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Olney Middle School

Christmas Newsletter

ROBOTS!

Welcome to our first end of term newsletter. I hope you enjoy reading

about all of the fantastic things that have happened since the beginning

of September. After a busy two weeks, that have seen two fantastic

productions, a wonderful Carol service and two equally superb fabulous

finishes for Years 3 and 6, it is nice to reflect on the past few months.

This has been our first term working within our new curriculum, and I

hope you would agree that the pupils have had an excellent time

working through all the topics, equally ending with a celebration of the

learning and finishing in style – I hope these are experiences that ALL

have enjoyed and have most importantly allowed the conversation and

love for learning to continue at home.

At the end of this term, we say good bye to three members of staff –

Mrs Morrison, Mrs Norman and Mrs Pearce. Mrs Morrison leaves us to

join a school closer to home, Mrs Norman leaves us to take up an artist

in residence post in another school, and Mrs Pearce takes up her first

role as a qualified teacher at a local school. I am sure you will join me in

thanking them all for their considerable hard work, support and the

difference they have all made to the school, and join me in wishing

them all the very best for the future.

After a very long term, I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas, a great

break, and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

Best wishes,

Glenn Young

December 2018

This week has shown the

wonderful creativity that can be

had in school. It was equally

lovely to see how creative all our

parents can be! I know sales of tin

foil have rocketed in the area...

The Year 3 children have had a

busy Autumn term. They have

settled well into life at OMS and

should be really proud of

everything they have achieved.

In Maths, we have been learning

more about place value — ordering

and comparing numbers and

explaining the value of digits. We

have also focused on addition and

subtraction, using formal written

methods to work with bigger

numbers. Recently we have started to use our times tables to multiply

and divide — using arrays to show how we have calculated.

In English, we have written science fiction stories to link with our

Scrapheap Challenge Topic. We have also written balanced

arguments about changing the length of playtime! We enjoyed

reading and writing play scripts and performing sections of them to

the class. We have recently written a play script of the dialogue for

the film ‘The Snowman’.

In Topic, we have made robots out of scrap material and have spent

the term investigating how to improve them. We have found out how

we can use magnets, forces and pneumatics to increase the

efficiency of our original designs. In PE, the children have been

learning an amazing robotic dance. The quality of homework linked to

our topic has been fabulous this term! We really appreciate all of the

help and support provided at home, the children have been so proud

to share their creations with us.

Coming up next term…

H2Woah! We will be following the journey of a drop water as it makes it’s way

through the whole water system — from rivers and seas, to clouds,

rain and mountains. We will also be finding out about the amazing

creatures and plants that can be found in our rivers and oceans.

“I have really enjoyed the Topic

this term because it has included

loads of technical learning. I like to

design things and add technology

to make it work.” Zac 3LG

Year 4 have had an amazing Autumn term and

should be extremely proud of all their efforts and

achievements.

In Maths we have really focused on consolidating

and extending our knowledge and understanding

of place value and calculation. We have looked at

representing problems in lots of different ways and

being able to show our working out. We have been

using ‘Rolling numbers’, TT Rockstars and BBC

super movers to help us with our mental maths and

to learn our times tables. We have also been

working on our ability to use formal written

methods for addition, subtraction and

multiplication. We have been learning that division

is the inverse of multiplication.

In English the children have written some wonderful ‘Sugarcane Juice’ stories and playscripts based

on ’The fly and the fool’, both linked to our ‘Amazing Asia’ topic. More recently the children have

enjoyed reading and writing about the ‘Bogeymen and the trolls next door’ narrative poetry. In guided

reading the children were gripped by the adventures of Michael who becomes shipwrecked in

‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ and have recently been exploring the story of Romulus and Remus in relation to

the legend of the birth of Rome. They are also learning to write detailed explanations linked to our

Romans topic. Our grammar focus has been writing in the first person past tense and including

reported speech and/or direct speech, which is set out and punctuated correctly as well as learning

more about nouns and pronouns, plurals, possession and apostrophes.

In Topic, the term started with a fascinating look at the incredible continent of Asia. Since half-term

we have been learning about the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain including developing our

mapping skills, discovering more about Roman settlements, learning about life in Italy and comparing

it with where we live. There was also an incredibly interesting and enjoyable trip to Verulamium. Our

Romans topic will continue for the first two weeks back and will culminate with our Romans Day on

Friday 18th January (look out for a letter coming home soon).

In Science, the term started with us learning about living things and their habitats. This included using

classification keys to help identify, name and group living things in a variety of ways, and identifying a

range of habitats (including our river walk and activities at Barn field). We have explored how these

environments can change, for example, the impact of pollution on a river, plastic in oceans or

deforestation. Since half-term we have been conducting a range of experiments to identify how

sounds are made (associating some of them with something vibrating). We have learnt to recognise

that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear, find patterns between the pitch of a

sound and features of the object that produced it, looked at patterns between the volume of a sound

and the strength of the vibrations that produced it, recognising that sounds get fainter as the distance

from the sound source increases. Our busy term drew to a close with all the children performing

‘Bethlehem The Musical’ and all the staff are incredibly proud of how well they have all done.

We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing the children on 7th January!

Coming up next term…

Incredible Industry The children will be transported to the time of the Victorians and learn about the Industrial

revolution, incredible inventions, the ‘Great Exhibition’ and so much more! They will also

explore what life was like for children at this time through our super starter activities and

also by learning about several stories including ‘The Runaways’ and ‘Street Child’. The

topic will come to a close at the end of the Spring term with our visit to Ironbridge.

“St Albans was great, I loved looking at all

the mosaics” *** “I have really enjoyed the

Romans topic and can’t wait until Romans

Day” *** “It was so much fun performing

our shadow puppet shows to the parents”

*** “I loved my part in the Christmas show

and singing all the songs”

Year 5 have completed so much

during the Autumn term and should be

incredibly proud of their achievements.

In Maths we have covered a lot of

work on place value, addition,

subtraction, multiplication and division.

The children are now feeling a lot more

confident to tackle these questions.

They’ve explored mental calculation

and the four written methods.

In English, the children have written

some wonderful mythological stories

linked to our ‘Eureka!’ topic based on Hercules and King Midas, and more

recently have written newspaper reports. We appreciate your support and

patience with homework and will be streamlining the spelling process from

January — more details will follow soon.

In Topic, the children have used compasses and atlases to identify where

places are in the world, including Greece and the UK. We have researched

about Athens and Sparta and compared life in the two most powerful cities

of ancient Greece. We were lucky enough to create Greek pottery, with a

Christmas twist, and sell these at our Carol Concert.

The children have also experienced their first round of Cornerstones tests,

where they have risen to the occasion and shown off their learning. Whilst

they are becoming more aware of some areas that may require a little more

practise, they should also be proud of all they have achieved.

Finally, we had our Carol Concert on Tuesday 18th December. It was so

lovely to see friends and family come and sing along to join in the festive

cheer. The children were a real credit to the school and we were extremely

proud of their efforts.

We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing the

children on Monday 7th January for the start of our new topic!

Coming up next term…

Dragon Dynasty Over the next term, we will be learning about China. This will include; finding

out about the geographical features of the country, researching about the

culture and history, making our very own Chinese dragons, learning tradi-

tional songs and dance, reading stories, speaking mandarin and many more

fun activities!

I loved dressing up as a Spartan

soldier. Our ‘Greek Day’ was the best,

we had so much fun and learnt so

much about the way the Greeks lived.

Alex Reed—5AP

Year 6 have completed so much

during the Autumn term and should

be incredibly proud of their

achievements.

In Maths we have covered a lot of

work on fractions and the children

are now feeling a lot more confident

to tackle these questions. They’ve

also explored the four written

methods (with integers and

decimals) and have become more

familiar with rounding.

In English the children have written

some wonderful stories and diaries

linked to our ‘May the Norse be with

you’ topic, and more recently have

written narrative poetry about an

animal in the rainforest. Their use of imagery within their writing has really

developed!

In Topic, the children have made shortbread and jam, clay rune stones, and a

3D relief map of a settlement. They have also explored the music of South

America then designed and created pan-pipes, and designed their own

‘Romero Britto’ inspired art piece. We have learnt about the tectonics of the

Earth, making the plates from biscuits, and put together a cross-section of a

volcano. The trip to the Natural History Museum was also a resounding

success — the children enjoyed finding out about how the Earth works

through the ‘Volcanoes and Earthquakes’ section and the interactive show

where they learned how to predict earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and

plan an evacuation.

The children have also experienced their first round of mock SATs, rising to

the occasion and supporting one another through this experience. The

children approached the tests in a calm manner and, whilst they are aware of

the areas that they would now like to work on, they should be very proud of

themselves.

We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing the

children in the New Year, for the start of our new topic!

Coming up next term…

Throughout the Spring term, we will be exploring the causes and effects of WW1 and WW2. We will seek answers to questions such as: What was the Christmas Day Truce? Why did World War 2 happen? Who was Winston Churchill? How did Britain survive this period in history? We will also visit The Holocaust Education Centre in Newark, specially designed for KS2 children and providing an invaluable experience for everyone who attends. We look forward to this learning journey with your children!

I really liked the topic launch day because we

got to make shortbread and jam as we were

in the Anglo-Saxon times! - Caitlin

I’ve loved all of the topics in Y6 so far: Anglo

-Saxons and Vikings, and South America

(particularly volcanoes and mountains —

The Andes). My favourite is South America

because it’s taught me all about things I

never knew! - Claudia