Curriculum In Action

Last Friday, our Year 6 pupils led a wonderful Remembrance Assembly for the rest of the school. They shared their moving poetry and thoughtful artwork, reminding us all of the importance of honouring those who have fought and served in the armed forces.

The children also explained the meaning behind different coloured poppies: the purple poppy represents the animals who served and suffered during wartime, the black poppy remembers the contributions of Black, African, and Caribbean communities, and the white poppy symbolises peace and a commitment to a world without war.

We were so proud of their assembly, which gave everyone time to pause, reflect, and remember.

This week in history, our year 4s learnt about how the Romans designed their towns and cities. With a forum at the centre, city walls with gate houses, amphitheatres, bath houses, a basilica and temples, we were amazed at how many different buildings featured. After finding out how we know so much about these towns today, we spent the afternoon designing our own as you can see below.

This week, Year 1 had fun visiting the toy museum! They got the coach to Strangers’ Hall and met the Toy Maker who showed them some amazing old toys. The children sorted, made and tested different toys. They given got a chance to explore the toy room and look at toys that were over 100 years old! What a fantastic trip.

Exploring rationing during the war, Year 6 learned about the “Make do” attitude that everyone had to adopt when resources were limited. We look at the books that everyone, even babies, were issued with the amount of food they were allowed each week. Because some items were unable to be imported into the country, due to the Axis targeting vessels and airplanes, people started experimenting and making their own versions of their favourite foods. One of these was “Sweet Potato Mash” which replaced chocolate spread.

We had a fun afternoon recreating this interesting topping; only a few in each class enjoyed it!

This afternoon year four were learning about why volcanoes and earthquakes tend to occur in the same locations. We watched some amazing videos showing the huge power of these natural disasters. To finish the lesson, we recorded the stages of a volcanic eruption. We have loved studying earthquakes and volcanoes this term and look forward to our next geography project after Christmas.

This week, year 4 have been learning how Roman’s went about planning their towns and cities. They looked at the town which is modern day Cirencester but was known as Corinium Dobunnorum under Roman rule. To finish the lesson, we labelled the forum, an aqueduct, an amphitheatre as well as other important structures. Next week we look forward to designing our own cities.

Last week Reception, we had a mystery visitor in our classrooms. They left some clues; footprints and a tray of fossils. We discovered from reading “The Girl and the Dinosaur” that just like the dinosaur in the story, we had been visited by night dinosaurs too! We have had lots of fun exploring dinosaurs in the classroom and like in the story the children made their own wishes that they hope to come true!

Year 2 have started their exploration of Norwich compared to Shanghai by creating models of Norwich landmarks. Have a look at their versions of Norwich Castle, Norwich Market and Carrow Road!

Year 4 had a fantastic Roman Day with Titus Flavius. We learned about life as a Roman legionnaire, practised marching, held weapons, tried on armour, asked lots of questions and all managed to pass the 5 stages of becoming a Roman soldier. Back in class there were lessons on Roman numerals and we all tried making our own mosaic from tesserae.

Year 6 went on a hunt around the classroom for information about the Norwich Strangers! Life changed a lot for the Strangers after they arrived in Norwich. They were allowed to worship in their own language and follow their religious traditions, but some local people did not welcome them at first. Over time, many Stranger families began to settle in, with children attending local schools and learning English. Although there were tensions over work and trade, the two communities gradually began to mix, with some Strangers marrying locals and joining in city life.

We looked at secondary sources and considered whether it showed the Strangers were integrating into Norwich society or maintaining their own identity.

Year 5 showed great grit and determination this afternoon beginning their cam toys.

They had to measure, saw and glue wood and we were so proud of how ready, safe and respectful they were.

This week in Reception we have been learning about Remembrance day and the meaning of poppies. Children did a range of poppy themed activities including counting, playdough and art.

We have also been concentrating on our balancing skills both inside and outside. Some children even made their own obstacle course to challenge themselves.

This week the children have been learning about how people celebrate Diwali and Bonfire night. They have been making firework pictures and learning about Rangoli patterns, Mendhi patterns and made Diva lamps using salt dough.

Year 5 explored mechanisms today, specifically cam toys. They experimented using different shaped cams and thought about how it affected the movement. We can’t wait to see what they create over the next half term!

Exploring rationing during the war, Year 6 learned about the “Make do” attitude that everyone had to adopt when resources were limited. We look at the books that everyone, even babies, were issued with the amount of food they were allowed each week. Because some items were unable to be imported into the country, due to the Axis targeting vessels and airplanes, people started experimenting and making their own versions of their favourite foods. One of these was “Sweet Potato Mash” which replaced chocolate spread.

We had a fun afternoon recreating this interesting topping; only a few in each class enjoyed it!

Year 5 have been learning about Friedrich Hundertwasser.

Today, they explored some of his work and created some observational drawings inspired it.

Have a look at their creative results!

Today, Year 3 have been learning about botanist and photographer Anna Atkins. She is considered the first person to publish a book of photographs.

Inspired by her work, Year 3 collected natural materials to create their own cyanotypes.

They layered their gathered materials onto the special paper and laid them in the sun for around 15 minutes.

After rinsing their paper in water, their final cyanotypes were revealed.

Year 5 created these fantastic personal maps using their typography skills.
They enjoyed adding 3D elements and sharing them with their peers.

Year 2 have started the year by creating self portraits. They sketched their own face before making a background for their picture using collage, black fine liner details and watercolours. They did a fantastic job, well done Year 2!

Reception have been settling in to starting school and looking at the topic “All about me”. We have been sharing facts about ourselves and drawing self-portraits- noticing lots of our facial features. This week we have been learning about the story “And Tango Makes 3”. In the story, Tango lives in the zoo with two daddies. We have been talking about all of our families and who we live in a house with. We have discussed that every family is special and unique, but the thing that they all have in common is that there is lots of love! Children made marks as to who lives in their house and if they have any pets.

On Monday afternoon, Year 3 were paid a visit by some members of the Rotary Club of Norwich. The Rotary Club are a group of men and women who seek to ‘make a difference’ in their community and around the world. As part of their work, they donated dictionaries to every child in Year 3.

Back in class, children had an opportunity to explore their new dictionaries, learning how to use them to support them with their learning. The dictionaries have been greatly appreciated and children have been keen to use them throughout the school day. Thank you Rotary Club of Norwich!

On Tuesday, Year 1 had an intruder in their classrooms! We saw clues in the class such as ice, frozen fish and webbed foot prints. After checking the CCTV, it became clear that the culprit was a penguin.

Year 1 tried to find the penguin by making some wanted posters. They wrote some fantastic descriptions of the penguin.

Year 6 have worked hard to write descriptively about the final scene of Rose Blanche. Using a range of figurative language features, Year 6 focused on creating a strong picture in the reader’s mind and provoke strong emotions.

This week, children in year 1 had a mystery to solve. After lunch, there was a mess in the classrooms. Children wondered what could have happened and wrote ideas on PostIt notes. At the end of the day, CCTV footage was discovered of the gingerbread man and friends in the classroom!! Children are now busy learning the story of the gingerbread man which they will be performing to their buddies in Year 4.

This week, children have been learning the poem ‘Imagination Not Included’ by Mark Bird. They will be performing this to buddies in year 1 next week.

During Busy learning, children have been choosing to make their own version of our story map and they have been writing about their favourite toys.

They have also been using their imagination to transform cardboard boxes into rockets (complete with engine and rocket boosters), cars, desks, beds, costumes. They even made a cardboard box from playdough!

Great imagination Year 1!

Year 6 have started their second unit of work, writing descriptively about settings and characters. At the end of their drafting sessions, Year 6 have shown teamwork and collaboration to improve and redraft sections of their work using their green pens. Now, their writing reads better and uses more features of the success criteria. Great skills that are starting to be improved!

Year 5 have enjoyed exploring the text ‘Planet SOS’.
They investigated different monsters and their contribution to climate change.

Children were able to research their focus area, create a poster and present information to the class.
Everyone was proud of their confidence, independence and creativity.

Reception have been settling in to starting school and looking at the topic “All about me”. We have been sharing facts about ourselves and drawing self-portraits- noticing lots of our facial features. This week we have been learning about the story “And Tango Makes 3”. In the story, Tango lives in the zoo with two daddies. We have been talking about all of our families and who we live in a house with. We have discussed that every family is special and unique, but the thing that they all have in common is that there is lots of love! Children made marks as to who lives in their house and if they have any pets.

Some of these look like a scary dream! Our Year 6’s have used the language choices of David Almond to predict how one of the main characters, Skellig, looked. There was lots of creativity used to create these haunting pieces of artwork!

Reception had a wonderful time on our trip to Gressenhall. We met Fairy tale characters, such as Cinderella and Jack. We helped them find their magical objects the Wicked Witch had stolen. We particularly enjoyed the tractor ride on the farm, helping the Ugly-Stepsister with her chores and sliding down the beanstalk slides.

This week in Reception we have been learning about Remembrance day and the meaning of poppies. Children did a range of poppy themed activities including counting, playdough and art.

We have also been concentrating on our balancing skills both inside and outside. Some children even made their own obstacle course to challenge themselves.

Year 5 enjoyed the whole school maths investigation, seeing how many shapes they could make out of 4, right angled isosceles triangles. They had to work systematically and showed great concentration and grit and determination!

Thank you to all the parents and carers who came into school this morning to support our year 4 times table breakfast café. It was lovely to see you all taking part in activities, crafting and playing Times Tables Rock Stars together. Please continue to support us by encouraging your children to practise their times tables ‘little and often’ at home.

Thank you to all of the parents and carers who turned up for this morning’s year three breakfast café. We enjoyed fruit juice, croissants and pain au chocolat whilst learning more about the Times Table Rock Stars app. There were also lots of paper games, activities and things to make to support children with learning their times tables. We would love to see them continuing to practice their times tables at home.

We had the privilege of joining an online conference with the London Mathematics Society to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the first Black person in the world to get a PhD in mathematics. Dr Elbert Cox, an African-American, received his PhD on the 26th September 1925 from Cornell University. We were joined by Dr Cox’s grandson who shared his grandfather’s story and his own journey to working as a NASA scientist. We looked at the concept of binary numbers and played an exciting game to show the unpredictability of using zeros and ones!

This week Year 2 have started learning about tally charts. To practise making tally charts they went into the school car park and tallied up the different car colours they could see. After looking at their completed tally charts they found out white cars were the most common in the car park today.

Year 6 have been working hard problem solving in Maths in a range of tasks. We have worked in pairs and small groups and used the ‘Trial and Error’ method to find solutions.

To finish their work on shapes, Year 2 have been sorting 3D shapes into categories based on the properties they have been learning about. There was lots of great mathematical thinking about faces, edges and vertices!

In Year 1 we have been learning about repeating patterns. We started with shape patterns and then moved onto making patterns with a range of materials. The children enjoyed moving around the classroom and experimenting with different patterns.

This week, year 5 have taken part in not one but two maths investigations. On Monday we joined the school maths investigation day and worked using trial and error to find a solution to a problem involving money. On Tuesday, Squirrels were joined by visitors from Isaac Newton who guided them through another investigation.

Last Friday, the whole school took part in the Schools of Sanctuary: Day of Welcome. During the day, they learnt about the lives of refugees and how we can make our community in Queen’s Hill welcoming. This years theme was ‘Community is our Superpower’.

Children in Year 1 learnt about different playground games that children play from around the world. They played ‘Chinlone’ and ‘Oon’ from Myanmar and ‘Cossak’ from Ukraine. They shared these games with their buddies in Year 4 too.

Children in Year 3 & 4 took part in a live lesson with schools across the country to hear stories from Dina Nayeri about her own personal experiences of being a refugee as a child and fleeing to the United States of America. As part of the lesson, children had the opportunity to try some Taekwondo moves, as taking up this sport was something that helped Dina feel part of her new community when she moved to America.

In Year 5, children designed and wrote postcards to refugee children, welcoming them to Queen’s Hill. They explained how they would be welcomed into the community. Collaboratively, Year 5, along with their buddies in Year 2, designed houses for Moomins after reading about the displacement of the Moomins in ‘The Moomins and the Great Flood’ by Tove Jansson.

Year 6 enjoyed playing a game in their Mandarin lesson this week and keeping score, noting down the correct Chinese characters!

This week in Reception we have been learning about the celebration of ‘Lunar New Year’. We learnt about what foods people eat to celebrate and how they decorate using colourful decorations- we even made our own Chinese Lantern. Children explored different resources and really enjoyed learning about this celebration!

Year 5 enjoyed joining in with a live BSL lesson today. We learnt how to sign our names, the signs for greetings, animals and family members. 

This week, in Mandarin, the children had a tasting session and had a go at using chopsticks, to celebrate the Chinese New Year!

Year 6 have enjoyed beginning to look at languages and their fascinating and fun connections and roots. They have started to see that words and languages from different countries are closely linked and that by looking for clues and cracking codes, understanding other languages is easier than we think!

Year 3 began this term’s French topic on food today using Languagenut to learn the names of fabulous fruits. They extended their language learning to create colourful fruit bowls which they labelled in French! Bien fait tout le monde (well done everyone)!

To celebrate Languages Day Y5 explored the Greek alphabet. We learnt that we use lots of Greek words in English today. Some say there are over 150,000 English words that come from Greek words! Once we learnt the Greek alphabet we used it to have fun cracking linguistic codes. When we joined up with our Y2 buddies we taught them how to write their name using the Greek alphabet and then used what we had learnt to play hangman.

Year 6 have been using ‘World of Languages, Languages of The World’ resources to discover the fascinating etymology of our days of the week. Children compared our days of the week to French and German days, looking for similarities and differences. We explored and investigated the links between Norse and Roman Gods and thought about the connections between languages throughout the world. Children loved looking for clues and cracking codes in order to understand other languages as well as finding out about how many different languages are spoken amongst the year group!

Inspired by the rest of the school’s Curriculum Day, we also had our very own Year 6 Art Challenge linking to Belgian artist Ben Heine’s pencil versus camera work and using the base of the Eiffel Tower as a starting point. It was great to see the creativity of the children and see them engage so well with this task.

Year 2 have enjoyed learning some British Sign Language today during our Languages Curriculum Day. They learnt how to introduce themselves and fingerspell their name. In the afternoon they shared what they had learnt with their Year 5 buddies.

We have been learning all about the seasonal changes which come with Autumn. The children have been reading the story “The Leaf Thief” and have learnt about what happens to the leaves in Autumn and why. We have learnt about the vegetables and plants which grow, the animals who hibernate and created pictures inspired by Autumnal colours. The children even got to visit our on-site outdoor classroom for an Autumn hunt!

Today, Year 3 have been learning about botanist and photographer Anna Atkins. She is considered the first person to publish a book of photographs.

Inspired by her work, Year 3 collected natural materials to create their own cyanotypes.

They layered their gathered materials onto the special paper and laid them in the sun for around 15 minutes.

After rinsing their paper in water, their final cyanotypes were revealed.

We have been learning about the life cycles of plants. As part of this topic, we have planted a Sunflower seed. We have been looking after them and look forward to taking them home to plant!

Reception had a wonderful time on our trip to Gressenhall. We met Fairy tale characters, such as Cinderella and Jack. We helped them find their magical objects the Wicked Witch had stolen. We particularly enjoyed the tractor ride on the farm, helping the Ugly-Stepsister with her chores and sliding down the beanstalk slides.

Today year 4 were excited to have a visit from polar explorer Adrian Hall. He spoke to us about his expeditions, showed us all the equipment he packed in his rucksack and shared lots of photos at the start of the day. After this, he worked outside with every class, teaching them about map reading and compass skills before they completed a treasure hunt around the school grounds. We had a great day and now feel we know a lot more about the life of an arctic explorer.

To kick-start their new English unit: Romeo & Juliet, Year 6 enjoyed participating in a variety of Shakespeare-related activities! Children took part in a scavenger hunt, collecting the answers to questions about the famous playwright and his works. They had to match symbols on their sheet to answers hidden away all around the playground. They discovered Shakespearean language and had to decide if phrases given to them were Shakespeare or ‘Fakespeare’. They explored the ancient grudge between the two feuding families in Romeo & Juliet: The Montagues and The Capulets and learnt about their household crests. Children were then tasked with creating their own crest, focusing on the significance of its design, colour and symbols. It was great to see how enthusiastic everyone was about our new topic and we look forward to seeing how they get on with their writing over the coming weeks.

This week Year 1 went to the woods to create Easter Gardens. We have been thinking about why The Cross is important to Christians and learning about the Easter story. The children confidently applied all of this knowledge to create some wonderful Easter Gardens! Great work Year 1!

Over the past two weeks Year 6 have been learning about butterflies. They all had some great questions and wanted to learn more about different species of butterflies! Children had a trail quiz to complete and were challenged to find out the answers to their questions. Upon their trail, they found a peacock butterfly in the grass. They were able to get really close up to it and see the beautiful colours of its wings. Some children even got to hold it! 

Year 5 have been working hard on creating bug hotels this week. They have used materials they have found at home to create an inviting habitat for our creepy crawly friends.

We have been learning about the changes that Autumn brings in Reception and so we decided to see if we could find any evidence of Autumn arriving in Queen’s Hills. The children worked in pairs and hunted for Autumn items from a checklist. All of the children did super listening and showed our 3 school rules of Ready, Safe and Respectful!

This week the children have been learning about how people celebrate Diwali and Bonfire night. They have been making firework pictures and learning about Rangoli patterns, Mendhi patterns and made Diva lamps using salt dough.

This half term, Year 3 have been learning all about rites of passage in different religions. They have learnt about infant and believers’ baptism in Christianity, Bar/Bat Mitzvah in Judaism and the Amrit ceremony in Sikhism.

Today, they recapped all their learning by comparing the similarities and differences between the 3 religious ceremonies.

Year 3 enjoyed a trip to Norwich Cathedral today.

We were so proud of how ready, safe and respectful they were.

They learnt all about what advent is and journeyed through the nativity.

Reception have been learning about the festival ‘Diwali’. We learnt about how people celebrate Diwali with fireworks and food. We made Diva lamps using salt dough and created firework pictures too!

Year 2 have continued learning about why light is important for different religions. This week they have learnt about Hinduism and Diwali. They learnt about the story of Rama and Sita and then created their own rangoli patterns.

Year 2 have started learning about why light is an important symbol for different religions. This week they have been learning about the Jewish festival Hanukkah and understanding how a Menorah is an important part of this celebration.

This week, Year 6 have been starting to plan their discursive RE writing to answer the question, ‘Creation or Science: conflicting or complementary?’ Classes began to unpick the structure of the writing and considered lots of elements in order to make the piece cohesive. Children concentrated very effectively to discuss the purpose and audience, the effect they want to have on the reader, the grammatical and punctuation features they need to include and the topic-specific vocabulary. All their ideas are on the classroom working walls to reference throughout the unit. Children also began to think about the main ideas to include in the introduction and worked collaboratively to shared write this section using great communication.

This week Year 1 went to the woods to create Easter Gardens. We have been thinking about why The Cross is important to Christians and learning about the Easter story. The children confidently applied all of this knowledge to create some wonderful Easter Gardens! Great work Year 1!

Year 3 enjoyed learning all about advent at Norwich Cathedral this week.

They were able to hear the Christmas story as well as complete craft activities!

Thank you for having us!

This half term Year 2 have been looking at why light is important for different religions. This week the children have learnt about Diwali and why light is important to Hindus. The children learnt about the story of Rama and Sita and how Hindus decorate with Rangoli patterns and Diya Lamps. They then went outside to create their own Rangoli patterns.

Last week, Year 3 were investigating friction as a force. Using toy trains and different surfaces and materials, they explored which surfaces the trains travelled across easily, and which ones made it more difficult for the trains to move.

They gave each surface a ‘star rating’ to record their results. They found out that the surfaces which were bumpy had more friction, which made it difficult for the trains to move across them. The surfaces which were smooth had less friction and made it easy for the trains to travel.

Year 5 used their knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating.

They explored sand/water, flour/raisins and salt/water. They can’t wait to explore milk/vinegar on Monday!

We have been learning all about the seasonal changes which come with Autumn. The children have been reading the story “The Leaf Thief” and have learnt about what happens to the leaves in Autumn and why. We have learnt about the vegetables and plants which grow, the animals who hibernate and created pictures inspired by Autumnal colours. The children even got to visit our on-site outdoor classroom for an Autumn hunt!

Year 1 had fun on their autumn walk today. They explored the outdoor classroom and went on a hunt for signs of autumn. The children found different coloured leaves, acorns and even some mushrooms! We all had a photo by a tree with yellow leaves and we will check back later in the year to see if the leaves have changed.

Last week Reception, we had a mystery visitor in our classrooms. They left some clues; footprints and a tray of fossils. We discovered from reading “The Girl and the Dinosaur” that just like the dinosaur in the story, we had been visited by night dinosaurs too! We have had lots of fun exploring dinosaurs in the classroom and like in the story the children made their own wishes that they hope to come true!

Year 5 enjoyed carrying out the ‘dancing raisin’ experiment.

They had to think about the science behind their observations and see if their predictions were correct.

Miss Peek, Miss Harris, Mrs B-M and Mrs White were so impressed with their conclusions including key words such as carbon dioxide, buoyancy, float, sink and gas!

Year 1 have been learning about plants. They planted seeds and are excited to watch them grow. We have also been looking at real plants to notice the parts of the plants and used post-it notes to label them.

The weather is hotting up (hopefully!) and we have been learning about sun safety. As part of our science learning, we found out about how sunscreens are made and how they are tested. We made predictions about the SPF in sunscreens and used UV beads to test out our predictions with a few surprising results! It was clear that no protection at all is very dangerous and that factor 15 offers less protection. Factor 30 and 50 are definitely the best. We also learnt that the amount of sunscreen applied affects the effectiveness. One thing that did surprise us is that even on a cloudy day, UV rays could be damaging. Remember to always wear your sunscreen and take other precautions like covering up, staying out of the sun at the hottest times of the day, drinking plenty of water and wearing a sunhat.

We have been learning about the life cycles of plants. As part of this topic, we have planted a Sunflower seed. We have been looking after them and look forward to taking them home to plant!

Today, Year 3 designed their very own fossils using clay and outdoor materials.

They also learnt about the stages of fossilisation and created their own zig zag book.

This week in Reception we have been learning about Remembrance day and the meaning of poppies. Children did a range of poppy themed activities including counting, playdough and art.

We have also been concentrating on our balancing skills both inside and outside. Some children even made their own obstacle course to challenge themselves.

Today, a small group of children from Year 4 spent the morning at Taverham High School participating in a Panathlon event. They competed against 8 other schools from the local area in a series of sporting challenges, including: standing long jump, outdoor bowling, cricket and many more. They all showed huge amounts of grit and determination to have a go at each of the activities and represented the school brilliantly. Each child was awarded a medal at the end of the morning for all of their fantastic efforts.

We had so much fun during our Big Toddle! We completed different Physical Development activities such as ‘Balance Along the Tree Branches’ and ‘Don’t Fall in the River’. Parents and carers helped us raise £150 for Bernardo’s- well done Nursery and Reception!

Last Friday, the whole school took part in the Schools of Sanctuary: Day of Welcome. During the day, they learnt about the lives of refugees and how we can make our community in Queen’s Hill welcoming. This years theme was ‘Community is our Superpower’.

Children in Year 1 learnt about different playground games that children play from around the world. They played ‘Chinlone’ and ‘Oon’ from Myanmar and ‘Cossak’ from Ukraine. They shared these games with their buddies in Year 4 too.

Children in Year 3 & 4 took part in a live lesson with schools across the country to hear stories from Dina Nayeri about her own personal experiences of being a refugee as a child and fleeing to the United States of America. As part of the lesson, children had the opportunity to try some Taekwondo moves, as taking up this sport was something that helped Dina feel part of her new community when she moved to America.

In Year 5, children designed and wrote postcards to refugee children, welcoming them to Queen’s Hill. They explained how they would be welcomed into the community. Collaboratively, Year 5, along with their buddies in Year 2, designed houses for Moomins after reading about the displacement of the Moomins in ‘The Moomins and the Great Flood’ by Tove Jansson.

Year 3 had a fantastic time at Whitlingham Adventure.

They tried paddle boarding and canoeing and also completed many different team challenges.

The children showed great grit and determination throughout the day and all were safe, ready and respectful. Well done Year 3!

This week year 1 started practising the different activities that they will complete during our sports morning. The children were really excited to try something new.

Year one have made a fantastic start to the year. They have spent the first week exploring the new outside resources. They have created delicious food in the outdoor kitchen and building hand eye co-ordination playing tennis. Children have enjoyed having a go at writing and phonics is underway!

This half term Year 2 have been enjoying developing their throwing, aiming and agility skills in PE. This week they took part in a carousel of activities to practise what they’ve learnt. They even challenged themselves to adapt the activities to make them trickier!

Year 6 have been enjoying their weekly cricket sessions through Norfolk Cricket’s ‘Chance 2 Shine programme’ this half term. They have been developing concentration, focus, hand-eye coordination and throwing and catching skills. Today the children focused on the accuracy of their bowling and, with grit and determination, many managed to successfully knock down the wickets!

What an amazing turn out we had for our Big Toddle Reception Event today! The children were all dressed up in safari outfits and joined in with a range of activities, including balance beams, obstacle courses and throwing and catching races.

Thank you to all of the parents and carers for joining us and helping to raise funds for Barnardo’s Charity.

Some children were able to go to Norwich Cathedral today for a concert by some Norwich School scholars. The children enjoyed vocals and piano pieces by a range of composers. They particularly enjoyed looking around the cathedral before and after.

Some children went to Norwich Cathedral with Miss Peek and Mrs Forrest today for a musical art experience. They were able to listen to a range of instruments and watch as artwork was created alongside each piece.

Thank you to Norwich School for hosting us!

Year 3 have enjoyed using ‘Scratch’ as part of their computing unit.

Today, they were able to code different instruments to create their very own band.

Miss Peek enjoyed hearing and seeing lots of different performances!

We have had such an amazing first term in Year 5! We have been busy designing, making and evaluating our cam toys, learning how to play jingle bells in music, exploring forces and writing fantastic missing chapters for our class text: Viking Boy. We are now experts on all things Viking and fractions are now our friends! 

The Year 5 team wishes everyone a very happy and restful winter break.

Years 2, 3, 4 and 5 enjoyed a musical performance assembly from Norwich School today.

They were able to hear different instruments and think about how it made them feel.

Thank you to Norwich School for providing our pupils with this opportunity.

Year 6 have been enjoying weekly steel pan music lessons. They have been getting to grips with the different notes and sounds all whilst learning about where steel pans originate from!

Year 3 enjoyed beginning their Charanga unit on glockenspiels yesterday.

They looked at notes D and E and impressed Miss Peek with their call and response skills!

Year 3 explored Heather Hansen’s gestural art today.

They listened to different pieces of music and thought about how it made them feel. They used charcoal to create art and patterns inspired by her.

Some children enjoyed a music recital at Norwich Cathedral this afternoon.

They enjoyed hearing the piano, a cello and a vocalist.

They represented our school well and we are very proud of them.

Year 4 are really enjoying their instrumental lessons as part of their music curriculum. This week they were able to learn the note ‘B’ and even play along to a simple song.

Miss Peek was very proud to pop in and hear Mrs Stevenson’s class progress.

Year 3 have enjoyed using ‘Scratch’ as part of their computing unit.

Today, they were able to code different instruments to create their very own band.

Miss Peek enjoyed hearing and seeing lots of different performances!

This week, year one and year four pupils buddied up for an afternoon session of African animal research on the iPads. It was wonderful to see such polite and caring partnerships between our older and younger students. Our year ones went away with lots of interesting and useful facts about meerkats, lions and giraffes which they will use to help them with their writing next week. We look forward to them sharing this work with their older buddies at the end of term.

This week in year four, we have been learning to code and write algorithms using repeated instructions. Using the free Turtle Academy software, the children were able to create different patterns and shapes, exploring the effect of changing line length, angle and the number of repetitions. They were very excited to see their images appear on the screen as you can see below.

Year 6 got to grips with using a micro:bit this week – a tiny programmable device that enabled children to understand how computers work and learn to code using the language of computers. They familiarised themselves with the device itself and the programming environment before creating their own programs. They then ran their programs on the device. We were impressed by everyone’s curiosity and concentration!

Year 1 were lucky to have some Y6 ambassadors join us for our computing lesson. They showed us how to use a keyboard to type. The children then had a go at writing some sentences.

We have been using micro:bit in our computing lessons. We have enjoyed exploring how to program the controller and designing our own moving icons.

This half term Year 2 are learning about digital photography. They have learnt what makes a good photograph and have used this knowledge to take high quality photographs of objects in the classroom and outdoor scenery.

This afternoon, Year 3 created their own tree diagrams as part of their computing unit.

They thought about yes/no questions and showed real grit and determination.

This week Year 2 have been learning all about algorithms. They drew maps and mazes then programmed their Bee-bots so that they could move from one place to the next.

Year 3 have been exploring programming as part of their latest computing unit.

Today they were able to explain that programming requires a start point and recognise that a sequence of commands can have an order.

They had great fun using scratch to support!

Today Year 2 children took part in a ‘Big Emotions’ workshop. They learnt about what it feels like to have a worry and what to do about it. They also practised some breathing and relaxation techniques. Finally they created a hand picture full of people who can help them and things that make them happy.

Exploring rationing during the war, Year 6 learned about the “Make do” attitude that everyone had to adopt when resources were limited. We look at the books that everyone, even babies, were issued with the amount of food they were allowed each week. Because some items were unable to be imported into the country, due to the Axis targeting vessels and airplanes, people started experimenting and making their own versions of their favourite foods. One of these was “Sweet Potato Mash” which replaced chocolate spread.

We had a fun afternoon recreating this interesting topping; only a few in each class enjoyed it!

Reception have been settling in to starting school and looking at the topic “All about me”. We have been sharing facts about ourselves and drawing self-portraits- noticing lots of our facial features. This week we have been learning about the story “And Tango Makes 3”. In the story, Tango lives in the zoo with two daddies. We have been talking about all of our families and who we live in a house with. We have discussed that every family is special and unique, but the thing that they all have in common is that there is lots of love! Children made marks as to who lives in their house and if they have any pets.

A warm welcome to all- children and parents 😊 We have had an excellent start to the year, starting with nominating and democratically voting for our class representatives for School Council. The children were creative when writing their speeches and showed excellent teamwork when preparing.

It has been great to see everyone engaging in the process!

Last Friday, the whole school took part in the Schools of Sanctuary: Day of Welcome. During the day, they learnt about the lives of refugees and how we can make our community in Queen’s Hill welcoming. This years theme was ‘Community is our Superpower’.

Children in Year 1 learnt about different playground games that children play from around the world. They played ‘Chinlone’ and ‘Oon’ from Myanmar and ‘Cossak’ from Ukraine. They shared these games with their buddies in Year 4 too.

Children in Year 3 & 4 took part in a live lesson with schools across the country to hear stories from Dina Nayeri about her own personal experiences of being a refugee as a child and fleeing to the United States of America. As part of the lesson, children had the opportunity to try some Taekwondo moves, as taking up this sport was something that helped Dina feel part of her new community when she moved to America.

In Year 5, children designed and wrote postcards to refugee children, welcoming them to Queen’s Hill. They explained how they would be welcomed into the community. Collaboratively, Year 5, along with their buddies in Year 2, designed houses for Moomins after reading about the displacement of the Moomins in ‘The Moomins and the Great Flood’ by Tove Jansson.

The weather is hotting up (hopefully!) and we have been learning about sun safety. As part of our science learning, we found out about how sunscreens are made and how they are tested. We made predictions about the SPF in sunscreens and used UV beads to test out our predictions with a few surprising results! It was clear that no protection at all is very dangerous and that factor 15 offers less protection. Factor 30 and 50 are definitely the best. We also learnt that the amount of sunscreen applied affects the effectiveness. One thing that did surprise us is that even on a cloudy day, UV rays could be damaging. Remember to always wear your sunscreen and take other precautions like covering up, staying out of the sun at the hottest times of the day, drinking plenty of water and wearing a sunhat.

To continue our topic of “People who help us” we had a dentist come in this week to talk with Reception about the importance of looking after our teeth. We learnt about why we brush our teeth, how many times to brush our teeth a day, how long to brush our teeth each time and the techniques to use. Nikki even brought Barry the dinosaur to help and we got to dress up as a dentist!

Year 4 were delighted to welcome the NHS Cambridgeshire Community Service Trust today to run a 1 hour big worries and anxiety workshop with each of our classes. It was pleasing to see the children coming away with so many new strategies to help them manage their emotions and feelings.

Today, classes visited polling stations 🗳️ to elect their new school council members. we have been learning all about democracy and fairness.

Well done to our new school council members for 24/25! 🎉

Year 6 participated in some great workshops in support of their upcoming move to high school. Our visitors were very impressed by their contributions and maturity.

In RHE lessons Year 2 have been looking at different emotions and how their body feels when they experience each emotion. They each chose one emotion and created a feelings monster to show that emotion. They thought carefully about the expression on their monster and used this to decide what their eyes, nose and mouth might look like.

In RSE today, Year 3 looked at what it means to be proud of ourselves and they shared some of the things that they are proud of. 

Then, they identified what others are good at and gave compliments to one another. They discussed how it made them feel to receive a compliment. Common feelings were happy, calm, valued. 

As a class, they discussed what self esteem means and thought about what high and low self esteem looks like. 

As part of the lesson, Year 3 read some positive affirmations that could help boost their self esteem: “I am a good friend.”, “I am smart and capable”, “I am proud of who I am”, “I am unique and special”. 

They discussed the power of the word ‘yet’ when thinking about what we can and can’t do e.g. I can’t ride a bike YET!

To end the lesson, they each wrote 3 goals of things they would like to achieve that would make them feel proud. They made these into a paperchain. 

In RHE lessons Year 2 have been learning about celebrating themselves and others. They have discussed what makes a good compliment and then spent some time writing compliments for their classmates so everyone was able to take home a page full of positive messages!

Year 1 have been helping to keep our school tidy during busy time. Some children chose to use litter pickers to pick up any rubbish that they saw.

During our first full week back in school, year 5 have been campaigning for their school council representatives. We learned about democracy and how we keep things fair. The children worked together on their campaigns and made compelling speeches. Well done to all our school councilors who were elected on polling day!

This week, we have been exploring sun safety. In RHE, we have been learning about how to keep safe in the sun and the effects of UV rays. In science, we learnt about processes involved with testing sunscreen and used UV beads to test the effectiveness of sunscreens with different factors. It helped us to understand the importance of wearing sun cream.

On Friday 17th November, children across the whole school celebrated their uniqueness by wearing odd socks. The day started with an assembly by the Happiness Heroes, who explained their role in school and upcoming projects they have planned. Back in class, everyone learnt about what bullying is and how to ‘Make a Noise’ about bullying to put an end to it.

The whole school has been working on our self portraits this week, inspired by the work of Angelica Dass and her Humanae project. Here are are some year 5 children tracing their work!

Year 6 have had a fantastic start to the year and have quickly settled into life as role models to the rest of the school! This week, children have been taking part in our whole school Art project, ‘The Colours of Queen’s Hill’, inspired by Angélica Dass and the Humanae Project which celebrates the diverse beauty of human skin. Using only blue, yellow, red and white, children experimented and mixed their unique skin tones. We have had excellent, mature conversations in class around identity too. We cannot wait to see the self portraits they produce!

Year 2 had a very exciting end to the week meeting some local fire fighters from the North Earlham crew. The children learnt all about the fire engine, listened carefully as the crew explained how they use the different equipment and asked some excellent questions. They also got to see the crew use one of their ladders and were amazed at how high it could go!

On Monday afternoon, Year 3 were paid a visit by some members of the Rotary Club of Norwich. The Rotary Club are a group of men and women who seek to ‘make a difference’ in their community and around the world. As part of their work, they donated dictionaries to every child in Year 3.

Back in class, children had an opportunity to explore their new dictionaries, learning how to use them to support them with their learning. The dictionaries have been greatly appreciated and children have been keen to use them throughout the school day. Thank you Rotary Club of Norwich!

Today Year 2 children took part in a ‘Big Emotions’ workshop. They learnt about what it feels like to have a worry and what to do about it. They also practised some breathing and relaxation techniques. Finally they created a hand picture full of people who can help them and things that make them happy.

Some children were able to go to Norwich Cathedral today for a concert by some Norwich School scholars. The children enjoyed vocals and piano pieces by a range of composers. They particularly enjoyed looking around the cathedral before and after.

This week, Year 1 had fun visiting the toy museum! They got the coach to Strangers’ Hall and met the Toy Maker who showed them some amazing old toys. The children sorted, made and tested different toys. They given got a chance to explore the toy room and look at toys that were over 100 years old! What a fantastic trip.

Some children went to Norwich Cathedral with Miss Peek and Mrs Forrest today for a musical art experience. They were able to listen to a range of instruments and watch as artwork was created alongside each piece.

Thank you to Norwich School for hosting us!

Year four had a fabulous day out at this year’s Norfolk Show 2025. We learnt about local agriculture, watched farm machinery in action, took part in sports events, learnt all about the armed services and emergency services, sat in some sports cars, watched sheep being sheared, pigs being raced and so much more. The year group came home with many happy memories as well as lots of stickers and freebies!

Last Friday, Year 5 had a fantastic day splashing around at Whitlingham Broad. It was an action packed day and we got to experience paddleboarding, kayaking, sailing, canoeing and climbing. It was great to have the opportunity to develop our teamwork and communication skills and having to work together to overcome challenges.  

Today, a small group of children from Year 4 spent the morning at Taverham High School participating in a Panathlon event. They competed against 8 other schools from the local area in a series of sporting challenges, including: standing long jump, outdoor bowling, cricket and many more. They all showed huge amounts of grit and determination to have a go at each of the activities and represented the school brilliantly. Each child was awarded a medal at the end of the morning for all of their fantastic efforts.

Last Friday, the whole school took part in the Schools of Sanctuary: Day of Welcome. During the day, they learnt about the lives of refugees and how we can make our community in Queen’s Hill welcoming. This years theme was ‘Community is our Superpower’.

Children in Year 1 learnt about different playground games that children play from around the world. They played ‘Chinlone’ and ‘Oon’ from Myanmar and ‘Cossak’ from Ukraine. They shared these games with their buddies in Year 4 too.

Children in Year 3 & 4 took part in a live lesson with schools across the country to hear stories from Dina Nayeri about her own personal experiences of being a refugee as a child and fleeing to the United States of America. As part of the lesson, children had the opportunity to try some Taekwondo moves, as taking up this sport was something that helped Dina feel part of her new community when she moved to America.

In Year 5, children designed and wrote postcards to refugee children, welcoming them to Queen’s Hill. They explained how they would be welcomed into the community. Collaboratively, Year 5, along with their buddies in Year 2, designed houses for Moomins after reading about the displacement of the Moomins in ‘The Moomins and the Great Flood’ by Tove Jansson.

Reception had a wonderful time on our trip to Gressenhall. We met Fairy tale characters, such as Cinderella and Jack. We helped them find their magical objects the Wicked Witch had stolen. We particularly enjoyed the tractor ride on the farm, helping the Ugly-Stepsister with her chores and sliding down the beanstalk slides.