After an amazing, exciting and informative visit from Steve the Animal Man from DWAEC, the children in Upper School have been writing their own information texts about animals they met.

In class, we begun by all writing about Tigers as part of our shared writing. In Team Equality, the children were allowed to choose which animal they wanted to research using their fact finder sheets and then write about. I'm sure you'll agree that the writing they have produced is absolutely fantastic! The children worked incredibly hard to include their chosen success criteria and show off what they knew whilst writing to inform. Well done!

Well, well, well...the first blossom was peeping out on the plum trees this week...when I saw it, I actually said: "Think you're being a bit optemistic there, Mrs Plum Tree!"...and she was, as the blossom has been blown clean off the tree this morning!

The kids have been awesome again this week...they've flourished in some cold weather and produced some wonderful and accurate work.  

Lower School children have started their sessions this week with a Ghanian animal-foorptint challenge...they had to find thirteen footprints hidden around the wood, sketch them, and then move to an ID station and identify which animals the prints belonged to - woudl their sketches be accurate enough to enable them to do this?  

We had a big focus on presentation, ensuring sketches were precise and well shaded, that spellings were accutate and that handwriting was to the standard expected in the class-room (music to Mr Hull's ears).  

Following this, children either finished their Ghanian-themed masks or set up and undertook a rainforest hunting challenge (rest assured, no animals were actually harmed).  

With the masks, children were experimenting with patternation in the clay and with techniques for adding necklaces and facial hair - we had to learn to reliably tie an over-hand knot and to delicately and precisely insert these knots into the clay using a Highly Technical Surgical Device (HTSD) aka a tent peg.  

Upper School have moved straight into their main challenges this week, as they were set to take longer to complete than an hour: picture frame finishing; water colour exploration; animal trap construction (note: exception here was Endeavour, who had a quick walk to the site of the proposed building development to gather information to support their work in English with Mr Wilby).  

Picture frames should have started to arrive home this week, and in them you will find the charcoal pictures the children completed earlier in the term.  Please note the craftspersonship needed to make the frames - the children had to be exceedingly precise with measuring and tool use, and show oodles of communication, organisation and safety skills in order to be successful (we used rulers, vices, sheath-knives, mallets, folding saws, hammers and loppers).  

Embarrasingly, I was unaware of the name of the joint we employed in the frame's construction, but our resident master carpenter, Mr Hull, informs me that it's called a cross-halving joint.  

Our year 3 and 4 children competed in the AVSSP dodgeball competition last night. Despite playing superbly and narrowly missing out on a top three finish, the children didn't leave empty handed. They were awarded with the 'Spirit of the Games' award for their honesty throughout the course of the evening.

We hope you are as proud of our team as we are. Well done!

Team Equality have been working incredibly hard to earn marbles towards their marble jar reward. After a democratic vote earlier this week, they decided they wanted to have extra time in the computing suite. The children opted to make animations and presentations in PowerPoint, play scratch, develop their skills on Tinkercad and spend time on Minecraft too. It was lovely to see how supportive they were of each other and they had lots of fun enjoying their reward. Well done, Team! Keep it up!

Head chef away?  Up steps Mr Hull and seamlessly takes over, ensuring all the sous chefs are kept in line and that the offerings maintain that Michelin standard - thankfully, he was more Rick Stein than Gordon Ramsey!

The blue plaster...well...someone foolishly set him loose with a tool - tin opener 1, Mr Hull 0.  

In a post-cooking interview with myself, Mr Hull stated: "The key is organisation, Paul.  A tidy, ordered kitchen is a happy kitchen.  Keep an eye on your staff, know your timings, and you can be sure that you'll bang out quality and nutritious food that the children will love at an affordable price."

What will he be upto next week?  Watch this space!