Welcome to The Speech and Language Base!

Welcome to summer term! I know things are a little different at the moment but you will find all the information you need to do your learning from home below.  Some of the highlights to look forward to this term include continuing exploring Ancient Egypt, in geography we will begin looking at rivers. In our Science learning we will be looking at the parts of a plant and in RE we will focus on the importance of charity.

Please continue to support your children at home with their reading, spellings, Bugclub and Mymaths home learning. Remember to sign the reading record when you have read with your child.

The Base Team

Mr Paice (Base leader)

Amanda Felstead (Teaching Assistant)

Jen English (Teaching Assistant - am)

Julia Faulkner (Teaching Assistant - pm)

Dates for your diary

Monday 1st June 2020 INSET DAY

Tuesday 2nd June 2020 Children return to Base Class. Please use the Base door. School times as normal (8.50 - 3.25)

Home Learning W/B 20.07.20

I hope you are well and enjoy these learning activities! 

Please find this weeks home learning below.

As always; stay safe, stay well.

Mr Paice.

DT bag project - 16.07.2020

Here are some of the amazing bags we have been making as part of our DT project this term. The children (and Mr Paice!) Have been learning lots of news skills including running stitch, back stitch and over stitch. They have sown the hems and seams as well as cross stitch the design on the front. We are super proud of all their efforts!

Home Learning W/B 13.07.2020

I hope you are well and enjoy these learning activities! 

Please find this weeks home learning below.

As always; stay safe, stay well.

Mr Paice.

Home Learning W/B 06.07.2020

I hope you are well and have been enjoying the learning set! 

Please find this weeks home learning below.

As always; stay safe, stay well.

Mr Paice.

Home Learning W/B 29.06.2020

I hope you are well and are enjoying the glorious sunshine! 

Please find this weeks home learning below.

As always; stay safe, stay well.

Mr Paice.

Home Learning W/B 22.06.2020

I hope you are well and managing to stay dry and avoid the rain! 

Please find this weeks home learning below.

As always; stay safe, stay well.

Mr Paice.

Home Learning W/B 15.06.2020

It was wonderful getting a chance to speak to the children who have not yet returned this week. I am really pleased to see and hear how everyone is getting on with the tasks being set.

At school, we have been enjoying our learning about the Maya people and using Google maps to locate ancient Mayan cities. Most of the cities had a photo of Mayan ruins as you searched for them. We also had fun creating our explanations texts about the games consoles we designed.

Please find this weeks home learning below.

As always; stay safe, stay well.

Mr Paice.

Home Learning 08.06.2020

Hello,

It has been lovely to welcome so many of you back to school this week. We have enjoyed being back and picking up where we left off. In class, we have begun our history topic on Mayan's and began exploring life cycles in science. We have enjoyed learning some new 'socially distant' games including heads down, heads up and splat to play in our break and lunch times too.

For those still unable to join us, please find the home learning resources for this week below.

As always: stay safe, stay well.

Mr Paice

Home learning W/B 01.06.2020

Hello,

I hope you had a super half term! I am really looking forward to welcoming you back on Tuesday 2nd June.  If, however, you have decided to stay at home for a little longer, please find the home learning packs below. The learning journey mirrors what will be happening in school so that when the children are ready to return they will be able to pick up where those in school have got to.

For the children coming to school, Myself, Mrs M and Mrs Faulkner are looking forward to seeing you all again. We have made some adjustments to the classroom which we will talk through on Tuesday.  Until then, stay well and stay safe.

Home Learning W/B 18th May 2020

Wow! Can you believe we have completed half a terms home learning already! I hope you have enjoyed the tasks and activities that have been set. I will be making phone calls tomorrow (Friday) and I can't wait to hear all about the exciting things you have been doing during lockdown. I would like to thank all the adults who have done the best they can to home school you whilst this virus has taken hold - its not easy but you have all done a great job! 

I hope we can see each other soon. Stay safe.

Mr Paice.

Home Learning w/b 11th May 2020

Thank you so much for the learning that has been sent in so far. I am looking forward to speaking with you all in our phone calls next week. Try to have ready one piece of learning you particularly enjoyed and one question you wish to ask me (this might be about some learning you found challenging).

Please see the home learning challenges for this week below. Please remember the files with a P will need printing, but you may not need to print ALL the pages, so look carefully before you print them.

Stay safe,

Mr Paice.

Home learning w/b 04.05.2020

Hello all.

I hope this is finding you safe and well. I am so proud of all of you who are staying in, staying safe and helping our NHS. Our RE this term will begin to focus on charity and I am blown away with Captain Tom who, at 100 years old, has raised £29m for our NHS. He really is an inspiration.

I have added a P to the documents that need printing this week but please check carefully if you need to print the whole thing (some tasks are differentiated and you only need to complete one of them, not all three). I hope the lesson presentations are also helping you.  Remember to look at the BBC bitesize webpage too they have lots of new daily content going up during this 'lockdown'.

Please keep reading every day, practice the high frequency words if you can and remember to log into my maths and bug club as regularly as possible. Finally, keep emailing in your learning - it really is so lovely to see what you are getting up to.

Mr Paice.

Home learning w/b 27.04.2020

Hello again,

I hope this finds you all safe and well. It was nice to get a few emails this week sharing your home-school achievements. If you saw the videos on the school's facebook page, you will know how proud we are of all of you.

As we get further into this period I have tried to introduce some new learning. With this in mind you will see some files for this week are marked as 'lesson presentations'. These are PowerPoints to support the task. These DO NOT need printing and will work best if viewed on the computer.  I have also included as many answer sheets as possible - I hope you find these useful too.

Did any of you manage to see the Starlink Satellites flying over? They are very interesting to see. Finally, if you fancy a tour or a real Egyptian Tomb (Ramesses VI) then head to https://my.matterport.com/show?m=NeiMEZa9d93&mls=1 (this works really well on a phone).

Stay safe, stay well.

Mr Paice.

Home learning week beginning 20/04/2020

I hope you had a relaxing Easter break (and didn't eat to many chocolates!) Please see the home learning for this week.  As you will see we have provided an English, Maths and one other subject for each day. This is a guide and can be completed in any way you wish (e.g all the English on one day then maths on another, or, each day as suggested).  There will also be some new mymaths set for you.

Please keep persevering with your home learning tasks and most importantly - Stay Safe!

Mr Paice.

Happy Easter - 3.04.2020

I know it has been a strange end to the term but it has been lovely to see some of you in school. Please send in any photos of the home learning tasks you have completed so far to rpaice@rounddiamond.herts.sch.uk as it will be lovely to see how you're getting on.

There will be NO new tasks set over the easter holidays. Bug club can be used throughout and don't forget there are tasks on mymaths for you. I do have a little challenge, what festival will I be celebrating over Easter? Create an information poster about it if you wish!

Rest up, stay well and I hope to see you all again soon.

Mr Paice

Home learning activities for school closure (updated 19.03.2020)

Please find attached the first 10 activities for the children to complete at home as a result of the government closure due to COVID-19.

Tasks are designed to be completed one a day along side mymaths and Bug Club activities.  Further  tasks will be added throughout the closures. 

To support this, each year group has created a ‘Summer Term Recommended Reading List’. The list has been put together by class teachers and has been designed to give children the opportunity to explore a range of texts at home, over the course of year.

Alongside this list are some question prompts which can be used to start discussions about what has been read. The questions are in line with our weekly VIPERS teaching, that focusses on individual skills within reading – Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, Summarise.

Please note that this home learning is not compulsory. We hope that you will be able to enjoy some (or all!) of the recommendations by buying the texts if you wish. Equally, the question prompts can be used with any book you choose to enjoy with your child.

Dino discovery - 13.03.2020

It has been an exciting week in the Base! A simple science lesson about plants has turned into the discovery of bones - right here in school! The bones are believed to be that of the much rumoured (but never proved) Stevenage dinosaur (names the 'Baseasaur' by one of the class!).

The children have been using this exciting discovery to stimulate their news paper report writing unit in English. Have a look at the images below from the day of the discovery!

World book day - 05.03.2020

It was wonderful seeing the range of outfits and characters in school today for World Book Day. We love to promote enjoyment of reading and it was fantastic hearing about the range of characters the children decided to come dressed as.  Mr Paice and Mrs Felstead also enjoyed dressing up for the day too! 

Reading is so important for our children and I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your support with the reading you do at home with your children. Make sure you also take the time to read to your children as this is a useful tool in supporting their reading development. Did you know you that as well as getting a free book or £1 off a book with your book token, you can also use it to invest in an audio-book for your child.

I look forward to hearing about what books the children chose to buy with their book token.

Beebot race tracks - 11.02.2020

This half term our computing learning has looked at programming. The children have practiced coding using the light bot programme on the hour of code. They used what they learnt about debugging to help them programme the Beebots. The first challenge was to make the Beebot travel the perimeter of their tables. Then the children worked in groups to create a race track. Once built, they had to work out the coding needed to navigate their Beebot from the start to the finish line, debugging any errors that occured.

Searching for sound - 07.02.2020

This half term our science learning has focused on sound. We have discovered many interesting things about sound including how the length of the source effects the pitch, how our ear lets us hear sound and that a sound wave is a vibration. We even made our own pan pipes!

I would like the children to complete a sound diary over the weekend to see which sounds they hear throughout the day. Please help them with their spellings of key words.

Sporting Futures Inclusive Festival - 29.01.2020

A number of children from the Base took part in the inclusive festival, hosted by Sporting Futures this week. They were competing in two teams against a number of other schools. This year the sports focused on were golf and cricket. The children had a fantastic time. Some of the highlights were Jake's brilliant putting that took out three cones in one as well as Amreen's energy levels as she played a huge role for both teams.  Team 2 came 3rd in the golf as were awarded the Bronze Medal. The children were a credit to the school.

Recounts - 24.01.2020

In English this week we have been using familiar fairy stories to help us write a diary entry. We looked at a dairy entry from characters in Red Riding Hood. We then used Jack and The Beanstalk to help us plan a diary entry (either from Jacks viewpoint or Jack's Mother's viewpoint). It was a good challenge for the children to see things from another persons point of view. Following our trip next week, we will be writing reports to go on the website - so check back next week for those.

Welcome back - 06.01.2020

Welcome back to the new term. I hope you had a good Christmas and a restful few weeks off!

We have lots of exciting learning to look forward to including our new history topic of Ancient Egypt, whilst in geography we will be looking at Stevenage and comparing it to Southport. In science we will begin exploring sound before moving on to look at rocks, fossils and soil.

Keep reading with your children at home and remember to practice their times tables each week.

Here is to an exciting 2020!

Times table songs - 12.12.2019

We have been using the BBC super movers songs to help us in our times tables learning. The songs are a fun way to help the children with their new times table. have a look at the selection by clicking the link below. 

Fatty food investigation (Awe and Wonder) - 02.12.2019

In science this term we have been exploring balanced diets. We have looked at the different food groups and the seven different nutrients needed in a balanced diet. Today we conducted an investigation into different fatty foods. We observed what the different foods looked liked. Then we predicted how much of a fatty stain each food item would leave on the paper. We left the foods there for 20 minutes. After that we observed the changes to the paper and made our conclusions. Which food do you think had the most fat in?

Healthy eating - balance diets (06.12.2019)

In science we have been designing our ideal meal. The meals had to have the right balance of each food group.  Why not have a go at making the meal with the children at home?

Base open afternoon - 14.11.2019

This afternoon we had our open afternoon. We started with a fabulous re-enactment of the story of the Trojan war. We then set our grown ups the task of constructing their own Trojan horse. Children could choose whether to make a 2D or a 3D model. They also had access to the mitre saws for cutting the lolly sticks to size. The children really enjoyed creating their models and it was lovely to see so many families able to join us. Below are some pictures from the afternoon:

Story telling through science - 18.10.2019

In Science we have been inspired to bring our learning about fairy tales to life. We used magnets to create a live animation of part of a fairy story. Watch the videos below, can you work out what fairy story we are telling?

Going potty for Ancient Greece - 10.10.2019

This afternoon the children in the Base have been getting creative in their DT learning. We designed Greek style pots around the theme of the ancient Olympics and made them from clay. Next week, we will paint the pots based on our designs.

Science learning - child led enquiry (25.09.2019)

This week in science the children designed their own investigation around friction. They discussed what they need to do to make it a fair test. They also measured and recorded their own results.

My maths and times tables - 20.09.2019

This week the children were given their mymaths log in. They were also shown how to log on and use the web-site.  Home learning will be set once a week and will link to the learning they have been doing in class. You can access mymaths by visiting www.mymaths.co.uk

Children have also been sent home with a times table to learn. they will be tested on this each week and when they have met their target they will be moved to the next timestable to learn. You can help your children with these by playing times tables songs. you can find these on youtube.

Spelling and times tables - 13.09.2019

It is important the children practice these at least 3 times a week.  There are many ways you can do this.

Spellings:

Try some of the following;

Pyramid words (see example below)

s

sc

sch

scho

schoo

school

Look, cover, write, check

Saying words in a sentence

Drawing pictures of the words and writing it underneath.

Try telling a story with all the words in.

Times tables:

Throw and catch a ball whilst recalling them

Listen to songs of the times tables on youtube

Practice on the way to and from school either as you walk or as you are in the car.

Topic launch 5th September 2019

To launch our topic learning on the Ancient Greeks we created a mosaic of the school logo. The children had to cut the 'tiles' they wanted to use and use their observation skills to put the colours in the correct places. The logos will be used as part of our school displays.

The Base  2019 - 2020

Outside achievements - 12.07.2019

Amreen was very proud to show her medal she got from completing the Race for Life last weekend. Amreen (mostly) ran the 5km Race with members of her family. Amreen says; "I was very happy when I finished the race. I really like my medal!"

Well done Amreen on a fantastic achievement.

Cross-curricular capacity - 04.07.2019

Today in maths the children devised their own science enquiry into the capacity of different containers. They thought about their own questions to ask, how they would conduct the investigation and the resources they would need. Following that, they made a prediction, some even hypothesised based on their previous science knowledge.  Then we went outside to conduct the investigation and record our results. We used our results to make our conclusions.

Topic learning - household chores 14.06.2019

This week in topic we explored different house hold chores. The children had a go at folding clothes, dusting and washing up. We explored how to do the chore properly and why we need to do chores around the house.  We also discussed the need to recycle at home to help look after our environment.

Let me know how the children get on doing their chores at home!

Welcome back! 07.06.2019

It has been lovely to see everyone return from their half term holidays. It has been quiet in the class this week with some of the Year 5's out on their residential trip - we hope they had a fantastic time. This week in English we have started looking at Flashback story writing. In Maths we have been building on our knowledge of adding and subtracting and applying these skills to some word problems.

Please remember to keep signing your child's reading record regularly and logging onto mymaths to complete their home learning.

Children will need PE kits on Tuesday AND Friday next week.

Trip to the shop. 21.05.2019

Today we went to the shops. We were very grateful to Mrs Bell who showed us around the shop including the big freezer and Fridge, the store room and Bakery. We then got to choose an item from the shelf and buy it from the shop.  We were able to have a go at scanning the items before we cued up and bought them using our money.  We had lots of fun and enjoyed ourselves a lot.

Easter Fun! 05.04.2019

Here we are at the end of another busy term. The children have done fantastically well with their learning and it was great to see so many of them achieve their 100% attendance certificate in assembly today.  The children also enjoyed their Easter Egg hunt. Thank you to all the team at FORDS for arranging the eggs for us.  We hope you all have a brilliant east holiday and come back refreshed and ready for summer term!

Mr Paice and the Base team.

BBC Teach: Blue Planet Live - 26.03.2019

We were very excited to take part in a nationwide science lesson this week. The BBC's Blue planet team hosted a live web lesson all about the oceans and how we can protect them.  We looked at food webs and discussed ways we could improve our environments for the better.  It was amazing to see live underwater pictures from the Blue Planet team.

Making playdough - weights and measures in maths - 19.03.2019

This week in maths we learnt how to read scale by making Play-dough.  It was great fun weighing out the ingredients and watching it turn into different colours. We will use the Play-dough in school to help with our handwriting warm ups and fine motor control. If you would like to make it at home, have a look at the recipe below.

3D shapes - Maths 15.03.2019

Today we have been constructing 3D shapes from their nets. Mr Paice guided the class through each step. We did cutting, scoring, gluing and folding.  Have a look at our shapes below.

World Book Day 2019 - 07.03.2019

The children looked amazing in their world book day outfits today. We did lots of learning around their chosen characters and books including writing a book review and designing a book cover for their character.  Check out the gallery below to the see the wonderful costumes.

Awe and wonder Science - planting seeds (05.04.2019)

Today we learned how to plant seeds. We began by discussing what plants needed in order to grow.  We then watched a clip explaining how to plants seeds and what happens during the growing process.

Then we planted some reddish seeds together. Mr Paice told us they should only take 4 weeks to grow. We will need to take good care of the seeds and make sure they get enough water, light and heat to grow into yummy radishes.

We will continue to observe the seeds and note the changes that occur in them.

Science learning - 28.02.2019

We have started a new unit of science for this term. The new unit is all about plants.  The children created flap books that explain the different parts of a plant. If you notice a new plant growing in your garden or around you homes why not ask the children if they can remember the different names?

Next week, as part of our awe and wonder session, we will be planting our own Radish seeds. The children will be able to take these home at the end of the term.

Computing learning: Isle of Tune - 18.01.2019

Father Christmas (Take One Book) - 14.12.2018

This week we have based our English learning around the book Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs. We used to book to inspire our writing. This included character descriptions, and descriptions of some forgotten presents. This children linked their English to their DT learning by designing a new sleigh to help Father Christmas. We completed the week writing our own letters which explained what we wanted as well as why we should be on the good list!  We look forward to our performances next week and we hope to see many of you there.

Attendance cup - 07.12.2018

We were delighted to win the attendance cup this week with 100%! That means everyone was in school, on time all week. Mr Paice and the children were thrilled with the win (even if we do have to share with Mattise!)

Even in the run up to Christmas we still have lots of exciting learning planned so please ensure children are in school, on time, every day.

Go With Your Gut - Science cross-curricular days (28.11.2018)

The children have been taking part in a range of cross-curricular activities around the digestive system.  the cross-curricular days started off with a whole school assembly from Dr Jane who spoke guided us through the different parts of the digestive system.  We used this assembly to write a recount in our English learning.  In DT we made different types of poo (one for a herbivore, one for a carnivore and one for an omnivore). We conducted a taste test in our science lesson, the Base children preferred the salty taste, some even liked the raw broccoli! We finished our learning with some PSHE where we made a poster to help stop the spread of germs as these can get into our digestive system and make us ill.

Break-in in the Base - 22.11.2018

The children came to School on Thursday to discover there had been a break in in the Base. Mr Paice's special clock had been stolen.  The robber left behind some clues and a lot of mess! the children used the experience to write a newspaper report about the incident.

REMINDER - OPEN AFTERNOON 15.11.2018

Just a reminder we have our open afternoon tomorrow at 2:30pm.  We will be sharing some of the activities the children have enjoyed from the previous half term.  Please remember it is non-uniform day as well!

Touch typing - 12.10.2018

We have been using BBC Dance Mat Touch typing to help us become more familiar with where the letters are on the keyboard. This will help us with our word processing and online research.  Use the link below for your children to continue using this fun, interactive online teaching tool at home.

E-safety - 21.09.2018

Maths songs - 14.09.2018

This week in maths fluency we have been looking at our number bonds and 2 times table.  We used songs to help us with this.  Take a look at them below and sing them at home with your children.  We will use a variety of songs and game to help us remember our times tables.