at 3-decimal place value and converting between fraction/decimal equivalents.

In English we have continued with our Biography unit. In the first few weeks of this unit we truly immerse ourselves in the text type, and apply several different reading skills, whilst exploring different biographies. This week we have been scanning texts for key information, summarising texts, exploring key vocabulary and identifying cohesive devices.

In RE we have continued with our Kingdom of God unit. This week, we have been responding to the questions ‘Is the Kingdom of God in Heaven. If not, where can I find it?’ We have written a letter response to this question, using Jesus’ parables, Pope Francis’ views and our own views to form our response.

In Science we have been looking at the functions of the different parts of the heart and how they play a key role in the circulatory system. Last week, we recapped a few other ‘systems’ we have learnt in Science, and had a go at drawing what we though the heart looked like. It was interesting to compare what the heart actually looks like, and what we thought it did.

In PE, we completed an agility test in our Sports4Champions lesson. We had two attempts on each activity and put our best attempt in our booklets. These activities included: speed bounce, balance beam, long jump, relay and target aim. The class thoroughly enjoyed this and I was so impressed with their effort and behaviour!

In History, we drew and labelled our own timeline of some of the key events of WW2. We made sure to make an extra note of when the Battle of Britain occurred as this will be our main focus over this topic.

Please click here to view this week’s homework expectations.

AWARD WINNERS:

The Golden Award went to Nevaeh for showing what a helpful and caring young lady she is.

The Maths award was given to Molly for showing great resilience with her Maths this week.

The Writing award was given to Cianna for her well-written and beautifully presented work.

Thank you, Year 6, for yet another superb week. Have a lovely weekend!

Mrs Murphy & Mrs Owen

PostedSeptember 17, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

We have had a wonderful week, in Year 6. Last week, I had the chance to get to know the class personally, learning more about who they are and their interests. This week, I have been getting to know the class academically. They have all been working so incredibly hard, and I am very impressed with their work ethos in the classroom! Every single child in the class has listened so attentively in every lesson and worked so hard, using their Growth Mindset, when necessary-I truly have hit the jackpot with this class! Keep it up, Year 6! They also showed exemplary behaviour as we went over to church to celebrate Our Lady’s birthday. This was a special occasion as it is the first time we have been able to go over to church, with our class, in over 18 months. It was also extra special as it was Fr. Jim’s last Mass with the children…we had a little presentation for Fr. Jim at the end-it was very emotional!

Here is what else we have been up to this week….

In Maths we have been focusing on place value. We have been reading and writing 6-digit numbers, understanding the importance of zero as a place holder as well! There is a big difference between 604, 521 and 64,521!! We have also looked at multiplying and dividing numbers by 10, 100 and 1000. On Monday, we will begin to look in more depth at decimal place values.

In English we have focused of punctuating writing. They had to edit a piece of writing that had no capital letters, full stops or commas in lists. Overall, the class were very good at this and they had the chance to edit any they had missed in the following lesson. Using full stops in our writing, I had noticed, was a big target for this class. We have also had discussions about what nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs are…we will do more on this in our GPS lesson next week. We also made a start on our first English unit, Biographies. We looked at the what a biography was and watched a mini-biography on Walt Disney, making notes on key dates and events in his life.

In RE we started our first unit ‘The Kingdom of God’. We talked about what we thought the Kingdom of God was. Some said it was in heaven, others said on earth and we discussed it being within us….as we work our way through this unit we will think about whether it is actually all of these! We looked at some important values of the Kingdom of God and the class wrote about which values they believed were the most important, in their opinion, and why.

In History we started our topic on ‘The Battle of Britain’ by using our concept map vocabulary to show what we already know about the BoB and WWII. We then ordered some key events from WWII chronologically. Next week, we will use these to create a timeline in our books….

In PE we had our first Sports4Champion lesson. We spent the first half of the lesson in the classroom discussing the 6-week programme and filling in some information in our S4C booklets. The S4C coaches then told us all about how we earn point to win prizes! We then went down to the hall and played a team game of ‘noughts and crosses’….

In our Art lesson we used our critical thinking skills and had a ‘silent debate’. We had 6 pieces of WW2 art spaced around the classroom and we had to go around silently writing down our thoughts and opinions, We also commented on other people’s opinions if we agreed/disagreed. The class were brilliant at this….

AWARD WINNERS:

This week’s Golden Award went to Mia for her amazing work ethos. She listens so attentively and works so hard in class. She has settled in beautifully in Year 6!

The Maths Award was given to Kayden for his participation in class discussions and superb work multiplying and dividing by 10,100 and 1000.

The Writing Award was given to Isabelle for trying so hard with her written work, this week!

NOTICES:

I have sent a letter home today about the Sports4Champions after school club. Please return this by Tuesday if you would like your child to attend
Head Girl/Boy speeches will take place on Monday morning-do not forget to bring your speeches in on Monday
Homework for this week is up on the Homework page. Your child will have been informed of the group for spellings beforehand
If your child is having to isolate for any reason and needs to access home learning, this will be accessible from the Year 6 Home Learning Page. On the day we are informed of any child needing to isolate, it may mean that it will not be until the end of the day that a full timetable of home learning will be available the on Home Learning tab. In this instance, please complete a Bedrock lesson, practice times tables on TT Rockstars, and practice their group spellings
If you need to contact me for any reason, please email year6@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Murphy & Mrs Owen

PostedSeptember 10, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

This week, I have spoken to the class about preparing their speeches for Head Boy/Girl, should they wish to apply for the role.

As soon as they have written/drafted their speech, I have said they can bring it into school for myself or Mrs Owen to proof read, if they wish. If they have typed their speech up at home but do not have a printer, please feel free to email it to year6@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk, and I will print it here in school.

This year we are able to read the speeches in front of KS2-these will take place on Monday (13th) morning. We will also record their speeches and send them to KS1 classes so the teachers and pupils can still watch and have their vote. Please ensure you have your speeches perfected and at hand on Monday morning!

I am so pleased at the number of children in Year 6 that are applying for the Head Boy/Girl role….reading publicly, in front of an audience, is a huge skill and confidence boost in itself. In Year 6 ALL pupils will be given a role of responsibility, so even those who are not selected for the role of head girl/boy or deputy head girl/boy, and those who did not apply, will have a duty within the school. This could be digital leader, sports leader, prefect, classroom monitor, for example. We find that it is really important, and valuable, for the Year 6’s to be given roles of responsibility as part of the preparation for High School.

Here are some top tips for when you are writing your speech….

Introduce yourself-not all children in school will know you by name!

Talk about your time at Our lady’s so far-What responsibilities have you had? What have you achieved? What good qualities will you bring to the role?
Talk about why you want the position
What suggestions do you have to make Our Lady’s an even better place?
How has the ethos at Our Lady’s help to shape you into the person you are? How will you inspire others in the school? (Growth Mindset-resilience?)

Good luck to all applicants…remember to speak eloquently and confidently and try not to look down at your speech-engage with the audience as must as possible.

PostedSeptember 8, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

It has been so lovely to welcome my new Year 6 class back into school this week. We have spent the past couple of days getting to know each other, and learning all about the Year 6 routine and expectations. I have had the most wonderful couple of days, and this class have made a great first impression….I am very excited for the year ahead! I can already see what a resilient, hard-working bunch they are, and I cannot wait to see them all thrive in their last year of primary school!

Today they all completed their first Star Reading test of the year, and have been given their new ZPD. They will be coming home today with a reading book, which is within their ZPD range. Let’s get our first stickers on our bookmarks and get reading this weekend! Below are a few important notices, and from next week I will be able to fill you in on all the learning we have been doing in each subject, when we begin our first units of work.

Notices

PE will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays so please send the children into class in the PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.
Water Bottle-the children need to bring their water bottle in daily, already filled with water. They will take their water bottle home at the end of each day to be cleaned.
Homework will be mainly set online. This will be set via Bedrock, IXL and TT Rockstars. Spelling and times tables practise will also be a weekly expectation, as they will be tested on these every Thursday morning. I will set homework on a Friday (starting from next Friday), which will be due for the following Wednesday.
Home Reading-the class have their new ZPD for Autumn 1 and have taken their books home today. It is so important that the children are reading regularly at home! Please can you ensure their reading records are signed at home so they can get their stickers on their book marks too.
Home Learning-if your child is having to isolate for any reason and needs to access home learning, this will be accessible from the Year 6 Home Learning Page. On the day we are informed of any child needing to isolate, it may mean that it will not be until the end of the day that a full timetable of home learning will be available the on Home Learning tab. In this instance, please complete a Bedrock lesson, practice times tables on TT Rockstars, and practice these spellings.
If you need to contact me, please send me an e-mail to: year6@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to our first full week together!

Thank you,

Mrs Murphy & Mrs Owen

PostedSeptember 3, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

Although we only had chance to share the beginning of the week with each other, I have been so impressed with how you have all adapted to the home learning process these past couple of days. Here’s what we did get up to at the beginning of the week….

The majority of our time was spent practicing for our production, with Mrs Murray taking groups down to the hall, in ‘decades’, to rehearse their parts. It is coming along so nicely, and Miss Benson had a chance to work with the class on Wednesday afternoon too; she was very impressed. I am so pleased that we will be back in school on Monday, so we can start recording! Mrs Murray needs to pick up some costumes on Monday, however, so filming will probably not begin until the Tuesday.

Can I please ask that all children bring in any costumes/clothes from home, that we listed a couple of weeks ago. ALL children need a black T Shirt (even if it has a logo on, we can turn it inside out!) and black bottoms. Please can the children also bring their Leavers Hoodie to school in a (labelled) bag with them as we have plans to wear this in one of our performances. Other children have been asked to bring other clothes in too-presenters need smart attire! If we can get all of these in by Monday we can see who has got what, and what we still need, for Tuesday.

This week we also celebrated the Solemnity of St. Peter and St. Paul. We watched a live Mass on Tuesday afternoon. It really does feel like we are sat in the congregation when Fr. Jim streams the Masses live to us! We know that St. Peter was chosen by Jesus to lead the early Christian church. St. Peter and St. Paul are two of the most well-known saints who were most responsible for spreading the Christian message in the days of the early church.

We also had tournaments taking place on TT Rockstars this week, and the class had a chance to access resources such as SumDog and IXL, to revise Year 6 English and Maths units!

Thank you!

I have to say a huge thank you to my class this week for how sensible and respectful they have been. It has been slightly different, with the amazing Mrs Murray taking more of the lead, especially with the production. When the children have been in the classroom with me, they have sat so beautifully at their desks getting on with the tasks set-it has made the few days we were in school such pleasurable ones!

Home Learning

For those who may have to isolate next week, I will update the Home Learning page, ready for Monday morning. Please just complete as much of the work as you can, and send me any work you do manage to complete. I am aware that for some, it may mean you are not in school the day we are recording a scene that you should be in. I know this will be upsetting for you, but sadly we have no other option than to get all filming done by Thursday. Our last week is very busy, and Fr Jim needs all videos by the end of next week to have plenty of time to put it together. We are still hoping to perform some whole class songs, socially distanced on the field, on the last day!

I look forward to seeing the class again on MONDAY! I will be cherishing every moment with them from now until we finish!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

PostedJuly 2, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

The theme of our shared worship this week was ‘families’, hence the above quote. We looked at what the word ‘family’ meant in many different ways. Family is our blood relatives, those close to us that love and support us, our friends, mother/father figures in our lives….and what we all have in common, is that we are all part of The Family of God. It was so lovely discussing what the class would describe as family. One response was ‘those who love us’. I thought this was a lovely thought, rather than just thinking about those we love, it is those who show love to us.

In Maths this week we have continued with our arithmetic work. We have looked at long division, adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators and find fractions of amounts.

In English, we have drafted and copied up our letters to our future teachers. This was a lovely transition task, and not only will their future teachers get to read all about themselves and their concerns/excitements about high school, they will also get a chance to see what superb writers they all are!

In PE this week we had our Sport’s Day! This was lots of fun, and although it was not quite the same without our parents, I made sure to take lots of photographs! These can be viewed at the bottom of this page. When all classes have completed their Sport’s Day we will be totaling all the house team points and will announce a KS1 and KS2 winning house in due course!

AWARD WINNERS!

This week’s Golden Award went to Leo for his resilience this week. Even in the face of a challenge, I have watched you persevere!

The Maths Award went to Sophie for impressive arithmetic work!

The Writing Award went to Angelo for his beautifully presented letter.

A huge well done to Reece & Tom, who received the Bronze medal awards for their drumming today!

Lastly, a huge congratulations to Reuben who was selected as a Year 6 winner of the ‘Musician of the Year’ competition!

NOTICES:

Please send your child in with a ‘bag for life’, so we can prepare to send work home
We have been through what costumes we are hoping to provide from the production and which ones we are hoping the children can bring in from home. Please can they start to bring those in as soon as the can
As mentioned in previous blogs, we will begin filming the production the week beginning 5th July. We may even record one decade on Friday 2nd if we have the costumes we need. As we do not have a live audience we are going to be filming over the course of the week, rather than all the way from start to end. We will record in separate decades to ensure we get their best performances on camera, and Fr Jim has kindly offered to help us merge all these videos together! We are hoping to have the video of the production ready to send to parents and other classes, by Thursday 15th July
Thank you to all who have sent their Ascent Waiver form back already. I do need them all back before the day of the trip
We have been reminded of the prevalence of Covid this week with our Reception bubble going down. Please keep to the guidance and if you are at all concerned about the health of your child (even with headaches or flu-like symptoms!), or a member of your household, PLEASE keep your child at home and get a test. We want to enjoy these last few weeks in school together and not with us having to isolate at home. Many thanks for your continued support with this matter - we cannot afford to let our guard down.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Take care.

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

Sport’s Day Pictures:

PostedJune 25, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

This week we celebrated the Blackpool Family Schools Year 3 Mass, and the theme was ‘Faith like a mustard seed’ . This mass is usually when all Year 3 classes gather at St. Mary’s to celebrate this special service. However, as this was not possible, due to Covid, Fr Jim recorded the mass so all of the school could join in this special worship. The theme of this Mass was something we have studied in our RE lesson in Autumn term, and it helped us to remember that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed…it starts off really small and yet grows into something spectacular. This is just like our faith…where there is a tiny bit of faith, it can grow to immense proportions, spreading its influence far and wide and benefiting those who it comes into contact with. A seed does nothing until it is planted, just like our faith will not grown unless we live our the Word of God, through our words and actions.

Here’s what else we have been up to this week;

In Maths, we have had a focus on time. We have looked at converting units of time, including; months, days, weeks, minutes, hours, seconds. We have also looked at calculating time intervals and reading timetables.

In English, we started our transition unit. We have looked at the features of informal and formal letters, using examples of each. We then annotated each one to identify what made each letter formal or informal. This is all in preparation for us writing a formal letter to our future high schools. Next week, we will be looking at the structure of a formal letter.

In PE, we have had a practice of our sports’ day, in preparation for the ‘real deal’ next Tuesday morning. Sadly, we are unable to welcome parents into the school grounds, due to restrictions. However, I will be sure to take plenty of pictures!

Our production is coming along very nicely. We have used the afternoons again, to get on stage I we have nearly perfected a fair few of our decades. We will start some recording of the decades very soon! Please keep practicing songs and lines at home!

AWARD WINNER’S

This week’s Golden Award went to Joseph for taking on much responsibility this week and stepping in when someone was needed!

The Maths Award went to Mya for not only being a great learner of Maths, by also being a great teacher on Maths!!

A huge well done as well to Sophie, who received her Bronze Medal for her drumming this week!

Other notices:

I will be sending a letter home next week, which will detail what we have planned for the last week of school (and their last week of Primary School!). This will include a ‘cinema’ day, a couple of trips out, and a leaver’s party/picnic, and more... The letter will detail more about this
If any children have costumes/clothes at home, that they will be wearing in the production, please bring them into school so we can see what we have and what we need
Please bring a bag for life in to school, in preparation for taking work home at the end of the term
Please ensure you bring your water bottles in daily. As the weather is warmer, it is important to have water at hand throughout the day.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Slater & Murray x

PostedJune 18, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

As we enter the last half term (where has the time gone?!), we are using this time wisely to do plenty of revision to consolidate our Maths and English learning. This half term we are also using our time to rehearse for our production, which we will be recording during the week beginning 5th July. The class have made such a great start with this, with many of them already know all the words to their songs and their lines!

In Maths this week, we have been looking at 2D and 3D shapes. Specifically, we have been looking at angles in regular polygons (ask us what a regular polygon is!) and nets of 3D shapes. We have also been continuing to consolidate our arithmetic with our usual morning Maths! Next week, we will be looking at time!

In English, our main focus has been spelling and reading comprehension. Every day this week we have completed an independent comprehension, which we have then marked together. In spelling we have been revising our Read, Write, Inc spelling units, that we have completed over the year, and giving our partners mini spelling tests. Next week, we will begin our transition writing unit!

Much of our afternoons this week have been spent familairising ourselves with the production songs and scripts. Here are the words to the lyrics so the class can be practising at home too, and here is the presenter’s script. Below is a Google Drive link, which contains most of the audios for the songs too. The audio for ‘These Day's’ would not upload in the folder so I have put a separate link for this below. Any songs which will need to be sung with just a backing track, I have uploaded the ‘karaoke’ version, for the class to get used to practising without the singing in the background.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GrUbf_bniiP_tu-GnISJb3EZJrz7WLnr/view?usp=sharing

These Days

AWARD WINNERS

This week’s Golden Award went to Reece for taking on much responsibility this week and really stepping up to the mark !

The Maths Award went to Audrey for her superb Maths work, particularly when working out what amount we started with, when solving fractions of amounts.

OTHER NOTICES:

School finishes at 1.05pm on Fridays and at 3.15pm every other day
Next Friday 18th June is own clothes day, with the theme ‘Dress like a rainbow’. We ask for a £1 donation from each child, which will go towards gardening tools and equipment
Within the next couple of weeks, please can each child bring in a ‘bag for life’ (as they will hold more weight) with their name on it, in preparation for sending work home by the end of this term
As mentioned in previous blogs, the recording of our production will take place over one or two days during the week beginning 5th July. When the video has been fully put together I will send it to all parents for you to watch from home

We hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray x

PostedJune 11, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

This Sunday 23rd May we celebrate the feast of Pentecost. Pentecost marks the very beginning of the formation of the church. On this day, the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirt and they began their mission to continue Christ’s work, on earth. On that very day, they baptised 3000 people! In our RE lesson we looked at the events of this day, and the class were then given the task to create a ‘freeze frame’ of Pentecost….

Here’s what else we have been up to….

In Maths, we have be doing some more algebra! This class really do love their algebra, and I can relate to this! There is something extremely satisfying about solving algebraic equations, by finding out the missing values…it is a bit like solving a puzzle!

In English, we have planned and written another biography. This time we have all been writing about Thomas Edison, as he links in nicely with our Science topic of ‘Light’. We did our biography unit way back before Christmas so it was a great way for me to assess whether they had remembered how to structure a biography, and include a variety of punctuation, sentence structures and vocabulary.

In Science, we have been presenting our PowerPoints, all about ‘refraction’. I was so impressed with the quality of these presentations; they were extremely informative and very well presented.

AWARD WINNERS:

This week’s Golden Award went to Caitlyn for her positive attitude towards school life-she brightens the classroom with her smile!

The Writing Award went to Liliana for her effective use of sentence starters in her biography.

The Maths Award was given to Vinny for his perfect scores on his mock papers. I also gave a Maths Award to Abigail this week for the amazing progress she has made with her Maths.

The winner of the class Bedrock competition, scoring an astounding 944 points(!!!) was Claire….well done, Claire, I am blown away!! I also gave a little runner-up treat to Reuben and Ryan who scored over 300 points! Well done, boys!

OTHER NOTICES:

School reopens on Monday 7th June-normal start time of 8.40am
As the restrictions are easing, Fr. Jim in encouraging those ( who can leave the house) to attend weekly Mass. It would be lovely to see many of you at Mass on Saturday evening or Sunday morning
Just a reminder that, as it stands, the Year 6 production will be recorded and available to watch virtually. Sadly, we are still not in a position to welcome people into the school hall, at one time. This will most likely be recorded at some point during the week beginning 5th July. After half term, the class will be coming home with songs and/or lines to rehearse
After half term, we will also have our Sport’s Day. Again, it is unlikely we will be in the position to invite parents along, but I will be sure to take lots of pictures
I have not set any homework over the half term, but please keep up with reading. You can access Bedrock lessons, whenever you like!

I can hardly believe we will be entering our very last half term together, upon our return to school. Your children continue to make me incredibly proud, and I am in awe of their sheer strength and determination over this past year. Despite all of the (many) challenges they have faced this year, they will be leaving Our Lady’s as resilient young learners, ready to embark upon their High School journey…I could burst with pride!

I hope you all have a lovely couple of weeks off. I will be savouring every moment of our last six weeks together, when we return!

Take care,

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

PostedMay 21, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

Yesterday we celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord. Although we were not able to go over to church, to celebrate this Mass, Fr Jim brought the Mass to us! He live streamed the mass over to school so all classes were able to watch and take part, from our classrooms. It was such a lovely moment, as although we were all still in our classrooms, in our bubbles, it really brought us all together again, through worship. In RE, and through our shared worships in class, we have been looking at the various ways we can be Jesus’ witnesses today, and continue the work that Jesus’ Apostles started. Whether it be through thought, words or actions, there are so many ways we can continue to spread the love of God, on earth today.

Here is what else we have been up to…..

In Maths, we have been looking at some reasoning style questions, reminding ourselves how to convert between measurements, translate/reflect shapes, find the mean and lots more.

In English, we have looked at relative clauses, active/passive voice and the subjunctive. We have also continued with our reading comprehension, putting our inferential skills into practice!

This week we combined computing with science. The class researched the topic of ‘refraction’ and they have made PowerPoint presentations, with their partners. We will be presenting these in our Science lesson on Monday!

‘Mock’ tests….

This week, the class have had a go at some ‘mock’ SATs papers. They have done GPS, Reading and Maths papers. The official SATs are not taking place this year (and rightfully so!) because of the disruptions to the school year…they were actually timetabled to take place this week! Instead, I am giving the class some practice papers to have a go at, which will help towards my overall teaching assessments, at the end of the school year. They will not, however, be the only thing I use to determined these end of year assessments. I have to say I am bursting with pride at how well they have all done on these tests. They have tried so hard this week, and every single one of them has given it their all…what more can I ask for!?

AWARD WINNERS

The Golden Awards went to Thomas and Reece for working so incredibly hard this week.

The Maths Award went to Gabriella for her superb arithmetic skills!

The Writing Award went to Reuben for his well-written diary entry in RE.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I can hardly believe next week is our last week of this half term. Time is going much to quickly for my liking!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

PostedMay 14, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

On Thursday 13th May, we celebrate the Feast of the Lord’s Ascension. The ascension of Jesus was when he ascended back to heaven to be with His Father, leaving his disciples with an extremely important mission. In RE this week, we have planned out and started to write a diary entry, from the point of view of one of the disciples. They were writing their entries, immediately after they had witnessed the ascension of their Lord, Jesus, reflecting on the mission Jesus has bestowed upon them. I am so proud of how well the class have shown an understanding of the events of the ascension, as well as drawing upon the emotions and feelings of the disciples. We will finish these diary entries off next week.

Here’s what else we have been learning this week….

In Maths, it has been all about pie charts!! We have been interpreting them, linking them with fractions and percentages and even drawing them!

In English, we have been focusing on subordinating conjunctions, subordinate clauses and word classes. We have been practising a lot in our GPS books, plugging any of those gaps in our GPS learning!!

In Science, we made periscopes! We then explained the science behind the function of periscopes, and had fun ‘spying’ on people in the classroom…

AWARD WINNERS!

This week’s Golden Award went to Tia for working so hard and contributing to class discussion.

The Maths Award went to Liliana for her superb work in Maths, this week.

The Writing Award went to Analiese for her well-written diary entry, in RE.

Other notices:

School finishes at 1.05pm on Fridays
‘Auditions’ for solo parts in our end of year performance can be done virtually. Please send a recording of your child singing their chosen audition song to the year6@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk email address, before Thursday 21st May. The earlier they are sent in, the better
I have had a few parents ask me about the end of year performance and when this will be taking place. As it stands, the class will not be able to perform to a live audience in school, due to Covid-19. The plan is to record the performance and send to all parents to watch from home. If anything changes, I will be sure to let you know
In light of the conversations I have had with the class this week about using appropriate language and being respectful online, Miss Haggerty will be updating the general ‘News’ page with more information about online safety. You can access this blog from here
We break up from school on Friday 22nd May, at normal finishing time, 1.05pm

Thank you, as always, for your continued support-this is much appreciated. Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

PostedMay 7, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

This week, we have been learning so much from our mistakes! In Year 6, we view our mistakes as our first attempts in learning, and use them to further our learning. As we completed a GPS practice paper least week and a reasoning one this week, we have really been focusing on those questions that we struggled with-we have never learnt so much!! I am so proud of how hard all of the class are working, and how much they want to succeed. If they all continue putting in this effort, I have no doubt they will leave Year 6 achieving so much!

Here is some more detail about this week’s learning…

In Maths we have been describing and drawing circles. We have learnt what circumference, radius and diameter are (ask us at home!!) and we have been drawing circles, using a compass. We know that the measurement from the tip of our pencil, to the point on our compass, will always be the radius of the circle we draw. We have also looked at Roman numerals and measuring angles, using a protractor!

In English, we have continued with our focus on GPS and reading comprehension. In GPS, we have looked at past/present progressive tense, subject/verb/object, punctuating speech, and so much more! We have been developing our inference skills, and exploring key vocabulary through our reading comprehensions.

In RE, we have been comparing our own responses with our friend’s responses, to questions we find difficult to answer, from our RE lessons. I was so impressed with how detailed some of their responses were, and they truly showed a deep understanding of some of the questions asked. Questions such as ‘If Adam and Eve did not sun, would we have needed Jesus?’ and ‘How is the bread and wine changed into Jesus’ body and blood, in the mass?’

In Computing we were using the Scratch coding programme to create our own games. We have to follow instructions given, and debug when necessary. Many of us then went on to develop our games further, by adding more code.

In Science we have proved two things, through our investigation. One is that light travels in straight lines and the other in the law of reflection. We used a mirror and a torch to prove this, and then we explained our findings (again, ask us what we found out!)….

AWARD WINNERS

The Golden Award went to Megan and Zachary this week. I gave one to Megan for being such an enthusiastic learning and trying so hard with all her work. Zachary received his for showing what a wonderful friend he is-he is so caring and considerate!

The Maths Award went to Joseph for trying so hard with his Maths-I have noticed huge improvements!

NOTICES:

Friday finishing time is at 1.05pm
Please ensure water bottles are brought in daily, filled with fresh water
This Monday is Bank Holiday Monday, school will re-open on Tuesday 4th May

I hope you all have a lovely (long!) weekend-let’s keep our fingers crossed for more sun!

Take care,

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

PostedApril 30, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

Well this week has been a week of growth. We have a growing understanding of many areas of our learning, we have continued to develop our growth mindset and we have grown spiritually, through our questioning in RE. At this time of the year, it is so heart-warming to watch the class grow so much in confidence, as they prepare for their transition to high school-I can see all of their hard work, over the past 7 years, truly paying off!

Here is what we have been up to this week, in more detail….

In Maths, we have had a big focus on reasoning questions. They are always trickier to answer, compared to arithmetic questions, as you often have to work out exactly what the question is asking you to do, before you apply those arithmetic skills. We had a focus on multi-step problems, looking at how to use the information given, to work our what calculations needed to be done. We had to work one thing out first before we could then work out the final answer….after a bit of practice, I was so pleased to see so many whizz through the other questions.

In English, our focus has been GPS! Lots of GPS! After completing a paper last week, we identified our gaps and this is what we have focused on this week. We have looked at plural possession, contractions, semi-colons and adjectives/adverbs. We will continue with our GPS focuses next week too!

In Science, we gave scientific explanations of how it is that we can see objects. We labeled and annotated the picture of us ‘acting out’ this concept, to show a true understanding of how light travels in straight lines, and reflects off objects, before travelling to our eyes.

In PE, we played a new game called ‘Strategiki’. This was a team game, all about strategy. The class really enjoyed this, and demonstrated superb teamwork and communication skills.

In PSHE, we focused on what we know about growth mindset, to categorise thoughts into helpful/unhelpful thoughts. The class then added their own into each category and I was really touched by the ideas they had, and how much they had understood the purpose of the lesson. We know it is not helpful to focus on the negatives and ‘worst-case scenarios’, and much more helpful to highlight the positives in situations, looking at things with a different perspective at times. Sophie came up with a new acronym for PSHE, which I absolutely loved…Positive thought Self-love Hopefulness Energised mind.

In RE, we had the pleasure of doing a live Google meet with Fr. Jim! We had prepared some ‘Ask Fr. Jim’ questions for him, which he answer in a live Q & A session. The children really enjoyed this, and they took so much away from it. Some of the questions Fr Jim were asked, were deep and difficult to answer, but Fr Jim did an amazing job at answering these in a way that the children could understand and I could tell that they really had grown spiritually! This proves my theory: if in doubt, ask Fr Jim!!

AWARDS

Golden Award- This week I gave out two Golden Awards. One went to Ryan and the other Lily. I gave them the award this week for the same reason; they are both superb role models!

Writing Award-This went to Charlie for his increased accuracy with punctuations.

Maths Award-This was given to Tom for the huge progress he has made with his arithmetic.

REMINDERS:

School closes at 1.05pm on Friday’s
Please do not wear earrings on PE days (Tuesdays and Thursdays)
Please remember to bring your water bottles in daily, filled with fresh water
Please remember to get your reading record signed when you read at home. You should be reading regularly: at least 3/4 times a week

Thank you for all your hard work, yet again, Year 6! Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

PostedApril 23, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

I hope you all managed to have a wonderful Easter. I can hardly believe we have now entered into our last term of the school year, and, of course, the last term of Primary School for Year 6. They have certainly hit the ground running this week, and we have managed to cover so much! I am so proud of how hard they are all working, and I can tell they are ready to give this last term their all, in preparation for High School.

Here is what we have been up to this week…

In Maths, we started the week looking at ratio and ended the week calculating the volume of cuboids. Their work on ratio really impressed me, especially as this was a brand new concept for them. All of the class now understand what ratio is, and how to represent ratio. We are developing our calculation of ratio, which proved to be trickier for some. We will look at lots of problems involving ratio, over the coming weeks. They were all superb at finding the volume of cuboids, and used the formula, volume= l x w x h, to solve many problems.

In English, we have had a huge reading focus! We have looked over a reading paper that we did before we broke up, and really focused on those questions we found tricky-especially P.E.E questions! Point, Evidence, Explanation! We will do plenty more of these questions, to ensure we know how to answer them in depth.

In RE, we have been showing an understanding of Jesus being the source and summit of life, for Christians. This was why I found the quote from St. John Paul II so fitting this week. It is not the easiest thing to explain so we spent a lot of time discussing what it meant when we refer to Jesus and the Eucharist as the source of life. We compared Jesus to electricity, which powers electrical appliances…in the same way Jesus is our source of spiritual strength, and He empowers us to live out the values of the Kingdom of God.

In PE, we have been developing our throwing and catching skills, through a series of small group games. Next week, we will be applying these skills to teams games.

In Science, we started a new topic on Light. We looked at different light sources, and then identified which were natural sources of light. We had an interesting discussion about the moon being a source of light…ask us at home what our opinion is on this! We then looked at home light travels, to enable us to see things. We now know that light travels in a straight line to an object and the light reflects (or bounces off) the object, and travels in a straight line to our eyes. Ta dah! That’s how we can see the object! Here are our representations of this concept…..

AWARD WINNERS:

The Golden Award went to Grace B for working so incredibly hard in class-I am very proud!

The Writing Award went to Mya for her beautifully written piece of RE work.

The Maths Award was given to Angelo for his superb work on volume of cuboids.

Have a lovely weekend and stay safe!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

PostedApril 16, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

We hope you have a Happy and Holy Easter!

Each year group was given two stations of the cross to design. We were given the 1st Station: Jesus is condemned to death and the 8th Station: Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem. Below is a picture of our Head Boy and Girl, Reuben and Audrey, with our two stations. Fr Jim will be displaying all 14 stations over in church, during the Triduum.

Here’s what we have been doing this week…

In Maths, we have been finding relationships between numbers and then writing this as an algebraic formula. So if we notice a set of number had been timesed by 2 and then had 3 added to them, our formula was 2n + 3. We also started to look at ratio…we will pick this up again after half term.

In English, we have completed and edited our independent write. We just managed to get them finished before breaking up, and I cannot wait to read over them all!

In Computing, we completed another coding activity, using BitsBox. We are now becoming so much more confident with creating algorithms and debugging, that some of us got on to creating completely new codes!

In RE, we have been looking at the Easter Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We refamiliarised ourselves with the events that took place on each of these days and then explained Jesus actions-what did they mean for us? Why did he do this? How has it help to shape our faith?

We have also been watching special assemblies delivered by Miss Haggerty, for each day of Holy Week. It has been lovely to share in worship with Miss Haggerty and reflect on this poignant week.

We also made our Easter cards….

AWARD WINNERS!

This week’s Golden Award went to Theo for being a ray of sunshine! He brightens the classroom with his positive outlook on life and his great sense of humour!

The Writing Award went to Megan for her effective choices of language in her independent write. Her use of similes and metaphors really helped to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind.

The Maths award was given to Lily for her consistently high score with our ‘Fluent in 5’. She also did an amazing job at recognising relationships between numbers and putting that into an algebraic formula.

I would also like to congratulate Ryan this week, as he won our class Bedrock competition. receiving an Easter egg as his prize. He earned the most points, and won by quite a stretch!

A huge well done also goes to the winners of our Partner Points for this half term. Hollie & Theo, Grace B & Audrey and Charlie & Claire, all received a special treat today for winning the most points, for their fab partner work! They were treated to some extra play and and some sweet treats…

NOTICES:

We return to school on Monday 12th April, and start and finishing times will remain the same: 8.40am drop off and 3.15pm pick up. 1.05pm pick up on Fridays.
PE days after half term will remain the same-Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please ensure your child is not wearing earrings on these days.
We have enjoyed some lovely weather this week! If this weather does continue after half term, please ensure your child in wearing sun screen on these hotter days.
I have not set any homework over the Easter break, but the class are more than welcome to access Bedrock and TT RockStars, should they wish to.
THANKYOU!
I have to say a heartfelt thank you to all of my class and to all parents for your support and hard work over this term. it had been a term of ups and downs, but your continued efforts and support have made it that bit easier! I can hardly believe we will be entering the last term of their primary journey, upon our return. We will be sure to make it the best!
I hope you all have a Happy and Holy Easter-God bless.
Miss Slater & Mrs Murray x

PostedApril 1, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

Palm Sunday-The Beginning of Holy Week

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, which commemorates the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1–9), when palm branches were placed in His path. This marks the beginning of Holy Week, leading to His arrest on Holy Thursday and his crucifixion on Good Friday. In class, we made origami crosses, which can be taken to mass on Palm Sunday.

Power of Prayer….

In RE, we also had a special reflection, using the power of prayer. During our ‘Express Yourself’ time, at the end of each day, I had noticed that many were sharing their feelings about people who were poorly or who has suffered loss in their family. We took some time in our RE lesson to write our own prayers and intentions, and these are now in our prayer basket. It was so beautiful to hear so many wanting to share their prayers with the class…it made me very emotional!

Farewell Ducks….

Year 5 have been homing ducks for the past couple of weeks, and today was their last day in school. Mrs McVey has kindly shared a video update….

Here’s what we have been up to this week….

In Maths we revised area of parallelograms and then we looked at calculating the mean and interpreting line graphs.

In English, we have finished our guided write. The class are now ready to plan and complete their independent write, based on the story of The Wizard of Oz. I cannot wait to read their final drafts!

Our Spelling focus this week has been the plural, with words ending in o, f and fe.

In PSHE, our focus was on friendship. We looked at the qualities that we look for in a friend and then reflected on the qualities that we possess. It was a really lovely lesson, and so pleasing to hear so many identifying so many of these qualities in their friends from school.

In Computing, we continued with our BitsBox activities, using coding to create apps. I am so impressed with how advanced many of their codes were, and it was so pleasing to see that they can debug, when their codes did not work.

Notices:

Yesterday, everyone in the class was sent home with a ‘Nature Explorer’ pack. These are for the children to do over half term. I would love it if you could take and send me any pictures of your child completing any of these activities!
We break up from school next Thursday, 1st April, at normal finishing time, 3.15pm.
On PE days, please can you make sure children are not wearing earrings.

AWARD WINNERS:

This week’s Golden Award went to Vinny for being such a hard-working member of the class. He is also such a kind and considerate young boy, who brightens the classroom!

The Writing Award went to Sophie for grammatically accurate piece of writing this week.

The Maths Award went to Ellie for the huge improvements I have seen with her mental maths.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

PostedMarch 26, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

Pope Francis announced the beginning of the Year of St. Joseph on 8th December 2020, which will run until 8th December 2021 . Today is also the Feast of St. Joseph, and in our RE lesson this week, we made special prayer cards, with the prayer for the year of St. Joseph on the back. We said this prayer together, today, during our worship, and the class used their own prayer cards to recite this special prayer. We will says this special prayer together every week.

Here’s what else we have been up to this week….

In Maths, we have been revisiting a few concepts that we found tricky from our home learning. We have looked at miles/kilometers, co-ordinates, rounding any number and finding the area of triangles. We have also continued with our daily arithmetic, and I can see huge improvements from everyone in class, with their Fluent in 5!

In English, we have been doing our guided write. We planned a new version of The Wizard of Oz together, using the original book as our planning template. We have been writing our story together and the children have then been innovating the shared write to create their own version. This is all in preparation for the independent write they will be doing in in a week or so.

In Science, we looked over the answers to our ‘Evolution and Inheritance’ topic test. This was a great way for up to plug any gaps-although there were surprisingly little gaps, as they did so well on this test!

In Tuesday’s PE lesson we did the Daily mile again. Before the lesson we looked at techniques for long distance running, and I noticed a huge difference in their running, compared to last week! In Thursday’s lesson, we continued with our gymnastic sequences. This week they had to include a turn, jump, roll and balance in their sequence, which they then performed to half of the group.

Three Good Things-PSHE

In PSHE, we started to fill in our ‘Three Good Things’ diary. This is a diary, where each day we write down three good things that have happened to us, and that we are grateful for. It is said that those who are grateful tend to be happier and healthier and being grateful can even help cope with stress! Every day this week, we have had our diaries out during our ‘Express yourself’ time to share our good things with others!

AWARD WINNERS

This week’s Golden Award went to Reuben for being such a kind and considerate member of the class.

This week’s Writing Award went to Grace B for her great choices of language in her innovated writing.

The Maths Award went to Ryan for his valued contributions during our Maths discussions.

A huge CONGRATULATIONS to Claire, who earned her GOLD! medal in her flute. Not only did she pass, she scored a perfect 100 score! We are all so proud of her!

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Slater & Mrs Murray

PostedMarch 19, 2021

AuthorCatherine Slater

Well, it has been so lovely to have the whole class back together this week! They have all been so wonderful and worked so hard, and I am so impressed with how well they have managed to pick up where they left off! Well done, Year 6, you have made me incredibly proud!

This week’s learning….

In Maths, we have had a huge arithmetic focus. After completing our ‘Fluent in 5’ each day, we have then been working our way through andy arithmetic questions we found tricky from our lockdown work. We would then do one together, do one with our partner and then have a go independently. This has really worked, and has boosted their confidence with those concepts they felt unsure about over the past few months. Next week, our focus will be on reasoning, and recapping any of those really tricky White Rose questions!

In English, we have been innovating sentences from The Wizard of Oz. We took the extract from the book where Dorothy meets Scarecrow and they have had to innovate each sentence, to re-write the sentence in their own words. They have done such an amazing job with this, which has prepared us for our scaffolded write next week. In preparation for our scaffolded write, we have also planned our new version of The Wizard of Oz together.

In Science, the class did a post ‘Topic Test’ on Evolution and Inheritance, the unit they covered during lockdown. I am so impressed with their scores and it reflects just how hard they worked during lockdown too! The test was more for me to see what gaps there may be in their learning, but it appears as though there are only a few gaps, overall!

In PSHE, we have introduced an ‘express yourself’ time at the end of each day. After our lesson on Monday, where we were reflecting on the roller-coaster of emotions we have experienced this past year, the class thought it would be a great idea to make this a regular thing. It was so heart-warming to hear the class being so open and honest about how they have felt, and sharing the highs and lows of this past year-this is why we are going to keep these conversations going!

AWARD WINNERS

This week’s Golden Award went to Hollie for working incredibly hard this first week back!

The Writing Award went to Abigail for her superb choices of language, when innovating sentences.

The Maths Award went to Reece for making great progress with his arithmetic this week. His hard work during lockdown is certainly paying off!

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BOOKMARK COMPETITION WINNER!

The Year 6 winner for the bookmark competition was Grace K. All winners from each class were then passed on to Miss Haggerty, who decided an overall KS1 and KS2 winner. She struggled so much to decide that she passed the responsibility on to Fr Jim….and Grace won!!! Congratulations Grace, your bookmark will be printed and ALL of KS2 will be given one! Here’s Grace’s winning entry…