Newsletters

As we come to the end of another busy and rewarding term, I would like to extend my thanks to all of you for your continued support.

This term has brought many memorable moments. One particular highlight was our fantastic Rocksteady Music concert, where children across the school performed with confidence, enthusiasm and great musical spirit. It was wonderful to see their hard work celebrated on stage.

We were also delighted to welcome the Mayor of Kettering, who delivered an inspiring assembly about his role, the importance of being positive members of the community, and the meaning of British Values in everyday life. The children engaged brilliantly and took away some powerful messages.

As we look ahead, PACT are preparing for their much-loved Easter school disco, and excitement is already building. We are also looking forward to our Easter Bonnet competition, and we cannot wait to see all the creative, colourful and imaginative designs the children bring in.

This week we also say a fond farewell to Mrs Bale, who will be leaving us on Friday. We thank her sincerely for all her hard work and dedication during her time with us, and we wish her every success and happiness in her new role. We are currently in the process of recruiting a new Teaching Assistant, and we will share further updates with you in due course.

A reminder that children return to school on Tuesday 14th April.

Wishing all our families a restful, enjoyable and very happy Easter break. Thank you once again for your ongoing support, and we look forward to welcoming the children back next term.

World Book Day Celebrations

We had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day this year! The school was filled with creativity and excitement as children came dressed as their favourite book characters or arrived in cosy pyjamas, ready to enjoy a day full of reading activities.

One of the highlights of the day was our Secret Reader event. Children selected books they loved, and a mystery member of staff surprised them by reading their chosen story aloud – it was a wonderful way to share favourite stories and build excitement around reading.

PACT did their very popular Wonky Chocolate Bar sale which brought lots of smiles, with some lucky winners discovering a golden ticket inside and receiving special prizes!

We also held a Design Your Own Book Cover competition. The entries were incredibly imaginative, and our winners were delighted to receive book vouchers and sweets as prizes.

To round off the celebrations, we hosted a Read with Parents session. It was lovely to welcome parents into school again to share stories with their children and celebrate the joy of reading together.

Thank you to everyone who helped make the day so special. We loved seeing the children’s enthusiasm for books shine through!

Red Nose Day Celebrations

We had a fantastic day celebrating Red Nose Day and supporting a truly wonderful cause. The school was full of laughter, kindness and community spirit as everyone came together to make a difference.

Thanks to the generosity of our pupils, families and staff, we are delighted to share that we raised over £200 for charity – an amazing achievement!

To mark this success, Miss Pallett did something very special… she dyed her hair Hall Meadow purple! The children were thrilled, and it was a brilliant way to celebrate everyone’s efforts and enthusiasm.

Thank you to everyone who took part and helped us support such an important cause. We are very proud of our school community!

Supporting Our Community

This term, we were delighted to welcome the wonderful CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) team, who used our school as a venue to support their important work within the local community.

Their visit enabled young people to access full heart screenings close to home, helping to raise awareness and promote early detection of potential cardiac conditions.

We are incredibly proud to have been able to support such a valuable initiative and to play a part in helping keep our community safe and healthy.

Spring Term 2 has been a wonderful and engaging time in Iris Class, with lots of exciting learning taking place. Our topic work has focused on minibeasts, spring, and Easter. The children thoroughly enjoyed exploring the world of minibeasts through bug hunts, stories, and creative activities, developing their curiosity about the natural world.

As the season changed, we observed the signs of spring, discussing new life, plants, and the changing weather. This linked beautifully with our learning about Easter, where the children took part in a range of craft activities and conversations about how the festival is celebrated.

In maths, we have been focusing on patterns, with the children exploring and creating repeating sequences using colours, shapes, and objects. We have also been developing our understanding of subtraction and number bonds to 10 through practical activities and games, helping to build confidence and fluency.

It has been lovely to see the children so enthusiastic, engaged, and growing in independence throughout the term.

Year 1 have had a very busy Spring term. They have been investigating suitable materials to use to build a strong house for the 3 little pigs in Science. As historians we have looked at the super continent Pangea, learnt about dinosaurs through the fossils left behind. Mary Anning and Susie Maidment, who were both significant in the finding and identifying of fossils. RE has taught us who is responsible for looking after our world and how we can help support it now. Our last unit of writing was learning all about the seasons and how it affects wildlife and nature.

 

This term, Year 2 have been busy with lots of exciting learning! We explored The Great Fire of London, discovering how it started and the impact it had on the city. In science, we have been investigating habitats around the world and the children are already looking forward to seeing some incredible animals up close on our trip to Woburn next term. In English, we have been working hard on writing a narrative about being a star, as well as creating detailed non-chronological reports all about habitats. It’s been a fantastic term!

What a fantastic start to the year it has been in Year 3! In English, we had great fun diving into George’s Marvellous Medicine, learning how to build exciting characters and settings, and improving the way we use paragraphs, powerful words, commas, and apostrophes. We also became mini-researchers as we found out all about Roald Dahl and used our facts to write brilliant biographies.

In Science, we explored Forces and Magnets, testing how things move on different surfaces and discovering the difference between contact forces and magnetic forces that can work without touching at all.

Maths has been busy too! We learnt all about fractions—how to compare them, order them, add and subtract them, and spot equivalent fractions. We also practised measuring mass in grams and kilograms, and capacity in millilitres and litres, using our skills to solve real-life problems.

Our history topic took us back in time to the Stone Age, where we learnt about the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, the beginnings of farming, early settlements, and how artefacts and cave art help us understand what life was like long ago. In Art, we use this learning to inspire our own prehistoric-style creations, experimenting with different media and practising colour mixing and mark-making to create our own handmade cave art pictures.

Maths: We worked on decimals, perimeter, and practised our arithmetic.
Writing: We wrote an engaging letter, created fun Barbie/witch-themed pieces, and focused on editing and improving our work.
Computing: We learned key photo-editing skills and explored how digital images can be changed.
History: Our topic on the First Railways helped us understand how early trains transformed travel in Britain.
Art: We explored light and dark, experimenting with tints and shades to add depth to our artwork.
PSHE: We learned about our rights and responsibilities, including what rights all children have.
RE: We explored the Incarnation of Jesus and its importance to Christians.
French: “Vive le sport!” – we learned new vocabulary linked to sports and activities.
Science: We investigated sound, discovering how it is made, how it travels, and how pitch and volume change.

It has been another busy and rewarding term, filled with both hard work and plenty of fun. The children have shown great enthusiasm across all areas of the curriculum, and it has been wonderful to see their confidence and curiosity continue to grow.

In maths, we have explored fractions, decimals and percentages, as well as developing our understanding of area, perimeter and statistics. The children have worked hard to apply these skills in a range of problem-solving contexts.

In English, our creativity has truly flourished. We wrote imaginative narratives inspired by the beautiful short film The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, created detailed mission logs after finding ourselves “stranded” on Mars, and stepped into the role of news reporters to cover unusual events in the world of fairy tales.

Our reading this term has taken us on two very different but equally gripping journeys: one an exciting adventure set in a parallel universe, and the other a gothic horror story that kept us all captivated right up to its dramatic plot twist.

In history, we took a whistle-stop tour through the British monarchy, considering how power has shifted over time and reflecting on key moments in the nation’s past.

In PE, we have been developing our basketball and hockey skills, with a strong focus on ball control and teamwork. It has been great to see the children supporting one another and growing in confidence.

Our artwork has centred on depth, emotion and movement, culminating in a final print created using a polystyrene tile--an impressive showcase of the children’s creativity.

In science, we explored Earth and Space, which sparked some fantastic enquiry questions, as well as Forces, where the children carried out a range of interesting and engaging investigations.

In RE, we considered the question “Is Easter a celebration or a commemoration?” and explored Jewish food laws (Kashrut), reflecting on how these beliefs impact Jewish people in different ways.

As you can see, it has been a term packed full of learning and achievement. We are incredibly proud of all the children’s efforts. Next term, we look forward to continuing this hard work as we begin preparing for the exciting transition into Year 6.

Firstly, thank you to all parents who attended Parents’ Evening. It was lovely to meet with you and talk about your fantastic children and the progress they have made.

As usual, this term has been a very busy one. In English lessons, pupils have enjoyed creating their own fictional creatures and writing formal non-chronological reports about them. They have also written balanced arguments about whether break times should be extended. Some of these debates will be shared with the Chair of Governors to help inform a decision. In Maths, lessons have focused on problem-solving across a range of areas, including: place value, decimals, percentages, fractions, measures, time and multi-step calculations. Pupils have also learned about line graphs and pie charts, and how to interpret and analyse them, while continuing to revise previously taught arithmetic skills. In History, pupils have been learning about and comparing the gruesome methods of punishment used in the past, which led to some interesting discussions. In Computing, they have been working with spreadsheets and learning how to create formulae.

At the beginning of term, Year 6 completed their final PiXL assessments in preparation for the SATs in May. The children have been working really hard, and it is great to see the progress they are making. Mrs Farmer was shocked (in a good way) by how high some of the scores were! Thank you to all parents who attended the Parent SATs Workshop- hopefully it gave you the chance to learn more about the End of KS2 Assessments and ways in which you can support your child at home.

Near the beginning of term, we were pleased to welcome back Dom from Coram Life Education, who delivered an engaging session on how to be Cyber Wise—helping pupils understand the importance of staying safe, responsible, and informed when using digital technology. Her visit provided valuable guidance on navigating the online world with confidence and awareness.

This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Sarah and Dorothy from the NHS Mental Health Support Team (MHST), who led a thoughtful and supportive workshop focused on managing feelings of stress and anxiety in the lead-up to SATs. Through practical strategies and open discussion, pupils were encouraged to recognise their emotions and develop healthy ways to cope during this important time.

In RE lessons, we have been considering the idea of commitment, before focusing more specifically on the commitment shown during Ramadan, including the challenges associated with fasting. Pupils explored the reasons why Muslims choose to make this commitment and what it represents in their faith. I would like to give a special mention and thank you to Belal and Adil, who hosted a question-and-answer session about their own experiences of fasting and celebrating Eid; this gave members of the class a valuable opportunity to ask thoughtful questions and deepen their understanding.

I am very proud of the effort all the children have shown this term - well done, Zeus Class!

Following their fantastic performance at the Kettering Take 8 Basketball competition, our team earned the honour of representing Kettering in the county finals. ??

This term at Moulton College, they competed against nine other top teams from across the county in a tournament of an exceptionally high standard. The team showed great determination throughout, improving with every game and never giving up.

A huge well done to all the players who battled through tough matches, defeats, and even injuries to represent the school with pride - you did us proud!