Windrush Valley Private School Oxfordshire – SATs exam week for Year 6.
Foundation Unit
This week, Early Years classes have focused on the different types of transport that can travel on or in water. The children were able to identify a yacht, cruise liner, rowing boat, canoe, kayak, jet ski, submarine and speed boat. All the children were challenged to create a boat. They enjoyed hunting through the junk modelling to create some wonderful boats. The real test was when the children took part in a floating and sinking experiment. There were lots of excited gasps as the children launched their boats in the water tray. Some boats were more successful than others, the children quickly realised that any boats with holes would not be very successful. It was a great afternoon of discovering, discussion between the children and thinking of how they could have improved their boats.
Year 1 & Year 2
The children in KS1 have been working very hard in the classroom this week. They have been perfecting their May dances and songs ready to their performance. The May attendants will be two pupils from Year 1. Plus, a special congratulations one of our pupils who last weekend took part in the Bury St Edmonds Junior Chess Congress and came first in his section, and he was the youngest player in his group!
Year 3
In preparation for the Windrush Valley Private School Oxfordshire May celebrations, we have been practising our country dancing and songs. In English we have been looking again at speech marks, and in creative writing we’ve been looking at a special painting where the children are drawn in and have an amazing adventure. They are writing so well, using good adjectives and thinking carefully about a clear beginning, middle and end. The children have also been practicing for their assembly, all parents are welcome to attend. We have a lot of performances coming up! In maths we’ve been looking at column method multiplication and revising other column methods. We had a very wet PE day on Wednesday but the children enjoyed a ‘carousel’ of activities – we had a Yoga room, a fitness session room and a sports quiz room which they alternated between. In geography we have continued with our grid work, and the children have been making aerial maps of the school buildings and putting in grid references.
Year 4
Year 4 have continued their Artwork on buildings this week. The theme was broken buildings, old buildings, disaster struck buildings, and dilapidated buildings. The children have managed to capture the character and destruction of them so well. In Maths, we have been tackling decimals and grasping the understanding of tenths and hundredths. We have continued poetry in English, comparing poems about the sea, from a range of poets old and new. In Science we have been finishing off our topic of ‘Plants’ and the children can now identify a whole range of edible plants! May Dancing and singing rehearsals are progressing well and the children are enjoying the Summer sports of athletics and rounders in the Games sessions.
Year 5
We have enjoyed completing our myths, working hard on using powerful language throughout, to keep our stories exciting and interesting. Through this extended writing task, we were able to demonstrate our knowledge of punctuation and grammar by using fronted adverbials, correctly punctuated complex sentences and descriptive techniques such as “the power of three”. In maths we revisited adding and subtracting fractions and then introduced multiplying fractions by whole numbers. Through perseverance, everyone has become more confident and proficient in their fraction work, which is lovely to see. Our new topic in geography is Eastern Europe. We started by using atlases and maps to locate the relevant countries and capital cities. We have now moved on to researching countries so that we can make comparisons about what it would be like to live there based on social, economic and physical factors.
Year 6
Year 6 have been an absolute credit to themselves and Windrush Valley Private School Oxfordshire in the manner in which they have undertaken their end of school SATs exams. Everyone in the class has come into school (with a variety of interesting mascots!) in a positive frame of mind and focussed incredibly hard throughout the week. The whole class should feel very proud of themselves, there has been a really good team spirit all week. Well done everyone and looking forward to a change of focus in class next week as we leave our SATs behind for this year.