From Mrs Hall

Our focus this week has been Friendship and Kindness. We’ve explored what it means to be a good friend, how to show kindness to others, and the importance of including everyone. During Monday’s assembly, the boys engaged in meaningful discussions, sharing their thoughts on being helpful and caring towards their classmates. We also read a story that highlighted simple acts of kindness, which led to some heartwarming conversations about how even small gestures can brighten someone’s day. It’s been fantastic to see these lessons in action - whether on the playground or in the classroom, the boys have shown wonderful teamwork and support for one another. Next week, we’ll shift our focus to Excellence, one of our core Pilgrims' values, as we continue to encourage the boys to strive for their personal best.

This week’s class Show and Tell was a true showcase of creativity, confidence, and excitement. I always look forward to Friday mornings, greeting the boys and seeing the unique items they bring in to share. Today’s highlights ranged from spiders to sheep, making it a particularly memorable session! The boys spoke proudly and enthusiastically about their treasures, and it was wonderful to see their classmates listening intently and asking thoughtful questions. Each Show and Tell session is such a valuable opportunity for the boys to build their confidence and communication skills, and they never fail to impress!

In addition to our focus on friendship, it’s been a busy week of learning and exploration across the curriculum:

• In Maths, the boys have been working on various mathematical concepts, deepening their understanding of numbers and how they fit together.
• In Literacy, they’ve enjoyed a range of stories, explored new handwriting techniques, and practiced forming sentences.
• Our Year 2 boys took a step back in time to the 17th century, enjoying a historical journey that sparked plenty of excitement and curiosity.

New Music Group for Toddlers
We’re thrilled to announce the start of a new toddler music group Musical Shells, starting on Thursday 3 October. For more details, please refer to the link on our website and our recent Social posts. We encourage you to spread the word to friends and family!

Thank you, as always, for your ongoing support. It’s been a week full of learning, laughter, and growth, and we can’t wait for another exciting week ahead.

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Shell Awards this week:

Year 2: to Rhys for demonstrating great resilience at the start of the year.
Year 1: to Felix for being brave in the swimming pool and motivated in his home reading. Well done, Felix! 
Reception: to William M for his excellent start to school life and for being a polite, kind and helpful member of our class.

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Save the Dates !

Monday 23 September	all day	Year 2 trip to visit Tudor House, Southampton
Friday 27 September	0930-1100 1500	Pre-Prep Open Morning Pre-Prep Cathedral assembly, please do come and join us
Friday 4 October	0830-0900 1000-1100	PPA Pre-Prep Coffee by the river event (see flyer below) Pre-Prep Pilgrims' Play (in Reception) for pre-schoolers
Saturday 5 October	0830-0900 0930-1130	PPA Breakfast-in-the-Yard event (see flyer below) Whole School Open Morning
Monday 14 October	1600-1800	Year 2 Parents' Evening
Friday 18 October	all day	Year 1 trip to Winchester Science Centre
Saturday 19 October	0815-0915	Wellbeing Matters Live 1: talk for parents in the Octagon
Monday 21 October	1600-1800 1830-2030	Reception and Year 1 Parents' Evening Year 3 Parents' Evening
Tuesday 22 October	1800	Pre-Prep Celebration Assembly Half-term break begins
Monday 4 November	0830	School resumes

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Notices

Menus 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

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Year 2

All in a morning's work, a typical, or not so typical morning in Year 2
Tuesday morning began with a strange noise and some strange sightings, followed by the boys in Year 2 discovering a red clock and a basket of books!

Questions were asked, such as 'Whose cloak is it?' 'Why have these books been left' and 'Who does it belong to?'

We settled down, and having decided that the Pre-Prep playground was safe, that we should go outside in the glorious September sun to share the book 'Red Reading Hood'. Over the course of the week we worked on similarities and differences between this story and the traditional tale of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. The boys even came up with their own twist to other traditional tales. We hope to share our stories with you and the new Reception class in a couple of weeks' time.

Later in the morning, Dario, Guy and Benedict set to work sorting out our hundred-square as we discovered all the numbers scattered on the floor!  Others worked on place value, followed by some colour mixing. 

Mrs Kent 
Year 2 Teacher

Year 1

This week, the boys have been practising their counting in earnest. We have counted forwards and even backwards to thirty and maybe beyond. We have counted out objects from a bigger group and tried to be accurate by moving the objects or adding them to a jar as we count. We have rolled dice and counted the result to then make the corresponding amount of beads on a string, stars in a galaxy and legs on an alien. We have used different concrete mathematical resources in the classroom to show the amount counted. It has been a busy counting week to say the least!

Counting practice is the perfect activity to carry on at home. Keep some dice on your kitchen table: start with one or two and you may progress to more. Each time you sit down for a meal, your son can roll the dice and count the amount. This will also help with his subitising, which is the ability to look at a small number of objects and instantly recognise how many there are without counting.

White Rose Maths have a brilliant app called 1-Minute Maths which is freely downloadable and is another great method for practising this skill. 

We have also tried being astronauts on the International Space Station, blasting our classroom rocket off into space and have met a new alien friend called Beegu.

Mrs Ford
Year 1 Teacher

 

Reception

What a super week we have had in Reception Class with everyone getting into the swing of school life. The boys are settling into great routines and are really starting to know what happens at different times of the day.  

In Maths this week we have been looking at sorting and identifying what is the same and not the same when comparing groups of objects. We looked at buttons and saw how we could split these up into two different groups. Size, shape, colour and the number of holes were chatted about. Maybe you could continue with this at home using different objects? Ask your son to sort the Lego or cars into sets, for example. What ideas can they come up with?

We have started phonics this week by exploring sounds and how we need to use our ears to listen carefully to the world around us to hear different sounds. The boys were able to identify different sounds they heard both inside and outside the classroom. We then had fun playing a game where I had sounds hidden in my bag and the boys had to listen and guess what the sound was. Very accurate answers! This will move on to learning letter sounds.

Our Literacy text for this week was 'What makes me a me?' by Ben Faulks and David Tazzyman. This book helps us to chat about how we are all different with different likes and dislikes, and how we are all interested in and great at different things. Keep chatting to your son about this and how we accept everyone's individuality.  

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Huntley
Reception Teacher
 

Forest School

Apple season is upon us and this provides me with a wonderful natural resource.

We had a lovely time collecting a huge box of windfalls from the surrounding area; the boys in Year R had fun creating some giant apple snakes with them. We also cut some apples in half and studied the inside of the apples to see if we could see the pips. During free exploration, the boys had the opportunity to have a go at apple printing, as well as playing some games with the apples!

Apples were also our inspiration for the Year 1 boys. We had a go at building apple towers, apple aliens and apple bird feeders. The boys learned how to make apple boats, using sticks and leaves as a mast. The boys then had fun launching them down the river.

Inspired by nature, the boys in Year 2 worked together to create a piece of natural artwork made from a series of rings. Each time, a new natural item was used to create a bigger ring around the previous ring. The boys were thrilled with the end result and amazed by its simplicity and beauty.

Mrs Walker
Forest School and LAMDA Teacher

 

 

Reminder: all boys need to bring a waterproof coat into school each week, along with waterproof trousers and wellington boots for their Forest School sessions.

Mrs Walker
Forest School