Welcome to Kestrels 24-25!

What a fantastic few terms we have had in Kestrels! Please see above for some wonderful photos.

Our highlights have been:

·       Meeting John Glen – the children were respectful and inquisitive. They were brilliant ambassadors for Manor Fields and gave our local MP a good grilling about a multitude of issues.

·       Flowplant – we enjoyed an amazing trip to Flowplant in Churchfields, a factory which manufactures water pumps. We got to see inside the office and factory before watching a variety of items be destroyed by a powerful water pump.

·       Litter picking – as part of our class charter, we signed up to the charity event ‘The Big Clean.’ On a lovely sunny afternoon, we picked litter all the way up and down Highbury Avenue and Macklin Road before rewarding ourselves with a play in the play park.

·       Trip to South Wilts – we enjoyed a lovely concert provided by the children of South Wilts and learned all about the different instruments and choirs.

All the Kestrels have had a positive attitude towards their learning and attacked the revision for SATs with determination and perseverance. Alongside revision, they have also written stories, diary entries and letters; learned about the Tudors, volcanoes and earthquakes AND studied the circulatory system and heart. It has been a non-stop few months!

Looking forward to their next term, and last ever term at Manor Fields, there will be:

·       A trip to Harnham Water Meadows – letter to follow shortly

·       Year 5 and 6 play including workshops, rehearsals and two grand performances at the Salberg theatre in Salisbury – more details to follow in term 6.

·       Swimming. This will commence from June 10^th.

·       Solstice Sports

·       Sports Morning and Family Picnic.

·       Pinkery – there will be a further meeting for parents in term 6.

·       Plus much, much more!

SATs Information

Please click on the link below for the SATs information booklet.

SAT's information - Parents booklet 2025

Leaver Hoodies - Arranged by Year 6 Parents

Hoodies have been added to the school online website for parents/guardian to place their orders.

To be able to see the different colour options you must click on both the colour and then size to change the picture on screen.

Please be aware that you also need to remember to select the school into school delivery option at the check out stage, otherwise you will be charge £4.50 home delivery. No hoodie orders will be delivered to home address' even if selected.

The agreed cut off date is the 31st March and the hoodies will be removed off the website and no orders will be accepted after this date. Delivery to school will then be arranged for the 28th April.

There are 2 options one with initials and one without. 

Below is the  link to the online website.

https://www.pbuniform-online.co.uk/schools/manor-fields-primary-school.html

This is an example of what the hoodie will look like.

Term 2 update

What a term! We have packed a lot into these last seven weeks!

In writing, the Kestrels first designed their own zoos and then created beautifully presented leaflets persuading the public to visit. We have also studied the fantastic wordless novel 'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan, which inspired a lot of descriptive writing. We focused on expanded noun phrases, character and setting description and adding atmosphere to our writing, remembering to show not tell. The children all then wrote their own wonderful narratives based on the arrival, including the many things we have learnt about. They were an absolute pleasure to read!

In maths, the Kestrels have recapped their knowledge of multiples and factors before tackling long multiplication. I was very proud of their perseverance when learning the infamous year 6 long division and it's impressive to see how they have remembered it. During the latter part of term 2, we have learnt about fractions including finding equivalent fractions, adding and subtracting fractions and multiplying fractions.

In history, we learnt about the reign of King John, studying evidence to make up our own minds about whether he was a good king. We explored the Feudal System, learning about how peasants lived and work, before learning about the Magna Carta. Each Kestrel created their own informative fact file about the Magna Carta.

In DT, we looked at how cams can help moving toys to work and everyone made their very own moving toy for an audience of their choice. It was delightful to see how carefully they created their frames and how they persevered with getting the cams to turn successfully - this was no mean feat!

In art, we studied the work of Alberto Giacometti and, in particular, his 'moving' sculptures. Following a tutorial, we created our own sculptures using pipe cleaners and tin foils. These were in various poses, from ballerinas, to violinists, to tennis players.

Other highlights include performing our confident remembrance day assembly; selling poppies and other remembrance day things; becoming postmen for Christmas postbox; being excellent role models for the Robins when walking to the pantomime; enjoying and dancing along to Sleeping Beauty and much, much more! It is definitely time for a rest.

We hope you have a lovely Christmas and we are looking forward to term 3!

What a fantastic first term in Kestrels!

We have been learning:

English:

We have been reading the Nowhere Emporium by Ross MacKenzie as our class text this term. This has led to some fantastic shorter pieces of writing, including diary entries from the point of view of the main character, and recounts of the text. Our final piece of writing were fantastic narratives in the style of MacKenzie and the Kestrels created their own 'wonder' - a magical scenario where all the characters dreams can come true. Our wonder's ranged from ice hockey matches, to magical animal lands, with pegasus', unicorns and even Stitch making an appearance. They were a joy to read. Each and every Kestrel worked really hard to create a magical story.

Maths:

We have covered many aspects of Maths so far this term. Beginning with place value, we quickly consolidated our understanding of numbers within 1,000,000 before challenging ourselves to learn about numbers to 10,000,000. The children have become expert rounders, rounding numbers within 10,000,000 and have revisited their knowledge of Roman Numerals. We have also recapped addition and subtraction, exploring these in tricky word problems, and learning different strategies to help us check our answers. Finally, we've also moved onto looking at factors and multiples - ready for our multiplication, division, and fractions learning next term.

Geography:

This term, we have learnt all about trading, import and export. We discovered the UK's main trade partners and explored the country of El Salvador, learning about the difference in the lives of children there to us. We also enjoyed learning all about Fairtrade (what it is, what products it involves and why it's so important) and the Kestrels created their own colourful. informative double page spreads many of which are on display in our classroom.

Science:

We have completed many experiments as part of learning about Light in science. We proved that light only travels in straight lines and explored how we can see around corners, using mirrors, to demonstrate reflection and refraction. We also completed our first 'big' science experiment where we measured the length of shadows and discovered the impact of opaque, translucent and transparent objects on shadows. It was also fantastic to put all of this learning together to create our own shadow puppet theatres.

Other highlights include planning and coding games in Scratch, hosting a record-breaking MacMillan coffee morning, learning to sing 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams alongside our Harvest song 'Harvest Tango' plus much, much more!

Looking forward to term two, we will be:

• Reading the amazing wordless book 'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan 
• Practising our retrieval and inference skills in Guided Reading and developing our vocabulary further.
• Revisiting our multiplication and division skills in Maths before learning the infamous year 6 Long Division! We will also begin our fractions learning with equivalent fractions, and adding and subtracting fractions.
• Learning about King John and the Magna Carta in History.
• Exploring the learning of Alberto Giacommeti in Art
• Creating moving toys in DT
• Plus all the fun that the Christmas term always brings....!

Kestrels 2024-2025

Welcome to Kestrels!

The class team includes:

Class teacher: Mrs Wood

Class TAs: Ms Hardingham and Mrs Davis

Spanish teacher: Mrs Flores (Friday AM)

Our timetable

• Maths and Writing will be taught daily.
• Guided Reading will be taught four times a week and Spelling three times a week.
• We will be learning our foundation subjects in blocks, beginning with Art. Computing and Music will be taught on a Monday afternoon.
• Mrs Hardingham and Mrs Davis will teach PSHE on a Thursday afternoon.
• Mr Cooke will teach PE on a Thursday afternoon and I will teach PE on a Friday afternoon. Please make sure that your child has a full PE Kit on those days including a change of shoes. If this is an issue, please don’t hesitate to contact me. All PE kit should be named.
• Please note, no pencil cases or stationery are needed.
•  

Home learning

• Beginning the 11th September, we will send home a menu of home learning in a similar style to last term. This will include a Maths, English and Topic task that should take no longer than 15 minutes each.
• This will be set on a Wednesday, to be in by the following Monday.
• Completing home learning is an excellent habit to get into in Year 6 as it will help to prepare your child for secondary school.
• Reading at home remains a priority. Children who read to an adult, or independently, at home at least three times a week will be entered into a weekly raffle to win a small prize.
• Individual spellings will be sent home during September. This will be 6 words to learn and will be tested once per week.
• Home Learning club is available for children who would like to complete their home learning at school.

Secondary school

• The deadline for applying for secondary schools is the 31^st October 2024.
• This is completed via the portal on the Wiltshire Council website.
• Please let us know if we can help in anyway.

SATS

• National testing for Year 6s will take place during the week of 12^th May 2025 for four days.
• Children will complete 3 Maths papers (arithmetic and reasoning), a reading comprehension paper and 2 SPAG papers (punctuation, grammar and spelling).
• We will hold a further meeting in the spring term to discuss these in more detail but if you would like any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 Pinkery

• There will be a 5-day, 4-night residential trip to Pinkery Centre for Outdoor Learning in Exmoor.
• This will be from Monday 14^th July to Friday 18^th July
• The cost will be confirmed shortly.

Extra-curricular activities

• Clubs will start on the 23rd September 2024.
• The Manor Fields bank will be open for saving on the 24th September– save as much or as little as you would like!

We are looking forward to the upcoming year! If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.