Chanukah Fun

This week, we have celebrated Chanukah in numerous ways. However, our highlights were making latkes and performing our Chanukah concert to all of our lovely families. We hope you enjoyed!

Snow Business

Years 5 and 6 enjoyed their snow day by making the most of their break times and building two snowmen. The team work and enthusiasm that came from this was wonderful to witness and I – along with all the children – can’t wait for more snow to come!

Electrical Conductors

This week, our scientific focus was to find the best electrical conductor. To do this, we set up a circuit – using our Y4 electricity skills – and tested four different metals: gold, silver, iron and steel. We soon found steel to be the best electrical conductor.

Showbie – digital learning experience

The children in Year 1 – 6 had some wonderful sessions with an expert showing them how to use Showbie and access some of the amazing features available using the IPADS. This is Year 5 & 6 enjoying their session on Thursday.

Sleepover!

As our end of year treat, Y5 had a sleepover in the hall! We had snacks, played games, watched films and slept – a little. It has been such a turbulent year so it was wonderful to give everyone the chance to laugh and play together.

Etgar 2021

Every year, Year 5 participate in the Etgar competition. This would usually take place in London and is a very exciting event in the Y5 calendar. However, due to restrictions, this year it took place virtually. To celebrate the children’s participation – and create the same level of excitement – we took the children to Mozzarella and the park afterwards. Safe to say, the children were very full and satisfied after their numerous slices of delicious pizza and yummy ice cream so the park was a welcomed walk to stretch our legs. A truly enjoyable afternoon for all after a successful morning of quizzing. Thank you Mrs Lewis, Mrs Elfassy and Mrs Cohen for organising and helping make the day as enjoyable as possible.

Angles

Today, in maths, we were introduced to protractors and how to use these to measure angles. First, we recapped our knowledge of angles by identifying which were acute, obtuse, right or straight. Why not ask your child to explain the difference between these? Then, we practised measuring them. It was great to see everybody helping one another to make sure the protractor was placed correctly etc… Brilliant skills shown and an engaging introduction for the children as they thoroughly enjoyed writing on the tables. Liam on the other hand…

NHS Competition Winner – Harry

We are very proud to announce that Harry won the NHS Competition and has been chosen to represent the North West in the semi-finals. Alongside an Amazon voucher of £25, Harry was given the opportunity to do a small presentation about his entry. The entire class watched and cheered him on. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for an overall victory!

3D River Models & Racing Car!

What an action packed afternoon Years 5 & 6 had today! It was a busy start with children working in their mixed year groups to complete the final stages of their 3D river models: painting and labelling. All children worked extremely well together, with Year 6 taking role of mountain expert and Year 5 showcasing their new river knowledge. We are all very proud of the end results:

This fun-filled afternoon was made even better by the visit of Mr Gauld – a real racing car driver – and his Ginetta GTA. Mr Gauld answered all the children’s questions regarding the car and his career, whilst Miss Pereira was more intrigued as to whether Freddie Flintoff was actually as tall as he looks. A great afternoon for all children – and staff!

Road Safety

Today, Year 5 were lucky enough to have a visit from Mrs Brabin about road safety. She reminded us how to stay safe near the road and taught us how to safely cross the road; always looking both ways. All children were given different scenarios and told what to do to maintain maximum safety and reduce risks.

Local MP Visit

On Friday afternoon, as part of Year 5/6 project afternoons, we were very lucky to have the MP of Bury South – Christian Wakeford – visit our school. Years 5 and 6 had the chance to ask him a variety of questions surrounding parliament; his path to becoming a MP; and his career. It was a great opportunity for the classes and very inspiring.

Year 5/6 Project Afternoons

Since returning to full Fridays, years 5 and 6 have taken the opportunity to carry out various projects together. These have ranged from:

• participating in a recycling workshop
• Ethan teaching us key phrases and numbers 1-10 in Thai (shown below)
• learning about Parliament

The classes have really enjoyed the range of activities that have been offered and have embraced each other’s company. As a result, we have lots more plans coming up, including designing and creating 3D river systems and creating a poetry slam.

Lag B’Omer Drum Session

To celebrate the joyous festival that is Lag B’Omer, we were lucky enough to have an African drumming session. We learnt how to use them and all had a go of making a new beat. Here is our group beat which made Miss Pereira and Mrs Kobak quite emotional; it sounds brilliant!

Mindfulness Sessions

Years 5 and 6 are very lucky as our trainee teacher, Miss Moss, has set up a lunchtime mindfulness club. During these sessions, years 5 and 6 have explored mindfulness eating and ways to feel happy or keep calm. Last week they started to make dreamweavers, which they really enjoyed, as you can see below.

Presentations on America

Our geography topic for the Spring term was ‘Amazing Americas’. To showcase our learning, we created multimedia presentations on an American state of our choice. I am so proud of the variety of skills used to create these presentations. Sit back, relax and get ready to learn.

1. Harry, Honey and Jayda – California & Hollywood
2. Harry, Honey and Jayda – California & Hollywood
3. Marissa and Owen – Texas
4. Isla, Jake and Sadie – New York
5. Araya, Dana and Jacob – Florida
6. Jessica, Rebecca and Simcha – Idaho

60s Dance Moves

Our topic for Spring 2 was ‘Leisure and Entertainment’. Within this topic, we explored the rise – and fall – of the cinema, the love of football, the takeover of the TV and how to party in the swinging Sixties. The latter was definitely our favourite so we have recorded some of the key 60s dance moves for you to try out at home. Enjoy.

To watch these videos, open up the camera on your mobile phone or tablet. A link should appear at the top of your screen. Press the link and the video will load.

Chanukah Madness Week

To celebrate Chanukah – and the last week of a difficult term – BWJPS hosted a fancy dress week. The children LOVED it and I really enjoyed seeing the creativity that went into each outfit. It was lovely to see the children come into school so enthusiastically and compliment one another on their ideas/ outfits so thank you for helping. I would also like to thank you for helping our school’s PTA with its fundraising activities. As you can see, Year 5 went all out for their different items. Unfortunately, we were so busy on Tuesday that we forgot to take a picture in our pyjamas but they were equally awesome.

Wellbeing Day

We really enjoyed our mental health and wellbeing day on the last day of term. This included lots of different activities; including a house quiz with year 6, mindfulness art activities and a circle time discussion. This circle time activity was a brilliant way to end the term as it allowed each child to reflect on their achievements throughout the term; sharing what they are proud of and grateful for. We also focused on people’s strengths and how we can work as a team.

Y5/6 Writing Session

Following on from our author zoom with Sufiya Ahmed, we decided to try writing our own war/ spy stories. To do this, years 5 and 6 paired up and worked together to write our stories before reading them aloud to one another. This was a great activity and a wonderful opportunity for children to learn from one another. We had a great time!

Author Zoom

Years 5 and 6 were very lucky to have a zoom meeting with Sufiya Ahmed on Wednesday. Sufiya, author of Noor-Un-Nissa Inayat Khan, worked in the Houses of Parliament as a researcher and writer before becoming a full-time author. She now has 3 books published, two of which focus on human rights. Sufiya spoke to us about her previous career and how she became an author; she also shared some tips with the classes on how to become authors themselves. The children really enjoyed the session; being able to ask her questions and listening to a chapter from her recently published book about Noor Khan. She has also kindly agreed to sell SIGNED copies of the book to school for a discounted price of £6.50 so let Miss Pereira or Mrs Kobak know if you would like one.

Musical Maestro

We are very pleased to share that Harry has passed his Grade 1 in piano with distinction! He has done extremely well and we are all very proud. I, personally, cannot wait to watch him in concert one day. Keep up the great work! 🙂

Reading for Pleasure

Not only have Year 5 impressed Miss Pereira with their wonderful work ethic during assessment week; they have also become the first class to complete their reading for pleasure tower. This is a competition for Years 3 to 6 where the spines of books, read by the children during our ‘reading for pleasure’ slot, are photocopied and towered in order to win a class prize. Miss Pereira is over the moon and would like to thank all those parents who donated books from our Amazon wishlist as this has really helped our class’ reading journey.

Tik Tok

Tik Tok is a social media app where users share videos. This app is for users of 13 years or over but many of our children do have the app. Please visit the link to find tips and advice on how to keep your child safe on the app:

Tik Tok carers guide

Black History Month Cont…

Here are the finished products of our inspirational Black Britons posters. I’m sure you agree that they make a striking display!

Autumn Sheds Competition

Exciting news…we won our own shed! Two of our class (Harry and Sadie) are the proud winners of the Autumn sheds competition where their designs were used to paint a shed. They took a trip into Bury Centre to see their shed, amongst other winners’ sheds from a variety of schools, which will soon be on our school playground and utilised as a reading nook for playtimes. Congratulations guys and well done! 🙂

Black History Month

This week, we had great discussions about Black History month, its origin and its importance today. Our main focus was looking at the Windrush generation and the impact they had on our culture. We also researched black Britons who we found inspirational and created artistic posters for each person. Here we are getting our art on…

Writing Competition Winners

Last half term, our head and deputy heads set up a new writing competition for Years 3 to 5. The theme for our first writing competition was creative writing and children were given a visual prompt to work with. Channa (Y3), Calum (Y4) and Jessica (Y5) were the first lucky winners and each received 15 Dojo points! Years 3 to 5 look forward to next half term’s writing theme.

Praise Post

This week, FOUR of us earned a praise postcard home for excellent efforts in different subjects:

Dana and Harry received theirs for brilliant results in our end of unit maths assessment.

Jessica for brilliant computing work.

Marissa for sharing her first novel with the class.

Reading is Magic Festival

This week, we participated in two separate events from the ‘Reading is Magic’ festival: an illustration session with Chris Riddell and a reading session with Pamela Butchart. We really enjoyed both sessions but Miss Pereira was very impressed with some of our own illustrations as we joined in alongside Chris Riddell. Excitingly, Pamela Butchart replied to our class tweet and wished us hello!

Inferring Character’s Thoughts

In our English lesson, we carried out some drama techniques to infer the thoughts and emotions of different characters. The children used freeze frame and voice overs very well.

BWJPS Flags

Thank you to everyone who sent a flag to capture all your feelings about school. They are absolutely brilliant!! 

The flags have now been put together (as you can see below) and we have also made them the banner for our Facebook page.

When we get back to school, we will print them out and display them around school. Thank you again, we LOVED seeing them!