Last term, we were so excited to find out that we had been awarded a Bronze Artsmark. This was a culmination of huge amount of time and effort by Mrs McCash to write the report, which highlighted all that we do in the arts. Our bronze award reflected the achievements in the arts including through music, drama and art and design and the opportunities that we offer in these areas.

  

Of course, we continued to offer lots of opportunities in the arts. Children across the year groups enjoy music lessons and singing assemblies. As part of this, children in Year 4 and Year 5 have enjoyed being able to learn a new instrument this term. Year 4 have been developing their skills in learning to play the recorder and Year 5 have been learning to play the Ukulele.

           

We were fortunate to be able to welcome M&M Productions back performing their travelling pantomime (oh yes we were!) Children enjoyed lots of audience participation in their version of Snow White. The children enjoyed singing along and a few of the teachers got involved in a staff dance off! This is a wonderful opportunity for the children to see live theatre.

     

We also welcomed Norfolk Music Hub jazz band into school who performed for Years 3 and 4. They introduced the rhythms of jazz, contrasting them with classical music. Children enjoyed singing jazz chants and clapping along to the music of the band. It was fantastic for the children to see, hear and enjoy live music.

Some children in Year 3, continued their work on the Wise About Words project through The Wensum Trust. Their teacher, Miss Mundford, continued to work alongside Hilary Thomson, one of the drama practitioners from Norwich Theatre Royal to develop drama lessons for the children linked to their topic.

    

These children, along with children in Year 5 who were also part of the project, also had the amazing opportunity to visit Norwich Theatre Royal for a day of drama-based activities.

 

           

Children in Year 4 have also had the opportunity to work with their teacher, Miss Campbell, and drama students from the University of East Anglia. Once again, the work has been linked to the topics that they are learning in their lessons in the classroom which is a great opportunity to develop their learning further.

 

On sports front, we have continued this term offering lots of opportunities for the children to be active. Our links with the West Norwich and Dereham School Sports Partnership continues to offer a wealth of different exciting events for children which, this term, has included a dodgeball festival, indoor athletics, cross country and a number of different football festivals and competitions.

           

             

       

Our boys and girls football teams have continued to do well. The girls have reached the semi-final in their cup challenge and the Year 6 team have finished joint league winners. We were also thrilled to receive a special donation from a local company who paid for a brand new full kit for our girls’ team. We think they look amazing!

          

We also had children taking part in tag-rugby tournaments and we welcomed coaches through the Norfolk Cricket Board into school for the children to take part in cricket enrichment activities.

   

This term we got involved in different special days. We took part in the NSPCC Number Day, raising over £100 for this charity whilst having a day of fun number themed activities. Mr Townsend even ran a special event at lunchtime where scores of children came in during their lunchtime to take part in extra maths activities!

       

     

We also raised money for Red Nose Day by turning our school red with a red themed non-uniform day!

         

Raising money for important charities such as these are important to help the children understand why it is important to help others in need. On this note, we also had a special request from two of our Year 5 pupils who asked us to help raise money for those affected in Turkey and Syria by the earthquakes. They wrote a lovely letter asking us to help and we were thrilled to help them raise over £150 for this (with only a day’s notice which we thought was brilliant!)

We also encouraged everyone to walk to school along with other schools in the Hellesdon area by having a funky footwear day. Children could wear wacky shoes in return for walking to school!

We welcome two branches of Norfolk Police into school this term. The first was for an important assembly in Year 6 talking to the children about the importance of online safety. We also welcomed the Norfolk Broads Broadsbeat team into school who talked to Year 3 about their role on the waterways of Norfolk and about water safety. The children even got the exciting opportunity to climb aboard the Broadsbeat boat! They learnt the importance of wearing life jackets whenever going on or into open water and the motto ‘reach or throw but don’t go’ when trying to help someone who is in difficulty in the water.

       

Year 4 went on a visit to Norwich Castle Museum as part of their history work on Ancient Civilisations. They were able to get hands on with historical artefacts and use their understanding from their lessons to help them solve problems posed to them during the day.

          

In March, we celebrated World Book Day with a ‘Relax and read’ day. The children enjoyed coming into school wearing pyjamas and relaxing clothing. The took part in activities around reading, shared favourite books and enjoyed dropping everything and reading every time they heard a special bell rung.

         

 This term we received a special donation of 91 copies of Marcus Rashford’s book which were given to all of our Year 6 pupils.

We continued to offer a range of clubs. We continued with our hugely popular Mad Science Club and Community Sports Foundation (CSF) sports clubs. Children across the school continue to enjoy learning to play instruments as part of rock bands with James from Rock Steady and our Rock Notes choir enjoy singing together with Mrs Dance every week. Mrs Latimer’s running club this term saw 20 children learning new skills in short and long distance running from former Olympian Paul Evans. They learnt lots of new skills and put them into practice with some races too.

         

We continue to award our Accelerated Reader Word Millionaire badges with more children achieving this incredible milestone this term.

                  

                           

We also awarded 12 pupils with our extra special Head Teacher Awards. At the start of this term we held a special tea and cake event for those awarded in the autumn term with this award.

 After Easter, we will hold our second event for those awarded in the spring term. We can’t wait!