From Mrs Hall

It's crucial to instil the values of empathy and kindness at a young age, and it has been heartening to hear the boys throughout the week incorporating this into discussions. One Year 2 boy demonstrated this superbly yesterday. He was having a rather long day and decided he didn’t want to attend my After School Club. With a genuine sadness in his eyes, I asked what was wrong, and he replied, “I can see you’re sad about that and I don’t want you to feel disappointed if I don’t come”.

Encouraging children to understand and practice empathy can have profound effects not only on their individual development but also on the broader community as they grow older. It's through discussions and class activities that children can learn to recognise and appreciate the feelings of others, fostering a more compassionate and inclusive environment. An area where I feel the Pilgrims’ boys really do flourish.

This also worked well with Year 2's visit from Mr Buck on Thursday morning. Mr Buck shared his compassion and love for Africa, especially the conservation of Rhinos. The boys were so attentive and thoughtful about the environment and have been eagerly designing posters to ‘save the Rhinos’ ever since. Their eagerness to design the posters demonstrates a genuine concern, which is a fantastic sign of their empathy! Thank you, Mr Buck.

Hopefully, you have all received your invitations for our open woodland sessions next week. Please do let your class teacher know if you are able to attend. This will also help our catering team. The boys are all very excited! 

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Pilgrims' Shell Awards

Year 2 - to Attilio for being thoughtful, kind and caring.
Year 1 - to Rhys for his concern and empathy shown towards people who may be less fortunate than ourselves, including Jack from our story.
Year R - Macarthur for being a kind friend and thinking of others and how they feel.

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Save the Dates!

Monday 4 March	Year 2 trip to the Hawk Conservancy
Wednesday 6 March	Year 1: Mother's Day in the Woods 0930-1100
Thursday 7 March	Year R and Year 2: Mother's Day in the Woods 0930-1100
Monday 11 March	Year 1 Trip to Portchester Castle
Monday 18 March	Pre-Prep Parents' Evening 1630
Tuesday 19 March	Reception trip to Manor Farm
Monday 25 March	Pre-Prep Open Classroom 0815
Tuesday 26 March	Pre-Prep Open Classroom 0815 End of term 1630

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Notices

Menus for next week are available here on My School Portal. 
^{Reminder: no food is to be brought into the school and/or given to boys at any time, especially at sign-out.}

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From the PPA

 

Book club is now reading ‘The Marriage Portrait’ by Maggie O’Farrell.  An electrifying novel set in Renaissance Italy, based on the true story of Lucrezia de Medici who at 15 was forced by her parents to marry the older Duke of Ferrara thus merging two dynasties. It is an unforgettable reimagining of the life of a young woman whose proximity to power places her in mortal danger.

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Year 2

In Year 2, we have started to work on measurement. The boys have been getting to grips with a ruler, learning that accuracy is key. First, we have explored the classroom, measuring with non-standard units. Each boy worked diligently with his partner, discussing length and height before setting to work with paper clips and wooden pegs to name just a few items.

The boys are very proud of their own non-fiction book on Insects, and loved sharing it with their friends in Year 1 and R. Inspired by Darwin's Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular by Polly Owen/Gwen Millward, and the beautiful book, Moth:An Evoloution Story by Isabel Thomas. They began by writing a series of questions about their chosen insect, before researching it on an iPad and finally making a detailed drawing and writing fact boxes outlining the information which they discovered, for example... 

Some facts the boys have learnt:

• An ant can live for up to 30 years.
• Butterflies can fly 30 miles per hour.
• Wasps are scared of peppermint, spearmint, basil, cloves, thyme, bay leaves and lemongrass.

Mrs Kent

Year 1

The start of this half term involved a special package being delivered to Year 1 which included a trailing plant, some colourful beans, a large footprint AND a golden egg! It didn’t take long before all the boys were starting to discuss giants, beanstalks and magic beans! Our story focus for this term is the traditional tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. This will provide some rich inspiration for our writing this term, which is focused around letter writing. This week has ended with us writing in role as Jack, sending a letter to the bean seller, telling him just how we felt about receiving some seriously un-magic looking beans which our mother threw straight out the window! Humph!

Also, of note…

We are extremely proud of ourselves in Year 1. We have finished our first fully written story. It has pages. It has a front cover. It has a title. It involves five sections: an introduction, a build-up, a problem, a resolution and a “happily ever after”. It is a real achievement! Please come into our classroom and share our stories with us.

Mrs Ford 

Mrs Ford 

 

Year R

Eggs update... incubator still whirring away happily; eggs continuing to turn every 45 minutes (the boys knowing what the alarm means now), count down at 11 days to go!

Another key focus for the boys in Reception Class this week has been money. They have enjoyed turning our role-playing area into a farm shop and have spent a long time pricing up the food and drink, labelling it all, and setting up the till with Miss Whitmore. There has been a lot of discussion around how much money things cost, what might cost a lot and what might not.  Everyone's ideas have been different!

Coins, notes, and cards have been looked at. The boys have been learning to identify each different coin by its shape, size and colour. It is a tricky concept to learn that even though there may be, for example, five coins, there may not be five pennies/pounds. We have also been learning how to add pennies together, with some exceptions, adding different coins together.  

When out and about, draw your son's attention to prices and the cost of different items. Can he identify different numerals, or work out how much something is going to cost? Maybe you would also like to explore what is in your purse or wallet together. I managed to share every coin with the boys this week, and they discovered that I had a lot of 1p coins in my purse!

Building up a money box is another great way of supporting the understanding of money, and in particular, coins. Saving up for items, and counting how much money is in the money box is great for addition, subtraction and sorting skills.

Have a great weekend of exploring!

Mrs Huntley

Forest School

Spring is definitely in the air and the arboretum is starting to look very magical with the daffodils bursting into life. So the boys in Year R decided to help spring on her way by creating a magical spring wand that they could use to cast growth spells around the arboretum. They also learned how to create a willow bubble wand and had great fun blowing bubbles!

This week, Year 1 learned how to make some natural paint. We chatted about the natural materials that can found in the ground and in particular, chalk. The boys had great fun sourcing, grinding and mixing the materials together creating a thick paint they could use. They even learned how to make a natural paintbrush and, later, hung their artwork proudly in our gallery!

We couldn’t ignore the fact that it was a leap day on Thursday. I shared the story of ‘Orion – The Leap Year Guardian’. Inspired by this story that returns peace and harmony to the woodlands, the boys used their imagination to create their own natural 3D image of a leap year guardian. I was impressed with their creativity.

Mrs Walker
Forest School Leader