Keep up to date with all the news happening in the school at the moment. Articles are added during the week. Parents are encouraged to check regularly. Our weekly bulletin, emailed directly to parents, summarises content for the week.

• Year 4 Easter celebration

  Tue 31 Mar 2015

  Inter-galactic time travel helped pupils understand the Easter story and other (human) traditions from around the world in assemblies to parents last week.

  Pupils took on the roles of aliens to visit Earth from outer space to investigate Easter.  Groups of pupils worked together to retell the Easter story.  Others researched and portrayed a range of Easter traditions, including egg rolling, Easter bunny and hot-cross buns.

  "Learning from first-hand experience, including re-telling the Easter story, helps our children to understand celebrations from different faiths and British traditions.  Work in this way helps build tolerance and respect", explained Laura Stabler, Assistant Head teacher.

  Classes worked together to present their work to parents and other pupils during assemblies on Thursday and Friday morning.  Each age group takes responsibility for researching and presenting a festival associated with a major faith and/or tradition.

  

• Year 1 Teachers learning together

  Thu 26 Mar 2015

  "Sat Sri Akaal!" cried Miss Whaley as she greeted us from India.

   

  Miss Whaley and Mrs. Gill continue their exchange visit to our partner school, Kamla Nehru Public School, Phagwara in India.  They enjoyed being dressed in traditional Indian saris and were treated to another special assembly outside.

   

  "We answered questions posed by the children and were presented with traditional bangles and necklaces", explained a delighted Miss Whaley.

   

  Later in the day, our teachers observed an English lesson in Year 1, taught a lesson in Year 2 and observed further lessons in Years 4 and 5.

   

  "The children in every single class wrote in beautiful cursive handwriting.  An extremely high standard of presentation of work is expected at all times", commented Mrs. Gill.

   

  "Having observed our teaching, the Indian teachers said that they will definitely adopt talk-partners and the strategies that we used to up-level the children's writing", added Miss Whaley.

   

  Miss Whaley and Mrs Gill also helped children plant tress in a special ceremony to honour their visit.

  

• Year 1 Teachers Bhangra dancing

  Wed 25 Mar 2015

  Year 1 teachers, Miss Whaley and Mrs. Gill continue to enjoy their Connecting Classrooms visit to India.

   

  "We have had another very busy and enjoyable day here in India. First we visited the primary school and were treated to another special assembly in which nursery children were performing Bhangra dancing for us!  We had a question and answer session with all the children during the assembly but were then whisked away to visit the Golden Temple at Amritsar which was two hours away by car.  To show respect, we removed our shoes and covered our heads with a scarf.  We queued up for a very long time in the blazing heat to enter the Temple which holds a very special place in the hearts of Sikhs.  It was definitely worth the wait! 

   

  "We have taken video footage and photos to share with the children at school when we return", explained Miss Whaley

  

• Year 1 Teachers Skype from India

  Tue 24 Mar 2015

  Year 1 teachers, Miss Whaley and Mrs Gill, have safely arrived in India and are visiting our partner school, Kamla Nehru Public School, Phagwara.

   

  Pupils from both schools joined together this morning using Skype to share facts, ask and answer questions about each other's schools and the local area.  Children finished the session by singing familiar songs.  In India, the session was filmed by a local TV station and is appearing on local news twice today!

   

  "We were welcomed by the school band performing a set piece and roller skaters showing off their skills!  Next, there was a whole school welcome assembly outside in the lovely sunshine and we were presented with garlands and had a good luck bindi placed on our forehead.  We also watched the children in upper school perform Scottish dancing and were given a very thorough tour around the school. We were taken into all the classrooms where children greeted us so respectfully and asked us a range of probing questions!

   

  "We then talked with the teachers and shared strategies that we use in school such as talk-partners and use of lolly sticks. We talked about our school being a Values-based school and it turns out that Kamla Nehru school has values embedded throughout their whole curriculum. They were very interested to hear about Mind-up, some of the lessons we have taught and how we use glitter bottles to calm down the emotions. The Headteacher expressed an interest to explore this further during their visit to our school.

   

  "In addition to this, the school teaches Jolly Phonics and we talked about our use of ReadWriteInc. in comparison.  We think they are keen to see us teach a phonics lesson tomorrow.  Luckily we have brought some resources with us to enable us to do this!" explained Miss Whaley.