Inspire: Learning, growing and achieving together!

Brooke Primary School

brookeoffice@sunflowerfed.org.uk


01508 550419


High Green, Norwich, Norfolk, NR15 1HP


Mrs Sarah Lewis


Ms Tori Weal

Our Ethos

A small federation of small schools in South Norfolk. We are making the schools that we would have wanted to go to. By working together in collaboration, we improve one another and support each other to grow. Sunflowers are known for their resilience and symbolise hope, happiness, and growth. Our federation nurtures childrens’ academic, personal, and spiritual growth. It inspires children, staff, and parents to strive for excellence in all aspects of their life, just as sunflowers grow towards the sun and reach their full potential.

The roots, for Brooke CE VC’s church foundations, indicate that we are rooted and grounded in God's love, which is at the core of all our actions and educational philosophy. The stem represents our curriculum, which provides a strong foundation for our children across both schools to grow and thrive. The leaves symbolise our values, which drive our decision-making and behaviour. The petals are indicative of our key focuses such as DEI, careers, and compassion. Lastly, the bees and butterflies that are flying away from the sunflower represent the things that we want our children to leave us with, which are the skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed to make a positive impact in the world.

Hempnall Primary School

hempnalloffice@sunflowerfed.org.uk


01508 499264


The Street Hempnall, Norwich, Norfolk, NR15 2AD


Mrs Sarah Lewis


Ms Tori Weal

CONTACT US

01508 550419

Welcome to Our Website! Click to scroll down

Swallows

Swallows class is home to our year 5 and 6 children, and is taught by Mrs Weal. Swallows are supported by our wonderful teaching assistants: Mrs Barker and Mrs Spinks. 

See our 2019 - 20 curriculum here.

To access our home learning grid for this, click here

Our House Captains are year 6 children and they are supported by their deputies, who are year 5. Our peer supporters are also from Swallows class!

 

Swallow class home learning...

We have also been rehearsing for our end of year 'movie'! Check out our trailer for the movie 'Memories'. 

Summer Term Learning

We have been really busy in Swallow class over the last 2 weeks. Alongside rehearsing for our play, we have been learning about Black Lives Matter and the recent protests all over the world. 

On the 8th June we created a rap, inspired by Fleur East. We also created posters about Black Lives Matter and made a video to show what we have learned. 

Spring Term Learning

This term, Swallows will be learning about the many different countries, cultures and beliefs that fit together to form Africa! There will be some really exciting trips, visitors and experiences to help immerse the children in learning about this incredible continent!

On Monday 16th March we experienced a forensic workshop! Gavin the Science Boffin took our fingerprints, and we carried out a chromatography test to find out which pen the culprit used! 

Today, 9th March 2020, we had a visit from Mr. Wanangwa Jere, who grew up in Malawi. Mr. Jere gave us a fantastic talk all about life in Malawi! We have used this information to create a script for a short news interview. 

 

 

We have been looking at different African patterns and creating pictures and patterns inspired by Africa. 

 

On 24th February we started our RE focus week. We have been answering the question, why is there suffering in the world? We have been learning about the Christian and Buddhist perspective about suffering and thinking about what suffering is. 

Instead of our trip to the woods on 28th February, we did some partner reading and maths with Robin class. Everyone worked really hard with their partner!

 

We have been busy thinking about the problems that Africa faces today. We have chosen 2 countries as case studies - Ghana and the Democratic Republic of  the Congo. We created a list of the main problems that we feel they are facing: Education, healthcare, foreign aid and civil war. 

On 14th February we joined Jay class at the Wishing Woods and made dream catchers and worry dolls! See some photos here.

We've been looking at the problems faced in Africa and on 10th February we worked in groups to help our understanding of the repercussions of different issues faced.

In Geography on 4th February, we tackled some of our misconceptions about Africa. We looked at pictures and videos of the capital of Ghana - Accra. Everyone was very surprised to see how developed parts of Ghana are!

In Maths this week (27th January) we are looking at multiplying, dividing and simplifying fractions. 

In History on 22nd January, we started thinking about the history of Africa. We focused on some key events and times in the history of Africa and started thinking about how different events were significant. We have started our focus on the Ancient Kingdom of Benin (900AD-1300AD). 

We have started reading a book called The Island, where a mysterious stranger washes up and the islanders have to decide what to do with him! We re-wrote character descriptions to describe the stranger and we came up with sentences to describe the stormy seas. We have some fantastic, descriptive writing from our work so far. 

On the 24th January, we went to the wishing woods with Robin class. We had great fun helping Robin class with a walk through the woods, pretending to be Goldilocks. Afterwards, we created pictures using natural resources around us. 

13th - 17th January

We have been busy researching and writing about different countries across Africa. We were inspired by the beautiful work of 'Letters from afar' and used ideas from here, to create our own fact files. 

We've started our topic by learning about the location of different countries in Africa and some of the ecosystems found there. Additionally, we have started to learn about the history of the Kingdom of Benin. 

We are really enjoying our new class book: Gorilla dawn. An inspirational story set in the rain forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 2 children work together to save a gorilla's life. 

On top of all this, we have also been revising long multiplication and solving multi- step word problems!

Well done to the children from Swallows class who won a writing competition, and will have their work published in a book!

On Friday 17th January we went to the Wishing Wood! We imagined we had been abandoned on an island and had to work in teams (tribes) to survive! We built shelters, defences, fires, foraged for food and sourced water - we also robbed neighbouring tribes of their food!

Autumn Term Learning

In science we have been answering the question how does fire affect materials? Also, which materials burn most easily? The children used special tongs to hold samples over a flame and observe carefully what happened next. We learned about the different density of materials and how this can affect the way they burn. For example; paper, card and wood all originate from the same place, however the higher density of wood means that it burns much slower than paper. 

We have thought about the General Elections and have been writing our own manifestos (some of which rival the ones from our three main political parties it has to be said). Our children would: give more money back to the NHS and schools, help stop homelessness and even spend more time changing policies on climate change to make a difference sooner. 

In other news, we have also been getting dramatic and learning how to build character through improvisation and hot seating. The children had lots of fun pretending to be someone completely different for a minute or two! 

We are also looking at the choices that writers make about language and why some words helped to create a certain atmosphere or character better than others. We compared different descriptions and then wrote our own about a mysterious cottage.

In PHSE we have been talking about how physical, emotional and mental health are linked and which activities can improve all three. The children had some very thoughtful and mature ideas and thoughts on the matter and we are going to express these ideas through art next lesson. 

After three weeks learning the skills of volleyball, the children tried some mini games this week and nominated players of the match who they felt had shown the most progress and determination throughout the game. It was great to see them apply the knowledge they had learnt and work collaboratively to win points as a team.