Dear all,

 

So, I can’t imagine that any children will be checking this blog now so I will address this directly to you parents (I’m hoping that one or two of you might read it still).

 

The last day finally came and went and while it was a hot and stuffy end to the year, it was a pleasure to teach the class for one last time! I felt the children all dealt with the end of year events admirably with just a few tears here and there (including some teary eyed moments from myself, I have to admit). I think it really shows how ready they all are to move onto bigger and better things.

 

I’m sure you will all agree that the show on Thursday was absolutely fantastic and they well and truly smashed it out of the park –and some! Thank you for all of your help in putting together the costumes (sorry for the last minute rush on green outfits).

 

Thank you to the class for being so brilliant this year and to you parents for your support and the incredibly generous gifts/kind words etc! Thank you also for having us at the Leavers’ Party –I’m sorry if I didn’t get to speak to all of you, my mind was on not messing up the song after Aila had got it word/note perfect on Thursday. I was too tired to polish off the bubbly in the end when I got back home but it will no doubt be enjoyed tonight!

 

For all of you with younger children in the school still, I will see you all on the gate next year and to those whose children have now all left, do come back and see us at any of our events –you are all more than welcome any time!

 

Have a wonderful summer…

 

Mr Gradwell

 

Dear all,

 

One more week to go! I trust that you all enjoyed your visits to your respective secondary schools yesterday and this has made you excited to start in the autumn.

 

This week in school has of course seen you rehearsing for the play for much of it and although we didn’t quite get through to the end this morning, I’m sure with a few last minute tweaks that we need to make on Monday, it will all go without a hitch when we perform to others from Tuesday. In the meantime, please continue to practise your lines and learn the lyrics to the songs if you don’t already know them all.

 

The next few notes are for your parents:

 

For our final performance on Thursday, please can you ensure that your child is back in school by 6pm so we can make sure that they are all ready to go in their costumes for the 6.30pm start.

 

Our Leavers’ Assembly will be next Friday at 9am and should last around an hour. This assembly gives us an opportunity for the younger children in the school to say goodbye to the class and they will finish with a song if they can keep it together.

 

After the assembly on Friday, the children can have their shirt or polo shirt signed by the younger children. Please send your child in with the pens that they would like to be used for this.

 

We will finish the day on Friday at 2pm with our Leavers’ Parade where the rest of the school get to clap out the children before they leave for secondary school.

 

Have a good weekend!

 

Mr Gradwell

 

Dear all,

 

I know I have not been with you much this week but I was glad to see how much the play has come along over the last couple of days and the singing sounds amazing!

 

Going back to this time last week, I am pleased to confirm that during your ‘Apprentice’ day, just over £650 was raised in total, which will be going to Cancer Research UK, chosen by our winning team, Fun Time.

 

Moving on to next week, we will be continuing with our rehearsals for most of the week (apart from Thursday when most of you will be having your secondary transfer day). Following on from our discussion earlier today, from Monday, please could you begin to bring in the items to be used as costumes so that we can start to rehearse in full costumes on Friday –that really makes the whole thing ‘come alive’.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Mr Gradwell

PS Come on England!

Hi Year 6,

 

I just wanted to start by saying how nice it was to meet your parents this week to discuss and share the progress that you have made this year. I hope you are proud of all that you have achieved this year and if you do have little things to work on as you move to secondary, make sure that you remember them and work on them when you go.

 

Today, of course, saw the culmination of a lot of hard work over the last few weeks as you completed your ‘Apprentice’ day. You all did an amazing job and a huge amount of money was raised collectively as a result –we will find out exactly how much when you count it on Monday and when we discover who the winning team is and therefore which charity will be benefitting from it. It really was a great afternoon and you have certainly left a positive lasting legacy in showing the younger ones how to run such a project when they get to Year 6. Now to do the same in your performance…

 

We will be continuing with our Relationship and Sex (RSE) lessons next week by answering the questions that you had this week. These questions will be answered in single-sex groups but will involve answering questions from both genders.

 

As we get nearer to the end of the school year and the show performance, we will be rehearsing without scripts from Thursday of next week, so please ensure you set time aside until then to learn all of your lines, but also more importantly, how you are to say them.

Here are the pictures of the afternoon before the chaos began:

...and one when it had already started!

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Mr Gradwell

Dear all,

 

So here we are at the end of another week already. I don’t want to complain about this lovely weather that we are having, but it does make for a warm, muggy classroom which can be hard to fully concentrate in, so I am glad that we are now at the weekend and can enjoy the sunshine.

On Tuesday morning next week, we will be going to Christ Church for a workshop to support your Transition to secondary school.

 

In English next week, we will continue with The Girl of Ink and Stars by using written persuasive techniques and retrieving and summarising details from the text.

 

In maths next week, we will be focusing on some further algebra before completing the ‘Apprentice’ project as you compete with your businesses on Friday afternoon. Please ensure that you have most if not all of the items purchased this weekend and that you bring them in by Thursday. As also mentioned in last week’s blog, please could you ask your families to provide a ‘float’ that you can use to give change on the day; this can be brought in on Friday and will be returned in full at the end of the project. It must be recorded by the treasurer and checked with Mrs Friedmann or me when you bring it in –do not leave it in your bag!

 

In science, you will be researching why and how living things adapt to their environment and also learning about the theory of natural selection.

In geography, you will be looking at further energy sources around the world.

I have not sent home any formal homework this week but I would like you all to be learning your lines so that you can start rehearsing in class without needing to use the script.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Mr Gradwell

 

Dear all,

 

Another week has passed by so quickly! I know I have not been with you in the afternoons much this week, but I am pleased to hear that you have worked hard even when I have not been around which has been great to hear.

 

As it is Sports Day next Thursday (weather permitting), you will all be helping out the younger members of your ‘houses’ in the morning before taking part in your own races in the afternoon.

 

In English next week, we will begin a new book called The Girl of Ink and Stars by using written persuasive techniques and retrieving and summarising details from the text.

 

In maths, we will be continuing with our topic on financial maths by using market research techniques to finalise the business ideas before marketing the products/services. Our computing will be linked to our maths lessons as we use computer programs to develop ideas for business logos, create questionnaires and begin to develop advertising campaigns.

In geography, we will continue with our Energy topic by looking at energy in the UK.

As I mentioned today, your PE lessons have now switched permanently from Tuesday to Monday with the other days remaining the same (Thursday am and Friday pm).

For those of you who are acting as Treasurers for your businesses, you will have been given the £35 spending money this afternoon. As explained, you will need to collect and keep all receipts and I would like you to bring these back in on Friday 28^th June on the Apprentice sale day. Some of you have been asking me about the float situation and just to reassure you, anything that you bring in for that will be paid back to you in full at the end of the day (this is something else that the Treasurer will need to ensure happens).

Have a good weekend.

 

Mr Gradwell

 

 

 

Auditions and PE day change

Hi Year 6,

I hope you have all had a good weekend after all of the excitement of last week. This is just to let you all know about a couple of notes for tomorrow.

The first note is that after lunch tomorrow, Mrs Custis will be holding auditions for the Talent Show. The second note is that your first PE session for next week will be tomorrow afternoon instead of Tuesday. It will be at 2:15 still and the other PE lessons will remain on the normal days and times.

Enjoy the rest of your afternoon/evening.

Regards

Mr Gradwell