Monthly Archives: January 2018

Head Teacher’s Blog

Posted on by

Week beginning 22 January 2018

On Monday Mrs Ovenden and I undertook a learning walk through the school, during which we saw children hard at work in maths or English. It is always wonderful to see the children being independent in their learning, making choices on whether they need extra support or moving themselves to their next challenge. To be able to reflect on your own learning and have the determination to move it forward is an excellent skill to have.

Not only do we have children excelling in school, we also have those who continually impress outside of school.  We are especially proud of Flo who decided she wanted to raise some money for the World Wildlife Fund, so she baked lots of cakes and invited her friends and neighbours over to have tea and cake and make a donation one day after school.

In total she raised £110! I think it’s a great effort. Well done Flo!

Curriculum Evening Links

Posted on by

Parents and carers spent an interesting evening learning about different aspects of the school curriculum last week.

Mrs Robertson gave an informative presentation about SMSC and what the children are taught throughout their time in the school. There is an emphasis on consent and the right to say ‘no’ and Mrs Robertson showed parents how the school makes use of resources from organisations like the NSPCC to get messages across in an entertaining way.

Mrs Ovenden then talked to parents about spellings and how to improve them – not just in tests but within the children’s writing. She talked about links between words, word families and described many different ways of helping children to remember spellings.

Mrs Papworth followed with an important talk about internet safety. She impressed upon parents and carers that, while school can play its part in ensuring children are safe online, there is also a lot parents can do, in terms of both education and ensuring technology is set up to protect them.

Finally Mr Woodger woke us all up with some Maths problems, delivering a very interesting presentation which explained some of methods used to build the children’s knowledge of Maths – many of which are unrecognisable to those who were at school decades ago!

Mrs Ovenden summed up the evening by saying: “Supporting the children at home with all aspects of their education can only reap benefits for them in so many ways.”

All the presentations from the evening can be found here: https://fordingbridge-junior.secure-primarysite.net/curriculum-evening-180118/

Year 5 You CAN get the staff!

Posted on by

I am sure you have seen the advertisements aiming to recruit new students to the wonderful world of teaching.  Apparently it’s a hard sell…..well, no such difficulties here.

Lucky Mrs Graham can make herself comfortable while the children teach each other. Today, volunteers used the smartboard to demonstrate progress in a very particular skill: adding numbers where the decimals simply don’t match up (235 + 4.5 + 87.36).  What had seemed tricky the first time we tried it, became routine with a little bit of practice.

Thank you to those brave souls who tested out their skills and provided WAGOLLS for the whole class.  Even better, they talked us through their methods.

Year 5 Tribal Warfare is Alive and Well!

Posted on by

Not content with stealing our flags, those pesky Rockin’ Rollers are trying to wipe the smile off our faces in other arenas too.

We are pleased to report we triumphed in a terrific display of teamwork and sending and receiving skills (Hot Potato for those of you who don’t know).

Tug of war went less well…… but we live to fight another day.  Growth mindset.  Believe, strive and achieve.

Year 5 ‘Show and Tell’

Posted on by

Sometimes you wait an age for ‘show and tell’ and then two come along on the same day!

First, we had Ava’s fabulously detailed shoebox Viking longhouse which looked exactly like the environmentally friendly homes we had been taking notes about.

Then, we had Jess’s four-layer chocolate and icing longhouse which left our classroom beautifully scented (and cleared the fridge of butter, we hear).

Thank you to both girls for taking their learning and curiosity beyond the classroom.

Year 3 Maths

Posted on by

Fun with right angles!

Year 3 have had a fun week learning about right angles and straight lines.  It’s been quite a journey for some but by Friday we all managed to secure our knowledge.

Today (Friday), we took our learning out in the playground to apply our knowledge of ‘clockwise’, ‘anticlockwise’ ’90 degrees’ and ‘180 degrees’.   Working in pairs, the children gave each other instructions to walk from one end of the playground to the other, first with eyes open, then eyes shut!  It was very interesting and they all said it was the best Maths lesson ever!  Well done Year 3.

Head teacher’s blog

Posted on by

Week beginning 15/01/2018

Another busy week at FJS this week. The children are once again fully immersed in their learning having had a break over Christmas.

This week our assembly theme is the celebration of all families and what families mean to us. We used the McCain advert to stimulate talk around family structures and that no matter what our family looks like the most important things are love, care and respect. We also discussed the class family, school family and wider community family and the role each individual plays within this.

This week I have seen year 3 enjoying their new dance PE sessions, year 5 exploring the lives of Vikings through a variety of different ways like drama and role play and year 6 explore ways of expressing ideas  through poetry.  I look forward to the sounds of Samba music filtering through from Year 4.

Year 5 – Teamwork and French

Posted on by

Teamwork in Year 5

We had great fun in our PE lesson today, preparing for orienteering by developing our collaboration skills.

Last week we solved a picture puzzle, this week we were challenged to get ourselves into order based on different criteria and all without touching the floor.

We finished off our session with a first go at tug-of-war in very small groups and thinking about potentially winning strategies.

French – La Maison

Once we’d had a good go at learning the vocabulary for rooms in the house using ecoutez! and respondez! we were ready to work in pairs.  We play ‘squares’ to practice our vocabulary.  Ask us and we’ll teach you.

Year 5 Viking Raid

Posted on by

When two tribes go to war…

Year 5 coloured up in yellow and red this week to re-enact a Viking raid.

Each class created a tribe name and identity so that the Rocking Rollers
took on the Blood Demons in a battle of wit and survival (health and
safety considerations notwithstanding).

We watched the New Zealand haka and made our own war chants
with accompanying gestures. We introduced ourselves with fear-inspiring
Viking names (Bone Crusher or Soul Slayer).  Then we played ‘capture the flag’.

We look forward to other tests of strength and teamwork during this exciting topic.