Orchard Community Trust

Before half term, Abbey Hulton pupils and SEND team enjoyed a fantastic visit to Newfriars College ✨
They had a fun-filled afternoon taking part in gardening and cooking activities, including creating delicious fruit kebabs. The group also loved exploring the college, experiencing the incredible sensory room, and admiring the beautiful artwork created by the talented Newfriars students. 🌿🍓

We were thrilled to welcome the National Children’s Choir at Abbey Hulton last week for an inspiring workshop with our Year 3–5 children.🎶
Their mission? To spark a love of singing and show how powerful our voices can be for wellbeing—and our children absolutely rose to the occasion! With confidence, energy, and huge smiles, they filled the school with uplifting sound and positivity.
The experience has been so inspiring that we’re excited to launch a school choir club next year—giving even more opportunities to sing, grow in confidence, and enjoy music together.
A huge thank you to the National Children’s Choir for such a memorable session! 🌳💚

At Etruscan, we took the time to think about our mental health and well-being as part of mental health awareness week. Years 2 to 6 attended a live Q&A with the Fulham FC elite goalkeeper; Alex Borto. Alex spoke about handling pressure and setbacks, staying mentally strong, supporting teammates ( even when you’re not getting along) and taking positive action every day.

Nursery, reception and year 1 attended a live BIG school workout with Joe Wicks and Picture News. Children discovered, how moving our bodies can boost our mood, build resilience and support our mental well-being. 🌳💚

Abbey Hulton welcomed Summer 2 with lots of excitement and energy! ☀️
Children in Years 1 and 2 took part in a fun run, ride, row triathlon inspired by the Commonwealth Games, supported by Bee Active. Every child rose to the challenge on the day, showing fantastic determination, ambition, and team spirit throughout.
We’re incredibly proud to share that we raised an amazing amount of money, which will go towards supporting the development of a wellbeing garden.
Huge well done to all our children—you were brilliant! 👏 🌳💚

Etruscan news…We were extremely lucky to have a visit from Megan, who works at the Mitchell Arts Centre in Hanley. She delivered an assembly to us all about the kinds of things we can do there, from watching shows, magicians and dancers on stage, to viewing different films, baking, crafting, clay making, and taking part in LEGO, dance and drama workshops. Megan also shared the different jobs that you can have within the theatre, where she explained the roles she’d been lucky to experience such as an upcoming appearance on Britain’s Got Talent.

We look forward to our future work with Mitchell Arts Centre, where we have been fortunate enough to be invited to see hands on what happens in the theatre. We can not wait! 🌳💚

More from Etruscan…Year 6 spent a morning at Wagamama Stoke in the last week of half term. Children choice ingredients to make their own fruit smoothies and were given the opportunity to sample different foods, to then create their own meal. Once they had selected their ingredients and weighed these out, they were taken to the kitchen for the chefs to follow their recipe and cook in the open kitchen ready for the children to eat and enjoy. Children were also given the opportunity to be waiters and waitresses, where they were shown how to take an order and shown a trick in remembering who ordered what. Finally, they completed two challenges of how many beans they could pick up and transfer into a bowl in thirty seconds, there was a catch though- they had to use chopsticks! Then, they were tasked with who could build the tallest, most stable structure, again using chopsticks.

What a great opportunity we had to see some of the careers that take place in our local area and enjoy some scrumptious food along the way. Thank you Wagamama! 🌳💚

The junior leadership team at Etruscan Primary School had the pleasure of welcoming our MP Gareth Snell to the school. He was given a tour of the school and then took part in discussions with the JLT. The JLT asked a series of questions, challenging him on areas such as school funding, the role of the local MP and how he can support the school further. This was a very productive meeting and we look forwards to working with him again in the future. 🌳💚

At St Mark’s the children have been really enjoying their Science topics!

Year 4 had lots of fun learning about the digestive system, they recreated the process in class. They used things like biscuits, sandwich bags and tights to show how our body processes food!

Year 5 had a wonderful day at Jodrell Bank before half term, where they explored its history, attended a fantastic presentation in the Space Dome, discovered more about the solar system through interactive activities, and took time to study the telescope itself!

Finally, our Nursery children have been learning all about bees and how important bees are for our flowers and gardens.

Later, our beautiful butterflies emerged from their cocoons and we released them into the nursery garden and watched them fly away!
🌳💚

At Oakhill the children in our Orchards Hub enjoyed a variety of fun, inclusive opportunities that supported their confidence, creativity, and social development. Through engaging activities and positive experiences, every child is encouraged to explore their interests, build friendships, and thrive in a supportive environment. 🌳💚