Year 9 pupil Silas finished in 3rd place at the Cambridgeshire County Cross Country Championships, held on 15th January in St Neots. As a result of his top placement, he has also been selected to run in the Anglian Schools Cross Country Championships, which will take place on 5th February. Best of luck to Silas!
This morning, it was Year 3’s turn to show their fellow Infants and Juniors what they have been learning, in the form of a Class Assembly with the theme of ‘Keeping Ourselves Safe.’
The children presented helpful tips for staying safe in school, outside, and online. Some suggestions included washing hands and using hand sanitiser to stay safe at school during the pandemic; wearing proper safety equipment like helmets on a bicycle; and using high-visibility clothing to help them stay safe out on the street. Miss Moorhouse noted that the children have been learning about the luminescent and reflective properties of this type of clothing in their Science lessons.
The class then gave four helpful rules for maintaining safety online. First, always show a grownup you trust any new websites or games that you want to play. Second, never talk to strangers online. Third, never give out personal information; and finally, be kind to your friends online. The assembly ended with a guiding principle to help pupils remember what they’d just heard: ‘Be safe, Be Seen’. What a practical and helpful assembly by Year 3!
Read this issue of The Skylark newsletter for a glimpse into what has been happening in school this half-term. From science experiments to nature drawings to handicraft to books, you’ll get a taste of how our pupils have been experiencing the richness of our curriculum during the past several weeks.
On Tuesday, ten Heritage Seniors from Years 7 to 9 ran in the District Cross Country Championships at Netherhall School. Well done to each of the pupils who successfully competed in some very cold weather. Special recognition goes to Silas (Y9) who placed first among the Year 8 and 9 boys. Overall, it was an excellent morning with great results!
Yesterday morning Upper Prep put on a marvellous class assembly, demonstrating some of the wonderfully enriching bird-themed learning that has been running through many of their curriculum subjects this term.
Art appreciation
The class described some things they had learned about John James Audubon (1785-1851) who became famous for his beautiful paintings of American birds 200 years ago.
Art
The pupils showed the beautifully colourful and detailed bird paintings they had created; their schoolmates correctly identified the birds that were represented: Kingfisher, Blue tit, Robin, Blackbirds, Magpie, and Tawny owl.
Nature Study
Upper Prep learned about the difference between soft-billed birds and hard-billed birds during their readings of Adventures Into Nature. They noted that the terms have to do with the type of food the birds eat, not the hardness or softness of their bills!
Nature walks
On nature walks, the pupils have been enjoying bird spotting, and recorded their findings using tally lines. They shared their charts that detailed the birds they had seen in different locations.
Writing
The children have been listening to information about birds and writing down some bird facts. Some of the pupils shared the bird fascinating facts they had learned. For example, a blue tit will often eat upside down and ducklings can swim straight away after hatching!
Literature
The class have been reading Aesop’s fables, so in science they decided to test one fable called ‘The Crow and the Pitcher,’ to see if water would rise up inside the jug by dropping stones into it. The water did in fact rise. (Eureka!)
Drama
Finally, Upper Prep delivered a terrific performance of a story they have been working on in Drama, an Inuit legend called ‘Why the Robin Has a Red Breast.’
Each of the Upper Prep children should be proud of all that they have learned, and how well they shared their learning with their schoolmates!
