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You can apply for a place through the Local Authority here…
www.doncaster.gov.uk/admissions
If you’d like to find out more or arrange a visit, please contact the school directly.
Plover: 01302 361450
Norton Infants: 01302 700743
Carcroft: 01302 722353
Green Top: 01405 813181
“I can’t do art!” “I’m not an artist!” “I wouldn’t know where to start creating something like that.” “I can’t draw!”
These are just some of the things we’ve heard staff say in our schools. And yet, every single day, we ask our students to step up to challenges they think they can’t do. We expect them to show resilience, determination and courage as they take risks in their learning. So if it’s good enough for our students—it’s good enough for us too!
That’s where our staff crew day began. We set out to design an experience that would take us out of our comfort zones, challenge us to practise the same character traits we ask of our children, and strengthen our bonds as a crew. At the same time, we wanted to celebrate the incredible artists within our staff and give everyone the chance to explore new skills they might not usually find time for.
Our chosen mountain to climb? Creating an awe-inspiring piece of art—a stunning sea turtle.
We began our climb by grappling with the first layer: a colour wash for the background. This simple step soon became a crash course in colour mixing, as we experimented with blending shades and tones we hadn’t dared to try before.
Next came the challenge of thinking like artists—considering where the light would hit the turtle’s shell and body. Unsurprisingly, this stage was peppered with the familiar cries of “Mine doesn’t look right!” and “I’ve done that wrong!”
But each wobble was calmly and confidently met with the same phrase from Joyce, our teacher for the day:
“There is no such thing as wrong in art—if you’re not happy, it’s just not finished yet.”
That simple shift in perspective was powerful. It reframed mistakes as opportunities, unlocked resilience we didn’t realise we had, and encouraged us to keep experimenting rather than giving up.
Just as we were beginning to find our flow, Joyce challenged us to look at the world a little differently. What could we spot in our environment that might be used for printing onto our background? Suddenly, everyday objects became tools for creativity—textures, shapes and patterns we might never have noticed before took on a whole new purpose.
With this fresh perspective, we continued to develop our colour mixing, layering shades and experimenting with the objects we had discovered. Slowly but surely, depth and richness began to build across our turtle’s ocean habitat.
As confidence grew, so did the sound of crew. Supportive critique of each other’s work, genuine praise for moments of beauty, and the laughter that comes from spending time together filled the room. What began with uncertainty was evolving into a shared sense of pride and possibility.
When planning the day, our aim was clear: to challenge ourselves to step out of our comfort zones, try something new, and develop an art skill—safe in the knowledge that we’d be supported by an already pretty incredible Norton Crew. The buzz of laughter and chatter that filled the room was truly beautiful, but we didn’t want our day to be remembered as “just a lovely activity.”
We ended the morning by pausing to reflect. What had we learned personally today? What could we take with us back into the classroom? The answers were as varied as the artwork on our canvases: the importance of resilience, the power of encouragement, the courage to experiment, and the reminder that “not finished yet” is very different from “wrong.”
Our sea turtle may have been the mountain we set out to climb, but the real masterpiece was found in the way we came together as crew—supporting, challenging and celebrating each other every step of the way.
And in the words of our staff:
These reflections capture exactly what we hoped our staff crew day would achieve. It wasn’t just about painting a turtle—it was about rediscovering the joy of learning, stepping bravely into the unknown, and remembering what it feels like to be stretched, supported and celebrated. If we can carry even a fraction of that mindset back into our classrooms, our children will continue to benefit from teachers who know firsthand the power of resilience, creativity and crew.
This week, Year One designed their very own Super Veggie Superheroes! From lightning-fast carrots to broccoli defenders of the planet, the imagination on display was truly inspiring.
Each child created a unique veggie-themed superhero and after completing their masterpieces, the children took part in a gallery walk, proudly showcasing their artwork and admiring their classmates’ creations.
Today was no ordinary school day in Class Three – it was Superhero Training Day, and what an incredible day it was!
From the moment the children arrived, it was clear we were in for lots of fun. Dressed in their superhero finest, the class looked fabulous!
Our heroes faced a series of exciting and challenging missions designed to test their courage, creativity, and strength:
They put their brains to the test, solving tricky superhero-themed riddles and Paw Patrol codebreakers.
Next, they used their artistic superpowers to design their very own superhero badges and had so much fun joining in with our superhero song and dance.
Disaster struck when our class superhero, Walt, got stuck in a tree! But fear not – Class Three leapt into action with teamwork, problem-solving, and a whole lot of determination to bring him back to safety. Mission accomplished!
Physical Training – Finally, they completed their superhero training with some energetic physical challenges. Whether it was agility, strength, or speed – our heroes showed they had what it takes!
After all their hard work and heroic effort, each member of Class Three was proudly awarded their official Superhero Training Certificate. They truly earned their titles today!
Well done, Superheroes – you made us all proud.
This week Class Six have been thinking all things Supertato! From Supertato maths to WANTED! posters for Evil Pea, we have been all in on Supertato. We even created our very own super veggies!
On the 23rd of May, Nursery went on a very exciting Fieldwork visit to support their current learning expedition “Once Upon a Time”. The children undertook a Fairytale Trail, walking around our beautiful local area to find story like settings. We had the pleasure of finding long wavy meadows….
A magical fairy forest, with real fairies! We had to be very quiet to try and spot them, using only our tiptoes and whispering voices….
Over a wicked troll’s bridge….
Through more long, wavy meadows…
Down by the Riverbank to see if we could spot the Troll….
and finally on towards the park where we had a huge Teddy Bear’s picnic!
After the children had finished their delicious picnics, they had lots of fun mixing and playing on the park equipment, meeting new friends from either morning or afternoon nursery who they’d never met before. A beautiful transition opportunity for the year ahead. There were some beautiful drawings of fairytale characters on the children’s work boards and most of the children completed a fairytale object hunt which was lots of fun to spot natural objects that the Everywhere Bear had shown the children before in his postcards in their prior learning. What a beautiful day and visit this really was – great work Nursery!
Wearing red, white and blue the children in Year One joined in with today’s VE Day celebrations. After learning about and discussing the importance of VE Day we enjoyed fish and chips for lunch and created some fabulous WW2 spitfires.
This week Class Six have been working as artists and creating rocket and space art inspired by Peter Thorpe. We worked with the tricky medium of chalk on black paper to create some stunning artwork!
We think the children have outdone themselves and the art is incredible!
Unfortunately, we are experiencing some technical difficulties with our phone lines and internet connection. This means we will not be able to answer the phones or pick up any voicemails so if we could ask that you report any absences via email on [email protected] or message Mrs Bradshaw on Class Dojo. Please do not inform teachers directly as these may not be picked up.
Our technicians are working hard to resolve this issue and we are hopeful a solution can be reached tomorrow. We will keep you updated.
Thank you.
Year One have loved the start of our dance unit this half term. So far we have been learning about some of the principles of dance and practising key skills such as balancing and travelling. We’ve had fun linking these actions together to create sequences and have worked with our partners using our 8 counts to hold our balances.
Science is about understanding and making sense of the world around us. It allows us to be creative and curious, as well as being able to answer questions that we may have. To celebrate science week Year One have been planning and carrying out an investigation to help us answer the question ‘How do flowers and other plants drink?’ We’ve made predictions and considered how we can make our tests fair. Today with the help of our grown ups we’ve worked together to set up our experiment.
We are excited to see what happens to our flowers over the next few days and to answer some of the questions we have been asking.
Which colour will we see first in our flowers?
Will the colours mix and make new colours in the flowers?
How long will it take for the flowers to change colour?
