Stonewall School Champions Gold Award

Windhill21 has achieved the Gold Stonewall School Champion Award. This is a sector-leading award programme developed by the charity Stonewall and demonstrates our schools commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion. It shows that Windhill21 is leading the way in celebrating diversity and supporting LGBTQ+ children and young people to fulfil their potential. Our application for the award demonstrated particular strengths in embedding diversity and equality within our curriculum and our use of pupil voice to receive feedback and make changes to our practices within school life. 

Year 3 Newsletter

 Year 3 Newsletter

Last week, we visited a Hindu temple that was established by the Beatle' s very own George Harrison! We were inspired by the religion and the culture of the trip and learnt many new, exciting things such as: 

• The importance of Brahman to Hindus
• Treating different religions with respect
• What it is like to live as a Hindu at the temple
• The importance of worship to Hindus

As our school year draws to a close and we write our final blog; we cannot help but reflect on all the hard work that our amazing year 3's have done this year. From understanding the process of mummification, exploring a range of ocean vertebrae, performing our changemaker speeches to writing expert stories; we couldn't be prouder. Well done year 3!

Year 4 Newsletter

 Last week, Year 4 began publishing their Viking myths in preparation for the book launches we have coming up this week. Many children were able to show off their fantastic computing skills and enjoyed reading back through the fantastic stories they had created.

In our History lessons, we discussed the different legacies that the Viking's had left behind. We discovered that some of the words we use today were actually invented by the Vikings! Who knew that the words 'egg' and 'Thursday' were so old?

Our science lessons have involved us recapping the digestive system and talking about the different functions each organ has.

Year 6 Newsletter

 Year 6 have had another wonderful fortnight - busy with everything from preparing for our end of year show, to learning Portuguese!

In our Amazing Places lessons, we have continued to explore South America, this time voyaging to the marvellous country that is Brazil. From the lush Amazonian rainforests to the might of the Amazon river - the children were fascinated to learn more about this truly amazing place. Not content with just learning about the geography of Brazil, we whole-heartedly embraced the culture - and have learned all about the Samba, even creating our own Samba beats! We also had a Portuguese lesson, as the children were interested to learn that Brazil is the only South American country where Spanish isn't the main language spoken.

We have also continued to expand on our geographical knowledge by creating some accurate 3D contour maps - and enjoying competitive geography quizzing...the children are becoming country, capital, and continent experts!

The children have also been working their absolute hardest in rehearsals for our show; we really cannot wait to showcase to everyone what we have created. A marvel of song, dance, comedy, and West End level acting!

Finally, we were delighted to welcome parents in for a 'Celebration of Work' - the children were immensely proud, and rightly so, of their beautifully published pieces of writing, creative artistry, and even excellent French role play skills...and who doesn't want to be served a delicious pain au chocolat on a warm Friday afternoon?!

Well done, Year 6, you have - as always - worked your hardest, shown your enthusiasm for learning and knocked our socks off with your acting abilities.

Reception Newsletter

Reception had such a wonderful time last week at their Ugly Bug Ball. The children were joined by their Nursery friends and we held a garden party for all their families. Lots of cake was eaten, many cups of tea were consumed and prizes were won at the raffle. The children sang their hearts out in their Minibeast performances and they loved every minute. It was wonderful to see so many people there and we were lucky to raise lots of money for our Early Years.  A big thank you to everyone who came.   

In Maths, the children have been looking at shape, space and measure. We started by looking at the properties of 2d shapes and last week we moved on to weight. The children loved using the scales to see which items were heavier and lighter and had the challenge of trying to make the scales balance. We also introduced the language of shorter, longer, taller and thicker to describe playdough worms and towers made of cubes. 

    

In our RAW lessons, we have been looking at the Christian faith and focusing on churches. We looked at what churches traditionally have inside them and spent a lot of time looking at stained glass windows. The children then attempted to make their own stained glass windows out of tissue paper and laminate plastic. 

Nursery Newsletter

Last week we held our Ugly Bug Ball.  This was a huge success, and we would like to thank all the parents for providing your child with an amazing costume.  It was a great turnout by parents, grandparents, younger siblings and family members.  The children had a wonderful time and loved being in their costumes and seeing their friends in their costumes.  It was lovely to hear the children sing their minibeast songs.  Thank you for all your donations of cakes and raffle prizes and for those who helped to set up the event.

In our SCARF lessons we have been looking at the differences between boys and girls and a lovey discussion was held about how boys and girls can play with each other and that anyone can play with any of the resources in the Nursery and that girls can play with boys and vice versa.  We also looked at families and how families can be very different and how we respect the different make up of families.  For example, does a family always have a mummy and a daddy?  We have also been thinking about the needs of babies and how we look after babies.  We used the role play baby dolls, baby bottles, baby clothes and nappies to help the children understand how babies need almost everything done for them.  We compared babies needs to their needs now and how they are different.

In our Religions and World views lessons awe have been looking at Special Places and the special places people of different faiths use for worship.  We looked at Mosques and how Muslims worship and pray in a mosque.  Sanober, one of our Year 6 pupils is a practising muslim and she was kind enough to come and talk to the Nursery children about her faith and her first hand experience of mosques.  We also looked at synagogues and why this is a a special place for Jewish people.

One of or more practical activities for our Phonics lesson was to make jammy toast for the letter ‘j’.  Yummy!

Year 1 Newsletter

 In Year 1 we have been very busy bees! In the last week we have enjoyed our new DT topic on moving pictures. We learnt about pivots and levers as well as sliders. We practised techniques for making moving pictures ready for our design and make this week.

In our topic lessons we have been continuing our seaside topic and learning about the RNLI. We learnt about the history of the RNLI and the different types of boats that have been used over the years to help rescue people who get into trouble at sea. We also learnt about safety at the beach and the flags that we might see and what they tell us.

The highlight of the week was definitely our trip to Frinton! We were finally able to put everything into practise and spot the key features of a coastal area. The children were so excited to spot the promenade, groynes, Walton pier in the distance and the sea wall. When we arrived at Frinton we enjoyed taking part in a scavenger hunt in groups to try and find some items on the beach such as seaweed, a feather, a shell and a pebble with a hole in it. The children then used these items to start their epic sandcastle creations! There were moats being dug, bridges constructed and feathers adorning the tops of many sandcastles. All of the creations were magnificent!

After lunch the classes took turns to paddle in the sea, all of the teachers ended up very wet much to the children's amusement! Mrs Watson-Clarke as splashed on more than one occasion but so much fun was being had. We then continued with our sandcastle creations until unfortunately it was time to go home! The day flew by because we had so much fun! Many children fell asleep on the coach ride home, definitely a sign of a brilliant day! What a fabulous end to our topic and to our year in Year 1. All of the children behaved impeccably and we are so very proud of every single one of them. Well done Seacole and Nightingale!