Interview Prep

As part of their expedition, Crew Hamill will be interviewing an ex miner in order to find out a little bit more about the experiences they had when working in the mines. In preparation for this, we worked in mini crews to chot some ideas for the questions we’d like to ask. We then worked as a crew to put our ideas together and generate a final list of questions which we will be asking on Friday.

Exciting earthquakes!

In our lesson, we used our prior knowledge about tectonic plates and began to deepen our thinking around what they could cause. We discussed how the movement of tectonic plates can cause earthquakes. There are three different tectonic plate boundaries where earthquakes occur: convergent, divergent and conservative. We then demonstrated our newfound knowledge in an experiment. We used crackers and cream to show how the tectonic plates move at the different boundaries. At the divergent plate boundary, the tectonic plates move apart. At a convergent plate boundary, the plates move together and the denser oceanic plate subducts under the lighter continental plate. Finally, at a conservative plate boundary, tectonic plates slide past each other. Friction happens and pressure builds up which is released as an earthquake. We showed these using the crackers and cream!

Crowning the King and Queen of Carcroft

On Wednesday we continued our first case study all about King Charles III. We learnt that he became King of England after the death of his mother and that he had a ceremony called a coronation.

We then decided to hold our own coronation to celebrate the King and Queen of Carcroft. We even had trumpet players, the Prince of Wales and finished with a rendition of the National Anthem!

Basketball Hot Seat Challenge

In PE, Crew Godley took on the exciting Basketball Hot Seat Challenge! Working as a team, the children had to use their skills, strategy, and quick thinking to get each other out of the hot seat. It was fantastic to see such great teamwork, communication, and determination on display. Well done, Crew Godley, you showed brilliant sportsmanship and energy throughout, even when it became a little tricky!

What is the crust made of?

In our second Hook week lesson, we explored what the crust of the earth is made up of. We learned that the crust is made of 5 different layers which are called the organic material, topsoil, subsoil, parent material and bedrock. Children matched each layer to their description after we’d watched some videos to help us understand about what each of the layers were made of.

Experience day

In writing, it was a perfect opportunity to complete a recount after our visit to Magna. To help us prepare for the writing day, we spent some time ordering the events in chronological order. While the children completed the activity, I could hear the children starting to use time adverbials as they ordering them which will be one of our focus areas for writing.


Once we were happy the events were in order, we used our fronted adverbials word mats to start thinking about the ones that would be most appropriate for our writing. We then shared these back and created a bank of fronted adverbials that could be used when we write our recount.

Strike, strike, strike!!

Crew Hamill and Crew Wilkinson had so much fun causing a little mischief on the streets of Carcroft whilst taking part in our very own strike. We showed a united front whilst fighting for what we believe in – a school with no uniform and a 4 day school week (no Fridays!!).

Thank you to everyone who cheered us on when they saw us and to those who gave us a beep of their horn!

Magnificent Magna

On Tuesday, we were able to explore science at Magna. This was extremely interactive and allowed children to experience lots of new things. We completed a workshop where we could investigate different types of rocks before creating a volcanic eruption. Then we built up the volcano using play dough which helped us understand the different layers. When we had finished, we took a sample just like a scientist so we could see how scientists study volcanoes and how they know how many times they’ve erupted. There was lots of walking so lots of tired legs when we returned to the coach. A great trip out to help us learn.