P.O.W.S.A Blog

P.O.W.S.A (The Prince of Wales School Association), now has it’s own section of the school website which includes a blog detailing all their latest news and events. To access the P.O.W.S.A page simply click the link labelled ‘POWSA’, at the top of any page within  the school website.

Mathletics Warning!!

As you know, the children have really enjoyed the mathletics programme through year 3.  Now the children are starting on the year 4 programme, there are a couple of activities that have been wrongly placed.  For example in the Something Easier section in block B there are some activites on Surface Area of Prisms, this is definately not year 4 work, but year 6 upwards.  The division is also different to the way in which we teach it.  I have reported this to Mathletics, but they have yet to change the activites in question.  I hopethe children continue to enjoy the activities, games and speed maths as they did last year.

Recent Trips

We have had some lovely trips this week to Maiden Castle Farm and Weymouth Harbour.  The children really enjoyed both of these trips.  I have been particularly impressed at how they have retained what they've learned and their ability to share this with others.  Well done year 4!

Water and Snacks

We are continuing our effort to get the children to drink plenty of water during the day, especially during this hot weather.  We are however finding that many children are choosing lesson time to ask to refill their water bottles.  We are currently trying to train the year 4 children to remember to drink and refill thier bottles at play time and lunch time breaks where there will be a drinks whistle five minutes before the end of play.  No child will be denied a drink, but we need to ensure that children aren't opting out of valuable lesson time for strategic drinks breaks!
Many children are coming to school without a morning snack.  The school provide fruit for children in Reception, year 1 and year 2, there is occasionally extra to share with the older children, however there isn't always fruit available for all children.  Please could you ensure your child has a healthy snack for break time in order to fuel thier brains until lunch?
Many Thanks

Harvest Festival reminder...

Just to remind all of our community that Harvest Festival is taking place this Friday (30^th Sept) in the school hall. KS 1 begins at 9.15am with produce sold afterwards. Then KS2 begins at 9.50am again with produce being sold afterwards. All produce for Harvest please take to the Servery in the morning; we will be awaiting you to begin placing onto our display areas.

If you are bringing in cakes, etc for the Harvest Café please take this to the classrooms; we will then collect this later on in the day when the hall is prepared for the afternoon. Harvest Café is open to parents, friends from 2.30pm and will close at 4pm, this is so hopefully pre-school children and parents can come over and join us. Children will be able to buy two cakes and a drink for 20p.

We very much look forward to seeing you, thank you for your help and support.

Vist the Bounty

I've heard that the replica ship of HMS Bounty will be visiting Weymouth harbour from 29th September to 2nd October.  Unfortunately these times do not fit in with our trip to Weymouth next week, but if you are in the area you might like to go and have a look!

WOW WOW WOW! Year 4 I.C.T!

Today in I.C.T we explored Google SketchUp for the first time and I was amazed (truly amazed!) with how quickly Year 4 picked up using this professional application. We followed a number of instructional videos (available in the Year 4 Merlin area - click on the I.C.T logo) to get us started and then we were off! We all managed to create something with a focus on furniture with some of us making chairs, sofas and even a bed! These will now be displayed in the I.C.T suite and next week we will move onto making a ship linking in with the Year 4 topic on ships and seafarers. If you want to have a go with Google Sketchup at home you can download it for free at: http://sketchup.google.com/.

Super Homework

The year 4 team have been very impressed with this weeks returned homework.  We have a range of ships rules going up on display in the classroom.  The children have been very creative and suitably piratical!  Well done everyone.  Thos' land lubbers who still 'aven't returned their work be Friday will 'ave to walk the plank!

An Art Project

Later this term we will be making our own ships in bottles!  We need clear plastic 2litre drinks bottles.  If you have any in the recycling bag, please bring them in.

Our first two trips

We will be going to Maiden Castle Farm on the morning of Monday 26th September to lead up to our harvest celebration.  Please ensure that your child brings some suitable footwear (wellies or walking boots) and a warm waterproof coat.
On Tuesday 27th September we are off to Weymouth to find out more about the area's seafaring history.  We will be touring the harbour, finding out more about how it is used today and how it was used in the past.  We will also have the opportunity to visit the Nothe fort again where we will tour the outside of the fort, have our lunch and see the views across the sea.

Swimming Dates

Dates for swimming this term will be
Wednesday 21st September
Wednesday 5th October
Wednesday 19th October
Wednesday 2nd November
Wednesday 16th November
Wednesday 30th November
For those of you who are unable to drop your child off at the THLC, Mrs Scott and Mrs Bernard will be leaving school 8.30 prompt.

Year 4 I.C.T

We had an excellent Year 4 I.C.T lesson today where we considered the importance of being S.M.A.R.T when using the Internet. We discussed password safety and all changed our SWGfL Merlin password to something unique. We finished the lesson by watching a video which encouraged us to think about e-safety. This video can be seen at home by following this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o8auwnJtqE. As parents, I encourage you sit down with your child/children to watch this video and discuss the powerful message which is conveyed. Mr. Spracklen

DT and Science Topic

This term we will be looking in detail at Electrical Circuits and how they can be used to light bulbs and power motors.  We will be building our own torches and hopefully our own working models of a lighthouse.  In order to construct our torches we will need 1 pint plastic milk bottles and small plastic bottles, if you have any at home that you need to recycle we would be happy to use them.  Thank you.

The year 4 team

Miss Johnson, Mrs Scott and Mrs Bernard are pleased to welcome Mr Justyn Hopkins, our graduate teacher to the class for this half term.  All of the team are looking forward to the next year and welcome any questions or queries.  Please drop in and see us!

Trips

We are in the process of planning the following trips this term (dates to be confirmed):
1. Weymouth harbour / Weymouth Sailing Academy / Portland Light House - To link to our Ships and Seafarers topic.
2. Poole Lighthouse - Horrible Histories - Rotten Romans (Links to our summer term Romans and Celts topic, a bit early, but not to be missed).
3. National Film Week - Weymouth Cinema - The Zoo Keeper - This will link in with a mini-topic we plan to run relating to art, french and literacy.
4. Buckler's Hard (History in action).  A chance to see where Nelson's Flagship was built.

Spellings

This term I will be giving out spelling lists on Monday to be checked on the following Monday.  These will be linked to Spellodrome activites so that the children have the option to practise at home and at school using the computer.

Class Assembly

Our Autumn term class assembly will be on Friday 4th November at 9.20am in the school hall.  Please come along and see what we've been learning so far this term.

Our new timetable

We will send a more detailed timetable home at the end of the week with the children's homework, it will describe in more detail what we have been learning in each of the lessons.

Welcome Back

We are looking forward to an inspiring start to year 4, so we hope you have all had a relaxing break and are ready for a fun year!