The Chronicle

After arriving safely in France, Junior 6 pupils had an educational start to their first day, learning about the D-Day landings at the seaside resort of Arromanches. Pupils then enjoyed a picnic lunch before having some fun on the beach. Later in the week pupils practiced their French during a market visit to Thury-Harcourt. They then enjoyed a picnic lunch in the grounds of Lisieux Cathedral before heading off on a guided tour of the Basilic followed by a trip to Zoo de Cerza and a ride on the safari train!

One evening highlight was a culinary display of Mr Duigan's famous barbequing skills and everyone even got to try snails! Pupils were lucky enough to visit Bayeux and the children spent some time exploring the cemetery and touring the cathedral. They also viewed the Bayeux Tapestry before going on the hunt for a well deserved ice cream!

They finished their week off with a group talent show back at the gite yesterday. Then this monring, after saying a big thank you to their wonderful hosts, the children made their way to the ferry and are as we write this crossing the channel on their way back to England. 

Joyeuses Paques a Tous!

On Tuesday, Junior 5L led the St Joseph’s Mass beautifully. This Mass was a time to think about our wider school family, the time and meaning of Lent and to celebrate the Holy family. In Art, Junior 5L have been practising their sewing skills (backward stitch) through creating juggling chicks and sacks for Easter, using fabric and felt. In Drama, Junior 5 continued to learn about The Tempest, acting out a variety of scenes from the play. In Computing, the children have been using code to hide messages and then deciphering the meaning of each other’s messages.We are so proud of them. Well done, Junior 5! Enjoy your well-deserved break.

In Music, Junior 4 were learning about drones, which are long and sustained sounds, such as notes and chords. They carry on for long periods of time without variation and are most often used for an atmospheric effect. On a keyboard this usually involves two notes which are five notes apart. The pupils attempted this on a piano, and they also listened to other instruments which can be used to achieve the drone sound. These included the Didjerido from Australia, and practised how they would blow to get a continuous drone sound; the Tambura from India made out of a hollowed out large fruit; the bagpipes from Scotland where air is blown through the mouthpiece to keep the bag filled with air, and the hurdy-gurdy, where a tune is made on one of the strings when the keys are pressed. We also celebrated our end of term prizes. Great work, Junior 4 and we hope you enjoy your Easter break.

Junior 3 finished their Lent term with an exciting trip to Kingswood activity centre in Staffordshire. We completed an inspiring range of activities, including Leap of Faith, Buggy Building, Archery and Bushcraft. These activities provided different challenges, some to conquer our fear of heights and push ourselves physically, others to develop our team working skills and to collaborate to solve problems. We had such a lot of fun and our teachers were so proud of how well we encouraged and supported each other. It is safe to say, we were all quite tired after our adventure, with a few nodding heads on the return journey. Our thanks to Mr Cottrill and Mr Hunt for driving us there and back.

In our bustling Junior 2 classroom, we have eagerly immersed ourselves in creating Easter craft. Armed with colourful paper and heads full of creative ideas, the children have produced a beautiful wreath. It is lovely to watch the children use their fine motor skills when carefully cutting out the eggs and gluing them on the plates. The children were so proud of their work as they showcased their masterpiece to the class. In addition, we tried some buttered hot cross buns which were delicious, the buttery taste had us all, including the teachers, asking for more! We would like to wish everyone a wonderful Easter break.

Spring has certainly sprung in Junior 1 this week with the children busily preparing for Easter. We had Easter baskets, chocolate nests and Easter cards aplenty and the children were delighted to be taking them home to their families. Our cress seed experiment is complete, and we now know plants need light and water to grow. We hope the sunflower seeds which came home last week have both of those, so they can grow tall and strong! Everyone has become familiar with all of the events of Holy Week as we have been writing about it in our English lessons as well as learning the story in RE. Well done to Junior 1 for another excellent term, it has been wonderful to see you grow and develop, just like the plants we have been learning about! Happy Easter everyone, we hope you enjoy your break.

This week, Reception have been very busy in Maths! They found lots of different ways to make ten and then showed their pairs using numicon, tens frames and part-whole models - some children even started to put them into number sentences! They then chose activities throughout the week to help them to retain their number bond pairs and we played lots of Number Bond Tennis! The children are now brilliant at the quick recall of bonds to ten!

This week, the children immersed themselves in the icy land and sea of the Arctic Tuff tray, with its towering ice bergs, frozen ice flows and myriad of Arctic animals. They learned to name lots of the creatures that inhabit such a harsh Polar environment.

In the run up to Easter, the children were gently introduced to the Easter Story and as part of our seasonal festivities, we made chocolate nests filled with chocolate eggs; in the outside area, we held Easter Egg Hunts.

As a special treat to conclude our term focusing upon ‘All God’s Creatures Great and Small’, Nursery invited Zoo Lab to share a selection of exotic creatures, which the children may not previously have had chance to experience close up. Dormice children were particulary delighted to to see and touch a giant snail, a slithery snake and a magnificent millipede! We also all met a very beautiful leopard gecko!

Children were encouraged to either hold, stroke, or to say a simple “hello”, and we were delighted with how positively the children responded to this opportunity. Bravo!

On behalf of the whole Nursery Team, we would like to wish you all a joyous and peaceful Easter.