In Foundation Stage the children have been continuing their learning through play. 

They have been able to follow their own curiosities and investigations to develop their existing knowledge.

Willows had a great time at the Food and Farming day at Writtle college. We discovered how grain is planted, harvested and what it can be made into; what foods we can grow (tasting was popular!); what animals give us food (the sausages and bacon were very tasty!) and what machinery is used to grow grains.

Great fun was had by all on Wednesday at the year 5/6 disco!

Graffiti wall in year six.

Six KS1 children went to play 3Ts cricket at Howbridge Infant School.

They all really enjoyed it and showed brilliant teamwork and sportsmanship during all the games they played!

Well done!

On Friday 26th April, we had two children competing in the county cross-country finals!

They were both excellent ambassadors to our school and showed brilliant determination in their respective races!

Thomas in year 5, finished 60th.

Righteous in year 6, finished 9th.

On Monday 29th April, the learning champions from KS2 visited the Houses of Parliament.

We watched an educational video all about the history of parliament up to present day. After this, we saw the House of Commons and the House of Lords and found out that green and red are the colours for each house.

We learnt about the lords, baroness' and MPs roles in making our laws including how they vote using ay and no.

Within the House of Lords, we found out about the Queen's speech and saw the ornate throne she sits on during the opening of parliament.

During the tour, we saw many statues of former prime ministers as well as Kings and Queens.

The architecture of the building was beautiful with lots of detailed stain glass windows; huge portrait paintings; chandeliers and woodcarvings.

This term the year 4 classes worked with Mercury Theatre. We worked hard using drama to learn our class story in various ways including freeze framing and taking the part of a character. Then we innovated our stories through drama, which help us when writing our hot writes.

In The Reception and Nursery classes, we have been busy learning to read, write and count. We have been busy investigating and keeping active. There are always lots of things to keep us busy!

Year six have been learning about the Mayan civilisation this term. We found out where the Mayans lived and how their civilisation was discovered. We enjoyed finding out how they used masks in their culture. We designed our masks after looking at different types. We then made our masks out of clay, which we air dried and then painted.

At the beginning of this term, something very exciting happened…. we found a dragon’s egg in our outdoor play area! We were worried that a dragon may have dropped it when flying past the school, so we decided to take care of it. Luckily, we had been learning all about which materials help to keep things warm, so we made a nest for the egg out of twigs and wrapped it in tin foil to incubate it. A couple of weeks later, the egg hatched! It hatched at around the same time as the chicks we have in school. We learned all about how to look after these baby animals, and how gentle we need to be with them. We now take the baby dragon for walks every day so that it can get lots of exercise, and wrap him up to keep him warm when he sleeps. We wonder how big he will grow!

This term, year 3 have been learning about Ancient Egypt. We were lucky enough to go on a school trip to Layer Marney in Colchester where we all took part in four different activities in order to learn more about the Egyptians. The first activity involved looking at different artefacts from this period of history. One of the oldest artefacts was 4000 years old! We looked at the fans they would have used, some of the jewellery and discussed how it was made from lapis lazuli and we talked about the significance of crocodiles in Egypt. The second activity gave us all a chance to make our own Rosetta Stone wheels as we looked at Egyptian hieroglyphics. We used the wheel to solve some Egyptian code as well as having a go at writing our names. After that, we discussed Egyptian housing and what the Egyptians would have eaten for breakfast lunch and dinner. We were even given the opportunity to try some of the foods they would have enjoyed, such as radishes, spring onions and flat breads. Our final activity of the day was all about the importance of masks. We learned that a person’s body was preserved during the process of mummification. This meant that the soul would have somewhere to return to after death. A death mask was created so that the soul would recognise its body, and return to it safely. Death masks were also believed to help to guard a dead person from evil spirits in the afterlife. The death masks we looked at and had a go at making were the Pharoah, Anubis, Ammit and Bastet. Once our death masks were made, we were then able to partake in our own funeral procession.
It was an amazing day out and we all learned lots about Ancient Egypt!

This term our topic has been ‘Out of the World’, which has involved looking at space and fairgrounds. Our science lessons have involved exploring the solar system and the class texts in English have also linked to this. In addition to this, we have looked at fairgrounds. We have planned, designed and built our own fairground rides and have really enjoyed doing this. This term we have also had brass lessons; this involved playing the trombone, trumpet and cornet. As classes we also performed a hip-hop dance with Leon and have also been on a road safety walk.

Nursery children enjoyed making ‘rainbow slime’. They worked in pairs to make yellow, pink, green, blue and purple slime. The children noticed the changes in the mixture as they added different ingredients to it. They mixed the slime until it was malleable and no longer sticking to their fingers. The children had a go at stretching the slime as far as they could across the table. They used words such as ‘slimy’, ‘slippery’ and ‘cold’ when asked how the slime felt.

Year 2 visited Braintree Museum to take part in a Victorian day. We dressed up in Victorian costumes. Many boys were 'chimney sweeps' and many girls were Victorian maids. During the visit, we became detectives and explored Victorian artefacts. We also took part in a scary Victorian lesson. In the lesson we chanted times tables, practised our handwriting on slate boards and the teacher was very, very strict.

The teacher told us all about Victorian punishments like the back straightener, the cane and dunces hat.

We all got the chance to look around the Museum and play Victorian games in the afternoon.

Year 1 took part in an exciting 3D art project where we created a castle and knights themed wall display. Many parents came in to help us. First, we made pebbles or flat plates with newspaper, then we covered our shapes with newsprint and finally we used coloured tissue & metallic papers to add to colour to our artwork. Art Solutions then put all our artwork together on an amazing display in the lower school hall. We are very proud of our work.

In February half term, we ran our fourth Sports and Activity camp in school and twenty-six children attended.

The children completed fun activities including: Dodgeball, football, fencing, New Age Kurling, blindfolded painting, paper aeroplane making and team games.

Throughout the day, all of the children worked in teams to win prizes.

We are looking forward to the next one!

This week a coach from Essex Cricket Club came into school to run a FREE session for a year 1, 2 and 3 class.

The children participated in lots of different activities, which helped to improve their agility, speed and batting.

They showed great desire to learn new skills and work as a team.

On the 5th of February, 18 KS2 Children went to Braintree hockey club to play in a tournament.

We split them into two teams - one team drew two games and lost one; the other team won three and lost one.

Overall, both teams showed great teamwork and were great ambassadors to our school! Well done!

Last week we took two teams of year 5/6 to Braintree Rugby club to play in a tournament. One of the teams played three games but unfortunately did not win any of them. The other team played five games, winning four and losing one. All of the children showed great sportsmanship and were brilliant ambassadors to our school - Well done!