This week we welcomed back some exhausted children (and adults) who had been on the woodlands residential trip over the weekend. Everyone reported that they had had lots of fun and the children spoke with a real sense of achievement having completed some of the activities in challenging weather conditions.

Throughout the week we’ve been thinking about the question ‘Does completing a pilgrimage make a person a better Muslim?’ The children thought about special journeys they’d been on and the items they took with them. We then found about Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, and discussed the preparations Muslims would need to make to perform the different activities and rituals that take place.

It’s been wonderful how many of our Muslim children have been able to talk articulately about their faith: adding additional detail and personal reflections to our conversations. Everyone was in agreement that while the Hajj pilgrimage would be emotionally and physically challenging, it undoubtedly provides the people that take part an incredible experience.

In Maths, we’ve been learning that perimeter is the distance around the outside of a closed 2-D shape. We started the week working in a systematic way, marking the sides of rectilinear shapes on squared grids to simply count the length of the perimeter, before moving on to calculating the perimeter of shapes. We also explored the relationship between the sides of a rectilinear shape and, using this knowledge, worked logically to find one or more unknown side lengths.

We all hope that the children enjoy their week off.