Gardening Club trip to meet the Prince

On Monday 19 March the Gardening Club met a Very Important Person. The Prince of Wales is a patron of Age UK and his visit to its offices in town gave him the chance to meet staff, volunteers, beneficiaries and other members of the community including our very own Gardening Club.

Mia Maddison spoke to the prince about how the school’s gardening club had won an Age UK scarecrow competition, but also why her jumper was purple, rather than red like the other pupils present, explaining it was because she had a special role at the school which saw her act as a mentor to younger children.

As part of the children’s WWII topic, the year group visited the ‘We’ll Meet Again’ WWII museum at Freiston Shore. Split over two days, the children were greeted at the venue by staff in full character and uniform. They were educated about specific aspects of the war including rationing, the role of women, weaponry and the Blitz – a 10 minute Blitz experience was put on for the children so that they could feel how it must have felt to live during those times. Unlike other museums, the children were able to touch and hold genuine artefacts from WWII. These ranged from the destructive nature of bullets and weapons to the more light hearted topic of wooden toys children played with during wartime.
The children were fascinated by the stories and information being given to them and, as a result, their behaviour was impeccable – it was so impressive that the children will be receiving a free pass to the museum and eight of them were given life-time passes as a result of their enthusiasm and willingness to listen and learn about such an important historic event. (they were given their own Home Guard badges as proof!)
We must thank Paul, Linda and their cohort of volunteers who made the day such a memorable one for our year group – allowing the children access to resources, memorabilia and such extensive knowledge they can bring back into the classroom and their own work.

On the 21st of November, Year 5 went on a trip to the National Space Centre in Leicester. While we were there, we had the opportunity to learn all about the planets and gravity. We even climbed up a 42 metre high space rocket and got the chance to feel what it was like to wear an astronaut’s space suit!
We took part in an exciting ‘tour of the night sky’ workshop, and learnt all about the names of the constellations that we can see at night time.
We will be using lots of the knowledge that we gained to help us with our science topic of space, and during our writing in literacy lessons.

On the Wednesday 22nd November, the children in Year 3 went to Flag Fen in Peterborough for the day. They learnt all about Prehistoric Britain. The children were able to place different time zones on a time line and gain a firm understanding of when people started to roam the earth. After that, the children made their own clay pots using natural materials that they would find on their walks.

During the trip, the children went to look at real life Bronze Age boats and a Bronze Age bridge. Jack said, “This is an amazing experience!” children were amazed to see things that had been dug up that are more than 3000 years old.

Lastly, the children went into a real Bronze Age round house and all the children listened to a legend story from prehistoric times. All the children made a wish and they really enjoyed the experience. Everyone had an amazing day!

On Wednesday 18th October, the Pupils’ Parliament went on a trip to the Mayor’s office at Boston Borough Council. They sat in the Mayors chair and had a go at using his hammer. They also created their own Boston council and acted out how to settle a debate. The Mayor showed us how a decision was made in a council room.
They also were able to look inside the Mayor’s cabinet at all the old artefacts, they asked lots of questions about the different pieces of treasure and we learnt how important it was.
Lastly, the children went into the council CCTV room to look the different cameras around Boston and Lincolnshire. The children tried to see if they could spot people and find different places they knew in Boston.
The children had a great day with the Mayor, they even got to have biscuits with him too. An excellent day had by all the children.

On the 11th of October we had a visit from the Betty Bus. The year group was spilt into two halves. Girls and boys. In my group with the boys, we had two visitors, who were called Ben and Ben, come to talk to us about puberty.
Firstly, we had a competition about who can write 10 super heroes first. My group won this task. Then, we got a picture that had a strong man on it with a cloak and a robot in front of him. We had to think about what the man in the cloak was doing or how he was feeling. We all thought the man was superman but we didn’t know for sure. Then we saw a women that looked as if she was having a head ache. We had to discuss what may have been troubling the woman and how we help her feel better.
After this, Ben told us about how and why a woman gets periods. During puberty, girls can get periods from ages 8-13. He said that every month an egg falls onto the vaginal wall. It waits to be fertilized by a sperm and if it is not, it is disposed of with a little bit of blood into the toilet. When a girl is on her periods, she might not feel herself and can get angry quicker because her hormones are very unstable. Ben told us that dark chocolate is very good because it has a lot of coco. We discussed how we can be good friends make people feel better and help each other by being kind to her and let her play games. Also, you could tell a joke or make her laugh.
We learnt that periods are a normal and natural thing in life and that it’s ok.

Yesterday, we had a very special visit from the Betty Bus and her friends Sarah-Rose, Karen and Loyce. They were experts in how periods work and wanted to show us that it’s ok to speak about them. Our first activity was to stand in a circle and play a game called thumbs. We had to hold out our left palm out and stick our right thumb up. Next, the person on my right had to try and grab my thumb before I had chance to pull it away. While this was happening, on my left, I had to try and catch their thumb before they pulled it away. When the game had finished Loyce shouted Betty and we had to reply by shouting Bus. In a hurry, we made a line next to the bus and waited patiently to get on.
Our next activity was to name all of the things on the interactive telly. On the TV screen, there were pictures of woman. We can to discuss how the people were feeling whilst on their period. My group finished second because we had a bit of a rocky start because we didn’t know how to use the telly. However, we were the first group to finish the word search. Next, we discussed the correct words for the female body parts such as the uterus, fallopian tubes and eggs. Then we headed upstairs and sat on the benches provided by the bus. We got a chance to gather up some emoji magnets and do a little bit of a play to show that its ok to talk about periods and not to be embarrassed or worried about them as its completely natural and normal part of life.
After we finished the play, we spoke about what we could use when were on our period and how to use them. We first discussed the tampons and how they help you when on your period. Karen told us how tampons are helpful if you want to go swimming if your periods holding you back. Then we went on to talking about pads and how most people use them because they seem to be the comfiest. Karen turned around and showed us what they look like and passed them around.

Tattershall Castle Trip
On 19 September 2017 the Rabbits and the Squirrels visited Tattershall Castle. We went as part of our topic – Towers, Tunnels and Turrets. We had already looked at the features of a castle in topic lessons so when we arrived at the castle the children were very eager to find the arrow slits, murder holes, moat and drawbridge. We first met our tour guides, Beverly and Julie, who showed us into the main hall at the bottom of the castle. They told us all about Lord and Lady Cromwell who built and lived in the castle in 1434. We went to the different rooms of the castle such as the basement, the great hall, the Lord and Lady’s private chamber and the audience chamber. We learnt what would happen in each room 600 years ago and what it would be like to live there. Beverly and Julie even showed us what it would be like to be a servant or a prisoner in the castle! The children agreed that they would rather live in our comfortable homes than sleep on the cold floor! Later on we were able to dress up as Lords and Ladies and practise some medieval dancing. Then we went back to the audience chamber to do some brass rubbings of medieval lords, ladies and knights. It was lovely to sit on the grass outside the keep and eat our dinner whilst the RAF planes from the Scampton airbase kept us entertained. The children learnt so much about what life was like in the 15th century and what the castle was used for.