Star Anise Class Blog 

Star Anise Class for September: Welcome from Mr. Middleton!

See Mr. Middleton's Welcome Presentation

Information for Parents

From 8th June 2020, the home learning will be slightly different. Each year group will be set work from Hamilton’s Education Trust to include daily Maths and English Activities. These will be clearly labelled each week on blog pages. In addition to this, staff will be setting Science/ other subject activity, SMSC/ well-being activities as well as spellings on Spelling Shed.

The DfE states, ‘no school will be penalised if they are unable to offer a broad and balanced curriculum during this period.’ The Government have worked closely with other key partners to ensure the support is there for ‘remote’ learning resources.

There are also additional resources available that are recommended from the DfE:

• Oak National Academy, an online classroom set up by teachers, covering the curriculum (including specialist content for pupils with SEND) for every year group from Reception through to Year 10. By the end of week two, Oak had 1.4 million users who had viewed over 4 million lessons
• BBC Bitesize which has developed a comprehensive new education package, available on TV, via the red button and iPlayer and online at BBC Bitesize. Bitesize Daily TV shows were watched by over 2m households on iPlayer in the first two weeks of transmission Staff will, in addition, be providing weekly web based learning activities including Hamilton, Spelling Shed, SMSC and science/other activity. Please see our web site for links.

Thank you for your continued support, you are doing an amazing job!

Amazing Home Learning

Interesting tortoise facts

Brilliant observational drawing!

Look at all this wonderful work. He even got to share his poems with a local poet!

Nature watch: caterpillars to butterflies!

Date:

23 March

Posted by:

Mrs Smith

Sports Competition

We recently had our second intra school competition, led by Premier Sports, on Archery and Dodgeball. Please see the overall winners…. Well done to Red team!

Date:

5 March

Posted by:

Mrs Fielding

World Book Day

Date:

5 March

Posted by:

Mrs Fielding

World Book Day KS2 Group Activities

Date:

5 March

Posted by:

Mrs Fielding

World Book Day Books in a box

Date:

23 February

Posted by:

Mr Middleton

Baking Bread!

Star Anise class had a wonderful time baking different types of bread for a recent DT project!

We began with sampling lots of different varieties and evaluating their taste, texture, appearance and what they might be eaten with (as well as thinking about different cultural purposes of bread). Following this, we worked in small groups and designed a range of different fillings and toppings that we could add to a basic bread mix. The fillings ranged from chocolate to popping candy to garlic and chilli powder.

Once the bread had been mixed and baked we asked a range of staff in school to sample the bread and give it a score out of ten. Whatever was left we ate ourselves!

Date:

14 February

Posted by:

Mrs Amos

Weight and Mass

As part of our theme on 'Forces' we investigated if there was a link between the weight and mass of an object. Class Star Anise measured the weight and mass of different objects using a force metre and scales and then compared the results.

The children discussed all objects are made of matter and that the amount of matter they are made of is called their mass. This is measured in Kg. The pulling force of gravity on an object is the weight. It is measured in Newtons.

Date:

12th February

Posted by:

Mrs Hill

Friendship Afterschool Activity Event

Many children in KS2 had fun exploring a range of exciting activities including designing and eating their own biscuit, painting salt dough hearts, friendship bracelets, friendly fox papercraft, Love airplanes with friendly messages inside.

Date:

20 January

Posted by:

Miss Perrin

Can I be a word detective?

In our reading collaboration this week, the focus was to find interesting words in our reading books and then find out their meaning.

We found some amazing words, it’s a good thing we had dictionaries to help us!

Date:

10 January

Posted by:

Mrs Marsden

Reading Collaboration

Barley, Star Anise and Poppy are collaborating together each Friday morning to share their reading books. We will be listening to each other read, sharing what we enjoy about the stories and also discussing key vocabulary and themes within the different stories.

Date:

10 January

Posted by:

Mr Middleton

Can I perform a text?

Star Anise class have started a new book called 'Viking Boy'. To begin with, we have looked at the prologue of the story and discovered the mysterious characters known as The Norns. We engaged with the text by performing some drama.

Date:

20 December

Posted by:

Mrs Hackfath

Our Christmas Trio

Well done to our Christmas Trio who entertained the school with their fabulous Christmas musical routine. Spreading Christmas joy!

Date:

4 December

Posted by:

Miss Perrin

Feeling Festive at Stanford School

At Stanford we have a Christmas tradition where each class makes a Christmas hoop to decorate the hall. Each year we have a different theme and this year it was ‘Winter Wonderland’. The children have worked very hard to make decorations to put on the hoops and they look fantastic….don’t you agree?

Date:

22 November

Posted by:

Miss Perrin

French Cafe Experience

As the Year 4 children have loved learning to speak French so much, we decided to have a chance to practise our skills and open a French Café for the KS2 children to enjoy.

First we had to create a menu and add some useful phrases which would help the children to order food.

We had some French foods for the children to try – Brioche, Croissant and Baguettes with butter, cheese or jam and orange or blackcurrant to drink. Then we got our classroom ready for our clients by arranging the tables, putting on table cloths and decorating the tables with candles and decorative stones. With a bit of French music to create a cosmopolitan atmosphere we were ready for business!!

Each client was served by their own personal waiter who greeted them, guided them to their table and took their orders.

The Year 4 children were very busy taking orders, serving food and then washing up afterwards. The atmosphere was great, the children had fun practising their French and it allowed the children a chance to try different foods.

Our clients gave us lots of positive comments:-

“I thought it was lots of fun”
“I thought it was exciting to have my own personal waiter”
“The waiters were lovely and the food was great”
“I likes the restaurant because it had table cloths and decorations”
“I loved trying new foods and the role play”
“The menus were very helpful as they had pictures to help”
“Great service and loved the atmosphere”
“Year 4 tried really hard with speaking French. It was lots of fun”
“I liked having the chance to speak French and I was praised for speaking back to the waiters in French”

The Year 4 children enjoyed the experience too:-

“I felt like an actual waiter”
“I liked having more experience speaking French”
“I liked serving people”
“I liked eating the food at the end”

By the time the children had served the other Key Stage 2 classes, done 3 lots of washing up and cleared away they were exhausted…….but they weren’t so tired that they couldn’t finish off the rest of the food!! It was a lovely morning.

Date:

11 November

Posted by:

Mrs Perrin

Stanford Remembers

The children in their individual classes have been thinking about Remembrance day, what it means and why we wear poppies. Today we joined collectively for our Remembrance assembly to observe 2 minutes silence thinking about those who have sacrificed their lives for others during times of war. After this some Year 6 children shared poems they have written about the wars.

Date:

30 October

Posted by:

Miss Wilson

Happy Halloween!

There were spooky spiders, ghoulish ghosts and perfect pumpkins at our Halloween activity event after school.

Pupil Voice:

L.B "I made a ghost with a scary face."
A.D "I liked making a mummy with white strips. I did it by myself."
E.W "I made a spider, I had to twist its legs."
A.V "I enjoyed the hotdog."

Date:

15 October

Posted by:

Mr Middleton

Bikeability

Children in year 5 had a fantastic time when the specialist teachers from Bikeability came in to support for 2 days. The children showed excellent behaviour, attitude, skills and ability, as they learned how to signal correctly and confidently cycle on the road. Well done year 5.

Date:

10 October

Posted by:

Mrs Marsden

World Mental Health Day

As today was World Mental Health Day the children have been thinking about how we can promote positive mental health and what we can do to help us to control our emotions if we are experiencing negative emotions.

In Year 1 they looked at a book called Little Beauty where a gorilla goes through different emotions. The children talked about the different emotions and thought about whether the gorilla had done the right thing to help himself. In

Year 2 the children coloured in hearts and then thought about what they could do if they wanted to feel calm.

Date:

30 September

Posted by:

Miss Wilson

Harvest Festival

Our Harvest Festival was a joyful celebration introduced by our head boy and girl and Star anise class performed a poem. Rev. Philip Stevens came to say a prayer and give thanks for the food at harvest time. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our celebration, the donations of food will be sent to the homeless charity, Harbour Place.

Date:

27 September

Posted by:

Mr Middleton

Year 5 Hook Day

Star Anise class had a fantastic hook day, where we looked at how people around the world respond to natural disasters.

As part of our 'Extreme Earth' topic, the children researched a range of natural disasters (many taking place within the least year). We looked at the causes and effects of earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and extreme weather phenomena. We then analysed the damage they caused to the environment and the impact they had on communities.

Following research, the children recorded news reports using a variety of recording equipment. It was an exciting day and the children made a fantastic effort.