Good oral hygiene was on the agenda for Reception this week. Welcoming a professional dentist into school, the children learned all about the importance of keeping their teeth and gums clean and healthy, including which foods are good for strong teeth and which to avoid. The inquisitive children got expert tips on the best techniques to use while brushing their teeth and how much toothpaste to use for an effective clean; working in pairs with a toothbrush and a model of a set of dentures. And they demonstrated how eager they were to learn more as they took turns to ask the dentist some really intelligent questions. Armed with their newfound dental knowledge, the children vowed to teach their parents how best to brush too!

Natasha Jacklin, Reception Class Teacher

This week in literacy, Year 1 tackled the use of question marks and exclamation marks in their writing. Working in line with this term’s ‘bees’ topic, the children worked on a piece called ‘Tidy’; displaying excellent memory skills and choreography by learning their story off by heart and adding actions to help them remember the words. The ability to concentrate and absorb key instructions and express their ideas made this possible and enabled the children to develop into keen performers. Working together, the children asked interesting questions about the text before working to correctly punctuate their questions and ponder the most effective time to include exclamation marks for emphasis.

Hannah Feery, Year 1 Class Teacher

The engineers of tomorrow in Year 2 were this week tasked with considering an alternative to fuel in order to navigate the world’s seas. Having the ability to overcome hitches and obstacles along the way was imperative as the determined children were forced to take their prototypes back to the drawing board as complications arose. The project tied in perfectly with Year 2’s current topic – ‘Should We Change The Way We Move?’ – which aims to find environmentally ways of transporting people and goods around the world without burning fuels in the process, all of which creates problems with climate change. The children shared ideas and quickly decided that wind power was the way forward, resulting in the gathering of wood and biodegradable fastenings to manufacture a convoy of brilliant rafts – some of which proved seaworthy, some less so. The children also found that it begged the question: what if it isn’t a windy day…

Charlie Millsom, Head of Year 2

The stage was set this week for Year 3 to combine the three key musical theatre skills of acting, singing and dancing while exploring the storyline and songs from children’s classic Mary Poppins. The children displayed the ability to listen effectively and stay focussed as they learned the words and movements to the song Let’s Go Fly a Kite and worked in pairs to perform their sequences to their excited classmates. As a result of their commitment, Year 3 became more familiar with the storyline of both the film and stage production of Mary Poppins while also having fun performing one of its most famous songs.

Sarah Baird, Head of Drama

Year 5 have been investigating the topic of forces in science this term. Having previously learnt about the balance between air resistance and weight, the children were challenged to produce the perfect parachute for the Super Skydiving Company. As with any science experiment, Year 5 focused on making their experiments accurate, fair, repeatable and reliable, which meant they could only change one variable with each experiment. Some groups chose to change the shape of the parachute, some investigated the size of the canopy and others investigated the best weight for a certain size of canopy. This sort of experiment is also great for improving fine motor skills and resilience, as tying thin cotton onto flimsy material is very fiddly! Once built, the children tested their parachutes in the special drop zone in the lab with varying degrees of success.

Andy Baker, Year 5 Science Teacher

In maths, Year 6 developed their ability to round six-digit numbers up and down as well as sharpening their mental maths skills. The challenge enabled the children to deepen their understanding of how important maths is in careers beyond education. Year 6 worked extremely effectively together, using their powers of deduction to rank a series of house prices based on properties in and around Liphook in ascending and descending order. As well as demonstrating great teamwork and reasoning, the children showed great desire to progress their maths further by completing extension tasks and using place-value charts to tackle tricky questions. It was clear that the children’s mental maths ability has progressed and they should be very proud of their efforts.

Simon Gunn, Year 6 Class Teacher

In an attempt to escape the winter blues, Year 7 are talking holiday plans in Spanish this term. This week, the children fined tuned their ability to follow the thread of a discussion and make appropriate comments as they considered where they go on holiday and how they travel. Some work with the whiteboards also helped the class to get this down in writing. Pupils enjoyed the chance to dream about more tropical climates, as we continue to battle our way through winter storms!

Jo Longshaw, Year 7 Spanish Teacher

With only a few competitive netball matches under their belts this season, the U13As got off to a cracking start against Westbourne House and were neck and neck in the first quarter. But our visitors slowly took control as the game wore on before easing to a comprehensive win despite some lovely attacking play from Flora D, Coco B and Inés B in particular. Despite the defeat, the girls learned some valuable lessons and will work hard on the training courts to ensure they come back stronger for when they play the reverse fixture at Westbourne.

Natalie McIntosh, U13A Girls’ Netball Coach

Facing a physical Westbourne House side, the U13B team were undaunted. The girls showed patience and composure in working the ball from attack to defence throughout, which was lovely to see after working hard on this in training, as well as executing some impressive interceptions and turnovers. It was a brilliant performance which augers well for the rest of the season. Special mention to players of the match Polina D (defence) and Ella G (attack).

Pip Johnston, U13B Girls’ Netball Coach