From Mrs Hall:

This week, the boys from Reception to Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed their drama workshops with Jack, exploring the theme of castles, knights, and princesses. The sessions were full of imagination, laughter, and energy, and it was wonderful to see the boys stepping into character with such enthusiasm.

On Thursday, we marked National Poetry Day with plenty of creativity and enthusiasm. The boys enjoyed exploring poems. It was wonderful to see them inspired by rhythm and language, and to hear them share poems with such confidence.

Year 2 also enjoyed an exciting trip to the Tudor House in Southampton. Although it was the third visit for our Year 2 team, we all came away having learnt something new! The boys were absolutely engrossed in their learning—whether stepping back into Tudor life, exploring artefacts, or asking thoughtful questions. We even had a visit from Samuel Pepys himself! It was a joy to see their curiosity and engagement shining through.

As always, we are so proud of the boys’ enthusiasm and energy for learning, and we look forward to more adventures ahead!

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Shell awards:

Reception: to Ilya for showing a positive 'can do' attitude towards tasks that seem tricky at first and, in particular, writing letters!  Well done Ilya!
Year 1: to Henry R for his effort towards his reading and focus during his phonics sessions with Mrs Thorne. Well done, Henry!
Year 2: to Willoughby, for working hard, staying focussed and always doing his best!

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Save the Dates !

Monday 6 October	1600-1800		Year 2 Parents' Evening
Friday 10 October	all day		Year 1 trip to Roche Court
Saturday 11 October	morning		Whole school Open Day
Monday 13 October	1600-1900		Reception and Year 1 Parents' Evenings
Friday 17 October			Half-Term begins at the end of the school day
Monday 3 November	08:30		Term resumes

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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Potting Club from Mrs Ford

The Pilgrims' Potting Project - Year 2
During the summer last year, when the current Year 2s planted seeds for our Pre-Prep Plant Sale in May, it was evident just how many of the boys enjoyed gardening. We wanted to give the boys the time to explore this hobby further.

There is now an opportunity for a gardening activity every Wednesday lunchtime for the Year 2 boys that wish to. We shall be spending time germinating seeds that should grow inside during the darker months of the year as well as exploring other ways of gardening during the winter. It is my hope that we can pot on our seedlings and distribute our plants around both the Pre-Prep and the wider Prep School to brighten up a fellow classroom or teacher's desk that may need some plant love. This not only helps the Year 2 boys become familiar with the Prep areas of the school but engages them in making a positive contribution to their environment.

* Potting Club is after any small, medium or large terracotta pots that you may have going spare at home. All donations are GREATLY appreciated! *

Mrs Ford
Year 1 Teacher

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Upcoming Events

 

Book here: 

• Little Shells: Book your Little Shells session - The Pilgrims' School
• Musical Shells: Book your Musical Shells course - The Pilgrims' School (places still available)
• Open Morning: Pilgrims' Open Morning

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Year 1

Despite it only being early October in the classroom, our minds turned to Christmas this week amongst all our space learning, capital letter formation and more than/less than language in maths.

The boys are creating Christmas cards that you will have the option of making into professionally produced cards to send to all your friends and family this Christmas through an initiative led by the PPA. The boys were truly excited by this opportunity and were keen to create their designs on paper. It also gave us an opportunity to practise our correct J and Y capital letter formation, which was a bonus! More information on how to order sets of cards will follow.

Mrs Victoria Ford
Year 1 Teacher
 

Year 2 

Year 2 trip to the Tudor House, Southampton

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Art Fund

On Monday, Year 2 enjoyed a fascinating visit to the Tudor House in Southampton and what a memorable trip it was! The boys displayed exemplary behaviour throughout the day, showing curiosity, enthusiasm, and respect at every stage of the visit. Rory wrote, "We had an amazing time and Andy gave us some interesting facts."

The Tudor House provided a wonderful opportunity to step back in time and experience what life was like in the 1600s. We were all captivated by the stories and artefacts, and even us three teachers came away having learnt something new! The boys were especially inspired by the Tudor era, with many lively discussions about how people lived, worked, and built their homes. Their enthusiasm was carried back into the classroom, where the boys have already begun designing and constructing their own miniature Tudor town houses. Together, these will form a mock-up of London as it might have looked in 1666, before the Great Fire.

Some of the boys’ favourite moments included:
 

• Meeting the two friendly ghosts in the banqueting hall, who even made Mrs Hall jump!
• Learning about a daisy wheel that was etched onto a wall, "A daisy wheel is an ancient symbol representing good energy. It was used in the 15th and 16th and 17th centuries to bring good health and to ward off evil."

It was a trip full of learning, creativity, and fun, and we are so proud of how brilliantly Year 2 represented the school.

Mrs Maxine Kent
Year 2 Teacher
 

Reception

George, our class Bear, has come to visit the boys in Reception now that they have fully settled and are ready to learn more!  He visits every day and tells the boys about his adventures (through me!) which link to letter sounds and actions. For example, George went to a party dressed as a pirate and helped to puff out the candles while giving his friend a parrot for a present.  The boys then try to guess his letter for the day.  The letter discovered for this adventure is a 'p' for Pirate'.  

George then shows the boys his drawstring feely bag. In his bag, he has put ten objects that either DO start with the initial sound for the day or DO NOT. The boys then take turns to have a dip in the bag and decide whether their chosen object does or does not begin with the initial sound for the day and place it in the correct set. The boys are becoming very accurate at this game now and love it when George manages to find all ten objects that DO start with his initial letter!  Ask your son which objects he managed to find that started with 'c'!

After lots of fun with adventures, sorting objects and learning cued articulation actions, the boys are taught how to write this letter in the cursive style. I also show what a capital letter looks like and name the letter too. The boys are enjoying each different letter pattern that goes with each sound. For example, 'p' is written as, flick down the Pirate's plait, (back up) round the Pirate's face and flick out. So far, the boys have been introduced to twelve letters of the alphabet in a special order which will help with reading words and spelling. They are now having a go at using magnetic letters to make dictated words using the letter sounds they have learnt so far.

Miss Whitmore and I have been extremely impressed by how well all the boys are doing with learning their letter sounds, reading two or three-letter words using these sounds and even having a go at writing each letter. Practising little and often every day really does help. If you are able to have a quick daily practice at home too, this really does help your son to embed his new learning.

Well done boys!  Keep up the great work. I hope you all have a super weekend.

Mrs Sarah Huntley
Reception Teacher

 

Forest School

It certainly has been a great conker season this year, so we decided to make some leaf conker bugs. The boys in Year R learned how to drill a hole through a conker using a palm drill and a conker clamp. They then threaded a wonderful selection of leaves onto a piece of string to create the bug’s body. The final touch was to draw a face on the conker, and the bug seemed to come to life!

I love the art of storytelling, and this week Year 1 recalled some of their favourite fairy tales. Inspired by the story of The Three Little Pigs, the boys created their favourite scene from the story using natural materials from the forest floor. Can you guess what the scene is?

The leaves are starting to change, and all the wonderful autumn colours are beginning to appear. Inspired by the changing leaves, the boys in Year 2 recalled one of their knot skills and had fun creating some autumn leaf mobiles. Leaves were carefully chosen for their beauty and threaded onto pieces of string. We then put the leaves back on to the trees!

Mrs Fiona Walker
Forest School and LAMDA Teacher