Berry smoothies, Beowulf and bird feeders

It’s so lovely to hear children’s voices raising the rafters, as practising for the House Singing Competition is in full swing. We have realised that our current Year 4 children were in Reception when we last performed. RThe years certainly fly by!

Over the last term we have seen how competitive our children can be and this certainly was true for the Year 3 children when they took on the ‘Dragons’, marketing their healthy home-made smoothies.

Mr Teesdale and our Year 3 prefects admirably tasted a variety of smoothies whose ingredients included kale, dates, sweet potato and even spinach - not necessarily in the same recipe! Congratulations to the winning ‘Berry Crash’ team with their delicious berry-infused smoothie, but well done to all the children as they created their own bottle design, posters and presentations to wow the Dragons.

The Year 4 children were certainly not resting on their laurels as they seized the opportunity to become animators and enjoyed being whizzed back to the old days of using a Zoetrope for simple animation, and then being able to compare it to the more modern methods! It was amazing to see the children thoroughly engaged and creating their own mini motion pictures.

Even though we have been lucky enough to embrace new topics in our creative curriculum we have still been able to include the Celts and the Anglo Saxons. Year 4 studied Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Beowulf’ and the children composed some excellent kennings about the monster Grendel, and also brought the story to life with some superb drama.

The ‘Cutthroat Celts’ spent a fabulous day outdoors not only whittling spears, creating a clay roundhouse village and making some fabulous Celtic artefacts, but ended the day with a water balloon battle with one very rotten Roman - we weren’t quite sure who enjoyed it more!

In Year 3, the children have been literally buzzing as they enjoyed making simple circuits, and it’s been wonderful to watch investigations being carried out by budding scientists.

They then turned into budding biologists and ornithologists too. First they were able to identify all the types of animals and sorted them into the six groups, and also made bird feeders so they could take part in the RSPB The Big Garden Birdwatch event. These activities and many more are further enhanced as they take place outdoors and we are so lucky to have these wonderful spaces.

A huge thank-you to Mrs Bell and her enthusiasm in all weathers as she organises fabulous activities for our children which link in to our curriculum.

The sense of adventure is never far from Year 4 as their Big Five topic has metaphorically whisked them to the savannahs of Africa. As part of their creative curriculum design and technology focus for their Africa topic, these adventurers ventured outdoors and designed, made, and tested toys and games from natural or recycled materials.

The evenings are much lighter so outdoor clubs aren’t needing head torches to follow a hockey ball, a netball or a cross country runner and it certainly lifts the spirits of everyone. We just need the weather to be a little warmer, which I’m sure is imminent.

There will be more clubs and afterschool activities to share with the children in the summer term - oh my goodness, we can’t believe it’s just around the corner! So as the term ends thank-you to all our parents for your continued support and all of us in Middle School wish you a Happy Easter.