Oka Class is a mixture of children from Year 5 and Year 6 who learn together first thing in the morning, for English lessons and every afternoon.
In the mornings we start the day with mental maths or quiet reading, followed by a short time of prayer before we split into separate year groups for Maths.
The rest of our morning and our afternoons are spent studying a variety of texts in English and exploring a range of subjects across the wider curriculum.
Autumn Term
In Science we will begin the term with a physics focus, learning all about electricity; making, breaking and adapting circuits as well as discovering different ways in which electricity can be generated and considering the environmental impact of different methods of production. After half term we will be finding out about aspects of evolution as our lessons move to focus on biology.
In History we will be studying World War Two. We will find out about why the war started and thinking about the impact the war had on men, women and children both in Great Britain and the wider world. We will also look at the long term changes in society that were brought about by the war.
Our PE lessons this term will be swimming on Thursdays before half term and Forest School on Fridays after half term.
In computing lessons, we will be creating our own stop motion animation films.
In RE will be learning about the covenant God made with Abraham and thinking about why Abraham is an important figure in different religions. We will also be finding out about Christians who have continued to follow Abraham's example of prayer and trust in God, including Saint Cardinal John Henry Newman.
In music this term we will be listening to Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, we will learn to sing the song and to play our instruments along to it. We will also use it as the inspiration for our own compositions. After half term, we will be finding out more about different eras of music and preparing for our Carol Service.
In Spanish our speaking and listening focus will be on families.
We will also continue to work on our times tables and spellings and explore a wide variety of texts in our guided reading sessions.
1.3.24
Another great week has come to an end. This week we have learnt about lots of exciting things!
In Maths, we are continuing with Percentages and we have learnt how to find percentages of amounts.
In English, we have practised our expanded noun phrases for a monster in our innovate write, semi-colons, hyphens and dialogue. We have also planned our innovate write on Fluffy, a Cerberus-type of puppy who shapeshifts and kidnaps children in Australia - but we can tell you more about that at home!
In History, we learnt how Hitler rose to power and the situations that assisted with that.
In Science, we started exploring circuits with multiple cells and what changes in them.
In RE, we created freeze-frames from the scene of Gethsemane to describe the different emotions of Jesus and the disciples.
23.2.24
Welcome back!
We have started the new term with positivity!
In Maths, we have embarked on our journey with Percentages and even though we were initially nervous we saw that if we have secure knowledge with fractions and decimals, it's not that bad!
In English we have read and explored the story of Beowulf and we will soon start delving deeper into the grammar.
As Historians, we have starting discovering the reasons behind the outbreak of WW2 and we learn a lot about the treaty of Versailles.
In Spanish we have learnt how to say whether we live in a house or flat, in the countryside or in a city.
9.2.24
Have a wonderful half-term break everyone! We definitely need it as it's been assessments week. :)
2.2.24
What a busy week we had!
We have now concluded our invent writing on Pandora, this planet that excited us all and we will now move on to a new text!
In Maths, we are continuing with Decimals and we are looking forward to some assessments next week.
We have now concluded our learning with Science as we learnt about the impact of smoking and drugs on our bodies and our lifestyles.
We will definitely miss Forest school and we are looking forward to trying some more outdoors skills on our Residential week.
26.1.24
We have had another productive week in Oak!
In Maths we have moved on to decimals and more specifically place value and rounding.
English was a big surprise as we have been planning our invent writing on the habitat of Pandora from the movie Avatar. It was very tricky picking an organism from the numerous ones that live on that planet!
Science has excited it us as we had to learn about exercise and the impact it has on our bodies.
In Geography, we had a look at the water cycle and the ways countries can take advantage of water (rivers and lakes) in their area.
In Guided reading, we read a chapter from one of the books of Mortal Engines which was very interesting!
In RE we learnt about Unity ready for our big unit unity assembly today.
19.1.24
What an exciting week! We concluded algebra and completed our End of Unit Check. What's next?
In English we have completed our innovate and we will now find out what we are doing for our invent. We are certainly looking forward to that!
In forest school, we have been learning how to spot different birds, how to light fire and how to whittle! We love being in nature!
In Spanish we have been learning the different equipment we have been using at school and we certaily enjoy it! Ask us what 'sacapuntas' means!
12.1.24
Happy new year! We have had a fantastic 1.5 week of learning so far with our mind fully focused on becoming the best learners for our SATs but as well to acquire precious life skills.
So far we have practised our expanded noun phrases, passive voice, complex sentences and parentheses and it is time for us to apply it on our innovate writing!
In Maths we have enjoyed learning algebra and we have tried formulae whilst getting to know the vocabulary necessary to understand this part of Maths.
Science has been exciting as we have learnt about the role of the blood and heart and even tested our stamina to manage to find our pulse!
Geography has certainly drawn our attention to North America. We have been finding it extremely interesting finding out things about this distant continent.
We have created our very own Oak rap in music and even demonstrated to our teacher! We certainly enjoy making our own music this half-term!
15.12.23
Last week of learning for the year packed with Christmas cards, Christmas carolling, Christmas crafts, Christmas movie on the last day, Christmas party and everything Christmas. You will be wondering how we managed to also do our mock SATs papers and show progress from the last time. Our teacher was thrilled!
8.12.23
Our week has been brilliant, how about yours?
We are continuing our Ratio learning in Oak and we have decided that if we are confident with our times tables, things get significantly easier.
We have now finished writing our invent writing and we are moving on to our next learning sequence based on the book Animalium. Non-fiction here we come!
In RE, we created a comic strip based on the hymn Servant King and we also designed paintings to show the contrast of darkness and light since Christ brings light into our lives.
In History, we learnt about Danelaw and how the Vikings were limited to to the east and north-east of England; we also debated whether Alfred did the right thing of giving them land or not.
In Science we finished or unit on the solar system by learning about night and day and the different phases of the moon.
In music we have been working hard to learn all the songs for our upcoming Christmas carol!
1.12.23
What a great week we've had in Oak!
In Maths, we have had our end of Power Maths Book A assessments and moved on to Ratio and Proportion. We are very excited to learn something for the first time in primary school.
We have also started writing our Innovate based on a new chapter for Varjak paw. We have applied all our skills of expanded noun phrases and dialogue. We will now focus on our independent write.
In History, we explored the every day life of the Vikings, learn about the different jobs women and men had and also about their laws. We were particularly intrigued by their duels.
In Art & DT we are finishing our circuits with a Christmas twist and we're very excited to bring them home!
24.11.23
We've had another enjoyable week learning together in Oak.
We have now moved to measurements in our Maths and we are learning how to convert between different units as well distinguishing the metric from the imperial units.
In English, we have practised expanded noun phrases and dialogue for Varjak paw as well as semi-colons. We have also created a story mountain to help us write our innovate next week.
In RE, we have started learning about Advent, Advent wreaths and the value of waiting.
In guided reading, we have focused on International Men's Day, and more specifically on Charles Darwin.
17.11.23
What a fantastic week filled with learning and fun!
In Maths, we are continuing with fractions but we have moved on to the operations of multiplication and division.
We have moved on in English too; we have read, mapped and learnt the inspiring vocabulary of Varjak Paw.
In History, we learnt about the different parts of England which the Vikings captured and the importance of Alfred the Great in defending Wessex against them.
In Science we have moved on to the solar system. We recapped the planets and found some interesting facts about their moons.
As dancers, we changed a choreography and as gymnasts we explored making different shapes with our bodies.
10.11.23
This week has been very busy indeed! Today we led the Remembrance assembly for the whole school and our week looked like this:
As mathematicians, we tried our best to add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers with different denominators; and solve problems, too.
We were also busy planning and writing our own contraption for Wallace and Gromit. We ensured we were formal and used expanded noun phrases and the passive voice!
In History, we were amazed at the different facts about the Vikings that made them vicious in those days. We learnt about Lindisfarne and that York used to be the capital of England back then!
We also danced a lot, inspired by machines this week. We were very creative and got our classmates to guess which appliances we were dancing like!
In RE, we learnt about marriage, wrote prayers for married people to have joy and love but we also wrote prayers of giving thanks to our families.
In Spanish, we learnt the names of ten different pets and we are now able to say how many pets we have and what their names are.
3.11.23
We started the new half term with a positive note and lots of effort!
In Maths, we started learning about equivalent fractions and how to convert fractions with different denominators. We also learnt how to order and compare fractions.
In English we started our innovate write for our Wallace and Gromit. We selected the Tellyscope as our contraption!
We started venturing into the Vikings world where we learnt where they came from and what they did when they first arrived in England.
In Science, we concluded the classification of microorganisms and we investigated different cases of illnesses, judging whether those could have been caused by a virus, bacteria or fungi.
In dance we explored different moves and were inspired to create a choreography based on the 'water' as our stimulus.
This is the last week of autumn 1. We have certainly been busy this week. We had our Mock SATs papers which was quite a challenge but we had a go and tried our best!
In Maths, we used our known facts for calculations and we started our learning with fractions ; equivalent fractions and simplifying fractions!
English has been a blast! We have practised the skills Wallace and Gromit have to offer: passive voice, expanded noun phrases as well as technical vocabulary.
In Science we have classified animals and plants and we can now use words such as deciduous, evergreen, arachnids and molluscs!
In RE, we talked about values that make us the perfect friends and we wrote a recipe for a good friend. We also celebrated the Harvest Season as a school in a big assembly; we had lots of generous donations!
We have completed our swimming training and many of us can now swim for 25 metres! What an achievement!
13.10.23
We have had another brilliant week with our learning!
In English, we have explored different contraptions such as the Turbo Diner and the Autocooker and we even tried labelling a contraption without the text present; a lot of technical vocabulary was involved!
In Maths, we have delved deeper into division with 3 and 4-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers as well as some mental calculations.
In Geography we have completed our learning looking at volcanoes and we are ready to produce some display learning.
In Spanish we had our assessments about the names of family members as well as numbers up to 100 and we have done a great job!
In RE, we learnt about Judaism and created our own seder plate!
6.10.23
What a busy week this was!
We had lots of fun going to the high school for a tennis festival and we enjoyed getting taught by some of the Year 9s.
Maths has definitely been a good challenge as we have started with short and long division as well as division with factors. Knowing our times tables well certainly helps!
In Science we explored the conditions for life and we will delve even deeper into grouping animals from next week.
In English, we have explored the Wallace and Gromit - Bully - proof vest and the vocabulary that has to do with it. It's very interesting and we are looking forward to seeing how we can learn more with it.
In the meantime, we are getting so much better at swimming and we feel sad we only have two more lessons left.
29.9.23
We have learnt lots of different things this week!
In English, we completed our first hot task and our teacher has been amazed with the expanded noun phrases we have used so far! Next week, we will explore Wallace and Gromit and we're very excited about that!
Maths has been a good challenge for sure: long multiplication has definitely demanded our full concentration with its tricky problem solving too!
In Geography, we looked at earthquakes and their impact. We learnt about the Richter Scale and the fact that we cannot really predict earthquakes.
As scientists, we created posters to show our knowledge on conservation. You will definitely be impressed when you look at our books.
In RE, we have completed our learning and are getting ready for the season of creation and our laudato si next week.
22.9.23
What an interesting week! We have finally started writing our stories as a class, and more specifically our shared write on 'Leo, the miner's son', our very own version of Blackberry Blue. We had fun sharing ideas and starting to write it out.
In Maths we have taken off with addition and subtraction, as well as factors and multiples. Revisiting our times tables has been the key to success!
Science offered us a fantastic opportunity to learn more about nocturnal animals. Apparently, it's all about their eyes' pupils and colour!
In our role as geographers, we looked at how volcanoes erupt, the different parts of our earth, the ring of fire and the different types of volcanoes. We were thrilled to know about the volcanoes in the water that have to do with the oceanic plates' movement!
15/9/23
The 2nd week back to school has been very exciting! We have also started swimming and we were extremely happy to be in the water!
In class, we have delved deeper into the story of Blackberry Blue and have practised colons, expanded noun phrases and formal/ informal speech!
In Maths, we have completed place value and had the chance to explore negative numbers too! Next week we are starting with Operations.
Science has been a blast as we had a look at animals and the way they adapt to survive in extreme environments such as the desert and the arctic.
As geographers, we learnt about mountains and how they are linked to volcanoes.
8/9/23
Welcome all to a new academic year! Our first week started with a lot of excitement for our new adventures and a lot of questions about SATs. We have jumped into our new, inspiring learning from Day 1 and we are already striving for the best results!
In English we started exploring the vocabulary our story book Blackberry Blue has to offer and we have read the interesting, magical story which will inspire our writing.
In Maths, we have started with place value and we are over the moon to be manipulating numbers over 10,000,000!
As scientists, we are exploring Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution which is very interesting as we love learning about the animal kingdom.
In Geography, we learnt about the way mountains are created and we looked at some of the tallest mountains of the world.