Wow, what an amazing half term. It has been a fantastic start to the school year.
The children have loved being together as a school community now that the ‘bubble’ restrictions have been lifted. The older children have relished their role as leaders and ‘helping hands’ – welcoming and supporting the younger children in school. Meeting together as a school community for break times, lunch times, daily worship times and to share & celebrate achievements in good work has been very special.
Our youngest pupils have settled brilliantly and are very much enjoying their learning and being a part of the school.
We started the term with a wonderful celebration of the Olympics & Paralympics focusing on the values of friendship, respect, inspiration, determination, courage and equality. We had a Paralympic day with Goal Ball, Boccia, Seated Volleyball and Wheelchair Basketball – so much fun!!
Our oldest children in class Oak went on a 3 day adventure break at The Mill Adventure Base very early in the term. This included learning about being ‘Heroes’, being determined in overcoming obstacles & fears, team work and being ‘Team Oak’. They have transferred their learning into the classroom and school and have been exceptional role models for the younger children. The class will be completing the Arch Bishop of York Young Leaders Award and this year.
We have enjoyed getting into full swing with competitive sport – competing well in the Ashfield Cross Country event with an individual winner in the boy’s race, second in the boy’s team event and third in the girl’s team event with many of our pupils qualifying for the finals that are coming up. We have enjoyed LTA after school tennis & after school hockey and been inspired by Emma Raducanu’s resilience and hard work in becoming a grand slam winner. We have enjoyed tag rugby. Our newly appointed and trained sports leaders have been organising and helping pupils to compete in an intra-school speed bounce athletics challenge….
In music our ukulele tuition has resumed and piano tuition continues. We have had our first Piano Recital. It was amazing and have well over a third of our pupils learning musical instruments.
We were blessed to be visited by Arud & Kalin from ‘My Promise Earth’ on the way to the Glasgow Climate Summit all the way from Germany with their giant iron globe sphere inspiring us to ‘make a difference’ and look after God’s wonderful creation. We have now hoping lots of our pupils will take up the challenge to make a ‘promise’. As a school we are collecting and recycling crisp packets.
We have had visits to the National Stone Centre as class Fir discover rocks and study geology and class Oak visited Beth Shalom’s Kinder Transport experience at the National Holocaust Museum.
We celebrated harvest with a wonderful collection of food for the local food bank – giving thanks and learning about the importance of sharing.
Our new bigger & better interactive white boards have made a difference to teaching in the class – they are fab.
Our new revised phonics scheme has been impactful on the children’s learning – a very exciting change.
An exceptional start to the year… Next half term will be fun packed and will include sharing an celebrating our ‘Promises’ to look after God’s Wonderful Creation SUBMIT HERE, Our Shoe Box Celebration MORE INFO and Christmas!!!
