Today we hosted our very first whole-school workshare. Thank you to parents and carers for coming along and helping to celebrate all of our pupils’ amazing learning so far! We will be hosting a work-share towards the end of each half-term. We will keep everyone updated with future dates in our monthly school newsletter.
Today in school we have had a curriculum day in honour of Norfolk Black History Month. Across the school, children have been learning about influential Black people; Chadwick Boseman, Kadeena Cox, Ashley Banjo, Oti Mabuse, Mo Farah and John Boyega. They have looked into their achievements and contributions and why they have inspired people across the world with their work and their amazing approaches to life.
We were also treated to sessions of African dancing and drumming with the PanAfro Band. It was a joy to see everyone moving and enjoying themselves and experiencing this wonderful style of music and dance.
Throughout our school year, we are committed to celebrating diversity across our curriculum and in all of our learning and so this is just an opportunity to extend the already wonderfully diverse curriculum we have here at Queens Hill.
Year 6 were treated this afternoon to a bespoke session of African dancing and drumming with the PanAfro Band in honour of Black History Month. Every single child had an incredible time learning the patterns and rhythms, and the smiles were so huge they lit up the room! It was a joy to see everyone moving and enjoying themselves and experiencing this wonderful style of music and dance. Feel free to look them up online to enjoy some more at home!
We also did research projects where we looked at influential Black people; Chadwick Boseman, Kadeena Cox, Ashley Banjo, Oti Mabuse, Mo Farah and John Boyega. We looked into their achievements and contributions and why they have inspired people across the world with their work and their amazing approaches to life.
Throughout our school year, we are committed to celebrating diversity across our curriculum and in all of our learning and so this is just an opportunity to extend the already wonderfully diverse curriculum we have here at Queens Hill.
On Wednesday 12th October, we welcomed Year 6 parents and Carers into school to join us for a year 6 presentation, where Miss Jordan and the teaching team shared more information about KS2 SATS.
Year 6 have been reading enthusiastically using our new digital library ‘myON’. It has been fantastic to see the children engaging with the platform so brilliantly. The children have been reading a wide range of texts including some informative digital books about World War Two. There really is something for everyone to enjoy, keep it up, Year 6!
Across our afternoons in Year 6 we have been learning about a plethora of things! In RE, we have been learning about ‘non violence’ and what this means in Hinduism; non violence is known as ‘ahimsa’ and refers to the idea that all violence against any living creature is prohibited because all living creatures have souls. Within Hinduism, there is the belief that if one causes suffering, that person will then have suffering in their own life later on.
“True ahimsa should mean a complete freedom from ill will and anger and hate and an overflowing love for all!” Ghandi.
Maybe this week you can spend some time thinking about the compassion that you cultivate in your own lives – how do you help those around you feel loved? How do you like to feel loved and appreciated? What can you do as an act of kindness this week for family, friends, a stranger?
Year 6 had great fun in their outdoor learning lesson testing out paper helicopter seed models!
It’s the end of week three and Year 6 has settled into their new routines. They have already achieved so much in a short space of time. We finished our Creative Arts Week in which we made from amazing rag rugs in a Make Do and Mend style. We have started learning about WW2 in History and English, where we are reading an all time favourite Goodnight Mister Tom.
In Science, we have created glossary pages to aid us in our new Living Things and Their Habitats unit, and the classes played a spirited game of Guess Who but with a twist! We have finished this week with a thoughtful lesson on Peace and what that means to us individually and what it means to different religions around the globe. The children came up with brilliant ideas about how we can create peaceful spaces, maybe you’d like to try a few this weekend!
Ideas of creating peaceful spaces and relationships: Walking in nature, listening/ singing to music, meditation, rocking out, snuggle up in some blankets with candles and a hot chocolate, drawing, kindness, taking deep breaths, and concentrating on the good things that bring us together.
Year 6 have had a fabulous start to the term! As part of our Creative Arts project, children have produced wonderful ‘no-sew’ rag rugs. In the spirit of wartime Britain and inspired by the ‘Make Do and Mend’ initiative, children thought carefully about how items could be repaired, reused and reimagined. All have shown a huge amount of grit and determination during the process as well as reflecting on their end results in order to evaluate their efforts. Their wonderful rag rugs will be on display in the UKS2 corridor for all to see! Well done, Year 6!
Year 6 have had a brilliant start to their reading and writing unit on Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian. It tells the story of a young boy, William Beech, who is evacuated to the countryside to the care of an elderly recluse, Mister Tom, in the wake of WW2.
In Reading Masters, children have started to develop their retrieval and inference skills through answering a range of question types as well as understanding new and complex vocabulary. We discussed the word ‘colloquial’ in relation to the portrayal of accents throughout the book.
Exploring character thoughts and emotions through drama and role play, children have embraced the text fully and made excellent links to our History unit too. Children will be writing diary entries from the perspective of the central character over the coming weeks – we look forward to seeing the work they produce!
