Listen to Jesus

We looked ahead to the 2nd Sunday in Lent this week during worship, where we hear the famous account of the Transfiguration. During this remarkable encounter, the disciples are confused and afraid. They hear the reassuring message, "This is my son, listen to him."

It takes a significant amount of skill to listen well (to our parents, our teachers, each other!). It requires patience, understanding and wisdom. How much harder it is for us then to tune into God's voice in the quiet of our hearts. Finding times and places where we can be still and find his guiding presence is essential if we are going to have the strength to listen well to each other.

We've asked the children this week to make an extra special effort to listen carefully this week, in the hope they will hear God's call in their lives.

A - 2nd Lent

Extreme Reading Challenge

Book Week!

This week we have been lucky to have some visiting authors! Book Week kicked off on Monday with James Carter delivering a workshop on poetry and he got the children writing some fantastic poems, leading up to a big finale at the end of the day where children could read out what they had done.

Tuesday then saw Aaron Blecha, an illustrator, talk to the children about his comics and drawings, delivering workshops in illustrating. He chatted to the children at lunch and drew doodles and signed them. It was wonderful to then see children sitting outside at playtime over the following two days and drawing in their sketch books!

Years 4 and 5 were lucky enough to have a writing workshop with Nell Carter, an author, who spent time with the pupils discussing characterisation and the story plot. She is looking forward to receiving the finished stories!

'Drop everything and read' was a favourite amongst the pupils - particularly on World Book Day when they got to snuggle up with their blankets and teddies. Arranging lunchtime reading activities for the infants was one of their highlights as was their book fair (where they raised £179 for Cafod!) Thank you to everyone who donated and bought a book!

Pens for Cafod

Congratulations to Year 6 for raising a whopping £80 from their pre-loved stationery sale - raising funds for Cafod as their almsgiving promise this Lent. What an amazing outcome!

Getting in character

In Year 2 we have started our new unit - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! The children have loved listening to the story over the past few weeks and now is their opportunity for some immersive learning!

We started off with some drama activities, where the children were thinking about the characteristics of the five children in the story and freeze-framing their reactions when they realised they had found a golden ticket - can you guess who is who?!

They then enjoyed some tasty treats to help think of vocabulary to describe the different sweets in the factory. It has all linked in really well with Book Week, so that the children can use some tips picked up from the author workshops in order to develop their imaginations and enhance their writing even further. We look forward to delving more into this world of pure imagination....

You 'herd' it here first...

Last Friday, Reception had the pleasure of some special guests. 'Ewe' wouldn't believe how friendly Luca and Louis were. We even got to feed them!

Thank you to Ms Sturt (Thea Hartung’s Mum) for bringing them into school and allowing us to share this wonderful opportunity.

March’s ‘Right of the Month’ and ‘Wellness Warrior Challenge’ is:

Article 6: You have a right to life, survival and development.

During this month, we celebrate Earth Hour on the 25th March. This is a WWF event to raise awareness for climate change issues across the globe. We will mark this occasion by switching off our lights, whiteboards and plugs to save electricity on Friday 24th.

Perhaps this month, measure your family’s carbon footprint and make some simple changes to your lifestyles?

Or read WWF’S top 10 tips for eating more sustainably?

Remember, small changes can make a big difference to reducing climate change.

WWF Footprint CalculatorCalculate your environmental footprint and learn how you can reduce your impact with WWF's Footprint Calculator.

Eight tips to eat more sustainablyIt is more apparent than ever - the food we eat and produce is affecting our planet's health. We can change this and transform our food system

Blue Sky Learning

Year 1 have begun to learn about the history of flight in our History lessons. We started by looking at different ways to fly (hot air balloon, aeroplane, helicopter, etc) and deciding upon which came first. We then started comparing what these flight machines look like now compared to how they looked in the past. There were certainly some amazed faces when we saw the difference! Some children even questioned how it was possible to fly in such a different aeroplane to what we’re used to. Delving further into the exploration of flight will hopefully allow us to see exactly how far the concept of flight has developed over the years.

Not for the faint-hearted

This week in Science Year 6 had a rather gruesome and fantastic lesson where we explored a pig's heart. The children were able to handle the hearts, feel the weight and the strength of the muscle and see what parts they could identify. They were easily able to identify arteries and veins leading in and see a difference in texture. Lili in 6R was particularly brave and put her finger down an artery, into the heart to see if she could feel inside the atrium (chamber). Unbelievably, she could and it wasn't long before other children also had a go. This anatomy session led onto a discussion about the first pig's heart transplant and why this was not successful. We also discussed how the pigs whose organs are used are genetically modified which raised questions about the morality of such science. Such a buzz in the classroom this afternoon - take a look at the photos - they were pulling some great faces!

Poets who know it...

During Book Week, Year 5 were treated to a workshop by the wonderful poet James Carter. He explained to us how he thinks of his poems and how he gets his ideas. We then wrote a year group poem before going off and creating our own poems about impossible gifts we would give to people we love. The children loved the workshop and came up with some really interesting ideas for their poems.

Bringing books to life...

Year 3 have had a fantastic Book Week this week, really celebrating books in every way, through all different kinds of mediums. As we were lucky enough to be visited by both a poet, James Carter, and an illustrator, Aaron Blecha, we decided to focus on a Dr Seuss book, What Pet Should I Get?, to highlight how both of these talents could work together to create a wonderful story.

The children made moving pictures using linkages and levers during their DT lessons, using scenes from the book as inspiration. Once this was created, they made a stop-motion animation with their moving pictures, adding different sound effects and music to their final movies.

It has been a fun week, full of hard work and resilience, and the children all did a great job of thinking about our Gospel theme, with so many different instructions to listen to. Some of the children have even been inspired to create moving pictures and stop-motion animations at home. Well done, Year 3! We can't wait to see your next creations!

SG and GMD Movie.mov

Spring is here!

St David’s day on March 1st traditionally makes the start of spring. St David’s is the patron saint of Wales. To mark the day, many Welsh people around the world wear one or both of Wales’s national emblems - a daffodil and a leek. The children celebrated this day by making their own daffodils, talking about St David’s and and dancing to some traditional Welsh music.

Listening to 2D

What an amazing class worship from 2D this morning - thank you children! It was a powerful reminder, from one of our favourite Roald Dahl tales, of the need to listen carefully, especially when adults want to keep us safe. The children also shared with us the important story of Noah; people laughed at him when he listened to God but it was clear that he was the only one who could really hear Him properly!

Thank you St David's Class for a wonderfully positive and thought-provoking assembly.

Listening Witnesses

Congratulations to all these children who have been praised for their excellent listening skills this week. All these children have shown great patience and selflessness in taking the time to heed the words of others and respond approrpiately. Well done and God bless you all!