From Mrs Hall:

It has been so lovely to see the boys back in school and ready for the Summer Term. We started the week together with our Monday assembly, setting a positive tone for the weeks ahead, and we’re all looking forward to plenty of sunshine (hopefully!) and outdoor learning.

This week, we also marked World Earth Day on Wednesday, giving the boys a chance to reflect on how we can care for our planet.

Looking ahead, we have a busy and exciting term planned. Each year group will be heading out on special trips to enrich learning and spark new interests. We are also preparing for our much-anticipated charity plant sale, which will showcase the boys’ growing efforts and green-fingered achievements. This will take place on Wednesday 6th May from 3.45pm outside the Pre-Prep front door. We hope to see you there!

One particularly special date for your diaries is Friday 22nd May, when we will be hosting a Half-Term Celebration Assembly Tea Party for our much-loved grandparents. More details to follow soon.

As the weather warms up, please make sure your son brings a named water bottle and his school sunhat every day. It is so important that the boys have these for breaktimes and outdoor learning. We’re looking forward to a busy, fun-filled term ahead!

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Save the Dates !

Diary dates for this half-term appear below. Remember the whole school diary is displayed on My School Portal here:

The Pilgrims' School - Whole School Diary

Tuesday 28 April	All day		Year 2 Trip to Winchester Cathedral
Wednesday 29 April	1500-1515		Pre-Prep Christ Church Assembly
Friday 1 May	1000-1100		Little Shells for prospective parents and children
Monday 4 May	All day		No school - Bank Holiday
Thursday 7 May	0930-1030		Musical Shells for prospective parents and children
Friday 8 May	All day 1900-2130		Reception trip to Manor Farm PPA Event: Race Night (details to follow)
Saturday 9 May	0800-0900 0900-1000		PPA Event: Breakfast in the Yard - for all parents Pilgrims' Parley: Details to follow
Thursday 14 May	0930-1030		Musical Shells for prospective parents and children
Friday 15 May	All day		Year 1 trip to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard (details to follow)
Saturday 16 May	0900-1130		Whole School Open Day
Thursday 21 May	0930-1030		Musical Shells for prospective parents and children
Friday 22 May	1430-1530 1545		Pre-Prep Grandparents' Tea Half-Term begins

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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George the Tortoise –

Summer Holiday Home Needed!

We are looking for kind families to help care for our much-loved Pre-Prep tortoise over the summer holidays. If you are able to offer him a home, even for just part of the holidays, we would be so grateful. He is a very easy and gentle guest!

If you think you might be able to help, please do let us know. Any offer of care will be greatly received. 

Please email Sarah Hall at: shall@pilgrims-school.co.uk. Thank you so much for your support.

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Shell awards:

Year R - Rudi for happily coming back to school having worked very hard on his home learning tasks. Well done Rudi!  We are very proud of you! 

Year 1 - to Ralph for his enthusiasm for all areas of learning this week, from classroom tasks to PE and swimming. Well done, Ralph!

Year 2 - to Tomas for excellent listening and motivation at the start of term. 

 

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Upcoming Events

FOR ALL OPEN DAY ENQUIRIES CLICK HERE

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Year 2

It has been wonderful to welcome the boys back into the classroom. They returned buzzing with enthusiasm, full of stories from the Easter break and clearly refreshed and ready for the term ahead. It has been lovely to see them so motivated, eager to learn, and raring to go.

The boys have already thoroughly enjoyed immersing themselves in our new topic on oceans, and have approached their learning with great enthusiasm. We have also made the most of the sunny weather, taking our maths learning outdoors as we explored capacity and volume in a practical and engaging way. In English, the boys loved learning about the story of St George and the Dragon alongside other similar tales. They enjoyed comparing the different stories and discussing which was their favourite, developing both their comprehension and reasoning skills.

We have an exciting and busy term planned, beginning with our trip to Winchester Cathedral on Tuesday. During the visit, the boys will learn more about William Walker and his remarkable work, and we are hopeful that we will even have the opportunity to venture down into the crypt.

​Please also see the new Show and Tell schedule below. As last term, we will invite two boys each week to share something with the class, ensuring a balanced use of time across all subjects while encouraging presentations that are meaningful, thoughtful and help to spark curiosity and discussion.

Friday 1st May	Lucas	Tomas
Friday 8th May	Felix	Justin
Friday 15th May	Maximilian	Willoughby
Friday 5th June	Edward	Christopher
Friday 12th June	Skerdi	Rory
Friday 19th June	Macarthur	tbc

As well as celebrating St George’s Day, the boys were excited to take part in Earth Day and Shakespeare Day. The classroom was filled with excitement as the boys eagerly shared fascinating facts they had discovered, listening carefully to one another and building on each other’s ideas with great enthusiasm. They have really taken on board ways to help our planet, thoughtfully designing posters to encourage others to make a difference.

On Shakespeare Day, we all learnt how William Shakespeare was not only born on 23rd April but also died on that same date. A highlight of the day was the challenge of working out how old he was when he died and how old he would be if he were still alive in 2026.

Amidst all the facts the boys already knew about Shakespeare, they were excited to hear about some wonderful child-friendly productions available through BBC iPlayer, including Twelfth Night (2024), As You Like It (2023) featuring Andy Day, and magical adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. These are fantastic suggestions for enjoying at home and offer a great way to continue the boys’ interest and learning beyond the classroom.

Finally, please could I kindly ask that if you still have your son’s CGP workbooks at home these are returned to school as soon as possible, as we will be using them in class this term.

We are very much looking forward to a fantastic final term together, filled with curiosity, discovery, and continued growth.

Mrs Maxine Kent
Year 2 Teacher

 

Year 1

It has been such a fun week back in the Year 1 classroom. The boys have particularly enjoyed being introduced to our new term’s topic of Pirates, Seafarers and Explorers. Quickly, they have dived into the new space in the classroom dedicated to this part of their learning. The wooden blocks are no longer being imagined into castles, turrets and keeps but harbours, seawalls, lighthouses and ships.

Alfred Wallis – Art

As part of this topic, the boys were introduced to the Cornish fisherman and sailor turned artist, Alfred Wallis. He lived in St. Ives during the first part of the 20th century and started painting when he was 70 after retiring from a life at sea. The boys were intrigued to find out that he used scrap cardboard boxes from the local grocery shop or odd bits of wood and board from the local shipyard. They even provided him with paint as he did not have enough money to buy expensive artistic materials. We investigated various pieces of Wallis’s work to find similarities in colour, subject matter and approach.

Of course, his life at sea and in the town of St. Ives influenced what he wished to paint. The boys worked in pairs to sort out the oil pastels into a ‘palette’ of colours that they think Alfred Wallis used. We then explored using oil pastels to create shapes found in his work: a ship’s sail, the hull of a boat, a harbour wall or perhaps a lighthouse. They enjoyed investigating the different ways the pastel could be applied to the paper, and we started to explore how colours could be layered on top of one another to create a different effect.

Next week, just like Alfred Wallis, we shall be using old bits of cardboard to create a boat composition inspired by his paintings.

Mrs Victoria Ford
Year 1 Teacher

 

Reception

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful and restful Easter break and that the boys enjoyed some special time with family and friends.  They have enjoyed sharing some of their holiday experiences with us in class this week.

It has been lovely to see how quickly the boys have settled back into school life. They have returned with enthusiasm and positivity, and it hasn’t taken them long at all to remember our class rules and routines. We are very proud of how smoothly they have transitioned back into their learning.

Our theme for this half-term is 'Spring Has Sprung – Life Cycles.' This is always an exciting topic, and we have already begun exploring the changes that come with the season of spring.  The addition of glorious sunshine this week has been very welcome indeed!

We are especially fortunate this term to have six duck eggs in our classroom, kindly provided with the help of Mrs Hunter. The incubator with the digital screen monitoring temperature and the countdown of days is hugely important to us! The boys are incredibly excited and are taking great interest in caring for the eggs, making sure the temperature is correct, and the water input is just right. We are all eagerly hoping to see them hatch into ducklings in about four weeks’ time.  What a fantastic hands-on learning experience this will be!

We also have an exciting class trip planned to Manor Farm on Friday 8th May. During our visit, the boys will have the opportunity to explore new life, learn about caring for animals and plants, and, fingers crossed, see some piglets and lambs. It promises to be a wonderful extension of our classroom learning.

We are really looking forward to the term ahead and all the learning, discovery, and fun it will bring.

Happy weekend.

Mrs Sarah Huntley
Reception Teacher

 

Forest School

The sun is shining, and it is so lovely to welcome the boys back to Forest School.

Year R started off their session, familiarising themselves with our Forest School expectations as well as the site. Then, using a piece of card and some double-sided tape, we had fun looking for our own signs of spring and creating some beautiful spring charts. The boys loved looking at how the site had changed since they had been away. It was also a great chance to teach them about wildflowers and how to pick responsibly. They understood that they were not to pick any of the wildflowers, but were allowed to add fallen petals or broken flowers to their cards.

This week, I really wanted the boys in Year 1 to focus on their observational skills. Everyone had a small rectangular photo frame, which gave them the chance to look more closely at our surroundings. Using some of the ideas they saw through their picture frame, the boys worked cooperatively with each other to create their own spring image in a stick frame. I was very impressed with their pictures, as they captured some lovely spring images.

Mrs Fiona Walker
Forest School and LAMDA Teacher

 

Summer Holiday Camps

Follow the links to book:

• Wichester College | Ultimate Activity Camp
• Winchester College | Ultimate Activity Tech Camp

☀️Summer Early Bird Offer NOW ON!! Save up to £70 a week PER CHILD!

All bookings close on Tuesday 2 June.