This term's Class Read : The Girl Who Stole an Elephant - Nizrana Farook

This half-term, Beacon moves on from our Shackleton unit, and we arrive at our new exciting novel, The Girl Who Stole an Elephant. We have some exciting things to come!
 

A Royal Christmas Treat!
On the final day of the half-term, a very special delivery arrived at the doors of Saint Francis'. As part of the 'National Year of Reading 2026', Queen Camilla has gifted all Year 6 children (or equivalent of) up and down the country a special edition of 'Impossible Creatures' by Katherine Rundell as an early Christmas present. The special edition of the book includes a custom royal stamp on the cover and a personal message from Queen Camilla.

Break the Rules Day - 2026
Every teachers worst nightmare - rule breaking!
Before half-term, our school had our very own 'Break the Rules' Day.
We had odd socks, wacky hair do's, nail-polish, and as our picture shows - some rather silly faces! A grand total of £94.50 was raised by Beacon class - a fantastic effort!
 

Our Shackleton Linocut Printing

Over the last 5 weeks, Beacon have been following Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Discovery expedition through Antarctica. From Plymouth, to Buenos Aries, on to South Georgia and the formidable Weddel Sea - the crew of the Endurance battled vicious terrain. However, the treacherous pack-ice pinned the proud vessel in it's icy grasp and dommed it's crew to a fight for surivial for two years on the ice. Beacon class have done absolutely fantastic across this entire unit, and as a cross-curricular link, the children then produce a lino cut print; choosing a scene from the expedition. 

The children did this in stages, sketching their ideas, tracing it and transferring to a polystyrene sheet, before carving along their linework with a blunt tool (a lollypop stick!). Inking the sheets with rollers and pressing down our paper, the children produced some absolutly beautiful artwork, which now hangs proudly in our classroom.
 

Special Family Jubilee Mass

This weekend, we had a Special Family Jubilee Mass, and we welcomed Bishop of Lancaster, Paul Swarbrick. Our Year Sixes did their readings beautifully, and our Year fives presented the Bishop with our Big Book, along with other offerings. It was a beautiful service, all wrapped up with a beautiful song from all Saint Francis children in attendance.
Thank you to all who managed to make it down to join us.

Macmillan Fun Run - 9th October 2026

On Friday, between the showers of rain - Saint Francis' took part in a fun-run around the school yard in order to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support. Beacon teamed up with their buddies, and the younger children from lower in the school to run, hop, skip and jog around the yard - all whilst avoiding the miserable weather!

Well done everyone!

Space Week - W/C 5/10

This week, Beacon became astrophysicists - and began to explore the dangers of orbital re-entry. We examined how gravitational forces act upon space capsules and how astronauts can safely splash down after their missions. 
Our egg-ceptional scientists build a rocket capsule, fit with bin-liner parachutes to investigate how canopy size can affect re-entry speeds - and then we hurled our astronaut 'Eggbert' from the top of our climbing frame!
We recorded our speed data to see if the landing time was affected - and we made some interesting findings!

Our Trip to the Abbeystead Estate.

What an exciting few days we have had in Beacon class!

Last week, we had the absolute pleasure of visiting the Abbeystead Estate as part of the ‘Let’s Learn Moor’ initiative set up by BASC. It is the UK’s largest upland classroom educational project, allowing schoolchildren to learn about conservation, biodiversity and rural careers.

Beacon tried their hand at numerous activities, from scouring the riverbed, to dousing flames with specialised equipment, and even gave Game Preparation a go (which some enjoyed more than others!).

As you will be aware, we even had a Royal visitor - Her Royal Highness Princess Anne. As an extra surprise for the children, we had the honour of having a conversation with her, despite not being on her schedule! Beacon class did brilliantly, and we at Saint Francis could not have been prouder!

Well Done everyone!

Our Lillies Dissection 

This week, Beacon investigated the reproductive organs of flowers. Carefully, and piece by piece, we dissected the heads of lilies. Using tweezers and magnifying glasses, we peeled away the petals to explore the stamens, stigmas and ovaries delicately so as to not damage them. The children then recorded their investigations in their books with a detailed diagram of their dissected lily. 

• Purple Mash – https://www.purplemash.com/sch/stfrancispr3#/
• Times Tables Rock Stars – TT Rock Stars
• Prodigy Maths – https://www.prodigygame.com
• BBC Bitesize (Primary) – https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary
• BBC Sounds – https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds
• Topmarks – Topmarks Learning Games
• Numbots – NumBots
• National Geographic Kids – https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/
• Teach Your Monster to Read – Teach Your Monster to Read
• MathsBot - Year 6 Arithmetic Practice