Goldfinch

Autumn 2025: It's All Greek to Me!

Goldfinch information for Parents

Welcome to Goldfinch - Class Information Autumn 2025.pdf

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Tips for supporting your Year 5 or 6 child with reading at home.

Y5 Maths film shorts Check out these film clips to help you with homework or revise an area you'd like to consolidate.

Y6 maths film shorts Check out these film clips to help you with homework or revise an area you'd like to consolidate.

Shifting shadows and spectacular spectrums: Goldfinch class have been investigating the variables that affect the size of a shadow. They learnt about refraction with a glass prism.

English: we investigated the amazing descriptions Maz Evans used in her writing to help us write our own character descriptions.

Maths: using place value counters is a great tool to help us to learn to partition large numbers. We can really see how exchanging happens.

Summer 2025: One World to Share

We were happy to welcome parents to our maths information evening where we shared how the children learn methods for multiplication and division in year 5 and 6. If you weren't able to make the evening, there are some useful short video demonstrations on the links below:

DT: The World on our Plate. We investigated the global impact of our food and seasonality. Practising chopping, dicing, grating and slicing helped us to make delicious guacamole, salsa and quesadillas .

Geography- We were lucky enough to have Mrs Arlon visit Goldfinch class today to share her knowledge about chocolate and even help us make our own Fairtrade chocolates - yum! We also learnt about the Fairtrade logo and used it on our own chocolate boxes

Goldfinch transition morning: the children demonstrated good teamwork to complete the Parthenon challenge together. They have a summer holiday challenge to get them ready for our Autumn term topic about ancient Greece.

Geography - Goldfinch have been learning about energy sources. Today we investigated hydra power and they discovered that their water wheels turned through more revolutions when their milk bottles were fuller so the water pressure was greater.

As part of our one world topic, we explored typography in art and then designed our own maps of a fantasy island. What is your emotional response to our maps?

Goldfinch have been preparing to write their explanations about the life cycles of plants. But first they have researched the process, working collaboratively to create information posters.

Goldfinch have been looking at eco-friendly toys as part of our topic, 'One World to Share.' After investigating the cam mechanisms in automaton toys, we designed our own, thinking about aesthetics, function and ergonomics.

SATs Information for Parents

November 24 parent-information-key-stage-two-assessments 2025.pptx.pdf

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Spring 2025: Stargazers

Goldfinch children spoke enthusiastically to Mrs Fox, one of our governors, who came in to see them putting together their French picture books, ready to share with Rosefinch class.

Year 6 were lucky enough to take part in the Wokingham Baptist Church Easter Experience. It was an immersive and interactive reflection of the events of Easter week. The children thought deeply about the events of Easter week and why Jesus died upon the cross, sharing some lovely ideas with the volunteers running the event.

Goldfinch have been investigating the area of shapes. We started by thinking about what exactly is a square metre.

March 4th was Mars Day! Goldfinch class took part in a live interactive, online space show , 'To The Moon and Mars' organised by experts at ESERO-UK. We learnt about the British engineers and scientists working on the international Artemis program to help propel humanity back to the Moon and onward to Mars! The children discovered some fascinating facts and asked some brilliant questions.

February 2025: the year 5s have been using place value grids to find equivalences between decimals and unit fractions.

Stargazers: At the Winchester Planetarium, Goldfinch class had an exciting day learning about the different planets on our solar system and conducting investigations about thermal properties of materials that scientists would find useful in deciding on materials for space telescopes. The planetarium was a fascinating way to experience the scale of space.

Junior First Aid course - Today Goldfinch learnt about calling for help, the recovery position, burns, CPR, anaphylaxis and seizures.

Goldfinch Class information

Welcome to Goldfinch - Class Information

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Thank you to all Goldfinch parents and carers for your support this term. We wish you all the loveliest of Christmases with your families and a happy and healthy 2025. Thank you so much for the gifts, cards and kind messages of support which we really appreciate. Happy Christmas!

Autumn 2024: A Force of Nature.

Can we design and make thermal bootliners to protect our feet from frostbite at Everest Basecamp?

Geography - Can you design and construct an earthquake resistant building? Goldfinch looked at the features of earthquake resistant buildings and collaborated in their groups to build and test their own structures.

A Force of Nature: Family Learning Event

Are you ready to survive an earthquake? Parents and carers are invited to learn alongside their children at our family learning event on Thursday 28th November 2024 from 2.15-3.15pm. Find out what you should do in the event of an earthquake, prepare an earthquake survival kit and learn about different types of volcano.

Celebrating Computer Science Week with Hour of Code - Dance Party AI Edition

A big thank you to all of the parents who made it in to school for the family learning event linked to our Geography topic - A force of Nature. There were some thoughtful discussions, and even songs, about how to survive an earthquake and it was wonderful to have extra help on hand to make our paper models of volcanoes.

Goldfinch enjoyed Mr Carrigan's visit to school today; they learnt all bout the role of dogs in the Police Force and loved meeting Blue, who was very friendly. Thank you Blue and Mr Carrigan!!

How could we avoid frostbite and hypothermia at Everest Basecamp? Goldfinch investigated the thermal insulating properties of different materials by observing changes in temperatures.

Geography - We researched the layers of the Earth and made our own models. This learning leads us on to understanding why volcanoes happen.

After being inspired by Olympic climber, Brooke Raboutou, Goldfinch used force meters to investigate which shoes would give a mountain climber more grip. Which variables could we investigate? Why did some shoes have more friction than others?

Computing - After using decomposition to create a flow chart algorithm, Goldfinch were excited to use the new laptops to code the BBC micro:bit and see their volcanic eruption animations using the LED lights.

In a hole, in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Year 5 are preparing for their fantasy fiction setting descriptions by exploring the home of Bilbo Baggins in more detail.

A Force of Nature: after learning about base jumping in the mountains, Goldfinch investigated variables that affect the effectiveness of a parachute.

Y5 experimenting with symmetrical patterns ��

We're really enjoying our mountain topic and have experimented with using a grid to replicate a dramatic mountain print. We can't wait to add colour next time...

Geography - Goldfinch learnt about 4 different types of mountains; fold, dome, volcanic and block fault. We used differnt materials to gain an understanding of how each mountain type is formed

Team challenge - Everyone in Goldfinch used cooperation and communication skills to see which team could build the tallest tower.

History - Goldfinch built their own models of Stone Henge and labelled the different types of stones that were used to build the pre-historic monument.

History/Art - Our visitor last month, Iron Age Matt, left us some shields to decorate. Goldfinch spent time looking at shield designs from the Iron Age, then tried to copy them or use them as inspiration for their own design.

As part of Sky Arts Week Goldfinch pupils worked in small groups and created images and short films based on the theme of connections. They focused on photography and filming techniques (such as angles, zooming in, panning) and each took on different roles to ensure their projects were successful.

Welcoming the Y4's into Goldfinch - we had a lovely afternoon at St James' Church with the Year 4's and Year 5's getting to know each other better.

Goldfinch learnt about Internet Safety and produced their own videos to share their tips with others in a fantastic workshop run by Emma at Three.

A big thank you to RBRFS for coming in to speak to the class. Goldfinch learnt all about fire safety and were thrilled to have the opportunity to look around the fire engine!

Visitor: Iron Age Warriors - Goldfinch learnt so much today and great fun doing it. They're now experts in everything Iron Age from clothes to weapons to jobs.

Digging into the Past: Goldfinch class have been investigating, designing and building Iron Age roundhouses. There was a lot of resilience, innovation and creativity required. We ended the week with an Iron Age visitor!

Year 6 were lucky enough to attend The Easter Experience at Wokingham Baptist Church. This was a series of interactive workshops detailing the events of Easter week with lots of thought provoking questions about decisions that Jesus made.

BBC Micro:Bits - Goldfinch designed devices which could help scientists to track howler monkeys through the layers of the rainforest using a light sensor.

How is oxygen transported around the body? We made 3D posters to help us write our explanations.

Geography: Goldfinch had a fantastic day out at The Living Rainforest. We learnt a lot about how plants and animals have adapted to the conditions of a tropical rainforest and even managed to catch a glimpse of their shy sloth!

Ancient Greece: Come Dine With Me - the delicious aromas from the children's kitchen were mouthwatering as the children chopped, sliced, zested, pan fried, baked and blended the ingredients for the recipes they had designed for Gigantes Plaki, hummus and flatbreads. A real culinary treat for the end of term. The children are keen to try their recipes at home.

SATs Information Meeting for Parents - 27th November 2023 at 3.30pm

November 23 parent-information-key-stage-two-assessments 2024.pptx

PPTX File

Science: we considered all the variables that would affect the size of a shadow. After investigating reflection, we thought about how we could apply our learning.

We used arrays in maths to identify prime numbers.

September 2023' - Ancient Greek Day. We had a fantastic day in Goldfinch today and learnt a lot from each other about Ancient Greece, especially about Greek Gods and Goddesses. While we looked the part, we also enjoyed some Greek dancing and writing. Well done everyone for working so hard on your presentations over the summer!

Welcome back to Autumn 2023. Here are some useful notes to help you to support your child in Goldfinch Class.

Welcome to Goldfinch Class information Autumn 2023.pdf

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July 2023 - Well done Goldfinch, our fund raiser today for Action Against Hunger raised £78.55! This money will be used to help people around the world suffering from severe food insecurity through initiatives such as screening under 5's for malnutrition and building and restoring water points.

Some pupils ran over 20 times around the playground in 10 minutes, while others walked or took part in a penalty shoot out in the ball court. It was a wonderful way to end the school year while also helping others :)

July 2023: Our Global Kitchen. We used the Eatwell plate to compare diets around the world and investigated miles to plate for all our ingredients. The classroom smelt wonderful with the aromas of Mexican and Chinese cooking. We practised dicing, shredding, grating, mincing and frying.

June 2023 - Goldfinch have been considering what different religions have to say about sustainability. We decided to use bee friendly plants and vegetables to create a sustainable area at school.

June '23 - Windsor trip to Dr Choc. Goldfinch found out about the general public's views on Fairtrade using their own questionnaires before they visited the Dr Choc factory and made their own delicious chocolate bars!

SATS information for Parents

KS2-sats-information 22-23.ppt

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Y5 Maths: we have been using Cuisenaire equipment to find the equivalence between mixed numbers and improper fractions. Using the concrete equipment helps us to understand the maths behind the written methods..

Science: closely studying the features of the different planets in our solar system has helped us to make good observational watercolours of each planet.

January 2022: Goldfinch got our Stargazers topic off to a good start with a visit to Winchester Planetarium and Science Centre. We 'visited' the planets in our solar system in the planetarium and discovered the research that help scientists learn about living in space.

Pupil Advocacy Week January 2023: We kick-started the Spring term by considering the ways in which we could serve our community. We all received first aid training for burns, choking and CPR and next day we made instructional videos to show our families what to do in an emergency.

Autumn '22: We ended our topic on Mountains, Earthquakes and Volcanoes by thinking about how we would stay warm at Everest Basecamp. We designed mountain boot liners to protect our feet from cold. After some research, we designed our own patterns and used these to make our boot liners from warm and durable materials.

Autumn 2022 - Goldfinch made a model of the Earth's layers and labelled them. We are starting to think about why volcanoes happen.

Autumn 2022 - Geography: Goldfinch used the materials they were given to build a structure that would be resistant to earthquakes. We have some great engineers in our class!

Autumn 2022: after investigating Friedrich Moh's scale that tests mineral hardness (which means the resistance of a mineral to being scratched) we thought about how this knowledge of different minerals would be important to mountain climbers.

Autumn 2022: Goldfinch investigated how and why earthquakes happen, using polystyrene and coloured water to help them think about what would happen on the Earth's crust when different types of plate boundaries are formed.

Autumn 2022: After watching champion rock climber, 11-year-old Brooke Raboutou, we investigated which kind of shoes would provide the best friction for a mountain climber. We considered which variables to control and repeated our tests to make sure our data was more reliable.

We linked our art to our Geography topic and made pastel interpretations of the famous Mount Fuji Eruption by Katsushika Hokusai (October 2022)

September 2022 - Welcome Meeting for Goldfinch Families: Here is some useful information about our class.

Welcome to Goldfinch Class information Autumn 2022.pdf

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Follow the link to find out what Goldfinch will be learning about this term. A Force of Nature Autumn 2022

September 2022: We made a great start to our new Geography topic today, learning about 4 different ways that mountains can be formed. Can you remember how a mountain might be formed?

July 2022 Transition Morning - It was lovely to welcome the new members of Goldfinch into the classroom; they showed excellent communication skills during the 'getting to know you', activities and made a great start to our first Geography topic, 'Mountains, Earthquakes and Volcanoes'. I'm looking forward to building on this in September! Until then, enjoy the summer holidays :)

Summer 2022: we were so pleased to be able to send teams to the Y6 Eagle House Maths Challenge and the Y5 Luckley School Maths Challenge. They were excellent ambassadors for our school.

July 2022: After all the Covid restrictions of the Autumn term, we finally managed to catch up with our DT project - Come Dine With Me in Ancient Greece. We learnt about the sort of diet that the ancient Greeks would have had and the health benefits of this type of food. We developed lots of cookery skills to make hummus, flatbread, courgette stew and Gigantes Plaki. Mr Salkeld, a chef at L'Ortolan Restaurant, helped too and talked to us about life as a chef.

June 2022: Year 5 have been learning to draw, measure and calculate angles. How would you draw an angle of 280 degrees if you only have 180 degrees on your protractor?

June 2022 - History (Stone Age to Iron Age) - Goldfinch have been investigating the possible uses of Stonehenge and the stages it was built in. This week they solidified their knowledge by building their own prehistoric monuments using either biscuits and icing or cheese puffs with water. There was a lot of rebuilding when parts were knocked during the construction process - well done for persevering Goldfinch!

June 2022: Goldfinch class have been studying Charles Darwin and his finches as part of our learning about evolution. We used colour shading to show topography on our models of the Galapagos Islands and investigated which type of beak was best for eating nuts and seeds.

May 2022 - The year 6's worked in small groups to tackle a carousel of matchstick puzzles. They showed some good communication skills and problem solving skills to solve many of the problems,

April 2022: FOFSA Easter activities. Goldfinch were treated to an afternoon of baking, painting, planting and games. A huge thank you to the volunteers who made such a fun afternoon possible.

Maths: Year 6 have been investigating the different dimensions of cuboids with the same volume.

March 2022 Our trip to The Living Rainforest. We had a great day learning about the adaptations animals and plants have made to thrive in the rainforest and even created out own animals with amazing adaptations.

March 2022: Today we trained to be Mental Health Champions. We learnt about good strategies for feeling calmer. Can you remember how you can support good mental health for yourselves, their families and their friends.

March 2022: How much of the circulatory system can you memorise in 30 seconds? Goldfinch played Memory Tag in teams to replicate a diagram of the circulatory system which they then created as 3D information posters. It really helped them to write their explanations in English.

February 2022: Goldfinch have been learning about the Linnaean classification system. Do you know what the 5 kingdoms are? We investigated Fungi today.

Year 6 SATs Information Meeting for Parents - November 23rd 2021: Information slides and useful links

Useful maths revision tutorials

Guide to Goldfinch Home learning Autumn 2021

Goldfinch Home Learning Guide.docx

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October 2021: Goldfinch class have been making things disappear. They learnt about the science of refraction that caused these great optical illusions.

September 2021: Can we design a tool that allows us to look safely at Medusa? We used what we learnt about reflections to design a very useful gadget called a periscope.

3 September 2021: Yasas! It's all Greek to Me! We started the term in style by sharing with the class everything we had found out about our ancient Greek god, goddess, hero or beast.

The World on our Plate: we investigated and made meals from around the world and learnt which meal travelled the furthest to our plates.

May 2021: Year 5 have been investigating the internal angles of polygons. They were able to make connections with knowledge they had about other 2D shapes.

May 2021: Mrs Gan led our Ascension music lesson at St James Church. We reflected on and celebrated Ascension with a music soundscape. Reverend Gemma talked to us about Ascension before our very windswept picnic.

DT (Spring 2021): Our moving mechanisms project had a Space Theme ranging from the solar system to Star Wars and Among Us. We investigated the movement of different cam mechanisms before designing and building our own frames to house our moving mechanisms. Our classroom was extremely industrious all week. Lots of us felt like this was 'proper DT!'.

March 2021: How are black holes formed? How do black holes behave? We investigated using foil wrapped balloons and marbles.

February 2021- Remote Learning RE: Goldfinch have been learning about community in the context of 'Does the Community of the Gurdwara help Sikhs to lead better lives?' We live in communities too and we considered whether our communities help us to lead better lives too. Then we thought about what we could do to make our community better. Our 'wordarts' reflect what community means to us.

January 2021 - Remote Learning Science: the children have produced some fantastic work on the Planets. They produced some detailed artwork , graphed information or investigated distances with the 'loo' roll challenge!

December 2020 - D&T: As part of this term's topic about Mountains and Volcanoes, Goldfinch have investigated, designed and made mountain boot liners.

November 2020: Goldfinch have loved reading The Hobbit. We described Smaug in French making sure our adjectives and nouns agreed.

November 2020: Investigating thermal properties: What would be the best material to keep us warm at Everest 'Basecamp?'

October 2020: We are so lucky to be able to hold our Daily Mile in such a beautiful park. Does anyone else think that amazing cloud bank looks like a snowy mountain range?

October 2020: Goldfinch have been getting to grips with friction. There was great excitement when the jelly came out - although it ended up covered in oil. We investigated which shoes would provide the best grip for mountain climbers.

September 2020: In a hole, in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Goldfinch have been investigating Tolkien's descriptions of the hobbit-hole.

September 2020: After watching base jumpers in the mountains, Goldfinch have been investigating what variables will affect air resistance. They chose to investigate variables such as the size or shape of the parachute, the number of holes or the weight of the 'person.'

Goldfinch Class Information for Parents Autumn 2020

Goldfinch class have continued to 'Dig into the Past' with their home-school interactive books about the Stone Age to the Iron Age. We were impressed with the range of presentation.

Hello Goldfinch Class and your families,

Wow! How did we get to the last two weeks of the summer term? We were so impressed with the quality of work that so many of you turned in to Google Classrooms last week. See the photos below for the range of activities you were involved with. Do please email finchparents if you still have any problems setting up your Google Classroom - those who have been in touch were soon up and running.

It's the final week of the Duolingo competition for French. If you want to be in with a chance of winning the French Petanque set, you need to turn in a screenshot of your Duolingo homepage for French, showing the number of crowns you have earned.

Don't forget to take part in the Virtual School Sports day - details are below and on Google Classroom.

We are looking forward to seeing the Year 6 complete their Bikeability course this week and are loving the films that you are sending in for the Leavers' Movie. We are aiming for the 'premiere' at 7.30pm on Monday 20th July, with a live Facebook feed so we can keep in touch throughout the film.

Year 5 should focus on completing their transition packs ready for their final picnic on Monday 13th July. Thank you so much to those Year 5s who recorded such positive messages for the Year 4 transition film. It looks great and will be really reassuring.

The last two week's work is condensed below but do try to work via Google Classroom if you can.

Mrs Wirth, Mrs Stangroom and the Goldfinch team.