Primary
Academies
Dartford Primary Academy
Here at Dartford Primary Academy, we have had a great start to the new academic year. Our first proud moment was being authorised officially by the International Baccalaureate to teach the Primary Years Programme. We celebrated with a full day of fun activities that included Nursery learning British nursery rhymes, Reception singing French songs, years 1 and 2 taking part in international street dance, years 3 and 4 performing a Maori Hakka and years 5 and 6 performing Taiko Japanese Drumming - all with our parents joining us to celebrate the great achievement along with Kelly Greehan, our local Labour Councillor.
This term has also seen our students enjoy trips again. Our first trip of this year saw year 3 travel to Lesnes Abbey in Abbey Wood to make stone age axes, fossil dig and learn about stone age materials. For many of our children, it was their first time on a train! A great day was had by all - we even found fossils from 55 million years ago, which would have been living in the Blackheath Sea.
Famous Authors Visit DPA!
We have a love for reading here at DPA and we were lucky enough for some of our year 4 children to win Buster’s Book Club prize from the KM Charity. Their prize included a visit from Steven Vinacour, the author of ‘Ted and His Time-Travelling Toilet: Roman Rewind’! The children got to hear Steven read two chapters of one of his books and took part in a creative writing session. The children were given a story opening and then were thinkers and communicators as a class to decide how they wished to continue the story!
This term we have also welcomed Harry Baker, Poet & Mathematician. Our children had the opportunity to work with Harry during his visit and listen to his fun talk on Poetry. Inspiring the next generation of budding poets!
Hartley Primary Academy
It has been a great start to the year for us at Hartley. First of all our wonderful nursery has undergone a bit of a face-lift and is now looking amazing! The building was stripped back to its bare bones over the summer and it has had a new roof, floor, walls, windows, doors, toilets, kitchen and units. During October half term, the wood cladding was finally added to the outside to finish the project off and it is now a nursery fit for kings!
As part of our Harvest Festival this year we raised £176 for the Save the Children Afghan Crisis Fund and we collected 200 kilos of food for the Community Cupboard. Our head boys and girls, along with Mr Dutton and Mrs King, took all the food donations to the Community Cupboard personally and helped to weigh and sort the food.
We have also been raising money for Children in Need with a ‘design a t-shirt’ competition and non-school uniform day. Lots of fun was had by all and we managed to raise £548.93!
At the start of Term 2 all of our Key Stage 2 children had a fantastic theatre trip to see ‘Horrible Histories’ at The Orchard Theatre in Dartford. The trip was funded by the Leigh Academies Trust and our PTA jointly, for which we are incredibly grateful. The children had an absolutely wonderful time and it was a huge pleasure to be able to take them out of school to do something that many of them had never experienced before or had certainly not experienced during COVID. Key Stage 1 and Reception will be having a theatre trip in January so we are all looking forward to that!
Our Reception children have also been out and about - with their first walk around our local area. They walked down to the Hartley War Memorial to see the poppies that were there to mark Remembrance Day, since the children have been finding out about this significant event in class. The Reception team hope to take our children on lots more walks over the remainder of the year, starting with a trip to the Post Office to post some Christmas cards to their parents!
Cherry Orchard Primary Academy
To kick start our year at Cherry Orchard Primary, our Art and Design lead co-ordinated an art based week. We involved an art specialist company Arty Party, who worked with all of the students across the school to create a school totem pole that embodied our PYP learner profiles.
Throughout the week, each year group was given an animal to study that would be a feature of the school totem pole. To support our learners with understanding the cultural meaning and significance of a totem pole, they studied their animal, using different artistic skills. They learnt a range of techniques such as: art research, drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed media and print.
To give our students a sense of pride in their work, and to be able to connect with our community, Cherry Orchard organised an exhibition inviting parents and guardians to come and see all of the work their children had created, as well as the whole school sculptures. It was a great success and a fantastic opportunity for our children to work collaboratively on a whole school project as well as provide a sense of pride and achievement in their creative work.
Oaks Primary Academy
Thus far, this academic year has been non stop for us here at Oaks Primary Academy. We were challenged with both our PYP Accreditation and Ofsted inspection in the space of a few days and were very proud to become the very first IB Accredited Outstanding school. We had been on a very long journey and were relieved to finally get the opportunity to showcase the culmination of our efforts. We would like to thank everyone who reached out to support and sent kind messages of congratulations.
Once clearing those two hurdles, we were keen to reignite our co-curricular clubs in a new guise. We wanted to make our provision more meaningful, purposeful and linked to our inquiries. Our co-curricular club provision now includes Modern Foreign Languages and international mindedness, Coding, STEM, Performing Arts, Construction and Sport. Each has been highly attended and all the children have thoroughly enjoyed exhibition assemblies to discuss how their club fits into the wider community.
We have recently turned our attention to working within our community. Our School Council had voiced the desire to take action and to help others. The school choir provided moments of joy by visiting two local care homes (Ashley Gardens and Barty House). Residents of both were overjoyed to welcome well-known songs and an uplift in what has been a challenging time for all over the past 18 months.
As well as working with care homes, the children at Oaks hope to raise more money than ever for charities to help those less fortunate. Children In Need was marked by a whole school Pyjama fund-raising day; the bright and colourful event raised money for a great cause! We are proud as a small school that our poppy sales exceeded £438, which was gratefully received by the Royal British Legion. We are all excited at the prospect of raising more money for those who are in desperate need and hope to support our community as much as possible.
Molehill Primary Academy
This Term has been filled with exciting events and visitors at Molehill Primary Academy and we have all thoroughly enjoyed once again being able to take part in these highly-anticipated, co-curricular experiences. We have also been extremely proud to open the doors to our brand new Nursery, Little Moles, and welcome our first cohort of pupils to this wonderful provision. We know that this has been a long-awaited, welcome development which will serve to benefit our entire community.
Artist Workshop
As part of a local regeneration project led by Golding Homes, Molehill Primary Academy was lucky enough to be visited by the artist Jonathan Wright during the Autumn Term. A group of 15 year 5 pupils had a thoroughly enjoyable morning working with Jonathan. They found out about his previous projects, designed something that will feature in the regeneration of their local area and be visible for years to come. The project is at its early stages at the moment but we look forward to welcoming Jonathan back into school in the future to continue the work he has started.
Darran Challis
The entire school enjoyed taking part in a sponsored event with athlete, Darran Challis. Darran is an Invictus Competitor who competed at the 2016 Games in Cycling and Swimming. He sustained spinal, leg and pelvis injuries when he was on active duty in the Army after 26 years of service, which the children were interested to learn more about during his Question and Answer session. Darran's motto, which he passed on to students, is 'never give up'. During Darran's visit, children completed a fitness circuit with a range of different exercises. We are very pleased to announce that the total raised by this event was £1,440!
Awesome Team Earth
Our year 3 and 4 pupils have been busy collaborating on a project with the International School of Helsinki (an IB School). Earlier this term, pupils in Helsinki (Awesome Team Earth) presented their plans to save the planet, in particular the sea life in the Baltic. We were all very proud of the intelligent questions our pupils asked and the reflections they had as a result of the first session. Next time, our pupils will present their own plans to their peers in Helsinki.
Ben Kinsella
Year 6 have been offered the opportunity to attend The Ben Kinsella Exhibition on the 7th December. Ben Kinsella tragically lost his life at the age of sixteen due to knife crime. The Ben Kinsella Trust was set up to educate young people about the dangers of carrying knives. Their primary school workshops dispel the myths about knife crime and aim to teach young people about the links between choices and consequences. We have been incredibly fortunate to have worked with the Shepway Task Force to secure this opportunity.
Anxiety Workshop
Our NELFT Emotional Wellbeing advisor, Karen Williams-Brown, offered a bespoke workshop for our parents on Thursday 25th November. This workshop focussed on understanding what anxiety is, the symptoms parents may notice in their children, and some techniques to help manage this anxiety. It was a brilliant opportunity to meet with other parents and carers and learn about ways to support children so they can manage their concerns themselves.
Artsmark Gold Award
Finally, we are immensely proud to have achieved the Artsmark Gold Award! When sharing the news, the assessors celebrated that: 'It is clear that you value the Arts and recognise their contribution to your ethos at Molehill Primary Academy'. At Molehill, we firmly believe that the Arts are a vital part of a child’s education and integral to the development of well-rounded, balanced individuals. Artsmark has been an overwhelming success in our school community, predominantly with the ‘arts’ being more readily respected and a greater awareness of the work, events and talents of some of our young people.
We look forward to continuing the successes of our co-curricular programme of events across the course of this academic year. Pupils are counting down to not only a London theatre trip, but also to performing at Young Voices at the O2 in the very near future!
During Refugee Week, we supported local charity Porchlight in their 'Heroes Against Homelessness' fundraising event - a non-school uniform day with a twist. We join them in their vision to 'strive for a fairer society where vulnerable people find stability, the most excluded are included, and where homelessness and poverty are things of the past'.
Tree Tops Primary Academy
Outdoor Learning
It has been a brilliant start to the new academic year for the children and staff at Tree Tops. Our outside areas are undergoing further development and we are so pleased to see the transformation of our Early Years Foundation Stage outdoor area, after the artificial grass has been laid.
Lavender’s Book Club
Our Elmer sculpture (Lavender), is now back in school and is now the lead figure of our new ‘Lavender’s Book Club’ with its very own book vending machine, library and regular reading and story writing competitions. The children are really motivated by it; stories that they have written at home for Lavender’s Library’ are flooding in every morning!
PYP Authorisation
We have also recently received our authorisation letter from the IB, stating that Tree Tops Primary Academy is now an authorised IB World School for the PYP. We were delighted to have received the commendations included within our report and are excited about our progression through the next stages of the process.
Educational Trips
Children across the school have also enjoyed the educational trips that the academy has provided so far this year, including Leeds Castle, The National Gallery and the Cinema. The children in KS1 are excited about their trip to the theatre later this term for their Christmas Panto!
Langley Park Primary Academy
The Autumn term at Langley Park Primary Academy has been a busy one and one that focussed upon reconnecting opportunities beyond our core curriculum and we have been incredibly excited to be able to embellish the already abundant learning experiences.
Harvest
On Thursday 23rd September we had our Harvest Assembly, which was led brilliantly by children from year 5 and year 6. They explained clearly why we have Harvest and what it represents. The whole school also sang two songs beautifully. It was so special to have pupils as young as our nursery right through to year 6 taking part in something as a community. Thank you to all of the families who donated items which were then given to Family Food Bank, The Meadow Children's Centre - a food bank in Parkwood who aim to support families and individuals who are facing financial hardship.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
We were also able to host a very successful Macmillan coffee morning. Members from our community were able to come along and enjoy cake and hot drinks all in the name of a good cause. We had some wonderful donations of tasty goodies and some homemade bakes worthy of the Great British Bake Off.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service
On Wednesday 6th October, we were visited by the Kent Fire and Rescue Service to learn all about fire safety and how they help others. The children demonstrated how knowledgeable they already were about keeping safe around fire but also learned some really useful and practical information.
PYP Provocation Mornings
The week beginning the 8th November saw our PYP Provocation open mornings. Every class had a scheduled opportunity for parents and carers to come into their classrooms and engage with a range of provocation activities so that they can be part of the inquiry process. The learning discussions and questions that ensued as a result of this were so valuable in enhancing our pupils' learning experiences.
Remembrance Day
On Thursday 11th November, we joined the nation in marking Remembrance Day with a short assembly and 2 minute silence at 11am. To also mark the day, those who belong to clubs like Beavers, Cubs, Rainbows and Brownies wore their uniform to school. They certainly wore it with pride.
Paddock Wood Primary Academy
Our Autumn term has seen the return of our co-curricular offer, which is now back with a vengeance. We have had pottery, karate, athletics, cross country, debate, chess, science, french, netball, basketball, football, drumming, art, craft, dance and coding. Some of these have been supported through Trust Bids and the children have taken full advantage. The Academy Council is also now back up and running, with their first project being ‘Children in Need’ - which raised a considerable amount of money for this charity.
As part of our community we have discovered that we have a talented bunch of children. In our weekly newsletter, we have our Proud@ section and have encouraged parents to share news of achievements outside of school. Within our pupil population we have a GB Canine Cross competitor, Husky racing competitor, a Kent Tennis Championship winner, along with swimmers, dancers, and karate experts. We could not be prouder of all of these children, for everything that they achieve and it is wonderful to be able to share this with our community each week.
Our PTA has also enjoyed a return to a little normality and once again hosted the Paddock Wood firework event. We were extremely lucky with the weather and whilst cold, it was a clear and dry evening. It is wonderful to be part of such a supportive and engaged community and the event sold out very quickly, with over 1500 attendees (and hundreds watching from their gardens!). In total they raised a staggering £8800 for the PTA and are now looking at a project to fund for the academy.
With the on-going development of the PYP at Paddock Wood, we have had a focus on our Modern Foreign Language offer. Our French specialist teacher has worked with all the staff to ensure we not only teach French, we ensure that the traditions and culture of the language are also explored throughout our inquiries.
In November, we took part in Remembrance Day, with children also attending the Paddock Wood Parade and completing some of the readings. To continue our MFL links, the children looked at how France remembers and our displays reflected both British and French symbols of Remembrance.
Horsmonden Primary Academy
Update on Primary Years Programme at Horsmonden
The children at Horsmonden Primary Academy are in their second year of learning through inquiry. They are engaged, inspired and motivated with ample opportunities to learn about the things that matter to them, creating a happy, vibrant school atmosphere.
There is a fantastic example of this in year 2 where they started the year with the central idea, 'Beliefs and culture may vary due to location'. After exploring a few locations they felt inspired by Australia and went on to research the landscape of Australia and the animals found there. They noticed where the big cities were and made the connection between this and the landscape. The children absolutely loved being inquirers and asking lots of questions, which fostered a genuine desire to learn and the ability to question and research. Throughout their learning journey, they learnt aboriginal dances, created symbols, read and told dreamtime stories and studied maps.
This, in turn, led them to find out about Captain James Cook, continuing the journey with children building The Endeavour to set sail to Australia…
To find out more about our inquiry based curriculum and see more examples of the children learning, take a look at our Facebook Page, linked below:
Community Events at Horsmonden - Harvest
On Thursday 14th October, the children of Horsmonden Primary Academy celebrated Harvest with the wonderful elderly residents of the village. The day started with a Harvest Assembly led by Phil Staddon, who reminded us all of the importance of giving and sharing. The children sang 'The Harvest Samba' and 'Cauliflower's Fluffy' as well as year 5 children reading out their Harvest poems.
In the afternoon, the children delivered their beautifully crafted Harvest boxes to the elderly residents of the village.
We were so thankful to the parents for providing such thoughtful and generous food parcels, and also to the children for decorating the boxes with care and attention. The children absolutely loved walking round the village and leaving the boxes on the doorsteps of the lucky recipients! They behaved impeccably and were a credit to the school and their parents. It is such a wonderful event in our school calendar that we all really look forward to and is greatly appreciated by the elderly residents.
Eastcote Primary Academy
Harvest
We had many generous donations from Eastcote families for our Harvest Assembly and Mrs Wilds took the goods to the Bexley Food Bank. All were received with great thanks by the food bank volunteers. Thanks also go to Rev Neil from St. Mary’s Church for coming to our assembly. He explained how one small seed can harvest many fruits, just as small donations can make a big difference to many in our community.
Music
We had the pleasure of being visited by Bexley Music. The musicians showed the children the various musical instrument families.
Roman Day
Years 3 and 4 took part in their Roman Day where they had lots of fun. Thank you parents for your support with the costumes.
Football
Our brand new football team has won two tournaments this term. We are very proud!
School Snake
The Eastcote house captains have researched, costed, fund-raised and purchased a snake. They ran a ballot to name him. We are delighted to welcome Cornflake the corn snake to the Eastcote family!
Peninsula East Primary Academy
It was great to start the year with our new name, logo and uniform and with all our staff and children on one site. We also celebrated having our new nursery provision and our children being able to enjoy their new classroom and outdoor environments. Our nursery children also have their own uniform and look very smart. They have spent this module starting to think about Autumn and have been exploring the school grounds using their senses and describing what they have found.
They have really enjoyed talking about the changes in colours they have seen in the outside environment and want to create homes for hedgehogs to put out in our school field.
We were so pleased to be able to welcome our parents back into school this academic year and there have been many celebrations that we have shared with them. Due to being a village school, we have been looking at Lost Heritage Days and ensuring that we revive these within our community.
We started the year in celebrating Lammas Day, linked to harvest, and invited our families in to share what the children had learnt and created on the day. Our families also donated very generously to our harvest collection of food which we donated to ‘Time for the Homeless’ in Rochester as a member of our staff works with them.
They were really thankful for the generosity of our families and the food was donated to the homeless kitchens and also made into food hampers for families needing food parcels. Parents were also delighted to watch our Harvest celebrations as each class shared a song, dance or poem.
We have taken action in supporting charitable events such as holding a cake sale to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and year 6 pupils took this opportunity to sell cakes to the rest of the school and our families after school, meaning we raised an amazing £256 for the charity. We more recently celebrated Children in Need, with our children dressing up in bright colours and spots for the day, meaning we raised £134.45.
As a school we are supporting a ‘Go Green’ project run in the village by Slough Fort and the Haven holiday site where we are looking at how to be more sustainable in what we do and the impact that this can make on the environment for the future.
Our year 2 pupils walked to Slough Fort to help plant tree saplings, as the Fort are building their outside environment. They learnt about the importance of trees in our environment as well as enjoying themselves in the mud and digging to plant them; but also contributing to our community. They will be going back to visit the Fort again to see the progress of the trees’ growth in the Spring and Summer months. As part of this project, the whole school will have a different area to focus on and Haven has invested in our school by providing us with new, child-friendly recycling bins that we place around the school site and providing us with equipment so that we can go litter picking.
Due to our work with our local community, we have invited them to decorate baubles for our Christmas tree and hall decorations. This includes our local zoo at the Fenn Bell, Chimnies care home in Allhallows, the Parish council, Slough Fort, Allhallows Church and Haven, to name a few, so that we can create a community Christmas. Our year 5 and 6 pupils will also be singing carols, not only at Rochester Cathedral but also to parents at Allhallows Church.
We are also launching our first ever PEPA Talent Show to be performed on the last day of the Christmas term. It has been amazing to see the children’s confidence across the school when attending auditions and it is also great to see the many hidden talents they have, such as singing, dancing, gymnastics and playing musical instruments as well as many more.
We are also really excited that in December, years 1 - 6 will be going to watch The Lion King musical at the Lyceum Theatre in London. We were successful in our co-curricular bid to the Trust at the end of the last academic year and felt that this would have a significant impact on our children. We are also extremely grateful. Most of the children have never visited London before or watched a musical and, as you can imagine, they are bursting with excitement. Not only will this give them many magical memories but it will ignite learning opportunities for when they return to school.
High Halstow Primary Academy
High Halstow Primary had a rather different first day back after October half-term! To kick off our Art Week, with the theme of ‘aiming high, dreaming big’, pupils were fortunate enough to have a visitor called Nick Corston, from STEAM Co. into school for the whole day. Nick Corston has been described by the BBC as a man on a mission! He believes in the power of creativity, innovating business, inspiring children and connecting communities. Nick co-founded STEAM Co. which is a social enterprise to power communities to inspire children with creativity.
As part of his work, Nick has launched a Mission to Mars tour, touring around the UK inspiring children to aim higher than high (as high as Mars!). High Halstow was the first school in this tour and since then, Nick has travelled the length of the UK in his rather impressive campervan!
The day began with an inspiring assembly, which parents and carers could also watch through a live link. Then, throughout the day, the whole school took part in various creative activities, all with the Mission to Mars theme. These included coding, cardboard modelling and rocket making, (which were then launched outside using a stomp rocket launcher!)
After a short afternoon assembly, it was time to go out to the playground to see Nick launch a rocket powered by real dynamite! We think the whole village may have seen and heard this! It was an absolutely brilliant way to end an extremely memorable, creative and inspiring day.
The Hundred of Hoo Academy
This is an incredibly special year for us at the Hundred of Hoo. This academic year is the first one that we have a year 6 class, meaning that September 2022 will be the first time that children from The Hundred of Hoo Primary will move on to The Hundred of Hoo Secondary school. It also seems very fitting that, with all the disruption over the last couple of years, this term has seen us able to expand on our cross-phase teaching model to include even more year groups and lessons than previous years.
As part of our cross-phase model, children from Reception all the way up to year 6 have lessons taught by specialist teachers from the secondary school. The year 5 and year 6 children also spend one day a week at the secondary school as a part of this. The children in Reception have music, drama and physical education lessons taught by our colleagues at the secondary school, which increases to include Spanish when in Key Stage 1. By the time the children reach year 5 and 6, they will be taught all of these subjects as well as geography, food technology, computing and science. These lessons are also all integrated into the PYP curriculum through collaborative planning between the primary and secondary teams.
But the lessons themselves are only part of what we are excited about. In less than a year's time, our year 6 pupils will be moving on and many of them are planning to attend the secondary school. When they do embark on this transition, they will already know about 20 members of staff, a number of members of the leadership team, know the behaviour expectations and routines that are in place at the secondary school and will know their way around too. All of these things are certain to help the children through what can be a difficult transition period and also help other pupils that are transitioning from other secondary schools.
The Hundred of Hoo Nursery
As we come to the end of our first two terms of the academic year the Hundred of Hoo Nursery has lots to celebrate.
All of our children and babies have settled well into their rooms and are experiencing lots of amazing learning opportunities to support them to achieve the next steps in their individual learning.
Our focus has been on our learning environment where we have been adapting to meet all of the Early Years Foundation Stage Guidelines and to support all individual children's interests and needs. All of our areas support and encourage children to become independent learners and to have high levels of engagement in their chosen task. As the children develop and grow the environment grows with them.
The children have been experiencing a lovely dining experience where they help themselves to their cutlery and sit at tables dressed with a tablecloth and flowers as a centrepiece.
Preschool children have had a barbeque where they were able to toast their own marshmallows. Outside learning is still very important at Hundred of Hoo Nursery and as the weather becomes colder we wrap up warmer and we all enjoy hot chocolate and a biscuit together under the gazebo.
As we come to the end of the term our Christmas celebrations begin in full. Children will have a Christmas dinner, wear Christmas jumpers and have fun at a Christmas party. We may even get a visit from Father Christmas, Covid-19 permitting!
Marden Primary Academy
PYP Launch
The team at Marden Primary Academy launched PYP in September after having two days of category one training. The children are now onto their second inquiry and learning about ‘how we express ourselves’. Across the academy, we have children learning about festivals and celebrations, storytelling, cultural identity and artforms, to name but a few.
The children are engaging with high quality texts linked to their inquiries. Our texts are celebrated around the academy with a display for each class explaining how their text links to the inquiry.
The learner profile attributes have been at the heart of Marden Primary Academy this year. The children have understood what they mean and are able to recognise them in themselves and others. Staff are using the language to deliver specific praise to the children and it forms a key part of our celebration assemblies.
Marden Primary Academy is excited about the PYP journey they are on and there are many more exciting things to come.
Remembrance
As a community, Marden has had a close connection with both World War I and II, with 70 servicemen in WWI and 24 in WWII losing their lives in action as well as the 5 local civilians who lost their lives. Learning about our rich history has been an education for us all at Marden Primary Academy. We were thrilled to have the parents join us to see the children’s writing and artwork that demonstrates their knowledge and understanding of Remembrance Day. It was the first time parents had been in school for a long time, which made it all the more special. The children’s work was also displayed in the church for the weekend services as well as our own services and workshops on the following Monday.
Children in Need
We raised money for Children in Need by holding a non-school uniform day. Lots of our children had fantastic Pudsey t-shirts and headbands too. The school community gave generously and we are very proud to say that we raised more money than ever before; and all for a good cause.
Phonics International
The children have been learning phonics in a new way at Marden Primary Academy. Using the Phonics International resources, the children are making great strides with their reading and writing. If you pop into our Reception classes you will see our young learners busy writing sentences and applying their phonic knowledge. The children in KS1 are refining their letter formation and applying their phonic knowledge across the curriculum. We are proud of the way the children, and staff, have taken to the new approach and we are excited to see the outcomes for the children improve.
Anti-bullying Week
‘One Kind Word’ was the theme for Anti-Bullying Week this year. Through our class assemblies we discussed what this means and how this can apply to the children in our school. As part of the activities, we all came to school wearing odd socks to show that we should celebrate our differences. The children made a special effort to get to know different children and find new things in common, which helps Marden Primary Academy to be a happy place for everyone.
Bearsted Primary Academy
School life, as we know, is a busy, fast paced yet enjoyable environment to be in and at Bearsted, it has been no different over the last two modules. We have seen our academy more than double since last academic year and it has been a pleasure to welcome many new pupils and staff into our community. Everyone has settled extremely well and we are starting to feel more like a school! For the first time, we have a KS2 cohort. Albeit small, they are steadily growing which goes to show that our academy is quickly establishing a sound reputation in the local area.
Book Look
We were also fortunate enough to hold our first ever whole academy 'Book Look'. This was a real success. It was a massive pleasure to see all our visitors with beaming smiles and our children gleaming with pride as they showed off their school. There was a real sense of community and joy in the corridors and it is moments like this that put working in a school into perspective. It is moments like this when we can all stand back and be proud of our children’s achievements. In addition, it was time for us as staff to stand back and look at what we have been able to achieve as a community together in a short period of time.
PTA Events
We are proud to be working closely with our BPA PTA - a parent association which is greatly supporting us in strengthening our school community and going above and beyond for our children. We have been excited by the arrival of our rainbow buddy benches which were funded by our PTA last year. This year has already seen some fantastic PTA events for our children, such as our Halloween Disco and Pumpkin Competition - which collectively raised over £500. This money was kindly put towards the purchase of wet play bags containing indoor resources for each class. We are thankful to the PTA for their hard work, and we look forward to the success of the Christmas Fair in December.
Wheelchair Rugby Visit- Year 3
On Saturday 13th November, some members of Polar Class went to Medway Park with Mr Coulson to watch a wheelchair rugby league match of England Vs France. The game was intense in many parts and was thoroughly enjoyed by all that attended. We were even lucky enough to feature on the television! As you can see, the children were immersed in the match and they represented Bearsted Primary Academy fantastically throughout the afternoon. The only downside was the fact that England lost!
Invicta Court Care Home
We are continuing to forge networks with our local community and in particular, Invicta Court Care Home. We are planning to visit them in December and sing a host of Christmas Carols and songs which hopefully will spread festive joy, fun and laughter to their residents. In addition, we will be welcoming Invicta Court into our school to watch our Nativity performances - again, we hope to help spread Christmas joy in doing so.
Celebration Assemblies
We have been fortunate enough to start having celebration assemblies back as a whole academy. For many, this will have been the first time that they have experienced coming together as an academy. It has been great to see and hear many of our children being recognised by staff and students alike for demonstrating and embodying the Learner Profile Attributes within their daily undertakings.
