Welcome to Fox class! Our teacher is Mr Humber, who has been teaching for seventeen years, the last nine of which have been at Bedwell. He is really good at art, history and maths, and he says his favourite things are rugby and pizza!

• Our curriculum map - find out about our current topics
• Our latest school newsletter
• Meet our school councilors, Dylan and Nicole

Home learning ideas:

• All of the maths we’re doing this term is dependent on quick recall of tables facts, so it would be brilliant if you could work on this. Focus on one table at a time and try: 
  • Making-up rhymes to help remember number facts (“4 x 6 is 24, bears growl and lions roar!”) 
  • Looking for numbers in that table in the world around you - on doors, car number plates, in phone numbers or when you’re out shopping. 
  • Writing-out tables with finger paints, chalk or water-on-tarmac, or make them from playdoh. 
  • Chanting, singing, whispering... Say tables out loud together whenever you have the chance.
• Each week we are set spellings to learn. Click here for guidance on strategies you can use to support your child in learning these at home.  
• All of the computing tasks we’ve worked on in class are available at microbit.org. There are links to the MakeCode editor we’ve been using, loads of ideas in the projects library and lots more info about these clever devices. 
• If anyone in your family has ever been to Brazil (or if you know anyone who lives there), it would be great to share their experiences. If not, then the BBC Bitesize site at www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zp9sydm#zj9mtrd is a good place to start.
• We're investigating the solar system in science, and there are lessons online to support  this topic at: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkbbkqt Lots of Professor Brian Cox’s fantastic TV programmes about space are available on www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer - his series on The Planets is full of solar system facts, and offers a great introduction for budding scientists. 

Our latest news:

• We have been learning about rainforests this term - so, as we couldn’t go on a trip to a real-life rainforest, we went for the next best thing and spent a great day exploring the tropical glasshouses at Kew Gardens. Inside, we really got a sense of just how hot and humid these environments can be, and were amazed by the massive tropical plants that we saw.
 

 
• The whole school got involved in this year’s Sports Week, which took place from 16th - 20th June. Across a packed week, we took part in three Sports Days, a huge range of taster sessions and lots of fantastic events run by local clubs and sporting organisations, as well as our brilliant Sports Days. You can find out more about what we got up to here.
 

 
• Everyone in Year 5 and 6 thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the Bikeability project, which took place in May. Led by instructors from the HCC Cycling team, we all completed Level 1 training, learning to ride safely and control our bikes on the playground. The vast majority of us then progressed onto Level 2, which saw us heading out and about on local roads. As the week went on, each group went on longer and more complex rides, exploring local roads, learning to recognise potential dangers and getting used to riding on roads with other traffic. By the end of the week, 82 children had completed the course, and we were all presented with certificates and badges as a reward for our hard work.
 

 
• We were delighted (and a little bit amazed) by the massive turn-out for our Stay and Spell event earlier this term. Mrs Draper and Mrs Thomas shared lots of ideas for supporting us in learning our spellings at home in fun and interactive ways, and lots of us have been putting these into practice in the weeks since, helping to improve our spelling knowledge. A big thank you to all of the parents and carers who attended.
 

 
• In March, we travelled into London, firstly to the Sealife Centre where we saw a huge range of species ranging from sea horses to sharks! Then, we walked across Westminster Bridge, viewing the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, before heading to the National Gallery, where we immersed ourselves in the incredible collection of priceless artwork.
 

 
• We loved taking part in a busy Science Week, including our planetarium session, sensory trails, Knex construction and our Egg Drop challenge. You can find-out more about everything that we got up to here.
 

 
• We visited one of our local churches to learn about the Easter story. It was a lovely afternoon, with lots of volunteers from the local community making us feel really welcome in their church.      
 

We have been learning about... 

English : Biographies - We explored the lives of some great female scientists, including Marie Curie, Katherine Johnson and Mary Anning, and were then inspired to write the biographies of other great women from history. You can read a great example of our work below:

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was one of the first black women to challenge segregation in the USA. She lived at a time when various laws meant that black people were treated worse than white people, so how did her actions make a lasting change? Read on to find out more!

Rosa Parks, who was born on 4th February 1913, grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. The society that she lived in was very racist and she wanted this to change. This was difficult as she was a black woman and did not have many rights. 

After several years, she started getting involved in the civil rights movement (trying to stop racism). On December 1st 1955 she refused to give up her seat in the white section of the bus. At that time, black people had to sit in the back of the bus (or stand up) if a white person wanted their seat, and she felt this was unfair. As a result, she was arrested, taken to prison and put on trial.

Following this, black people all over the city refused to use the buses until the law got changed. For over a year, they walked to work or got lifts, until finally there was a change. This was the first step in ending segregation across the USA. Rosa Parks was rewarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. She died in October 2005.

History : Battle of Britain - Throughout the term we have been learning about the Second World War and, in particular, about the Battle of Britain. To support our learning, we visited the RAF Museum in Hendon. During the day, we saw lots of planes from World War 2 and took part in a workshop where we learnt about (and dressed-up as) lesser known heroes and heroines. Here are a few of the things we learnt: 

In our group, we learnt about a man called Douglas Bader. When he was showing-off to his girlfriend, he crashed his plane and lost his legs. However, even though he didn’t have any legs he kept flying, and during WW2 he led a fighter group. He was shot-down and taken prisoner by the Germans. He lost his false leg, so the RAF were allowed to parachute a spare one into the camp where he was being held! - Carson 

Bonnie and I were Joan Mortimer. She did a very good job by placing red flags to warn the pilots that there were bombs scattered around the airfield. She was awarded with 12 medals for her bravery! - Nyoreme 

I think my favourite part of our trip was the section where we got to design our own plane. We got to choose the size and shape of the wings (as well as the colour of the plane) and then when you started playing in the simulator, you could play with the plane you had designed, so you could see if it worked! - Chloe 

This term's topics

English - We will start the half-term by returning to fiction writing, using a gorgeous book called Cloud Tea Monkeys by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham as our core text. We will be investigating setting description and looking at the way authors combine dialogue and description in writing, before pulling together all of our skills to create, draft, edit and present stories of our own. After that, we will be exploring biographies, using Fantastically Great Women who Changed the World by Kate Pankhurst as our core text. We will be developing our use of paragraphs and subheadings to organise information, and using brackets to add extra detail.

Maths - We will begin the half-term by consolidating our understanding of written strategies for multiplication, division, addition and subtraction, and will begin to extend these to calculations involving decimals. After that, we will move on to explore fractions. We will use diagrams, models and practical tasks to ensure we really understand what a range of fractions mean and ‘look like’, and will then use these models to help us to compare and order mixed groups of fractions. From there, we will learn to add, subtract and multiply fractions, before beginning to explore mixed numbers and improper fractions (fractions worth more than 1). Finally we will link fractions to their decimal equivalents.

Science - We will be learning about the Earth, Sun, Moon and our place in the solar system. We will explore the way the Earth both revolves on its axis and orbits the sun, and the way that these movements create day, night, seasons and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky. We will also investigate how ideas about the solar system have changed over time.

Humanities - We will be continue to explore the geography, people, cities and culture of Brazil, using photos, reports and video clips to help us to identify ways in which Brazil is similar and different to the UK. We will also learn about the huge range of environments found across the country, from massive cities to coastal regions, mountain ranges, farmland and rainforests. Finally, we will investigate Brazilian clothing, sport, music and food, tying in with our work in art and DT.

Take a look at our curriculum map for more information on our topics.