St. Mary's Church of England Primary and Nursery, Southampton

This week, Year 6 have enjoyed a range of exciting learning opportunities across the curriculum.

In Art, the children studied the work of Banksy, creating their own stencils and experimenting with paint-flicking techniques to produce striking pieces inspired by street art.

In writing, we continued exploring our book The Island, discussing its themes and developing our vocabulary through thoughtful discussion and analysis.

In Science, the children carried out experiments to investigate how molecules interact, making predictions, observing changes and drawing conclusions from their findings.

What a fantastic week we’ve had in Year 1! 🌟

In Maths, we’ve been practising our numbers to 100 and exploring the value of each digit. In English, we’ve been busy writing character descriptions of Marcel, the curious boy from The Boy Who Unplugged the Sea, using exciting vocabulary to bring him to life.

Our young scientists have been learning about the environment, identifying natural materials and discovering which objects are man-made. Meanwhile, in Geography, we’ve been exploring the symbols and landmarks that make London so special.

We’re so proud of all the enthusiasm, curiosity and hard work shown this week. Well done, Year 1! ⭐

It has been another exciting week in Year 3! In maths, we have been learning about measurements and developing our skills in comparing and calculating different units. In geography, we explored rivers and discovered how they shape our world. In science, we investigated what attracts pollinators to flowers and learned why these fascinating creatures are so important to our environment. Next week, the weather is going to be very hot. Please remember water bottles!

🌟 EYFS Water Area 🌟

Our exciting outdoor water area continued to develop this week, with the addition of spray bottles and stencils for the children to explore. 💦🎨

This activity provided fantastic opportunities to strengthen fine motor skills, hand strength and coordination while encouraging creativity and exploration.

It was wonderful to see the children collaborating with one another, sharing resources and talking about the marks, shapes and patterns they were creating. The water area was filled with laughter, curiosity and purposeful learning throughout the week. 😊💧

The children have absolutely loved investigating all the new resources. We cannot wait to see how this area continues to evolve and inspire even more learning adventures in the weeks ahead! ✨

🌟 Preschool Weekly Round-Up 🌟

This week in Preschool, we have been developing our fine motor skills through a range of exciting mark-making activities using pencils, chalks and paints. 🖍️🎨

We have been learning about trains and exploring our book of the week, The Train Ride. 🚂📚 During story time, we enjoyed discussing what happened in the story with our friends and teachers, sharing our ideas and favourite parts.

Afterwards, we visited the mark-making table, where we used pencils and chalks to draw scenes from the story. The children carefully looked at the illustrations in the book and used them as inspiration for their own drawings. ✍🏼🚞

In the small world area, the children brought the story to life using their imaginations, driving trains around the track and creating their own adventures. 🛤️🚂

Meanwhile, in the messy tray, we explored colour and movement by pushing vehicles through paint. The children enjoyed mixing colours together, creating different shapes and wiggly lines and observing the changes they had made. 🎨🚗🚒🚎

It has been wonderful to see the children using their creativity, communication and fine motor skills throughout the week.

Well done, Preschool! 🌟

🧸🍓 Teddy Bear's Picnic Stay & Play 🍓🧸

We are excited to invite our new Year R children and their families to join us for a special Teddy Bear's Picnic Stay & Play event! 🌟

📅 Wednesday 24th June
⏰ 1:30pm – 2:30pm

Bring along your favourite teddy and join us for a fun afternoon where children can:
🧸 Meet their new teachers
👫 Meet their new classmates
🎨 Explore their new learning environment
😊 Begin their exciting journey to school

Parents and carers will stay and join in the fun alongside their children.

⭐ If your child attends our afternoon Preschool session, please bring them at 12:20pm as normal and then come to the school office to join us at 1:30pm.

We can't wait to welcome our newest members of the St Mary's family and help them begin their transition to school with confidence and excitement! 💙

✏️📚 Year 1 Writing 📚✏️

This week in Year 1, we have been exploring Tier 2 adjectives to describe a character's personality.

Using our class text, The Boy Who Unplugged the Sea, we thought carefully about Marcel's character and discussed what he was like at different points in the story. The children used evidence from the text to justify their ideas and developed a deeper understanding of how characters can change throughout a story. 🌊📖

We then worked on extending our sentences using the conjunction and, helping us to add more detail to our writing. To support this, we created adjective bags filled with exciting vocabulary choices. The children enjoyed moving around the classroom, collecting adjectives and using them to improve their character descriptions. 🎒✨

It has been wonderful to see the children becoming more confident in selecting ambitious vocabulary and extending their ideas in writing.

Well done, Year 1! 🌟

💦🌊 Our Wonderful Water Area 🌊💦

A huge shoutout to the EYFS team member who has worked so hard to transform our outdoor water area into such an exciting and inviting space! 👏✨

From floating boats and exploring water movement to pouring, measuring, mixing and splashing, there are so many opportunities for our children to investigate, experiment and learn through play. 🚤⚓🧪

It has been fantastic to see the children so engaged, curious and eager to explore the different activities on offer. The care, creativity and attention to detail that has gone into creating this area has not gone unnoticed. 💙

We are excited to see how the children continue to use this space, the conversations it inspires and the learning adventures that will follow.

🌟

🌳 Free Community Play Day at Hoglands Park!🌳

Families are invited to enjoy a fantastic afternoon of free fun at Hoglands Park on Friday 24th July, 11:00am–3:00pm. There will be something for everyone, including sports activities, arts and crafts, face painting, bouncy castles and much more. Food will also be available throughout the event.

This is a great opportunity for children and families to come together, have fun and enjoy the start of the summer holidays. We hope to see many of our St Mary's families there! 🎉☀️

🏃⚽ What a sporty day for our Year 6 children today!

A selected group had the fantastic opportunity to attend a sports festival at the Saints FC Training Ground, where they showcased great teamwork, determination and enthusiasm throughout the day.

After lunch and back at school, the whole of Year 6 kicked off their eagerly anticipated World Cup tournament, with plenty of exciting matches, goals and celebrations on display!

A brilliant day of sport, competition and fun for all involved. Well done, Year 6! 🌟⚽🏆