Hi, I'm Teacher Sample (they/them) and I teach Year 5 Kestrels. I'm so excited to be a part of this school for a third year.

I have lived and worked in Germany and China prior to working at St John's. This year, I have taken on the role of MFL lead as I have a passion for learning languages. I can speak German, Chinese and Spanish. I'm looking forward to teaching German as our school's MFL and to teach my class some Spanish during our South America topic.

As well as being a teacher, I like coffee, Lego, and dinosaurs! 

 

Other staff working in our class are:

Mrs Miller (Tuesday-Friday), Miss Walker (Mon-Thurs), Mrs Bates (Monday), Mrs Wallace (Wednesday PM)​

Important dates for the diary this term for Kestrel Class:

PE will take place on Monday afternoons. Please send your child to school in school PE kit.

Our learning this term: 

English: We are reading  A Place Called Perfect, a mystery story about moving to a strange town. Our English lessons will include writing character descriptions, newspaper reports and a balanced argument poster.

Maths: We are finishing our unit on multiplication & division and starting a unit on fractions. 

Science: We are learning about Materials and their Properties.

Topic: In Term 1 and 2, we will be learning about Stone Age to Iron Age as our History topic. This term, we will focus on the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

RE: We are learning about Incarnation and focussing on the question Does the evidence suggest that Jesus was the Messiah?

German: We are learning to talk about the weather, clothes and countries.

Computing: We are learning to code mathematical and logical operators on Scratch.

Music: We will be learning to play the ukulele and singing in German!

 

Learning at home for Kestrel Class :

• Reading AR books 

• Spelling shed 

• TTS Rockstars 

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Be ready for learning! In Kestrels, your child will need to have these items in school: 

• water bottle (no squash or juice) 
• small rucksack (big enough to hold lunch box and reading books) 
• wellington boots (to leave in school) 
• coat (weather appropriate) 

Please don’t bring other items to school, as we do not have space to store them, and it can cause upset if things are lost or damaged. 

Term 1

Kestrels have had a fantastic start to the year and have been very busy getting enthusiastic with all areas of the curriculum!

Dance routine: In PE, Kestrels learned a group dance to Dua Lipa’s Let’s Get Physical, including choreographing a section of the routine as a class. We hope to show this off in next term’s celebration of learning assembly.

Ukuleles: In only 6 weeks of learning, Kestrels have already learned 2 chords and 2 songs on the ukulele! We hope you enjoyed our performance in assembly and we hope to learn more chords and songs in the next coming terms. Stay tuned!

Outdoor learning: Kestrels have enjoyed learning outdoor in Science and Maths. In Maths, they drew Venn diagrams for common factors and common multiples in chalk on the playground to consolidate their times tables knowledge. In Science, Kestrel class turned themselves into the Solar System to show their understanding of the planets’ positions and orbits around the Sun.

History: After studying the Stone Age all term, Kestrels got excited about their Bronze Age learning ahead of Term 2 by looking at replicas of artefacts from that time, including an axe, an axe head, a bronze pot and a clothes pin.

Teamwork: As one of our schools living values, we have been working on our teamwork skills in PSHE and Thrive time by completing different tasks and playing games together.

Debates and sharing ideas: The children have enjoyed taking part in debates and discussions about a wide range of topics in RE, PSHE and Thrive time. The children have practised sharing their opinions confidently, disagreeing respectfully and reflecting and building on their own views.