The Roundup - Edition 56

Nursery and H Group had a wonderful trip to the Gordon Craig Theatre to see The Smartest Giant in Town. The children loved the story and the surprise moments throughout the performance.

In Forest School, the children were met with two surprises—the newly filled pond and a ladder crafted by the Forest School Club! The pond sparked great discussions about safety and how we can take care of our environment, while the ladder was a chance to practise risk assessment, teamwork, and resilience. Some children chose to climb it, while others explored different challenges, deciding for themselves what felt right. Later, we examined the early signs of spring with magnifying glasses, and even played with natural materials—Wilbur and Cam enjoyed the stepping stones, Jonah was fascinated by the bendy willow, and Ishaan created a natural football.

This week, the children have been exploring the world of The Gruffalo! Our Gruffalo Café served up a delicious menu of owl ice cream, roasted fox, and scrambled snake—all carefully prepared and served by our enthusiastic team of young chefs! The children also created Gruffalo masks, labelled pictures, and honed their fine motor skills by cutting out spiral snakes.

In maths, we have been learning about time—using words like before, after, next, and finally to sequence events. The children had great fun putting this into practice by giving instructions on how to make a paper jam sandwich—a messy but tasty way to learn!

Forest School was as lively as ever! We played clapping stick games to follow rhythms, admired the new pond, and enjoyed a creative game of noughts and crosses using repurposed Wassailing crowns. The children were also impressed by the ladder made by Leo and Seb in Forest School Club, carefully testing out its strength and learning about knot-tying in the process.

J Group had an exciting Haka workshop this week, where they perfected their fierce faces and learnt about the cultural significance of the traditional Māori war dance. The energy in the room was incredible!

In Forest School, we started the session in the rain, but the children weren’t fazed—the birds were still singing, and so were we! We listened carefully to a song thrush, discussing how birds are currently finding mates and building nests. The children refilled bird feeders, used Wassailing crowns as quoits, and built dens. They also learned new knots, which helped them create guy ropes for their tents. A particularly special moment was when William learnt how to make a willow circle from Olive, and Martha and Ava mastered a special loop knot. It was wonderful to see them teaching and supporting each other.

Year 2 had a brilliant trip to the Gordon Craig Theatre to watch The Smartest Giant in Town. They loved the storytelling and the lively performance!

Back in the classroom, H Group shared books with their D Group reading buddies, enjoying some quality reading time together. In maths, they explored odd and even numbers, using 10s frames to visualise how even numbers split into two equal groups, while odd numbers always leave one behind!

G Group also took part in the Haka workshop, giving it their all with some very impressive expressions!

During their Forest School session, the children built on their knot-tying skills by making noughts and crosses pieces from sticks and string. We practised tying a clove hitch and a lashing, before securing the pieces together with a double knot. Several children earned merits for their tenacity in persisting with tricky knots and for showing kindness in helping others who were struggling. There were some great discussions about teamwork, perseverance, and even diplomacy—proving that learning happens in many different ways.

This term, the children have been focusing on rhythm in their ukulele lessons. They have learnt about crochets, quavers, and rests, using these to arrange, sing, and play short musical pieces.

Building on this, they created their own four-beat rhythm patterns, which they then combined with others to form longer compositions. After plenty of practice, they performed their finished pieces together on the ukulele. Their work has been recorded and shared on Class Dojo—we hope you enjoy their brilliant creations!

It has been a fantastic start to the second half of term in Year 6! The children arrived on Monday ready to work, showing great focus and enthusiasm in their maths starters.

In Iain's class in science, the children explored opaque objects and shadows, using torches to investigate how light interacts with different materials. They experimented with positioning objects to see how shadows changed in size and shape, sparking some great discussions about light sources, transparency, and refraction. 

A reminder that Bikeability cycle training will take place from 17 - 21 March. This is a great opportunity for children to develop their road safety skills. If you haven’t yet signed up, you can do so via Evolve in the ‘What’s Up?’ section. Bikes can be left safely in school for the week.