From Mrs Hall

This week has been all about books! The boys have thoroughly enjoyed listening to lots of amazing stories over the course of the week, ending with the boys being able to share their own favourite stories with their friends and teachers.

Some of the boys have been eagerly explaining to their Mummies about our upcoming open event ‘Mother’s Day in the Woods’. The invitations will come out early next week but please do save the following dates!

• Reception: Thursday 7 March (afternoon)
• Year 1: Wednesday 6 March (morning)
• Year 2: Thursday 7 March (afternoon)

Also thank you to those of you who have responded to our Positive Parenting sessions, if you haven’t already done so, please would you mind stating your preferred timings on the SchoolPost form sent out on Tuesday 20 February. The provisional date is Monday 29 April.

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Pilgrims' Shell Awards

Year 2 - to Seva for enthusiasm towards reading, and for his love of books.
Year 1 - to James for his wide-eyed interest during each and every story that we share together. Unique thoughts and individual questions abound! 
Year R - Lucas for his great enthusiasm towards books, super reading skills and for sharing facts he has learnt from these.

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Save the Dates!

Friday 1 March	Pilgrims' Play for prospective parents 1000 Pre-Prep Cathedral Assembly 1500 PPA Quiz Night, Save the date, details to come
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

 

 

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Year 2

It was a joy to welcome the boys back to class on Monday morning after their half-term break. They were all full of tales to tell, along with much enthusiasm and a desire to learn. 

The boys have been working hard on both multiplication and division; please do continue to practise these at home, in the car or even the bath. Little and often is key, as is repetition. 

We are continuing our learning of Africa this week focussing on the Massai tribe. The boys watched in awe a tribal dance. It was incredible to see how high some of the men could dance, even with their hands secured by their side. In Art, we have been looking at patterns, designing and making our own stunning tribal jewellery. 

Mrs Kent

Year 1

As part of our Knights and Castles topic, this half term we are focusing on training to be a knight, all from the age of seven when boys would be expected to leave home to become a page. Boys would learn horsemanship, heraldry and hawking. They would practise many skills that they may need on the battlefield or even as a hobby. One of these such skills would have been using a bow and arrow. 

Today, Mr Armstrong, who teaches archery to senior boys, came to visit us. He brought one of his longbows with him and two quivers with various types of arrows. He started by showing us how a bow is put together and how the string connects to the limb of the bow. It was incredible to learn how far one single arrow could travel… all the way across Wolvesey playing fields! We talked about how archers in Norman times would have protected castles from attackers by shooting from the battlements and how they used their weapons on the battlefield. We also tried our hand at archery! It was hard to pull the string back far enough for the arrow to fly through the air but by the sixth attempt we were all shooting straight at the target. Did you know that as arrows fly through the air they wiggle like a fish? 

Thank you to Mr Armstrong for sharing some of his archery knowledge with us. We are so grateful to him for helping bring our learning to life and for challenging us to shoot our own arrows! We had SUCH fun! 

Mrs Ford 

Year R

Welcome back, after what I hope has been a relaxing break for you all.  

Spring has sprung, (or nearly), and it definitely has in our Reception Class this week, despite the wet weather.  The boys have painted their own self-registration flowers to hang every day on our tree, and they have commented on the daffodil felt flowers to place in the tray. "These are spring flowers called daffodils," one eagle-eyed class member announced. Our new theme for this term is indeed, 'Spring has sprung'.

The highlight for us all this week however, has been the arrival of a special letter and parcel which held an incubator and story book called, "Hatch egg Hatch".  The boys were so intrigued to open both the letter and parcel and discover that Farmer Bone has asked if we could help her by incubating eggs, and then looking after them while she is on holiday. Were we up to the challenge and could we help?  Yes we are, was the clear answer!

The incubator is whirling away in the classroom with eggs now safely inside. The boys counted the seven eggs, carefully, as they were placed onto the incubation disc. The twenty one days waiting  time has now begun with careful observation of the temperature and humidity gauges.  How exciting!  We will keep you updated on the progress.

Mrs Huntley

 

Forest School

Before the end of last half term the boys in Year R collected some interesting natural items that we froze in a ball of ice.

The boys had a wonderful time learning about the process of freezing and melting and discovering what natural treasures lay hidden in their ice globe. We even had fun in the rain seeing how far we could roll the ice globes, and we turned it into a little competition!

The weather wasn’t very kind to Year 1 either this week, but that didn’t stop us learning about the human body and creating some large images out of sticks so we could identify key parts of the body. We then had fun trying to personalise them. Who do you think they look like?

Last session the Year 2 boys created some ice art, and today we discovered what had happened to it. The boys proudly hung their creations in one of the trees in the Pilgrims’ garden for all to see. They then worked cooperatively together to discover how to use nature in a creative way. They enjoyed creating some natural artwork using their initials and combined them in an imaginative way. The boys soon discovered that some letters were easier to make than others. Can you identify some of the letters we made?

Mrs Walker
Forest School Leader

Open Days next term:

Pre-Prep Open Day: Friday 3 May

Whole School Open Day: Saturday 11 May

Details to follow soon.