Saturday 22 December 2018

Advent and Christmas in Murphy


Throughout the Advent season, the Wandering Wise Men, from our Crib set, made their way around Murphy classroom. They set challenges each day - all with the aim of making it to the stable. Yesterday they finally did!

Well done to all the children who responded to the challenges and helped them along the way.

Many thanks for all the kind cards and gifts you have given the staff in Murphy. we are very grateful. We hope you have a great Christmas and enjoy the items your child has brought home.

Friday 21 December 2018

Christmas Service


Many thanks to those of you who joined us in Church for the end of year service. We wish you a peaceful Christmas and look forward to seeing you in the new year.

Friday 16 November 2018

Year 1 reading challenge

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Well done, to those of you who have already started your reading challenge and many thanks for organising a book swap. What a wonderful idea!

Don’t forget, some of the books are available in our own school library and you can reserve books from Ware public library. This can be done online if you can not make it in person, but you will need to go and collect the book.

Don't forget to return your sheet each time you have read 10 books!

Wednesday 14 November 2018

Jennifer Killick - Author visit

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Today, we were delighted to welcome Jennifer Killick into our school. She started the day with an author talk, for Years 1 - 6 and then she held creative workshops for Years 3, 4 and 5.

The children thoroughly enjoyed creating their own characters and story outlines. The children were very enthusiastic and were reluctant to stop writing at the end of each session. Many have promised to send them to Jennifer when they are finished

Jennifer also joined us for "Reading Buddies" and acted a as buddy to one of the children in Year 1. He enjoyed sharing a book with her.

More information about her, her passions and, of course, details of her books can be found on her website https://www.jenniferkillick.com/.




Saturday 20 October 2018

Science in KS1

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This half term,  Year 1 and 2 have been investigating the properties of everyday materials. We have looked at the items in our classroom, things we use and then, this week,  investigated which materials are waterproof. Mrs Matthews has a hole in her umbrella and need the help of KS1 to mend it!

Points of the compass

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In Geography we have been learning about directional language and the points of a compass.

Friday 19 October 2018

Cowell Class Computing

Cowell Class Computing


We are exploring animation in Cowell Class this term.  Max, Archie Mand Sofia were keen to continue their learning in Golden Time when they made these StopMotion animations.






Monday 8 October 2018

Harvest Service 2018

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Many thanks to those of you who joined us in church today and to the many people who generously donated items. These will be sent to the food bank.

Tuesday 2 October 2018

Tennis

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We were very fortunate to have a tennis coach visit school today. 
Each class had a half hour session and had the chance to learn a few basic skills.Well done Murphy class, you picked it up really quickly!

Friday 28 September 2018

BBC Music Day


The BBC invited us to "get singing" - and so we did! All across the school classes logged on to the BBC  and took part in a few vocal exercises, before learning and performing part of a song. Murphy class loved taking part.

Thursday 20 September 2018

Year 3/4 Trip to Celtic Harmony Camp



Year 3 and 4 took a journey back in time today when we visited Celtic Harmony Campthe UK's largest reconstructed Iron Age settlement.


 We gathered food from the ancient woodland for a prehistoric cookery lesson.


We built our own shelters in the woods.


We learned about flint tools and how to use them to defend ourselves from bears. Then we tried our hands at hunting in the woods.


We learned how to walk silently like a hunter from the Stone Age and practised shooting prehistoric animals amongst the trees.

Sunday 15 July 2018

Chauncy Community Day 2018

On Friday, the entire school took part in Chauncy Community day 2018. Most of us walked there, thanks to those who accompanied us, whilst the youngest children were visited, at school, by a team from Chauncy.

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Food

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Ceramics

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Print

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Numeracy Fun

Hargreaves class had a fantastic day and would like to say "Thank you" to all the staff and students, at Chauncy, who made this possible. I am sure other classes will share their photos soon.

Tuesday 19 June 2018

Author visit - year 2-6

The children from years 2, 3, 4 and 6 enjoyed a visit from inspirational local author H.G. Sansostri yesterday afternoon in a fun-packed assembly looking at his books and journey as an author.  What made this visit truly amazing was that Harry is just 16 years old having published his first book on his 12th birthday.  Here are some photos of the event.


Monday 18 June 2018

Book Club - The Explorer


Katherine Rundell, an exciting new author whose name will replace the current Horowitz class, has given us another great read - ‘The Explorer’. Four children find themselves plunged into the Amazon Rainforest after their plane crashes. As the only survivors, only courage and determination will ensure their survival…

The Book Club members enjoyed listening to the first chapter, which hooks the reader in immediately with the crash. The children imagined themselves in the airplane before and after the engine cut out; it was interesting to hear the different thoughts going through their minds.

The group then carried out an extensive role play, in which they had to decide where to make a camp after the crash.  We then read an extract which highlighted some of the dangers faced by the book’s characters, and the children imaginatively role-played scenes of themselves in the jungle with various threats and dangers appearing. It was all very dramatic!

We finished off the session by reading an extract in which the characters eat some disgusting and dangerous foods, and mimed eating food that we might find in the jungle. This led to a lot of dying!! A really exciting Book Club today which had everyone’s imagination fired.

Mrs Barlow 

Thursday 24 May 2018

PGL day 4

We have been very busy again today, testing ourselves and having lots of fun and the sun came out just at the right time so that groups 1, 2 and 3 could enjoy their afternoon kayaking on the lake. This will probably be our last blog as we have to pack up early before our final two activities tomorrow morning followed by lunch and the journey home.  We will keep you informed of our expected time of arrival through the office and parent mail.  Here are some photos of our penultimate day.




Year 5 trip to Edge Outdoor Activity Centre

On Wednesday 23rd May, Year 5 had a fantastic trip to Edge Outdoor Activity Centre at Westmill Farm.  The children were amazing, trying out some exciting and challenging activities.  The high ropes and mountain boarding were particular favourites.  Well done Year 5 for being brave and conquering some of your fears.











Wednesday 23 May 2018

A warmer night - thanks to extra bedding - combined with the children being so tired led to a much better sleep for them all last night.  Feeling refreshed, they have tackled all that has been thrown at them again today and several children have overcome their fears and achieved things that they didn't believe they could.  We are so proud of them all.

Here are some more photos of last night's games where they had to compete in teams in a series of 'wacky races' including chocolate bar naming, shoe tower building and longest line to win materials to protect two water balloons which were then thrown from the high ropes tower.  One team successfully managed to get one balloon down intact.

There are also a selection of activities from today for groups one and three.








Tuesday 22 May 2018

Another action-packed day with the children learning to problem solve and work as a team.  It was good timing for some to get wet this afternoon as the temperatures rose again after lunch.  The children are telling us that they are having lots of fun, but of course they also miss home.

Here are some pictures of group 4 and also one of Mrs Sampford and Mrs D'Arcy enjoying the giant swing.






Lewis Class's Music Day - BBC Ten Pieces

Lewis Class were really creative in our response to Carl Orff's well-known piece of music ‘O Fortuna' from Carmina  Burana.  We drew images that the music conjured up in our imaginations - from dinosaurs fighting, to ships tossed on stormy seas, to wars on the battlefields.  We learned about the Roman goddess, Fortuna (goddess of fortune and luck) and thought about destiny and fate.  After drawing what we imagined Fortuna to look like, we came up with power poses we thought she might strike.  We opened our performance piece with these poses.  This was followed by choral singing in Latin and self-choreographed dance routines plus experimentation with pulse and pitch using our super collection of percussion and pitched instruments.  A very busy, energetic and creative day in Year 3 today!















Music day in Nursery

Today we joined many schools to celebrate the power of music. We chose the song 'No place like' by Kerry Andrew. We focused on our homes 'No place like home!' We discussed where we all live....
Arthur 'I just live up that hill.'
Thomas 'I live in Hertfordshire.'
Sam 'You live in the same country as me!'
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We talked about the sounds we hear when we are in town...cars, children, police cars etc.  We also talked about what home is and made little paper houses.
We decided to make a home for the nursery garden....we used paints and worked as a team.  We later had the music O. In the background for free painting. A lovely, creative day!

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