Our Report on Rookesbury Park

Monday
After setting off from school at 10am, we arrived at the centre at 12:30- not bad timing! We settled down to our packed lunches before finding out our rooms and instructors, and beginning to unpack. Then it was off to our first activity- we jumped right into abseiling, which was challenging but great fun! We all went back to wash and change before a delicious dinner and a campfire, where we held a talent show, sang songs and all had great fun! Just time for a quick runaround in the field before getting ready for bed- we all fell straight to sleep after such a tiring first day!

Tuesday
Up bright and early at 7:30, ready for a day of activities. We had a filling English breakfast in the dining hall and met with our instructors by the front lawn to set off to our first session of the day. Raft building, climbing and survival were just some of the activities we took part in, with a few quick breaks in between. We all scrubbed up for dinner, then headed out to the field for a game of Giant Cluedo, where we all had to take part in team challenges to earn points and solve the mystery...

Wednesday
By Wednesday, we had got used to the busy and active lifestyle here at JCA, so we were experts at getting up early, rushing down to the showers and changing in a record time! Wednesday was another action-packed day with more challenging activities- archery, dance and low ropes to name a few. We tucked into our pasta and fruit salad, then made our way to a field to take part in more team-building exercises. What a day, and we all fell straight to sleep.

Thursday
Our whole room was awake by 6:45. We chatted for a while and then got dressed into clothes suitable for our next activity. It was kayaking. I had heard so much about it; how they capsized your boat and splash water into your face. Although we were slightly late, we were still in time for a full English breakfast- delicious!
We got wet- soaked and drenched. Kayaking was amazing. Giulia was in my boat and we capsized at least 7 times! That day we also did orienteering. Each activity was so fun, but kayaking was the best. Tonight we had a disco. It was so much fun to be with our friends and have a great time.
Can't believe that tomorrow is the last day. The week has gone so quickly.

Friday
We did Mini Olympics on Friday morning, and it was the last activity! :( We really didn't want to leave. Mini Olympics was really good- we were split into three groups and did lots of races. We were so sad to go home, but happy to see our parents!

Writers of the Week!

Firstly, a HUGE congratulations to Year 6; you have completed your week of SATs successfully and with smiles on your faces! Hooray! Enjoy your weekend!

Our fabulous Writer of the Week is Teddy in St. Anne's Class. Teddy wrote this marvellous descriptive piece this week and we were all incredibly impressed. Well done, Teddy!

We have seen some fantastic work in Early Years this week- well done everyone!

 By Bruce, Nursery

By Isaiah, Nursery

 By Sophia, St. Joseph's

By Luisjan, St. Joseph's

In Key Stage One, we were very impressed by Cahal's free writing in Year 1- he chose to write this wonderful story on his own. Wow!

 By Cahal, St. Francis'

Well done everyone, keep writing!

This Week's Wonderful Writing!

We have all enjoyed our first week back at school after the Easter holidays and everyone has been working hard on their writing!

This week's Writer of the Week created this marvellous Yu-Gi-Oh Story at home. A huge congratulations to Lewis in St. John's Class!

We also saw some fantastic writing in Year 6 this week. A very special mention must go to Blaise. His writing has been getting better and better in recent weeks, culminating in this spectacular piece of story writing. We were all so impressed by his hard work:

Miss Checker and Mrs Parrott especially liked this powerful, and rather poetic, paragraph:

Plamedi in Year 6 also wrote a wonderful chapter, based on 'A Beautiful Lie' this week:

Ella and Mrs Parrott had a chat with a wonderful writer in Year 1 on Friday. We were blown away by this piece of writing by Freya in St. Therese, who wrote this diary entry inspired by 'The Jolly Postman' all on her own! Wow!

WORLD BOOK DAY- Tomorrow!

Whoohoo- only one  day to go! On the 3rd March, Book Day will be here! If you are panicking about what to wear; don't! Here are some suggestions of easy ways to look great for Book Day:

Winnie the Witch: black pointy hat, dark coloured dress and a wand made out of cardboard.

Harry Potter: old black glasses, dark purple or black outfit.

Skellig: Strong card to make wings, grey or black t-shirt and trousers.

Gangsta Granny: thick, dull-coloured woll jersey and school skirt.

Puss in Boots: orange or red clothes, dress, t-shirt, skirt/trousers and boots.

Hopefully these are some helpful suggestions. But remember, it doesn't matter what you wear, as long as you have fun!

By, Rosa in Year 6

Top Tips from the Year 6 Grammar Group

Source: valpendleton

Our wonderful Year 6 Grammar Group have some top tips for you on how to write a perfect sentence!

Firstly, they will tell you what a sentence must have:

• A capital letter to start the first word,
• A full stop to end the sentence (or a ? or !)
• A verb (a doing word)
• A subject (someone or something that is doing the action)

An example sentence is: The cat sat on the mat.

To improve your sentence and make it more exciting, you could use:

• Adverbs
• A variety of nouns
• A fronted adverbial
• Conjunctions
• Adjectives
• A subordinate clause
• Interesting punctuation, such as; commas, speechmarks, brackets, dashes, a hyphen and a colon or semi-colon

Here is their improved sentence: Before dawn, the chubby cat, who was day dreaming, slouched joyfully onto the rough mat. 

Source: clker.com

St. Clare's Class also had a try at improving my boring sentence. Here is the result:

The cat sat on the mat.
The cat sat daintily on the mat.
The cat sat daintily on the soft mat.
The fluffy cat sat daintily on the soft mat.
The fluffy cat sat daintily on the soft, dirty mat.
As dawn broke, the fluffy cat sat daintily on the soft, dirty mat.
As dawn broke, the fluffy cat, who was exhausted, sat daintily on the soft, dirty mat.
As dawn broke, the fluffy cat, who was exhausted, collapsed onto the soft, dirty mat.

Source: brandingsource.blogspot

Challenge!

Can you do better? Leave a comment below to show us what you can do! We will pick a winner next week!

Improve Mrs Parrott's boring sentence:

'The cat sat on the mat.'