TLHP Autumn Term Highlights

This half term the children in reception have been learning about Traditional Stories.The children have loved retelling the story of The Little Red Hen and The Gingerbread Man and using this as part of their independent learning. They have been busy baking bread and gingerbread men. They performed their roles in The Nativity with confidence and sang beautifully for our audiences.

This term, Year 1 have been answering the question ‘What is beyond our world?’ To help the children answer this we have been fortunate enough to have a visit from the Space Dome. This virtual experience allowed the children to immerse themselves into outer space and learn about the different planets in our solar system. The children also received a visit from Rob from Slough Museum who taught them about a local astronomer William Hershel and his sister Caroline Hershel. The children very much enjoyed creating the phases of the moon using Oreo biscuits. Our High Stakes Project this term, was to use the different techniques the children learnt in DT and what is outside our world in topic and science to create space dioramas with their partner.

In addition to learning about outer space. The children have learnt about Christmas and Eid al-Fitr. The children got to touch and learn about the different artifacts associated with these religious festivals, as well as creating Christmas cards.

This half term Year 1 planted trees with Miss Thomson around the school grounds. The children have very much enjoyed this term and are looking forward to learning more about our world next term during our Oceans topic.

This term year 2 have spent their time focusing on investigating the question 'How have people from the past changed the way we live today?' The children learnt all about the work of Florence Nightingale and her positive influence on developing better nursing and hygiene in hospitals. Via museum learning opportunities, the children have been able to foresee artefacts dating back to the Nightingale era which has supported their historical enquiry further. In our writing lessons, pupils have been able to reflect on life during the Crimea and thus have produced some amazing diary entries and letters embodying the lives of war-torn soldiers and nurses. In DT, pupils have been busy creating bags for nurses to use. The children developed their sewing, painting and designing skills during their lessons and have thoroughly enjoyed creating their own unique bags.

This term Year 3s learned all about Extreme Earth which included looking at volcanoes and earthquakes. We also studied the formation of rocks and soil which the students were able to make insightful links to Earth. To start the topic, we visited the National History Museum. Children explored the Volcanoes and Earthquakes section, where they examined fossils, saw lava bombs and crystals that were created under intense pressure beneath the Earth's surface. They were able to enjoy the earthquake simulator and take part in a volcano workshop.

We creatively linked our topic to writing using the book 'The firework maker's daughter' by Phillip Pullman. In the book, Lila is a little girl who aspires to work as a firework maker like her father Lalchand. Lalchand argues that despite her abilities, girls shouldn't be working in this field. Lila disagrees and travels to Mount Merapi to obtain Royal Sulphur from Razvani the Fire-Fiend, as all aspirant firework- makers must do. Our children were inspired by this text to write letters as Lila explaining why they should be granted the opportunity to work as a firework maker regardless of their gender. With the knowledge they had at this point, our kids were eager to create an informational piece about volcanoes or another natural disaster. We are so proud of each and every one of our students for engaging so well in our topic this term and creating such literary masterpieces.

This term, year 5 have used their historical inquiry skills to answer the big question: What is the legacy of the Islamic empire. They found that the Islamic empire's legacy is evident in many aspects of today's society - specifically in the sciences, art and maths. The Islamic empire's early influence on astronomy laid the foundation of many great discoveries which the student's studied in their science lessons. They were able to look at Earth and Space using their devices. The devices allowed them to view the solar system from a three- dimensional perspective, which gave them a greater understanding of the vastness and size of space. This was all capped off by the 'Wonderdome' workshop and a special visit by an expert from the Slough Museum who discussed lunar phases. In Art, the student's worked with compass' to create an 8-pointed star - an important Geometric Pattern originating from the early Islamic empire. It was very tricky at first, however, the student's used the learning power of resilience to master this skill, which allowed them to create a tessellated masterpiece!

This term, Year 6 have been studying The Victorian Period of the United Kingdom. This has included reading texts published in this era, such as Oliver Twist and a Christmas Carol. More so, we have studied the Industrial Revolution, and discussed the impact of this upon the World, covering important topics such as the Slave Trade. This has also tied into our Science lessons, in which we have been studying pioneering research that was made famous during the Victorian Period, namely Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. This has also been added to with a Victorian Artefact Day, where the children were able to have a hands on experience handling items from this time period.