English
This week, we have been writing our extended narratives. The children have been creating their own chapter of Running on Empty, where AJ competes in an inter-school tournament — but, of course, a problem arises which puts his chances of victory into doubt.

We have drawn on a range of writing skills to ensure our readers are fully engaged, but our main focus has been on developing strong characterisation through speech. This means using dialogue to reveal who a character really is. We discussed how people speak differently depending on who they are — an eight-year-old would sound very different from a king — and how vocabulary choices can subtly weave description into dialogue.

For example, we explored how:
"I don't think you will do very well, AJ," Aisha said.

could become:
"You don't stand a chance, AJ. They don’t let ugly teenagers win gold medals!" Aisha teased, cartwheeling away.

The second example not only shows us what is said, but tells us something about Aisha’s personality and her relationship with AJ. It has been wonderful to see the children experimenting with this technique in their own writing.

Maths
This week, we have continued our work on fractions. We focused on the difference between improper fractions and mixed numbers and how to convert between them (for example, 11/5 = 2 1/5).

We then learnt how to multiply fractions by a whole number, which proved to be much more straightforward than adding fractions with different denominators! However, now that we know how to both add and multiply fractions, we must be careful not to muddle the methods.

Thematic / RE
In RE this week, we have been learning about Judaism. We discussed how Judaism, Islam and Christianity all believe in and worship the same God, but differ in some of the details and in how they practise their faith.

We learnt about synagogues, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and how Jewish people worship. The children asked thoughtful questions and approached the topic with respect and curiosity.

Next term, we will begin our new thematic topic, Gods and Mortals, where we will be learning about Ancient Greece.

Love to Learn

The Viking Speaker Competition

It is that time of year again that we will be holding the Viking Speaker Competition. The Speaker competition is an annual competition across the Viking Academy Trust that helps to develop children's Oracy skills. The children are invited to create and present a speech on a given theme. Four children will be chosen to represent the school, competing against children from Ramsgate Arts and Upton to become the Viking Speaker winner for 2026.

This year the children are invited to ‘Pitch their passion’. The idea is the children choose something they are passionate about. This could be anything from Climate Change to Capybaras; it may be a hobby they have or just something they find interesting. They need to write a speech that inspires the audience to take an interest in their chosen passion. The speech can be no longer that 2 minutes and the children cannot use any props or slides to help them during their speech.

To help the children with this competition, please could you support your child across half term to decide which passion they have that they might wish to ‘pitch’ in their speech. They need to consider what makes their passion so intriguing and why others should also take an interest in it. They can begin to make some notes or even create a first draft of their speech. They will then continue to work on their speech during the first week back in school after half term.

Those children that wish to enter the competition will perform their speech to their class during the week beginning 2nd March. Each class will choose one representative. We will then hold the Chilton Speaker Final on Friday 13th March, where our four Chilton representatives will be chosen. These four children will take part in the Viking Speaker Final on Friday 27th March.

We look forward to learning all about what our children are passionate about.

Dates to remember:

Monday 23rd February – All children back into school at