We're the Owls!

We're freewheeling flyers, hard working and wise. We aim high and believe we can achieve!

"You have brains in you head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose." 

Oh the Places You'll Go - Dr. Seuss

We are the Owls class!

Hello, My name is Mrs McNerney and I am the Owls' class teacher. What a fabulous start to the Junior School all the children have made, especially having not been in school for a number of months!

There were lots of smiley faces and excited children on Tuesday morning, for the Year 3 transition day. Everyone was eager to catch up with their friends, talk about what they have been doing and look around their new school! Things must have gone really well because everyone came back to school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! 

I am really excited to be teaching a full class again and look forward to getting to know all of the children over the coming year. 

We have PE on a Thursday and Friday. 

Oatlands Points - highest earners

Well done to Ted, Ewan and Henry who earned the highest number of Oatlands points this half term. Their treat was to top an ice cream with as many sprinkles, chocolate chips and chocolate sauce possible and then eat it all without dribbling too much down their chins and shirts! Needless to say, the boys enjoyed their reward!

Year 3 sports morning

At long last, the postponed Year 3 sports morning took place on Wednesday this week. The field was dry and the sun was shining - a good start! 

In house teams, all children took part in the following activities, trying to earn as many Oatlands points as possible for their house:

- Jumping event

- Javelin throwing event

- Endurance running around the daily mile track

After these events, we all watched and cheered on our friends and teams in the obstacle race, sack race, skipping race and egg and spoon race. Then the flat race for boys and girls followed, the morning ending with the girl's and boy's relays races. 

Everyone tried hard both individually and collectively for their teams. Thank you to the PTA for providing some welcomed fruit afterwards. 

The results were:

Yellow Hammers - first

Red Kites - second

Blue Jays - third

Green Kingfishers - fourth

England football celebrations - it's coming home...!

Following the amazing football result on Wednesday, England beating Denmark 2-1 in the semi finals of the Euro's competition, we couldn't resist shaking off our tiredness and having a celebratory dance outside!

Taylor Shaw have made England biscuits for everyone to enjoy at break time today and we have had a special non-uniform day too. Come on England, we believe you can do it and beat Italy in the final on Sunday night!  

Enterprise Week Fundraiser - The Space Hopper Challenge 

Another fantastic fundraising event was the Space Hopper Challenge. The children had to see who could do the fastest lap round the track on their hopper. There was lots of falling off but the couldn't help but keep smiling. Well done Owls. 

Enterprise week fundraiser - danceathon!

This morning it was just like 'the old times' - music blasting and everyone hot and sweaty from dancing their socks off! We all enjoyed letting our hair down and dancing for the full 20 minutes in the hall. I never knew just how many good movers there are in the Owls class! 

Thank you for all of your generous donations via ParentPay. We will have a total amount raised announced in next Friday's newsletter. 

UEFA European Championship 2020

We are all very excited about the rescheduled tournament between Europe's top national football teams. Today, we picked the team that we will follow out of a hat, although we all agreed we a routing for England! Our class winner will be announced after the final on Sunday 11th July! 

Mummification masterclass!

We all had fun having a very sticky 'hands on' experience of mummification - sadly not with a King or Pharaoh's body but using an orange!

In Ancient Egypt, the mummification process would take 70 days - we did it in a record-breaking 45 minutes! Just like the Special Priests, who were the embalmers, we followed the instructions, treating and wrapping the 'body' in special bandages (Sainsbury's kitchen roll!)

We hope now that our oranges will enjoy a safe passage to the after-life!

Marty Jopson Minibeast Safari

Yesterday we joined lots of other schools to watch a zoom session with Marty Jopson, (as seen on The One Show). He very enthusiastically showed us what lots of creatures and insects look like under a microscope. We looked at head lice (which certainly made us all sit scratching our heads!), common house spider, hydra in a pond, nettles as well as human blood and cheek cells. It was an engaging session and the children were sat as mesmerised as I was!  

End of half-term celebrations!

Congratulations to Molly and Izzy for receiving a 'Special Mention' certificate each. Both girls are extremely enthusiastic about their learning, kind and caring with their friends and have the most beautiful handwriting (that puts mine to shame!) Well done!

Congratulations to Wilf, Roxy and Dylan for earning the most Oatlands Points in the Owls class this half term. There reward was to have fun decorating biscuits with lots of tasty looking sweets! 

French Week

French Menu

Taylor Shaw treated us to a special French-themed menu on Thursday to help celebrate our French Week. It did make choosing what we wanted a little bit more tricky - 'Le déjeuner était délicieux!' was the overall response from the children!

French week activities

This week the children have been enjoying extra French-themed activities: locating Francophone countries on a world map; drawing in the style of Gauguin and djembe drumming. The children all agreed and said, 'Nous nous sommes bien amusés!'

Enterprise Week

This week we are all enjoying learning about money: different methods of paying; adding and subtracting money and what profit and loss means. 

Today, after discussing and creating a brand new restaurant in our groups, we crafted and made 3D models of a healthy meal. Look at the photos below; are you tempted?!

Hula Hooping masterclass

We all thoroughly enjoyed a hula hooping masterclass with circus performer, Adam. He taught us lots of games using a hoop before getting down to the nitty-gritty of learning how to hula hoop properly! We all had lots of fun, got very sweaty and were amazed when Mrs McNerney managed to do it too!

Achievement Winners - WB 23rd April 2021

A huge well done to everyone for their hard work this week! 

Our Achievement Winners are:

George Reed for super engagement and enthusiasm shown at the Ancient Egyptian workshop and Ayda Kitchen for fabulous maths work on using a written method for division. 

Ancient Egyptian Workshop

Life in school took another step towards 'normality' when we had an Ancient Egyptian Workshop for all Year 3 classes. There were lots and lots of very interesting artefacts to look at, touch and sketch. Some we guessed right what they were, others not. Arian dressed up as an Egyptian Pharaoh and Betty and Jia did a wonderful job in removing the important organs before a body was mummified! 

There are more photos to follow...

Special Mentions, Oatlands Points winners & Decorated Egg winners:

Congratulations to Esme and Jia for being our Special Mentions Winners this half term! 

Well done to Ella, Sophie and May for being our top three Oatlands Points earners. 

Eggsecclent work from Arian for being the class Decorated Egg Competition winner! 

Red Nose Day - Friday 19th March 2021

Celebration Assembly Winners - 19.03.21

Congratulations to Wilf and Amelia who have been awarded an Achievement Certificate this week. Both have worked incredibly hard since school reopened fully, impressing me with their positive learning attitude and resilience shown towards with learning tasks. Well done!

Celebration Assembly Winners - 12.03.21

Congratulations and well done to Henry and Betty who have both been awarded an achievement award certificate for their fabulously positive attitudes during our first week or reopening. 

Celebration Assembly Winners - Friday 5th March!

This week's winners are Freddie W, Arthur F, Sophie N, Ewan M, Evie K and Zac S! 

Freddie W has impressed me repeatedly over the last eight weeks with his determined attitude towards his home learning. Freddie is always prepared to have a go at all his activities and has responded to feedback I have given to make any small changes I might have suggested. I have been especially delighted with the presentation of Freddie’s learning; he is putting a huge amount of effort into his handwriting and is taking real pride in all the activities he is sharing. I absolutely loved and was incredibly impressed with the determination you showed towards achieving your goals in our Jigsaw activity as well.  I hope that you are very proud of yourself – very well done! 

Arthur F has been a fantastic and enthusiastic member of the Fowls bubble who has put a maximum amount of effort into all our activities! Arthur has really impressed me with the way in which he has listened to the learning and responded to my feedback; I was delighted to see you answer questions in full sentences in English, explaining your responses using one of my favourite words ‘because’ and checking your writing for full stops and capital letters. I hope that you are very proud of yourself – very well done! 

Sophie N is an extremely conscientious learner who tries her very best with all the work she completes, from reading instructions carefully to answering questions in detail. Work is always presented carefully and clearly. I was especially impressed with your RE assignment this week, Sophie. You have explained the significance of four days in Holy Week and explained why you think Christians refer to the day on which Jesus was crucified as Good Friday. Well done, Sophie! 

Ewan M has been a fantastic member of the Growls bubble, bringing an energy to class that always brightens our day! We have been especially impressed with the enthusiastic attitude that Ewan shows for all his learning and the effort he puts into every activity. Great work, Ewan – very well done! 

Evie K has really impressed us with her online work over the last few weeks. She always tries her best and presents her learning in bright, colourful ways, which demonstrates the pride she takes in her work. I especially liked your rainforest ‘Top Trump’ cards this week – they were very detailed and beautifully presented! Well done Evie! 

Zac S has been a pleasure to have in the Bow(e)ls bubble over the last 8 weeks. He is always polite, and helpful and quick to get on with his learning. He has produced some lovely writing, some high quality theme work and has been a real trooper for his class in the TTRS Battle of the Bands, putting in some real graft! Your BFG outfit was superb for World Book Day too. Thank you for always being such a star! 

World Book Day 2021!

Thursday, 4th March was World Book Day and Year 3 have been celebrating both at home and in school. It was wonderful during our class check-ins to see the children dressed as their favourite fictional characters and to hear them talk so passionately about the books that they enjoy reading! Everyone had the opportunity to have a go at creating new covers for a story of their choosing ~ although we are not supposed to judge them by their covers, I would certainly be tempted to buy books based solely on the children’s brilliant designs! 

As reading is our superpower, it seemed only fitting to kick off the afternoon’s celebrations with a story time led by mysterious masked readers! Children listened as disguised adults from school told their favourite tales, then tried to guess with whom they had been sharing a story!

Well done and thank you to Year 3 and their adults for the enthusiasm they showed for and hard work they put into celebrating World Book Day 2021!

Celebration Assembly and Art Award Winners - Friday 26th February!

This week's winners are Abbey P, Polly M, Izzy H, Ella S, Ameen and Millie B! 

Abbey P has impressed me repeatedly over the last seven weeks with her attitude towards her home learning. Abbey is always prepared to have a go at all her activities and puts a huge amount of effort and thought into each of these. I have this week been particularly impressed with the impassioned speech against deforestation that Abbey gave as part of our learning about rainforests – the scientific language that she included and confidence with which she spoke were super! I have absolutely loved reading your detailed ideas about the mysterious Kapok tree in English too, Abbey – very well done for everything you are achieving! 

Polly M has been a delight to have in the ‘Fowls’ bubble over the last seven weeks! She has been incredibly enthusiastic about all our activities and even our register language – we have learnt a lot of German words thanks to Polly’s asking very sensible questions about this! This week, I have been especially impressed with Polly’s learning in English; I have loved the adjectives that you have thought of to describe the plant and animal life in the rainforest, Polly, and especially the alliteration you have included to make your writing even more effective. Very well done! 

Izzy H always presents her work to the highest standard! She reads instructions carefully, ensuring that the task or activity is completed fully and with 100% effort. Despite not being in school, I have appreciated and enjoyed seeing Izzy’s smiling face and hearing her contributions in our class check-ins. This week, I have been especially impressed with your detailed responses to our new story. Well done, Izzy! 

Ella S has been a wonderful member of the ‘Growls’ bubble over the last few weeks. She has really impressed us with the enthusiasm that she has shown for all our activities and the hard work that she puts into these. Well done, Ella!  

Ameen N has really risen to the challenge of home learning and has impressed us with his enthusiasm for completing his work. He’s asked questions when he’s not sure, resulting in some excellent pieces of work being produced. His model of an Amazon creature is a real sight to behold! We are very proud of all your efforts, Ameen! 

Millie B is a quiet, polite member of the Bowls bubble who always gets on sensibly with her work. However, it is her English work that has really stood out over the last few weeks and we’ve been impressed with the massive improvement in the quality of her writing. Well done Millie! 

ART AWARD 

May Robson 

Wow! May has created a fabric toy model of her fantasy animal. It is a fantastic piece of textiles complete with facial details. I hope he will be happy in his new habitat. Well done, May, an absolutely fantastic wow work project. 

Lucy Sagar 

Lucy has created a great piece of shadow art this week. She has used vibrant colours and overlapping shadows which creates depth.

Feel Good Friday - Valentine’s Day Crafternoon!

On Friday, Year 3 enjoyed the first of our ‘Feel Good Fridays’ with a ‘crafternoon’ dedicated to making Valentine’s Day cards! This year more than ever we want to show our love and gratitude for the people in our lives; the children in the ‘Fowls’, ‘Growls’ and Badgers bubbles really impressed us with the care they took designing and making their cards and the thoughtful words they wrote inside. Well done, Year 3 ~ you should be very proud of the beautiful and meaningful cards you created!

Celebration Assembly Winners - Friday 12.02.21

Congratulations to our 3 highest Oatlands Points earners this half-term:

Polly, Emily and George! 

Congratulations to our two Special Mentions this half term:

Oscar & Eleanor!

Art Award - Friday 12.02.21

Year 3- Faye Hambrook

Wow! Faye has created an amazing 3D model of the Owlicorn that she designed. She has now brought her animal to life and it is incredible! Such a beautiful creature too, if only it was real. Well done, Faye.

Children's Mental Health Awareness Week

Children's Mental Health Week has taken place on 1-7 February 2021. The theme this year's theme is 'Express Yourself.' Each morning, the children have looked at and discussed a different positive affirmation. 

This is George's work where he has listed all the things that make him happy at home. 

Celebration Winners and Arts Award - Friday 5th February

This week's winners are: Charlotte C, Molly G, Violet S, Ted K, Rory M-B, Jess J! 

Charlotte C has been working incredibly hard on all our home learning activities. I have been particularly impressed with the fantastic videos Charlotte has been sharing, in which she has demonstrated and explained clearly and confidently acute, obtuse and right angles; delivered an accurate and enthusiastic weather forecast; created and completed mazes and even perfected her agility in PE! This week I loved reading and seeing your expressive performance of your fabulous poem about your dad, Charlotte and thought your line about his making you ‘very proud’ was lovely! Very well done! 

Molly G answered questions about different types of poetry accurately, showing a very good understanding of the layout and features of each type. I especially enjoyed reading Molly’s acrostic poem about ‘Storytimes’. My favourite line is the last one which reads ‘Sleepy girls off to dream, “Good night, love you,” she said.’ Well done, Molly!  

Ted K has been working incredibly hard in the Owls bubble and has really impressed us this week with his fantastic work on different types of poetry. Ted created a super kenning, describing perfectly the ‘ice slipper, school stopper’ and ‘brain freezer’ that is winter! Ted even thought of his own, original ending to his kenning and illustrated his work beautifully too. Well done, Ted! 

Violet S has settled well into the ‘Fowls’ bubble and has very much impressed me over the last couple of weeks with her grown up attitude, as well as her enthusiasm for and fantastic memory of all our learning! I absolutely loved the kenning that Violet wrote describing winter beautifully as a ‘sun hater’ and ‘sloppy snower’! You worked very hard on your poem, Violet, and decorated it brilliantly with a careful illustration. Very well done! 

Rory M-B has proved this week that he is indeed the ‘Poetry Prince’, crafting both kennings and haiku that any published poet would be proud of! He’s been really engaged with all of his learning in school and we have been really impressed with his enthusiasm for answering questions and completing his work. Great stuff, Rory! 

Jess J always completes her home learning tasks with the same diligence and high quality work that we had come to expect in school. We’ve enjoyed her presentations, videos and this week a really wonderful poem about winter. It’s such a pleasure to mark her work. 

Arts Award

Ayda K has designed a new species of animal this week that lives in the rainforest. Her 'spiked head long body' is fantastic! She has thought about lots of features that her animal has including fire breath! Amazing imagination, Ayda. Well done. 

Art Award - 29.01.21

Hunter C

Hunter, your artwork is always spectacular and this week is no exception. The detailed, intricate set of 4 minibeast drawings that you have produced this week are phenomenal. What a talented artist you are, Hunter! Well done!

Celebration Winners Friday 29.01.21

This week's winners are Oscar R, Reuben B, Jessica S, Noah J, Sam F and Sofia B! 

Jessica S has put 100% effort into all her remote learning activities, often accompanying her work with a home-made movie! I was especially impressed with your rainforest diorama, Jessica - I hope you are proud of all the super work you are completing too! Well done! 

Oscar R has really impressed me with both his enthusiasm for his home learning and the effort he has been putting into this. He has really been going the ‘extra mile’, sharing photographs of himself demonstrating synonyms for the word ‘eat’ and words ending with the suffix ‘-ation’ in action and delivering a super weather forecast! Alongside all his hard work on Teams, Oscar has even found time for some independent learning activities; I absolutely loved your Yayoi Kusama-inspired ‘infinity room’, Oscar! Very well done for all your amazing learning! 

Reuben B is a fantastic member of the ‘Fowls’ bubble who is enthusiastic about every activity we do! Reuben has used his time out of school to learn more about our language for this half term, German; we were all very impressed with and learnt a lot from your fabulous PowerPoint presentation teaching us the German words for different types of weather, Reuben! I also loved the silly sentences you created in English this week – especially the idea of your driving a bin! Fantastische Arbeit, Reuben – very well done! 

Noah J has really impressed the teachers in the Owls bubble with his hard work on and enthusiasm for his activities. This week, we particularly enjoyed reading the super ‘silly sentences’ you wrote in English. We won’t be trying to ‘walk on a pencil’ any time soon! Great work and very well done, Noah! 

Sam F has been an absolute star, not just this week, but since bubble learning began. He’s got an amazingly positive attitude, is always keen to challenge himself and is the most polite, kind and thoughtful boy! Sam is everyone’s friend, a really lovely trait to have.  

Sofia B ‘arrived’ in the Badgers class at the start of this term and despite not yet being able to meet her new classmates or teachers in person, has managed to get off to a flying start! She is making a superb effort with all of her home learning and has even been keen to wear her new school uniform! Well done for all of your hard work, Sofia! 

Celebration Assembly Winners - 22nd January 2021

This week's winners are Ava P, Andrew, Roxanne, May, Oscar P and Faye! 

Ava is a fantastic member of the ‘Fowls’ bubble and sets a great example to everyone around her. She is incredibly enthusiastic about all her learning and has even asked for extra activities to complete at break times! She puts a smile on our faces every day with her cheerful attitude and the effort she puts into everything she does; I was incredibly impressed this week with your detailed and carefully thought out answers to questions we asked about The Incredible Book Eating Boy, Ava - well done! 

Andrew has shown amazing enthusiasm for every activity we have set and has put a huge amount of effort into his home learning. The vocabulary he used to describe the feelings of the Incredible Book-Eating Boy was amazing – I loved the word ‘pensive’! Andrew has also been working very hard on his handwriting and, as you can see from his beautiful presentation, it’s paying off. On top of all this, Andrew found time to perfect a dance to Moana, record a super song for French and complete a thoughtful Jigsaw activity – well done, Andrew! 

Roxanne has made a super start in the Owls bubble! We were particularly impressed this week with the lovely poem she wrote in RE entitled ‘Who am I?’ You presented your thoughtful ideas beautifully, Roxy, and we loved your last line - ‘Most importantly I am me’! Well done! 

May has really impressed us this week with her excellent comprehension work on The Incredible Book-Eating Boy. Not only did you offer a detailed and accurate answer to each question, demonstrating fantastic understanding of each of the reading skills we have been learning, but the presentation of your work was exceptional too. Well done, May! 

Oscar has had a brilliant week in the Badger bubble; we have been impressed with his work rate, his polite manner and his enthusiasm for taking on a challenge. We especially enjoyed his weather forecast about Queensland, Australia. Well done Oscar! 

Faye has approached every activity she has been set so far online with the same great enthusiasm and high standards we have become used to seeing in class. She has found many creative ways to demonstrate her learning and we have enjoyed looking (watching and listening!) to it all. Her maze to show off her directional skills were particular highlights. 

Art award - 15.01.21

This week, the art award for year 3 goes to Chloe Westmoreland. She has captured her chosen animal's pose perfectly. With one paw lifted, the back shoulder raised, and the head lowered it looks like this beautiful big cat is ready to pounce! It's fantastic, well done Chloe. Mrs Alderson.

This week's winners are Lucy, Arian, Eva, George and Hunter!

Arian has been polite, hard-working and a pleasure to have in the Badger bubble! We thought his sketch of a poison dart frog was outstanding - such attention to detail.

Eva has made a fabulous start in the new ‘Fowls’ bubble – a bubble formed by children from the Foxes and Owls classes! She has put a great deal of effort into every activity and her learning is presented beautifully. I was incredibly impressed with your careful and accurate drawing in art, Eva – I almost mistook it for a photograph!  Very well done for a fantastic first two weeks back in school! 

George's fact file about Brazil, a country with a rainforest, absolutely bowled us over! High quality drawings and super facts make it a joy to behold - you can see for yourselves above!

Hunter has impressed us with his commitment to home learning; his work has been of a consistent high quality and carefully presented. We especially loved the video presentation about Australia!

Lucy has put a huge amount of effort into and shown incredible enthusiasm for all our remote learning, even completing some activities twice to perfect her activities! I have been very impressed with the time and care Lucy has taken to make sure that her learning is accurate and her work presented neatly. I loved listening to your description of your 'eatwell' plate in science, Lucy - very well done for all your hard work! 

Here we are looking smart in our house team colour PE kits

Class Novel

We have started reading 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl as our first class novel. We can't wait to find out how Matilda gets revenge on her mean parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood! 

We have finished (and enjoyed) 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl. Our next class book is 'The Worst Children' by David Walliams. I wonder if there will be anyone we know in this book?!

Christmas dinner!

Today was Christmas dinner day - the Christmas preparations have started! After pulling crackers and telling (terrible) jokes to each other, we tucked into our dinner - turkey, roasties, stuffing, pigs in blankets, peas and carrots!! 

Children in Need

Everyone looked fantastic in their pyjamas and Pudsey bear clothing today and nobody fell asleep! Thank you for the donations for Children in Need. 

Violin lessons 

Today we have had our first violin lesson with Miss Jowett and Miss Barrett!