Inviting visitors to join us in school is always a real treat. On Monday, the excited Reception children, warm and cosy in their wet-weather gear, eagerly awaited the arrival of their mums (and some dads) for a special trip to Forest School. Having greeted them with enthusiastic hugs, the children shared how important it was for them to stretch their relating learning muscles by listening to instructions before lining up ready to head towards the woods. As there has been lots of forestry work taking place, the children felt it was important to remind their visitors and each other of the Forest School rules. Using their previous knowledge of how to whittle, sticks were sharpened and topped with a tasty marshmallow which was roasted over the roaring campfire. In preparation for the RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch at the end of January, the keen young learners were set the challenge of making a natural bird feeder out of seeds, lard and pine cones, which required the children to work collaboratively with their mums and dads. Once complete, the children needed to attach the fiddly string to their creation, which required perseverance to achieve the end goal. Now, all the children are looking forward to seeing which birds visit their new feeders.

Georgie Hunter, Head of Reception

The Year 1 children this week revelled in their frosty environment as they were joined by Year 2 for a magical visit to Forest School. Wrapped in their hats, scarves and gloves, the children had so much fun whittling sticks and toasting marshmallows over the campfire. And when their little fingers and toes started getting cold, the children tucked into some delicious hot chocolate to warm up. They also had the chance to explore our wonderful woodland; finding some huge chunks of ice that had formed from puddles. Back in the classroom, in maths, the children worked on place values involving numbers up to 20 and found easier ways to count numbers using groups of 10. Busy Year 1 explored all sorts of resources to help them with their counting, including dienes, tens frames, and bead strings.

Rachael Berry, Year 1 Class Teacher

Inspired by their visit to the South Downs Planetarium, Year 2 have immersed themselves in more astral learning. The young stargazers discovered that a moon is a celestial object that orbits a planet and that Earth has one moon whereas the mighty planet Jupiter has four major moons and many small ones. The would-be astronomers also found that Earth’s moon is one of the biggest moons within our solar system compared to the planet it orbits. Building on what they learned at the planetarium in Chichester, Year 2 constructed astronomical sentences to describe the moon, using a range of conjunctions to extend them. The children had plenty of opportunity to reflect on their work and make improvements and the results were out of this world. Continuing the space theme, the children worked together and used their mathematical skills to work out the relative sizes of the planets as they created their very own solar system. Not only that, Year 2 got to sample some real astronaut food; foods that have had almost 98% of their water removed to preserve them for long periods in space. The chocolate ice cream went down particularly well with most of our future astronauts. For others, space strawberries will be the food of choice on their next mission.

Charlie Millsom, Head of Year 2

The new term marks the opportunity for the Year 3 children to put themselves forward as contenders for the Spring Term House Captains’ roles. Those children who chose to stand for election had prepared well-thought-out pledge speeches which they gave to their respective houses. The added element of organising playground games during break offers the Years 3 children a chance to demonstrate their relating learning skills by listening to each other, showing empathy and understanding, while also recognising the importance of helping their contemporaries and those further down the school. Moreover, the occasion allowed the children to develop their presentation skills, speaking audibly and fluently in front of a large audience. After a close-run contest, there was a chance to take on other leadership roles such as the class Eco Warrior, School Council member or Reading Ambassador. These opportunities not only play an important part in empowering the children to plan and lead whole-school events but also allow them to develop key life skills.

Henrietta Platt, Head of Year 3

This term, Year 5 are continuing to learn about solutions and separating mixtures. The children have carried out a variety of experiments looking at recognising the differences between reversible and irreversible reactions, how to separate insoluble substances from a solution, how to separate a solid dissolved in a solution, and carried out an investigation to find the saturation points of sugar and salt solutions. This engaging topic culminates in a required practical test where the children will use their understanding and knowledge of the theory, along with the experimental techniques learned along the way, to write their own detailed method and then apply those methods to separate three substances using magnetism, filtration and evaporation.

Oliver Hamilton, Year 5 Science Teacher

Year 6 have begun the Spring Term investigating different averages and their uses to represent data. Is finding the mean always the best way to represent data? Or would the median give a better representation? These are the types of questions the children have been discussing in lessons; looking at the different advantages and disadvantages they have when analysing data. With the high ability level in the class, we extended the topic further by investigating how to calculate averages when large data can also be presented in frequency tables. Year 6 soon identified the concept of using the midpoint to calculate an estimate for the mean when using grouped data. The children will next collect their own data to which they can apply the mean, mode, median and range.

Danny Parkinson, Year 6 Maths Teacher

Relationships, in all their shapes and sizes, form a fundamental part of our lives and the state of them can have a huge impact on our mental health and wellbeing. In PSHE this half term, Year 7 are spending time considering what different types of relationship might look and feel like. The key aim of this work is to identify the traits of positive relationships and be able to recognise when a relationship is unhealthy or dangerous, both online and offline. To start the thought process, the children have been reflecting on their own relationships and interactions by drawing out their own ‘relationship solar system’. With themselves at the centre, Year 7 have spun into orbit all those people closest to them, be it a parent, friend, teacher, or even their doctor. They have represented their impact and importance on their life by the size of each planet and the regularity of contact by the closeness of orbit. From here, we have been able to have some thoughtful and interesting discussions on what is required to keep these orbits stable and what might be occurring when meteorites strike or a black hole is spotted! The children have engaged brilliantly and their chat and enthusiasm around their solar systems was palpable.

Zoe Thesiger-Pratt, Head of PSHE

In Music, Year 8 are studying the 1980s this term. The children are examining the relationship between lyrics, music and video and how this relationship changed with the way people accessed their music across the different decades. They were walked through the passage of time courtesy of vinyl records before the emergence of Walkmans, CDs and audio streaming services such as Spotify. They explored the game-changing emergence of MTV in 1981 – including a visual treat in the form of the aptly-named Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles, which was the first music video ever shown on the new channel – and the music videos of Michael Jackson, Madonna and other luminaries of one of the most popular music decades of all time.

John Mühlemann, Head of Music