Henley Fort

Year Six have are having a terrific time at Henley Fort. Here are just a few pictures of some of the things we’ve been up to…

Heart dissection

What a way to start our science topic! The class found it fascinating to see inside an ox’s heart and identify the oxygenated and de-oxygenated side, by the thickness of the walls. They were also able to see the different chambers and identify the pulmonary artery and vein and aorta. They then had a go at dissecting pigs hearts. It was a very valuable aid to their learning and led to interesting discussions. It is really useful for the children to see the colour and size of the hearts and is a memorable way of learning.

Our First Day at Henley Fort - photos

The children have been having a fantastic time over at Henley Fort - lots of smiles, laughs, good times and memories being made! Today has been a day of Climbing, Team Tasks and Challenges. We’ve got dinner and an evening walk plan for tonight before bed time!

The Forbidden Forest

Last Thursday we arrived at school to find: socks pinned up on a display with a sign saying, ‘Free Dobby’, a message written in what looked like blood saying, ‘The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware’, a trail of spiders going out the window and a letter from Professor Dumbledore! The letter from Dumbledore warned us that Death Eaters had cursed the school and we had to spend the day in the Forbidden Forest, while staff performed powerful counter curses to make the class safe again. Mrs Ashton-Smith was busy casting spells (we always knew she was a witch) so Mr King dusted off the Plaistow and Kirdford sorting hat and it put us in our houses: Unicorn, Acromatula, Basilisk and Werewolf. Mrs Ashton-Smith returned having done all she could so we headed off to the forest…

When we arrived at the forest we had to search for our house mascot, then we had lessons… Potions with Ms Smith, where we investigated pH using Shrivelfig juice, ground claw of Horntail and Troll snot! Herbology was led by Mrs Chase. We prepped our lunch: sausages, mashed potatoes and ratatouille, with honey biscuits for dessert. Mrs Ashton-Smith taught us the ancient art of wand making, with knowledge passed on to her from Ollivander. -we demonstrated some excellent whittling skills. We also used happa zone to create house banners. Mrs Jesse was in charge of the fire and cooking. We didn’t see any house elves helping her but there must have been, even the most powerful witch or wizard couldn’t have done all that on their own!

Finally we received word that the classroom was safe, so we headed back -just in time for our parents to collect us! What a day!

I'm An 11-Year-Old Get Me Out Of Here!

I didn’t take any photos during either production as I was following the script ready to prompt with lines. I’m sure you all took and shared plenty though. I needed to share just how impressed and proud I was of every pupil. Every child in year six went on stage and had lines, not only that, but they embraced their characters and delivered their lines in style, with the right expression, stance and timing. This is a huge achievement for them all. It’s a scary thing to put yourself out there like that in front of so many people, it makes you vulnerable. Some children initially didn’t want to go on stage at all but changed their mind, challenged themselves and were fantastic and well supported by their classmates. What a class! Despite having seen it numerous times when rehearsing, they held me captivated from start to finish, each performance. I was blown away. There is nothing they can’t do. I laughed a lot and will never forget it. I really don’t see anything wrong with Oasis though!

Below is a completely unrelated photo we just took for a giggle wearing ‘Who am I?’ face cards.

Lovely Littlehampton

Last week year six had a fabulous day at Littlehampton. They caught loads of crabs, had fish and chips and an ice cream, played crazy golf and went on the beach and on loads of rides. They were a joy to spend the day with; everyone was happy and having fun.

Sports week

Badger class loved having the opportunity to try some new sports last week. Boogie Bounce was exhausting but great fun and really good exercise. Everyone said they enjoyed it and asked if we could do it again. Fencing was also good fun. The class were good at saying the action as they completed it so it wasn’t long before the field was full of cries of, ‘Advance, retreat, parry!’

SATs

What a week! I could not be more proud of year six who have been kind, supportive and resilient throughout their SATs. They really are a wonderful class and a credit to the school.

Here are a few photos of them enjoying SATs breakfast club.

VE Day celebrations

Well done to Rose and Reggie for reading the names of those that died in WWII, who were from Plaistow and Kirdford. It was lovely to read the reasons behind the gratitude medals they designed too and showed how grateful the children are and how they do notice what people do for them. Year six were very grown up in their role as buddies and prepared the scones and jam for their reception class buddy before their own! Well done!

It was lovely to finish the week in the sun at Forest School.

Grammar challenge!

Grammar can be rather dry but if you have to use it to solve a mystery it’s much more fun! Here are groups of year six battling it out to be the first to solve the mystery using their grammar knowledge.

No rest for the wicked!

Badger Class are getting stuck into their Maths revision! They are confident demonstrating and explaining how to complete calculations, which is just as important as being able to answer them.

An eggcellent end to the term

It’s been an eggsperience like no other. I have heard eggciting tales of egg roles since I started in September and it did not disappoint. The whole class eggcelled themselves with their decorating skills but eggstreme talent was shown by Ollie so he won best decorated, well done Ollie! Ana’s was the runner up, see if you can spot her ‘Mr King’ egg. Rupert, Eva and Evan were our finalists but in the end Evan retained his title as the best egg roller, well done Evan!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Easter and I look forward to seeing you for your final term at Primary School in a couple of weeks.

Grounds day

The year six flower beds are thriving so we opted for some outdoor learning. On their transition day last year, I tasked the class with creating a pendulum and completing some artwork. They have asked to do this again so today I let them! Teamwork is essential for creating the frame and pendulum and it was great to be able to experiment and see the difference the viscosity of the paint, hole sizes in the cup and direction and speed of the swing made. Great job year six!

Sleepover success!

Finally I’ve caught up on enough sleep to be able to write this! Last Friday year six didn’t get collected at the end of the day, instead they were here for the long haul- until 9am Saturday. Never before has a night seemed to stretch so endlessly ahead of Mrs Jesse, Miss Dore and myself!

Mrs Dore and Miss Jesse set about prepping dinner while the class had a snack and a mini disco. Then we took full advantage of the nice weather and the children played outside until dinner! We played several games of hide and seek and had a giant pillow fight on the field to work up an appetite. Dinner was served, Mrs Jesse and Miss Dore had cooked a phenomenal spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread, it didn’t last long! We polished this off with chocolate brownie and set up our beds. After a film the children snuggled down to sleep. HA, HA, HA, not a chance! They giggled and told jokes and spooky stories. By 11:30 the boys room was quiet and the majority of the girls were also asleep. At around midnight… silence. 5:15 signaled morning to a few, who were whisked off to Year Two to play lego and give the others chance to sleep in until… 6am. We played cards and board games, had some breakfast and then the children played outside or made mothers day cards until their parents saved us at 9am.

In all seriousness the children were amazing and a pleasure to be around. There were no arguments, even when people were tired, which is a testament to the strength of their friendships and their consideration for each other.

Plaistow - Plaistow

On Thursday we visited our twin school, Plaistow Primary in London. Luck was on our side as despite all the previous trains from Billingshurst to Victoria being cancelled ours wasn’t and we got seats! We enjoyed playing cards, drawing and looking at the sights as we made our way to London. Once in Victoria we took the underground to Upton Park and then had a short walk in the sun to Plaistow Primary. We split into two groups and played some ice breaker games with the year six children there, we were surprised to find that they had been reading Kensuke’s Kingdom, just like we had! At 12:30 everyone went out to play - their playground was huge- before enjoying a delicious lunch. Next it was a quick walk to the market to buy some bling, sweets and lip gloss. All the essentials! We a nice trip back on the train enjoying our sweets and bumping into a retired couple who used to go to Plaistow and Kirdford, back when it was two schools! The children enjoyed chatting to them about what the schools had been like and telling the couple what they were like now. The whole trip was a fantastic experience for the children and I am very grateful to all the parent volunteers who enabled it to happen.