The daily mile

By Community, Mental Health, Sport, Sporting Excellence

Every morning at 8:30am, Mrs Jepson has been encouraging children to run the daily mile in the junior playground. If your child would like to take part, then sign up with Mrs Jepson.

Teachers are also encouraging children to run the daily mile at play and lunchtime. To help the children keep track of every mile, Mrs Jepson has created a bar chart in the junior entrance hall. Ticking off the miles is very motivating!

Exercise and fresh air are so important for health and well being. So sign up to walk or run the daily mile.

Mrs Gurner

23/09/2022
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Reading in Year 5

By English, Reading, Year 5

Congratulations to Myles, Mia and Ellise who completed the Summer Reading Challenge. They have also been invited to a Celebration Ceremony will take place at Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham on Sunday 2nd October.

12/09/2022
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Science in Year 5

By Science, Year 5

In Year 5, we began our science work on forces by thinking about gravity.  We thought about what would happen when we dropped a ball.

After our experiments and discussions, we watched a video which showed Commander David Scott dropping a hammer and a feather on the moon.  What do you think will happen?

Dropping a hammer and a feather on the Moon

We also watched Brian Cox visit the world’s biggest vacuum. A bowling ball and some feathers were dropped. See what happens below.

Dropping a bowling ball and feathers

12/09/2022
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State Funeral

By Collective worship, Community, News, Newsletter

Following the announcement from Buckingham Palace of the death of our sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, a period of National Mourning has started and will continue until the end of the State Funeral. This is a period of time for reflection in response to the death of the Sovereign.

The official date of the State Funeral is 19 September 2022. This day will be a bank holiday and St Alban’s will be closed as a mark of respect on this day.

Thank you,

Mrs Gurner

12/09/2022
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Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

By Collective worship, Community, FS1, FS2, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6

Today in collective worship, we will be gathering to remember Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. All of our teachers are prepared to answer children’s questions, in an age appropriate way.

In collective worship, there will be a twin emphasis both on sadness at the death of the Queen and also thankfulness for her long life and reign. Marking 70 years of reign this year she became the longest serving monarch. We will mention that the Queen had a really important job earlier this week, as it is the monarch who asks a party leader to be their Prime Minister, and the Queen made a point of doing this final duty.

Any such event will possibly engender conversations in the classroom. Here are some pointers that have been shared with staff but I thought maybe useful for parents too.

Children will want to talk – and they can be asked both to share what they know about the Queen and also any talk about the day of her death and how they heard the news. We will bear in mind there may have been sadness in homes at this time they will want to relate.

We use the terms ‘death’ and ‘died’ and avoid euphemisms.

We are mindful of those particularly affected, allow children to say what they want and need to say and listen carefully.

Staff should feel totally free from any pressure to offer any answers to questions around ‘death’ and ‘dying’, it is ok to not have the answers.

We will make it clear that being sad is natural, as is not knowing what to feel or say.

Here is a prayer that will be offered for children:

God of love,

We thank you for the life of The Queen,

for her service to our nation,

and for her faith in you.

Be close to all of us who mourn,

that we may we find comfort and hope in your love,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

An online Book of Condolence has been started – we will be explaining that this is a way in which the Church has arranged for everyone to write a note of sadness or thoughts for King Charles.

https://www.churchofengland.org/remembering-her-majesty-queen

At school, we have lots of books that explore death in an age appropriate way. If you wish to borrow one of these books, then please let me know.

Mrs Gurner

09/09/2022
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Reception Baseline Assessment

By FS1, FS2

Welcome back Reception,

You may have noticed that we are calling your child’s class ‘Reception’ rather than ‘FS2’. We have made this decision as most documentation from the DFE refers to the class Reception (as you can see from the attachment).

From now on, we are calling FS1 (Nursery) and FS2 (Reception).

Here is some information about the baseline assessment that will be taking place over the next six weeks. It is nothing to worry about, and your child will most likely be unaware that it is happening.

If you have any questions then please speak to either myself or a member of the Reception team.

Thank you,

Mrs Gurner

06/09/2022
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Y6 Science

By Science, Year 6

Our topic in Science is Light.  The children started the lesson trying to explain how they thought they could see objects.  They then investigated how light travelled and discovered that light travels in straight lines.

05/09/2022
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Y6 Maths

By Maths, Year 6

Year 6 had great fun exploring the use of Cuisenaire Rods in maths.  They used these to investigate different equivalents and used them to understand bar modelling.

05/09/2022
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