After the week of sunshine, Year 4 has returned ready and enthusiastic for the summer term's learning.  We began our new topic, "How to succeed against the odds?" with a virtual visit from Al Sylvester as he described his own exploration to the South Pole.  He shared the harsh practicalities of surviving in minus 45 degrees and some of the gory bits of his journey.  Al Sylvester explained the contrast between his exploration and the equipment and supplies Shackleton would have had for his exploration.  Al had some clear messages for the children on the importance of Prep4best, team work, never giving up and never being afraid to ask for help. The children were amazed and inspired by Al's talk but equally Al was incredibly impressed by the Y4 children and responded with:  '... your pupils have blown me away with their impeccable behaviour and their very well thought out questions.' Well done Year 4.  Al's presentation and discussion linked beautifully with our reading and writing as we investigated Antarctica and those early explorers to the South Pole. In science, the children began their work on 'Living things' which was linked to the groups of vertebrates that live in polar conditions before next week when we will make keys. In maths we are continuing our work on decimals and so far have compared decimals with fractions before we divide single and double digits by 10 and round decimals.  A great start to the term.