Class LH take-off in ‘Splendid Skies’

Class LH have launched the next topic, Splendid Skies, with a ‘wow’ morning designing, making and flying kites and windmills.

We went to the sports field and had lots of fun and great success flying the kites around the field.  We tested them out using different speeds ie walking, jogging and then running to see which was the best for getting the kites to fly.  We then tried to see if the length of the string on the kite would make a difference.  It was great fun and when there was a gust of wind, we stood still and the kites flew brilliantly.

We then tried the windmills and were thrilled when they worked so well.  We had a few which were a bit stubborn to get going but once the sails had been pulled out, they were whizzing around.  Listen to the squeals of excitement and all the lovely comments the children made on the two videos: 1  2

A few comments:

• Joss – it was such good fun
• Herbie – I loved it when the windmill went round, it went so fast
• Fran – I loved it
• Junior – it was so cool and great fun

As you can see from the videos and photos, it truly had a ‘wow’ moment and captured their thinking.

Germs in Class LH get out of hand!!

To complete our topic about significant people, we have found out why Florence Nightingale and Joseph Lister were important and how they have had an impact on our lives today.

We understood how Florence Nightingale improved hospitals to make them clean and comfortable for patients and then how Joseph Lister implemented sterilisation and cleanliness particularly for operations and dealing with open wounds.

Thinking about the importance of staying clean and hygienic, we set up an experiment to see how germs can spread so easily among us.  The 5 “germ” children had their hands covered in germs (glitter) and proceeded to start their dice game with their groups. After a very short time, the ‘germs’ were beginning to spread.  After 10 minutes of playing the game, every child could see how the germs had spread – some even on their faces where they had touched their faces!

At the end of the game, different children cleaned their germs using a variety of methods:- a) dry paper towel, b) just water, c) 2 seconds with soap and water and d) with soap and water for 20 seconds.  Our resident class doctor, Ivy, examined all the hands after they had been washed in the variety of ways and noted the differences in the results.  All the children had made a prediction about the results and interestingly the dry paper towel wiped off more ‘germs’ than just plain water but the best was definitely using soap and water.

To finish the lesson, ‘germs’ (ground cloves) were dropped into a bowl of water and floated all over the water surface.  A real ‘wow’ moment followed when a drop of soap was dropped in and the children could see the ‘germs’ scatter to the edge of the bowl showing how germs do not like soap.  

Class LH had a puzzling afternoon!

Class LH have had a most enjoyable afternoon solving a variety of different jigsaw puzzles of various size, shape and numbers of pieces.   Without exception, everybody was showing great teamwork and resilience and most groups found the strategy of finding the outside edge pieces first really helped.  The class were split into mixed random groups and worked so well together, listening carefully and liaising about all the pieces and persevering if the piece they had did not fit first time!  Once they had finished one, they changed groups and puzzles and just kept going.  It was such a lovely afternoon and so lovely to see the whole class engaged in a great activity.

Evie said that it felt so good when she had finished it.  Oliver commented that he had really enjoyed the afternoon and Viviana shared how she had really loved doing it and working through even the tricky bits.

I’ve got to say that all the adults in the class were really getting into it too!! 

Well done everyone from a very proud Mrs Hall!

VACANCY - KEY STAGE 2 TEACHING ASSISTANT - JANUARY 2022

We are seeking an enthusiastic and flexible individual to join our friendly and supportive TA team at  our successful CEVAP school in Framlingham, working predominantly in KS2.

Candidates will demonstrate:

• excellent communication skills
• minimum GCSE level Maths and English skills
• ability to work with children in whole class setting
• ability to independently deliver interventions
• knowledge of with the primary curriculum
• ability to assist and support children on a 1:1 basis
• willingness to take direction from class teacher, but able to use initiative when required.
• previous experience preferred but not essential

In addition you should be passionate about children’s learning, have high expectations and be supportive of the Christian ethos of the school.

• Salary:                                Grade 2 (£18,198 pro rata)
• Job Term:                           Part time, Fixed Term to 31/8/2022
• Hours:                                 Mon – Fri, 5.25hrs/day (26.25 hrs/wk), 38 wks/year
• Required from:                   February 2022
• Closing Date                       Friday 21 January 2022
• Interview:                            Week commencing 31 January 2022

For further details please contact the school on 01728 723354.

Advert link on Suffolk Jobs Direct

Completed forms should be returned to admin@hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk.

• Application Form
• Job Description
• Guidance Notes

“This school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment.”

FOREST SCHOOL

 FOREST SCHOOL - CLASS KB

Class KB had a busy and exciting few sessions at Robin Wood. The weather was not too kind but the children still enjoyed various Forest School activities as seen by the photos.

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Christmas Lunch!

Having made some wonderful Christmas hats in class the children had fun wearing them to eat their Christmas Lunch in the hall today.

The atmosphere was lovely with Christmas music playing and lots of excited chatter!

Amazing News!

You may have heard through social media and the press, some incredible news about our school today.

We now feel we are able to share this exciting news with you about a project which will be happening in March.

We have been fortunate in having the support of local charities, businesses and individuals in Framlingham, including Ed Sheeran and the charity GeeWizz:

https://www.geewizzcharity.com/raffle/2/EdGuitarRaffle

The donations raised will create a music ‘pod’ and a disabled access facility on our school site, where our children will continue to enjoy making and sharing music. The fully accessible SMART music pod will be a dedicated space for peripatetic music lessons, whole class music lessons, music clubs and band practise.

We are so grateful to all the wonderful people who are making this happen for our school family and look forward to sharing further updates with you early in 2022.

VWh and VWe Science - mould experiment

Over the last couple of weeks, both classes have been learning about microorganisms and have conducted an experiment. 

For this, we swabbed various areas and cultured on agar plates. Areas included under chairs, the bin, door handle, Miss. Whipps’ keyboard, door handles, etc. 

The children identified the independent, dependent and controlled variables and then had to hypothesise. We also constructed a null hypothesis, whereby stating there would be no statistical  relationship between the variables. 

We talked about the importance of maintaining a sterile environment when dealing with the samples, as well as disposing of the plates when the experiment has ceased. 

We will be spending time writing up our findings, evaluating the effectiveness of the method and seeing if any unintentional bias was introduced. Interestingly, the swab taken under a child’s chair is yielding the largest number of colonies so far, although this might change!

Christmas Tree Celebration at St Michael's Church

The children in Class KVJA volunteered to decorate our school Christmas Tree as part of the annual event at St Michael's Church.

Families can go along and see all the trees decorated by local groups and organisations from this Saturday.

All at sea or over the moon!!

As part of the Movers and Shakers topic, Class LH continue to find out about significant people in history. 

This week we have compared Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong thinking about their journeys and how through the different eras, transport has changed.  We were also able to recap the facts about Ada Lovelace being so instrumental in first computer programming and coding and how Neil Armstrong would have used this skill with the computers which helped land Apollo 11 on the  moon in 1969. 

The challenge in science was to find out which material would be good for Christopher Columbus to use as a mop on his decks on his ships.  We tested 4 different fabrics; knitted dishcloth (Christopher Columbus’s string vest!), J-cloth, paper towel and kitchen roll. After a fair test using the same amount of water on the same size of fabrics, we decided that J-cloth was the best for Columbus to use and that the dishcloth was the worst – due to the holes in it.

 

 examining the paper towel

 testing the dishcloth

 using great team work 

 measuring the water careful

As part of our English discussion about different types of sentences, we thought about what Neil Armstrong would say when he landed on the moon and shared examples of these. 

·  Statement - Tabby noted, "The moon has so many rocks and is very dusty." and Viviana commented, "Neil Armstrong found a very special rock."

·  Command - Willow ordered, "Get out and put the flag on the moon." and Maddie shouted, "Get my helmet."

·  Question - Junior asked "Where is my helmet?" and Herbie questioned, "Why is it so dusty on the moon?"

·  Exclamation - Ivy exclaimed, "What a lot of rocks there are here!" and Oliver thought, "We finally made it on to the moon!"

We finished off by doing an analytical astronaut quiz to see whether we would make the grade as an astronaut!!  Mrs Hall was pleased to note that most of the class were able to – and wanted to – become astronauts!! Watch out NASA – there are some fabulous problem-solving, team players who are budding astronauts out there!!

Class VWh Maths coordinates

This week, class VWh are learning about coordinates and are working in all 4 quadrants confidently this is trickier as the values of both x and y can be either positive or negative. 

We’ve been getting to grips with accurately drawing axes and plotting points in readiness to move onto translation and reflection later in the week. 

Christmas Hamper Draw

The Friends of Framlingham Sir Robert Hitcham's annual Christmas Hamper draw is back for 2021!

With the success of last year's draw, even though we are back at school we are using the same online raffle company to manage the ticket sales and draw, and again instead of individual class hampers we have combined all together to create 21 even bigger hampers than last year!
So there will be a whopping 21 winners across the school when the draw is made!

The draw will be on Thursday 16th December at 12:30pm so you have up until Thursday morning to buy your tickets!  

The link to purchase tickets is:

https://raffall.com/274930/enter-raffle-to-win-fabulous-christmas-hamper-hosted-by-friends-of-sir-robert-hitchams-framlingham

Remember that all the money raised goes to the Friends to allow them to fund things for the children like school trips, visiting productions, class donations for art and DT, and supports our recent and ongoing support of replacing the school IT suite, as well as wide range of other smaller projects throughout the school.

Many thanks and good luck from the Friends!

Christmas Tree

Some of our children from Class MV & AJ helped decorate our Christmas Tree in the reception area by the office today.

Fabulous Christmas Hampers

FRIENDS THANK YOU 

The Friends are delighted with the wonderful donations all our fabulous families made today to create the Christmas Hampers.  Thank you to everyone for your generosity.

The Friends have managed to create 21 beautiful hampers, stuffed with Christmas Goodies. 

Huge thanks go to the army of volunteer parents who came in to help sort, fill & wrap today.  

Watch the time-lapse video of them in action! 

To buy your tickets we will be sending out a separate link from the Friends & the draw for the hampers will take place on Thurs 16 December.

Winners will be notified directly from the raffle site & prizes to be collected from school by Fri 17 December.