From Mrs Ross 

 

 

 

 

Diary dates

Friday 17 June	0845-0915	Pre-Prep Celebration Assembly for parents
Monday 20 June	1900	Pre-Prep Move-Up meeting for parents of new Reception, present Reception, and present Year 1
Tuesday 21 June	0900	Whole School photo
Friday 24 June	1000-1100	Pilgrims' Play session for pre-school children
Tuesday 28 June		New Boys' Day and Move-Up Morning
Wednesday 29 June	am 1800-1845	Dress rehearsal: Ocean Commotion Ocean Commotion performance for parents
Thursday 30 June	1800-1845	Year 2 and Year 4: Ocean Commotion performance for parents
Friday 1 July	1400-1530	Pre-Prep Sports Day (NB: this is a change to the previously published date of 30 June)

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Pilgrims' Shell awards

Year 2 - to Alfred B and George B for the grown-up and responsible way that they engaged with Year 1 when showing their interesting artefacts from home.  

Year 1 - to Alex O for super map work using an Atlas.

Reception - to James for his patience.

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Year 2

Year 2 started the week with a very special visitor. Mrs James popped in to see the boys and introduce them to baby Bella. The boys were thrilled to see Mrs James and to meet her daughter. Bella seemed to be hugely interested in all the new faces around her. The boys were most thoughtful to the volume of their voice and their manner around such a small baby. Mrs James’s visit sparked much conversation about what they were like as a baby and how they were born! 

The boys have come back after half-term into a very busy week of learning but have settled in quickly. All are growing in confidence with their accuracy to read an analogue clock in increments of whole and half hours, and quarter past or quarter to the hour. We shall be continuing with our topic of time next week so any practise the boys can do ‘in the real world’ at home would be fantastic! 

    

It was wonderful to see so many of you attend the Year 2 Choral Concert on Wednesday. The boys were utterly fizzing with excitement throughout the day. Yet, they managed to quickly find their focus when entering the Octagon and follow Mr du Plessis brilliantly. They were so proud to perform in front of you all. The repertoire of songs that they sang showed how vocally mature they are already. Mr du Plessis is very excited for this group of boys!

Mrs Ford

Year 1

The boys have come back to school bubbling with energy and full of their half-term adventures. Lots of Jubilee celebrations were shared and news about family trips, holidays away, and relaxing times at home.

We're now into the final few weeks of this academic term!  Where has the time gone?

This week we have been working on Geometry in Maths and in particular describing position and direction. The boys had fun moving to directional commands and enjoyed programming 'Beebot' to move in different ways. Position and direction can be tricky to remember, especially when adding in 'Left' and 'Right'. Any extra support with this at home would be greatly appreciated.

Read, Write Inc has continued in our small groups. It is really evident now how much progress all the boys have made in both their reading and writing. Book levels have increased and the boys' fluency and confidence have soared. Well done boys!

We continue our topic on Pirates and the sea.  This week we have further focused on the seven continents and five oceans of the world. The boys have wowed me with their knowledge. Ask them to sing you our continents song!  We will continue our work on using atlases, maps, and globes to learn more. Our class world puzzle has been very popular!  We have also explored the artist Claude Monet and looked at his unique style of painting. His work on seascapes was great to explore closer. The boys had a go at creating patterns and pictures of their own choice to explore both watercolour paints and Monet's impressionism style of painting. Painting in small brushstrokes is hard and takes a lot of patience and persevere we discovered. Good effort, boys.

        

In computing, the boys were overjoyed to finish their flashing names! They were downloaded successfully onto the small 'microbit' boards and were thrilled with the outcome.  

    

I hope you have all settled back into the school routine and have a fabulous weekend.

Mrs Huntley

    

    

 

  

    

Reception

'Mrs Kent, when can we go on our next school trip?'

This week the boys had a wonderful day out at Marwell Zoo, learning about animal classification; the penguins, tigers and giraffes being favourites amongst the boys and staff.

We had two mini-workshops with the staff at Marwell to gain further knowledge. Our first stop was the giraffe enclosure, where we learnt about the number of bones in a giraffe’s neck. We were shown bones from each of the five categories, just to see how long their bones really are. Talking about comparisons, we were also shown the size of an ostrich’s egg. 

We stopped for lunch next to the tigers (they were on a prowl around their enclosure - perhaps they could smell our delicious packed lunches). Then we visited the new Tropical House, where we stopped and watched the leafcutter ants and nearly missed the spiny-tailed iguana, until one boy pointed it out (it is camouflaged). Our second workshop was a hands-on experience matching and touching real animal coverings. The boys practised their sorting and classifying skills, through touching and looking at the wonderful markings that cover the bodies of some animals, from a snow leopard’s fur, to a turtle’s shell, to a snake’s skin, to a wallaby.

What a super day it was. The boys behaved as true Pilgrims do. Well done, boys. It was an absolute pleasure to take you to the zoo.

    

    

  

Mrs Kent

Forest School

Some new and wonderful minibeasts appeared in the arboretum this week. Using their knowledge about minibeasts and a ball of clay, the Year R boys created their very own minibeast. During free exploration time some boys had fun playing with their minibeasts.

      

Have you ever tried counting daisies? Well, that is exactly what Year 1 tried to do this week. It was made a little easier by using selected zones and the boys counted and recorded their results carefully. Some boys also had a chance to weave using a ‘Nordic Sling’.

      

Year 2’s session started off with some basic knot tying. The boys practised tying a clove hitch knot and once they had achieved this, they took their stick for a walk! They were then introduced to a knot called square lashing; this allowed them to tie two sticks together securely. During free exploration the boys had a chance to learn how to drill, bug hunt, and be creative with sticks and wool!

         
Mrs Walker