Pippin
Welcome to Pippin Class!
Term 6 2025
Monday- Spelling test (Y1 + Y2)
New Spellings sent home
Tuesday- PE
Friday- Times tables test
PE
Homework set
Earth Day 2025- Term 5
On Tuesday 22nd April, the school turned our attention to Earth Day. Earth Day is an event that takes place annually and each year the focus changes. It is recognised around the world and is a day to help people think about our planet and how we can help look after it. The theme this year was ‘Our Power, Our Planet’.
The day began with an assembly introducing Earth Day and why the day was established over 50 years ago. It was impressive how much the children already knew regarding climate change and how the burning of fossil fuels is harmful to our planet. We discussed the different ways that our world could be powered. We discussed FOCSS’s efforts to raise a large sum of money in order to invest in solar panels for the school.
Later that afternoon, Pippin reviewed what they had learnt during the assembly and then focused on what they could do to help look after the environment, from saving energy to picking up rubbish. The ideas ranged from turning lights off when leaving a room, cutting down on using non-recyclable packages where possible and the most practical and popular option, was to turn the tap off when brushing their teeth. They each decorated a handprint and wrote five different changes someone could make to take better care of the environment.
Spirituality Day- Term 4
Pippin class had a wonderful day exploring the term ‘spirituality’ and what it means. They decided it means different things to different people. We began the day sorting the physical things (material possessions) from the spiritual things (happiness and calm).
Alex Year 1
‘Spiritual things are in our hearts’.
Lillie Year 2
‘Spiritual things are important in life. Material things we can live without.’
Harley Year 2
‘Material things may only make you happy for a short time.’
The children then looked at variety of pictures of nature that amazed and filled them with wonder. Carefully they sketched their favourite nature picture using a window frame border. These were their Window Moments.
Amelia Year 2
‘I feel calm when I look out of the window and can see nature.’
Next we examined what is meant by a Mirror Moment. These are the values by which we look at ourselves and reflect how we wish to behave. We talked about our core values as a school of the Golden 5 and our school values of Friendship, Fairness, Helpfulness and Respect. We discussed how we embed these into our daily lives at school in terms of our conduct, approach to learning and each other.
The sun came out in the afternoon and we were able to sit in the Spiritual Garden and reflect on the warmth of the sun and the sounds of nature. Back in the classroom the children practiced some mindfulness meditation to help them calm and feel at peace.
The final activity of the day was a discussion on Door Moments. These are the new opportunities we face and how we make contributions to others by helping people, fundraising and changing our behavior. The children had lots of ideas of how they had contributed to Door Moments. For example; buying Fair Trade goods, supporting Comic Relief, bringing ideas to school council of a local issue, raising money for our school solar panels, supporting our partner school in Malawi and reducing the amount of plastic we use to help our environment.
'I wonder where it ends?'
Toy Workshop Term 3
Pippin and Russet recently took part in a toy workshop as part of our history unit. Nat from Maidstone Museum came to visit us, bringing a collection of toys. Some of the toys were replicas from as far back as the Victorian period while some were examples of newer toys. This meant the children were able to compare modern with older toys, commenting on the similarities and differences. We spent the afternoon creating our own version of Cup and Ball.
"I never knew that they didn't have plastic in Victorian times." C, Y2.
Can you name any of the toys in the images?
Term 2
The past few weeks were busy for Pippin as the KS1 & EYFS Nativity took place shortly before the end of term. The children worked incredibly hard to learn their lines, cues and each of the many songs. We had sheep to elephants and Mary to Anton Du Beke grace the stage in superb costumes. The singing, in particular, was beautiful! As is typical with this time of year, we had a few pupils miss the performances due to illness but some of our brave children stepped into the roles last minute and demonstrated their ability to switch roles and learn lines quickly (no simple task for 5- 7-year-olds!).
After working so hard on the Nativity and to celebrate Christmas approaching, Pippin and Russet made and decorated reindeer biscuits which were enjoyed during the key stage party during the last week. They also created festive snowman Christmas cards that were then sent to a local Day Centre to be enjoyed by those who may not receive many cards.
