Last week, in geography as part of our learning about canals we were tasked with plotting a journey from Maesbury along the Shropshire union canal to a destination of our choice. We used maps to follow a route along the canal, we designed an itinerary in our groups, plotting where we were going to stay over night and where we might stop to look at points of interest. Every group did an excellent job and were really excited to find on the map where they lived too! Great job team! 
Weekly School Newsletter
This week in Hedgehogs
This week in Hedgehogs we have really enjoyed our first week of learning about Under the Sea. We have found out about what might live under the sea and the life cycle of a sea turtle. We have used the small world lots in the tuff tray and enjoyed playing in the water and foam! We have also explored bubbles and learned about submarines. We made submarines in the construction area and have begun to make a big submarine for us to use in our role play over the next few weeks. Now we are especially looking forward to finding out more about sharks and orcas!
We have also started the process of growing some potatoes and learned how to chit potatoes ready for planting in a couple of weeks. Our plan is to grow our own potato salad to eat in the summer term!
Weekly Celebrations – 28.2.25
Here are this week’s awards…
Weekly Celebrations
School Value Ambassadors (earning House Points with one pupil chosen each week per year group, awarded by teachers for showing one of our school values):
Year 6 Charlie for ‘Perseverance’ – for persevering with all the tricky challenges put before him during assessment week with determination and a smile. Well done Charlie!
Year 4 Sid for ‘Perseverance’ – Sid has worked impressively hard on his assessments this week and has demonstrated great progress. Well done Sid!
Year 3 Harry for ‘Wisdom’ and ‘Perseverance’ – Harry has really begun to knuckle down with his work, he is doing his best in everything he does and his determination and perseverance is paying off. Well done Harry!
Year 2 Hallie for ‘Wisdom’ – Hallie has worked so hard on her assessments this week, she has approached everything with a positive attitude. She has taken time and care to make sure she understands the question and knows how to answer it. Great work Hallie!
Year 1 James for ‘Love’ and ‘Friendship’ – James is a very kind and caring member of our school, he is a fantastic friends and enjoys celebrating the achievements of other. Well done James, you’re a star!
Reception Darcy for ‘Friendship’ – Darcy is a wonderful member of Hedgehogs. She always thinks of others and shows all our values everyday.
Bumblebees Ziwa & Utendi for ‘Love’, ‘Hope’, ‘Trust’, ‘Perseverance‘ and ‘Tolerance‘ – for making incredible progress in their learning and development, and for always making us smile!
Raffle ticket winners (awarded by staff for lining-up or behaviour around school)
Other Achievements…
We have so many fantastic swimmers at St John’s, it’s lovely to see how proud they all are for achieving their goals!
- Laith achieved his 10m badge
- Evie achieved her Stage 1 Learn to Swim badge
- Seren achieved her 200m badge
- Harriet achieved her 100m badge
- Oscar achieved his Stage 4 Duckling & Stage 1 Learn to Swim
- Olly achieved his Stage 1 Learn to Swim badge
- Ruairi achieved his 5m badge
India recently wrote to the Prime Minister Keir Starmer to suggest that as a country we should have eco-days, where people are encouraged to pick up litter and generally be more eco-friendly. She received a response from the office of Number 10 Downing Street and her ideas have been sent to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural affairs, and she is eagerly awaiting further response from them! We are so proud of India and how she is trying to bring about positive change to the environment and those around her. What a star!
She is also currently trying to create the longest piece of finger knitting, Guinness World Records here we come!!
Science in Dragonfly class
This week we started our new topic learning all about the mouth and digestion. Our focus this week was the mouth. We first of all learnt about the different shapes of teeth and how herbivore and carnivores teeth differ. We then moved on the understand the role of Sliva, we dried our tongues out and then ate a cracker, we then had a drink of water and ate another bit of the cracker. We found out that without our silva we were unable to taste our crackers and we found it hard to swallow! Next, we did some taste testing, we had some liquids that were sweet, salty, sour and bitter. We used cotton buds to put the liquid on different spots on our tongues to find out which parts are more sensitive to tastes, we then recorded our findings on our tongue maps, we came to the decision that our taste buds on the side and tip of our tongue were more sensitive to taste. What a great lesson we had!
Worm Charming
Today we decided to test some of the different methods we learnt we Kris on Tuesday to see if we could charm some worms out of the ground on the school field. We chose four of the methods; worm grunting with two sticks, pouring soapy water on the ground, paddling on the ground like a gull and singing to the worms. All of the methods worked, but we found out that the worm grunting was definitely the most effective.
Rabbits Weekly Round-Up – 14.2.25
We have come to the end of the first half of Spring term – it has flown by! Rabbit class have been working really hard this half term and have all earned a well deserved rest next week.
English:
We have come to the end of our book ‘The Dragon Machine’. At the beginning and end of every half term we do an independent piece of writing. This half term we had to create our own version of ‘The Dragon Machine’ story with a different character and creature. It’s fantastic to see the progress the children have made with their writing over the past few weeks – excellent work!
Maths:
We have tackled lots of different areas in Maths over the past few weeks, from money to times tables! It’s lovely to see the children enjoying their maths work and showing our school value of perseverance when finding things tricky.
Science:
We have been putting our scientist hats on recently by taking part in scientific enquiries! The Year 2s have been thinking about the suitability of materials and whether the material of an object can affect whether it can change shape. They had to create an enquiry question (e.g. Can all objects that are plastic be bent?), they then had to make a prediction, carry out their investigation and write what they had noticed.
Year 1s have been thinking about sorting objects. They have been sorting them based on their properties, what material they are made from and how they could be recycled. They had some excellent discussions about the importance of recycling and what they can do to be more ‘environmentally friendly’
Geography:
We have enjoyed finding out more about Tocuaro. The children created some wonderful information posters for homework with facts they had learned. We have used those facts to help us in our lessons. We have been able to locate Tocuaro on the map, we know it is in Mexico, which is on the continent North America. We also located Ruyton XI Towns on the map, which we know is in English and is on the continent Europe. The children can name all 7 continents after listening and learning the very catchy ‘Continents song!’
RE:
We have been continuing our work on ‘Who is Jewish and how do they live?’. We found out that Jewish people have ‘Mezuzahs’ which are small, decorative case which attach to the right doorframe of the entrance to their home, and inside is paper with sacred words from the Torah. Jews believe that it blesses their homes and they touch it every time they walk in as a reminder that God is always with them. We created our own Mezuzahs and thought about what special words we would include inside ours that would be important to remind people as they entered our homes.
Bird Feeders:
What a fabulous job Rabbit class did of creating their own bird feeders. It was lovely to see so many different bird feeders and hearing from the children how they were made. We spent some time thinking about where would be the best place for them to go around school to attract the birds. We have enjoyed checking if any birds have been snacking on our feeders!
I hope you all have a fantastic half term holiday and come back rested for the start of the second half of Spring Term. You have worked really hard, and should be very proud of your achievements this half term!
Miss Horton 
Weekly Celebrations – 14.2.25
Here are this week’s awards…
Weekly Celebrations
School Value Ambassadors (earning House Points with one pupil chosen each week per year group, awarded by teachers for showing one of our school values):
Year 6 Charlie for ‘Perseverance’ – for persevering with different challenges throughout the week.
Year 5 Emelia for ‘Perseverance’ – for demonstrating a positive attitude to all aspects of school life!
Year 4 Charlie for ‘Perseverance’ – Charlie has worked hard this week on improving his handwriting. He has also produced an impressive menu in RE for Diwali. Well done Charlie!
Year 3 Millie for ‘Wisdom’ and ‘Perseverance’ – Millie has been working hard this week on a persuasive piece of writing. She has worked hard to improve her sentences and has written a lovely piece of writing. Well done Millie!
Year 2 Grayson for ‘Tolerance’ – Grayson is always ready to learn. He is focussed on working hard and is able to manage distractions very well. You’re a star, Grayson!
Year 1 Cody for ‘Perseverance’ – Cody has worked hard this week to work independently. He has listened well and used his phonic knowledge to help him with his writing.
Reception Ellie for ‘Friendship’ – Ellie is a wonderful member of Hedgehogs. She is kind and considerate of others. Ellie always does her best in learning and produces beautiful work.
Bumblebees Tilda for ‘Love’, ‘Hope’, ‘Trust’, ‘Friendship’, ‘Wisdom and ‘Respect‘ – Tilda has a wonderful attitude to learning. She gives 100% in everything she does and ALWAYS shows respect and kindness to everyone in school.
Raffle ticket winners (awarded by staff for lining-up or behaviour around school)
Other Achievements…
Alfie received the ‘Man of the Match’ trophy during his football match last weekend. He said he got it for his excellent passing! Great work, Alfie!
Hallie has received her Bronze and Silver awards in Rainbows – a fantastic achievement!
Eva has achieved her ‘Gold Level – Rookie Lifeguard’ certificate, a brilliant life skill!
Love at St John’s
The children have been busy thinking about how they show love and how people have shown love to them. Mrs Bradshaw created a ‘Love’ board where they could share their thoughts. We see the love shine through our school everyday and it’s been lovely to see how the children are expressing love!
Number day in Dragonfly class
Last Friday it was world Number day. As a class we participated in different activities involving numbers. First of all we practised our measuring skills by creating potions. We had to work out different ways to make either 500ml or 750ml. We then decided which of our ‘recipes’ we wanted to use to make our potions. We played games by solving problems together to find puzzle pieces around the classroom and had a number quiz! Who knew you could have so much fun with numbers!
Birdwatching in Hedgehogs
We’ve had a lovely week in Hedgehogs this week, learning all about British birds, especially those that we are likely to find in our locality. We have made binoculars, learnt how to identify different species by their appearance, been bird spotting as part of the RSPB Birdwatch, and recreated our favourite garden bird.
Homework – 30.1.25
Homework: Bird Feeders
Environmental Warriors delivered a worship to us this week all about the ‘RSPB Big Bird Watch’. They wanted us to try and encourage more birds around our school grounds. I would like you to try and make a bird feeder that we can hang up outside school to attract birds. Here are some examples of what you could make:
