From Mrs Ross

Excitement is gathering as we approach our Whole School Book Week next week.  Our visiting author and poet, AF Harrold, will be sharing his work with the Pre-Prep boys in our very own work shop. Everyone is encouraged to dress up as a book character, for World Book Day, on Thursday 2 March. (The boys will be changing into tracksuits before they go to Forest School and Swimming!) The boys will also bring home special 'World Book Day' vouchers and the teachers will be planning lots of wonderful book themed activities for the boys.

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Pilgrims' Shell Awards

• Year 2 – to Samuel B for his active approach to sharing his knowledge on our class trip. 
• Year 1 - William M for super listening and hard work.
• Reception - to Tymur for his concentration, hard work and enthusiasm this week.

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Diary dates

Diary dates	Times	The week ahead
Monday 27 February	0900	Reception Green Man workshop at Cathedral Whole School Book Week
Tuesday 28 February	all day	Visiting author, AF Harrold
Thursday 2 March	all day	World Book Day and Dress Up Day! (Boys and staff dress up as favourite book characters)
Monday 6 March	All day	Year 1 trip to Porchester Castle
Thursday 9 March	1315-1515	St Swithun's Year 2 girls join Forest School session
Friday 10 March	1500	Pre-Prep Cathedral Assembly
Wednesday 15 March	1630	Pre-Prep Parents' Evening (booking will be available soon)

 

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Notices

Menus - Please find a link to next week's menus here, on My School Portal. 

Message from the Head Nurse, Nicki Beaumont:

Reminder: we have boys with severe allergies to certain foods, and therefore have a policy whereby 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

Year 2

I hope that your boys came home on Tuesday evening FULL of stories and facts and information and interest from their trip to the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Amport. We couldn’t have had a better day! From the moment we met Ronnie, our workshop leader, on entry to the Trust, the boys were so excited to be there and the knowledge we gained was truly substantial. The boys were able to see various types of African birds up close and, at times, VERY personal! I believe a lot of memories were made. 

The Hawk Conservancy Trust are hugely focused on conservation work both in Africa and at home in the UK. One of their major concerns are vultures, in particular those in the ‘Old World’ of Africa and Asia. In the space of an hour, Ronnie completely changed all the boys' opinions of vultures from “ugly, vicious, bald and aggressive” to “fluffy, friendly, kind and cheeky”. Meeting Captain Jack Sparrow up close certainly helped! Thankfully, all their shoelaces stayed intact as apparently, they are one of his favourite things! There were many other vultures that stole their hearts too; Bou, the Egyptian vulture, with an incredible white collar of feathers was a firm favourite. Did you know that when vultures get excited their faces turn pink and red, just like ours?  

The boys watched two flying displays whilst at the Trust, one which involved four different species of owl and one in which they saw different birds of prey fly and catch their prey – from caracaras that can cleverly find food in dustbins and have been known to steal clothes from washing lines (red attracts them most apparently!), and a bald eagle with a wingspan of 230cm, called Sam, (that raised a smile!) which swooped all the way up to the top of the tower to find his prey. The storks with their amusing long legs coming into land to find their food certainly raised a chuckle. However, the most excited yelps came when they had to duck at the last minute as all the species of birds swept over their heads. 

Staff and boys were utterly transfixed throughout the day and when the time came to leave, we just could not believe five hours had passed… in the kick of a secretary bird’s foot (which kicks 10 times faster than the blink of an eye)! 

As we were leaving, I heard Frankie say, “I want a vulture!” to which many boys replied in agreement. Ronnie and her team at the Hawk Conservancy Trust can rest assured that their work to transform the opinions of young people in response to vultures was 100% achieved. I am hopeful that this generation of Pilgrims’ boys will not experience the extinction of the ‘Old World’ vulture as their awareness has grown to ensure its conservation. 
Mrs Ford

Year 1

Welcome back! I hope you have all had an enjoyable half-term break.

The boys have come back to school this week buzzing with half-term news. It is also lovely to welcome back the lighter mornings and evenings too. The week has whizzed by with lots going on. The boys have worked extremely hard on their Literacy and Maths tasks. Their stories are developing well, and they are looking forward to putting these plans together to create their new versions of "The Knight who wouldn't fight".  

In Maths, place value has been explored. The boys have enjoyed partitioning numbers into first tens and ones, and then they even looked at hundreds and thousands through game-playing and working on the Surface Gos! Great understanding, progress and enjoyment were shown.

Topic work this week has included sequencing sections of The Bayeux Tapestry.  What a task, which the boys rose marvellously to!  Team work and looking closely at the images really helped.  This task guided our final task of the week of using pencil skills to sketch a section of The Bayeux Tapestry.  

Well done boys, what a week we have had. Enjoy your weekend!
Mrs Huntley

 

Reception

As a reminder for Monday; please bring your coat to school, as we have our second workshop in the Cathedral.

The boys were excited to be back in the classroom after, what sounded like an action packed half-term. They rose to the challenge to build a boat for three small dinosaurs, who could not swim, to set sail in without getting wet. (I was quickly reminded that a Spinosaurus could indeed swim). The boys set to work using Lego and Stickle bricks, building some very detailed boats. However, most needed adapting after their maiden voyage, when the boys realised that their boat was far too heavy and sank straight away. After adjustments were made, many dinosaurs did indeed set sail. It was great to observe from nearby, listening in to the conversations amongst the boys, especially their squeals of delight when a boat floated, along with some congratulatory word to each other. My role as an adult was to observe and ask open-ended questions and to encourage the boys to verbalise what the problems had been with the sinking boats. The boys extended their vocabulary, whilst discussing the concepts of heavy, light, floating, and sinking with us. 

 

In Read Write Inc. we have started working on the Set 2 Speed Sounds, beginning with, ay ("may I play") and ee ("What can you see?").

It has been wonderful to be out in our garden; the mud kitchen has been busy with the boys making their own pancakes.

In Maths lessons the boys have continued to work on number bonds. During a Funky Finger session they made their own insect. (Just look at the concentration on their faces!) 
Mrs Kent

 

Forest School 

With a touch of spring in the air, Year R were keen to help the birds find food. So with some rather gooey lard, cheese, raisins and a fir cone the boys made some super tasty fat balls which they proudly hung in the trees around the school.

Music plays such an important role in our school life, so we thought we would see if we could create our own natural musical instruments out of sticks, pots, bark and stones. The boys used their imagination and had a go at playing a simple rhythm as part of our natural orchestra!

Year 2 explored the mathematical concept of repeating patterns this week. The boys chose their natural items carefully and thought about how they could be used to create a repeated pattern. As confidence grew, the patterns became more complicated and the boys had fun trying to work out each other’s patterns. At the end of the session, we had a go at performing some repeated rhythms.
Mrs Walker