Autumn Term – Ridgeway Rainbow Tots

This term we have been

learning all about ‘Magical

me’ and ‘Journey to’. We

looked at our senses and

healthy eating first. Then we

learnt about Autumn, Diwali

and shapes. We have also

been learning how to count

and use number language.

We have been very busy. The first few weeks we have been talking about ourselves and what

we like playing with at nursery. We have looked at all of our five senses and have used them in

different activities such as, smell pots and listening to different sounds. We have also looked

at healthy eating. We have had to match the colours of fruit and vegetables and we have also

categorised fruit into the correct basket so they are all the same. We have also been learning

about autumn. We went on an autumn walk, made autumn faces and spoke about how things

change in the autumn time.

At rainbow tots we had some

new children that have joined

us in our morning sessions.

These new children have spent

their time settling in and

understanding the routine and

boundaries that we have. The

existing children have done a

super job helping their new

friends to settle in. We have

been concentrating on making

new friends and using kind

hands.

“Look!... Berries

in the trees!

Tyreiss”

“We use our

eyes to look.”

Annabelle

“I can hear an

aeroplane!”

Kayla-Leigh

“All of the

leaves are on

the ground!”

Jack

Fruit sorting and using our

senses.

Nursery – Autumn Term

This half term we have been

learning all about our new

nursery. Our topics have

been ‘Me, Myself and I’ and

‘Journey to…’ We have been

learning to use our senses to

explore the world around us,

Learnt about Diwali, Autumn,

shapes and pattern and

numbers and counting.

We have been very busy this term learning all about the routines and rules in our new nursery

we have made lots of new friends and have gained lots of confidence when arriving in the

morning. We have been using our senses to explore the changes that happen in autumn. We

have been on an autumn walk and collected objects. We have been learning about how to stay

healthy and have started PE with Mr Lane! We all love PE! We have also had our first Inspire

workshop on ‘Early Speech and Language’ we had lots of parents!

The children all made a

snack mat at the

beginning of the year so

we could get to know then

and the children could

talk about the things

they liked and their

family. It made the

children far more

confident to talk to the

new adults they have met.

‘I use my ears

for listening’

Happy Parsons

‘I’m hot and

sweaty after

PE’ Jasper

‘That’s a

square, it has

4 sides the

same’ Enya

‘The Leaves

change colour

and fall off’

Isabel S

Inspire Workshop – Early

speech and language

Autumn Term- R1

Reception have had lots of fun

this term learning about the

people who help us, space and

Autumn! Reception have had a

visit from Fireman Neil and PCSO

Davina who talked to us about

keeping safe, we have been on an

Autumn walk to collect things for

our classroom and have been to

visit Santa! The children worked

really hard on their Christmas play

and all the adults said it was

fantastic!

‘We posted our

letters to Santa

so he knew

what we

wanted when

we went to visit

him!’

James

‘I liked the

hairdressers; I

liked to go in

there with my

friends’

Destiny

Autumn Term- R2 Miss Chilton

We have had a busy first term in Reception! We have learnt about

‘People Who Help Us’ and ‘Light and Dark’. We have had visitors from

the fire and police service. We have also visited Santa at Birches

Valley, we hope that he has got our letters that we have posted!

“Firemen have fire

engines with hoses

to put out the fire”

Matthew

“It’s a diva

lamp for

Diwali”

Ava

We have tried Indian food and

watched the story of ‘Rama and

Sita’ and used music and dance

to re-create the story. We went

on an Autumn walk and

created our own hedgehogs.

We have also got the classroom

ready for Christmas. We have

had lots of fun!

Autumn Term in 1M

This term we were lucky

enough to visit the Sealife

Centre in Birmingham as part

of our Lost and Found topic.

Children were able to learn

more about sea creatures

and see the penguins that we

have been studying in real

life.

In the first half term we learnt all about fairytales and spent

time looking at Jack and the Beanstalk and The 3 Little Pigs. We

enjoyed reading the stories, acting them out, retelling them and

also writing them. It was especially exciting writing a ‘missing

person’ poster about The Big Bad Wolf and making houses for The

3 Little Pigs! We have also had the opportunity to learn all about

Diwali and the story of Rama and Sita. We acted out the story

and made our own Rangoli patterns, it was lots of fun. For Black

History Week we learnt all about Olympic champion, Usain Bolt.

We learnt about how he is the fastest man on the planet who has

won several gold medals. We enjoyed writing a fact file about him,

making gold medals and taking part in some races outside. In

Science we have been learning about materials, we now know a

variety of different materials and their properties and decided

we would make a coat out of plastic for the 3 Little Pigs as it is

waterproof. We also learnt about Remembrance Day and spent

some time reflecting on this. We made poppies and wrote about

what we learnt.

This term has been lots of fun!

“I held a

Mermaid’s

Purse!” –

Jonathan

Hender

“I enjoyed

being Sita” –

Frayer Hunter

“I found a

conker on our

Autumn walk.”

Neeve Roe

We went on an Autumn Walk

around school, looked at the

changes that happen in Autumn

and then used the dried out

leaves to make a hedgehog.

Autumn Term in 1J

We had lots of fun

investigating which

materials are waterproof.

We took it in turns to test

each material.

We have had a really busy term in 1J. We were all really shocked when a penguin

arrived in a box outside of our classroom. We had to write letters and questions to the

Antarctic to find out how we could help our penguin. We also went on a trip to the

Sealife centre. It was great fun and we learnt lots about a wide variety of animal. In

science we have been learning about materials. We tested different materials

properties and investigated which materials are waterproof. We then used our

knowledge of materials to create a boat to send our penguin home in. We also really

enjoyed practising for our Christmas play and were really proud of our final

performance. We have also been learning about different festivals. We learnt about

Diwali and also harvested vegetables during our Harvest celebration.

“We found some

really big

potatoes and

some small

carrots” Sophie

“They have

lots of

fireworks to

celebrate

Diwali” Ravi

We really enjoyed

working in small groups

to harvest fruit and

vegetables from our

school allotment.

“Diwali is a Hindu

festival and it is

called the festival of

light.”

Robert

“Plastic is a

waterproof

material.”

Poppy

Autumn Term in 2B

In the autumn term we had the

chance to learn all about Diwali.

We learnt that this is a

celebration of light and we

made diva lamps out of clay and

painted them with pretty

colours. We also used paint to

explore tone by creating a lotus

flower that faded from white

to pink.

As part of our Science topic we visited the zoo to learn all about animals and their habitats.

Even though it was rather wet we really enjoyed ourselves as we were able to visit most of the

animals and learn different facts. In our English lessons we have been learning about different

styles of poetry. We have learnt some poems off by heart and performed them to each other.

We have also created our own poems that were inspired by different poets. Finally, we have

spent the last couple of weeks of our term practising for our Christmas performance; we have

enjoyed learning all the songs and creating our fantastic costumes.

Our first topic was about

Rosa Parks and Nelson

Mandela. We used role play

to understand what

happened to Rosa Parks and

how she became famous. We

also designed and created

our own dresses where we

attached buttons, glitter

and sequences to different

coloured fabric.

“Rosa Parks

stood up for

what she

believed in.”

Eva Pinches

“Look how big

the tortoise is!”

Ollie

“We used clay

to make lava

lamps.”

Jake Motton

Autumn Term in 2H

What a lot of learning we have

done in Autumn term in 2H! We

have learnt all about Nelson

Mandela and Rosa Parks and

what they did for the Black

rights movement. 2H were lucky

enough to learn about them

through drama as we have

acted out the famous bus scene

of Rosa Parks. We also worked

in teams to create a timeline of

the life of Nelson Mandela.

2H have done so much learning during the Autumn term!

In PSHE we have looked at how to keep ourselves healthy and happy by looking at what makes a healthy

diet, how to keep our teeth clean and what exercise we should do. We have also built our self-esteem by

valuing things about ourselves and others and doing regular circle time.

In RE we were very fortunate at Harvest time to perform at the Church doing a fab harvest poem and

song. In our lessons we have learnt a lot about books that are special to us and to others. More

importantly we have learnt to be respectful of these different books. As well as this, we have learnt all

about St Andrew during our special St Andrews day. To top it all off, 2H have been a part of a special

Divali day, where we retold the story of Lakshmi, printed Lotus flowers and learnt all about Puja.

In geography 2H have learnt about geography on our magical tour bus, which has taken us to different

places around the world. We’ve looked at hills, mountains, lakes, so many different things! We’ve even

had a look at creating our own maps and the 7 different continents.

During our English lessons we have written and performed our poems to the rest of the class. We used

actions and facial expressions during this performance.

We have been Year 2 superstars!

In science we have used all our

scientific skills to investigate

everyday materials, we even

took a trip to the zoo to learn

more about this, as well as

things that are alive dead and

have never been alive. Whilst

we were there we got to look

at lots of different animals

including turtles, penguins and

monkeys.

“I liked making the fish: they looked really real!”

Lyla Sutton

“I loved acting out our

peoms to the class.”

Isla Chalmers

“I liked doing all the

Science

experiments.”

Maisy Lowe

Autumn Term in 3G

During Black History Week, 3G

were lucky enough to celebrate

the story of Martin Luther King

with Highly Sprung through

theatrical drama. We found out

that human rights have not

always been equal but through

the inspiration of Martin

Luther King, today we all live

equal lives. We performed our

production to our parents to

celebrate Black History.

3G have been really busy this term! During our English lessons in the last half term, we have been

exploring a range of journalistic style writing. We had a chance to write our own non-chronological

report about a bear. To do this, we learnt all about different fictional and non-fictional bears and even

had a visit from Paddington! As part of our PHSCE lessons, we have been focusing on our health and

wellbeing and relationships with others. We have been trying our best to work as part of a team and

reflected and celebrated not only our own achievements but achievements of others too. To enrich our

learning in PSHCE, we went to Alton Castle. This was our favourite day! We used a map to do some

orienteering in a team, followed an obstacle course around the woods and had to complete some team

building activities. 3G are now a really good team!

In our History topic this term, we

have been learning all about the

Stone Age. Using rolling drama, we

created a video to tell the life of

a hunter gatherer. We then used

our video to write a diary entry.

During our focus days in school,

we were lucky enough to learn

about Diwali. We used water

colours to create our own rangoli

patterns.

We have also had the chance to

learn all about St Andrew. We

found it really interesting creating

a fact file about his life and how

he became a patron saint.

“St Andrew first

became a Patron

Saint in 1320.”

Elle-May

e

“We could only get

the ball onto the pipe

if we listened to each

other!”

Niamh

“Martin Luther

King is an

inspirational

leader”

Loris

Autumn Term in 3H

In the autumn term we

deepened our understanding of

the celebration, Diwali. We

explored the story of Rama and

Sita and then developed our

painting technique in art, by

using fine brushes with

watercolour paints to create

our own rangoli patterns.

3H have been very busy during the autumn term.

In Literacy, we explored a range a traditional tales in preparation for writing our own fractured stories.

We now know what a fractured story is and have written our one tales. Using drama techniques, we

acted out different plots and have discovered a whole new world of alternative characters. We have

found out about fictional and non-fictional bears to inspire us to work hard in our writing. We have

written our own information texts about bears and even had a visit from Paddington!

In Science, We have been learning all about rocks and collected rocks from around the school grounds.

We investigated the properties of different types of rock by experimenting and have also learnt about

their uses in the world.

During our PSHE lessons, we have been developing our term-building and collaborative skills. We have

completed tasks where we needed to assign roles, listen carefully, problem solve and work together o

reach an end goal, including working together to build the highest paper tower that would stand up on

its own. To end this term, we also visited Alton Castle to take part in other term building activities

where we got to explore a trail in the woods, hunt for treasure collecting clues and solve puzzles.

During Black History Week,

3H learnt all about Mary

Seacole. Sarah from Highy

Sprung helped us to use

drama and movement to

retell the story of her life.

We all enjoyed sharing our

performance with our

parents and link governor.

“Mary Seacole went to help injured soldiers even though she was

told she wasn’t allowed to because of the colour

of her skin,” Billy.

“Alton Castle

was the best

trip, ever! ”

Max

“I enjoyed learning

about Saint Andrew.

I didn’t know that

he was one of Jesus’

disciples,” Thomas.

Autumn Term in 4LP

In the autumn term we have

had the opportunity to work

with Highly Sprung. Sarah

taught us all about an

inspirational lady called

Wangaari Mathai who fought

for the rights of black women

to work. We told the story

through dance, drama and music

and then performed to our

parents as an outcome.

4LP have had a wonderfully busy term.

In English we have been reading the book ‘The Iron Man’. We have loved the story and created lots of

fantastic pieces of writing. We have written newspaper articles, letters, stories and diary entries.

In Science we have been learning all about ‘sound’. We have taken part in lots of investigations to

explore sound and how it travels. We found out that the quicker the vibrations the louder the sound and

the closer the vibrations the higher the pitch. We even made string telephones to explore if sound

travels better through solids or gases!

We have had a huge focus on History this term and have learnt all about World War 2. At the beginning

of out topic we received a letter from Dennis, a World War 2 veteran. He said he would help us to find

out all about World War 2. As an outcome event we had an evacuee day and dressed up as World War 2

evacuee children. We acted out leaving on a train and talked about how it would feel to leave our

families. We then cooked jam tarts using a rationing recipe and made gas mask boxes and name tags

just like the evacuee children would have had to wear. Our favourite part of the day was when Dennis

came to visit. He answered lots of questions and told us so many stories from the war. It was a great

experience!

One of our focus days this

term has been around Saint

Andrew. We found out lots

of facts about him during

Computing and in Art we

created tartan using a

variety of materials e.g.

tissue paper, ribbon, sugar

paper and wool.

“Wangaari Mathai was a very clever woman and she planted lots of trees to create jobs for black women,” Sophia Rogers

“I can’t believe

we got to meet

Dennis! ” Olivia

Witton

“Saint Andrew was

one of Jesus’

disciples and there is

a church in Scotland

named after him,”

Lilly Whitfield

Autumn Term in 4W

In the autumn term we have had

the opportunity to plant some

saplings with Mrs Flower. We were

all able to take a sapling, dig a hole

and plant it in the ground near the

school playground. We put frost

protectors on so they don’t freeze

in the winter. We look forward to

seeing them grow.

4W have had a brilliantly busy term.

In English we have been studying fables. We read The Tin Forest as a introduction to the topic and then

we looked into lots of different fables written by Aesop. We really enjoyed reading and retelling The

Hare and The Tortoise. We then wrote our own fables.

In Science we have been learning all about ‘sound’. We have taken part in lots of investigations to explore

sound and how it travels. We also went on a trip to Enginuity science museum in Ironbridge and we learnt

all about electricity, ready for out next terms topic. We had a great time looking at all of the different

exhibits.

We have had a huge focus on History this term and have learnt all about World War 2. At the beginning

of out topic we received a letter from Dennis, a World War 2 veteran. He said he would help us to find

out all about World War 2. As an outcome event we had an evacuee day and dressed up as World War 2

evacuee children. We acted out leaving on a train and talked about how it would feel to leave our families.

We then cooked jam tarts using a rationing recipe and made gas mask boxes and name tags just like the

evacuee children would have had to wear. Our favourite part of the day was when Dennis came to visit. He

answered lots of questions and told us so many stories from the war. It was a great experience!

One of our focus days this term

has been about the celebration

of Diwali. We used the internet

to find out about how Hindus

celebrate the festival of light.

We then created patterned

elephants using pencil and

colouring pencils. They looked

really effective

“Diwali is the

celebration of

light. They use

candles inside and

outside their

homes” Amber

Patton

“I loved wearing

evacuee clothes!”

Erin Nind

“I really enjoyed

planting the

trees and I can’t

wait to see them

grow”

Ellis Dyche

Autumn Term in 5C

5C have had a fantastic Autumn Term. We have managed to pack in some amazing experiences into such a

short period of time!

During harvest, we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to perform a harvest assembly at the local

church and to harvest our vegetables that we planted when we were in Year 4.

As part of our Remembrance Day celebrations we had a visit from a local artist called Peter Walker. We

wrote postcards to those that fought in the trenches and drew poppies. These will feature as part of large

art piece he is preparing for the cathedral in Lichfield.

We enjoyed taking part in Black History week where we learnt about Mahatma Gandhi and the contribution

he made to racial equality.

We finished this term by having a visit from Google Expeditions. We loved having a virtual tour of Egypt. It

felt like we were really there seeing all the amazing sights, the pyramids looked enormous!

“We liked learning

about the war and

about the people

that fought for us.”

– Chris Hurst

“We liked it when we

harvest the vegetables we

planted last year” – Sophie

Gudgin

“When we got to see the

pyramids using VR it was

amazing, and scary.” -

Tyler Chapman

Autumn Term in 5E

5E have had a wonderful Autumn Term. We have taken part in lots of exciting experiences.

We enjoyed harvesting our vegetables that we planted within year 4.

We had a visit from Peter Walker, a local artist. We learned about WW2 and life in the trenches. We all

drew our own poppies and then wrote postcards to the men in the trenches. These were then taken to be

displayed at a Remembrance Day celebration.

We enjoyed taking part in Black History week where we created African Masks and learned about Mahatma

Gandhi.

We finished this term by having a visit from Google Expeditions. We loved having a virtual tour of Egypt. It

felt like we were really there seeing all the amazing sights.

“We were really

lucky to take part in

a Google Expedition.

We used the virtual

reality devices to

explore Egypt. It

was amazing,”

Jacob.

“I really

enjoyed

when the

artist Peter

Walker

came into

school,”

Aaliah.

“We enjoyed

harvesting the

vegetables that we

planted last year,”

Lewis.

Autumn Term in 6P

In the autumn term we had the

chance to learn all about the

circulatory system. We learnt

all about how oxygenated blood

circulates around the body. To

secure our understanding we

actually acted out the role of

blood cells on the playground

and conducted a scientific

investigation on pulse rate.

On the week beginning Monday 7th November, Year 6 went on their residential trip to Laches

Wood. For many of us it was the first time we had been away from our parents for any amount

of times! We had an amazing time improving our team work and communication skills through an

exciting range of activities: archery, rock climbing, caving, high ropes, orienteering and

BMXing. It was a good time for us to learn to deal with responsibilities as well as we had to get

ourselves ready for our meals, keep our rooms nice and tidy and be trusted to get to sleep at

the right time so we had enough energy for the next day’s activities!

We improved our knowledge

of Online Safety during the

Autumn term, learning all

about the different dangers

that are present online.

To help our understanding,

we created Online Safety

board game which

featured several safe and

unsafe online scenarios

that we had to design

ourselves.

“We need to

always stay safe

online.”

Sidney

“I want to go to

Laches Wood

again!”

Jared

“I think press

ups will raise

our pulse rate

the most.”

Zak

Autumn Term in 6C

6C have been very busy during the autumn term and have been lucky enough to take part in a number of

workshops.

One of our topics this term has been WW2 and it is a topic that many of us have become extremely

interested in and intrigued about. Although we had conducted lots of research and watched different videos,

we still couldn’t really imagine what it would be like for the soldiers on the front line. That was until we had a

workshop with Google Expeditions…Using virtual reality technology we were able to journey to the front line

and witness what the trenches and battle fields would have looked like and really put ourselves into the shoes

of the soldiers. Due to our interest in the topic, many of the class conducted research at home and because

of this we created our own class Wiki so pupils could create pages at home and in school to document all the

information they were discovering and to share with others.

We were also lucky enough to take part in another workshop, an art workshop that incorporated science and

maths as well. We began by looking at maths formulas and then generated our own in teams. We then worked

as a class to discuss and create circuits and discussed motors and switches in order to create our own. We

used our circuits to create a spinning wheel and then stuck our formula letters on and dropped beads of paint

on in order to create work similar to that of Damien Hirst’s.

To get ourselves and our

parents into the festive

spirit, we joined forces

with Year 3 and put on a

fantastic carol concert at

Chasetown Methodist

Church.

“Virtual reality was a great experience; we

learnt more about our topic and what it was

like in the fields of battle.” Libby

“I enjoyed the art

workshop because it

was a mixture of

art, music and

science.” Sophie

“I thought it was great

that we were able to

blog our knowledge of

WW2 and learn about

WIKIS.” Oliver

“I enjoyed the art

workshop because it

was a mixture of

art, music and

science.” Sophie