This week in Ock Class: w/e 13th December

Dear parents and carers,

Wow- what an amazing week we've had!

The highlight for me has to be Wednesday, where we welcomed a swathe of special guests to the school. Firstly we had Oxford University's a capella group Out of the Blue, who kindly spent the whole day in school, working with all of KS2. Year 5 really enjoyed our workshop, learning how to sing The Lion Sleeps Tonight in 5 part harmony! The children were amazed when Out of the Blue performed for everyone at the end of the school day too. The Frozen medley was a real high point for the children, but hearing the Beach Boys classic God Only Knows was wonderful for me. 

That evening it was fantastic to welcome Bishop Colin to our KS2 carol service. The readers did a wonderful job with their nativity play, and all of the children sang beautifully. We work very hard to organise and arrange this service, so it was great to have so much positive feedback from parents and governors about the event.

In the classroom, year 5 have been working hard this week on reading and maths assessments (including arithmetic and reasoning/problem solving) in order to show me everything that they've learned since September. I've not marked the maths yet, but I am really pleased with how much effort they have put in. During our other English lessons this week, the children are working really hard on editing, revising and redrafting their stories inspired by Cosmic. They have all really knuckled down and have worked for extended periods of time on this writing, which shows how well the class are maturing as writers.

In science we ran an investigation to see what the best design was to carry a seed the furthest. We tried a variety of designs, but found that the parachute style ones work best. We think that this is because they have the largest surface area.

Next week we have a few special events:
Monday: The children can bring party clothes to change into after lunch for our year 5/6 Christmas party, which will be happening that afternoon.
Wednesday: Christmas lunch day (which had to be ordered in advance). Children can wear Christmas jumpers on that day too, if they wish.
Thursday: The Friends have organised what looks like a brilliant craft morning (please do remember to make your £3 per child donation, if you haven't already). School will finish at 1.15pm.

I have rounded off the term's spellings with the children, and haven't set any over the Christmas period. We'll start again in January.

Mrs B

Three things to ask your child this week:

1. What was your favourite thing about the Out of the Blue workshop?
2. Who has the best Christmas jumper?
3. What would you change if you did the seed experiment again?