Wavendon Gate School

The pupils in Foundation had a very exciting visitor this afternoon. Father Christmas very kindly spared some of his time to come and read a few books to the Foundation pupils. He also gave both classes a gift each which they enjoyed opening and playing with this afternoon.

The Year 1 children had a lovely time visiting St Mary's Church in Wavendon this afternoon and seeing what it is like inside a church. Reverend Trendall explained the different parts of the church and shared the Christmas story with them. Despite it being a rather chilly walk, the children enjoyed their visit.

The pupils in years 1-6 have had a lovely afternoon watching M & M productions perform their annual pantomime in our school hall. This year's production was Cinderella. There was lots of audience participation involved including a teacher dance off. Thank you Miss Carter and Miss Clairmonte for being such great sports!

Thank you so much to our wonderful families for coming along to our maths workshop this afternoon. There were over 190 parents working alongside their children in the classrooms. The pupils had a lovely time and thoroughly enjoyed challenging their parents to a times tables test!

The Foundation children were extremely excited when a fire engine arrived at our school yesterday morning. Firefighters from the local fire department came to our school to talk to the children about their role and how they help to keep us safe. The firefighters gave the children a tour of the fire engine and told them about all the equipment they have and how they use it. The children loved seeing the different types of hoses and hearing about how they work. They were also fascinated by the amount of ladders that were inside and on top of the fire engine! To end the very exciting visit, all of the children had the opportunity to sit in the fire engine which they absolutely loved.

The year 3 pupils had a fantastic visit to the Oxford Natural History and Pitt River museums on Friday. Each class took part in a workshop about life in the Stone Age which supported their history learning from last half term. The museum staff were really impressed by our pupils' knowledge of the era. Well done year 3!

Thank you to our fantastic school community for your kind donations for Children in Need on Friday. The school raised over £200 for the well deserved charity. Here are some photos of our year 6 pupils taking part in an interactive Children in Need dance class with the famous prima ballerina Darcey Bussell. A good day was had by all!

What a fantastic selection of odd socks we have in school today to mark the beginning of anti-bullying week! Mr Scott's assembly this morning focused on being respectful to everyone.

On Wednesday, Year 5 went to Hampton Court. We loved it! Not only did we meet a lady from the Tudor era, we re-enacted what life would be like for a Tudor courtier or servant. We also had a look around the great hall and kitchens and compared the architecture and art of the Tudors to the Stuarts and Georgians. We ended the day by getting lost of the maze! A great day was had by all.

Year Two had a superb trip to Milton Keynes Museum on Tuesday. Whilst they were there, the children took part in a number of workshops. They explored toys from the past, made their own Victorian toy and even got to attend a lesson in a Victorian classroom. The teacher was very strict and some children and even teachers had to stand at the front for a punishment. All of the children really enjoyed being able to compare our school to schools in the past.
Everyone behaved very well and one of the guides told Mrs Kok that our children were the most polite she had seen in a very long time. What a super day out!

The Foundation pupils were very excited to have some special visitors this afternoon. Local police community support officers, Alfie and Tracey, came to see the children to talk to them about the role of police officers. The children enjoyed listening to a story about PC Ben and they loved having the opportunity to ask Alfie and Tracey some questions.

On Tuesday, Year 4 had a wonderful day at Legoland taking part in a fantastic robotics workshop where they built their own spinning fairground rides. They considered how to program it and the order it needed to work. They were amazed by the Lego sculptures and had fun on some of the rides.

What a fantastic afternoon we had today in school! We welcomed over 220 parents to our reading workshop where pupils and parents got to work alongside each other in the classrooms enjoying books. Thank you to all of the parents that came along to support us.

Thank you so much to our school families and staff for supporting Young Minds charity today and wearing yellow to school. We have raised over £230.00 for this super charity that offers mental health support for children and families.

Last Saturday, a group of 18 pupils competed across 4 races at Milton Keynes rugby club in a cross country running event. The year 3/4's course covered 1.5km while the Y5/6's course covered 2km and all the children performed admirably amidst the hundreds of other children competing. Well done to all of the students involved, we are very proud of them.

Yesterday, a group of our Year 5 and 6 pupils competed in a local netball tournament at Radcliffe School. Amidst a torrential downpour, the event was moved inside and the girls adapted to the new conditions and tricky floor markings admirably. They played 4 games rotating through different positions and came away with 2 wins and 2 draws overall. After each game, an most valuable player (MVP) was chosen by the other team and our overall MVP for the event was Lilah who moved from Goal Keeper (GK) to Goal Shooter (GS), both stopping and scoring plenty of goals. Thank you girls for being such super ambassadors for our school.

Year 2 had a fantastic trip to The Stables Theatre last week to participate in a workshop with author and illustrator Al Rodin. They learnt about the different stories he's written and how he uses different painting techniques to create his illustrations. All of the children received a copy of 'An Adventure for Lia and Lion' which was written and illustrated by him. A couple of children and Mrs Kok even managed to meet him just before walking back to school. All of the children behaved brilliantly and were an asset to our school.