Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Dear Parents and Caregivers

We would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your kind gifts and notes. We appreciate your lovely gesture and whilst we don't expect it at all it is very generous of you!

Please have a wonderful Christmas and stay safe. We will see you all on January 7th 2020.

Best wishes,

Mrs Hurley

Mr Greenfield

Miss Harvey

Christmas Jumper Day for Action Aid

Dear Parents

Year 3 and 4 have enjoyed our Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas dinner today. Thank you so much for donating money to a worthy charity, Action Aid. I am sure your child will be able to explain the difference your money is making to our sponsored child, Thoko who lives in Malawi.
It was great to see the children wear their Christmas jumper and were so well-behaved and polite during our Christmas dinner.

A reminder that we will finish for the year on Wednesday 18th December.
We would like to take the opportunity to wish you and your families a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.

Mrs Hurley
Mr Greenfield
Miss Harvey

Please see below for link to your Homework which will be added to our class page next week. Feel free to make a start on this at the weekend. Can you please ensure you are reading your AR book every day and that you are taking a quiz regularly in class.

Shang Dynasty Homework

Christmas comes to Down Hall...

On Friday the children got to visit Santa's Grotto at Down Hall. "It was really cool!" was the children's reply when asked how good the experience was.
In the afternoon, all children were given the opportunity to shop at the PTA Christmas Bazaar. A number of bargains were to be had and we all appreciate the efforts of our wonderful PTA and parent helpers. Without these wonderful volunteers, the children would not have the opportunities that they currently get.

This week the children have all undertaken some tests in GPS, Reading and Maths. They have all done really well and we are very proud with the way the children conducted them.
So we have decided to give the children a break from regular homework this week. Stay tuned for next week's homework which will centre around our new Project beginning in January 2020...

Have a great weekend,
Mrs Hurley
Mr Greenfield
Miss Harvey

Handwriting and Homework

Dear All

We hope you have all had a good week! Just to let you know that we will be having a big focus on the children's handwriting in all three classes over the next few weeks. We would like the children to show a consistently neat, legible style in all of their books.
A prize will be awarded to one child from each class who demonstrates a commitment to the improvement of their handwriting.

Homework this week is to practice the spellings from the lists that have been sent home with your child on Friday afternoon. We would encourage you to quiz your child on their spellings on a regular basis. The Year 3/4 spellings are located in your child's reading log book. It is a general expectation that your child learns their spellings and times tables along with reading on a daily basis.
Many thanks for supporting your child on their learning journey.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Hurley
Mr Greenfield
Miss Harvey

World Children's Day 2019

Down Hall marked World Children's Day 2019 by completing a range of activities including looking at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 20th November marks the 30 year anniversary of its ratification (approved). It applies to everyone under the age of 18. You are still considered to be a child until then. Rights like: Every Child has the right to life. Governments must do all they can to ensure that children survive and develop to their full potential.

So what's the problem?

Despite the UN agreeing to the rights of every child 30 years ago, their is still a lot of work to be done for children in the UK and all over the world.

• Every year, 5.4 million children die before the age of five. The majority of these deaths are from preventable causes.
• Children face many challenges now that didn’t exist before – such as online bullying, childhood obesity and climate change.
• More countries are in conflict than at any time since the Convention was written and many children are among the millions of refugees from these conflicts.

  We are going to learn about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and child rights in the past and present day. We will also imagine the best possible future for children all over the world. 

Remembrance Day

On Monday 11th November, we held a special assembly to mark Remembrance Day. Mike Davies from the Rayleigh Museum spoke to us about the importance of never forgetting those that gave our lives for us.
It was interesting to hear the last post being played live. We learned that it used to be played when a soldier died. We sat very respectfully and were able to answer some questions.
In Art, we are creating some poetry. Stay tuned for the finished product!
Lest we forget.

UK Parliament Week

In Year 3/4 this week we have been learning all about how the UK Parliament works and the history behind it.

What is UK Parliament Week?

UK Parliament Week is an annual festival that engages people from across the UK with their UK Parliament, explores what it means to them and empowers them to get involved.

The children have all taken part in a wide variety of topics including:Elections and Voting and discussions of what matters to them. We explored the issues of single use plastics, Climate Change and homelessness.

We looked in great detail at Bonfire Night and it's connection to Parliament, focusing on the key facts of the story of the Gunpowder Plot and discussion around the events that occurred and the people involved.

Democracy and The Big Vote
The children were able to set up the hall as a debating chamber. We put ourselves into groups to form out very own political leader with an elected leader. Some of the pupils gave their speech and in the afternoon children had the opportunity to vote for the pary that they thought represented the class topic the best.

The children were able to make a rosette and posters to campaign for their party.

The winning parties were:

Garnet: Heroes of the Earth

Moonstone: The Planet Savers

Opal: Home, No Home

Congratulations. It seems we have some aspiring politician's among us!

Overall, a very enjoyable week had by all!