Dear Parents,
It has been a busy time in school this week. It often astounds me how much we manage to fit into a week! Yesterday, we were delighted to welcome our Pre Reception mummies and parents for our Mother’s Day morning. The children sang a selection of songs beautifully and thoroughly enjoyed sharing this special time together. The actions that they did with the songs were brilliant too. I was also so impressed with their singing and speaking out in front of adults. How fantastic for such young children. The children then decorated biscuits to take home. My favourite part every year is when the children stand up and say why they love their mummies and the reason they are so special to them.
Our Mother’s Day Pop-Up Shop was also a great success. Run by the wonderful parent volunteers of FOMCS, it gave all of the children the opportunity to choose a special gift for their mums. The children took great care in selecting their presents. No peeping in those brown bags mums! A big thank you to FOMCS for organising such a lovely event which is always a resounding success.
This week we have also been celebrating Science Week across the school. Each class has taken part in a range of exciting scientific activities and investigations. The children moved around the school in a carousel, giving them the opportunity to experience different experiments and challenges in different classrooms. They have participated in activities such as bird nests, tasting vegetables, making boats float and looking at materials to make items of clothing to name just a few. A wonderful week of fun and exciting experiments for all of the children.
Our Pre-Reception children had a wonderful trip to Marsh Farm on Tuesday. They enjoyed seeing and learning about the animals and taking part in farm activities. The trip was a fantastic way for the youngest members of our school community to learn through hands-on experiences and I know that the children were excited about it and shattered at the end of the day. Well done Pre reception. We are so proud of you.
Well done to Aurelio who received the Headteacher’s Award this week for his excellent reading. Super work.
Finally, we are looking forward to our Open Day tomorrow. Fingers crossed that the weather holds out. However, we have kept the format the same as last year where the dancing is outside but the recitals, poems and songs are inside in the hall. This enables everyone to hear better and also it is a bit warmer for you all too. The children are looking forward to performing songs, reciting poems, dancing, and giving tours of the school for you and the prospective families. It is a wonderful event, showcasing all that makes our school special and I would like to say thank you for your support. It is much appreciated.
Have a lovely weekend and see you tomorrow.
Best wishes,
Mrs Mason
Headteacher
Headteacher’s Award
Stars of the week
Happy Birthday to Jude P, Matthew, Arlo and Lincoln
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Happy Birthday to Jude P, Matthew, Arlo and Lincoln ~~~
SCIENCE WEEK
Whilst we would love a week of science, we completed all our activities in a day! The theme this year was ‘Curiosity: what’s your question?’. Pre-Reception made some lovely dinosaurs and talked about how and where they might live, KS1 and Reception mixed classes to carry out 3 fun filled activities, they designed and built nests, experimented with crayons and tested ‘wonky’ fruit and veg to see if they tasted different. KS2 investigated different materials to see which would make the best handkerchiefs, who could build and float a boat that could hold the greatest number of marbles, whether we can measure age by size and what makes great teamwork. Two very busy days that were great fun for everyone involved!
Please see below a selection of photograph from all the activities across the school.
Mrs Baron
Where do dinosaurs live?
How do birds make nests?
Does the way food look, change how it tastes?
What happens when crayons get wet?
How can you tell how old a shark is?
What does great teamwork look like?
What makes the best hanDkeRchiefs when you have a cold?
HOW DO BOATS FLOAT?
Nursery
This week the children have started an exciting new topic: Science, which will run over two weeks. During the first week we have been focusing on the five senses and growing.
The children completed a Five Senses worksheet for homework and then shared their findings together, discussing what they had noticed, smelled, touched and heard in their environment.
We also had great fun planting cress seeds and potting plants, hanging baskets and bulbs for our outside classroom. The children really enjoyed getting involved and we are looking forward to looking after our plants and watching them grow over the coming months.
Mrs Callaghan
PRE-RECEPTION
Our topic this week is ‘On the Farm’, the children have been learning about the names of baby animals and matching these animals to their mums. The children have also picked their favourite farm animal and painted it, looking at the details and including them on their painting.
Pre-Reception also had the most wonderful time at Marsh Farm to support learning on our farm topic and are still talking about their fun day now. We were very lucky to have our own tour guide and the whole farm to ourselves as it was shut to the public. The children enjoyed hands on petting and feeding encounters with a variety of different farm animals and great fun was had by all. Lots of sleepy children on the minibus journey back to school!
Mrs Kennedy and Miss Hansell
RECEPTION
Reception class thoroughly enjoy their weekly Welly Wednesday visits to Leeches Garden. Each week, we look forward to putting on our wellies and heading outdoors to explore the natural environment. This week, we took some empty egg boxes with us and set ourselves the challenge of creating cosy homes for caterpillars. We carefully searched for natural materials that caterpillars might like. We collected soft leaves, warm grass and crunchy twigs to make our homes nice and cosy. We also made some Caterpillar Cafés!
Mrs S Clark
FORM 1
Our new topic in Science this half term focuses on plants and animals. Last week, the children had a fantastic opportunity to visit Leeches Garden and explore the nature that surrounds us each day. During the visit, the children were tasked with identifying different signs of life, particularly in relation to habitats. They made some excellent predictions about the types of animals they might discover within these environments.
This week, each child adopted their own tree to become an “expert” on. They enjoyed using the tablets to carry out research, learning a variety of interesting facts which they then shared with their classmates. One of the highlights of the activity was creating tree rubbings using masking tape, which the children thoroughly enjoyed.
Well done Form 1.
Miss Vaughan
FORM 3
Form 3 have had another fun science lesson this week- unfortunately there were some tulip casualties though! We spent our lesson dissecting flowers with the aim of identifying the various parts. By looking very closely, we were able to identify the sepal, anther, filament, stigma, style and even the ovary. We enjoyed discussing the role of these different parts in the pollination process.
Miss Oxford
MONDAY
Creamy macaroni cheese served with Wicks Manor bacon, peas and corn mix
Home baked chocolate shortcake or fruit
TUESDAY
Roast pork served with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes,
broccoli and carrot medley
Fresh baked apricot muffins or fruit
WEDNESDAY
Homemade pizza spirals served with potato wedges and crispy salad
Pear and raspberry crumble served with custard or fruit
THURSDAY
Homemade chicken pie served with new potatoes and carrots
Vanilla ice cream pots or fruit
FRIDAY
Breaded Harry Ramsden fish fillet served with chunky chips and peas
‘Red Nose Day’ cupcakes or fruit
Sports Timetable
dates for your diary
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Open Day
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Forms 5 and 6 - Life Support Roadshow
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Form 1 Celebration and coffee morning
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KS2 Cross Country - St Francis School
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Form 1 School trip to Pizza Express
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Comic Relief - Red Nose Day
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Parent’s Evening at school 3.30 - 6pm
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Form 3 School trip to Abberton
Parent’s Evening 5 - 7pm ParentMail Video
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Sing up Day
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Forms 5 and 6 Tag Rugby - Great Warley
Form 4 Danbury Outdoors Parent meeting 2.45pm
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Easter Hat Parade