In Geography we are beginning our topic of ‘What is it like here?’. To start this off, we looked at aerial photographs of the UK and Nottingham on Google Earth. We then looked at an aerial photograph of our school and local area. We then located key places with our partners.
For the final week of last half term, our attendance reward was given to classes who had no children absent due to being on holiday. The classes which achieved this were Reception, Class 1 and Class 5. WELL DONE TO THOSE CLASSES! I hope the children all enjoyed their treats.
This half term we have a whole school ‘Attendance Race‘. Whichever class receives the attendance reward each week will move towards the end of the race track. The class at the end of this half term that is nearest to the finish line will receive an end of term attendance reward.
Reception, Class 1 and Class 5 have already made a good start, let’s see which classes can catch them up on the race track!
Reception loved learning about Diwali. They learnt why people celebrate Diwali and how. They then made their own rangoli patterns using chalks and some mendhi with paint. We also realised they celebrate with fireworks in the evening.
In English we are studying the book ‘The Day The Crayons Quit’. To get into character we made crayon headbands and role played being the crayons. We were amazing at this and really got into character. We also did some hot seating and our questions were fantastic!
Today our Reading Rangers planned for the opening of the reading library club.
They will open the club to Years 1-6, every lunchtime. Pupils will be able to enjoy reading a book of their choice or from the library.
Our Reading Rangers are very much looking forward to promoting their love of reading and reading for pleasure. What an amazing team of enthusiastic pupils we have!
Year 2 have enjoyed creating crayon characters to introduce their new book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ by Drew Daywalt as part of their hook days. We look forward to getting to know each character in more detail.
EYFS had an amazing time at Forest schools. We learnt so much and really enjoyed the toasted marshmallows and hot chocolate!
Children in Year 3 have become scientists. They worked scientifically and conducted an experiment to find out how much heat is needed to turn a solid (chunk of chocolate) into a liquid. Each scientist used a different method to melt the chocolate. They made predictions, changed a variable and performed tests. They discussed their conclusions and which method was the most effective.
Our House Captains visited Nottingham Council House yesterday, to attend Primary Parliament for their first time. The focus was “My Voice Matters”. They looked at ways in which we can express ourselves and effectively communicate our ideas. They wrote letters, produced posters, made speeches and conducted interviews.
As always our pupils were super role models for our school. They displayed great enthusiasm, understanding and creative ideas.
Inspired by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Year 6 pupils designed and built their amazing model suspension bridge.
They used trusses, towers, beams and a deck to make their bridge sturdy and strong. After, they tested with weights and toy cars.
Future STEM ambassadors!
We are very proud of our Community Rangers led our whole school Harvest Assembly. They shared that the Harvest Festival is a traditional event celebrating the successful gathering of the year’s crops. It is often celebrated in churches and schools, people are encouraged to donate home-grown produce, fruit and vegetables to those in need.
Thank you very to all our families and staff, who kindly donated food and toiletries for our local church food bank.
In music we have just started our new topic of ‘Magical Musical Aquarium’ topic. We had so much fun using the instruments to create a relaxing aquarium soundtrack.
This morning Year 6 were visited by Belong Nottingham as part of Black History Month. Children were fascinated by the story of Jacob Wainwright, a companion of Dr David Livingstone. Unfortunately, Jacob’s reputation has been tarnished over the years, highlighting the racism and prejudice that different minorities have faced throughout the years. This project improves his reputation as well as exploring Jacob’s links to Nottingham.
Reception enjoyed learning about Bessie Coleman for Black History Month. She was the first African-American female pilot. We learnt how she did acrobatics on her aeroplane and even jumped out of it. We then made our own paper aeroplanes and practiced throwing them to see how far they could go.
A fantastic final afternoon of Forest School with Ms Turner-Jones & Mr K. The fire has been burning all afternoon as children have been baking chocolate orange sponges which tasted delicious. On top of this, children enjoyed the full range of usual activities such as den building and whittling.
Thanks to Ms Turner-Jones & Mr K!
Prepare to be amazed! Look at our astounding greenhouses! We have learnt all about how greenhouses work and why they are used. We learnt about the Eden Project in Cornwall where giant greenhouses house tropical plants. We have designed, made and evaluated our own greenhouses. Today we planted seeds in them to grow for our school grounds. All the teachers are amazed at our workmanship!
In Design and Technology, we made a pair of curtains. We had to design and use an appropriate material to block the light. We learnt that the material had to be opaque.
Mrs Kerrison and our No Outsiders Leadership team, led our Black History assembly to introduce the theme ‘Reclaiming Narratives’. The team have chosen books for their classes to read and activities to complete.
Our children have learnt about significant individuals in history and discussed the importance of equality and inclusion.
This year’s theme is Mental Health in the Workplace. The theme highlights the importance of addressing mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, for the benefit of people, organisations, and communities. Our Wellbeing ambassadors delivered little goody bags to all of our staff to say a big ‘Thank You’ for all that they do for everyone in school and to show their appreciation on behalf of all the pupils. All of our school team were overjoyed with their display of kindness. How lucky we are to have such thoughtful children in our school.
Lots of lovely independent learning happened in Reception class today. We used our phonic skills to make words, created repeating patterns, used numicon to make a picture and accessed the mark making table to practice letter writing and formation.
This afternoon in Year 6 children investigated how to prove yeast is a microorganism. In groups, children wrote a prediction before completing an experiment using warm water in a bottle that was mixed with yeast and sugar. On top of the bottle was a balloon which gradually filled with gas, proving yeast is a microorganism.
A group of pupils from Year 5 and 6 took part in a poetry workshop with poet Manjit Sahota.
They focused their poetry on the themes ‘Identity and Belonging’. Our pupils were thoughtful with their vocabulary choices, making creative connections with the work around them. Manjit shared his own works and ideas, to help the group create their own poems. They were all unique and inspiring. Each pupil performed their work with such pride and enjoyment. Well done to our future poets!
In History Year 1 are looking at the history of schools. So why not look at the history of our school? We asked Miss Whiley to talk about Southwold as she remembered it when she attended here as a child. We learnt so much from here and loved hearing all of her stories.
Local poet Manjit Sahota, visited our school as part of National Poetry Day. He recited poems influenced by numbers, holidays and other enjoyable themes. Manjit encouraged our pupils to share their own poems. They spoke with confidence, creativity and showed a genuine enjoyment for poetry.
Children in Reception and Key Stage 1 have gained a great deal from BeatFeet drumming sessions, where the children have taken trip to Africa, meeting animals and working together to sing African songs and play various rhythms on drums and expressing themselves through movement. The children have developing their imagination and cooperative skills, as well as continue to develop a love of learning through fun and engaging activities.
A fantastic end to our Year 6 Into University Focus Week. Children performed a short show about their important individual from WW2 before receiving their certificate from David, who works at Nottingham University. Before this, children further developed their WW2 knowledge while also participating in a campus tour to see what university life is like.
Reception class enjoyed doing an experiment for science this week. We used kitchen roll to make our own rainbow. We coloured in the ends and then dipped it in water. We were amazed to see how the water soaked into the kitchen roll and made the colours move. This then created a rainbow effect.
Our House Captains and Creative Collaborative Lead have been reviewing new designs for our school. Our pupils discussed the designs, reflecting upon colour, style and the message being communicated. They showed a deep understanding of our schools ethos, core values and rules. They were incredibly creative with their ideas and clearly articulated their suggestions with strong reasoning. Their feedback has been returned to our designer. We are looking forward to seeing their revised designs.
Our pupil Wellbeing Ambassadors have been very busy in their recruitment for new Behaviour Leaders. They discussed and made a list of questions for the Behaviour Lead interviews. Our Ambassadors then considered very carefully the qualities that are needed for the role. This included our school rules and core values. Using this information, they selected pupils for interview. Our pupils were incredibly thoughtful of the needs of our pupils and school, and how we can best support our pupils.