Our new term began with a whole new programme of physical activity led by P.E. specialists. Chris Hodgson taught our Infant children to develop their skills within cricket and children in Years 3,4 and 5 had multi skills lessons with Rob Jefferson. All children in Key Stage 2 learnt a dance to perform to the rest of the school on the theme ‘Space’ which was their Science topic. The weather was kind when children in Key Stage 2 competed in the cross country competition at Silloth and all competed with determination and enthusiasm.
Year 1 and 2 children enjoyed their forest learning sessions at Torpenhow for the first half of the Spring Term. They built shelters, created animal footprint traps, devised their own forest team games, completed a stream walk and explored the forest environment.
Year 5 and 6 children carried out their forest learning sessions for the second half of the term. They created forest Art, focused on the theme of ‘Peace’ within the forest and looked for signs of Spring. They also built and cooked around the camp fire and planned, carried out and evaluated soil experiments, in the forest as part of their Science topic.
Our Christian value for the first part of the term was ‘thankfulness’ and we were very impressed with the Year 6 children when they led a worship time on this. We made a long list of all the things we are thankful for and we enjoyed listening to the story the children had created on this theme.
Our Christian value for the second part of the term was friendship and we learnt about what it is to be a good friend and the qualities needed to show friendship. Year 5 have started planning a worship time on this theme and we look forward to them presenting this after the school holiday.
PC Parker came to talk to us about ‘Stranger Danger’ and we had some excellent questions to ask her. She visited again later in the term to present a workshop on ‘E Safety.’ We have also participated in the NSPCC workshops on ‘Speak out, stay safe’ and enjoyed learning from Buddy, the NSPCC mascot.
We celebrated Chinese New Year with Tian who told us all about her life growing up in China and the Tullie House team brought their dragon model which we led through the school hall. We then enjoyed our follow up sessions in our classrooms.
Our Fund Raising group, FOPs organised an after school Valentine’s disco and we would like to say a special thank you to all the volunteers who gave up their time to help out.
To celebrate World Book Day we took part in virtual workshop sessions with real authors. Our Infants joined sessions with Julia Donaldson, author of ‘The Gruffalo’ and illustrator Axel Scheffler and our Juniors joined Dan Santat, author of ‘The Aquanaut’ and Amy Kim Kibushi, author of ‘The Rema Chronicles.’ We also brought our favourite books into school to read and have purchased books for schools by the authors we met.
We had a whole school themed morning on Judaism, where we made stars of David, baked sweet treats linked to the festival of Shabbat, made Israeli flags, studied the city of Jerusalem and learnt about the life of a Jewish boy. Later in the term children in Years 3,4,5 and 6 took part in an Islamic workshop led by Yesmein from ‘Secrets of Kashmir.’ They learnt about Islamic culture including costume, cooking and Art and Crafts and participated enthusiastically with all of the activities.
Beata, the language teacher from Beacon Hill School has been delivering regular French lessons to our Year 5 and 6 children and they have been enjoying the songs and games they have been practising, as well as being able to develop their French speaking.
Year 5 children participated keenly with their Science Day at Beacon Hill School and found using the microscopes to look at onion cells fascinating. They also learnt the different names of parts of the cell.
Our Junior children have been having drumming lessons with Andy Kelly, from Stix Percussion and they have really impressed us with their sense of rhythm. Children in Year 3 and 4 have been learning to play the ukulele with Colin Hendra from Cumbria Music Service and our Infant children are looking forward to their African drumming sessions which will take place next term with Zo Zo.
For ‘Fair trade fortnight’ we studied the journey of the cocoa bean and learnt about food plantations around the world and the ways we can help farmers. The posters we produced were all displayed in Aspatria Coop and we would like to thank Geoff, from the Coop for the fair trade bananas and chocolate he gave us.
Year 5 and 6 children enjoyed their ‘beach studies’ day where they went to Allonby School, alongside children from our cluster schools. After the activities they wrote impressive pieces of persuasive writing which they shared with the rest of the school.
We raised £120 for Maryport Lifeboat Station and our whole school visit to the station helped us learn more about water safety. We also held a non uniform day and raised £72 for the Emergency Disasters fund to help the victims of the Ukranian War and the children were also able to express their thoughts in the prayers they wrote for the people affected by the war.
As part of their Geography topic on ‘farms’ our Infant children visited a working farm and Torpenhow Cheese Company, where they learnt about the process of making cheese. They thoroughly enjoyed their visit, especially the part where they tasted the cheese and the milkshake gift they received. A huge thank you to Jenny and Mark for an informative and enjoyable visit.
We have been taking part in an exciting whole school Art project called ‘River of Hope.’ This is an Art based project linking schools around the world and forms part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Two hundred of the Art works produced will be printed onto silk flags and processed as part of the Queen’s pageant. There will also be an online gallery to display all of the Art work. Our collaborative piece contains a river, fish and turtle and was created from recycled products. The finished piece is stunning and will be on display in Plumbland Village Hall for the queen’s jubilee event.
We ended the Spring term with a very special event, our Easter Service at St Cuthbert’s Church, Plumbland, celebrating with our school families and members of the community. Our children told the Easter story and performed their songs brilliantly. Year 6 children served refreshments at the end of the service and did a superb job.