B - 12th Ordinary

Courageous Christ

We looked ahead this week to the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time and the famous account of Jesus calming the storm. Jesus challenges his disciples, "Why were you so frightened?" He appears disappointed that their faith was not strong enough to trust that he was with them in all ways, at all times, despite being asleep in the back of the boat.

Whilst this account in the Gospel of Mark is actually a retelling of the event (not a story), the parabolic link to the storms in our own lives is uncanny! We are much less likely to find ourselves at risk of being drowned by a storm at sea but our lives are still full of gusty winds and dangerous waves that test our faith and send us off course.

We are challenged this week to anchor our faith in Christ and to try to recognise that, despite the apparent dangers and fears around us, Christ is active and present in the storm. We have been celebrating our young people this week for responding with faith and hope in the face of adversity.

Brilliant Branching Databases!

Recently, Year 3 pupils have been looking at branching databases. We found out what they were, how they were made and the sort of information that we would need in order to complete them. Together, we learned about what attributes were and how we could ask questions, based on these attributes, to get a yes or a no answer. Great enjoyment was had asking questions in order to guess another pupil's chosen object. We made both physical and computer-based branching databases and even got opportunities to test them out and see if they worked.

Year 6 Residential Trip

Last week, Year 6 travelled to Devon for their residential. What a week we had, blessed with glorious sunshine and an itinerary full of fun and exciting activities, Year 6 settled into life at Barton Hall in no time. The children completed a huge variety of challenging and fun outdoor activities. The high swing was a particular highlight with their screams of delight being heard all across the site (most notably Mrs Jones's!). The children also enjoyed swimming in the outdoor pool, competitive games of laser tag, abseiling and rock climbing and jumping from a height on the trapeze.

Shining stars from the trip include Sophia who did an amazing job of facing challenges and embracing all the opportunities given to her and Aunie who did a fabulous job of showing determination and resilience. He smiled the whole week long and was an incredible inspiration to his team. Elana who fully embraced all the activities and Angel who really pushed herself outside of her comfort zone. Hannah G who had us laughing all week long and always put others before herself and Daisy and Leila who conquered every challenge with such cool confidence! Piotr for his focus and determination and Alton for his incredible stealth skills in our game of laser tag and not to mention George, Elisa, Whylee, Jack and Oliver's incredible dancing skills at the disco!

This week would not have been possible without all the volunteers of staff to leave their families and homes and accompany Year 6 for the week - thank you is just not enough!

Parts of the Plant

In Science, Year 1 are learning all about plants. After identifying common plants and the main parts of a plant and beginning to explore their functions, the children had fun inventing their own plants, ensuring they were complete with a flower, stem and root! I wonder which parts of these plants we could eat...?

Hogworts Experience

Have you ever wondered what the famous, refreshing butterbeer served exclusively at the Leaky Cauldron on Diagon Alley tastes like? Well, Year 5 was able to do just that in English this week. The children were asked to write a set of instructions detailing how to make the delicious drink and what better way to understand those steps than by following them themselves? **Disclaimer: Butterbeer does not contain any alcohol!**

Down on the farm...

This week the Reception children went on an exciting adventure to Bocketts Farm! The children have been learning all about animals and how to look after them. At the farm they had a chance to feed, handle and learn about all the different farm animals - we have a few farmers on our hands now! A highlight of the day was the pig race and cheering them on as they sped around the track.

Seed Detectives

On Monday Year 2 celebrated plants and minibeasts with a Science day! Activities throughout the day included creatively showing how seeds disperse through drama, singing, poetry and drawing. We learned some interesting methods of dispersal such as wind, hitching a lift, drop and roll and of course eating and excretion! The children also made their own version of a plant life cycle by making a poster or other craft. The highlight of the day was walking to the common, where we hunted for minibeasts, seeds and plants. It was great to see some little oak trees growing where acorns had been dispersed by squirrels and other animals.

Netball News

A huge congratulations is due to the Year 4 netball team, who competed in their first tournament last week. The team played so well during their five matches, remembering to look for space, using correct footwork and keeping a pace that was not dissimilar to a Year 6 match! Charlotte, Elena, Ellery, Grace R, Lilian, Matty and Poppy showed incredible strength and determination. They were able to win four out of five of their matches, coming joint first overall. What an incredible accomplishment!

We are so grateful for the support and guidance from both the Year 5 and 6 netball teams, who gave up their time to help the Year 4 netball train before school and during lunch. A special mention should also go to Betsy S in Year 3 who also came along to help during the practices and gave us a glimpse into what the Year 4 netball team could be like next year! It has been wonderful to see all of the Junior year groups coming together and collaborating to secure an incredible win! Well done to all involved!

Summer Soiree

Our thanks to Mrs Le Vallee, Mrs Jopson and our friends from St Peter's for an incredible evening of music and song. We were treated to an ensemble of performances from each schools' choir as well as a grand finale - a medley of Aladdin songs, sung jointly by the school choirs and supported by the orchestra. Also joining us for the evening were choral director for Arundel & Brighton, Fraser Ellson, who has been teaching children in Years 3 & 4 this year. The children shared a number of classic and modern songs they have been learning across their curriculum. A beautiful evening to celebrate all things musical!

Nifty Nursery

The past couple of weeks we have been very busy in Nursery, practising for our sports morning. The children had to learn to use a lot of different skills, such as listening, following instructions, running, jumping and throwing to name a few. The children worked really hard to remember to stay in their lane when running and where they needed to go after running. We were blessed with some sunny weather on the actual day. The children enjoyed showing their parents, grandparents and carers how fast they could go! All of the teachers were very proud of how well the children walked down to the field, listened and took part in the races.

Data Discoveries

Year 4 have been enjoying their cross-curricular topic of Statistics over the last couple of weeks, combining both their Maths and Computing skills.

They began by reminding themselves of the vocabulary they were familiar with already from their time in Year 3, including the different pictorial representations which can be used, such as pictograms and bar charts. They then started exploring line graphs and the reasons why they would be used instead of bar charts.

They then conducted their own study, asking the whole school what their favourite animal, food or subject was. This data was then collated on a spreadsheet (which seems to be Year 4's favourite thing to do on a chromebook now!), added together using different formulae and finally, turned into a bar chart using Google Sheets. Each of the classes was amazed at the speedy response time from Google Sheets and we all agreed it is a far faster way to draw a bar chart than by putting pen to paper!