What we are doing this week in Lilac Class for the week beginning 17.3.25

For Maths this week in Lilac Class, we are ordering and comparing decimals with the same number of decimal places.  We will be using place value counters on a place value chart to build numbers to support understanding.  Lilac Class will then be moving onto rounding decimals to the nearest whole number.  Initially, we will recap the rounding that we covered last term, and then we will use number lines to enhance learning.  When the number is halfway between two whole numbers, the convention is to round to the greater of the two. For example 6.5. rounds to 7.0, the nearest whole number.  We are then rounding to 1 decimal place, working out which number with 1 decimal place is closer.  When rounding to 1 decimal place, if the digit in the hundredths column is 5, we will be learning that the number rounds to the greater of the two numbers with 1 decimal place. 

In English this week in Lilac Class, we are planning and drafting an historical report about being a pupil during the Victorian period.  As a class we will read You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Victorian Schoolchild! Lessons you’d rather not learn by John Malam. This text will serve as a basis for our writing.  We will be writing about a pupil’s experience during a typical school day at St Barnabas School in 1896, the year the school was built. 

For Whole Class Guided Reading Lilac Class are reading Chapters 17 and 18 of Berlie Doherty’s Street Child entitled ‘The Monster Weeps and You Can Do It, Bruvver’’. We will be using our explanation and inference skills to find out why Jim speaks to himself in a certain way and what Jim thought about as he pondered escaping.  We will also be thinking about why silence frightens Jim.  

For RE in Lilac Class, we are considering who was responsible for Jesus’s death.  Lilac Class are completing a ‘Responsibility Pie’. Shading in slices of the pie-chart according to how much responsibility we think each person/group had.  The slices will be colour-coded and matched to a description of who is responsible, to what extent and why. 

For Time and Place, Lilac Class are learning about diseases and medical care during the Victorian period and what developments and improvements were made.  What would our healthcare system be like today without the contributions Florence Nightingale made, for example?  On Wednesday 19^th March Lilac Class are visiting The Amelia Scott Centre for a Victorian Workshop.  We will be given a talk about Queen Victoria and what Tunbridge Wells was like during her reign.  Lilac Class will have the opportunity to examine photographs of our local area from the period and to handle and work with original Victorian artefacts and answer questions about what is exhibited in the centre.