The school has just completed its first week of closure as I write and is only being open for children of critical workers and vulnerable children. This is not the position we wanted to find ourselves in but, with true Norton determination and resilience, the school community has excelled themselves and I am immensely proud of how quickly everyone has adjusted.
Even though we did not want the school to close, we always had a plan and, unlike the last lockdown, we were ready. Children have been experiencing the same learning activities whether at home or school. Teachers have been highly creative with talking PowerPoints, recorded teaching, daily video messages, storytelling as well as using a variety of online materials. We have also shared whole school assemblies and provided sporting challenges.
Critical worker children and vulnerable children remain in small year group bubbles with a teacher and teaching assistant/s. As a team, they teach the children in school, support remote learning and mark and provide feedback.
I know it is early days but staff have been so impressed with the work the children are producing, the videos they are recording, and the creative work being sent back to school. So, keep up the great work children!
In each year group, the children are asked to complete an English and Maths task each day, as well as work linked to their topics.
In Star Class, the children’s topic is ‘Toys’. They will be spending this half term looking at and describing toys. They will be investigating what different toys are made from and seeing whether they can decide if a toy is old or new and the reasons for their decision.
The children in Year 1 will be having fun being ‘Explorers’. They will be looking at the life of Christopher Columbus and researching his discoveries. Year 2 will be ‘At the Farm’ virtually. They will be exploring what farms are and their importance. They will learn about the features of a farm and consider the differences between living on a farm and life in the town.
‘Best of British’ is the topic being covered in Year 3. In English, the children will be reading texts by British authors Malorie Blackman, Dick King-Smith and Ted Hughes. In art, the children will be looking at some British artists and completing online art workshops to create their own masterpieces.
Following on from their ‘Greek’ topic, Year 4 will be focusing on The Romans.
The children will consider when the Roman Empire was at its height, where the Romans fit in time and what else was happening in the world at that time.
The children will also be creating mosaics. In Year 5, the children have a geography topic, finding out what a biome is and learning to describe different biomes. In English, the children will be looking at poetry and comparing the poetic styles of Michael Rosen and Roger McGough.
This half term in Year 6, the children will be investigating the ideas of evolution and inheritance and exploring how the work of Charles Darwin on his travels aboard HMS Beagle led to his famous theory on the evolution of species.
Inspired by his time in the Galapagos Islands, learning in English will take the form of both persuasive writing and historical narrative.
As you can see, the children will be busy learning during this lockdown but we look forward to being together in classes and as a community.
Headteacher Mrs Lisa Sparkes
School Close, Norton, Bury St Edmunds Suffolk IP31 3LZ
office@norton.suffolk.sch.uk / 01359 230520
www.norton.suffolk.sch.uk