John Bunyan School

Lancaster Way, Braintree, CM7 5UL
Phone: 01376 321 814 

Resilience, Ambition, Values, Excitement.

John Bunyan Primary and Nursery School

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Posted by on in Year 3

Watch Poplars sports day here. 

 

https://youtu.be/e-996rQhlh0

 

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Posted by on in Year 6

Maples had a great week learning about Healthy Bodies and Healthy Minds.  We learned a lot about mental health and explored different ways we can help manage our emotions and feel positive.  We looked at healthy foods and tried lots of unusual fruit and vegetables that are healthy snacks.  We were very surprised at the sugar content of some of our favourite drinks.  We did lots of fitness and physical activity all week, culminating in our Sports Morning on Friday.  The children all worked very hard and encouraged each other to be the best they could be...it was fantastic that the class had the most points of the Year 6 classes and that Courtney and Orlaith won the individual prizes for Year 6.

 

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Posted by on in Year 6

Pines enjoyed their sports morning, even though parents couldn’t attend, the children gave the best they could and they helped one another. Well done Pines – lots of you achieving your best scores.

 

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Posted by on in Year 6

Hawthorns took part in the year six sports day - they all had great fun and worked hard to improve on their scores. 

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Posted by on in Year 5
For Comic Relief, Year 5 did a Superhero Car Wash to raise money. Everybody in Year 5 dressed up as any superhero and had their own sections of staff cars to clean. In those groups we were put into groups of 3 to wash our assigned cars. We then gave out donation cards for the staff to complete on how well a job we did. In total, we raised an amazing £324.90 for charity.
 

A huge well done to all of Year 5 and a special thanks for the kind donations from the staff members too. 

 

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Posted by on in PE

The last couple of weeks the children have been participating in lots of different sports in school and outside competing against other schools!

Some children from year 2 and year 4 have been very Lucky trying Parkour.
They had to jump, swing, hang and crouch on lots of different obstacles and even jump onto a crash mat from a height!

Last week 48 KS2 children went to Tabor High School to compete against lots of other schools in cross country!

All of the children showed great determination and didn’t give up.


Congratulations to Thomas, Remi, Keeley, Gracie and Montana who came in the top 5 of their races!


Well done!

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Posted by on in Our Reading Statement

Our Approach to the Teaching of Reading
 
At John Bunyan Primary School and Nursery, we are determined to foster a love of reading for all of our children. We invest hugely in our school library and in books for our classrooms, so that children have access to high quality texts that will tempt them and develop a passion for reading that will last a life time.

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Foundation Stage, including Nursery


As soon as children come to our school, we immediately begin the process of learning to read. In Nursery, the children have daily learning opportunities which introduce them to initial letter sounds, Early Talkboost and the Ultimate Guide to Phonological Awareness programme. In the Foundation Stage, the daily systematic synthetic phonics teaching of Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds provides the fastest and most effective way of getting our young children to start reading. We aim for all children to be blending by the end of the Autumn Term in Reception.. Children are rapidly taught a series of sounds and then apply these to a series of matched books that include these sounds. Our aim is to ensure children feel confident and can fluently read and reread simple texts. Consistent teaching, together with rigorous, regular assessments enable us to identify any gaps in the children's learning as soon as they arise and then put in daily ‘Keep Up’ practice to overcome these barriers. Alongside these phonetically decodable books, children also take-home high-quality fiction and non-fiction books which we encourage parents and carers to share with their children to develop a love of reading. Parents of our younger children are invited to share a story in our library with their children’s class and at this time, the teacher will model the sounds that are being taught and the strategies being used to teach reading.

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Key Stage 1


The consistent teaching of Little Wandle Revised Letters and Sounds phonics programme continues throughout Years 1 and 2. Our programme is structured in such a way as to ensure the teaching of phonics is systematically delivered and that progress is built on from year to year. By the end of Year 2, it is our expectation that children will be fluent readers and will no longer need explicit phonics teaching for reading. In Year 2, any children that are not at age related expectations will begin the Little Wandle, ‘Rapid Catch-Up intervention. Some pupils start the No Nonsense Spelling programme which allows them to develop their spelling and transfer their phonic knowledge into their written work.

Reading is explicitly taught in groups with a focus on decoding, prosody and comprehension using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds books. Families are encouraged to join us every Monday morning from 8.45-9.10 for ‘Stay and Play’; providing opportunities to engage in learning activities and to share books with their children in our library or classrooms.

 



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Key Stage 2


By Year 3, most children will be ready to move onto our Accelerated Reading programme. Our children find this highly motivating as they quiz after reading each book and continuously read more challenging texts. The reading strategies of activating prior knowledge, predicting, fluency, clarifying, questioning and summarizing are built upon from Key Stage 1 and promote a more inferential level of thinking. Children have an opportunity to develop these further during our quiet reading sessions and through class studies of high-quality books, as well as shorter text through our Talk for Writing programme. The direct teaching of vocabulary is embedded across the school through Vocab Ninja, where children are introduced to new vocabulary which extends their thinking and enables them to access more challenging texts. Again, any children that are not at age related expectations will take part in the Little Wandle Rapid Catch-Up intervention.

At John Bunyan Primary School, teachers give time to reading aloud to children, so that they can enjoy hearing stories that they might not yet be able to access independently. Many opportunities are created for children to develop a love of reading including our Reading Doorway project where children read a core set of books for each year and collect stamps to complete our Reading Doorway Booklet over their time at John Bunyan Primary.

Families are encouraged to join us every Friday morning from 8.40-9.10 for ‘Come and Read’; providing opportunities to share books with their children in our library and in the classrooms.

 

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Posted by on in Year 6

Year six have recently made pillows in design and technology: they had to come up with a design to do with World War 2. The children decided to either complete 2, 4 or 6 boxes on their material. When they had their design they transferred it onto their pillows and then used back and running stitch to sew around the pictures, words and letters they had drawn. Once they had completed the sewing they were able to colour in their designs with fabric crayons and pens. Finally, they stuffed the pillows and sealed them up using blanket stitch.

 

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Posted by on in Year 6

Elms had a great time at their xmas party today - they loved all the party games!

 

https://youtu.be/VHHSrmCDcLc

https://youtu.be/Q85vjtqfKLk

https://youtu.be/YcbN7cXNJdM

https://youtu.be/TGaqsfP1oRI

 

 

 

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Posted by on in Whole School

On Tuesday 17th December 2019 we had the annual JBP curling competition. 

 

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Posted by on in Year 6

Year 6 recently went to Fairplay House for their residential. The children tried all the different activities: archery, caving, big swing and woodland games. We also completed a night walk which was rather scary! The children had great fun and really enjoyed their time their. Here are some photos and videos.

https://youtu.be/WBKc5oZRg_0

https://youtu.be/ovcU97fwdL0

https://youtu.be/LO6jhA3mOns

 

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Posted by on in Year 1

On Tuesday 3rd December, Year 1 and 2 enjoyed a visit from the 'Flying Pizza Theatre Company.'

They performed 'The Snow Queen' for the children and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

The whole show was cleverly performed by just two people playing all the different characters.

Livvy, from Poplars, said 'I loved it when the reindeer spoke because it was very funny!'

Junior, from Poplars, said 'I liked it when the Snow Queen came because she was controlling the little boy!'

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Posted by on in Year 5

Year 5 are studying local history this term. 

In the first half term, we focused on local history and geography. The children enjoyed a tour of Bradford Street and a heritage trail around the town centre. We then researched an area of local history and produced maps as well as information about their chosen area.

Maples took inspiration from the artist Andy Goldsworthy and collected items from nature which they then used to create collages to illustrate their chosen historical study.

This half term, we are focusing on art and design and technology. Taking inspiration from the textiles we saw on our trip to the Warner Textile Mill, we will be designing our own fabric and using it to design and make a decorated coin purse.

 

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Posted by on in Year 4

To explore what the lives of the Romans were like, year 4 were lucky enough to visit Colchester Castle.

One of the many activities involved us spending some time building Roman Villas and Roundhouses.

We researched and identified many other aspects of Roman life and had the opportunity to experience what it would have been like in a chariot race and locked in the dungeons. We also listened to many interesting stories from the era, underneath the castle itself.

It was a really fun and interesting day; everyone definitely enjoyed themselves and learned lots!

This term we were also lucky to have the opportunity to go and watch the film 'Small Foot' in the cinema.

The story was exciting and funny, whilst having a story line that reflected upon our code of conduct.

As a year group we are currently in the process of rehearsing for our performance 'The Rocking Romans'.

 

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Posted by on in Year 6

Year six had a great day at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

We were able to see different types of airplanes, tanks and vehicles used in World War 2. We even saw some airplanes from World War 1!

Everyone enjoyed the day very much and we all learnt a lot about the battle of Britain and how Duxford was used as an Air Force Base in WW2.   

 

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Posted by on in Year 3

This term, year 3 were lucky enough to visit Lea Valley for a Stone Age day. One of the activities involved us spending some time outdoors. We had to identify the different types of plants that they would have had in the Stone Age. We were then able to discuss what they would have been used for. We also had a go at using a fire steel to make our own fires. This proved quite tricky although a few of us did manage to set alight the cotton wool tinder! In the afternoon, we spent time looking at different artefacts. These included flint, spear, arrowheads and antlers. After that, we had a go at creating our own cave paintings by candlelight using charcoal. It was a really fun and interesting day and everyone definitely enjoyed themselves and learned lots!

 

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Posted by on in PE

Last week 8, KS1 children participated in a rugby festival at Holy Family School.

They played different mini games to introduce them into rugby.

The children loved playing a new game and competing against other schools!

 

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Posted by on in Whole School

During half term, we ran a sports and activity day for 38 children.

They all enjoyed a range of activities including dodgeball, football, dressing as a Mummy, apple bobbing, just dance and Art.

The children and adults really enjoyed the day and look forward to the next one in February half term!

 

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Posted by on in Foundation

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Posted by on in Nursery

We learnt about Autumn and found lots of Autumn treasures in the forest in our school.

 

 

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Collecting sunflower seeds from sunflowers grown in the school garden to make bird feeders.

 

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We drilled holes in conkers and threaded string through them to make conker chains.

 

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