On Tuesday 21^st February our Reception children arrived at school in their wellies, very excited as they were heading off for their first school trip to Sacrewell Farm!  

As part of our 'Growing' topic this term, the children were going to get first hand experience of a real farm.  On arrival at the farm, they listened carefully to the safety instructions delivered by the farm's staff and then divided into groups ready to start learning.  

Throughout the day the groups had a chance to meet and brush a goat, pony and donkey and find out about how the animals are looked after on the farm.  They had a guided tour of the 300 year old water mill and found out how wheat was turned into flour there.  The highlight of the day for many of the children was a tour of the farm on the tractor, where they found out about how the land is used to grow different plants for food, including cabbages, broccoli, apples, pears and plums.  

Much fun was had and energy expended on the adventure playground where the children were able to consolidate and extend their gross motor skills.  

It was soon time to go back to school with some very tired but happy children (and grown-ups!).  A fantastic day was had by all and the children now have lots of new knowledge and understanding that will be applied to their classroom learning.  

Thank you to all of the grown ups who helped on the trip and the staff at Sacrewell Farm for making the day so memorable for the children.

On Thursday 2nd February, the Year 5 classes were treated to a fully immersive experience - living life as an Anglo-Saxon!  Our hall was converted into an Anglo-Saxon village in which we learned the many skills used by our ancestors - from making beeswax candles, creating ink and writing on parchment, to archery and sword skills.

The day started early, with the children arriving in costumes, ready to experience life as an Anglo-Saxon. We were led by our Thane, Aelfled the Grey, who helped us learn to make ink, create rune bags in which to put our runes so that we can predict the future and learning how to use our swords, spears, bows and shields effectively to defeat the Danes, who wish to conquer our lands.

Aelfled was very knowledgable and taught us many historical facts about how the Anglo-Saxon language still influences our every day conversations and how the battles and agreements, between the Anglo-Saxons and Danes, shaped the United Kingdom as we know it today.

In the afternoon, Phil (our archaeologist) showed us how to excavate an historical dig and begin to understand the artefacts we found to piece together our understanding of Anglo-Saxon life.  We even found a burial site, along with a monastery, a family house and the mystical home of an ancient seer! We also learned about how money was developed and how to smelt and create metal artefacts using our clay pots created during our morning session.

We will continue to use our text - Shield Maiden - to develop our understanding of the life and times of the King of Wessex and his family before we create our own diary entries detailing the events first hand as Aethleflaed, the Lady of Wessex.

Key Stage One had a fantastic time rehearsing and performing our Christmas play at the start of December.  The play, Lights, Camel, Action!, had so many funky songs and dances and in Strictly style our judges critiqued the performances.  The children looked amazing in their fabulous costumes and loved being funky camels and heavenly angels.  Mrs Levy was so impressed she is going to add some of the dance moves to her repertoire!

A big thank you for your kind donations to Children in Need.  We raised £253 - well done everyone!

Thank you for your donations to our harvest collection.   In total we donated 201KG  to Peterborough Foodbank - this is equivalent to over 600 meals supporting people in Peterborough.

Our athletics team took part in the Peterborough Cross Country event, where 23 schools and over 700 children attended.  The team represented the schools values, cheering each other on to ensure everyone reached the 1,350m distance, as well as recognising the achievements of other schools.  The course had everything; hills, mud, twists and turns.  The finish was fantastic, they were all determined to end the race sprinting!  We are incredibly proud of the effort the team put into training every Friday and their personal achievements reflect this.  We would like to congratulate Xander in 6JP who came second in the boys race.