Welcome to our Summer Fayre! Step into a world of joy and delight, where memories are made and laughter fills the air. Our annual event was a celebration of community spirit, bringing together friends, families, and neighbours for a day of endless fun. From thrilling events to captivating games, delicious food stalls to live entertainment, there was something for everyone to enjoy. As the sun shone brightly overhead, a warm and vibrant atmosphere enclosed the school, ensuring a good time was had by all. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our incredible community, whose support and participation made this day a resounding success.

Thank you for being a part of our journey and for making this event truly unforgettable.

Thank you to everyone who was able to support our Macmillain coffee morning. It was great to see all parents enjoying the delicious treats and the hot drinks – especially in this weather. We have raised over £100 which is fantastic.

Thank you all for your support and contributions.

• The Year 5 children had the pleasure of being taught first aid, we learnt what to do in emergencies, how to do resuscitation and how to keep ourselves and others safe. A child is year 5 said ' it was very informative'. Another child said 'I loved doing and learning CPR, it was good to know what to do if someone is not well or in danger'. It was great to be active and doing practical activities and learning important things.
   
• The Year 6 children really enjoyed their First Aid Training. They were fully engaged, learnt lots of extremely useful life-saving skills and worked in groups to perform a range of life-saving tasks.

Otis from Year 6 said the following about the day:

First Aid can save someone’s life, so it is important to learn about it. Year 6 and Year 5 had a trainer come in to teach about First Aid.  First of all, he had a volunteer role-play a person who had been found unconscious and another volunteer had to find out how the person had been put unconscious.  After, they got out defibrillators and we learnt CPR; the CPR was hard even though it was a manikin we were working on.  The teacher also told everyone about the order in which the emergency services have to help people:

1. People who aren’t breathing
2. People who are breathing, but are bleeding out
3. People who are breathing, but are unconscious

After finishing the CPR, he gave everyone defibrillators and we used all the things he had taught us to practise giving CPR and using defibrillators.

Our Year 6 children have had an excellent opportunity this week to have Bikeability Training. This safe, structured and standardised programme took place in small groups in the playground and then out on the local streets giving a real cycling experience.

Well done all.

Year 1 have been closely watching each stage of development as the ducklings have hatched and grown.
The best part has definitely been watching them have their first swim!

Year 2 and Year 5 were so lucky to have a virtual reality headset session where we got to explore space and different planets. Together, we flew into space, went through each planet learning lots of facts and even got to learn about why the planets are called what they are. We had a great day and felt very lucky to have had that out of this world experience. 

As part of Science week and with strong links to our science curriculum, our Year 5 and Year 6 classes were given a talk about the heart by a Barts Health NHS Trust cardiology specialist. The children were given an opportunity to name the different parts of the heart and fully understand how a heart works and supports all the other parts of the body.  They also found out how to keep their heart healthy with a good diet, no smoking, plenty of exercise and lots of love. The children asked lots of questions and they impressed the doctor with their extensive heart knowledge.

This presentation was given by the East London Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Group.

In Reception we learn about celebrations from around the world including religions and cultures. We love this topic because we have our own celebrations in class to experience these different occassions. Some of our favourite celebrations to explore are Diwali, Baptisms, Hannukah, birthdays and of course, Christmas.

Year 5 and Year 6 were very lucky to have Shakespeare's plays performed just for us. The incredible actors brought to life the play  A mid summer's night dream. Puck was Year 5's favourite character as the magical creature was energetic, funny and mischievous. It was really enjoyable watching how people can adapt Shakespeare's work into performances especially after learning and performing his different plays in class, including Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. 

Our Year 6 children attend a week long residential to the PGL Little Canada Centre on the Isle of Wight. With its woodland log cabins on the banks of Wootton Creek, private access to the water it was the ideal place for the children to experience and develop their skills in a number of activities including climbing, archery  abseiling and dragon boating. Other activities including orienteering, the zip wire, beach walk and the giant swing were enjoyed by all. They children self-confidence, self-esteem grew as they learnt new skills as well as their independence as their ability to work together as a team in the obstacle course and the sensory trail.

Muddy clothes, trip souvenirs and happy, but tired children, returned home with wonderful memories of a week they will never forget.

Year 5 have been learning about mental health and how important it is. Together we have created mindfulness jars that we now have in our classroom to remind us how to implement different strategies we learnt throughout the day that can help us. One student in Year 5 said 'It was a really fun and educational, I loved learning different ways to calm situations down'. 

Our Year 5 children attended residential summer camp for three days and two nights at the Suntrap centre in Epping Forest. The trip provides our children with the opportunity to explore a range of the ‘outdoor’ curriculum, especially with animal habitats, pond dipping and the identification of trees. The children learnt how to make a fire and erect an outdoor shelter. They slept in the purpose built cabins, make toast on the open fire and to read local maps as well as finding out about the forest as an eco-system. What a wonderful experience for all the children!

Our Year 5 and 6 classes visit to Kentwell Manor, the Suffolk manor ‘lost in time’ – and stepped back nearly 500 years in history to meet the Tudors… in a fully interactive day.  They experienced daily life in Tudor times, for both the wealthy landowners and the village people. The children got to see first-hand the crafts, cooking, music and dancing of the time as well as visiting a blacksmith, a working farm, and a manor kitchen. 

Fabulous costumes were worn by all, old coins were exchanged for Tudor goods and the children wore the cup holders they had made in class. A wonderful way to enhance our history topic of the Tudors.

Year 6 really enjoyed their retreat day at Walsingham House.  The theme of the day was, “You are God’s work of art,” (Ephesians 2:10). 

Throughout the day, Year 6 reflected on what makes them unique – their gifts, talents, passions and favourite things.  They also shared some precious memories from primary school with each other and thought carefully about what makes them shine! 

Finally, the pupils and adults all loved participating in the guided mediation, which focused on the Scripture passage ‘The Calling of the Disciples’, involving each of us to take on the role of one of the disciples while we listened to the Scripture alongside meditative music. 

It was wonderful to have this time to spend with our classmates towards the end of the school year and to reflect on ourselves and our time at St Mary’s.

In Year 5 for black history month we have been focusing on authors who have inspired us. We were very lucky to have the very talented Tola Okogwu read us the beginning of her new story 'Aziza's secret fairy door' which we then finished. Here is her introduction and reply to our work!

Today the children enjoyed a visit from the Red Balloon Company.  They had the opportunity to meet Embers the Dragon and share his story ‘Ember’s Emotion Potion’.  The story introduced his friends the grumpy cat, the bouncing bunny, the busy bee and the wise owl and showed the children how our feelings sometimes make us do unusual things.  As Embers shared how he was feeling, his friends understood, things improved and he felt much better.  The children really appreciated the ideas behind the story and enjoyed talking about them back in class.