To all our wonderful Highflyer families

The Henley Youth Festival is a delight every year and this year has - true to form - been no exception; offering all classes a fabulous variety of different experiences and memories to be made. Today we thoroughly enjoyed our terrific African Dance workshop (in the main hall) followed by creative Art activities with Micaela Clark this afternoon (in our very own classroom) – all set to music! Each session involved a superb time being had by all - and it was great to see (once again!) such enjoyment on everyone's faces :). Circus Skills Workshop still to follow ...!?

This week our topic (‘How Did We Learn to Fly?’) looks at Amelia Earhart from America; especially as she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and remember – even today - why she is remains such a significant individual in the world of aviation pioneers. Our class text is to be taken from Little People, Big Dream ‘Amelia Earhart’ – as promises to engage the children, yet again, with stories of how another ‘budding’ pilot, even as a child, imagined she could stretch out her wings and fly away like a bird, to eventually set a new world record for flying up to 14 000 feet. We shall also be using a biographical timeline (with historical photos) to make our own detailed profile of her exciting life!

In addition, we have also started our new class shared reading book this week – In The Year 2100; with just a little gentle reminder – if at all possible - to send back ‘in’ any previously loaned books from home at your convenience … simply so we can try our very best to retain a ‘full’ set for subsequent year groups etc …

Our phonic focus is: Week 4 Compare: /s/ /c/ /ce/ sounds, Common Exception Word: eye and Homophones: piece/peace; whilst in Maths we shall be turning our focus onto measuring length and height - as well as understanding why we use standard units and what they are. Our mastering number unit will also continue to develop our deeper understanding of strategies to calculate and help problem solve’ alongside our continued practice of using the structure ‘now....then....next....’; with an emphasis on number stories - to appreciate adding and subtracting within real-life situations …

It is also time for our planned Science Week – yet again! Therefore, some fantastic investigations - to learn more about materials and why we use different ones for different uses - are heading our way shortly … ;)

This coming week, as the penultimate of Term 4 (“Where have those weeks flown by so quickly?”) also includes our Parent/Teacher Interviews; therefore, if you have not received a slip with your time slot PLEASE do not hesitate to let me know – or even if there are any ‘last-minute difficulties’ with times sent etc; as am, as always, already looking forward very much to meeting with you then …

Finally, our spellings ‘quiz’ will remain on Monday – as usual; with, equally, no change to Forest School on Wednesday morning and P.E. on Thursday (as timetabled) – phew :;)

Wishing you all another lovely – if not beautifully busy – week …

Mrs Winters and the HF ‘Team’