Monthly Archives: May 2022

Head’s Blog – 27th May 2022

We have had the most fabulous week and I owe all of the adults who have been in a huge thank you as they have worked so hard this term. Every single person has ensured that the children have achieved their best in their assessments and in their learning. (One of our parents, Donna, even came in and decorated our entrance hall – thank you!) Today was no different! We all did our utmost to make this momentous occasion memorable for our children – it isn’t every day we get to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee! The whole school have had an Art and Design Technology day. A huge thank you to Anna, who came in to support the children using a sewing machine to make our own bunting. The children painted on their piece of bunting and then they were sewed together. You can see a selection of our creative learning below.

Mrs Thomas and Mrs Knight created an amazing buffet for us to have an impromptu mini street party in the garden. We have a feast fit for the Queen and also got to watch a beautiful wedding at St. Peter’s.

Earlier in the week a small group of year 5 and 6 children went to have a go at Archery. There was a competition between 12 schools and Clearwell School came third! I am really proud of them as they had never tried the sport before with real arrows!

Our Celebrations

Head’s Blog – 20th May

This week we welcomed a visitor to our school, namely Bob, the African Land Snail. Bob has come on his holidays to us for a few weeks from St. Briavel’s nursery. The children in Oak class have been learning about them as part of their science and geography. Charlotte, in year 2 absolutely loves snails so she was beyond excited when Bob arrived. They are takin git in turns, a few a day, to hold Bob! He loves our window ledge as it gets nice and warm.

Children have continued to have adventures. The sun shone on Welly Walk this week and at the same time, four year 6 children represented our school at a Gloucestershire’s School Games Mountain bike competition. They did really well on the day and showed great sportsmanship when the gears got jammed on the bike being used in one of the races. It helped that the sun shined! Meanwhile, Grace, Y6, had the opportunity to attend an Orchestra in an afternoon at Kings School Gloucester. As a musician playing the tenor horn, Grace got to play with other children from across the county. What an experience!

Our Celebrations

Head’s Blog – 13th May 2022

I would like to start by expressing how proud I am of our year 6 children who have all completed the SATs papers this week and have tried their very best. Imagine having learning disrupted for three years and still expected to complete the same papers as if everything was normal. It is rumoured that these SATs papers were the ones planned for 2020, so no allowances have been made for the disruption to their learning. Whatever the marks are for them individually, we know how much progress they have made socially and academically over the last few years. This group have missed out on a residential, so with the support of The Wilderness Centre, we have been able to secure a mini residential in July for them. They are all absolutely ecstatic about this and we cannot wait to take them.

On Monday, all of the key stage 2 children got to tie-dye their own t-shirts. There were lots of dyed hands despite the provision of gloves and lots of fun had. I am looking forward to seeing their finished articles.

Reception children have been reading Handa’s Surprise and learning about Kenya. They are using the tuff tray for small world activities, it is amazing. Thank you Mrs Ridgeway!

Our Celebrations

Head’s Blog – 6th May

As promised I will share some memories from Young Voices last week. The children all loved the experience, my favourite quotation was that ”I want to do it all again!”. We not only got to sing in a choir of 6,002 children but watched Ruby Turner, Urban Strides, Beatbox Collective and Yolanda Brown. Watching these professionals perform is not only incredible but it is also inspiring. We are considering taking the whole of KS2 next year as it is such an incredible experience.

On Tuesday, I took a group of children to Ten Pin bowling at Barnwood. The aim of the event was for the children to work together as a team and to experience a different sort of sporting activity. The children had a wonderful time, learning new skills and becoming more and more independent in the application of these skills. The morning turned out to be very successful with Eevee achieving the highest scorer out of all of the teams there and Clearwell coming first place overall. The children were so excited even though they play ”who can have a photograph taken without smiling?”!

Being creative is one of our curriculum drivers and as music is a key factor of this, so we invest in Gloucestershire music coming in to do whole class tuition for our pupils. This term is the turn of our Reception and KS1 children to learn Samba. Whilst it was rather noisy, the children were learning all about pulse and how different instruments can be used. I love listening and watching the learning taking place.

Reception children have also started using their rekenreks this week, as have KS1. We have been selected to participate in the National Maths mastery approach. Subitising is part of the everyday language with these children!