Scott Grason-Taylor, Author at Sleights Church of England Primary School

A wintry week.

January 21, 2024January 21, 2024 Scott Grason-Taylor

This week has been particularly wintry and we have had a few days of snow.

Our first swimming session on Tuesday was a great success. We managed to get changed and unchanged into our swimming things independently, build on our water confidence and skills in the pool and we enjoyed every moment. We are extremely excited to do it all again next week.

In English, we have been reading The Good Little Wolf by Nadia Shireen. We are researching whether all wolves are bad! In the story Rolf (the little wolf) was far from bad and enjoyed making cakes and sharing with his friends. We will be reading more fairy tales to find out more about the characters of the different wolves we come across.

In computers we have been enjoying the Bee-bots. We are really enjoying programming to make the Bee-bots move around.

Parents evening on Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd January will be a wonderful opportunity to share the Learners’ successes and achievements with families.

Requests From Our Elves

January 20, 2024January 20, 2024 Scott Grason-Taylor

The Elves have left us a note every day to ask for help. They needed a bed and a chair so we made plans and build them joining wood and card. They spilt paint and left red footprints so we had to clear that up and do some pictures. They asked for a “light in the night” so we got out some torches. We also talked about life in the past without electricity and how the Cobbler’s Shop may only have had a candle. We lit the candle and talked about the dangers and how difficult this would be. They also went outside and got stuck in the snow, in the igloo. We had to dig them out. All of the letters they wrote contained some of our current digraphs which was very useful! Great focus and lots of writing.

Friday 19th January 2023

January 19, 2024January 19, 2024 Scott Grason-Taylor

Leaders have made a brilliant start to 2024!

In English, the children have been learning to write instructions. They explored a WAGOLL based on The Three Little Pigs and how to build a straw house before visiting the forest to build twig houses. Using this experience, the children wrote a set of instructions. The finished work is brilliant!

In maths, Leaders have spent the week tackling converting measures. They have converted metric units of measure, miles to kilometers and imperial measures and applied this learning to a range of problems.

In art, our new topic is textiles. The children have learned what this type of art is and explored the work of our focus artist, Louise Baldwin. Following this, the children learned how to use running stitches, back stitches and cross stitches. Keep an eye on our class blog to see how we use these stitches in our artwork over the coming weeks.

In history, our new unit is the Victorians. The children have already learned about Queen Victoria, began to create a timeline and explored a range of historical sources to find out more about the British Empire during this time period and its impact on Britain.

In Collective Worship, Leaders have gathered with the whole school and explored our new Christian Value, perseverance. It was also brilliant to see the Reading Leaders deliver an informative assembly to the whole school this week.

An excellent two weeks to start 2024!

Fantastic fairytales.

January 14, 2024January 14, 2024 Scott Grason-Taylor

Happy new year. The first week of 2024 has been busy in Learners Class as always.

In English we have been reading fairytales, as many as we could find. All week, we have been choosing snippets of our favourites, in order to create a recipe for our own fairytale stew. On Thursday we each wrote our own recipe, using a selection of ingredients including a strand of Rapunzel’s hair, a horn from the Billy Goat’s Gruff, a button from the Giant’s coat and some bits of bobbly beanstalk – to name but a few. On Friday we delighted in making a class fairytale stew with a big pan and spoon. We took turns to add an ingredient and were able to stir it into the stew. We have really enjoyed this writing topic, which is evident from our wonderful final pieces of writing!

We have been exploring shape in maths this week, identifying 2D and 3D shapes and identifying the names and properties of shapes.

We enjoyed our first PE session with Hawkes sports coaches and are beginning to build skills to help us learn to play basketball.

In computers we were delighted to be programming Bee-Bots, finding out that our commands were causing our Bee-Bots to move where we wanted.

In PSHCE this week, we have been finding out the difference between physical and mental health and agreed that looking after ourselves is extremely important.

On Tuesday 16th January we will start our first swimming session at Whitby pool. Please make sure your Learner brings a swimming costume and a towel in a bag and that earrings are taken out before arriving at school on Tuesday. Learners are very excited to start swimming sessions.

Learners love to learn everyday and enjoy working together in class.

The Elves Have Arrived

January 13, 2024January 13, 2024 Scott Grason-Taylor

There has been much excitement on our return to school to find that we have elves. It started with just one and now we have six. Every day they have left us a letter and given us a job to do. This has involved quite a bit of reading using our new digraphs and a trigraph. The Pioneers have been finding out about the past by handling the items used in the Cobbler’s Shop. The elves used the leather to make the shoes and left them on the table, we compared this process with a video of how shoes are made now. Some things are the same but some are very different.

We made Elf Snacks by mixing and kneading the dough before cutting and cooking

The elves have been spotted on night vision video in the library and they were outside in the rain.

We made Elf Books and fastened these with paper fasteners and used the hole punch and glue.

We did some planning to build chairs and beds, realising that some structures were stronger than others.

So much happens in Pioneers in just 4 days.

Happy Learning!

Happy Christmas everyone!

December 22, 2023December 22, 2023 Scott Grason-Taylor

It has been a wonderful final week of 2023 in Leaders class.

This week, we have enjoyed Christmas crafts with families in school, made Christingles for the whole school, enjoyed Christmas dinner together, visited the pantomime and taken part in the Christingle service. It has been a busy but brilliant end to 2023 in school.

We hope that everyone has a lovely Christmas break!

It’s beginning to look ‘a lot’ like Christmas!

December 17, 2023December 17, 2023 Scott Grason-Taylor

Sleights put on 2 wonderful nativity performances this week. The Church was packed and the atmosphere was magical. Learners class shone in their roles of shepherds and angels and they enjoyed every moment of it.

In English this week we have been creating story maps around the advert Sprout Boy and are keen to begin writing our narratives next week.

We have enjoyed lots of stories this week and Learners have been bringing in their favourite Christmas stories from home to enjoy in the classroom.

We had a wonderful day on Friday, finishing our DT Christmas decorations. We were successful in threading needles and showed some amazing sewing skills. We cut templates and pinned these to our chosen fabric. We then cut around these carefully, fastened them to hessian squares and decorated them with sequins and sparkles. We were delighted to take these home at the end of the day and display these proudly at home. We will be evaluating our design and creations next week.

Next week is jampacked with Christmas crafts, a Christingle service, Christmas dinner and parties and a trip to the pantomime. Hold on to your hats, it’s going to be lots of fun!

Learners class wish you all hope, peace and love for the Christmas holidays ahead.

A busy few weeks in Leaders class

December 15, 2023December 15, 2023 Scott Grason-Taylor

The Leaders have been busy over the past few weeks in subjects across the curriculum.

In maths, the children have been learning about fractions. They can add, subtract, multiply and divide with fractions and use these methods when solving problems. Great work!

In English, the children have developed their persuasive skills to write an advert to advertise visits to the Alps. The children were able to use a range of persuasive devices in their finished pieces to ensure that they met the purpose of this text type. As we are now in the run up to Christmas, Leaders have also enjoyed some festive narrative writing. Inspired by the advert ‘Excitable Edgar’, the children changed elements of the story to make it their own. The finished stories are amazing with a range of openers, amazing vocabulary and good use of punctuation throughout.

In history, the children have been learning about the Roman’s impact of Britain. They have learned about public baths, aqueducts, town life and religion.

In DT, the children have designed and created their own bags. They have used templates, cut fabric and used pins to secure it onto another piece of material. To complete their bags, Leaders used both hand-stitching and a sewing machine. The finished bags looks incredible!

In art, the children have been applying their drawing skills to landscapes and portraiture. The photos in the gallery below showcase some of their fabulous work!

The Nutcracker

December 14, 2023December 14, 2023 Scott Grason-Taylor

As well as everything else that has been going on, the Pioneers have had a look at The Nutcracker We have listened to the wonderful music and danced and moved in time. We read the story together and they were fascinated that the toys came to life. We watched a beautiful performance of the ballet from The Royal Opera House and they loved the costumes and seeing the orchestra. We also had a bit of a chat about real and imaginary because some parts of the story are a bit scary. We also took time to prepare for next week’s trip to the pantomime. We are filled with excitement and wonder.