Christ, our champion
We have been focusing on the account of the Baptism of the Lord this week - the moment that marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. We hear in the Gospels how the heavens open, the spirit descends on Jesus like a dove and the voice of God is heard, “You are my own beloved son. My favour rests on you.”
We explained to the children how we all need champions - people who celebrate us, encourage us and help us to respond to God’s call in our lives. We shared the moving example of Kevin Sinfield, whose readiness to champion the cause of people with motor neurone disease - especially his friend Rob Burrow - shows God’s abundant love at work in our world.
Helping Paws
Scarlett the dog came to visit Reception this week. After starting the week off with dressing up as what we want to be when we grow up, Scarlett came in to show off her moves and tricks. The children loved hearing all about how Scarlett learns and how she helps out around the school. We might have a few children changing their careers to become dog trainers now!
Fair is foul, and foul is fair
It has been back to school with a sprinkle of the supernatural for year 6 who have begun studying Shakespeare's Macbeth. We began the unit, like the play, with a focus on the 3 witches and the prophecies they foretell. We had great fun reenacting this famous scene and later this week, after meeting Macbeth, we will make our own predictions about his fate.
Champion Isla!
Congratulations to Isla, who spent her Christmas break making special deliveries to patients in local hospitals to brighten their day. Isla prepared twelve special gifts, wrapped them and presented them to children who were unable to spend Christmas at home with their families this year. God bless you Isla - well done!
Wrap up in Year 1
Fitting very well with the weather this week, Year 1 enjoyed a 'Winter Day' on Tuesday. The morning consisted of a number of different wintery themed activities, including making ice sculptures, building ice caves, creating winter printing pictures, measuring icicles, making our own winter books and, just for fun, decorating melting snowman biscuits!
Most excitingly of all, as declared by most of the year group, we were lucky enough to visit a winter cave! Complete with trees, snow, a waterfall and howling wind, we enjoyed fully immersing ourselves in what a winter cave would be like, using all of our senses. There were even snowballs for a snowball fight on the crunchy snow!
We are looking forward to using this experience to help with our descriptive writing of winter over the next few days.
Up to no good in Year 3!
Year 3 started the new term by reading The Twits by Roald Dahl. After enjoying the amusing tricks these two unpleasant characters played on each other in the first few chapters, the children came up with their own tricks and planned a new chapter. We had some very imaginative ideas using glue, creatures, food items and furniture. The teachers are looking forward to reading the full stories later this week.
Pumpkin Science
A few of the children noticed the thankful pumpkins we put in our vegetable patch in the garden back in October. One mentioned, “It’s squashed. It’s stinking.” From this observation made by the children, we showed the them what had actually happened and how the pumpkins were decomposing. The children had a look and a smell at the pumpkins, one said, “It’s smelly, yuck.” We spoke about how the pumpkin will die down and decompose and then put goodness back into the soil, which in turn, will hopefully give us new pumpkins by the end of the year. In addition to seeing the beginnings of the cycle, we watched a short time lapse video which was taken over a 75 day period and showed the full cycle of various fruit and vegetables decomposing and starting to sprout new shoots. This activity was a great example of taking a child’s observation and extending their knowledge.
Guildford Calling
This week we have started a Guildford depth study in Year 2 Geography. The children heard the story of Guildford through props and Godly-play styled activities. It was a very engaging way for the children to understand the history of our town and how it was formed. The children then had free choice of activities to show their learning - some chose art, some chose role play and some chose Lego. We are now really looking forward to visiting Guildford next week to continue our study before comparing it with Portsmouth.
New Year, New Skills
Years 4 and 6 have the exciting task of trialling a new sport for our PE curriculum this term. Having already run a pop lacrosse club previously, Miss Blake and Mrs Eadie have begun teaching these new skills to their classes this week. The children have found that it is quite a unique sport, and their first lesson was without sticks, to begin to understand the different body movements that are required to master the skills of the sport.
This week, Year 4 used the lacrosse sticks for the first time! There was an in-depth discussion at the start of the lesson to ensure that the children understood the safety aspects of the game. It was fantastic to see how seriously the children took these instructions to ensure that no one was injured during the lesson. Mrs Eadie and Mrs Yarrow were so impressed with the way Year 4 persevered with this new learning, and most importantly, loved seeing all of the smiling faces and moments of joy as the children began to master the skills of the game.
Miss Blake is eager to see if Year 6 will be able to match the enthusiasm and determination of Year 4 next week!
Champion Servers
On 26th December, it was St. Stephen’s feast day. St. Stephen’s Class celebrated our saint on Tuesday afternoon this week.
St. Stephen is the patron saint of altar servers, as he was extremely dedicated to spreading the good news. He was an Archdeacon, but unfortunately, not all people believed what he said, and he sadly died at 34.
St. Stephen’s Class were lucky to be visited by three altar servers from year 5. They asked questions and learned about the role, what altar servers wear and the awards you can earn for your dedicated service. It was fascinating!
Grace's Appeal
Our thanks and admiration for Grace in Year 4, who has written a book to raise funds to support those suffering from war in Ukraine. Grace is championing the cause of those in need of medical supplies to ease their pain and suffering. God bless you Grace - well done!
Camp Green Lake
This week in Year 5 we have begun a new unit in English working alongside the book 'Holes' by Louis Sachar. Already, the children have shown great enthusiasm towards this text, particularly when immersing themselves into the setting of Camp Green Lake! They are keen to discover more about how the setting, plot and characters develop in this engaging novel.
5O Champions
Congratulations St Oscar's Class for a a stunning class worship this morning. The children sang, acted, narrated and danced to the theme of champions. 5O told us all about how we can be champions for each other through our words and actions. They described how God helps to champion each one of us by providing opporunities and relationships that lead us to grow closer to Him.
Champion Witnesses
Well done to all these wonderful young people who have made it their mission this week to champion the school's values, making personal choices that help to build up their classmates. We all need a pat on the back from time to time, and these wonderful witnesses have freely offered that much needed support this week. God bless you all - well done!
What's on locally?
grace charity leaflet.pdf
Upskill Football Coaching is now offering an Upskill Minis on a Monday evening. Please reach out to raymond@upskillfootballcoaching.co.uk for more information on how to book your two free taster sessions.