French Olympics

On Wednesday, a team of 12 Y5 children, along with teams from 4 other local primary schools, travelled to Bushey Meads to compete in the French Mini-Olympics. The children - Isabella, Zoe, Madison, Hamsy, Vamsi, Mel, Haya, Hilary, Ted, Connor, Pola and Kitty - spent the day participating in a variety of sports-based French activities, topped off with a very welcome ice cream (ordered in French of course!) The children demonstrated excellent team work and enthusiasm by the bucketload, and tried very hard to use their French. The secondary school teachers commented on their initiative and leadership skills, too; the children really did the school proud. Their efforts were rightly rewarded with silver medals, which the children treasure greatly. Bravo!

Visit from Katherine Rundell

We were extremely lucky to be visited recently by the author Katherine Rundell, who led a writing workshop for a group of Y5 children. You may remember that Y5 and Y6 took part in judging the Blue Peter Children's Book Award, which was won by Katherine with her book 'Rooftoppers'. Katherine was so impressed with our children's questions during a Skype Q&A that she asked to come and write with them! After a brief talk about being a writer and the inspiration for her books, Katherine led the children in creating a new character and plot for a story, and the group then wrote some description of their character and an effective first line. Hopefully the seeds have been sown for some stellar writing! We will all benefit greatly from the tips we received, such as taking your fourth idea for a description and ensuring your characters have three clear characteristics. Before we went home, the group had the honour of being the first children in the world to hear the first page of Katherine's new book! There was just time for a few autographs before the children went home, smiling and hopefully inspired.