Four Seasons in one day!

This afternoon in class JT the Year 1 children have been working collaboratively to create art that represents the four seasons.

House Captains for 2021

Our 2021 House Captains were presented with their House Captains badges in our school assembly this morning, we managed to catch them for a quick photo before they went of for their Year 6 swimming and PE lessons.

Key Stage 2 staff and teaching assistants are also attached to Houses. Our Houses are a great way for the children to be part of a supportive group for four years and encourages team working.

The school operates an ‘Effort Point’ system where class teachers award points each week for any positive effort, good work, helpful attitude and so on.  We announce the weekly winner of the House Cup in assembly.

We have inter-house competitions in all the school’s major sports and hold house meetings and assemblies each month.

The children also take part in a wide range of non-sporting inter-house competitions, including chess, singing, art, literature and our annual STEM challenge.

We’ve named our Houses after famous local people:

                      

The children wear the appropriately coloured PE kit and have the option of wearing house hoodies too.

Photo Day today!

Miss Simpson has been very busy this morning organising the children for their annual school photos. 

This year the children will bring a personalised proof card home with them (today) which parents should use to view the images and to place an order online with Van Cols.

Year 3 Clarinet lessons

SBRH and KVJA have the wonderful opportunity of learning how to play the clarinet.  

Mr Kershaw, our County Music Service tutor, has been teaching us since the beginning of term and we have already learnt how to put our clarinet together and successfully make a sound.  

We have been learning 2 notes and have hopefully been practicing these at home.  During this time we also do lots of singing and learn other musical skills and terminology.

School Assembly

Last week we were fortunate to have Mrs Clarke, our Chair of Governors, come and share our assembly.  

She shared with the children about her role and how she and the other Governors support our school.  

We then had a question and answer time for the children.  

Thank you to Mrs Clarke for coming to talk to us. 

We are also delighted to tell families that the new parent Governor who has been appointed is Mrs Danielle Rogers.

What have Class VWh been learning?

Here are a few of the things class VWh have been getting up to over the last couple of weeks...

We have commenced our new whole school topic of 'Frozen Kingdom' and have compared both polar environments. We constructed comparative explanation texts to clearly see the difference between these areas. 

Also, we have gained knowledge about the demise of The Titanic. We read accounts about that fateful night and wrote newspaper reports detailing events and thinking carefully about the features of the genre. Last week, 4 children were 'hot seated' and took on the roles of 4 Titanic survivors. This allowed the children to immerse themselves and imagine the stark reality. Equipped with this information, we utilised slow writing techniques to create diary entries, imagining that we had survived the horrific ordeal and had secured a place on one of the highly sought-after lifeboats. 

In maths, we've been focusing on the 4 operations and gaining a secure foundation in these core skills. Over the last couple of weeks, we've been getting to grips with long division and once secure with the method, we applied our knowledge to reasoning contexts. Additionally, we worked with remainders and had to give careful consideration as whether we needed to represent them as a decimals or fractions. 

Miss. Whipps is incredibly proud of their efforts so far this year!

Eco Council

On Friday, I met with our new Eco- Council members and introduced myself. We had a brief discussion about sustainability and thought about some of the simple things we could do at school, e.g. thinking of ways to remind people to sort and recycle items appropriately. 

I introduced the word ‘proactive’ and we thought about what this meant in terms of sustainability at SRH and at home. 

I tasked the children with going back to their classes and asking their peers about the things they think we could do to reduce our carbon footprint and become a more sustainable environment. 

I really hope that the Eco- Council members enjoy their critical role this year. 

Miss. Whipps 

Harvest Services

We were delighted to see parents or grandparents in Church today to join our Harvest Services.  We hope you enjoyed being part of this special occasion.

Our pupil Worship Team from across the school did a wonderful job helping to lead parts of the services.

Thank you to all the children who brought in their harvest food donations which will be taken to the Waveney Food Bank by the Church, for those in need in the local community. The £52 cash donations we received will be sent to Christian Aid.

Photos from the Reception & KS1 Service:

Video Clip of closing Harvest Song - Thank You Lord!

Photos from the KS2 Service:

Class LH go Wild with their art!!

 As part of the ‘Enchanted Woodland’ topic, class LH have been studying the environmental artist, Andy Goldsworthy. 

Mrs Lucas introduced the children to his style of work on Tuesday but unfortunately due to the inclement weather, the children were unable to make their creations outside.  However, they created a great gallery of pictures using natural materials (leaves, twigs, fir cones, conkers, horse chestnut cases, feathers and heather) in the classroom.

Luckily, the weather improved during the week and the children had the opportunity to experience being an environmental artist outside and created artwork in the style of Andy Goldsworthy up on the field.  The whole class were amazing working so well together in creating their pieces.

The children described the difficulties that some of them faced and talked through how they resolved their problems - these ranged from making a circle with straight twigs; creating a 3D model and trying to find ways for the sticks to stay upright and also one group shared how they had a lack of ideas but once they started laying out some of the twigs, their design started to evolve.

Mrs Hall, Mrs Morgan and Mrs Rolfe and were so proud of how well the children worked together.  It was so lovely to see the problem-solving skills that the children applied – such a lovely, convivial learning experience.

Follow this link for more photos on the gallery.

Firebirds Choir

We are delighted that so many of our KS2 children have signed up to join the Firebirds choir.

Singing Coach Megan Peel, supported by Mrs Mawson, started todays first session with some warm up breathing and singing exercises with the children in the hall.

They were soon "Teaching the World to sing ~ in perfect harmony" :)

Our First Marvellous Muddy Monday

Reception Classes had the most magical morning in Robin Wood for their first Forest School adventure this year. We were blessed with sunny warmth as we greeted the sun, clouds, trees, insects and animals with a short yoga focus. 

Mrs Waddell explained the special Robin Wood rules to ensure everyone knows how to keep safe, show respect for nature and each other. 

We shared a wonderful story which introduces basic Forest School etiquette and led us nicely into a game of 1,2,3 Where Are You? Everyone then enjoyed the experience of exploring, investigating, being together and getting to know the enchanting atmosphere in Robin Wood!

We may have even seen some wee magic folk! We are really excited that we can have these extraordinary learning experiences in our Forest School this year. 

Look out for our next Muddy Monday post.

School Council

It was so lovely to have our first school council meeting last week.  

We played a few ice-breaker games so that we could all get to know each other across the two key stages.  We then talked about our roles and the expectations.

We are all looking forward to working together over the next year.

School Office Vacancy

We are recruiting for a Resources Manager for January 2022

Closing date: now extended to 20 October 2021  

Information about the role & application process can be found on our school website or on Suffolk Jobs Direct 

In summary:

You will be responsible to the Headteacher and SLT for the management, operation and development of Finance, HR and Premises across the school.

The role requires a dedicated, flexible and organised person who will approach work with a positive attitude, honesty, confidentiality and integrity.

You will ideally have an understanding of FMS and SIMS schools management systems and an awareness of the mechanisms for school funding. You will also have some experience of Human Resources management, as well as an awareness of premises maintenance regulations.

Permanent Contract for 22 hours per week, 40 weeks per year*
*Working hours will be all day Monday and Wednesdays, Tuesdays and Thursday mornings, totalling 22 hours - some flexibility may be possible.

For further details or to arrange a visit please contact the Headteacher on 01728 723354 or email: admin@hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk

Interview date: will now be from 3 November 2021

Class Ambassadors

Today, our new Class Ambassadors met with Mrs Picton to learn more about their role in school and what is expected of them.

Here are this year's Class Ambassadors in the school library.

To find out more about the role of the Ambassadors and our other Pupil Voice roles, take a look on the school website.

Getting to know the school

Mrs Hopkins' Reception class went on a little school tour this afternoon, to explore places in the school that they had not visited before as part of their settling-in process.

We found them in Mrs Picton's office looking at her computer, then they were investigating the staff board outside the office, seeing which members of staff they could identify.

Thank you Miss Berry!

Today we say goodbye to our wonderful Lollipop lady who has manned our Crossing Patrol on College Road so brilliantly over many years.

Miss Berry has been keeping the children safe crossing them to and from school every day, in all weathers and under difficult circumstances some days. We are so grateful to her for her dedication to helping everyone safely cross College Road.

We wish her every success as she leaves us.

Today in the KS2 assembly we presented her with a thank you bouquet of flowers and a hand made card from the children.

We are delighted to let parents know that Mrs Hill, one of our mums and Midday Supervisors, is currently being trained to take on this role, and we know the children will appreciate her help as they say hello & thank you when she sees them across the road.

Class MV Composition – Elegy to the Arctic

Yesterday, the children in Class MV composed their very own Elegy to the Arctic. They used a range of instruments including, thunder makers, boom-whackers, chimes, rain makers, drums, balafon and spiral xylophone. Together they produced a wonderful composition to pay tribute to the hostile and beautiful landscape of the Arctic.

We hope you enjoy listening…

Video link

https://youtu.be/DyBz2CVkjg0

French Day in Year 1

On Monday, Class JT and Class KB enjoyed an exciting day learning about France. They identified where the country was on the world map and learned about the French flag ‘Le drapeau tricolore.’  

Whilst creating colourful rainbows, the children recited a song to learn the names of the colours in French. 

In the afternoon the children enjoyed a French café tasting croissants, French bread, crepes and hot chocolate.  

C'était une journée fantastique.