Key Stage 2 – Queen's Hill Primary School

Historical Enquiry

13th July 2025

Year 6 went on a hunt around the classroom for information about the Norwich Strangers! Life changed a lot for the Strangers after they arrived in Norwich. They were allowed to worship in their own language and follow their religious traditions, but some local people did not welcome them at first. Over time, many Stranger families began to settle in, with children attending local schools and learning English. Although there were tensions over work and trade, the two communities gradually began to mix, with some Strangers marrying locals and joining in city life.

We looked at secondary sources and considered whether it showed the Strangers were integrating into Norwich society or maintaining their own identity.

Year 4 Art Modroc

7th July 2025

Year 4 really enjoyed exploring Modroc this afternoon as an art media to create a sphere. We used scrunched newspaper as a base, and water to activate the plaster before spending time shaping the surface. Next week we are hoping to create some food and fruit sculptures.

Art Work Based on Skellig

2nd July 2025

Some of these look like a scary dream! Our Year 6’s have used the language choices of David Almond to predict how one of the main characters, Skellig, looked. There was lots of creativity used to create these haunting pieces of artwork!

Year 5 Sculpture Showcase

1st July 2025

Year 5 have been hard at work creating their incredible 3D sculptures, inspired by the distinctive style of artist Alberto Giacometti. Using wire to build their maquettes, pupils then carefully covered them in mod roc before adding the final touches with paint.

The results are striking and full of character. Take a look at some of their fantastic creations below!

Y5 Whitlingham trip

26th June 2025

Last Friday, Year 5 had a fantastic day splashing around at Whitlingham Broad. It was an action packed day and we got to experience paddleboarding, kayaking, sailing, canoeing and climbing. It was great to have the opportunity to develop our teamwork and communication skills and having to work together to overcome challenges.

A Day of Welcome

20th June 2025

Last Friday, the whole school took part in the Schools of Sanctuary: Day of Welcome. During the day, they learnt about the lives of refugees and how we can make our community in Queen’s Hill welcoming. This years theme was ‘Community is our Superpower’.

Children in Year 1 learnt about different playground games that children play from around the world. They played ‘Chinlone’ and ‘Oon’ from Myanmar and ‘Cossak’ from Ukraine. They shared these games with their buddies in Year 4 too.

Children in Year 3 & 4 took part in a live lesson with schools across the country to hear stories from Dina Nayeri about her own personal experiences of being a refugee as a child and fleeing to the United States of America. As part of the lesson, children had the opportunity to try some Taekwondo moves, as taking up this sport was something that helped Dina feel part of her new community when she moved to America.

In Year 5, children designed and wrote postcards to refugee children, welcoming them to Queen’s Hill. They explained how they would be welcomed into the community. Collaboratively, Year 5, along with their buddies in Year 2, designed houses for Moomins after reading about the displacement of the Moomins in ‘The Moomins and the Great Flood’ by Tove Jansson.

The Norwich Strangers

17th June 2025

Year 6 were very lucky to have a visit from Karen and Clair who work at the Norfolk Record Office to deliver activities on our history unit: The Norwich Strangers. They helped Y6 to recap their understanding of who the Norwich Strangers were, where they came from and why they came to Norwich. Everyone showed curiosity, teamwork, and concentration to have a fantastic workshop; there was even period dress-up involved!

Experimenting With Blending

9th June 2025

Year 6 have started their new art topic, inspired by the abstract style of Patrick Heron. This week, we experimented blending colours together in order to create a sunset. Everyone showed creativity and teamwork; a great start!

Y5 Sun Safety

6th June 2025

The weather is hotting up (hopefully!) and we have been learning about sun safety. As part of our science learning, we found out about how sunscreens are made and how they are tested. We made predictions about the SPF in sunscreens and used UV beads to test out our predictions with a few surprising results! It was clear that no protection at all is very dangerous and that factor 15 offers less protection. Factor 30 and 50 are definitely the best. We also learnt that the amount of sunscreen applied affects the effectiveness. One thing that did surprise us is that even on a cloudy day, UV rays could be damaging. Remember to always wear your sunscreen and take other precautions like covering up, staying out of the sun at the hottest times of the day, drinking plenty of water and wearing a sunhat.

Year 4 Trip – West Stow Anglo-Saxon village

8th June 20253rd June 2025

Today year four had a fantastic day trip to West Stow near Bury St Edmunds to visit the Anglo-Saxon Village. They got to explore the artefacts on display in the museum; handled some replica artefacts and were able to look around a reconstructed village of the time. We had to use lots of our historian skills to help us imagine and learn about what life was like for these early settlers in Britain. Our history topic will continue for the rest of the half term as we learn more.