​​​​From Mrs Ross

Much learning has taken place during preparations for our Coronation Tea Party and our assemblies.  Music lessons with Mr Burton and Mr du Plessis have provided wonderful opportunities to watch original footage of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation and to listen to the music that will be played during Saturday's Ceremony.

As I write this, the boys are busily making crowns and union jacks to wear and wave during our Whole School Coronation tea party.  We hope to create some very special memories within our Pilgrims' community that will last for years to come.

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Save the Dates

• Tuesday 9 May Year 2 Trip to Blue Reef Aquarium
• Friday 12 May PPA Pre-Prep Coffee morning 0815
• Monday 15 May Year 1 trip to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
• Friday 26 May Celebration Assembly for Parents 1115-1145
• Friday 9 June PPA Summer Drinks party 1900
• Friday 16 June Cathedral Assembly 1500
• Monday 19 June Pre-Prep Move Up Meeting for parents (Present Year1, YearR and Prospective YearR) 1900
• Wednesday 21 June Year2/3 Move Up Meeting for parents (Present Year 2) 1900
• Wednesday 28 June Year 4 and Pre-Prep Performance 1500
• Thursday 29 June Year 4 and Pre-Prep Performance 1500
• Friday 30 June Pre-Prep Sports Day 0900-1100
• Monday 3 & Tuesday 4 July Open Classrooms for parents 015-0845
• Wednesday 5 July - Pre-Prep End of Term and Final Celebration Assembly 0845-093

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Pilgrims' Shell Awards

• Year 2 – to Teddy W for trying really hard with his cutting skills when making his Coronation crown. Well done, Teddy.
• Year 1 - to Zakariya for settling in so well to Year 1 and joining in with life at Pilgrims'.
• Reception - to Yahya - for a fantastic first week at Pilgrims'.

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Notices

Menus for next week are available 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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From the PPA

Booking is now LIVE! for the PPA School of Rock event on Friday 19 May. All Pre-Prep parents and boys are welcome. Please go to My School Portal and select the Bookings tab to complete the form. 

After school arrangements will be as normal for boys in the Pre-Prep. If you would like your son to remain in school that day, one a one-off basis, please email your class teacher.

 

Commoner Update

Coding

The Coding Commoner has got off to a wonderful start this term.  We are grateful for Mr Hall's assistance during our sessions. His expertise and patience has helped Mrs Ross and Miss Whitmore navigate any technical hiccoughs beautifully!  

The boys and teachers have made huge progress, and we are now able to write code that involves objects, actions, time delays, collisions and sound affects!

Year 2

Coronation fever has most certainly hit! 

Music with Mr du Plessis has been extra-special this week. The boys have been introduced to various pieces of music that they will hear on Saturday during the Coronation Service. Hearing Year 2 sing “Vivat! Vivat” (part of the Vivat acclamations which will greet the King and Queen upon arrival at Westminster Abbey) sung at the top of their voices to start the week was very special. 

Wednesday was most firmly Crown Day. After investigating St. Edward’s Crown, only used for the Coronation of a new monarch, the boys decided upon their design. Regal colours were discussed as were adornments for pomp and ceremony. We snipped, we stuck, we measured, we readjusted and most importantly, we decorated! What do you think of our splendid crowns? I am sure that King Charles III would be happy to wear any one of these designs! 

In other non-Coronation news, the boys have impressed again with their creative writing talents. Readily the boys listened to the next instalment of Clem and Crab. They worked in partners to describe the “magical underwater world” that Crab finds at the aquarium on their visit. Adjectives were discussed, verbs were pondered upon and alliteration and simile were searched for to really WOW their readers. I hope we all experience such magic on our aquarium trip next week.  

We also packed in plastic bottle fish and further investigation of fractions. Well done boys on a week of hard work, full of fun. Welcome to Kabir who joined us at the start of the week.  

Mrs Ford 

Year 1

In Literacy a letter arrived for Year 1, which upon opening and reading, the boys discovered was from Jack, from the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.  Jack was asking for the boys' help to grow a new beanstalk to help him climb back up to the Giant's castle and return his hen!  Great excitement was shown as this week the boys were able to plant broad beans in jars ready to look after carefully and hopefully watch grow.  The boys read instructions step by step with Mrs Humphrey and followed well.  It will be fabulous to actually see the roots then shoot sprout through the jars (fingers crossed).  Another bean will also be planted in soil with compost and compared.

To follow on from the work the boys had started last week on collage, this week our classroom has become a craft workshop!  Lots of tissue paper, felt, sparkly paper, pompoms, to name just a few, have been used to explore different textures and patterns. The boys chose five different colours and then collected materials of this colour shade, to stick in their art sketch books. The boys really started to look and feel the different textures and notice how collage pictures are then created.  

Lots of History and learning about the Royal Family, have been shared with the boys this week with the upcoming event of the Coronation of King Charles III.  Linked to this, the boys have been able to use their collage skills to create a collage portrait of King Charles in the form of a silhouette. Great determination, concentration, and accuracy was needed to fill ALL the areas of King Charles' portrait.  I hope you agree, but I think the results are very striking!

Crowns, flags and bunting have also been made to join in with the festive feel of the nation.

I hope you all have a fabulous bank holiday weekend.

Mrs Huntley

Year R

This week we welcomed Yahya into our Reception class, who is settling beautifully into the classroom.

The boys have revisited the topic of weight, with much discussion over which one is lighter/which one is heavier. This would be a great area to allow your son to explore over the Bank holiday weekend, especially if baking for a tea party.

Early on in the week the boys developed their own ideas, having been inspired by the picture book 'Dear Zoo', last week. Much sticking and wrapping was involved with presents made and taken home.

Activities in Reception are planned with cross curricular links in mind; for example, the boys have enjoyed a domino challenge to find the totals of dominoes and sort into "more than" and "less than" groups.  This activity also encouraged the use of fine motor skills and the delicate touch needed to stand dominoes up on end.  The boys also became aware of the need to share, both the dominoes and the space itself, whilst trying to work without knocking the tray and causing another person’s tower to topple over.

Well done boys, it has been another busy week, with anticipation and excitement building for the Coronation tea party. We hope you like our crowns?

Mrs Kent

Forest School

Who doesn’t like playing in the mud? Year R certainly had fun when we decided to make our own mud paint and became artists for the day. After having decided on the content and texture of their mud paint, the boys had a go at painting with them, using old paint brushes and sticks. In free exploration time some of the boys made a wooden bird.

If you visit Elizabeth Mead you had better be careful of the hidden dragons Year 1 created. After being inspired by the story ‘The Boy Who Lived with Dragons’ by Andy Shepherd, the boys went on the hunt for some dragon eggs and found three! Working in small groups, the boys used their imagination and created some 3D images of their dragons.

Year 2 spent a lovely afternoon with Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust looking for invertebrates in the river at St Cross meadows. They learned how to river dip sensibly, and caught a lot of fresh water shrimps as well as the odd fish! We then learned how to make a small boat from river reeds and raced them down the river. It was only when we got back to school that a few boys discovered that their wellies were full of water, we must have been having fun!

Mrs Walker