Image of World Book Day Dolly Peg Competition
5 Mar

World Book Day Dolly Peg Competition

Wow! We have been absolutely blown away by the incredible entries for our World Book Day Dolly Peg Design-a-Character competition. From classic literary heroes to imaginative modern favorites, the creativity and craftsmanship on display have been truly inspiring. A massive thank you to everyone who took part and shared their talents with us. We have loved seeing your characters come to life, and we can’t wait to finally reveal the winners tomorrow during our Celebration Worship!

Image of Year 5 - Pinocchio Workshop
4 Mar

Year 5 - Pinocchio Workshop

On Tuesday, we had the great fortune of having James from West End in Schools visit the school. He taught every class a dance based on the story of Pinocchio. In Year 5, we performed a group dance depicting a ship on stormy waters crashing onto rocks and Pinocchio meeting the fairy godmother. The children loved the opportunity to dance and I was very proud to watch their fantastic performance in front of the entire school.

Image of Online Safety: Creative ways to encourage reading
4 Mar

Online Safety: Creative ways to encourage reading

Tomorrow is World Book Day, and it’s the perfect chance to spark a love of reading in every child. Stories don’t just build literacy skills, they inspire curiosity, boost confidence and open doors to new worlds. This week’s #WakeUpWednesday highlights simple, practical ways families can make reading part of everyday life. From creating cosy reading spaces to showing children that reading is fun, small habits can make a big impact. Download your FREE copy here >> https://vist.ly/4tnsk #WorldBookDay #WUW #EncouragingReading

Image of Year 4 - Webinar with Author James Fox
4 Mar

Year 4 - Webinar with Author James Fox

On Monday, the Year 4 class took part in a live webinar and Q & A session with up-and-coming author James Fox. He talked about his books, including Boy Vs. Reality, and shared ways in which he has drawn inspiration from real life. The children loved the session, especially because they got a few shout outs when their questions were read out and answered during the webinar. It was a truly inspiring session.

Image of Year 2 - Author Webinar
4 Mar

Year 2 - Author Webinar

Year 2 watched a webinar from the author of 'Wild Apprentice' - Sarah Roberts. We learned about some of the fantastic careers that we could have if we keep working hard with our learning.

Image of Year 4 - Pinocchio Dance
4 Mar

Year 4 - Pinocchio Dance

The Year 4 children joined in with great enthusiasm during their West End dance session with James on Tuesday. They learned about how dance is a way of telling stories with their bodies. They then worked with James to create some movements to help them to tell a section of the story Pinocchio. At the end of the day, the school came together for a joint performance. Each class in turn came to the front of the hall to perform their part of the story. It was amazing to see every child give their all to their performance.

Image of Year 4 - English: Recital
4 Mar

Year 4 - English: Recital

The children are definitely enjoying our current class novel, The Firework-Maker’s Daughter. In this lesson, the children had to practise reading and reciting a paragraph from the story. They used symbols and actions to help them remember the words in each sentence, and they rehearsed 4 or 5 times before the text was removed and only the symbols remained. The children then performed the paragraph with actions and using their symbols to help them remember the words. This will help them to develop the inner voice of an author, ready for writing their own paragraph based on this one.

Image of Year 4 - World Book Day Hook
4 Mar

Year 4 - World Book Day Hook

The children are really looking forward to World Book Day, especially following this survival kit activity based on our first class novel, The Explorer. We watched the news report of the plane crash from 2023, in which 4 children ended up stranded in the Colombian jungle. The children instantly recognised the similarities between the incident and the events of The Explorer. Following this the children spent time in groups, using their talk tokens and debating the four most important items to pack in their rucksack for their survival. Each group had a brilliant discussion about why some things are more essential than others and how important it is to meet basic needs first. The children are going to love the activities planned for Year 4 for World Book Day.

Image of Year 5 - interview with an author
3 Mar

Year 5 - interview with an author

As part of the National Year of Reading and World Book Day, we listened to the author William Yamaguchi Dobson talk about his upcoming book Kamizen: Fortress of Lost Memories. He spoke about how his Japanese background inspired the story, including his love of manga and knowledge of Japanese folk tales. During the discussion, the children invented their own Yokai (animated magical everyday objects) and participated in a question and answer session.

Image of Reception: Scholastic Author Webinar
2 Mar

Reception: Scholastic Author Webinar

Our Reception class swapped their "Muddy Monday" boots for books during an enchanting webinar with author Catherine Jacob, who introduced us to her brand-new story, Betsy Buglove and the Lovely Ladybirds. After proving their expert status as outdoor explorers, the children were mesmerized by Catherine’s magic magnifying glass and learned fascinating facts, such as how ladybirds act as lucky charms for farmers and can even survive underwater for an hour. The adventure concluded with a creative masterclass from illustrator Lucy Fleming, who guided the budding artists through the steps of drawing Betsy herself. It was a truly wonderful workshop that brought the magic of the garden straight into our classroom!

Image of Year 4 English - Writing in Role
26 Feb

Year 4 English - Writing in Role

In our English session today the children were using a character from our class novel “The Firework Makers Daughter’ to write a short diary extract. The children wrote in the role of Chulak and identified how he felt about finding out the secret to firework making.

Image of National Storytelling Week in Year 4
6 Feb

National Storytelling Week in Year 4

We had a lovely end to the week in Year 4. We had the pleasure of welcoming Caterina ( Luna’s Mummy and one of our Governors) into Year 4 where she shared the story of The Twits by Roald Dahl. The children really enjoyed listening to the story and we would like to say a huge thanks to Caterina for taking the time to come into class and read.