Special Days and Events

Iman Issa and Yousef visit Sheldwich to celebrate Ramadan

We were delighted as a school to welcome Iman Issa and Yousef from the Canterbury Mosque  to the school on Monday the 11th March to celebrate the start of Ramadan.  They held  two school assemblies from years 1-6 and R and Pre-School. It was really interesting learning all about fasting and the different traditions surrounding this important time in the Islamic calendar.

World Book Day 2024

                                   Staff and children have had a wonderful day celebrating World Book Day.

Arts Week 2024

First Girls only football match

On Monday 11th December 2023, history was made at Sheldwich Primary school. In the first time in its 155 year history, Sheldwich hosted and took part in its first all-female football match against Selling school. It was a closely contested football game, which Sheldwich started as the front runners; Mollie scoring the first goal in the first 5minutes!This was closely followed by a second goal scored by Grace. Selling showed determined spirit and after some wonderful saves from Sheldwich Goalie Eadie, Selling scored not only in the last minute but also in the last second of the first half resulting in a tie going in to half time 2-2.

Selling emerged from the half time break in fighting spirits and scored another goal in the first 5 minutes. Sheldwich Mollie soon equalized and there followed some equally matched team skills and spirits with Sheldwich Caitlin saving some great goals and wonderful defence and tackles by Safi.

The last quarter of the match saw Sheldwich Mollie gaining a hat trick goal which the whole team held on to and  the final score was  4-3 to Sheldwich.

Fantastic teamwork was shown by all the players: Avie, Caitlin, Eadie, Emilia, Emilie, Grace, Maya, Mollie, Nancsi, Safiyya, Sophie,

A big thank you to the girl’s coach, Mr Wilson and all the supporters on the side-lines.

R.E. Day 

On Tuesday 28^th November the whole school took part in ‘Religious Education Day’. The inspiration for this day was drawn from the Kent Agreed Syllabus- 

Key Question: How do people from religious and non-religious communities celebrate key festivals?

We focused on Christmas. 

On Monday  Rev Peters spoke to the children all about Advent and how Christians prepare for Christmas. Following this on Tuesday we were delighted to welcome Warren and Daltons Grandma  Rev Burgess to school, she  delivered a Key Stage 2 assembly and then spoke to each infant class in turn including Little Hedgehogs. She told us all about  what it is like to be a Christian at Christmas time and how busy the church is.  Continuing this family link we were thrilled to have so many parents brave enough to come in and talk to the children about their experiences of Christmas.    

Each class created a collective work of art depicting the title of a Christmas carol, these stunning pieces of Art work were on display in the school hall now they have been taken to the local St James Church to be shared with the community.  Each child made a card and decorations thinking carefully about whether it represented a Christian or secular perspective of Christmas. The day made many cross curricular links as some classes developed their Design Technology skills as they made mince pies, other classes developed fine motor control as they made fiddly Christingles, thinking about what each element represented. The day was a resounding success and I am hoping that it will become an annual event in the Sheldwich calendar. 

STEM week

We had so much fun during our ‘Movie Magic’ STEM week. There were so many different activities completed from Little Hedgehogs, all the way up to Badgers that were inspired by film clips. Some of these included:

• Insulating ice and building ice castles inspired by Frozen
• Lego creations and Lego ziplines inspired by the Lego Movie
• Robots inspired by Wall-E
• Learning about sea creature adaptations inspired by Finding Nemo
• Learning about sinking and floating and making boats inspired by Moana
• Creating stop-motion animations with plastecine and toys
• Making omelettes and learning about healthy eating inspired by Ratatouille 

Some classes also looked at reversible and irreversible changes by seeing how popcorn ‘pops’!

Dragonflies, Squirrels, Otters, Foxes and Badgers also all competed in the Bebras Computing Challenge during the week, which tested their computational thinking.

Additionally, all classes had a Virtual Reality Workshop in which they donned virtual reality headsets to explore the rainforest, space or the human body. These were truly fascinating and provided such a memorable learning experience for our children. This activity was partly funded by the PTA – thank you!

WIRE Award - Widening Inclusivity in Religious Education.

On 14^th September we were thrilled to receive the Kent SACRE WIRE Award from Mrs Wigg. The WIRE award is  run by SACRE - Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education. This is the statutory body which holds responsibility for advising the Local Authority on matters to do with RE and collective worship in Kent schools.

It works on a tri annual basis, supports British values and required us as a school to complete four elements.

1)To attend an RE course.

2)To take a group of pupils to visit a Christian place of worship and encounter members of the Christian community which worships there.

Ladybirds Class Visited St James Church 2^nd November

Ladybird Class  Visited Canterbury Cathedral 1^st December 2022   The BUNCE trust provided funding  for the coach.                                              

Butterflies Class Visited St James Church in Sheldwich, Thursday 8^th December 2022                                                                 

Otters Class visited Canterbury Cathedral-22^nd November – The BUNCE trust provided funding  for the coach.

Badger Class- Virtual tour of St Pauls-7^th October 22 please see attached.

3a) To take a group of pupils (or staff) to visit a place of worship of another faith and encounter at least one community member

Dragonflies class visited Thanet Synagogue- 21^st April 23

Following the visit Rabbi Cliff said:

“The classes that visited my synagogue were also respectful, attentive and clearly interested, and answered an enthusiastic ‘YES’ when I asked them if they had enjoyed their visit and if they had learned anything. I would be more than happy to work with you and your Sheldwich school again.

3b) Arrange for pupils to welcome someone of a non-Christian faith to school as part of a series of lessons on that faith

Rabbi Cliff  visited Pre-School and classes R-2 then all of the Juniors together in the hall on  18^th April 23. He came in to share with the children all of the details and traditions about the festival of Passover. One of the children's grandparents had lent the school her SEDER plate so Rabbi Cliff was able to use this artifact as he spoke to the pupils giving it extra meaning

Following the visit Rabbi Cliff commented

"My own experience was that the children were interested in learning about my Jewish faith, paying attention throughout in each age group, asking relevant questions. The RE events were clearly highly successful, the children have learned a lot in a most enjoyable way.”

Mr & Mrs Noor visited Little Hedgehogs Pre-School to talk about the Muslim Festival of Eid on Friday 21^st April. The intention was for the children to understand why this festival is important to Muslim families.

4a Arrange an RE event in school, or locally, which includes aspects of more than one faith, or focuses on a religion or worldview not held by most of the school.

For the past three years we have held whole school RE Days.

20-21 The intention was to look at Christian symbols at Christmas Time.

21-22 We focused as a school on the festival of Diwali.

22-23 The focus was on the Passover, Rabbi Cliff came in to talk to us about the festival prior to the day so that he could spend longer with each class, and to deliver some carefully targeted  pre-teaching.

On the day each class created a collective piece of Art work on one of the 10 plagues.

      Each class was able to take part in an active cooking based design technology activity run by the parents Miss Netherton, Mrs Wiltshire and Mrs Diddams.

Mike Leigh one of the school Trustees completed an informal RE visit to each class in the afternoon so that he could observe all of the work which was taking place and capture the child’s voice in real time.

One child commented enthusiastically “I haven’t done any work today” as he was so engaged and inspired by what he was doing.  The impact of having an annual event like this every year is that it raised the profile of RE within the school and it enhances the pupils enthusiasm. It also enables teachers to see how RE can be delivered in an exciting cross curricular way. Teachers feel inspired and motivated to deliver the subject in new and imaginative ways.

4b Enter a Competition to do with RE (such as ‘Spirited Arts)

For ARTS week- May 23 – All pupils throughout the whole school either individually or collectively as a class created an original and imaginative piece of work for the Spirited Arts Award.  

Arts Week 

Printing

This year Arts week had a theme of 'Printing' We each had a type of printing which we explored during the week. 

Little Hedgehogs and Ladybirds used everyday materials. Butterflies did block printing. Dragonflies did carbon paper monoprinting. Squirrels made collagraph prints using collage materials. Otters did monotype printing in the positive and negative. Foxes had a go at screen printing which proved unsuccessful in the end but had fun exploring it. They had fun exploring other types of printing as well. Badgers did linoprinting.  We also used our outdoor learning area to do some printing. Mr Caryer and Mrs Heinsen led a workshop learning about the history of printing and using an Adana press. Mr Higgins also did monotype printing with groups of children from each class.

       Coronation Celebrations

         As part of the celebrations to mark the coronation of King Charles the school enjoyed a terrific street party wearing their wonderful crowns, singing the national anthem amongst the bunting bedecked playground and, of course, eating the feast! We also found out some interesting coronation facts, made golden coaches, new royal emblems and created portraits. To top it all we had a fantastic performance by Circo Rum Ba Ba with a special cameo performance by one of our own Year 6 pupils - well done Isaac 

Religious Education  Day  Wednesday 19th April 2023

This years RE day was linked explicitly to the ‘EXPRESSING’ strand of the Kent agreed syllabus  2022-2027.

Learning Objective: to understand how and why Jews celebrate the festival of Pesach.

RE day started on Tuesday 18th April with a visit from Rabbi Cliff, he visited the Pre-School and all of the infant classes individually sharing with them the story of Passover. Later in the day he spoke at length to all of the Junior classes in the hall where he discussed the symbolism behind all of the different Pesach traditions and the children had the opportunity to ask lots of questions.

Following  Rabbi Cliff’s  introduction to Passover on the Tuesday on the Wednesday  pupils learnt more about Moses life and appreciated how traditions around the seder plate and meal help Jewish people to remember the story.  Pupils were encouraged to reflect on the important themes of Pesach such as  freedom, faithfulness to God: and the Jewish people’s place as God’s Chosen or Favoured People – rescued from slavery  and brought into the Promised Land. We shared the epic story of the Exodus through text, art, film and drama, exploring the relationship between the people and God. We used a range of cross curricular methods such as Art, DT and practical cooking activities as we really wanted to inspire and engage the children into remembering different elements of the story and how  Pesach is celebrated in Jewish homes today.

Little Hedgehogs

Rabbi Cliff came to  Pre-School and read the story  of ‘Pippa’s First Passover’ to us. We did really good ‘story sitting’ as we were very interested to meet someone new, especially when he told us why he wears his special hat.  We  got to have a close look at Winnie’s Grandma’s special SEDER plate, the lamb bone was very heavy. We had a go at making some charoset paste for the SEDER plate it was a bit tricky but surprisingly tasty.

Ladybirds Class

We enjoyed a visit from Rabbi Cliff  we learnt all about the Passover and the SEDER plate. We were very excited to see our Mummies Mrs Wiltshire, Ms Netherton and Mrs Diddams in the hall, they came in to help us and the other classes in the school make some special food linked to the story of Moses and the Passover. We iced some yummy parting of the Red Sea cup cakes. We learnt all about how Moses argued with the Pharaoh and made some frogs to remind us of the plagues.

Butterflies Class

 We were excited to meet Rabbi Cliff as we got to try some of his special Matzos crackers which helped remind us of the  part of the story when the Israelites had to flee in the middle of the night and didn’t have time for the bread to rise.  We made our own SEDER plates. We learnt all about the story of Moses and made some sticky flies to remind us about the plagues. In the hall we got really messy as we made some crunchie chocolate baby Moses baskets inspired by the early part of  Moses life when his Mummy floats him down the river in a basket to keep him safe and he is rescued by the Pharaohs daughter.  

Dragonflies Class

We focused on the plagues in the Jewish story of Passover.  We created comic strips of the plagues, detailing each individual one. We  created our own Seder plate that Jewish families may use to celebrate the Seder meal with to help them remember the different aspects of life under slavery in Egypt. As a practical activity, we  learnt how to make unleavened flat-bread in the style of the Passover breads that Jewish families might eat at Passover. 

In addition to the activities on RE Day, we had the opportunity to visit a synagogue during the same week and were able to experience Jewish customs and traditions in their own place of worship. We met with Rabbi Cliff who spoke about the way in which his congregation worship each week and how the Torah is read and cared for. 

Squirrels Class

 In Squirrels, we learnt about the Seder plate and thought about how each part was representative of a memory of historical part of Judaism. We then had a go at making our own Seder plate and put food on it that gave us happy memories. We also made a clay cartouche with our names on it and created a piece of scratch art to match our Plague of Darkness. We had a great day!

Otters Class

 In Class 4, we learned about the history of the Jewish people  ‘A Little History of the World’, before reading the story of the 10 plagues of Egypt and watching a scene form the Prince of Egypt. We created a comic strip of the 10 plagues and invented out our own seder plates to remember significant events from our past. We also folded a swarm of origami locusts and cooked some delicious hamantaschen.

Foxes Class

We  completed a great many activities on RE day! We were really  interested  in Rabbi Cliff’s visit on the previous day,  and we had lots of interested questions we wanted to ask from the start. We outlined the story of The Exodus before watching an animated version and we wrote thoughtful and detailed responses. We enjoyed getting really sticky making our coconut pyramids and fully appreciated the significance of this Passover treat.  In the afternoon we considered the issue of slavery from differing points of view , as well as working on dramatic interpretations of the story. Finally we looked at the importance of the Seder Plate and thought about what foods represented reflection and celebration in our own lives.

Badgers Class

We had a fantastic time during our R.E. During the morning sessions we looked into the background and practices of Judaism in general before 'zooming in' on the Passover. We found out WHY and HOW Jews observe the Passover and made some research notes in our R.E books. We looked at the Exodus story and focused in for our Art activity on the 10 plagues sent to Egypt. As a class, we worked as a team to create a large abstract collage representing the fifth plague - 'The Death of Livestock'. Whilst waited for our  turn to add our contribution to the collage we  created our own art work inspired by any of the ten plagues in our sketch books.

Next, we went to the hall where Mrs Ashmore and a team of fantastic parent helpers worked with the children to make cupcakes. Later in the day, once baked and cooled, we iced the cupcakes in blue and used these along with some strawberry bootlaces and fizzy fish to re-create the parted Red Sea from the Exodus story. Once photographed, the parted Red Sea was consumed enthusiastically by us.!

 In the afternoon, we worked in small groups to create drama sequences telling the story of the ten plagues, Moses' repeated requests for freedom to the stubborn Pharaoh and the enslaved people's eventual escape from Egypt.  Our dramatic performances were FANTASTIC – we developed such clever ideas were developed and  threw ourselves into  acting out each scene with great gusto.

Our final activity for the day, having watched each others performances, was to design our own Seder Plate - one where each of the 6 elements would represent an important event from within our own lives. We also enjoyed tasting two elements of the Seder Plate during this time, dunking our unrisen Matzah bread into both the Charoset and Maror. Most of us preferred the sweet apple of the Charoset!. We had a wonderful memorable RE  day.  

A Note of Thanks  to

 Rabbi Cliff for taking the time to come and visit us at Sheldwich. To Ms Netherton, Mrs Wiltshire and Mrs Diddam’s for organising  the cooking workshops we are very grateful as truly they could not have run without you. And to the Lyle family for lending us their SEDER plate and donating  the Matzo Crackers, Charoset and Horseradish we really appreciated your generosity and trust.

The Great Composers

Performing Arts Week was a fantastic week, where the school were able to focus specifically on classical music and developing their understanding of the genre's greatest composers. As well as the typical favourites (Mozart, Handel, Vivaldi etc...) the classes also focused on some 'unsung' heroes of the movement as well. 

The school were treated to a performance by a local string quartet, where lots of the famous pieces were performed beautifully and the school were exposed to ample examples of classical music throughout the week too. 

After appraising different classical pieces the children tried their hand at composing and performing  classical music in similar fashion, using the school's instruments and technology. Each class also focused on a couple of composers at a deeper level, to delve into their history and the stories surrounding their composed pieces. In our celebration assembly, every class from R to 6 had some performers showcase examples of classical music performed by the children themselves.

It truly was an inspiring week!

Mr Daintree

STEM week

We had an amazing time during STEM week! Our theme was ‘Investigations’ and we conducted investigations, experiments and exploration in all 4 areas: Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. The aim was to have lots of hands-on, practical and fun learning experiences.

We had some Chemistry teachers visit us from Canterbury Academy to support the junior classes in their understanding of solids, liquids and gases. We made play dough to consolidate our understanding of changing states. Class 5 were also very lucky to be visited by Ms Hummerstone, a Physics teacher, who prepared a number of investigations to support their Science topic ‘Forces’.

Science

When completing our Science investigations, we made predictions for what we thought the outcomes of our investigation would be, we made lots of observations and sometimes recorded results and then we formed conclusions from our findings. This developed our key scientific skills.

Some of our investigations included:

• Investigating the link between smell and taste by eating crisps whilst pinching our noses
• Investigating how many helium balloons it would take to carry certain amounts of mass (which also turned into a learning opportunity about the longevity of the effects of helium!)
• Investigating reaction times and comparing with how much sleep we’d had to see if there was a potential link
• Investigating different sounds and the volume that different materials make in a shaker
• Investigating thermal insulators by trying to keep a potato hot
• Investigating the best biscuit for dunking
• Observing changes made when combining two chemicals
• Investigating how to make pennies shiny again
• Investigating how to stop apples turning brown in our lunch box
• Observing how skittles change in water
• Investigating the by-products of chemical reactions and how we can tell they’re there (by using balloons to capture gas)

Technology

We all explored coding and programming as part of our ‘Technology’ investigation. The infants tried to follow a course by programming their BeeBots and the juniors had a go at writing some code for robots that are controlled by Microbits.  They had to try to make the robot go forwards, turn at a right angle and then return to them. If they could complete this, they then had the opportunity to try to write code for their robot that would allow it to travel around a course designed by Mr Burns.

Engineering

When engineering, we explored techniques for building the tallest tower that could support itself, the best type of bricks for building freestanding towers, making catapults, investigating different types of paper planes and making bridges that could support the most amount of weight.

Maths

Some of our Maths investigations included ordering houses and chimneys by following directional instructions, creating and continuing patterns with shape and colour, working out how to win at games by positioning yourself strategically and investigating 3d shapes and their nets.

Tree Planting for the Queen's Green Canopy

A huge 'Thank You' to Mr Bill Harbour and all at Sheldwich Parish Council for inviting Sheldwich Primary to be part of the Queen's Green Canopy Tree Planting along Dayton Road.  Also special thanks to Mr Scutt aka Farmer Phil,  who, on a very wintery morning helped to transport the children to the field on the tractor and trailer - this was amazing fun! Also to Mrs Scutt for helping us with the planting.  35 of the lime trees were planted in springtime and the remaining 35 were planted by the children along with Mrs Garrett and Mrs Lay.  The children worked extra hard with back filling the holes as the ground was so frozen but it kept everyone warm!

Choir Performing at Macknade

Sheldwich Choir brought some Christmas-cheer to Macknade, when they performed a set of classic carols acoustically in their outdoor market! The children sung wonderfully and enjoyed performing to a packed audience!

Book Week 2022

Sheldwich enjoyed a fabulous Book Week between Monday 17^th and Friday 21^st of October. Our theme this year was ‘Powerfully Perfect Poetry’ or ‘Perfectly Powerful Poetry’ – it depends on who you ask! Either way, for this week we were concerned with all things poetic. In every class, teachers provided opportunities for children to read poetry, to discuss poetry, to write poetry and to perform poetry. Throughout the week we were engaged in all kinds of wonderful activities of the poetic variety – here are a few highlights...

• On Monday we were visited by local poet Gary Studley who led our assembly and worked with every class through the course of the day to inspire the children to create their own poetry.
• Teachers all swapped classes to read poetry in a different year group (I had a great time over in Little Hedgehogs).
• Whole classes went to another class to participate in peer to peer reading on Friday morning.
• On Thursday, members of the Deal Poet’s society visited to work with our Key Stage 2 classes. They shared and discussed their own poetry and engaged the children in a poetry writing activity – the outcomes from which were heard in a special assembly at the end of the day.
• Throughout the week, each class rehearsed a piece of performance poetry which they delivered in our assembly on Friday.
• The school wide poetry slam was also a great success – all willing participants performed a poem (either by someone else or, in many cases, of their own creation) in front of their classmates who then voted for their favourite. Each class winner received a brand new book from our book fair and performed in our whole school assembly on Friday.

Those are just a few of the things we got up to through the week, culminating in our dressing up day on Friday – never before have so many owls and pussycats been seen prowling the playground! A marvellous week was had by all.

Mr Cork

Geography and DT day

Wednesday 28th September 2022

Sheldwich had a fantastic Geography and DT day. The focus of our day was Harvest and foods that are seasonal to Kent. Each class thought of a recipe that could include seasonal fruits grown at this time of year. Ladybirds prepared and made a cooked apple. Butterflies designed and made a fruit salad. Dragonflies designed a label for a flapjack and chose the toppings. Squirrels made an apple crisp. Otters a layered flapjack. Foxes an apple crumble and Badgers a pickled slaw.

Every class went for a walk to see the field near our school to see how it has been harvested and compare the field to when we last went for a walk. Otters and Badgers walked that bit further to visit Mr Scutt's farm and see the cows being milked. We enjoyed a visit from Mr Gaskain to tell us foods that are grown on his farm.

Sports Week 2022 - The Commonwealth Games

This year's Sports Week was themed around the Commonwealth Games which are being held in Birmingham in July. Every class had the chance to experience and play a multitude of sports some for the first time. Throughout the week, a selection of sports coaches visited Sheldwich to teach us a range of Commonwealth sports such as:  badminton, basketball (Crusaders), golf (Faversham Golf Club), athletics, tag rugby, archery and boxing (Olympia Boxing). During the week, we learnt about what the Commonwealth is and what countries are part of it, we designed medals and mascots and even completed some geometric sports art. A focus on the sports values: determination, passion, honesty, self-belief, respect and teamwork was also paramount in every class.

The children all seemed to have a wonderful experience below is a selection of pupil responses about the week.

 Class 1 - Butterflies

Claudine - 'I have loved doing the workouts, I got my body into it. Hockey was fun because we were competing.'

Isaac - 'We have got to do so many different sports. I liked football we got star points if our team won, that was so good.'

Roisin - 'This week we have learnt lots of new sports and I love PE. I learnt that lots of countries com together and compete in the Commonwealth Games.'

Class 2 - Dragonflies

Felix - 'I liked the badminton session because I play badminton in my garden, but it was nice to learn properly. I felt like I did well at the ‘scarecrow’ race at sports day because my team came second. I tried tag-rugby which I enjoyed – I liked that you had to pull people’s tags off!'

Hannah - I tried ‘long distance’ running this week, which I really enjoyed because I normally just sprint when I run, but I liked running for longer. I felt like I did well at the ‘sack race’ on sports day because I won the race!

Ella - I loved sports day because I did the ‘long distance’ race. I liked seeing everybody try their best. I think I did well at the ‘egg and spoon’ race too, even though I was very nervous. I tried badminton during sports week and I liked it because I liked learning how to hit a shuttle-cock.

Class 3 - Squirrels

Felix - 'I would like to carry on doing the boxing because it uses skills. I enjoyed doing the golf because it is quite a slow skillful game.'

Caitlin - 'I have loved boxing, cricket and rounders. I liked Sports Day/Sports Week because I like sports.'

Violet - 'I liked Sports Day because I got to improve my running. I'd like to play golf again and I'd like to continue more athletics because I like it.'

Class 4 - Otters

Skyla - 'It was really fun because we got to do sports and wear PE kit all week. On Sports Day, I liked doing all the races and standing on the podium (apart from when I fell off!) I liked the boxing as we learnt new things plus we did some push ups.'

Ethan H - 'I liked doing sports especially Sports Day and the basketball coach. I enjoyed the boxing it just wasn't long enough.'

Eadie - 'I like Sports Week because I enjoy sports. I liked the dodgeball, basketball coaching and the skipping race on sports day as I almost won. I would like to do more gymnastics.'

Class 5 - Foxes

Ilona - 'I loved Sports Week, it was really fun. I enjoyed archery and sports day. I am pleased with my archery as I got a bullseye.'

Seth - 'My thoughts on Sports Week were that is was amazing and I love sports. I really enjoyed Sports Day and playing rounders. I was pleased when I got on the podium three times on Sports Day.'

Rosa-Mae - 'I really enjoyed the skipping race because I could not stop smiling.'

Edward - 'This Sports Week I enjoyed playing every sport we tried. I was most proud of coming 3rd in the skipping race. I think this  is the best week of school'

Class 6 - Badgers

Ethan H - 'I enjoyed doing cricket at Sheldwich - I don't play cricket often and it was nice doing it somewhere else. The archery was fun too.'

Erin - 'I liked doing archery because I think of it as a solo sport but we got to play as a team.'

Natalie - 'I enjoyed playing badminton in the hall with the nets as it is not a sport I play often.'

National Meadows Day

St. Laurence Church Leaveland

It was with great pleasure that we accepted an invitation to sketch what is living in the churchyard at St Laurence Church.

Our images of flora and fauna are going to be displayed with professional artists in the church from Sat 2nd July.

MFL Day

What an exciting MfL day we had in Term 5! Every single class spent the day immersing themselves in language learning. The aim of the day was to promote language learning in an enjoyable and memorable way, which was definitely achieved! We are lucky enough that Mr Wallace is a fluent Spanish speaker and so he came round to every class to teach us a bit of Spanish and to explain how we learn languages. He showed us that we can find a lot of similarities between English and other languages and so sometimes, we already know a lot more than we think we do. Some other activities that took place throughout the day were:

• Language breakfasts – eating some traditional breakfast foods from another country, learning how to say these foods in the language and how to express opinions on the food
• Learning numbers, greetings, animals and colours through songs, rhymes and games
• Engaging in role-play activities to greet someone new, ask them their name and how they are
• Locating countries on a map
• Learning about the culture and traditions in the country whose language we were learning
• Making magnets with greetings and phrases in another language, like you might get as a souvenir on holiday
• In Class 6, Mr Cork arranged to learn a few basic phrases and do an activity associated with each of the 10 different languages that the children in his class had familial links to!

History Day - Queen Elizabeth II's Reign

Each class in the school had a decade of the Queen's reign to learn about and explore during our History Day. Within their chosen decade, the children learnt about key events both of the Queen's life and historical events from around the world. We looked at some artefacts and items from the time period, performed some drama, designed new stamps and crowns and created timelines to show key historical events and inventions. A whole school timeline is displayed in the hall to show some of our learning from the day. 

Geography Day

A wonderful time was had by the children and staff exploring the countryside around the school using the footpaths through fields and woods. They all enjoyed a tasty Jazz apple, provided very kindly by Mr Macey- a local fruit grower, as a snack and energy giver!

Later in the day the children made maps of their journey and created art work. Class 4 went to the local dairy farm to meet with Mr Scutt and found out about milk production and transportation. Classes 3,5 and 6 met with Mr Gaskain to learn about fruit growing and supply and Mr Dean to find out about local land use and conservation.

Performing Arts Week: Beatlemania

This years Performing Arts Week was themed on The Beatles. Every class enjoyed focusing on the music, the artwork and the song writing skills of The Beatles. Throughout the week, classes spent time learning some of the classic songs to perform as a whole-class ensemble. During lesson time, classes also focused on learning melodies and rhythms that The Beatles created, while classes also designed some interesting artwork and created some beautiful pieces of written work, all inspired by the famous pop-group. We were lucky enough to enjoy a visit from 'The King's School' performing arts department, who helped us with learning a dance routine with a song, while we also were treated to a visit from a Jazz guitarist, who talked through and showed us how versatile some of the Beatles songs can be when interpreted by a Jazz musician.

There are some snap-shots from the week below, but do check the class-pages for some detail around what each individual class got up to during the week!

Visit from Circo Rum Ba Ba with their Shadow Shop show.  

We were incredibly lucky to have the amazing Circo Rum Ba Ba visit us again on 10th March.  All of the children, including the older children at Little Hedgehogs and staff enjoyed the Shadow Shop performance which had a really important message about the importance of looking after our planet.  

Please have a look at this brief clip on YouTube using the link below so you can see why we love their performances so much.

Arts Week

Sheldwich had a fantastic Arts Week based on the book 'It's Up to Us' 33 illustrators from across the world have contributed to this book which focuses on the environment and our responsibility to look after it. Each class chose a picture which the Art week revolved around. We learnt about the artist and their particular style and recreated a piece of art work in their style. We learnt about which country the art originated and the culture behind the picture. Each class then worked cross curricularly to immerse themselves in the picture using mediums such as painting, collage, sculpture and charcoal to name but a few. We also used our amazing outdoor environment to create works of art.

STEM Week

We had an amazing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) week in Term 2 which started with an assembly by Dr Nelson from Kings School who showed us lots of exciting experiments and proved to use that we are in fact all Scientists! The theme for our learning was ‘Our Future’, so we focussed on the environment, climate change and changing technologies.

We are really lucky that two of our parents are STEM ambassadors and they came in and did lots of workshops with us. Mrs Blair gave us an overview of environmental issues, waste and recycling and we made clipboards which we later used when she brought in some thermal cameras for us to investigate the energy efficiency of our school. We also played a game to highlight the injustice of environmental issues and how we are not all effected in the same way. Mr Blair helped us to all become engineers by teaching us how to make our own torches and letting us control a robot with a microbit – very cool!

Once we had made our torches, we designed, created and evaluated covers for them. We had to think about how the cover/case would enable the torch to be used in a practical way. Maybe it protected the torch? Or made it waterproof? Or made it stronger? Or had a handle for carrying the torch around easily?

Some other activities that we did throughout the week included:

• Designing a new invention that would be helpful in the future

• Learning about Greta Thunberg, the Fridays for Future movement and thinking of our own list of demands

• Making clothes out of junk modelling

• Solving binary codes

• Using time lapse videos to see how the earth has changed in the last 30 years and thinking about why these changes have happened and how we can stop them

The RE Day 18^th November 21

The RE day focused on the Story of Rama and Sita and festival Diwali which is important to Hindus and Sikh’s.  As a unifying ‘whole school day’ we had  an overarching learning objective which appropriately focused on the EXPRESSING stand, within the Kent Agreed Syllabus addressing the question for each key Stage.

Which times are special and why? Little Hedgehogs Pre-School and Ladybirds class

How and why do we celebrate special and sacred times? Butterflies and Dragonflies in Key stage 1

Why are festivals important to religious communities? Squirrels, Otters, Foxes and Badgers in Key Stage 2

LO: To understand how and why Hindus and Sikhs celebrate Diwali.

The RE day developed a wide range of cross-curricular links with a range of subjects including  Harmony, English, Mathematics, Design-Technology, History, Geography, Art, ICT, PE and the outdoor environment.

Little Hedgehogs 

 Pre-School shared the story and then got creative making Diva lamps out of recycled materials and developing their fine motor skills as they coloured  rangoli patterned pictures. They explored the properties of scented coloured tea lights and developed their mathematical skills by counting them and creating repeating patterns with them.  They really enjoyed making coconut ice with Miss Hills moreover they enjoyed eating it. The highlight was when Dr Uppal Amaya’s Mummy came in wearing traditional dress to teach them a fun energetic Sikh dance.  The children learnt a Diwali song (to the tune of Head Shoulders, Knees and Toes), which helped them remember all the exciting activities and traditions that surround the festival.

Pupil’s Voice:

Freddy: Can I take this home to my Mummy?

EYFS: Communication, Literacy, Understanding the World, Creative Development, Physical Dev, Mathematics.

Ladybirds Class

Ladybirds class shared the story of the ‘Best Diwali Ever’ and then joined in some fin Bollywood style dancing. They made some yummy coconut ice and beautiful clay diva lights over a period of a few days. To welcome everyone into their classroom they creatively used chalk in the outside environment to create some amazing rangoli patterns. They had a busy week and had made a colourful display with paper lanterns, firework pictures and pretty paper plate diva lamps as they learnt all about the story and the festival.

EYFS: PSED, Communication, Literacy, Understanding the World, Creative Development, Physical Dev, Mathematics.

Butterflies Class

Wow! Butterflies had an amazing day, totally immersing themselves in a creative curriculum.

The started off by learning the Bollywood Dance, then shared the story of Rama and Sita. They were very creative making Mendi pattern hands, Rangoli patterns with rice and sand and beautiful clay diva lamps.

Dragonflies Class

In Class 2, their Diwali learning started off with some mathematical work on rangoli patterns. They learnt about how a rangoli pattern is generally symmetrical in design and uses circles to create the basis of each work of art. The children created their own rangoli patterns using circles drawn with a compass to ensure a perfect circumference, they then created additional circles to design some of the extra layers of their rangoli patterns. Some children even used compasses to design petals and artwork on the rangoli pattern itself.  They learnt about the story of Rama and Sita and created some excellent comic strips based on the famous Hindu story.

Throughout the day they made some flat bread chapatis with raita as this is a popular staple in lots of Diwali celebration meals. (they especially enjoyed eating these in the afternoon!) They had a go at making some Kandil lanterns in the afternoon too alongside joining in a fantastic Bollywood workshop, where they learnt some key hand gestures such as the ‘lotus flower’.

Squirrels Class

In Class 3, we started our day with an overview of what Diwali is and learning about some of the ways that it is celebrated. We learnt the story of Rama and Sita and then retold it in a comic book version. Then, we had a go at creating our own Rangoli Patterns. Some of us worked in small groups, making them with sand and rice in a traditional way, and the rest of us tried to use a repeating pattern of circles (drawn using a compass) to create one. This was very tricky! In the afternoon, we learnt some Bollywood style dance moves, including turning our hands into wolves and lotuses. We also made friendship bracelets (and learnt to plait) and designed our own mendhi hands.

Otters Class

Class 4 really enjoyed making Scratch animations retelling the story of Rama and Sita in the I.C.T suite. They loved the Bollywood Dancing and created some very precise and unique Rangoli Patterns. They concentrated as they made plaited friendship bracelets and used coloured modelling dough to create diva lamps complete with scented tea lights.

Foxes Class  

Class 5 learnt about Hinduism and the history behind the festival. They linked in with elements of Harmony and designed their own Rangoli patterns, learning that mandala meant circle they painted  their own stones. They enjoyed Bollywood dancing and making friendship bracelets. Finally, after learning about the story of Rama and Sita, they produced Scratch animations retelling the story in the I.C.T suite.

Badgers Class 

Class 6 learnt about the Rama and Sita story and in small groups and created wonderful dramatic plays which they presented to the governors in the outdoor  living classroom. They enjoyed Bollywood style dancing in the hall, made comic strips and created lanterns out of card.

Engaging in elements inspired by the ‘harmony’ initiative and a series of creative and challenging cross-curricular activities led to deep motivation and understanding, resoundingly the day was a success. Pupils were enthusiastic, they learnt a lot and had fun, credit and thanks must be given to the outstanding teachers and support staff for all of their hard work in making the day such a success. .

A visit from Bishop Rose November 21 

On Wednesday 3^rd November, we were treated to an amazing visit from the first black female bishop the inspirational Bishop Rose. Although we are not a church school, we were very lucky and grateful to Reverend Peter who liaised with the diocese to have our school included in her busy itinerary.  

To make the experience meaningful to all of the children from the youngest to the oldest we did some careful pre-teaching, this included watching the short BBC film ‘What’s On Your Head?'. In the film  Bishop Rose discusses her job and describes the ‘Mitre’ she wears. Allied to watching the film  Key stage 2 pupils read a biography on her life and wrote down a series of questions to ask her. To avoid repetition A huge piece of paper was passed from class to class so that each class could see which questions had been written previously and different lines of discovery could be developed.

On the day Bishop Rose met Little Hedgehogs and gamely joined in a dance of ‘Ring O Ring O Roses, we’ve met Bishop Roses’ she taught us a lovely new song from when she was a little girl, George was immediately charmed by her presence and greeted her instantly with a huge hug.

Moving on to Ladybirds, Butterflies and Dragonflies Classes Bishop Rose was impressed by the Mitres each child was creating to reflect something unique and special about themselves,  she described how the shape of the mitres were originally designed to represent the flames of the ‘Holy Spirit’.  

Key Stage 2 met Bishop Rose in the main school hall and asked her a series of uncompromising, questions including:  ‘What is it like to be the first black female Bishop?’, ‘Can you forgive people who do unspeakable acts?’ ‘Is it good to dream?’, ‘What do you say to people who don’t believe in God?’ and ‘What is your favourite food?’ Bishop Rose was very kind and made time for every child to share their ideas and have their voice, she answered with honesty, clarity, enthusiasm and joy, she made us laugh and really understand and appreciate her Christian faith and the responsibility she holds as a church leader and black female role model.

Thank you Bishop Rose for visiting us at Sheldwich it truly was a day to remember, and we hope you will come back and visit us soon.

Book week - October 2021

Our theme for this year's Book Week was 'Journey to the Past' whereby all of the books read in every class had to be set in the past. This theme not only allowed every class to explore a rich variety of high quality texts, but also allowed for fantastic History learning opportunities where students found out about the Historical period(s) in which the stories they were reading were set. Texts and historical periods studied ranged from Julia Donaldson's 'The cave Baby' in the stone age in Class R, via the Second World War and Michael Mopurgo's 'Friend or Foe' in Class 5, all the way through to the Witch Hunts of Stuart England in the 1600's with Emma Carroll's 'The Somerset Tsunami' in Class 6. Class teachers planned and delivered a wide range of cross-curricular activities related to their texts and historical periods through the week: Class 4 fenced like the three musketeer's in their P.E lessons, Class 2 wrote in Hieroglyphics, Class 6 performed Stuart era poetry and Class R created their own caves and cave paintings. Class 6 won the 'match the favourite childhood book to the teacher' competition and class 6 the 'guess the weight of the pile of books' contest - each winning a new poetry anthology for the classes. One of the most successful activities of the week was when older children went to read with children in younger classes (many pictures of which can be seen from below). The way the children read to each other with such expression, and listened to the other reading with such focus was a joy to behold and enjoyed by both the children and staff alike. Similarly, the teachers thoroughly enjoyed going to read to 2 different classes through the week (I had a super time reading Michael Rosen's poem 'The Register' to Class Five). Class 6 were lucky enough to have a visit from internationally renowned illustrator and author Christina Balit on Friday, she told us all about her career and her working processes as an illustrator and author. Dressing up day on Friday was as wonderful as always with everyone from Boudicca to Julius Caesar in attendance. I'm looking forward already to next year's book week... now, to think of a theme... (Mr Cork) 

Sports Week June 2021

Sports Week 2021 was a celebration of trying new sports, getting active and working together. The theme was the Tokyo Olympics and we had a real focus and drive on instilling the School Games Values across the school. Throughout the week, each class had organised sports coaching sessions and time to engage in some competitive inter-house competitions. 

Every class started the week by looking at previous Olympic medals, designing their own and then making them out of clay. Once they had dried, we painted them gold, attached some ribbon and wore them with pride.

The School Games Values of DETERMINATION, HONESTY, TEAMWORK, PASSION, SELF-BELIEF, RESPECT were a central focus throughout the week. Raffle tickets and values stickers were awarded for them and children clearly tried hard to demonstrate them.

We all took part in a range of inter-house competitions in a variety of sports. We competed in handball, hockey, football, rounders and different athletic races. It was a wonderful chance to use some of the skills we had learnt this year.

During the week, we also had sports sessions from a range of coaches including: golf, sitting volleyball, lacrosse, tchoukball, squash and a mini Olympic races for KS1. It was fantastic to have the opportunity to learn new sports, try new skills and learn from some experts. The children liked having the chance to experience sports they had never heard of and were keen to do more of them.

It was fantastic to welcome Gemma from Canterbury Academy to Sheldwich, she conducted a day of cheerleading sessions with each class. This was highly successful and was a real highlight for many. Each class learnt some basic moves, put a routine to music using pompoms and some even got to do some gymnastic moves. 

We also held a intra-school tennis competition, where each class had a set amount of time to complete as many volleys or bounces of the ball with the racket and the top three children in every class received certificates. We also conducted a 30 second skipping competition to see how may skips we could complete. Our aim was to improve our personal best scores and use the data to enter the local skipping league. Everyone had a super attempt and lots of improvement was seen. 

Alongside the active sports and competitions, each class completed a piece of Olympic/sport related art which is proudly displayed on their class pages. There was a lovely spread of different examples and techniques used, even some chalk art!

After Sports Week had finished, each class teacher asked some of their pupils for their thoughts on the week. 

Isla - Little Hedgehogs - 'Look I can run faster than Agnes, but not as fast as Monty.'

Olivia - Little Hedgehogs - '1, 2, 3, 4, 5 rings, I need a pink ribbon.' (Whilst making her Olympic medal).

Dexter - Ladybirds - 'I enjoyed the week . I liked the running and the sack race - I came first!'

Dorothea - Ladybirds - 'I liked doing the running races. I want to do more cheerleading. I couldn't skip but now I can - I am proud of that!'

Aurelia - Ladybirds - ' I love cheerleading - I love the pompoms! I can do three circuits now. The dressing up race was funny.'

Emily - Butterflies - 'I loved Sports Week - it was my favourite week so far! I really loved the parachute games, the games were so fun and I loved Sports Day. I would have liked to take part in more races, I was so proud of myself for doing my best in the egg and spoon race.'

Josh - Butterflies - 'I really enjoyed Sports Week because I designed an Olympic mascot and skipping because I did 6 skips in a row. I was proud  of my medal on Sports Day, I was in the winning team and I would have liked to take part in all the races!'

Amelie - Dragonflies - ' I really liked the week because we got to do skipping and I really enjoyed the dodgeball tournaments. I was proud of coming second in the tennis virtual league!'

Abby - Dragonflies - 'Really liked it because I got to try out sports I haven't done before. My favourite sport we tried was tchoukball. I was proud that I competed in the running races!'

Skyla - Squirrels - 'I thought Sports Week was really fun. I liked all the sports we did. I was pleased my team won every game of football. I would like to do more of the sports we don't usually do.'

Theo - Squirrels - 'Sports Week was really fun and entertaining. I enjoyed the team house football the most. I was pleased I got to learn some new games. I would like to do more games that I haven't tried before.'

Zach - Otters - ' I thought Sports Week was great. I was tired everyday when I went home because I'd done lots of sports! I enjoyed the relay the most, I thought I did really well. I enjoyed learning skipping and I would like to do more.'

Olivia - Otters - 'I really liked Sports Week because I like doing sport. I loved making the medals and sports day itself was fun. I am pleased that I got to try some new sports like squash and tchoukball. I'd like to play tchoukball again.'

Amy - Foxes - 'I enjoyed learning about the new disciplines from the sports coaches that came in. I liked the competitive atmosphere and enjoyed tchoukball and cheerleading as the dancing felt fun. I am proud of learning new sports and having a go at them.

Oliver - Foxes - 'I liked the fact it was a whole week so you get the chance to try lots of different sports. I enjoyed our interhouse hockey tournament and the personal challenges because I could improve my own abilities.'

Luca - Badgers - 'It was great - I liked cheering on my team at Sports Day and doing the sprint. I enjoyed the interhouse cricket contest and was proud of my batting.'

Josh - Badgers - 'I found it fun - it got me excited for the whole week - I like all sports. I really enjoyed Sports Day and tchoukball. I'd like to do more football and contact sports.'

ARTS WEEK - MAY 2021

The theme of Arts Week this year was 'The Big Draw' and the aim of this week was to learn and improve on drawing techniques and apply these to our Art work.

Everyone was given a sketchbook to decorate in their own style and use throughout the week. A winner was chosen from each class for their outstanding sketch book design. We think they all looked amazing and showed such creativity!

Chris Targett is a local artist and illustrator who made some videos for us to watch of his artwork and a drawing workshop on drawing portraits. We thought of questions that we would like to ask Chris and he responded to our questions by a video link. 

Throughout the week a variety of activities took place around the theme of drawing. In Maths shapes were used to make patterns and pictures. We learnt about famous artists and illustrators and found out how they became an artist, what inspired them and also practised drawing in their style. During the week we built up to a 'wow' piece of work which can be seen on each class page. 

Here are some photos of all the activities that took place in each class:

PERFORMING ARTS WEEK - MARCH 2020

HARMONY DAY - NOVEMBER 2019