French Horns

Welcome to our fantastic team which consists of 30 ambitious, resilient learners, who are not afraid to make mistakes and rise to every challenge and 2 class teachers - Mrs Parkinson and Mrs Higson. Our wonderful Learning Support Assistant, who is with us every morning, is Mrs Bridge. Many other lovely adults work with us at various times of the week including Mrs Wren, Mrs Darby, Ms Campbell, Mrs Biltcliffe and Mrs Brown.

Teaching and learning is approached in a way that many different areas of the curriculum are connected using a common theme. Each half term will see the start of a new theme.

We are very much looking forward to a fun, exciting and happy year....

To look at the Key Learning Documents appropriate to our time in Lower Key Stage Two, please click here. To look at our theme map please click here.

How does your Garden Grow? Summer 2

In our final theme this year we will be identifying and describing the functions of different parts of flowering plants and exploring the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant. We will investigate the way in which water is transported within plants and explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal. In order to attract birds to our gardens, we will be designing, making and evaluating bird feeders.

What the Romans did for us? Summer 1

The historical learning within this theme focuses on the settlement in Britain by Romans, and the impact on British life and society that occurred as a result of this. The children will further develop their learning in history by exploring the role of artists in Roman times. By studying the frescoed wall in the House of Livia and mosaic designs for floors, children will investigate how the Romans decorated their villas and understand what was important to people in the past. 

For a whole day, we undertook the role of Roman Soldiers stationed at Hadrian's Wall in Britain. We thought about what it was like to live in the barracks and using Roman shields we practised drills and battle formations. Using our knowledge and experience, we wrote letters home in role. We had such a fun day!

Performance Poetry Workshop with Ian Bland - Summer 1

We welcomed Ian Bland, a professional performance poet to an assembly. He entertained us with a variety of poems and we really enjoyed joining in. Highlights included, ‘The dinner lady dance’ and ‘All the teachers are asleep!’ Following the assembly, Ian worked with year 3 & 4 to help them develop their skills to effectively perform poems themselves. What a fantastic afternoon! Over the coming weeks, Year 3 & 4 will be taking part in a performance poetry competition where our school winners will compete against finalists from other local schools. Watch this space to find out how we get on....

The Iron Man - Spring 2

We will be exploring themes within the book, 'The Iron Man', written by Ted Hughes. This text will provide the stimulus for learning in other subjects. In Science, we will be learning about forces through exploring how different surfaces affect movement and developing our understanding of magnetism. We will be raising and testing our own scientific questions linked to these areas. In DT, we will be designing, making and evaluating linkages and levers which we will use to create a pop-up book to retell the story of The Iron Man. An exciting half term awaits....

RE - Christianity 

We had such a great time at Hesketh Bank Christian Centre bringing the Easter Story to life. We even had the opportunity to interview the main characters whilst eating biscuits! A huge thank you to Linda Hawksley and the team and also to our lovely parents who joined in with the activities.

World Maths Day

What an exciting day we’ve had! After a very mathematically challenging assembly led by Mrs Smith, we returned to the classroom to discover which exciting Mathematical problem she had assigned to us! We had to investigate how a broken calculator could show 32 on the display when the 3 and 2 keys were not working. We generated lots of different calculations using different operations. Some involved three and four digit numbers and some even featured negative numbers! 

We also solved some mathematical mysteries and practised our times tables. We loved welcoming parents, grandparents and carers into class to work with us too.

World Book Day - 7th March

During World Book Day, LKS2 became more familiar with the classic story - 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'. We created our own tornadoes, wrote tornado shape poetry and explored characters and settings. We read extracts describing the landscape of Oz and used this information to create our own 3D maps of Oz. We wrote in role as Dorothy to Auntie Em and Uncle Henry describing what a fantastic place Oz is! We've had a great day....we even had a scooting and a brass lesson in our costumes - that looked interesting!!

Scooting Stars 

Year 4 have embarked upon the West Lancashire Sports Partnership's Scooting Stars programme. There are five sessions in total which aim to develop the children's sense of balance, coordination, core muscle strength and decision making skills! This, of course, is all in addition to having lots of fun with their peers!!

Safer Internet Day, this year, focused on empowering the children to take control of their digital lives and consider how consent works in an online context. We explored how to ask for, give and receive consent online. We learnt to recognise situations where we may need to give or receive permission online and we understand that choices we make online are important and can have meaning for others too.  We thought about how we take and share images and videos and how we manage our privacy and data. We devised our own pledges to help us keep safe online.

Rock & Roll - Spring 1

Through our theme work this half term the children have developed their working scientifically skills by becoming 'Rock Detectives’. They have found out everything they can about: Rocks - their properties, where they come from and how they are formed; Fossils - what they tell us about the past; and Soil - what soil is made up of and how soils can be different.They have investigated earthquakes and volcanoes: what they are; why they happen; and how they affect the landscape and human activity. The children have developed their methods of historical enquiry, and learnt how evidence is used to make detailed observations to find out answers to questions about life in Ancient Britain. We welcomed a geologist, Steven Wright, who came to work with us to enrich our learning in these areas.

Stone Age Theme Day - February 

Year 3 and 4 have let their imaginations run wild as they stepped back in time to the Stone Age. Wearing stone age attire, they have spent the day being hunter-gatherers. They have foraged for wild berries and stewed them with honey - enjoying it with a little ice cream (a modern day treat). They have made bread using a Stone Age recipe and techniques. They learnt how important fire was to early humans and built their own fires. They have explored how cave paintings give clues about life in the past and have designed their own to tell a Stone Age story. They have written a diary entry in role. We've had a fabulous day!!  

Working with Steven Wright - a Geologist

We have had a very exciting start to our topic this half term. Steven Wright, a Geologist, has been working with us to develop our understanding of volcanoes and the properties of rocks and soils. In addition, we worked with the year 3 and 4 teachers to explore soil samples and make 'dirt puddings' to represent what lies beneath our feet. A fabulous, creative and inspiring day...

Narnia Trail

What an amazing experience French Horns had at Hesketh Bank Christian Centre's Narnia Trail. We had tea with Mr. Tumnus, visited Beaver Lodge and even managed to avoid the White Witch.

It's amazing what's hidden inside a wardrobe!

Enterprise Week - December 

We've had such a fantastic week which began with a visit from executives from Mellors - the contract catering company that we use to provide the raw ingredients to make our school meals. They really inspired us and we learnt lots about what was involved in starting up a business and sustaining its growth.

We have designed and made Christmas decorative plates and have also decided to sell 'Softie the Snowmen' to dip in a chocolate fountain. Our company name, thought of by Sophie, is 'Plates & Makes'.

Outdoor and Adventurous Activities - 29th November

Wow...What a morning we've had! We had lots of fun and didn't get too wet!! We played a variety of games and faced numerous challenges - including crossing a swap using only hula hoops!!

Remembrance Week - November 2018

This week, we focused on the D-Day landings which occurred on the 6th June 1944. We explored how the Allies built up to and executed the largest assault landings ever undertaken in the course of human history. We reflected upon how brave the troops were and the courage they showed so that we could know a safe and happy future. The children undertook detailed research and wrote some really thoughtful poetry and diary entries. We made a wreath to take to our Remembrance assembly.  

Healthy Humans - Autumn 2

During this theme, the children will be identifying that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement. We will be making close observations of different skeletons and labelling them using scientific vocabulary. They will be exploring how an adequate and varied diet is beneficial to health in conjunction with regular exercise. We will be making a healthy snack to demonstrate our knowledge and understanding of a balanced diet, whilst developing our cooking skills.

Whilst learning about the skeleton, we made observations of different kinds and compared and contrasted them using our scientific vocabulary. Have a look at one of our fabulous presentations by Darci, Erik and Nikita.

We found out lots of interesting facts about muscles! Percey’s fact was favourite...

Fables

We have been reading many fables in English. We have examined the plot of the Hare and the Tortoise. We substituted the characters and made inferences of characters' thoughts and feelings whilst in role.  Enjoy the commentaries and interviews from our fable - 'The Ostrich and the Penguin'. This activity will inform our writing later on in the unit.

There's No Place Like Home - Autumn 1

Throughout this theme, the children investigated their local area using maps, aerial photos and satellite imagery. They learnt where they are in the world and described a range of physical and human features of their locality. They began to realise that different types of maps e.g. Ordnance Survey, Google Maps, Google Earth etc show different features in more/less detail. We undertook fieldwork in Tarleton and conducted a litter survey. We also found out about what our area was like in the past and discussed changes that have occurred and why. Mrs Sylvia Greenwood (our former lollipop lady) came to share the scrapbooks she has been making since the 1970s. Articles and photographs in these, fascinated the children. We undertook further research and discovered that cockerel fights used to occur in the field behind the Cock & Bottle. We learnt about the first fire cart being stationed at the 'Pinfold' on Church Road and heard some spooky tales of blood stained floors at the old rectory.  

Autumn 1 PE: Tri-Golf

We've been developing our golf skills this half term. We've been using chippers and putters to move the ball with good control and speed. We've played a range of games - Cone Collect and Dominoes being two of our favourites!