End Of Year

FAREWELL YEAR 6

We are so incredibly proud of our year 6’s. It’s been a brilliant final week and they have showcased themselves brilliantly in their leavers services, both at the church and in school. Lots of smiles, lots of tears, congratulations and well done! This wouldn’t be without the year 5’s who have supported them and as Mrs Wilson said earlier in the week, wow what a credit to the year 6’s those year 5’s are. This years Red Kites have been a great group together. They have bonded and have developed strong friendships. I know they will miss each other but hopefully can stay in touch!

The beach trip on Tuesday was such fun. The children managed themselves so well and as soon as we got there, they started digging! It was so wonderful. The return journey was very entertaining from such characters and many laughs were had.

We are sad to say goodbye to Miss Carter. We thank you for all of your help and wish you the best of luck.

Keep reading over the summer holidays!

I feel totally spoilt from the generosity of parents with the gifts I have received. It'‘s been such a brilliant year and an absolute privileged to work with your children. I wish everyone a safe and restful summer holidays. Good luck Year 6 and see you in September Year 5!
Take care, Miss Oram

1 Week to go!

It’s been another busy week as we race to the end of the school year. Sports day, transition day, summer reading challenge, and the PTA are currently preparing for the Leaver’s ball!

We have been reminded of what a kind and compassionate group we have through some special moments this week particularly at Sports Day where Red Kites set an excellent example supporting one another and the younger children throughout the school. For Transition day, year 6’s lead a talk to our new 5’s and 6’s where they shared top tips and their reflections!

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Mrs Hunter kindly brought in her gramaphone. We listened to music and talked about how important music was during WW2.

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At Forest School, we had a fire building challenge. The children showed great endurance as it was a tricky task! Thank you to Mrs Liddiard who has supported us at Forest School.

Unfortunately, rain stopped play for our Pilgrimage today however the children made the most of this seeing it as an opportunity and requested to do their final ‘free write’ of the year. We used a World War 2 Stimulus. The children put so much effort into their writing today. I am so proud of the progress they have made but also how they write with such awareness of the reader. Here is an example of an outstanding piece.

Wishing you all a restful weekend before the final week of term!

Monday - Dance workshop

Tuesday - Trip

Wednesday - Church service

Thursday - Leaver’s assembly

- End of year 3:15
Red Kites Team

Here’s a video of the staff race at Sports Day!

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2 weeks to go!

RAF WELFORD

On Wednesday as part of our history topic learning about WW2, we visited RAF Welford where we had a expertly led tour of the site and museum and gained more knowledge on the important work that was carried out at this United States Army Air Force Base 474. We we extremely fortunate to meet a 93 year old gentleman who served with distinction with the Royal Air Force for many years. The children showed great enthusiasm in learning about how their local area played such an integral part in the war and the D-Day landings. It was commented on how well-behaved and how the members of the team who led us round were impressed with the children’s desire to know more about the history of this military base.

MUSIC CONCERT

Some members of Red Kites volunteered to play at Brightwalton church for the music festival celebrated by both schools. Great determination to prepare for this has been shown and we are really proud of the children who chose to perform. Beautifully talented singers, a team of trumpeters, and jamming on the guitars! Well done!

As part of the RSE curriculum, we have covered lots from the ‘changing me’ section this week. Please ask your children about what they have learnt and encourage them to talk about it. They have contributed well and acted with maturity.

Next week, we begin transition sessions across the school, hold sports day (fingers crossed the weather holds out!) and enjoy our Pilgramage.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow at Great Shefford Summer Fayre

Take Care, Red Kites Team

3 weeks to go!

Red Kites performed The Toy Shop for the final time last Friday night - here’s a post performance picture! They were incredible and we are so proud of them!

SCIENCE WEEK

This week we have had fun investigating and continuing learning about evolution and inheritance by designing our species demonstrating our understanding of adaptation.

On Monday, we were set the challenge of creating a bridge using just paper and a small piece of tape. We were allowed to use books as blocks to create height. We had to test this putting weights on top. At Forest School, a group of children put their skills to the test to create a real life bridge, across the pond! Only one child got a wet foot!

As part of Evolution and inheritance topic, we have been studying fossils. One child who has an impressive collection shared this during our Science Worship Assembly.

SWING MUSIC

In music this week, the children learnt about swing music, including about Glenn Miller. They sang a sing and learnt a hand clap rhythmn.

WWII EVACUATION

In history and English this week, we have started learning about the Evacuation during WWII. We have started our new and final book of the year - Goodnight Mister Tom. The children wrote letters to parents as if they were children who had been evacuated. To help understand the timeline of when WWII happened, Mrs Wilson kindly brought in a photo album of her grandmothers and shared photos of children who were evacuated from Plymouth to Berkshire.

Y6 LEAVER’S HOODIES

Thank you to the PTFA for providing year 6 with their leaver’s hoodies. It’s all getting a bit real. The children were awarded their hoodies in assembly to mark their time at primary school and highlight how far they have come, whilst reminding them that they are role models to the rest of the school. The children have written their own year 6 leaver’s song so please encourage them to practise it! What a great bunch they are.

It’s been a busy and fun week here in Red Kites; strawberry picking, ukelele and guitar playing, song writing, block building and much more.

We’re getting ready for the final 3 weeks of term and helping year 6 to prepare to transition to secondary school.

Next week, we head to RAF Welford as part of our WWII topic and prepare for the Shefford and Brightwalton Music concert.

Have a lovely weekend, see you at the Chaddleworth fete tomorrow.

Red Kites Team

WATERMILL THEATRE PRODUCTION

We are immensely proud of Red Kites this week as they took to the stage to perform ‘The Toy Shop’ at The Watermill Theatre. They have worked hard and shown excellent characterisation of their roles, confidence in their lines and team spirit. The director has commented on the strength of this group and how it has been a privilege to work with such talent. Looking forward to the final performance tonight, go for it!

John O’Gaunt Primary Project 2023

A huge thanks to JOG for hosting yet another successful Primary Project for our year 4’s and 5’s. An excellent opportunity, enjoyed by all! The children enjoyed purifying water in their science lesson, code breaking in maths, designing a chocolate bar as part of their enterprise and orienteering in PE!

What a busy week it has been! We’ve learnt about evacuation in WW2, finished our class book, and had fun at forest school to name a few! Thank you to everyone who has helped organise this week and to parents too; it’s been full! We are very fortunate to be able to take opportunities such as these allowing us to live life to the full!

Have a great weekend, rest!

See you on Monday.

Red Kites Team

Summer term week 2

The children have worked so hard this week! We have been busy rehearsing for the production, which is looking brilliant as well as learning about WW2 and starting our end of year assessments…all in this heat! The children have generally managed themselves well. Please make sure children have a water bottle in school.

On Monday we had our first gymnastics lesson - the children thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and showed great pride in what they achieved!

On Wednesday we had a lovely visit from the library van where the children were excited to return books and choose new ones, they were then glued to their new books!

In science this week, the children took part in an investigation with Mrs Stephenson which they enjoyed and showed great scientific enquiry.

In PSHE, we have talked alot about awarness of ourselves and others and also how we can manage other people’s opinions. The children have shown maturity and reflected well on how certain interactions make them feel and what could be different.

NEXT WEEK

Next week is busy as we start the week with our technical rehearsal and dress rehearsal at the Watermill Theatre and then perform for 3 nights. Please make sure the children have everything they need each day so things run as smoothly as possible! We will be continuing with learning as normal in school and understand the children will be tired so early nights for everyone over the weekend and coming week!

Have a well deserved break this weekend, and good luck to two members of Red Kites who are performing at The Corn Exchange and Watermill in their drama group performances!

Summer Term 2 Week 1

Welcome back to school for the final half term of the year. We have just 6 and a half (5 and a half now!) weeks until we break up for summer and it’s already bursting with new learning, new skills and opportunities. As we approach our production at the Watermill Theatre, I would like to congratulate Red Kites for learning their lines so well in preparation for their performance, we will squeeze in some extra rehearsal time but Monday will be our final session with Lixie before final rehearsals the following week. We are sending out a clear schedule of the production week so that should help with smooth runnings. Thank you for your continued support with this brilliant opportunity. We are so lucky to be a part of this production and work with such talented people.

WWII learning has commenced this week and the children have built an understanding of the key events leading up to WWII. To secure this we have worked hard writing formal news reports on the announcement Neville Chamberlain made in 1939 declaring war. The children have revised and polished their drafts as part of the writing process and should have all come home with a printed copy that they published today. The children are eager to learn about this time in History and have shown a great interest in it. We have arranged a trip to Welford RAF base to explore more about WWII in our local area.

In French the children have been creating a village with shops and services, this week they have learnt directions that they have added to their maps. They had fun directing each other to the library and train station!

Forest School this week saw the creations of bug hotels and shelters, we will be using this as a stem for our writing next week where we will create a set of instructions as we develop our procedural skills. I will hopefully be able to add photos next week!

We hope you have a restful weekend in the sunshine and look forward to next week. Don’t forget that Gymnastics starts on Monday!

Red Kites Team

End of week 6

It’s been another busy week here in Red Kites! In maths we have been learning all about statistics and how information is shown in different graphs, tables and charts. The children have had a go creating their own! In writing, the children have worked incredibly hard writing their suspense chapters for The Boy at the Back of the Class. This week we had our first rehearsal with Lixi our Watermill theatre project leader who announced the roles for our performance. It was a fun session and we can’t wait for the performance in June! Keep learning those lines! In RE we acted out stages of the Pentecost.

On Thursday Year 6’s spent the day at FACE adventure site to celebrate their efforts in SATs and bringing their primary school years to a close. They spent the morning den building, and crafting a bow and arrow. The afternoon saw an intense set of laser tag games - watch out for Mr Withers and Mrs Hunter!!! It was a brilliant day had by all.

Have a great weekend, see you on Monday for the final week before half term!

Miss Oram

End of Week 4

WELL DONE YEAR 6!

Congratulation to year 6 who have completed their SATs this week. Each morning, the children have come into school early for breakfast club and then set off to Chaddleworth to sit their papers. We are tremendously proud of the effort they have put into the tests but even more proud of their determination, resilience and how calm and confident they have been. The progress they have made this year is incredible!

Year 5 Writing

A big thank you to Mrs Wilson who has taught year 5’s in the morning this week. They have written some amazing pieces based on ‘the story box’ where each day, they’ve picked an item from the box and built a story. They’ve worked so hard and used a great range of sentence structures and vocabulary. Today we were able to share them! Thank you and well done.

FOREST SCHOOL

We had a wet session but it contributed to the atmosphere. Red Kites worked in groups to create shelters using their knot tying skills from last week. It was a great fun session, and much needed for everyone to be outside in the fresh air, whatever the weather!

So all in all, a busy, exciting and hugely productive week! Well done to all of you, you deserve a big rest this weekend!

See you on Monday for week 1 of our Watermill theatre project, hogans music performance and much more!

Miss O

Week 3

CORONATION

In Red Kites, we have celebrated in style. A group of children played a great rendition of ‘When the Saints go marching in’ on the trumpets during the Coronation Worship today. They sang beautifully, harmonising and have learnt some interesting facts about The Coronation and the incredible history of this celebration.

THE GREAT SHEFFORD CORONATION BAKE OFF!

GET, SET, BAKE!

Red Kites have baked Victoria Sponge cakes this afternoon in true bake off style. They showed great teamwork, communication, everything is washed up and the classroom is tidy! The cakes were delicious, we’ve got some true bakers here! Well done to every member of the class! An enormous thank you to our wonderful judges: Mrs Stephenson and Mrs Sayer!

We wish Year 6’s the best of luck with their SATs next week!

Take care and enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend, see you on Tuesday.

Miss O

Start of the Summer Term

BACK TO SCHOOL

Welcome back to school, we hope you had a great Easter break. This term has kicked off to a great start in Red Kites where we continued reading our class novel The Boy at the Back of The Class by Onjali Q. Rauf and developed our writing skills; using dialogue to advance the action. The children have been very excited for their FREE WRITES today. Some really well written pieces, full of suspense!

FOREST SCHOOL

On Thursday, we had our first Forest School session and it was brilliant fun. We started the session with a chat about what Forest School means to us. “My spirit feels free!” “I feel calm and peaceful” “Forest School is very special to me” “I like to be in nature”. There was some first class play that took place, brilliant imagination Red Kites!

HOGAN’S MUSIC BAND

This morning, the school hall turned into a concert hall! We were so lucky that Hogan’s music band came to perform at our school. The children loved it, clapping, singing and dancing along to some great tunes and inspired by the live music.

It’s great to be back together after the Easter break. Have a lovely weekend, keep reading!

Miss Oram

Last week of term

HAPPY EASTER!

What a brilliant and busy Spring term it has been, we are racing through the year! This week we have come to the end of our Atlantic Slave Trade learning and wrapped up our RE learning around sacrifice. The children wrote beautiful poems using powerful language. Some were shared during the Easter service at Chaddleworth and read beautifully. We have also shared new recommended reads!

We had a surprise guest join us for our last day of term for our Easter Peg hunt! Thanks Easter Bunny for making our hunt such fun, despite the weather!

After the Easter service, we enjoyed a stroll around the walled garden by the church (and nibbled on some mini eggs!); it was so lovely to have some time together in a beautiful setting, surrounded by new growth and nature. This afternoon, the children enjoyed their craft afternoons. Thank you to parents who came and joined us!

Have a lovely break,

Miss Oram

Spring 2 Week 5

SAMBA SAMBA SAMBA!

What an amazing experience we had on Thursday afternoon for our Samba dance session and on to the performance. Red Kites had a great time learning specific samba moves and putting them into a routine, showing great creativity, rhythm and enjoyment of expressing themselves through dance and music. They picked the routine up quickly so were able to do a whole routine for 4 minutes and 14 seconds!

In writing, the children have written powerful and informative non-chronological reports on the Transatlantic Slave Trade. They wrote about members of the abolitionist group which allowed for a great opportunity for relative embedded clauses.

Y6 have been up to Chaddleworth this week to work on SATs prep - they are really enjoying the focussed learning and improving confidence every day!

On Friday, Red Kites helped to set up for the music performance where there were some brilliant showcases of singing, drumming and guitar! Wow, we have some brilliant musicians in Red Kites, perhaps we can start a band?

Have a great weekend, keep reading and practicing times tables!

Spring 2 Wk 4

TAG RUGBY FESTIVAL

On Wednesday, we took a group of Red Kites up to Newbury Rugby Club for the Tag Rugby Festival. The children were super excited and played brilliantly! We saw great speed, agility and team work. Well done!

RE

This term we are focusing on how Jesus sacrificed himself and what this looks like in Christianity. We used the Bible’s to explore stories and quotes; The Passover, Hebrews 13:15, 1 John 2:2 and other passages. We had some interesting conversations around this.

History

In History, we continued our learning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade where we started learning all about the beginning of how slavery was abolished. We used historical evidence and secondary sources to develop our understanding.

What is evolution?

The children have written excellent non chronological reports about evolution. Their sentence structures are really coming on and this has been an excellent opportunity to use adjectives and adverbs in non-fiction writing. Today the children typed up their work!

Next week, we will begin taking year 6 up to Chaddleworth for our SATs preparation! Have a great weekend, Miss O

Spring 2 Week 3

Another busy week here in Red Kites. The children have been working their socks off in maths, we’re really seeing an improvement in arithmetic and mental maths strategies. Well done! In writing, we have been developing our understanding of sentence structures for a non-chronological report through sentence stacking; explaining who Buffon and Lamarck (scientists) were and what their theories were about. Today the children have been thrilled to do their Free Write’s and wow, we have some excellent writers in class! What’s brilliant is how they want to share their pieces and also listen to each others. Many rounds of applauses for all Red Kites writers today!

Snow in the village brought much excitement on Wednesday!

Stay warm,

Miss Oram

Spring 2 Week 2

WHO’S THAT BEHIND THE MASK?

This week, anticipation for World Book Day was built up when posters of Masked Readers appeared around the school. The children thoroughly enjoyed their World Book Day and showed a great love for reading - not forgetting the costumes which were amazing! Together, we finished our novel, Skellig, and we took part in the BBC Teach lesson where we created our own twisted tales and retold them to the class.

Farewell Rev. Miri

Red Kites have been practicing their beautiful singing ready for the service at Brightwalton Church on Friday morning. They harmonized ‘The Lord’s my Shepherd’ beautifully, it was really quite moving. It was a lovely service and a brilliant opportunity to link up with other local schools.

Have a great weekend, see you on Monday

Miss Oram

Spring 2 Week 1

Back to school this week after a lovely half term break. The children have come back with positive attitudes, ready to continue their learning and start their new history topic: The Atlantic Slave Trade. We started the week studying historical sources depicting slavery. We discussed how it makes us feel to know that Slavery existed.

In English, we have continued reading Skellig, this narrative is taking us on an emotional journey; enlightening, breathtaking moments filtered with sadness and worry. We have used the themes from the book to take our writing to our next unit: Non Fiction. We wrote a cold task this week about Owls, a pivotal reference from Skellig. We have also created a dance to represent how owls move and shared this with Robins, as well as developing our sketching technique by drawing an owl.

Our new writing unit takes us into a fascinating topic of The Origin of Species where we are using a rewritten book of Charles’ Dawin’s theories. The children were excited from the big reveal and will hopefully come home with lots of new information. We will be learning about evolution from this.

RECOMMENDED READS…

Red Kites were bursting with excitement during the reveal of the Recommended Reads we have been able to introduce. 4 new books have been handed out for children to read and then recommend, passing them through the class over the rest of the year. We have 2 more titles to share over the next few weeks. These children have kindly offered to talk about their books during our World Book Day Assembly on Thursday 2nd March. The Love of Reading in this class is inspirational! Can’t wait to hear their thoughts on the new books!

Great learning in all areas this week. Well done Red Kites! We continue to enjoy our playtimes, and have talked this week about the importance of making sure to include others or check in on each other, always showing kindness and look after school property.

Have a great weekend, keep practicing those times tables please!
Miss Oram

Ready for Half Term

CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH WEEK

We started Children’s Mental Health week with an inspiring Collective Worship lead by our Well-being champions who really encouraged us to think about connection with people and the importance of how other people make you feel, whether that’s body language, tone of voice or kind words. We reminded each other how good it is to express your feelings, even if that’s dancing or singing! Talking helps too!

MATHS MASTERCLASS

4 members of Red Kites had another session of their maths masterclass, they came back bursting with ideas and shared Pascal’s triangle with the class. How far can it go?

27 and 53

This week we got further into the narrative Skellig. Today it was revealed that he does indeed have wings, very well predicted. The children captured the characters feelings and drew them. We covered some big themes this week and how thoughts/worries and feelings can have an impact on us physically as well as mentally. The story allows opportunity to explore the importance of friendship and ways to show it. A good way for us to think about finding and talking to a trusted person. Mrs Stephenson had the pleasure of teaching Red Kites on Thursday where they wrote some amazing pieces for their ‘Free Write’ this week.

I am proud of…

Today we reflected on what we are proud of achieving this term. It was lovely to hear positive comments about areas of learning that our Red Kites have been working particularly hard on over the last few weeks. A few things that came up were; long division, fractions, spelling tricky words accurately, mental arithmetic. There have been moments this week which have highlighted how kind the members of Red Kites are; kindness when someone was not feeling quite right, kindness through encouragement and also through asking and genuine concern if someone else was ok. During our final tag rugby session this afternoon, yet again, I saw the children having such fun. Well done for all of your hard work this term.

Have a great half term, read and practice your times tables!

Miss Oram

Friday 3rd February

SPORTS EVENTS AT PARK HOUSE!

This week, groups from Owls and Red Kites took park in competitive sports against local schools. On Tuesday, 6 children from Red Kites represented the school in the archery competition - they came joint 3rd place! Brilliant teamwork and skills! On Thursday, 6 children competed in the speed stacking challenges! They came 2nd place! We’re so proud of the children who took part and look forward to the next events.

DANIEL IN THE LIONS DEN (Daniel 6:22)

On Monday during Collective Worship, a few members of Red Kites contributed a performance of Daniel in the Lions Den to represent the exploration and importance of Trust.

NUMBER DAY

What a day! The children came into school representing all types of number - we have spent the whole day exploring different areas of number and it’s creative side! We spent time outdoors creating a natural fractions wall and creating questions amongst many other activities including number art and a number rap! The children rushed off at home time to donate to the cake sale and parents came in to see how we do maths in Red Kites!

We can’t quite believe how fast January has gone but it’s been a great start to the year and the children have worked unbelievably hard. Thank you for your continued support. Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Oram

Friday 27th January

Red Kites have had another impressive week of effort and determination in their learning as well as lots of fun. Yet again, we have ended our Friday afternoon with an excellent Tag Rugby lesson - great team spirit and lots of fun had, despite the mud!

English lessons have been bursting with powerful language and using a range of sentence structures - we had some fun rolling a dice to determine what technique we would use in each sentence.

On Wednesday morning, the children came in all talking about how icy it was outside. It was one of our Red Kites who inspired our hot task this week, where we described the scene of that very morning. Some amazing language came out from our experiences where we gathered vocabulary and language that could be used to describe all of the senses. Some brilliant pieces were written. I am so proud of everyone’s efforts!

It has been a super week of Parents’ meetings, really lovely to catch up and talk about how brilliantly each child is doing as well as showcase their learning too - thank you all for your continued support.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Oram