Stonehenge

We are the youngest children in the school — all the Reception children and some of the Year 1 children. Our teacher is Miss Nisbeck. Our teaching assistants are Mrs Kamei and Ms Reardon. They all make sure we enjoy our learning and having a great time at school.

We have wonderful resources so that we can choose what we would like to use to help us learn. We love to build things in our playground, working together and solving problems, we love to play in the role play area and practice the things we are learning. We love being outdoors – Forest School, explorers and enjoying our school grounds at all times of the year and doing many wonderful things – we had a late night walk around the school grounds, to look at the night sky, followed by hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Reading, writing and maths

We learn our phonics five days a week and get to choose books to take home to read with our parents. We have reading groups where we answer questions on the books we are reading. Every day we do some writing as well – usually on our topic. We enjoy writing in our books and also on the board or the ground or sand tray outside, writing on clip boards, writing in our role play area and having fun with letters and words. We have a maths lesson every day as well and we enjoy using our knowledge in our games and child initiated learning.

Other activities

We enjoy singing every day in our school. We love the play equipment outdoors and are very glad that our school has such lovely grounds. We have special sports coaches who come in each week to help us with our PE. French lessons are great fun with songs and rhymes. We have lots of visitors and trips which make our learning interesting.

Forest School is a child-centred inspirational learning process, which offers opportunities for holistic growth through regular sessions over the year. It is a long-term programme that supports play, exploration and supported risk taking, developing confidence, creativity and self-esteem through hands-on experiences in a natural setting, helping children develop socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually. Our Forest School provision complements our creative curriculum whilst also allowing children to play, explore and discover through:

Social skills
Activities such as sharing tools and participating in play, helping teach the children to work together as a group, which strengthens their bonds and social ties.

Communication
The sensory experiences provided by the Forest School helps prompt language development. Improving communication skills has a positive effect on a child’s self-esteem and is a crucial part of their development.
Motivation and concentration
High levels of interest lead to high levels of attention. Spending time in the woodland is exciting for a child. It tends to fascinate them which develops a strong will to participate and concentrate over long periods of time.
Physical skills
The increase in outdoor activity is bound to have a positive physical impact. Not only does the development of physical stamina improve but also gross and fine motor skills.
Knowledge and understanding
Children develop an interest in the great outdoors and respect for the environment. Encouraging children to develop a relationship with the natural world will help in protecting the environment for generations to come.

Holy Trinity CE Primary Academy

Stonehenge

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