What an amazing afternoon in forest schools – we had the best time pretending to be Percy the park keeper. We made dens, jewellery, firework conkers, tree swings, toasted marshmallows to make smores and so much more! It was the best day ever!
This week Early Years have been learning about Bonfire Night, Diwali and Remembrance Day. We did lots of creative work including colour mixing, cutting and sticking and using rice to make rangoli patterns.
Today our Community Rangers and Green Team members supported the Day of Action Litter pick. With the help of Councillor Pavlos Kotsonis and other community members, we cleaned the local park and streets. Our pupils showed great perseverance and were proud to make oor neighbourhood look great!
We have loved learning about mixing colours today. We mixed the primary colours to make secondary colours! It was lots of fun! 🌈
This afternoon, Year 6 children started their geography learning about the Alps. In today’s lesson, children practised their map skills by using an atlas to locate the Alps and the eight countries it is part of.
Pupils in Years 1 and 2 enjoyed a visit from Nottingham University. They had the opportunity to explore how toys have evolved by material, shape, design and subject. Children enjoyed playing with a variety of games and toys – from Victorian board games to rubik cube!
This evening, Year 6 SATs Club started. After a quick snack and a drink, children practised completing long multiplication calculations before moving onto reasoning with ‘Always, Sometimes, Never’ statements. Children had to provide evidence when choosing their answer.
During assembly we asked the question: How important is it to understand money?
The children generated a great discussion. They talked about the need to save money, needing money to buy essential items and paying bills. Some children also discussed the cost of living affected and how it impacts families. Our children gave examples of when they received money and what they did with it.
Children had an opportunity to recall the traditional celebration held at the time of a harvest. Thank you to the generous donations from our families to support our local food bank.
What a great end to the Autumn half term! Thank you so much to our parents who took part in our reading session. The children were so excited all day and really enjoyed sharing a story with their family member. They can’t wait to do it again!
Pupils worked in groups to investigate which type of biscuit would take the shortest time to fall apart. Pupils observed the biscuit, recorded the seconds using an iPad and presented their data in a class bar chart. They concluded that Biscuit B took the shortest time because it was thinner and the water easier to absorb. What amazing Scientists we have in Class 1!
Our local PSCOs and Education Project Support Officer visited our Mini Police Cadets. They were awarded with Vicky McClure’s children’s Book “Castle Rock Mystery Tour” for completing the programme. We are very proud of their achievements. Well done!
In Design & Technology children designed a buggy suitable to travel across a rough terrain. They used their knowledge of axles and wheels to design, build and evaluate their own buggy. We have some very creative designers and engineers in Class 1!
Author Bemma Akyeampong visited pupils to celebrate Black History Month and the theme of ‘Saluting our Sisters’. In recognition of Lauren James sporting achievements, Bemma incorporated traditional African dance moves with football skills. Our pupils enjoyed learning new dance moves and displayed great talent!
Crossteach visited our school this week. The theme of the assembly was to discuss creations and discuss ‘Why God’s Words are Powerful?’ Our pupils showed respect for other beliefs and asked thoughtful questions.
In today’s session, the children went on a mini beast hunt and explored the grounds looking for and identifying trees. They displayed great teamwork and observations skills.
What a brilliant Tudor day we’ve had in Year 5 and Year 6. We have been visited by Henry VIII and his court jester, Will Sommers. Throughout the day, they helped us learn about Tudor dancing, writing, games as well as crime and punishments!
We are extremely pleased and proud to announce that our school has just been awarded ‘GOLD’ Artsmark Award!!!! In order to achieve our Artsmark Award, we have worked hard to develop our arts and culture provision to embed a broad and balanced curriculum. Find out more how we have achieved this by reading our Statement Of Impact.
Arts Council England is the national development body for arts and culture across England, working to enrich people’s lives. The Artsmark Award is the only creative quality standard for schools and education settings. It can help unlock young people’s potential, building their confidence, character and resilience. This is something we are very proud to offer all children and the wider community at our school.
For World Mental Health Day our Wellbeing Ambassadors worked with Mrs Stone to create an activity for our children to complete. The Ambassadors decided that they would like pupils to make a poster that they could use whenever they may need to do an activity to help boost their mental health and emotional wellbeing. First the children watched a short film introduced by the Duchess of Cambridge, in which children talked about mental health. The children then discussed and shared with each other the things that help them to feel good and have good mental health and then they set to work in creating their posters.
As part of National Poetry Day and Black History Month, we celebrated by listening to the Wonderful Jamaican poet, Valerie Bloom. She read her poems about her memories of Jamaica in a mixture of English and Patois.
Year 5 pupils had great fun in their Design and Technology project. They have been cutting the wood and dowel to set lengths and preparing cardboard pieces. Having planned their designs further and interweave their own creative ideas, pupils started constructing the frames for their mechanical toys. Pupils had to follow the diagram and use a glue gun carefully.
This afternoon, Year 6 started their Design & Technology learning on mechanisms. As a class, we looked at tool safety before preparing the wood and cardboard for our toy automata.
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Our House Captains attended their first Primary Parliament. With a focus on the environment and green space, they show great collaboration and creativity designing a new outside space for our community. Some excellent ideas were shared including a Reading Woods. They are looking forward to sharing their project ideas with the School Parliament and looking at ways to implement within our own school.
Year 2 read a lovely book called ‘The ONLY way is BADGER’ and furthered their understanding of Mutual Respect & Tolerance. Pupils talked about the similarities and differences between themselves and others in class, explored the importance of being different and what they can do to make sure everyone in their class is treated fairly. Pupils drew self-portraits and wrote sentences about the things that make them special.
The book promoted our school value of respect and that everyone should be accepted and everyone is different – which is what makes Southwold very special 😊
As part of Southwold’s British Values Week, each class will read one story linked to a British Values Rules. So what are ‘British’ values? There are certain values that have been attributed to being British, by the government and some institutions, and these fall into the following broad areas:
This week, through art and discussion, pupils will further their understanding and knowledge of British Values, what the rules means and how they are reflected in our school and own lives.
Year 6 have had a fantastic few days learning at Into University where we have learnt so much about the Tudors. We also researched university life as well as completing our Secret Mission (shhh!).
Year 6 have concluded their Into University Focus Week with a visit to the University of Nottingham. Children participated in a campus tour, a final presentation before GRADUATION!
The Enhanced Provision group had a super day at Stonebridge City Farm last week. We travelled by minibus, fed the animals, looked at the fruit and vegetables that are growing in the gardens, played on the park, had a picnic lunch and even had an ice lolly!
Year 1 had a fabulous first Forest Schools session – including going on a Gruffalo Hunt! We thought about how to be safe when climbing trees, carrying sticks, and making dens and using ropes. Our Gruffalo hunt helped us explore all the different areas of our Forest school and playground area. We spent some time looking at the different trees whilst trying to find all the characters from the book.