From Mrs Hall

And with almost exactly one month until Christmas Day, things have now certainly taken a festive turn at Pilgrims’ this week! The rehearsals for the Christmas performance are well under way, with all the children working extremely hard preparing for their production. If practices are anything to go by, you are in for a real treat!

Despite this, there is still plenty of hard work for the children to undertake in the next few weeks, as we complete the term, with a healthy dash of Christmas thrown in.

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Pilgrims' Shell Awards

Year 2 - to Ian, who has demonstrated all the skills of becoming a caring leader, as well as being reliable and helpful in all he does. 
Year 1 - to Dario for his sublime effort towards knowing many of the nativity songs off by heart already. You are setting such a good example to us all. Well done, Dario! 
Year R - Lucas E for enthusiasm and excellent engagement in all activities.

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Save the Dates!

A reminder of upcoming events next week and other dates for your diaries for this term. Please keep a look-out for further details.

Saturday 25 November	Wellbeing Matters LIVE meeting for parents, 0830-0930 in the Octagon
Wednesday 29 November	Drama Workshops for all year groups
Friday 1 December	Pilgrims' Play (music) session in the Pre-Prep for pre-schoolers, 1000-1100 PPA Christmas Drinks Party for parents, 1900-2130 in The Pilgrims' Hall Please book your tickets on My School Portal before Wednesday 29 November.
Tuesday 5 December	Pre-Prep Nativity dress rehearsal and photos
Wednesday 6 December	Pre-Prep Nativity - Prickly Hay! 0900-1000 Invitation will follow.
Monday 11 December	Pre-Prep Open Classrooms 0830-0900
Tuesday 12 December	Pre-Prep Open Classrooms 0830-0900
Wednesday 13 December	End of term, 1400 Carol Service, Cathedral 1530
Tuesday 9 January	Lent Term 2024 begins

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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

This week in English, the boys have been working on distinguishing and constructing different types of sentences, questions, statements and commands. This came about after a strange smell was detected by Mrs Pleming on Tuesday morning. First, the boys tried to discover the cause before making a hypothesis, and compiling a set of questions to delve further.

Some concluded that the smell was indeed the rotten octopus leg, whilst others had more elaborate ideas!  'Put the smelling device on!', 'What is that rotten smell?', 'the skull is old and dirty!' Great work boys, the Science department will be excited to have you! 

Mrs Kent

 

Year 1

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BLAST OFF! Rocket jet packs are GO! 

Watching Year 1 zoom and zip around the playground wearing their rocket jet packs has got to be one of the best moments of this year so far! The utter joy was palpable: from the speed they felt the jet pack gave them, to the requirements to push this button or turn that switch. It was a serious business with jet packs requiring “powering up at Mission Control” to “switching off back at base”. All phrases overheard in the playground! 

The Christian Festival of Light – Christmas 

This half-term’s focus on LIGHT has happily brought us to the Christian Festival of Light, otherwise know as Christmas. We have spent this week reading various retellings of the story of the birth of Jesus, the Light of the World. The boys have sequenced the key events in the story and looked at different representations of the characters to draw their own pictures. We shall continue with this as our focus next week as we start to practise our very own retelling of the Christmas story. 

Best wishes for a happy weekend. It is Stir-Up Sunday this weekend. This has traditionally been the day when families get together to make their Christmas puddings. Interestingly, the day gets its name from the Book of Common Prayer, not the stirring of the puddings. The Collect of the Day for the last Sunday before Advent starts, “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people.” Since Victorian times, it has become associated with the custom of starting to prepare food for Christmas. Each family member has a stir of the Christmas pudding mixture and makes a wish. Then the puddings have a month to rest and develop flavour before Christmas Day. This is a tradition that my family has always observed. Often, we use the day to have a big baking session, not just making our Christmas pudding. Why not make gingerbread or shortbread for your Stir Up Sunday instead? Do put some pictures on your son’s Tapestry Learning Journal for us to see! 

Mrs Ford
 

Year R

The seasons were explored further this week in Reception Class. The boys explored how each season brings changes to our environment, and what these usually are: new plants growing in the Spring, hot sunshine arriving in the Summer, golden leaves falling from trees in the Autumn, and cold snow in the Winter. 

Autumn has been a focus. The boys made season wheels, looking at which months of the year were in which season, and then created finger-printed season trees, which was great fun. Discussions revolved around signs that Autumn is here, with falling leaves being a big clue. 

We learnt about the artist and sculptor Andy Goldsworthy during our art session this week, and his superb sculptures were shared, looking to see if we could use his natural style to create our own pictures and patterns using leaves. With this in mind, we all went on a leaf hunt around our outside grounds and found some beautiful leaves to collect. Back in the classroom, the boys made leaf pictures in the style of Andy Goldsworthy, thinking carefully about where to position their chosen leaves to show a pattern. There were some super ideas shown, with great imagination too. Well done, boys! 

Maybe when you are out and about this weekend you might like to create some Andy Goldsworthy-style natural artwork of your own? It's great fun to do. Any photos will be greatly received! Have a great weekend. 

Mrs Huntley

Forest School

Can you see who is behind the mask? The boys in Year R had a wonderful time in the arboretum using the fabulous fallen leaves to create their own leaf masks. Some of the boys decided to continue wearing their leaf masks in free exploration time and had fun hiding in the grounds.

Year 1 used their previous knowledge of materials to discover through testing, the different properties of each material. The boys enjoyed finding out which materials were bendy, transparent, waterproof or absorbent.

The sweet dormouse is one of only three British mammals that hibernate during the winter months. We chatted about what a dormouse would need in order to survive a cold winter, and thought about suitable locations. With this information, the boys had a go at trying to create a suitable place for a dormouse to hibernate in during the long winter months. Materials were used imaginatively, tiny fir cones represented the dormouse and the nests were suitably cosy!

Mrs Walker
Forest School Leader