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At 8.00am on Wednesday 25th May the whole school departed for the Stratford upon Avon for the day! We had organised a very special trip which linked with the celebration of 400 years of Shakespeare’s legacy and our summer term’s topic of ‘All the World’s a Stage.’ Each class took part in a workshop led by a RSC practitioner; the children engaged practically with the language in the way that actors do when they are rehearsing a play for performance.  The children were involved in various ice-breaker activities and then worked on key Shakespeare scenes and speeches from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ After lunch we mustered up enough energy to take a tour around the town to see some of the main sights: Shakespeare’s birthplace, his school and his grave. After a well-earned play in the park we headed back to the coaches and returned to school by 4.30pm.  A big day out – we were tired but we all had a fantastic time!

We held our Ascension Day service at St Faith’s church on Thursday 5 May.  Pupils in Year 4 led the service with the help of the Reverend Jeremy Gouslton.  A special candle called the Paschal or Easter Candle was lit to remind us that Jesus had risen and was amongst His disciples during this part of the Church Year.  The Year 4’s talked about Ascension being the reverse of Christmas: how Jesus had come from His Father at Christmas and on Ascension Day how we remember that He returned to His Father.

We are a storytelling school and as part of our learning we invited a local dramatist and storyteller, Roger Day, to work with the school.  Roger spent the whole day working intensively with each class developing the children’s storytelling and drama skills. The whole school was captivated with Roger’s stories and he certainly helped to inspire the children’s imagination.

Our Easter Service was led by our youngest pupils in the school. Children from Classes 1 and 2 helped us to understand the significance of the Easter through songs, Bible readings and prayers. Parents and family friends also joined us in our end of term worship.

We had a wonderful time on the day of our sponsored run on Tuesday 22nd March and the weather was just perfect! All the children give their best effort towards trying to achieve the Golden Mile and some children exceeded this distance. The total raised to date was an incredible £1000! So a huge thank you to everyone who sought sponsors and helped raise money to purchase some additional staging for our summer whole school production. The children are delighted.

Mrs Marsh organised our annual Poetry Recital on Friday 11 March. Each class performed a poem to an audience of parents and governors. Groups of pupils and individual children were also invited to participate by choosing a favourite poem to rehearse at home and perform at the Poetry Recital. Some children chose a simple recital whilst others chose to add actions and costumes to add to their performance! All the children performed incredibly well and were clapped and cheered on by the audience.

On the 12th February we held a whole school Open Afternoon and opened our doors to parents and family friends to view the school as a ‘working school.’ The whole school had spent the day focusing on problem-solving using the Singapore Maths approach to learning. The children were incredibly proud and pleased to be able to ‘show off’ their learning.  They were so very excited by the event and are keen for another opportunity when their parents can come and see them in action in the classroom!

After the huge success of last year’s workshop, we were thrilled to welcome back Marcel Pusey and his colleagues from the award winning ‘Bassistry Music’.   Each class worked with Bassistry Music throughout the day in a series of interactive, energetic and fun workshops using body rhythms, movement and dance.  The children learnt original songs, used percussion and drum kits to explore world and popular music.  The day culminated in our school Music Serenade with each class performing to parent and family friends all they had learnt during the day. We also invited young instrumentalists to perform and pianists, guitarists and violinists all took part.  It was lovely to be reminded of what a musical school we are!

Our Nativity Play ‘A Miracle in Town was a delight to watch and lead by our youngest recruits in Class 1. The children sang and performed beautifully! We raised £200.43 in donations for Crisis a charity for single homeless people. FoSS provided us with savouries and hot soup, mulled wine and cakes.