East Hoathly Church of England Primary School
Achievement for All, Learning Together, Learning for Life
We ended this term with a trip to the Science Centre and the children loved it! They were all so inquisitive, asking brilliant questions and drawing upon their learning this term to have amazing conversations with each other and the staff there.
Today we learned all about the idea of ‘perception’ and how people across the world might perceive different countries or cultures in different ways. We spoke about how we might perceive life in Malawi to be like, or imagine everybody in the country to live a similar lifestyle, and discussed how this is not entirely true.
Squirrels had a very exciting visit from some firefighters and a fire engine from Uckfield station. They have been learning about the Great Fire of London and the importance of keeping safe around fire. During the visit, they learnt about the fire engine and all the parts they keep us safe. It was very exciting as they were able to use the hoses to squirt water and found out that the engine holds some water but for larger fires, they use yellow fire hydrants to get water. Squirrels also went in the fire engine and saw the backpacks that the firefighters wear when they go to fight fires.
On Friday 5th July, Hedgehogs had a very special visit from Zoolab! Jack, our adventure leader brought a host of different animals with him including snails, toads and scorpions! He talked to us all about how each of the different animals is suited to its environment and how it has evolved over time. We had great fun holding the different animals and finding out some interesting facts!
Did you know? Scorpions change colour depending on the type of light they are in!
Did you know? The cockroach we held was the fastest one on the planet!
Foxes had a super week last week, visiting the Solar Panel farm in Berwick. On Tuesday morning, we visited the farm where we learnt exactly how the panels work to turn solar rays into electricity and just how many homes it can power on a sunny day! The children learnt about the different components that make up a solar panel and how the angle they are set at depends on which direction they are facing. They also went
on a wildlife hunt to see which animals or insects enjoyed the wild meadow that is also there!
On Wednesday, Tracy from Earth Energy Education came into school and taught the children how to use a mini solar panel to light up a circuit. Our learning from Term 1’s science topic on electricity came in handy as the children all remembered how to set up a complete circuit! They also had a great time trying to add as many components as possible and seeing the difference in the brightness of an LED bulb in the shade and in the sun!
If any parents haven’t yet signed the permission form for Earth Energy Education to use some of the photos in their promotion material, they would appreciate it if you are able to do this as soon as possible.
Last Thursday, Hedgehogs took a trip to Pizza Express. We used cheese and tomato sauce to make our pizzas and waited patiently for them to cook. We talked about what tomato sauce was made out of and we tried lots of different techniques to design our pizzas. We got to take our pizzas back to school and had a pizza picnic!
After months of hard work from the school councils and pupil governors across each school in the federation. We held our Fun Run for Raystede animal charity on Friday 7th of June. At East Hoathly, we began our day with an assembly delivered by Emma from Raystede. She shared lots of information with us about what animals need to thrive, what Raystede do and why they need as much support as possible!
Across the classes, our learning explored the fundamental work that Raystede does more thoroughly and we investigated different avenues to explore this. The children made fundraising posters, some made leaflets about interesting facts about different animals, whilst some used Raystede’s interactive lesson to deepen our knowledge of the pets they have at home.
The children did exceptionally well in their fun run, and it was fantastic to see the children working together, especially the older children in Owls supporting some of the younger children in our school! At East Hoathly, we combined our bake sale with a baking competition which was anonymously judged by Bev, our school Cook. She was blown away by the effort put into the entries, but settled on a winner who was…
Henry Mackmin! His cookie monster cupcakes really stole the show and she admired the effort he had put into them.
So far, we have raised £200 which is amazing, and we would like to say a massive thank you for all of your donations. The ParentPay link is still open, and we will be doing a final count on Friday 5th July, so please ensure any final donations are sent before this date. We are in competition with the other schools to see which one can raise the most money!
Thank you again for all of your support.
On Tuesday 30th April, Owls headed to London for a fantastic trip to the National Portrait Gallery! We caught the train from Uckfield Station at 9:33 and arrived at London Bridge around 11 o’clock. From there, we walked to the London Bridge Pier, spotting amazing sights like the Shard on our way. The Uber Boat then took us along the River Thames towards Embankment; we saw Big Ben, Parliament, the Walkie Talkie and plenty more London landmarks en route.
Once we’d disembarked the boat, we took the short walk through Trafalgar Square to the National Portrait Gallery, where we enjoyed our lunch. After lunch, we attended a workshop all about portraits of significant black figures, which tied in with our last history unit.
On the last day of Term 4, Foxes wrapped up warm and went off on a trip to Wakehurst Place with the other schools from the Pioneer Federation. The trip was based on our Science learning about plants and the children had a fantastic day rotating around 3 activities: dissecting plants, a nature walk and art using nature.
The rain didn’t quite hold off long enough for us all to stay dry during the nature walk but the children were resilient, engaged and enthusiastic as we marvelled at the huge trees, beautiful blossom and range of colours on display across the park. During the plant dissection, the children were able to become scientists and use microscopes to look closely at all the parts of the plant they were able to identify. Some of the children couldn’t believe how furry the anther was with all the pollen attached! The last session of the day was to use a variety of dried plants and flowers to create some art work – the results were stunning!
It was a brilliant way to end a term of learning and the staff at Wakehurst place were impressed by the children’s behaviour, thoughtful questions and consideration of the environment as they moved around the site. Well done, Foxes!
Last week we had our first ever East Hoathly Easter Bonnet Parade!
We were blown away by all the fantastic creations! A big thank you for our School Cook Bev for judging the winners!
Nursery - Bonnie
Hedgehogs - Ivy
Year 1 - Rupert
Year 2 - Henry M
Year 3 - Koko
Year 4 - Stanley
Year 5 - Oscar
Year 6 - Kitty
We had a lovely day celebrating World Book Day last week! The children took part in a number of activities throughout the day and we had great fun seeing everyone’s fantastic costumes!
Squirrels had a brilliant day on Wednesday at Drusillas. They enjoyed seeing all the animals in the zoo, particularly the penguins. They also had a great time in the talk, being about to see and touch armadillos, a snake and a rat.
“The maze and the penguins was my favourite part of the day!” George.
“I really liked seeing the capybaras as there was three babies. I also liked seeing the baby sloth. My favourite part was the maze because there smoke coming out of the genies lantern inside.” Edith.
“I liked seeing all the different types of monkeys, because they were all different.” Elena.
Last Thursday, Owls rounded off their amazing class topic with a day to commemorate the Second World War. The costumes were simply brilliant – thank you for your hard work with these – and the children had a great time participating in a range of activities.
We started by using up our fruit and vegetables in a delicious wartime chutney (special thanks to Maisy’s mum for the figs from her garden!) Jars of our chutney will be available to purchase at our Christmas Fayre on 8th December so be sure to keep an eye out!
After recovering from the onion chopping, we moved on to our ‘Make do and Mend’ activity, which involved sewing propaganda messages onto pieces of fabric. Some children chose to complete a morse code task or a soldier’s budgeting task too!
To celebrate Children In Need we all wore ‘What Makes Us Happy’. We also held a cake sale full of delicious treats to raise money for Children In Need. The final total will be revealed soon!
To make Anti Bullying Week the children wore odd socks to represent how unique we all are and to celebrate our differences. The children also decorated their own sock to think about what makes them unique.
On Thursday, Hedgehogs class took a trip to the village Bonfire sculpture. It was very wet and windy so we made sure to dress for the weather! We walked across the village green and met Keith, the designer of the yearly bonfire sculpture. We talked about what had been used to make it, how long it had taken and what it was this year. Keith told us that this year, it was Robin Hood, preparing to shoot an arrow! We had a fantastic time admiring how big the sculpture was and on our journey back, discussed who was attending this year’s Bonfire, who had been before and what we were looking forward to seeing!
In Hedgehogs Class we had great fun making sheep hats for the Harvest Festival. We sang ‘The Farmer Plants the Seeds’ for everyone in the Church and enjoyed showing everyone what we have been practicing!
Over the past two weeks, Hedgehogs have been exploring their local area, where they live and where they go to school. We investigated map making and used our trip around the village and to the local park to inspire us! We thought very carefully about the journey we took, the places we saw on the way and how we walked..
“We went through the gate!”
“We went under the shelter”
Along with our friends from Chiddingly and Park Mead, our Year 6 headed off to Bushy Wood on Tuesday for a morning of Safety in Action. Here, they learnt how to keep themselves safe in real life situations. The stations included road safety, first aid, fire safety and how to stay safe around trains and railway tracks. Everyone enjoyed the trip and took a lot of important information away with them – the behaviour of our Year 6s was impeccable and their answers within the group settings were really impressive.
Over the past couple of weeks, Owls and Foxes have been fully immersed in preparing for the end of year production, Treachery at Traitors Quay. The play is set in the time of the second world war and focuses on a group of children, evacuated to a seaside town away from their families. The children become central to finding a spy within the community. Everyone soon discovers that the spy is far closer than anyone would have realised! The children have worked so hard to learn their lines and listen to each other’s cues for when to say their own.
The singing has been brilliant and the soloists have absolutely smashed their parts.
Miss Williams and Mrs Fry would like to congratulate all children who took part and say a big thank you to families for the support given to help children learn their lines.
On Monday 3rd July, Squirrel Class went to the Science Observatory in Herstmonceux. First, the children took part in a building a bridge activity, where they had to work as a team. Next, they explored the exhibit corridor which had lots of interactive scientific displays. Afterwards, the class went to the telescopic dome to learn about the historical background of the observatory. At the end of the day, the children had chance to see play outside in the discovery park and water circuit. The children also very much enjoyed the ‘Newton’ show where they learnt about energy and different forces. A big thank you to all the adult helpers who kindly gave up their time to make the day happen.
On Wednesday 21st June, Foxes class were given the opportunity to take part in a variety of activities at Bedes School in Upper Dicker.
These included, exploring their on site zoo, where the children had the opportunity to learn about a variety of animals. We also baked and iced cakes, played rounders and took part in a variety of games involving a giant panda! The children had great fun and listened brilliantly to all the adults who made it so special for us.
Molly said,”My favourite part of the day was the zoo because I got to hold a snake!”
Owls had the best time on their residential before the half term holidays. We did a range of activities, which all of the children had a great go at. Lots of smiles were had and fears conquered! The children were brilliantly behaved and got stuck in to all elements of the residential – even the washing up!
On Thursday 8th June 2023, to further enhance our learning of Ancient Greece, Foxes Class joined the children at Park Mead School to take part in a carousel of activities. To start the day, we begun our day by exploring the timeline of our history. The children were able to see where Ancient Greece fitted into our timeline. The then had the opportunity to examine artefacts from Ancient Greece, took part in a battle, handling armour, and creating masks from Greek theatre. Mrs Fry was also dressed up as a Greek soldier!
On Monday the 22nd of May, a volunteer from the Community Garden came to visit. James told us lots of fascinating information about plants. We learnt about the herbs we could grow in our gardens, including parsley and basil which we got to taste! Also, we learnt about spider plants which produce little plantlets which are referred to as spiderettes. They got this name as they hang from the plant like a spider on a web. After the discussion, we got to plant a spiderette ready to take home.
We had a fantastic whole school ground force event, with all classes helping to look after our school. A special thanks to Mrs Fawls and Mrs Smith for volunteering for the afternoon to help us!
We held a Vision and Values focused Awe & Wonder Day where we looked at the biblical theology behind our school vision. We started by thinking about the bible passage in which it states: “With God all things are possible” Matthew 19:36 and how this encourages us to think about God’s teachings and values.
The children were then split into key stage groups to rotate around different workshops which would encourage us to think about the stories behind our values and how the messages within these can impact on our everyday lives.
Nursery also took part in the day, spending time learning about our value of love, the story of the Good Samaritan, and how he helped others. They acted out the story and thought about being good friends.
In the art workshop the children created art pieces centred around each of the values. Each group focused on a different value, discussing the story from which it came, what it meant to the children as individuals and how we might show it within our community. We then experimented with different techniques to create our masterpieces!
In another group, we considered the value of Wisdom. We read the story ‘Soloman asks God for Wisdom.’ Then we talked about the different ways we use our knowledge and wisdom in everyday life.
When we focused on the value of strength through the story of Ruth. We learnt how Ruth persevered and showed the value of strength by staying with her mother in law Naomi. The children collated words that mean ‘strength’. They then used these words to create acrostic poetry for the words Ruth and strength.
Father Jeremy also ran a workshop helping us to think about how we are the stones that build our path and our road in life. The children created their own stone gift, sharing the strengths that they each bring and give to our school community. This helped them to think about the path they are taking and what they contribute.
You can also see our fantastic learning from this day on display in our conservatory waiting room.
Hedgehogs spent the morning together and watched the virtual assembly for the NSPCC’s Speak Out and Stay Safe campaign. Following this, we spent some time together talking about what trust means, who the people are that we trust and why we trust them. We also spoke about how in different places we might have different people who we trust, like between home and school or afterschool clubs.
For the NSPCC assembly Squirrel class learnt about the ‘Speak up Speak out’ campaign to keep children safe. Next, the children designed a friend for ‘Buddy’ who could help him support children who needed advice.
Foxes children created the Childline number using actions with their hands. This was a simple way we learnt to recite the number.
On Tuesday 28th of March, Owls class had a visit from some volunteers from the NSPCC. During our workshop we discussed different ways that we can stay safe and the importance of speaking out. We also considered how to stay safe online and the steps that we take to do so. Owls ended the session considering adults that help them feel safe, places they feel safe and items that help to feel safe.
At East Hoathly we celebrated and themed our learning around mental health, wellbeing and connecting with others. Each class completed different activities and session across the week following a whole school assembly on Monday.
We had a Malawi day to think more about the Mikute and our link school with a focus on ‘Water’.
Chris from Starfish Malawi joined us for the day and we had a great video call with Mikute School, where we talked about different water sources, shared images of how we each get water and how we can have access to it during the day. We at East Hoathly were shown the borehole and pump tap where the students in Mikute collect their water from. It got us thinking about how we are fortunate to have clear and safe drinking water.
We asked the pupils of Mikute school why they liked connecting with us at East Hoathly. They shared “it is good” “it makes me happy”.
We then asked the children of East Hoathly why they felt connecting with Mikute was important and why we did it.
“It helps us to think about others” “Learning about new places, cultures and experiences” “helping others and making a difference”
Foxes played a game to help us think about life without taps. We worked in ‘families’ to create buckets. These were exchanged at the store.
Owls created their own posters about water around the world for children.
Squirrels learnt about how to keep your hands clean. They made their own hand washing posters.
This year online safety day fell within Mental Health and Wellbeing week. As many of us turn to the use of technology to connect with others in different ways we linked our learning about online safety to our wellbeing.
Hedgehogs shared the story of ‘Digiducks big decision‘ and thought about what he could do.
Owls thought about the different scams and clickbait we can easily click on when we aren’t thinking or focusing.
Owls and foxes looked at the child friendly anti-bullying policy and considered the different sections with in it. Then we had a go at creating our own child friendly anti-bullying poster or policy. Above is Myla’s (Year 5), she considered the do’s and don’ts of bullying and also who you ask for help if you need it.
In Squirrels class for anti-bullying week , we thought about how some-one might feel if they were being bullied. Next, we thought about how we could be kind and caring friends.
This term groups from Owls Class have enjoyed visiting Lydfords Care Home in East Hoathly. They have been reading, sharing stories and meeting with the residents. This continued to be a fantastic opportunity to work alongside the staff at Lydfords and connect with our local community.
Year 6 went on a ‘Safety in Action Day’ at Newhaven Fort with our friends from Park Mead. We learnt all about hazards on the UK Power Network, safety when crossing the road and life saving first aid.
Unfortunately our residential trip this year had to be cancelled. But instead Owls Class took part in a week of very exciting activities. They visited Chiddingly to take part in a ’Hands on History Viking Day’ followed by a inflatable assault course. The next day taking this to the next level they then visited Bewl Water, where they took on the challenge of a assault course on water in their Aqua Park!
Owls then took part in a Laser Challenge followed by camping on the school field.
Finally on the last day they took the bus to Uckfield, where they enjoyed a private screening of a film at The Picture House, followed by a pizza picnic in the park. A big thank you to Miss Williams and the Federation Team for all their hard work in making this possible! What an incredible week!
Owls Class visited Bedes School for Earth Day, where a group of local schools came together to focus their attention on our relationship with planet Earth. It was a day dedicated to considering how people and the planet can live together more sustainably. This was a pupil-led initiative and was planned and coordinated by the Bede’s Senior Eco-Schools Group. They wanted to share this day with a number of other local schools in recognition that the celebration of and care for the planet is something that we all have in common. It will require us to sometimes come together for joint action, rather than tackling as individual schools. It is hoped that this might be the beginning of further joint events as partner schools.
As part of Earth day they took part in a world record attempt of having the largest number of people creating a map of the world. The image has now been submitted to Guinness World Records. The previous record was 479 people, 816 people took part in our record attempt!
On Tuesday, Hedgehogs and their friends from Oak class at Chiddingly visited Hastings Aquarium. The morning started with a long but very exciting coach journey and when we arrived we were thrilled to see clown fish, upside down jelly fish and tank full of sharks and sting rays.
We then took a walk along the seafront to visit the boat museum and lifeboat station and tried on some life jackets and wet weather gear. We even got to see how the mechanics move the lifeboat out of its shelter onto the beach!
Finally we all enjoyed an ice cream before jumping on the coach back to school, where many Hedgehogs fell asleep from all the excitement. It was such lovely day exploring and finding out lots of information!
On the last day of term the sun came out for our fantastic Sports Day and Jubilee celebrations. We hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did – the children were absolutely fantastic and we are so proud of them. We were also delighted to be able to welcome parents to watch for the first time in 2 years!
Each class entertained us with a performance from each decade of our Queen’s reign.
The residents of Lydfords visited us to see the Rivers of Hope and see the planting of our Jubilee tree and plaque!
Following on from our pen pal scheme, Owls Class have been visiting our friends at Lydfords every Friday with Mrs Thompson to read and share stories! We are looking forward to visiting again next term!
Hedgehogs have had a fantastic Farming Week. We started by watching a video all about Curly the sheep and his problem wool! We then made our own woolly sheep and other farm animals. In the middle of the week we made our own butter using cream and our own flour with wheat seeds from Ant the Farmer. We finished the week with a morning mucking out the sheep and making them feel at home.
Squirrels Class did a taste test of foods produced in the UK, including red onions, Lancashire cheese and blueberries. Blueberries were most popular!
We experimented with tie-dyeing with natural materials – turmeric and red cabbage – and of course we have been in meeting the sheep!
Max M, Hugo, Connor and Miss Roberts with Teddy the lamb; Bella and Sophie CS learning how to do felting; Foxes Class sketching the sheep in the sunshine; Caiden, Delilah and Scarlett cleaning out the sheep pen.
Jack, Aaron, Beatrice and Evelyn helping to look after the sheep in the South of England overalls; Sam, Orlaith, Stan and Danny meeting ‘Bo Peep’ sheep; Alexandra, Freya, India and Daisy taking care of Teddy and Bear and ensuring the lambs were kept separate from Mum ‘Bo Peep’ when it was feeding time; Owls class observing how the sheep moved around the pen and tightening the bailing twine.
Last Thursday was World Book Day and we all came in dressed as book characters.
We were blown away by all the incredible costumes!
Staff came in dressed as characters from Roald Dahl books!
On the 22nd February any children that attend Rainbows, Brownies or Guides came into school in their uniform to celebrate ‘World Thinking Day’.
On Wednesday Hedgehogs visited Bodiam Castle, they had their best listening ears on and explored all corners of the castle including the top of the tallest tower! In the afternoon they went on a photo treasure hunt to find different parts of the castle and even got to see the giant castle key.
They had such an exciting day that 7 Hedgehogs fell asleep on the way home!
A big Thank you to our parent helpers for joining us.
Our Christingle service was virtual this year but we still enjoyed celebrating together.
Foxes Class enjoyed dressing up for Tudor Day this week!
We had a busy day learning Tudor dances, making sugar sculptures, gingerbread and pottage!
The whole school attended a service for Remembrance Day this week. Jess and Spencer read the names of East Hoathly residents who lost their lives
and Lyra, Jake and Evelyn beautifully read prayers. The children were really well behaved and it was lovely to join our local community for this service.
One Friday 15th October we took part in the ‘One Run Global Run’, where Pioneer Schools and over 130,000 pupils from every corner of the globe were running, walking and moving side by side – together – to make history. Each class did their own exercise for 15 minutes to join in with the global efforts to get active.
Owls Class would love to tell you about all their fantastic trip to Newhaven Fort…
On Friday 24th September, we hosted a coffee afternoon for Macmillan. In the morning lots of parents brought in cakes and other treats and then we moved them into the Learning Zone. There were lots and lots of cakes,: strawberry cakes, honeycomb cookies, red velvet cakes, raspberry flavour rainbow cakes, banana loaf and so many more.
Miss Lewis came to get us and our crew which was Jack C, Lyra, Daisy, Kamilla, Spencer, Pearl, Jess, Beatrice. We set up, brought out tables and set the cakes out on them. We had music, bunting and toys out for the little ones. Miss Lewis went to open the cakes and all the chil-dren got into their starting positions. We were selling the cakes and Jack C and Spencer wel-comed people from the top gate.
Lots of people came and made very kind donations, more came at the end of school.
We had visitors from the community including the care home in the village.
We were bombarded with customers.
It was really exciting and the sun was shining we are glad we are doing our part to help and our total was……. £445
A special thank you to our friends in Reception at Chiddingly School and Lydfords Care Home for their very kind donations of cakes.
A big thank you to Emma Simonetti at Pass the Party East Sussex for very kindly lending us bunting and all our cups and plates!
On Friday 2nd July, the Year 5 and 6 children of Owl Class took part in the Moving On Patina Parade in Lewes.
Every year, the parade is held as a ‘right of passage’ for the children leaving Primary School that year. Due to the restrictions lifting slightly this year, the parade was able to go ahead.
Over the past few weeks, artists and parent helpers have been popping into school to help the children create amazing structures for the parade from willow. What started out as a few sticks and tissue paper soon turned into a work of art!
This year’s theme was a woodland theme and the children were excited to find out that their animal was a fox!
The Owls created a headpiece, a tail and wristbands in the style of a fox and they also created a branch to go onto the Patina Wish Tree. The branch was decorated with the children’s wishes for the future.
Thank you to the parents who used their time to come in and help the Owls with their structures!
Thank you to the parents who ferried the children to and from the Patina Parade!
Thank you to the artists for their time and expertise!
Thank you and well done to Owl Class, who pledged to do chores around the house, in order to raise money for Patina. You raised an impressive total of £190! Incredible!
On Tuesday, the Hedgehogs went on a very exciting minibus journey, for their very first East Hoathly trip, all the way to Hastings to visit the aquarium as a part of their topic.
The children explored the aquarium, finding lots of different undersea animals – Charlie’s favourite was the octopus!
The weather held out for the Hedgehogs and they were able to have a dry—if very windy—picnic lunch on the beach. The children enjoyed their lunch looking out to the sea and managed to keep hold of their hats on the beach!
After lunch, the children visited the RNLI Lifeboat Centre, where a man called Andy showed the Hedgehogs all of the different boats they have and they even got to see a bulldozer!
Weary after their day of exploring, the Hedgehogs were so happy to jump on board for a bonus trip on the train to get the all-important ice cream!
Thank you so much to the FPTA and to the parent helpers who enabled this trip to go ahead. The children loved their day out!
On Friday 9th July, Year 6 Owls started their school day at Chiddingly Primary School to take part in an inter-Federation Grand Prix!
The Owls raced the Year 6 Sycamore children in different races, such as the straight races, laps and the circuit race (where they had to weave in and out of cones).
The children worked hard as a team and even though East Hoathly won the straight races, they were pipped to the post for the laps and the circuit races! Well done Chiddingly!
Well done to the Year 6 Owls for trying your best and working as a team! What a great way to show the values of love and strength!
On Thursday, the Hedgehog classroom was graced by the presence of several knights, princesses, queens and kings! After a quick show and tell of their costumes, the Hedgehogs got stuck into their very busy day!
Harry said “I dressed up as knight and played with a sword!”
The children took part in learning how to aim and joust at Knight Training School with Mr Brett—it was very tricky! The Hedgehogs also had a go at different mediaeval dances and they practised their bows and curtsies, before coming together at the end of their amazing day to have a royal banquet of jelly and cake that the children had made themselves!
The children loved dressing up and they really enjoyed the different activities throughout the week that led up to this day!
The children have had a very exciting Sport’s Day this year and were very happy to take part in one together!
On Friday, we braved the wind and held our sports day. Each bubble completed 5 different race stations testing different skills. The wind helped the javelins go that extra mile, and made the egg and spoon race a real challenge!
Children were super speedy at collecting the bean bags and completing the hurdles and sack races.
Our final event was the class flat races across the field and (of course) the staff had their race too!
After running around in the wind all morning, the children were then able to enjoy a picnic lunch in the shelter of their classrooms.
We ended our fantastic day with an ice cream treat from the FPTA. Thank you, it was lovely, even on a chilly day!
A big thank you to Archie for helping the adults score and starting our flat races with a big “ Ready, Set, Go!”
Well done to all the children to taking part and supporting each other throughout. It is great to see the school values of love and strength being used in such a supportive way!
This week, the children took part in a PALs assembly to discuss the progress they thought they had made this term.
The Hedgehogs and Owls had their PALs session together and had great fun looking through each others’ books. When looking through Chloe’s book, Lyra commented that “Chloe has worked really hard on her handwriting size and all of her letters are the right way around.”
In Squirrel Class, Kallie flicked through her topic book and spoke about how her truck research helped her to design her own one for DT. Alex said “I didn’t know how to plant a flower before, but now I do. They need sunlight and water to grow.”
As the children looked through their topic books in Fox Class, Alexandra said “I liked writing about my Goddess as I got my pen licence for this work!” and Kitty commented “I liked my pottery design because it was satisfying to do.”
There is some fantastic examples of great progress this term! Well done everybody!
The theme of Awe and Wonder Day was Equality and Inclusion.
On Thursday 6th May, the children at East Hoathly all took part in a range of activities that focussed on the theme of the day: Equality and Inclusion.
Children in Years 1-6 were visited by CLASS practitioner, Lisa, who led ’Amazing Me’ workshops. At the end of the morning, Lisa was really impressed with the sensitivity the children displayed during the workshops. She was touched by how amazing the children were with their brilliant questions and eagerness to learn. Lisa said her visit to East Hoathly had been one of the best so far!
The Hedgehogs explored how we are all different by reading the text ‘It’s Okay to be Different’ by Todd Parr. They then talked about how if we are all different, we would all need different things to help us. They looked at some images and thought about if they were fair or not, and what each one meant for the people involved.
After this, the Hedgehogs explored how they could show the value of love by helping others who may not be able to hear or see. The children learnt how this might feel by using headphones and special glasses. The Hedgehogs helped Miss Denney around the classroom, giving her clues and prompts so she didn’t hurt herself.
The Squirrels had a go at ‘blindfold phonics’ where they had to try and figure out what sound they were holding. The Squirrels found this really challenging and learnt that it would be really tricky to read if you were blind and turned to thinking about how braille is super useful! Squirrel Class then thought about how everybody was unique, focussing on their own likes and interests and comparing them with their friends.
The children in Fox Class had fun with their activities. The children created a portrait of an inner me and an outer me, using a range of materials to create some very impressive collages! The children also incorporated maths into their Awe and Wonder Day by creating a Venn diagram of what their own likes were in comparison to their partner’s.
Jack C from Owl Class reported that all of the Owls learnt about famous people who had disabilities, like Redouan Chitt (who is a famous breakdancer), who was born with one arm that was a shorter than the other and Beethoven, who was deaf, but still learnt all of the keys on the piano off by heart. They also learnt about Frida Kahlo and her story inspired them to create their own portraits of themselves in her style of painting.
The children ended the morning with a virtual assembly with the other classes to share what they had learnt throughout the morning.
On Friday 30th April, East Hoathly were visited by Esther from Starfish Malawi.
Esther popped into each classroom to share a presentation about her time in Malawi and showed us some videos from our link school. We learnt that lots of the people carry things on their heads to help with their posture. We also learnt that the learners at the school are aged 6 up to 20. Esther taught us a song and dance to help us think about how the people in Malawi live and eat.
The Hedgehogs, Miss Denney and Mrs Smith would like to say a very big thank you to all that have donated cardboard boxes for their topic ‘Turrets and Tiaras’!
The children have loved creating castles and shields this week. They have also been using the cardboard donated to make incredible adaptations to their first build by adding a drawbridge, an extra castle wall and a dungeon!
At the end of Term 4, the RE council met to discuss our school Global Neighbours links. We are building the evidence to gain a Global Neighbours Award.
They talked about our links with Starfish Malawi and started to think about ideas for a fundraising event to raise money for our link school, Mikute Primary, in Malawi.
Alongside discussing fundraising ideas for our Malawi link school. The RE council also decided to create pledges for World Water Day and World Food Day. The children have also created posters to remind their peers of the pledges.
World Water Day is an annual United Nations observance day held on 22 March that highlights the importance of fresh water. The day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
Charlie and Beatrice – We will only fill water bottle up with what we need and wash them at home as part of washing up.
We will try to flush the toilet once.
Ewan – We will remember to turn the taps off when you are not using them in sinks and toilets.
World Food Day is an international day celebrated every year worldwide on 16 October to commemorate the date of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945.
Beatrice – We will try to be healthy and encourage others to eat at least 1 piece of fruit.
Ewan – Remember to bring in fruit snacks.
Charlie – 3 bites of everything. Try everything, try to eat all your lunch and try not to waste food.
The FPTA organised an Easter Egg hunt for our bubbles.
The children had to find little pictures and collect them to exchange for an Easter egg!
It was lovely to see the Year 6 buddies showing the value of love (like an otter!) by helping their Hedgehog buddies with their picture collecting!
Well done to the children for finding the different pictures during the hunt!
And a very big THANK YOU to the FPTA for organising this lovely treat for the children—it was very much appreciated!
This term, we held our PALs assembly in our classrooms.
The children sat together to share the work they had done over the term and commented on what they felt they had achieved and what their friends had achieved.
Molly in Squirrel Class said “I’ve got better at my drawings!”
Kallie said “I’m better at finding lots of bits and bobs to help me with my 2x tables!”
When looking at Emily’s book, Lily said “Emily has made progress in art as she has used different colours, materials and shapes.”
In Fox Class, Beatrice flicked through her topic book and said “I am proud of my Mayan God because I put a lot of effort into writing and drawing it!”
Hugo C said “I’m proud of my fact-file about the Harpy Eagle as I wrote a really fascinating introduction!”
When sharing his fact-file about jaguars, Samuel said “I am proud of my fact-file because I am very interested in the creatures of the Amazonian rainforest!”
That’s a lot of great work, children! Well done!
WE DID IT!!!
We travelled from East Hoathly to Malawi!
It took us 12 weeks to make the 6,555 mile journey virtually from East Hoathly to Malawi! As of Tuesday 30th March, we have travelled 6,862 miles! Well done to everyone for taking part and getting active!
We are so happy to announce our link school in Malawi! We would like to introduce you to…
Mikute LEA School
“Mikute LEA School was established in 1964 under the Local Authority. Our school is in Mikute I Village—it is 7 km away from the lake and 15 km from the Salima district centre.
Our school used to have a very large catchment area until recently when another school was introduced 5 km away. This has dropped the numbers of learners to 1,975! Of those learners, 986 are boys and 989 are girls.
The age range of our school is 6-16. This is so due to starting school at a later age or resulting from pupils repeating classes. Our school has 30 teachers; 6 are male teachers while 24 are female.
We used to have high dropout rates in pupils because the lake is so close, pupils tend to go fishing. As fish numbers in the lake are decreasing, many people do not get what they expected. There used to be early marriages in girls after they reached adolescent stages. Parents used to get their children in homes of other civil servants as soldiers who are very close to our school catchment. By introducing mother groups in schools as well as other organisations engaging talks with the communities, it has resulted in reducing dropouts.
Since the start of the COVID 19 pandemic, our school has been managed in streams and shifts to decongest high numbers of learners in classes.
As a school we are trying our best to follow best practices that will help both teachers and learners to wash hands and use face masks during classes. We have football and netball teams that are currently not allowed to play due to preventive measures for Covid-19 that were set by government. This also applies to all extra curricular activities in school.
We look forward to a partnership that will enhance teaching and learning in our schools!”
On Wednesday, each class spent the afternoon learning about Malawi.
In Hedgehogs we looked at Google Earth to see what Malawi looked like and how far away it is from East Hoathly, we then made our own flags and talked about what our school is like compared to schools in Malawi. “their schools didn’t have lots of colourful walls like us” Charlie. “It’s not fair – they don’t get many toys like us, and they have to make things”
For Malawi afternoon, the Squirrels learnt all about life in Malawi from Mrs Healy’s assembly and then discussed how their lives were similar and different from our own. We also did some African clapping and noticed differences and similarities between African music and our own.
In Fox Class, we watched a presentation from Mrs Healy about her visit to Malawi and the work the charity does to raise money to support education. We then watched a video about a boy called Wongami and his experiences at a school in Malawi. Afterwards, we compared the differences between our school experience and theirs. Lastly, the children researched some key facts about Malawi including where it is in the world.
Owl Class spent their afternoon researching differences between Malawi and the UK. The children created very bright and colourful information booklets, highlighting key differences, such as all children in the UK have to complete their education until they are 18, however, in Malawi up to 57% of children don’t manage to complete primary school.
Abbie in Owl Class says “I learnt that Malawi is a really poor country—one of the top 10. It makes me feel sad that they are in that position. People are raising money for the children but they need more help!”
Following the Prime Minister’s backing of Marie Curie’s National Day of Reflection, East Hoathly observed the minute’s silence for those that had lost their lives during the current pandemic. The children spent time during the morning taking part in activities to remember the year past and used the time as a springboard to talk about their hopes for the future.
Hedgehog Class sat on the carpet all together and talked about all of the things they missed doing during the lockdown and they discussed what they did that helped them stay happy through the lockdown.
Squirrel Class had a discussion about all of the people who helped them and others over the course of the last year. The children also created rainbow love hearts to remember those whose lives had been lost. The love hearts can be seen brightening up the Squirrels’ windows!
Fox Class reflected on a year passing since the first lockdown. Using a rainbow design, which has become a symbol of hope during the pandemic, the children added in their hopes for the future. The children had lots of ideas about what they had been missing over this difficult period. Stan is looking forward to seeing his relatives and going on holiday. Beatrice can’t wait to have assemblies back in the church and not have to wear a mask anymore!
Owl Class observed the minute’s silence, whilst reflecting upon the lives lost during the pandemic. Jack C said “I am looking forward to the leisure centres opening back up so we can go swimming again!” Spencer said “I’ve missed going on school trips, I hope I get to go on one soon!”
This year, the theme was ‘Funny is Power’ and the children (and staff!) enjoyed this opportunity to dress up as superheroes—or a person they perceived to be a superhero!
In celebration assembly this morning, the children talked about why we take part in Comic Relief and why it is good to take part. The children really understood that the reason we do all of this and the reason we raise money is to help those less fortunate than us. Everyone took a moment to reflect upon how life can be unfair for lots of people but how lucky we are to be in a position to be able to help those people. So far, we have managed to raise an incredible £334!
Some children also took part in a talent contest in front of an audience! With a range of singing, instrument playing and comedy acts scheduled, it is definitely going to be the highlight of the day!
The children also had an opportunity to submit a funny Red Nose design in exchange for a surprise! Their art work is going to be judged by a panel (the Pupil Governors). Abbie from Owl Class said that she had been preparing for the role by watching a lot of Simon Cowell clips on YouTube!
A Superhero-themed celebration assembly today for Comic Relief! We talked all about why Comic Relief exists and why we support the charity. Children in Fox class knew that Comic Relief helps people, not only in the UK but around the world too. Today’s celebrations included 2 fantastic Head Teacher’s awards for Max and Corey – both children were brilliant at explaining why they had received their award and the learning that had taken place – well done! Unfortunately, we couldn’t see Owls class today (good old technology!) but we enjoyed celebrating Sophia as their Diner of the Week for being awesome at showing Love to her friends at lunchtime. We also celebrated Kitty as Diner of the Week in our other bubble too as she has shown wonderful Wisdom by making excellent choices. Great job everyone – another really successful week of learning!
On Monday 1st March, we had an Easter Comparison afternoon. This was part of our work towards a Global Neighbours Award.
The Nursery bubble compared Easter traditions between the UK and Bermuda. The children found out that to celebrate Easter in Bermuda, Christians make kites and take part in egg and spoon races. The children also enjoyed a very popular tradition from the UK—hot cross buns!
The EYFS/KS1 bubble, compared Easter traditions in Spain and the UK. They discovered that the egg represents new life and in Spain, they decorate eggs and roll them down a hill. Also, in the USA they have egg and spoon competitions. The children and adults had an egg and spoon race as well as decorating eggs.
Sophie commented “In Spain, they put Ash on their foreheads like Christians in the UK on Ash Wednesdays before Easter. This is to ask Jesus for forgiveness.”
The KS2 bubble found out about how lots of different countries celebrate Easter. They discovered in Sweden, Easter is really important and they decorate houses (like Christmas in the UK but with Egg decorations.) The children had a go at using felt tips to decorate their own boiled eggs! We also found out that in Spain, strong people carry intricately decorated wooden boxes with depictions of the Easter story along the streets to commemorate Easter. For Christians in Spain, Easter is the most important celebration of the year.”
Great work everyone! What a fun way to try other countries’ Easter traditions!
There were so many amazing costumes this World Book Day! Well done for taking part and thank you for sending photos! Can you guess which stories the characters below are from?
This week, we were delighted to tuck into Christmas dinner. The children made Christmas hats for the feast and had crackers to pull with their friends, along with a treat of orange or blackcurrant juice to wash it down. Thank you Bev and Claire for the incredible dinner!
All the children within school have created Christmas cards for the residents of Lydfords care home, helping to spread a bit of Christmas cheer to others.
Hedgehogs also created cards for the residents at Freshfield Nursing home in Seaford, where Miss Denney’s Mum is a nurse. The residents loved their cards with one resident being moved to happy tears!
On Thursday, Hedgehog class put on their coats and hi-vis jackets to take a walk down to Lydfords Care Home to deliver Christmas cards to the residents. Once the cards were delivered, the Hedgehogs continued their walk to the Post Office to post their letters to Santa.
Thank you to the parents who joined us for our first trip! Hedgehogs were very sensible walking along the road and were very excited to post their letters!
To bring a little bit of joy during this difficult second lockdown, we are going to introduce ‘Fun Fridays’ for the month of November!
Something will be different on each Friday this month (taking part is completely optional):
This Friday’s dress code was Funky T-Shirt Friday!
The children—and staff— have enjoyed the various dress codes over the last month!
Year 6 and Reception buddies have really enjoyed being able to be together at playtimes. The Year 6’s have been fantastic at teaching Reception games such as domino and four square.
Year 5 and 6 had a great day. We started the day in role – Mrs Healy ordered us to write lines on black paper with chalk and we had to write out our times tables again and again! Two children experienced wearing the Dunce hat as well!!! The children went into groups to make Victoria sponge and Gruel. Meanwhile, the children shared their Great Exhibition projects which included a lamp post, post box, ice cream maker and camera! They then made an advert for an exhibit. After play, they made peg dolls. In the afternoon we did some Alice in Wonderland art and they created a mini play. We also tasted the delicious Victoria sponge!
“It was very much fun learning about the Victorians and what school was like.” Abigail
“I liked sharing projects and seeing what others had made!!” Joshua
Last Friday, the children learnt all about how their donations can help other children. The children also enjoyed wearing their pyjamas to school—what a novelty! Each class had to decorate their class animal in coins.
With the donations from the children and staff, we managed to raise a very impressive £157! Well done everyone!
To bring a little bit of joy during this difficult second lockdown, we are going to introduce ‘Fun Fridays’ for the month of November!
Something will be different on each Friday this month (taking part is completely optional):
This week was PJ Week—which tied in nicely with Children in Need. Children and staff came to school in their pyjamas in exchange for a small contribution towards the charity. We had a lot of fun being in our PJs!
Once again, we thank Freya in Year 5 for her suggestion! What an amazing idea!
Friday 20th November: Wear odd socks to school to mark Anti-Bullying Week.
Friday 27th November: Wear a funky T-shirt to school to replace your school shirt/polo.
On Thursday morning, we had some special lessons in our classrooms. We learnt all about our new school vision and values and heard some stories from the Bible which helped us to understand the values in more detail.
Nursery and Hedgehogs Classes were learning about the value of Love. They read the story of The Good Samaritan. Corey told us that in the story, God teaches us to love our neighbour and that ‘neighbour’ means everybody. Edith told us that ‘the Good Samaritan man showed love, care and kindness’ in the story.
Squirrels class were learning about Truth. They read the story of the Annunciation which is when the Angel came to visit Mary to tell her she was going to have a baby and he would be the son of God. Oscar told us that this story showed truth in action because what the Angel had said came true. We talked about how Jesus teaches about truth throughout the Bible and that his birth is the beginning of his time on Earth.
Foxes class were learning about Wisdom through the story of Solomon. Beatrice told us that Solomon’s people benefitted from his wisdom as he spread joy and peace by sharing God’s word. Beatrice also told us that Catherine had shown and shared her Wisdom because she had helped children in the class with their times tables.
Owls class learned about the value of Strength through the story of Ruth. They used drama to explore the story and then reflected on how they have shown strength and resilience in different areas of their own lives.
We all learnt that by using our values in different areas of our lives, we can follow the teaching of God and make good choices.
We finished our morning by coming together to share our learning and hearing our new vision song for the first time! Here are the words:
We have been thinking about ‘wellbeing’.
We learnt in an emergency you call 999. We also explored first aid, and made our own doctors roleplay area. We explored feelings and emotions and thought about the ‘Zones of Regulation’, making our own feelings cards and thinking about what events make us feel.
We thought about the importance of handwashing, and watched some videos about Malawi where they are working hard to have running water to do this.
We talked about why it is important to wash our hands and did a hand washing yoga story!
On Wellbeing day Squirrel class did some first aid. Jacob S said ‘I put a bandage onto my friend’ and Harry said ‘I like to put a sling onto my friend’.
Also, we learnt about the importance of handwashing. Lily said ‘if we do not wash our hands we might spread germs and make people sick’. Also, we learnt about the Zones of regulation. Ralph said ‘If I am happy, I would be in the green zone’.
Foxes class had a busy wellbeing day. First, we made a ‘which zone are you in?’ chart to help the children be more aware of their feelings. If they were not feeling so good, they could think about anything that might get them back to a happy place. Next, the children learnt about first aid and what to do in an emergency. Miss Roberts showed the class how to make a sling and how to bandage a head injury. Lastly, we looked at how a charity called Starfish Malawi ensures people have access to clean water. We also learnt about how they are promoting the importance of washing your hands properly. The children designed a poster for Wash Your Hands Day to promote this message.
Owls class learnt some basic first aid, including what to do if someone has possibly broken their arm, what to do if someone bumps their head and what to do if someone gets a cut or graze.
They explored the zones of regulation and different feelings they experience in school, learnt about the importance of handwashing around the world and thought of tips to help them with wellbeing.
On Thursday, we held our termly PALs assembly. During this time, we reflected on the term, considering the impact of our worship theme and the learning that has taken place across the school.
To begin with, we discussed our theme of ‘Friendship’. We thought about how the theme links to our school values and rules. Grace (Y2) told us that Friendship links with our value of Love. We thought about how we have been good friends and how others have been good friends to us:
Emily (R) said ‘Albie is a good friend because he shares with me’
Scarlett (2) said ‘I’m a good friend if someone falls over’
Myla (3) said ‘I’m a good friend to Lexi and she is to me – we help each other’
Logan (5) said ‘Charlie was a good friend to me when I joined the school. I was really nervous and he introduced me to everyone.’
Following that, we separated into classes and shared our RE and other learning with our buddies. When we came back together, there was lots to celebrate:
Koko and Albie told us all about their number learning – using number blocks to help them to count.
Ollie, Scarlett and Theo told us all about their RE learning – Ollie had learnt all about parts of a church, Scarlett had celebrated Harvest by printing using fruit and Theo had completed a beautiful painting all about the 6th day of Creation.
In Foxes Class, Alexandra impressed us with her science learning – she told us about magnets and that she has learned that 2 north poles will repel each other but a north and south pole attract and come together. Jake told us about his history learning and interesting facts about Thomas Edison.
In Owls class, Lotte shared Jess’ fantastic writing where she had used lots of description. Jess had been impressed by Lotte’s self-directed research about Crime and Punishment in the Victorian times.
We finished the session by reflecting on Wellbeing day and looking at a checklist to make sure we leave each day feeling positive. Well done everyone for a fantastic term of learning!
Throughout the week, each class has taken to the playground stage at 2.45pm and performed a song they have learnt over the term. The videos from each performance will be on the website under the ‘curriculum events’ tab.
On Monday, Owl Class kicked the week off by transporting us back to the Victorian era with a rather hearty rendition of ‘Oom-Pah-Pah’ from Oliver
Twist.
On Tuesday, the Hedgehogs treated us to a range of different songs, singing the classics such as ‘Old MacDonald’ and ‘Five Little Ducks’.
On Wednesday, the Ducklings and Rabbits sang ‘The Bear went over the Mountain’, complete with actions and gusto!
On Thursday, Fox Class were a singing sensation! They performed ‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘A Million Dreams’ – songs they had been practising with Miss Lewis and they completely blew everyone away!
On Friday, the Squirrels sang ‘Shotgun’ and they sang and signed Toy Story’s ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’. The children performed this incredibly well and you could tell they had practised this to perfection!
To celebrate the end of term, we are sharing our music learning from the term by performing to parents on the playground! Owls kicked off our week of singing performances by taking us back in time to the Victorian era with a rousing version of ‘Oom Pah Pah’ from Oliver!
On Wednesday 7th October, the Hedgehogs spent some time in their gardening area. They used lots of gross motor skills to lift, pour, push and pull the bark to make our area look new and fresh!
On Thursday 5th March, East Hoathly celebrated World Book Day. There was an incredible range of characters in the school and it was lovely to see Elsa chatting with the Cat in the Hat, Woody playing with Spiderman and Tracy Beaker working with Horrid Henry and the Fantastic Mrs Fox.
The children took part in different activities linked to World Book Day. Reception created a finger puppet version of their characters after making bookmarks and role playing as their characters.
Year 1 and 2 had fun roleplaying as their characters and create a character profile of who they were dressed up as. The children searched different themes in stories, for example which stories had witches in them. The children also used their character’s names to come up with an acrostic poem.
Year 3 and 4 designed bookmarks and enjoyed creating character profiles for who they dressed up as. The children also had fun playing ‘Guess Who?’ by putting a book character’s name on their head and asking yes or no questions to find out who they were.
Year 5 and 6 analysed their character’s stories and talked about the art and themes of their books. They took turns hot-seating as their character and answered questions about the story they came from. In science, the children learnt about Marie Curies and looked into the biographies of scientists.
The staff even joined in with the theme of ‘Women Who Changed the World’ and it was really interesting to learn about Anne Frank, Coco Chanel, Marie Curie, Rosa Parks, Sacagawea, Jane Austen and Amelia Earhart and how they changed the world.
On Thursday, all children from East Hoathly gathered for a PALs assembly in the church. They took their work books, sat next to a learning partner from a different year group and shared pieces of learning they were really proud of.
Darcy reflected on her work from the start of the year, “At the start of my book, it wasn’t neat but towards the end I have worked really hard to improve that.”
Delilah in Year 2 said “my answers have longer and more information.”
Sara in Year 2 and Alfie in Year 5 were looking through Alfie’s topic book and Sara commented “I like Alife’s Australian picture because of the colours and patterns.”
Alongside sharing work, the children also discussed the term’s collective worship theme; justice.
Holly L in Year 5 talked about how justice can link to Fairtrade. “We learn about fairtrade and how it means items are fairly sourced.”
Charlie in Year 2 spoke about how he can show justice when playing football with his friends. “I can show justice by making sure the teams are fair.”
On Tuesday 11th February, the entire school came together dressed in green and yellow to celebrate Australia for their International Day. Throughout the day, the children worked in groups trying different activities.
Reception and Year 5 and 6 made their own Lemington cake (a traditional Australian dessert), created boomerangs and listened to traditional aboriginal music made with digeridoos. Years 1, 2, 3 and 4 worked together and created some beautiful aboriginal art, made rain sticks and triagramas to show the different habitats of Australia.
After an Australian themed lunch, the children celebrated their learning in the church with each other and their parents. Thank you to all who joined us for this celebration!
On Wednesday 12th February, East Hoathly celebrated National e-Safety Day! We had an assembly dedicated to Online Safety then the children, in their individual classes, had a workshop from Andrew Gunn, an ICT and e-Safety expert.
Mr Gunn said that there are good things about being online but sometimes very dangerous things, some apps like Whatsapp and Snapchat have age restrictions to keep you safe online. Mr Gunn also said that it isn’t good to be on the internet before you got to bed because of the blue light—it can be a struggle to get to sleep. – Holly L in Year 5
Year 5 and 6, additionally, had e-Safety Ambassadors from Kings Academy Ringmer come to talk to them about Online Safety. They showed the children a video to allow them to understand the importance of being safe online.
On Wednesday, Reception from East Hoathly and Oak class from Chiddingly hopped onto the coach for a trip to Uckfield Fire Station.
The children were very excited for their first trip on a coach and the children had great fun spotting different objects from their windows.
When the children arrived, the first thing they noticed was that the fire station was covered in foam and quickly found out that the firefighters had been training that morning. The children went inside to the special firefighter cloakroom and learnt all about what firefighters do.
The most exciting part of the morning was when the children got to go into the fire engine and spray the hose!
Reception were brilliantly behaved and thoroughly enjoyed their experience! Well done! Thank you to all of the adults who came along and supported the trip!
We have a developed a dedicated reading time during our school day. From 1.05-1.20pm each day, all children across the school (and lots of the grown ups!) will be spending time enjoying a book. This time allows the children to have a calm and peaceful start to the afternoon and also provides opportunity to develop their love of reading. Some children might be sharing a book with a partner, some might be reading with an adult and some will be reading independently.
Reception started their new topic with a very noisy visitor! On Tuesday they were greeted with a loud horn and the revving engine of a motorbike!
The children looked at and even got to try on all of the safety equipment and clothes that bike riders wear, including a helmet and jacket and talked about the safety features such as padding and non-slip sections.
Then, was the best bit of the whole morning, they got to inspect the motorbike, we counted the number of lights, looked at the numbers and letters on the number plate and then found the warning horn! Some of the children were brave enough to sit on the motorbike and make the engine roar.
Kallie says “I liked going on the bike and the noisy beeping, the jacket has got special pads in to keep Mitchell safe and stop him from getting hurt.”
Thank you for coming along to the Christingle service! It was a delight to hear the children sing and read the prayers with such confidence! It was a beautiful service as always! Miss Lewis commented that “it is the best Christingle we’ve done yet!”
Thank you for your donations, the money will be counted and sent to the Children’s Society in the New Year.
Well done and thank you to the adults who organised the service and a special thank you to Mrs Dobbs, who organised the Year 4 children to sing in Latin.
On Monday 16th, both Reception and Year 5 and 6 classes walked to Lydfords Care Home to sing some carols to the residents.
The children sang ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’, ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Away in a Manger’. The residents enjoyed listening to the children singing and they enjoyed seeing the teachers joining in too.
This is an example of how the children are developing their knowledge of their local community and increasing their knowledge about cultural capital. We hope to visit Lydfords again later in the academic year!
8 children – mainly Year 5s have recently been trained to deliver games at break times & lunchtimes in a fun, safe and enjoyable manner for all children. They have all demonstrated a Growth Mindset to enable them to challenge themselves and support each other throughout their training (often referring to the 6Bs) to help them to succeed.
Mr D says that they could be the best group of Play Leaders that he has trained over the past 12 years and was full of positivity about the children. They were polite, respectful, focused, keen to learn and were great ambassadors and role models for the school.
In fact he said they were ‘Outstanding’ – a huge accolade.
Santa took time out of his very busy schedule to pop into East Hoathly school and Nursery and give them some yummy treats!
The children were very excited to see Santa and were incredibly thankful for the treats he gave them. Some of the staff were quite excited as well!
Thank you Santa for coming down from the North Pole to see us before your busy night! Thank you to our FPTA for supplying those lovely selection boxes and for supplying the Christmas crackers for the school’s Christmas dinner!
Thank you and well done to the children from East Hoathly and Chiddingly schools who read Bible readings and prayers at the Christingle service at Chiddingly Church on Sunday evening. Sienna, Jesse, Jake, Dylan, Jake and Freya did a fantastic job. So many of the congregation commented on how brilliant they were.
It was lovely to see a number of other children from the schools attending the service too. What a lovely way to start the Festive season!
A huge thank you to all of the children who attended the Federation Choir’s late night shopping performance in Uckfield on Friday. We took the biggest choir of the night and had the audience joining in and clapping along!
Miss Lewis was extremely proud of all the children! Thank you, too, to the many staff members who came to support the choir.
The performance was broadcast live onto Uckfield FM and you can listen back here:
We received the following message from the organisers of the event:
“Thank you all for the tremendous amount of time and commitment from the staff and pupils both prior to and on the evening.
From my experience, over many years, it was also the highest number of children on stage and also the number of people who were standing in Post Office Square, at least 2500 and more over the evening.
Fortunately, the rain mostly stayed away and it was a relatively warm evening for December. Thank you once again for making Friday night so special.”
Year 3 and 4 from East Hoathly and Willow class from Chiddingly went on a trip to Hever Castle, as a part of our topic – the Tudors.
After a very excitable coach journey, we set off and explored the castle. We looked at all its features including: silver armor, sculptures (some of the sculptures were dogs). There were tapestries and paintings, there was also a moat with swans and there was a big maze that we completed. Also there were swords and other weapons and we even got our photo taken with Anne Boleyn.
Later, we had lunch in the Think Tank. Then there was this Tudor house that you could play inside. It had lots of fun games and challenges. It had the biggest slide I’ve ever seen! In the garden there was a zip line and swings it was so fun.
Written by Jack Calpaldi, Year 4.
Year 5 and 6 travelled to Eastbourne to take part in the Big Sing.
It is an event the children look forward to every year. They love practicing and performing the songs and every year, there is always something different! Unfortunately, we were unable to take photos of the children on stage, but we managed to get one of the children exploring backstage.
This year the children sang some traditional songs, like ‘silent night’ and ‘white Christmas’. A firm class favourite this year was ‘I want a hippopotamus for Christmas!’ We have not worked out how Santa would fit one in his sleigh yet, but we will let you know what we come up with!
Well done everyone! You sang beautifully and you looked incredible on the stage!
The East Hoathly FPTA held their annual Christmas Fair in the village hall and what a fair it was!
There were a range of activities for children and adults to have a go at, like ‘drop the penny on Rudolph’s nose’, Christmas arts and crafts and ‘Christmas Pong’ – where you had to throw ping pong balls into cups to win a marshmallow snowman.
The children got to sign up to read a story with Santa and they could have their faces painted.
The highlights of the evening were the Christmas sing along and the announcing of the raffle winners! It was incredible to see so many prizes being won! Thank you to those businesses who donated prizes to the FPTA.
It was a really successful evening and it was great to see everybody working together to ensure the event ran smoothly, whilst still having fun, of course!
In total, the Christmas Fair made just under £1800, which is the most the FPTA have ever made at the Christmas Fair. Well done everyone who took part in such an incredible evening!
What a lovely way to start the Christmas season!
On Wednesday, Reception visited Chiddingly for the day. They spent the morning with Oak Class, exploring different Owl themed provision, making woodland animals, nests and meeting new friends.
In the afternoon, we had a special visitor called Rusty. Rusty is a Tawny Owl, who was rescued after falling from a tree. The children got to feel how fluffy Rusty was and ask his handlers, Ben and Sophie, lots of questions.
All of the children loved having a picnic lunch and spotting all of the things in Chiddingly’s playground that were the same as East Hoathly’s. Miss Denney and Mrs Smith were very proud of how confident and well behaved the children were.
Last week was Anti-Bullying Week. Have a look at what each class got up to!
Reception explored the theme of odd socks linked to ‘Odd Sock Day’. They designed their own odd socks and then celebrated how they were all different.
Following our whole school assembly looking at how change starts with us, Reception were passing on compliments to each other and spotting children who were helping each other out.
We talked as school about how we can help bring people up rather than bringing people down. We linked this to our work on wellbeing and how we all impact on each other so its important to consider how we treat others.
Year 1 and 2 at East Hoathly discussed what we can do to make a change to reducing bullying in our school. One theme that the children came up with was being a good friend. We then read the story ‘Little Beauty’ by Anthony Browne and discussed how each of the characters felt when they were not being a good friend. The children then came up with ways they could be a good friend, in the playground and in the classroom.
During Anti-Bullying Week, Year 3 and 4 class worked very hard on a number of learning activities, around the theme of “Change Starts with Us”.
In order for the children to understand different forms of bullying and how bullying impacts others, the first activity was to create a poster that celebrates the idea of difference.
The class also produced some storyboards, and we also discussed some key features of ‘difference’ and how we should all celebrate our own unique characteristics.
Year 5 and 6 took part in a range of activities for Anti-Bullying Week and they particularly enjoyed designing odd socks for Odd Sock Day.
The children really understood the theme: ‘Change Starts with Us’ and one child said “Change starts with us means that we can help prevent bullying by telling a trusted adult or simply just being friendly and saying that someone can play or talk with you.”
On Wednesday the 20th of November Ronda and David Armitage visited Year 1 and 2. Before their visit, we made a beach scene with things that you would typically find on the beach. Ronda and David brought along things that they have found on beaches which you would not typically find. For example: rope, plastic bags, plastic water bottles and used crisp packets. We discussed how these things are bad for the animals that use our beaches and seas.
Ronda then read their new Lighthouse Keepers Lunch story which is being released in May next year about Mr Grinling and plastics on our beaches. Also while they were with us David showed us how he illustrates and as a class we created a picture for Mr Grinling’s Birthday.
We had a great time, thank you to Ronda and David for visiting us!
Meet this year’s sports and play leaders!
On Friday, they joined the team from Chiddingly to take part in a training day with Mr Dolton from St Mary’s. They completed lots of tasks, learnt new games and began to think about how to lead these with younger children.
They will be having one more session with Mr Dolton and they will be leading activities at lunch and playtimes. They will also be working with Miss Denney to develop a sporting competition calendar for the year.
Keep your eyes peeled for updates!
On Tuesday 12th November, the children took part in ‘Odd Sock Day’. This event was created to be celebrated during Anti Bullying Week and is a very creative way to show how unique everyone is and how it is okay that we are all different. The children clearly had a fun time choosing which socks they would wear. There are some very interesting pairings!
In total, we managed to raise £33 for the Anti Bullying Alliance. Well done everyone and thank you for donating!
On Friday 25th October, East Hoathly School and Nursery came together to lead the Harvest Service. Each class had a prayer to read out to show their thanks for the harvest, along with some art work and poetry to share with their grown-ups in the audience.
What was really lovely this year was seeing the children leading the service and just how seriously the Year 5 and 6 children take their jobs as role models for the younger children by supporting them.
Thank you to everyone who came and thank you for the donations for Uckfield Foodbank. We look forward to telling you how much was donated next half term!
On Friday 18th October 2019, Pioneer Schools took part in a fun and enriching British Values Day as a way to celebrate and learn about the British Values. The children took full advantage of the opportunity to come into school dressed in red, blue and white to represent the British flag and the staff joined in too!
The children were organised into groups so that Reception and Year 1 and 2 worked together and Key Stage 2 joined up so that they could all take part in the different activities planned for the day.
To learn about the ‘Rule of Law’, the children explored the idea of rules and how they are there to ensure everyone is treated fairly. By looking at different fairytales, like ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’; the children could pick out characters who were not following the rules and discussed what happened to others’ feelings as a result. The children designed wanted posters for these rule-breaker characters and could explain why they were on the wanted posters.
Joseph in Year 2 said “The wolf is wanted for breaking into Granny’s house and not looking after people’s property.”
The children were also excited to receive a visit from two PCSOs. The children asked a lot of questions about what the PCSOs have to do to keep safe on their job and what they like most about their jobs. Samuel in Year 3 asked about what different types of police work there was. He learnt that there were different divisions that deal with different crimes, along with forensics and animals.
Using Google Earth, we looked at the location of ‘Great Britain’ and how it is a collection of islands. It was also interesting to see that the Union Jack is made up of all of the flags of the British Isles. Some of the children created their own maps, locating England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We then found where East Hoathly was within the British Isles and zoomed in on the school from above and could spot the playground and trim trail.
Theo in Reception said “The flag is white, blue and red.”
The children read the story of ‘It’s OK to be different’ by Todd Parr, which opened up lots of discussion about what creates our own personal identities, whether this be our eye colour, a favourite hobby or a belief. The children looked into ’Mutual Respect’, ’Tolerance’ and ’Individual Liberty’ further when they compared their differences and spoke about how having differences doesn’t stop them from being friends with and caring for one another. The children created pictures about how different people can look and later shared them with one another.
Delilah in Year 2 said “It’s important to be kind to others because you might hurt their feelings.”
The children had an opportunity to be a politician for the session as they learnt about and practiced ‘Democracy’. The children were posed with the question “Should Key Stage 2 children be provided with free school meals?”. After huddling up and discussing their ideas, the children began to debate backwards and forwards with well constructed arguments in a really respectful way. They thought carefully about children who might need a hot meal and on the opposing arguments, where the money should be spent. It was incredible to see the children so passionate with their ideas, every child contributed to the debate and Jack C, the chairman, kept good records of the votes.
Sophia in Year 4 said “Democracy is about having your own opinion. We voted about if Key Stage 2 children should have free school dinners. We need to listen to others, even if we don’t agree.”
As a result of learning about the British Values, we have already seen the children demonstrating and applying their new knowledge in their classrooms and on the playground. The children really enjoyed learning about what helps create their identity and they now have a renewed respect for themselves as individuals, as well as for their peers and adults both in and out of school.
On Monday, we held our termly PALs assembly (Progress and Learning) where we celebrated all of the fantastic learning which has taken place in Term 1. The children really enjoyed sitting with their friends in other classes and sharing their achievements. One of the wonderful things about this assembly is seeing children beam with pride when one of their peers recognised how their learning and skills had moved forward. It was great to listen in to the conversations that the children were having. We also recognised that the hundreds of books that began the term with empty pages, were now filled with a vast amount of learning experiences.
Jess in Year 4 said “Max M in Year 2 learnt about the Creation story in RE.”
Maxym in Year 5 said “Maisy in Year 2 has been learning about parts of the body, which is helpful if she wanted to be a doctor.”
Spencer in Year 3 saw that Hector in Year 5 had been learning about the story of Jesus in his RE sessions.
Well done everyone!
Mr Rattray visited East Hoathly on Friday 18th October and spoke to Year 5 and 6 about his Uncle Alexander, which tied in with both their World War 2 topic and British Values Day.
He explained to the children that everyone has it within them to be courageous. Alexander volunteered for the Army when Hitler was expanding his empire. He was studying medicine at the time at Edinburgh University. He started working in the North African Desert when a shell struck his tank. He prayed to God and summoned the strength to push the door and get out the tank. He was badly burnt but was treated in hospital and ended up as an officer. He was a very courageous and brave man. Perhaps we can be inspired to be courageous in our own lives!
Thank you Mr Rattray for coming in and sharing this incredible story!
In Reception, we read the story of ‘The Mood Hoover’ and we talked about our different feelings.
We then used different materials to create feeling faces to help us think about how we should be feeling.
On Thursday 10th of October, Mental World Health Day, Year 1 and 2 had a visit from Nurse Suzy. She spoke to us about keeping our bodies healthy and also about what the parts of the body do.
She was very impressed by the knowledge we have gained this term about the body during our topic ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’. She showed us a gown that a patient would wear in hospital. We also had a go at bandaging each others arms. Thank you for visiting us!
On Thursday 11th July, the whole school took part in the performance of the ‘Mystery at Magpie Manor’. There were a lot of great costumes! The children all sang and danced incredibly and I think it was the best production yet!
The children enjoyed performing it and I think it is safe to say that the adults enjoyed watching it!
Well done to all of the children for such a successful show! We can not wait for next year!
Thank you to the parents for your support —whether it was listening to the children practise their lines and songs or by sourcing a costume. Thank you to the FPTA for serving refreshments and hosting a raffle.
On Monday 8th July, the Reception classes from East Hoathly and Chiddingly visited Hastings. The morning started with a long coach journey which the children filled with their own renditions of ‘Shot Gun’ and ‘Let it Go’ and there was a buzz of conversation, as the children talked excitedly about eating their picnics on the beach.
Upon arriving in Hastings, the children were particularly excited for our visit to the Blue Reef Aquarium, where they were able to explore the various tanks filled with clown fish, upside down jelly fish and a tank full of sharks and sting rays. Whilst there, we were lucky enough to talk to one of the aquarium staff who told us all about puffer fish and then let us witness the feeding of the fish in the big ocean tank! Both classes had their clipboards and pencils ready and drew some great pictures of the sealife they could see around them.
We then took a walk along the seafront to visit the fishermen’s museum and ‘life boat station’ where we were told how the life boat was pushed into the water, when it was needed. After a busy morning of sight seeing, the children ate their lunch on the beach, enjoyed playing by the water’s edge, threw stones into the water, all whilst trying not to get too wet or have their lunch nabbed by seagulls!
Finall, we all enjoyed an ice cream before jumping on the coach back to school. All the children and adults had a lovely day exploring and finding out lots of information, the children came up with some great recounts of their day!
Thank you to the parent volunteers who accompanied us on our trip!
This Thursday, the children gathered in the Church for the last P.A.Ls assembly of the year. The children sit with another child (not from their class( and go through their books together, discuss how they have improved and shown progress over the term.
Jessica said “Sophie has improved her writing and is more creative with her topic.”
Grace says “Max has learnt to write instructions.”
Lotte says “Delilah has learnt how to make graphs.”
Evelyn says “Logan is writing in more detail than before.”
Maxym “Beatrice has got more confident with her times tables.”
Spencer “Ben has improved his writing by using conjunctions.”
Catherine “Archie has used lots of describing words in his writing.”
As the Christian value of the term is perseverance, we asked the children to tell us if they could see the value of perseverance in their work over the term.
Holly “We have learnt to not give up with the times tables challenges.”
Jess “I keep trying with my writing.”
Miss Purcell “Everyone showed resilience in learning the lines and songs for the summer production.”
This term we decided to have enrichment morning in our own classes.
Reception enjoyed learning how to make icing and then decorated biscuits. They also made some fruity smoothies! Willow said “They were yummy, it was like full of loads of bits of fruit and I drinked loads of it”.
During Enrichment morning, Year 1/2 did sewing. The children were all given some aida, a needle and some wool and were able to create their own designs.
“It was really fun, I made a pillow to put on my bed,” Catherine.
“It was nice to do, I made a personalised book mark,” Kitty.
Year 3/4 had a wonderful time in the forest for our Term 6 Enrichment morning. We began by setting the boundary and making sure everyone was clear on what the rules were. Then we played 2 games of Deer & Predator using our senses and hiding skills. After that, we were allowed to explore the forest ourselves. Some of us made dens, some of us made bug hotels and some of us simply played amongst the trees. We had a lovely time and enjoyed spending time in nature!
Year 6 were presented with illustrated dictionaries from the Rotary Club in Eastbourne. They gave one to each child in Year 6 to help them at secondary school. Mr and Mrs Cheeseman presented them and the children loved them!
Year 6 were presented with Bibles from Open the Book as a moving on present.
We also presented a card and flowers to Mrs Wright. We thanked her for all her hard work with the children doing Open the Book.
On Friday 10th May, the children in Reception were joined by Chiddingly Reception class for the day.
They had a fantastic bug themed day, which started with a morning in the forest.
The children were bug hunting, collecting different species and making big bug dens. They also used various resources to create art work that represented what they had been learning.
After a lunch time picnic together, they spent the afternoon creating bug crafts and playing together in the Reception outside area. It was really nice to see the children playing and working together.
Chiddingly children also shared song bug inspired songs they have been learning. Ask your child if they can remember bug heads, shoulders knees and antlers!
Sophie said ” Bug Day was great, we did painting of the trees and the bluebells in the forest.”
Freddy said ” I liked learning songs from Chiddingly all about bugs.”
Delilah said ” I really liked having a picnic on the field.”
| Value and Bible link | Quote from Bible | Bible story linked to it |
|---|---|---|
| Resilience – James 1:12 | 12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. | Rebuilding Jerusalem |
| Creativity – Proverbs 1:5 | 5 Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance. | The Story of Creation |
| Working Together – 2 Corinthians 13:11 – | 11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. | Jesus’ Disciples go Fishing |
| Excellence – Proverbs 14:23 | 23All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. | The Parable of the Two Builders |
| Respect – Luke 6:31 | 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. | The Good Samaritan |
| Enjoyment – Psalm 68:3 | 3 But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful. | The Story of Noah |
This week, the children have been looking into the School Vision and what East Hoathly’s different values are. Each value has a bible story link. Each class had a value to focus on and create work for.
Reception focused on RESPECT. The children discussed what it meant to show respect to others; by being kind and listening. The children then acted out the ‘Good Samaritan.’
Year 1 and 2’s value to focus on was ENJOYMENT, which linked to the ‘Story of Noah’. The children discussed how the value of enjoyment was present in the story. Stan said “Noah had enjoyment because he survived the flood.” The children created collages of the animals that went onto Noah’s Arc.
Year 3 and 4 looked into the value of WORKING TOGETHER by reading the story of Jesus and his disciples going fishing. Abbie in Year 4 said “We acted the story out and we showed working together by helping to get the nets back to shore.”
Year 5 and 6 found the values of EXCELLENCE and RESILIENCE in two stories.
In the ‘Parable of the Two Builders’, Ethan in Year 6 found the value of EXCELLENCE, which Teddy in Year 6 describes as “listening to God’s word”. Ethan’s character in the scene was the builder who’s house fell down during the storm. “My house fell down because I didn’t listen to God’s word or his advice.”
In the story of ‘Rebuilding Jerusalem’, George in Year 6 was able to see the value of RESILIENCE. “We acted out the story of Jerusalem’s wall and I was Nehemiah. We had to build a wall, which was really hard because there were people trying to stop us and the wall kept falling down. We kept going until it was built but it took a long time.”
The RE Council also worked together to find the value of CREATIVITY in the ‘Story of Creation’. Archie in Year 6 said “God showed creativity by perfectly creating the world we live in.”
On Monday 1st April, the children took part in a Progress and Learning, Sharing assembly with a focus on the Christian Value of compassion.
The children shared their work with one another to comment on the Growth Mindset and progress within their work.
Charlie said, “Oscar (Year R) has improved in his maths and knows his odd numbers.”
Sophia said, “Alexandra has got better at her timetables.”
Robert said, “Malakai has improved the types of words he is using.”
Lotte said, “Beatrice has moved from going on the warm challenge and at the end of her book she is working on the spicy challenge.”
Destiny said, “Willow has improved her sentence writing and her drawings have improved.”
Lexi said, “Poppy has got better at solving multiplication problems.”
The children also asked one another how they have used compassion within their lives.
Ruby-Jean described compassion as meaning “reassuring people it will be okay.”
“It means being kind to others.” said Tom.
Sophia describes compassion as “sometimes putting others before yourself.”
Esther shared a time she displayed compassion in school. “I cheered Oscar up when he was feeling sad.”
What a great assembly it was! It was lovely to hear so many positive comments and see such high quality work being shared!
Well done, East Hoathly!
Over the past few weeks, Reception have been the patient parents to chicken eggs in our classroom incubator. They have been helping to check the temperature, counting down the days and writing information signs for others. Then last week, the chicks finally started hatching and there was so much excitement in the classroom!
This week, we have been inspired by the chickens, who have helped us with our writing skills, allowed us to give them cuddles and even sat still-ish whilst we drew them and then weighed them as part of our maths lesson.
We would like to say a big thank you to Poppy’s family for lending us the chicks and the incubator so we could have this learning experience!
This week, KS2 have been learning about how to say what they like and dislike. To put this into practise, the children enjoyed eating a range of Spanish foods, like chorizo, salsa and tortillas. Some children were brave enough to try olives!
Summer said, “Me gustan sandía y fresas.” This means she likes watermelon and strawberries!
On Friday 29th, the children had a range of activities to choose from that they normally would not do in school. They were singing songs from Disney films and musicals, making Shrinkies, doing outdoor activities, Forest School and origami.
One activity on offer was Shrinkies. The children had to trace designs onto a piece of plastic (Shrinkies). Once they had, the design was heated in the oven for a minute and turned into an awesome keychain. Sophia in Year 5 said “We used a stencil to colour on the Shrinkies. My favourite part was when we put it in the oven and watched the plastic shrink—it curled up.”
The children doing origami folded, cut paper and stuck on googly eyes to create some fantastic pieces of paper art. Some of the designs being made were birds and snake bookmarks. There was even an Iron Man and a princess. Robert in Year 6 made bookmarks that looked like sharks. “It was easy to make the bookmarks, but I found the decorating a bit tricky.”
The children that had chosen to sing had great fun learning the words and melodies to some very famous songs, like ‘Under the Sea’ from the Little Mermaid and ‘My Favourite Things’ from the Sound of Music. It was lovely to hear the children singing ‘A Million Dreams’ from the Greatest Showman with such passion! Lily in Reception got to choose a song for everyone to sing and she chose ‘This is Me’ from the Greatest Showman. “This is my absolute favourite song. I love, love, love it!”
The group of children doing Forest School were split into two groups. One group sat around the fire, whittling sticks to be able to cook their bread. The other group got really messy and made the bread. Both groups then swapped over and had a go at the other activity. Holly Zorn enjoyed whittling the sticks down so she could toast her bread. “I liked toasting it on the fire. The bread was really tasty.”
Mr Mackarness came over from Chiddingly to join Mr Lawrence in leading a range of outdoor activities, such as Frisbee, wellie-boot wanging, skittles and tag rugby. The sun was shining and the weather was perfect to be outdoors! Samuel said “I played rugby, Frisbee and wellie-wanging. Football was my favourite and I had a lot of fun.”
It has been a really successful Enrichment Morning, we are already looking forward to the next one!
If you have any activities or skills that you would like to share with the children for the next enrichment morning, please contact the school office. Alternatively, if you would like to help out in the mornings, please speak to your child’s class teacher.
Last week, the parents and carers of East Hoathly School received a letter asking them to arrive a little bit earlier than usual on Friday afternoon for pick up.
What they did not know was that they were the audience for a flash mob!
The children came together from all over the playground, in time, to sing and dance to S Club 7’s ‘Reach for the Stars’.
It was easy to see that they had practised it a lot, because they pulled it off flawlessly!
Not only were we treated to a great show, we managed to raise an impressive £146.31 for Comic Relief!
Well done everybody!
This week, Reception have had a great fun talking and learning about healthy food.
The children spoke about the different colours, textures and smells of the fruit, as well as how they are really good for our bodies.
The children had an opportunity to use different fruits to make a yummy kebab and a ‘berry’ pink smoothie!
The children really enjoyed talking about and tasting the fruits!
On Tuesday 19th March 2019, Year 3 and 4 made our very own bread rolls. Firstly, we washed our hands! Then, we were put into groups of 6 and carefully read the recipe and list of ingredients.
Each group had a team leader who decided which children completed which role. Everyone got the chance to do something. When we had weighed out and mixed all our dry ingredients together, we had to let our dough ‘prove’ for an hour – just like the Great British Bake Off!
Finally, it was time to bake them! We were all really happy with how they turned out and we ate them after lunch with jam, ham or Marmite. Mostly they were delicious! We had a great morning and learnt lots about how to follow a recipe.
The account of the visit was written by Stan Twiddy:
On Wednesday 13th March, a team of Year 5 and 6 children attended a Hi 5 Netball tournament. They competed alongside 7 other local schools in two rounds.
East Hoathly won their first match, 3-0 against Ringmer Primary, and then drew their second 1-1 against Firle.
The children worked really well together as a team and showed great sportsman ship by independently shaking the hands of the other teams after their matches.
It was fantastic to see the children grow in confidence throughout the matches, with this being their first competitive netball event.
Thank you to parents for supporting the event and transporting the children.
On Thursday 7th March East Hoathly school, along with other schools across the country, celebrated World Book Day!
A lot of effort was put into the costumes this year – they were all great! Across the day, the Cat in the Hat was seen, along with Gangster Granny, Heidi, Belle, characters from the Famous Five, Angelina Ballerina, the Hungry Caterpillar and of course, a vast array of Harry Potter characters!
This year, there was a competition for the most original and creative costumes. The winners would receive a £5 book voucher, kindly donated by the FPTA.
Our winners were:
On Friday last week Reception had their first Forest School session.
They walked to the forest and looked out for signs of Spring. They also sang their ‘going on a bear hunt song’. The children enjoyed having snacks around the ‘camp fire’ and balancing, climbing and jumping on the logs and trees.
The children worked really hard to work together to make sure the trees were balanced and safe for each other.
They looked for bears in all the different dens and caves, but unfortunately there were none.
On Monday this week, the children took part in a PALs assembly. In the PALs assembly, children sit next to someone in a different year to them and they look through each others’ books to see what progress has been made in the term.
The children look forward to these assemblies and it is lovely to see the children be so supportive towards each other by pointing out what great achievements have been made.
Matthew in Year 5 noted when he saw Max W’s book that Max, Year 1, is now starting to write with more detail. Well done, Max!
Pearl in Year 3 showed her book to Matilda in Year 5. Matilda said “Pearl can write longer paragraphs and she joins up her writing more.”
On Friday 15th, the children had a range of activities to choose from that they normally
would not do in school. There was keyring making, drama, lego, cake decorating, modrock
modelling and fabric collage.
Lola in Year 4, chose to take part in the fabric collage activity. She said “it’s a nice day
and I think making a collage is fun.” Matilda in Year 5, agreed saying “I love how we used
all the different materials and styles to make the collage. I liked the pom poms and my
favourite material was the glittery felt. I learnt that mixing the different materials in
the collage creates a really nice effect.”
In drama, George in Year 6, had fun doing improv scenes. “Our characters we from Emojitown
and I was the sad emoji. We acted that we got on the wrong plane, so I jumped off!”
Jake in Year 1, really enjoyed acting “My character was Harry Potter!”
Saffron in Year 6, took part in the modrock modelling activity. “We got a coathanger and
bent it into the shape on an animal, like a skeleton. We then added material to it before
adding modrock to make the model.” Scarlett in Reception, said “It’s really fun and I like
it because it’s messy!”
India in Year 3, chose cake decorating. Not only did she decorated some cakes and
biscuits, India picked up a new skill. “I learnt how to write with icing, there’s a trick to
make the icing stop; you need to stop squeezing the tube and then press down.” Maisy in
Year 1, really enjoyed designing ideas for her cake decorating.
Jack in Year 3, had a go at making keyrings. “I really liked designing my picture for my
keyring.” The children also had Scooby strings as a part of their keyring, which Darcey in
Year 1, enjoyed. “It’s really tricky to make the scoobies, but I had a lot of fun.”
Freddy and Oscar in Reception, had a great time during the Lego activity. “We were
building towers from Lego, then we put them together to make a really big tower.”
Matthew in Year 5, explained that there were different challenges for the children to
complete. “One of the challenges was to build a lego tower with only one hand. Toby and I
got really competitive. Toby got 25 bricks and I got 21.”
Thank you to all of the adults that help make these fabulous activities possible! Thank you
to Miss Dudeney for coming over from Chiddingly to lead the modrock activity.
It has been a really successful enrichment morning, we are already looking forward to the
next one!
If you have any activities or skills that you would like to share with the children for the
next enrichment morning, please contact the school office.
Alternatively, if you would like to help out in the mornings, please speak to your child’s teacher.
On Wednesday morning, Years 1 to 6 were visited by a company called ‘Perform for Schools’, who held interactive workshops for the children so they could learn about ways to stay safe online.
To learn about cyber-bullying and what it might look like, the children took part in and enjoyed a range of drama activities, such as freeze frames and role-play and they learnt a rap about how to ‘Zip It, Block It, Flag It’!
Abigail in Year 4 said “We learnt about how to be really safe when we’re online and that if something bad happens, we can talk it over with our parents to sort it out. I really enjoyed when we split into groups to act it all out.”
Overall, it was an extremely successful morning and the children had great fun about learning how to be safe online! Thank you so much for the donations that have enabled the children to part in this workshop and thank you to the FPTA for also donating towards the morning’s events.
The children of East Hoathly got involved with activities that had been inspired by the school’s vision song.
In the morning, Reception and Year 1 and 2 took part in three different activities with themes of resilience, working together and creativity.
For the resilience activity, children had to use marshmallows and spaghetti to build a bridge for the naughty bus to cross over. It was a challenge as the spaghetti kept breaking! Samuel in Year 2 said “The marshmallows are really sticky and it keeps sticking to the bus.”
In the creativity session, the children were making collages using the letters from ‘creativity’. The children uses felt, tissue paper and foil to decorate the letters and show different textures. Lily in Reception said “It’s fun to stick things down!”
There were a range of games in the ‘Working Together’ themed activity. The children had to stand in a circle and hold hands to pass a hoop around them. The challenge was to not let go of one another’s hand. Freddy in Reception said “Playing the games was fun, I did really well!”
In the afternoon, KS2 took part in activities too. Their activities’ themes were “working together” and “respect”.
The KS2 children taking part in the ‘Respect’ session’ created a class poem and had fun working in groups to act out each line of their poem. Summer in Year 5 said “You have to treat others how you would like to be treated.”
The rest of the KS2 children worked together to try and fit everybody into hoops and not fall out of them. Daisy in Year 3 said “Working together is fun!”
On Thursday last week, Miss Denney’s brother brought in his motor bike for the children in Reception and Nursery to see, as part of their topic. The children thoroughly enjoyed trying on all the different protective clothing and discussing how they would keep you safe. Some of the children were even brave enough to try sitting on the bike and beep the horn!
The children learnt about the different road signs that bikers need to follow and how the handles on a bike help to steer and drive the bike, unlike pedals in a car. They looked carefully at the different parts and shapes and then created their own motorbike pictures.
George wanted to beep the horn lots so people knew he was coming and Oscar said it was “the best day ever!”
On Friday, the children of East Hoathly got involved with activities that had been inspired by the school’s vision song.
In the morning, Reception and Year 1 and 2 took part in three different activities with themes of resilience, working together and creativity.
For the resilience activity, children had to use marshmallows and spaghetti to build a bridge for the naughty bus to cross over. It was a challenge as the spaghetti kept breaking! Samuel in Year 2 said “The marshmallows are really sticky and it keeps sticking to the bus.”
In the creativity session, the children were making collages using the letters from ‘creativity’. The children uses felt, tissue paper and foil to decorate the letters and show different textures. Lily in Reception said “It’s fun to stick things down!”
There were a range of games in the ‘Working Together’ themed activity. The children had to stand in a circle and hold hands to pass a hoop around them. The challenge was to not let go of one another’s hand. Freddy in Reception said “Playing the games was fun, I did really well!”
In the afternoon, KS2 took part in activities too. Their activities’ themes were “working together” and “respect”.
The KS2 children taking part in the ‘Respect’ session’ created a class poem and had fun working in groups to act out each line of their poem. Summer in Year 5 said “You have to treat others how you would like to be treated.”
The rest of the KS2 children worked together to try and fit everybody into hoops and not fall out of them. Daisy in Year 3 said “Working together is fun!”
Earlier last week, the children had a range of activities to choose from that they normally would not do in school. There was Chinese, cooking, Christmas crafts, hair design, orienteering, acting and recorders.
On Friday 14th December, the children all took part in their chosen activities and it was great to see the children all enjoying themselves.
Freya in Year 3 said “We are having fun styling hair with plaits. I like practising styles on people.”
In Chinese, Emilia in Year 6 showed off her new chopsticks skills that she learnt from Freddy Fry’s Mum. “We learnt how to say hello in Chinese, which is Ni Hao and we have tried some food. I learnt that Chinese symbols were made from people looking at animals.”
Louie in Year 3 said “We have been making beaded candy canes and painting tree decorations. My favourite part was designing Christmas pictures.”
Hector in Year 4 took part in the orienteering. “We used flags to find letters to make a sentence. The best part was trying to find all of the different flags.”
In acting, Darcey in Year 1 said “I have been acting ‘The Night Before Christmas’. We all turned into the sugar plum fairy, which was my favourite part and then we danced.”
Sophia in Year 3 chose to play the recorder with Governor, Juliet Stirrat. “I’ve learnt how to play Hot Cross Buns on the recorder and the best bit was practising the notes.”
Matthew in Year 5 took part in the cooking activity. “We had ingredients to make fruity muffins. The mixing part was the best bit because it was messy!”
Thank you to Juliet and Mrs Fry for volunteering their time.
This year, the decision was made to split the Christmas productions into two. EYFS and KS1 performed the traditional Nativity play, while KS2 took on a different production: Home for Christmas – a story about homelessness at Christmas time.
EYFS and KS1 worked very hard memorising their lines and songs and we saw an array of shepherds and donkeys on the stage. The children performed their little hearts out and really reminded us of the reason we celebrate Christmas!
KS2 took on a different play about homelessness at Christmas time. All of the children performed fantastically and really made us think about those less fortunate at Christmas time. We even managed to raise £242.95 for the charity ‘Shelter’!
The comments from parents and carers have been overwhelming—thank you so much for your continuous support!
Well done to all of the children involved – including Pearl Becvar, who unfortunately was unable to attend the final performance, but still managed to create a fantastic backdrop for the KS2 production.
What a brilliant end to the term!
“We posted our letters all the way to the North Pole!”
This week, Year 5 and 6 performed the songs they have been practising for the Big Sing.
Miss Purcell said “We had a wonderful time singing at the Big Sing. It was such an amazing experience singing on Glyndebourne stage!”
Miss Brown, Matilda’s Mum, commented “the children looked so smart and sang beautifully. They represented the school so well!”
Well done Year 5 and 6! We are already looking forwards to next year’s performance!
On a wet and windy Wednesday morning Year 3 and 4, from East Hoathly, Chiddingly and St Mary’s, set off to visit the i360 and the Brighton Museum. We all greatly enjoyed our ‘flight’ up the tower and the incredible, if slightly grey, views of Brighton city. After spending half an hour in our pod, we were sent back down to earth. The walk to the Museum was slow but cheerful!
At the Museum, we split off into our groups and ate our lunch. We were allowed to explore the Museum in our little groups and there was a lot for us to do. There was dressing up, drawing, magnifying glass and colouring in! Finally, we had a quick photo of all 3 schools outside the Brighton and Museum and jumped back on the coach to go home.
“It was the best trip ever!” – Sophia, Year 3.
“When I went on the i360 I felt really excited because it was really high and I love heights”- Joshua, Year 3.
“It was really fun and one of the best trips I’ve ever been on”- Florence Year 4.
“It was really fun, it had a nice view of the buildings and the sea”- Maxym, Year 4.
The children in Reception have been learning about different celebrations that involve noisy activities such a fireworks! Last Friday, they went on a walk through the village and visited the Bonfire structure that is built by members of the carnival society. They looked at the shapes and the design of the bonfire and discussed what it meant.
When they got back to school the children used their creative skills to draw their own versions of the bonfire and talked about why it helps the people in the village remember.
A few of the staff attended the Bonfire Celebrations on Saturday and would like to say how impressed they were with the children who were part of the celebration and how mature and respectful members of our school community were during the memorial part of the evening.
In school this week, it was World War 1 week. The children across the school took part in different activities, across the curriculum, with Remembrance and World War 1 themes to celebrate and remember the end of the First World War.
Reception made a poppy collage with tissue paper, explored the story “Where Poppies Now Grow’ and drew pictures of soldiers. George said “Poppies are for soldiers who died.”
Year 1 and 2 made a wreath of poppies, learnt about the importance of animals during the First World War and they learnt about trenches. Beatrice in Year 2 said “On Thursday we dressed up, it was fantastic.”
Year 3 and 4 painted the ends of bottles to create poppies, wrote World War 1 poems in Literacy and learnt about what school would have been like one hundred years ago. Maxym in Year 4 said “This week, we painted poppies for World War 1 day because poppies help us remember the soldiers who died in the war.”
Year 5 and 6 wrote stories in Literacy about the Christmas Truce of 1914, made poppies to be stuck onto a wreath for the War Memorial and wrote a prayer for the soldiers. Ruby in Year 6 said “I learnt that during the Christmas Truce of 1914, the soldiers actually put up a Christmas tree and promised not to fight until midnight on Christmas Day.”
Earlier this term, the children had a range of activities to choose from that they normally would not do in school. There was sewing, gardening, cooking, cheerleading, art and rugby.
On Friday, the children all took part in their chosen activities and it was great to see the children all enjoying themselves.
Poppy in Year 5 said “Gardening was fun because we got to use tools, like cutters and we got to weed the garden.”
In sewing, Holly Z in Year 4 made a blue monster with three eyes. “I sewed on buttons and felt to make the face.”
Ben in Year 2 said “Rugby was fun, Mr Procter taught me new skills”, Matilda in Year 5 agreed, commenting “I learnt how to pass backwards and to communicate with my team to find space.”
Maxym in Year 4 took part in the cooking activity. “We made healthy, fruity muffins. I had fun grating the carrots.”
Abbie in Year 4 said “Today, cheerleading was fun. I had a good time with my friends and I am glad they convinced me to take part.”
In Art, Ruby in Year 6 had a go at ‘blind drawing’. “It basically means you need to focus on the object you are drawing and not look at the paper. I really enjoyed it.”
The children all had a fantastic day. Thank you to all of the adults who shared their skills and interests. It was such a successful day and the staff are already looking forward to organising the next Enrichment morning.
East Hoathly have taken part in two Harvest Festivals this year.
The first took place on Sunday 14th October in the Church with Rev Phil Hodgins. Miss Lewis and some children from East Hoathly volunteered to read out prayers to share.
The Harvest Service from East Hoathly School on 16th October saw the children all perform songs about the Harvest, showed some work to the parents that came and the school have donated food to the local foodbank. The Nursery children all worked together to build a very impressive scarecrow for the Harvest Festival.
Thank you everyone for your donations and hard work this harvest!
On Tuesday 16th October, the Year 5 and 6 classes in the Federation went on a trip to Weald and Downland Museum as a part of their Victorians topic.
The children of Chiddingly, St Mary’s and East Hoathly schools dressed up like Victorians and took part in a range of activities, including Victorian style cooking, Victorian style schooling and performing Victorian style chores.
The children enjoyed their day and seeing their peers from across the Federation. The weather held out and they were able to enjoy a social lunch on a field together.
Thank you to the parent helpers for their support and thank you to Miss Banks, at St Mary’s, who organised such a lovely trip! What a way to end such a busy term!
Over the past two weeks, Year 3 and 4 have enjoyed two science days! The children all took part in different experiments and investigated the reactions of the events that happened.
On the first Science Day, Friday 12th October, Year 3 and 4 looked into experiments involving materials
Activity 1: How can mixtures become separated? We looked at the mixtures you have in front of us. Then we separated the substances.
Activity 2: Who can melt an ice cube the quickest? We had to predict which method we thought would melt the ice cube fastest and then test it out.
Activity 3: We were sorting different materials. In our groups, we had to look at each object and decide whether it was a solid, a liquid or a gas.
Activity 4: We watched Miss Riddall: Boil a kettle – hold a mirror over the spout, pour the boiling water over a sugar cube and watch it disappear and turn the fan on with our faces in front of it. We had to predict what we thought would happen and explain what was happening when we watched it.
On the second science day, Wednesday 17th October, Year 3 and 4 took part in activities involving their senses, solids, liquids and gases.
Activity 1: How can we use our sense of smell? Essential oil was put on a tissue, this was then hidden and we had to find it using our noses.
Activity 2: What will happen when boiling water is poured into a glass bowl then covered with cling film? We discussed the water cycle.
Activity 3: Which plastic bottle will squirt water the furthest? There were three bottles to test; 1 full one, 1 half full one and 1 nearly empty one.
Activity 4: We had to estimate and test which balloon weighed the most. Will it be the balloon full or air, water, semi blown up or empty?
Luke said “I think that the warm water will melt the ice-cube the fastest… I was right! Look the ice-cube has got smaller and smaller”.
On Thursday 11th of October, the children took part in a Progress And Learning assembly. The children brought their RE books to the assembly and they all sat with someone from a different year group to share what they had learnt so far this year.
Charlie in Year 6 said that “Ashton’s work is very good. He is learning about Christianity.”
Tom in Year 6 commented on Archie’s work that the drawings were very neat.
Zach in Year 5 said that “Lorenzo’s work is amazing. He remembered that he was learning about God.”
The school participated in activities while reflecting on mental health and what it means to take care of yourself.
One of the most notable points that the KS2 children came up with was that “if you feel like you can’t cope, tell someone you trust.” What great advice!
KS1 had an afternoon talking about positivity and what we can do to make ourselves feel better. They all chose a word to describe themselves, some of their favourites were friendly, caring, kind and unique.
On Wednesday, the school participated in activities while reflecting on mental health and what it means to take care of yourself.
One of the most notable points that the KS2 children came up with was that “if you feel like you can’t cope, tell someone you trust.” What great advice!
KS1 had an afternoon talking about positivity and what we can do to make ourselves feel better. They all chose a word to describe themselves, some of their favourites were friendly, caring, kind and unique.
It has been an absolute pleasure this week watching Year 6 guide their Reception buddies in and around the school.
The Reception children have settled into school life really well and the Year 6 buddies have gone above and beyond in looking after them.
George in Reception said “I like playing with my buddy, Archie.”
After two weeks of planning, building, painting, sticking and drying, Year 5 and 6 finally went to the Patina Parade with their costumes.
The theme this year was Superheroes and we had an array of different characters including; Thor, Starlord and Supergirl.
The children had a fantastic time over the two weeks, creating their costumes and attending the Parade with a giant Iron Man that they had constructed!
George in Year 5 said “I chose to make Thor because he is one of my favourite superheroes. The Parade Day was very exciting, I liked seeing everyone else’s projects, there was a school that had Harry Potter as a theme and they made a giant car! My favourite part of making my structure was adding colour to it – it was very messy!”
Thank you to the FPTA and parent helpers for the time they gave to help the Year 5 and 6 children build their structures.
On Tuesday 3rd of July, East Hoathly travelled to St Mary’s Hartfield, by coach, to see their Year 5 and 6 class perform their dress rehearsal.
The St Mary’s children presented a brilliant rendition of ‘Wind in the Willows’, complete with beautifully designed scenery, cracking costumes and face paint, stunning solos and even a tap-dancing scene!
A lot of work went into their production and it really showed! We all cheered for the children and the adults who helped.
Lola said “I liked the Rat and the Mole in Wind of the Willows.”
After we watched the production, the children went into the playground and enjoyed a picnic lunch, before the children at St Mary’s came out to play. It was really great seeing the children from the two schools playing and interacting with each other. Since a few children from East Hoathly visited St Mary’s to teach them about 4-Square, it was wonderful to see the St Mary’s children show off the skills they had been practising.
We left St Mary’s in good spirits and look forward to seeing our friends at St Mary’s again! Thank you to all of the parents that helped on the trip!
On Tuesday 26th of June, Year 6 travelled to Crowborough to take part in their Leaver’s Service.
For the first time, they were joined by Year 6 from Chiddingly.
Ethan said “I enjoyed singing songs at the front of the church and having our pictures taken. It was a great memory to make.”
Aidan said “I enjoyed it because I helped to carry the banner for the service. This is a good memory to take to Uckfield.”
Miss Purcell said “It was great to see our Chiddingly friends from residential. The service was lovely, with lots of beautiful singing and it was a great way to reflect on our year.”
Over the past three weeks Reception have been eagerly watching the incubator filled with eggs. They have been carefully filling up the water and checking on the humidity, which helps the shells become soft.
On Tuesday morning, we arrived at school to discover the eggs were hatching! With great excitement, we watched over the next few days as 22 eggs hatched into chicks. The children have loved watching the life cycle and having the chicks in the classroom for lots of cuddles. All of the staff and children across the school have been regularly visiting them.
Max says “I loved having the chicks, I love stroking and holding them, the best thing about having them it watching them.”
Thank you to Poppy Ray’s Mum, who kindly supplied every-thing needed for this exciting project!
Last Friday, the Pioneer Federation held a special Celebration Day for the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The children and staff swapped their uniforms for red, blue and white and enjoyed learning about the Royal Family and what happens at weddings. The children also enjoyed an array of different activities, inspired by the big day.
Reception made Royal crowns and designed wedding cakes. They also looked at different photos of weddings and talked about their experiences.
Year 1 and 2 spent their day learning about the Royal Family, making flags and making beautiful cards for Prince Harry and Meghan—which have been posted out to them!
Year 3 and 4 made family trees, played traditional British games, like skipping and made up rhymes for the Royal Wedding. They also attended a wedding of our very own!
Year 5 and 6 spent their afternoon designing flags, but in the morning, they re-enacted the Royal Wedding, with Isabella and Sid performing the starring roles! The wedding was beautiful and we even had the very talented Aidan Woodward-Brenchley playing his violin as Isabella walked down the aisle!
At lunchtime, the playground was transformed into a royal celebration banquet with a very long table! We enjoyed sharing a lunch together in the sunshine!
Thank you to our cooks, who provided the baguettes for the lunch we shared and thank you to Dee Gibbons for coming in and helping us set up for our lunchtime celebration!
On Thursday the 24th May, the entire school came together to celebrate the learning they had done over the past two terms. Each child was paired with another from a different year group and they had the opportunity to show each other their work and talk about what they had learnt.
Sid,in Year 6 shared with Darcey in Reception that he had been learning about inverted commas and where to use them. Darcey showed Sid the work she did when she made a puppet of how Jesus gave back a man’s sight.
Lucas in Year 1 showed Charlie from Year 5 that he had been learning about explorers by showing off his drawings of penguins, killer whales and seagulls. Charlie showed Lucas the great work he had been doing in maths and that he had been learning about adding and subtracting decimal numbers.
Alongside showing off their work, the children discussed the theme, which this term was friendship. The children discussed what it meant to be a good friend. Tom in Year 5 said to be a good friend you need to “help them and make them feel confident”. Ruby in Year 5 said “if they doubt themselves, tell them they will be great,” and Leo in Year 6 said “if they are upset, help them and build up trust.”
The children were then asked if they could discuss times that they—or their partner— had been good friends. It was great to see that everyone had something to share! Coen in Year 6 said “Max helps Lorenzo and Archie feel better if they are sad.” Catherine in Year 1 said that “George encourages his friends.” Tyler in Year 6 said that “Malakai is friendly to others.”
In the morning we made Roman shields and Roman jewellery. We used sugar cubes to
design Roman buildings. We also found out about Roman feasts and designed our own
banquet!
The leaders of our troops prepared us for battle this afternoon! We made the ‘Tortoise’
and ‘Wedge’ formation with our shields.
“I liked having the feast because we had Year 6 as our Roman slaves and they served us
food!” -Abigail, Year 3
“I loved the whole day because we were all dressed up and it was so much fun!” -Florence, Year 3
“I liked the battle because we had to make the tortoise formation and then go into
battle with our friends!” -Alfie, Year 3
“It was really good because we got to have a feast and build Roman buildings out of sugar
cubes!” -Lola, Year 3
On a very sunny Wednesday, Reception had their very first trip on a coach!
They were joined by Oak Class from Chiddingly as they walked around the gardens of Hersmonceux castle. The children had a fantastic time hunting for different items in the gardens and then spent time carefully looking at the different features of the castle whilst drawing it.
The children and adults all enjoyed an ice cream to cool down after an exploration of the grounds and a picnic lunch.
We are developing our healthy eating and physical activity opportunities for our Early Years children, in connection with East Sussex County Council. As part of this, we have been cooking each week in Nursery and promoting healthy alternatives. On Tuesday, we held a parent and child cooking session with Dawn and Miss Denney, where we made our own healthy meatballs with pitta and salad! The children really enjoyed cooking and eating the meatballs.
This week, children from East Hoathly and Chiddingly went to St Mary’s for the day! They joined in with their lessons and taught the other children how to play 4square.
Ruby-Jean from Year 5 said “It was a really cool experience being able to teach the children something they didn’t know and it was fun joining in their every day activities. I made new friends in St Mary’s and I can’t wait to see them again!”
Last term, we entered the Innocent Smoothie “Big Grow 2018”. Innocent sent us compost, pots and seeds to plant our own vegetables and we have been looking after them for 5 weeks now! Hopefully we’ll be able to eat them soon.
The children have now taken them home and can repot them or plant them in the garden to soak up the sun – well done growers!
We had a Palaeontology day in Year 1 & 2 – we dressed up as Palaeontologists and excavated some dinosaur bones which were hidden around the school. We then studied them and worked in teams to put them together to make whole dinosaur skeletons. We also learnt about what Palaeontologists do when they’re not digging and how they know so much about dinosaurs.
On Thursday 19th April, the whole school took part in an exciting STEM day. The children came to school dressed up as scientists and inventors. They spent part of their day tackling the ‘Squashed Tomato Challenge’ which was based on a real life scenario in Nepal. The children had to think about how to transport tomatoes down a hill and over a river without spoiling any of them. The children had to work in teams to design and build their ideas, they were then given tomatoes to test these out!
“I enjoyed designing and making our pulley systems- ours worked and the tomatoes didn’t fall out. We also found out about engineers who are famous for designing and making different things.“ Darcy Year 3
“I enjoyed learning about Stephen Hawkin and his discoveries. I liked designing myself as a Mr Man character!” Matthew Year 4
Some children even designed and made pulley systems for their tomatoes.
At the end of the session, the children were shown how Practical Action (scientists and engineers who use technology to challenge poverty in developing countries) solved this problem in real life. They saw how a pulley system based on weights enabled the villagers to become more efficient in their farming!
Throughout the day, the children found out the skills needed to become engineers and about different engineers who designed and created objects and devices which help them in their every day lives.
A new ‘Little Miss’ book had been written to celebrate International Women’s Day and British Science week called ‘Little Miss Inventor’. The children used this to create their own ‘Little Inventor’, their designs were fantastic!
WOW, what a week! We have all experienced a different sporting workshop each day – even the teachers got involved too! There have been so many comments from parents and children about how much they have enjoyed this week, please fill in the comments sheet the children have brought home. All the workshops have been offered by our local providers in the hope that if interested the children can branch out and continue learning the sport.
On Monday, we were joined by GB Athlete Mercy Brown who is a bronze weightlifting medallist. She shared her sporting journey and talked to us about not letting setbacks stop us from achieving our dreams and goals. We then warmed up with plenty of squats to get our muscles warm, before we practiced lifting moves!
On Tuesday, it was street dance day, we brought our funky moves and attitude to the village hall and created our own dance shows after learning some key breakdancing moves like the ‘Corkscrew and W drop’!
On Wednesday in Ballet, we learnt about happy pointy toes and how to use our core muscles and strength to pile and releve. We also discussed the importance of core strength and balance for other sports and how ballet can enhance this.
“We did lots of different sports. We are trying to make ourselves as fit as possible. One of the athletes showed her growth mindset and how she didn’t give up which is important so you can always keep trying and you get to reach your goal and do better things.
She told us 3 top tips: 1) Train hard 2) Work hard 3) Listen to others.” – George, Year 5
“I loved it, it was really fun. I really liked the ballet, street dance and the tennis. Did you know healthy foods give you energy for running and doing sports?” – Sara, Reception
On Friday, we had double workshops with golf in the morning and calming yoga in the afternoon.
Across the week, we also walked to the local tennis courts where there were tennis balls everywhere! We learnt how to stand in the ready position and perfect our forehand shot.
Throughout all the sessions we thought about the importance of physical exercise and healthy eating to keep us fit.
We would like to thank the local coaches we used to provide the workshops. If you would like any more information about the clubs and sessions they provide you can download leaflets and find links to their websites below:
“It has made me think about being fit and doing exercise. It’s really important to keep moving and eat healthy foods.” – Abigail, Year 4
We had quite a lot of snow last week! At break time, there were snowmen being built and snow angels scattered all over the field. After lunch, the children and staff enjoyed a hot chocolate with marshmallows to keep warm. What a fantastic week we had in the snow!
We celebrated World Book Day on Thursday the 1st of March. We wrote letters to people we admire throughout the week and we have posted these off—fingers crossed we hear back!
We got dressed up as our favourite characters and shared books with one another! Have a look at the photos below and see if you can tell what our favourite characters are!
We were also lucky enough to have a visit from an author – Giles Paley-Phillips. He came to talk to us about what it is like to be an author and to also share his book ‘Superchimp’.
The children were really excited to see Giles. Summer in Year 4 said “I really enjoyed meeting him. His story was really good—he had definitely used his imagination!” Jessica in Year 2 said “Giles was amazing—he read us one of his books, Superchimp, it was fantastic!”
Giles enjoyed his visit to East Hoathly too. He said that the “children and staff were very welcoming, enthusiastic and had great questions.”
What a lovely response AND what a lovely day we had!
Kung Hei Fat Choi! Happy New Year! Last week we enjoyed learning all about China in our afternoon sessions. This was linked to the Chinese New Year celebrations.
Each class took part in a range of learning, linked to China. Throughout the school, children were preparing and tasting Chinese foods. Year 5 and 6 created some very tasty vegetable spring rolls that they enjoyed tasting!
There was lots of Geography taking place, learning about where China is located. Year 3 and 4 learnt how to write Chinese symbols and presented their work beautifully, as well as learning about the giving of red envelopes with money as a New Year gift.
As 2018 is the ‘Year of the Dog’, Year 1 and 2 designed and created their own dog masks. Reception enjoyed making noodles and writing instructions for how to do this. They then loved tasting their creations at the end!
Many thanks to all of the staff for planning such exciting activities for the children and to all of the parents and carers for coming into our celebration of work at the end of the day.
On Thursday 8th February we had PALS Assembly. This is where we do two things: review the theme of this term which was “Courage” and share our books and learning with children from other classes.
Miss Lewis asked us about how we have shown courage this term. This is our worship theme where we have learnt about Bible stories that teach us about courage.
Here are some quotes from the children
“Courage means being brave in your school work.” -Oscar
Courage involves facing challenges.
“I face a challenge of doing crate stacking on our school trip.” -Abbie
“I faced the dark cave.” -Summer
“I did a reading assessment this term. I showed courage to complete it!”
Courage means overcoming fears
“Improving your work and going for higher challenges shows courage.” -Leo
“I will be brave when I hurt myself.” -Lorenzo
“In my school work I will be courageous and keep going, not giving up.” -Holly Z
Older children paired up with younger children in the school to share learning.
This term we shared our RE Books and another book of our choice.
“James can add more detail to describe different pictures of Jesus doing kind things and adding detail.” -Oscar
“Florence has written about the 3 Kings and has added lots of detail. I can see an improvement in Florence’s work and writing over the term.” -Charlie
“There was a big whale that ate Jonah! I learnt about him!” -Max M
Children from the Pioneer Federation took part in an E-Safety Day on Wednesday 7th February 2018. Andrew Gunn was invited into the Pioneer Federation to teach the children about how to be safe online. Andrew taught all year groups about the internet and its power. Andrew built on the children’s knowledge of the acronym ‘SMART’ and made them aware of how they can continue their safe practice online. The children made large Hector the Dolphins to display in their classroom to be there as a reminder of what to do with Hector (who swims in the top corner of every screen on a school curriculum laptop). A Hector is on display in each classroom to remind the children how they can be safe at all times when on the internet – whether at school or at home. Here are some photos of the great designs of Hector in the classrooms!
Children and young people are likely to be as good as, if not better than, their parents at using the Internet. However, being good at using technology does not mean they have the life-experience and wisdom to handle all of the situations they can come across.
Children and young people are prone to the same kinds of risks (including spam and scam emails, fraud and identity theft) as everybody else. However, there are also other, more sinister threats that may result from going online, such as inappropriate contact from people who may wish to abuse, exploit or bully them, and exposure to inappropriate material.
The parent forum was very informative; it opened my eyes to the possibilities of the internet. – Parent
We were learning to obey the ages of things like Snapchat.
Not everyone is who they say they are online.
Hector the Dolphin helps you keep safe online.
We’ve learnt that if you see something inappropriate, you link on Hector the Dolphin.
ICT is a great source of learning! – Pioneer Federation Pupils
Reception visited Chiddingly for the day and games, completed obstacle courses, explored the police station and had an extra special visit from Uckfield fire officers.
On Wednesday, PC Gemma visited Reception and Nursery to talk about her role as a police officer and what she does to help people, as part of their topic ‘I have the power’.
She talked to the children all about the different vehicles they use and showed them pictures of the 3 different types of police dogs.
The children had all thought of different questions to ask PC Gemma and asked these with lots of confidence.
Darcey was keen to find out about the police handcuffs and if they hurt, she got to try them on and said “They are really cold”.
The children also all got to try on some of the different hats that police officers wear.
Thank you PC Gemma for coming to visit Nursery and Reception!
Last week, we had Mathematics Day at East Hoathly and Chiddingly School. The staff de-cided that the children needed to gain more confidence with working with and solving problems linked to fractions. Each class focussed on this and we had a whole day of fractions activities. Year R concentrated on finding wholes and halves while Year 1 and 2 started to explore quarters of shapes. Year 3 and 4 did some cross curricular activities involving designing their own flags. They were able to work out what fraction of each colour they had. Year 5 and 6 independently choose what they needed to practice and worked on it. This included looking at comparing and finding equivalent fractions; multiplying and dividing fractions and adding and subtracting fractions! In the afternoon, they created a fruit salad – measuring out according to different ratios.
In the afternoon, the whole school got to together for the House Team Quiz! The children had to work out mathematics questions but if they got stuck they could ask a friend on their team or a team member in the audience. Pupil Governors chose new house names, they are: Mars, Saturn and Jupiter! Mars were the winning team in the quiz so well done to them!
In Celebration Assembly, Miss Lewis asked the children about Maths Day and children shared what they had learnt.
Leo Tarry wrote in his book “I am now more confident with solving maths fractions problems.”
Year 3/4 ventured off to Walton Firs Activity Centre on Tuesday, for an action-packed day of adventure! They participated in different activities alongside children from Chiddingly School, such as searching for pictures hidden amongst the trees and buildings during Photo Orienteering and climbing, swinging, splashing and squelching their way through obstacles and plenty of mud on the Adventure Course. The children also completed a Nightline, where small groups used cooperation and listening skills to negotiate a complicated collection of tyres, cargo nets and elasticated rope webs, all whilst blindfolded!
Activities also included Caving, where children explored a myriad of dark and leaf-strewn tunnels and caves, and finally Crate Stack, which required balancing atop and climbing a tower of crates whilst teammates stacked each step from below!
So much fun was had, and everyone a great day. Mrs Pattenden and Miss Moore were extremely proud of the class and very grateful to our lovely parent helpers!
Thank you also to the weather for keeping the rain away from the activity centre – it was muddy enough as it was!
Our fantastic FPTA arranged and funded a Christmas Pantomime for all the children this week. We all went to the Village Hall which had been transformed into the town of ‘Agrabah’ for the exciting show of Aladdin.
All the children thoroughly enjoyed the show and it was a great start to festive fun!
As a school and FPTA team, we would like to thank you all for supporting the events that help to provide experiences and equipment for the children.
On Monday the 11th of December, Year 5 and 6 went to Lydfords Care Home to sing carols to the residents.
They spent a long time practising their carols and sang beautifully.
Lydfords enjoyed listening to Year 5 and 6 so much that they asked for them to come back at later points during the year!
What a fantastic class of singers you are!
Thank you Year 5 and 6 for showing a brilliant sense of community!
Well done to Miss Purcell and Miss Moore for their hard work with the carolling!
On Monday, Reception visited the local post office to buy stamps and post their very important letters to Father Christmas. The children walked beautifully along the path and members of the community commented on how well behaved they were and how lovely it was to see them visiting the local shops.
Thank you to our parent helpers on the day and to the post office for showing us the things you use and sharing some of these with us for our role play area.
On Friday, East Hoathly celebrated the first day of December by wearing festive jumpers!
Children donated prizes for the upcoming Christmas Fair and in return, the school was dazzled by sequins, snowflakes, tinsel and flashing lights.
We’re feeling very festive at East Hoathly and we hope you enjoy the jumpers below as much as we did!
Thank you for all of your donations!
Well done to all of the children who performed at the Uckfield Late Night Shopping Event on Friday 1st December. The children’s enthusiasm and energy was clear and the staff were so proud of the children’s performance. It was great to see children from both Pioneer schools coming together and looking after each other at the rehearsals earlier in the week and this year we had more children taking part than ever before! Thank you, as well, to the staff, friends and families who came to support the children – I think we had the loudest crowd on the night!
On Tuesday 21st November, Year 5 and 6 went back in time to World War 2 and arrived as Evacuees at East Hoathly Primary School!
They created their own identity labels and wrote a postcard home to share their experiences. The classroom windows were taped up in case of a bombing raid and when the air raid sounded in the classroom, the children hid underneath the tables! Other members of staff came along to choose Evacuees to help them out and do various jobs for them in the day!
The children made an eggless sponge (due to rationing, eggs were in short supply). They all tried it and the end of the day and most children thought it was extremely tasty! The children also did a special mission to work out which ships could have been used for the evacuation of Dunkirk. They also made their gas mask boxes – a compulsory item for children in WW2.
It was a great day for the children and thank you to the parents for providing all the brilliant costumes!
This week was Anti-Bullying week, with a focus on difference and equality. This week’s national focus has stemmed from a rise in negativity towards difference around the world.
The focus in school has been on celebrating children all being unique, helping children feel valued within their schools, understanding that it is okay to be different and that being different is not a reason to be bullied.
A lot of children use the term bullying because they don’t understand what is happening.
Falling out with friends and friendships is a normal part of growing up, it can often happen due to a minor incident, and it is about dealing with this appropriately.
When children are older, this can often be put onto social media.
What is bullying? – 4 KEY WORDS – REPETITIVE, HURTFUL, INTENTIONAL, POWER
Definition – “the repetitive, intentional hurting of one person or group where the relationship involves an imbalance of power’. This definition should be thought about when deciding if an issue is bullying or if it is a friendship issue and it can then be dealt with in an appropriate manner.
In school, we have had various activities for all year groups across the week looking at anti-bullying and the importance of our key statement, ‘Lend a hand, make a stand, say NO to bullying’. Each class have created posters and the winners were announced in the Anti-Bullying assembly on Thursday 16th November.
There is a vast difference between parental and child knowledge, awareness and worries when it comes to online safety.
Parents worry about appropriate content, stranger interaction and grooming, whereas children worry about cyber bullying and violet or sexual content.
Children also know how to use more features of apps and sites than parents do. It is important to inform children that anything they post or share online and virtually will be there forever and could impact their future lives, examples of this are happening in the media at the moment.
An important message – Treat others as you would like to be treated. Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say to someone face to face.
All apps and online sites have guidance on the appropriate ages for use, it is important to discuss these with your children and the possibilities or incidences that may occur when using them. It is also important to discuss what is appropriate use and what is not.
Guidance for ages:
| 13 years old | Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter |
| 16 years old | |
| 17 years old | Tinder, Vine |
| 18 years old | YouTube, Kik, Flicker, Keek |
It is also important that, as parents, you monitor the amount of time spent online and what the children are going on.
As parents, there are ways that you can filter content when online and when your children are using games and streaming sites . This can be done through your browser setting, parental controls. You can also contact your internet or broadband provider directly and they can put filters in place using the connection line.
Below is a list of apps to be aware of, some of these apps open up the risk of cyber bullying and lowering self-esteem of our children.
This is a music app that allows children to record videos of themselves singing and upload them. This opens up public commenting.
This app encourages users to create a poll or vote. This can lead to lowering self-esteem, rude or offensive comments, and is public.
This has been called ‘tinder for teens’ it is a friendship app that you swipe left and right on. This can impact on wellbeing, self- esteem and open up a forum to talk with strangers.
There are parent support apps which can be used to monitor your child’s activity online and on phones, however it is important to think about the impact these may have on the trust between you and your child.
In Reception, we talked about what bullying is and how it can make us feel. We also talked about what it means to be good friends and to be nice to each other to make us feel happy and safe in school. We made posters to show it’s okay to be different. Malakai in Reception said “I like painting my hands. We are different.”
In Year 1 and 2, we made a friendship wreath out of our handprints, we made individual bricks for a wall to show that we are all equal but different. We saw the effects of bullying on Bruce the Koala’s heart, it showed us that bullying makes us feel sad, so we said nice things to make him feel better. Delai Ryan in Year 2 said “I liked the colouring hand activity because we got to write lovely things about other people.”
In Year 3 and 4, we learnt about the four different types of bullying; verbal, physical, cyber and emotional. We learnt that we are all important and that we are individuals and that it is okay to be different and unique. We made mirrors to reflect our differences and individuality and to celebrate and encourage others to be individuals too. Lotte Rattray in Year 3 said “My favourite activity was making the mirror because I enjoyed sharing my hobbies with others.”
In Year 5 and 6, we had a workshop with John Khan who was from the Anti-Bullying team in East Sussex, where we learnt about the different types of bullying. We found out that being different is good and we celebrated our individuality through our artwork. We learnt about empathy and online safety. Teddy Wren in Year 5 said “I enjoyed learning about empathy because it is a way of showing how we are all different and see things differently.”
This week, the children in East Hoathly school created a poppy to make into a wreath for the Remembrance Service on Friday the 10th of November. The school paid their respects and remembered the brave soldiers that fought in the World Wars with songs, poems and prayers.
Thank you to the parents and carers that came along to the service!
On Monday the 6th of November, the children at East Hoathly were split into their Key Stages and then divided into groups so they could all partake in different activities about Mexico.
They explored the celebration of the ‘Day of the Dead’, which Tom Fox in Year 5 says, “It means that the people of Mexico celebrate the memories of dead family members by having parties and bright colours”. The children also made art, learnt some Spanish, learnt about the country of Mexico and made some salsa and guacamole! Jessica Ruff in Year 2 enjoyed making salsa, “I enjoyed making and trying salsa because I’d never tried it before. It was very exciting!”
Everyone had a brilliant day and enjoyed sharing their learning with parents at the end!
On Tuesday morning Reception and Nursery had lots of special visitors. Phil from Jaws and Claws brought some of his exotic friends for us to feel and hold whilst he told us lots of information about them. Did you know a Giant Africa Land Snail has its tongue on its foot?
The children (and staff!) were incredibly brave holding animals that can sometimes be thought of as scary. They got to see Ben the corn snake, Geoff the python, Terrance the tenrec, Whinnie the tortoise, Brian the Africa Land Snail, Buster the tree frog and Char-lie the bearded dragon!
Some of our Year 6 pupils have been completing the ‘Bikability’ training course this week. They have had some sessions on the playground to build up their skills and have ventured out on to the roads of the village to complete tasks towards reaching Level 2. The children have enjoyed it immensely and have learnt to ride safely and responsibly on the road – a great skill to learn before moving on to secondary school!
We went back in time to the Stone Age on our trip to Michelham Priory! We did pretend hunting and gathering, visited a round house, planted seeds, made our own jewellery and clay pots! We also looked at different artefacts from the Stone Age and had a go at cave painting. We even relived a Stone Age burial ceremony. It was a brilliant day. Thank you to Mr Skelton and the parent volunteers for helping us all have a great day.
Awe and Wonder day took place on Monday 22nd May 2017. All the children were in mixed year group teams and rotated around a carousel of activities. The theme was Safety. It included the children reflecting on their safe place and constructing their own safe place, sewing and using collage skills to create our safe church. We had PC Jackie with us all day talking about how to get help from emergency services, we made shields about how God keeps us safe and we learnt about Christian Aid’s work to ensure refugees have shelter, water and food. The day ended with a brilliant celebration in the church. All the children sung a song about safety and different children spoke about their learning. It was a great day, enjoyed by all and gave us all time to reflect and think about the world. Thank you to all the parent volunteers for helping us and for those who attended the celebration.
During Enterprise week, each class was given £20 to spend on whatever materials they needed to create a product to sell at the end of the week. The challenge was to see which class could make the most profit.
Reception created their own Café for enterprise week. They looked at the different coins they would need to make the cost of tea, coffee and hot chocolate as well as the ingredients to make biscuits. They then worked in groups to make and decorate biscuits.
Year 1 and 2 designed, budgeted for and made Ladybird cakes. They had lots of fun and were really happy to make some money. Holly L said “I enjoyed making the cupcakes – especially the icing.” Darcy said “I enjoyed making cakes and doing the game of Guess the Weight of the Cake!” Lotte and Holly Z enjoyed adding the ingredients together to work out the total we needed to spend.
Year 3 and 4 designed and created cards for Enterprise Week. We asked our parents which cards they would find most useful to buy and then we made a range of Father’s Day cards.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and had fun selling them.
George, Year 4, says, “I had lots of fun using glitter and pom poms.”
Summer, Year 3, says, “I liked making cards and making a mess!”
Year 5 and 6 created ‘Bugs in Boots’ models to sell. We sold every single one of them and were amazed by the number of compliments we received for our creativity! We made posters and banners to advertise our stock and we had to budget for the materials that we needed – we spent our £20 budget on clay, googly eyes, pipe cleaners and spray sealant.
On Thursday 15th May 2017 John from the Towner Art Gallery came in to lead art workshops with Year 1/2 and Year 3/4 classes. Year 1/2 made jester masks using cross hatching technique to colour in and make them bright and colourful. Year 3/4 decorated umbrellas and used drawing and cutting techniques. Children from East Hoathly School will be invited to come along to Eastbourne Carnival and Parade with their art work. Further information about this will be shared in a letter soon. The children had a great time developing their artistic skills to create their pieces. Lotte said “Jessica was very creative in making her mask and had some great ideas for her jester mask.” It was really great to have a visiting artist share his ideas and skills. It was a very active session and the children were taken through the process step by step.
On Monday 20th February, the Pioneer Federation celebrated their second International Day of the year with a focus on the country of Syria.
With so much attention being on Syria in the media at present, it was really lovely to learn about the country from its people. We were very lucky to have some visitors from the Syrian community, who spent the day with us.
Each class got to spend some time listening to Syrian music and also enjoyed listening to the Syrian children singing some of their traditional songs. They were so brave to stand up in front of all of us! The group then shared some Syrian dance moves and we all joined in with this!
We found out about food, art and dance in Syria. We had Zain, Nour and Hala visit us with their family and they did short speeches written in English all about Syria, their life now and what they miss. The children sung to us and taught us to ‘feel the beat’ and dance to traditional Syrian music. It was lots of fun.
Alongside this, each class took part in their own learning about different aspects of Syrian culture. Reception Class very much enjoyed tasting some middle eastern foods. Year 1/2 Class looked at Syrian Art and then created some of their own images. Year 3/4 Class made the school smell amazing by preparing and serving their own Syrian style salads and sharing them with the visitors to our end of day celebration. Year 5/6 Class really impressed the adults by joining in with the dancing and chatting so openly with the visiting children, sharing their own songs and some interesting moves! They then learnt about the Islamic religion and told us all about the ‘Five Pillars of Islam’ and created some posters about this.
It was wonderful to watch the enthusiasm and share the learning in the celebration assembly at the end of the day. Many thanks also to so many of our parents and carers for coming to share this with us.
Thanks also to Tom Serpell from the ‘Village of Sanctuary’ charity who inspired us to hold this day and used his contacts to arrange our visitors. Also thanks to Nadine Strasman from the Sussex Syrian group for her role in the organisation.
We had a fantastic day and all learnt about Syria. We have made a display of the children’s learning and experiences.
On Wednesday 25th January we had Mathematics reasoning morning. This is our Mathematics focus this year! All classes had a whole morning involving problem solving and reasoning activities where the children had to use skills and explain their answers. Year 4 then joined Year 5 and 6, Year 3 joined Year 1 and 2 to buddy up and share their exciting learning. The children really enjoyed themselves and evaluated the morning the next day.
Here are some comments from the children:
“We learnt how to solve some problem solving questions.” Lola Y2
“We worked out the answers to problems with addition and subtraction.” Daisy Y1
“I liked seeing Matthew’s work he did on fractions.” Louie Y1
“I enjoyed it. Please can we have a whole year of just Maths?!” Oscar Y2
“I enjoyed looking for patterns in fractions.”
“I enjoyed working with others to solve problems.”
“I enjoyed sharing my work with other year groups.”
“We were detective and we had to find out the answers to questions.” Eve Y6
“I enjoyed breaking the clues down to find the real culprit of the murder.” Emma Y6
“It was fun because it was really hard game and mystery to solve.” Coen Year 5
Children from the Pioneer Federation took part in an E-Safety Day on Thursday 12th January. They learnt what the acronym ‘SMART’ stood for and how it could help them to be more safe when using the internet. The children learnt how to use Hector the Dolphin (on the screen of every laptop). Here are some photos of the children in action; some examples of e-safety posters and displays of how the posters are being shown in every classroom.
This week, in Year 5/6, we had a Victorian Day! We spent the day dressed as Victorians and behaving like Victorian school children. We had Victorian style lessons and learnt about what daily life was like for children in Victorian classrooms.
We learnt that Victorian teachers were very strict!
This week has been Healthy Living week (31st October- 4th November) the children have been involved in activities between both schools to raise awareness of how to stay fit and healthy. This has included exploring healthy eating, healthy bodies and hygiene. On Tuesday 1st of November we had the ‘Skip 2 B fit’ company visiting our school. On Wednesday 2nd November the children used their own toothbrush and a disclosing tablet to find out how to make sure they clean the different areas of their teeth. Mrs Tarry visited Reception and Years 5 and 6 to talk about keeping teeth clean. Mrs Rattray visited Year 1/2 and 3/4 and talked about her role as a GP. She shared some the equipment she uses, talked to the children about red and white blood cells, explained some of the different illnesses people get and some of the special words she uses (like „suture‟ rather than „stitches‟). Thank you to both parents for coming in. The children learnt a great deal.
On the 20th October Chiddingly and East Hoathly Schools celebrated their first International Day with a focus on India. We enjoyed many activities in our classes, learning about the country and widening our experience of other cultures. We were very grateful to Mrs Fox who visited us and shared her experiences and photos from her charity visit to India. All of us learnt about how life in India is very different and enjoyed the interesting talk.
Activities in classes were really hands on, with food tasting, observing Indian artefacts, painting gods and goddesses and Rangoli Patterns.
In the afternoon, each class had so much fun learning Bollywood Dance routines with the ‘Bollywood Belles’. We really enjoyed performing these to the parents and carers in the special assembly at the end of the day.
Many thanks also to all the parents who brought in items from home to support the learning.
Well done everyone for a fantastic last day of term!
On Monday 23rd May 2016 we had a very exciting Awe and Wonder day with the theme of ‘Our World’. The idea of this day was to allow children to be reflective and have time to express their thoughts and feelings about our world. The children spent the day in mixed age groups with children from Reception to Year 6 together. Activities for the day included making a giant mosaic of the world, forest school activities, growing area activities, singing and felting. We had visitors from the community, parents and carers who came to school and shared experiences with us. A huge thank you to all of those who made the day a success.
Tuesday was an exciting day for Reception as they visited Plumpton College Farm. They joined Chiddingly on the coach and travelled to the farm spotting plenty of interesting sights on the way. When they arrived they were met by Deborah who showed them into the education centre and then showed them around the farm. Whilst there, the children were looking at different animals as part of their topic on new life and were lucky enough to see some lambs being born! The children then were given the opportunity to hold a 1 day old lamb and later created their own craft lamb using real sheep wool! It was a fantastic day and the children learnt lots about the names of mother and father animals and how long it takes for animals to grow and develop.
We started Term 2 with a flurry of colours, arts and culture with each class ‘travelling’ around the world to look at and explore different cultures. During PE all classes explored traditional music from their country’s culture, creating dances and freeze frames.
Reception enjoyed discovering the Story of ‘Rama and Sita’ and understanding the celebration of Diwali, by making Divali lamps and acting out the story.
Year 1 and 2 flew to Mexico where they tasted different Mexican foods such as Nachos, dips and salsas. They then used pastels to draw Mexican artefacts.
Year 3 and 4 learnt about Anansi traditional folktales from Africa. They made shadow puppets and performed using these in a shadow theatre. The children also looked at the meanings of African masks and created their own.
Year 5 and 6 learnt about New Zealand through the story ‘Granny joined the All Blacks’. They learnt the Hakka, made mala masks and wrote their own stories.
We had a fantastic finish to our week when we spent the day with our Federation friends taking part in different workshops. All of the children were mixed up into six different groups with children from both Chiddingly and East Hoathly across all year groups.
The children enjoyed workshops where they learnt, Chinese writing, Spanish songs and World War 1 songs. They also took part in African Drumming with Cheikh from ‘Africa Arts Company’ and Greek Drama with Mr Jonson. The children then created ‘Natural Art’ in groups using objects found on the playground.
All the children and staff had a fantastic day and it was lovely to see so many parents celebrating with us at the end of the day.
Thank you to all the parents from East Hoathly for helping to transport the children to Chiddingly.
Last Thursday we held our Science and Wellbeing Day. Throughout the day the children took part in a variety of activities to investigate about their bodies and how to stay fit!
At the start of the day the children enjoyed taking part in sports activities and even beat some members of staff at table tennis! The whole school then joined Miss Denney in the playground in a whole school aerobics and Zumba session! (Look on the website for a video of the school aerobic session which will be put up next week! Can you find yourself?)
After lunch every class took part in a yoga session!
“I liked doing yoga because it keeps you calm and relaxed and helps you think!” – George Year 3.
The infants spent the day looking at what happens to their bodies when they exercise and naming parts of their bodies and finding out how they work.
Year 3 and 4 starting the day by finding out about what their hearts do and their pulse rate. They then set up experiments to test their pulse rate during different activities and plotted their results on a graph.
“I found our heart beats about 80 times per minute and it gets faster when we exercise!” – Emilia Year 3.
Year 5 and 6 were investigating their lung capacity and how it changes.
“We did this really cool experiment where we had to breathe into a bottle in water and it measured your lung capacity. We had to make sure we did it properly otherwise we wouldn’t get good results” – By Rosie.
Ballet Information