We have a busy term ahead with a strong academic focus that includes entrance tests for Year 6 children and new class themes across the school. Children thrive when they are really engaged with their learning, for this reason, we combine learning across different subjects in a topic based approach allowing children to explore and develop areas in greater depth than would be allowed if we taught each subject discretely. Thematic planning also allows our teachers to build lessons based on the interests of their particular group of pupils while teaching age-appropriate skills. The requirements of the National Curriculum are carefully mapped onto each topic to ensure complete coverage as well as teaching some subjects and skills separately. Here are the themes your children are studying at the start of the Spring term:
| Nursery | Day and Night |
| Reception | Snow and Ice |
| Rabbits | Space and Explorers |
| Otters | Remarkable People |
| Badgers | Story Writing and Rainforests |
| Squirrels | World War II |
| Owls | The Tudors |
| Eagles | Our Changing World |
Our Building Learning Power area of learning for this half term is Reflectiveness; being ready and willing to be more strategic about learning. Over the course of the half term children, in age appropriate ways, will consider planning, revising, distilling and meta-learning. These sound very grand concepts but put simply reflective learners think carefully about how to overcome obstacles in their learning, they plan learning effectively, are happy to review and redraft and can talk about how they are learning: all essential skills to being effective life-long learners. This ties into my assembly yesterday where we considered learning from our endeavours.
Superimposed on top of the curriculum there are many extra-curricular activities to look forward to including: forty clubs, the Science Fair, Performance Platform Concert, Sports Fixtures, the Mid Somerset Festival, Year 3-4 Production, Enrichment Week, Charity Week and a host of trips and visitors. Hold onto your hats, it’s set to be another busy term!