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The bar model is a valuable tool which helps children recognise what the question is asking them to do. It is not a calculation strategy and as such does not replace column addition or subtraction but goes alongside to add clarity. The key language is  the whole and the parts and to reinforce that we subtract from the whole to find parts and add parts together to find the whole.

Please find attached the PowerPoint for the workshop last night. We hope to provide another opportunity in the summer term with a focus on multiplication and division.

Mathematics BAR Model

Please enjoy our monthly newsletter.

School Newsletter – March 2018

What a delightful afternoon!

Yesterday St John’s opened its doors to our grandparents with an opportunity to find out more about Fairtrade and Feed The World 2050 in the context of Catholic Social Teaching. All were treated to Fairtrade cakes and beverages provided by the staff and PA.

Early Years hosted planting sessions to develop their status as eco-warriors and provided opportunities to share a book with tea and cake.

Key Stage One held an assembly to share their understanding of Fairtrade. Each child shared their ideas for a Fairtrade superhero and many went on the describe how they would act in the future to make sure equality was a feature of their future. Year 2 also performed a short play they had devised themselves to explain the principles of Fairtrade.

KS2 presented Fairtrade information in their classrooms and explained why it is important to think now about how we will feed the world in the future. But there is no such thing as a free lunch and the tables were then turned as our guests became our Living Library. In order to make secure choices about the future we may need to look at food consumption and production in the past and who better to ask than those who were there. The grandparents were a amazing source of information and extremely generous with their time and knowledge. The pupils will now use these ideas in the responses stage of our project in the summer term.

Thank you so much to those grandparents who were able to join us and many people commented on how many smiling faces were seen across the age range. Thanks also to our invaluable PA. Looking forward to the next one.

Mrs Meadows reports:

On Thursday 1^st March we celebrated World Book Day.

This year we linked it with Fair Trade fortnight and dressed up as ‘Fairtrade Superheroes’.  The costumes around the school were amazing, with some very thoughtful ideas.  We would like to thank you for making the effort and taking part.

During the day, each class looked at a Fairtrade text and carried out an activity, we looked at 2 fiction texts, ‘Juliana’s Bananas’ and ‘The World Came To My Place Today’.   Lots of fun activities took place across the key stages based on these books.

In the afternoon, the whole school listened to a storyteller from a company called ‘ Fireside Storytellers’.  We heard a fantastic story told orally which was an ‘Arctic Circle Creation Myth’.  The children all had great fun joining in with the sound effects and taking part in the actions.

A fun day was had by all, we hope the children all had a great time.

What a great opportunity to experience all that winter has to offer. Pupils at St John’s made the most of the snow and showed the only limitation is your imagination.

The Cambridge Science Festival is a great way to have fun with maths and science. For more information see their website but you may enjoy these free events on Saturday 24th March.

We were delighted to join the parish Young at Heart group this morning to share our recent work on Feed the World 2050 and Fairtrade.

Eight children from Y6 represented St John’s and were able to clearly articulate their understanding of why we need to support Fairtrade in light of Catholic Social Teaching and how this should influence our thinking about food production in 2050.

They explained the seven principles which make up Catholic Social Teaching as shown above. These seven keywords have made our responsibility as Catholics much clearer and helped the pupils to explain The Common Good in their own words. The pupils then mingled with the parishioners to answer questions about their work.

Fairtrade has some excellent ambassadors.

Even better was the Fairtrade cake we enjoyed afterwards!

Please enjoy reading our February Newsletter.

School Newsletter – February 2018

We are now in the season of Lent. Please see below for further information about what the children will learn in this half term.

RE Newsletter EYFS – Spring 2 2018 – Lent to Easter

RE Newsletter -Spring 2 2018 – Lent to Easter