WELCOME TO SYCAMORE CLASS

Class Teachers - Mrs. Rawnson  (Mr Sainsbury teaching Fridays)

​Teaching Assistants - Mrs Morgan-Tranter

Thursday 4th February

What another inspiring week! Seeing you all in Tutor Time certainly brightened my week- I really enjoyed that for another week, I did get to chat with you all!

There have been some wonderful pieces of work flooding in through Seesaw- with many hysterical diary entries of a raindrop!  Thank you for all getting into the spirit of it all and finding the fun but also creating some wonderful pieces of writing that keep to my high presentation standards! I have uploaded a few pictures of some of the wonderful work I have received- again there could have been 100 pieces of work photographed here!

We are going to have a Wellbeing Day tomorrow (Friday 5th February) - hopefully none of us will be on screens! Check out the activities on Seesaw for THURSDAY if you didn't see them as I am NOT going to set anything on Friday.

Thank you parents- you are supporting your child and us as a school brilliantly, and I have enjoyed the phone calls or conversations we are having via Seesaw. You are doing an amazing job supporting your young people! 

Enjoy your weekend- only one more week to go before half term!

Friday 29th January

Well done everyone for doing so well for another week. See saw has been a real hub of excitement with ALL of you also being able to join me for a Zoom Tutor Time. I found this so useful as did many of you. I will be doing 'Tutor Time' again next week on Monday and Tuesday so check out your activities on SeeSaw for your personal invitation! It should be the same time as last week.

On Friday this week (5th February) I am going to try and get them to make a Water Cycle in a bag so they will need: a small sandwich plastic bag. The best are the resealing ones as we will be putting water into them.

To make it even better if there was a permanent pen (eg sharpie) and some blue food colouring- the children's water cycles would be even better, but they can still do the activity without these two things.

Have a good weekend- I do hope that some of you manage to take part in the RSPB Garden Bird Watch that I set the children. It runs from 29-31 of January and is really simple to do.

Friday 22nd January

Thanks for making the See Saw Learning platform so successful. All children are accessing it and I have recieved a whopping 900 posts in the last three weeks!! Myself and Mrs Morgan-Tranter are replying to each child daily when they submit work. 

I am setting up 'Zoom' calls as 'Tutor Time' meetings for all the pupils at home. There will be 5 pupils in a call so that they get time to chat and raise any queries that I can walk them through. Their invitation should be in their 'Activity' section on Seesaw. Please don't worry if it goes wrong on Monday and Tuesday. We'll get there!

I have also uploaded an outline to next week. The Year 6 pupils need to become as independent as possible in order for them to thrive at secondary school, however some may need some guidance. My dialy board guides them through what THEY need to do- this week overview can feel too daunting for most as there is too much information. This is more if YOU as parents would like to know what has been asked of your child.

I would also like to reiterate that all of your mental and physical health is the highest priority at the moment, so PLEASE DO NOT get overwhelmed by whatever is being set... contact me or leave it for a bit!

Thursday 7th January

EVERYTHING IS ON SEESAW! We have also set up a Facebook group for parents and us to communicate easily, if you are not on it and would like to be please speak to some other parents so that you can be added or send me an email.

Here are the maths sheets and geography sheets for today incase you want to print them off!

It is all taking me ages at the moment to compile everything- my final video was recorded at 11pm last night. I will endeavour to reply to all the children's work but I had a fantastic 87 pieces of work submitted yesterday... having been in school all day and creating online videos for today meant that not all of them got a fully marked piece of work returned. Please let them know that I am thrilled with what they are doing!

Wednesday 6th January

Well done to those of you who have managed to get onto Seesaw and submit some work! That is amazing!

ALL THINGS WILL BE ON SEESAW! 

I have been trying LOTS of new things and I am really keen to try and help keep you motivated to learn.

TUESDAY 5th JANUARY- Things to keep you busy.

Well Year 6, this is not what we had planned for. After our exciting 'launch' day yesterday where we got to meet Sir David Attenborough and Michael Morpurgo! Hopefully we can use the energy and excitement that we created yesterday to keep us learning remotely! 

I have already been playing!!! I have tried different things on See Saw so that I can do some video inputs. Head over to Seesaw to see if it worked. PLEASE DON'T PANIC if your family need a day too to adjust to last night's news, I just thought that some of you might like something to explore and do!

On Seesaw I have suggested:

1) Researching about Sir David Attenborough for your biography.

2) Professor Assessor co-ordinates.

3) Art session- drawing rivers.

The teachers and TA's at Winterbourne will be having planning meetings today to work out a clear way to help you learn at home. For now, look after each other and remember 'Go with the Flow!'

Mrs Rawnson

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I am really looking forward to seeing you all on Monday 4th. I do hope that you have had a good holiday, however, if you had a difficult time off and would like to contact me please feel free to drop me an email at sycamore@winterbourneearls.wilts.sch.uk so that I can know so that I can help you settle back into school.

Our topic this term is 'Go with the Flow!' It is to do with rivers and mountains but it is also what we will all need to do as we navigate this term. You can find planning on the Spring Term 2021 tab on this page.

Please remember that you will need a gum guard and shin pads for Hockey this term and if you want your own copy we are reading 'King of Cloud Forests' and  'Why the Whales Came' both by Michael Morpurgo.

Mrs Rawnson

Friday 11th December

It has been quite a week! Year 6 have worked hard at their maths papers so they know what is expected of them in May. This reduces any worries that they have had and means that they can have a restful Christmas and I can plan next term’s learning more effectively. We learnt about and made Christingles this week to get into the spirit of advent .

We are all looking forward to our Science Fair on Monday. 

This coming week will mainly be spent on Science Fair, finishing off our class book and Christmas celebrations with their peers.

Tuesday 8th December- For those Learning at Home.

We took it steadily yesterday in Class but we missed you!

Today can you:

1) Finish a final edit/ neat copy including illustrations on your story for your Reception Buddy. 

2) Maths- Arithmetic. Have a go at the attached arithmetic paper. LEAVE ANY QUESTIONS YOU FIND TOO HARD- focus on the ones you CAN do and try to get those accurate. Use the answers to mark it and if you got it wrong, try to identify WHY you got it wrong!

3) Spelling- TAG words

4) RE: Find out about the Bible story of Moses. It is set in Egypt.

Monday 7th December

Hi lovely pupils still at home! We will be missing you very much!

These are the things that we will be doing in class today. Look at the slides as they explain each point in more detail, but here is a summary!

1) Read Chapter 28
2) Create a Christmas present box from a net of a pentaganal prism (see sheet)
3) Write your story for your Reception Buddy. Type or handwrite it. 
4) Make a card for Miss Purchase.

Friday 4th December 

Well done for getting through a week. 
 

1) Plan a Christmas story for your Reception Buddy! They need to be the main character - although you can be in it too! Remember that they are 4! So not too scary!!! You need to write about that Santa gets in trouble, your buddy has to save Christmas. We will write them next week. Use the storyboard plan to plan it. 
 

2) If you are able to log in, make sure you have done the Professor Assessor Practice SATS paper from Wednesday. If you have then try some Mathletics. Complete any 2D shape activities on Mathletics. Don’t worry we will do more in class- some of the activities might talk about angles in a triangle/ quadrilateral etc. Just have a go. 

3) Create a front cover picture for you story for your Reception Buddy. Make it really good! 

4) Do some exercise! ANYTHING just get up on your feet. There are some great dance along videos - you could pretend you are on Strictly Come Dancing or do Joe Wicks. Just get moving! 

5) Make sure you have read your set pages for your ‘Book Club’ group. 

Have a good weekend and we’ll see what next week brings us! Well done! 

Thursday 3rd December

Hello! How are you all doing? Thanks to those people who sent in work- for those who are collecting it in their Learning Journey book, I will enjoy seeing it when you get back. 

Today can you:
1) Make sure that you have completed reading and doing the activity book for chapters 25,26 and 27. Those of you who have been keeping up with it all will have done this!
2) Finish some more things off on my sheet that I handed out.
3) Do SOMETHING active today- walk/ dance/ skip etc etc. It should be our PE today and it is really important to keep our bodies fit and healthy.
4) Maths- 2D shape. How many can you remember? Try the powerpoint quiz and the complete the sheet- you can always use the internet to help if you get stuck. If you are wanting more practice on it, try some Mathletics tasks on 2D shapes.
5) Do something kind for someone in your house... or even something kind for EVERYONE in your house!

I'm still missing you all!

Learning for Wednesday 2nd December

Well done everyone! 
 

For today:
1) Log into Professor Assessor and have a look at the SATS PRACTICE paper. Please note that is a different Button - IT IS NOT in the Assessment button! If you have problems please don’t worry. 

You’ll need to do some workings out so use your Learning Journey book. Normally you’d just do your workings out on the paper. 
 

This is the first time you will have seen a paper like this. Some of the questions you’ll be able to do easily, others will take some effort and others we won’t have covered yet. One of the skills to learn is to not worry about questions that you find really hard- be resilient leave them and come back to them later... or for now just leave them! 

Remember the main thing I want you to do is have a go at this paper so that you know what it looks like. We have PLENTY of time left so please don’t worry if you find it really hard. 

2) Read Chapter 27 and make sure that you have done the activity booklet.

3) Choose some other things from my initial list.

Stay safe and be kind to your family! 

Tuesday 1st December- The countdown to Christmas has started!
 

Well done to those of you who did some sort of learning yesterday and an additional ‘Well done’ to those of you who shared work on Seesaw. Don’t worry if you just have yours safe in our Learning Journey for bringing back to school- that is fine! 
 

1) Today  definitely make sure that you have read Chapter 25 AND26. Chapter 26 is rather a long AND important one- so take your time and UNDERSTAND what you are reading! 

2) Then choose anything that you want from the list I handed out. If possible please can you persuade your parents to donate a loo roll to you so that you can wrap up or be wrapped up as a mummy! Please could you share the photos on Seesaw as Hayden has already shared one with me and it really made me laugh so I would love to see some more! 
 

I am sure that you have all looked after your adults at home? No one has been having arguments with with siblings and your bedrooms are immaculate? If so- repeat yesterday, if you don’t agree with me- you have another chance today to help your family! 😉

Look after each other and stay safe!

Monday 30th November- Learning for today.

Lovely children, I will miss you today. Look after yourselves please!

Please could you:
1) Do half an hour on Mathletics on fractions- especially fractions of amount.
2) Read Chapter 25 of The Red Pyramid and complete the activity booklet.
3) Research mummification and make a project page in your Learning Journey book.
4) Create a piece of Christmas art for our window display.
5) Research the I before e spelling rule.

Hopefully see you tomorrow?!

Mrs Rawnson

Week Beginning 30th November- All about Mummies!

We have a slightly split class this week with some of you learning at home all week and some just for a few days -we hope! I did send things home with you on Friday so hopefully you can get on with some of it?!  You can find that page of information below but I haven't uploaded all the resources that I gave you. I have loaded it all onto Seesaw too. You are more than welcome to keep contact with me through Seesaw and can share your work, but you may prefer to put it into your red 'Learning Journey' book and then bring it all in when you are back to surprise me then- it is completely up to you.

Most of the work is about Egyptian mummies! Enjoy but I don't suggest that you study it after you have just had lunch- most of it is pretty disgusting!!

Know that you are valued and so will be greatly missed. Look after yourselves and your family at this time!

November update!

November has been really busy for our class. We have explored debates (and even held our own) researched differing arguments throughly finding evidence to back up our ideas. Our main question was, 'Should Egyptian artifacts be returned to their place of origin?' The children have designed their own museum and have created amazing persuasive leaflets. They have improved their typing and word processing skills as they have written up their formal discussions - the results have been impressive!

Fractions has been a huge part of this months maths learning. This was an area of maths that many children struggle with anyway, but lockdown meant that they missed out on learning this in the classroom with Miss Arrandale. As a result, I have spent time with them calmly looking at all areas of fractions so that they feel confident and capable with it.

Our science lessons have seen that Mrs Rawnson is the strongest member of the class as she has the knowledge of ... FRICTION!

Our clay scarab beetles are coming along nicely too! The chidlren have carved their initials in the base in heiroglyphics so that they could be used as a sealing stamp.

The class is really starting to support and encourage each other as we have been in this second lock down- we have continued to focus on mindfulness, how we can understand our own feelings better and also be aware of what other people are going through.

At home, the children should be creating their Science Fair stall- examples of last year's fair can be found at the bottom of this page if you need any ideas!

The children are also having a go at a past set of SATS papers. These are nothing to worry about and the children have approached the English ones with calmness and skill meaning that they should be proud of what they have achieved at this first attempt. I will be sending the marks home with information about it all as I know that this probably raises questions for many of you. Usually, we would have invited you in for a parent's session into what they are/ how they work etc. I will record a session for you and share it with you in the New Year so please don't worry about it now- there is plenty of other things in the world to keep you busy! 

Parents’ Evening - Tuesday 6th October and Wednesday 7th October

Thank you to you all for signing up and for providing me with your phone numbers. My number will be blocked when I call. I know that it will be more of a challenge to have Parents’ Evening over the phone but hopefully it will still be useful. I do apologise in advance, but I MUST stick to time. If you need to discuss something in greater depth I am happy to make another appointment.

I have uploaded several useful documents here that I would usually hand out at Parents’ Evening. So please check them out below.

Your child has loaded up some examples of their work onto their SeeSaw account for you to see as well as a message from them explaining how they are finding things.

During our phone meeting, I will follow this order for our discussions:

1) Any issues that you may have. This normally gets left until last, but this is REALLY important so I want to give you time to discuss these properly.

2) How your child is doing in their learning/ next steps and how this can be supported at home.

3) Secondary School plans. Hopefully you have all been able to look at the links to the secondary school pages that we have been sending out. It is important to think carefully about this now as the deadline for application for a secondary place is 31st October.

I look forward in speaking to you soon!

Week Beginning 21st September

Time has flown; the summer holidays are feeling a while ago. The colds and sniffles are settling in as we all navigate the changes!

Thank you SO much to everyone for keeping our 'Sycamore Bubble' safe. The children are being brilliant in class and are following all our routines- thank you to parents who have been able to keep their children off if they are unwell with colds. I know that this may have knock on implications for you all but it will help protect us all. IF YOUR CHILD IS AT HOME AND WOULD LIKE TO SEE WHAT WE ARE UP TO IN THE CLASSROOM CHECK OUT THE HOMELEARNING TAB!

We are studying 'myths' at the moment- especially the story of Osiris. We have explored the story in depth including drama in acting out the story.

I would like to extend my grateful thanks to FOWES who helped enable our 'Virtual School Trip' to the British Museum to be the huge success that it was. They provided monetary support, that meant that the activities could be really practical and memorable for the children. (See the pictures of their Sarcophagus and Canopic Jars.)

Moving forward, I would like to make sure that things are in place for a blended approach as needed. This week I will be trying to set up an online platform with the children. I know that Miss Arrandale set up a TEAMS meeting for the end of last year, so that and SeeSaw maybe possibilities. I will be looking at online learning platforms with the children in school this week to make sure that we have things set up and in place and that THEY know how to use them. I will send information out about this as it gets finalised. Don't worry if your child is off this week- I will make sure that you get all the relevant information.

For now here are some uptodated photos of the classroom and the children's learning!

Welcome Back! I can't tell you all how fantastic it was to see you all today! What a treat! The new class of Year 6 was sensible, keen, kind and polite- demonstrating that they still know how to learn in a classroom. It was so interesting to hear all their 'Lockdown Stories' as well as the adventures that they got up to over the holiday. I am looking forward to catching up with them properly over the next few weeks.

On the first day back, I did give a 'broad brush stroke' with all lots of the things that the children wanted to ask- eg buddies, prefects, Braeside, rewards etc! It will all be discussed properly when the time is right- please reassure them that I will go over EVERYTHING again in more detail! Today was about getting them through the door and back into the buzz of a learning classroom.

I also covered some of the more 'mundane' elements today, eg the organisation of homework, presentation of work, spellings etc, with the hope that these things can be sorted swiftly each week meaning that there is plenty of time for fun learning in the classroom. Again, it will take them time to adjust back to school life, so no worries if half of the things that were discussed today were forgotten!

Your child should have come home with a stapled pack of information for you about Year 6. Please put it somewhere safe as it might be useful throughout the year and it may well answer many of your questions. This is especially important now that it will be harder to have a quick chat at drop off or collection.

I will be giving the children short tests this week and next week so that I can assess where they are in there learning so that I can plan lessons appropriately. THIS IS NOTHING FOR THEM TO WORRY ABOUT- so again please reassure them!

My number one aim is to make the classroom a safe, happy haven for them to learn and thrive in. Clear expectations (Covid 19 related, behaviour and work wise) have all been established today and I was impressed with how the children took it all seriously.  

Last Year's Science Fair

I am leaving these photos here for some inspiration as we will be hoping to attempt another science fair this year just before Christmas(Fingers crossed... although it might just be for the pupils).