Autumn Term 2022 Topics

 

As part of our preparation for the new curriculum we have planned as a whole school for this term under the topic umbrella of ‘Where in the World’, here is an outline on what the children will experience in the new term! 

 

 

Mrs Duncan, Mrs Sheppeard/Miss Rees, Mrs Davies Cox

 

Nursery, Reception and Year 1

Our topic for Autumn Term will be Where in the World..? and our big question is, What makes a place a home? We will talk about our families, our school and the area we live.  We will talk about Pontypridd and discover what makes it a town.  We will visit the Ynysangharad Park, Historical Centre and our new library.  We will compare town and country and look at similarities and differences.

 

 

 

 Mrs Reynolds, Miss Pocock, Mrs King, Mrs Cogbill

 

Years 2, 3 and 4

In Autumn term our new topic will be Where in the World? and our big question is What makes a place a home? We will discuss what a place is, what a home is and how people make a place a home.  We will compare our homes and lives with those of people living in Uganda and Italy identifying similarities and differences. Our work on Uganda will enable us to work with our link school in Situmi and members of our local community involved in overseas projects. In September the children will be visiting South Wales Aviation Museum which will include an aviation activity, tour of an aircraft hanger and investigating artefacts

 

 

 

Mr Coles’ Class, Mr Goodwin’s Class and Mr Hall’s Class

 

Years 5 and 6

In Autumn term our new topic will be Where in the World? Our big question is  “Does every child have a fair chance?”  This will be a humanities based topic. We will be looking in detail at the country of South Africa.  We will be learning about the rainbow nation and its social changes over time. We will explore the differences in the country’s terrains and variety of habitats for wildlife and the impact of humans on their change. We have arranged an immersion day at the beach to begin the topic, where children will participate in a variety of activities?

 

 

If parents/carers have any artefacts or expertise they could share related to our topics please let the class teachers know.

Maesycoed Primary School Newsletter

Summer 2022

 

Website: www.maesycoedprimary.com                         Email: admin@maes-y-coedprimary.rctcbc.cymru

 

These are some of the activities the children have taken part in during their time in school over the summer term.

 

Nursery / Reception – The children have had a very busy summer term!  We have really enjoyed exploring the characters from the film ‘Encanto’.  We started the term with a trip to the cinema, Nursery watched the film in school, and we all loved it! Isabella was able to make the flowers and plants grow and we planted fruit and vegetable seeds in our outside area.  We have enjoyed watching the carrots, strawberries, beans, tomatoes and lettuce grow and loved eating the potatoes! We created pictures in the style of Vincent Van Gough and took part in a flower festival dance!  The character Pepa was able to control the weather with her feelings.  We have talked about our own feelings and emotions, we have sung songs about the weather in Welsh and English and learned to sign to the song ‘Sing a rainbow’.  We all had a great day out in the Teddy Bear’s Picnic and everybody had lots of fun!  We were all very proud of the children performing for the first time in our class assemblies, the children were very excited to share their learning with their families.  Thank you all for your continued support, have a lovely summer holidays!

 

Year 1 We have all had a wonderful summer term and have thoroughly enjoyed our topic of ‘Encanto’. We began with Isabella and her gift of making plants grow. We looked at the different parts of a flower and found out what they do and also investigated what plants need to grow and stay healthy. We explored how to use water colours to create pictures and then designed and created pictures on our favourite gardens using different types of flowers. We have enjoyed lots of dance this term and created a dance based on ‘singing in the rain’ we worked with a partner in unison while trying to keep to the beat. We love singing in class and have learnt lots of new songs that we have really enjoyed performing in our assembly.

 

Year 1/2 – We have all really enjoyed this term – especially our trip to the cinema in Cardiff. The children were so excited to watch the film with all their classmates. When we got back to school we talked about Encanto and the Madrigal Family and made a long list of questions we wanted to answer and activities we wanted to do based around the film. We learned about the parts and functions of plants and did our own experiment with cress to see what would happen if they went without sunlight or water. We explored ‘The Waterlilies’ by Monet and used watercolour paints to create our own versions. We compared the weather in polar regions and hot countries and used Google Earth to look at various places and their climates. We created a BIG question ‘Does the weather effect our mood?’ and had a class debate to discuss if we thought it did or not. We debated for a long time and realised that there are good and bad things about every kind of weather! We have all thoroughly enjoyed practising for our class assembly and performing for our loved ones. We also loved the squash and biscuits afterwards!

Thank you for all your support this year. Enjoy the summer!  

  

Year 2/3 – What a busy term we have had! It began with a visit to the cinema to watch Encanto which was so much fun. We started with the character Isabela and researched national flowers of different countries. The Madrigal family were refugees and we had an interesting class debate on whether being a refugee is a good or bad thing. Our next character was Pepa who could control the weather with her emotions. We watched and listened to a variety of weather reports before creating our own and had another debate ‘Does the weather make everyone feel the same?’  We said goodbye to our Mandarin tutor Ying last week as she is soon returning to China. The children have learnt many words and phrases with her this term and enjoyed writing their names in Pinyin and creating paper crafts. 

This week in our class assembly we shared with our families all our wonderful learning. The children were amazing performing their poems, songs and dances for you and I’m sure you are all as proud as me of their achievements. Many thanks for your support throughout the year and have a fantastic summer everyone.

 

Year 3 – We have all had a lovely summer term which started with a trip to the cinema to view the film Encanto. We then called our topic ‘Encanto’s Gifts’, which has involved paper craft activities where the children made their own flowers linked to the character Isabela. They also found out about the functions of parts of flowers as well as finding out about the different ways seeds disperse. When looking at the character Pepa, we had a debate on ‘Does the weather affect everyone the same?’ We also listened to and appreciated different pieces of music linked to a weather theme. Next the children had a lot of fun working together in groups to create their own sun safety videos. These can be viewed on our class page on the school website. Other activities have involved devising their own little role-plays on the theme of Encanto and writing a film review.   

This term has ended with our wonderful class assembly performed in front of parents and grandparents. Every child had a speaking part and all performed songs, poems, and dances with great enthusiasm. I was very proud of them all. Thank you all for your support this year and have a lovely summer.

 

Year 4 – Our topic ‘This is Me’ has been a very enjoyable one. All children have been able to put on their drama hats and express themselves through different arts and performances. The children have blown me away with their enthusiasm where we completed tasks such as: Creating, rehearsing and choreographing a happy dance for Year 2 pupils; Evaluating what makes a good dance routine through being our very own judges; Recreating our own Maesycoed variation of the sea shanty song; and our own variation of the inspirational dance routine from The Greatest Showman. In literacy, Children have been given the chance to write their very own playscripts in groups which had to convey a secret motto/ message. Additionally, children had a look at the 360 degrees camera from behind the scene of The Greatest Showman and a video of a life circus performance to help construct their own setting description using the 5 senses. It was great to see everyone come out of their shell and be as enthusiastic as they were this term!

 

Year 4/5 – The children have had a fabulous Summer Term.  Our topic ‘This Is Me’ has been a resounding success with pupils, and they have thoroughly enjoyed expressing themselves through a variety of media.  As the topic was expressive arts focussed they have studied the genre of playscripts during literacy, eventually creating their own script and acting them out.  They also studied existing dance routines from various performers, devising the success criteria they thought necessary for a successful dance.  Then they used the SC to collaborate, plan and perform their own dance routine to their own chosen song which was then performed and recorded in front of the Year 2 children.  They also had opportunities to be ‘judges’ as they all viewed each others’ dances on the big screen, providing quality feedback.  They have reflected, using feelings and emotions, on various pieces of ‘circus/fairground art’ (which was chosen as an activity by one of the pupils). This then inspired them to create their own, in the form of a fairground waltzer.  These are just some highlights form the term, and I am sure if you ask the children, they’d be able to tell you many more. 

 

Year 5/6 – What an amazing year this has been for our children and both Miss Mardon and Miss McBurnie have loved teaching every single on of them and we couldn’t be prouder of the children they are or more excited to see what they become.  While we are so sad to say goodbye to our Year 6 children we know that they will go on to make us proud in high school and we welcome our Year 5’s back next year as our Year 6 cohort and we know they will be fabulous!  The year 6 children have worked so hard on their end of year Leavers’ Assembly and this was a huge part of the Expressive Arts unit of work we focussed on this term. (more details on what they all did below!) 

Our Year 5 children were continuing along the expressive arts theme and worked to design their own dance to the song ‘This is me’.  They also completed work on Playscripts.  They learned about the features of a playscript, converted prose into playscripts and wrote their own playscripts based on their own experiences.  The children also presented their Genius Hour projects to the class and they blew us away with their confidence, their presentation skills and the PowerPoints they prepared.  Finally, the children carried out lots of art work and created circus themed art and fruit art, they were exceptional!

 

Year 6 – The happiest and saddest term of the year has come to an end. The Year 6 children literally threw themselves into the expressive arts elements of the curriculum; culminating with what was aptly named ‘The Greatest Show’ in the Leavers’ Assembly. The children will leave the school with their heads held high, knowing that the celebration of their time here, was brought together with a full term of challenges to create such a spectacle. Every child from Year 6, not only wrote, edited and brainstormed ideas for the show, they also ALL took a speaking part in the sketches, songs, memories and aspirations. We have no doubt as a school that the wonderful Year 6 of 2022 will go forward to become ambassadors in their chosen high schools in 2023. Pob lwc pawb!

 

 

Art Gallery – We are trialling an interactive Art Gallery of Y4-Y6’s art work and the current gallery can be found here:  https://www.artsteps.com/view/61d6b60f1c2836af90b885d5, we hope you enjoy it!

 

School Holidays – End of term is Thursday 21^st July 2022. School will reopen to pupils on Tuesday 6^th September 2022

 

Class locations next year

Bottom Block - Nursery (Mrs Duncan), Reception (Mrs Sheppeard/Miss Rees), Year 1(Mrs Davies Cox/Miss Rees)

Middle Block – Year 2 (Mrs Reynolds) Year2/3 (Miss Pocock) Year 3 /4 Mrs King

Top Block – Year 3 /4 (Mrs Cogbill), Year 5/6 (Mr Goodwin, Mr Coles, Mr Hall)

 

Dinner Monies – School dinner money should be paid in advance and not in arrears. Thank you.

 

Keeping Everyone Safe- If you have any concerns regarding the safety of pupils or families when on the school site please contact the school immediately where a senior member of staff can help.

Should you need to report an incident outside of school hours the out of hours duty desk for RCT Children and Family Services can be contacted on 01443 743665.

 

 

21st July 2022

 

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

As we end another school year, we would like to send a thank you from all the staff for the kind words of thanks and support over the last academic year as well as thanks for helping your children with their home tasks. Working together so positively only strengthens us as a school community and we will continue to build on this in the new term.

 

It has been so enjoyable for us to be able to open up the school to you all again and it has been so lovely to see so many of you during the book look day, sports day and class assemblies. We hope to get back to doing much more of this with you in the new term. Miss McBurnie will be looking for members of the Parent Forum in September so please look out for the information.

 

Our Curriculum Statement is now on the school website in the Key Information section under Curriculum. We look forward to working with you in the new term as we build on and develop this new curriculum.

 

We would like to wish Miss Jenny Woosnam a fond farewell as she moves onto pastures new with the RCT Music Service. A past pupil and a volunteer throughout her teens, Miss Woosnam has been a member of staff for 8 years. She has supported dozens of children and has played the piano in many Christmas concerts and assemblies over the years- even getting special release from the high school when she was a student there to come to Maesycoed Primary to support us! She will be greatly missed and we wish her every success and happiness in her new role.

 

Finally, we would like to wish Year 6 “Pob Lwc” as they leave us and move onto the next chapter in their school adventure. We enjoyed a fantastic leavers’ concert this week and were so proud of our pupils as they entertained us with songs, dances, memories and funny sketches. We have no doubts that they will continue to make us proud as they move to secondary school.

 

We wish you a safe and enjoyable summer break and look forward to seeing you all again in September.

 

 

Best wishes

 

The Maesycoed Team