Schools
through the door
Bury Primary School The last few weeks have been as busy as ever here at Bury. The conversion of the old swimming pool into a new learning environment for the children has been completed. Rather than a big grand opening now, we are leaving the space to allow all of the wildlife to acclimatise to its new surroundings and will be opening the area officially at the end of spring when we will start ponddipping and recording the species attracted, this will allow us to begin a longitudinal study of the species inhabiting the space created. The new wetland benefits from a large outdoor classroom which the children can then use to further investigate their findings before carefully returning the creatures to their home. Buzzard class spent a week at Hindleap for their residential. The very first activity was a forest adventure which inv ol ves walk ing through a stream to reach some rather Climbing tower large pools. Every one
St James Coldwaltham
St James’ mini bus
The children of St James’ have been immersed in their learning this term with many opportunities to learn inside and outside the classroom. Every Monday, a minibus full of eager children have benefitted from the lessons with MXT Swim School in Storrington, travelling to and from the pool in St James’ own minibus. For this whole term, Elm Class (Years 2, 3 and 4) have been enjoying weekly Forest School sessions where they have been learning outdoors whilst having fun. There have been trips for the older children to see The Butterfly Lion at Chichester Festival Theatre and to Bignor Roman Villa. The school sent children to science and textile workshops
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of our children threw themselves into it, quite literally, and were fantastic throughout the week. We had some great feedback about how polite our children were and how they were willing to give everything a go and push themselves to reach new heights, again literally on the climbing tower! I am pleased to say I was able to successfully ‘test’ the activities, purely for safety reasons! Our outdoor learning is regularly praised by outsiders and it was our delight to welcome representatives from National Parks across the UK to spend the day with us. They had a go at our school walk through the Downs before returning to hear a little from me about our curriculum and then heading back out Pupil getting very muddy walkto see Bury Rangers. ing through large pools The visitors were bowled over with the knowledge demonstrated by the children who could happily explain the tree species they were working next to and how they knew. Mr Moore, Headteacher www.bury.w-sussex.sch.uk at Midhust Rother College; these visits help the children to make a smooth transition to secondary school in a few years time. December is a busy month at St James. The children attended a Christingle Service at St Giles’s Church, next door to the school, with Father Peter. Every child made a Christingle and learned that the orange represents the world, four cocktail sticks represent the four corners of the Earth and the sweets on the sticks represent the fruits of the earth. The candle represents Jesus, the light of the World. Thanks to the Friends of St James, all the children will be attending Peter Pan the Panto in Horsham. This fantastic experience is thanks to the hard work and support by the parents and friends who have paid for every child’s ticket. We hope the children had a restful Christmas and return to school in January ready for another term full of learning opportunities. For more information call 01798 872196 or visit www.st-james-coldwaltham.w-sussex.sch.uk.
