15th October 2021 - westthornton.croydon.sch.uk

www.westthornton.croydon.sch.uk @WestThorntonSch

15th October 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

We hope that this newsletter finds you all safe and well. We’ve had a very busy, butextremely enjoyable week at West Thornton and we’d like to share with you news from animportant day that we had at the start of this week.

On Monday, headteachers from across the Inspire Partnership and other experts visitedour school. We were happy to welcome them in and it was a great opportunity to showthe fantastic learning in the school and to celebrate the achievements of our wonderfulchildren. Some of the visitors had been at West Thornton two years ago and commentedon what a transformation there has been! Of course, the visitors gave us some great ideasto continue our school improvement journey, but needless to say they were extremelyimpressed and we couldn’t be more proud of the children and staff in our school.

Our visitors noted many strengths, including:- children being able to explain what they are learning and being confident in

discussing their learning- pupils collaborating well- children using subject specific language and vocabulary- lots of active learning- learning linked to real life contexts which engaged the children- teachers building on prior learning learning and adapting lessons according to

frequent informal assessment- pupils speaking well and ‘respectfully challenging’ others when they disagreed- children in Years 5 and 6 making connections in learning across subjects- pupils responding well to their teachers and trying hard

Wow! I am sure you will agree that it’s really fantastic the visitors could also see what weare all lucky enough to be part of on a daily basis. We really are very, very proud.

And finally, another reason to be proud of our wonderful community: today, manychildren wore something yellow to raise awareness of the importance of looking after ourmental health and wellbeing. Your donations raised an incredible £446.52 which will beused to establish our ‘Community Cupboard’ so we can support the wellbeing and healthof the children and families in our community.

http://www.westthornton.croydon.sch.uk


SafeguardingJust another reminder to ensure that all your devices at home have appropriate settingsand parental locks so that children cannot access age-inappropriate content, includingSquid Game on Netflix.

As mentioned last week, Reading at home is an essential part of a child’s learningexperience and supports their progress and understanding in many different areas of thecurriculum. Many studies have shown that reading with an adult can improve a child’sexcitement and engagement with a story, through the questioning, discussion anddialogue they have.

Please ensure that you are reading with your child every day at home and signing theirreading record. There are many resources available to you on our school website. Pleasefollow this link to take you directly there:https://www.westthornton.croydon.sch.uk/curriculum/reading

We would also like to remind you that children can also access reading materials whichare carefully selected for children on our Bug Club platform via the school website.

Twitter

We would also like to let you know that we regularly use Twitter to share learning with ourcommunity and as a platform to interact with our children and families. Pleasefollow us if you don’t already, you can find us using the twitter handle@WestThorntonSch. You will be able to see many examples of learning in theclassroom and can use these posts as a conversation starter to find out more about whatyour children have been learning.

Curriculum Focus

Reception

This week in English, the children have been thinking about their families and homes. Thechildren started the week by looking at pictures of different homes anddiscussed features of their homes. The children then looked at photos offamilies and discussed similarities and differences between the families inthe pictures and their own families. As well as drawing their families.


https://www.westthornton.croydon.sch.uk/curriculum/reading


In phonics, the children have been learning the phonemes h,b,f, ff and blending thesesounds to read cvc words such as ‘hen’, ‘him’, ‘had’, ‘big’, ‘bin’, ‘fin’, ‘fat’ and ‘off’. Wehave learnt a new tricky word: ‘the’. In the environment the children were given theopportunity to segment the phonemes they have learnt to write cvc words.

Maths this week began with a focus on sorting by colour and size. The teachers modelledusing the sentence stems ‘I can see a green train’ ‘I can see a small cat’. The childrenthen went on to learn how to find different ways of sorting objects for example by shape,amounts, size and colour. In the environment the children were given the opportunity tomatch numerals and represent amounts to 10.

The children have been particularly creative this week. As part ofour topic focus the children designed clothes in both the indoorand outdoor creative areas, as well as building model schoolsand structures beginning with ‘h’ and ‘c’ such as hotels, hospitals,clocks and castles.

Year One

In English this week the children have been preparing topublish their letters to Rigoberto. The children have beenmaking sure they use their writer’s toolkit to write sentencesusing capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. They have

also enhanced theirsentences by usingadjectives to adddescriptions to characters.

This week in maths we have been learning to understandthe concept of aggregation to help us combine twogroups. We have been using the + and = symbols to

record 4 equations for our calculations. E.g. 3+2=5, 2+3=5, 5=3+2 and 5=2+3. In History thisweek the children have built upon their knowledge of chronology by applying it toimages of Croydon from a long time ago to the present day. The children discussed whatthey could see in the images and then decided where to place the images on a timeline.



Year Two

In maths this week, the children have been applying theirknowledge of number bonds to ten to add numbers bridgingten and subtract numbers bridging ten. The childrenexemplified the character skill of relationships by workingtogether in groups on their tables to solve number sentences.The teachers were so impressed with their collaboration it wasgreat to see so many children using their leadership skills as well

to coach others on their tables.

The children have worked hard in English this week writing their own first person narrativesto retell the story of Drawn Together from the perspective ofone of the main characters, the little boy. They have beendeveloping the skill of editing and upleveling their writing.They re-read what they had written, ensuring that they hadincluded all the parts that make a good narrative and thenconsidered how they could uplevel the vocabulary thatthey had used.

In Art the children have been applying the skills they havelearnt over the past two weeks to create pieces depictingKoi fish. They used watercolours to create vibrancy and tonal variation as well as using inkpens to enhance their artwork with details and definition. These will form part of our finaloutcomes for this half term.

Year Three

In English this week, the children have been working towards completing their extendedwriting pieces. Using the knowledge and skills acquired over the last couple of weeks,they worked together to generate and construct their complaint letter from the

perspective of Mary Jackson (from our core text, Hidden Figures)to the Headteacher.

In maths Year 3 continued to develop their skills in addition. Thisweek they moved on to adding together 3-digit numbers with2-digit numbers. The children used place value grids andcounters to consolidate the concept of regrouping. Later on inthe week the children moved on to subtraction, subtracting 1


www.westthornton.croydon.sch.uk @WestThorntonSchdigit numbers from 2 digit numbers. They used dienes to show whatwas happening to the numbers.

In Science children looked at the life cycles of flowering plants. Whilstin Art, children used different artistic techniques to add colour to theirportraits in the style of Corey Barksdale. In history the childrencompared two great ancient Egyptian rulers; Nefertiti and Cleopatra.They used a Venn Diagram to find out the similarities and differences.

Year Four

This week in Year 4, children were writing their narratives basedon the characters from our core text ‘ The Girl who Stole anElephant’. Children took care to plan each sentence carefullybefore writing it. They thought carefully about the structure aswell as the type of language they used to make sure their writinghad the desired effect on the reader. The children includedfigurative language and imagery to create an image in thereader’s mind. They thought about the impact on the reader by

considering questions such as ‘How do you want the reader to feel when they read yourwriting and why?’ and ‘How does your language choice impact the reader?’.

In maths, children began the week by comparing and ordering decimalsby looking at the place value of each digit. They then went on to use thisknowledge to position decimal numbers on a numberline and linked it tomeasurement by looking at measuring in centimetres and millimetres.The children then went on to divide one and two digit numbers by ten.They understood that when dividing by 10 thenumber is being split into 10 equal parts and is 10

times smaller. They used place value charts to understand howthe digits change when dividing by ten and were then able todivide a one digit number by 10 using the most efficient method.

For PE this week, children practised tackling and taking possession of the ball whileplaying hockey. They were confident when dribbling the ball and turning and felt quiterelaxed while passing the ball between each other until a defender was introduced. Thejob of the defender was to try and get the ball from the player if they were taking too


www.westthornton.croydon.sch.uk @WestThorntonSchlong to pass. This resulted in the pace of the game picking up and children realising thatthey would lose possession of the ball if they hesitated too much while passing.

Year Five

This week, the children in Year 5 have been working hard to create diaryentries. We have been writing as Tony, the main character from our classtext, The Boy and the Globe. Fronted adverbials, emotive language anddetailed description have been the featured language choices, with lotsof exclamations to share how Toby is feeling.

Maths has been a consolidation of ouraddition and subtraction skills, with a focus on columnmethods and exchanging and deepening our knowledgeby applying these to decimals and multi step wordproblems.

In art we have been creating masterpieces! We have drawn portraits ofWilliam Shakespeare and are in the process of transferring them to abackground that is a mix of words from one of his plays and a range ofpainting techniques that we have been experimenting with over the lastfew weeks.

Year Six

Year 6 has had a productive week this week with lots of fantastic learning across allsubjects. The children have been working hard towards their final outcomes withparticular focus on their newspaper articles about ‘Pig Heart Boy’ and composing theiranatomical heart collages. In English, children have been applying their learning fromacross the half term to write fantastic reports on the fascinating story of Elliot, a young boywho received a heart transplant from a pig. The children have beenable to manage shifts in formality extremely well and have taken on thechallenge of using technical vocabulary and maintaining a journalisticstyle.

In maths, the children have been making exceptional progress in longdivision and are now consolidating their learning. They are able toarticulate their reasoning well, using mathematical language fordivision.



In geography, children have been developing creative solutions to unsustainabledevelopment in the local area due to population growth. They have come up with somewell thought-out ideas to tackle pollution, the loss of green spaces and a lack ofbiodiversity. They are excited to build on these solutions next half term.

Spanish Phrase

Spanish Phrase of the Week

¿Qué tiempo hace?- Hoy, hace frío. What’s the weather like? - Today it’scold.

Stars of the Week

Stars of the Week

YR Ash YR Hazel YR Oak YR Pine YR Willow

Sinead Abdulkhadir Vihaan Srishalini Evan

AbdulRahman

Terry Isabella Nishany Hanna

Y1Elder Y1 Elm Y1Fir Y1Lime Y1 Maple

Rym Hugo Daniel Aiden Khaleesi

Fatoumata Muntaha Aryan Lily Danilo

Y2 Aspen Y2 Palm Y2 Poplar Y2 Rowan Y2 Spruce

Apsaran Yahya Swarnika Isabella Asiya

Pahal Molinae Kavyva Vera Panth


www.westthornton.croydon.sch.uk @WestThorntonSchY3 Cedar Y3 Cherry Y3 Larch Y3 Walnut Y3 Chestnut

Rohaan Naaba Ilyas Blake Rowan

Nisha Bailey Niylah-Rose Shrija Navisha

Y4 Acacia Y4 Beech Y4Hornbeam

Y4 Olive Y4 Yew

Kavinila Ayanna Genesis Serena Matthew

Tanvi Abdulbasit Anna Haajrah Samuel

Y5 Cypress Y5 Hawthorn Y5 Magnolia Y5 SilverBirch

Y5Sycamore

Delani Manuel Hani Jamie Jake

Anu Sabrina Sahla Kyra Danielle

Y6Blackthorn

Y6 Eucalyptus Y6 Juniper Y6 Holly Y6 Acer

Onur Alejandro Karthik Thashvin Serghei

Lini Kharishma Mahika Daya Yousaf

Spanish KS1 PE KS2 PE KS1 Music KS2 Music

LaraSycamore

ArinzeYR

MatthewY4 Yew

IsaiahY1 Fir

LeeroyY4 Yew

Behaviour WorkshopWe will be holding a parent workshop on Monday 18th October at 5pm to share with youour ethos and principles around relationships and behaviour at West Thornton.

The session will be held via Zoom. A link has been shared.

We hope you will be able to join us.




Documents

15th October 2021 - westthornton.croydon.sch.uk