Today we had a very exciting visit from Lion Learners! The children had the fantastic opportunity to get up close to a range of fascinating animals linked to our animal kingdom topic.

They were incredibly brave as they held and touched a snake, tortoise, tarantula, guinea pig, bearded dragon, cockroach and giant African land snail. Michaela shared lots of interesting facts about each animal, helping the children to learn more about where they live, what they eat and what makes them special.

It was a wonderful hands-on learning experience, and the children showed lots of curiosity, excitement and bravery throughout the visit. What a fantastic way to learn about the amazing world of animals!

This week, our Year 1 and 2 children became animal sorting experts! We looked at a variety of animals and sorted them into groups using our own criteria.

Some children sorted animals into can swim and can’t swim, while others grouped them by features such as fur, feathers or scales.

It was wonderful to see the children explaining their choices and discovering that animals can be sorted in lots of different ways! 🔬🐾

On Thursday afternoon, all of Key Stage 1 came together in the hall for our Booknic!

The children mixed with different classes and year groups, enjoying time together to explore some of our favourite books. They shared stories, looked at illustrations and chatted enthusiastically about the books they love.

It was wonderful to see children of different ages coming together to share their love of reading and enjoy books with one another. A lovely afternoon was had by all!

This morning, we were lucky enough to enjoy an amazing live event with the wonderful author Julia Donaldson!

We listened as Julia brought her story, The Gruffalo, to life, acting out the story alongside a group of actors and illustrator Axel Scheffler. She then answered some fantastic questions from the live audience before giving us a very special treat — reading her brand-new book, Gruffalo Granny.

We were incredibly excited to discover that we were only the third audience Julia has read the new story to! What a special experience for our children and a wonderful way to celebrate our love of books and reading. 📖✨

1/2CN have had a fantastic first three days settling into their new class! We’ve been spending lots of time getting to know one another, as well as learning our new classroom routines, rules and expectations. The children have picked everything up incredibly quickly, and we’re so proud of how well they’ve settled in.

This week we have been reading The Colour Monster, a story about a monster whose different emotions are all muddled up into a colourful mix. In the story, his friend helps him sort each emotion into its own jar.

Inspired by the story, we have introduced our daily emotional check-in. Every morning, the children find the lollipop stick with their name on it and place it into the coloured jar that matches how they are feeling that day. This helps us celebrate happy and excited feelings, and it also lets us know if anyone is feeling sad, worried or upset so we can spend some time checking in with them and offering support.

We also learnt a simplified version of The Colour Monster story using actions to help us remember the words. The children had great fun practising the story together and quickly became really confident at retelling it. Have a look at the video to see 1/2CN in action!