STEM Visit

16th July 2025Laura Hamill

We LOVED our visit from Dr Caragh Whitehead (aka ‘Erik’s Mum’) today! It was so interesting to learn all about the different types of science and learning that it is not always about big experiments but sometimes simply being interested in the world. We also learned that plants are used to make so many every day items that we may not have previously realised! Did you know plants help to make citronella candles and they’re even used in medicines?! It was great to get hands on and be able to explore the plants more for ourselves, using microscopes and our sense of smell to look at plants in more detail.

Firefighter Visit

16th July 2025Laura Hamill

We loved the firefighter visit yesterday – particularly looking around the fire engine and being able to sit inside it! Some of us had a bit of a shock when the sirens unexpectedly came on. Can you spot the faces of those that were most shocked?!

Times Table Carousel

10th July 2025Laura Hamill

This week, our crew has taken part in a times table carousel, taking part in four different activities: times table stick, TT Rock Stars Battle, heat map challenge with a friend (testing their friends knowledge on any times tables that are not green) and a times table worksheet. We began in one group and then moved around the room to take part in each challenge.

Food Technology

10th July 2025Laura Hamill

This week, Year 5 have begun their DT slice in order to learn about healthy, balanced diets, seasonality and how to prepare a savoury meal. They began by looking at example menus and deciding in mini crews whether or not they were healthy, balanced meals. We then ranked the menus in order from most to least healthy. Following this, each person created their own healthy meal, ensuring it had the correct amount of carbohydrates, vegetables, fats etc.

Once we had done this, we then moved on to look at seasonality and we found out where different ingredients are sourced from when it is not the correct time of year in the UK to grow things. We then used our knowledge of this to find seasonal meals for July that we would be able to make. We then used iPads to have a look on Asda’s website to create a list of ingredients and a price list, so Miss knew what ingredients to buy and how much money she would need. Finally, we put our DT skills to the test: chopping, mixing, stirring, boiling and grating. We cannot wait to see how our vegetable crustless quiche turns out!

Guitar Showcase

2nd July 2025Laura Hamill

Wow! Wow! Wow! What an AMAZING guitar showcase with Year 5 and 6 this morning. It was a privilege to be able to watch the children show off everything they have learned in their guitar sessions with Mr Smith this year. Thank you to all the parents that attended and joined in with some of the tricky moves!

Demonstration Comprehension

1st July 2025Laura Hamill

Today, our crew worked hard in their demonstration comprehension lesson. We focused on the next chapter of our class text, Dark Flood, and tested our fluency by aiming to read 185 words in one minute, in line with the Year 6 expected standard. Following this, we worked with Miss as she modelled how to accurately answer a comprehension question, thinking about the best strategies that we could use. We focused on questions that had arisen as a problem for us based on our recent assessments. Once we’d done this, we then worked in pairs to attempt to answer some of our own questions, before coming back together as a crew to check if we all agreed on the answers.

UKS2 Presentation of Learning

26th June 2025Laura Hamill

UKS2 were very proud to present their learning to their adults yesterday afternoon. After giving an introduction explaining all about our expedition titled: At The Coalface, the children explained what we had done during our case studies to answer our guiding question: How has the mining industry shaped communities?

Children then got to share their amazing final product – a lapbook that brought all of their hard work from this term together whilst showing off their fantastic artwork. Adults were able to take part in a gallery walk to view their child’s work and were also able to take part in other activites – looking through expedition books, taking part in a Kahoot quiz to test their mining knowledge and an opportunity to create some charcoal art of their own!

Thank you so much to everyone who attended and made it a lovely afternoon!

Charcoal Art

11th June 2025Laura Hamill

This week, Crew Hamill have made a start on Case Study 3 – Art. In our first lesson, we have explored our focus artist of Henry Moore who is famous for being commissioned to produce charcoal drawings of coal miners. We then had a go at experimenting with the medium of charcoal ourselves using different techniques, seeing what effects we could create. Some of us even attempted to draw with it!

Consolidating Maths Learning

5th June 2025Laura Hamill

Today, Crew Hamill consolidated their maths learning on the transition of shapes as we found it a little bit tricky during our first lesson. We began by playing a game in which we had to get a monster around the grid in order to eat all of his lunch. Once we had worked out how to get to each item individually, we worked in pairs to create a maze that the monster could follow to collect all of his meal items in one trip. Following this, we completed a MyMaths lesson to demonstrate our improved understanding. We are now ready to move on to our next maths lesson tomorrow.