Class Photo Gallery

2025 - 2026 Class Photo Gallery

Veterinary Nurse Visit

We have had a wonderful visit from Emily, who is a veterinary nurse!
Emily spoke to the children about her job as a veterinary nurse, what it entails and what she enjoys about it. She shared photos of the vets surgery, the animals she helps and brought in uniform and scrubs, as well as a stethoscope for us to try on too. She also spoke to us about her previous job as a zoo keeper and a special job she does alongside her veterinary nurse role - a marine mammal medic! This is where she rescues seals, whales and dolphins who are hurt or washed up on the shore!
Emily also brought in 1 of her pets from home: Dudley the rabbit! We all got to stroke Dudley - he was so soft! 😊 She also showed us photos of her pet African Pygmy hedgehog, Roo, who sadly is now up in heaven with God. See if your child can tell you why Roo only had 1 eye though!
The children each thought of and stood up to ask questions to Emily to find out about her job and lots of them would like to be like her and work with animals when they grow up!
Lots of fun, first hand learning ! Fantastic listening and chatting from all, our friends! Well done! 👏

2024 - 2025 Class Photo Gallery

EY Picture News - Giving Away Things To Help Others

Story: A vehicle, once used by Pope Francis to wave and greet people, is being turned into a mobile health clinic for children in Gaza.

Question: Should we give away things we don’t need?

In our EY Picture News this week, we found out that Pope Francis has given his popemobile to help other people.
We thought it would be a nice idea to do something similar to Pope Francis, and, as a class, we took part in our very own ‘book swap’; a great way to encourage reading and share books with others.

The children all loved their new books that they got to take home and enjoy! 

EY Picture News - Bin Strikes

Story: Many refuse workers in Birmingham are on strike, because they believe they are not being treated or paid fairly. huge piles of rubbish have built up around the city.

Question: How do you help to keep places clean and tidy?

A refuse collector’s job is to take away people’s rubbish. There are lots of different jobs that people can choose to do. People often choose a job they think they will enjoy. We shared some ideas on jobs we could have and what we would like to do when we are grow up.

The children were then challenged to draw a picture of themselves doing a job they would like to do, and wrote what that job is.

Take a look at some of our future aspirations!

EY Picture News - Music Education

Story: Musician, Ed Sheeran, has written a letter to the UK Prime Minister, asking for increased funding to support music education.

Question: What do you love most about music?

We then leared how to carefully hold a guitar properly and how we can use our thumb and fingers to strum the guitar string for it to make a sound. We explored the different sound each string can make.

Fruit Salad! 

Following on from our fruit themed World Book Day activities on Friday, we made and ate fruit salad for special snack on Monday! Just like Oliver did in the book we have been reading - ‘Oliver’s Fruit Salad!’.
We all remembered that we needed to wipe the tables, wash our hands with soap and wear an apron before we started handling the fruits and other equipment, to stop any germs spreading that might get into our tummies and make us feel unwell.
We then began by using a tin of mandarin segments in juice as a base for our fruit salad. The children learned that a mandarin is a small orange similar to a tangerine or clementine. They were able to say that the juice was a liquid and the segments were a solid - great links to previous learning!
They then learned how to hold a knife correctly for cutting with their dominant hand and also how to hold the fruit they were cutting in a safe manner (like a bridge that the knife goes through the middle of) so their fingers were safe. Each child chose a fruit to add and everyone then cut up that fruit and popped it into the bowl! To finished the children each had a turn at stirring the fruit salad together!
The children then enjoyed the fruit salad as a healthy special snack! I was very impressed as even the children who were unsure tried it! 👏
We then learned about how this would be one of our portions of fruit and vegetables for the day. The children discovered how it is recommended that we eat 5 portions a day! 🍒🍓🍇🍎🍉🍑🍊🍋🍍🍌🥑🍏🍈🥝🥭🥥🍅🫐🥕🥬🥦🥒🥗🌽🧅🫑

EY Picture News - Connections

Story: The Princess of Wales has recently shared portraits drawn by her and her children, to help raise awareness of how we connect with each other.

Question: How do you have fun with your family?

We carried out speaking and listening activity about things we like to do when spending time with our families. 

We then drew a picture of our friend today like the members of The Royal Family - Catherine, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis did whilst spending time as a family.
We looked carefully at our friends features, eye colours, hair styles etc...

Multiskills at St. Benedicts

Ten Reception children took part in a ‘multi-skills’ event at St.Benedict school.
The children took part in lots of different physical activities, including: keepy-uppy with the balloons, balancing coits on their heads, jumping over hurdles, skipping (this was definitely our trickiest activity) hockey skills, dribbling a football, bouncing and catching balls, and tennis skills.
The children have had a great afternoon and did St.Mary’s proud with their listening, participation and manners!

All about Me! Life Education Visit.

Sarah, from the Coram Life Education team, visited us in class. She came, along with her friend Harold the giraffe, to teach us all about ways to look after ourselves both physically and emotionally.
We learned how we need water, a healthy variety of foods, regular exercise, fresh air, to keep our bodies clean and plenty of sleep to keep physically healthy. We learned all about how Harold does this.
We also learned about ways we can help ourselves if we are feeling sad or worried about anything. This included talking to a trusted grown up or a friend, playing a game or singing a song to take our minds off things, spending time with people we love who can help us, getting outdoors and getting some fresh air in nature too.
The children did amazingly well staying engaged for almost an hour! They listened brilliantly, eagerly shared ideas and Sarah was very impressed with how knowledgable all of the children were.
As a special treat at the end Harold let all of the children come out to meet him one at a time! 🦒🥰

EY Picture News - Feeling Proud

Story: The Times newspaper recently asked young people aged between 18 and 27 what they thought about their lives and life in the UK.

Question: What or who are you proud of?

We discussed that we all achieve things that make our families proud of us, and that we can also feel proud of ourselves linked to our EY Picture News: Feeling Proud.
We then wrote a certificate for someone we are proud of.
Take a look at who we wrote our certificates for and for what reason.

Ash Wednesday and Lenten Promises

We held our Key Stage prayer and liturgy to learn all about Ash Wednesday. We learned how Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent - the period of 40 days where we count down to Easter.
Our altar was purple as purple is the liturgical colour of Lent. We learned that the priests in church will be wearing purple during Lent too.
We discovered it is called Ash Wednesday because people who attend Mass on this day have a cross drawn on their forehead by the priest made from holy ashes, that the priest has blessed, created from burning palm crosses from last year’s Palm Sunday. We have all been given the mission to go out and please God and Jesus by fulfilling the Lenten promises we have made and have displayed in our prayer area as a paper chain.

EY Picture News - Girls can have short hair too...

Story: A girls’ football team in York has launched a campaign called, ‘Girls can have short hair. Get Over It’, hoping to change stereotypes in the sport.

Question: How does hearing kind words make us feel?

After learning about this week's EY Picture News; Judging Others. We discussed that when people go to the hairdresser, sometimes they don't know how they'd like their hair to look. The hairdresser will give them some ideas by showing them pictures of different styles. We looked and discussed about different styles; long, short, wavy, spiky.

Our challenge this afternoon was to design a new hair style for ourselves. We did this on 'Purple Mash' using a paint programme. We thought about; what style of hair we would have? Will it be long or short? What colour hair will we choose? Will it be straight, wavy, curly, spiky?

We wonder if you can recognise us with our new hair styles?! 😉

We also enjoyed playing football together outside on the big yard too! We even got to wear proper football shirts as well! We can all play football whoever we are and have fun! 

Planting Seeds

After reading 2 books in our literacy and topic sessions - The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and A Seed in Need by Sam Godwin, we have planted our own seeds to care for over the coming weeks!

We have learned all about how seeds need warmth, light, water and nutrients to grow well. We have planted them in clear pots with compost and given them water. We used trowels to fill the pots carefully and a watering can to water them with. We will be checking on them each day and we will keep you updated each week so you can chat to your children about how their seeds are growing and progressing! 🌱

Space Party Day!

What a wonderful, fun filled day we all had! 

Below are some photos of the day.
* parade through school in the amazing costumes that the children and their families worked together to create
* portraits of ourselves in our costumes
* party games and dancing - Zach and Ariyanna won musical statues and Nova and AJ were the joint winners of musical bumps! 👏
* a special space themed mystery reader! 👽😉
* special snack in front of Mrs Sibbald’s favourite programme when she was a little girl - Button Moon!
* making and eating alien slime! AKA jelly!
What a wonderful way to end the half term and our topic on Space!

Alien Slime!

On space party day, we made alien slime to have for special space day snack! It was really lime jelly but alien slime made it sound much more exciting! 😂
We looked at the jelly to begin with and talked about how it was a solid. The children had a feel and a smell of a small piece of it. They described it with vocabulary such as solid, squashy, squishy, gooey, sticky, wet, slimey, sweet, fruity, tangy and sweet.
The children then observed as we added hot water to the jelly cubes. They thought it was melting but we discussed how it was actually dissolving , breaking up and mixing with the water to make liquid jelly. We then added cold water and put the jelly in the fridge to set, turning back into a solid.
We were very impressed with how all of the children tried the jelly even if they were unsure! Well done everyone!

Safer Internet Day

This afternoon we spent a session with Mrs Murphy who taught us about keeping safe while online. She chatted with us about the internet and how we use it to play games, watch videos, and talk to friends and family. But sometimes, there are things on the internet that aren’t what they seem. They might try and trick us, and we learnt that the word for these tricks are called “scams”.

Mrs Murphy taught us that we can stay safe on the internet if we remember a few rules:

1. Stop and think
2. Ask a grown up for help
3. Don’t share personal information
4. Click carefully

During the session we had to think of a trusted adult who we can ask for help when online. We then had to draw this person and label them. We came up with ideas such as; our mams, dads, teachers and police. We then using an adult in a room as a scribe had to choose a way that we could remember to stay safe online.

Thanks you to Mrs Murphy for running the Safer Internet session and thank you to those grown ups who attended too, we hope you also enjoyed the session.

EY Picture News - Climbing Everest

Story: Nepal’s government has announced permit fee increases for climbers attempting to summit Mount Everest.

Question: Would you like to climb a mountain?

We got ourselves ready and dressed to go on a walk up Mount Everest linked to our EY Picture News: Tourism.
We thought about: Where we were going? What we would pack? Will we take snacks and drinks? What we would wear? We tried to remember the new rules for walking up Mount Everest; not to walk on your own, to use a guide, how much it will cost to walk up the mountain during the good weather seasons.

Do you think we look ready for a walk up the mountain?!

Famous Astronauts from History

The children have learned what an astronaut is - a person who is trained to travel to, work and live in space. We have been learning about some famous astronauts from history.
Yuri Gargarin - first human to go into space.
Valentina Tereshkova - first woman to go into space.
Neil Armstrong - first person to walk on the moon.
Tim Peake - British astronaut who spent more the 6 months in space.
Mae Jemison - first black woman to go into space.

The children listened to the information about each astronaut and then had to decide which astronaut they found the most inspirational. The voted by standing up when the person they were voting for appeared on the screen. They then had to explain why they had chosen that astronaut and why they think they are inspirational.

EY Picture News - Sports! 

Story: Tennis player, Emma Raducanu, has revealed she would like to meet fellow young sports star, Luke Littler, following his recent World Championship win.

Question: How do you become the best at a sport?

We enjoyed playing darts like the World Darts Champion, Luke Littler linked to our EY’s Picture News, we held our own ‘Reception Darts Championship 2025’.
We had a great morning, we all had our names drawn out of a hat to see who would be playing each other. We had some practices and then we played a game for points. Everyone’s points were totalled up and the two people with the highest score were going to play in the finals. There was some great sportsmanship and we shook hands after the match to say well done on the game.
Two friends played against each other in the finals this afternoon at snack time, it was a close match but one friend hit a single bull earning her 25 points giving her the final win.
She got to hold up the trophy for the ‘Reception Darts Championship 2025’!

Making Ice - Liquids, Solids, Freezing and Melting!

After learning about the winter weather of snow, ice, frost and hailstones, we decided to try and make our own ice!

We looked at, touched and experimented with water, learning that water is a liquid which is wet, runny, can spill, pour and drip and changes to the shape of any container! The children came up with that we needed to make the water really cold (like it can be outside in winter when we get ice) to change it from a liquid into ice, which we learned is a solid. They thought it might turn to ice in the fridge (but, after feeling inside, decided that wasn’t going to be cold enough) and then thought about the freezer!

We went to the staff room and poured some water into an ice cube tray and put it into the freezer! We have also looked at some ‘ice pops’ which were in liquid form. The children felt them and described them using words such as; squishy, squashy, bendy, floppy, runny and they made the link that they were a liquid . The children all put one in the freezer in hope something will happen with them...

We returned to the staffroom the next day and checked the freezer… and the tray of water had turned into ice cubes. We learned that the liquid had frozen and had turned into a solid! This now kept its shape and couldn’t be poured! One friend was very brave and volunteered to check it couldn’t be poured by us tipping the tray over above his head! He was so confident it was now ice after looking at and touching it!
We then took an ice cube out and had a look at at and a feel of it. The children came up with words such as hard, tough, like a mountain, like a diamond, freezing and not runny. However, the ice cube started turning back to a liquid when we held it… we learned that this is called melting!
When we returned to class we added the vocabulary liquid, solid, freezing and melting to our vocabulary window. 
Finally, we had frozen ice pops as a special snack! The children talked about them in terms of solid, liquid, freezing and melting at different stages whilst eating them! They loved it when some solid remained at the top of their ice pop and some liquid gathered in the bottom that had melted that they could drink at the end!

EY Picture News - Building New Homes

Story: UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has stated that building new homes is a ‘top priority’ and the government has announced changes to planning rules, to make house building in the countryside easier.

Question: What do you love most about your home?

The children sent in photos of their favourite room in their homes and then shared their reasons why they like it the most with their friends. 

Winter is here! 

After reading 'Here comes Jack Frost' by Kazuno Kohara this week, we have been on a winter walk around the school grounds this morning to find evidence that it is winter! We talked about how we need to wrap up warm in winter to protect us from the cold outdoors. We discussed how we needed coats on - fastened up - hats/ear muffs/hoods, scarves, gloves/mittens and our fluffy socks inside our wellies!
We found lots of evidence that it is winter when we got outside - we were real winter detectives! Take a look at the photos of the evidence that we found...

EY Picture News - The Great British Birdwatch!

Story: Birdwatch is an annual UK-wide citizen science project, held in January, in which people help gather data to support the work of scientists.

Question: What do you know about birds?

The children then all used their fine motor skills to create bird feeders to hang in their gardens to attract the birds and feed them during these cold winter months!

EY Picture News - Anti-Bullying Week

Story: This year, Anti-Bullying Week takes place 11th-15th November, with the theme choose respect.

Question: How can we help make our class and school a happy place?

During our EY Picture News: Anti-Bullying Week, some of our School ‘Happiness Ninjas’  from Year 4 and 5, came to talk to us about what they do in our school to make it a happier place. They were wearing their ‘happiness ninjas’ T-shirts! They chatted to us about different ethos’s of what makes a happy and kind school, and the different things that we can do to help spread these ethos’s too!
We found out that we can become a ‘happiness ninjas’ from Year 1 and upwards. They even have a ‘happiness ninja’ club they go to where they can wear their T-shirts and do nice things. We were very lucky as they even let us try on their ‘happiness ninja’ T-shirts!

They left us some ‘happiness’ posters for us to colour in and then display around our classroom, to make our classroom a happier place.

Thank you to our school ‘happiness ninjas’, we think you have inspired the reception children into becoming ‘happiness ninjas’ as they move up through the school.