We have been very quiet on the blog front during the Autumn Term but that does not mean we have not been super busy. We have lots to share and show from the Autumn term!

Our theme this term has been ‘Bright Sparks’ and we have explored, encountered and developed skills across the curriculum. Please have a look below to see what we got up to in Autumn 1 and Autumn 2.

Autumn 1

In My Communication, we explored information sources including the internet, books and text extracts to create fact files about famous inventors we were learning about. We learned about a selection of famous inventors including Alexander Graham Bell, The Wright Brothers and Marie Curie and their most famous inventions. We enjoyed learning facts, exploring old versions of technology and thinking about how the world has changed over the years. 

In My Thinking and Problem Solving, we learned about handling data with a specific focus on pictograms. 8A loved learning about pictograms and finding out information through them. We made a variety of pictograms class based and then shared some questions across school with staff and pupils to help us gather data across a wider basis; looking at favourite colours, favourite cars and even the most popular football team!

In The World About Me, our learning focus was science and electricity. We learned about the hazards of electricity and how to use it safely, we looked at different forms of powering devices (mains power and battery powered) playing games and grouping items and we later had the opportunity to explore and build simple circuits using light bulbs and switches.

In Me and My Body, we enjoyed invasion games while focusing on the importance of warming up and cooling down before and after exercise. 8A really enjoy playing active games together and have been working really hard to follow rules, especially in new and less familiar games.

In My Creativity, we explored various famous artists including Kandinsky and Andy Warhol, looking at their working styles and techniques; exploring different elements of their work to create our own artwork pieces. 

In My Community, we further developed our social skills through learning to follow conventional social game rules in new and less familiar games - draughts was a very popular choice and we all enjoyed Mrs Hand teaching us the rules and aim of the game. 

We also looked at our personal care skills, how to care for our bodies and online safety skills.

Autumn 2

In My Communication, we learned about posters and different forms of instructions. While learning about posters we looked at their features and what makes posters stand out. 8A were really good at recalling different features of posters and remembered to use bright colours and drawings when making their own. We made posters for different events we were celebrating, including Bonfire Night and Friendship Week. When exploring instructions we had ample opportunities to encounter different forms of instructions allowing us the opportunity to reflect on their benefits and uses. We participated in a variety of activities tasking us to follow verbal, image and written instructions, we even had to read instructions to each other to follow and had a go and sequencing simple cooking instructions. 8A really enjoyed our activities around instructions and showed amazing cooperative learning skills. 

In My Thinking and Problem Solving, we have been learning about position, direction and movement exploring positional and directional language, giving verbal or visual instructions and following verbal and visual instructions through games. One of 8As favourite games has been Gem Hunter; they loved to challenge themselves with beating their previous score of gems collected while providing adults instructions of where to go.

Across our learning in Me and My Body and My Creativity we were exploring Dance. We started the topic by exploring movements and applying them to different music tracks  and sounds. By the end of our lessons we combined ideas to create our ‘8As Got Talent’ performance for the Christmas Production - all choosing and voting for songs and choosing different talent acts we would like to do in the show. For all our family and friends who came to the show or watched via teams, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

In My Community, we looked further at ways to care for our bodies and explored activities making us think carefully about our emotions and Zones of Regulation. In RE, we also learned about different religious celebrations including Christmas and Hanukkah through our topic ‘Light and Dark’.

In the lead up to Christmas we have also enjoyed lots of activities including our class party lunch, Christmas dinner day, Christmas jumper day, our Christmas treat day, a pantomime in school and breakfast with Santa.

We have also continued to target our reading, writing and number skills along with our personal Aspirational Learning Intentions through daily activities and interventions.

We are so proud of each and every one of you, 8A. Well done for a fantastic start to Year 8. We hope you all have some well deserved treats and rest over the Christmas holidays - we cannot wait to hear about what you get up to. See you in 2025!