What a fantastic first few days back it has been! It has been lovely to hear all about the children’s holiday adventures and see how enthusiastically they have settled back into school life.

In English, we launched our new model text with an exciting scavenger hunt. Following a series of clues, the children identified six locations around Rickmansworth, which linked perfectly to our new text set in the town over a hundred years ago. We explored the opening paragraph, a beautiful description of the River Chess, which inspired the children to create their own illustrations of the setting. They also crafted similes and examples of personification linked to the river, choosing some truly wonderful and imaginative vocabulary.

In Maths, we focused on identifying factors of a number. For example, the factor pairs for 24 are 1 and 24, 2 and 12, 3 and 8, and 4 and 6.

In Science, we began our new topic on States of Matter. The children learnt about solids, liquids, and gases, and identified the key properties of each state.

In Art, we launched an exciting new topic called Typography—the creative art of making letters and words visually appealing and easy to read. The children searched through magazines to find letters to spell out “Typography” and then experimented with cutting and shaping paper to design their own fonts.

We also introduced our Changemaker Project for this half term, which will focus on the value of Trust.

As part of our return to school activities, the children created agamographs combining the number 2026 with a chosen word to inspire and motivate them for the year ahead.

Homework was set today and includes Maths and English Doodle assignments, Times Table Rock Stars, and reading at least five times a week.

Music - please could you encourage your children to learn the songs for Young Voices. We have been enjoying learning them in class.