Welcome, everybody. Here we are at the end of another busy and very enjoyable half term.
Hawkshead Residential
Last week was an extremely exciting one for our Year 6 pupils as they spent 3 days at Hawkshead in the Lake District. I joined them on Wednesday evening and spent half the day with them on Thursday during which we all had a fabulous time horseriding and grooming a number of ponies at an equestrian centre.
During their stay, the children visited the Hawkshead Grammar School Museum to learn about school life in the past and, especially, the 18th century. As part of the visit the children experienced a lesson in the school room as it would have been in the time of the poet, William Wordsworth who attended the school.
The staff at the museum made a secial point of saying how well behaved our children were and, in fact, the best behaved and most interested group of children they had met this year. We are all very proud of you.
The whole group returned to school safe and sound on Friday afternoon, keen to tell their families about their experiences and, staff included, ready for a big sleep after their adventures. Thank you to all the staff who organised and took part in the residential: Mr Darr, Miss Bray, Miss Nelson, Mrs Robinson, Mr A Khan, Mr H Khan, Miss Zaman and Mr Sajid. We really apreciate the time you gave to make sure that our children had such a wonderful experience. You deserve a week’s rest now!
Diwali Assembly
Last Friday our Year 5 pupils performed their Diwali assembly in front of the whole school and their parents. What a credit they were to Copthorne! We all thoroughly enjoyed learning all about the Hindu culture and Diwali festival.
It was clear to see that the children have gained a great deal from the creative curriculum theme: India that they have been studying since September. The assembly demonstrated a range of subject knowledge and skills including History, Geography, Music, Dance, Art and, of course, RE. Well done, everyone! Thank you Mr Rizvi, Mr Sandhu, Miss Bhatti, Mrs Ludbrook and Mr Zaman for making this unit of work so inspiring for our children.
Half Term Holiday
Copthorne is closed this week for the half term holiday and will reopen at the usual time on Monday 4th November. I wish you all an enjoyable and restful break.
Next week at Copthorne
Mums Do Maths
On Tuesday 5th November from 8.45am we will be holding a ‘Mums do Maths’ morning for adult female family members of children in Years 5 and 6. During the morning, classes will be working on a variety of maths challenges. This is a great opportunity for mums to learn alongside the children and to find out about the way we teach maths at Copthorne.
Forest Schools
On Friday 8th November, Year 4 will continue with their Forest School activities as half the children from 4 Beech visit St Ives Woods with Mrs Robinson and Mrs Shah. I know that the children are having a great time learning about the outdoor environment and how we should care for it. Keep up the good work everyone!
Life Channel Training
As you may have noticed, we have a number of TV screens both inside and outside school showing a range of short, public information programmes aimed at parents and pupils. The programmes are there to provide useful information to support parents, pupils and community members.
Our main intention, however, is to use the screens to show work produced by our children and daily and weekly news about Copthorne. This will be presented for example, in the form of photo stories and films produced by the children. In order to help us to do this a group of 6 staff members will be taking part in a training session in school on Friday 8th November. We are looking forward to then being able to share a great deal of the work our children are doing before the end of next half term.
On behalf of all the staff, we hope you all have a enjoyable and well earned break and look forward to seeing all the children back to school on Monday 4th November at the usual time.
Mrs Shepherd