Our Material Hunt

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Year 1 went on a hunt around school to find different materials and wrote their objects down in their tables under the correct columns.

Year 2 - Computing - Beebots

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This half term, we have been thinking all about programming computers by writing and debugging algorithms.

Geography in Year 2

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This half term, we have been using maps and satellite images to compare different continents and the living things that live there. Ask us to sing our continent song!

Art in Year 2

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This half term, we have been looking at the work of L.S. Lowry. Lowry only uses five colours in his work so we have been looking at mixing colours to see how many different ones we can make. We will then be using these techniques to create a final piece.

Colchester Castle Trip

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Year 4 went to Colchester Castle to find out about the Romans in Colchester. We looked at artifacts and how the Romans influenced British society. It was a great day!

Nativity dress rehearsal

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The children performed their Nativity show so well, we were all very proud! These are a few photos taken in the dress rehearsal.

KS1 Christmas Production

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Year 1 and 2 performed 'Stable by Starlight' for their Christmas Production this year.

Braintree Museum

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We went on a trip to Braintree Museum to learn all about the local history and geography of our town. While at the museum, we went on a tour of Braintree Town and learnt about many interesting historical sites. We also became archaeologists and discovered what different artifacts can tell us about life in the past. We also found out all about John Ray and his work.

Year 1 and 2 at Colchester Zoo!

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In November, Year 1 and 2 visited Colchester Zoo to see lots of different animals they had been learning about. They experienced some penguins and even met Father Christmas!

Mi Bootcamp 31.10.18

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Year 3 and 4 went to John Bunyan school to take part in a Bootcamp activity session. They did lots of activities including tug of war and throwing battle ropes!

Remembrance

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We made stained glass window poppies for the whole school Remembrance memorial. We talked about what the poppies represented.

Science - Sorting Animals

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We have been looking at animal body parts and sorting different animals into Venn diagrams. We found some interesting things!

Centenary Poppies in our Peace Garden

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As a school, each pupil made a poppy to be planted at the foot of our cross in the Peace Garden for the 100 Year celebration since the end of World War 1. We held a special assembly on Friday 9th November and held a minute silence to remember those who fought and died for us.

Remembrance Day Art

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We made vases of poppies for Remembrance Day by using a balloon as a base and pasting images of poppies on to it with PVA glue. After giving it a day to dry, we popped the balloons and were left with a beautiful vase. Year 3 made poppies to put in our vases ready for the Remembrance Service.

Handa's Surprise Food Tasting

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Year 1 tried some new foods following our Handa's Surprise story we have been learning in English. We tried some banana, orange, mango, passion fruit, pineapple and avocado!

Y2 Science - Properties of Materials

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In Year 2, we have been investigating the properties of materials and why this might make them better for certain jobs. We have been looking at absorbent and waterproof materials.

Soundproofing

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In our science topic on sound we investigated how to stop sound from travelling. We used different materials to see which was the best at absorbing sound.

Victorian school room

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Here are some photographs taken during our Victorian school room experience.

Making Bird Cakes

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For St Francis' feast day, Reception class talked about 'love' and how we show love and care to others. We made bird cakes to put outside, symbolising the love and care we have for nature. We put some outside and saved some for another day. We hope the birds like them!

Matisse Art

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We had a visit from Braintree Library who taught us about Henri Matisse and his cut-out art phase. We created our own versions and hopefully some will be chosen to be displayed in the library!

European Cookery

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We made a range of dishes from different European countries to support our topic of Europe. We performed a range of processes and then we tasted the food in class. Delicious!

Keep On Reading with Mr Kemp

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We were given a book to take home for someone to read to us. We were then visited by Mr Kemp who challenged us to a quiz about what we had read in the story, 'The Boy Who Sprouted Antlers.' We won all the rounds!

Cave painting

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We have looked at cave paintings and what they can tell us about life in prehistoric Britain. We then created our own cave wall and painted an animal in the style of the prehistoric cave paintings we have explored.

Music

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In Year 3, we have been enjoying learning to sing and play the song 'Let Your Spirit Fly'. Here we are learning to play it on the glockenspiels!

Matisse Art

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We looked at the work of the famous artist Henri Matisse and learnt all about his life. We then created our own artwork in the style of some of his most famous pieces.

Music

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We have been enjoying learning to play and sing the song 'Let Your Spirit Fly'. Here we are learning to play along on the glockenspiels!

Maths - Counting Objects

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In Year 1 we used different objects such as Numicon, Diennes and cubes to help us count.

Maths - Sorting Objects

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In Year 1 we were sorting different objects in different ways during our Maths lesson.

Take One Picture Library Exhibition

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As a school, St Francis exhibited artwork from each class in the Braintree Library during the Summer of 2018. We took one picture called 'Olympic Track' by Roy Neiman and responded to it in different ways producing scultpt

Properties of rocks

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In Year 3, we have been learning all about different types of rocks. We carried out an investigation to compare the properties of different rocks. We tested their durability, permeability, density and if they were hard or soft. The most surprising thing we saw was the floating pumice rock!

Virtue of St Francis

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'Joy' is the virtue of St Francis in Year 1 and, for St Francis Feast Day, we made smile masks to spread our joy showing our happy, glittery faces!

Art - Texture Hunt

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Year 1 went on a texture hunt around the school to try and name an object, describe its texture and sketch an example of it.

RE

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We acted out key words from a Psalm showing love, sharing, respect and safety in our Family topic.

International Peace Day

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For International Peace Day, we held our assembly in the Peace Garden singing Shalom.

Year 5 Anglo Saxons

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Year 5 have been making Anglo Saxon Houses- we think that the village is coming along quite nicely!

Maths - Beadstrings

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In maths, we looked at using beadstrings to help us identify where to put numbers on unmarked numberlines.

English

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We have been looking at how we use the -ed suffix to change the tense of the verbs in our sentences. Because it was a beautiful day, we decided to work outside!

Science - Sorting Photos

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The children have been looking at how baby animals look similar to their adult parents. The children sorted pictures of bears, deciding which baby matched which adult bear. They used lots of language to explain what was the same and what was different. The children then looked at a picture of Goldilocks and tried to think of what her parents might look like.

English - 4 sentence stories

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In English, we revised sentence structure at the beginning of term by writing a story based on just four pictures.

History - Work with Timelines

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In history, we have been learning about Significant Individuals not within living memory. The children looked at facts about Florence Nightingale and put them onto a timeline.

Playdough Making

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The children all made dough ready for our daily Dough Disco!

RE / Art

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In R.E., we have been looking at Beginnings. We looked at the Creation story and decided to use nature to show this through art. The children created some fabulous creations in the Peace Garden.

Girls’ football tournament 24.5.18

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Yesterday the girls’ football team went to Lyons Hall to play football against 5 teams. It was a great success for our first tournament. Unfortunately we lost the first game but then we went to tie the next game. Although we lost and drawn a game, we beat John Bunyan 2-0 to us, Rosie and Olivia B both scored during that match, all the girls try their best to win this game! In the last game we drew against Great Bradfords. At the end of the tournament we ended up with 5 points coming 4th out of 5 teams. Lyons Hall and Great Bradfords both had 8 points, but it came to goal difference of 1 goal and Great Brafords won the tournament. After, many girls were inspired to carry on playing football and would love more opportunities to do this. By Rosie and Olivia B

Swimming

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The school swim team, made up of children from year 3 to year 6 entered the BDPSSA swimming gala. With fantastic swims by the whole team, they managed to win the small schools competition and come 3rd place over all out of 6 teams. Fantastic!

Rounders

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A group of year 5 and 6 children went to Notley High School for a rounders tournament. It was great fun and the children played really well managing to win 2 matches out of the 4 they played. Well done everyone.

District Sports

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KS2 children took part in District sports at Tabor High School. They showed great sportsmanship and put in 100% effort.

Teddylympics

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Year 1 attended the Teddylympics at Ramsey Academy. It was a great afternoon and we all enjoyed the activties.

Edith's Wartime Scrapbook

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Last week years 5 and 6 put on a fabulous show- Edith's Wartime Scrapbook. The classes were outstanding and thoroughly deserved their high praise from the audiences. We hope that you enjoy these photos.

Celebrating the RAF 100 flypast

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In Reception class we all watched the flypast to celebrate 100 years of the RAF. We learnt about what the RAF did and the different planes. We made our own planes and then had a competition to see which would fly the furthest. We had great fun.

Making mini pizzas

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We made mini pizzas! We learnt that everyone had different taste, but all our pizzas were yummy!

Air Ambulance

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The Air Ambulance made a landing on our school field to attend to a patient in a nearby street. The crew were very grateful to use our field and Doctor Ali and Paramedic Scott came to talk to the children about their jobs. We than gathered in the playground to watch the helicopter take off on its next mission!

Isle of Wight 2018

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A few photos from the Year 6 residential this week.

Performance

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Year 5 gave a performance of their ukulele skills to the rest of the school today. A great rendition of Smoke on the Water and Eye of the Tiger.

What a week!!

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Year 5 have been working hard on their times table rockstars with Sean now in the lead with a speed of 0.47 seconds per question!! Six children achieved their Olympic Challenge certificate- which is 100 questions in 3 minutes or less! Carlo then only went and won the year 5 Masterchef competition for local schools by cooking pasta with anchovies and olives. Sounds delicious!

Year 2 - Take One Picture

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As part of a whole school stimulus, based on the painting 'Olympic Track' by Leroy Neiman, Year 2 have been working on different pieces of work inspired by the painting.

Party Planning Maths Investigation

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We read the book Spaghetti and Meatballs where Mr and Mrs Comfort try to organise tables to sit 32 guests. We then became party planners and investigated all the ways we could arrange 4 tables and how many guests could sit at each arrangement. We tried to work logically. As an extra challenge, we tried to spot patterns and work out how much money we would raise if each guest had to pay five pounds each. Great problem solving Year 2!

Year 5 Taster Day at St John Payne

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Year 5 had a taste of secondary school on 27th June when we went to St. John Payne School in Chelmsford. We were there with 220 other year 5 children and got to experience: Science, Art, DT, English and PE. We then had a question and answer session. Great fun was had by all.

Egyptian Day

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Year 4 enjoyed a wonderful Egyptian Day where they experienced a wide range of activities in the role of a slave. They made a range of objects and then in the afternoon, they had a feast and performed in front of the Pharoah. What a great day!

Boydell's Farm Trip

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On Monday 11th June, Reception Class visited Boydell's Farm. We had a great day learning about all of the animals!

Southend Sealife Adventure

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On Monday 11th June, we went to Southend Sealife Adventure as part of our 'Under The Sea' topic. When we first arrived, we enjoyed a rock pool talk, where we got to touch a starfish and find out a bit more about how these fascinating creatures eat by doing the starfish dance! We were then able to enjoy the various exhibits of the aquarium. Some of our favourite creatures were the axolotls, sting rays and upside down jellyfish. We were really lucky as the weather was beautiful all day which meant we could enjoy the outside exhibits as well, such as the penguins and otters. After lunch, we had a delicious ice cream on the beach before hunting for shells and building sandcastles.

Year 2 Design & Technology - Cooking!

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In Summer Term 1, we made mini frittatas and fruit muffins. We tasted different ingredients before designing our final recipes. We practised lots of skills including measuring (linked to our maths this week), grating, chopping, whisking and mixing. We then evaluated our final products and deciding what we might change for next time. Yum yum! Watch out Gordon Ramsey!

Year 2 Art - Abstract Selfies!

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In Summer Term 1, we have been looking at line and colour in art. We have been looking at using a colour wheel to choose complementary and contrasting colours. We used what we had learnt to create abstract selfies in the style of the contemporary artist, Sandra Silberzweig. What amazing artists Miss Clapp has!

The Queen's Knickers

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In Year 1 our D.T. work in the Spring Term was designing and making our own knickers for the Queen. We selected some suitable material, cut out two pieces from templates, sewed them together using some wool as thread and decorated.

Bassistry Arts

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Bassistry Arts visited our school and we had a fantastic time learning all about rhythm! We were able to play a traditional Spanish beat as a group and learned to sing and dance in time to a song. We then performed our song for the whole school in the afternoon assembly!

ICT Scratch Junior

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Year 1 have been working with the Scratch Junior programme in the Summer Term. We have been working on our directional language of right, left, forwards, backwards, turning right and turning left to create algorithms to enable a sprite to move within the programme.

Keep On Reading!

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We have been really lucky this year and had 4 visits from Mr Kemp as part of his 'Keep On Reading' programme. We were given a book to take home which our parents could enjoy reading to us. We were also given a selection of questions to discuss with our parents once we had read the book. Mr Kemp then visited us and challenged us to quizzes to test our knowledge about the books we had read. We won every quiz!

Flotsam Trays

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We have been looking at the picture book 'Flotsam' by David Wiesner as part of our learning in English. 'Flotsam' is all about a young boy who finds a camera on a beach and the magical pictures it contains. Before we read the book, we explored our Flotsam Trays and discovered a variety of different objects that might wash up on a beach like the camera. We used our inference and deduction skills to decide who the objects in each tray may have belonged to. We had trays for a fisherman, a pirate, an explorer and more.

Opening of Peace Garden

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On 11th May we had the new School peace Garden officially opened and blessed by Fr. David. This is now something for the whole school community to use for prayer and reflection.

Making windsocks

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We made windsocks to carry out to the Peace Garden. We have been learning about how the Holy Spirit is all around us. The wind blowing through the ribbons reminds us of this.

Design and Technology - Egg Cups

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We researched current egg cups on the market and then designed our own. We thought about who would use our egg cups and designed a poster to persuade them to buy it. We then made and painted our egg cups using clay. We used our learning from science to remember how to shape the clay in different ways! After we had made them, we evaluated our designs and thought about what went well and what we might do differently next time. They were fabulous!

Easter Gardens

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Thank you to all the parents for their amazingly generous donations of materials for our Easter Gardens! As you can see, we used them to make the most beautiful and thoughtful representations of the Easter story. We chose different signs and symbols from the stories of Easter to represent in our gardens.

Year 2 are Authors!

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Year 2 worked really hard to design a new character for their own versions of Traction Man! Look at our wonderful books that we wrote. Year 2 are certainly authors!

Computing / Geography / Maths

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We combined geography, computing and maths to program the Beebots to move around mats. We created algorithms, tested them and debugged them if they didn't quite work. We used lots of maths talk including, quarter turn, half turn, clockwise and anticlockwise. Great work Year 2!

Uniform

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We are proud of our school uniform and visitors often comment on how smart St. Francis children look.

Coding with Rapid Router

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We have been learning to code this year. We used Rapid Router to learn the basic concepts of coding.

Music

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We have been enjoying learning to play the glockenspiel this year in class.

Braintree Museum

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We went on a trip to Braintree Museum to learn all about the local history and geography of our town. While at the museum, we went for a Braintree Town Tour and saw many interesting historical sites. We also became archaeologists and discovered what different artifacts can tell us about life int he past. We were also able to enjoy a look at all the exhibits of the museum before finally learning about John Ray and his work.

500 Words Presentation Assembly

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There were some fantastic entries this year and Year 6 were justly rewarded by the school governors. Here are a few pictures of our prestigious awards ceremony. The next category is......

Our Values Felt Banners

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These banners were made by the children over 3 days in May 2017 - they are now proudly displayed in the school hall.

The Mighty Oak

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Here are some images of the remarkable talks made by Year 6 when undertaking their public speaking course. Strong tall stances, clear hand gestures, expressive faces... They have the lot!

Fire Safety Talk

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Year 1 had a Fire Safety Talk about the history of fire fighters, how to be safe around fire and precautions to take.

Easter Rehearsals

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Our Easter production rehearsals were in full swing when the photographer passed through the hall to take a few snapshots!

Art

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We looked at paintings created by artists of Malawi, which we were finding out about in our Fairtrade topic, and recreated them using paint and also chalk. Most of the class thought that the chalks were the most effective.

Year 4 Ukulele

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In the Spring term our music lessons were taught by George who showed us how to play the ukulele. We even tried to play versions of Smoke on the Water and Mamma Mia.

Our Trip to the Victorian Museum

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Year 1 went to the Braintree District Museum in the Summer Term to see what life was like for children in the Victorian times. We were taught some English, Maths and Geography by a strict teacher who gave us slates to write on and wooden desks to sit at. We handled some artefacts over 100 years old and found out what they were used for, before exploring different galleries around the Museum. I was very exciting and very different to how we are taught today!

Baptism

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In the Spring Term, Year 1 were learning about Baptism with the key symbols and items used. As a class we acted out a Baptism to show all we had learnt.

Making smoothies

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Today we received strawberries and bananas for our snack. Mrs Grimwood and the children all thought it would be really fun to make some smoothies. We have been learning about healthy eating recently and our smoothies were certainly healthy! All of the children joined in with the making, which included peeling bananas and selecting strawberries, then carefully putting them in the blender. Most of the children (and adults) loved tasting them. The children shared their smoothies sitting together at the tables. Some even blew bubbles in their drink! Our ingredients were: strawberry, banana, milk.

Dinosaur hunt!

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Some children in reception class wanted to go on a dinosaur hunt around the school. We switched our best detective brains on and went out to search! The children saw footprints, half eaten food and even a dinosaur toilet! Super imaginations and writing from Reception class.

Year 5

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Year 2 went on the Polar Express!

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In December, Year 2 were excited when the Polar Express arrived in class! We had wondered if anything would come along the mysterious tracks that had appeared in the classroom. We saw wolves howling, winding mountains, we made foot prints in crunchy snow and ate hot chocolate fudge. Come and read our recounts of our trip!

Year 2 RE / Art

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We used natural materials to create some artwork to celebrate the beauty of God's creations. What fabulous pieces they were!

Year 2 Science - sorting seeds

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We observed a variety of seeds very carefully with a magnifying glass and then thought of different ways we could sort them. We then chose our favourite two seeds to draw and compare. Great work, Year 2!

Play Equipment

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All of this, and more, was purchased for the children to use in playtimes by Fundraising events.

Mercury Workshops

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