Autumn Term Learning Journey – Voices from the Past

Reception: We have continued reading ‘Ning and the Night Spirits’. Ning has now made friends with the Night Spirits of the forest, and he realised the townspeople are only afraid of the Night Spirits because they don’t really know them yet. Using our empathy goggles and imagining tool, we have been practising adjectives to describe the Night Spirits and creating fantastic posters to show that they are actually gentle and friendly!

Year 1: On Wednesday morning, we went on a local trip to St Stephen’s Church to deepen our learning in R.E. about how and why Christians celebrate Christmas. The children used their asking questions tool to interview Father Bernhard, asking thoughtful questions such as, “Why do we light candles at Christmas?” It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to explore the church and gain valuable first-hand experience to support their learning.

Year 2 have been using their imagining and making links tools this week in literacy. They have immersed themselves in the life and challenges of Mary Seacole through some amazing drama. They have also been asking questions about how determined and impressive she was as a person.

Year 3 have been using their making links and perseverance tools in maths this week, working hard to master the 3 and 4 times tables and related division facts. We have also been enjoying practising our inference skills in guided reading with our fabulous books ‘Arthur & the Golden Rope’ and ‘Rang Tan’.

Year 4 have used their reasoning and collaboration tools to complete the Area topic in Maths, then apply these skills to measure the area of the ball cages! We then made links to Geography by comparing our measurements with satellite imagery.

Year 5 have been immersing ourselves in poetry this week, using our planning and imagining tools to create three types of poems inspired by ‘Freedom Bird’. The children performed their poems to the class with confidence and enthusiasm – it’s been a week filled with creativity, expression and imagination!

Year 6 Despite the fact that Y6 are well and truly in the Scotland mood, they have been using their managing distractions and perseverance tools to complete all aspects of their learning. They have almost completed their non-chronological report about the Ancient Maya Civilization, making links between our history topic and our Literacy text. In Maths, they have been conquering their decimals topic – adding and subtracting decimals, moving on to multiplying and dividing decimals by integers, which they will continue after Scotland week. Needless to say – we’re all a bit excited about Scotland 2025!

House Points Total this week!

95

57

64

Coming Up

A message from the Dulwich Wood Smartphone Free Childhood Parent Group:

🌲 *Festive tech without the stress + make a holiday pact*

As we all begin to turn our sights to the Christmas holidays, if tech is on the wish-list, consider simple devices (music players, cameras, e-readers, discman, landlines or basic phones) rather than full smartphones.

We’re supporting Smartphone Free Childhood so families can delay smartphones together and keep primary school childhood… childlike.

Over the break, connect with other parents in your class to agree a no-smartphones-in-primary pact for January.

We’d love you to join our Dulwich Wood Primary Smartphone Free Group:

WhatsApp and sign the pact (smartphonefreechildhood.org)