Despite the chilly weather, Year 1 came well prepared with coats and waterproofs at the ready and thoroughly enjoyed their outing to Yorkshire Sculpture Park on Friday. The outing supported work they’ve been completing related to Henry Moore and Andy Goldsworthy. They were delighted by the monumental size of many of the sculptures, the different materials used to create them as well as the breath-taking setting. The children sketched whole sculptures and also created more detailed drawings of parts of sculptures. A lively but enjoyable day was had by all. They will be using these sketches and the experience to create their own Henry Moore type sculptures in school. LS

It is overseen by one of our teaching assistants, Mrs Serena Taylor, who provides toys and games for the children to use. If the weather is kind, the group sometimes moves to the nursery garden where there is then an opportunity to mix with some of the nursery children and staff.

To conclude our topic on ‘People who help us’ Reception were visited by a Paramedic today.
Dave Humpleby kindly managed to borrow a 4x4 off road ambulance which the children had a good look around.
He then talked to us about the important role of a paramedic and the kinds of things they do. He took our temperatures, fixed broken legs with a splint, showed us the oxygen masks, lots of bandages, lotions and potions and even measured our heart rates – proving Mrs C does have a heart after all! Thank you Mr Humpleby for visiting us and answering all our questions.

After several false starts due to snow Reception finally made it to the Fire Station in Buxton and delivered a rather belated thank you card. This trip gave us an insight to the role of a fire fighter and an opportunity to use real fire fighting equipment. We started this topic rather aptly at the start of the term and had great fun designing a fire engine which was the centre piece of our role play area for quite a while. The children have really honed their role play skills and it has given them a great opportunity to enhance their vocabulary, develop social and physical development skills and use mathematical concepts while addressing problems that arise during complicated rescues of old ladies stuck in sheds, cats up trees and burning buildings. What a great afternoon and superb topic.

At last an outing with no snow to stop us from getting there!
Over the course of this term Reception have been finding out about the many different jobs people do. Every few weeks our classroom is transformed to reflect a certain profession – this week it is a veterinary surgery. We were very lucky to be able to head down the road and visit Bakewell Vets. On arrival we were taken into an examination room to meet some guinea pigs who needed their teeth filing. The children each had a turn at listening to its heart beat with the aid of a stethoscope, there was a cat (toy) that required stiches to its head and the children were shown how to staple the wound together and how to administer a dose of antibiotics. We then moved onto the operating theatre and saw some x-rays, as well as some dogs and cats waiting in the recovery room. We were then given an apron each, a hat and a mask and shown into another operating room to get hands on experience. Maggie the nurse showed us how to use some of the instruments and we all had a go at making the animals better. 

Reception wrapped up warm and headed outside to work on their Physical development skills.
The aim to work as a team and build a snowman. Our first challenge came with the wrong kind of snow! It would not stick or form a ball. Someone cleverly suggested we use buckets and build it like a sandcastle, so we did. Buckets came in all shapes and sizes and the children worked tirelessly together shovelling snow and patting it down. Various objects were collected to make the face and some sticks were found to create the arms. A small but good result and fantastic team work, all rewarded with lashings of hot chocolate on our return. Well done everyone! LC 

We arrived safely at Alton Manor and were given a very warm welcome by Mr and Mrs Harrison. We then set about our mission to explore, forage, climb, hide, and find the biggest leaf. First stop was a swing under a fabulous oak tree followed by a mushroom hunt, with a gentle reminder to look but not touch and an all accounts to avoid the lake!

Next we collected leaves, conkers, sticks and prickly beechnuts in the woods and played a great game of ‘King of the castle’ – I seemed to be the dirty rascal every time! We then had several games of hide and seek before heading off to the maze in search of the middle and some spooky bats. The children were quick to find the middle and enjoyed getting lost and hiding from Mrs Rogers and I. We then walked carefully from the maze to frolic in the autumn leaves and then inside for a well-earned lunch.

The children were a delight to take and a credit to S.Anselms, displaying good manners and a sense of adventure, the only disappointment was having to return!

L. Caudwell

Reception Visit to Alton Manor on PhotoPeach

LJD

So with lots of aliens to inspire them we spent a messy afternoon in the art block with Mrs Pryor. The mission – to create an alien from clay. There was talk of tentacles, horns, fangs and gruesome eyes not to mention the disgusting things the aliens eat and do (Clearly they have no manners at all – the aliens that is!). As you can see some wonderful results were created from a mere lump of clay – be warned the ALIENS ARE COMING... Well certainly to Reception!

Effort Certificate – Hugo, Louis, Georgina, Isobel
Progress Certificate – Grace, Rufus, Rosie, Thomas, Sam
Golden Certificate – William, Oliver, Gavin, Kerem

Prizes and certificates for the year.

Effort Prize – Sebastian, James B-B, Emelia, Verity
Progress Prize – Beth, Archie V, Amelia, Phoebe

Cups
Snow Achievement Cup – Katie
Price Progress – Teddy
Good Citizen – Hector

Reception and Year 1 had a wonderful day out at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Luckily, the weather was on our side for most of the day. We were greeted by our tour guide, Jessica, who gave a truly tremendous talk. She broadened the children’s knowledge of animals from a wide range of continents. This ‘hands on’ experience gave the children an opportunity to handle bearded dragons from Australia, corn snakes from South America, a lion’s claw from Africa and we even managed to pass round an enormous ostrich egg without dropping it! We stroked ferrets, patted wallabies and spotted tigers in the grasslands of the park. Feeding the squirrel monkeys and seeing the ring tailed lemurs was a highlight, especially as one was carrying a cute little baby! Some very sleepy passengers on the way home indicated that a busy day was had by all!

Having had to postpone our Pre-Prep Sports Day last Friday, we were delighted that the weather was so kind to us this week.

The children all enjoyed participating in their various races from sprinting, to egg and spoon and sack races, and impressed everyone with their sporting etiquette.

Countless sibling races followed on from these, with some very determined running, particularly from the Prep school brothers and sisters!

Finally, the parents all took their turn, and were very sporting in the bean bag races, much to the entertainment of the spectating children.

At the end of the afternoon, the Pre-Prep stood and sang The National Anthem and were awarded their own gold medals, in true Olympic style.

A special thank you to the ground staff for getting everything in place for us, and to the catering team for supplying us all with such delicious cupcakes.

Well done to everyone for a super afternoon of sporting fun!

LJD

As part of this term’s topic about the London Olympics, the children in Year 1 decided to go back in time to 776BC when the very first Olympics took place in Olympia, Greece. They looked at all the different sports that were played in those days and then studied the items that only the winner of each race received. We set to work creating our own Greek urns by shading with pastels and then decorated them with black paper. We also created our own olive crowns made from laurel and wire. Finally, we dressed up in costumes and were each awarded our ancient prizes for winning sports such as chariot racing, discus, javelin, wrestling, boxing and long jump. We then paraded through a captive audience, provided by Reception, who gave our Ancient Olympians a huge round of applause! To compare how the sports, clothing and prizes have changed, on the afternoon of Tuesday 3rd July, we will be dressing up as Modern Olympic winners. Therefore, the children are more than welcome to bring in any clothes linked to a specific sport that they can change into for our winning ceremony.

Year 1 were blessed with some lovely dry weather for their day out at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park on Tuesday 19th June. After spending the term studying some famous British sculptors, it seemed the perfect end to our topic to go and see the famous works of art in real life! The children spent the day strolling around the park looking for familiar sculptures by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Andy Goldsworthy. When they spotted a sculpture they liked, out came the sketch pads as the pupils eagerly copied the outline of the shape. We ate a delicious packed lunch in the beautiful surroundings and then spent the afternoon looking at a whopping 94 pieces of art work by the Spanish sculptor, Joan Miro. The children were an absolute delight to take and it was lovely to hear so many compliments from the general public about their enthusiasm, good manners and sensible behaviour.

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Ruth_Oldfield_3.MP3ecordings and find out more about the dedicated staff at S. Anselm’s?

After the success of our recent Henry Moore project, Year 1 have now started studying the work of Yorkshire born artist, Andy Goldsworthy. The children spent a lesson looking closely at photos of his work, discussing the different natural materials used to create each picture. Following that, they gleefully strolled around the school grounds looking for materials to collect and an inspirational place to construct their masterpiece. The weather conditions the next afternoon proved to be just perfect for the groups to set to work gathering colourful petals, leaves, pebbles and sticks, working maturely together to create some fantastic natural sculptures. I’m sure Andy Goldsworthy would be most impressed! Let’s hope the weather stays fine for our trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park on Tuesday 19th June.

Some of the Year 2 girls have been really improving their skills on the netball court this term, during Netball club. This will give them an enormous head start when the they join the Prep school next term!

From catching and throwing, to footwork and positional awareness, they have really impressed Mrs Northcott with their enthusiasm and progress that they’ve made.

What a talented little bunch they are. Well done girls- we can’t wait to watch your netball career develop!

LJD

As part of this term’s Pre-Prep topic all about Great Britain, the children in Year 1 have been studying the work of the famous sculptor (and Yorkshire man!) Henry Moore. They started by looking at samples of his work and then created their own abstract designs based on the human form. Newspaper was carefully rolled and shaped together to create a structure, with the pupils then covering it in paper mache. The ‘masterpieces’ were left to dry out and finally painted with special metallic coloured paint. When the weather improves, we hope to visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see some real Henry Moore works of art. Do come and see our exhibition displayed in the Year 1 classroom - we’re open to offers!

Year 1 and 2 children continued experiencing all things British with a maypole dancing workshop on Tuesday afternoon. They did extremely well learning some challenging sequences and, despite a fair few tangles, really enjoyed watching patterns on the pole emerge as the ribbons overlapped. Just a few more practise sessions and we hope to perform our efforts at The Garden Party next month.