Year 2 carried out a fair scientific investigation to explore the question: “Do plants need light to grow healthy?” The children planted cress seeds and placed two pots in a dark cupboard and two pots on a sunny windowsill where they could receive natural light. After one week, they observed a noticeable difference. The cress grown in the light was fresh, green, and strong, while the cress grown in the dark became tall, thin, and had yellow leaves. From their observations, the children concluded that plants do need light in order to grow healthily.

Children in Year 2 have been learning about the religion of Islam. This week, they explored how and why Muslims pray (Salah), deepening their knowledge and understanding through discussion and new vocabulary. The key words they focused on included Salah, Allah, Wudu, and Halal. We were especially fortunate to have Muslim children within Year 2 who were enthusiastic about sharing their faith. They helped their classmates understand the beliefs and daily practices that are an important part of their lives, offering valuable first hand insight and enriching our learning together.

Year 2 dressed in their party best and joined Year 1 for a fantastic end of term disco. The children enjoyed plenty of dancing and games, followed by a drink and a hot dog treat. Everyone had a wonderful time!

This week in Nursery, we started our exciting new topic, Traditional Tales  📚✨ We began with the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears  🐻🥣. The children had lots of fun creating and designing their own bears in the creative area 🎨✂️. In our role-play area, we enjoyed retelling the story with our friends, using wonderful expression and imagination 🎭🗣️. In maths, we made patterns using the bears 🐻🔢, and we developed our fine motor skills and practiced letter formation by writing in tasty porridge oats 🥣✍️. In phonics, we learned the sound ‘i’  🔤 — we loved the story and all the activities this week! 💛😊

Working in teams, we created sequences that involved at least two mirroring movements and two matching movements. The performances demonstrated a variety of levels, formations and speed between the movements as well as at least one movement in canon and one in unison. Our final pieces were great fun to perform, showcasing teamwork, creativity and fluidity. Thank you to Year One for being a great audience!

This week in Nursery, we continued our exciting learning all about Chinese New Year  🎊. Our focus story was Goldilocks and the Three Pandas 📖🐼, which the children really enjoyed. We created lots of beautiful decorations for our classroom ✨, including lantern collages 🏮 , Chinese fans 🎐 , and dragon artwork 🐉🎨 . We also stretched our bodies and moved like dragons during dragon yoga 🧘‍♀️🐲 , which was great fun! To finish the week, we enjoyed a fantastic Spring Disco 💃🕺🌸 . What a fun and exciting last week of term! 🌟😊

Year 5 have enjoyed an exciting half‑term of practical science, diving deep into the properties of materials. The children tested which objects were magnetic, explored the differences between metals and non-metals, experimented with electrical circuits to identify conductors and insulators, and investigated how heat travels through different materials. Their confidence as young scientists has grown with every experiment, and their enthusiasm has been wonderful to see. A brilliant half‑term of discovery!

Some children in Year 5 have been taking part in a VEX IQ Robotics After School Club. Funding through the Reece Foundation has enabled the school to purchase a set of robotics building equipment which has offered children various STEM opportunities such as engineering and coding. The club has been fun and engaging and has allowed the children to design, code and build a robot from scratch. The children were able to test their engineering and programming skills both in the club and competition they entered hosted by Nissan Skills Foundation.   All the children in the club contributed in helping with the success of the robot, however we were only able to take 9 to the competition which consisted of the builders, coders and drivers. This provided the children with valuable life skills such as teamwork, communication skills, and sportsmanship. The children thoroughly enjoyed their day and out of the 18 schools in the competition, St Joseph’s came an impressive second!

This week in nursery, we continued our learning about birds 🐦. The children had lots of fun making bird models 🎨 and, in maths, counting the correct number of worms 🪱 to feed the birds. We also created our own bird feeders 🪹, which are now hanging in our outdoor area 🌳. In phonics, our older children learned the sound ‘t’  🔤, and our focus story for the week was The Go Away Bird  📖. We had so much fun and enjoyed a lovely week full of learning and creativity 😊🌟

This week in Nursery, we have been very excited as we prepared for Chinese New Year ! 🎉 We learned all about traditional celebrations and explored the different ways people come together to get ready for the festivities. In Maths , we played a fun game rolling the dice 🎲 and dishing out the correct number of noodles 🍜. We even practised using chopsticks , helping to develop our fine motor skills 🥢✋. We counted the correct number of pom-poms and focused on the number 5  ⭐. We had so much fun serving our friends’ orders in our new role-play Chinese restaurant  🏮🍽️. Our older children also worked hard learning the sound ‘p’  🔤—well done everyone! 👏😊

This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming our lovely nursery families into school for a pre-phonics workshop 🏫💛. Together, we explored the different skills children need to support them on their phonics and early reading journey 📚🔤. We also shared and explored a range of fun activities that children can enjoy at home to help develop these important skills 🎲🎶. What a fantastic morning of learning and partnership with our families! 🌟😊

Children in Year 2 have been inspired by Picasso to colour and paint portraits. They explored his abstract paintings and developed the knowledge of primary colours in order to mix and use the colours they made. They also drew and painted various shapes using different brush strokes and markings seen in his paintings. The pupils were then inspired to draw a Picasso picture using an APP for painting. Application of skills •      Develop knowledge of the colour wheel •      Mix secondary colours using paint •      Paint a colour wheel with primary and secondary colours •      Explore abstract portraiture