Epworth Primary Parent Portal

Sarah Sprack

CEO Isle Education Trust

Update

Welcome to the Easter newsletter. It is fantastic to be able to share with you some of the amazing things that have been happening this term in our academies. The term has not been without its ups and downs, with Covid continuing to see absences of staff and students, but through a flexible approach and some remote learning we have managed to keep going in some shape form or manner.

We are working hard with all students, and especially those who are taking examinations this summer to support them in preparing for these both academically and in regard to resilience and mind-set.

The news articles and stories in our newsletter are testament to the determination of everyone in the Trust not to let this virus determine our futures and of the broad and varied opportunities and achievements our young people have had.

Take care

Sarah Sprack

Sean Woolley

Principal Epworth Primary

Academy

Well, what a term. It has flown by with so much that has happened.

The children have had a fantastic time over the past few weeks with trips, the I Sing pop concert, Easter eggs and Red Nose day to name a few. The children have been fantastic and had a really great time. The academy has begun to feel a little more normal with all of these things happening.

It was lovely to see so many of you at our I Sing pop concert with so many happy smiley faces on stage performing. Watching the children thrive while doing this means so much to you and them. They put in so much effort during the rehearsals.

Over the term, the children have loved spending time in our new kitchen. They have enjoyed creating and making a range of different things, from bread to main meals. Cooking club is up and running and is very busy. We have been booked up with all the children that wanted to take part. It is such a special resource for us to have in the academy.

We had a great response from both of our parent surveys which were sent out this last term. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us move forward. Some of the comments and suggestions made have already been put into place as outlined in the letter earlier in the term.

As we move into the summer term we are hoping life continues to return to a more normal situation. We already have lots planned in the academy for the children and hope to be able to invite parents in to share too. With a Jubilee celebration, residentials, leavers service and variety of other trips to name a few. We are going to be very busy!

One final request to you all, if anyone has any relatives or friends that can remember the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II could you please let us know as we would like to hold an event where they are able to come in for tea and scones, made by the children and to talk to them about what it was like.

Epworth Primary Head Girl and Head Boy

Hello, we are Xanthia and Willem (Head boy and girl) from Epworth Primary Academy. We are here to talk to you about Year 6 life in our school. We have done many exciting activities this term, including: pig heart dissection, making meals independently, artworks based on Georgia O’Keeffe’s fabulous ideas and showed blood cells with balloons.

Heart Dissection

Based on our learning from the intriguing novel of Pig Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman, we dissected a real pig heart! Some people found this activity challenging and had to face their phobias; where as many people were very eager to have a go.

Cooking

Our topic for our DT work was Farm to Fork – which is a series of YouTube videos and resources provided by Tesco. Each group made either a starter using peppers, a main course involving salmon or a dessert with pineapple. We had the freedom to choose a recipe of our choice from research on the Internet. We planned every step of our masterpiece in our wider curriculum books, collecting information, researching recipes and evaluating our work.

Preparation for SATs

We have all been preparing for SATs this term with the help of our teachers, peers and CGP revision books! School has provided us all with maths and English SATs preparation books to help us study at home and at school for these tests. These booklets have definitely helped us to improve both our mathematical skills and our literacy knowledge. Roll on the 9^th May!

Thank you for reading our report on exciting activities that have happened in Year 6 at Epworth Primary Academy. We are sure we will have lots of exciting activities to look forward to next term, our final one at primary school.

Details have been shared on Internet safety with parents and children

Pine Class - Nursery

This half-term Pine class have been looking after Buzz and Covid the school guinea pigs.

The children have learnt about:

what the guinea pigs eat and drink
how to clean out their cage
how to handle them carefully
how to keep the guinea pigs safe and healthy

They have also enjoyed many daily cuddles with the guinea pigs.

Chestnut Class

In Chestnut Class we have been learning all about Chinese New Year with activities across all of the 7 areas of learning.

We learnt about how Chinese New Year is celebrated and we made lanterns and dragons in our modelling area. On the easel, we had a go at writing the symbols for the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. In literacy we wrote about the story of The Great Race and we found out which animal represented the years that we were born. We located China on a world map and learnt some facts about the country.

Early Years

This term, in PSED we have been looking at being healthy. We have talked about having a varied and balanced diet, keeping active, having a good night of sleep and good dental hygiene. The children watched a short film about Topsy and Tim going to the dentist and the importance of brushing for 2 minutes, twice a day. The children enjoyed using real tooth-brushes and toothpaste to clean the teeth; it smelled great, and they were able to share conversations about looking after their teeth.

Some children have not been to a dentist before due to Covid restrictions and dental hygiene has been a great addition to the revised Early Years Foundation Stage Framework this year.

I think we may have some budding dentists amongst us!

Mulberry, Sycamore & Elm, Year 1/2

The children took part in Word Book Day by dressing up as their favourite story book character. They focussed their day around one particular book and completed activities based on it.

Our topic this term has involved children learning about London and the different landmarks there. They used clay and tools to create their own London landmark magnets. The children designed and painted their landmarks before attaching magnets to them.

To introduce the Great Fire of London, the children pretended to be Thomas Farriner, the baker, and made their own bread.

In PE, we have been looking at various types of jumps and investigating efficient methods of jumping higher and further. We have also been developing our aiming skills, playing target games.

Beech and Willow Class, Year 3/4

During ICT Beech class have been editing photographs. They have been exploring saturation and hue to change composition. They have explored how to make photographs have an eery or magical feel. They will be using their computing skills to add photographs to the news reports they are writing in English.

Maple and Hazel Class , Year 4/5

This half term Maple and Hazel classes have been using physical computing components in their computing lessons. They have used code to program a micro-controller called a 'crumble' to make a sparkle light up and a motor to run. They then designed, built, and programmed a fairground flying chair ride to incorporate their crumble kit. It has been a great project using all their computer science skills such as perseverance, debugging, problem-solving and collaboration.

Maple & Hazel Class, Year 4/5

Whitby Trip

On a bright, warm, sunny morning!!!!!!!! 60 intrepid arctic explorers (that’s how it felt at times), set off on a journey to explore the setting from the text they had been reading in class. The pupils had enjoyed Room 13 by Robert Swindells so much that they needed to see where it was set. As they reached the brow of a hill just outside Whitby, the Abbey rose in the distance. The pupils were amazed by its size and position and that it was exactly like the description in the book. Having explored the Abbey the pupils tried to count the 199 steps down to the town. This didn’t go well with most losing count at around 30 - there were some who counted all the way down but no-one got the same answer! We did threaten that we might have to go back and count again. The pupils weren’t impressed by this. After lunch and a visit to the whale bone arch and guest house we returned home, just a little tired (mainly staff it seems). The pupils were fantastic role models and had a fabulous day.

Oak and Olive Class, Year 6

Year 6 have been working on a project called Farm to Fork during this term. We have been learning about how salmon, pineapples and peppers are farmed throughout the year. This has led us to look at seasonality – how certain foods are only available at particular times of the year.

As part of our learning we looked online at different recipes that included our farm to fork ingredients. Once the children had settled on their final recipe, they were keen to try out their culinary skills in the new school kitchen.

Each group organised their own ingredients with school providing the key products. We were totally overwhelmed at their skills and their final meal which they were very eager to try.

Year 6 Science Project

Year 6 tested their scientific skills by exploring heart dissection. They used their knowledge of the heart to find the different elements; and were surprised by how different hearts can be. For some of them this was a true challenge, overcoming their own fears and pushing themselves.

Year 6 English

In Year 6, our most recent English sequence has been based around the sinister film short, Alma. We spent the sequence first looking at what the genre of a diary looked like. We then broke down the writing process, trialling writing each of the key paragraphs including flashbacks. As part of our drive to enhance the vocabulary children use both orally and in their written work, we spent a session practising using vocabulary in a range of sentences, using our peers to offer suggestions to improve our compositions. We then planned and wrote. I’m sure you’ll agree, what we have produced is truly brilliant.

PTFA News:
The PTFA have been working hard over the past few months with a number of activities/events to raise monies for school.

Easter Egg Competition

Egg Competition Winners
	1st	2nd	3rd
Nursery	Amelie H	Finley M	Isabelle S
Reception	Annie H	Regan B	Amelia H
Y1	Sam M	Seth A	Gracie S
Y2	Mason N	Emily H	Abigail B
Y3	Tabitha C	Seth C	Penny S
Y4	Ewa and Kacper R	Josie L	India W
Y5	Riley N	Macy B
Y6	Grace M