School and Nursery News October 2022
Peaslake Free School
We opened our doors at the beginning of September and welcomed joyful children and parents back to school. All the children settled incredibly quickly and it was lovely to reconnect with everyone after the break. We received some very exciting news during the Summer holidays, which we didn’t know at the time of sharing would become even more poignant by the end of the first week of term.
Last term the children sent letters and pictures off to the Queen congratulating her on her 70 year reign. In return, and to our surprise, we received a letter from the Queen and her lady in waiting thanking the children of Peaslake Free School. Very sadly the day after reading out her letter to all the children we heard of her majesty’s passing. There has been so much said of her over the past few weeks, and the most lovely photographs in the press that we felt it important the children were able to express their thoughts and feelings. To that end we set up our own book of condolences for the children to write/draw in so that we may add it to the book set up in St Mark’s church.
Our other piece of exciting news was to be given an Intermediate Level Award for Developing Internationalism by the British Council. Before the pandemic, along with some other local schools, we set up links with schools in Kampala, Uganda and even though we were unable to do the planned teacher visit, we have been sharing projects across the continents with the children. This is something we are hoping to continue this year.
This term our topic “Movers and Shakers” focuses on significant people who have made a difference to the world, starting with famous astronauts.
Harvest will also be soon upon us and the children are already preparing songs, poems and prayers of thanks to perform in the Church.
We have started the new school year with renewed energy and feel we have lots to look forward to as well as new projects to accomplish. It’s lovely to be back amongst the children, they will always keep us on our toes!
Peaslake Nursery
During the summer Peaslake Nursery has had something of a transformation, with exciting additions to both the indoor and outdoor learning environment. Our newly appointed Nursery Manager, Louise Collins, shares her thoughts regarding Peaslake Nursery and the adventures so far this term.
We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful setting, with our spacious classroom, access to our own outdoor area, the school playground and the surrounding woodland and fields. The play and learning opportunities are endless at our magical little Nursery!
We utilise the nature around us to inspire our play, through Forest School learning, nature walks and bringing in natural objects to investigate at Nursery.
This term we have been enjoying our mud kitchen area creating perfumes, potions and pies! We have collected acorns, twigs and blackberries to add to our recipes and also enjoyed creating some blackberry paint to mark-make with.
Indoors we have been experimenting with big tubes, reels and blocks, building ramps for the cars and homes for the jungle animals. The painting easel continues to be a much-loved item in the Nursery, particularly for our new starters settling in. There are many masterpieces already on display!
Our cosy book corner is also very popular this term and we have been enjoying some of our favourite story books together. This has been another great way for us to gently settle back into Nursery life.
