It’s hard to believe that we are at the end of the school year!
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to be part of the childrens’ very first year of their primary education and to watch them grow into confident individuals.
Thank you for your support over the past year and your overwhelming generosity. It is really appreciated.
Wishing you all a wonderful summer!
Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer
It has been another very busy week in Reception class!
The children have spent lots of time getting to know their new teacher, Mrs Carey and exploring their new classroom, as part of our planned Year 1 transition program.
The highlight of the week was the Sports Day and family picnic. The children began the day by joining in with the warm up dance to the song ‘Cheerleader’ with the rest of the school.
This was followed by the running race, throwing and jumping competition, egg and spoon race and the penalty shoot out!
Thank you for supporting the children; we hope you enjoyed the morning.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend,
Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer
Reception class have taken full advantage of the glorious weather and spent most of it learning outdoors this week; they have been very busy weeding the class flower bed and planting the sunflowers that they have grown from seeds. The children have also spent time practising for sports day next Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Reception joined the rest of the school in watching the Year 6 production. They thought it was fantastic and were so excited and proud to see their learning partners up on the stage! As a result of this, lots of the children spent the rest of the week on the EYFS outside stage, dancing and singing songs from the show. In fact, their child initiated learning has been so heavily influenced by the production, that Year 6 gave the children a mini drama workshop on Friday afternoon.
Next week, we will be collecting in all reading books. Please have a look around your home for any stray books, as we seem to be very low on yellow level in particular. Thank you.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the Strawberry Fayre!
Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer
Reception had a very exciting Science workshop on Tuesday, when they were joined by a real forensic police officer who was investigating a crime scene in our very own home corner! The children learnt about preserving crime scenes, looking for clues, looking at and matching footprints and learning how DNA and fingerprints help to catch criminals. They had fun taking their own fingerprints and looking closely to see if their particular patterns were made up of whirls, arches or loops!
In Maths, the children have had lots of fun exploring capacity in both the water and the sand. They have also been ordering containers according to how much they hold and recording their own predictions and findings.
In RE, Reception have been continuing to think about the story of The Good Samaritan and relating it to everyday life. The children looked at some photographs of people who seem very different to us, and then thought about what questions they would ask to get to know them better.
On Friday, the children met up with the Year 1 children to participate in a fun number activity, as part of our weekly transition program.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend,
Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer
Reception have continued to learn about mini-beasts this week, with a particular focus on snails and slugs. They used non-fiction books to find out about ideal living conditions for them and then created a class snail and slug world, filling it with creatures found around the school grounds.
Reception also had a special treat when Charlie brought in some of his own mini-beasts from his collection at home. He told the children what they needed to survive and answered lots of very interesting questions.
The children have also had lots of fun creating their own superhero characters, props and costumes to use in their superhero role play.
Lots of children showed an interest in bubbles this week, after Mrs Pandelli brought some into the classroom on Tuesday afternoon. As a result of this, the staff set up a science experiment the next day, to find out which shape created the best bubble.
This morning, the children participated in the whole school mass and the Blessed Sacrament Procession to the church this afternoon. As usual they made the adults proud by demonstrating reverence and excellent behaviour at all times.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend,
Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer
It was wonderful to see so many of you at the Potters Bar Carnival on Sunday- you all looked amazing and seemed as if you were having lots of fun!
Reception brought their new topic to life, when they went on a mini-beast hunt around the school grounds this week. The children learnt that Pope Paul School is home to many wondrous creatures, many of whom the children and staff struggled to identify!
Our story focus this week has been ‘Superworm’ by Julia Donaldson. The children enjoyed thinking about what else Superworm could use his super long body for and even learnt a Superworm song! Reception also decided to turn the outdoor role play area into a superhero headquarters and are looking forward to spending more time in it next week.
In RE, the children heard the story about The Good Samaritan; they were brilliant at relating it to positive experiences in their own lives and retelling it in a range of different media.
Wishing you all a lovely Father’s Day on Sunday.
Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer
It was lovely to welcome the children back after the half term break!
In RE, Reception have been learning about Pentecost. After hearing the story, looking at artwork and then watching a short film clip, the children made their own tongues of fire, retold and painted the story and used ribbons to move like the Holy Spirit in the outdoor learning environment.
The class also began their new learning focus, ‘Mini-beasts’ and enjoyed hearing the story ‘The Bad-tempered Ladybird’. Many of the children used the themes of the story to influence their Child Initiated Learning.
In Maths, we have been learning how to double, halve and share different amounts of objects.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the carnival!
Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer
Reception have taken part in Spirituality Week with the rest of the school this week. The theme this year has been ‘Meeting Jesus’. The week began with a whole school Act of Worship, where the children placed their personalised host on a large host above the altar. This created a beautiful display showing how we are One Body. They then created pictures based on where they see Jesus.
On Tuesday, the class were led in prayer by our wonderful Year 5 children, as they participated in the activities set up at the prayer stations.
On Wednesday, Reception looked at a modern painting depicting Jesus sitting alongside people on a train. Chloe decided that it reminded her of the story, The Road to Emmaus’, as Jesus was travelling alongside people who didn’t recognise him!
The children then thought about times in school when they had shared a joyful experience with a friend. Together, they then drew a picture of how they felt during that time.
Today, the children were excited to share their learning environment during the Celebration Morning. It was wonderful to see so many of you.
Father Shaun then led us in the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. This was a very special time where the children collectively worshiped Jesus, present in the form of the sacred host.
Wishing you all a safe, restful and happy half term holiday.
Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer
It has been a very eventful and exciting past two weeks in Reception class!
Last week, we received a letter from Professor Pemberton from the Natural History Museum. He asked Reception if they would consider looking after a very valuable dinosaur egg while it’s display cabinet was being repaired. The children agreed and wrote back to tell them that we would be delighted to help.
On Wednesday, a very special parcel was brought into class by Mrs Heymoz. It had the words, ‘fragile’ and ‘Natural History Museum’ all over the box. The children knew at once that the package had something very exciting inside- it was the dinosaur egg! The class decided to keep it safe on the prayer table, until they found somewhere secure to display it. They spent a long time planning and making display cabinets and writing signs telling everybody to be careful around the egg. The children were very worried that the egg might break, while in our care!
After the extended weekend, Mrs Theo arrived to a very worrying scene; the protective packaging around the egg seemed to be all over the floor and the egg itself had been completely cracked open! Unbelievably, the dinosaur had hatched and escaped!
When the children arrived in class, they were completely bewildered; what had happened to the egg and more importantly where was the dinosaur now?
At once, Reception notified Mrs Heymoz and the rest of the school. They then came up with a plan. Mrs Lopez phoned the police and the army and Mrs Heymoz phoned the museum. The biggest concern at this point, was whether the dinosaur was a carnivore or a herbivore. Thankfully, the museum informed us that it was indeed a herbivore!
The children then went about writing ‘lost’ posters and planning traps to capture the dinosaur. Some children even wrote a letter to Professor Pemberton, explaining that it wasn’t Mrs Theo’s fault that the egg had cracked. They all agreed to keep look out as they went home that evening.
The next morning, Mrs Theo was overwhelmed with the number of sightings around the childrens’ homes and gardens, so she decided to write them all down to see if there were any patterns in the dinosaur’s behaviour. It seemed that the dinosaur must have been looking for food, as he spent a lot of his time in gardens!
Now that so many of the class had seen the dinosaur, they were in a much better position to write descriptions of the it, which was very helpful, as everyone now knew what they were looking for.
The children worked well together making different traps and are hoping that when they come back on Monday, a little baby dinosaur will be inside one of them!
Today, the children joined the rest of the school honouring Our Lady with our May procession, where we walked to the Peace Garden and placed our flowers on the altar dedicated to Mary.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend,
Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer
Alleluia! He is risen!
Welcome back!
We hope you had a joyous time celebrating Easter with your families. It was lovely to see the wonderful, creative Easter gardens, which are now on show in our international garden.
This week, we have been learning about the resurrection story according to Luke. The children worked hard to retell the story in a number of different ways.
On Tuesday afternoon, the class participated in an Easter themed creative workshop with Year 1. They learnt about the symbolism of eggs during Easter time and then made their own to display on the window. They children then went into the Year 1 classroom where they made butterflies, to represent new life.
Congratulations to Mya, who was Baptised on Easter Sunday and looked beautiful!
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Theo and Mrs Gymer
