SMSC

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:

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!

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 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.

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 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!

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.

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.

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!

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 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!

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!

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 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!

What is happening within the schools for Anti-bullying week?

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.

What is bullying?

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.

Bullying online and online safety

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.

What can you do as parents?

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	WhatsApp
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.

Interesting and thought provoking statistics

• 15% of parents will build an online presence of a child before they are even born, e.g. sharing scan pictures, baby gender reveals, photos of growing bumps.
• By the time a child is 5 there is an average of 1000 pictures of them shared online by parents and family members.
• In a lifetime there is upwards of 25,000 photos of a person online.
• 1 in 5 young people believe everything they read online.

Apps

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.

Musical:ly

This is a music app that allows children to record videos of themselves singing and upload them. This opens up public commenting.

Say.at.me

This app encourages users to create a poll or vote. This can lead to lowering self-esteem, rude or offensive comments, and is public.

Yellow

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.

Parent Support Apps

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.

• MM Guardian
• Funamo Parent Control
• APP Lock

Student Voice – Anti Bullying Week

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!