What a busy start to the term it has been! Welcome back to all of our Spring Brook family, especially our new staff in Key Stage 3.

Let’s start by seeing what Mrs Young’s class have been up to..

For the last two weeks we have been revising our knowledge about place value. At first the class felt quite apprehensive about it but soon they realised they remembered quite a lot and actually liked a little bit of challenge. The boys enjoyed using the blocks to represent different values of 2, 3 and 4 digit numbers..

Place value domino cards were also very popular and a fantastic way to engage the class as a whole..

Our topic across the curriculum is 1066. In Geography we have been learning about towns, cities and counties of the United Kingdom..

In History, we have started from learning about the society before 1066 and how the life of ordinary people looked in those days. In Literacy we decided to discuss what the qualities of a hero are and talked about Anglo-Saxons and their culture. In our PSHE we used toothpaste as a representation of our words and how easy it is to say something hurtful and very difficult to take it back. We tried to put the toothpaste back into a tube but we could not do it. It was a good example of visualising our emotions and what a massive impact they have on our well-being..

Well done SBA2, what a fantastic start to the term you have had, lots of fun learning.

Mr Mullins’ class have also been learning about exciting things, although some boys have also spent some time in reflection to think about school expectations.

This week SBA 3 have designed their own reward chart and taken ownership of the value of marbles, the standard of work that deserves additional praise and recognition and rewards they feel is a fair reflection of the work achieved as a whole class..

The boys have also been introduced to the concept of growth mind sets and are beginning to adopt a more positive approach to their thinking in times of difficulty. This is something I am sure will continue throughout the year..

In Literacy we have been focusing on the features of newspaper articles with a view of completing our own in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out for some Norman related discoveries!

The Nurture Group with Mrs Walters and Miss Headland have also made a great start to the term with a strong focus on learning..

The first week of term went really quickly with four new boys joining us from the lower school. They have settled in to the routine of the group with James, a pupil who has stayed with us from last year. The group have enjoyed going to other lessons and have really behaved well around school and in the classroom. In Maths the group have being doing place value, we all played a giant game of dominoes along with independent work in their books..

In English the group have started to read the book Holes by Louis Sacher, answering questions in their work books along with story writing. The boys have made their own bookmarks in the craft lesson for when they choose a book for independent reading..

We have now settled into our new routine and the group have produced loads of work. In the craft lesson the boys have started to make the plant pot holders for the Christmas bulbs which they planted during their Science lesson..

The boys have worked well on number placement and writing numbers as words, with Harvey finishing the extension work in the lesson set..

In our food technology lesson the boys made shortbread biscuits, with great results! Levi completed most of the drying of pots while the others put the equipment away..

Levi has learnt to tie his shoe laces in his living skills lesson..

Thank you boys for a great week!

Well done to all of our Spring Brook Key Stage 3 for a great start to the term. Thanks to all the staff for their continued hard work and determination and to the parents and carers for your continued support.

Miss Rodgers
Head of Site

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