Reception: Muddy Monday
Our Reception class thoroughly enjoyed their Muddy Monday session! They had a fantastic time finding various bugs and enthusiastically creating homes for them. It was truly wonderful to observe their engagement and curiosity during these activities. It was also wonderful to see the children becoming braver, climbing higher up trees, and collaborating to create a camp fire. They also loved foraging for different natural materials to continue their imaginative role-playing games. Additionally, the children enjoyed closely observing the wildflowers and using them to create lovely summer scents, showcasing their creativity and sensory exploration.
Reception: Muddy Monday
Reception class looked for signs of summer during their Muddy Monday walk to Jacks Key. We found lots of minibeasts, flowers blossoming, butterflies and the sun was shining too!
Year 3- Geography-Exploring South America in Geography
In today’s geography lesson, the children explored the continent of South America. Using atlases, they located South America on a world map and began identifying both physical and human features found across the region. Year 3 watched a short video clip to help bring the landscape to life. The children were amazed by the Amazon Rainforest, the towering Andes Mountains, and the powerful Amazon River. We also explored some of South America's remarkable human landmarks, including the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Other stunning features that captured the children’s interest included Iguazu Falls, one of the largest and most beautiful waterfalls in the world, and the culture and history.
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Year 3-Exploring Spirituality Through Refugee Week
Today, as part of Refugee Week, 12 children from Year 3 visited a local church where they had the wonderful opportunity to meet refugees from 17 countries, such as Iraq, Palestine, Greece, South Africa, Afghanistan and Sudan. They listened to powerful, real-life stories of resilience, hope, and strength, gaining insight into these individuals' journeys and the challenges they have overcome. The experience helped to build empathy and deepen the children’s understanding of what it means to seek safety and rebuild a life in a new place. We ate food from Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Italy, Greece and drank Arabic coffee. The children sang songs for the refugees. Reverend Gilbert spoke to the children about how our donations to DARE - Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise have helped refugees and ensured they are always welcomed, and they encourage more donations, etc. This visit linked beautifully with our Spirituality school model of Windows, Mirrors, and Doors. Through Windows, the children looked out and learned from the lives of others, seeing the world through different perspectives. Mirrors encouraged them to look inward, reflect on their own lives, and think about how they might feel in similar situations. Finally, Doors inspired them to step out and consider how they can live more compassionately, supporting others and making positive choices in their own lives. The visit was a meaningful extension of our R.E. learning but also connected closely with Mrs Ham’s worship this week, which focused on raising awareness and showing solidarity with people in need. It encouraged our students to reflect on how they can contribute to a more welcoming and understanding world. Overall, today’s experience supported our whole-school aim of helping children to live life in all its fullness, by inspiring them to be open-hearted, thoughtful, and active in making a difference. #RefugeeWeek
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Geography- The Water Cycle and The Worlds Longest Rivers
In Our new geography unit we are focusing on rivers of the world. Today we started with the water cycle, labelling the key parts of the water cycle process. The water that rains on us now has rained on us before but it’s just recycled. We then moved into labelling the ten largest rivers in the world using a Chromebook and world atlas. It was super interesting and the children worked well within small groups to label rivers, counties and continents.
Reception: Muddy Monday
Reception class have had a fabulous time at Whitehall park. The children found treasures, built dens and bug hotels, found minibeasts, balanced and climbed trees too! It was lovely to hear the children's excited voices amongst the trees and they really enjoyed getting muddy too! The rain certainly didn't spoil a fabulous afternoon of living life in all its fullness!
Reception- Muddy Monday
Today during our Muddy Monday session, we went minibeast exploring in Jack’s Key. The children used magnifying glasses and Petri dishes to take a closer look at the amazing minibeasts our local area has to offer. They were excited to discover a variety of tiny creatures, including worms, spiders, and woodlice, carefully observing their features and movements.
Reception- Muddy Monday
During our Muddy Monday session, the children also put up their shelter, using nearby trees to help anchor and support the structure. They worked together to stretch and secure the materials, thinking carefully about how to make it stable, while also looking for mini beasts.
Year 1 Geography- Ordnance Survey Map Symbols
This afternoon in geography, Year 1 explored ordnance survey map symbols such as a school, place of worship, police station and post office. They really enjoyed trying to figure out what each of the symbols meant to match them correctly. They then explored an ordnance survey map of our local area and highlighted the symbols that they could find. They found several schools, footpaths, main roads, foot bridges and cemeteries.
Year 3- Year of prayer-Praying for the World
Today, as part of our Year of Prayer, Year 3 prayed for the world. We talked about how travelling helps us learn more about different people, their cultures, languages, food, and how they live and pray. The children shared stories about their holidays and family members who live in other countries. We thought about how all these experiences help us live life to the full and understand how big and beautiful the world is. We thanked God for creating such a wonderful world and prayed for peace and love for everyone, everywhere.
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Year 3- Class Worship - Young Inventors
Today's Picture News class worship highlighted the inspiring ingenuity of three teenagers from India who developed a salt-powered fridge to aid hospitals in rural areas lacking electricity. Reflecting on this through the lens of "windows, doors, and mirrors" in spirituality, the teenagers' story served as a "window" into the needs of others and the power of innovation. We then considered the everyday items that ease our own lives, such as the convenience of a hairdryer, the ready access to running water, and the efficiency of an air fryer. This reflection acted as a "mirror," prompting us to appreciate the impact of even simple solutions on the quality of life. Inspired by the teenagers' creativity, which we saw as an open "door" of possibility, Year 3 resolved to embark on our invention journey, recognising our potential to make a positive difference in the world. This experience connected with the Christian value of hope and the biblical message of using our creativity to serve others. Isaac led a prayer thanking God for inspiring ideas and creative minds, emphasising the importance of using our abilities to make a positive impact, even through small acts of kindness and imagination.
Year 4 British History - Exploring the features of a Viking longboat
In our history lesson this week we have been exploring the features of a Viking longboat, describing how these features contributed to Viking success and identifying the most important parts of the boat. Whilst researching, we found that the Vikings built longboats to raid, battle, explore and transport goods. They were between 13 and 23 metres long and were long, narrow and light so they could move around quickly. The children worked hard to identity the key features by adding labels following watching a short clip.