Year 3 continued to develop their cricket skills with some catching activities this afternoon. We looked at the techniques used to maximise our chances to catch the ball. Ask what your children have learnt about catching today. The do’s, the do not’s as well as what an English and Australian catch should look like. Here are some great pictures of the children warming up with a fun game of french cricket as well as some excellent catching. Check out some of the hand positions in preparation to catch the ball. Outstanding work year 3!

Our song this week is Old Macdonald had a Farm. We are learning some makaton signs for the animals - Please have a go at home! 

Today, our Rights-Respecting Ambassadors (RRA) were visited by Tom Williamson, a senior education officer working for the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. Tom’s job is to educate children and adults about democracy, voting and the workings of governments within Westminster. Our RRA learnt all about constituencies, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, voting and political parties. It was a really informative session and one that all the children said they had learnt from. One of the questions that Tom was asked was, ‘will Brexit effect our school funding at HPS?’ A powerful question from an eleven year old.

Year 4 have been learning some basic conversational French focusing on the Learning Question ‘ Can I introduce myself in French? ‘ We used gogo and alien characters to help us feel a bit more confident about speaking! We asked the question “comment tu t’appelles?” Ask the children to translate this for you and tell you how to reply! They have been very good at working collaboratively and helping each other speak fluently. Bravo les enfants!

Before children even pick up a pen we can support their writing skills by encouraging gross motor skills from the shoulder - look at how high the children are reaching, really stretching their muscles. Holding a large paintbrush will help to develop their hand muscles too. And even better everyone can do this at home with a decorators paintbrush and a pot of water - hours of fun! 

Year 5 have been designing and making rockets! We started by labeling our initial designs and thinking about the materials we needed. Today, we made version one of our ideas. Tomorrow, our plan is to review the designs and then alter them to make them even more effective and appealing. 

Today, before we sang and did some drumming, Alfie and Luke performed some pieces on the guitar.

Year 2 have been lucky enough to have been visited by the Mayor of Honiton today! He came and told us all about his role as mayor as well as some of the history of Honiton. Did you know that Honiton is around 850 years old? 

We even got to try on his 18 carat gold chain and medallion!

Wow! Keep the fabulous USA home learning coming in - we have been so impressed with the quality and variety so far. We have flags, monuments American menus, playlist, fact files, chocolate brownies ( yum yum) and much more. The children have enjoyed sharing their new knowledge with the class. 

Year 5 explored an experiment that was designed by the Science Museum in London. We created mini rockets - some designed as mice, others as sharks or dragons - and then tested how high they could be launched using a range of different plastic bottles. This is a really fun and easy experiment that you could try at home too!