There was a sense of celebration at the start of the day today as the children from the Foundation Stage and KS1 were treated to a special performance at the start of their assembly by one of our older pupils. Alex, from Year Four, began playing the piano as recently as January and recently took his first exam in which he gained a distinction. Alex inspired the children by playing his exam piece beautifully and received a huge round of applause for his efforts. Well done Alex, we are proud of you!

Later in the  morning, the children from the Foundation Stage classes were visited by Mrs Geach who came to read them the story of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. She talked to the children about the theme of changes in the book and the change that they would soon be experiencing as they move up to Year One in September. She asked the children what they were excited about in terms of the changes and if they had any worries.

There was lots of activity outside today as the children in Year One used their ‘Forest Friends’ sessions to take part in a senses walk. The children used blindfolds to play listening games outside, take part in a blindfolded walk and identify smells. There was also lots of activity in the hen house as our new chickens thrilled a group of children and Mrs Townsend by laying thirteen eggs in just a few days! Pickles stopped laying some time ago so the new batch of eggs were produced by her new playmates; Rosie, Meg and Holly.

At the end of the afternoon there was much excitement in Dormice as Miss Toms took the class outside into the ‘Base Camp’ of the ‘Forest Friends’ area in order to release the class butterflies. The children have been looking after the creatures from caterpillars and the children have observed the changes over the weeks until they turned into beautiful butterflies. The butterflies were released into the wild, much to the delight of the children.