In English year 3 are learning about the themes and conventions of traditional tales. To launch this English unit we were very fortunate to be visited by Chris Connaughton who came to perform a collection of traditional tales to the children. Chris, who is an author himself, then worked with each class to give the children some ideas to help them write their own tales.
A few weeks ago, 9 teams from across the New Forest participated in the Tennis qualifier event, completing matches throughout the entire afternoon with non-stop short court action. Although tennis is an individual sport, we joined our scores together to form a team total. Before the matches, we demonstrated integrity as we ranked ourselves from 1-4. The player seeded 1 then played the seed 1 player from all the other teams, with seeds 2, 3 and 4 following suit. All points were added together to gain a team total from each match. We needed to focus to keep control of the ball and try and outwit our opponents with the placing of the ball within the service box. We all improved our tennis throughout the day with the Year 4 team winning the event and gaining gold medals. This team has now qualified for the New Forest tennis finals and will play against another 15 teams in June. It will be our own Wimbledon warm up!
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A huge thank you to all the children who were able to take part at this year's Mini Marathon event in London, raising funds for the school in the process. It was great to be able to spot their smiling faces on TV in the BBC 2 Highlights on Sunday. Everyone in assembly spoke about it being a really enjoyable experience, a great challenge and soaking up the atmosphere. I know lots of fabulous memories were made.
We had a non-stop afternoon of match play at Fordingbridge School recently for both girls’ and boys’ teams.
Fordingbridge Junior School organised a multi-school competition and so we played around 6 matches against other local schools including teams from Poulner and Western Downland.
It was tricky at first to get used to playing with children from different year groups, but we soon adapted and showed good teamwork to score and defend well so we won a couple of matches. “It was nice to be able to play in different positions,” said Seb.
Thanks again to parental support with transport so we were able to take 2 teams.
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It was perfect conditions and weather for running last week as the Year 3’s and 4’s ran a 1km+ hilly course at Gangwarily. There were so many runners in each race and I was relieved when we all managed to get around the course without injury.
Well done to the Year 3 girls team who were just short of a bronze medal in 4th out of 27 teams with personal performances from Freya (11th), Maddie (18th) and Erin (27th) out of 100 runners. Well done to the Year 3 boys teams who came 13th and 20th out of 35 teams with a standout run from Bertie, who placed 24th out of 111 runners.
The Year 4 girls team achieved 17th out of 31 teams with a super first cross country run from Tamsin, who placed 29th out of 108 competitors. Boys in Year 4 ran well too, just short of medals in 6th and 19th out of 39 teams. Jordan (12th), Oliver (20th) and Oscar(28th) did so well to place highly out of a huge field of 151 runners!
Well done everyone and thanks again for parent support with transport.
The children in Year 5 were very pleased to have Chris Connaughton visit for a morning of storytelling and writing challenges. Chris shared a selection of short stories based on a maritime theme, linking to our recent maritime history project. The children heard versions of The Odyssey, Robinson Crusoe and Long John Silver. We also had some of the children's parents and carers join us, and we hope that the children will be inspired to follow up their morning session with some reading at home. We will be doing some more reading and writing based on the stories in school.
Early in April, children at Ringwood Junior School enjoyed an assembly about Easter celebrations in Ukraine. Children from the Ukraine shared their Easter traditions with the school. This included children learning about Easter traditions like decorating Pysanky (Easter eggs), baking (and eating) traditional Ukrainian Easter Paska cakes, wearing traditional Ukrainian clothes, attending church services, participating in "egg battles," and enjoying a festive Easter meal with family. Everyone enjoyed the assembly and were thrilled to learn more about Ukraine and their Ukrainian friends at schools.
Yesterday we were delighted to be able to welcome parents and carers in to school to our Egyptian Exhibition where we shared all of our learning linked to our History project about ancient civilisations and the ancient Egyptians. During this term, we have also linked our Art learning and created beautiful and colourful canopic jars inspired by the artist Grayson Perry. In our English lessons, we extended our understanding of time conjunctions and used them when we created Embalmers Handbooks. The children were very keep to share their projects with their adults and there was a wonderful array of different models, posters, presentations and even a full sized sarcophagus complete with mummy!
Last week, Year 5 students took to the stage for a fantastic clarinet concert as part of their Listen 2 Me music lessons. Over the past term, the children have been working hard to develop their musical skills, and this special performance was a wonderful opportunity to showcase their progress.
With parents in the audience, Year 5 children played a selection of pieces, demonstrating their growing confidence and ability. From the very first notes, it was clear how much effort they had put into learning their instruments, with each student playing with enthusiasm and focus.
A huge well done to all our Year 5 clarinet players for their dedication and perseverance! We would also like to thank Mrs Fay, the Listen 2 Me teacher, for her expert guidance and encouragement throughout the term. The performance was a joy to watch, and we look forward to seeing the children continue their musical journey in the future.
Our School were thrilled to have the African Adult Choir - UBUNTU - whilst on their "Dream Tour" of the UK. Most of them originate from Uganda & Kenya and were made up of Alumni from the African Children's Choir, at least 2 of whom had visited Ringwood Junior School some 10 years ago!
These talented Christian young performers have just completed secondary school and are now on a gap year before heading to university. Having come from very poor families, they have been supported throughout their schooling by the Christian charity 'Music for Life'.
The whole school were entertained through acting and music by local theatre company Forest Forge with their 'Suitcase Stories' performance.
This amazing one man show re-told the well-known story of 'Jack and the Beanstalk', with an alternative ending highlighting how money does not always provide happiness and the importance of saying 'sorry'.
Everyone enjoyed joining in with well-known lines and new songs.
This week, Moyles Court School challenged us to an inter-school chess event. We were able to take 6 children from across all year groups and were lucky enough for Moyles Court to offer the use of their mini bus so we could attend.
The children played in a ‘knock out’ tournament within the lower and upper schools leading to a grand final across all the year groups. Ilyia (Yr 6) was pleased to win all his matches and the final and he was awarded a trophy. All children really enjoyed the event, especially the hot chocolate and doughnuts as a celebratory snack.
Thank you Mrs Musselwhite for supervising the Chess Club and accompanying the children to the event.