On Monday 19th October, we celebrated our first Marvellous Maths Day of the new school year and children across the school, from Year 1 to Year 6, had great fun exploring the topic of measure.

Year 1 did some great investigating. It was a real puzzle to discover that large things aren’t always the heaviest!

Year 2 did lots of exciting measuring and also made compared the mass of different animals. They even made their own Top Trump cards.

Year 3 practised measuring objects in their classroom and also investigated the length of their shadows. They found the length of their shadows was affected by the position of the light source.

In Year 4 we dived into multiple measurement investigations. During the afternoon, we measured our teachers and created a scaled down model of them! Some of us chose to draw whilst others created 3D versions. We had to make sure they we accurate so we measured them in centimetres and divided their measurement by 10! We made sure the height of our models/drawings was this exact measurement by using a ruler.

Year 5 focused on measuring perimeter. They had fun outside before applying what they’d learnt to finding the perimeter of some tricky shapes inside.

Year 6 learnt about the Vitruvian Man and discovered some amazing facts about the proportions of the human body.

“Marvellous Maths Day was really fun and I found out some things that I didn’t know. I really enjoyed measuring me and my friends” – Riley L

“I noticed that the length of your forearm is roughly the same size as our foot.” – Isaac P
The measurement from outstretched finger to outstretched finger is the same as your height!” Lilly F

The children of Thorndown have each had unique experiences of, and responses to, the events of 2020. This has been a year of significant world events, disrupting and changing the ways of life of people across the globe.

We could think of no better way for the each and every child in our school community to re-connect with each other and re-engage with school life than to explore this heartfelt and thought-provoking book from Oliver Jeffers. This book has provided a powerful vehicle for every child at Thorndown to reflect on and make sense of the world in which we are all living. The words and pictures work together to help children to understand their place in the world and to move forward together in a positive and constructive way.

To celebrate the work of this fantastic book, each year group will be contributing to a whole-school display. We cannot wait to show you the final outcome when it is finished; keep your eyes posted in the next newsletter for a photo!
Miss Broadhurst

A couple of weeks ago, Year 6 got to take part in the Rotary Quiz.

Around sixteen Thorndown children took part and two men from the Rotary Club came to deliver the quiz. Lots of different schools were taking part and after each round we were able to find out where we came in comparison with them; it was really exciting!

The different rounds were quite challenging and the questions were a range of general knowledge. It was interesting because we found out lots of things that we didn’t already know. We tried our best and answered as many questions as we could.

At the end, we found out we came 8th out of 16 schools.

A massive congratulations to the Year 6 and under football team who have reached the semi-finals of the Dickenson Cup after beating Godmanchester Community Academy 6-2 on the 12th February.

It was an absolutely outstanding performance – the best they have played all season! Also, can I say a huge congratulations yet commiserations to the Year 5 and Under team, which narrowly lost 4-3 in the quarter finals of the Walters Cup.

Both teams have done the school incredibly proud; the football they play is superb and they deserve a huge amount of success and plaudits for their unbelievable attitude! I’m very proud

Mr Sweeney

After reading the statistic below in the summer holidays, Mrs Browne and I have been looking at ways in which we can increase the reading for pleasure that our children do throughout the school.

“The difference in reading ability between a child who reads for pleasure for 30 minutes a day and one who never reads was more than a year” OECD report ‘Reading for Change’.

The Team Leaders and their year group colleagues have created a reading list of books that they’d like pupils to have read by the time they leave their year group. The selection of these books is based on pupils’ interests, year group topics and reading ability. The school, with financial support, has bought these books for each classroom. Teachers will be encouraging pupils to read these books in school and at our weekly Reading Club, and we will be using these books as whole class readers.

I have attached the book list to this newsletter, which is already on our website, in case you are interested in reading these books at home too.

We will continue to promote reading for pleasure at different times this year, including World Book day activities in March. Look out for more details coming soon.

On Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th July, our Year 5 and Year 6 performed Shakespeare Rocks!

This show gave a snapshot of Shakespeare’s life as he built the Globe Theatre and wrote some of his most famous plays.

Primary schools are a chance for all pupils to shine extra brightly at something during a school year and this play really showed us what talented actors, singers and performers our children are.

Well done to all of our pupils, teachers and TAs for such a wonderful production this year. You have made me so very proud.

Last Friday, we went to Burgess Hall and entered an athletics competition involving four teams. There were Westfield Team 1 and 2, Houghton and of course Thorndown. We took part in running, jumping, obstacle courses, relay races and speed bounces, which were all super fun!

All our activities were led by the St Ivo Sports Leaders who were really friendly and helpful. We loved our day and worked so hard as a team to score as many points as we could. At the end of the morning, we gathered around to hear about how we had done. The results were in and we found out that…. WE WON!

We are so happy we have scored 8 points towards the yearly competition and we are one step closer to winning the trophy.
By Connie and Chelsey, Year 6

On Wednesday 18th December, the Year 5 classes had visitors who told us about their war. These visitors were from the local British Legion, RAF Wyton and the St Ives Rotary Club.They told us their stories.

A solider came from RAF Wyton who had all of the original World War One gear on. It weighed over 35 kg!

We showed them our work and shared stories that we had discovered. We had lots of fun and it was an amazing time.

Foundation Stage have discovered that someone has been taking breakfast cereal from the Three Bears Cottage in their joint classroom area.

The Three Bears Cottage was broken into and there was a huge mess. They found some clues: porridge on the floor, some golden hair and a red ribbon. We thought these clues indicated that the culprit might be Goldilocks!

Foundation Stage then received a letter from the police letting the classes know that they are aware of our crime and asking for their help.

So, on October 10th, PC Bacon came to talk to Foundation Stage about the crime and his role as a police officer. They learnt that one of the main roles of a police officer is to help people. They also learnt that, if we ever get lost, the police can help us. He showed them some of his equipment including: notepad and pen, walkie-talkie and baton. He also bought his police van; they went inside and even tried out the sirens!
Thank you PC Bacon for your help and visit.

Thank you to all the parents who attended Open Classroom in Reception on Thursday. We’re glad you found the session useful and enjoyed seeing maths in action in the classroom. As  promised, here are the slides!

Click HERE to read the slides presented at this event