This month to celebrate National Poetry Day on 6th
October, each class learnt and recited a poem to the rest of the school and
some of our Governors. Children in Early Years learnt “African Animals”, Years
1 & 2 learnt 'On the Ning-Nang-Nong' by Spike Milligan, Years 3 & 4
learnt 'Sand between the toes' by AA Milne and Years 5 & 6 learnt 'If' by
Rudyard Kipling. The children all gave wonderfully rousing performances
including actions and they were all fantastic!
Amazingly many of our pupils were also able to this year recite the
poems that they learnt last year, and so we hope the poems that they have
learnt will stay with them for many years to come!
Recently our Nursery and Reception class went on a trip
to the Wyevale Garden Centre to buy some plants to grow in the school
garden. They looked at different plants,
vegetables and fruit plants and chose a Lavender plant, Purple Broccoli, Kale, &
Leeks to grow in our school garden and around the school. They are looking
forward to nurturing the plants & watching them grow!
Years One and Two are focusing on “measuring” in their
maths lessons and have been busy measuring various points around the school to
find out if they are bigger, or smaller than a metre. They were surprised to
find out that some of the pupils were shorter than a metre, some taller than a
metre, and some of the teachers were almost two metres tall!
Years 3 to 6 visited Hazard Alley this month in Milton
Keynes. Hazard Alley is the UK’s first safety interactive education centre. The
centre sets up real-life situations around safety scenarios such as road,
railway, home, building site, water, internet and personal safety and
challenges children to learn what to do in an emergency situation. Whilst there
our pupils learnt when and how to make an emergency 999 call, and how to put
people into the Recovery position. One of the overwhelmingly popular scenarios
amongst pupils was discovering and reporting a real-life fire! It is wonderful
that pupils were able to get some hands-on experience on what to do if an
emergency happens!
We were also privileged this past month to travel to St
Albans Abbey with Years 3-6 to take part in the Bishop’s School’s Harvest
Festival Celebration which was a fabulous opportunity to celebrate Harvest with
other local church schools.
One of the things that has seen our school go from
strength to strength in recent years is the dedication of our staff members –
both teaching & non-teaching. They work tirelessly in the best interests of
the school, going over and above what is asked of them and we are extremely
appreciative of them. As well as teaching, staff also undertake responsibility
for heading up different areas of the curriculum or aspects of school life,
whether that be Literacy, Maths, Science, IT, Music, Art or French provision,
or maintaining the school environment.
For the past year, Mrs Jessop, one of our class 3 & 4
teachers and SENCO Leader has been undertaking a very demanding Masters level
course in her “spare” time – the National Award for SEN Coordination. We learnt
this month that she has passed the course! We are very proud of her
achievements for her personally and also in terms of what it means for the
school and being able to offer quality SEN provision for those pupils who need
it.
Ms Waites, a long standing Teaching Assistant has been
completing a “forest school” training course this term, meaning that she can
now lead sessions to help pupils learn through outdoor education and enabling
us to take advantage of the amazing surroundings we have around the local area.
This will hopefully help us to ensure
that our curriculum is engaging for those learners who may not always be suited
to the traditional classroom environment.
I think that some of our pupils assume that like at home,
a magical fairy keeps their school clean and tidy! The work of our Caretaker
and local resident Jane Collier often takes place outside school hours and is
easily overlooked as something which just happens automatically. However, Jane does
an outstanding job of cleaning and keeping the school tidy and well maintained.
It is no mean feat cleaning up after eighty children and their little hand and
footprints! Jane does it unassumingly
and expertly, ensuring that staff and pupils always have a clean, welcoming and
inviting environment to work in. We hugely appreciate the dedication that Jane
shows to the school and so wanted to recognise her efforts publicly as we are
truly grateful. Parents also appreciate Jane’s diligence at the school gate as
you can be sure that she will not let a child leave the premises unless they have
a parent or carer with them at the end of the day!
Staff and Pupils are looking forward to the festive
season ahead, and we look forward to sharing news of our events with you in the
next issue.
