That’s all folks …

So here it is my final ever Fordham Blog !!

Firstly I have been incredibly touched by the genuine support I have received over the years from the parents of those I have taught (and even some parents whose children I didn’t have the pleasure to teach!).  I am particularly impressed by those who have responded to the Blog over the years – a highlight to read Mrs Squire’s comments!! – and offer a big thank you!

To all my colleagues who have been amazing.  A truly wonderful bunch of hard-working staff who ooze ‘team’!  Thank you for simply being the best, you make a working day so joyful. 

Finally to all the children.  You should be so proud of yourselves.  You work incredibly hard too achieve all that you do.  The school is full of many characters, too many to mention.  It has been my absolute privilege to be part of your lives. I hope that, like me, you have memories to treasure.

Mrs S x 

Hold tight, we are off to Brazil!

Class 3, both Mrs. Ward and myself are looking forward to learning with you after the Christmas holiday. 

We will be starting our theme 'Around the World in 50 Days' with a visit to Brazil.  We will be watching the film Rio and studying the book too.  Don't worry if you haven't seen it we will be watching lots of parts and using it for our first adventure story unit in English.  In Music we will be travelling north to Jamaica and sharing the rhythms of Bob Marley, learning some of his songs and adding our own music to them.  In Maths we will be doing further learning on calculation methods with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  Starters to lessons will be to practise those times tables, place value knowledge and speed up our fluency of other key recall facts.  In Science we will learning about humans and animals, starting with preparing a healthy menu and then cooking it and inviting special guests in to sample your cooking talents.  We will also be making our own muscles and skeletons!  We will be having some special 'animal' visitors in February to learn more about different animals in our world.
In theme afternoons we will be looking at the problems in the rainforests of South America and the pollution in the big cities.  This will be linked to our artwork in the first half term.

RE will be looking at 'Sacred Writings' initially linked to Judaism.
Please login to your Active Learn (don't forget there is a link on the right and on the Learning Zone on the website) and keep reading your Bug Club books and have a go at some of those maths games to get that fluency going for next term.  We will be assigning new books and games linked to our first maths unit soon.
For some extra holiday homework and for 3 extra housepoints, please watch the clip from Rio on the next post and leave a comment describing the setting using at least 2 adjectives and 1 adverb.  We look forward to reading them.
Have a wonderful Christmas holiday everyone!
Mr. Wainwright

Watch a sample clip of Rio

Bug Club Reminder (and House Points)

Dear All

I know it is unusual to get a mid-week blog from me but I just wanted to let you all know that every child in Class 3 has been allocated further Bug Club books and maths games today.

I apologise to Lucy who has been waiting aggggggeeeeeesss!!!  But there should be enough to keep you going now Lucy until Christmas. 

The following children have each gained 3 house points for their very active participation with Bug Club (make sure you put your house points in tomorrow):

 Lucy, Charlotte, Louie, Imogen and Henry.  Well done, really proud.  

There were quite a few children who have got a number of allocations that have not been opened (some in excess of 20 allocations).  Please remember that this is a wonderful resource to help children both in their reading comprehension and with their mental maths.  We are aware that there are a few technical issues with running some of the games on tablets (I think the children say they are quite slow), but the reading books should all be able to be opened and accessed.  

I have purposefully tried to allocate books which will stretch the children a little further.  I would ask you to urge your child to 'have a go' - even if it's just the first chapter or couple of pages.  It is really important that the children do this and have a go at the first few bug questions, as these are all testing the children's comprehension skills. 

As a school we have access to the assessment of these books and bug questions for each child, so this information helps us to plan our guided reading sessions based on the children's learning needs.

Thank you.


Mrs S