This terms topic has been The Romans and has involved the children across the whole curriculum from art where they made Roman helmets and shields out of papier-mache. History was brought alive through a fascinating a visit to Colchester Castle Museum and on Friday 16 October pupils from our partner school Boxted St. Peter’s joined us for a fantastic day at school dressed as Roman’s in the company of our Roman guest, Marcus Flavius Facillus a Centurion from Portals to the Past. During the morning the children played Roman games including a Roman Quiz, a Roman numeral game and learnt about Roman life and artefacts. In the afternoon after a display on weapons and armoury everyone enjoyed our own gladiator show.
The chickens have moved in. They are much bigger than when they hatched last term but we are still waiting for eggs. We have a cockeral and three hens.
Our first half term in our new classrooms has been jam packed with exciting events and lots of great learning. On Tuesday 20th October we were delighted to welcome over 100 guests to the school for the official grand opening of the new building led by Shaun Williamson (known as Barry to fans of Eastenders and Digby Digworth to young fans of CBBC’s Scoop…watch out kids Shaun told us there’s a new series out next year!). Pertinently Shaun’s own village in Kent has seen it’s primary school rise from a similar two classroom set up to an eight classroom complex which is now one of the most sought after schools in the area.
With the school decked out in bunting, the sun trying to make an appearance and the rain fortunately staying away, the pupils were the shining stars of the day beautifully singing a tricky 3 part song. The older children proudly showed our guests around their school and a group of children took Shaun away and filmed a very professional interview. This will be a good memento of the day and is also part of a media project planned for after half term.
We were very pleased to have such a good show of support for our school from the village as well as representatives from Essex County Council, Colchester Borough Council, other local schools and local organisations. It was fascinating to hear Councillor Mike Hogg regale stories of his days when he first joined St Andrew’s in 1952 as a 4 year old and spent three very happy years at the school under Mrs Cox and Miss Searle. He has “wonderful memories of walks through the countryside along the river and trips through the church yard across the fields to watch the trains.”
Particular thanks were given to Tim Hearne whose excellent work as Project Manager meant that our new building was completed on time and on budget! Thanks go to Fillpots Nursery for providing some lovely potted plants adding to the good work of the school gardening club. Thanks also to John Jackson - no event in the village would take place without the sterling work that John provides and to H.S.A. parents and friends who shifted tables & chairs, made cakes, served pots of tea and generally supported our event. We may be small but we think big!
Several people joined us today when the skate park came to visit. Despite the showers we had a great time and are looking forward to a return visit sometime. Don't ask Brad about his bruises!
I hope you are all enjoying your break, because it is nearly over. Things will be rather different when you come back. The school has really changed. The new building will be ready and we will have a hall.
The teachers and other staff have spent a lot of time trying to get everything ready for an exciting new term. We are looking forward to seeing you on Thursday 3rd of Septmber - ready for a great term.
Don't forget you can check on the progress of the new building by looking in the work gallery.
Work has begun! The builders have arrived. We have put a photo gallery in "Our work" - Look for building work, so that you can see what has happened so far. Keep checking as we expect things to keep changing.
We are delighted to announce that our children were very sucessful at the Garrison event. Many children won their small school heat and overall we came 4th. Many visitors commented on our children's sporting prowess and their sportmanship. What a delightful way of being noticed. Sucessful and well mannered. That is what we want!
We are very grateful to the staff, governors and volunteers who gave up time to help clear the demountable. It was a dirty job but someone had to do it. In amongst the spiders, cobwebs and dust we found many treasurers and lots of thermometers. We are very grateful to the Tufnell family for providing (temporary - we promise) storage for some of the larger items.
The next task will be to clear the trees and then the garden plots. The demountable will need to be demolished and the the main contractors will be able to start their work during the building work. during the building work.
Once again we will be asking for any help you can give us during this exciting project. There are many ways you can help, physically, with expertise or even financially. Volunteers will be needed to clear the garden plots and then to set new ones up! If you have either muscles or experience please contact the school.
We are very proud to take part in the amazing flower festival at the Church. On our work pages you can see pictures of how we created our display. This years theme was "A Good Read". We read the Story of James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.
You found it!
We enjoy cooking, especially when we can eat what we cook. The infants worked together to make lunch for the whole school. They used freshly dug carrots from gardening club and some potatoes from our neighbour. Miss Murphy made some bread dough and we made enough rolls for everybody. We were amazed to see our bread grow. We also like it disappearing when the rest of the school ate it for lunch with our fresh soup.
We are looking forward to our next crops, the strawberries are nearly ready and would should have a lot of currants this year. We don’t think they will make good soup! – perhaps we will make a pie or even some jam! Let us know if you have a good recipe.
The school council elections have taken place.
Chair - Jasmine
Councillors - Bethany, Fay, Jasmin, Tom and Alfred
The school council decided to raise money for comic relief. We “Did something funny for money”. We all came to school in our pyjamas, even the teachers. We had a special assembly and some of our parents wore their PJ’s. We learnt a very silly comic relief song and would not stop singing it until the parents promised to pay! We raised over £100 which is a lot for our little school.
Much research shows that our brains work best when they are well hydrated.
The nicest and most practical way to achieve this is for children to bring a water bottle to school. You can supply your own, we ask that they are clear, have a sports top and are named.
Water bottles are avalible to purchase from the school office.
We had a Robot day to end the half term. We made robots and even made them move using split pins and pneumatics. We programmed the floor robots and made them move around the classroom.
Some of us wrote our own computer control programs and some others made a film about a robot.