Wow....its seems like it was only a few weeks ago that we welcomed the children into school on their first day...and now here we are on their last day of Reception.

I can quite honestly say it has been a pleasure to teach each and every one of the children, and each of them have grown in confidence, developed lovely personalities and friendships, and of course made us so proud with their eagerness to learn new things, and the progress they have all made.
Thank you for all for supporting your children with their first year of school!!

It is always sad, and pulls at our heart-strings to say goodbye to a class, but we know that they are ready to move up to Year 1 and will continue to thrive with the fantastic support from Mrs Stockdale and Mrs Thompson.

Thank you for all your continued support over the past year.....not just with the children, but with us too!
Thank you also for our very thoughtful gifts the children and yourselves have given us....it is very kind of you all!

We hope you have a fantastic, and well deserved summer break!
Take care,

Miss Rushbrooke & Mrs Rushbrooke x

For the past few days, we have been looking after 'Casper' the Corn snake for one of our Governors.
This morning, when we came into school, we noticed a transparent 'casing' in his vivarium.....Casper had shed his skin over the weekend....the children were very excited and amazed at this (so were the adults), and it was a fantastic learning opportunity too!

This afternoon, Mrs Ross kindly came down to feed Casper......a  mouse (not freshly caught)  We all stood back, but close enough to see how wide Casper had to open (dislocate) his jaws to eat the mouse.....we watched it travel down his body too!

Thank you to Mrs Ross who came down to feed him - nothing to do with the fact that Miss Rushbrooke was terrified.....somebody had to take the photos! 

The children looked lovely coming into school in their party cothes this morning....and we even had some fantastic mini beast costumes!!

Thank you to those of you who kindly signed up on the list and brought party food in.
We had a great afternoon full of games, prize-winning...and of course ended the party with a picnic in our reception garden..perfect!

Thank you so much to those of you who were able to come along to our graduation ceremony this morning, it was lovely to see so many of you. We really hope you enjoyed celebrating the children's first =,  fabulous year at school!... we know the children did, and all the adults felt very proud of them all!.

Mrs Rushbrooke has already had her camera out...the children look fantastic in the gown and mortar board!....we should hopefully have the photographs with you tomorrow...if the computer and printer are behaving!
I must also thank-you for barring with me.....I can stand and teach the children...but put me in front of a room of adults.....and I'm a wreck!


On a different note....Tomorrow (Friday 20th) you may have heard the school is having a non-uniform day for the 'Lollipop challenge'.......rather than changing into another set of clothes after lunch.....i am more than happy for the children to come into school in their party clothes for our 'Ugly Bug Ball' (if the children/you wish)

Over the past few days we have all really enjoyed observing our Butterflies, watching how they have grown, how they move and eat and looking closely at the beautiful patterns on their precious wings.
But today came the day to set them free!

We took our Butterfly Habitat out into our garden and all sat round in a circle. Miss Rushbrooke carefully undone the zip on the lid, and we waited.....
There were 5 Butterflies in total, and it took a little while for them to realise that they could escape! but eventually, 1 by 1 they did. We waved the Butterflies goodbye and watched them fly around the garden for a little while until they all disappeared to find their new homes.

You may remember, a few months ago, we put a blog up about planting some potatoes. Well, the time had come to dig them up. So this morning, armed with a garden fork and a large bucket, Mrs Rushbrooke and some of the children dug the potatoes up - some of it was tough work!
We dug up lots and lots and put them in a bucket- we lost count of how many there were.

This afternoon, Ms Rushbrooke cooked them with some of the mint we had also grown in our garden, and we tried them with some butter at afternoon snack time....some of us had seconds....and even thirds!

Thanks to Mrs Rushbrooke and her budding gardeners for digging the potatoes up and cooking them! 
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Over the last couple of weeks, we have been 'growing' our own Butterflies. First of all, Miss Rushbrooke ordered some Caterpillars, and they were sent to us in the post! They came in their own special pot in a box. They were very tiny, so we had to wait until they were a big bigger before we put them in the 'Chrysalis station'. Once all of the Caterpillars had turned into Chrysalises, we put the Chrysalis station into the 'Butterfly Habitat', and waited......

When we came into school this morning, we found that over the weekend, the Chrysalises had opened, and had turned into five beautiful Butterflies. 
We keep having a look at them, and are making sure we feed them, before we set them free in the garden in a few days time. 

The children have really enjoyed and thrown themselves into our current topic of 'Minibeasts', so to mark the end of the topic, and combine this with the end of the school year, we are going to celebrate with
​ 'An Ugly Bug Ball Party'. This will be held on the afternoon of Friday 20th July.
The children will need 'party clothes' to change into after lunch - if they wish they may even come as a bug or minibeast!

A food list will go up on the entrance door this week - so please sign up!
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For this weeks cooking session, we made fruit kebabs! Wit some help from Mrs Rushbrooke, we cut up melon, strawberries, grapes, pineapple nectarines, and satsumas and then 'threaded' them onto sticks. 
They all looked very yummy, and left our kitchen area smelling lovely!

Thank you for helping us Mrs Rushbrooke

As you may be aware. the Reception Graduation Ceremony will be held on the morning of Thursday 19th July. An invitation with more details will be coming home with the children today. We hope to see you there!

P.s...bring tissues, it gets a bit emotional (for us too!)