The Old Fletton football team took part in a local football tournament today and achieved third place. The team came back to school feeling very proud of their achievement. They represented our school passionately and brilliantly! Well done to everyone and thank you to the staff members who made this possible.
Last week, to mark the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday 6th May we spent time in school celebrating this event with the children. There were lots of activities taking place including creating wonderful crowns which you can see in our photographs.
Last week Year 1 thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Warwick Castle. We climbed the tallest towers and explored all of the ramparts! As we explored the castles’ grounds we got to see the different chambers and imagined what it would be like to a Lord or Lady in the castle. The children enjoyed seeing the trebuchet show and seeing how the trebuchet was used to protect the castle. The children were able to use what they had learnt in the classroom and link it to their own experience.
All Year 4 children enjoyed a Roman themed day of learning on Tuesday 18th April. Many children dressed up as Romans for the occasion, they looked fantastic and it greatly added to the immersion. We had an historian visit bringing a plethora of Roman linked crafts and activities for the children to enjoy. They created wax tablets with hidden messages, made herb balls that Romans used to scent themselves and wash with, made jewellery from clay and metal, ground charcoal to make ink and ground olives to extract oil for lamps to mention a few activities! The children also participated in plays, dances and Roman soldier shield formations. Throughout the day historical facts were given to set the scene and add to their knowledge of Romans in Britain. A great day was had by all!
On Wednesday 19th April, Year 5 were very lucky to visit an important local development site on Shrewsbury Avenue (on the old Pedigree Petfood Site) - ISG Contractors and Crown invited the year group to visit the working building site for a new aluminium can production line. ISG provided us with full PPE including safety boots, high-vis vests, goggles, hard hats and ear defenders, as well as a bag of promotional items, all of which the children were able to take home! On arrival at the site we were welcomed by many members of the site team, were given lots of amazing information from not only the building site managers Neal and Antonio, but also the project manager Tony, head of HR Joanne and the overall site manager from Trebor, Glen.
The children discovered what happens before a project starts to ensure the local wildlife and ecology is not impacted, how staff are recruited and trained and how the fully automated production line and storage facility will operate. We were then given a guided tour of the site and were able to talk to many specialist contractors about their role in completing this massive project. We learned many facts about the energy consumed and used our maths skills to work out the exact amount of cans that can be produced every year… at 2,800 cans per minute, per production line, this is a huge calculation.
We will be writing detailed blogs on what we have learned and making sure we include as many details as we can, as well as discussing potential career opportunities in our PSHE lessons… you may find you have a budding CAD Designer or Project Manager on your hands!
We are very thankful to ISG for the opportunity and are looking forward to revisiting the site next year, when the product line is completed and running at full capacity.
Spring term ended with a marvellous house singing competition. Following weeks of practice, we all came together to perform our chosen songs. In Key Stage 1, Mrs Wilson and Mrs Levy were treated to a range of performances including Green Team being A Little Bit Naughty, Blue Team not Talking About Bruno, Yellow Team singing about From Now On and Red Team seeing How Far They’ll Go! After 4 incredible performances, Yellow Team narrowly beat the competition after leaving much of the audience in tears.
After a brief intermission, it was time for Key Stage 2 to take to the stage with another closely run competition, now with Mrs White as part of the judging panel. Red Team started with a Greatest Showman medley, followed by Blue Team singing a rousing rendition of The Circle of Life and Yellow Team’s version of We’re All In This Together. The competition ended with Green Team rocking a Matilda anthem of A Little Bit Naughty! After another very close competition, Yellow Team were once again triumphant! All in all it was a phenomenal morning truly showing the best of our Fletton family!
Thursday March the 2nd saw the return of World Book Day and as usual, Old Fletton rose to the challenge and embraced the chance to dress up and dive even further into our favourite books. There were so many wonderful costumes, not only from the children, but from many of our enthusiastic staff - from Saucepan Man (the Magic Faraway Tree), to ladybirds, wizards, comic book characters and even a suffragette!
The children were given the chance to share their favourite stories, complete work based on new and exciting texts and Year 6 worked with pupils in Year 2, sharing stories and their love of reading.
The day ended with all the classes continuing to read their shared story - something that has become a truly loved time in our school day.
Thank you for all the support from parents and carers in sorting and resourcing outfits and books - it is very much appreciated.
On Tuesday 21st February our Reception children arrived at school in their wellies, very excited as they were heading off for their first school trip to Sacrewell Farm!
As part of our 'Growing' topic this term, the children were going to get first hand experience of a real farm. On arrival at the farm, they listened carefully to the safety instructions delivered by the farm's staff and then divided into groups ready to start learning.
Throughout the day the groups had a chance to meet and brush a goat, pony and donkey and find out about how the animals are looked after on the farm. They had a guided tour of the 300 year old water mill and found out how wheat was turned into flour there. The highlight of the day for many of the children was a tour of the farm on the tractor, where they found out about how the land is used to grow different plants for food, including cabbages, broccoli, apples, pears and plums.
Much fun was had and energy expended on the adventure playground where the children were able to consolidate and extend their gross motor skills.
It was soon time to go back to school with some very tired but happy children (and grown-ups!). A fantastic day was had by all and the children now have lots of new knowledge and understanding that will be applied to their classroom learning.
Thank you to all of the grown ups who helped on the trip and the staff at Sacrewell Farm for making the day so memorable for the children.
On Friday 3rd February, we welcomed parents into reception. We have been learning about people who help us and this was our chance to show our parents what we have been up to. In the morning, we arrived at school dressed up - we had doctors, babysitters, vets, astronauts, and pop stars. We enjoyed creating puzzles, rolling dice to add number to colour, counting amounts of people who help us, painting what we would like to be when we grow up and looking after animals on the iPad. It was such a lovely morning and we really enjoyed celebrating our learning.
On Thursday 2nd February, the Year 5 classes were treated to a fully immersive experience - living life as an Anglo-Saxon! Our hall was converted into an Anglo-Saxon village in which we learned the many skills used by our ancestors - from making beeswax candles, creating ink and writing on parchment, to archery and sword skills.
The day started early, with the children arriving in costumes, ready to experience life as an Anglo-Saxon. We were led by our Thane, Aelfled the Grey, who helped us learn to make ink, create rune bags in which to put our runes so that we can predict the future and learning how to use our swords, spears, bows and shields effectively to defeat the Danes, who wish to conquer our lands.
Aelfled was very knowledgable and taught us many historical facts about how the Anglo-Saxon language still influences our every day conversations and how the battles and agreements, between the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, shaped the United Kingdom as we know it today.
In the afternoon, Phil (our archaeologist) showed us how to excavate an historical dig and begin to understand the artefacts we found to piece together our understanding of Anglo-Saxon life. We even found a burial site, along with a monastery, a family house and the mystical home of an ancient seer! We also learned about how money was developed and how to smelt and create metal artefacts using our clay pots created during our morning session.
We will continue to use our text - Shield Maiden - to develop our understanding of the life and times of the King of Wessex and his family before we create our own diary entries detailing the events first hand as Aethleflaed, the Lady of Wessex.
We were very happy to welcome Reverend Andrew into school for our Christingle Assembly. Year 2 hosted him after they learnt all about the Christingle and made them to take home. The classroom smelt wonderful - so Christmassy!
Reverend Andrew shared the meaning of each part of the Christingle and enjoyed the children’s creations. Each year group were given a christingle to see and shared in the experience, remembering their time in Year 2.
Key Stage One had a fantastic time rehearsing and performing our Christmas play at the start of December. The play, Lights, Camel, Action!, had so many funky songs and dances and in Strictly style our judges critiqued the performances. The children looked amazing in their fabulous costumes and loved being funky camels and heavenly angels. Mrs Levy was so impressed she is going to add some of the dance moves to her repertoire!
