In the Press

Children in Years 3-6 enjoyed watching and performing in a French play this week when the Onatti Theatre Company performed the exciting, interactive French play, ‘Parlez-vous Français’. Using carefully constructed dialogue woven into an original and visually entertaining story, the actors engaged and inspired the children through the amusing performance. Thank you Onatti Theatre for a really entertaining morning, which really complemented our learning.

In Science, Year 5 made their own models of the heart. They pumped blood through the arteries and observed how valves stopped the blood from flowing backwards. Great work Year 5!

Lots of fun here today with World Book Day - there’s fancy dress, a very competitive World Book Day Door competition and even a Book Swap, all to enhance the enjoyment of reading and appreciating books!

This morning a group of children from Years 2 to 6 were invited to The Haslemere Bookshop as recognition for their progress and enthusiasm for reading. The children learnt about the bookshop’s history and its importance locally for ethical shopping and supporting authors.

The pupils enjoyed exploring the children’s book section downstairs and then climbed upstairs for more browsing in the second-hand books room. The children then took it in turns to talk about their favourite book which they had brought in from home and explained why they like it so much. They then chose a selection of books for the school libraries and were awarded a book token, certificate and goody bag as a farewell gift. Thank you so much to Haslemere Book Shop for a wonderful morning!

A lovely afternoon of Cross Country for Year 2 as they competed against Camelsdale School. Lots of fun and a great introduction to the camaraderie, competition and team spirit, which they'll use in abundance once they reach Year 3 and compete against other schools on a weekly basis. Well done Year 2 and thank you so much Camelsdale School for joining us.

In Art this week, Year 3 pupils took inspiration from Piet Mondrian and painted hearts using clean Primary colours and rectangular planes. Black horizontal and vertical lines were collaged onto their hearts and their design was turned into a card to give to someone close to them. A wonderful way to tie up art with Children's Mental Health Week's theme of 'Let's Connect'.

The theme of this year's Children's Mental Health Week is "Let's Connect". A group of our Year 6 pupils realised that one of the best ways to feel connected to our community would be through working together to help others, so organised a sponsored run to raise funds for Shooting Star Children's Hospices. With an afternoon of glorious sunshine, the children ran around the school grounds to raise funds for this wonderful, local charity. Sarah May, from Shooting Star Children's Hospices, came to St Ives to watch the running and presented the children with a sticker and bookmark on completion of the run. The children were thrilled to hear they raised nearly £450 and to learn how the money would be spent. Thank you Shooting Star for inspiring us & for all your work.

Yesterday we kicked off Children's Mental Health Week with a day of activities around this year's theme "Let's Connect". Our Wellbeing Champion, Mrs Cooper, led the morning's assembly and encouraged the children to think about how we connect with the people & communities around us. The children also listened to Matt Goodfellow reading his poem 'Together'. Pupils were told to "Dress to Express" and we loved seeing the different ways we dressed to show our individuality and our uniqueness!

On Wednesday, Year 6 went on a trip to Milestones Museum, an indoor recreation of a Victorian town. We looked at old cars, fire trucks and even horse boxes! Horses were very important to the Victorians because they were the main source of transportation. There were many old Victorian shops and a few houses inside the museum and we loved going to the sweet sweet shop with our ration booklet that the lady stamped after we bought 2oz of sweets! We had a brilliant day!

Today is Time to Talk Day. At St Ives we teach the children how important it is to be able to talk about our feelings and the importance of actively listening and respecting how others feel. We know that we can talk to our teachers & friends if we’re worried about anything. We know that we also have a wonderful Wellbeing Champion in Mrs Cooper, weekly wellbeing sessions we can attend, a worry box, a friendship bench and endless support so we don’t bottle things up! We are also looking forward to Monday when we’re going to Dress to Express for Children’s Mental Health Week. We can’t wait to show off our individuality and appreciate that we’re all different and unique!