“AS we have enjoyed an unusually warm week for this time of year, staff and children certainly made the most of it as they took their learning outside, as well as enjoying a trip to Clara’s Garden and a wonderful walk back from the Cathedral. Nursery children also took the opportunity to walk to the Cathedral on October 7th to view the Harvest displays.
“We have also enjoyed a week of consolidation and next steps in the classrooms; new ideas and concepts have been explored and now they are being embedded with deeper, broader thinking and challenge. I enjoyed a Year 2 lesson this week, where the children were debating the cause of the Fire of London, and the historical empathy and recall of facts to support an argument made it an exciting and dramatic place to be just before playtime on a Tuesday morning!
“Our focus this week was largely on preparing for our Harvest Festival Service. Acknowledging how important the theme of ‘generosity in hard times’ is for us all, inspired many thoughts of thanks and kindness in the captions written by the children that decorated the large images in our installation in the Cathedral. The cut-out shapes of children holding hands and reflecting on what it means to be generous, were kindly organised by Mrs Walker and were set against a homely backdrop planned by Miss Wright and Mrs Hunt, and decorated beautifully by Nursery children with seasonal wildlife crafts. Thank you to everyone here who contributed, and I would like to express all our thanks for the significant donations from our families to the Ely Foodbank. As Mr Greenish told us at the Service on October 6th, your generosity will make a difference to our local community. Thank you, again.
“Before I sign off, I have some exciting news to share with you! Last year one of our wooden play huts in the garden had to be ‘decommissioned’ and I am very pleased to write that over this coming half term break, Artisan Structures (who built our Tree House) will be on site to erect a new play house for us. The ‘Hobbit Hut’ will be sited squarely at the back of the garden, and Nursery and Pre-Prep children will have huge fun making up their stories and playing in and around this creative design, complete with sedum roof and mushroom toadstools for outdoor seating!
“Looking ahead to the remaining few weeks of the half term, we look forward to opening our classrooms and learning environments for parents and carers to join us at our Start of Year Curriculum and Information evening, which will be held for all Nursery and Acremont parents on Wednesday 19th October.
“I wish you all a happy and restful weekend.”