Happy Apple Day and a Happy Half Term from Pre-Prep
On Monday, we welcomed the Rotary Club who delivered a very interesting assembly to Years 1 – 8 about their work to help eradicate Polio.
The children learned that Polio is vaccinated against and only remains in two countries in the world. The Rotary Club kindly donated some crocus corns which we will plant in our Pre-Prep area and explained the significance of the colour purple. We learned that once vaccinated, children’s little fingers are coloured purple to track who has received the vaccine as they do not have databases to enable this to happen. Thank you to the Rotary Club for their time presenting to us and raising awareness of this terrible disease, which we hope will be eradicated within our children’s lifetimes.
This week, we have introduced the ‘Zones of Regulation’ in school to support children emotionally and with relationships with their friends and family. The children are already adopting the Zones language especially when communicating their emotions, and using the colours to help identify how they are feeling. Thank you for all your positive feedback – it is great to hear that it is helpful!
Years 1 and 2 have been learning how to stay safe and healthy online this week. As we head into the holidays, it is normal to increase the amount of screen time children typically have so we thought about ways to stay healthy including having an activity break if you’ve been on a device for a long time, not using your device an hour before bedtime to help you get into the blue zone, and not using devices at mealtimes. We also discussed watching and playing games and films that are age-appropriate, and they can enjoy older age-ratings like Harry Potter when they are older.
We concluded the term by celebrating Apple Day! It was a wonderful celebration of one of our favourite fruits and a Somerset staple, with apple crafts and art, using apples for measuring and, best of all, eating apples!
After half term, we have our fantastic Friends’ of Hazlegrove Fireworks Display! It is always a magical evening with an incredible display, but it does mean that the children have a very long day. Therefore, we kindly ask that you collect your children at the end of school so they can go home to relax and have supper before returning to school, wrapped up in warm clothes, with you to enjoy the fireworks from 5.30pm. We will send a letter with further details next term.
It has been an action-packed half-term with so many exciting events and opportunities for learning, however I know the children (and staff!) are all very ready for the break and chance to reboot. We wish you all a very happy holiday and look forward to seeing you in two weeks.
