French Fun in Nursery 4th July 2025 Global Nursery Our Bumblebee Pre- School children enjoyed a special visitor in French this week as ‘Jean-Luc’ came to class. He is our French puppet friend who has been teaching us French throughout the year. We went over all the words we have learnt this term. Meanwhile, our lower Nursery children had lots of fun cooling down with some water play! They enjoyed emptying and filling the jugs and looking for the numbered pebbles, we practiced our number recognition and counting skills.
Was the USA always united? 20th June 2025 Global In this week’s Global lesson, the Year 4 children have been researching when the USA became the United States of America as we know it today. Initially they had to identify and locate the original 13 states of America, and they were noticed that all of them were close together and all of them were on the east coast. This prompted a thoughtful discussion about why this would be the case with the Geography detectives in the class recognising how English some of the state names sounded and others with their History hats referring the Pilgrim Fathers. Global lessons are a great way to see children’s critical thinking skills in action as well as great fun!
Kings and Queens for the day in Year 1 20th June 2025 Global Pre-prep Year 1 have thoroughly embraced our global topic this term, diving into the fascinating world of Kings and Queens! From dressing up as royalty and learning about significant British monarchs in history to exploring the grandeur of castles, the children have had an exciting and educational journey. A few highlights include hosting their very own royal banquet, crafting knights with movable limbs, and enjoying a memorable visit to Hever Castle. We are incredibly proud of their mature behaviour during these enriching experiences, as well as how much they have learned along the way.
Learning about the 3Rs 20th June 2025 Global Pre-prep This week, Year 2 have been busy exploring our global topic: How We Look After Mother Earth, with a special focus on sustainability. We’ve been learning all about the 3 Rs -Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – and even had a go at making our own recycled paper, which was both fun and messy! To help support local wildlife, we’ve also planted wildflower seeds and are now carefully looking after them as we wait for them to grow. With the sun shining, it’s been the perfect week to enjoy learning outdoors and connect with nature!
Light Bulb Moments in Year 4 Science 13th June 2025 Science Mrs P-S and Mr B challenged to children to build simple working circuits this week in their Global Science lessons. Each child was given a cell, two wires and either a bulb, motor or buzzer that they had to make work and there was a real buzz in the air as the children saw science in action each time they completed a circuit. Some circuits did not initially work so pairs combined to try and find out why and solve the problem. The children were also encouraged to predict what would happen if additional cells were added to a circuit and this was then tested with results that surprised some.
Year 5 Look Closer at Owl Pellets 13th June 2025 Global Science After their trip to The Big Wood Estate, Year 5 have been spending time dissecting some owl pellets and finding all sorts of interesting small mammal bones. The children used microscopes to really look closely at these bones and try to identify what they are.
Bringing the Iron Man to Life in Year 3! 13th June 2025 Academic Year 3 took on the exciting challenge of creating models of the Iron Man, inspired by Ted Hughes’ book. Each and every model was incredibly impressive! Mrs Litchfield, our Head of English, was so amazed by their creativity that she has requested the models be used to decorate our school library. What a fantastic way to bring the story to life!
Outdoor Maths Week! 6th June 2025 Academic Last week, our maths lessons took an exciting turn as we headed outside for our Outdoor Maths event! Designed to boost enjoyment, encourage collaboration, and connect learning to real-life situations, each year group took part in creative, hands-on activities. Year 2 explored weight through a fun carousel of weighing challenges, while Year 3 got busy with chalk, adding up money in a real-world shopping-themed task. Year 4 turned detective in the staff car park with a number plate challenge—figuring out car ages from registration plates, creating tally charts, multiplying and dividing numbers for extra brainteasers, and even analysing car colours with bar charts! Meanwhile, Year 5 and 6 combined maths and movement with a thrilling decimal puzzle orienteering activity, rounding off the week by mastering six-figure grid references in a challenging map-based task. A brilliant week of fresh air and fantastic maths learning!
Dream Catching in Year 4 6th June 2025 Global In Global this half term, the children have been learning all about Native American culture and the symbolism of dreamcatchers. According to Ojibwe legend, the dream catchers started as spider webs, made by a Spider Woman known called Asibikaashi. These protective charms were designed to take care of the children and the people on the land but as the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach everyone, so mothers and grandmothers began to weave webs for the children that could be hung over their beds to take care of them. Before starting the intricate and painstaking process of making their dream catchers, the children first designed them thinking carefully about what colours they would use, the pattern of their web and any decorative features such where to include beads and feathers. Mrs P-S was impressed by how the children persevered with tricky knot tying and worked cooperatively to help each other to untangle wool and give advice about different approaches to the task and she can’t wait to see the finished dream catchers!
Sustainable Farming at The Bigwood Estate 6th June 2025 Global Science On Tuesday, Year 5 were treated to a trip to the Bigwood Estate, near Blindley Heath. There, we met David, who took us on a tour of the farm and told us all about how sustainable they are. We met Peppa and Thelma, the English Saddleback Pigs with two of their 7-week-old piglets and a small herd of young heifers, who were incredibly curious! We learned that you can make a perfectly good anti-bacterial soap from horse-chestnut leaves, that pigs are pregnant for 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days, and owls ingeniously throw up the bones of small rodents in parcel shaped pellets. We can’t wait for a return visit. At the end of our trip Year 5 were presented with some owl pellets to look at in more detail in their next science lesson. So, that’s exactly what we did! First, we soaked the pellets to soften them and then we carefully took them apart with tweezers. What we found absolutely amazed us; tiny bones, skulls, miniscule teeth and lots of fur! In our next science lesson, we will use the microscopes to investigate even further and try to identify the bones.