Recently year 1 took part in their class trip to Sycamore Adventure Park. The weather was glorious, and the children were in great spirits and very excited! Children enjoyed the indoor soft play area, the pirate ship and had fun on the go-karts and climbing the hill to go down the slides. We think they enjoyed seeing their teachers on the slide too! It was the perfect weather to enjoy the water area and sandpit. “I had the best day!” said Grayson. “I loved the mini-bus ride.”

As part of their topic work, Year 1 asked Mr Bickford to come down and tell them about his favourite places that he had lived. The children used Google Earth to visit different places around the world including the famous ruins of Machu Picchu, The Taj Mahal and the Sydney Opera House!

Parents were invited to the year 1 phonics workshop. They were given information all about the Phonics Screening Check. They looked at how RML is taught in school and enjoyed playing some phonics games with their child. The children had a lovely time showing their grown up how RML is taught and their amazing phonic skills.

Children throughout our Early Years (aged 2-5 years), are currently taking part in their very own Sunflower Project. They have been using their senses to explore real sunflowers and have also planted some sunflower seeds to care for and grow at home. ​ As part of our sunflower project, we looked at the famous artwork ‘Sunflowers’ by Vincent Van Gogh. This inspired the children to create their own sunflower art using a range of media - such as paint, collage and crayons. They

Please see the video below for EYFS (PM)'s Christmas video - Baarmy Bethlehem!

Please see the video below for EYFS (AM)'s Christmas video - Baarmy Bethlehem!

Nursery celebrated Diwali by coming to school in bright clothes. We enjoyed sharing the story of Rama and Sita. The children worked together to create large Rangoli patterns on the paths outside. Inside the classroom we made firework pictures on the interactive whiteboard, and used paint to create pictures too. We enjoyed celebrating the festival of light!

Nursery children were very excited to receive some caterpillars in the post. The children enjoyed watching the caterpillars grow and change into Chrysalides. They stayed inside for just over a week before emerging as butterflies. We released the butterflies by our school pond.

The children were very excited to meet Stella from Farm on Wheels. She drove to school with her trailer to show our children some of her farm animals. There were goats, lambs, chickens, ducks and rabbits. ​ The children and staff enjoyed meeting the animals, we were able to stroke them or walk them. We fed the lambs and goats some milk and the fed the chicken some corn. We all had a wonderful day meeting Stella and her animals!

The children in Nursery have been very busy enjoying Easter activities in class. They were challenged to create an Easter Bonnet at home and we have been overwhelmed with the responses. It has been lovely to see the children take part in an Easter Bonnet parade and play bingo with their families during our play and stay. A huge thank you to everyone for taking part!

Nursery parents and carers joined us for a short presentation focusing on the importance of developing ‘gross motor’ and ‘fine motor’ skills. We suggested activities to try at home to support this and looked at the progression of writing structure. Our families joined in with ‘Dough Disco’, ‘Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle’ and a range of pre-writing activities in the Nursery.

We celebrated Chinese New Year! The children learnt to say hello in Chinese by saying “nihao”. 2024 is the year of the dragon. We shared the story of The Great Race. In PE we moved like the different animals, then had our own animal races. The children explored lots of Chinese artifacts and played with coloured rice. They created some red and gold lanterns and put a given number of golden coins in the lucky red money envelopes. Food tasting was enjoyed by all!

January has been very cold! The children have been practising doing their fastenings on their coats and wrapping up warmly. They enjoyed a winter walk around the school grounds to look for signs on winter. It was a cold and frosty day and the children noticed that the canal was frozen over! We created some ice blocks with artic animals to explore inside, the children enjoyed using hammers and tools to free the animals.

Nursery parents and carers were welcomed to school to watch our Christmas show ‘Nursery Rhyme Nativity,’ after the show families came into class to take part in lots of Christmas craft activities such as making magic keys for Santa and Christmas decorations! It was great to see so many parents and carers attending! On Christmas party day we were very energetic playing party games and dancing, soft play was very popular!

Nursery parents and carers came into school to explore and experience a range of activities inside and outside linked to our favourite story - The Gingerbread Man. Our families enjoyed watching a photo montage of the children’s learning journey throughout the autumn term.

For Remembrance Day we created paintings of poppy fields, individual poppies, a wreath and took part in some large scale mark making to pay our respects and remember our Armed Forces personnel.

Children in Terrific for Twos and Nursery love Outdoor Wednesdays! We put on our waterproofs and explore the great outdoors. Outdoor learning boosts confidence, social skills, communication, physical skills, knowledge and understanding. It increases children’s self-esteem, self-confidence, and ability to work cooperatively through hands-on learning experiences in our Forest School and outdoor learning environment.