Year 3 school days in May

May has been the start of the busy season for school. SATs exams for the older and younger children. N announced that he was quite looking forward to doing his in 3 years time because they got to have breakfast in school. I might remind him of this fact when it actually comes to him being in Year 6.

School’s tennis tournament

N’s school seem to take part in all of the catchment schools partnership sports and Arts events. They do so much more compared to some of the other primary schools and because it’s a Small School more children get to take part. The latest for N’s class was the partnership school tennis tournament. 6 out of the 8 children either currently play or having the past trained with N’s tennis coaches. So I thought they should have done quite well. Not many schools going to be in the same situation although I didn’t know about the one that was local to the tennis club.

I popped along to watch the last half hour and see how they were doing and it turned out they won the whole tournament having a clean sheet beating all the teams that they played. Most of the children won 3 or all of their matches and they were so pleased to get their certificates. They did a great job given that their school is so much smaller than all of the others in the tournament.

Athletics outreach

N’s year were also lucky enough to take part in an athletics session at a local prep school. I got the chance to try lots of different field and track events although N managed to clunk himself on the back with the javelin. He said he enjoyed the long jump the best and I suppose this is one that they don’t get to try at their school as there’s no long jump pit.

Learner of the week

This month N was awarded learner of the week. He was highly amused by this because it was for maths. But it was a week where he had a day off for illness then the second day didn’t really know what was going on in maths and I said he didn’t really understand it even after the child he was told to explain it to him had done so. Then the next day he got taken out of maths to do some reading with an adult so he reckons he only did about 5 sums the whole week I and didn’t really understand it. So I it did seem a little bit of a comedy him winning it that week compared to some of the other weeks.

Problem solving group work

Earlier in the month they were given some problem solving to do in maths. I didn’t quite get what they were meant to be doing something about a gummy worm, a life jacket and 4 paper clips. In their groups each one of them had to come up with an idea on how to solve the problem and they went round the group until one of them solved it. But they never reach N because the person before him got the answer. So he was a bit disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to put his forward. I can imagine N probably struggles a bit in groups because he’s not the loudest or the most assertive. Hopefully in future he’ll learn from these situations.

Midsummer Night’s Dream

The key stage 2 play is coming along, although N has decided that it’s boring being in the chorus. Too long rehearsals when there’s not much for them to do. He’s already decided he’d rather do school work next year. I’m quite looking forward to seeing it.

Show and tell

N isn’t one for show and tell usually. I don’t think he’s ever done it in class. One day he wanted to show his shooting target but forgot about it when he left it in the car. But when his mini red tennis t shirt arrived in May, he wanted to show that in assembly, and talk about their team’s home win. I thought he might have done it in class, rather than assembly where they have their achievements slot – any child can stand up and say what they’ve achieved outside school. It always surprises me when I hear N’s put up his hand to answer a question in assembly.

Evidently, he stood up and showed his t shirt, and explained that he’d got it for playing his 20 mini red matches. And shared that he’d actually played way more, but many weren’t counted as people didn’t have British Tennis Numbers or they weren’t Red rating people. That’s quite complicated to explain so I’m not sure how it worked out, but he was pleased to show off his t shirt (and beat the other tennis friends who got theirs around the same time).

Maths tests

N seems to be like I was at school, preferring tests to writing long projects. When they get arithmetic tests over school holidays, he does them straight away. But he’s been turning them around, and setting his own maths tests for his dad to take. He writes them the way they’re set out in his school maths tests. I love that he enjoys maths and isn’t worried about doing tests.

Now it’s onto June, and all the fun summer activities start (and I have to work out which I can make allowing for work).

How’s school going at your end this month?