This week we took part in a very meaningful Remembrance Day celebration. We spent time learning about the importance of remembering the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for us, and we worked together to remember them in many ways. One of our favourite activities was creating a poppy collage.
Today, the children in Key Stage 1 enjoyed a very special visit from St John’s Ambulance. Julie and Deborah from the team came in to talk about the amazing work they do in our community – helping people stay safe, teaching first aid, and supporting those in need.
The highlight of the session was learning about their much-loved mascot, Bertie Badger! The children were interested to hear how Bertie helps teach young “Mini Badgers,” some as young as five years old, the basics of first aid. Through stories, activities, and fun demonstrations, the children discover how even little helpers can make a big difference.
To thank them for their visit and all they do for others, we presented Julie and Deborah with one of our special Community Champion awards recognising the respect, compassion and courage they show every day.
Over the past few weeks, we have been exploring what makes us the same and what makes us different from one another. The children have loved discovering the unique qualities that make each of them special, as well as the many things they share with their classmates.
As we move into the final part of our learning journey, we will be widening our lens and looking at how we are similar or different to people around the world. To spark excitement for this new case study, we began with a vibrant and energetic Indian dance workshop!
The children were introduced to a traditional Punjabi folk dance and were completely captivated by the rhythm, the movement, and the joyful atmosphere. One of the highlights was dancing along to the beat of the dhol drum, feeling the rhythm build as they learned new steps and patterns.
This workshop has already opened up wonderful discussions about culture, music, traditions, and the ways people express themselves around the world. We can’t wait to continue exploring and discovering more together in the weeks ahead.
The children showed real courage when performing their final dance to the year two children at the end of the day!
Crew Share Bears enjoyed an outdoor crew session this morning. We reminded ourselves of our crew norms before the session and all made a pledge to follow the norms by printing our handprint onto our crew tree. We then used microscopes to look closely at and describe different things we find outside. What a great start to the day!
This week Nursery are thinking about cultural celebrations/traditions and have been exploring Diwali and Remembrance Day.
We began the week by hooking the children into Diwali, the Hindu celebration of light, by immersing the children in special Indian music and entering Nursery in the darkness, lit only by Diya lamps. The children were so excited and soothed by the atmosphere as they drew pictures of the diya lamps. They listened carefully to our key text “Binny’s Diwali” by Thrity Umrigar and learned that the lamps are traditional and used as decorations to guide in luck and light and warn off any darkness.
We have also paused to remember and celebrate the fallen and serving armed forces on Remembrance Day, by listening to an age appropriate story “Lest We forget” by Kerry Brown during our Tranquil Tuesday Reading Crews. The children came to school dressed in patriotic colours to show their support for the cause and made donations to the British Legion. Nursery have drawn some beautiful pictures of Poppy’s using their observational, considering shapes and simple details including colour.
We learned why Remembrance Day is so important, and Keith and Dave shared stories about local heroes from Doncaster who were awarded the Victoria Cross — the highest military honour for bravery. We even got to see a real Victoria Cross medal, which was a very special moment for everyone!
Dave also told us fascinating stories from his own time in the army, helping us to understand the courage, teamwork and sacrifice shown by so many.
We were all left feeling inspired to remember and honour those who have served — and we can’t wait to share some of our own Remembrance projects over the next few days.
To thank them for their visit and all they do for others, we were proud to present Keith and Dave with one of our special Community Champion awards. It was hard to choose which character traits they showed because, quite simply, they are wonderful examples of them all — courage, kindness, determination and respect.
Thank you, Keith and Dave, for reminding us what it truly means to be a hero. ❤️
This week we were very lucky to welcome a special expert visitor — Ed Miliband! Ed came to talk to us about his job as a Member of Parliament and to share his passion for helping people and protecting our planet.
He explained what it’s like to work in government and how he represents people in our local community. The children had the chance to ask him lots of brilliant questions, from “What made you want to be an MP?” to “How can we help stop climate change?”
Ed spoke about the importance of looking after our world and gave us some simple but powerful ideas about what we can all do to make a difference — like walking or cycling instead of driving, recycling properly, and reminding our families to save energy at home.
We were proud to present Ed Miliband with our Community Champion Award for showing compassion towards people and the environment. His visit reminded us that everyone, no matter how young or old, can make a positive change in their community and in the wider world.
As part of our expedition “How can I be a superhero where I live?” we have been looking at the book Let The Children March. We decided that we would host our own KS1 march in aid of Askern CRY Foodbank.
We have spent lots of time creating our pop art inspired signs, choosing slogans, colouring, designing and painting.
This afternoon, we went out into the community and marched in aid of the foodbank. We were showing off our amazing signs and chanting all about helping people and supporting the food bank.
We had another lovely start to our day today celebrating a wonderful week in Reception. We talked about our learning in maths and lots of children were keen to talk about how they created repeating patterns using different equipment and resources from inside and outside the classroom. Children were also excited to talk about how they have been writing amazing words in our message centre using what they know from phonics lessons. It was great to hear children talking with such enthusiasm about their learning. Keep up the super work everyone.
This morning, we were very lucky to welcome more expert visitors to help us answer our guiding question:
“Not all heroes wear capes – How can I be a hero where I live?”
We were honoured to be joined by Ros Jones, the elected Mayor of Doncaster, Jackie Dudley, the Deputy Civic Mayor, and David Milnes, who is the Mace Bearer and official chauffeur to the Civic Mayor.
Our visitors spoke to us about their important roles in Doncaster and the ways they work to make a positive difference in our community. We learned all about the Mansion House — one of only a few remaining in the country — and discovered how special it is to have one right here in Doncaster!
Ros shared her CBE medal, which was incredible to see up close, and David gave us the chance to look at the official Mace, which was fascinating to learn about.
They also spoke about what inspires them in their roles and how proud they are to serve the people of Doncaster.
To say thank you for their time and the compassion they show every day towards our community, we were very proud to present them with one of our Community Champion Awards.
What an inspiring morning learning from real-life heroes who make Doncaster a better place to live!
