On Wednesday 1st February, children from the Barn Owls and Snowy Owls visited Paignton Zoo. The admission was free to celebrate the zoo’s 100th year. The children focused on ecosystems which enhanced their learning in class. 

Year 5s have been working on multiplication in Maths this week. To help with calculations, pupils have used base ten apparatus with confidence.

Barn Owls have been learning and acting the text of "How the Whale Became" by local legend, Ted Hughes. We will be looking at sentence structures and the use of subordination and adverbials to convey events and ideas.

Progressing skills have been evident in Barn Owls class during PE lessons with Mr Pugh this week. Children have particularly worked on shooting skills, culminating in some fast-paced small-sided games.

Barn Owls have been finding out about variables in programming and how they are used in games. 

On a very icy morning, the Open the Book team welcomed us to the Chapel for a story from Jesus' young life. Bentley put in an admirable performance as the 12 year-old who was lost by his parents and found in the Temple. As usual, all the performers made the story both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Barn Owls enjoyed a varied and enlightening workshop with some experts in Mental Health. We carried out a range activities and discussions, as well as games, which helped us to find ways to look after our mental health. Several children even had the chance to be wrapped in loo roll in a teamwork game!

At the start of term, each child decorated part of a paper plate in a style which represented them, their personality and uniqueness.  The plates have now been joined together to symbolise that everyone is important in our school and together we all fit together to make it a special place. 

​This week in our final mindfulness club session for the term, we made our own glitter jars. Sometimes our thoughts and emotions get all stirred up and it makes it hard to think clearly. A glitter jar can be a good tool to help you settle your feelings. The group enjoyed watching the glitter in the jar and listening to calming music – a great way to end our day at school.  

Barn Owls have been creating working electrical circuits in Science, learning about the essential components and using symbols to represent these.
Our work in Science will also be used in upcoming D&T work this half-term. We plan to finish our Science module by devising and making a game that uses electrical components.

Having tried out different angles for filming last week, Barn Owls used different types of shots to frame for different purposes. We look forward to watching and reviewing the films made this week.

This week in PE, we have been learning offensive strategies. Great work was seen across the class, and the use of attacking techniques culminated in some enthralling small-sided games.

Barn Owls employed their acting skills in charades, asking classmates to guess positive and negative actions that could be seen in friendships. We talked about what would make a healthy friendship. The children voted that being trustworthy was the most important quality in a friend.

On Friday morning, Barn Owls moved over to the back of the Chapel for the morning. Dressed in home clothes and lots of dots for Children in Need, they worked hard on fractions in Maths before returning to school for lunch.

Recycle Week is an annual event designed to celebrate and promote the benefits of recycling. It creates opportunities for us all to implement positive change that will help protect our planet. The whole school came together in their teams to create a Pudsey model using recycled materials. It was great to see children from all year groups supporting one another and working together towards a shared goal. 

The School Council visited Springfields residential home to play games with, and speak to, the residents. Community connection is key to our personal development journey for the children

Having learned about filming angles for different purposes, Barn Owls tried them out - first steps to onscreen stardom!

South West Water would have been interested to see the Science unfolding in Barn Owls this week, where we were separating mixtures back to their component substances, and trying to derive clean water. 
After filtering, sieving and leaving mixtures to evaporate, the water may not have been ready to drink, but it was much cleaner than before.

Our Year 6 group, along with those from Lydford, travelled to Okehampton to take part in the organised workshops there last Tuesday. 
The skills learned and advice imparted covered areas such as recycling, electrical safety, safety at sea, hygiene, online safety, outdoor safety and resuscitation.