🧚‍♀️📚 Does Crew Stop at the School Gates? 📚🧚‍♂️

27th August 2026Laura Parsons

Today, Class Five took our guiding question beyond the classroom… and beyond the school gates!

Does crew stop at the school gates?

We decided that if our crew is about looking after one another, being part of something bigger and making a difference, then perhaps our crew should reach much further than our classroom.

We started by choosing some of our favourite books together. We talked about the stories we love, the books that make us laugh, the ones that teach us something new and the ones we think other people might enjoy too.

Then came the fun part…

We became Book Fairies! 🧚‍♀️🧚‍♂️

The children designed their very own Book Fairy characters and created special labels to go inside our books, explaining what our mission was all about.

And then we headed out on our crew mission…

Beyond our school gates and into our community! 🌳📚

Armed with our books and our Book Fairy labels, we hid our books in different places around Norton for members of our community to discover.

But there was an important part to our mission…

We weren’t giving the books away forever. We wanted the people who found them to read, enjoy and then re-hide them for somebody else to find.

So our books could keep travelling.

Our crew mission had gone beyond the school gates, but so had something else…

❤️ Our love of reading!

We loved imagining someone walking through Norton, discovering one of our books and wondering who had left it there. We wondered where our books might travel next, who might read them and whether they might make someone else’s day a little bit brighter.

It made us think about how being part of a crew isn’t just about what happens when we are together. It is about what we choose to do for the people around us — even people we might never meet.

So, after lots of discussion this week, we think we might have an answer to our guiding question…

Does crew stop at the school gates?

Absolutely not. ❤️

Our crew stretches into our community, our kindness can travel further than we can, and today… our books did too. 📚🧚‍♀️✨

⭕ Circles, Crews & Connections ⭕

27th August 2026Laura Parsons

This week in Class Five, we spent some time thinking about something that might seem very simple… circles.

But we quickly discovered that circles can be pretty powerful.

A circle has no beginning and no end. It is strong, connected and continuous. And, of course, circles are a big part of life in our crew. Every day, we circle up together — to listen, share, celebrate, solve problems and make decisions. There is something special about sitting in a circle because everyone is part of it. There is no “front” or “back” and nobody is left out.

Our guiding question this week has been:

Does crew stop at the school gate?

Today, we started to explore that question by thinking about all the different crews we belong to outside of school.

The children came up with an amazing range of crews — football teams, families, gymnastics clubs, church groups, dance groups, friendship groups and much more. We organised ourselves into our different crews and then started to notice something really interesting…

Our crews overlap!

We might belong to different football teams, different families or different clubs, but we often had people in common. We discovered that although we are all wonderfully different, we actually have lots in common with one another.

This led us to think about how we behave in our different crews. Do we act differently depending on which crew we are in? Or do the things that make us us follow us wherever we go?

We thought about our character traits and realised that being kind, respectful, courageous, honest or compassionate doesn’t just belong in the classroom. These are qualities we carry with us into all of our crews.

So perhaps crew really doesn’t stop at the school gate…

In the afternoon, we took our circle thinking into our art.

We looked at the work of Wassily Kandinsky and noticed that he used circles again and again in his artwork. We explored his use of colour, shape and pattern before setting off to create our own Kandinsky-inspired pieces.

This time, we created trees made from circles, bringing together our ideas about connection, growth and belonging with our love of circles. ⭕🌳

It was lovely to see the children begin the day thinking about a simple shape and finish it thinking about something much bigger:

Who are my crews? Where do I belong? What do I bring to each crew? And how are we all connected?

Perhaps our circles aren’t just something we sit in after all… ❤️

Our First Community Meeting 🌟

26th August 2026Laura Parsons

What a beautiful way to begin our first Community Meeting together! Our children sat so beautifully, listening carefully and modelling our character trait of respect. It was lovely to see them showing each other that they were ready to listen, learn and share.

We shared the wonderful story Try, which reminds us that things don’t always work the first time. The message is simple but powerful: when something feels difficult, we don’t have to give up — we can keep trying, learn from what happens and have another go. 🌱

This led us into a conversation about heroes. At first, our heroes were the ones we might expect — Hulk, Superman and other superheroes with incredible powers! 🦸‍♂️🦸‍♀️

But then our thinking began to change…

We wondered: Does a hero have to have superpowers?

Could someone be a hero because they are kind? Because they help someone? Because they keep going when something is tricky? Because they stand up for someone else? Because they make a difference in their community?

And perhaps most importantly… could we be heroes too? 💛

It was wonderful to watch the children move from thinking about heroes as characters with superpowers to recognising that ordinary people can do extraordinary things through their choices, their courage, their kindness and the way they look after others.

What a lovely first Community Meeting — and what a brilliant start to our year together. 🌟

🌟 Welcome to Class Five! 🌟

24th August 2026Laura Parsons

What a first day! We have had such a busy, exciting and joyful start to our new school year, and it has been wonderful to see the children settling into Class Five, getting to know one another and beginning to discover what kind of crew we are going to be.

🔐 Our Class Five Time Capsule

We began our day in our Crews, before starting something very special — our Class Five Time Capsule!

We wanted to capture a little snapshot of who we are right now, on the very first day of our new school year.

Each child created their own information sheet, telling us about some of their favourite things, what they enjoy, what they are good at and what they would like to get better at this year. We also took a handprint and measured each child’s height using a piece of wool.

All of these precious pieces are now going into our time capsule, ready to be sealed away until the last day of school.

We wonder…

How much will we have changed by the time we open it? ❤️

Will our favourite things still be our favourites? Will we have grown taller? Will we still enjoy the same things? What will we have learned? And, perhaps most importantly, who will we have become?

We can’t wait to find out!

🧚 Does Crew stop at the school gates?

We have also started thinking about our first week back question:

“Does Crew stop at the school gates?”

This is a question that we will keep coming back to throughout the week as we explore what it really means to be part of a crew and how we can look after and support one another both in school and beyond.

Today, we began designing our very own Book Fairies to help us explore this question. Our Book Fairies are going to have an important job to do, and we can’t wait to see where this learning takes us!

🧚📚 Keep checking our blog throughout the week to find out more…

👀 Our Classroom: Look, Sound & Feel

We then spent some time thinking about something really important:

What do we want our classroom to LOOK like?
What do we want our classroom to SOUND like?
What do we want our classroom to FEEL like?

We talked about what would help everyone to feel happy, safe, included and ready to learn. We thought carefully about how the choices we make and the way we treat one another can help us create the kind of classroom we all want to be part of.

There were some fantastic ideas, and we are going to keep building on these throughout our first week together.

🔎 The Mysterious Envelope…

And then, after our afternoon break, something very mysterious happened…

We discovered a mysterious envelope waiting for us!

Inside was a message telling us that something special had been hidden in our classroom — but there was a problem…

It could only be found if we worked together as a CREW!

And so began our very first Class Five Treasure Hunt!

We had five challenges to complete: building the tallest tower we could, taking part in some very silly charades, keeping a balloon off the floor, spotting what had changed in our classroom and completing a very special kindness challenge.

There was lots of laughter, lots of teamwork and lots of excitement as we worked our way through the challenges.

Most importantly, the children were already showing us what we had been talking about all day:

Listen carefully.
Help each other.
Have fun!

After completing all of the challenges, we discovered our final clue…

WE ARE CREW! ❤️

What a perfect way to finish our first day together.

We ended the day knowing a little more about each other, having shared lots of smiles and laughter, and already beginning to build the classroom community we hope Class Five will become.

Day One was pretty special.

And this is only the beginning… ✨

📚✨ Final Word Preparation ✨📚

15th June 2026Laura Parsons

Today, we spent time preparing for our upcoming Final Word, focusing on one of our most important learning habits: reflection.

We journeyed back through all of the expeditions we have completed this year, revisiting beautiful pieces of work and remembering the learning experiences that helped us grow. The children were amazed to see the progress they have made, spotting improvements in their writing, artwork, presentation and overall craftsmanship.

As part of our preparation, the children worked together to support one another in selecting pieces of work to share with their families. Some chose work they are especially proud of, while others selected pieces that they found challenging and had to really grapple with before achieving success.

It was wonderful to hear the children talking so thoughtfully about their learning journey and celebrating how far they have come. We can’t wait for them to share these special pieces and reflections with you at Final Word! 🌟

World Cup Fever in Class 5!

12th June 2026Laura Parsons

Class 5 has been well and truly bitten by the World Cup bug!

As part of our Class 5 sweepstake, each child was allocated two countries to support throughout the tournament. We have spent time developing our research skills by finding out more about our countries, including where they are in the world, interesting facts about them and their football traditions.

Using our research, we then created our very own World Cup bunting display. We carefully studied each country’s flag, paying close attention to colours, shapes and patterns to ensure our designs were as accurate as possible. This challenged us to be precise and pay close attention to detail.

The classroom is now looking fantastic, with flags from around the world proudly displayed and lots of excitement as we follow the progress of our teams. We are looking forward to seeing how our countries perform and finding out who will be crowned World Cup champions!

Good luck to all of our Class 5 teams!

Crew Parkinson: Building Resilience Through Tangrams!

10th June 2026Laura Parsons

Resilience was out in full force this morning in Crew Parkinson!

Our children were challenged to create different animals using tangram puzzles. It wasn’t always easy, and there were plenty of moments where we had to persevere, rethink our ideas and try a different approach. The children showed fantastic determination as they grappled with the challenge and refused to give up when the pieces didn’t quite fit the first time.

Once everyone had chosen their favourite animal design, we set about transforming it into our own tangram puzzle. The children carefully added colour and features to bring their creations to life, thinking about how they could make them both attractive and challenging for others to solve.

Next week, we’ll be sharing our puzzles with our crew mates and putting each other’s problem-solving skills to the test. We can’t wait to see who can crack the challenges that have been created!

A wonderful morning of creativity, perseverance and teamwork—well done, Crew Parkinson! 🧩✨

Can You Help George Escape?

9th June 2026Laura Parsons

This week, Year 2 became mathematicians and detectives as we took part in a Maths Escape Room challenge!

Poor George the baker was working late one night in the cake shop when his mischievous colleague, Keirra, decided he needed a bit more fun in his life. She locked him inside the bakery and left a series of clues for him to solve. To help George escape, we had to work through five different mathematical challenges, collecting a number code from each one. At the end, we used all of the codes to unlock the final puzzle and set George free!

Along the way, we used lots of the maths skills we have been learning this year, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, telling the time and finding fractions. The challenges really made us think carefully and apply our knowledge in different ways.

What impressed me most, however, was not just the maths. I saw fantastic examples of compassion, respect and resilience as children worked alongside their partners. They listened to each other’s ideas, encouraged one another when challenges became tricky and persevered until they found the solutions.

It was wonderful to see so many children confidently using their mathematical knowledge while also demonstrating our character traits. Well done, mathematicians – George escaped thanks to your hard work and teamwork!

Fieldwork to The Deep

18th May 2026Laura Parsons

Today, our Key Stage One children embarked on an exciting fieldwork visit to The Deep — and what an incredible day it was!

From the moment we arrived, the children were completely immersed in the wonders of the ocean. As they explored the aquarium, they encountered magnificent sharks, graceful stingrays, colourful tropical fish and fascinating creatures from oceans around the world. There were gasps of amazement, endless excitement and so many thoughtful conversations as the children connected their learning from school to the real world around them.

One of the highlights of the day was taking part in a fantastic workshop all about protecting our oceans from plastic pollution. The children learned about the devastating impact plastic can have on marine life and explored simple but powerful ways we can all help care for our planet. We were incredibly proud of the way the children engaged with the session — asking insightful questions, sharing their own knowledge and showing genuine compassion for the animals affected by pollution.

Perhaps the thing we were proudest of all was the children’s impeccable behaviour throughout the day. Their enthusiasm, curiosity and kindness shone from start to finish. In fact, several members of the public took the time to comment on how polite, respectful and engaged our children were — something that made all the adults very proud indeed!

The visit was a wonderful opportunity to bring our expedition learning to life and helped the children see that even small actions can make a big difference in protecting our oceans. We returned to school inspired, informed and even more determined to help care for the world around us.

Well done, Year 2 — you were a real credit to our school!