{SECTION_MENU}School Blog
Dear Families and Friends,
We are thrilled to welcome you to the new look School Blog - your refreshed, vibrant window into the life of our school community!
This is the place where you’ll be able to discover all the exciting learning taking place across the school. From creative classroom projects to hands-on exploration, you’ll get a front-row seat to the wonderful experiences our children are enjoying every day.
Our blog will also shine a spotlight on how our pupils are growing in their personal development, citizenship, and spirituality. We are incredibly proud of the thoughtful, compassionate young people they are becoming, and this platform gives us the perfect opportunity to share their journeys with you.
We hope you’ll visit often, celebrate the children’s achievements with us, and feel even more connected to the life of our school.
As a school, we continue to learn from and enjoy our Monday afternoon Bell Plate session with Mrs Richmond – the children take great care to stay in time and ring their notes perfectly! Our collective worship continues to bring us together as a school. Whether it is listening to a bible story or discussing ways to improve our mental health, we enjoy our time together.
Thank you for joining us on this new chapter - there’s so much to look forward to!
27.03.26
Our learning in Key Stage 1 this week:
What a busy and exciting week we’ve had in school!
Miss Holland brought the chicks back to Highampton for the children to see, and there was a real buzz of excitement around the classrooms. We were amazed at how much they had grown. We watched them eat their chick crumb and even got the chance to hold them gently. The children loved observing their colours, size, and movements, and it sparked lots of brilliant questions and conversations.
We have also been working hard on our singing as we get ready for our upcoming celebration assembly. The children have shown great enthusiasm and teamwork, and their voices are sounding fantastic. We can’t wait to share their hard work with families next week!
It has been a week full of curiosity, creativity, and progress-and we are so proud of everything the children have achieved. They continue to wow us each and every day.
Our learning in Key Stage 2 this week:
In English this week, we continue with The Unforgotten Coat, where we have been exploring the experiences of a character living in Mongolia. The children have been thinking carefully about the character’s emotions and using inference to understand how they might have been feeling at different points in the story.
In science, we investigated friction, discussing when it can be helpful and when it can be a disadvantage. The children enjoyed experimenting with different surfaces and the force needed to push objects across them.
We are also having great fun practising for our Celebration Assembly. The children have been reflecting on their favourite moments of the term, and we are very excited to share these with you next week.
20/03/26
Our Key Stage 1 learning this week:
Our RWI development day and assessments highlighted just how much effort the children are putting into their reading. We love seeing how often they read at home-it makes such a difference. Thank you for your continued support.
🐣 Exciting News from the Incubator!
This week at Highampton, three fluffy chicks hatched-two black and white ones and one bright yellow chick! The children have been absolutely fascinated watching them settle into their new world. We will see them once more before they start their next adventure on a farm.
🌱 Science Adventures
We planted seeds after discussing what plants need to grow, including some speedy cress. We have put some in the fridge and some in a tin, as well as on the windowsill, predicting what will happen. Now we’re eagerly watching and waiting to see which sprouts first!
🌞 Outdoor Learning Fun
The sunshine has made our amazing outdoor area even more exciting. The children enjoyed lots of outdoor learning opportunities, from exploring nature to taking part in practical activities.
➕➖📏 Maths Moments
- Years 1 have been working on addition and subtraction.
✝️ R.W.
We learned the story of Easter and explored its meaning in a child‑friendly way.
Our Key Stage 2 learning this week:
This week, we have been delving into a new text, The Unforgotten Coat - we are completely captivated as we uncover more about the characters’ lives. This book link beautifully with our Geography unit on migration, helping the children make strong connections between literature and real‑world themes.
On Thursday, we enjoyed an exciting trip to the RAMM Museum in Exeter. A big thank‑you to Mrs Gillard, Miss Angus, Miss Hamilton‑Cox, Mrs Winter and Mr Bridge for making this visit possible. It was a wonderful adventure as we explored the museum in small groups, following the children’s own interests.
We highly recommend a visit if you haven’t been already-it is truly stunning!
In PE, we continue to have great fun in our swimming lessons-huge thanks to the Ruby Oak swimming teachers for their support. Mr Meagan is also very impressed with the class’s developing tennis skills, especially as they learn how to take part in a rally.
13/03/26
Our learning in Key Stage 1:
Year 1: Super Star Readers
Year 1 completed their NFER reading assessments this week, they were complete superstars! The concentration, positivity, and brilliant achievements are a testament to how hard they’ve been working. Well done, Year 1!
Forest School Adventures
Forest School was a highlight for everyone. Children helped to build a fire and then used fire strikers to practise creating sparks-it was really quite tricky but they stuck with it and were able to do it! They also made fire sticks and enjoyed melting marshmallows over the flames. Well done for being so resilient in the sudden chill!
In science we explored germination and what that means. We watched a fascinating film about how seeds grow. After lots of discussion, the children have decided they want to plant a blueberry, banana, tomato and avocado next week as a special experiment to see which will grow. We can’t wait to observe what happens!
Our learning in Key Stage 2:
What a week it has been! The children have absolutely wowed us with their attitude, effort, and determination across every area of learning but especially in their assessments. Their enthusiasm has shone through, and we couldn’t be prouder of the way they support one another and rise to each new challenge.
🧪 Science: Forces in Action
In Science, we explored how forces can change the shape, size, and direction of an object. We used our bodies to change the direction of moving objects and considered how gravity plays a part in the movements. The curiosity on display was amazing!
🔥 Wild Tribe Adventures
Thursday afternoon was the highlight of our week as we welcomed Michelle from Wild Tribe. The children had a magical time learning how to safely light fires, followed by cooking marshmallows and making popcorn over the flames. The excitement was infectious, and the sense of achievement was huge.
Do ask the children how we got the popcorn to pop!
06/03/26
Our Key Stage 2 learning this week:
🌱 English
We have been bringing our Incredible Edibles unit to a close by crafting our final instructional writes. The children have worked hard to include clear features such as numbered steps, precise verbs, helpful diagrams and layout choices that guide the reader. Next week, we begin a brand-new text focus linked to our Geography unit on Migration, exploring stories of movement, journeys and change.
➗ Maths
The children have been consolidating previous learning as well as moving on to their next steps. We have had a strong arithmetic focus this week. It has been brilliant to see the children challenging themselves to work both quickly and carefully through a wide range of number problems.
🧲 Science
Our new topic on Forces has begun with a pre-learning quiz to spark curiosity and uncover what the children already know. We have explored pushes, pulls, and the force of gravity, using practical examples to help the children make sense of how forces act in the world around them.
Our Key Stage 1 learning this week:
We are very lucky to have an incubator in our class over at Highampton. We are making sure we keep the humidity at the right level and we are counting down the days until the eggs hatch by crossing off the days on the calendar.
We have pretended to be beekeepers this week, wearing the beekeepers veil to protect our heads and pretending to use the smoker to make the bees sleepy. We also looked at the frames from the bee hives. It created some great discussion and learning from the children.
World Book Day was amazing! The children's outfits were so good, they all really enjoyed the activities, reading and writing. It was lovely to hear how enthusiastic everyone was.
We have been dissecting bean seeds to understand the different parts and have created scientific illustrations. We will be planting over the next few weeks as well!
Year 1 have been creating their own stories of The Odd Egg. The quality of their writing and handwriting has wowed us this week!
"I chose to dress up as Spiderman from my book because I Iike the song in it."
"I chose to dress up as the fox from the book Fox on a Box because the book is so funny. I like the bit when the fox runs away from the bees!"
"I chose to dress up as Bellatrix from Harry Potter because I love her character - she is slightly crazy and gothic!"