Snow fun in foundation stage

A brief snow shower and the children take advantage of the artistic opportunities that this brings. Outside learning at its most inventive!

Chinese New Year

This week children in Foundation Stage have been learning about Chinese New Year. All of their activities have been based around this theme and they have been very creative and imaginative in their different approaches to this subject.

A visit to the Chinese restaurant will find you tasting some very interesting noodles!

Dragon workshops will provide you with a very colourful mask or a sculpture that allows you to create your own dragon.

The writing stop will allow you to demonstrate your knowledge about how New Year is celebrated and to share your ideas with your friends and teachers.

Outside could find you contributing to the music associated with a dragon procession.

So many different ways to learn and lots of fun at the same time.



 

Sleeping Beauty

 

Today the children enjoyed a theatrical performance of Sleeping Beauty as our annual Pantomime show arrived at school. Yet again the children enjoyed the delights of the creativity, humour and audience participation that these types of performances bring.

 

The story was brilliantly brought to life by the touring company and was delivered with many highlights, which included all the usual cries of ' behind you' and ' oh no he didn't'!

 

The heroes and villains were brought to life with a mix of traditional characterisation and lines and songs that brought the performance right up to date. They even remembered to cool the audience down with a Super Soaker!

 

The school was certainly on a high at the end of the day as we said goodbye to the performers. But they will be back again soon, bringing a performance of The Railway children in May, The Jungle Book in September and another Panto in 2016. This time we will have Robin Hood to look forward to.

As ever, we are grateful for the support of the school's PTFA in contributing towards the costs of these events. Without their support we would not be able to meet the financial cost of bringing these dramatic events to school. Thank you PTFA!

Two songs, one theme

As we continue with our reflections on 1 Corinthians 13, we find ourselves considering a different approach to understanding love. Paul moves from a description of what love is, to what love is not.

Sometimes understanding the opposite of something helps to bring clarity. Sometimes it enables us to reflect on our own thoughts, opinions and viewpoints and to challenge them in the light of something else. Maybe that’s why Jesus states that if we know the truth then the truth will set us free. Truly understanding something can bring freedom, new life and ability to see clearly, to sift the wheat from the chaff. It can also bring refreshment, but it can also bring challenge.

 The Black Eyed Peas once famously asked ‘where is the love’. Their lyrics focused on all the things that love clearly is not, drawing attention to the multitude of ways in which society exhibits a lack of love. Their song and the video that went with it, clearly brought home the fact that things should be different, but the song really only asks the question and provides limited answers.

 

Michael Jackson raised the same concerns in his song ‘Man in the mirror’ but this time he gave a clear message as to what the solution needed to be if things were to be different.

I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change

Our theme this week for assemblies is about our own personal response to love. How do we demonstrate it and how do we not. The identification of the ways in which we do not is the place to start if we want to show more love to others. For if we take a look and yet do nothing there will be no answers to the question ‘where is the love’?

Under construction

 

Today saw a number of our talented artists join together, with some support from our very helpful architect, to construct a lighthouse for the school foyer. 

This is a balsa wood construction that is being covered with paper and PVA glue. Once this has dried it will be painted and a working light added to the construction. 

 

Once the project is finished we will have our own St John's lighthouse!