Curious Reception reaped the rewards of working together as they tackled a variety of tasks during child-initiated learning time. And they realised one particularly lofty goal as they took turns to add carefully wooden pieces of different shapes and sizes to make a tall tower. Elsewhere in the creative area, the children used role play to sharpen their communication skills; sharing ideas on how best to hold a tea party, how to hold a conversation on the telephone, or how to get their message across by creating colourful posters.

Natasha Jacklin, Reception Class Teacher

In keeping with their summer term theme of ‘food, glorious food’, Year 1 tucked into a fruity project in art this week. The focused children took on board instructions on how to make a colourful fruit basket, complete with clay fruit, before diligently getting the resources they needed and setting about their task with steely determination. They rolled little clay balls and painted them in different colours to represent different fruit before placing them in their carefully crafted and imaginatively decorated paper baskets, which were folded and stapled with a little help from the teacher. It was a really wonderful session of calmness and creativity with the children delighted to reap the fruits of their happy labours.

Kim Martin, Year 1 Art Teacher

Year 2’s exciting trip to West Wittering beach was linked to their current topic on the natural world. The day was led by the Chichester Harbour education team, which organised a variety of activities focusing on poetry writing in the dunes, beach safety and beach art. There was also an interactive session on deposition, erosion and transportation where the children acted as waves running up the beach, dropping stones as they travelled and creating large piles of deposits to demonstrate the process of dune development. An excellent day of exploration and conservation, which ended with a quick litter pick during which ten buckets full of rubbish were removed from the beach, helped raise the children’s awareness of coastal features and the plight of polluted oceans.

Kerri Wilkes, Year 2 Class Teacher

Year 3 took part in a co-operative learning strategy in English to develop their understanding of the use of an apostrophe for possession. Linked to our class text Alba, the Hundred-Year-Old Fish, the children took ownership of an unfriendly item (litter) before touring the classroom and then pairing up to write the owner and possession with the apostrophe in the correct place. While the task enabled them to review key information and to support each other with their learning, the children were required to take their work to the next level by taking care and paying attention to detail.

Henrietta Platt, Year 3 Class Teacher

Year 5 linguists this week learnt how to ask for and give directions in Spanish. The children worked successfully in pairs using a map to direct each other to different landmarks in the town. They coped well with the challenge, in particular mastering pronunciation, and understood the importance of supporting each other during their learning.

Annabel Keville, Year 5 Spanish Teacher

In English, Year 6 have this week been focusing on the benefits of creativity in their descriptive written work. The children were full of energy and really bounced ideas off each other as they worked on Stanley’s second hole (from class text Holes). After expanding their vocabulary to make their work more vibrant and colourful, the figurative language on show was impressive and, as a result, they produced display-worthy pieces.

Simon Gunn, Year 6 Class Teacher

Year 7 this week learned the importance of accurate measuring and precision drilling in DT. The children are creating jewellery designs based on photographic composition and the work of architects Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Frank Gehry and carefully got to grips with the pillar drill to make holes for their pewter/metal casting. Their casts consist of two parts – one hand cut using the coping saw and the other engraved using a computer-aided design laser – and the children got more and more confident in their ability to handle key tools and in the design process by staying calm and learning that it is important to plan effectively before starting practical work.

Jamie Dew, Head of DT

The onset of the better weather has given Year 8 the opportunity to sharpen their tennis skills in PE. With Wimbledon looming large, the children learned the key facets of serving and returning, be it forehand or backhand, and positional sense during doubles, with one player at the back of the court and their partner at the net. The children then played some doubles to put their skills into practice in a matchplay situation.

Jo Gordon, Head of PE