Rufford Park Primary School

Cedar Week 4 Summer 1 w.e 10.05.24

Mr Dring (p.dring) on: Cedar Tree Class

Hello

Welcome back after the longer weekend. Despite being a shorter working week for the children, they have been no less busy. They have all shown the great progress they have made so far this year by publishing their recounts as imagined from our class novel characters' points of view. All children have continued to work on their timestable mental maths fluency and recall - with Year 4 children continuing to practise in preparation for their upcoming Department for Education Multiplication Timestable Check (the results they will share with us just prior to our school reports being issued) and we will then share with you.

In Computing, the children have been writing their own computing code (algorithms) to create game animations in 'Scratch'.

In P.E, I was able to join the children and Sam our coach to see their progress in Cricket and I continue to work with the leisure centre coaches to assess the Year 4 swimming skills (distance, confidence and water safety) too.

In the next few weeks, we are looking forward to creating some inspiring exhibits for the annual local Art Exhibition - watch out for information in the future about where you can go to view the children's work on display locally.

Finally, following a few recent questions from our LKS2 parents- please be rest assured that when classes are organised for the next academic year, we do take into consideration a number of factors which do include (but are not limited to) specific additional and/or medical needs of every child. Hopefully you can appreciate this is a mammoth task that we undertake yearly and we do have every child's best interests at heart when considering their next class.

Stay safe.

Mr Dring.

Cedar week 3 Summer 1 w.e 03.05.24

Mr Dring (p.dring) on: Cedar Tree Class

Hello

Well what a week of weather! It's allowed us to start our planting 'project' investigation in Science to observe whether putting more than 1 seed in a plant pot affects it's height as it grows. In Maths, both Year groups are investigating money, Year 3 focusing on how to make amounts in pounds and pence, whilst Year 4 have explored writing money as decimals (£2.34). In writing, we have continued our writing based on the Jeremy Strong book 'There's a Pharaoh in my bath' and have planned a recount of a Chapter about the meeting of the 4,000+ year old Sennapod and a family in modern Britain - the Lightspeeds. In R.E, the children have continued to explore the five pillars of Islam and in Art we have explored self portraits using the medium of charcoal. This term the children are developing their cricket skills alongside Sam the coach and Year 4 continue their water safety and endurance skills in the swimming pool. Finally, we were lucky to have a visit from our local PCSO who reminded the children about the importance of staying safe online (connected) which could be laptop, mobile, tablet or games console. It was surprising how many children said they 'connect' online with people that they have never met in real life! We discussed that if we haven't met them in real life and your adults do not know them they are still STRANGERS. Please take some time this weekend to discuss with/remind your child about being safe in our modern, connected world. There are lots of links on our Computing subject page on our website that can support you with this.

Wishing you a very happy bank holiday weekend.

Mr Dring

Cedar Week 2 Summer 1 w.e 26.04.24

Mr Dring (p.dring) on: Cedar Tree Class

Hello

Another fantastic week of learning in Cedar class this week. It started with all of the Year 4 pupils developing their Road Safety skills with the support of LCC Road Safety Team and all children were excellent representatives of Rufford Park - well done children.

In Writing, the children published their mini recounts of their Easter holidays whilst in Maths Year 3 have been finding fractions of amounts and Year ordering decimals. In Computing, we have been honing our skills using 'Scratch' to create infinite loops during our repetition in our games animation unit. 

Your child may also have gone home this week saying they have been 'hot seating' as a pharoah - this is a drama technique used to support their written English by taking on the role (temporarily) of a book character so they can write from that character's point of view. Much hilarity ensued as the children grappled with 'mummy bandages' to get into character and politely suggested that I might be "a bit old" to wear a baseball cap when I took on the role of the character Mr Lightspeed!

Have a great weekend.

Mr Dring

Cedar Week 1 Summer 1 w.e 19.04.24

Mr Dring (p.dring) on: Cedar Tree Class

Hello

Welcome back and to the start of Summer 1. We have started our week exploring the school grounds for 'evidence' of Ancient Egypt and learnt a lot about modern and ancient Egypt already. We started investigating parts of plants in Science, finished decimals in Year 4 and volume/capacity in Year 3 Maths, honed our writing skills drafting a recount of our holiday activities and learnt in PSHE Mindmate lessons about co-operating and listening to different points of view in a positive way.

This week, the Year 4 children took part in the Skipping School Skipping Festival. This involved competing against five other schools, in a variety of different skipping skills. The children have been practising really hard for this and did extremely well in the individual and team skipping events. The children also performed their skip dance, which was lovely to watch. The children were also extremely well behaved and represented the school really well. Rufford Park were the overall winners of the competition, which means that we have qualified for the Leeds City Final. Well done to them.

I wish you a very happy, safe and fun weekend.

Mr Dring

Cedar Week 6 w.e 28.03.24 Spring 2

Mr Dring (p.dring) on: Cedar Tree Class

Hello

What a busy end of term. Yesterday's KS2 visit to church was enjoyed by all despite the rain - thank you to all parent helpers that ensured all children in KS2 could attend. 

We have finished our India and Fairtrade unit in Geography - see how much information your child can recall. In PSHE, we have been discussing our rights and how people have to make choices  e.g. whether to fund hospitals/schools/roads/libraries etc.

In Maths, we have continued to explore volume and capacity in Year 3 and decimals/hundredths in Year 4. In Science, we have investigated opaque, translucent and transparent as part of our Light unit.

Have a wonderful Easter break.

Mr Dring