Firside Junior School

🍎 Happy Thank a Teacher Day! 🍎

Today, we want to celebrate and thank the incredible teachers in our school. Every day, our teachers go above and beyond to inspire, encourage, support, and challenge our pupils to be their very best. We are incredibly fortunate to have such a talented and committed team of staff who make a positive difference in the lives of our children each and every day.

To all of our wonderful teachers – thank you for everything you do. Your hard work, care, and commitment do not go unnoticed, and our school community is truly grateful for all that you bring to our pupils and families.

🌳Eaton Vale 2026🌳
What an incredible week our Year 6 children have had on their residential! Throughout the week, the children have been a real credit to our school. We have been so impressed with their behaviour, attitudes and the way they conducted themselves. They have supported one another, worked brilliantly as teams, shown great bravery when facing challenges and demonstrated determination in everything they have done.

The children have taken part in a fantastic range of activities, including kayaking, archery, tomahawk throwing, buggy building, go-karting, crate stacking, the trapeze and the cave bus. They have embraced every opportunity with enthusiasm and positivity, creating memories that will last a lifetime.

We will be sharing lots more photos over the coming days, but for now, here is a whole-group photograph from yesterday.

A huge thank you must also go to the staff team who accompanied the children during their stay. Residential visits are a significant commitment and take staff away from their own families for several days. Their dedication, care and support helped make this experience so successful, and we are incredibly grateful to them. Well done, Year 6 – we are all very proud of you!

🌳Y6 residential day 2 🌳
The children have had a brilliant, jam-packed day filled with activities, adventure and, most of all, fun! After a bright and early start, they enjoyed breakfast before getting started with activities. They have completed four activities during the day, which have included, kayaking, tomahawk throwing, archery, crate stacking, trapeze, buggy building, go-karting and outdoor cooking, and they were still raring to go for their evening activity.
It has been wonderful to see the children having so much fun, being brave, encouraging each other and most of all, making incredible memories for their final weeks with us.
Here's just a snapshot of our day - we'll be sharing more photos when we return!

Today we welcomed Year 2 pupils from Arden Grove Infant & Nursery School to come and try OPAL with our Year 3 pupils. It was wonderful for the children to reconnect with old friends and make new ones too. We hope the children enjoyed the visit - we think they are excited as we are about our new OPAL lunchtime play provision! We also hope that it has helped them to feel positive about their next step up to junior school and look forward to seeing them soon for their transition days. Thanks to the Year 6 pupils who created this welcome message for the children to see on their way to the playground today 💚

🌳Y6 residential day 1🌳
This week, our Year 6 pupils are excited to go on their residential trip. In just a few hours of being there, the pupils have thrown themselves into their first challenges with great enthusiasm. While some have travelled on the cave bus, others have tested their skills with tomahawk throwing, and another group has worked together on a buggy-building challenge.

It has been fantastic to see the children embracing new experiences, supporting one another and celebrating each other’s successes. Their teamwork, encouragement and positive attitudes have been wonderful to see.

We have one more activity to enjoy before dinner, and everyone is looking forward to what the rest of the evening has in store!

📚 Year 5 and 6 Bookbugs and Dragons workshops 📚
Last week, our Year 5 and Year 6 children enjoyed an engaging workshop led by Ashton, organised by Bookbugs and Dragon Tales in Norwich. As a playwright and actor, Ashton encouraged the children to explore the theme of diversity through storytelling, discussion and drama.

The workshop centred around the inspiring book 'Look Up!' by Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola. During circle time, Ashton shared the story and discussed how the main character reflects the author's desire to see people like himself represented in books. The children then took part in a range of drama activities, including freeze frames and interactive games based on the story, helping them to deepen their understanding of its themes and messages.

To conclude the session, the children designed and created their own inspirational bookmarks to take home. It was a thoughtful and enjoyable workshop that encouraged creativity, reflection and an appreciation of diversity.

⚠️We're looking for our next School Crossing Patrol – could it be you?⚠️

We’re helping spread the word that NCC is looking for the next School Crossing Patrol to help keep our children safe on their journey to and from school.

If you enjoy being part of the community, making a real difference every day, and being a friendly face for local families, this could be the perfect role for you.

⭐ Help keep children safe
⭐ Support your local community
⭐ Make a positive impact every school day

Please share this post with friends, family, neighbours, community groups, and anyone who might be interested. Your share could help us find the perfect person for this vital role.

Thank you for helping us spread the word!

As we head towards the summer holidays, we are highlighting these resources as, this week (13th - 20th June), is Drowning Prevention week. Norfolk is surrounded by water — from our coastline and rivers to the Broads, lakes, and harbours. While these environments offer fantastic opportunities for fun and learning, they also bring real risks. It is so important to help children and young people understand how to stay safe in, on, and around water.
https://rnli.org/video-download?videoid=3E356418-9FC7-4B6D-A5D8AF30D2A53E82

🌟Special awards - DREAM assembly 12.6.26 🌟

⭐DREAM Award assembly 12.6.26 ⭐
It was wonderful to hear all the reasons why children had been nominated from a range of subjects right across the curriculum this week. The breadth of achievements on display was a real reflection of the hard work, determination and positive attitudes shown by our pupils every day.

We also celebrated some fantastic additional achievements, including our amazing readers and another five children who have become Rock Heroes this week. Year 4 are absolutely on fire at the moment with their Times Tables Rock Stars success!

A special mention also goes to the children who received Community Kindness Awards for their visits to the care home last term. Their kindness, respect and willingness to make a difference in our community make us incredibly proud.

Congratulations to everyone recognised today – keep up the fantastic work! ⭐