Acorns Bunny Hop

All the children will be taking part in a sponsored bunny hop for Acorns Children Hospice on Thursday 21 March 2024.  Sponsor forms will be coming home in the children's book bags and sponsor money raised can either be sent into school or paid directly to Acorns (details of how to do this are included on the sponsor form).

Easter celebrations

Key Stage 1
Key Stage 1 will be joining with Pre School in the Village Hall on Thursday 21 March 2024 for a bunny ear making workshop and their bunny hop challenge. This will be followed by the children performing a few Easter songs.  The event will start at 9.15am and finish at approximately 10.00am.  Parents are welcome to join in the festivities.

Key Stage 2
Key Stage 2 invite parents to join them for an Easter service in St Marys Church, Abberley on Thursday 21 March 2024.  The service will start at 2.15pm and last approximately half an hour.

Pre-Loved School Uniform 

Please come and visit our pre-loved uniform shop. With our new shelving and rails it is now so much easier to find what you want. We have a wide range of summer dresses, shorts and white polo shirts ready for the beautiful weather we are going to have after the Easter Holidays. We also have sweatshirts, trousers, grey winter dresses and coats in case the weather stays like it is!

We do have a lot of sweatshirts and PE hoodies in the smaller sizes - age 3/4 and 5/6 so if you have a child or you know of a child starting in September please come and have a look. It's never too early to get prepared.

Prices start from 50p for skirts, shorts and trousers, £1 for dresses, sweatshirts and PE hoodies to the grand amount of £3 for a school coat.

We also welcome donations of uniform to help keep our shop well stocked.

Lost Property

Can we please ask that you NAME ALL UNIFORM including items bought from our uniform shop so that we have a chance of returning items to the owner.  We have a lot of unnamed lost property again. It will be out in the playground next week so please take a look and claim anything that belongs to you. 

Anything that is not claimed will either go into our pre-loved uniform shop or be taken to the Acorns Hospice Charity Shop.

We also seem to be getting a collection of lunch boxes and drinks bottles that have been on the shelves underneath the canopy for a while. Please can you check and see if they belong to your child.  They will be disposed of on the last day of term.

This week the Wrens have been thinking about the season of spring and finding out a bit more about the Christian celebration of Easter. We talked about the miracle of Jesus coming back to life on Easter Sunday and how this is linked to new life in Spring.  We made some lovely, flowered crosses to represent the idea of new life at Easter.

In maths, we have finished our topic on number bonds and next week we will be moving onto look at length and height.  The children have grasped the concept of number bonds well and are beginning to write addition number sentences with confidence.  We have also been practising writing digits.  Please continue to practise number recognition and writing digits at home as this will stand the children in good stead as they move onto looking at numbers to 20 after the Easter holiday.

The children have thoroughly enjoyed their gymnastics lessons this term and I hope you enjoy the news article and associated photographs to find out a bit more about what they have been doing.  We were very impressed by the sequences that the children put together this week to showcase all the skills they have learnt.  We have now moved onto dance in PE and are finding that many of the skills we learnt in gymnastics about moving our bodies and using shapes can be used in our new topic.

We continue to be impressed by the children's progress and increasing independence this term.  The rainbow challenges continue to be popular and it is lovely to see the children challenging themselves to collect all their coloured sticks by the end of the week.   Next week we will carrying out phonics assessments prior to moving onto phase 4 phonics after the holiday.

This week the children have been completing their termly assessments. They've done well and showed their knowledge from the year so far. 

In history, we continued learning about explorers. This week our focus was on two important and significant explorers, Charles Darwin and Neil Armstrong. The children learnt more about these explorers and what they did. They also learnt about monuments and discussed why we have monuments of famous historical figures. The children wrote some questions that they would like to ask Charles Darwin and Neil Armstrong about their lives and explorations. Some children then 'became' the characters and used their knowledge to answer questions from the rest of the class about their explorations.

In science our focus is animals including humans. We revisited previous learning about what different animals eat. Then, using this knowledge, the children sorted a variety of animals into carnivores, omnivores and herbivores. Afterwards, we looked at the human body and the children labelled different parts.

In PSHE, we have been learning about why and how we can keep healthy. This week we learnt about products and items that can help keep us healthy such as toothpaste and soap. The children also learnt how some household items can be dangerous if not used correctly, such as bleach and washing tablets.

In computing, Year 2 have been using Scratch Junior (which is free to download onto tablets if you wanted to). They used Scratch to create an algorithm which made their character on screen tell a joke. They had a great time with this! Year 1 created a world for their Bee-Bot to explore. They programmed the Bee-Bot robots to explore their worlds and arrive at a desired destination.

In music this week, we have listened to and learnt to sing a selection of sea shanties. We have identified differences between the shanties including the tempo and dynamics used. 

This week we had our fantastic Year 3 residential and it was brilliant! The children had a wonderful time with a host of new and exciting experiences from caving to abseiling and everything in between. For many it was one of the first times away from home and both Mrs Shelley and myself were hugely impressed with how the children behaved and addressed the challenges they faced with humour and resilience.

It was a real privilege to take the children out of the classroom and to see them in a different environment. Many of the activities we did were daunting to start with but every one of the children persevered and achieved their own personal milestones and goals with each of them. It was amazing to see their confidence develop as the days progressed.

Our instructors were great and really supported the children with their understanding of the activities and their abilities and all the children came to realise that they could achieve anything they set their mind to. All-in-all, it was the most excellent three days and both Mrs Shelley and myself would like to thank you as parents, the staff at the Pioneer Centre and, most importantly, the children for helping to make it an unforgettable experience.

In PSHE, we continued our topic of 'Healthy Me' and this week we were discussing drugs. It was interesting to hear the children's opinions when asked the question 'Are drugs good for you?'. This lead to a discussion about how there are good drugs, e.g. Calpol, antibiotics, etc. as well as bad drugs. The children are always happy to give their opinions which means that they take ownership of their learning and share their knowledge.

This week the children have been completing assessments in reading, writing and maths. They have worked extremely hard to show all that they have learned this term.

In English, we have continued reading 'The 1000 Year Old Boy' and have used this to help the children learn about the different features of a police report. They have now created their own report using these features.

In maths, we have continued our work on fractions. Y4 have been focussing on finding fractions of quantities and Y5 have learned how to multiply fractions and then use this to help them find fractions of quantities.

This week in Merlin's class, we have continued and completed our newspaper reports on the invasion of the Bluchers and the destruction of Camberwell. The children have used some fantastic journalistic writing and formality to create some very authentic reports which retell the significant events that have taken place so far.

In maths, we have been converting between fractions, decimals and percentages. I have been very impressed with the children's ability to convert between these values and we ended the week by using this knowledge to place the different values in ascending order.

This week the children have completed various assessments in English and maths. These assessments are carried out each term to allow us to monitor the progress the children are making and identify any gaps in knowledge that we will go on to address in future lessons. The children have shown great maturity towards these assessments and, so far, they appear to be making great progress. 

In history this week, we completed our Crime and Punishment unit. Our final lesson involved looking back at how crime and punishment has changed and continued from the Roman period to today. The children were able to draw similarities and differences between the different time periods. We ended the afternoon with an assessment of all the learning that has taken place in this unit and the children showed great understanding of all they have learnt.

In computing this week, the children worked collaboratively to create their stop motion movies. The children used their own scenery along with plasticine models to create a stop motion movie with an allied invasion theme. You can view and enjoy these fantastic movies on our school website.

The children are extremely excited about their residential visit to Oakerwood next week. The children were given the opportunity to ask any questions and share any concerns about the visit. We are all looking forward to the adventures ahead!

Please see below information from within but independent of the school

Easter Holiday Football 

Harriers holiday football for children aged 5-13 years is back for the Easter holidays. The Strikers & Goalkeeper courses will feature Goal and Save of the Day competitions and our regular 6-a-side tournaments. Courses run 10am-3pm.  

Please bring both indoor and outdoor footwear, packed lunch, drinks and waterproof clothing. All courses will be outdoors.  In the event of adverse weather conditions, we may have to cancel.  To book a place email harrierscommunity@hotmail.co.uk - please email details EACH time you book.

Name:
Age:
Any Medical Conditions:
Emergency Contact number:
Course Venue:
Days attending:

Payment details will be sent with confirmation of booking.