Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.

• Science- Rocks

  Thu 05 Dec 2024

  This week we have started our new science topic all about rocks.  Instead of looking at grey, hard pebbles from the beach, we started thinking about the properties of rocks by classifying and grouping different sweets.   We discovered they have lots of similar properties!  The children used magnifying glasses to look up-close at the layers, the crystals and those that had lustre by letting some of the light through!  The children discovered that some were friable which meant that they crumbled, whilst others left a streak when rubbed on a surface.  We will continue our investigations into rocks by exploring the hardness of different rocks and aim to find out how fossils are formed...

  

• Christmas Lunch

  Thu 05 Dec 2024

  What a fantastic Christmas Lunch we had today. Her are some of our KS2 pupils enjoying their amazing dinner with their Christmas Jumpers on! A big thank you to all cooks in the kitchen and all the staff for all their hard work and teamwork to make this event so special for our children.

   

  More photos will follow for our KS1 sitting

  

• Christmas Fair

  Sat 30 Nov 2024

  A lovely time was had by all at our annual Christmas Fair 2024.

  We were also very lucky to be entertained by our school choir singing festive carols, as well as members of Year 3 playing the ukelele. Thank you to the Friends of St Mary's team for their hard work and support of the school by organising and running this fantastic fund raising event.

  

• Forest School - Bread

  Thu 28 Nov 2024

  We have had a fabulous five weeks at forest school.  This week we made dough to cook on an open fire.  Some children twisted it around sticks and others cooked it on a large iron pan.  We thought about what it would have been like to be Stone Age and Iron Age people who had to use these methods to cook - we talked about the smoke in our eyes, the smell of our clothes and hair and how long these methods took. We also learnt how to sharpen our sticks carefully, and lots about fire safety.  Thank you Mrs. Tabassi-Gill and Mrs. Willmott for a fantastic time at forest school!

  

• Cave Paintings

  Tue 26 Nov 2024

  Year 3 have been exploring cave paintings.  They looked at some examples and thought about what they liked about them, then they practised recreating their own using earthy colours and charcoal.  Over a few weeks they have created their own rocks by using Modroc which dries hard. They then painted this surface grey to represent stone, before adding their final cave designs.  The children have really enjoyed this project and it was taught them a lot not only about using different media and working on different surfaces and textures, but also about the process - taking their time, working together and being creative!

  

• Year 1 - Partitioning

  Mon 18 Nov 2024

  'Year 1 where using their knowledge of partitioning 5 to solve this gardener's problem this week: The gardener has 5 seeds. He has pot A and pot B. He needs to plant more seeds in pot A than in pot B. How many seeds could be in pot A? How many seeds could not be in pot B? Can you solve the challenge?'

  

• Forest School Fun

  Tue 12 Nov 2024

  Forest school fun! - collaborating and working together to build dens, using the binoculars to identify different birds, collecting leaves to compost "it makes more soil for our plants to grow!" said Lily J excitedly and crushing chalk to make stone age paint!

  

• Year 6 - Remembrance Service

  Mon 11 Nov 2024

  Year 6 joined with other members of our community at the Remembrance Service today on Chapel Green.

  

• Year 3 Visit to Church

  Mon 04 Nov 2024

  On Monday 4th November, Year 3 met Father Irek and visited the church.  He told the children all about baptism, and talked about the importance of Holy Water which has been blessed and of light.  He showed the children the Paschal candle and talked about the detail of the symbols on it.  The children had lots of fun learning a little more about this important first sacrament.

  

• Year 3 Stone Age Day

  Thu 24 Oct 2024

  Year 3 had an exciting extravaganza yesterday when they travelled back in time for Stone Age Day.  They started their adventure solving crossword clues to reflect on their knowledge from their topic this term.  Then they explored Stone Age clothing and went gathering fruits.  We made Stone Age biscuits using honey, seeds and dried fruit and then we made a fruit stew to dunk them in, this involved good listening skills and cooperation to follow instructions and learning to use peelers and knives safely.  We also made clay pots and enjoyed listening to how Charolotte found her flint Stone Age knife at Birling Gap.  Curriculum days like these are lots of fun and full of enriching experiences - thank you to the plethora of parents who joined and supported us and helped the day run smoothly.