Year One were thrilled to meet Dr Maggie, who shared her inspiring passion for space and encouraged us to dream big as young explorers. The children loved launching their own mini‑rockets and even investigated how changing different variables affected their experiments. We also created moon‑crater landscapes by dropping marbles into flour exploring what happened if we changed the height the marble was dropped from. We also made beautiful constellations using beads and pipe cleaners. It was a day filled with curiosity, creativity, and star‑sparked excitement! It was a cosmic day!

Reception have had a wonderfully busy week! We have been exploring the story The Penguin Who Wanted to Fly and learning lots of fascinating facts about penguins along the way. In maths, we have been working hard to discover all the different ways to make the numbers 9 and 10, using a variety of practical resources to help us.

One of the most exciting moments of our week was having a film crew follow us on Wednesday—we felt like real movie stars! The children were fantastic and are eagerly looking forward to seeing themselves on film.

Reception have loved reading The Penguin Who Wanted to Fly this week. We had great fun acting out the story using our class‑created story map, and the children have been busy drawing and annotating their own individual story maps to retell the key events. Their enthusiasm for storytelling has been wonderful to see!

Year One have been enjoying Show and Tell as part of our Oracy and Speaking & Listening sessions each Thursday. The children have been learning how to be excellent listeners, thinking carefully about how to show interest and respect when others are speaking.

We have also been practising asking a range of thoughtful questions. It has been wonderful to see the children growing in confidence when sharing and becoming more curious and engaged listeners during discussions.

If your child would like to bring something in for show and tell on Thursday they are most welcome to. We have spoken about show and tell being about something they achieved or are proud of E.g. A swimming badge or perhaps a drawing they have completed at home. 

This week in Reception, we have been learning about children’s mental health. We explored what mental health means, why it matters, and how we can look after it. We talked about different feelings and what makes us feel each way. We also thought about belonging and how our voices are important. The children shared what makes them unique and what is important to them. They then created lovely self‑portraits and added words to describe themselves, along with the special people, places, and things that matter most in their lives.

This week, Reception have been exploring the story Sharing a Shell. During our Royal Writing Club sessions, we have been using our imaginations to change different elements of the story. Our focus this week was on changing the setting, and we have been incredibly impressed by the children’s creativity! Our young writers transported the characters to all sorts of exciting new places — from a haunted house, the moon, and a hairdresser’s, to a circus, just to name a few. Their enthusiasm and inventive ideas have made for some wonderful storytelling. We are so proud of their fantastic work!

Year 1 had a brilliant time at Volume 1, where they spent the morning bouldering. Everyone gave it a go, and no one was too nervous to join in. The children were soon climbing higher and higher with big smiles and plenty of laughter. The instructors were very impressed and commented on how brave and willing the children were to take on new challenges.