Friday afternoon was really exciting. We looked at Google Earth and spotted the road and the river. We discussed the things to see in Sleights and then got going with some building. Even Sid the Cat had a go on the whiteboard! His paws caused a problem however.
We moved the furniture back and filled the space with boxes and tiles and sheets. The focus was fabulous and everyone explored in different ways. It was a pleasure to stand back and watch all of the interaction and decisions.
We discussed chimneys and how many were on different buildings. We discussed the river Esk and going over bridges. We talked about the railway line next to the river.
Some Pioneers began drawing maps and added the word ‘map’ which was a fantastic step.
Next week we will build and photograph from above to create maps.
Author: Scott Grason-Taylor
Enjoying the Autumn Sunshine
We have the most wonderful school site and in the autumn it is simply stunning. The Pioneers got out and about to check on the acorns on our oak tree in the forest. We collected bags of forest treasure and had a story on the field. There were lots of brambles and nettles to tackle and this was tricky. Managing to find your boots when there are 25 pairs to choose from is quite a skill!
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The Adventurers have been working hard in all areas of the curriculum this week.
In English, the children have continued to think about how they can make an impact with their actions and have applied their ideas into sentences that use subordinating conjunctions and fronted adverbials. Their writing has been a joy to read. They have also planned and began to write their poster text and are looking forward to completing these next week. In history, Adventurers have been learning about the different time periods in the Stone Age. After carrying out a reading activity, they worked together to sort facts into the correct time period before showcasing what they had learned with some great written responses. On Thursday, Adventurers had their first music sessions. The children were extremely excited to play their instruments for the first time and had a brilliant first lesson.
Happy Learning
We welcomed the Pioneers into their classroom this week and everything was ready. They have filled the space with curiosity and questions. They have moved everything to combine dominoes and train track, buttons and magnets, dough and acorns. They have been dressing up, singing and dancing, writing and building.
The days have found a rhythm and the Pioneers are learning the routines. They managed lunch and outside playtime, collective worship and our end of week disco which was quite something. We talked about how important it is to be part of a team and they certainly played this out in their actions this week.
Happy Learning
Inspired by Beatriz Milhazes…
This week, Learners had a wonderful art lesson creating collage inspired by Beatriz Milhazes.
Learners enjoyed researching the artists own pieces, before creating their own inspired artwork.
Just like Beatriz, Learners used bold colours and cascading patterns, using layering and overlapping to perfect their ideas. The aim of Beatriz’s art was to ‘pull the viewer in’ with an eye-catching display and Learners creations most definitely achieved this. Learners created artwork with focus and creativity, using the skills they have learned over the last few weeks and most importantly they thoroughly enjoyed it!
Learners class have worked incredibly hard this year and have been such enthusiastic learners. They are certainly ready for the adventures of year 3!
Autumn 2025 newsletters
The diary dates for this term can be found here: Autumn Term Diary Dates 2025 (updated)
Writing and Drawing
The Pioneers love to write and to draw and it is at this time of the year that we can look back and see just how far we have come. The desire to write is there. The desire to understand is there. The awe and wonder found by looking at and learning about our natural world is fabulous. The Pioneers love new knowledge. They are hungry and impatient and demanding and this is so wonderful and long may this continue.
Pioneer don’t stop.
Exploring forces
In science this week, we have been learning about forces. On Wednesday we looked at how using different forces could make an object change its shape. We used dough to help us find out. We squeezed, stretched, pushed, pulled and twisted the dough and recognised that using these forces helped us to form a new shape.
We then thought about our own daily routines, such as eating, opening doors, playing football and brushing our teeth. We could identify the forces that we would need to do all of these things without even realising we were. Learners were fascinated. What a wonderful week of science learning!
On Friday, we enjoyed our school sports day on the field. Many of our families were able to come and watch while we ran, jumped, threw and balanced our way through each event! What a lot of fun we had!
Keep an eye on our class page to see what we are learning in Learners Class.
Exploring friction.
In science this week, we have been finding out about friction. What better way to do this than to explore it for ourselves. We set ab out measuring how far an object travelled down a ramp while changing the material at the bottom to test varying friction. We made sure it was a fair test by keeping all the elements the same, such as the steepness of the ramp and the same vehicle each time. We tested furry material, smooth books, the hall floor, our school jumpers, sandpaper and carpet, Numicon boards and carpet. we measured how har the vehicle travelled each time. We found that materials with higher friction slowed the vehicle down, whereas the vehicle travelled much faster over a low friction material. Learners were fascinated by the results.
Learners had a lovely day in Whitby on Friday, looking for signs of Captain Cook to consolidate our history work around explorers. We visited the Captain Cook exhibition in Pannet Museum, stopped to sketch the replica of Captain Cook’s Endeavour, which resides in the harbour and visited the statue of Captain Cook, that stands proudly on the west cliff.
We are looking forward to Sports day, which is coming up this week and are hoping for good weather.
Keep an eye on our class page, to see what we are learning!
Exploring Collage
We continue to be delighted by collage. This week we added our painted paper to our willow lanterns and onto wet strength tissue paper. We had additional single colour paper to combine in our collage. The Pioneers used cutting,ripping and crumpling to add a variety of textures.
We also had a go at combining colour , exploring how wool worked. One Pioneer identified that the strands needed to look like candy floss and this was the perfect comment to get everyone started on the right road. This took patience and focus and control.
While working we listened to Carnival of the Animals and the variety in the music certainly changed how we worked!
