Hello!

It is my great pleasure to be the teacher of Giraffe Class again this year and I am very much looking forward to the year ahead! Unbelievably, this is going to be my 5th year at Barley Close and I think it's about my 17th year of teaching. I've taught in every year group during my time as a teacher, but recently, most of my experience has been in Year 5 and 6. 

   It's really important to me that everyone who is in my class enjoys coming to school and thinks that classtime is fun. Yes we have lots of learning to do - but when you think about how many hours of our lives we spend at school, it's as important to laugh, smile and have a good time!

  We are lucky enough to have Mrs Harris and Mrs Kenny in class with us as well - Mrs Harris will be with us every morning and Mrs Kenny will be in all day.  Mrs Harris will also be teaching you on Monday afternoons. 

  I will post regular updates here, so please check back to see what has been happening in class. I will also post spellings here on a weekly basis. If you need to contact me, please ring or email the office, or you can message me via class dojo (if you need me to re-invite you, then let me know).

Miss Beard 

Returning to school

Just some reminders about rules and systems that are in place to keep us all safe.

- Children should only be bringing lunchboxes, water bottles and coats to school; no bags or fluffy toys or pencil cases are allowed.

- Please follow the one way system around the school grounds.

- Please arrive at the time you have been asked to arrive at.

PE

In Term 1, PE will be on a Wednesday and a Friday. All of our PE lessons will be outside, so please dress appropriately! Long hair should be tied back, earrings should be removed and no branded sportswear should be worn. Due to covid-19 restrictions, we will be unable to swim in Term 1. 

Reading

All children will be given a reading book during the first week of school, but they will  not be able to bring it home. Therefore children should continue to use Reading Eggs at home. We will be monitoring this weekly - children are expected to read 4 times a week at home.  If you need log in details for Reading Eggs, please let me know. 

Spellings

Spellings will be posted here every Friday, to be tested the following Friday. Children will be given their spellings in school, but will be unable to bring their book home. 

TTRS

All children will be given a new TTRS log in, which they can access from either the app or the TTRS website. 

October 16th

Well I've known since September 2nd how amazing the children of Giraffe Class are - but this week, they have shown that amazing just isn't a big enough word to describe how amazing they are! I am so proud of everything they have achieved this week!

          First of all, we have had our first 'mock' SATs test week of the year. Most of them were excited when I told them this was happening on Monday, and after we had completed the first test everyone agreed that they weren't as hard as they thought they would be! We complete a set of mocks every term - it gives Mrs Welch and I a great indicator of where the gaps in learning are and more importantly, sets the children's minds at ease as to what the 'SATs Tests' actually look like. The children will get their papers given back to them next week, so they can see their scores.... We make it clear that it isn't about comparing scores with the person sat next to them, but about the progress they make throughout the year. 

     Then we had to prepare our first 'online only' class assembly. The children worked really hard writing and rehearsing their scripts for their roles plays and also enjoyed watching the finished video. It is available to watch on this website. Click on the 'children' tab on the home page and then look in the video resource centre.

    Funnily enough, we haven't had time for Topic or Science lessons this week, because of preparing for the assembly - we will get back to those next week!

Congratulations to:

Pupils of the Week: Thomas and Veronica

Reading Star: Chloe B

Raffle Ticket Winners: Alfie, Max and Veronica

TTRS Rock Legend: Chloe C

Reading

Well done to Callum, Max, Shylah, Chloe B, Thomas, Marcella, Aimee, Meg and Veronica who have all done the required amount of reading for the week. 

Next week, we will be looking at symmetry and co-ordinates in Maths, in Science we will be launching our parachutes that we made a couple of weeks ago and we will also be doing more description work in English.

Spellings to be tested: October 22nd (Thursday, as Friday is an inset day)

suggest

shoulder

familiar

recognise

thorough

nuisance

awkward

disastrous

equipment

language

Spellings to be tested October 16th

precious

delicious

atrocious

suspicious

spacious

ambitious

infectious

cautious

nutritious

conscientious

October 9th

Another amazing week in Giraffe Class! In English, we have been writing descriptions about the desert, in Maths we have been working on our division and multiplication skills and in Topic we learnt about the Atlantic Slave Triangle! We have made parachutes in Science (and will test their air resistance over the next couple of weeks) and in PE, we have played netball and team games. 

Congratulations to:

Pupils of the Week: Aimee and Summer

Raffle Prize Winners: Alfie, Macey and Marcella

Reading Star: Veronica

TTRS Rock Legend: Shylah

Reading

Well Done to Callum, Veronica, Max, Yvie, Thomas, Alfie, Chloe B, Marcella, Megan and Aimee who have all comepleted their reading this week. 

Next week in English, we will be looking at what 'year 6 writing' looks like and how we need to improve and in Maths, we will be ordering, comparing and +/- with fractions. We will also be busy writing, rehearsing and filiming our class assembly, which will be available to watch on the school website from Friday afternoon.

Spellings to be tested October 9th

refer

prefer

transfer

referred

preferred

transferred

transferring

referral

preference

reference

October 2nd

Well it has bit of a soggy week and the children have missed out on both of their outside PE slots, but there hasn't been one word of complaint! They really are superstars!! This afternoon, they have also achieved their first class reward of the year and we will decide what we are going to do soon. 

    In English, they worked hard to write amazing fables, based on our work on the book 'Holes'. In Maths, they showed great resilience when tackling multiplication and division and in Science we looked at gravity. Our Topic lesson saw us looking at why the Atlantic Slave Trade began. 

Congratulations to:

Pupils of the Week - Lucy and Maddie

TTRS Rock Legend - Maddie

Raffle Ticket Winners - Shylah, Spencer and Harvey

Reading Star - Max

Well done to the following people who have all read for at least 45 minutes:

Max, Callum, Thomas, Yvie, Shylah, Veronica, Megan, Marcella, Chloe B and Aimee. 

Next week, we will be continuing our work on multiplication and division in Maths and in English, we will start looking at the features of a balanced argument. Our Science lesson will involve an experiment looking at air resistance and in Topic, we will continue to look at the Slave Trade. 

As the weather gets colder and wetter, please make sure your child comes to school with a coat and suitable shoes. We are going outside when it is raining slightly, so that they all get the chance to move around a bit and some of them are feeling the cold!

September 25th

The end of Week 4! Well it has got colder outside, but the children are still being amazing putting up with open doors and windows! They have all worked hard this week and we have also found time to have fun and laugh lots! They have written some great descriptions in English and also improved their understanding of expanded noun phrases. In Maths, we have spent the week improving their addition and subtraction confidence.

Congratulations to:

Pupils of the Week - Zak and Shylah

Reading Star - Thomas

TTRS Rock Legend - Megan

Raffle ticket winners - Macey, Alfie and Max

Reading

Well done to the following people, who have all read for at least 45 minutes.

Marcella, Megan, Aimee, Callum, Thomas, Shylah, Fredrica and Veronica. 

Next week in Maths, we will be looking at multiplication and division and in English, we will rewriting part of the 'Holes' book. Our Topic lesson will be an introduction to slavery (learning about it, not actually being slaves) and in PE we will continue with team games and netball. 

Spellings to be tested Friday 2nd October

horrible

terrible

possible

edible

sensible

adorable

forgivable

valuable

identifiable

disposable

Hoodie link yesterday was incorrect. Use this one!!

http://www.initiallyyours.co.uk/schools/barley_close_primary_school/leaver_hoodies.htm

September 18th

Another completed week in Giraffe Class - and we have been very busy! In English, we wrote non-chronological reports about Yellow Spotted Lizards and in Maths we have been revising our knowledge of rounding numbers and using negative numbers. We had another great game of netball in the sun on Wednesday and played team games on Friday morning! 

   We've also taken full advantage of the glorious weather and spent lots of time out on the field enjoying ourselves - we are making the most of the sunshine!! It really has been a great pleasure to be with the whole class this week and the resilience and enthusiasm they are all showing for their learning is truly amazing - it's like they've never been away from school!

 Congratulations to:

Pupils of the Week - Megan and Daniel.

Reading Eggspress Star - Shylah

TTRS Rock Legend - Cassius

Raffle Ticket Winners - Veronica, Megan and Callum. 

Reading

Well done to the following children who have all spent at least 45 minutes (the school expectation) on Reading Eggspress. 

Fredrica, Shylah, Callum, Summer, Thomas, Louis, Max, Marcella, Moreno, Chloe C, Daniel and Megan. 

Spellings to be tested on Friday 25th September

bargain

persuade

embarrass

criticise

correspond

appreciate

committee

government

parliament

conscience

IMPORTANT HOODIE NEWS!!!!!

A message from the parents who are organising the leaver's hoodies this year! 

Hi all year 6 parents,
As our children are now in their last year of primary school we are arranging leavers hoodies. 

The hoodies will be blue to match the staff hoodies, on the back of the hoodies will be the numbers ‘21’, within these numbers will be the first name of each child in year 6. If you DO NOT 

want your child’s name on the hoodies please can you inform the class teacher by next week.
The children will be able to wear the hoodies to school on PE days.
Details of how to order the hoodies from Initially Yours will follow shortly.
Any questions please feel free to ask.
Many thanks
Pam (Max B's Mum)
PS we also have set up a messenger group for arranging activities/hoodies for the year 6 

leavers. There is no pressure to help you can join just to stay up to date, if you would like to 

join the group please let me know.

September 11th

Our first full week completed! Whoop Whoop!!

Everyone in Giraffe Class (including the adults) has coped really well with a whole week of 'proper' lessons. In English, we have been looking at embedded clauses in preparation for writing a non-chronological report about a yellow-spotted lizard next week, Our Maths work has concentrated on place value work and we re-started Arithmetic and TTRS.  The children had a great whole-class game of netball on Wednesday afternoon (they even kept going through the rain!) and it was great to see them working together and having fun!

    Thanks to everyone who has signed up to Class dojo - I will send out paper copies of the log in details to those people who haven't yet signed up. 

Congratulations to:

Pupils of the Week - Moreno and Alfie

Reading Eggspress Star - Callum

Raffle Ticket Winners - Megan, Moreno and Macey

Reading

Well done to the following people who have logged into Reading Eggspress this week.

Callum, Chloe B, Max, Alfie, Shylah, Thomas, Veronica, Macey, Fredrica, Chloe C, Lanie, Marcella, Cassius and Spencer.

From next week, the expectation will be that every child spends at least 45 minutes on the programme during the week. They can do this is small blocks or two blocks or one massive block - whichever they prefer! 

Spellings

Children have been given their first set of spellings today, which they have stuck into their spelling book, which will stay in school. I will post them here every week and also stick them up in the classroom window. The test will happen on Friday 18th September. 

This week's words are:

bruise

occupy

queue

desperate

harass

identity

aggressive

controversy

determined

foreign

September 5th

Week 1 completed!!

Well I think Giraffe Class have had a great few days together. We have spent time getting to know each other, talking about our families and hopes and dreams and also got used to the new rules! It has been lovely to see the children socialising and catching up on their news and everyone seemed VERY happy to be back - let's hope that continues!

    I will be posting an update here every week, to let you know what we have been up to. I will post spellings here every Friday (the first set will land on September 10th) and also celebrate our Pupils of the Week, Raffle Ticket Winners, Reading Eggs star and TTRs Rock Legend. 

  Congratulations to Grace and Lanie, our first Pupils of the Week! Unfortunately, certificates can't be brought home at the moment, but we will keep them safe in class and they will be brought home one day! 

   Well done to everyone who remembered PE kit on Friday - I have reminded the children that they are now old enough to remember this sort of information for themselves and that blaming Mums and Dads isn't really fair! Our lessons will all have to be outside, so please make sure they are dressed warmly with trainers that are allowed to get wet and muddy. As the weather gets colder, it might even be worth sending in a spare pair of trainers and socks to keep feet dry! 

    Thank you to everyone who has been following all the new systems around school. Please can I remind you to drop off and pick up at the time you have been asked and not to hang around either before or after your child comes into class. I know it is really hard, but it is important for everyone's safety that we all follow the government guidelines. 

   Next week, we will be starting work on our book 'Holes' in English and looking at place value in Maths. We will be revising our knowledge of school learning gems in PSHE and also logging into all our online learning accounts in Computing.

   If you need to speak to me, please contact me via class dojo. I have sent out two invites to the emails that we have recorded at school. I will send out paper copies of the log in information this week. Dojo is an app that is a great way to communicate with each other, especially as children become more independent and want to travel to and from school on their own!

  Have a great weekend,

    Miss Beard