Windrush Valley Private School Oxfordshire – Best Private School Oxfordshire.
Foundation Unit – Best Private School Oxfordshire
It has been an egg-citing first week back at school. Five duckling eggs arrived and we waited in anticipation for them to hatch but all we saw was one small crack. Then to our surprise on Friday morning we arrived at school to find a fluffy duckling in the incubator. Since then, we have had two with very large cracks. The children have thoroughly enjoyed watching the process of the eggs arriving in the incubator, coming out of the shell and how the hatchling becomes so fluffy. They have been responsible for setting up the Ducklings living area..
Year 1 & Year 2
Year 1 have been busy practising their final assembly. The subject is ‘RESPECT’. They have focused on speaking loudly and clearly. We hope you enjoy it, be prepared to answer questions! The Castle homework was a great success, photographs and models have arrived in class. The children have enjoyed talking about the different materials they used to make their creations – sand, cardboard, Lego and saltdough. Maths in Year 1 the children have worked on counting in groups and odd and even numbers. In Year 2 the children have worked on place-value and adding 2-digit numbers and tens. Phonics lessons are continuing each day, the children are working hard on the presentation of their work, preparing the children for their move forward to the nest year group in the coming term.
Year 3
Year 3 have been getting very excited about our trip to Chedworth Roman Villa next week and have been looking at Roman Villas and their characteristics. We even made For Sale signs advertising a beautiful villa – we had some fabulous descriptive writing ‘there is the most lovely water feature and pond, with the most clean, shiny water ever. This water is fresh too!’ ‘This is a beautiful house with some amazing features’…’a relaxing Roman villa with a pool in the middle, rooms include a vestibulum, a kitchen, an atrium and a dining room, and lots of space to feel happy!’ We also designed our own mosaic floors. In maths we have been revising shapes, and this has been reinforced in our art this week when we have studied the great shape architect Le Corbusier. In English we have been revising grammar and punctuation enjoying a ‘Grammar runaround’ in the classroom. In geography we’ve been looking at the Water Cycle and where our rivers and lakes come from.
Year 4
It sounds like all of the class had a busy half term doing lots of lovely things including theme parks and beaches. We have started our new topic of Electricity and have created some excellent PowerPoints researching key questions. It is great to see all of the IT skills learned this year, being used across the different subjects. Next lesson we will be exploring with the batteries, crocodile clips, lights and buzzers. In Maths, we have been focusing on symmetry and shapes, and practicing for our assessments next week. In RE we are learning about Buddhism and the story of Buddha. In Games we are getting ready for Sports Day and the excitement is already mounting for the swimming gala in a couple of weeks! Living up to our accolade of Best Private School Oxfordshire, our aim is also to make this one of the best Sports Days.
Year 5
We have introduced percentages and related this concept to our knowledge of fractions and decimals. Everyone has done really well, recognising decimal, percentage and fraction equivalents. In English we read the narrative poem Matilda by Hilaire Belloc about a girl who tells lies. We were a little shocked that Matilda got burnt to death at the end, but all agreed this was a good cautionary tale! We then had fun writing our own cautionary tales, making up horrible characters who learnt a lesson! In science we studied asexual reproduction in plants and even had a go at cloning geraniums by taking cuttings. Fingers crossed we have managed to make some new plants!.
Year 6
Year 6 pupils were away to celebrate their final year of Primary school, we have been delighted to take them away to Condover Hall this week. I’m sure you’ll hear all about it once they have had chance to catch their breath, but here are a few moments we caught on camera.
