Beech Grove

WELCOME TO BADGERS

We are a Year 4/5 class and our teacher is Mr Hibberd

Autumn 2 2024 Class News

Badgers class have been learning the classic Christmas song ‘O Christmas Tree’ in German in preparation for the Christmas concert. They have done a splendid job and sound brilliant!

Autumn 1 2024 Class News

As part of this half-term's RE unit, studying Christianity, Badgers class were invited to the Baptist Church in Wellington where they witnessed a baptism. The children asked brilliant questions and the visit sparked a real interest to learn more!

Summer 2 2024 Class News

Badgers class enjoyed a field trip to Weston-Super-Mare this half term. The class produced some wonderful sketches of the derelict Birnbeck Pier and came up with great ideas on how to reinstate the structure. We even managed to evade all incoming seagull attacks at lunchtime!

Summer 1 2024 Class News

Pay-to-Play was a huge success today. After a term of preparing, planning and resourcing, it was finally Pay-to-Play! There were a range of events including; penalty shoot-out, face painting, soak the student, lucky dips, guess the name of the teddy and much more.

This annual event is linked to the PSHE and Civic Award work which focuses on giving something back to the school community. This is a great fund raising event and it is always wonderful to see all the children having fun! 

Spring 2 2024 Class News

Spring 1 2024 Class News

Badgers, Kestrels and Owls all enjoyed a trip to Taunton Museum this week. They stepped back in time to visit Saxon Somerset taking part in a battle re-enactment, making clay runes and building a 'burh' to protect their village. The activities complimented the learning the children have been doing on Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and they impressively showed off their knowledge and skills as historians. 

 

Autumn 2 2023 Class News

Badgers have had a super busy Autumn term-two!

As writers, we have explored a tale of fear with the story of Hansel and Gretel and the children have written some fantastic character and setting descriptions focusing on building suspense and atmosphere.

As mathematicians, we have been tackling a unit on fractions. The children have been learning how to add and subtract mixed numbers and improper fractions by making them equivalent. There has been plenty of opportunity to talk about pizza!

As geographers, we have moved on from our studies of the Anglo-Saxons by exploring the region of East Anglia. Lessons have focused on human and physical features, coasts, wind farming and tourism.

In November, Mr Hibberd took part in ‘Movember’, raising almost £200 for the men’s mental health charity by growing out his moustache and keeping his beard trim. On the final day, Mrs Vaughan helped the children to surprise him with fake moustaches! Thank you to all who supported and donated. 

The class have enjoyed the build-up to Christmas by making some fantastic candle holders to sell at the schools’ Christmas Fayre. Every day, the class spin the wheel for their advent calendar and take part in a Christmas challenge!

Merry Christmas Badgers – have a wonderful break!

 

Autumn 1 2023 Class News

Badgers class have had a fantastic start to the Autumn term and have settled wonderfully into Year 5. The children have been busy getting ready for Harvest by singing some great songs (none involving sausage rolls!) and writing some acrostic poetry to present at the Harvest assembly.

As mathematicians, the class have focused on number and place value, recognising numbers up to 1,000,000. We have looked at Roman numerals, number lines and rounding. As we approach half-term, the class have been exploring estimation and inverse operations.

As historians, we have explored the Anglo-Saxon period, discovering why they came over to the east coast of England after the Romans. We were lucky enough to visit Escot where the children enjoyed an interactive day out, learning about life as an Ango-Saxon. We sheltered from the elements in the Saxon village, where we made a hammer and a brooch. The children met a pair of bears and a pack of wolves. The class insisted that Mr Hibberd did the death slide!

Linking our English to our history, the children have delved into the Anglo-Saxon world of Beowulf and re-imagined the fierce ‘defeat the monster’ story of his ferocious battle with Grendel. The children have used bold, ambitious vocabulary to describe both setting and character and really enjoyed creating their own versions of the tale.

Well done to everyone in the class for settling into Year 5 so well!

2022/23 Class News

Summer 2 2023 Class News

What a brilliant end to a fantastic summer term.

We are excited to celebrate the end of term with a pizza party where the children will make fresh pizzas on Mr Hibberd’s pizza oven! 

In maths, we have looked at volume and negative numbers. The class have completed their times tables working through their 9s – 12s.  In writing, the children have really enjoyed the story of Varjak Paw (SF Said) and have looked at the characters and the setting of Mesopotamia. 

The children had a brilliant sports day and participated in their houses to win as many points as they could! Their resilience was outstanding as they supported and cheered each other on throughout the day. We were also fortunate enough to be invited over to Court Fields for a sports festival where the class rotated around various fantastic activities ran by the Year 8s and 9s.

We’ve had some fantastic visitors to school this term, a highlight being a ‘NED’ assembly with Paul from the USA who helped the school to build resilience using some magical yo-yo skills! We also had a brilliant session learning cricket skills!

I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone. It has been such a pleasure teaching badgers class and it has been amazing to see how far they have progressed. I look forward to seeing their smiling faces on the benches in assembly in September! 

Summer 1 2023 Class News

Badgers class have had a fantastic start to the summer term.

The class worked so hard to fundraise for their trip to Somerset & Avon police HQ, where they were shown the comms centre and how emergency calls work; the class got to make some radio calls and were shown around the force museum. They even got to try on some police uniforms which were surprisingly heavy!

As mathematicians they have worked through understanding percentage and are now looking at different angles using protractors to measure degrees. The class are progressing well through their times tables and are currently working on their 9s.

As geographers, the class have enjoyed exploring the Amazon rainforest by looking at the characteristics of the differing levels of water, sunlight and air circulation. They particularly enjoyed looking at the agouti who can break through Brazil nuts with their razor-sharp teeth!

As writers, we have been looking at a ‘losing tale’ and the children have been writing a variety of openings to begin their stories.

Science (and good weather) have allowed the class to explore outside and categorise various types of wildlife. Although there is not much fungi around at this time of year, we did manage to find some at the basins.

Finally, the class completed their mini-police programme and celebrated with a passing out ceremony in assembly, where they were presented with certificates and badges for their hard work over the weeks – well done Badgers!

Spring 2 2023 Class News

Badgers class have had a very busy Spring term.

As mathematicians, they have explored multiplication and division. We moved back to fractions before comparing them to decimals.

As historians, the class have enjoyed looking at the lost civilisation of the Maya where we concentrated on food. The class got messy and made some bread – excellent results and we will enjoy a Mayan feast at the end of term!

As writers, Badgers have been studying the Alfred Noyes poem, The Highwayman. We have investigated each character and explored each perspective. The children then chose their favourite character and wrote a diary for them.

Mr Hibberd was extremely proud of the classes fundraising efforts this term. The children raised £387 which will fund our trip to Avon & Somerset Police HQ where we will explore the communications room and force museum. Well done to the class and thank you to the wonderful parents for your generous contributions!

Spring 1 2023 Class News

Badgers class have had an amazing start to the spring term.

We have made excellent progress over our six weeks of swimming! The class have enjoyed our weekly visits to Wellington sports centre and their confidence has boomed.

We have enjoyed learning about the ancient civilisation of the Maya; the class were keen to play a game of Pok-ta-Pok!

The children in Badgers class are now enrolled as mini-police and have been learning all the different aspects of police work.

In maths, we have worked through a unit of fractions and are now looking at multiplication & subtraction. We spend time everyday practising times-table fluency, and the children enjoy beating their previous scores and times.

After half-term, the children will be focusing on food in DT and we’ll be creating some dishes inspired by our studies into the Maya! We will also be looking to fundraise for a trip to Taunton police station! 

Autumn 2 2022 Class News 

In Badgers class, the children have worked extremely hard this term.

As writers, we have created monster stories influenced by Perseus & Medusa. The children have produced some wonderfully descriptive pieces of writing where their heroes have defeated a deadly foe!

As mathematicians, the class have moved through multiplication into fractions. We have ended the term by looking at how to recognise equivalent fractions. The children have used number lines and fraction walls to help find new fractions.

As geographers, we have studied the South West coast and Slapton Sands, looking at how tourism, agriculture and climate influence the region. It was interesting to locate places the children had been over the South West.

As engineers, the children faced the mega challenge of building a 1m bridge across two chairs which could hold three chocolate santas! Badgers were up to the challenge and most teams were successful in their endeavours.

In PSHE, we have looked at how differences among us can be powerful, the children studied Paralympians and how they overcame great odds to win gold. In RE we have studied the story of Mary & Joseph and looked at how the story would’ve affected Joseph.

The children deserve a long Christmas break, they have worked incredibly hard this term and now it’s time for them to relax in their PJ’s and eat some chocolate! Mr Hibberd wishes you all a wonderful Christmas! 

 

Autumn 1 2022 Class News

In Badgers class, we have had a wonderful first half of the autumn term.

The children celebrated harvest by writing and decorating ‘acrostic poems’. Some of the class proudly read their work at the harvest assembly in front of a packed school hall.

We were transported back in time through our trip to Nothe Forte, where the children role-played as evacuees from London, who left their families for the safety of Dorset, during WW2. The class had a fantastic time learning about the roles of air raid wardens, shop keepers and a very scary headteacher!

Continuing our learning of WW2, the children made some ‘shoe box set designs’, sculpting 3D sets of Anderson shelters and scenes from the Blitz; a messy day produced some fantastic work!

2021/22 Class News

Summer 1 2022 Class News

In their own words, Badgers Class have had "an amazing half term!"

The children have continued to show all of our school values, but especially resilience; their art and DT projects were excellent examples of this.

As writers, we have built on our knowledge of story writing by adapting our model text ‘Timeslip Scarab’ to write our own portal tale focusing on openings and endings. The children showed great recollection of the toolkit of a portal story and were able to apply the complex language skills effectively.

As mathematicians, we have developed our knowledge of fractions, percentages and decimals so that we are able to convert between the three. We have continued to build on this knowledge by adding and subtracting decimals up to three decimal places. This has tested our understanding of place value and it has been a good opportunity to embed our understanding of column addition and subtraction.

As historians, we have been looking at ‘The Changing Power of Monarchs’, focusing on the reigns of King John, Queen Anne and Queen Victoria. The children’s ability to evaluate and analyse a variety of sources has improved and they can now consider the following when looking at a source: When was the source made? Why was the source made? Who created the source? This kind of analytical thinking will be vital during history as the children continue to explore different time periods. Whilst learning about King John, we created our own Magna Carta and even got to tea stain the paper! It was lovely to hear what rules the children would implement to promote the five British Values: Democracy, Tolerance, Respect, Individual Liberty and Rule of Law.

As scientists, we have explored living things and their habitat. We are now able to recall the life-cycle of a variety of animals including amphibians, birds and mammals. It was really interesting to see the similarities and differences between each group of animals and to watch a variety of time lapse videos showing animals growing. Whilst watching a time lapse video of an egg hatching, we were able to talk about the artificial heat provided by a lamp and discussed how that would be different in nature. It was interesting to learn the definitions of different types of animals and seeing if there were any exceptions (e.g. the duck billed platypus).

As artists, we designed our own ‘Festival Feast’ using Modroc. We designed an afternoon tea ready for the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations. After making the treats out of cardboard, we covered the shapes in Modroc (which is similar to plaster of paris) and painted them. To make the food look more realistic, we added detail to the food using thin paint brushes as well as felt tips.

Spring 2 2022 Class News

Badgers have had an exciting half term and have been very successful in all their learning. The children have continued to be amazing at showing all of our school values, but especially independence and courage as they take on new challenges in their learning. 

As writers, we have been authors of a Newspaper report based on our finding tale from last term. We were inspired by the short story ‘Kidnapped!’, which sparked our imaginations when writing our own finding tale. As well as this, the children really enjoyed our poetry unit based on ‘The Eagle’ by Lord Anthony Tennyson. We began by exploring the rhythm, rhyme and vocabulary of the poem and developed our ideas of how we could describe a bird of prey. The writing, which focused on the appearance and movements of a peregrine falcon, was very powerful. We then wrote our own poems about an animal of our choice.

As mathematicians, we have continued our learning on fractions moving onto multiplying fractions (including mixed numbers) by an integer as well as finding fractions of an amount. The children’s understanding of fractions has developed through the use of numicon and other concrete resources.

As geographers, we have used our knowledge from autumn 2 – learning about the physical and human geography of East Anglia – to make comparisons with a region within North America, specifically California. We were surprised to hear that there are water shortages in California due to agriculture, particularly linked to the growth of almonds.

As scientists, we have explored space and the solar system. The children have been fascinated by this topic and their thirst for learning has been wonderful to see. A number of children have also completed independent learning at home, showing how enthralled they have been. They have learned about each planet and the order and movement of the planets in relation to the sun and have conducted different experiments to prove the curvature of the earth. As well as this, we explored how we could use the position of the sun and shadows to tell the time.

To conclude our science unit of work, we spent the afternoon looking at Earth and Space in the planetarium. It was fascinating!

 

Spring 1 2022 Class News

Badgers have had an exciting half term as historians, learning all about the Vikings. This linked well with our previous history unit on the Anglo-Saxons and our geography unit on East Anglia.  We looked in depth at King Alfred the Great and his descendants, considering what impact he had on Britain and whether these changes are still present today. As well as this, we thought about the question 'Were Vikings more than just raiders?' and wrote a discussion text on this. 

As mathmaticians, we have enjoyed learning about multiplication and division. We have used a range of strategies and maths equipment to help us deepen our understanding and are now feeling more confident using strategies such as long and short multiplication.

As writers, we have learnt how to write a 'finding tale' focusing on suspense, and created our own versions of our model text - 'Kidnapped'.

As scientists, we have been exploring Earth and Space! This has linked nicely with our computing unit as we have created our own databases about the different planets in our solar system. We can't wait for more exciting learning next term!

Autumn 2 2021 Class News

Badgers have had a great term learning all about the Geography of East Anglia. We looked at a range of maps including topographical maps ready to investigate the human and physical geography of East Anglia.

To celebrate our learning from the autumn term, where we explored the history of Anglo Saxons and East Anglia, we visited Escot for an Anglo-Saxon day.

We thoroughly enjoyed grinding our own flour before making bread on a cob oven. As well as this, we carved runes into a wooden black to make a sign for Badger Class. When visiting the blacksmith, we worked together to create a brooch for the class.

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Autumn 1 2021 Class News