Welcome to the UKS2 Blog for Spring 2026  

Week beginning 23rd March

Welcome to the final week of the Spring Term! Thank you to all of UKS2 for working so hard this term. We have loved seeing you make so much progress and are very proud of you all. Thank you, also, to the Year 5&6 families for all of your support.

Well done to the winners of our Headteacher Awards for this term!

Achievement – Ryan, Rafael, Raya and Elsie

Citizenship – Jude, Keeva, Juliet B and Arthur

Effort – Anabella, Benny, Christian L and Ben

We hope you all have a lovely break and look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Tuesday 14th April.

Mrs Carson and the UKS2 team x

Year 5 residential to Stubbers - Monday 23rd to Wednesday 25th March

This week's highlight for the phase was, of course, the Year 5 residential to Stubbers. Over the three days, the children experienced many different adventurous activities and the accompanying staff were all so impressed with bravery in giving everything a go! The children took part in caving, archery, axe throwing, high ropes to name just a few! Most importantly, all of Year 5 were able to continue to develop personally, showing resilience, determination and risk-taking, reflecting our school values.

The children also enjoyed staying over at the site, sharing a room with their friends and having new experiences. They all particularly enjoyed the food, too! Year 5 should all be so proud of themselves for how well they behaved during this trip; it was fantastic for their teachers to see them all so engaged and engrossed in a range of outdoor learning opportunities. A big thank you to Mrs Socratous, Mrs Thompson, Mr Cooper and Mr Peacefull for accompanying Year 5.

This afternoon, a group of talented Year 6 girls performed their own Easter play to Nursery, Reception and KS1. Written by the actresses themselves, and directed by Mary and Raya, the production told the Easter story in a fun and accessible way, including plenty of singing and dancing! With audience participation, the Easter Bunny and plenty of laughs, this was a real treat for everyone watching. Mrs Carson was exceptionally proud of the Year 6s for committing so much time to their play and for their confident and enthusiastic performance today. Reception and Year 1 are now warmly invited to participating in the Year 6-run Dance Club next term. 

Well done to: Bella, Ellie (tech), Emily, Florence, Mary, Raya and Seraphine

Topaz had a fun afternoon amidst their mock SATS today. First, we watched a film clip which reimagined a Viking battle, and spoke about the shields used in addition to both male and female warriors taking part. Following this, we donned a (slightly historically inaccurate) helmet to take on the pose of a Brookmans Park Viking! Back in the classroom, we designed shields which represented an element of our personality or something that was important to us. Using tissue paper and some colouring pencils, we then made shields to create a classroom display that can remain on the wall during our upcoming tests as a reminder of just how amazing Topaz all are! 

In PSHE today, both Year 6 classes explored the importance of identifying qualities that people have, as well as their appearance. They explored celebrities (including influencers and YouTubers) that regularly appear in the media before learning how photos can be changed to match society’s views. Following this, the children completed a ‘feel-good’ activity where they pulled out names at random and, secretly, wrote two Post-it notes about something they like about the way that person is, and a further two notes about what they like about the way that person looks. These notes were then presented to the person they were written about. To end the lesson, we looked further at ‘deepfakes’ in the media, then worked in small groups to write a list of top tips to help young people view themselves in a positive way.

Week beginning 16th March

Please see below some examples of our activities this week!

Thanks to a request from Matilda, Mrs Davies and Mrs Carson tasked their groups with demonstrating their learning about multiplying fractions by whole numbers pictorially...ON THEIR TABLES! Year 6 greatly enjoyed doing this and, even more importantly, really showed their teachers just how well they understand this concept. 

This afternoon, Topaz enlarged their Viking portraits from last week onto sugar paper. After exploring how to use chalk and charcoal, and the difference between a natural and man-made art medium, they worked incredibly hard to add colour, tone and shade. 

This afternoon, Year 6 discussed how what we read on social media can often mislead people. We discussed how profiles might not represent who or what a person really is. Through careful questioning, we also considered problems surrounding forwarding messages or images and the wider issue of online safety. 

Week beginning 9th March

We hope you enjoy looking at our work from this week, and look forward to welcoming you to parents' evening meetings next week!

Topaz dazzled Mrs Carson with their sketching skills this afternoon, working incredibly hard to produce Viking warrior observational drawings. After learning about the different 'H' pencils, Topaz used a softer pencil to sketch the outlines, then used harder pencils to add tone and detail. We explored gradient and hatching as methods to add shade, with some fabulous results as seen in the pictures! 

This afternoon, Year 6 took part in a PSHE lesson with Ms Karpasitis where they explored the concept of fake news. They were introduced to, and discussed, philosopher Nietzsche's quote, 'There are no facts, only interpretations,' before then being given a newspaper article to read. In pairs, the children highlighted facts and opinions found within this, and described the differences between them. They ended the lesson discussing bias found within reports, too! 

Week beginning 2nd March

Welcome to a week of magic and wonder as we celebrate World Book Day!

Year 6 enjoyed getting out in the sunshine this afternoon as they completed an investigation to explore the affects of exercise upon heart rate. After measuring their heart rates when resting and after heavy exercise, they were able to conclude that their bodies need more oxygen to keep their muscles moving. Their hearts therefore had to beat faster to pump more blood around the body, increasing their BPM (Beats Per Minute). We will also record our results using a line graph in maths later this week! 

A clear highlight of the year so far occurred on Wednesday with our visit to the Harry Potter Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden. Upon arriving, our phase were warmly welcomed and taken to a large classroom that had whiteboard tables! A teacher called Hope then introduced us to a range of creatures that feature in the Harry Potter books, and we explored how JK Rowling's descriptions of these had been brought to life at the studios. During the lesson, a handful of children won a prize for answering questions so well, and were proud to receive an envelope addressed to Harry Potter from Hogwarts! We were tasked with finding effective features of character descriptions before being asked to write our own for an imaginary creature. To judge how strong these were, Hope asked us to swap with a friend before then drawing the creature. This was both educational and good fun, and served as a great start to our visit.

After a quick snack break, we began our epic tour! During the remainder of the trip, we saw an incredible nineteen different areas from the films, ranging from the Forbidden Forest to Privet Drive, and from Diagon Alley to Hogwarts. This was such a memorable experience for all of the children, staff and parent helpers and, Mrs Carson hopes, will have sparked a real interest in writing or producing films for some of our phase. Thank you to all of the adults that accompanied us on the trip.

World Book Day 2026 has not disappointed! With the children dressed magnificently as characters from their favourite books, and many following our theme of all things magical, the morning started with as assembly classic. Members of staff acted out Julia Donaldson's 'The Baddies' (Mrs Davies narrating, Miss Akthar, Mrs Carson, Mr Cooper, Mrs Hoffland, Mr Mears and Mr Rahman starring!), much to the hilarity of our phase. Shortly afterwards, we split across eight classrooms with our Brookmans Buddies. During the morning, we shared stories and learnt about the history of wands in Harry Potter before having the opportunity to design and create our own using a chopstick, modelling clay and beads. It was fabulous to watch everyone working so well with their buddies to create a wand each; I hope the wands will be proudly displayed at home!

This afternoon, we created magic spells for our wands, thinking carefully about the words and their origin and also a movement. After a break with our buddies, we ended the day by exploring mythical creatures before creating our own. Well done, UKS2 and KS1 – this was such a lovely World Book Day to have shared together!

Week beginning 23rd February

Welcome back to school for the second half of our Spring Term! This week has seen the start of new learning topics and some creative science and computing!

This afternoon, Topaz enjoyed learning about the circulatory system in their science lesson. To make this more memorable, they were tasked with creating a life-size diagram to show the heart, lungs and blood vessels, with key labels for the oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. Mrs Carson was pleased to see Topaz understanding that arteries carry bloody away, whilst veins carry blood in towards the heart! In the children's next computing lesson with Mr Fossey, they will be coding spheros to demonstrate the movement of blood around the circulatory system. 

On a cold, drizzly Friday afternoon, what could be better for Year 6's fitness and well-being than a Drumba session in the classroom?! Thanks to Topaz having a HUGE classroom, we were comfortably able to fit a class set of drum pads in the room. The children demonstrated excellent stamina and timing, and Mrs Carson was a very impressed observer! Thank you to Mr Cooper for leading this for both classes.

Week beginning 9th February

Welcome to the last week of this half-term! Well done to all of the children for their fantastic work over the past six weeks. As always, they have been a pleasure to teach and learn with, and we are all now looking forward to well-deserved half-term break. We will welcome the children back to school on Monday 23rd February. Mrs Carson x

The children in our phase have been working exceptionally hard this week to complete their Viking pouches, using a range of stitches including: running, back, blanket, cross and chain. Their brief was to make a pouch which was both functional (could hold a small amount of coins) and was aesthetically pleasing, too. As teachers, we have been so impressed with the children's focus, effort and resilience! 

Year 6 had their final gymnastics session with Coach Mark this afternoon. With some children out biking, and others at a football tournament, the remaining children from each class combined to work in small groups. Mark taught some further rolls and counter-balances, and set each group a number of challenges to combine the skills they have learnt this half-term. Mark commented on how each group was perfectly demonstrating their risk-taking, resilience and relationships skills throughout the lesson. Well done to Year 6 and a huge thank you to Mark for teaching them to well over the past six weeks for our gymnastics PE unit. 

Week beginning 2nd February

Years 5&6 have been busy with a week of English supported by the National Literacy Trust, including writing and performing their own stories through the medium of rap! We have also enjoyed being historical detectives, using a range of sources to inform us about Viking Britain.

In our history lessons this week, we have been exploring how the view of Vikings as brutal warriors changed over time. We studied a range of sources in order to find evidence to prove statements such as: 'They didn't just steal things. When they settled, they paid for anything they wanted.' and 'They were skilled craftsmen.' We then spent time sketching one of the sources, before captioning this with what it showed us about Viking life. Finally, we discussed which our the sources held the strongest evidence for the Vikings being skilled traders, farmers and craftsmen. Here are Sapphire and Topaz in action!

This morning, all of KS2 had the wonderful opportunity to take part in a live rap workshop with Alim Kamara, partnered with the National Literacy Trust. We learnt about what rap means (Rhythm and Poetry) and had great fun exploring Alim's A, B, C. We were taught how to rap in time to a 4-beat structure and then contributed towards creating a rap. Some of these ideas will feed our own creations, using our imaginations, to spread joy to our locations, Mrs Carson is sure! BOOM!

Week beginning 26th January

Welcome to a week of learning including persuasive speech writing in English, Viking life, Buddhist art and more Year 6 gymnastics, amongst other things! We hope you enjoy looking at the evidence below.

This afternoon, Topaz took their turn in creating living graphs of the key events during the Viking period. First, they worked in pairs to place the events in chronological order then, following this, they were required to decide whether the event was a high point or a low point. We then discussed whether our graphs looked similar or not, promoting some excellent debate! Topaz ended their history lesson by learning about how we know where the Vikings settled in England, looking at place names that are used today ending in -by, -twait, -thorpe and -toft. Well done, Topaz – Mrs Carson really enjoyed teaching you about this today!

Week beginning 19th January

Please see below for details of what we have been up to this week in Years 5 and 6!

In today's PSHE session, we continued our exploration of celebrity images. We discussed some of the 'perfect' features that we had seen and then watched a clip about how this can impact our self-esteem. At the end of the lesson, Mrs Carson set the challenge of creating a list of 'star' qualities that make a person special, but cannot be seen from the outside. Our final list included: positivity, loyalty, politeness, honesty, being supportive, being passionate, being generous, showing happiness, being caring, having kindness, being protective, being joyful, being cheerful, being unstoppable, loving, calmness, friendly nature, charm, confidence, being helpful, making others laugh, showing understanding, being forgiving, having pride and being methodical. Well done, Topaz - you demonstrate these qualities in abundance every day! 

Topaz began practising their sewing skills today in preparation for designing and making a Viking pouch. We began by learning both running stitch and back stitch, then spent time joining together two pieces of fabric by creating a hem in our material. Topaz remained focused throughout and demonstrated great progress in their application and neatness throughout the lesson! 

Week beginning 12th January

UKS2 have really got into the swing of their topics for this term, now. We have been enjoying our history Vikings learning and focusing on using fabulous vocabulary across the curriculum! 

This afternoon, Topaz began exploring the Vikings in their history lesson. We began by mind-mapping everything that we already knew (from previous history learning in school and other curriculum lessons) and then annotated an image of a Viking raid using our English word-class terms (nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs). After this, we used resourceful skills to complete true or false statements about the Vikings. Mrs Carson then introduced us to the Viking attack on Lindisfarne in 793AD. We explored a number of sources to determine why the Vikings have such a bad reputation, and then reflected on whether or not this is a fair reflection. This lesson certainly seemed to whet our appetites for learning more about the Vikings this term!

In the first of two PSHE lessons exploring 'star qualities', Year 6 were tasked with finding a range of images of celebrities across different media platforms. They then grouped them according to what they perceived to be similar features. Next lesson, we move onto discussing whether their appearances are genuine or AI modified, before exploring whether appearance has any impact on celebrities' personal worth. 

Week beginning 5th January

Welcome back to school for the Spring Term! We have greatly enjoyed being back together in school throughout this snowy week and hope you enjoy seeing what we have been doing.

Year 6 devoted their first English lesson of the term to thinking about resolutions. We watched the Kindness Club video to inspire the concept of resolutions being like seeds that are planted and then allowed to grow after letting go of anything that could have been holding us back. After this, we spent time considering how we can be kind to ourselves, others and the planet. Mrs Carson was very impressed with Year 6's mature ideas and self-reflections and is excited to see these seeds grow throughout the term! 

Year 6 English - Thursday 8th January

We have kickstarted our new narrative unit in English based on Marcus Sedgwick's 'Floodland'. This morning, Mrs Carson tasked Year 6 with the challenge of innovating the opening paragraph to create further suspense and a dangerous atmosphere. Here are just four super examples!

Zoe barrelled through the deserted street of derelict buildings and barren alleyways. Her feet pounded the ground ferociously, while her heart raced against her chest. The gang were closing in. The rowing boat was so close, yet so far. With every step, her lungs screamed for air. She had been planning to leave the island for an eternity, although she knew it couldn't be. Something stood there, between her and the boat. But now, there was no choice. She had to go.

By Joel

Zoe bolted down through deserted streets, her feet pounding. The tall, derelict buildings towered over her. Somewhere, just a few metres away, she could hear the shouts of the gang coming after her. Zoe felt as if her heart would burst, but she didn't stop. Not now, when she was so close. She'd been wanting to leave this island for some time, but couldn't get herself to do it. Until today. Now, she had no choice...

By Ruby

Zoe bolted. Stumbling harder than she ever had before, her feet trod through abandoned streets and derelict structures, realised that somewhere behind, a gang was hunting her.  If felt like her body was giving up. But she wasn't. She'd been planning and preparing to leave the horrible, uncared for island for ages, but there had always been something stopping her. It was a bold and brave decision to set sail in a tiny rowing boat. But now, she didn't even have a choice.

By Christian C

Zoe bolted through the deserted streets, the derelict buildings glaring down as she pounded her burning feet into the ground. The gang. She heard the gang and they weren't far behind. It felt like her heart was racing up to her throat. No matter how hard it was, she never stopped. There was a fire in her heart, edging her to go on. She'd been planning to leave the island for a long time but had been putting it off. Unitl now. Now, she knew she had no choice...

By Seraphine

This half-term, Year 6 have the opportunity to have gymnastics for their indoor PE sessions, taught be experienced coach Mark Westley. We have been trying to secure Mark's services at our school for a number of years, and are very lucky that he now has space to accommodate not only two clubs on a Friday, but curriculum lessons for our year group, too! This afternoon, the children were introduced to the importance of core strength for all sports, with the gymnastic shapes then taught being the basis of growing this. Topaz and Turquoise are now able to demonstrate shapes of straight, tuck, pike, straddle, dish and arch. Mrs Carson loved the tightly contested shape competition in Topaz, with Christian L declared the winner and Bethany a very close second!