Our School News

Collective Worship 11/10/24

In Collective Worship this week, we continued to explore The Lord’s Prayer and how it links to the school’s Golden Rules. We specifically looked at the words: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us and linked this to our rule, We can ’let it go.’  The children discussed the story of The Prodgial Son in Luke’s Gospel; this story teaches that God forgives people who ask for forgiveness and change their behaviour. It also teaches that God's love is unconditional, and that people should forgive others as well. 

 

Harvest Service

Harvest Service—Our Infants will be leading our Harvest Service in church Friday morning at 9.30am. The school choir will also be singing. Please do come and join us.

 

 Harvest Appeal—Our Harvest Appeal this year is for the Andover Foodbank who do amazing work in supporting the families in our area. A table will be put at the front of the school on Thursday and Friday for your donations of food.

  

JRSO

Lily B, Clemency H & Leila L

Green Ambassadors

Avery J, Mia H, Evelyn E, Bodhi AH, Finlay C & Emily B

E-Cadets

Will J, Luke H, Aleksander M, Isaac N, Avery J, Thomas O & Oscar N

School Councillors 

Aubrey J & Mabel N from Barn Owl class

William W & Josie N from Hawk Owl class

Isabel M & Arthur M From Eagle Owl Class

 

Collective Worship 27/09/24

In Collective Worship this week, we continued exploring how our school's Golden Rules fit with the modern version of the Lord's Prayer. We looked at the story of Noah and the Ark and how this links to our golden rule ‘We are positive.’ This story illustrates that, even when things feel like they aren't getting better, brighter days will come, just as they did for Noah, his family and the animals aboard the Ark.

 

Leavers' Service

The end of year service started with our end of term awards before being led by our Year 6 pupils who will be leaving us at the end of this year. The children spoke about sharing the light with those pupils following behind them and a moving part of the service was where they shared their advice with their Year 5 class mates and gave them a candle to pass the light on. The school choir also sang, You can count on me and We're all in this together.

Listen 2 Me concert

Barn Owl Class and Hawk Owl Class finished the term by showcasing everything they had learnt in their Listen 2 Me lessons this term. Both classes played the African drums and percussion and also sang some African songs before the two classes joined together to perform some African songs which included singing and dancing.

 Year 5/6 Production - The Greatest Showman

What an amazing show our Year 5/6 children performed to the school and parents. It was certainly - The Greatest Show! The children all performed amazingly as well as producing amazing props and scenery. Well done Eagle Owls.

Collective Worship 19/7/24

 In Collective Worship this week, we continued our  theme for the half-term: What can children’s books and the Bible teach us?  The book in focus this week was ‘Be Kind’ by Pat Zietlow Miller.  From a Christian perspective, this story explores the theme of kindness – a fruit of the spirit. All of us should demonstrate kindness to others. It is such an important and God-given gift that it is referred to as one of the ‘Fruits of the Spirit' in St Paul’s letter to the Galations.  An interesting point made in the story is 'What’s in a name?'  It is used as an example of showing kindness; when someone remembers our name, it helps us to feel special and valued – that someone has taken an interest in us and made the effort to remember our name. It is a simple thing but a powerful one.

 

Class Exhibitions

The children were all so proud to share with their parents everything about their learning projects this term at our class exhibitions. It is always a highlight of the term for pupils and staff.

Summer Party

 Thank you to FROGS & all the helpers who organised such an enjoyable summer party for our Barton Stacey families, & refreshments for sports’ day. Over £800 has been raised.

Collective Worship - 11/7/24

 In Collective Worship this week, we continued our  theme for the half-term: What can children’s books and the Bible teach us?  The book in focus this week was 'Giraffes Can't Dance' by Giles Andreae.  This is a great story for teaching children that it’s all right to be different and to do our own thing! Gerald the Giraffe finally learns to dance and express himself when he develops the confidence to listen to a different 'song.'  Christians believe that we are all unique and special, because God made us that way. The Bible says that we are each like a masterpiece that God has created – and that he didn’t make any mistakes when he made us!

Teacher Award

 We are thrilled to announce that Mrs West was shortlisted for the 'Laying the Foundations' Award within the Hampshire Education Awards 2024.  On Monday evening this week, Mrs West and her husband, along with Mr Stangroom and Mrs Ball, attended the ceremony at the Great Hall in Winchester.  Mrs West was one of three nominees that made the shortlisting and so we are delighted that the impact she makes during a child's first year of primary school was recognised.  Congratulations, Mrs West!

 

 Federation Football Match

 huge congratulations to all the children who represented the school during Wednesday afternoon's Federation football matches versus Micheldever.  Our Year 5/6 team were narrowly beaten 3-1 (goal scored by Scott); our KS2 girls won 2-1 (with goals from Bess and a rocket of a free kick from Yasmeen); our Year 1/2 team won 6-0 (with a hat-trick from Jaxon, 2 goals from Arthur and a goal from Sammy); and our Year 3/4 team won 7-0 (with 2 goals from Oscar K and 5 goals from Oscar N). The sportsmanship and team work across the afternoon was fantastic.  A huge thank you to all parents who supported with transport and stayed to cheer on and encourage our players.  Once again, our thanks go to Micheldever Primary School for hosting the event, and a special thanks to Mr Johnston for refereeing the four games.

Collective Worship 5/7/24

 In Collective Worship this week, we continued our  theme for the half-term: What can children’s books and the Bible teach us?  The book in focus this week was 'Sulwe' by Lupita Nyong'o. This is a powerful book for children, which centres around the themes of self-worth and valuing differences.  The children considered that we are all different in all kinds of ways but people don’t seem to be able to resist comparing themselves to others and making up reasons why they are better than other people. This can make some people begin to feel bad about themselves - this happened to Sulwe. The truth is, like Sulwe’s mum told her, ‘Real beauty is in your mind and your heart. It begins with how you see yourself, not with how others see you.’ The Bible tells a story (John 4) where Jesus told a woman drinking from a well that everyone is precious to God - He loves everyone equally and in His kingdom all people will drink the same water. 

 

Armed Forces Day

The day started with all the children arriving in their armed forces colours or red/white and blue for a donation to our Armed Forces Charity  rock 2 recovery. During the morning the children found out about D Day, which is the focus for this year’s Armed Forces Day, and made bravery medals. Each class also had an opportunity to meet the RAF Safety Team from Middle Wallop who demonstrated how pilots and crew are kept safe including a look at a life raft on our field.

After lunch, the children were every excited when they were told that Mr ware had been able to arrange a fly past of a helicopter especially for the school. There were lots of oohs and aahs as the helicopter flew twice across our playground and even nodded at us as all the children waved.

The afternoon finished with a special tea party for our Armed Forces families

 

Sports Day

On Tuesday 25^th June, we had our Sports Day, which happens every year. The morning activities was a carousel including: penalty shoot-out, run – star jumps – run, hockey shoot out, basketball, skipping and so many more. Bonus points were awarded to the kindest and most hard-working people. After all that, yellow ending up winning the morning cup but there was still the afternoon cup to go!

For lunch, all our parents came to school to have a picnic with us. After lunch, the races began with obstacle races, skipping races, running races and of course the Year 6 sack race, well done to Red team for winning the afternoon cup!

   

Collective Worship - 28/6/24

 In Collective Worship this week, we continued our new theme for the half-term: What can children’s books and the Bible teach us?  The book in focus this week was 'The Day The Crayons Quit' by Drew Daywalt. This wonderful picture book teaches us that, just like the different qualities of each crayon, each of us is special and contributes uniquely to our families, friendships and school community, as well as those who are part of church communities. 1 Corinthians 12:27 talks about  the people of God being like one body. We all have different characteristics, skills and gifts that can work well together; just like all the different parts of our body – which is a complex thing! 

Collective Worship 27/6/24

 In Collective Worship this week, we continued our new theme for the half-term: What can children’s books and the Bible teach us?  The book in focus this week was 'The Dot' by Peter H. Reynolds.  This wonderful picture book focuses on the power of encouragement.  All of us need encouragement from time to time and the Bible talks about the importance of this many times. The Bible often refers to the encouragement of others as a very important thing. Here is an example from the New Testament, written at a time when Christian communities were experiencing difficult times: Encourage one another and build each other up, 1 Thessalonians 5:11.  This weekend, your family might like to consider: How do we feel when we are encouraged? What does constructive criticism mean? Do you know someone who is a good example to follow?

Collective Worship - 14/6/24

 In Collective Worship this week, we continued our new theme for the half-term: What can children’s books and the Bible teach us?  The book in focus this week was 'The Thing Lou Couldn't Do' by Ashley Spires.  This wonderful picture book focusses on resilience, perseverance and a growth mindset.  When the central character, Lou, cannot climb a tree, she says she cannot climb it...yet!  She understands that it might take hard work and practise, and her friends encourage her too.  The Bible tells us that God will help us do things that we find hard. It doesn’t mean that we can literally do impossible things, but that if we trust Him, He will help us find the courage to try new things.  Philippians 4:13 tells us: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  

 

Athletics Competition

 On Wednesday, 12 of our Key Stage 2 children - Lily-Rose; Poppy; Oscar K; Finlay; Sofie K; Jasmine; Oscar N; Aleksander; Tabatha; Marie; Dillon; and Oliver - represented the school at the Rural Schools' Athletics Competition, each taking part in 5 events.  The children supported and encouraged each other and the Barton Stacey team spirit was in full force, enabling our school to come 3rd.  A huge thank you to all the parents and grandparents who supported across the day, and a special thank you to one of our parents who kindly donated medals to all of the children.  These were presented to them during this morning's Celebration Assembly.

 

 Collective Worship - 7/6/24

In Collective Worship this week, we began our new theme for the half-term: What can children’s books and the Bible teach us?  The book in focus this week was 'Voices in the Park' by Anthony Browne.  This wonderful picture book features narration from four different 'voices' and the children soon recognised that one voice was particularly judgemental about the way people looked and spoke.  We discussed what is meant by 'Don't judge a book by it's cover' and how the Gospel of Matthew guides us: “Don’t Judge others” Matthew 7: 1.  The challenge for all children this week has been to spend some time getting to know someone they don’t know very well.

Collective Worship - 23/5/24

 In Collective Worship this week, we were very fortunate to be joined by Revd. Smart who told the children all about  Joshua, the man who led the marching army.  As the next leader of the Israelites, he was a true warrior. His motto was always to be strong and courageous, typical superhero words. He led the Israelites in battle and always followed God's commands in how to do so.  Joshua led a tiny army to defeat large and powerful enemies. He used horns and jars to create chaos and confuse the enemy, and remained strong and courageous as he continued to lead. The book of Joshua tells all about his life and battles.

Walk for Epilepsy

 Well done to all the children who took part in Mrs Hann’s 100 miles in a 100 days walking challenge for the Epilepsy Society. Between them they will have raised nearly £1000. All the children involved were presented with their medals and certificates in celebration worship this morning.

 Collective Worship - 10/5/24

 In Collective Worship this week, we continued exploring our new termly theme, 'The Heroes of the Bible.'  Each week, we are considering what we can learn from these different characters and what they did.  The hero in focus this week was Esther – The Ordinary Girl Turned Queen.

 This ordinary girl turned royalty did extraordinary things. The 10 chapters in the book named for her tell of her daring journey. She had many choices as Queen, and through prayer and the help of God, she chose to be brave. Her actions saved the entire Jewish people at the last second when they we scheduled to be executed. She risked her own life for her people group. God rewarded her obedience by allowing her to be a powerful Queen with significant influence to help His people.

 

Collective Worship 3/5/24

 In Collective Worship this week, we continued exploring our new termly theme, 'The Heroes of the Bible.'  Each week, we are considering what we can learn from these different characters and what they did.  The hero in focus this week was Ruth; Ruth was a great friend, who understood the pain and sadness her mother-in-law, Naomi, was feeling.  She promised to stay beside Naomi and walk with her wherever she went. This meant Naomi was never alone and always cared for.  What a hero Ruth was!  Over the Bank Holiday weekend, you might like to think about how you can be a hero like Ruth: How would you help a friend in need? What qualities does a good friend show? Think about when you have felt pain and sadness, how do you feel you could have been helped best? Knowing this, how will you support friends in the future?

Drama Workshop

On Tuesday, we welcomed Perform Drama, who came into school to run some drama workshops with each of our classes. The Infants’ workshops were based around Fairy tales and the Juniors’ workshops were around Robinson Crusoe in Space. The children had a fantastic time and lots of excited voices and laughter were heard coming from the hall.

Collective Worship 26/4/24

 In Collective Worship this week, we continued exploring our new termly theme, 'The Heroes of the Bible.'  Each week, we are considering what we can learn from these different characters and what they did.  The hero in focus this week was Moses, who led God’s people out of slavery.  We might compare Moses to Superman in the way that he started out. Exodus chapter 2 tells us he was left as a baby for someone else to raise. Moses’ mother hid him so he wouldn’t be killed as an infant by the Pharaoh. God's power running through him helped Moses to grow up and become the leader of the Israelites. He did what God said and successfully brought God's people out of slavery from Egypt; no one else was right for that job.

Earth Day 2024

On 22 April, the Green Ambassadors led the school in celebrating Earth Day 2024 by leading worship and some workshops in each class. Below is a link to their presentation.

Earth Day 2024

Easter Service

It was lovely to be joined by so many parents and friends of the school for our Easter Service this morning.  The Service readings were given by our Year 5/6 children, with each class leading a particular aspect of the Easter story: Palm Sunday (Snowy Owl Class); The Last Supper and Passover (Hawk owl Class); Good Friday and The Hopes and Dreams of the Disciples (Eagle Owl Class); and Easter Sunday: Promises and Rainbows (Barn Owl Class).  Hymns from the school and Mrs Ball's fantastic choir were interspersed throughout, and the Infant Bonnet parade ended the Service perfectly.  We wish you all a happy Easter.

End of term awards

Congratulations to all the children who were nominated for one of our seven termly awards.  The overall winners in each category, who will caretake the award for the term were - Jenson R (English); Emily E (Writing); Max S (Maths); Henry F (STEM); Isabel M (Sport); Blake W (Creative Arts); and Poppy W (School Values).

Collective Worship 25/3/24

 In Collective Worship this week the children considered how Easter is celebrated around the world.  They learnt that in a small town in the south of France, people gather every Easter Monday to share a massive... omelette! Around 15,000 eggs are used and it's big enough to feed thousands of people.  In Poland, people throw water over each other on Easter Monday. It's known as Wet Monday and happens in many other countries too. The tradition is connected with the baptism of a Polish prince hundreds of years ago. 

Class Exhibitions

Our children were so excited to be able to share the results of their learning projects with parents today at our class exhibitions. The classes looked amazing and the children were so knowledgeable about everything they have learnt this term. 

Click HERE to read some of the amazing comments parents made.

Collective Worship 25/3/24

In Collective Worship this week, the children discussed Jesus entering in to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  They looked at this painting by the Chinese artist, He Qi, and considered: What do you think is happening in this picture?; What title would you give it?; What do you think the people are saying? Or thinking?; and, if you could ask the artist any question you liked, what would you ask them?  In Class Worship, the children have considered how we can be welcoming, and you may wish to consider these questions as a family over the coming weekend: 1) Why is it important to make people feel welcome? 2) How could you welcome a visitor to your house? Or a new child to your class? 3) How could you welcome someone who came to England from another country? 4) What do you think a Christian would say if they were welcoming Jesus today? Why?

Year 5/6 TAG Rugby Tournament

A huge congratulations to the Year 5/6 Tag Rugby team who made it through to the semi-final of the competition on Wednesday.  The team narrowly lost 4-3 to Amport but the players were a credit to themselves, the school and their family, and supported each other throughout the afternoon.  Well done to Dillon, Scott, Toby C, Toby K, Hazel, Layla, Oliver and Harrison, and thank you to our supporting parents Mrs Coultish, Mrs Kerr and Mr & Mrs Darcey.

 

Collective Worship 11/3/24

 In Collective Worship this week, Miss Hardy led discussions around our final Christian Value in focus this term - Fairness.  The children considered 'How can you make sure that you are always treating people fairly? What could you do if you see someone being unfair? Why is it important to be fair?' We often use a set of balance scales as a symbol for fairness because both sides must contain exactly the same. To treat people fairly, you have to give them the same chances.  In our school, everyone gets the support they need to be successful and this can look different for our children; that's equity.

World Book Day

This year, World Book Day at Barton Stacey took place on Thursday 7^th March 2024.  The theme this year was ‘Read your way this World Book Day.’  We  used a selection of well-known stories to inspire children to make stories of their own.  Imagination really does lead to adventure and this sentiment is exactly what we intended to ignite in our children as we read and developed adventure stories right here in our own school grounds.

Each class headed out into the grounds to a story setting similar to a text or text extract that they had heard in class.  Children were invited to come to school dressed for an adventure.  This could have been as a character from an adventure story they love, simply dressed in their outdoor gear for a day outside or as a well-known adventurer.  

The day will started with a Worship session on the theme - The Wonder of Gods World.  We  considered how some photographs taken around the school give us some inspirational and spiritual, ‘window moments,’ looking at the beauty of God’s world and also at how they can spark our imagination for story settings.  Following this, each class was assigned a text driver for the day and a story setting in our school grounds.  They then had the opportunity to explore the text driver in class before heading out and about into their story setting to let their imaginations run wild, with role-play and drama opportunities that allowed them to make up their own stories and take, ‘Read your way this World Book Day,’ to a whole different level. 

Collective Worship 4/3/24

In Collective Worship this week, the children considered the Christian value 'encouragement' and how we might encourage others through our words and body language, such as a thumbs up or a smile.  The children watched a video of the exhausted British athlete, Jonny Brownlee, needing to be helped over the finish line by his brother Alistair in a dramatic end to the Triathlon World Series in Mexico.  Alistair encouraged his brother in the final stages of the event, even sacrificing his own finish to help his brother cross the line.  The video can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liCRrheKIOI The children then considered what the Bible tells us about encouragement - the Bible reminds us to use our faith as encouragement that God is with us wherever we go.

Collective Worship 26/2/24

In Collective Worship this week, Mrs West spoke to the children about the Christian value, Gentleness.  The children considered how the Bible tells us that the more we learn how to follow Jesus’ example, the more we learn how to care for one another, and the more we try to be like Him, the more God’s love can become part of us.  They also discussed that words are very powerful things and that we may say something to someone one day that can affect that other person for the rest of their life.  Our words can be harsh or our words can be gentle and it is the latter which we must always aim for.

 

Collective Worship 19/2/24

In Collective Worship this week, Mrs Evans continued exploring the Christian value, Responsibility, with the children. She reminded the school about the Bible story of the two sons, and the children considered that it’s not enough just to say you’ll be responsible, you have to do something too. Is there something you and your family can take responsibility for in the wider world? This could be turning off unused lights; organising a family litter pick; building a bug hotel together; sending someone a thank you card - the responsibility possibilities are endless...

Collective Worship 5/2/24

 In Collective Worship this week, Mr Stangroom spoke to the children about the Christian Value responsibility.  The children were asked to consider the following questions (which you might also like to consider over the half-term break): What does the word Responsibility means? Can you give examples of people who are responsible? What qualities do you need to be a responsible person? How do you feel when you’re acting responsibly?  They heard the Bible parable of the two sons and were surprised by the outcome;  this led us to consider, What is better, to say you’ll do something and then not do it, or to refuse to do something and then change your mind and do it?

 Outdoor Learning Day

On Monday, the children had a fantastic outdoor learning day where they took part in a wide range of activities to improve out outdoor spaces and also encourage positive mental health. Activities included planting, building, designing, propagating, painting and digging. It was lovely to see all the children so involved in all the activities and how the older children looked after and encouraged our younger children. A big thank you to Mrs Tellett who organised the day and spent her weekend acquiring free resources from the local garden centres

 Author & Illustrator Visit

On Tuesday, we welcomed Simon Murray, an author and illustrator of the Icky Doo Dah books, to our school. Simon undertook an illustration workshop with each class. The children were transfixed as he showed them how he creates and illustration and he then encouraged them to create their own backgrounds for an Icky Doo Dah illustration, with some amazing results. Simon left a free book for each class to read over the coming weeks.

 Cross Country Competition

A huge well done to all of the children from Hawk Owl and Eagle Owl Class who took part in the Cross Country competition in Andover this week.  This is our first year participating and we came 4^th overall out of 12 schools!  The children represented the school with pride and determination - congratulations to Dillon; Oscar E; Isaac; Scott; Toby C; Oliver;  Yasmeen; Peyton; Marie; Tabatha; Finn; Louie; Theo, Seb E; Seb H; Aleksander; Isabelle; Sophie G; Bess; Rosie;  and Melia.  Thank you to the   parents who also joined us to offer their support and encouragement.

 

Collective Worship 29/01/24

In Collective Worship this week, Miss Hardy continued to explore the theme of patience.  The children discussed the Bible story, Jonah and the Whale, and how God gave Jonah another chance - He was patient with him. God was also patient with the people of Nineveh.  The children considered: When have you been given a second or perhaps a third chance to make a good choice? When have you given someone else a second or perhaps a third chance?  You might like to consider this further over the coming weekend.

 

Collective Worship 22/01/24

In Collective Worship this week, Mrs Cobb spoke to the school about the Christian value, Patience.  The children discussed the concept, 'Good things come to those who wait' and why it can be good to be patient.  Times of 'waiting' are a common theme in the Bible, for example David waiting to become King, or Moses waiting to reach the promised land.  With your family this weekend you might like to think of examples when it could be good for you to have to wait for something.

 

Bird Feeder

The school now has a bird feeder near the front door, which will be looked after by our Green Ambassadors, where we hope to encourage the birds to visit us. We are looking for some extra supplies so if anyone has any spare bird food or a feeder we can put nuts in, please bring these to the school office.

Collective Worship 15/01/24

In Collective Worship this week, Mrs West led a continuing discussion around the Christian value, ‘Respect.’ The children reminded each other that we are called to have respect for ourselves and each other because we are made in God’s image.  They looked at the story of Creation and how God made people in his own image to respect and look after Creation.  The children then considered how they might respect and care for Creation., both at school and at home.  Next Monday, Mrs Cobb will look at the next value, ‘Patience’, with the school.

Cross Country

On Monday, cross country trials were held for children in Hawk Owl and Eagle Owl Class who wished to be considered for an event at the end of the month. 23 children were chosen to represent the school and practice sessions for the event will take place over lunchtime on Tuesday and Thursday for the next 2 weeks.

Collective Worship 08/01/2024

 In Collective Worship this week, we began exploring our theme for the term. Mrs Evans led discussions around the first Christian value in focus, ‘Respect,’ and told the children that they were all the most important person in the Hall.  In fact, they were all sitting next to the most important person too. The children considered how the Bible tells us that we all have the highest value because God made us in his own image. The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46) shows us why we should show respect to other people and why mutual respect is so important in life.

Collective Worship 03/01/2024

In Collective Worship this week, we recreated the magic of New Year's Eve, partaking in our very own countdown to 'midnight' and watching the fireworks on the banks of the River Thames.  We spoke about  New Year's Eve giving us opportunities to remember the past and hope for good things in the future.  The children reflected that New Year’s Day is often seen as a fresh start and that many people like to make New Year resolutions, which are personal goals that they aim to work on throughout the year.  Hazel told us that her resolution is to take a daily walk and Aidan's to save his money so that he can buy something extra special.  I wonder what resolutions you and your family might have made?  Next Monday, we begin exploring our Collective Worship theme for this term; this will see the children encounter a range of Christian Values, including Respect, Patience, Responsibility, Gentleness, Encouragement and Fairness.

 

End of term awards

End of term awards were presented at the end of the Christmas service. Well done to everyone who was nominated and especially the award winners: Alfie, Lily M, Arthur B, Riley, Aidan, Phoebe L, Peyton and Marie.

      

Christmas service

Our Christmas service was the perfect ending to the term and it was lovely to have so many parents joining us. The children retold the Christmas story through readings, song and tableau, whilst the choir sang two Christmas songs and the Infants sang one of their Nativity songs. Eagle Owl class then shared with us their writing of the Christmas story and also of the robin in Michael Morpurgo’s Coming Home which reminded us of what it feels like to journey into the unknown. The children had also been thinking about what it would be like to be homeless this Christmas and asked everyone present to give generously to our Christmas appeal for the charity Two Saints which supports the homeless in Andover. An amazing £115 was raised which has been passed on to the charity.

 

Infant Nativity 2023

This year our Infants performed 'Jesus Christmas Party' to the school at their dress rehearsal and then to two packed audiences on Thursday afternoon and Monday evening. The children were wonderful and you could hear clearly every word that was spoken, The Innkeeper and his wife, did an amazing job remembering all their lines. The children sang all the songs beautifully and there was some great dancing and playing of air guitars! Once again the children showed us the true meaning of Christmas through the telling of the first Christmas story.

Collective Worship 4/12/23

In Collective Worship this week, Mrs West retold the first part of the Christmas story, ending at the moment when Mary and Joseph arrive at the stable.  Mary and Joseph left the safety of their home to embark on an arduous journey; venturing in to the unknown must have been an anxious time for them.  Eagle Owl Class will talk more about this when they lead the Christmas Service at the church on Friday 15^thDecember, the last day of term.

Listen 2 Me Music Concert

On Friday 8 December we held a very special music concert which included the children from Barn Owl and Hawk Owl classes as well as our recorder club and two of our flautists who have lessons through Hampshire Music Service. The hall was packed with parents eager to see what their children have been learning this term. Hampshire Music Service have been working with both of our classes this term as part of their Listen 2 Me scheme where each term a whole class gets to learn a different instrument. This term Barn Owl Class learnt the recorder and Hawk Owl Class learnt the violin. I think all the staff and parents were amazed at how much the children had learnt in one term and the variety of musical pieces they were able to play for us. Our recorder club which is led by one of our parents, Mrs Martin gave us a wonderful rendition of Jingle Bells with Sammy M also playing a solo of Little John. Our flautists Ella and Thomas played beautifully and showed everyone what can be achieved with practice. Well done to everyone for an enjoyable concert.

FROGS Christmas Fair

Once again a big thank you to FROGS for organising our Christmas Fair after school on 1 December. The hall was buzzing with children and adults eager to purchase Christmas goodies, have their faces painted have a go on the tombolas and purchase tickets for the raffle where there were lots of wonderful prizes to be won. The fair raised around £300 for FROGS to help support the school and its pupils.

Collective Worship 27 November

In Collective Worship this week, led by Miss Hardy, the children considered the final aspect of our Federation Mission Statement: we want all children to be welcoming.  This is very much linked to our Christian value, Love, and the children considered how they can be a good 'neighbour' to those around them.  They discussed the story of The Good Samaritan and how it is important to show love to all they meet; we might not get along with everybody or have much in common with some, but it is important to be friendly and loving to everyone.  Barn Owl Class also welcomed two Governors - Mrs Bentham and Revd. Smart - in to Class Worship this week; thank you to all of the Barn Owl children for talking about their Worship experiences this term.

Class Exhibitions

The children were so excited and proud to welcome you all to their Class Exhibitions this week where they were able to share with you their learning projects for this term. The classes looked amazing and really showcased the amazing and varied work the children have accomplished during this term.

Collective Worship 20 November

In Collective Worship this week, Mrs Evans spoke to the children about a further part of our Federation Mission - We want all children to achieve. In order to achieve our very best, we need to trust in ourselves and have self-belief.  This was true of David in the Bible, who the children learnt had to have real self-belief and trust in his abilities - and trust in God - to overcome a 'giant' battle in the form of Goliath.

 Be Bright Be Seen Day

Today our Junior Road safety Officers led a very successful ‘Be Bright, Be Seen’ Day at school to help re-enforce how important it is to wear bright clothes when near roads in winter. The children certainly rose to the challenge and Mrs Evans had to don her sun glasses in celebration worship this morning because of all the brightness of the clothes. Barn Owl Class joined other schools this afternoon to take part in an on-line workshop about the Green Cross Code.

 

Worship

This week we were joined by Revd. Smart, who led Worship with the children.  The children continued to explore our Mission Statement (what our Federation Vision actually looks like) and focussed on how we want all children to grow.  This growth can be academic, but also personal and the children considered what it means to grow and show forgiveness. Revd. Smart talked to the children about Saul’s conversion in the Bible; Saul (or Paul as he is sometimes known) recognised the error of his actions and changed his whole life to reflect the teachings of Jesus.

Bags to School

Bags 2 School—What a huge amount of bags we had left out of school on Tuesday! This raised £ 365.00 for the school. Thank you for your support.

Remembrance

This week the school has been thinking about Remembrance Day both collectively and within classes. Mrs Cobb led worship on Monday and explained what Remembrance Day is and why we remember. A video was played from the Royal British Legion which highlighted their focus for this year, which was remembering those people from Commonwealth countries who have come to our aid over the years. Discussions were held in classes over the week and each class made their own poppy wreath. During the week our Year 6 pupils did a wonderful job selling poppies to the children who all wore them with pride. On Friday the school held its Remembrance Service which was led by Hawk Owl Class. Unfortunately due to the rain we were unable to hold this in the church but after a quick reorganisation the service was able to take place in the school hall. The service started with the last post and a two minutes silence and then continued with the choir singing The Lord's My Shepherd. Hawk Owl Class then told us how the Commonwealth had supported our country during the war and did a wonderful parade of Commonwealth flags. The class the shared with us some wonderful poetry they had written which brought a tear to many an eye. The service finished with some prayers from two of our youngest members of school, a blessing from Revered Russell and the choir singing Shalom my friend. Mr Stangroom finished by than ing everyone who had worked so hard to create such a meaningful service and finished with these words. 'Those attending have heard some wonderful poetry; as Sophie G and Jasmine reminded us, everything will be ok if there is love in the world.  More than ever at this time, we need a world full of love and peace.'

 

Collective Worship 30/10/23

The Collective Worship focus this half-term is our Federation Mission. On Monday, the children learnt that our 'mission' is what our Federation Vision looks like on a daily basis. Our Mission Statement reminds us: Through our Christian values, our Federation's schools will provide a strong foundation for life-long-learning where friendly and welcomingenvironments support all our children to grow, learn and achieve together.  The children heard the Parable of the Mustard Seed from Matthew 13:31-32 and how, from small beginnings, big things can happen.  They left the Hall knowing they may be small, but we believe they will achieve great things and make a difference to the world - it is our mission to help them achieve this.

Open Morning

We held our first Open Morning for families who’s child is due to start school next September. We were very proud of  the pupils from Eagle Owl Class who showed the families around the school. We had lots of positive comments from the families visiting about how well the children represented the school and how much they knew.

Collective Worship 16/10/23

In Collective Worship this week, led by Mrs Cobb, the children considered all of the learning from this half-term.  They recalled how, in the first week of term, they considered the journey they are on this year and the new paths they are following.  The children also reminded each other of the Bible stories used to illustrate our Christian Values: Love - The Lost Sheep; Hope - Noah's Ark; Trust - Joseph's Brothers; Forgiveness - Zacchaeus.  Finally, Worship Families talked about how far along their personal journeys each of them are.

 

Two Para-olympics visit our school

On 11^th October, we had an amazing visit from Luke Delahunty and his friend Nerys.  They came to our school to tell us about Luke’s life and also get us involved in some exercises.

In the morning, Nerys organised a circuit of sports activities to music; spotty dogs, mountain climbers, press-ups and star jumps and the whole school took part.  Afterwards we had an assembly with Luke and he told us all about his life.

Luke had served in the RAF for 8 years and had been a cadet since he was thirteen.  He had lots of hobbies and travelled to many countries during his military career.

When Luke was 24 years old, he was involved in a brutal motorbike accident, which left him paralysed from the chest downwards.  He was in hospital for 4 months and had to learn to how to use a wheelchair.  Following his long recovery, he adapted to life in the wheelchair.

Luke built up his strength in his arms through many sports and activities including; archery, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball, hand cycling and rowing.  He discovered his love for scuba diving and skiing, took on challenges and also hand cycled from London to Paris.

Luke went on to have many adventures after his accident such as gaining a scholarship to a flying school in South Africa to become a pilot.  He had special levers help him steer and control the plane.

Having been in the military, Luke participated in the Invictus Games with two different sports; hand cycling and rowing. Whilst taking part he also met Prince Harry.

Luke Delahunty was inspiring because he overcame many challenges and said to us we should always live life to the full and challenge ourselves with many sports and activities.

Collective Worship 09/10/23

Our Collective Worship this week was led by Revd. Smart and he spoke about our school being a place of trust.  The children considered how, in order to have trust, we must be honest, which is one of our Golden Rules.  Revd. Smart reminded the children of the story of Zaccheus in the BIble, which has an important lesson about honesty.  Zacchaeus was a tax collector, known for how rich he had become – likely by being dishonest and keeping some tax money for himself. But one day, Jesus came to Zacchaeus’ town and Zacchaeus had the chance to meet him. In fact, Jesus went to his house.  What Zacchaeus did next was amazing! He told Jesus that he would give half of his possessions to the poor and that he would pay people back 4 times what he had cheated them. Not only does Zacchaeus see the error of his ways, but he has a total change of heart. He no longer wanted to live a dishonest life, but an honest one – because he came to know and believe in Jesus.

Harvest 2023

This morning we celebrated our Harvest Festival with a service in the church led by our Infant department. Barn Owl Class introduced us to their Rainbow Harvest and also told us about the work of the Andover Foodbank and led us in our prayers of thanks. Snowy Owl Class entertained us with two songs and the school choir also sang a song encouraging us to look after the world. A big well done to all our Infant children and especially our new Year R children who have only been with us a month.

Thank you for all the food that was brought to school for our Harvest Appeal to support the Andover Foodbank. As a nation, we know it isn’t right that anyone should be left hungry or living in extreme poverty. In the local area, the Trussell Trust’s network of food banks provides emergency food and compassionate, dignified support to people locked in crisis. If you need support, please contact01264 362111, or office@andoverfoodbank.org.uk. Alternatively, click here to locate your nearest food bank. 

 

 Collective Worship 25/9/23

In Collective Worship this week, we continued to explore our Golden Rules, this time linked to our vision which reminds us ‘we are a place of forgiveness.’  These rules are: we can turn it around; and we can let it go.  The children learnt about the story of Joseph and his brothers, from the Book of Genesis, and how Jesus forgave his brothers for their behaviour towards him.

 

Pupil Appointments 23/24

 A huge well done to all children who put themselves forward for a school role this week; we are very proud of you all.  The following children were nominated for this years roles - 

School Councillors: Suzie, Charlie B, Louis, Sophie G, Harrison D and Peyton

eCadets: Oscar E, Stanley G, Dillon and Will J

Green Ambassadors: Leila. Avery, Mia H, Mary, Evelyn and Toby C 

Junior Road Safety Officers: Tabatha, Marie and Evie.

Vocal Ambassadors: Scarlett, Rosie & Sofie K

Collective Worship - 18/09/23

In Collective Worship this week, the children discussed two further Golden Rules: we are positive; and we are proud to do our best.  The story of Noah's Ark was also used to talk to the children about our Christian Value of Hope.  Over the weekend, you might like to consider as a family: What will we do this weekend to make us feel proud?

Collective Worship - 11/09/23

The children began Collective Worship this week by sharing the class rules they have written, linked to our Federation Vision.  Part of this Vision reminds us that our Christian value of Love 'binds us together' and the children recognised that our Golden Rules 'we are kind'; ''we are respectful'; and 'we keep ourselves and each other safe' help us to show love towards all in our school community.  The children listened to the Parable of the Lost Sheep and were able to identify where in the story these qualities were shown too.

 

Welcome to our new school year

It has been lovely to welcome all our children and families back to school this week. We have been blessed with wonderful weather and sunny dispositions from all of our children, who have engaged so readily with their new learning projects - they have been a credit to the school.  A special mention to our new Year R children who have settled so well.

 In Collective worship this term we are exploring the theme, 'Who are you?' We will be exploring the idea of who we are as a collective Federation, narrowing down to who each of us is and how that impacts our lives, both collectively and individually. We will also be revisiting our Federation vision statement, our golden rules and our 4 Christian values of Love, Hope, Forgiveness and Trust.  This week, we discussed how the beginning of a new year is a time to set out on new paths of new adventures.  The children were asked to consider their vision for their class this year and to ask themselves: What will it be like to be a child in your class?  What class rules will you have?  How will your class vision fit with our Federation Vision? Each class was challenged to write their class rules, linked to our Federation Vision, and to share these within Key Stage Class Worship on Thursday this week.  The whole school will get to hear these this coming Monday.

  

Goodbye to our Year 6 pupils

The Year 6 children led a beautiful service in the church this morning, reflecting on their journey through the school. Year 6, we hope you leave us seeing yourself, and others, as God sees you: full of potential; precious; and unique; and loved.  Each Year 6 child was presented with a bible from the school.  Families then joined the Year 6 pupils for a picnic and a chance to view the video of their residential at Calshot. The afternoon was full of fun, including water fights and other fun activities. Good luck Year 6 and thank you for being an important part of our Barton Stacey Family.

Transition Day

Our Collective Worship on Monday, this week was led by Revd. Smart, who spoke with the children about moving on and how God is with us wherever we go. The children spoke positively about moving on to their next year group, class or school and were excited to leave the Hall as part of their next year group. The children then spent the day with their new class from September getting to know their classmates and their teachers and assistants. 

End of term party

Despite the torrential rain, lots of the Barton Stacey Family joined FROGS for their end of term party which had to move inside the school. Families enjoyed spending time talking to each other whilst eating and drinking and taking their chance on the various raffles and tombolas. The children were entertained by the disco and face painting. Nearly £1000 was raised for school funds.

Climate Conference

Last Friday three of our Year 6 pupils attended a Climate Conference run by Hampshire County Council. They came back full of new facts and fired anew with enthusiasm to help make this world a greener place.

Sports Day

Thank you to all parents who joined us on Tuesday this week to celebrate Sports Day. The children were a credit to the school and their resilience, determination, sportsmanship and humility shone through during the cloudy day.  Congratulations to the green house who won the morning cup and the red house who won the afternoon trophy.  A special mention to Dillon Neillon and Marie Desfoux from Eagle Owl Class, who were noticed by many staff being  wonderful friends and role models to other children.

Library Reading Challenge

This week the school welcomed a member of Hampshire Library Service who came in to tell the children all about this year’s Summer Reading Challenge. Why not head down to your local library with your children and take up the challenge!

Class Exhibitions

Thank you to the many parents and family members who joined the children for their class exhibitions this morning.  It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to showcase their term's learning and for you to see how hard they have been working and how proud we are of them.  Thank you to our dedicated team of staff once again for supporting this.  Some of the comments left by parents include: Amazing video in Snowy Owls - we are so grateful for all the hard work you do; A fantastic show of TeamHawks lovely work!; Amazing.  Lots of hard work by the Barn Owl children - so proud of them and their wonderful work!

 

Armed Forces Day

Today, we celebrated Armed Forces Day and began the day with a special assembly about the work of our Armed Forces and the vital roles they play. Each class gave the school a salute and a twirl in their armed forces clothing, and it has been lovely to observe how fantastically dressed they all were. Thank you for all of your donations, which have raised over £90 for the military charity, SSAFA. If you are looking to celebrate Armed Forces Day even further over the weekend, please see this link for local details. Today, we celebrated Armed Forces Day and began the day with a special assembly about the work of our Armed Forces and the vital roles they play. Each class gave the school a salute and a twirl in their armed forces clothing, and it has been lovely to observe how fantastically dressed they all were. Thank you for all of your donations, which have raised over £90 for the military charity, SSAFA. If you are looking to celebrate Armed Forces Day even further over the weekend, please see this link for local details.

Calshot

Our Year 6 children have been having a fantastic time on their residential this week. They have shown remarkable teamwork and have all pushed them selves out of their comfort zones to achieve more than they thought they could. Once again our children have made the school very proud of all they have achieved. A big thank you also to Miss Hardy and Mrs Griggs who have supported them this week. I am sure everyone will be exhausted after their full week and will need a good rest this weekend!

Tag Rugby

Our TAG Rugby Team took part in a tournament this week and made us very proud. Due to some members of the team being absent they played, with no subs, seven games in hot weather, and showed great team work and amazing stamina! Everyone of them played their best game.

Coronation Celebrations

Our Coronation celebrations on Friday were planned to reflect the theme of community with a family picnic and outdoor concert. Unfortunately the British weather curtailed our plans and the picnic had to be cancelled and the concert held inside, which meant that we could not invite as many people as we wished. Despite the changes the children had a wonderful day finding out about and celebrating this historic occasion.

The morning started with a large number of cakes arriving in school for our Great Barton Stacey Coronation Bake Off. The standard and imagination of these cakes was amazing and it made it a very hard job for Mrs Ewings, our cook, to be able to decide on a final winner for each class. During the morning the children took part in a special Coronation Worship and then spent times in their classes finding out more about the Coronation and creating items for the celebrations before picnics were held in each classroom.

During the afternoon we held our Coronation Concert in which every child took part. It included songs from each class, two songs from the choir, a re-enactment of the coronation from Base Club, a poem about the King's passion for our World from the Green Ambassadors, as well as a dance performance and individual and group instrumental performances. It was wonderful to see how much talent the children have. The concert finished with everyone singing the National Anthem.

At the end of the day all the wonderful cakes were sold to raise funds for FROGS.

Vocal Ambassadors

Two children took part in Vocal Ambassadors choir concert in Stubbington before the Easter Holidays! Well done you two! 

Bart The Bear in Rwanda

Before Christmas, Sue Bowen, from Winchester Diocese Education Department, visited the school to tell the children all about a trip she was taking to visit some schools in Rwanda. She discussed with the children both the difference and similarities between our school and the schools in Rwanda. Before she left Sue was presented with Bart the Bear, who took to Rwanda as an ambassador from our school. Below is a powerpoint presentation showing Bart's adventures in Rwanda!

Bart's Adventures in Rwanda

Easter Celebrations

A huge thank you to all of you who were able to join us this morning for our Easter Service, or joined us this afternoon for the Easter bonnet parade. We have had many lovely comments about these across the day, particularly in relation to the children’s thought-provoking dream jars and letters to the world.  

 

Tag Rugby Team

Well done to our TAG Rugby Team who took part in their last league match this week and finished second in the league. In May a team will now go on to compete against eight other schools who finished second in their leagues for a chance to win a cup.

Sparkling Girls Rugby

Eight of our Year 5/6 girls took part in a local girl’s tag rugby tournament. The girls showed great teamwork and did the school proud, coming third in the competition. Well done girls!

Class Exhibitions

The children were so excited to be able to share with their parents everything they have learnt this term during our Class Exhibitions. The morning began with a ‘protest march’ by the Year 5/6 children, who then gave passionate speeches to awaiting parents on the Green. We know how important and special class exhibitions to our families, as shown in the parents’ comments. ’ Awesome work’ , ’Fantastic work. So nice to see how creative they have been.’, ’Great display and well demonstrated passion of all their class learning.’, ’Extremely informative, excellent research by the children.’, ’Really lovely to see what the children had been learning. The classroom looked amazing!’, ’I loved the climate protest’, ’Fabulous as always.’

British Science Day

This Friday each class had a day full of scientific experiments and investigations as we celebrated British Science week. We were also lucky to welcome Dr Lizzie Frost, an A & E doctor with the army and Dr Abi Sharpe, a paediatric cardiologist, who both undertook some interactive workshops with each class.

COP27 conference

Hawk Owl Class had the most AMAZING day, with Birch Class from Micheldever, when they held their own COP27 conference. Mrs Ball started the day by reading a letter from the Prince & Princess of Wales, who wished to pass on their best wishes and encouragement to the children. The day began with important negotiations, led by Mr Hornby who attended the real COP27 in Egypt earlier this year. Each child represented a country and negotiated their country’s climate priorities with other countries before coming to a global climate agreement - it's amazing what can be achieved when political agenda is removed from the negotiating table. There were two key speakers who spoke about the effect of climate change on sea levels and how Winchester diocese is aiming to become carbon neutral, and the choir also sang ‘I am the earth’. We can feel truly in safe hands with this next generation, who clearly have their priorities in the right order. 

Football Festival

Ten of our Hawk Owl Class children took part in a football festival at Charlton Astro Pitch on Tuesday, which had been organised by the Premier League Foundation. Our team played brilliantly and made it through to the semi-final, as well as being awarded the Fair Play Trophy. They returned to school cold and tired but very proud of their medals.

Green Ambassadors / Junior Road safety Officers

This week our Junior Road Safety Officers & Green Ambassadors have been visiting our classes each day to discuss the Hampshire Spring into action campaign which aims to encourage families to walk, cycle and scoot more. The children have been advised of different activities they can do each day whilst travelling to and from school. 

Our Green Ambassadors have also completed their first newsletter which you can read below.

Going Green Magazine

TAG Rugby Team

Well done to our Year 5/6 pupils who took part in the TAG Rugby league match this week, which we hosted at Barton Stacey. Each match was closely fought and the final results saw Barton Stacey, win one, draw one and lose one.

World Book Day 2023

The children all came to school dressed in their pyjamas and dressing gowns ready to share their favourite bedtime story. It was lovely to see the older children sitting down with the younger ones reading together. The hall was full of books as part of the book swap and every child has gone home with a new book to read. 

 

Rainbow Rangers

In a special assembly this week, our Rainbow Rangers spoke confidently to the school about the Zones of Regulation. These four zones—and the corresponding emotions— help us to identify feelings in ourselves and others, and help us to develop strategies for self-regulation. More information about the Zones of Regulation can be found here.

Spring into Action 2023

We are pleased to be supporting Hampshire’s Spring into Action 2023 event! The event runs from Monday 27th February to Sunday 5 March 2023. A Spring into Action Toolkit is also available at https://myjourneyhampshire.com/springintoaction The toolkit we e mailed provides families with a daily activity to enjoy each day of the school week while they walk, wheel, scoot or cycle on their journey to and from school and during the weekend. Families are invited to try a daily activity during the week from the toolkit. Each day our Junior Road Safety Officers and Green Ambassadors will be visiting each class to tell the children what the activity for the next day is.

Want to talk about it?

A huge thank you to our e cadets Maariyah, Sami, Tabatha and Noah for leading an assembly and workshops across the school this week. This year’s theme is ‘Want to talk about it?’ and the children completed a range of activities that encouraged them to speak up about things they sees and hear on-line that make them uncomfortable. The e cadets were also able to share their work with our Safeguarding Governor Helen Smith.

Safer Internet Day

The theme this year is ‘Want to talk about it?’ and our eCadets—Noah, Tabatha, Sami and Maariyah—will be leading an assembly for the children, as well as workshops in each class.

Green Ambassadors

Our Green Ambassadors have relaunched their Green Ambassador Award in worship today. If your child is involved in any green/eco initiatives at home, please do let us know so that their actions can be recognised in our weekly Celebration Worship on a Friday with a certificate from our Green Ambassadors

Christmas Service

Our school term finished with a wonderful Christmas service led by our Year 5/6 children. During the service the children told the story of the first Christmas and lit five candles to represent Advent and the coming of Jesus. The school choir started the service with Once in Royal with Sami singing the first verse beautifully and then sang two other songs; Child in a Manger and Midnight with Hazel also singing confidently a solo. The Infants enthusiaticaly sang a song from their Nativity Play and our Year 3/4 children led the prayers. During the service the Year 5/6 children retold the Christmas Truce which had taken place during World War 1 and recited some of the beautiful poems they had written about this with Danylo playing Silent Night in the background. They were all very thought provoking. The service finished with the presentation of our end of term awards.

Christmas Jumper Day, DT Morning and Christmas Lunch

Wednesday was a busy day full of fun Christmas activities. The children were encouraged to come to school in their best Christmas jumpers and it was lovely to see the variety of jumpers that were on show. During the morning the children made beautiful tree and table decorations and decorated their own hat ready for the Christmas lunch. At noon the whole school sat down in the hall in their worship families to enjoy the wonderful Christmas lunch prepared by Mrs Ewings. The children were served by the whole school staff who were also sporting their Christmas jumpers.

Stories With Santa

On Tuesday afternoon the whole school changed into their pyjamas and dressing gowns and met in the hall where the story of the first Christmas was told by Mr Stangroom. The children were then split into their worship families and moved around the school listening to Christmas stories, drinking hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows and then watching  a special video message from Santa's Elves who had sent some special presents for the children via Elf mail.

Infant Nativity 2022

Our Infant department once again put on a wonderful Nativity production which this year was called 'A Little Bird Told Me'.  The narrators and main leads all spoke beautifully and clearly and the songs were sung with gusto by all the children. The children put on two performances for their parents and grandparents and it was the perfect start to Christmas.

Vocal Ambassadors

Over the last two years, in collaboration with Hampshire Music service, the school has been training some of our junior children to become Vocal Ambassadors within the school. Two of our Vocal Ambassadors took part in a Countywide concert last week. They said it was amazing to sing with so many other children.

 

Class Exhibitions

The children were so excited this morning about their class exhibitions. It was lovely to welcome so many parents to the school and we hope that you enjoyed experiencing the children’s learning this term. ‘It has been wonderful to see al the amazing & varied work that the children have been up to. Thanks so much for all you do.’

School Council Meeting

Our School Councillors spoke to the school yesterday about how we could spread peace and joy this Christmas.  Anabelle in Year 6 spoke about the current cost of living crisis and how expensive it is to run a home, and challenged the children to think about what it must be like at this time of year to not have a home.  She shared the work of Winchester Beacon, who provide a place to stay, food and items (such as toiletries), to people who are homeless in the Winchester area.  The children have been asked to create a Christmas card for all the people who access Winchester Beacon, as well as the staff and volunteers who work there, in the hope that this will spread a peace and joy at this important time of year.  We will also be holding a collection for Winchester Beacon at the end of the Christmas Service on Friday 16^thDecember and we encourage families to give generously, if they can.  All cards and donations will be taken to Winchester Beacon at the beginning of the Christmas holidays.

 

Be Bright, Be Seen Day & Odd Socks Day

The school today has been full of bright colours and odd socks as we celebrated both ‘Be Bright Be Seen Day’ and ‘Anti Bullying week Odd Socks Day’. On Monday, in worship, our Junior Road Safety Officers talked to all the children about the importance of  road safety and of being visible to drivers during the winter nights. On Tuesday the whole school came together for a special assembly for Anti-Bullying week.. This year’s theme is  ‘Reach Out’  and we discussed the importance of letting someone know if you are being bullied. Our Odd Socks today help us show we’re ALL unique and different, and that we should  be kind to each other and respect each other’s individuality.  FROGS raised £180 from the non-uniform day—thank you.

 

Remembrance 2022

Our Remembrance Service was led by Hawk Owl Class this year who based the service around one of the Royal British Legion's focuses for this year - Black History month. The children through words, art, prayers and song reminded us of the importance of this special day.

Some of our children also took part in the Remembrance Parade at Sutton Scotney on the Sunday.

TAG Rugby League

Our Year 5/6 TAG Rugby team have been practising hard at their Friday after school club and had an amazing first round of their league matches, winning all 3 games!

Remembering Queen Elizabeth  II

On Wednesday this week, children from Hawk Owl and Eagle Owl Classes visited the village pavilion to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II.  Both classes laid flowers of remembrance and our oldest children left copies of their poetry about the life of the Queen and the unwavering service she showed the country.  Prayers were also said to honour the Queen and to welcome King Charles III to the throne.

 

Welcome to a new school year 2022/23

A big welcome to all our Barton Stacey family, both new and old, as we start a new Academic Year. It has been wonderful to see our children’s excited faces and hear their voices around school as they explore new environments and find out what they will be learning this term. Our new Year R children have smoothly settled into school life and have quickly become part of our school family. We look forward to an inspiring term of learning.

 

End of term service

On the last day of term the whole school walked to the Parish Church for our end of term and Year 6 leavers' service. It was so lovely to be able to hold our service once again in the church, after an absence of two years due to Covid. The service started with the choir singing 'Sing', after which the end of term awards were presented by Mr Stangroom and Mrs Evans. The Year 6 pupils then led their leavers' service which included memories, readings, poems, songs and prayers as well as the choir singing 'The Lords my Shepherd and 'Reach'. As staff we were so proud to see how these Year 6 pupils, who were so tiny when they started at school, have matured into such wonderful, confident children who demonstrate so well our school values of love, hope, trust and forgiveness. 

Summer Music Concert

The last Tuesday of term, the school and parents, gathered to hear a wonderful selection of music from our students who are are having music lessons either within or outside school and the school choir. The concert was compered by Mrs Van Dyck, who had also organised the whole event. The audience were able to listen to keyboard, piano, recorders, flutes, clarinet, brass, violins and singing and it was lovely to see how children have progressed. Each child was presented with a rose after performing, which is a custom in Slovakia, where Mrs Van Dyck was born. The concert not only entertained its audience but also gave the opportunity for the children to be able to perform in front of an audience. Well done to all the performers.

      

                              

Year 5/6 Production - Oliver

Our amazing Year 5/6 children put on a wonderful production of Oliver. The children had written their own script and this was interspersed with songs and dances from Oliver - The Musical. All the children took on the parts of their characters well and were so confident in their acting, singing and dancing. Well done Eagle Owls!

Class Exhibitions

Barn Owl and Hawk Owl Class held their class exhibitions this morning and the children were very excited to show parents all their work from the term. Here are some of the parents’ comments: ‘A fantastic display of the childrens’ work & learning’ ‘ thank you for the hard work and dedication its wonderful to see all the children progressing so wonderfully’ ‘Excellent displays. Blown away with some of the writing & art!’ ‘Fantastic, well organised and beautiful displays’ ‘Awesome!’

Sports Day 2022

Friday 8 July saw the whole school taking part in its annual Sports Day. The children were split into their house teams ready for the day's challenges. During the morning the children undertook a carousel of sports challenges set by Active Me 360. It was Yellow Team that won the morning challenges and raised the team cup. Parents were invited in to share a picnic lunch with their children before the afternoon's races began. Children took part in running, skipping, obstacle, egg & spoon races within their year groups and everyone taking part was cheered no matter where they came. Mums and das also had a chance to show off their skills. At the end of the afternoon it was Red House that was successful in raising the Sport Day Cup. During the afternoon FROGS provided hot and cold drinks and yummy cakes for the Mums and das and then presented each child with an ice lolly at the end of the afternoon which was very welcome.

 Collective Worship - Summer Term

In Collective Worship, we are discussing Bible stories that we would want all our children to know well by the time they leave our Federation. We want them to reflect on how, in each story, our Christian values of Love, Trust, Forgiveness and Hope can be identified and how each story shows a particular Christian value. These all help us learn about our vision statement: “Like the river flowing through our valley, the Dever Valley Federation is a place of life. Everyone is welcome in our family where we grow, learn and achieve alongside one another. The gifts given to us by God support us on our journey; LOVE binds us together, TRUST keeps us together, FORGIVENESS transforms us and HOPE carries us forward through life,” as well as learn how we can have impact within our school and our wider communities, both locally and globally.  This week we looked at the Parable of The Lost Sheep; Jesus reminds us in this parable that every one of us is so precious to Him - He loves us and He will never give up on us, no matter what.  The Shepherd - who represents Jesus and God - leaves the ninety-nine sheep that are safe to go to find the one lost sheep because that sheep is so important to Him, just like each of us.  The children identified that sometimes we can be a bit like that lost sheep and feel far away from God but should remember that God is our shepherd and He will keep searching for us and calling us back until He finds us.

 

Armed Forces Day 

On Friday 24th June Mrs Cobb, Mrs Cousins and our Base Club children arranged our Armed Forces Day activities.  The whole school took part, lots of fun games linked to communication were played. We explored semaphore, Morse code, Lego bridge building, the phonetic alphabet and lots of other cool stuff. The children also talked to some Armed forces veterans from the Royal British Legion. We had a really great day and it was nice that all the children got to join in and have fun and learn about what life is like for military children and families.

Clean Air Day

Our Junior Road Safety Officers and Green Ambassadors joined forces to deliver a presentation to the school this week on 'Clean Air Day'. the presentation can be seen below.

Clean Air Day

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations 

On Friday 27th May, we celebrated the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Our Worship Families created wonderful bunting, flags, spinners and crowns, which graced the street party lunch.  The afternoon was spent enjoying traditional party games in the school grounds.  The children came dressed in red, white and blue for the occasion and many took part in the Great Barton Bake Off. We were delighted to see the wonderful cakes and bakes that the children had produced. Congratulations to Theo Stacey, Viola Landon, Mary Frost & Marie Desfoux and Bo Dowling who were judged the star bakers by Mrs Ewings and Ms Hardman.  The delicious bakes were then sold by FROGS to raise money for the school. 

 Easter Service 2022

A wonderful Easter celebration was held in our school hall.   For some of our children, it was the first time they had experienced such a gathering and it was so lovely to see their happy, smiling faces. The celebration started with our end of term awards. It is always a privilege to hear of the amazing work the children and have accomplished and how they have used their learning powers and school values to achieve this. The classes then retold the story of Easter through drama, words, prayers and poems, and the choir sang two Easter songs. Our prayers were led by Hawk Owl Class and Rev. Helen then said a final blessing. To finish, we were able to re-introduce a Barton Stacey tradition as the Infant children paraded around the hall in their wonderful Easter Bonnets. All the children were amazing and celebrations such as this reminds us all how lucky we are to be part of our special Barton Stacey family. 

 

 

British Science Day 

In celebration of the 'Growth' themed British Science Week this year, every child spent a full and immersive day exploring one or more aspects of STEM. The days learning complimented current topics and/or provided an opportunity to revise previously taught concepts. Activities included: Accurately measuring and plotting hand growth as part of an existing longitudinal study; Planning and planting window boxes to enhance the London landscape whilst learning about plants,

Constructing, testing and revising construction of load bearing bridges, 

Looking at NASAs mission to Mars, the pioneering Perseverance rover, 'firsts' for technology on Mars and using revised knowledge of planets to create a fictitious creature adapted to survive on Mars complete with a stop animation depiction of its life cycle. Phew! 

The children had a fabulously engaging day and who knows, a 'seed' planted this year may grow into a successful Scientist, Engineer, Technologist or Mathematician in the future?!

  

World Book Day 

The school was alive with book characters filling the corridors, classrooms and playgrounds as we celebrated World Book Day.  We showed off our costumes on TEAMS in a Virtual session where we discussed the three ways we can look at characters through mirrors, windows and sliding doors.  It was lovely to hear the children discuss the books they explored, talking about how they view the characters and how they see themselves represented in books they read.  

    

 

Internet Safety Day 

Tuesday 8th February was Internet Safety Day. As well as presenting an assembly to the School, our eCadets have also produced a Top Tips file for parents and children. This is full of useful information to help children stay safe online as well as tips for parents to guide their children on appropriate use of the internet. Click the Safer Internet Day below to read the internet safety advice. 

Green Ambassadors 

Here at Barton Stacey we are very lucky to have children who are passionate about protecting our world. They believe in making changes at home, and in school, to make the planet a better place for us all. At the beginning of each academic year the children are invited to put themselves forward to be our Green Ambassadors. This year we have 6 Green Ambassadors from our Junior Classes; they spend time working together each week and have put together their very own "Green" magazine called "Our Planet". It is full of useful facts and information that we are sure you and your children will enjoy reading about. Swift, The Green Ambassador mascot, will take you to the magazine. 

Grow a £1

A big thank you to all our families who took part in our Grow a £1 campaign this term to raise funds for our Peace & Wellbeing Garden. We were amazed at all the creative ideas the children came up with to raise money.

Each child who took part has received a certificate today.

The grand total raised is

£2762.21

 

Christmas Service 2021

The support and turn-out for this morning's Christmas Service was wonderful; thank you to all parents, family and friends of the school who took part.  Once again, the children did themselves proud and led a beautiful service, full of poignant reflection, joyful singing, excellent writing, creative musicianship and prayer.  Our thanks go to Reverend Helen O'Sullivan for supporting us with blessings and a special thank you to the Eagle Owl teaching team and Mrs Ball for co-ordinating such a beautiful service.

 

Nativity 2021

This year the Nativity, led by our Infant children, was called ‘The Inn-Spectors’ and our youngest children gave two wonderful performances to guests.  Their superb acting, signing and dancing was a joy to watch and it was lovely to be able to showcase this.  Here is a snippet of the children in action.

 

 

 Class Exhibitions

Thank you to all parents and friends of the school who joined us for this morning's class exhibitions.  The children were absolutely thrilled to showcase their learning to you and we hoped you enjoyed finding out all about their learning and progress this term.  Due to the inclement weather, we were unable to host the Eagle Owl Class exhibition outdoors; however, Mrs Johnson and Mrs Griggs have been busy photographers and have put together a presentation which can be seen on the website here  https://www.bartonstacey.hants.sch.uk/Class-News/

Below are some of the wonderful comments made by our parents.

Lovely to see the happy learning

Very impressed by the attention to detail, thought & creativity in every task on display.

So lovely to see what they have been up to.

The classroom is beautiful

Such a wonderful school. Thank you for having us.

Fantastic work

Amazing work. So proud and engaged. Wonderful!

So lovely to finally see their classroom.

Incredible work. So amazing

Excellent imaginative work

Loved it!

Wonderful to see the lovely  displays and work.

Thank you for taking the time to have us. Wonderful displays & work.

Lovely work. My child talks about topic work a lot at home.

 Lovely to have such an enthusiastic tour guide, happy and excited about school.

Great to see the class room & resources they have used. They all seem so happy.

Brilliant to see such hard work

Fantastic displays and variety of work

Wow, that was brilliant.

Thank you. So good to see them in class with their work.

Thank you  for the insight into the amazing work you all doing with the children.

Haven’t they all worked hard! Fantastic to see all the activities and how much they have learnt.

 

 

 

 

Odd Socks/Be Bright Be Seen Day

• This week, we marked anti-bullying week by wearing odd socks, symbolising that it's ok to be different.  In Worship, we focused on the power of words and how kind words can make a huge difference.  From the Bible, we heard the story of Zacchaeus and considered how it feels to be both isolated and part of the crowd.
• As well as odd socks, Thursday saw the children and staff wearing their brightest clothes to celebrate Be Bright, Be Seen Day.  Georgina and Tekla, our Junior Road Safety Officer's, discussed the importance of wearing brighter clothing whilst out about after school, particularly now that the darker evenings have drawn in.

 

Climate Change

In Collective Worship this week we have been discussing the COP26 summit and have considered what we can all do to take better care of God's world.  Hawk Owl Class were inspired to take part in the BBC Bitesize Climate Change Live Lesson on Wednesday.

Our Green Ambassadors are also hard at work thinking of ways in which we can help our planet. Don't forget to look at their tip of the week on each week's school news bulletin.

TAG Rugby League

It is lovely that our Year 5/6 children have resumed being part of the Georgian Tag Rugby League.  Yesterday afternoon, the team played against North Waltham, Longparish and Cliddesden Primary Schools.

RBL Remembrance Service 2021

On Sunday 14th November some of our Base Club pupils attended the Remembrance Parade at South Wonston to represent the school. Annabelle undertook a reading and Thomas had the honour of laying a wreath.

  

  

 Remembrance Service 2021

Thank you to all of you who joined us via Teams yesterday to commemorate Remembrance Day, particularly  Reverend O'Sullivan, who led us in blessings and The Lord's Prayer.  The poignant service was led by the children from Eagle Owl Class, who shared their wonderful poetry based on the work of the poet, Laura Mucha; the writing was also accompanied by paintings and collages from Hawk Owl Class, and prayers from Base Club children.  An acer has been planted here at school to remember all those who are affected by war and conflict; it will be transferred to the peace and wellbeing space in the school grounds once this has been established. 

 

Harvest 2021

Walktober

Today is the start of Walktober, this is a challenge held each October to celebrate and focus the mind on International Walk to School Month. We are all more aware than ever that exercising and spending time outside enjoying our surroundings is great, if not essential, for our wellbeing. That is what the Walktober challenge is all about: walking to improve your mental wellbeing. We launched Walktober with the children yesterday and earlier this week we e mailed some resources to help families  complete as many challenges as possible this month. At the start of each week, we will e mail out further resources with ideas and suggestions of things you can do whilst out walking.

 

Grow a £1

This Autumn Barton Stacey sees the return of our Grow a Pound challenge. Over the following weeks we will challenge your child to be creative and come up with a project which uses the £1 coin and helps them raise more money, which will be used to enhance our outdoor areas, especially a project to create a peace and wellbeing garden. We do appreciate that a pound is not a lot and that for some of the children’s ideas they may need to use resources that they already have or put a little of their own money into first, which can then be taken back from their profits. This is something we discussed with them during the launch assembly in September.  Alternatively, your child might like to group together with a few of their friends and do a joint project.  We last ran this project around five years ago and were amazed that the children turned just over £100 into thousands, so just imagine how much we could raise this time!  Every penny helps as you can see below: 

If every child raised 1 extra pound we would raise £113

If every child raised 5 extra pounds we would raise £565

If every child raised 10 extra pounds we would raise £1130

 All we ask the children to do is to use the £1 however they choose, then in the week beginning 15 November, bring the money that they have raised into school along with the slip below saying what they did and how much they raised.  The pictures below show some of the fabulous ideas children have come up with so far. 

17/09/21

In Collective Worship this week we explored the story of the woman at the well, as recorded in the Gospel of John. Due to some past mistakes and the fact the lady was different to those in her community, she was not treated with love and kindness. The woman came to the well each day feeling empty – unloved, unknown and unwelcome - yet Jesus took the time one day to speak to her and to truly understand her. Little by little, during the conversation at the well, the woman started to feel more whole. She felt welcomed, loved and accepted. In our classes we have been thinking about how we can show kindness towards one another, particularly those who may feel unloved at times - Snowy Owls created painted handprints in a flowing river, symbolising that we use kind hands at our school, and Barn Owl Class showed us their very colourful Kindness Umbrella, with positive acts of kindness hanging from the ribs of the umbrella.

Collective Worship theme for Autumn 1

It has been wonderful to meet for face-to-face Collective Worship this week and to see how supportive and caring every child is within their Worship Family. Our theme this half-term is 'How do we flourish together?', and over the coming weeks we will focus on the concepts of belonging; love; getting back on track; making sense of our feelings; giving generously of ourselves; growing in resilience together; and growing to be the very best we can be. This week, the children thought about how they can help people they don’t know so well and how they can extend their love and kindness so that it shines out towards the people they come across who are hurt, sad, suffering and lonely. The children discussed the story of the Good Samaritan and what it really means to be a neighbour.

Welcome back to our 21/22 school year

It has been wonderful to welcome all our children and families back to school today. We have been graced with explorers and den builders, and our eldest children were ‘displaced’ to All Saints Church as part of the launch to this term’s learning project. It was also lovely to speak to Alfie, Lily-Rose, Theo and Sebby this morning, who popped in to speak to me whilst taking a tour of the Junior end of the school for the first time since starting with us. They have kindly promised to brighten up my office walls with some of their artwork.

As part of our Collective Worship together this afternoon, we sat together in our Worship Families for the first time in 18 months and spoke about our dreams and goals for this year and what we are like as learners and individuals. The children rewrote a quote from the board  at the front of school–

When we enter our classroom…
We are kind and loving.
We are resilient.
We are determined.
We are all ready to learn.
We are a kind friend.
We are creative and understanding.
We trust each other.
We are happy and have fun.
We are smiley.
We can rely on each other.
We are resourceful.
We are learning detectives with creative sparks.
We are the Barton Stacey Family.

Safer Internet Day 2021

Today, Tuesday 9 February 2021, we celebrate the 18th edition of Safer Internet Day with actions taking place right across the globe. With a theme once again of "Together for a better internet", this day calls upon everyone to join together to make the internet a safer and better place for all, and especially for children and young people.

The UK Safer Internet Centre has put together a range of excellent resources for parents and families, which can be accessed by clicking each link below.

What do I need to know about Safer Internet Day?

Conversation Starters

Family Activities

Family Online Safety Plan

Parents and Carers Resource Sheet

Show Your Support

What To Trust Online (A Parent and Carers Guide)

Safer Internet Day Poster

Remembrance 2020

Eagle Owl and Hawk Owl Class are proud to present this year's Remembrance Service, focusing on service and sacrifice shown during World War II and in more recent times.

 

Bag2School Collection

On Tuesday 10th November we had a Bag2School collection. We had an amazing response and between school and the Pre-school we collected a total of 1321kg of clothing. This resulted in FROGS and the pre-school receiving just under £200 each! 

Harvest 2020

The children are delighted to share their Harvest 2020 video with you.  

Welcome back!  It has been wonderful to welcome you and your family back to school this week.  We missed having our school family together in school over the last few months.  The children have settled very well and are enjoying school life again.  We have also welcomed our new Reception children this week on short staggered visits.  It has been lovely to welcome new and familiar faces to our Snowy Owl Class. 

                      May we begin with a thank you all for your patience and understanding during the period when school was not open to all children.  May we also thank you for reading and following all our guidance and documents sent home.  It has been challenging as a school, with government guidance changing or being updated frequently and with little notice. We will, of course, keep reviewing our guidance and any changes that are made will be communicated to you so please keep an eye on your emails each day for any changes.

                      You have received the diary dates for this term and we will be in contact as soon as possible for how we are organising our Harvest Celebration and Parent evenings.  Frogs have kindly given each child a special welcome back gift of a Barton Stacey notebook and the children have enjoyed receiving them in school.  There are fundraising events being planned and Frogs will be in touch soon to share these plans with you.

                      We will send our weekly, school newsletter home on Friday, as usual, and if you have any questions at all, or want to speak to anyone, please be in contact by phone, email or drop a note in the box outside the main reception door. 

                      Wishing you and your family health and best wishes.

Hampshire Music Service Resources

Keep Calm and Make Music in KS1 and KS2

Hampshire Music Service have produced some resources that can be used at home, called Keep calm and make music in KS1 and KS2. These are available to download by clicking on the relevant year group for your child.

Year 1-2: Walking The Dog

Year 3-4: In The Hall of the Mountain King (‘Grieg’ sound file available here)

Year 5-6: Music of the Planets (‘Holst’ sound file available here).  Paint is needed for one of the activities, but this could be substituted for other art materials you may have at home.

 

Science Day

Well what an amazing day we all had on Friday 13 March when we celebrated British Science week. The children had a day full of workshops and activities looking at many different aspects of science.

Once again, we welcomed Winchester cathedral, who led sessions looking at what animals need to do to succeed; food, shelter, and a place to raise their babies. With the Infants they introduced them to a robin who had made the Cathedral its home and then worked with the children to create robins out of fat balls. The Juniors were shown examples of animals that could be seen illustrated in the Cathedral and then they were challenged to create their own  animal gargoyles and describe them by using animal features.

Dr South, a dentist, came to speak to our Infants about our mouth and teeth and he was so impressed by our children, that he phoned up the following week to compliment them on their behaviour and the excellent questions they asked, as well as the wonderful feel to the school.

Mr Dunford, one of our parent governors, spent his morning in the Juniors. His topic was 'Internet of things' and he used his workshop to explore how the internet is used for communication between many devices across the world.

In the afternoon, the whole school watched a presentation on shark diversity and plastic pollution, which was thoroughly enjoyed by them all.

One Voice Singing Concert

On Tuesday, 10 March, children from Eagle Owl Class journeyed with children from Micheldever to take part in a 'One Voice' Singing Concert at The Anvil in Basingstoke. The concert had been planned and arranged by Hampshire Music Service to show what an impact singing can have on well being. A singing teacher from Hampshire Music Service had visited the school in January to run a workshop with the class and to introduce the children to the songs they would be singing which they then practised within class in the weeks leading up to the concert.

The songs were all linked to inner feelings and were designed to make the children feel good about themselves. The songs included:

Sing, sing, sing

Three little birds

Count on me

Ain't no mountain high enough

Quiet confidence

Lean on me

Something inside so strong

Sing

At The Anvil there were around 1000 children from different schools within Hampshire who joined together with a children's choir on stage, to sing the above songs. There were also performances from the choir and a soloist, a young lady confined to a wheelchair, who sang Defying Gravity, and shared with the audience what singing means to her.

Singing with a thousand children was an amazing experience and everyone left the concert on a high.

 

World Book Day - A rainbow of colours makes this world a wonderful, diverse place.

At Barton Stacey we are always working hard to promote reading for pleasure with our children.  Research shows that children who read for pleasure go on to achieve better results as they move through school.  

This year World Book Day at Barton Stacey took place on Friday 5^th March.  The theme this year was ‘Share a Million Stories.’  Throughout the day there were opportunities for children to share books both in class time and at social times but as a school we chose a particular text around which to build our learning activities.  The text this year for all year groups was ‘The Day The Crayons Quit.’ By Oliver Jeffers.  

Children were invited to come to school dressed in the colour of their favourite crayon from the book.  We hope this got you all talking about why this is your favourite and generated lots of book inspired talk around your dinner tables over half term!  We asked each child to remember to think carefully about what the colours represent.  For example: Red crayon is quite cross in the text, whilst Purple is a true perfectionist!  Yellow and orange crayons are not speaking to each other and are arguing over which of them is the true colour of the sun.

The day will started with a Worship session on one of the key themes of the text, diversity and teamwork.  We all know it takes many different colours to make up a whole box of crayons. There was also  lots of drama, book talk and other opportunities taking place in classrooms which helped to generate some exciting book themed writing.

At the end of the day we  invited parents to come into school to share a story with their child.  It was lovely to see so many parents in classes sharing their book not only with their children but also other children within the school.

Earlier in the week, we welcomed West End in Schools, who performed their World Book Week show ' Around the world in 80 days'. The children really enjoyed the show and lots of laughter could be heard emanating from the hall.

Skip2bfit

On Tuesday 25 February, the whole school took part in Skip2Bfit, a program which encourages children to use skipping as a way to increase fitness. In the afternoon the Juniors also took part in Box2Bfit which involved a fitness circuit. All the children had a great time and improved their performances throughout the session. At the end of the day there was a skip off between the pupil and staff member with the highest scores. It was very close, with just one skip in it - Well done to both Tilly and Miss Mitchell. It has been lovely to see so many of the children out on the playground now with their newly purchased skipping ropes. Our aim now is to purchase some of the skipping ropes for the school so that the pupils can continue ti improve their skipping scores and fitness.

Para-Olympian visit

 On Thursday 27 February we were visited by Lucy Shuker, a ParaOlympic tennis player who will taking part in this year’s Olympics in Japan. Lucy was truly inspirational as she told the children about her journey to becoming an athlete and how she overcame adversity to achieve her goal. After her presentation the Junior children had the opportunity to be able to ask questions. The following link is to Lucy’s website. https://www.lucyshuker.com/

Walking to school

Recently, our Junior Road Safety officers and Green Ambassadors joined forces to encourage our pupils to walk, scoot or cycle to school. The children discussed why reducing the amount of traffic on our roads is important for the environment as well as making our village a safer place. Time was also spent giving advice on how the children can remain safe while doing this.

Well done to all the pupils who led the presentation and discussion. A copy of the presentation is below.

Travelling to school

Spirituality

This term, in collective worship, the school has been exploring spirituality both within classes and in their worship families. Attached is a PowerPoint presentation which explains what the children have been thinking about.

Spirituality Moments

 Internet Safety Day

On Tuesday 11 February, Internet Safety day, our e cadets did a wonderful assembly to the whole school on the importance of staying safe when using computers and social media. This was followed up with age appropriate workshops in each class. In the afternoon, parents had been invited in to watch the assembly and take part in a question & answer session. Well done to our e cadets who did a fantastic job in making us all more aware.

Japanese Fan Dancing

With this year's Olympic Games being held in Japan, we were pleased to welcome into school, a lady who introduced each class to Japanese culture and in particular Japanese Fan Dancing. Each child was given a fan, and then taught how to create graceful, fluid movements. After some practise, the children were then able to fit the movements together  to form a Japanese fan dance which was accompanied by traditional Japanese music. The workshop allowed the children to experience a very different form of exercise, with them having to be slow and precise.

Learning Pit Challenge Week

This week has been Learning Pit Challenge Week across the school. From chairs made from newspaper, to aqueducts and spaghetti bridges, the children have been experiencing what it is like to be deep in the Learning Pit and what steps they can take to get back out again. The Learning Pit was first designed by James Nottingham and more information can be found here: www.challenginglearning.com/learning-pit Expect to hear children talking about ‘being in the pit’ throughout the year; one of our Year 1’s told his teacher today that he was stuck in the pit and was able to verbalise the steps he could take to help him remain resilient with his learning.

Special Lunches

During January and February the school kitchen celebrated two very different occasions with two especially themed lunches for the children.

During January we celebrated AA Milne’s birthday with a Winnie-the-Pooh lunch. A letter was sent home inviting every child’s teddy bear to come into school on the day and accompany their owner to their dinner which included heffalumps and honey buns! The teddies all enjoyed their outing and were very well behaved.

At the beginning of February, Barn Owl Class, had a day full of activities to help them find out more about the Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated. As part of this, the kitchen produced a Chinese themed meal along with chopsticks. Luckily knives and forks were available for those who found mastering the chopsticks more difficult than expected!

Mrs Ewings and Miss Hardman always provide excellent meals but their hard work and inspiration for these two meals were greatly appreciated by everyone.

Stories with Santa

The last afternoon of term saw all the children taking part in Stories with Santa. the whole school met in the hall to hear the Christmas Story read by Mr Stangroom before splitting into their worship families to move around the school. The children were able to listen to two more seasonal stories, have hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows and visit Santa who had a special present for all of them. The afternoon finished with everyone getting back together to sing 'We wish you a merry Christmas' and give three cheers for Barton Stacey .

Christmas Carol Service

On Wednesday morning, All saints Church was full to bursting for this year's Christmas Service. The service opened with some of our instrumentalists playing some well know Christmas tunes before Rev. Mark blessed both the filled socks that had been collected for our homeless appeal and our new school banner. Our Year 5/6 children then led the service which was interspersed with bible readings and carols which retold the Christmas Story along with some of our Infant children who produced a tableau. The choir sang three Christmas songs which included solos as well as solos and descants for the congregational carols. A beautiful story was told by two of our Year 6 children which had been written by themselves telling the story of a robin and a homeless family who both find their forever home. The service ended with our end of term award presentations:

English - Bella -Rae

Writing - Toby Kerr

Maths - Kai Whiskerd

STEM - Sami Dunford

Sport - Ivy Oates

Creative Arts - Scott Coultish

School Values - Edward Stear

Christmas Lunch

On Tuesday 17 December, the kitchen staff, Mrs Ewings and Mrs Hardman did an amazing job producing over 150 Christmas lunches for children, staff and some special guests from the village. In the morning the children had spent time making their own festive hats for the celebration and the hall was full of sparkles as they sat down for their lunch. The food was served by the staff who were dressed either in their waiter outfits or Christmas clothes. After the meal the guests were entertained by the school choir and some of our instrumentalists with some festive tunes.

Class Exhibitions

Monday 16 December saw all our children eagerly coming to school to prepare themselves ready for their end of term Class Exhibitions. This is something that both children, staff and parents enjoy enormously as it gives the children an opportunity to share with their families everything they have been learning during the term. Over seventy parents arrived to spend time with their children and the school was buzzing with the sound of excited voices.

Some parents' comments are below:

'Lovely to see all the children's beautiful work. A great learning environment with lots of fun activities'

'Fantastic displays in all the classes I visited today. Great to see all the brilliant work the children have been doing'

'Love these opportunities to come & see what they've been doing as a class - really lovely atmosphere. Thank you'

'What a wonderful way for the children to share all their beautiful work.'

Green Ambassadors Assembly

During the Autumn Term, our green Ambassadors have been working hard to raise the awareness in school of how we can all be more environmentally friendly. Below is a link to the presentation they gave to the school.

Green Ambassador Presentation.

This term the Green Ambassadors have launched the Eco-Box. It is a beautiful box made by Joshua Hazard and if a child does something great for the environment, they can write it down and include a picture if they wish and post it in the Eco- box. So far this term we have had Anabelle Frost, Natasha Gadney, Talia Hazard, Harriet Wadey and Daisy Reynolds. Thank you to all these people.

In the next term we will be looking at Energy saving, food waste and paper waste.

 

Listen 2 Me Concert

This term, Hawk Owl Class, have been learning the ukulele through Hampshire Music Service's Listen 2 Me program. On Thursday 12 December, parents and the rest of the school were invited to come and listen to a concert which featured them playing around eight pieces as well as singing. They all played very confidently and it was lovely to see how much progress they had made over a term.

Infant Nativity - The Magic Snowflake

Parents and grandparents were in for a treat this week as our Infant Department performed their Nativity Play, The Magic Snowflake, which had been written specially for the school by our Executive Headteacher, Mrs Brewster. The play tells the story of a snowmen and a penguin who are given a magic star which allows them to fly to Bethlehem to see the birth of Jesus and the many people and animals who visited. The story was interspersed with lots of songs, which the children sang enthusiastically and also beautiful dances from snowflakes and angels.

We are very proud of our youngest children who retold the Christmas story so beautifully, and a big thank you must go to our Infant staff who worked so hard.

FROGS Christmas Fayre & Christmas jumper day

Friday 6 December saw the launch of the Christmas season at school, as FROGS held their annual Christmas Fayre. The hall was full of goodies for the children (and parents) to buy, as well as delicious cakes and crafts. 

During the day, children came to school, dressed in their Christmas jumpers. There was certainly lots of sparkle and shine in school!

12 days of gifting

As part of our worship theme of Belonging this term we have been looking at how we belong to a community and how it feels to belong. The children have been learning about those in our community who are less fortunate. Rev Bailey has been telling us about an initiative to help those who are homeless in our local area through supporting the Winchester Night Shelter and Andover Crisis & Support Centre. The Winchester Night Shelter mainly supports men through their work and the Andover Centres mainly supports women and their children through their work. We have asked our children to get involved in supporting this initiative. The initiative is providing a filled sock of treats at Christmas. The SLT have donated the socks and we are asking that the children help fill them. Each class will have three pairs of socks to fill during December. A class will be responsible for filling one sock each week and this will be shared during our Worship. We ask that the following donations are brought to school for the children to put in their class box of donations ready to fill the socks during worship.
? Chocolate and treats
? Soap and other toiletries
? Combs/brushes and hair bobbles
? Any other suitable treats/nice items
We know that supporting this initiative will bring so much joy to others and that our children will enjoy helping those less fortunate. We thank you in advance for your support and look out for photographs of the filled socks on our website and Twitter during December.

Attached is the power point presentation that the children participated in during collective worship this week, about homelessness.

'No room at the inn'

Quidditch Workshops

On 5^th November, it was no ordinary day at Barton Stacey School! It looked more like Hogwarts in the hall. We were having our Quidditch Workshops based on the novels of Harry Potter by J.K Rowling. The day started off by every class coming into the hall as the Quidditch assembly was taking place. We went into the hall and saw Darren and Jack stood at the front. Just like in Harry Potter, we then got sorted into the four school houses Gryffindor; Slytherin; Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw by the house captains. The four house captains were Eleanor Thomas (Gryffindor), Oliver Rippon (Slytherin), Poppy Marshall (Hufflepuff) and Ethan Bailey (Ravenclaw). After the house captains got sorted into their houses, every child knew which house they were in. Darren and Jack then talked to us about the qualities of the four Hogwarts houses. We had some Harry Potter experts in the hall therefore we already knew most of them! The four house captains were chosen to stay and help the infant classes during their workshops.

 In our workshops, we played a few games to teach us how to play Quidditch. One of them was the Beater game. In the Beater game, 4 beaters were chosen and they had a Bludger (ball) each. In order to get their team points, they needed to throw the Bludger at people whilst they were running. The star Beater of the school was Talia Hazard. Another game we played was the Chaser and Keeper Game. This game involved a Keeper standing in front of a hoop and the Chaser running up and trying to score in the hoop with the Quaffle (ball). To make it harder for the Chaser, the Keeper was there to block the ball from the hoop. We also played the Seeker Game where all of us chased the teacher (Golden Snitch). After we had played all of these games, we used all of our skills and put them into a big match.

After all of the classes had taken part in the workshop for their team, we had a short assembly. All of the captains stood at the front holding their house banner, really excited to find out who got the Quidditch trophy. First of all, the certificates got given out for Talia and Marie. After that, they announced the winner…….and it was Hufflepuff! Poppy held up the trophy and the team got a photo. Overall, the Quidditch day was amazing. I’m sure it will be a highlight of the year!  

School at Sutton Scotney Remembrance 

On Sunday 10th November at Sutton Scotney the Royal British Legion held a Remembrance Day Parade. The RBL had invited two pupils from the School's Base Club to take part in the remembrance parade. Josh was invited to say the Kohima Epitaph and Talia was a wreath layer. Both Talia and Josh did a sterling job, the RBL was impressed with the practise that they both must have done. Well done Josh and Talia. 

The rest of the school had written poetry and drawn pictures of what Remembrance Day meant for them. Snowy Owl Class had made their own poppies. It was fantastic to see so many pupils in attendance proudly showing their art work and poems to their parents. 

Base Club pupils had made some amazing Poppies stating what being a military child means to them, thank you Mrs Cobb. 

I would like to thank the school for joining us in Remembrance.

Rachel Cousins, Sutton Scotney Royal British Legion 

                       

Remembrance 2019

This year, we remember together

On Monday 11 November, the school remembered everyone whose lives have been touched by war, both past and present, in their Remembrance Service which was held in All Saints Church.

This year, The Royal British Legion's theme was 'This year we remember together'  and they asked us to remember all the 46 countries who signed up to defend the world.

Eagle Owl Class led the service, during which they reminded everyone how Remembrance Day came into existence and why we wear poppies to remember. The poems, 'We will remember' and 'In Flanders Field' were read beautifully by Natasha and Zack and Hawk Owl Class showed the pastel pictures they had created to symbolise the poppy fields.

Eagle Owl Class had spent the week researching three battles where forces from many countries had fought together. These were: D Day, Monte Cassino and Imphal & Kohima. The children had created visual models and art work to show the battle and very thought provoking poems.

Prayers were led by members of Hawk Owl Class and the choir sang 'My heart will go on' and also 'We will remember' when the poppy wreaths created by each class were laid before the altar.

It was lovely to be joined by many parents for this moving service of remembrance.

Poppy Appeal 

Thank you to Poppy, Eleanor T, Natasha & Flora for selling Poppy's last week on behalf of the Royal British Legion. 

Tag Rugby

On 21^st October, the Year 5/6 tag rugby team headed to St. Mary Bourne for the season’s first round of tag rugby matches.  Captained by Natasha Gadney and Josh Hazard, and with 7 of the 13 players new to the team, the children all played exceptionally well and have begun to build a firm foundation for the future games.  They were held to a 3-3 draw against St. Mary Bourne, were pipped in the dying minutes against Micheldever (losing 3-2) and lost by one try against Smannell and Enham.  They team were well supported by parents, who encouraged and cheered enthusiastically from the sidelines.

 

IBM

To bring their project learning to life – Can curiosity change the world? – Year 5/6 children experienced a wonderful visit to the UK Headquarters of IBM on 22^nd October.  They were able to tour the site and were enthralled by ‘the hub’, a recreational facility featuring bean-bag loungers; air hockey, table tennis and pool tables; dart boards; and both modern and retro computer games.  They were equally amazed at the visit to the IoT (Internet of Things), a computer science lab in which research projects come to life.  As one example, IBM has recently worked with Marwell Zoo, installing sensors in the animal bedding areas, which ensures the heating is only switched on when an animal is sleeping within its enclosure.  This has saved the zoo a considerable amount of money.

Year 5/6 then took part in workshops to consider how we can use technology to improve the sustainability of the school in areas such as energy usage and waste.  The children were incredibly curious and devised some wonderful initial ideas; they will now need to conduct research back at school, before continuing with their proposals. IBM have agreed to welcome the children and their families back to hear the ideas and it is hoped these ‘pitches’ can be delivered before the Christmas break.

 

Diwali Day

On 25^th October, the school celebrated Diwali Day, beginning with Collective Worship to consider how Christians prepare for and celebrate religious festivals; the children were then able to read the book ‘Dipal’s Diwali’ together and spoke maturely about the similarities in how the two religions prepared to celebrate festivals.  They learnt that Hindus tidy the home prior to Diwali; buy new clothes to wear during the festival; decorate their homes with bright yellow marigolds, diyas and rangoli patterns; prepare many foods and sweets for the celebration; and visit the temple with offerings.  The children were then told the story of Rama and Sita and how the festival of light came to be.

The children, working in their Worship Families, then spent time in each class throughout the day, preparing for our own Diwali Festival.   In Snowy Owl Class, the children created salt dough diya lamps and painted them; in Barn Owl Class the children created masks and puppets to help retell the story of Rama and SIta; in Hawk Owl Class the children designed Rangoli and Mendi patterns, with some challenging themselves to achieve accurate symmetry; and in Eagle Owl Class the children created Diwali lanterns, focusing on using the nets of 3D shapes to help achieve this. 

Parents were invited to join us for Worship at the end of the day and were welcomed in to the school building by rows of Diwali lanterns made by the children.  The children confidently discussed their day’s learning with our invited guests, particularly Kate Hearn in Year 6, who narrated the Rama and Sita story from memory as her Worship Family told it using their masks and puppets.  Throughout Diwali Day the children worked wonderfully in their Worship Families, the older children supporting younger members of the Family to understand the festival and its customs, and to demonstrate this through the art projects they completed.

Author Visit 

On Tuesday 22nd October Snowy Owl and Barn Owl Classes were visited by author Anne Wan. Anne ran a workshop and spent time talking with the children about being an author. Anne also read her new book, "Manners fit for the Queen" to the classes before answering questions from the children. 

School Council

The newly-elected School Council have got off to a great start, organising and leading a project that will support God's global family, namely those in the Bahamas affected by Hurricane Dorian that struck the island in early September.  From encouraging families to make donations in a bucket at the end of each school day, having a dress-down day in colourful, tropical clothing, and donations during the Harvest Festival service itself, the school was able to raise over £250 for UNICEF’s Children’s Emergency Fund.  The school kitchen was even able to provide Caribbean inspired food for lunch too!

Our School Council are busy working on two further projects: one will see the creation of a school banner that represents our 'belonging' as a faith family and faith school, and the second will see us support those in our local community who need God's love and prayers this Christmas time.  Watch this space for further news!

 

Harvest Appeal

An amazing £265.33 was raised by the school for our Bahamas Appeal. This will be sent to Unicef to help with their relief aid in the islands. The school Council would like to thank everyone who helped contribute to this.

Bahamas Day

On Thursday 10 October, the school,celebrated Bahamas Discovery Day. Barn Owl Class have been learning all about Christopher Columbus this term and how he discovered the Bahamas and so wanted to join in the Bahamas Discovery Day Celebrations. This also linked into our Harvest Appeal, which this year was for the relief work being undertaken in the Bahamas following the devastation from Hurricane Dorian.

The children were encouraged to come to school dressed in bright clothes for a donation to our appeal. The weather was quite dull, but inside the school it was a bright and vibrant place with colour everywhere.

The day started with one of our parents, Mr Bowyer, recounting his experiences from his recent relief work in the Bahamas from which he had just returned. The children were able to understand the effect the hurricane had had on the island and how the money they had raised would help the children on the islands.

At lunchtime, our school kitchen had produced a special Bahama's theme lunch of BBQ chicken with lemon cous cous or sweet potato curry followed by tropical fruit and coconut muffins. It was great for our children to be able to experience some different flavours.

A great day was had by all, but especially Barn Owl Class who re-enacted Christopher Columbus landing on his first beach, exploring the island and building shelters.

Fire Service Visit

On Tuesday 15 October, two of our classes, Barn Owl and Eagle Owl, took part in a fire safety workshop run by Hampshire Fire Service. The focus of the workshops was safety within the home and the children discussed what their families could do to make their homes a safer place. The older children thought about how they would safely evacuate their house and took evacuation plans home with them to complete with their families. The younger children thought about smoke alarms and the need to check them weekly as well as being able to try on some of the fireman's uniform. The workshops were fun but very informative.

Harvest Festival

On Thursday 3 October, the whole school joined with parents and families in the Parish Church to celebrate Harvest Festival. The service was led by our Infant Department and focused on the different Harvest traditions both in our country and around the world. Our youngest children, some of whom had only been at school for four weeks, sang a song about harvest on a farm, with Miss Brewster accompanying them on the guitar. They then told us about Harvest in England. Barn Owl Class had been researching what other harvest traditions are observed in different countries and very confidently presented what they had learned along with pictures and flags relating to each country.

The choir sang two Harvest songs, one of which reminded us that we need to share what we have with those people who do not have as much as us to eat. This was shown within our Harvest Appeal, which this year was the Unicef Appeal for the Bahamas, which have been devastated by Hurricane Dorian.

The service was a joyful occasion which was enjoyed by everyone present.

Green Ambassadors

Our new Green Ambassadors, Eleanor,Joshua, Edward, Henry and Jake have already held two meetings and have generated lots of ideas for ways in which the school can become more green. This half term they are reinforcing all the work that was undertaken last year on recycling within school. New signs are being made for our recycling bins and they will be reminding all the classes via presentations and games, what can and cannot be recycled.

A new Green Ambassadors Box has been created where the children can put details of any green initiatives they are doing at home. These will then be shared in Collective Worship on a Friday.

The Green Ambassadors are also hoping to send home newsletters which will encourage you to think about what families can do at home to become more Green - watch this space!

Don't forget that you can recycle your old batteries (AAA,AA,C & D) in our battery recycling bin the school lobby.

Relax Kids

During the Autumn Term, each class will be taking part in a six week 'Relax Kids' program which teaches the children relaxation techniques through yoga and mindfulness. When questioned on how they felt after a session, Hawk Owl class children said it made them feel relaxed, calm, peaceful and warm.

 Fit4kids Workshops

On Thursday the 19th September Snowy Owls, Barn Owls, Hawk Owls and Eagle Owls all did the Fit4kids workshops. Paul told us about sugar and the food traffic light system. Paul told us that not only sugar can hurt our bodies but fats and salt too. For example Walkers Ready Salted crisps are green for sugar however they are red for fat as they have 8.0g of fat which is bad for you. So we learned that crisps are ok as a treat but shouldn't be eaten too often. We also looked at lots of other foods and said if we thought they were healthy or not. We thought the Oat Granola bars were healthy but actually they have lots of sugar from the honey. 

Paul also talked to us about how important it is to be fit & healthy. First off we did a warm up which was jogging on the spot. Then he showed us lots of different exercises such as squats, lunges, air cycling and lots more fun activities! At the end we did star jumps to cool down. It's important to warm up so that you don't pull any muscles and the cool down helps your body recover from the exercises. 

It was really fun and now we know more about being fit and healthy. 

By Jessica Stokes - Hawk Owl Class.

 

Welcome to a new school year

Over the last couple of weeks we have welcomed back to school our children and staff and also welcomed into our family both children and staff new to the school. The children have settled back quickly and are eagerly finding out about their new learning projects for this term. More details of each class' exciting learning projects are available under class news on the website. Our collective worship theme for this half term is looking at 'Belonging', as well as celebrating our Harvest Festival.

All the staff are looking forward to sharing lots of exciting learning opportunities with your children.

Belonging - Our Collective Worship theme - click the link to see what we have been exploring

children proudly presented to their parents their projects for the Spring Term which is always eagerly anticipated!

Parents in Eagle Owl Class were able to listen to presentations from children pitching their design for the class Victorian Garden. In Hawk Owl Class the children proudly showed off their art work and everything they had learned about Antarctica this term. Barn Owl Class parents were welcomed to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and heard a fantastic debate on whether chocolate is good for you! The children in Snowy Owl Class were able to share their picture book stories with parents and also their understanding of what a hero is.

It was a fantastic morning, enjoyed by children, parents and staff alike. Below are some of the comments from the exhibitions:

• The children love being part of this special family.
• What a fantastic morning - such a fabulous presentation of all the children's hard work.
• It is so wonderful to see our children's work. They are so proud of all they have achieved. It is clear the children and staff have all been working very hard. Thank you
• Very pleased to see our grandchildren in Hawk class. they are very happy at school.

School Science Day

What an exciting day the school had celebrating British Science day. We were very lucky to welcome several visitors to the school who brought with them exciting workshops, covering a whole range of scientific subjects.

Kier Construction led construction workshops with each class which involved design and practical exercises. Two ladies from Winchester Cathedral came dressed in medieval costumes and helped the children to learn all abut medieval medicines as well as helping them to make some of their own. Dr. Hazard had created crime sites and taught the children how to undertake some simple forensic tests to help them identify the culprit. Mrs Hearn brought Bruce, her skeleton, with her to give the children an insight into what the inside of our body looks like and how we work.

The Juniors also took part in the great egg challenge - who could create a structure out of spaghetti that could hold an egg for the longest time!

It was a fascinating day, enjoyed by all, with lots of learning happening all across the school.

Spring Music Concert

On Tuesday 19 March, the school had a celebration of music with its annual Spring Music Concert. This concert provides an opportunity for all our children who learn an instrument or sing in the choir, to perform in front of an audience. The concert was compered by Mr Timms, from Hampshire Music Service and the children were also supported by Ms Schwartz and Mrs Ball. The concert had twenty six performances and a vast range of instruments were played: Piano, Brass, Clarinet, Flute, Violin and recorder and the school choir also sang three songs. This meant that about half of the school took part which is a wonderful achievement for a small school.  It was wonderful to see how confidently all the children played and sang - well done to everyone!

eCadets Internet Safety Day 2019

Internet Safety Day 2019 was led by our current eCadets: Kate Hearn; Freddie Hamilton; Kodi Bones; Emily Foster; Cecily Insole and Rosie White. Kate and Kodi led an activity in Snowy Owls called ‘Around The World’ where the Year Rs and the Year 1s painted their hands different colours and printed them around a globe stuck onto sugar paper. The results were wonderful and it showed no matter where we are from we should treat everyone fairly whether it be online or in reality.

Rosie led an activity called ‘Happiness Stones’ in Barn Owls. It involved the Year 1s and Year 2s painting stones with things that made them feel happy. They all turned out beautiful and it reminded the children to only say positive things online.

Cecily and Emily led an activity called ‘Mistake Monsters’ in Hawk Owls. The Year 3s and Year 4s used straws to blow paint around an A3 piece of paper to create a Mistake Monster. They added n facial features to make them really come to life and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Afterwards they had a quiz and everyone’s results were more than expected.

Freddie led an activity called ‘Social Stats’ in Eagle Owls. The Year 5s and Year 6s cut up some social statistics and used them for a matching game to help them with their knowledge. It was clear they enjoyed themselves.

It was evident that everyone loved the day of education and fun. The eCadets also enjoyed showing the classes what they had prepared. Overall it was a fantastic day.

World Book Day

There is always a sense of anticipation and excitement around the school when World Book Day approaches and it was no different this year. Families, this year, were asked to consider what their favourite family book was and to come to school dressed as a character from this book. Arriving at school was a whole menagerie of animals, witches, wizards, Willy Wonkas, fairies, princesses and an even wider range of characters. Parents were invited in to school at the beginning of the day to share their favourite book together with their children. The classes then congregated in the hall to share all their amazing costumes and for World Book day to be launched. In each class exciting activities had been planned for the children to take part in throughout the day. Lunchtime saw the school kitchen serving a very popular  Gruffalo themed menu of fox burgers, snake surprise and squashed owl, with the kitchen staff dressing as mice. The Year 6 children then shared story sacks with the younger children. The day ended with a book sale where families had the opportunity to purchase more books to read at bargain prices.

It was fantastic to see all the hard work children, parents and staff had put in to making this a memorable day for the children.

Ash Wednesday Service

On Ash Wednesday, 6th March, we went into Collective Worship. Mark the Vicar was leading it because it was Ash Wednesday, a holy day of prayer. It was the start of Lent so it was six weeks before Easter, a whole term away. In the middle of assembly we lined up if we wanted to so we could get a cross our forehead which represents a phrase - "Remember you are dust and dust are you". We kept our crosses on all day so God stayed with us.

By Tilly Leader Hawk Owl Class 

 

 

 

 

 

HMS String Concert

On 27 February the school welcomed two members of Hampshire Music Service who performed before the whole school with a variety of stringed instruments. The aim of the concert was to expand the children's knowledge of the string family by letting them hear a violin, viola and cello. A range of music was played and the children enjoyed listening to the different pieces. It certainly gave our children who are having violin lessons something to aspire to!

Refugee experience 

Before the February half-term, Year 5 and 6 children in Eagle Owl Class led a Refugee Experience at All Saints Church.  Travelling to church by ‘boat’ (a team of artists painted 9-metre fabric panels to depict the treacherous journeys many refugees face), the children led this experience in a mature and sensitive way. The class looked at the world’s current refugee crisis, and the work of the UN Refugee Council in using tent art therapy to help refugee’s open up about their experiences, and decided to paint their own tent to demonstrate their learning.  The exterior panels of our tent represented the refugee crises seen in Eritrea, Burma, Syria and Iraq, and the interior panels represented the hopes and dreams of the young people researched.  The children wanted refugees to be able to sit inside the safe haven of the tent and to hold on to hope that their lives could get better.

O2 Young Voices 2019

The trip to the 02 arena was history-making material.  We boarded the coach and had our lunch on there with Micheldever School (the other school in our Federation). Snow was melting on the banks as we travelled on the coach there, and the journey was the perfect opportunity to have a singsong and catch up with our Federation friends. When we arrived, we got out all of our belongings, climbed out of the coach and stepped into the 02 arena.  We had to wait to go through security and then we had to wait about half an hour until we were allowed into our seats. The conductor had already started to practice one song and we practiced the rest of the songs before the actual performance. We found out that Hugh Jackman had left us a voice recording because of The Greatest Showman melody we were singing, which was a wonderful surprise! We had supper and then we showcased our songs to the audience who, of course, went crazy! Overall, it was a phenomenal experience and we all had a lot of fun! 

My favourite song was Viva la Vida – Natasha Gadney (Year 5)  

My favourite song was pop medley – Flora Leader (Year 5)

My favourite song was the greatest showman melody – Lottie Gatfield (Year 6)

I have participated in Young Voices twice now; this year has been my favourite – Emma Jarman (Year 6)

It was fantastic… - Rosie White (Year 6)

 By Natasha Gadney (Year 5) and Flora Leader (Year 5)

Eco Council 

After leading Eco Council’s Eco Day, we gathered together and discussed an Eco character competition. Three weeks later, the entries were in. There were four runners up: Natasha Gadney, Zack Doig, Toby Kerr, and Max Stokes. We finally came to the agreement that Talia Hazard was our winner. Two creative models entered in to the competition, as well as the winning design from Talia, will be put up on our Eco Council notice board. 

Our latest project – and hopefully most successful – is the battery bin in the school’s reception area. We began this project after discovering that just one battery takes a devastating 100 years to break down. If we recycle batteries, soon our eco system will recover from the damage humans have inflicted. Each pupil has been given a foldable battery box to tale home with them. In this box, all your used batteries can be recycled and then brought into school to be placed in the battery bin. We want to see how quickly we can fill the battery bin in school. We hope you reconsider how you dispose of your batteries; remember: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle!

By Joshua Hazard and Lottie Gatfield 

Chinese New Year 

Click here for pictures of the children celebrating Chinese New Year with a special Chinese themed lunch. 

Federation Football Match 

A fantastic Year 5/6 Federation Football match was held on Monday after school. Both teams played brilliantly in what turned out to be an exciting game which kept the spectators on the edge of their seats. The score was 1-0 to Micheldever after the first third, then Barton Stacy came back in the second third to be 3-2 up. 2 quick goals in the final third saw Micheldever up 4-3 and then Barton Stacey capitalised on a corner kick in the dying seconds of the game. Final score 4-4. A very enjoyable game to watch and well played by all the boys. A big thanks to Mr Gray for coaching the team. 

 Start of Spring Term

All our children have returned to school after an exciting Christmas holiday and are eager to start exploring their new learning topics.

Eagle Owl Class - What can we learn from the Victorians and the world today to create a healthy mind, body and spirit?

Hawk Owl Class - Extreme climates - Antarctica to the Sahara desert! What can we do to save our disappearing world?

Barn Owl Class - Chocolate! Does chocolate change lives for better, for worse or a bit of both?

Snowy Owl Class - What is a hero?

Pantomime

On the last afternoon of term, West End in Schools, came to give a performance of Dick Whittington to the pupils. Lots of scream and shouts could be heard coming from the hall as well as boos and laughter. A fun time was had by all. (Oh no it wasn't, Oh yes it was!)

Autumn Term Awards

Each term the teachers nominate a pupil from their class for one of the school's six awards. The winners of this term's awards were:

• English - Florence Parfey

• Writing - Thomas M

• Maths - Ethan Bailey

• STEM - Harry White

• Sports - Max Stokes & Bo Dowling

• Creative Arts - Esme Vertannes

• School Values - Daisy Reynolds

Christmas Service

On the morning of the last day of term, a procession of light was seen wending its way along the path from the school to the Parish Church. Parents had joined our pupils, to walk to church holding lanterns. The service was led by our Year 5/6 children who interspersed the songs and prayers with readings from the bible and also accounts of what happened at Christmas in WW1. The choir sang beautifully three songs and led the first carol of Once in Royal, with Phoebe singing the solo. Hawk Owl Class provided four thought provoking prayers based around Christ's light bringing peace. Candles were lit throughout the service to remind us of Christ's light in the world. The service ended with two instrumental pieces played by some of our budding musicians. The service was the perfect way to end the term and prepare for the Christmas season.

Stories with Santa

On a cold, dark Thursday afternoon, the children changed into their pyjamas and dressing gowns and snuggled down to an afternoon of stories with Santa. The afternoon commenced with each teacher reading one of their favourite Christmas stories to their class. The children all then came together in the hall to hear the story of The First Christmas. After this the children split into their worship families and rotated around hearing further Christmas stories, drinking hot chocolate and meeting a very special visitor in his grotto where they all received the gift of a book. It was a wonderful afternoon, enjoyed by all.

Christmas Lunch

On Tuesday lunchtime the whole school sat down together for Christmas lunch. The school had also invited the more mature members of our community to join us and so we welcomed thirteen guests to our top table. The school kitchen had been working very hard to produce over 140 yummy Christmas meals, which were enjoyed by everyone present. The children, who were served by the staff  dressed as waiters, waited very patiently whilst everyone was served. The tables looked very festive, decorated with the table decorations and crackers which had been made at DT morning and all the children and visitors wore their hats.

After the meal, the guests enjoyed festive entertainment provided by our musicians and choir, who all performed beautifully.

DT Morning

The school was full of Christmas cheer as the children took part in their Christmas DT morning. The morning started with the children coming together in their worship families. They then rotated around three activities: Cracker making, hat making and decorations for table centres. There was lots of glue and glitter involved and the school was sparkling by the end of the morning. Everything made during the workshops are to be used for the school Christmas lunch.

Class Exhibitions

Parent Comments:

• Many thanks for sharing some amazing work! You should be so proud of every minute you have put into shining and sharing.

• It is always lovely to see our little boy so happy and all the brilliant work everyone has been doing.

• Fantastic, really well done to all the children.

• Amazing work. Beautifully presented. You can see how much hard work the children and teachers have put in. Thank you for inviting us and sharing your super work with us.

• Enjoyed going out with Barn owls to observe the forest and trees.

• Fantastic work! Certainly learned something myself this morning.

• Lots of wonderful work and exhibits on display. The children are obviously passionate about what they have been learning

• It is great to see all the fantastic work the children have done. What interesting topics they learn about.

• It was lovely for the children to be able to show me their own work. They really enjoyed showing all the work they have done and are rightly very proud. Thank you for this opportunity for them to share school life with me.

• Many thanks for sharing some amazing work. You should be so proud of every minute you have put into shining and sharing.

It was fantastic to welcome over sixty families to the school on the morning of our class exhibitions. This is a time for each class to be able to present their learning journeys for the term and for parents to be able to experience what the children have learnt and created. The children are always very excited about being able to share their work with their families.

Infant Nativity Play

The school was full of angelic children as the Infant department performed their Nativity Play, Whoops A Daisy Angel to their parents and families. This was a traditional Nativity Play in which every child played an important part. The  children all spoke clearly and there were plenty of catchy songs which were sung beautifully by all the children.

The hall was full to bursting for both performances with proud families. FROGS provided refreshments at both performances and this added to the festivities and enjoyment of the event.

A big well done must go to all the children and also to the Infant teaching team who produced such an enchanting show.

Collections taken after the shows amounted to nearly £200 and this has been used to purchase more books for the Infant Reading scheme.

Afternoon Tea with Base Club.

On Tuesday the 4^th December members of Base Club were pleased to host six members of the Sutton Scotney Royal British Legion.  This had been arranged in order to thank them for our recent invitation to write poems in honour of the World War One Centenary GP90 pilgrimage to Ypres. 

We had been asked to write or draw something to commemorate 100 years since the end of WW1.  Two of our members, Lottie Gatfield and Ruby Blankley Mc-Donnell, wrote wonderful poetry which the RBL were delighted with.  Not only did they add them to their branch wreaths and take them to the service at the Menin Gate in August but they asked both girls to attend their Remembrance Service at Sutton Scotney and read their poems to the people gathered there.  Both girls did a wonderful job, we were and still are so proud of them both.

This new bond, between the oldest generation of our services and the youngest, seemed too good to finish there. So Base Club decided to invite them in for afternoon tea full of sandwiches, cakes, crisps and biscuits. 

We had a fabulous afternoon getting to know them and it was delight to see our children conversing and laughing with these veterans.  To watch a bond made when one child and one adult, who have never met before, find out they used to live on the same street is extraordinary and wonderful.

I am pleased to say this bond will continue in the New Year.  Plans are already afoot for our new friends to come and see us again soon.

Mrs Cobb

Dress Bright, Be Seen

On the 25^th of November the whole school dressed in fluorescent, reflective and bright clothing. I (Emma Jarman) and my other JRSO (Junior Road Safety Officer) colleagues (Poppy Marshall and Eleanor Thomas) had prepared this whole day to teach everyone in a fun way how to stay safe on the roads. In the morning, we showed the whole school a presentation about how to stay safe on the roads, since the days have become darker as more children are out on the roads in the dark. Each year 1980 children are killed in the UK by road accidents. The children watched a video showing two cyclists one wearing high-viz gear and one without. It took over 19seconds for the driver to see the cyclist without high-viz gear. Everyone joined in to sing a road safety song.  After the presentation, Barn Owl Class decided to practice crossing the road. In conclusion everyone had an educational, fun experience to remember.

Christmas Card Competition

The children were invited to enter a picture for the school Christmas card, which gets sent from the school to the local community and further afield. So many entries were received that it was decided to have four different Christmas cards and a winner was chosen from each class.

The winners were:

Snowy Owl Class - Isaac Noble

Barn Owl Class - Thomas McLeish

Hawk Owl Class - Daisy Reynolds

Eagle Owl Class - Joshua Hazard

Click on the pupil name to see their design.

The runners up were: Arthur Barrett, Maariyah Watts, Liliana Faretra, Lottie Gatfield.

Tag Rugby

On the 24^th of September the new tag rugby team and its captain went to their first tag rugby tournament. On the pitch we had so much fun and enjoyment. The first game was a blast for us, we won against St.Mary Bourne. Smannell and Enham were unable to attend. Longparish drew to us.

On 15^th of November we went to Longparish for our second Rugby Tournament, we won one game and lost two, but we really enjoyed it. We have progressed a lot since we started the tag rugby and we are looking forward to training with Mr Stangroom ready for the next tournament.In a few months we have a tournament at Smannell and Enham.

By Josh and Isaac (captain)

Green Ambassadors write up

So far this term, the Green Ambassadors have helped the school introduce a new recycling system, started to create new posters for recycling and prepare assemblies for the rest of the school.

This new recycling system will improve the recycling of plastics, papers and food around our school. This is an experience for the juniors and infants to learn about what items go in which bin, and what is affecting the plastic problem. Furthermore, our posters containing information about how to help our planet will hopefully help the school remember the impact we can have. We  hope this increases the school's awareness and helps the school to care for plastics and recycling.

We really hope that the Green Ambassadors this year can make a huge difference to the school’s eco- system.

By Eleanor Mallinson and Lottie Gatfield

(A year 5 and a year 6 representative)

Base Club News

The children of ‘Base Club’, our schools military children’s club, have spent quite a number of weeks preparing materials to decorate our WW1 wooden soldier, Archibald.  You will, I am sure, remember reading the letter about the Andover 215 project which took place in Vigo Park, Andover on November 10^th, this was prepared as part of the ‘Centenary Commemorations’ seen across the country.

The name, Archibald, was decided by vote.  All of the children added names to the list which they felt suited our nameless man.  Ideas such as Gary, Ian, and Jim-Bob, (whilst all fetching) didn’t quite suit his ‘demeanour’ so, I was rather relieved when Archibald was the outright winner!

The children spent a number of weeks, after the excitement of naming him, writing letters either to Archibald or to the serving members of their families and drawing pictures of military machines, cap badges and their own families.  They were rightly, extremely proud of their work and there was a growing excitement about how these would be used to decorate Archibald.

I spent much of half term locked away in my dining room, preparing Archibald.  I thoroughly enjoyed using my creative skills to turn the letters into his uniform all the time being driven by an overwhelming pride in what the children had achieved. To finish him off, as he looked a little clean and tidy, I mixed up some super strong coffee and painted him with it, much to my children’s worry! It had the unclean effect I was hoping for and he smelled delicious!  After covering his back with poppies and many, many layers of exterior varnish he was ready and I felt I had achieved my goal.

Returning him to school was exciting, the children were over the moon with how he looked and a few tears from staff told me he had the impact I was hoping for.  We delivered him on the Saturday morning to Vigo Park, where he stood proudly for the day amongst the 214 others.  The sight was incredible. After looking around during the day the Cobb family headed back in the evening to see them all lit up.  The event was declared a huge success with thousands of people visiting over the course of the day.

Archibald is now safely bestowed in the group room at school, where he keeps Base Club and I company on a Monday lunch time, he will be mounted to a wall just inside the main entrance in the future.  Before he starts this long guard, he will come home with me for Christmas and receive a few fresh coats of varnish.

 

For the last few weeks of term Base Club are hosting the Sutton Scotney RBL for afternoon tea and planning their annual Christmas party, which we are all highly excited about!

Mrs Cobb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our School News

Sports Day 2022

Friday 8 July saw the whole school taking part in its annual Sports Day. The children were split into their house teams ready for the day's challenges. During the morning the children undertook a carousel of sports challenges set by Active Me 360. It was Yellow Team that won the morning challenges and raised the team cup. Parents were invited in to share a picnic lunch with their children before the afternoon's races began. Children took part in running, skipping, obstacle, egg & spoon races within their year groups and everyone taking part was cheered no matter where they came. Mums and das also had a chance to show off their skills. At the end of the afternoon it was Red House that was successful in raising the Sport Day Cup. During the afternoon FROGS provided hot and cold drinks and yummy cakes for the Mums and das and then presented each child with an ice lolly at the end of the afternoon which was very welcome.

 Collective Worship - Summer Term

In Collective Worship, we are discussing Bible stories that we would want all our children to know well by the time they leave our Federation. We want them to reflect on how, in each story, our Christian values of Love, Trust, Forgiveness and Hope can be identified and how each story shows a particular Christian value. These all help us learn about our vision statement: “Like the river flowing through our valley, the Dever Valley Federation is a place of life. Everyone is welcome in our family where we grow, learn and achieve alongside one another. The gifts given to us by God support us on our journey; LOVE binds us together, TRUST keeps us together, FORGIVENESS transforms us and HOPE carries us forward through life,” as well as learn how we can have impact within our school and our wider communities, both locally and globally.  This week we looked at the Parable of The Lost Sheep; Jesus reminds us in this parable that every one of us is so precious to Him - He loves us and He will never give up on us, no matter what.  The Shepherd - who represents Jesus and God - leaves the ninety-nine sheep that are safe to go to find the one lost sheep because that sheep is so important to Him, just like each of us.  The children identified that sometimes we can be a bit like that lost sheep and feel far away from God but should remember that God is our shepherd and He will keep searching for us and calling us back until He finds us.

 

Armed Forces Day 

On Friday 24th June Mrs Cobb, Mrs Cousins and our Base Club children arranged our Armed Forces Day activities.  The whole school took part, lots of fun games linked to communication were played. We explored semaphore, Morse code, Lego bridge building, the phonetic alphabet and lots of other cool stuff. The children also talked to some Armed forces veterans from the Royal British Legion. We had a really great day and it was nice that all the children got to join in and have fun and learn about what life is like for military children and families.

Clean Air Day

Our Junior Road Safety Officers and Green Ambassadors joined forces to deliver a presentation to the school this week on 'Clean Air Day'. the presentation can be seen below.

Clean Air Day

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations 

On Friday 27th May, we celebrated the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Our Worship Families created wonderful bunting, flags, spinners and crowns, which graced the street party lunch.  The afternoon was spent enjoying traditional party games in the school grounds.  The children came dressed in red, white and blue for the occasion and many took part in the Great Barton Bake Off. We were delighted to see the wonderful cakes and bakes that the children had produced. Congratulations to Theo Stacey, Viola Landon, Mary Frost & Marie Desfoux and Bo Dowling who were judged the star bakers by Mrs Ewings and Ms Hardman.  The delicious bakes were then sold by FROGS to raise money for the school. 

 Easter Service 2022

A wonderful Easter celebration was held in our school hall.   For some of our children, it was the first time they had experienced such a gathering and it was so lovely to see their happy, smiling faces. The celebration started with our end of term awards. It is always a privilege to hear of the amazing work the children and have accomplished and how they have used their learning powers and school values to achieve this. The classes then retold the story of Easter through drama, words, prayers and poems, and the choir sang two Easter songs. Our prayers were led by Hawk Owl Class and Rev. Helen then said a final blessing. To finish, we were able to re-introduce a Barton Stacey tradition as the Infant children paraded around the hall in their wonderful Easter Bonnets. All the children were amazing and celebrations such as this reminds us all how lucky we are to be part of our special Barton Stacey family. 

 

 

British Science Day 

In celebration of the 'Growth' themed British Science Week this year, every child spent a full and immersive day exploring one or more aspects of STEM. The days learning complimented current topics and/or provided an opportunity to revise previously taught concepts. Activities included: Accurately measuring and plotting hand growth as part of an existing longitudinal study; Planning and planting window boxes to enhance the London landscape whilst learning about plants,

Constructing, testing and revising construction of load bearing bridges, 

Looking at NASAs mission to Mars, the pioneering Perseverance rover, 'firsts' for technology on Mars and using revised knowledge of planets to create a fictitious creature adapted to survive on Mars complete with a stop animation depiction of its life cycle. Phew! 

The children had a fabulously engaging day and who knows, a 'seed' planted this year may grow into a successful Scientist, Engineer, Technologist or Mathematician in the future?!

  

World Book Day 

The school was alive with book characters filling the corridors, classrooms and playgrounds as we celebrated World Book Day.  We showed off our costumes on TEAMS in a Virtual session where we discussed the three ways we can look at characters through mirrors, windows and sliding doors.  It was lovely to hear the children discuss the books they explored, talking about how they view the characters and how they see themselves represented in books they read.  

    

 

Internet Safety Day 

Tuesday 8th February was Internet Safety Day. As well as presenting an assembly to the School, our eCadets have also produced a Top Tips file for parents and children. This is full of useful information to help children stay safe online as well as tips for parents to guide their children on appropriate use of the internet. Click the Safer Internet Day below to read the internet safety advice. 

Green Ambassadors 

Here at Barton Stacey we are very lucky to have children who are passionate about protecting our world. They believe in making changes at home, and in school, to make the planet a better place for us all. At the beginning of each academic year the children are invited to put themselves forward to be our Green Ambassadors. This year we have 6 Green Ambassadors from our Junior Classes; they spend time working together each week and have put together their very own "Green" magazine called "Our Planet". It is full of useful facts and information that we are sure you and your children will enjoy reading about. Swift, The Green Ambassador mascot, will take you to the magazine. 

Grow a £1

A big thank you to all our families who took part in our Grow a £1 campaign this term to raise funds for our Peace & Wellbeing Garden. We were amazed at all the creative ideas the children came up with to raise money.

Each child who took part has received a certificate today.

The grand total raised is

£2762.21

 

Christmas Service 2021

The support and turn-out for this morning's Christmas Service was wonderful; thank you to all parents, family and friends of the school who took part.  Once again, the children did themselves proud and led a beautiful service, full of poignant reflection, joyful singing, excellent writing, creative musicianship and prayer.  Our thanks go to Reverend Helen O'Sullivan for supporting us with blessings and a special thank you to the Eagle Owl teaching team and Mrs Ball for co-ordinating such a beautiful service.

 

Nativity 2021

This year the Nativity, led by our Infant children, was called ‘The Inn-Spectors’ and our youngest children gave two wonderful performances to guests.  Their superb acting, signing and dancing was a joy to watch and it was lovely to be able to showcase this.  Here is a snippet of the children in action.

 

 

 Class Exhibitions

Thank you to all parents and friends of the school who joined us for this morning's class exhibitions.  The children were absolutely thrilled to showcase their learning to you and we hoped you enjoyed finding out all about their learning and progress this term.  Due to the inclement weather, we were unable to host the Eagle Owl Class exhibition outdoors; however, Mrs Johnson and Mrs Griggs have been busy photographers and have put together a presentation which can be seen on the website here  https://www.bartonstacey.hants.sch.uk/Class-News/

Below are some of the wonderful comments made by our parents.

Lovely to see the happy learning

Very impressed by the attention to detail, thought & creativity in every task on display.

So lovely to see what they have been up to.

The classroom is beautiful

Such a wonderful school. Thank you for having us.

Fantastic work

Amazing work. So proud and engaged. Wonderful!

So lovely to finally see their classroom.

Incredible work. So amazing

Excellent imaginative work

Loved it!

Wonderful to see the lovely  displays and work.

Thank you for taking the time to have us. Wonderful displays & work.

Lovely work. My child talks about topic work a lot at home.

 Lovely to have such an enthusiastic tour guide, happy and excited about school.

Great to see the class room & resources they have used. They all seem so happy.

Brilliant to see such hard work

Fantastic displays and variety of work

Wow, that was brilliant.

Thank you. So good to see them in class with their work.

Thank you  for the insight into the amazing work you all doing with the children.

Haven’t they all worked hard! Fantastic to see all the activities and how much they have learnt.

 

 

 

 

Odd Socks/Be Bright Be Seen Day

• This week, we marked anti-bullying week by wearing odd socks, symbolising that it's ok to be different.  In Worship, we focused on the power of words and how kind words can make a huge difference.  From the Bible, we heard the story of Zacchaeus and considered how it feels to be both isolated and part of the crowd.
• As well as odd socks, Thursday saw the children and staff wearing their brightest clothes to celebrate Be Bright, Be Seen Day.  Georgina and Tekla, our Junior Road Safety Officer's, discussed the importance of wearing brighter clothing whilst out about after school, particularly now that the darker evenings have drawn in.

 

Climate Change

In Collective Worship this week we have been discussing the COP26 summit and have considered what we can all do to take better care of God's world.  Hawk Owl Class were inspired to take part in the BBC Bitesize Climate Change Live Lesson on Wednesday.

Our Green Ambassadors are also hard at work thinking of ways in which we can help our planet. Don't forget to look at their tip of the week on each week's school news bulletin.

TAG Rugby League

It is lovely that our Year 5/6 children have resumed being part of the Georgian Tag Rugby League.  Yesterday afternoon, the team played against North Waltham, Longparish and Cliddesden Primary Schools.

RBL Remembrance Service 2021

On Sunday 14th November some of our Base Club pupils attended the Remembrance Parade at South Wonston to represent the school. Annabelle undertook a reading and Thomas had the honour of laying a wreath.

  

  

 Remembrance Service 2021

Thank you to all of you who joined us via Teams yesterday to commemorate Remembrance Day, particularly  Reverend O'Sullivan, who led us in blessings and The Lord's Prayer.  The poignant service was led by the children from Eagle Owl Class, who shared their wonderful poetry based on the work of the poet, Laura Mucha; the writing was also accompanied by paintings and collages from Hawk Owl Class, and prayers from Base Club children.  An acer has been planted here at school to remember all those who are affected by war and conflict; it will be transferred to the peace and wellbeing space in the school grounds once this has been established. 

 

Harvest 2021

Walktober

Today is the start of Walktober, this is a challenge held each October to celebrate and focus the mind on International Walk to School Month. We are all more aware than ever that exercising and spending time outside enjoying our surroundings is great, if not essential, for our wellbeing. That is what the Walktober challenge is all about: walking to improve your mental wellbeing. We launched Walktober with the children yesterday and earlier this week we e mailed some resources to help families  complete as many challenges as possible this month. At the start of each week, we will e mail out further resources with ideas and suggestions of things you can do whilst out walking.

 

Grow a £1

This Autumn Barton Stacey sees the return of our Grow a Pound challenge. Over the following weeks we will challenge your child to be creative and come up with a project which uses the £1 coin and helps them raise more money, which will be used to enhance our outdoor areas, especially a project to create a peace and wellbeing garden. We do appreciate that a pound is not a lot and that for some of the children’s ideas they may need to use resources that they already have or put a little of their own money into first, which can then be taken back from their profits. This is something we discussed with them during the launch assembly in September.  Alternatively, your child might like to group together with a few of their friends and do a joint project.  We last ran this project around five years ago and were amazed that the children turned just over £100 into thousands, so just imagine how much we could raise this time!  Every penny helps as you can see below: 

If every child raised 1 extra pound we would raise £113

If every child raised 5 extra pounds we would raise £565

If every child raised 10 extra pounds we would raise £1130

 All we ask the children to do is to use the £1 however they choose, then in the week beginning 15 November, bring the money that they have raised into school along with the slip below saying what they did and how much they raised.  The pictures below show some of the fabulous ideas children have come up with so far. 

17/09/21

In Collective Worship this week we explored the story of the woman at the well, as recorded in the Gospel of John. Due to some past mistakes and the fact the lady was different to those in her community, she was not treated with love and kindness. The woman came to the well each day feeling empty – unloved, unknown and unwelcome - yet Jesus took the time one day to speak to her and to truly understand her. Little by little, during the conversation at the well, the woman started to feel more whole. She felt welcomed, loved and accepted. In our classes we have been thinking about how we can show kindness towards one another, particularly those who may feel unloved at times - Snowy Owls created painted handprints in a flowing river, symbolising that we use kind hands at our school, and Barn Owl Class showed us their very colourful Kindness Umbrella, with positive acts of kindness hanging from the ribs of the umbrella.

Collective Worship theme for Autumn 1

It has been wonderful to meet for face-to-face Collective Worship this week and to see how supportive and caring every child is within their Worship Family. Our theme this half-term is 'How do we flourish together?', and over the coming weeks we will focus on the concepts of belonging; love; getting back on track; making sense of our feelings; giving generously of ourselves; growing in resilience together; and growing to be the very best we can be. This week, the children thought about how they can help people they don’t know so well and how they can extend their love and kindness so that it shines out towards the people they come across who are hurt, sad, suffering and lonely. The children discussed the story of the Good Samaritan and what it really means to be a neighbour.

Welcome back to our 21/22 school year

It has been wonderful to welcome all our children and families back to school today. We have been graced with explorers and den builders, and our eldest children were ‘displaced’ to All Saints Church as part of the launch to this term’s learning project. It was also lovely to speak to Alfie, Lily-Rose, Theo and Sebby this morning, who popped in to speak to me whilst taking a tour of the Junior end of the school for the first time since starting with us. They have kindly promised to brighten up my office walls with some of their artwork.

As part of our Collective Worship together this afternoon, we sat together in our Worship Families for the first time in 18 months and spoke about our dreams and goals for this year and what we are like as learners and individuals. The children rewrote a quote from the board  at the front of school–

When we enter our classroom…
We are kind and loving.
We are resilient.
We are determined.
We are all ready to learn.
We are a kind friend.
We are creative and understanding.
We trust each other.
We are happy and have fun.
We are smiley.
We can rely on each other.
We are resourceful.
We are learning detectives with creative sparks.
We are the Barton Stacey Family.

Safer Internet Day 2021

Today, Tuesday 9 February 2021, we celebrate the 18th edition of Safer Internet Day with actions taking place right across the globe. With a theme once again of "Together for a better internet", this day calls upon everyone to join together to make the internet a safer and better place for all, and especially for children and young people.

The UK Safer Internet Centre has put together a range of excellent resources for parents and families, which can be accessed by clicking each link below.

What do I need to know about Safer Internet Day?

Conversation Starters

Family Activities

Family Online Safety Plan

Parents and Carers Resource Sheet

Show Your Support

What To Trust Online (A Parent and Carers Guide)

Safer Internet Day Poster

Remembrance 2020

Eagle Owl and Hawk Owl Class are proud to present this year's Remembrance Service, focusing on service and sacrifice shown during World War II and in more recent times.

 

Bag2School Collection

On Tuesday 10th November we had a Bag2School collection. We had an amazing response and between school and the Pre-school we collected a total of 1321kg of clothing. This resulted in FROGS and the pre-school receiving just under £200 each! 

Harvest 2020

The children are delighted to share their Harvest 2020 video with you.  

Welcome back!  It has been wonderful to welcome you and your family back to school this week.  We missed having our school family together in school over the last few months.  The children have settled very well and are enjoying school life again.  We have also welcomed our new Reception children this week on short staggered visits.  It has been lovely to welcome new and familiar faces to our Snowy Owl Class. 

                      May we begin with a thank you all for your patience and understanding during the period when school was not open to all children.  May we also thank you for reading and following all our guidance and documents sent home.  It has been challenging as a school, with government guidance changing or being updated frequently and with little notice. We will, of course, keep reviewing our guidance and any changes that are made will be communicated to you so please keep an eye on your emails each day for any changes.

                      You have received the diary dates for this term and we will be in contact as soon as possible for how we are organising our Harvest Celebration and Parent evenings.  Frogs have kindly given each child a special welcome back gift of a Barton Stacey notebook and the children have enjoyed receiving them in school.  There are fundraising events being planned and Frogs will be in touch soon to share these plans with you.

                      We will send our weekly, school newsletter home on Friday, as usual, and if you have any questions at all, or want to speak to anyone, please be in contact by phone, email or drop a note in the box outside the main reception door. 

                      Wishing you and your family health and best wishes.

Hampshire Music Service Resources

Keep Calm and Make Music in KS1 and KS2

Hampshire Music Service have produced some resources that can be used at home, called Keep calm and make music in KS1 and KS2. These are available to download by clicking on the relevant year group for your child.

Year 1-2: Walking The Dog

Year 3-4: In The Hall of the Mountain King (‘Grieg’ sound file available here)

Year 5-6: Music of the Planets (‘Holst’ sound file available here).  Paint is needed for one of the activities, but this could be substituted for other art materials you may have at home.

 

Science Day

Well what an amazing day we all had on Friday 13 March when we celebrated British Science week. The children had a day full of workshops and activities looking at many different aspects of science.

Once again, we welcomed Winchester cathedral, who led sessions looking at what animals need to do to succeed; food, shelter, and a place to raise their babies. With the Infants they introduced them to a robin who had made the Cathedral its home and then worked with the children to create robins out of fat balls. The Juniors were shown examples of animals that could be seen illustrated in the Cathedral and then they were challenged to create their own  animal gargoyles and describe them by using animal features.

Dr South, a dentist, came to speak to our Infants about our mouth and teeth and he was so impressed by our children, that he phoned up the following week to compliment them on their behaviour and the excellent questions they asked, as well as the wonderful feel to the school.

Mr Dunford, one of our parent governors, spent his morning in the Juniors. His topic was 'Internet of things' and he used his workshop to explore how the internet is used for communication between many devices across the world.

In the afternoon, the whole school watched a presentation on shark diversity and plastic pollution, which was thoroughly enjoyed by them all.

One Voice Singing Concert

On Tuesday, 10 March, children from Eagle Owl Class journeyed with children from Micheldever to take part in a 'One Voice' Singing Concert at The Anvil in Basingstoke. The concert had been planned and arranged by Hampshire Music Service to show what an impact singing can have on well being. A singing teacher from Hampshire Music Service had visited the school in January to run a workshop with the class and to introduce the children to the songs they would be singing which they then practised within class in the weeks leading up to the concert.

The songs were all linked to inner feelings and were designed to make the children feel good about themselves. The songs included:

Sing, sing, sing

Three little birds

Count on me

Ain't no mountain high enough

Quiet confidence

Lean on me

Something inside so strong

Sing

At The Anvil there were around 1000 children from different schools within Hampshire who joined together with a children's choir on stage, to sing the above songs. There were also performances from the choir and a soloist, a young lady confined to a wheelchair, who sang Defying Gravity, and shared with the audience what singing means to her.

Singing with a thousand children was an amazing experience and everyone left the concert on a high.

 

World Book Day - A rainbow of colours makes this world a wonderful, diverse place.

At Barton Stacey we are always working hard to promote reading for pleasure with our children.  Research shows that children who read for pleasure go on to achieve better results as they move through school.  

This year World Book Day at Barton Stacey took place on Friday 5^th March.  The theme this year was ‘Share a Million Stories.’  Throughout the day there were opportunities for children to share books both in class time and at social times but as a school we chose a particular text around which to build our learning activities.  The text this year for all year groups was ‘The Day The Crayons Quit.’ By Oliver Jeffers.  

Children were invited to come to school dressed in the colour of their favourite crayon from the book.  We hope this got you all talking about why this is your favourite and generated lots of book inspired talk around your dinner tables over half term!  We asked each child to remember to think carefully about what the colours represent.  For example: Red crayon is quite cross in the text, whilst Purple is a true perfectionist!  Yellow and orange crayons are not speaking to each other and are arguing over which of them is the true colour of the sun.

The day will started with a Worship session on one of the key themes of the text, diversity and teamwork.  We all know it takes many different colours to make up a whole box of crayons. There was also  lots of drama, book talk and other opportunities taking place in classrooms which helped to generate some exciting book themed writing.

At the end of the day we  invited parents to come into school to share a story with their child.  It was lovely to see so many parents in classes sharing their book not only with their children but also other children within the school.

Earlier in the week, we welcomed West End in Schools, who performed their World Book Week show ' Around the world in 80 days'. The children really enjoyed the show and lots of laughter could be heard emanating from the hall.

Skip2bfit

On Tuesday 25 February, the whole school took part in Skip2Bfit, a program which encourages children to use skipping as a way to increase fitness. In the afternoon the Juniors also took part in Box2Bfit which involved a fitness circuit. All the children had a great time and improved their performances throughout the session. At the end of the day there was a skip off between the pupil and staff member with the highest scores. It was very close, with just one skip in it - Well done to both Tilly and Miss Mitchell. It has been lovely to see so many of the children out on the playground now with their newly purchased skipping ropes. Our aim now is to purchase some of the skipping ropes for the school so that the pupils can continue ti improve their skipping scores and fitness.

Para-Olympian visit

 On Thursday 27 February we were visited by Lucy Shuker, a ParaOlympic tennis player who will taking part in this year’s Olympics in Japan. Lucy was truly inspirational as she told the children about her journey to becoming an athlete and how she overcame adversity to achieve her goal. After her presentation the Junior children had the opportunity to be able to ask questions. The following link is to Lucy’s website. https://www.lucyshuker.com/

Walking to school

Recently, our Junior Road Safety officers and Green Ambassadors joined forces to encourage our pupils to walk, scoot or cycle to school. The children discussed why reducing the amount of traffic on our roads is important for the environment as well as making our village a safer place. Time was also spent giving advice on how the children can remain safe while doing this.

Well done to all the pupils who led the presentation and discussion. A copy of the presentation is below.

Travelling to school

Spirituality

This term, in collective worship, the school has been exploring spirituality both within classes and in their worship families. Attached is a PowerPoint presentation which explains what the children have been thinking about.

Spirituality Moments

 Internet Safety Day

On Tuesday 11 February, Internet Safety day, our e cadets did a wonderful assembly to the whole school on the importance of staying safe when using computers and social media. This was followed up with age appropriate workshops in each class. In the afternoon, parents had been invited in to watch the assembly and take part in a question & answer session. Well done to our e cadets who did a fantastic job in making us all more aware.

Japanese Fan Dancing

With this year's Olympic Games being held in Japan, we were pleased to welcome into school, a lady who introduced each class to Japanese culture and in particular Japanese Fan Dancing. Each child was given a fan, and then taught how to create graceful, fluid movements. After some practise, the children were then able to fit the movements together  to form a Japanese fan dance which was accompanied by traditional Japanese music. The workshop allowed the children to experience a very different form of exercise, with them having to be slow and precise.

Learning Pit Challenge Week

This week has been Learning Pit Challenge Week across the school. From chairs made from newspaper, to aqueducts and spaghetti bridges, the children have been experiencing what it is like to be deep in the Learning Pit and what steps they can take to get back out again. The Learning Pit was first designed by James Nottingham and more information can be found here: www.challenginglearning.com/learning-pit Expect to hear children talking about ‘being in the pit’ throughout the year; one of our Year 1’s told his teacher today that he was stuck in the pit and was able to verbalise the steps he could take to help him remain resilient with his learning.

Special Lunches

During January and February the school kitchen celebrated two very different occasions with two especially themed lunches for the children.

During January we celebrated AA Milne’s birthday with a Winnie-the-Pooh lunch. A letter was sent home inviting every child’s teddy bear to come into school on the day and accompany their owner to their dinner which included heffalumps and honey buns! The teddies all enjoyed their outing and were very well behaved.

At the beginning of February, Barn Owl Class, had a day full of activities to help them find out more about the Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated. As part of this, the kitchen produced a Chinese themed meal along with chopsticks. Luckily knives and forks were available for those who found mastering the chopsticks more difficult than expected!

Mrs Ewings and Miss Hardman always provide excellent meals but their hard work and inspiration for these two meals were greatly appreciated by everyone.

Stories with Santa

The last afternoon of term saw all the children taking part in Stories with Santa. the whole school met in the hall to hear the Christmas Story read by Mr Stangroom before splitting into their worship families to move around the school. The children were able to listen to two more seasonal stories, have hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows and visit Santa who had a special present for all of them. The afternoon finished with everyone getting back together to sing 'We wish you a merry Christmas' and give three cheers for Barton Stacey .

Christmas Carol Service

On Wednesday morning, All saints Church was full to bursting for this year's Christmas Service. The service opened with some of our instrumentalists playing some well know Christmas tunes before Rev. Mark blessed both the filled socks that had been collected for our homeless appeal and our new school banner. Our Year 5/6 children then led the service which was interspersed with bible readings and carols which retold the Christmas Story along with some of our Infant children who produced a tableau. The choir sang three Christmas songs which included solos as well as solos and descants for the congregational carols. A beautiful story was told by two of our Year 6 children which had been written by themselves telling the story of a robin and a homeless family who both find their forever home. The service ended with our end of term award presentations:

English - Bella -Rae

Writing - Toby Kerr

Maths - Kai Whiskerd

STEM - Sami Dunford

Sport - Ivy Oates

Creative Arts - Scott Coultish

School Values - Edward Stear

Christmas Lunch

On Tuesday 17 December, the kitchen staff, Mrs Ewings and Mrs Hardman did an amazing job producing over 150 Christmas lunches for children, staff and some special guests from the village. In the morning the children had spent time making their own festive hats for the celebration and the hall was full of sparkles as they sat down for their lunch. The food was served by the staff who were dressed either in their waiter outfits or Christmas clothes. After the meal the guests were entertained by the school choir and some of our instrumentalists with some festive tunes.

Class Exhibitions

Monday 16 December saw all our children eagerly coming to school to prepare themselves ready for their end of term Class Exhibitions. This is something that both children, staff and parents enjoy enormously as it gives the children an opportunity to share with their families everything they have been learning during the term. Over seventy parents arrived to spend time with their children and the school was buzzing with the sound of excited voices.

Some parents' comments are below:

'Lovely to see all the children's beautiful work. A great learning environment with lots of fun activities'

'Fantastic displays in all the classes I visited today. Great to see all the brilliant work the children have been doing'

'Love these opportunities to come & see what they've been doing as a class - really lovely atmosphere. Thank you'

'What a wonderful way for the children to share all their beautiful work.'

Green Ambassadors Assembly

During the Autumn Term, our green Ambassadors have been working hard to raise the awareness in school of how we can all be more environmentally friendly. Below is a link to the presentation they gave to the school.

Green Ambassador Presentation.

This term the Green Ambassadors have launched the Eco-Box. It is a beautiful box made by Joshua Hazard and if a child does something great for the environment, they can write it down and include a picture if they wish and post it in the Eco- box. So far this term we have had Anabelle Frost, Natasha Gadney, Talia Hazard, Harriet Wadey and Daisy Reynolds. Thank you to all these people.

In the next term we will be looking at Energy saving, food waste and paper waste.

 

Listen 2 Me Concert

This term, Hawk Owl Class, have been learning the ukulele through Hampshire Music Service's Listen 2 Me program. On Thursday 12 December, parents and the rest of the school were invited to come and listen to a concert which featured them playing around eight pieces as well as singing. They all played very confidently and it was lovely to see how much progress they had made over a term.

Infant Nativity - The Magic Snowflake

Parents and grandparents were in for a treat this week as our Infant Department performed their Nativity Play, The Magic Snowflake, which had been written specially for the school by our Executive Headteacher, Mrs Brewster. The play tells the story of a snowmen and a penguin who are given a magic star which allows them to fly to Bethlehem to see the birth of Jesus and the many people and animals who visited. The story was interspersed with lots of songs, which the children sang enthusiastically and also beautiful dances from snowflakes and angels.

We are very proud of our youngest children who retold the Christmas story so beautifully, and a big thank you must go to our Infant staff who worked so hard.

FROGS Christmas Fayre & Christmas jumper day

Friday 6 December saw the launch of the Christmas season at school, as FROGS held their annual Christmas Fayre. The hall was full of goodies for the children (and parents) to buy, as well as delicious cakes and crafts. 

During the day, children came to school, dressed in their Christmas jumpers. There was certainly lots of sparkle and shine in school!

12 days of gifting

As part of our worship theme of Belonging this term we have been looking at how we belong to a community and how it feels to belong. The children have been learning about those in our community who are less fortunate. Rev Bailey has been telling us about an initiative to help those who are homeless in our local area through supporting the Winchester Night Shelter and Andover Crisis & Support Centre. The Winchester Night Shelter mainly supports men through their work and the Andover Centres mainly supports women and their children through their work. We have asked our children to get involved in supporting this initiative. The initiative is providing a filled sock of treats at Christmas. The SLT have donated the socks and we are asking that the children help fill them. Each class will have three pairs of socks to fill during December. A class will be responsible for filling one sock each week and this will be shared during our Worship. We ask that the following donations are brought to school for the children to put in their class box of donations ready to fill the socks during worship.
? Chocolate and treats
? Soap and other toiletries
? Combs/brushes and hair bobbles
? Any other suitable treats/nice items
We know that supporting this initiative will bring so much joy to others and that our children will enjoy helping those less fortunate. We thank you in advance for your support and look out for photographs of the filled socks on our website and Twitter during December.

Attached is the power point presentation that the children participated in during collective worship this week, about homelessness.

'No room at the inn'

Quidditch Workshops

On 5^th November, it was no ordinary day at Barton Stacey School! It looked more like Hogwarts in the hall. We were having our Quidditch Workshops based on the novels of Harry Potter by J.K Rowling. The day started off by every class coming into the hall as the Quidditch assembly was taking place. We went into the hall and saw Darren and Jack stood at the front. Just like in Harry Potter, we then got sorted into the four school houses Gryffindor; Slytherin; Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw by the house captains. The four house captains were Eleanor Thomas (Gryffindor), Oliver Rippon (Slytherin), Poppy Marshall (Hufflepuff) and Ethan Bailey (Ravenclaw). After the house captains got sorted into their houses, every child knew which house they were in. Darren and Jack then talked to us about the qualities of the four Hogwarts houses. We had some Harry Potter experts in the hall therefore we already knew most of them! The four house captains were chosen to stay and help the infant classes during their workshops.

 In our workshops, we played a few games to teach us how to play Quidditch. One of them was the Beater game. In the Beater game, 4 beaters were chosen and they had a Bludger (ball) each. In order to get their team points, they needed to throw the Bludger at people whilst they were running. The star Beater of the school was Talia Hazard. Another game we played was the Chaser and Keeper Game. This game involved a Keeper standing in front of a hoop and the Chaser running up and trying to score in the hoop with the Quaffle (ball). To make it harder for the Chaser, the Keeper was there to block the ball from the hoop. We also played the Seeker Game where all of us chased the teacher (Golden Snitch). After we had played all of these games, we used all of our skills and put them into a big match.

After all of the classes had taken part in the workshop for their team, we had a short assembly. All of the captains stood at the front holding their house banner, really excited to find out who got the Quidditch trophy. First of all, the certificates got given out for Talia and Marie. After that, they announced the winner…….and it was Hufflepuff! Poppy held up the trophy and the team got a photo. Overall, the Quidditch day was amazing. I’m sure it will be a highlight of the year!  

School at Sutton Scotney Remembrance 

On Sunday 10th November at Sutton Scotney the Royal British Legion held a Remembrance Day Parade. The RBL had invited two pupils from the School's Base Club to take part in the remembrance parade. Josh was invited to say the Kohima Epitaph and Talia was a wreath layer. Both Talia and Josh did a sterling job, the RBL was impressed with the practise that they both must have done. Well done Josh and Talia. 

The rest of the school had written poetry and drawn pictures of what Remembrance Day meant for them. Snowy Owl Class had made their own poppies. It was fantastic to see so many pupils in attendance proudly showing their art work and poems to their parents. 

Base Club pupils had made some amazing Poppies stating what being a military child means to them, thank you Mrs Cobb. 

I would like to thank the school for joining us in Remembrance.

Rachel Cousins, Sutton Scotney Royal British Legion 

                       

Remembrance 2019

This year, we remember together

On Monday 11 November, the school remembered everyone whose lives have been touched by war, both past and present, in their Remembrance Service which was held in All Saints Church.

This year, The Royal British Legion's theme was 'This year we remember together'  and they asked us to remember all the 46 countries who signed up to defend the world.

Eagle Owl Class led the service, during which they reminded everyone how Remembrance Day came into existence and why we wear poppies to remember. The poems, 'We will remember' and 'In Flanders Field' were read beautifully by Natasha and Zack and Hawk Owl Class showed the pastel pictures they had created to symbolise the poppy fields.

Eagle Owl Class had spent the week researching three battles where forces from many countries had fought together. These were: D Day, Monte Cassino and Imphal & Kohima. The children had created visual models and art work to show the battle and very thought provoking poems.

Prayers were led by members of Hawk Owl Class and the choir sang 'My heart will go on' and also 'We will remember' when the poppy wreaths created by each class were laid before the altar.

It was lovely to be joined by many parents for this moving service of remembrance.

Poppy Appeal 

Thank you to Poppy, Eleanor T, Natasha & Flora for selling Poppy's last week on behalf of the Royal British Legion. 

Tag Rugby

On 21^st October, the Year 5/6 tag rugby team headed to St. Mary Bourne for the season’s first round of tag rugby matches.  Captained by Natasha Gadney and Josh Hazard, and with 7 of the 13 players new to the team, the children all played exceptionally well and have begun to build a firm foundation for the future games.  They were held to a 3-3 draw against St. Mary Bourne, were pipped in the dying minutes against Micheldever (losing 3-2) and lost by one try against Smannell and Enham.  They team were well supported by parents, who encouraged and cheered enthusiastically from the sidelines.

 

IBM

To bring their project learning to life – Can curiosity change the world? – Year 5/6 children experienced a wonderful visit to the UK Headquarters of IBM on 22^nd October.  They were able to tour the site and were enthralled by ‘the hub’, a recreational facility featuring bean-bag loungers; air hockey, table tennis and pool tables; dart boards; and both modern and retro computer games.  They were equally amazed at the visit to the IoT (Internet of Things), a computer science lab in which research projects come to life.  As one example, IBM has recently worked with Marwell Zoo, installing sensors in the animal bedding areas, which ensures the heating is only switched on when an animal is sleeping within its enclosure.  This has saved the zoo a considerable amount of money.

Year 5/6 then took part in workshops to consider how we can use technology to improve the sustainability of the school in areas such as energy usage and waste.  The children were incredibly curious and devised some wonderful initial ideas; they will now need to conduct research back at school, before continuing with their proposals. IBM have agreed to welcome the children and their families back to hear the ideas and it is hoped these ‘pitches’ can be delivered before the Christmas break.

 

Diwali Day

On 25^th October, the school celebrated Diwali Day, beginning with Collective Worship to consider how Christians prepare for and celebrate religious festivals; the children were then able to read the book ‘Dipal’s Diwali’ together and spoke maturely about the similarities in how the two religions prepared to celebrate festivals.  They learnt that Hindus tidy the home prior to Diwali; buy new clothes to wear during the festival; decorate their homes with bright yellow marigolds, diyas and rangoli patterns; prepare many foods and sweets for the celebration; and visit the temple with offerings.  The children were then told the story of Rama and Sita and how the festival of light came to be.

The children, working in their Worship Families, then spent time in each class throughout the day, preparing for our own Diwali Festival.   In Snowy Owl Class, the children created salt dough diya lamps and painted them; in Barn Owl Class the children created masks and puppets to help retell the story of Rama and SIta; in Hawk Owl Class the children designed Rangoli and Mendi patterns, with some challenging themselves to achieve accurate symmetry; and in Eagle Owl Class the children created Diwali lanterns, focusing on using the nets of 3D shapes to help achieve this. 

Parents were invited to join us for Worship at the end of the day and were welcomed in to the school building by rows of Diwali lanterns made by the children.  The children confidently discussed their day’s learning with our invited guests, particularly Kate Hearn in Year 6, who narrated the Rama and Sita story from memory as her Worship Family told it using their masks and puppets.  Throughout Diwali Day the children worked wonderfully in their Worship Families, the older children supporting younger members of the Family to understand the festival and its customs, and to demonstrate this through the art projects they completed.

Author Visit 

On Tuesday 22nd October Snowy Owl and Barn Owl Classes were visited by author Anne Wan. Anne ran a workshop and spent time talking with the children about being an author. Anne also read her new book, "Manners fit for the Queen" to the classes before answering questions from the children. 

School Council

The newly-elected School Council have got off to a great start, organising and leading a project that will support God's global family, namely those in the Bahamas affected by Hurricane Dorian that struck the island in early September.  From encouraging families to make donations in a bucket at the end of each school day, having a dress-down day in colourful, tropical clothing, and donations during the Harvest Festival service itself, the school was able to raise over £250 for UNICEF’s Children’s Emergency Fund.  The school kitchen was even able to provide Caribbean inspired food for lunch too!

Our School Council are busy working on two further projects: one will see the creation of a school banner that represents our 'belonging' as a faith family and faith school, and the second will see us support those in our local community who need God's love and prayers this Christmas time.  Watch this space for further news!

 

Harvest Appeal

An amazing £265.33 was raised by the school for our Bahamas Appeal. This will be sent to Unicef to help with their relief aid in the islands. The school Council would like to thank everyone who helped contribute to this.

Bahamas Day

On Thursday 10 October, the school,celebrated Bahamas Discovery Day. Barn Owl Class have been learning all about Christopher Columbus this term and how he discovered the Bahamas and so wanted to join in the Bahamas Discovery Day Celebrations. This also linked into our Harvest Appeal, which this year was for the relief work being undertaken in the Bahamas following the devastation from Hurricane Dorian.

The children were encouraged to come to school dressed in bright clothes for a donation to our appeal. The weather was quite dull, but inside the school it was a bright and vibrant place with colour everywhere.

The day started with one of our parents, Mr Bowyer, recounting his experiences from his recent relief work in the Bahamas from which he had just returned. The children were able to understand the effect the hurricane had had on the island and how the money they had raised would help the children on the islands.

At lunchtime, our school kitchen had produced a special Bahama's theme lunch of BBQ chicken with lemon cous cous or sweet potato curry followed by tropical fruit and coconut muffins. It was great for our children to be able to experience some different flavours.

A great day was had by all, but especially Barn Owl Class who re-enacted Christopher Columbus landing on his first beach, exploring the island and building shelters.

Fire Service Visit

On Tuesday 15 October, two of our classes, Barn Owl and Eagle Owl, took part in a fire safety workshop run by Hampshire Fire Service. The focus of the workshops was safety within the home and the children discussed what their families could do to make their homes a safer place. The older children thought about how they would safely evacuate their house and took evacuation plans home with them to complete with their families. The younger children thought about smoke alarms and the need to check them weekly as well as being able to try on some of the fireman's uniform. The workshops were fun but very informative.

Harvest Festival

On Thursday 3 October, the whole school joined with parents and families in the Parish Church to celebrate Harvest Festival. The service was led by our Infant Department and focused on the different Harvest traditions both in our country and around the world. Our youngest children, some of whom had only been at school for four weeks, sang a song about harvest on a farm, with Miss Brewster accompanying them on the guitar. They then told us about Harvest in England. Barn Owl Class had been researching what other harvest traditions are observed in different countries and very confidently presented what they had learned along with pictures and flags relating to each country.

The choir sang two Harvest songs, one of which reminded us that we need to share what we have with those people who do not have as much as us to eat. This was shown within our Harvest Appeal, which this year was the Unicef Appeal for the Bahamas, which have been devastated by Hurricane Dorian.

The service was a joyful occasion which was enjoyed by everyone present.

Green Ambassadors

Our new Green Ambassadors, Eleanor,Joshua, Edward, Henry and Jake have already held two meetings and have generated lots of ideas for ways in which the school can become more green. This half term they are reinforcing all the work that was undertaken last year on recycling within school. New signs are being made for our recycling bins and they will be reminding all the classes via presentations and games, what can and cannot be recycled.

A new Green Ambassadors Box has been created where the children can put details of any green initiatives they are doing at home. These will then be shared in Collective Worship on a Friday.

The Green Ambassadors are also hoping to send home newsletters which will encourage you to think about what families can do at home to become more Green - watch this space!

Don't forget that you can recycle your old batteries (AAA,AA,C & D) in our battery recycling bin the school lobby.

Relax Kids

During the Autumn Term, each class will be taking part in a six week 'Relax Kids' program which teaches the children relaxation techniques through yoga and mindfulness. When questioned on how they felt after a session, Hawk Owl class children said it made them feel relaxed, calm, peaceful and warm.

 Fit4kids Workshops

On Thursday the 19th September Snowy Owls, Barn Owls, Hawk Owls and Eagle Owls all did the Fit4kids workshops. Paul told us about sugar and the food traffic light system. Paul told us that not only sugar can hurt our bodies but fats and salt too. For example Walkers Ready Salted crisps are green for sugar however they are red for fat as they have 8.0g of fat which is bad for you. So we learned that crisps are ok as a treat but shouldn't be eaten too often. We also looked at lots of other foods and said if we thought they were healthy or not. We thought the Oat Granola bars were healthy but actually they have lots of sugar from the honey. 

Paul also talked to us about how important it is to be fit & healthy. First off we did a warm up which was jogging on the spot. Then he showed us lots of different exercises such as squats, lunges, air cycling and lots more fun activities! At the end we did star jumps to cool down. It's important to warm up so that you don't pull any muscles and the cool down helps your body recover from the exercises. 

It was really fun and now we know more about being fit and healthy. 

By Jessica Stokes - Hawk Owl Class.

 

Welcome to a new school year

Over the last couple of weeks we have welcomed back to school our children and staff and also welcomed into our family both children and staff new to the school. The children have settled back quickly and are eagerly finding out about their new learning projects for this term. More details of each class' exciting learning projects are available under class news on the website. Our collective worship theme for this half term is looking at 'Belonging', as well as celebrating our Harvest Festival.

All the staff are looking forward to sharing lots of exciting learning opportunities with your children.

Belonging - Our Collective Worship theme - click the link to see what we have been exploring

children proudly presented to their parents their projects for the Spring Term which is always eagerly anticipated!

Parents in Eagle Owl Class were able to listen to presentations from children pitching their design for the class Victorian Garden. In Hawk Owl Class the children proudly showed off their art work and everything they had learned about Antarctica this term. Barn Owl Class parents were welcomed to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and heard a fantastic debate on whether chocolate is good for you! The children in Snowy Owl Class were able to share their picture book stories with parents and also their understanding of what a hero is.

It was a fantastic morning, enjoyed by children, parents and staff alike. Below are some of the comments from the exhibitions:

• The children love being part of this special family.
• What a fantastic morning - such a fabulous presentation of all the children's hard work.
• It is so wonderful to see our children's work. They are so proud of all they have achieved. It is clear the children and staff have all been working very hard. Thank you
• Very pleased to see our grandchildren in Hawk class. they are very happy at school.

School Science Day

What an exciting day the school had celebrating British Science day. We were very lucky to welcome several visitors to the school who brought with them exciting workshops, covering a whole range of scientific subjects.

Kier Construction led construction workshops with each class which involved design and practical exercises. Two ladies from Winchester Cathedral came dressed in medieval costumes and helped the children to learn all abut medieval medicines as well as helping them to make some of their own. Dr. Hazard had created crime sites and taught the children how to undertake some simple forensic tests to help them identify the culprit. Mrs Hearn brought Bruce, her skeleton, with her to give the children an insight into what the inside of our body looks like and how we work.

The Juniors also took part in the great egg challenge - who could create a structure out of spaghetti that could hold an egg for the longest time!

It was a fascinating day, enjoyed by all, with lots of learning happening all across the school.

Spring Music Concert

On Tuesday 19 March, the school had a celebration of music with its annual Spring Music Concert. This concert provides an opportunity for all our children who learn an instrument or sing in the choir, to perform in front of an audience. The concert was compered by Mr Timms, from Hampshire Music Service and the children were also supported by Ms Schwartz and Mrs Ball. The concert had twenty six performances and a vast range of instruments were played: Piano, Brass, Clarinet, Flute, Violin and recorder and the school choir also sang three songs. This meant that about half of the school took part which is a wonderful achievement for a small school.  It was wonderful to see how confidently all the children played and sang - well done to everyone!

eCadets Internet Safety Day 2019

Internet Safety Day 2019 was led by our current eCadets: Kate Hearn; Freddie Hamilton; Kodi Bones; Emily Foster; Cecily Insole and Rosie White. Kate and Kodi led an activity in Snowy Owls called ‘Around The World’ where the Year Rs and the Year 1s painted their hands different colours and printed them around a globe stuck onto sugar paper. The results were wonderful and it showed no matter where we are from we should treat everyone fairly whether it be online or in reality.

Rosie led an activity called ‘Happiness Stones’ in Barn Owls. It involved the Year 1s and Year 2s painting stones with things that made them feel happy. They all turned out beautiful and it reminded the children to only say positive things online.

Cecily and Emily led an activity called ‘Mistake Monsters’ in Hawk Owls. The Year 3s and Year 4s used straws to blow paint around an A3 piece of paper to create a Mistake Monster. They added n facial features to make them really come to life and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Afterwards they had a quiz and everyone’s results were more than expected.

Freddie led an activity called ‘Social Stats’ in Eagle Owls. The Year 5s and Year 6s cut up some social statistics and used them for a matching game to help them with their knowledge. It was clear they enjoyed themselves.

It was evident that everyone loved the day of education and fun. The eCadets also enjoyed showing the classes what they had prepared. Overall it was a fantastic day.

World Book Day

There is always a sense of anticipation and excitement around the school when World Book Day approaches and it was no different this year. Families, this year, were asked to consider what their favourite family book was and to come to school dressed as a character from this book. Arriving at school was a whole menagerie of animals, witches, wizards, Willy Wonkas, fairies, princesses and an even wider range of characters. Parents were invited in to school at the beginning of the day to share their favourite book together with their children. The classes then congregated in the hall to share all their amazing costumes and for World Book day to be launched. In each class exciting activities had been planned for the children to take part in throughout the day. Lunchtime saw the school kitchen serving a very popular  Gruffalo themed menu of fox burgers, snake surprise and squashed owl, with the kitchen staff dressing as mice. The Year 6 children then shared story sacks with the younger children. The day ended with a book sale where families had the opportunity to purchase more books to read at bargain prices.

It was fantastic to see all the hard work children, parents and staff had put in to making this a memorable day for the children.

Ash Wednesday Service

On Ash Wednesday, 6th March, we went into Collective Worship. Mark the Vicar was leading it because it was Ash Wednesday, a holy day of prayer. It was the start of Lent so it was six weeks before Easter, a whole term away. In the middle of assembly we lined up if we wanted to so we could get a cross our forehead which represents a phrase - "Remember you are dust and dust are you". We kept our crosses on all day so God stayed with us.

By Tilly Leader Hawk Owl Class 

 

 

 

 

 

HMS String Concert

On 27 February the school welcomed two members of Hampshire Music Service who performed before the whole school with a variety of stringed instruments. The aim of the concert was to expand the children's knowledge of the string family by letting them hear a violin, viola and cello. A range of music was played and the children enjoyed listening to the different pieces. It certainly gave our children who are having violin lessons something to aspire to!

Refugee experience 

Before the February half-term, Year 5 and 6 children in Eagle Owl Class led a Refugee Experience at All Saints Church.  Travelling to church by ‘boat’ (a team of artists painted 9-metre fabric panels to depict the treacherous journeys many refugees face), the children led this experience in a mature and sensitive way. The class looked at the world’s current refugee crisis, and the work of the UN Refugee Council in using tent art therapy to help refugee’s open up about their experiences, and decided to paint their own tent to demonstrate their learning.  The exterior panels of our tent represented the refugee crises seen in Eritrea, Burma, Syria and Iraq, and the interior panels represented the hopes and dreams of the young people researched.  The children wanted refugees to be able to sit inside the safe haven of the tent and to hold on to hope that their lives could get better.

O2 Young Voices 2019

The trip to the 02 arena was history-making material.  We boarded the coach and had our lunch on there with Micheldever School (the other school in our Federation). Snow was melting on the banks as we travelled on the coach there, and the journey was the perfect opportunity to have a singsong and catch up with our Federation friends. When we arrived, we got out all of our belongings, climbed out of the coach and stepped into the 02 arena.  We had to wait to go through security and then we had to wait about half an hour until we were allowed into our seats. The conductor had already started to practice one song and we practiced the rest of the songs before the actual performance. We found out that Hugh Jackman had left us a voice recording because of The Greatest Showman melody we were singing, which was a wonderful surprise! We had supper and then we showcased our songs to the audience who, of course, went crazy! Overall, it was a phenomenal experience and we all had a lot of fun! 

My favourite song was Viva la Vida – Natasha Gadney (Year 5)  

My favourite song was pop medley – Flora Leader (Year 5)

My favourite song was the greatest showman melody – Lottie Gatfield (Year 6)

I have participated in Young Voices twice now; this year has been my favourite – Emma Jarman (Year 6)

It was fantastic… - Rosie White (Year 6)

 By Natasha Gadney (Year 5) and Flora Leader (Year 5)

Eco Council 

After leading Eco Council’s Eco Day, we gathered together and discussed an Eco character competition. Three weeks later, the entries were in. There were four runners up: Natasha Gadney, Zack Doig, Toby Kerr, and Max Stokes. We finally came to the agreement that Talia Hazard was our winner. Two creative models entered in to the competition, as well as the winning design from Talia, will be put up on our Eco Council notice board. 

Our latest project – and hopefully most successful – is the battery bin in the school’s reception area. We began this project after discovering that just one battery takes a devastating 100 years to break down. If we recycle batteries, soon our eco system will recover from the damage humans have inflicted. Each pupil has been given a foldable battery box to tale home with them. In this box, all your used batteries can be recycled and then brought into school to be placed in the battery bin. We want to see how quickly we can fill the battery bin in school. We hope you reconsider how you dispose of your batteries; remember: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle!

By Joshua Hazard and Lottie Gatfield 

Chinese New Year 

Click here for pictures of the children celebrating Chinese New Year with a special Chinese themed lunch. 

Federation Football Match 

A fantastic Year 5/6 Federation Football match was held on Monday after school. Both teams played brilliantly in what turned out to be an exciting game which kept the spectators on the edge of their seats. The score was 1-0 to Micheldever after the first third, then Barton Stacy came back in the second third to be 3-2 up. 2 quick goals in the final third saw Micheldever up 4-3 and then Barton Stacey capitalised on a corner kick in the dying seconds of the game. Final score 4-4. A very enjoyable game to watch and well played by all the boys. A big thanks to Mr Gray for coaching the team. 

 Start of Spring Term

All our children have returned to school after an exciting Christmas holiday and are eager to start exploring their new learning topics.

Eagle Owl Class - What can we learn from the Victorians and the world today to create a healthy mind, body and spirit?

Hawk Owl Class - Extreme climates - Antarctica to the Sahara desert! What can we do to save our disappearing world?

Barn Owl Class - Chocolate! Does chocolate change lives for better, for worse or a bit of both?

Snowy Owl Class - What is a hero?

Pantomime

On the last afternoon of term, West End in Schools, came to give a performance of Dick Whittington to the pupils. Lots of scream and shouts could be heard coming from the hall as well as boos and laughter. A fun time was had by all. (Oh no it wasn't, Oh yes it was!)

Autumn Term Awards

Each term the teachers nominate a pupil from their class for one of the school's six awards. The winners of this term's awards were:

• English - Florence Parfey

• Writing - Thomas M

• Maths - Ethan Bailey

• STEM - Harry White

• Sports - Max Stokes & Bo Dowling

• Creative Arts - Esme Vertannes

• School Values - Daisy Reynolds

Christmas Service

On the morning of the last day of term, a procession of light was seen wending its way along the path from the school to the Parish Church. Parents had joined our pupils, to walk to church holding lanterns. The service was led by our Year 5/6 children who interspersed the songs and prayers with readings from the bible and also accounts of what happened at Christmas in WW1. The choir sang beautifully three songs and led the first carol of Once in Royal, with Phoebe singing the solo. Hawk Owl Class provided four thought provoking prayers based around Christ's light bringing peace. Candles were lit throughout the service to remind us of Christ's light in the world. The service ended with two instrumental pieces played by some of our budding musicians. The service was the perfect way to end the term and prepare for the Christmas season.

Stories with Santa

On a cold, dark Thursday afternoon, the children changed into their pyjamas and dressing gowns and snuggled down to an afternoon of stories with Santa. The afternoon commenced with each teacher reading one of their favourite Christmas stories to their class. The children all then came together in the hall to hear the story of The First Christmas. After this the children split into their worship families and rotated around hearing further Christmas stories, drinking hot chocolate and meeting a very special visitor in his grotto where they all received the gift of a book. It was a wonderful afternoon, enjoyed by all.

Christmas Lunch

On Tuesday lunchtime the whole school sat down together for Christmas lunch. The school had also invited the more mature members of our community to join us and so we welcomed thirteen guests to our top table. The school kitchen had been working very hard to produce over 140 yummy Christmas meals, which were enjoyed by everyone present. The children, who were served by the staff  dressed as waiters, waited very patiently whilst everyone was served. The tables looked very festive, decorated with the table decorations and crackers which had been made at DT morning and all the children and visitors wore their hats.

After the meal, the guests enjoyed festive entertainment provided by our musicians and choir, who all performed beautifully.

DT Morning

The school was full of Christmas cheer as the children took part in their Christmas DT morning. The morning started with the children coming together in their worship families. They then rotated around three activities: Cracker making, hat making and decorations for table centres. There was lots of glue and glitter involved and the school was sparkling by the end of the morning. Everything made during the workshops are to be used for the school Christmas lunch.

Class Exhibitions

Parent Comments:

• Many thanks for sharing some amazing work! You should be so proud of every minute you have put into shining and sharing.

• It is always lovely to see our little boy so happy and all the brilliant work everyone has been doing.

• Fantastic, really well done to all the children.

• Amazing work. Beautifully presented. You can see how much hard work the children and teachers have put in. Thank you for inviting us and sharing your super work with us.

• Enjoyed going out with Barn owls to observe the forest and trees.

• Fantastic work! Certainly learned something myself this morning.

• Lots of wonderful work and exhibits on display. The children are obviously passionate about what they have been learning

• It is great to see all the fantastic work the children have done. What interesting topics they learn about.

• It was lovely for the children to be able to show me their own work. They really enjoyed showing all the work they have done and are rightly very proud. Thank you for this opportunity for them to share school life with me.

• Many thanks for sharing some amazing work. You should be so proud of every minute you have put into shining and sharing.

It was fantastic to welcome over sixty families to the school on the morning of our class exhibitions. This is a time for each class to be able to present their learning journeys for the term and for parents to be able to experience what the children have learnt and created. The children are always very excited about being able to share their work with their families.

Infant Nativity Play

The school was full of angelic children as the Infant department performed their Nativity Play, Whoops A Daisy Angel to their parents and families. This was a traditional Nativity Play in which every child played an important part. The  children all spoke clearly and there were plenty of catchy songs which were sung beautifully by all the children.

The hall was full to bursting for both performances with proud families. FROGS provided refreshments at both performances and this added to the festivities and enjoyment of the event.

A big well done must go to all the children and also to the Infant teaching team who produced such an enchanting show.

Collections taken after the shows amounted to nearly £200 and this has been used to purchase more books for the Infant Reading scheme.

Afternoon Tea with Base Club.

On Tuesday the 4^th December members of Base Club were pleased to host six members of the Sutton Scotney Royal British Legion.  This had been arranged in order to thank them for our recent invitation to write poems in honour of the World War One Centenary GP90 pilgrimage to Ypres. 

We had been asked to write or draw something to commemorate 100 years since the end of WW1.  Two of our members, Lottie Gatfield and Ruby Blankley Mc-Donnell, wrote wonderful poetry which the RBL were delighted with.  Not only did they add them to their branch wreaths and take them to the service at the Menin Gate in August but they asked both girls to attend their Remembrance Service at Sutton Scotney and read their poems to the people gathered there.  Both girls did a wonderful job, we were and still are so proud of them both.

This new bond, between the oldest generation of our services and the youngest, seemed too good to finish there. So Base Club decided to invite them in for afternoon tea full of sandwiches, cakes, crisps and biscuits. 

We had a fabulous afternoon getting to know them and it was delight to see our children conversing and laughing with these veterans.  To watch a bond made when one child and one adult, who have never met before, find out they used to live on the same street is extraordinary and wonderful.

I am pleased to say this bond will continue in the New Year.  Plans are already afoot for our new friends to come and see us again soon.

Mrs Cobb

Dress Bright, Be Seen

On the 25^th of November the whole school dressed in fluorescent, reflective and bright clothing. I (Emma Jarman) and my other JRSO (Junior Road Safety Officer) colleagues (Poppy Marshall and Eleanor Thomas) had prepared this whole day to teach everyone in a fun way how to stay safe on the roads. In the morning, we showed the whole school a presentation about how to stay safe on the roads, since the days have become darker as more children are out on the roads in the dark. Each year 1980 children are killed in the UK by road accidents. The children watched a video showing two cyclists one wearing high-viz gear and one without. It took over 19seconds for the driver to see the cyclist without high-viz gear. Everyone joined in to sing a road safety song.  After the presentation, Barn Owl Class decided to practice crossing the road. In conclusion everyone had an educational, fun experience to remember.

Christmas Card Competition

The children were invited to enter a picture for the school Christmas card, which gets sent from the school to the local community and further afield. So many entries were received that it was decided to have four different Christmas cards and a winner was chosen from each class.

The winners were:

Snowy Owl Class - Isaac Noble

Barn Owl Class - Thomas McLeish

Hawk Owl Class - Daisy Reynolds

Eagle Owl Class - Joshua Hazard

Click on the pupil name to see their design.

The runners up were: Arthur Barrett, Maariyah Watts, Liliana Faretra, Lottie Gatfield.

Tag Rugby

On the 24^th of September the new tag rugby team and its captain went to their first tag rugby tournament. On the pitch we had so much fun and enjoyment. The first game was a blast for us, we won against St.Mary Bourne. Smannell and Enham were unable to attend. Longparish drew to us.

On 15^th of November we went to Longparish for our second Rugby Tournament, we won one game and lost two, but we really enjoyed it. We have progressed a lot since we started the tag rugby and we are looking forward to training with Mr Stangroom ready for the next tournament.In a few months we have a tournament at Smannell and Enham.

By Josh and Isaac (captain)

Green Ambassadors write up

So far this term, the Green Ambassadors have helped the school introduce a new recycling system, started to create new posters for recycling and prepare assemblies for the rest of the school.

This new recycling system will improve the recycling of plastics, papers and food around our school. This is an experience for the juniors and infants to learn about what items go in which bin, and what is affecting the plastic problem. Furthermore, our posters containing information about how to help our planet will hopefully help the school remember the impact we can have. We  hope this increases the school's awareness and helps the school to care for plastics and recycling.

We really hope that the Green Ambassadors this year can make a huge difference to the school’s eco- system.

By Eleanor Mallinson and Lottie Gatfield

(A year 5 and a year 6 representative)

Base Club News

The children of ‘Base Club’, our schools military children’s club, have spent quite a number of weeks preparing materials to decorate our WW1 wooden soldier, Archibald.  You will, I am sure, remember reading the letter about the Andover 215 project which took place in Vigo Park, Andover on November 10^th, this was prepared as part of the ‘Centenary Commemorations’ seen across the country.

The name, Archibald, was decided by vote.  All of the children added names to the list which they felt suited our nameless man.  Ideas such as Gary, Ian, and Jim-Bob, (whilst all fetching) didn’t quite suit his ‘demeanour’ so, I was rather relieved when Archibald was the outright winner!

The children spent a number of weeks, after the excitement of naming him, writing letters either to Archibald or to the serving members of their families and drawing pictures of military machines, cap badges and their own families.  They were rightly, extremely proud of their work and there was a growing excitement about how these would be used to decorate Archibald.

I spent much of half term locked away in my dining room, preparing Archibald.  I thoroughly enjoyed using my creative skills to turn the letters into his uniform all the time being driven by an overwhelming pride in what the children had achieved. To finish him off, as he looked a little clean and tidy, I mixed up some super strong coffee and painted him with it, much to my children’s worry! It had the unclean effect I was hoping for and he smelled delicious!  After covering his back with poppies and many, many layers of exterior varnish he was ready and I felt I had achieved my goal.

Returning him to school was exciting, the children were over the moon with how he looked and a few tears from staff told me he had the impact I was hoping for.  We delivered him on the Saturday morning to Vigo Park, where he stood proudly for the day amongst the 214 others.  The sight was incredible. After looking around during the day the Cobb family headed back in the evening to see them all lit up.  The event was declared a huge success with thousands of people visiting over the course of the day.

Archibald is now safely bestowed in the group room at school, where he keeps Base Club and I company on a Monday lunch time, he will be mounted to a wall just inside the main entrance in the future.  Before he starts this long guard, he will come home with me for Christmas and receive a few fresh coats of varnish.

 

For the last few weeks of term Base Club are hosting the Sutton Scotney RBL for afternoon tea and planning their annual Christmas party, which we are all highly excited about!

Mrs Cobb