Hello, and welcome to my blog

There are so many things going on at school – and we are very keen for you to know about the wide range of opportunities available to the children. It is all too easy to focus all our attention on what is going on in the classroom –  and important thought that is, we believe there is so much more to your child’s all-round education.

In this blog, my aim is to give you a quick insight into the variety of activities going on across the school which cater for the children’s personal development. These snippets will give a feel for this, and I hope will be of value to those of you who don’t have the time to read our weekly newsletter.

Mrs. Macey

13 October 2023: A wonderful harvest

We hope that you enjoyed the wonderful Harvest Festival service that we enjoyed today at St Peter’s. It was lovely to see the children performing confidently and taking an active part in the celebration. The donations of Harvest produce are very much appreciated and we will ensure that they are delivered via Vicar James to the local foodbanks.

11 September 2023: Welcome to the new school year

Welcome back to everyone for the new school year. It’s always a pleasure to welcome the new children to year R, and to see the familiar faces from the rest of the school. We have had a fantastic first week. The children have settled in very quickly - helped, I think, by the effort everyone put in last term to making sure that the transition to new classes and new year groups would proceed as smoothly as possible. Our staff too have been busy working over the summer to prepare their classrooms and their teaching. We have so many exciting things planned for the term - which you can see on the school calendar - and we have hit the ground running!

08 February 2023: Twilight reading

We were thrilled to see so many children and carers coming together to read and share stories at our first Twilight reading session on Monday this week.  The hall looked magical, with fairy lights, cosy corners and cushions. With hot chocolate and sandwiches, it had been turned into a lovely picnic area by some of our parents.  No surprise, then, that there was an amazing array of teddies, who came along to join the occasion. Sharing stories and making these times special really helps to engage children and enthuse them with a love of reading and the magic of books.  Thanks all!

03 January 2023: Happy new year

Hello, everyone and welcome back. I hope that you all had a restful, healthy, and happy holiday period.

We will be making sure that the new year kicks off with enthusiasm, with a range of exciting activities and learning planned for this term, for all the children. So, I’d like to start the new year with an important reminder, so that everyone has the chance to make the most of the opportunities available to them. The most fundamental starting point is that we need all the children to be in school as much as possible so that they can engage in everything we have to offer. We can’t wait to get going!

8 December 2022: A nativity play that was out of this world!

This year’s Beech and Willow class nativity play, ‘Christmas with the Aliens’, told the story of a group of curious aliens - who had unfortunately crash landed - being introduced to the story of the nativity for the first time. It was full of catchy songs and brilliant one-liners and the children all performed wonderfully. They spoke with such clarity that even our youngest actors and actresses — the Reception age children — could be heard clearly from the back of the hall. There were catchy songs throughout, which were sung with conviction and enjoyment, supported with dance moves.

This nativity was such a wonderful showcase of the children’s talents for acting and singing. Thanks to all the staff and children for putting on such a show - and to the parents who came to enjoy it all.

11 November 2022: Remembering

At 11 o'clock on Friday 11th November, we gathered at the war memorial outside the school to commemorate this important time. The children in Oak class read the poem 'For the Fallen', remembering all those who have died or suffered in conflicts around the world. Mark, Solomia and Liubomyr read prayers that they had written for Ukraine. The whole school then sang the song, 'Remember' and we observed the two-minute silence, along with a large number of parents who had gathered by the memorial. Thank you to all of those who attended, and to the children, who approached this with the solemnity and dignity it deserves.

20 October 2022: An eventful first half of term

We have had an action-packed first half of term, and it seems to have flown by.  The children new to the school have settled in well and the old-timers (not that old) have continued to develop. The children have puts lots of effort into their day-to-day learning and can be pleased with the progress they are making.  Outside the classroom, there have been so many highlights – such as choir singing, the celebration of Harvest festival, and participation in cross-country and football festivals outside school. These are just a few examples of the broad curriculum and experience we offer, and we were delighted to discuss many of these things with you at parent’s evening.  I hope you all have a restful half term break and come back refreshed for everything we have in store for next term.

30 August 22: Summer work, and welcoming everyone back

Please don’t think that the work stops during the holidays! This summer, we have been very busy preparing for the new academic year. The classrooms are all ready for the new term and we have had some building and decorating work done. Most pleasingly, the boys toilets has undergone a complete refurbishment, and Chestnut classroom has been re-imagined as a place for breakfast and after school club as well as a cosy space for working.

The autumn term is always an exciting one. The prospect of the school year stretches out before us with all its new experiences and possibilities. All the staff are excited about getting started and are looking forward to getting some learning under our belts and making the best possible start to the new academic year.

10 June 22: Celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee

We were so impressed by the number of children who volunteered to attend our events and represent the school during the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations. The feedback from people who attended the cream tea was very positive, with wonderful comments about the children’s service and their amazing manners and social skills. I would like to thank them all for giving up their time and brightening so many people’s days. The maypole dances were very well received and the children really enjoyed showing their skills. All of these efforts showed our wonderful school as a valuable part of the wider community and contributing to it. We are going from strength to strength, and it is great that lots of people can see it.

27 May 22: Chess club

After school on Wednesdays, the children take part in chess club. This club has been growing in popularity over the last few terms and there is now a large group of children who participate. It is wonderful to see them develop from week to week, thinking about the best strategies to win their opponent’s pieces. What has also been wonderful to see is how the younger children in the school are being supported by the older children in the club and they are now growing in confidence to play matches against each other. We look forward to seeing this club continue to grow and who knows, we may even have a future chess master in our midst!

29 April 22: Music to our ears

We have got straight back to it at the start of the summer term, with everything starting this week: clubs, all sports and music! Hampshire Music Service came to see us and played their brass instruments to the children, with the intention to inspire any children who might be interested in taking up these instruments! At West Tytherley the children will be learning brass this term, so it was great to hear what we are aiming to sound like!!  We can all look forward to their soothing tunes on the warm summer evenings ahead…

1 April 2022: Hampshire Games

This week we received some very exciting news! The school has been invited to take part in this Year’s Hampshire Games.  Broughton and West Tytherley primary schools have been invited to attend the Hampshire Games in Winchester this year. Our School Games Organiser (SGO) has picked our two schools to go because of our participation in PE throughout the lockdowns. There are 60 schools in our SGO’s  area and only 10 schools could be selected to go, so we are very lucky! She identified that our schools had always engaged with the school games programme, taken part in competitions virtually, and re-designed our competition programme to meet the motivation, competence and confidence of our students. The event will take place in June and is aimed at enabling children to try out new and exciting sports. Watch this space!

4 March 2022: Responding to events in Ukraine

We have thought long and hard about how best to help our children to make sense of the events unfolding in the Ukraine. We know that the children hear and see things from a differing number of sources and also that they will have varying levels of knowledge. We don’t think that it is appropriate to hold generic assemblies or whole class lessons about the events, since this will not help to meet the needs of all the children and may cause further upset. Our strategy is to talk to the children if and when the subject is raised, find out their thoughts and go from there. We are making sure that we keep abreast of all the materials that are being published for schools and children and will use these as needed. If you feel that your child is particularly anxious about it, please do let us know if you feel that it would be helpful for us to talk to them.

11 February: Staying safe on line

We have worked this week to develop the children’s understanding of how to be responsible and stay safe on line. As always, this is a very important area of our children’s education.  If you have any concerns about this and your child, please do not hesitate to contact school and we can give advice or sign post you to helpful resources.

28 January: Federation netball

One of the benefits of being part of a Federation is the chance it gives for the children to get involved in larger-scale activities with our sister school. This week, our netball club travelled to Broughton Primary School to take part in a netball match. The children were put in mixed teams and there was some fantastic netball played. It was lovely to see how the children were applying the skills that they have learned in netball club to the match. The teamwork in the mixed teams was fantastic and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Well done netball club. You are growing into some fantastic netballers.

7 January 2022: Chance to Shine

Welcome back to the new school year. We have had a fantastic first week. The children have got straight back into learning with renewed enthusiasm and energy. We have also started our weekly cricket lessons with ‘Chance to Shine’. The children made a great start with this, and really benefited from the experienced and skilled external coaching provided.