Some of our Year 6s wrote the following for the Parish News:

Brancaster school has been open for vulnerable children throughout this pandemic. The home learning has been very crazy but we have all respected the choice.

Throughout the weeks it has got more and more unentertaining at home but soon enough the school opened up to year 6 and year 1’s and reception. The school has accepted the fact of having bubbles (little groups that work and play together but stay apart from other bubbles). We must stay 2m apart which is just fine for us because we have a fairly big classroom. It is a bit of a squeeze in Thrift class who have more children and less room.

We Year 6s are very excited to be coming back and seeing our friends again and starting a new and exciting topic. When we found out about the news we were bursting with joy it is so great to be back and learning especially when we can see our friends and teachers.

It is also exciting now because we have new mini laptops and there is enough for one for each student because there are only a few of us in Samphire class at the moment. We clean them and use them every day for easy access for our work. Brancaster school has been amazing throughout this hard time.

At school, in Samphire, we have been doing work on our computers. Mr Lacey Hastings sends us work every day. In English we are doing instructions and sentences then after break we come in and have maths. In maths we are doing decimals; after maths we will read a book. After the book we will have lunch and lunch break. Then we will come in and wash our hands (we wash our hands a lot now) and do some topics that our teacher gives us and then it is home time and we clean our tables then pack away.

Thrift are learning about dinosaurs at the moment and are also really enjoying being back. First thing, the whole school does PE with Joe. Now there are more of us, we are doing it outside. Mrs Bocking has the computer next to her and she copies Joe and we copy her. We thought Mr King was going to join in today but he didn’t!

We don’t know what will happen next. Maybe some more children will come but we haven’t any more space. We will have to wait and see.

Written by Faith, Eve and Chloe (Year 6)

Message from Mrs Bocking – We are all so proud of our children who have been, and still are, working really well at home or at school. It shows a great attitude, good learning behaviours and a real strength of character. Also, thanks to the parents who have supported the children and us, all the way through.

Message from Mr King – It has been really welcome to hear the sound of so many children around the school this week. They are clearly enjoying being back and have been wonderful. We look forward to a time when all the children can be back safely. As someone relatively new to the Federation, the lockdown has been a wonderful opportunity for me to catch up with lots of jobs that needed to be done. We have also been busy using some of the generous donations from the Brancaster community to improve the school - and I will join in the PE with the classes, but I had to make sure I didn’t have a wardrobe malfunction!

May 22nd 2020

Hello all. I hope you have a good half term.

School will be starting again for some after the holiday and we look forward to seeing you. Please remember you MUST have your own water bottle. You will also need a healthy snack for playtime as we are unable to provide anything. On Thursdays and Fridays, we will start the day with "PE with Joe" so you might want to wear suitable clothes (for example, trousers - or PE shorts under your dress). If it is hot, you will need sun hats and sun cream as always.

If you are not coming back and you would like some work that is not on Google Classroom, just let us know.

The Oak Academy is a Government website with lessons on that you might like to try. Just click here.

Our certificates today go to:

• Hayden for his amazing reading. He read to his sister and to himself and hardly needed any help. (We loved the photo, thank you)

• Riley, Alfie, Eve, Faith, Oscar - all for submitting SO MUCH work and putting so much effort in. Well done.

• Jenson for all the activities he has been doing at home. (Thanks for the email)

• Asya for her homework and for working hard back in school.

Harry and Ryder wrote this month's piece for the Parish News:

Our Federation schools have been closed due to coronavirus, but Brancaster has stayed open. The Government gave Mr King a list of what sort of children could still come to school and about 15 children in the Federation were on the list but only 2 have come. It is really strange just being two of us but we are doing lots of fun things and learning lots. (Mrs Bocking adds Ryder can now write joined up and Harry’s writing has changed out of all recognition! Well done, boys!)

Every afternoon we do art and we did a topic on famous artists and did finger painting to make pictures like Monet and printing like Andy Warhol and William Morris. We have been making butterflies with folding paper and also made them symmetrical by painting them carefully and folding them. We painted multi-coloured rainbows for the people who help us and we put them on the church gate so everyone would see them.

In English we have been learning about adjectives and adverbs so we can describe things and make it more interesting. We learnt about famous authors and compared and reviewed some of their special books.

We have explored plants and learnt about roots, leaves, petals and pollen. Insects like bees collect the pollen from the flowers. Birds collect the seeds so the plants can grow new plants. We planted some seeds that are now growing. We also did the life cycle of frogs and our tadpoles changed to froglets.

We learnt to program the beebots to go places like the yellow, red, brown and blue towers.

We learnt about Mary, the mother of Jesus and made a attractive altar for our assembly table. We put flowers on.

Every morning we do PE with Joe and now Rosie. All the staff join in and we are getting much better at the exercises.

We have been happily reading all the Mr Men books and our favourite treat is watching the Mr Men and Little Miss DVD.

Mr Johnson and Mrs Sayers from Sedgeford come and help sometimes and Mr Sayers has been painting the school Sharon and Mrs Lack have been sorting out the library with a bit of help from Mr King, and Mrs Tidd and Mrs Bocking are tidying out the attic. Our school looks really nice now – all clean and tidy and fresh.

By Ryder (age 6) and Harry (age 7).

I hope you had a good Easter, are still safe and healthy, and are all ready to start learning again.

Mrs Willis sends best wishes to all and a reminder( for the Y3/4s in particular) to keep checking Google Classroom as frequently as possible. If you are having trouble logging in, let us know and we will try to help.

Mr Lacey Hastings is now teaching daily through Google Classroom so make sure you are logging in every morning. Any problems please contact the school.

If any of you need any more work, especially maths or Literacy, do please contact the school and we will arrange something with you.

Twinkl are still doing daily lessons - see link below, and for BBC Bitesize daily timetable/lessons, just click here.

Some good maths sites include Learning at home, maths mastery and nrich - all have specific resources for home learning and all would fit well with the way we teach in school. The Government recommends the English Mastery website for English - plus many others - too many to list here -but if you are interested, the full list of recommended websites for home learning is here.

I have given some topic ideas below and can signpost you to websites if needed. Just let me know.

Next term we would have looked at the human body in science, so after Easter you might like to see what you can find out? You could try BBC bitesize or twinkl as a start? You need to be able to:

 identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system, and describe the functions of the heart, blood vessels and blood

 recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function

 describe the ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans.

In RE we were going to do The Lord's Prayer:

Who taught us it? Why?

What do all the words mean? What is it about?

What important Christian beliefs does it contain?

Who prays it now? Why? When? Where?

Are there different versions and why?

Think about the following:

"Your kingdom come" -Christians are part of God's kingdom on earth - how can we bring a bit of Heaven to earth?

"Give us this day our daily bread" - what are the differences between needs and wants? Can we be part of God's answer to this part?

"Forgive us..." when have you needed to forgive? is it always easy? Why should we be forgiven? When should we be forgiven? Does God always forgive?

Why would Jesus have wanted us to pray about these things?

Can you summarise your own personal thoughts and reflections?

And for "my" other subject, DT/art, the main topic would have been ancient civilisations and there is lots and lots of art connected with ancient civilisations. I am not sure what Mr Lacey Hasting was going to focus on but possibilities include Ancient Sumer; The Indus Valley; Ancient Egypt; The Shang Dynasty of Ancient China and Ancient Greece. I googled and found a huge number of art ideas - why not see what you like the look of?

11/3/2020

Well done to our netball team. We are so proud of everyone. Our best ever result!

We drew 2-2 in the first game then won 4-1 in the next.

We got through to the cup final in our group and came 3rd. We all got a bronze medal.

Everyone played amazingly well -and showed great team work.

We can now book onto the small schools netball finals -how exciting!