Latest updates from our school
Arnie's Amazing Fundraising!
We are very proud of the fundraising efforts of Arnie from year 6 who will be running a marathon (26.2 miles) throughout January for Prostate Cancer UK. This is a charity that is very close to Arnie's heart and means a lot to him and his family. So far, Arnie has raised a whopping £596 and he's still going strong! If you would like to help Arnie raise money, you can donate to his fundraising efforts by clicking on either of the images below to link to his 'Run the Month' page.
Achievement Assembly Winners
Well done to the boys and girls awarded certificates in today's Achievement Assembly.
All of the boys and girls have worked really hard throughout the week and shown excellent behaviour both inside and outside of the classroom. It was lovely to present awards to some of our new pupils too as they have settled into life at KJS brilliantly.
This week in TB - WC 20/01/25
What an awesome week it's been down in the wood...the children have been incredible, showing many of the YOU22 attributes we look for at KJS!
Lower School started their sessions with a musical challenge...they were given eight events that they had to find sounds to match...these included: a mouse nibbling a nut; hail falling on a tin roof; a thunder storm.
We brought our 'instruments' to the fire circle and, as a mass ensemble, performed each event! It was wonderful and the creativity with instrument choice was astounding!
Following this, we corouselled around our challenges from last week.
Upper School children started their session by hearing stories promoting equality by focusing on children with disabilities; one child was deaf, another had autism and another cerebral palsy. We discussed how these children were made to feel like they belonged by people around them, and ways in which we could make people in our community, who are less fortunate, feel like they belong too.
After this, we looked at artwork depicting equality and discrimination and we made collages to represent our thoughts on this - we presented our work to our peers.
Following this, children have undertaken owl-relief art, made bird feeders (to support the RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch 2025 - get involved by going to: rspb.org.uk) and found out about Charles Darwin and his voyage on the HMS Beagle (children made a map of the world and plotted his incredible journey upon it).
Achievement Assemby Winners
It was another terrific Achievement Assembly whereby numerous certificates were presented to the boys and girls for their effort, hard work and positivity throughout the week.
Here are the winners of the Headteacher Awards and English Stars of the Week.
Boccia
Well done to our Boccia Team who finished second in the Amber Valley Sports Association Boccia Competition at Alfreton Leisure Centre.
The team used their skill and accuracy to propel a ball closest to the 'jack' and overcome their opponents. Well done for showing great team work and sportsmanship.
A Visit from Severn Trent
Leanne from Severn Trent Water delivered an assembly this week focussed on the importance of saving water.
She shared data about our daily water usage and gave the children advice on how to reduce this, such as turning the tap off when cleaning our teeth, taking a bath rather than a shower or even listening to a song whilst showering to reduce the time spent in there.
This week in TB - WC 13/01/25
What a lovely week we have had in TB...from -7 last week to +10 this week! Tropical!
Lower School have started their sessions with a sound challenge - 10 different sounds...could they identify what was making each? We had a drill, a saw, a cable-tie...they all did really well!
We discussed how incredible it was that our brains could identify and remember what different sounds were! Following this, we explored the wood and found things that made a sound that we liked...we then set up an impromptu junk band!
After an HC and bicci, we corouselled round the challenges set last week: instrument making, Invisible drama, music composition, fossil making and ear collage.
Upper School started their sessions by considering 'equality'...we read an extract from an article that explained what equality and inequality were and then discussed our thoughts about this.
We then played the 'Equality Game'...in five teams of four, children had to race to collect as many cones as they could from around the field...following this warm up, four of the teams were given a disability and the game was re-run: team one had no disability, team two had to collect cones that were a long way away, team three had to drag a tyre with them, team four wore black-out glasses, and team five had to crawl!
Obviously, team one won, and we used this experience to explore our feelings around equality and how it might feel for people who lived with permanent disability.
We then had a HC and bicci before carouselling around map making, mallet crafting and owl art.
Futsal competition at Alfreton Leisure Centre
On Tuesday of this week, two teams made up of an elite selection of our Upper School boys took part in a futsal competition at Alfreton Leisure Centre.
Both teams performed brilliantly, showing silky skills and incredible sports-personship; one of our teams actually finished third over all!
Huge thanks to AVSSP for organising and to parents for supporting.
This week in TB - WC 06/01/25
From the goblins and munchkins...HAPPY NEW YEAR!
It's been a chilly one this week, but we've been wrapped up well and have made the most of the winter weather!
We've started sessions with a talk about safety around frozen ponds, before heading over to our pond and smashing the ice...this is a favourite thing for all classes to do (and even Mrs B had a go with the ice hammer today and came away with a big smile on her face).
Interestingly, Mr Heron was seen on the pond, and he left his footprints all over the ice - we discussed how frustrating it must be for him at this time of year, being able to see his prey right under his feet but finding himself unable to catch it!
Following this, Lower School children have been exploring sounds around the school site (linked to their Science topic), and have thought about what memories and emotions these sounds bring back to them.
We then undertook five challenges: drama linked to their class book, The Invisible; making a rattling musical instrument; studying Mary Anning before making and finding fossils; learning about the ear and making a labelled collage of it; composing a narrated piece of music to represent a typical TB session.
Upper School have started their sessions by considering inclusion and community...we looked at 12 images that represented these concepts and discussed our thoughts on these while enjoying a lovely hot chocky.
After, we undertook three challenges: mallet making; relief-owl art (embossing); community map making.