Chestnut Story Cafe - Wednesday 23rd May 2023
It was the turn of Chestnut Class to hold a Story Café this week. We had a very Royal theme to our story session, sharing “The Queen’s Hat”, a story that we have explored in depth this term, and “The King’s Pants”, with our families. Queen Camilla had left a message to ask us to help make a new hat for her and some new pants for King Charles! As you can see the children and their families got straight on with the task. We had metal pants “that will never break”, love heart pants “because Queen Camilla and King Charles love each other lots” to a “cake with Royal frosting hat” and “the pinkiest of pink hats”!
SIAMS Inspection - Tuesday 22nd May 2023
We are pleased to announce that our latest SIAMS report has been published.
I can’t put into words how proud I am of the children, staff and the community, who all contributed to our “Good” judgement. There were so many amazing comments in the report. The full report is available to read in the SIAMS' page on this website.
Some of my favourite comments were around the sense of community that we have established over the last few years and are central to the school’s ethos:
- “The school’s distinctive Christian vision is well embedded driving action and policy. Working together with the partnership schools, parents and the community has brought resilience and strength in difficult times.”
- “Pupils flourish personally and socially. The curriculum inspires curiosity and enjoyment.”
- “The school’s curriculum and ethos of inclusion enable pupils to look beyond their social and cultural heritage, and appreciate difference. Each individual is seen as unique and valued.”
- “Behaviour is good and those who make mistakes are encouraged to begin again with a fresh start”
Not only do these comments show just how effectively we promote our Christian vision of “A cord of three strands is not easily broken” and our school values of “Creativity”, “Friendship” and “Perseverance”, they show how these important attitudes to lifelong learning and tolerance are instilled in our children right from the start of their journey with us. A special mention needs to go to the work that The Nest team do in supporting our children with some of the most complex needs from across the Trinity Partnership and the work that Miss Kent carries out in her much loved Thrive sessions.
Play Leaders - Wednesday 17th May 2023
After an in depth interview and practical task, our successful Year 5 play leaders were appointed by School Council. A huge congratulations to Daniel, Ellie, Harriet, Eleanor and Isabelle who have thrown themselves into their new roles with great enthusiasm and skill. Each week our play leaders will choose 3 activities that all children can access at playtimes and lunchtimes.
Their hard work has transformed lunchtimes this week. I have loved watching the children learn how to build dens and work together, create some beautiful chalk art work and practice their throwing, catching and kicking skills with balls.
Coronation Garden Party - Friday 5th May 2023
The weather did not spoil our fun today as we came together for a jam packed afternoon of singing, dancing and picnic eating! Thank you to so many of you who came to join us at the start of this Coronation weekend.
The children’s rendition of “To The Sound of Trumpets” was truly spectacular and their harmonies were beautiful.
Huge “thank yous” to Mike Nairn, Chairman of Weeting Parish Council, who presented each child in school with a Coronation bookmark and our Friends of Weeting Group, who presented each child with a packet of Coronation themed wildflower seeds. There will be a lot of reading and seed planting this weekend I am sure!
The classrooms were bedecked in a sea of red, white and blue bunting all created by the children and their red, white and blue outfits created a wonderful Coronation feel across school.
The finale of the afternoon was each class showcasing their dance from 4 eras of King Charles III’s reign, which the children had learnt during the Coronation Workshops yesterday. I’m sure you all agreed that their moves and steps to Chubby Checker, Elvis, Michael Jackson and NSYNC were very impressive. Thank you for being such a supportive audience!
Easter Reading Challenge - Friday 27th April 2023
Congratulations to everyone who took part in, and completed, the Easter Reading Challenge. The children received their reading prizes today.
EACH Sponsored Run and Walk - Thursday 26th April 2023
Thank you to everyone who took part in our Sponsored Run and Walk on Thursday. I wanted to say a big “well done” to School Council whose brain child the whole event was. I think the children showed all of us how to keep fit, as they lapped and whizzed past most of the adults! We had great weather for our challenge and lots of the children and adults commented on how good they felt after some fresh air and exercise. It was lovely to see everyone challenging and supporting each other to keep on going. Thank you to you all for showing such kindness and generosity with donations for EACH. It will make a huge difference to supporting children with life limiting conditions, their siblings and families.
School Hall - Friday 20th April 2023
A huge thank you to Ryan’s dad and grandad who spent 4 days transforming our school hall into one of the most beautiful spaces I have ever seen. We have gone from a custard yellow space to a very smart cream and green. The gasps and “wows” from children and staff on Tuesday were wonderful to witness.
Potion Station - Friday 31st March 2023
Chestnut Class were very lucky to have a special delivery from Mabel’s dad and grandad on the last day of term. Over the last few months they have created our very own potion station following a request from Mabel after the class visit to Sandringham! It took 4 people and 2 trolleys to get it from the lorry into the outside area!
Lent Challenge 5 and Easter Reading Challenge - Tuesday 28th March 2023
As part of our work on keeping our “cups” full and looking after ourselves, we have organised an Easter reading challenge. There are 9 reading related challenges to be completed, with prizes available for each class. Please send your photos in via Class Dojo or Tapestry.
Family Cross Making Session - Monday 27th March 2023
Monday afternoon saw some very creative adults and children working together to decorate Palm Crosses which were incorporated into our Easter service. Every single cross was unique and reflected the personalities of the makers beautifully. The whole school was awash with sparkle, sequins and colour and the buzz from everyone involved was just fantastic!
Chestnut Class Trip to Jimmy's Farm - Tuesday 21st March 2023
Our "Growing and Changing" theme so us visit Jimmy's Farm with our reception friends from The Norman and Duchy of Lancaster schools. The children had an amazing time learning about animals and their young.The children had an amazing time learning about animals and their young that live on the farm. The visit to the butterfly house was very popular with the children having to look very carefully to find the butterflies hidden amongst the flowers and plants. The children were amazed at how much goats love food and couldn't quite believe that they were still hungry, even after being fed several buckets of food.
Lent Challenge - Week 4: Monday 20th March 2023
This week's Lent Challenge focused on how we can look out for others. We thought about how we might recognise when our friends needed their cups fillings and what kind of things we can do to look after ourselves and our friends when we feel a bit sad, angry or scared.
World Book Day - Thursday 2nd March 2023
This year’s theme was “My World Book Day”. It was wonderful to see so many different book characters and such a wide range of favourite books from home. At three different points in the day we all stopped what we were doing and listened to each other stories, shared our favourite books with friends or just took the time to re-read our favourite book. As a school we decided to exchange our World Book Day book tokens so that every child had a book to take home at the end of the day. I have already been told that the book choices were good ones and that the books selected were some of the best ever!
The children took part in a book themed worship where they had to guess which favourite book from home belonged to which adult. Only at the end of the day did they find out if they had made the right predictions and there were a few surprises about some of the book choices.
In Chestnut Class the children explored the story “Superworm” creating “super long” and “super strong” Superworms and edible mud that Superworm could explore and find treasure!
In Beech Class the children thoroughly enjoyed designing and labelling their own action figures after reading “Traction Man is Here”.
Elm used the book “Don’t Look Inside This Book” to help build and plan their ideas for stories about ninjas and spiders! The children learnt that reading can also be in the form of comic books or manga. Elm learnt that other cultures around the world read in different ways and read pages differently such as right to left. The children then took this idea and created their own comics and mangas and got creative by designing their front covers and back covers of their stories ready for the school book display!
The children in the Nest enjoyed sharing their favourite stories from home with adults and had a very creative time making dioramas of different story settings.
Lent Challenge - Monday 27th February 2023
The school is taking part in the Lent Challenge organised by the Diocese of Ely and Bishop Stephen. This year the theme of the Bishop’s Lent Challenge is about living as full a life as we can with the encouragement of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John – “ I have come that you might have life in all its fullness”. We have been challenged to take the simple idea of a cup that can be full, half full or empty; a cup that we can fill with good or negative things; a cup that God wants to fill to overflowing so that we can have an abundant life; another person’s cup that we can help to fill by our actions and words.
This week we identified that we need 3 things in our cup to get our day off to a good start – sleep, food and drink. The children then worked on identifying the things that they would need to add to their cup during their day to keep it filled up and how their actions could not only help to do this, but could also fill up a friend’s cup at the same time.
Archery Enrichment Day - Friday 24th February 2023
Coaches from Premier Sports, who run our weekly PE and After School Clubs, provided the children with an enrichment day and a chance to explore a new sport – archery! All the children enjoyed the experience and talked, with great excitement, about points scored and equally great misses!
Ash Wednesday Service - Wednesday 22nd February 2023
It was lovely to welcome Reverend Juanita into school to lead our Ash Wednesday worship, marking the start of Lent. Juanita explained to us how the ashes used in our service came from Palm crosses. She also told us about this time of year being used as a way of reflecting on the importance of saying “sorry” and that Christians believe that this will help them to get closer to God.
Internet Awareness Day - Tuesday 7th February 2023
On Tuesday, the children participated in Internet Awareness Day. First of all they listened to a story about Hani who had a magic window that she could look through at all sorts of amazing things. The children were inspired to create their own magic windows and thought of some fantastic reasons for their choices of views.
“I will see fish through my window. One with a pointy nose. Fish will make me feel happy. When I see them they make me feel calm”. Noel
“I will see the ocean through my window. Seeing the ocean will make me feel happy and remind me of riding a surfboard”. Everett
The children also played a game called "Help!" where they had to solve problems and offer solutions about how they would help their friends.
EACH - Our Charity of the Year - Thursday 2nd February 2023
Ellie Miller, Community Fundraiser with EACH visited us to say thank you for the fundraising that the children were responsible for last term. In whole school worship she shared what the EACH hospices look like and how they support children and families. We were amazed to find out that it cost £7000 to run one hospice each day!
Ellie then met with school council to share different types of fundraising that she has been involved in and how much money can be raised from different events. School Council then discussed some possible events that we could hold over the next 6 months as part of our year long fundraising campaign for EACH. Currently the ideas for further discussions include bake sales, water play day, sponsored silence, sponsored walk or run and an adults v children rounders match! Mr Davis and Mr Dissington will be meeting with School Council in the next couple of weeks to finalise the plans. Watch this space for more information!
Meet the Author - Wednesday 1st February 2023
On Wednesday Jeremy, Annie, Olivia and Eleanor were VIPs at a special “meet and greet” at St Mary’s Church and met the author Elly Griffiths.
It was not only an amazing opportunity to meet a famous person, but a very powerful way of promoting a real love of reading. A huge thank you to Mother Joan for letting us be the first to meet and talk to her and for organising a box set of Elly’s children’s books that she signed for us. They are already a much coveted possession in Oak Class and I know the rest of the class are eagerly waiting for these to be passed on for reading. Here’s what the group thought about their visit:
When Annie, Olivia, Eleanor and I went to meet Elly Griffiths [a world famous author] at the Weeting church, we had to wait a while before she arrived. When she arrived we had some pictures with her and then she gave us some signed books. Then Elly asked us what kind of books we liked, when she asked me I responded with comedy then as an example I said David Walliams. After that we went back to school.
By Jeremy
On Wednesday the 1st of February 2023 , me , Jeremy , Annie and Olivia went to see the famous author Elly Griffiths , Elly was a very kind lady and she had the most amazing smile. she asked us what type of books we like to read , I said murder mystery because I love the drama when someone dies! Elly gave us some of the children’s books she had written and she’d even signed them. Then sadly it was time to go back to school , in my opinion it was the best day ever!
By Eleanor
When Jeremy, Olivia ,Eleanor and I went to see famous author , Elly Griffiths my heart was jumping out of my chest. Once we got to the church ( were we met Elly ) we waited for her to arrive there was a lot of Elly fans. It was amazing. When she arrived she was so nice.We had our photos taken by people from the daily press she then asked what style of books we had me Eleanor and Olivia said murder mystery I love murder mystery because the drama and questioning is great I also like the tramatic deaths of the people what also is great is the cliff hangers wanting you to read even more.Elly then gave us copies of her book’s (they were singed) for are library. In my opinion I think she was so kind and a amazing person to meet its crazy to think that she was a small author once and now shes traveling across the United Kingdom for more people to read her books.
Annie
God and the Big Bang - Tuesday 17th January 2023
This week, Oak Class had a visit from a group called “God and the Big Bang”. The session provided the children with an exciting opportunity to discover, discuss and debate the compatibility of science and faith. Lola and Olivia have written a very detailed report about the session.
“This morning 3 scientists (Michael, Tom and Sarah) came to our school to help us explore the overlapping perspectives of how science and faith can come together to create different possibilities.
The 3 scientists wanted us to explore the following questions:
Where do you come from?
Where are we going?
What is our place in the universe?
They encouraged us by teaching us a saying discover, discuss, debate.
Michael went on to explain that those questions were from an underground lab in Cern, Switzerland and how that laboratory was using sub atomic particles in a Hadron Collider to create a Big Bang. Not only is Michael a scientist, but he is also a Christian who believes God and the Big Bang connect.
Then we were asked questions about God and The Big Bang; if we agreed we stood by the windows, if we disagreed we went over to the whiteboard and if we were unsure we stood in the middle. For example, one of the questions was; can or will science be able to explain everything? I disagreed with the statement because who knows what’s out there, for all we know we might of only explored 20 percent of the universe.
The last activity was to guess what was in a can. We used something Tom recommended to us, this was called eyes, brain and feet. We used our eyes to see, our brain to think and our feet to touch.
Lastly we learnt that you get a strand of DNA from you mum and one from your dad. Tom taught us this. You might even get strands of DNA from your family members”.
Posada and Christingle Service - Wednesday 14th December 2022
A huge thank you and well done to Oak Class who led our Posada and Christingle Service on Wednesday. The class had worked together to write the story of The First Christmas in their own words and chose the carols to accompany this.
Each class made their own Christingles and brought these to the Service. In Whole School Worship on Tuesday, the children learnt that the orange represents the world created by God, the red ribbon represents God’s love that surrounds us, the cocktail sticks and fruits represent the four seasons and the fruits created by God and that the light reminds us that God is the one true light of the world.
Christmas Jumper Day - Thursday 8th December 2022
Everyone looked full of Christmas cheer as we held our annual Christmas Jumper Day. Thank you for all your kind donations for EACH, our charity of the year. We raised £131.55 - a great start to our year's fundraising appeal!
The Big Little Nativity - Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th December 2022
We can’t quite believe we have nearly got to the end of our first term. What a difference compared with this time last year when we were back in our class bubbles and having to socially distance! The school has been full of Christmas cheer this week – trees have appeared in classrooms and elves have visited and been up to all sorts of tricks! One of the highlights this week has been the Christmas Production. I’m sure you will all agree how well the children acted and sang on Tuesday and Wednesday. Their enthusiasm and excitement certainly appeared to rub off on all us watching!
The 12 Days of Christmas Reading Challenge - Monday 5th December 2022
We are pleased to launch our 12 Days of Christmas reading challenge today. Our children are fluent and confident readers thanks to all the support you provide at home and the reading activities we provide in school. We would like to build on this and develop children's love of reading for pleasure. As the first step in this we have planned a series of fun, Christmas related reading activities. You can complete the activities in any order and we would love to see what you do. Please send your photos via Dojo or Tapestry if you are in Chestnut Class.
Multi-Skills Competition - Thursday 1st December 2022
Representatives from Beech Class participated in a multi-skills competition at Breckland Leisure Centre. The children had a fantastic time learning new skills and working as a team. The team worked extremely hard and we were very proud of them winning second place in the competition.
The Posada Journey - Monday 28th November 2022
As part of our celebration of Advent, Mary, Joseph, Donkey and Woolly the Sheep have started their journey to Bethlehem, with overnight stays at different children's houses. On their journey they have picked up some extra travellers – Baby Jesus, 3 Wise Men and an angel as well as some blankets and a manger! A big thank you to Annie in Elm Class and her mum who have been busy crocheting characters over the last few nights.
Children in Need Spotacular - Friday 18th November
Today has been a very spotty day! Who knew there could be so many different sized and coloured spots across the school. There must have been a lot of creative sessions going on at home this week. We’ve seen Pudsey face painting, spotty dressing gowns, socks and tops. Thank you to everyone who has donated to Children In Need as we think about how we can support others in our wider community.
Remembrance Day Worship - Friday 11th November 2022
Children from Oak Class led our community Remembrance Day Worship. Our worship opened with the sharing of a beautiful acrostic poem written by Oak Class. The children shared the names of the men from the village listed in the roll of honour from the First and Second World Wars.
Remembrance
Remember those who have fallen,
Endless love for fallen Weeting Soldiers,
Mothers losing their sons,
Everyone who fought and died in war, those we shall respect,
Memories of the past,
Be kind to the families of Weeting that have lost soldiers during the wars,
Remember these soldiers who gave up their lives for our freedom,
Always respect the people that died for you,
Never forget the soldiers that fell for us all and sadly died,
Children lost valuable family members,
Everlasting gratitude.
All the children joined in with singing "The Siegfried Line" and "We'll Meet Again" before gathering at the school gates to hang up their class poppy wreaths. As a lasting memory of the fallen, every child in the school scattered St George poppy seeds outside.
Chestnut Soup Share - Friday 4th November 2022
Children in Chestnut Class invited their families to join them in the Autumn Soup Share. The children made the pumpkin soup and designed the accompanying menu of bread, breadsticks and garlic bread. Everyone agreed that it was really delicious soup and copies of the recipe were taken home. The very kind donations from our families will enable us to create our very own outdoor "Potion Station" and we would like to thank everyone who donated so generously.
