Curriculum In Action

Year 5 started Autumn 2 with an exciting Viking Day! We were extremely lucky to handle and explore some Viking artefacts and learn about the Vikings from our visitors. We finished the day by making our own Viking shields, ready for raiding and conquering other lands.

October is Black History Month, and Year 6 have enjoyed researching key individuals for this year’s theme ‘Saluting Our Sisters’ which honours the achievements of black women. Children created brilliant presentations showcasing the notable achievements and contributions made by some incredible black British women such as: Betty Campbell, Kadeena Cox and Malorie Blackman. As well as this, children had lots of fun following along to an African dance tutorial!

This half term in Year 2 the children have started their Geography unit comparing the UK to China. So far they have looked at famous landmarks in both countries and learnt some key facts about both places. First, working together in groups, the children compared and sorted information about Norwich and Shanghai. Then they investigated different methods of travelling from ancient times and modern times in both places and designed their own Chinese Palanquin using traditional patterns.

This week in Year 4, we took to the streets of Queen’s Hill on a mission to clean it up! We have started a project this half term, learning about the changes that have happened in the local area in our Geography lessons. We have also linked this to our Science learning this half term, about the positive and negative impact that humans have on their local area.

Look at our amazing Stone Age houses!

Year 4 became archaeologists for the day and used their skills as Historians to investigate the lives and homes of Anglo-Saxons at West Stow.

The other half of Year 3 have had a brilliant day at Norwich Castle today!

They showed all 3 school rules, ready, safe and respectful and asked some brilliant questions.

What a great way to end our amazing Ancient Egyptian topic!

The three teams have been working each week after school preparing for the F1 Jaguar reginal finals. The children had to design, make, assemble, test and race their cars at the reginal heats. They also had to prepare a presentation about their work. In order to gain sponsorship the children wrote to local businesses and were then able to buy their own merchandise with their very own logo’s on.

All three teams did exceptionally well. Winning awards across all categories. Two of our teams were extremely successful and are heading to the National championships in Leeds!

We had an amazing day at Norwich Castle learning and consolidating our knowledge about Ancient Egypt.

We got to look at what life was like in Egypt, explore real artefacts, look at a sarcophagus, create Egyptian jewellery and think about the question ‘should artefacts remain in the tombs or be taken out to study?’

Well done to Year 3 who showed they were safe, ready and respectful and thank you to Norwich Castle for being fantastic hosts.

Year 3 enjoyed recapping their learning about Ancient Egypt ahead of their trip to Norwich Castle this week.

They created their own cartouches out of clay and used hieroglyphics to decorate and write their names.

Year 3 have started their latest DT project on mechanisms. Today they explored different mechanisms ahead of creating their own pop-up cards.

Year one designed and made penguins as part of Design and Technology. First, they had to plan what the penguin was going to look like and which part they wanted to move. Some children chose to make the head move. Some decided the flippers or wings would move. Next, they drew a template and cut it out. Finally, they put it together using spilt pins for the moving part. They were all very proud of the end result.

After comparing the United Kingdom and China in Geography, Year 2 have spent the beginning of this half term learning about Chinese Dragons that are used in parades. They have also learnt about wheels and axels and how these components help to make a vehicle move. The children have combined this knowledge to design and make their own version of a Chinese Dragon that is able to pulled along in a parade.

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 3 children completing some of their work!

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!

Our amazing teaching team have been painting self-portraits after school today for our Colours of Queen’s Hill art project. They’ll be going on display in the main entrance next week.

The Colours of Queen’s Hill is a wonderful art project for our whole-school community, where everyone will be creating their own self-portrait to celebrate individuality and diversity, inspired by the work of artist Angélica Dass.

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 3 designed, made and evaluated their own wraps. Here is what they had to say:

“Putting all of the ingredients down the middle of the wrap was fun!”

“Cutting the ingredients into smaller pieces was fun!”

“Tasting the wrap was delicious!”

“Folding the wrap up was tricky, but we persevered and did it!”

In DT this half term Year 2 have completed a smoothie making project. First they taste tested smoothies so that they could decide which fruits they liked best. Then they designed their own recipes and wrote out which ingredients they would need. Finally they made their smoothies, carefully cutting the fruit and adding it to the container before it was blended. Then they got to taste their recipe! The children had a great time and loved drinking their creations.

This week, Year 6 have shown great creativity when producing art work inspired by Patrick Heron who created paintings full of colour, imagination and fascinating shapes. We’re so impressed at how the children captured his unique style in their own work!

For the last couple of weeks Year 2 have been investigating a crime that happened in their classrooms! They were reading the book ‘I Want My Hat Back’ in English and then made there own hats but one night after school a hat went missing. The children used the clues left in the crime scene by the thief to work out who their main suspects were. They then wrote questions to ask the eye witnesses and suspects to help them gather even more evidence. After a careful investigation they were able to identify the thieves and find the missing hats. The children have written detailed crime scene reports of their investigation to tell the other teachers all about this shocking event!

Year 6 have had fun exploring the beginning of Romeo & Juliet through drama this week. They used freeze frames to capture parts of The Prologue in Shakespeare’s tragic play and even had a go at translating the tricky language into the modern day. Children will be reporting on the action of Act 1 Scene 1 over the coming weeks and producing informative newspaper reports.

This morning some of our Year 5 children went to Bookbugs and Dragontales and had a great time doing a creative writing project. They selected lots of new books for our new Book Nook, which will be for our Year 5 and 6 children, opening next week.

On Wednesday Year 1 came back from lunch to find a mess in their classrooms. There were footprints, ice, water and fish. The children acted as detectives to find out what had happened. On Thursday we were able to check the CCTV and found that it had been a penguin! Now we need to try and find the penguin so we can get some more information.

The whole school enjoyed celebrating Harvest this morning. As part of that, Year 3 performed their poem ‘The Sound Collector’ and sang ‘In the Autumn’.

What a great half term we have had!

Have a look at the wonderful writing taking place in Year 6, proudly displayed on our classroom walls! Year 6 have published their diary entries based on our text ‘Goodnight Mister Tom’. They have used lots of features of the success criteria we constructed together, including: emotive language, thoughts and feelings and rhetorical questions. Everyone demonstrated fantastic grit and determination with their writing stamina – some children wrote six whole pages! As well as this, lots of concentration was shown in order to ensure the beautiful, joined-up handwriting you can see. Children independently edited and improved their work using green pen in their books and then, using teamwork, paired edited before writing up in neat. It’s great to see so many of our QH crowns being applied – well done all!

This week we have been finding out about the changes we will see as we move into the next season. We know that Autumn is the next. We have been looking out for some of the changes that occur at this time of year and spotting the signs of Autumn. On Thursday we will be going on a walk to the outdoor classroom to try and observe some of these seasonal changes. In the classroom we have explored the Autumnal small worlds and used pine cones to help develop our fine motor skills. We have been practicing our maths and turn taking skills by playing games like snakes and ladders.

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!

Year 5 have settled back into school routines in our first short week in school. Mrs White and her class went out to enjoy a fresh breeze whilst they read our current book ‘Windrush Child’ by Benjamin Zephaniah.

Congratulations to the Year 5 and 6 writers who are now officially published authors! A group of our UKS2 children participated in a project in collaboration with The Southbank Centre, in London, to write a chapter of a novel called ‘Rewilding Dream’ alongside authors Sita Brahmachari and Dominique Palmer, illustrator Lucy Farfort and over 2,500 children from other schools in the county. The story challenged important environmental concerns including pollution and climate change. Today their achievements were celebrated at the Norwich regional performance at Norwich Puppet Theatre. Children all received a copy of the finished book and quickly found their names in the list of contributors! As well as this, they had an illustrating masterclass! A huge well done to all for your efforts – lots of grit and determination was shown throughout the writing process!

Year 3 welcomed adults into school for their times table cafe last week.

The cafe was well attended and it was great to see so many grown ups support their children with their learning.

This morning, Year 4 were joined by some of their grown-ups for a times tables café. They had juice and pastries and had lots of fun practising their times tables through games and activities.

Thank you to all who joined us!

This week we have been finding out about the changes we will see as we move into the next season. We know that Autumn is the next. We have been looking out for some of the changes that occur at this time of year and spotting the signs of Autumn. On Thursday we will be going on a walk to the outdoor classroom to try and observe some of these seasonal changes. In the classroom we have explored the Autumnal small worlds and used pine cones to help develop our fine motor skills. We have been practicing our maths and turn taking skills by playing games like snakes and ladders.

This week, Year 6 demonstrated excellent problem solving skills and used trial and improvement to find a solution when taking part in our whole school maths investigation – ‘Frogs’! Children were able to think strategically and work very systematically, whilst also developing their own recording system.

Year 6 have been hard at work preparing for high school Maths! They have been learning all about algebraic notations and exploring substituting numerical values into expressions. Today, children used calculators to explore sequences and the ‘nth’ term, a concept which needed lots of concentration!

Year 3 investigated polygons today and saw what shapes they could make from putting different ones together.

Then they moved onto marking the vertices on isometric paper!

Today Y5 were tasked to use trial and improvement to answer the below questions. They all worked extremely hard and were determined to find all the possible solutions.

We’re back with a bang in year 4! This week we have started a new unit of work in Maths. We are learning about time. We have started by recapping our learning from previous years including years, months and weeks. Today, we started to tell the time from a clock beginning with o’clock, quarter past, half past and quarter to. We played a game to help us embed our knowledge.

Some of our Year 6 mathematicians ended last half term with a Maths competition hosted by Langley School. The children worked fantastically as a team and represented the school admirably. Miss Chamberlain even got stuck in with the tasks too!

Year 6 have had a busy start to the week! In Maths, children have put their problem solving skills to the test, working on a tricky investigation collaboratively. They have also been learning about Islamic patterns and the geometric shapes found in mosques, linking their learning to RE.

In DT, children carried out Market Research as they began their new project. Before designing their own board games, they tried and tested a variety of games and evaluated their effectiveness. We look forward to seeing (and playing) the games they create!

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 some British Sign Language. This week we focused on emotions. We learnt how to say how we were feeling using BSL. Here are some children to show you what we learnt. We also learnt that when you are signing it is important that your facial expression matches your sign, so when you sign ‘sad’ you need to look sad.

This week in their languages lesson, the Year 6 children have been learning about the traditions of Chinese New Year. Miss Chen brought in a traditional lion’s head and body and the children had the opportunity to try these on and pretend that they were part of this animal. They also created special red envelopes that bring good fortunes in line with Chinese New Year traditions.

In Mandarin this week, Year 5 looked at the Chinese New Year celebrations.

They enjoyed recreating the traditional dragon dance and exploring other festivities.

Watch Miss Bettermann reading a Spanish story and have your Languagenut login ready to practise at home.

https://www.languagenut.com/en-gb/

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!

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!

Year 6 had a wonderful morning in the sunshine at the Orchard today. They were able to fix the tree labels they made last year directly onto the steel mesh of the tree guards using zip ties through pre-drilled holes. They also participated in a ‘hands on’ conservation work activity making bee hotels and signs to welcome the bees! Children then had a tour of the site and were given some background information on the conservation work that has been going on in the park. Thank you to the volunteers who facilitated the visit, the children had a really great time and it was a lovely way to complete the project started by last year’s Year 6 children who planted the trees in the Summer term of 2022!

Reception had their first visit to the outdoor classroom. They were fantastic and walked carefully down. Once there they enjoyed den building, bug hunting and making nature bracelets and necklaces.

We had a fun packed few days at Eaton Vale this year. All the children were amazing and gave everything a go even if they were initially weary. We packed so much in that the photos below do not do it justice but hopefully you will get a snapshot of the lasting memories we built.

Children have enjoyed planting sunflowers and monitoring their growth.

Today Y5 celebrated Earth Day. We were tasked to look at the issue of ‘littering’ and how this impacted on the Earth. We decided to go on a litter pick around the school grounds. Due to the amount of litter found the children felt compelled to do more so they decided to write letters to their local MP raising this issue within their community. In the afternoon Y5 met up with their Y2 buddies class and helped them complete their ‘No – Mow May’ posters. Calling upon the school and all garden owners and green space managers not to mow during May – liberating their lawns and providing a space for nature.

This week, Nursery found some strange footprints in the classroom which led outside. We discussed who they might belong to and what the creature might look like.

This week in outdoor learning children went for a walk and found an assortment of treasures: grasses, flowers, leaves, buds, and sticks. They came back together and created faces out of the treasures they found.

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.

Year 6 have had a busy start to the week! In Maths, children have put their problem solving skills to the test, working on a tricky investigation collaboratively. They have also been learning about Islamic patterns and the geometric shapes found in mosques, linking their learning to RE.

In DT, children carried out Market Research as they began their new project. Before designing their own board games, they tried and tested a variety of games and evaluated their effectiveness. We look forward to seeing (and playing) the games they create!

We have been learning about different symbols in RE. We have thought about what the symbol of the cross means to Christians. We made stained glass windows to help us explore this.

Creation and Science: Conflicting or Complementary? Year 6 have been exploring this ‘Big Question’ in RE and have had some very insightful and mature conversations in response to it. Children have discussed the Christian story of creation in Genesis as well as The Big Bang and Evolution theories and thought critically about how the two can be both in conflict and complement one another. Using topic-specific vocabulary, they have produced some high-quality pieces of work to visually represent the main ideas of both religious and scientific perspectives. Children have demonstrated great reflection skills whilst also considering their own thoughts and beliefs.

This week, Year 4 visited Norwich Cathedral where they learnt about some important features of Christianity and the building of the Cathedral. 

We also visited the mosque on Rose Lane where they learnt about the Five Pillars of Islam. The children asked many thoughtful questions about Muslim beliefs. 

In addition to this, we spent time with Edith Cavell who told us all about her life and how she became a nurse, helping injured soldiers. We then visited her grave which is located at Norwich Cathedral.

It was a very busy but enjoyable day!

Today, our Year 1 pupils learnt more about the reasons behind shrove Tuesday and the start of lent. They designed their own pancakes, before getting to try them out in class!

This week we started to read the book Meerkat Mail. We met Sunny the Meerkat who lives in the Kalahari desert. The children found out about meerkats, where they live, what they eat and how they survive in the desert. We also received a post card from Sunny. Sunny told them about his habitat and the children wrote down some of the things they learnt from the postcard. We also found out about the Jewish Creation Story and about the importance of Shabbat, which is the Jewish day of rest.

Year 3 went to the cathedral today for an advent/nativity experience. We learnt all about Isaiah, Mary, Joseph, shepherds and the kings. The children were safe, ready and respectful and enjoyed dressing up, doing craft and seeing different items.

Y5 are currently exploring the enquiry question ‘How has belief in Christianity and Islam impacted on music and art through history?’ To help launch our enquiry Y5 had a visit from Reverend Laura Montgomery, who spoke to the children about Christian art and music. They discussed the importance of religious art and music and how it has changed over history.

Reverend Laura Montgomery shocked the children by playing them music they were familiar with but had not originally made the link back to Christianity.

Year 2 have been learning about why light is an important symbol in Judaism. We have learnt about the Maccabees, the festival of Hanukkah and about the importance of the candles on a menorah.

Over the last couple of weeks, Year 4 have been learning all about the human digestive system. They have learnt the names of the different organs that support digestion and what happens to food at each stage.

Yesterday, Year 4 demonstrated the digestive system using bananas, Weetabix, scissors, tights and more..! Have a look at some of the photos below!

This week in Science, Year 6 have started their new unit on light. Children revisited prior learning using a concept cartoon to start their discussions. Then they explored subject-specific vocabulary which they will use and develop their understanding of through investigation and enquiry over the course of this half term.

Year 3 enjoyed learning about magnets today. We looked at the poles and grouped magnetic and non-magnetic items together.

What a fun afternoon!

This afternoon, Year 3 did a science investigation around friction.

The children had to find out which shoe had the most friction in their group.

They ensured it was a fair test and enjoyed using the Newton meters.

Year 6 have been learning how to classify animals based on their characteristics. This week they played a game of animal ‘Guess Who’. Using key technical vocabulary children were able to guess each other’s chosen animals by asking a series of questions. There were some excellent questions being asked like, ‘Is your animal a vertebrate?’ and ‘Is your animal cold-blooded?’ We were equally impressed by our year sixes knowledge of a range of species of animals – some budding zoologists in the making!

This week we have been finding out about the changes we will see as we move into the next season. We know that Autumn is the next. We have been looking out for some of the changes that occur at this time of year and spotting the signs of Autumn. On Thursday we will be going on a walk to the outdoor classroom to try and observe some of these seasonal changes. In the classroom we have explored the Autumnal small worlds and used pine cones to help develop our fine motor skills. We have been practicing our maths and turn taking skills by playing games like snakes and ladders.

Year 3 dissected flowers today to see the different parts. They then made and labeled their own versions and explored the role of each part.

This week in Year 4, we took to the streets of Queen’s Hill on a mission to clean it up! We have started a project this half term, learning about the changes that have happened in the local area in our Geography lessons. We have also linked this to our Science learning this half term, about the positive and negative impact that humans have on their local area.

Today Y5 celebrated Earth Day. We were tasked to look at the issue of ‘littering’ and how this impacted on the Earth. We decided to go on a litter pick around the school grounds. Due to the amount of litter found the children felt compelled to do more so they decided to write letters to their local MP raising this issue within their community. In the afternoon Y5 met up with their Y2 buddies class and helped them complete their ‘No – Mow May’ posters. Calling upon the school and all garden owners and green space managers not to mow during May – liberating their lawns and providing a space for nature.

Year 4 have continued their investigations into sound and pitch this week! Today, we experimented with different balls to investigate the impact that size and shape would have on the pitch and volume created by the balls.

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.

We had a fun packed few days at Eaton Vale this year. All the children were amazing and gave everything a go even if they were initially weary. We packed so much in that the photos below do not do it justice but hopefully you will get a snapshot of the lasting memories we built.

Children enjoyed a dance workshop on Friday run by Miss Sunderland.

A huge well done to our Year 6 netball team who took part in a tournament today for the very first time. The girls showed fantastic grit and determination, winning 1 game and drawing the other 4 – what an achievement! Other coaches took the time to comment on how brilliant their passing, teamwork and communication was – we are very proud!

SESMA joined reception for a martial arts session. Children learned to block, punch, guard and kick. They enjoyed the session and understood that martial arts is a discipline which they only practice during classes.

We had our new bike station installed today, with all the tools needed to maintain and repair bikes. It even includes a foot pump! Our pupils have been trying it out this afternoon.

Today, we entered a Y6 dodgeball tournament at the UEA sportspark. The children played four rounds of games in a group format and after winning the group and the semi final the children were through to the final. They were victorious after winning the sudden death round to win the competition. They showed amazing team work, concentration, grit and determination throughout.

Some KS2 pupils went with Miss Peek and Miss Forrest to Norwich Cathedral for a music recital this afternoon.

They were able to enjoy a short concert featuring piano, french horn and violin. The children heard a range of music and were even able to ask questions.

Thank you to Norwich School for hosting.

A big thanks to Norwich High School for visiting KS2 music assembly today.

The children participated in a singing workshop before listening to a flute, French horn, clarinet, piano, saxophone, vocal and African percussion recital.

Everyone loved hearing the range of instruments. Thank you!

The whole school enjoyed celebrating Harvest this morning. As part of that, Year 3 performed their poem ‘The Sound Collector’ and sang ‘In the Autumn’.

What a great half term we have had!

Year 4 enjoyed using the boom whackers to learn different songs. They even got to perform in KS2 celebration assembly.

They were able to think about different notes and dynamics.

Children across the school were given the opportunity to join Siobhain O’Higgins playing her Grand Piano on zoom today.

Children were able to listen live to different pieces, think about how it made them feel and what they could picture in their heads and see how the piano actually works!

Year 6 have been enjoying their steel pan drumming lessons.

Steel pan drums are thought to have originated from West African drums. They were developed in the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago during the 20th century and are the national instrument. The surface of the metal is hammered out into a series of dents which each produce different sounds when hit by the beaters. 

Steel pans come in all different sizes and can produce different notes depending on the size of the drum. They are often played in an ensemble called a steel band and are an integral part of Caribbean music. Have a look at the drums which our year sixes have been playing! This week they have been using lots of concentration when learning how to play different scales.

This morning, on our final day of the academic year, we welcomed lots of adults and children to our Rocksteady concert.

5 bands performed including songs from George Ezra and Taylor Swift!

What a musical morning!

This morning, Hedgehog class performed their ‘lean on me’ song to CNS high as part of the outreach project.

The Year 12 students then joined in with their instruments for the verses. It was great to see everyone making music together!

We look forward to seeing how our partnership can develop next academic year.

Hedgehog class enjoyed a Boom Whacker workshop today courtesy of CNS high school.

Miss Peek will be delivering these sessions across the school during the next academic year.

They were able to play different rhythms and chords and even accompany the song ‘Lean on me.’

#WeWill Sing was a unique choral opportunity where Y5 worked with other primaries and Ormiston Academy through music, performance, and youth social action. The project involved working together to produce a community choral event, whilst raising money for local charities, which took place in December.

We are so proud of all the children who took part. As part of their dedication to the project they all received a Gold Award and a Murray Award for doing over 25hours of youth social action.

Year 3 finished their stop motion animation unit today. They created they own story boards, settings and characters!

They were so proud of their finished animations!

Year 3 had a great time this week creating their own stop-motion animations.
They showed great creativity and concentration skills!

Year 3 enjoyed creating their own flip book animations today ahead of working towards creating animations on the iPads next week.

They showed creativity skills as well as grit and determination!

The three teams have been working each week after school preparing for the F1 Jaguar reginal finals. The children had to design, make, assemble, test and race their cars at the reginal heats. They also had to prepare a presentation about their work. In order to gain sponsorship the children wrote to local businesses and were then able to buy their own merchandise with their very own logo’s on.

All three teams did exceptionally well. Winning awards across all categories. Two of our teams were extremely successful and are heading to the National championships in Leeds!

Mr. James organised a whole-school curriculum day today. It started with an assembly all about how to keep safe online, then year groups completed lessons on topics including how stop bullying online, the impact of technology on sleep and what to do if you feel like something isn’t right online. In the afternoon, our KS2 classes joined up with their buddy classes in Reception, Year 1 and 2 and helped them create safer internet day posters to put up around our school.

This term in Computing the children have been experimenting with digital music in Chrome Music Lab. This week they have used the Kandinsky app to make sounds by drawing different shapes and patterns. After testing out the sounds they could make, the children composed music that reminded them of space.

This week year 1 have performed Christmas song for their grown ups, used a paint program to draw snowmen and learnt the story of Lost and Found. The children are learning the story and planning it out ready to write it independently next week.

Today, the children learnt how to make music digitally using the Purple Mash program ‘2Sequence’. During the lesson children worked in pairs on ipads whilst exploring, editing and combining sounds using 2Sequence. It was great to listen to what music each pair composed!

Year 3 have had a great afternoon learning all about algorithms and coding in their computing lesson today!

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!

We had a fun packed few days at Eaton Vale this year. All the children were amazing and gave everything a go even if they were initially weary. We packed so much in that the photos below do not do it justice but hopefully you will get a snapshot of the lasting memories we built.

Today Y5 celebrated Earth Day. We were tasked to look at the issue of ‘littering’ and how this impacted on the Earth. We decided to go on a litter pick around the school grounds. Due to the amount of litter found the children felt compelled to do more so they decided to write letters to their local MP raising this issue within their community. In the afternoon Y5 met up with their Y2 buddies class and helped them complete their ‘No – Mow May’ posters. Calling upon the school and all garden owners and green space managers not to mow during May – liberating their lawns and providing a space for nature.

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!

Today EYFS and KS1 were lucky enough to learn about fire safety from fire fighters from the North Earlham crew. They learned all about the amazing work the fire service do, and they now know some key fire safety tips! Some children got to explore the fire engine and all of it’s equipment, and even saw the hoses in use! KS2 are looking forward to their turn at learning more about fire safety when they return to our school next week. A huge thank you to Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service for giving up their time to join us today!

We had our new bike station installed today, with all the tools needed to maintain and repair bikes. It even includes a foot pump! Our pupils have been trying it out this afternoon.

Each term the children in Reception draw a self portrait and sign it off with their name. We have been so impressed with how much they have improved since the beginning of the year in both their drawing and their writing. We also use this as an opportunity to discuss our similarities and differences. We look in the mirror as we draw, paying close attention to what we can see.

It was Anti-Bullying Day in school. In year 1 we read a story called Mixed by Aree Chung. It inspired us to create our own art around the story. We drew our own cities and used finger paint to create the people. The children loved mixing the paint to create as many different colours as they could for their towns. They then turned these finger prints into people.

We also had a circle time about what makes a good friend. We shared our own ideas with each other about the things we can do to be a good friend.

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!

Today EYFS and KS1 were lucky enough to learn about fire safety from fire fighters from the North Earlham crew. They learned all about the amazing work the fire service do, and they now know some key fire safety tips! Some children got to explore the fire engine and all of it’s equipment, and even saw the hoses in use! KS2 are looking forward to their turn at learning more about fire safety when they return to our school next week. A huge thank you to Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service for giving up their time to join us today!

We looked at permission in RSE today. We discussed different scenarios and explored why it is important to ask for permission.

It was Anti-Bullying Day in school. In year 1 we read a story called Mixed by Aree Chung. It inspired us to create our own art around the story. We drew our own cities and used finger paint to create the people. The children loved mixing the paint to create as many different colours as they could for their towns. They then turned these finger prints into people.

We also had a circle time about what makes a good friend. We shared our own ideas with each other about the things we can do to be a good friend.

We had a wonderful day working together in our year group and also meeting up with our Y2 ‘Buddy Classes’. As a year group we looked at what the word ‘bullying’ means and acted through scenarios so that we could better understand how bullying can effect our mental-wellbeing.

We read the story ‘Emmanuel’s Dream,’ which is a true story about the boy Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah. The children wrote a letter to Emmanuel explaining how he has inspired them and what they will do to make others with physical disabilities feel accepted. 

In the afternoon, we met up with our buddy classes and made our very own sock puppets. The children were incredibly creative and loved adding on the sequin and glitter details.

We looked at how our bodies change as we get older. We created these top trump cards and compared how different things change.

Here are some year 4 children enjoying their myHappymind lesson. In the celebrate module, we have been learning about character strengths we have and how we show them. The children used some time to reflect about which character traits they have used recently and wrote about them in their journals.

Some KS2 pupils went with Miss Peek and Miss Forrest to Norwich Cathedral for a music recital this afternoon.

They were able to enjoy a short concert featuring piano, french horn and violin. The children heard a range of music and were even able to ask questions.

Thank you to Norwich School for hosting.

Year 3 were presented with dictionaries today from the Rotary Club in their year group assembly. The children are able to take these home to support their learning.

We would like to thank the generosity of the Rotary Club. We can’t wait to see how the children use them!

Year 6 had a wonderful morning in the sunshine at the Orchard today. They were able to fix the tree labels they made last year directly onto the steel mesh of the tree guards using zip ties through pre-drilled holes. They also participated in a ‘hands on’ conservation work activity making bee hotels and signs to welcome the bees! Children then had a tour of the site and were given some background information on the conservation work that has been going on in the park. Thank you to the volunteers who facilitated the visit, the children had a really great time and it was a lovely way to complete the project started by last year’s Year 6 children who planted the trees in the Summer term of 2022!

Congratulations to the Year 5 and 6 writers who are now officially published authors! A group of our UKS2 children participated in a project in collaboration with The Southbank Centre, in London, to write a chapter of a novel called ‘Rewilding Dream’ alongside authors Sita Brahmachari and Dominique Palmer, illustrator Lucy Farfort and over 2,500 children from other schools in the county. The story challenged important environmental concerns including pollution and climate change. Today their achievements were celebrated at the Norwich regional performance at Norwich Puppet Theatre. Children all received a copy of the finished book and quickly found their names in the list of contributors! As well as this, they had an illustrating masterclass! A huge well done to all for your efforts – lots of grit and determination was shown throughout the writing process!

On Thursday we went on our school trip to Gressenhall.

We met Cinderella, Jack, Griselda, the Wicked Witch and the Curator. We enjoyed helping Griselda and Cinderella with their chores, searching for the magic bean with Jack, making potions with the Witch and even going on a tractor ride.

At the end we found all the objects and finally fixed the magical museum.

The children then wrote about their trip.

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!

Year 2 had an exciting morning today when they took part in an online author visit with Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola. The children listened to Nathan and Dapo read their new book Speak Up! and then took part in a quiz. After that, Dapo taught the children how to draw the bookworm from the story. What a great morning!

We had a fun packed few days at Eaton Vale this year. All the children were amazing and gave everything a go even if they were initially weary. We packed so much in that the photos below do not do it justice but hopefully you will get a snapshot of the lasting memories we built.

Some of our Year 6 mathematicians ended last half term with a Maths competition hosted by Langley School. The children worked fantastically as a team and represented the school admirably. Miss Chamberlain even got stuck in with the tasks too!

Year 6 had the best time at Thorpe Park yesterday! The children were so excited and were fearless going on some very thrilling rides. We were so proud of how they represented the school too. A well-deserved end of SATs treat!