BUTTERFLY

In Butterfly room we have enjoyed listening to different sensory stories, using communication boards to follow the story and some of the children have been sequencing key events of the story. In art, we have been experimenting with mixing and layering different colours to see the effects. Our Year 1 children have enjoyed going to Forest School, where we made bird feeders and enjoyed hot chocolate with smores.

We have enjoyed Attention Autism sessions and are getting very good at engaging and turning taking during this.

NURSERY

In Nursery, we have loved reading a range of traditional stories. The children enjoyed Red Riding Hood, talking about the healthy options for a picnic to take to Grandma and joining in with the story. We acted out the story of The Three Little Pigs and joined in to huff and puff and blow the house down! We talked through the route the wolf took to get to each house until we were safe in the brick house with all three pigs. We tested how strong each of the materials were that the pigs used to build their houses. We could blow  the straw and stick houses over but the brick house stayed strong, they were very heavy too. We drew pigs and made pigs out of playdough using buttons and pipe cleaners.

The children have enjoyed The Gingerbread Man, joining in with ‘run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Man.’ We painted the Gingerbread Man making sure to include the head, body, two arms and two legs. They were very impressive! We have been talking about different emotions and how the Gingerbread Man was feeling scared when he was being chased and happy when he thought the fox had saved him…… until he ate him! We helped the little old woman by making some more Gingerbread biscuits for her, they tasted delicious. We love reading lots of stories in Nursery together with our friends and cannot wait to read lots more.

RECEPTION

Reception have come back and settled brilliantly! This week we have started our topic of 'Dinosaurs'. The children have enjoyed sharing their knowledge and learning new things that they did not know before.

In art, we made our very own dinosaur egg and then got the chance to decorate and collage a baby dinosaur to go inside. The children loved using paint, glitter, tissue paper and feathers to make their dinosaur unique.

In maths, we have been weighing things! We have been using the vocabulary of 'heavy' and 'light’ and have also been comparing the weight of things using the balance scales. It has been fun investigating different objects.

In literacy, we have been learning how to write capital letters. We played matching games and learnt that some of them look very different to the lower-case letter. We concentrated and listened so we could learn how they were formed and have a go at writing them ourselves.

YEAR 1

Year 1 have enjoyed their first week back at school.  They have told us all about what they got up to over their half term break. They are looking forward to learning all about our new topic Islands, following maps and investigating how to survive on an island in science.

In PE, we are continuing with our gymnastics module and developing our racquet and ball skills.

YEAR 2

Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed their Australian assemblies and loved sharing everything they had learnt during our Australia topic. Thank you to everyone who came to watch and those who watched on Zoom!

During Mental Health Week, we learnt how to better understand our feelings. We created our own worry dolls to help us with any worries or concerns we may get.

For Internet Safety Day, Year 2 learnt about how you can stay safe online. We identified ways in which we can spot if someone is trying to scam us and what we should do if it happens to us.

In science, we had some exciting lessons where we were fortunate enough to be joined by four different dogs and a rabbit! One of our visitors was a veterinary nurse, who answered plenty of intriguing questions that the children had thought of. The children had a fantastic time and loved giving the pets a cuddle!

At the start of this half term, we received a mysterious package addressed to Year 2. Inside was a letter from Helen Sharman, who has asked us to look after her pet alien Ally and challenged us to become space experts.

 

year 3

Year 3 have been working hard this month! We have been working on our musical skills and have continued to learn instruments and how to play them. We have not only learnt how to play ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley on the recorder but also on the glockenspiel.

As part of our topic ‘Land Before Time’ we have created some incredible art pieces based around cave paintings. We learnt how people in the Stone Age created art and what they would have used to do this. We decided to use red, orange, and brown pastels to create our art.

In science, we have continued to learn about our topic ‘Animals Including Humans.’ We have looked at the human body and its skeleton. We got to work in groups to put the human skeleton back together and successfully labelled the bones in the body.

year 4

This half term, we are continuing our learning about the Romans and their impact on Britain including Hadrian’s Wall, Roman names for towns and Julius Caesar. In DT, we designed and created our own Roman shields and used techniques to strengthen the structure.

We are now looking forward to our trip to Colchester Castle which will enhance our understanding and knowledge of Roman Britain. We are excited to see some real artefacts and then be able to compare our shield creations.

Just before the half term break, Year 4 had a fabulous week focusing on poetry in English and experienced the work of Benjamin Zephaniah and Michael Rosen. We then wrote our own poetry and performed to all our friends using expression, actions and voice modulation.

We have our Forest School sessions soon and we cannot wait for the fun activities!

year 5

Year 5 were lucky enough to take part in the Spoken Word Power poetry event where they got the opportunity to compose a range of poems under the heading of 'The Way I See It'. They then used these skills to write a final poem. They then had the chance to perform in front of another year group and three judges in their very own poetry slam! Well done to Emmie, Ronnie, Henry, Dexter and Louise for their winning poems! 

Our new topic this half term is 'Amazing Inventors'. On Monday 24^th February, the children immersed themselves in the 'Egg-cellent, Egg-citing Inventors Day'. They spent the day taking care of an egg (which they named and designed), they designed and built a stable vessel for their egg to travel along a zip-line. Did it survive the dive? They used a range of junk modelling materials to create a spoon to enable them to take part in their 'Egg-cellent' egg and spoon race. Everyone had a really egg-citing day, especially the teachers with their never-ending supply of egg themed yokes! 

year 6

Welcome to Spring 2! Year Six have many exciting activities to look forward to this half term and the Warner Brothers Studio Tour trip is only weeks away!

We have all been really impressed with the children’s independence and positive mindset towards completing their new revision homework guide. They have been very excited to show us their hard work and it is lovely to see! This positive attitude and focus has also been transferred into all  their lessons. Well done all! We are also really pleased with the number of children who have chosen to purchase the additional revision guides - these are still available to purchase on SCOPAY or at the office for £2.75 each.

Following on from the trip, the children will be focussing on creative writing and immersing themselves in arts and crafts surrounding the topic.

YOUNG VOICES AT THE O2

What a night the children all had singing and dancing as part of the Young Voices Choir of over 8,000 children at the O2!

CROSS COUNTRY

It poured with rain and blew a gale as our Year 4, 5 and 6 teams travelled to Garon Park in Southend for the Castle Point and Rochford Cross Country. When we got there the weather got even worse! Congratulations to all the team who have trained really hard for the last 2 months. They all ran really well competing against over 120 children in each race.

Northwick Park had some exceptional individual performances:

Year 4 boys   -    Seth 11th

Year 4 girls     -    Erin 11th

Year 5 girls     -    Santana 23rd

Year 5 boys   -    Micah 2nd

                     -    River 14th

Year 6 boys   -    Jack 36th

                     -    Kyle 55th

Year 6 girls     -    Louise 65th

Micah will now be representing Castle Point and Rochford in the Essex Primary Schools Championship in April.

CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH WEEK

As a school, we enjoyed celebrating Children's Mental Health Week. This year’s theme was 'Know Yourself, Grow Yourself'. The focus involved the children exploring their strengths, weakness, likes and dislikes in order to identify how they could then grow and develop. Over the course of the week, the children spent time within their class discussing the importance of looking after our mental health and sharing strategies for both at home and in school for supporting our overall wellbeing. Each year group had the opportunity to complete an activity or make something exciting to express themselves. The assembly for this week allowed the children to reflect upon their week and celebrate their achievements. 

SAFER INTERNET WEEK

Safer Internet Day 2025 took place on the 11^th of February, with celebrations and learning based around the theme ‘Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online‘

Safer Internet Day is the UK’s biggest celebration of online safety. Each year we cover an online issue or theme that speaks about the things young people are seeing and experiencing online. Created in consultation with young people across the UK, this year Safer Internet Day will be focusing on the issue of scams online and for young people, how to protect themselves and others, as well as what support is available to them.

We hosted an online safety assembly led by children in every year group. Children were able to present and discuss the activities they had completed in class.

All schools under the Northwick Park Trust took part in this year’s event. That is around 1000 pupils and staff working together!

Digital Leaders

Welcome our Year 6 Digital Leaders working alongside Mrs Rising to promote safer and kinder online activity across the school. We aim to empower pupils to make the right choices when online.

Lainey J

Darcey B

Nicholas T

George D

Jensen S

Reece S

Maiya R

Constance (CJ) R

Scarlett N

Charlie C.

TAG RUGBY

Well done to the Tag Rugby team. They played a very competitive match against William Read, eventually winning by 18 points to 10.

NETBALL

Both the girls’ and the mixed netball teams have been busy competing in league fixtures. The girls’ team beat Leigh Beck 10-1. The mixed team beat Montgomerie but lost to Canvey and South Benfleet. They enjoyed a very competitive game against Robert Drake, coming back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3.

PANCAKE TOSSING

It was lovely to have so many people on Zoom as all the children in Reception to Year 6 participated in this annual event. All the money raised will be used for playtime resources for all of the children. Please keep sending your sponsor money in.

YEAR 6 SAT INFORMATION SESSIONS

Thank you to all the parents/cares that were able to attend one of the Zoom sessions. As I said at both meetings, we are incredibly impressed at how hard Year 6 are working. Keep it up Year 6!

STARS OF HALF TERM

Congratulations to all our Stars of the half term. They have all been presented with a book.

Nursery          Alby U

Reception      Skylar-Mae B

Year 1            Betty W

Year 2            Hayden D

Year 3            Ralph W

Year 4            Sofiya M

Year 5            Freddie M

Year 6            Elisabeth B

YOUNG CARERS

 

In February our Young Carers all enjoyed a games afternoon with Mrs Cooper. At Northwick Park Academy, we are committed to ensuring that all students who are young carers are identified and supported effectively. If you think your child might be a young carer, please contact our Young Carers Operational Lead, Mrs L Cooper, by email at LCooper@northwickpark.essex.sch.uk.

Any information given to her will be treated sensitively, and no information will be shared without your knowledge.

DIARY DATES

Mon 3^rd Mar                Y6 Bikeability – Group 2

Mon 3^rd Mar                Y5 Road Safety sessions am

Mon 3^rd Mar                YR Road Safety sessions pm

Mon 3^rd Mar                Y4 Colchester Castle visit

Tue 4^th Mar                 Y3 Forest School

Wed 5^th Mar                Y4 Forest School

Wed 5^th Mar                5:00 Bedtime story sessions

Thur 6^th Mar                Y5 Road Safety sessions am

Thur 6^th Mar                YR Road Safety sessions pm

Thur 6^th Mar                World Book Day – Dressing up

Fri 7^th Mar                    Y5 Road Safety sessions am

Mon 10^th Mar              Training Day – School closed

Tue 11^th Mar               Infant Music Festival

Tue 11^th Mar               Book Fair all week

Tue 11^th Mar               Girls netball match away at Canvey Junior

Tue 11^th Mar               Boys football match home to William Read

Wed 12^th Mar              Y4 French Café

Thur 13^th Mar              Y5 Forest School

Thur 13^th Mar              Y4 MTC meeting

Thur 13^th Mar              Music workshop (selected children)

Fri 14^th Mar                 Young Carers Odd Sock Day

Mon 17^th Mar              Clubs start

Mon 17^th Mar              Y6 Bikeability – Group 2

Tue 18^th Mar               Y6 Harry Potter visit

Wed 19^th Mar              Dodgeball competition

Wed 19^th Mar              Y4 Forest School

Thur 20^th Mar              Y5 Forest School

Thur 20^th Mar              Football match at home against South Benfleet

Thur 20^th Mar              Youth Board training day at Deanes

Fri 21^st Mar                  Red Nose Day

Mon 24^th Mar              Y3 History Day

Wed 26^th Mar              Mixed netball match at home to Thundersley

Thur 27^th Mar              Reception Parent Consultations

Thur 27^th Mar              Y6 girl’s football match at home to William Read

Fri 28^th Mar                 Clubs celebration Day

Mon 31^st Mar              Last week for clubs

Tue 1^st Apr                  Y6 Parent Consultations

Wed 2^nd Apr                Y2 Football Festival at Deanes (Selected children)

Wed 2^nd Apr                Butterfly room craft event

Thur 3^rd Apr                 Y5 Forest School

Thur 3^rd Apr                 Canvey Cross Country Competition (Selected children)

Fri 4^th Apr                    Grand Easter Egg raffle

Fri 4^th Apr                    Reception Forest School

Easter Break             Last day of term Friday  4^th April Monday 7^th April to Monday 21^st

TRAINING DAYS

The school will be closed for training on:

• Mon 10^th Mar
• Fri 20^th June
• Mon 23^rd June

(Busy Bears Open as usual)

Busy Bears  Open 7:15am–6:00pm. Please book in with Bev Thompson 01268 511863

bthompson@northwickpark.essex.sch.uk

The last day of the summer term is Tuesday 22^nd July.