Welcome to Fox class! Our teacher is Mr Humber, who has been teaching for eighteen years, the last ten 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, Isabella and Ayan

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. 
• Our history topic might be within living memory of some of our family members - if so, it would be great to share their memories of life during WW2. Were any great-grandparents evacuees? What do you know about any family members who fought or worked during the War? There are loads of movies, video clips and archive materials available online to support learning about life during the War - the BBC Class Clips site is a great place to start: www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/history-ks2-world-war-two/zjnyscw
• There are loads of great children’s books set during World War 2 that would be great to share - Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian, Letters from the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll and Arctic Star by Tom Palmer are all excellent places to start.

Our latest news:

• We loved getting involved in this year's Sports Week, which included skateboarding, rugby, netball, athletics and our massive Sports Day. We threw ourselves into every session with great enthusiasm, and discovered lots of new passions!
 

 
• The whole school came together earlier in the term to take part in an Under the Sea themed art day. Each class produced their own pieces, including 3d coral and jellyfish, watercolour oceans and fabric prints The centre of it all came from Foxes, who created a model of a sea turtle using recycled materials like card and plastic bottles. The finished pieces came together to create a stunning display in the school entrance - if you haven’t already seen it, pop in and take a look!
 

 
• We had a head-start on one of our Science Week challenges, as we got to take part in the STEMPOINT Knex Challenge . The county-wide competition challenged us to build a space rocket, with detachable boosters and a command capsule for the crew. We worked hard in our pairs to build, test and adapt our designs over the course of the morning, with Cosmin and Michael eventually selected as our school winners. 
 

 
• We have been studying the work of the famous sculptor, Henry Moore. To begin with we found out about his life and work, before studying pictures of his sculptures and trying to work out what they represented. Before we moved onto our design phase, we visited Barclay Academy to view a real-life Henry Moore statue called ‘Family Group’. We spent some time sketching it from different angles and were very pleased with our efforts. After designing four different sculptures out of playdough, we then used modelling clay to create our final pieces of art. 
 

We have been learning about... 

English : Suspenseful Stories - In Fox class this term we have worked tirelessly to learn as much as we possibly could in preparation for our big jump to Year 6. We have been learning about suspense in English and the many techniques authors use to create this in their writing. Our stories were based on two books, The Water Tower and The Boy in The Tower - and you can read Tyler's brilliant final piece below: 

The Caretaker’s Shed 

“Let’s go to that old, abandoned caretakers hut for a laugh!” giggled Tyler. 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” questioned Mason. “Are you scared?” teased Tyler.

 Moments later, the two boys were on their way towards the forest and before long they were totally lost. Hours passed, and a sense of loneliness spread through them like a poison and their stomachs growled. There was nothing they could do but press onwards further into the darkening forest which seemed to grow blacker with each passing minute. The trees towered over them like gravestones and the branches hung down like witches fingers. 

“C-c-c-can we go home now?” stuttered Mason. As they continued, a sign hung down from a twisted branch which read: DANGER! Tyler shivered and Mason gulped. The blood vessels in Tyler’s eyes popped and sweat began to run down both their backs. 

They trembled, but continued as it was too late and too dark to turn back. Tyler dragged Mason onwards until they reached a clearing. The caretakers shed came into view through a thick fog. Ivy clung to the shed walls, the windows were cracked and cobwebs stretched across the splintered roof. 

“Are we really going in there?” asked Mason. Just as Tyler was about to reply, a shadow appeared at the window and pointed at them. Behind them a twig snapped… 

By Tyler  

DT : Pillow Packets - This half-term, we were set a challenge to design and make a pillow in the shape of our favourite snacks. After working on different famous logo designs, we then had to create our chosen one from card. Once our designs and card practice piece were completed, we learnt running stitch and back stitch. Once we had mastered these stitches, we began to cut out our designs in felt, before stitching them to one side of our packets. Finally we turned our packets inside out and using a back stitch we sewed up each side of our packet, leaving one side open so that will could fill it with stuffing. As you can see our finished products are fantastic and we couldn’t wait to take them home! 

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 strategies for multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. We will begin by exploring different mental methods for addition and subtraction, and will then move on to formal column strategies, extending these to include decimal calculations. After that, we will learn to use formal written methods for multiplication and division. Once we have secured those, 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 groups of fractions.

Science - We will continue to investigate our circulatory system. We will start the half-term by carrying out experiments to find out how our pulse rate changes when we exercise, and will develop the way we draw conclusions from results. After that, we will learn how to keep healthy, the impact that diet and exercise have on our bodies and the damage that drugs and alcohol can cause.

Humanities - We will continue to learn about World War 2 and the Battle of Britain. After investigating which countries were involved on each side, we will be exploring how the War affected the lives of children and experiencing what life was like for evacuees. We will also explore the impact of the Battle of Britain, identifying the location of air bases on each side, the tactics used and the reasons why the attack was ultimately unsuccessful.

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