Welcome back to Endeavour 2021-2022
Endurance Tenacity Steadfast
Class Prayer:
Endeavour Class wrote this together. We considered our theme of survival for the year and the work we have already done on war, refugees and the importance of feeling safe. Here is our prayer for this year.
Meet the Teacher – Wednesday 15th September.
Thank you to everyone who made it to our Meet the Teacher evening. Below is the link to the PowerPoint shown on the night with your guide to Endeavour Class this year.
Zoom Call:
We were really lucky this morning to have a Zoom call from Helen Cooper. She told us all about growing up in Pakistan in a town close to the border with Afghanistan. Using a map, we looked at the geography of Pakistan and Afghanistan and learnt the names of key towns and cities. Helen spoke about her experiences with the Taliban. We explored how the Taliban survive capture by western forces by using mountain passes and how refugees survive by fleeing to neighbouring countries. We recorded all that we learnt about Afghanistan on our country focus board.
Swimming – Autumn 2021:
Exciting news! Endeavour will be going swimming for the first half term of the year. This will replace our Wednesday PE slot and the netball that was planned will be taught in Spring Term. Click the link below if you need a copy of the letter.
Welcome back to a brand new school year in Endeavour Class, the home of Year 5 and 6. This year, we will be travelling around the world using a series of exciting class novels and quality nonfiction texts, exploring what it takes to survive.
We will begin with a brief stop in Nepal to explore what it takes to climb the world’s highest mountain: Everest. We will use the biography of Sir Edmund Hilary as a basis for writing our own about the lead character in our next novel Breadwinner. This amazing story takes us to Afghanistan and life under Taliban rule.
Following our stay in Kabul, we make our way to Nagasaki and explore survival through Michael, our main character who is swept overboard onto a desert island. We will then compare Michael’s survival with that of Stanley Yelnats in our next novel Holes. This sees our main character learn to live in an American youth detention centre.
Black History Month:
Our final survival-themed novel of the half term takes us to Jamaica, where we meet a young boy whose father has made the journey from their small market town in the tropics to rainy Manchester on the Empire Windrush.
History and Geography Links:
The countries that we are travelling to provide great opportunities to explore the physical and human features of each country. We will also be focusing on the history of each place we visit, including invasions, traditions and how history impacts the wider world now.
ICT also sits nicely here as we learn to use search engines with accuracy and precision to collect geographical information about each country.
Science:
Continuing the survival theme, we will be learning all about how animals adapt and evolve. This will then lead to us designing our own species that can survive in a specific environment.
P.S.H.E and R.E.
We begin the year as always with a focus on a brand new start, remembering challenges we have faced in the past and then setting ourselves goals. We will then work on our relations with family and friends. R.E. sees use explore how and why Christians read the Bible.
P.E.
Netball and Dance will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Dance will link to our survival theme as we look at trends that have stood the test of time. Music links to this also with our study of the survival of music through time.
French:
Finally, we will introduce Year 5 to Gustav and his friends Polly, Jake and Madame Moulin as we revise and refresh key greetings as well as progress to a study of key verbs avoir and etre.
Endeavour Class 2020/2021
We are ready to set sail on HMS Endeavour!
Goodbye Year 6!
On our final day of term we celebrated at church with a service of thanksgiving for Year 6. We presented the children with Christian Value awards and Bibles. We know our children will take with them to high school and beyond the values we have taught them and keep our school family close to their hearts. We are very proud of you.
Enterprise Week
Just call us the ultimate in entrepreneurs! On Monday, Mrs Price gave us £30. We had to decide whether to hide it, save it or use our talents to make more money. Using the Parable of the Talents, we decided to use what we knew to make more money. We served refreshments at Hoodwinked and with the profit bought fidget toys to raffle off. We also made friendship bracelets to sell. We ended the week as winners us decided to use our Christian Values and share our money with the other classes. Watch this space for what we decide to spend our money on.
Chill Factore and a famous Zoom call!
Our Year 6 children were treated to a fab day out at Chill Factore care of our friends at church and Friends of Hoole St Michael. Before our trip, we had a Zoom call from local lad and Olympic slalom star Dave Ryding. He shared his path to success with us and told us to never give up on our dreams, no matter where we are from or what our dreams are.
Leavers’ Lunch
On the final Friday of term, Year 6 enjoyed a fab lunch Hawaiian style. A huge thank you to Jen and Alison in the kitchen for giving our children a very tropical lunch!
Year 6 Leavers’ Awards
In the final week of term, we enjoyed another outside event, celebrating our fantastic Year 6 with an award ceremony. Year 6 then joined us again at night for an evening of treats and a water fight. Look out for the teachers who also got a soaking!
Hoodwinked July 2021
A spot of theatre al fresco at Hoole St Michael with our production of Hoodwinked. The parents of children in Endeavour enjoyed a great outdoor performance.
Sports Day 2021
We enjoyed a fantastic afternoon of team games and races. It was great to celebrate with our parents too. Our Year 6 House Captains led their teams brilliantly. Well done to our winning team. As you can see from the pictures, they enjoyed a victory run down the track.
Fit Fortnight June 2021
We began the fortnight as we always do, dancing on the playground every morning together as a school to get us moving. This year, the teachers had made a routine of their favourite dance classics.
In our first week we tried: performance class, clubbersize, golf, rugby with Wigan Warriors and an inflatable assault course.
On the Friday, we had an Olympic theme day. We learnt about the events of the summer and winter games. We also had a go at our own Olympic events.
In week 2, we enjoyed football, skateboarding and a visit from the Life Bus, revisiting our growing and changing unit as well as talking about making good decisions, despite peer pressure.
Spirituality Days June 2021
For three days we focused on the Holy Trinity. We learnt that we might never understand it but we will grow in knowledge about it. The colour green for the time of Trinity Sunday represents a growth in knowledge. We started the week with a Zoom from Nicky Gleeson, a youth worker from the Methodist Church. She explained that the Trinity is all around us and within us. We then explored different aspects of the Trinity with a mixture of different activities. We tackled some big questions too linked to our RE unit of work about the nature of God.
Summer 2 2021
Nothing Interesting Ever Happens Here
Heritage Pride Enquire
Welcome to our final topic of the year, which explores and celebrates our local heritage. We will be delving into the world of rail travel and discovering the impact this had on our local area.
Preston, the development of the town and its railway station will be the focus for our work in history. The station had nine different lines coming in and out, all operated by different firms and all going to different destinations. The development of such a major railway line in the city had a great impact on the nearby seaside resort of Blackpool and the development of the National Football League.
During our geography study, we will be exploring the land use in both Blackpool and Preston during Victorian times and charting the growth of Blackpool as a major seaside resort. We will also look at Blackpool in the news: the closure of the airport and the promise of regeneration.
In our English sessions, we will begin with a famous Blackpool narrative poem: Albert and the Lion. We will then move on to report writing, documenting the growth of Preston’s railway station and the impact this had. Finally, we will finish the year by exploring the lives of famous Prestonians. We will then reflect on our lives so far and write our own autobiographies.
DT , science and ICT combine once more as we use cams, levers and pulleys to make fairground rides. Crumbles will be used to power motors, lights or buzzers to add to our attraction.
In art, we will explore how artists portray the seaside. A local artist, Lowry, explored this and his work will be the basis for our learning. We will be building our skills of texture and perspective, working on large and small scales.
PSHE and PE will go hand in hand, as we work on being our best and keeping healthy. This will be supported by our planned Fit Fortnight beginning on the 21st June. We will also be linked up with ICT and focusing on responsible use of the internet and social media with the summer holidays and high school in mind.
Spirituality Days 9th-11th June 2021
We open this half term with our three spirituality days all about the Trinity. Our half term unit will see us explore some big questions with ideas about God.
Exciting News:
Rehearsals for our end of year production Hoodwinked have started. We cannot wait to perform for you in our outdoor classroom. Be amazed by the bravery of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, be dazzled by the beauty of Maid Marian and her ladies, be prepared to shout boo, hiss at the nasty Sheriff of Nottingham and his sidekick or roll around laughing at the greedy friars. Our traditional pantomime is not to be missed!
Upcoming Dates:
TASA Orienteering – Friday 14th May 2021
Titanic tea party – Thursday 20th May 2021
Fit Fortnight – Monday 21st June 2021
Leaver’s production Tuesday 13th July 2021
Year 6 Leavers’ Awards Thursday 15th July 2021
Leavers’ Assembly Friday 16th July 2021
Year 6 Leavers’ Treat – Monday 19th July 2021
Summer 2021 – Peer Marking, Editing and Evaluating
This half term we have been busy writing flashbacks and designing lighthouses that will flash out a warning in Morse Code to Titanic using a Crumble device. We have used our friends to peer assess our work using criteria to guide them. We have been given a clear focus to praise and a clear focus to assess for improvement.
Lighthouses – we used a Crumble to create digital Morse Code to warn future ships about the dangers of the ice fields.
RMS Titanic – the day we stepped back in time!
On the 20th of May we boarded the RMS Titanic and enjoyed a day exploring different historical sources to understand what it was like on board. We found out about life in second and third class or steerage as our tickets said. We dressed to impress in our Sunday best and even tried our hand at Morse code.
All Aboard!
Immigration Controversy Humility
Summer One is taking us on a seafaring mission once more, but his time on the ill-fated ship, the Titanic. Through all our linked lessons, from DT to English, we will be exploring one key question: who was the blame for the sinking of this ‘unsinkable’ ship?
We will all begin our learning by receiving a special letter – an invitation to tea on the Titanic and our boarding ticket. During the half term, we will learn about the name on our ticket, what we should wear to the party and what happened to us on the fateful day in 1912.
In our English lessons, we will be writing a variety of flashback stories linked with the building and sinking of the Titanic, followed by a discussion text all about who was to blame. In our history lessons, we will be studying the history of the large ocean liner and the battle during late Victorian times between to two shipbuilding giants Cunard and White Star Line. We will learn the reasons for mass immigration into America from Europe and the controversy behind Titanic. Our DT and science lessons will see us take on a variety of challenges with electric circuits. We will be making circuits with different components and working with buzzers and switches to create a lighthouse that flashes Morse code messages. We will also learn here about the impact of the Titanic disaster on safety changes at sea. ICT will also link in here, where we will explore sensors and robotics. During art sessions, we studying the style and work of Turner and his ship-themed pieces.
Maths will follow the following teaching sequence for the half term based on NCETM curriculum prioritisation documents, Ready to Progress Criteria and White Rose. This is supplemented with Maths No Problem, Deepening Understanding, Learning by Questions and Nrich.
- Decimal calculation (addition and subtraction)
- Decimal calculation (multiplication and division)
- Decimals and percentages
- Algebra – 3 weeks using high school bridging materials for Year 6.
- Fluency sessions will focus on solid understanding of fractions, decimals and percentages.
PE will continue to be on Tuesday and Thursday with themes of invasion games and tennis.
RE will see our focus as Christians shift to ascension and Pentecost. We will explore how this event makes Christianity distinctive.
Finally, in PSHE we will be exploring the differences between us and how important it, is when making new friends, to value diversity. Our work will also see us think about and explore high school transition.
Our class project continues to be Fair Trade. Look out for details coming on Dojo of our planned Fair Trade activities.
Multicultural Week 15th -19th March 2021
This week we are travelling across the world to join the Native American Zuni tribe! We are beginning with their version of Cinderella called The Turkey Girl. In this story we have learnt that the Zuni have special names for the Sun and the Earth. They also see the Earth and its resources as being very precious. If we don not look after it, and break our bond with Mother Earth, it will be ruined. We have found out a variety of different facts about the Zuni and what life is like for them in the state of New Mexico. Look out for our pueblo houses that we are making later in the week and our study of key Apache tribe chieftains.
Year 6 Leavers’ Hoodies 2021
Look out for a link to the shop on Dojo coming soon!
World Book Day 2021 – Happiness Theme
We explore the theme of happiness through adversity through this amazing story of a refugee from Southern Vietnam during the Vietnam War. We charted her personal journey through war in Saigon, her happy place of a papaya tree and then her family fleeing to America. Our character, Ha, and her brothers suffered racism, struggles at school and tried to deal with the disappearance of their father. We learnt that no matter what life throws at us, we need to always remember to grasp those little moments of happiness.
We learnt all about Vietnam and even made some Moon Cakes
Spring 2 2021
The Power and the Glory
Intrepid, Ambition, Ancestry
We will start this new half term at home, continuing our usual mix of two live lessons a day and pre-recorded lessons for the rest of the day. All the Zoom links for each lesson can be found on Google Classroom and on our Class Dojo.
We have some exciting enrichment activities to look forward to, kicking off with Fair Trade Fortnight and then World Book Day. If that wasn’t enough, we are also exploring Mexico during our Multicultural Week. We are also taking on a courageous advocacy project too – listen out for more information on our Zooms. We are busy busy!
This half term we are progressing our learning from the Anglo Saxons last half term to exploring what their counterparts, the Vikings, we up to at the same time. Using the fantastic novel from Tony Bradman, Anglo Saxon Boy, we will discover the impact of the Vikings in later Saxon times. We will also learn about a certain promise made by one Anglo Saxon Earl to an intrepid French Duke which resulted in one very famous battle and a victory that has influence our ancestry ever since. Our historical analysis and research will be used to write reports in our English lessons.
English however will kick off with mystery and crime writing. Following on from our work on United Kingdom tourist attractions, we will be enjoying the London Eye Mystery. Join Kat, her brother Ted and cousin Salim on their adventure. Can you unravel the clues? We will also be looking at classic mystery writing using the Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Science this half term sees us explore the animal classification system and the life of Carl Linnaeus. We will be using and creating our own decision trees to classify animals. In IT we are going to be learning how search engines work and how to make sure our personal data is safely stored online.
As we approach Easter, in RE we will be looking at who Jesus was at Easter and how the events of that time revealed God’s plan for us. Our Christian Value this half term is justice and to explore this we will be taking on the Fair Trade Fortnight Challenge. Our British Value this half term is Rule of Law and Democracy. To support this our PSHE looks at our role in wider society, our responsibilities and the work of local councils.
French and DT work hand in hand this half term as we explore the key term of seasonality. Easter is an important celebration in the French calendar and we will be looking at the symbolism of food in this event, leading to designing and making our own French Easter stew. We will be researching popular stew recipes and typical spring tastes. Our final product will be made in school to be tried at home and evaluated. We will be learning all about seasonal produce in spring and how this can be used to give a fresh, new taste. Tradition and ancestry link here too, as we see which French traditions have been brought here. In our French lessons we will be learning how to talk about our hobbies and likes. Looking at summer crops, we will be preparing to plant our vegetables and fruit ready for July harvest.
PE will continue to be held on a Tuesday and Thursday and will be gymnastics and netball. Bring some jogging bottoms, trainers and an extra layer for outside work.
Home Learning Update
January 2021
Some E safety advice for parents and children when working at home. Look out on Dojo for the latest E safety advice and support.
We are offering 3 live lessons a day. These will consist of fluency skills (either grammar, spelling or maths), a maths lesson and a wider curriculum lesson in the afternoon.
Our usual Zoom times are:
9.30am – Fluency
10.30am – Maths
Materials for each of these lessons, English lesson guidance and videos of our class novel can be found on Google Classroom.
The Great British Explore Off
Exploration Bravery Artisan
Spring 1 2021
Happy New Year to you all!
We begin this half term with an exploration of our great nation – the United Kingdom! Starting with geography, we will be learning to pinpoint key locations such as key cities, highlands and islands. After studying the physical features of the UK, we will then move on to human features such as buildings and bridges. This will link together with our learning in DT, as we design and make bridges to carry Anglo Saxon supplies.
In history, we will be travelling back in time to Anglo Saxon England and learning all about how the different groups settled here. We will explore their craftsmanship, lifestyle and religious beliefs by analyzing historical sources. We will also learn about their lives through our work in English. We are delving into the novel Beowulf as well as the story of Anglo Saxon Boy, which reveals many clues about the life of these tribesmen and women. Our Christian value this half term is perseverance and we will be exploring great examples of this in these tales. We will be linking this idea to persuasive writing too. Our Anglo Saxon workshop has been cancelled for now but we hope to re-arrange another enriching historical experience as soon as we are able.
Science lessons see us explore the changing state of materials and how well they conduct heat. We have a theme of investigations during this half term, revising and refining our skills of prediction, hypothesis, collecting results, recording and concluding.
In our PSHE lessons we will be considering ourselves and our relationships. This will continue the theme of growing and changing as well as building on this previous learning before Christmas.
RE lessons see us explore the idea of Jesus as a teacher. We will think about what great things we have learnt and how we were taught. Moving forward, we will then explore how we can use the teachings of Jesus in our lives.
PE this half term is on and Tuesday and Thursday. Mr Pitcher is leading tag rugby and Mrs Cookson will be leading dance through the ages.
Autumn 2 in Endeavour
This half term we are exploring the makings of a hero and seeing how fine the line is between heroism and villainous deeds!
We begin with English and a delve into the world of Macbeth. We will be charting our main character throughout this gripping play using resources from the Royal Shakespeare Company to guide us.
Science will also see us explore our very own health hero circulatory system of the heart and lungs. We will be learning all about how they work together, how to keep them healthy and what types of villains can damage them. Look out for a Zoom call from a cardiac nurse all about heart health. Our history will also help to deepen our learning as we look at the chronology of medical advances. We will be pulling together a full overview of the history of medicine from ancient times until present day and learning all about key figures such as Jenner and Fleming.
We will also be learning to keep safe in PSHE where we explore risk taking, bullying and firework safety. Our local fire service may not be able to visit school but they can call use using Teams Software and that is exactly what they will be doing on November 4th!
Megan from the Life Bus will also be visiting us to start off our continuous topic in PSHE all about changes in our bodies. This topic is ongoing throughout the year as our bodies grow and change. Parents, look out for materials being shared with you via Zoom prior to the visit from Megan.
We will continue to explore heroism through art too, learning how to draw self-portraits first and then to adapt these into a superhero style. This will build on our study of Roy Lichtenstein from last half term.
In R.E. we will be considering how Christians celebrate Christmas and learning all about the worldwide work of charities such as Christian Aid.
Our learning in French this half term is all about clothes!
Music takes us to the land of jazz.
PE on Tuesday is football and on Thursday is hockey. We will be getting outside as much as we can so please make sure you have some long jogging bottoms to wear in school.
Look Out For:
World War 2 Week
We will be travelling back in time and experiencing life during The Blitz! In Endeavour, we will be reading all about life in the Blitz using diaries written at the time.
Look out for information about fancy dress.
Bikeability October 2020:
Year 6 have been learning all about how to be road safe on their bikes. They practised turns and signaling first on our playground before going off into the streets of Much Hoole. The instructors on their two-day course said that they had been true ambassadors for our school and they had really enjoyed their time with our children. Well done guys!
Our Work in Maths:
We have been delving into addition and subtraction during October. We have played games to help us with exchanging numbers called exchange up for addition and exchange down for subtraction.
Life is a Journey – RE Autumn 1 2020
During our work on Life as a Journey, we have been exploring pilgrimage. We travelled around the playground to different stations to find out all about Christian pilgrimage, locations and what Christians would expect to see there. We then found out all about The Two Saints Way and wrote postcards home from pilgrimage.
October 2020 Songs for World Change:
We are YouTube Stars!
We have now finished our own songs based around the theme of changing our world for the better. Using our brand new green screen, we have videoed our performance for you to enjoy. Check out our school YouTube Channel HooleSM Who’s Reading?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd9e_cWhEGBH01oVKzsOmWg
Nature Journals – Autumn Seed Cases
On the first week of October made our first entries for this school year in our Nature Journals. We focused our studies on autumn seed cases and how they protect the seed. On a walk, we collected seed cases and studied what the trees are looking like now to prepare for winter. We dissected seed cases, observed carefully and annotated drawings in our journals.
Harvest Autumn 2020 Our Christian Value of Thankfulness
Endeavour Class celebrated harvest on behalf of school with a visit to church. We presented our thankfulness pumpkins to share with the congregation at St Michael. On our pumpkins each class have written what they are thankful for.
Autumn 1 That’s Class!
Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!
You guessed it! This half term we are off on a classic pirate adventure to Treasure Island. This is all part of our latest topic of That’s Class! Our focus for Autumn 1 will be what makes a classic. We will be widening our search for classics through art, music history and writing.
Starting with our text in English, we will be enjoying the work of various classic authors. From our main text by Robert Louis Stevenson to others such as Swallows and Amazons and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, we will be delving into and exploring classic writing. This will be followed by a study of classic song lyrics – look out guys, we will be writing and performing our own! Finally, we will be reviewing classic songs and recommending playlists.
