Willow Class: In PSHE this term, we have been learning about oracy, how to talk and listen really well, and this is now starting to shine through in classroom interactions with one another, from kind words of praise, to specific feedback, to taking turns and learning how to agree or disagree with someone respectfully. I am very pleased with the effort all pupils are making towards class cohesion.

Birch Class: Birch Class have been busy rehearsing for their Class Play, St Francis of Assisi and the Wolf. We can’t wait to see their play this week and hope they break a leg!

Oak and Chestnut Class: These students are leading the way in terms of robotics, learning how to programme a BBC micro:bit. We look forward to a demonstration.

Willow

Liking a friendly robin, children tried to track him or her  (‘Shhhh!… Where does he live!?’). Under bendy boughs in two areas, new dens were constructed. Most of the children wanted to use my oatmilk cartons as plant pots, so plants found second homes together :  strawberry, sedge  (inedible of course) – and one or two hairy bittercress (delicious once the mud out’s off). Great delight in sticks – ‘this looks like an electric eel ….electric eel power!!’ and a sense of magic around us all : the squirrel really did play hide and seek with one child, visits were made between dens, and many ‘found objects’  had seemingly magical properties.

Birch

The downpour stopped, leaving fat droplets glimmering on many twigs. We admired the oak and the box trees near the stream, and the students threw themselves into their self-appointed challenge of making a nest for the pair of robins hopping around us. The designs showed empathy and attention to detail : a leaf- window, a twig-perch, soft bedding, strong walls. We chatted about different species’ nests. Their finished creation was placed high in the box tree, with hopes that the robins would like it and just possibly lay eggs there !

Later, the clay work indoors also provoked impressive explorations. Pinch pots, snake pots and woodland spirits were quick to emerge, one with shells for ears and an alder-cone topknot.

Oak and Chestnut

We began with a mindfulness session on breathing and using each sense slowly and observantly. For ‘touch’ we each chose a large seed, such as a conker, a fir cone, a peach stone, and compared the diverse seed forms to a variety of egg forms, including the bizarre sharks’ and dog fish’ eggs. Ending with forest bathing, meaning here ‘a wander in the forest with no specific  destination’. Then some chose to sit by the river and chat, others completed craftwork and most played coo-whit, glorious in the riverine landscape of puddles and mud