Today, we held our second hand book and toy sale and it was a HUGE success!!

We had visitors from years R,1 and 2 to peruse and purchase to their heart’s content.

Thank you to those who kindly donated their belongings to the sale and to parents who generously gave their children money so that they could raise money for CAFOD.

We raised an astonishing £80.50, which we are extremely proud of and know that it will go to a worthy cause.

Thank you all again.

Mr C

Today, year 5 took part in a road safety speed operation in conjunction with officer and PCSO’s from Waterlooville Police station. As part of a drive to improve awareness of road safety in the area, the police set up a speed trap along Stakes Hill Road, past Oaklands School and St Peter’s.

Each group took turns at observing an officer with the speed camera as well as conducting surveys with the drivers who had been caught speeding.

It was extremely insightful for the children to be part of this operation and to raise awareness of the importance of adhering to the speed limit.

The children were courteous and polite to the drivers who consented to being interviewed and conducted themselves brilliantly.

Thank you to all the children who brought in their home learning for our space topic last half term. We have seen some amazing models, power points and fact files showing excellent commitment to learning at home.

This half term year 5 are focusing on Ancient Egypt! The children will be delving deep into the history of Egypt learning about mummification, hieroglyphic art work, dance and much more!

They have received home learning pyramids (attached below) in line with this topic and RE focussing on our current unit of Lent. They should choose at least one of the activities to complete by the 1st of April (the last day of term).

We look forward to seeing what the children produce!

The Year 5 Team

Yesterday, Year 5 had the pleasure of watching a gripping yarns production about bullying.

The play itself was definitely ‘gripping’ and the children sat beautifully to listen to the story of Sam and the problems he was having at school with Snid. They also had some extremely valuable contributions and questions to ask at the end of the session.

There was lots of content to encourage the children to think really carefully about their role in a bullying situation. How being a bystander and allowing it to happen can have negative consequences, that fighting back just makes the situation worse and how important it is to tell a trusted adult if someone you know is being bullied.

On Friday, we went to Chichester Festival Theatre to watch the 2015 Children’s music festival.

The Orchestra played some amazing music, including the Overture of the Light Cavalry and the festival was truly entertaining. Brilliantly conducted by Jonathon Willcocks and excellently compered by magician  Neil Henry, who ‘magicked’ the coach away, the children (and adults) sat beautifully through the entire event.

After a brief rehearsal of the audience song ‘Running Order’, the Year 5’s were in splendid voice and action.

During a period of crowd participation, Charlotte was chosen to become a ‘conductor’ (not a bus conductor) and involved an intensive training period in front a full orchestra.

The staff at the theatre were extremely complimentary about the year 5’s behaviour and patience at having to wait such as long time for the coach after the concert finished.

Massive thanks to the parent volunteers who accompanied us for the day. I hope you enjoyed it as much as me!

Mr C

Next week is maths week at St Peters.

I just want to clarify a few uncertainties regarding different times on various days.

On Tuesday (3rd Feb), parents are invited to attend a problem solving workshop in the hall from 10.40-11.25. There is no need to return a reply slip for this event.

The second date is on the Thursday (5th Feb), where parents are also invited into their child’s class to take part in a maths lesson. This event does need to be replied to as there is limited space in each classroom. Teachers therefore need to be aware of how many parents/carers will be attending. The time for this will be 2.10-3.10.

On Friday, children are invited to wear a maths-themed fancy dress costume in exchange for a £2 donation.

I’m already looking forward to seeing some of these creations and desperately wondering what to dress up as myself.

Mr C

Today, four pupils from year 5 went to Portsmouth Junior Grammar School to participate in the year 5 Maths Challenge

This was a challenge for young mathematicians to solve puzzles at six stations.

Working in pairs, they worked through five problems during an eight minute period at each station. The activities during the event consisted of a range of tricky mathematical problems, which tested their skills as mathematicians to the very limit.

The children; Sam Kift, Kallum McCormack, Daisy Lee and Stirling Grout performed brilliantly and finished a very commendable 8th and 15th out of some 32 participating schools. Well Done.

A huge thank you to the parents who attended and I hope you enjoyed it as much as the children.

Welcome back after a well-deserved Christmas break. Our context this half term is Space.

Attached below is the home learning pyramid of suggested tasks that could be completed as part of the context.

I hope the children will be as engaged and enthused by this topic as I am.

Mr Cruddas

Recently, a few children have been explaining that despite completing the activities set on www.activelearnprimary.co.uk, when they log in, it still says that there are activities outstanding. There are a couple of possible explanations:

When viewing the ‘my stuff’ tab, the red number indicates how many activities are outstanding. Often, after completing these, this number stays the same. One course of action to rectify this is to refresh the page. If this doesn’t work, then log out and log in again. If this doesn’t work, see the next picture.

Secondly, after completing any activity, it is important to click the finish icon (as pictured) as opposed to simply exiting the browser using the red cross at the top right hand side of each window.

Once you click this icon, you can then exit the page normally. After which, you should see a confirmation screen with the number of coins rewarded for completing each activity.

I hope this helps and hope equally, that you have a relaxing and restful Christmas break. We will ensure that children are allocated with sufficient homework on abacus, mymaths, and bug club to keep them busy over the festive period.

Merry Christmas,

The Year 5 Team.

Here are copies of the most recent home learning pyramids. This includes one for the WW2 context as well as an Advent one for the current RE unit. Please see home learning diaries for the hand in dates of the advent homework. The WW2 homework is due in on the 19th December.