On Tuesday this week the children were once again fortunate to be   taught music by Mrs Richardson, Head of Performing Arts at Oaklands. This week, she quickly built upon the skill of reading and clapping a rhythm to using colour coded notation on a stave. The Year 6 children picked this up quickly, so she then introduced them to nursery rhymes on a stave using their knowledge of the position of notes E, G, A and C. I think we were all amazed at how much we had learnt in half-an-hour!

We look forward to welcoming Mrs Richardson back in a couple of weeks.

Have a great St Peter’s Fest and weekend.

The Year 6 Team

Year 6 pupils were delighted to welcome Father Jeremy into their RE lesson this week. We were extremely grateful to Father, who must have come to us already somewhat exhausted from leading a liturgy and then speaking with Year 2 for an hour! If he was tired, he didn’t show it and used all the time available to develop our pupils’ understanding of the Gifts received from the Sacrament of Confirmation. This is a tricky topic to explain, but Father Jeremy had the children hooked with real-life examples of what each Gift means, and how they bring us closer in our relationship and understanding of God and what He wants for us. It was also interesting to hear Father’s stories of how Confirmation has given people the courage to lead and contribute to the work of the church in a much greater way.

The weather was good to us this week and just in time too for the children to bring their bikes into school, don their helmets and get out onto our local roads.

This year the course was run by Hampshire County Council and we have to thank them for their professionalism and the number of staff provided to instruct and ensure the children were always safe. The way they structured the sessions meant that each class benefitted from eight hours of direct instruction across the week. As we know, riding a bike is one thing, but knowing how to ride safely with respect to other road users is a unique and vital skill to learn. Thanks to the course, most of our children secured the Level 2 Bikeability Award. Some who were less confident also made excellent progress by honing their skills within the safety of the school playgrounds.

Well done all!