Pupils and staff are now well into finding their stride with the new school year. We have welcomed twenty new pupils into Reception and it is lovely to see their eager faces each day. To embrace the family feel of the school and our aspiration to develop nurturing, each Year Six pupil has ‘buddied’ up with a reception child to help them to feel at home in the lunch hall and playground. It has been heart-warming to hear the little ones ask, “Where’s my (name of their buddy)?” and to see the older children with arms open wide to welcome their little friend on arrival in the mornings. Some year sixers have even put on shows for entertainment.
We have also welcomed a new member of staff and pupils further up the school. New blood is always welcome and provides opportunities to build new relationships and see the world through others’ eyes.
Summer Reading Challenge
Pupils who participated in the Library Summer Reading challenge through Gloucestershire Libraries were able to share their achievement with the rest of the school in an assembly at the beginning of the year. Well done to all that kept up with broadening their knowledge through reading books over the summer.
We continue to celebrate pupil successes in school with our weekly Merit Assemblies when a few pupils in each class are awarded a merit for their excellent work, attitude or behaviour during the week.
Court Barn – Class 4
Class 4 have spent a day at Court Barn, Chipping Campden assisting with administration tasks behind the scenes, working the reception desk as front of house staff and completing a stained-glass art workshop focusing on the plants and animals seen in the orchard.
Art in School
Art as ever abounds within the school with whole-class clarinet lessons and the joy of singing together each day. Class 3’s art and design focus is on early cave paintings with Class 5 moving forwards in time to study Ancient Greek pottery. We then time travel forwards to the 19th century and the art of Henri Rousseau in Class 4. Class 2 are focusing on honing their drawing and colour mixing skills whilst Class 1 have already created some memorable self-portraits.
Class 5 – Camp In
Class 5 have had a ‘camp-in’ in St George’s Village Hall to build camaraderie and have fun as a class with torch-lit, night-time games on the field, pizza assembling and hot chocolate shared whilst listening to bedtime stories before settling down to sleep or not…
Cotswold School – Cross Country
Key Stage 2 literally hit the ground running in PE, training for a series of cross-country events. All four year groups represented the school at an inter-primary-school cross-country event held at The Cotswold School with winners in the Year 3-4 boys and Year 5-6 boys races. We were delighted to be top of the leader board and look forward to the next event at Campden Secondary School on 12th November during the school day.
Class 4 – The Living Rainforest
To enrich Class 4’s rainforest-themed studies, they have had a trip to the Living Rainforest, an indoor greenhouse tropical rainforest. They came back bursting with details about all of the wildlife they saw, including toucans, a sloth and iguanas.
Harvest Festival
At the beginning of October, Class 5 led our Harvest Festival Service in St Peter and St Paul’s with the thought-provoking theme of food waste and how we can work to avoid it and follow the teachings of Jesus to: “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” All classes contributed with renditions of “Big Red Combine Harvester”, a novel food waste dance, imaginative acrostic poems and thoughtful prayers. Continuing with the theme of wasting nothing, Class 5 have spent a soaking wet afternoon in our Forest School cutting willow withies in readiness for making Christmas wreaths in December.
Food Bank
Thank you for the donations of food during our Harvest Festival. Donations amounted to an impressive 71.82kg and will go to help many local families, who are often working on low incomes and find themselves in desperate need.
Life Education
Earlier on during the term we had a visit from Coram Life Education to support the class teaching of PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education). A tent was erected in the hall and classes individually visited the space to meet Harold, the giraffe puppet (Healthy Harold) and friends. Here they had discussions and watched short films about various topics (age dependant), including healthy eating, drugs – legal and illegal and how the body works, friendships and their influence, and how choices and behaviours can affect children’s health and education outcomes.
Class 3 Iron Age Day
Class 3 have been learning about pre-Roman Britain. They have been exploring the changes that took place in Britain from the Stone Age all the way through to the Iron Age, learning about Iron Age hill forts, tribal kingdoms and farming. As a culmination of this work the class emerged themselves in the Iron Age by having an Iron Age Day – dressing up in Iron Age costumes, making Iron Age bread, learning about Iron Age tribes, testing their skills at weaving wool as well as make some model roundhouses.
Class 2
Class 2 have had a really busy start to the school year. They have enjoyed getting to know each other as well as learning about lots of fun topics including the Great Fire of London. They have really enjoyed learning about how it started and why it spread so quickly. In Art they have used lots of different media to create fire scenes. On a sunny but windy afternoon the class built some paper houses, then took them outside where the adults set the houses on fire, it was great fun to watch and all could understand how the fire spread so quickly.
At the end of Term Class 1 and 2 had a visit from Chipping Campden Fire Service, they showed us the engine and the equipment they carry as well as giving Class 2 a talk about fire safety.
Class 1 visit church
Class 1 walked down to the church in Blockley to learn more about baptism.
Car Park
Please ensure that the safety of other users is paramount when using the car park to drop and pick up children. Please park sensibly to allow others to get in and out and drive safely at all times.
Governor
Thank you to the three parents that put their names forward to be a governor at the school. The count has been held and we can announce that Hannah Waller has been elected as the new parent governor.
Wishing you all a good break and we look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Monday 3rd November.