From Mrs Ross

Our four-day week has been packed full of learning and excitement as the boys begin their new, inspiring 'Learning Journeys'.  The classrooms are being transformed as the boys' artwork and written work is added to the imaginative and informative displays that the Pre-Prep staff have created.  It is always a pleasure to show visitors around our school and we are looking forward to receiving visitors tomorrow morning at our Whole School Open Morning.

We are delighted to welcome Mrs Pleming back to school this week following her surgery.

Enjoy the sunshine this weekend and I look forward to our first whole week of school next week!

A wonderful photograph of Mrs James with her beautiful daughter! - Isabella Noor Sophia 

 

Diary dates

Saturday 7 May	1000-1200	Whole School Open Morning
Friday 13 May	0830-0900	PPA Pre-Prep Coffee Morning
Tuesday 17 May	All day	Year 1 trip to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
Saturday 21 May		The PPA Sponsored Walk
Friday 27 May	1100	Jubilee Celebration

The Sponsored Walk – Saturday 21 May
Sponsorship form to download is here or as a pdf here
Link to JustGiving page is here

You will have seen the information sent out by the PPA earlier in the week, and also the accompanying flyer. This is a wonderful community event, and of course an opportunity to raise money for a very good cause – The Murray Parish Trust – an element to the morning that the PPA are coordinating.

As this event has not taken place in its usual form for some years, there is the understandable question: What is it, and how does it work? 

The boys will complete a circular walk of approximately 2 hours, starting from Wolvesey at 0900. Saturday is a school day for boys from Year 4 upwards, and it is expected that all boys will take part; younger boys are more than welcome to walk the route with their parents and there will be a separate (shorter) walk for Pre-Prep boys and parents. Parents of boys from Year 4 and upwards are encouraged to walk with their boys. Boys whose parents are not able to join us will join with the boarders and walk under the supervision of the staff.

We expect that the last participants will return to school at around 1130, at which point there will be the mini-fete and food stalls in the Quad. Boys will be fed as they normally would be at Saturday school, and parents and siblings will be able to purchase food.

We will send out more detailed communication in the week preceding the walk, accompanied by a questionnaire in which you can indicate whether you will be walking with your son. For now, you might like to decide whether you will walk, and who with! This sort of thing is most enjoyable done in groups.

Pilgrims' Shell awards

• Year 2 - to Tommy P for true focus, listening to his coaching and improving his bowling technique
• Year 1 - to Frankie C for superb handwriting this week
• Reception - to Matthias H for being 'on fire' this week with his learning!

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Year 2

This week’s highlight was most certainly hearing the whoops of glee coming from the grid on Wednesday morning. The sun was shining, and the boys were happily engaged in their second cricket lesson of the term with Mr Buck. Huge excited conversations were had along with extremely animated actions regarding ‘all things bowling’ in the classroom before the lesson started.

    

All boys arrived back full of delight in time well-spent on the cricket pitch. Both Patrick and George commented on Tommy’s bowling. 'It was incredible. It was straight every time!'  (George). Scipio and Teddy remarked on Abhinav’s clever batting. 'He smashed the ball for four!' (Teddy)

Admiring glances were given by various senior sports teachers who happened to pass by. Mr Buck was the second teacher this week to tell me just how rewarding Year 2 were to teach. All boys were able to have a ‘Step-Up’ on their personal ocean-themed reward chart. The boys are quickly accruing many set points that are shared each week in Friday’s Celebration Assembly. (Three Step-Ups equal one Set Point). Happily, the silver lining to the closure of the pool at Winchester Leisure Centre meant that the boys were also able to have an extended game of cricket on Wolvesey this week with Mr Buck and Mr Greenwood. Cue some further whoops of glee!

Also, a very big and warm welcome back to Mrs Pleming into the Year 2 classroom! It is wonderful to have you back with us.

Other information from Mrs Ford:

Library Visits - All boys will have the opportunity to pick a book of their choice (fiction or non-fiction) from the School Library on Fridays which they can bring home to enjoy with you over the weekend and forthcoming week. They will be able to choose a new book each week as long as they return the previous loan.

Timetable - You may find it useful to have a copy of the Year 2 timetable at home. Here is our current version, also reproduced below. Please do get in touch via vford@pilgrims-school.co.uk for any questions or queries you may have.

Mrs Ford

Year 1

The boys have all worked hard this week and are enjoying our new topic 'Pirates'. They are especially excited about the pirate ship role play corner that is emerging and the new displays appearing, which they will be able to add to.

They have created 'mind maps', writing about things they already know about Pirates. This will then be used again at the end of the topic to see what they have learnt. They had great fun drawing their own pirates, naming them, and then writing about what pirates are and what pirates do. Super pictures with great detail!

In Maths, we have been recapping our understanding of counting in multiples of 2, 5 and 10. We will then be moving on to using these maths concepts with different multiplication and division number problems. If parents are able to practice the 2, 5 and 10 times table or counting in steps of 2, 5 and 10 forwards and backwards that would really support the boys with their understanding.

In Read Write Inc. (RWI) the boys have enjoyed the new challenges, texts, and writing tasks. Each group has a different teacher this half-term for variation.  

A super week.  Well done, boys.
Mrs Huntley

     

    

    

    

EYFS

The boys in Reception Class have been busy extending their knowledge of shapes this week. They have searched for shapes in our learning environment and sorted shapes according to their attributes. Whilst using the bricks in our garden to build a cuboid, the boys noticed that several spiders had made homes within the holes of the bricks. The boys took great care to move the bricks without disturbing the spiders and also finding the best ways to move the spiders to a safe place.
Mrs Ross

 

Forest School

Year R became sound detectives this week. During our journey to the Arboretum, we stopped on several occasions and listened and shared what we could hear. Once at the Arboretum, some boys became sound detectives again, some chose to make fishing rods, whilst some learned how to use a palm drill in order to drill a hole into a wooden disc. They created some wonderful Forest School badges.

Year 1 investigated tree giants! The boys learned how to measure the circumference of a tree using their hands as well learning how to measure the height of a tree using a simple method which required them to count how many steps they were away from the tree. The boys needed to cooperate with their partner and recheck their results. We even managed to do some tree bathing!

Year 2 enthusiastically planted sweet peas, radishes, lettuces and carrots in our raised beds this week. Some boys made labels for our seedlings whilst other took responsibility for creating a watering can out of a milk bottle. The boys will be in charge of nurturing the seedlings, and we hope we will have some wonderful produce to harvest at the end of term.
Mrs Walker

    

    
In the allotment

    

    
Sounds and drilling

    

    
Trees