World Religion Week

During this time, Year 5 girls looked in detail at the world of Islam. They learnt about the five pillars, various festivals and finished their studies on this topic with a visit to the Cambridge Mosque. This trip definitely brought their learning to life and the girls were able to ask additional questions relating to what they had learnt either in school or on the visit.

Science

To date, Science lessons this term have involved quite a lot of practical work. The girls pretended to be squirrels and had to hide their nuts in the garden and then see if they could remember where they had hidden them after a period of time had passed. The focus here was to understand one of the ways plants are able to change and develop according to their surroundings. During this term we will implement more experiments and look at writing them up successfully.

Ely Cathedral Science Festival

Linking Science and Art was key to the Ely Science Festival this year. You may remember that a couple of years ago the Junior School was involved in this county wide project. This year we decided to take part once again. Using their painting and stencilling skills, the girls have produced fantastic banners, which relate back to their Science work on their topic from last term, Space. If you get the opportunity, do go to Ely Cathedral and see not only their fantastic work, but also work from the rest of the Junior School. Further information can be found in the brochure here.

Year 6 – Mrs Sarah Cliff and Mrs Jane Freebairn

The Year 6 girls are embracing their last term at the Junior School with mixed feelings. They are excited about the forthcoming Summer Concert at West Road and their production of The Tempest, which will be performed in the Junior School gardens on 29 and 30 June. At the same time, they are also sad to be leaving the Junior School and many of the faces they have known since Reception. But, of course they are excited and somewhat nervous about the challenges on moving into Year 7.

World Religion Week

The term started with our World Religion Week, in which we looked at Judaism. The girls found out about many aspects of the Jewish faith and produced some interesting festival calendars. 

Isle of Wight

The second week of the term saw the Year 6 girls travel to the Isle of Wight on their eagerly anticipated week long residential trip. In the week that saw temperatures plummet, the girls braved the Solent for body-boarding and showed determination and resilience in the face of demanding challenges in a number of other activities such as climbing, high ropes and zip wires. Their problem solving and team work skills were also put to the test with activities such as bush craft and orienteering. They particularly enjoyed an afternoon on the beach studying rock pools as habitats and followed this up with a data analysis session. The girls enjoyed visiting the beautiful Osborne House, former holiday retreat of Queen Victoria and indeed the place where she died. This consolidated the girls’ study of the Victorians in the Autumn Term.

Topics

Our current topic is Natural Disasters and we are looking forward to the visit of Lila and Frankie’s father who is a geo-physicist and will talk to the girls about earthquakes. The topic links well with our study of The Tempest and in English lessons we are exploring Shakespeare’s use of language and the characters in the play. We will also be creating our own Shakespearian insults to throw at each other, playing the roles of Prospero and Caliban.