What a wonderful first day in the beaming New Forest sunshine we have had! After our first challenge of learning to make our beds and a delicious picnic lunch we spent the afternoon exploring the Minstead site and venturing into the river. We were so lucky to be greeted by some donkeys which was very exciting. We found lots of interesting creatures in the river and had fun identifying them. Dinner was sausages which was gobbled up quickly and we have spent the evening being a

We had our final OPAL audit this week and I am delighted to share that we have been accredited with a gold standard! We are the first school in West Berkshire to receive OPAL accreditation and I am delighted with the outcome. The journey continues and your input will help us plan the next steps.

The Eco Council led last Monday’s assembly and gave us some top tips for how to have a more environmentally friendly Christmas including: making homemade gifts and decorations, reusing decorations, shopping locally and trying to minimise food waste.

Thank you to all families who took part in Cut Your Carbon this year. We had 12 children complete the checklist, resulting in 143.71 kgCO2 e of carbon savings. This is roughly equivalent to driving an average car about 350-400 km (around 220-250 miles), powering an average UK home's electricity for 1-2 months or making 14,000 cups of tea! We would love to encourage even more families to take part next year. Please let us know, via our Facebook page , if you have any ideas to

Year 4 have written some very passionate letters to Luiz da Silva, President of Brazil, about deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. "I am writing you this letter because I am not very happy. I would like you to stop chopping down the trees." - Freddie "The rainforest is home to indigenous people - if you destroy it, where will they live? We are losing 5000 species a year due to deforestation. Cutting down trees creates more carbon dioxide, droughts and a rise in global temp

We are delighted to hear that some of our PDP families have been enjoying cooking Good Grub Club recipes and grateful to one of our Year 4 pupils, Edie, for sharing what she made! Edie says “It was really easy to make although it was a bit tricky to open the tins so my Mum had to help me. I had my hotpot with pasta and a bit of bread and butter. I wasn’t a big fan of the kidney beans but the sausages were really good! I put a bit of Worcester sauce in the hotpot and some grat

In our Eco Meeting this week, we talked about how we can have an eco friendly Christmas. The children had lots of brilliant ideas which we have put into a PowerPoint to share in assembly next week. We also made some environmentally friendly Christmas crackers which the eco councillors were able to take home to enjoy over Christmas!

Pupils have really enjoyed cooking Sausage & Bean hotpot this term and have been excited to take the ingredients home to re-create the same recipe! Our next recipe is Tuna & Tomato pasta bake which, again, is budget friendly, easy to make and provides a good balance of vegetables, protein and carbohydrates. You can substitute the sweetcorn for fresh veggies or other tinned vegetables. We would LOVE to see what children are making at home so please send any photos through to..

Yesterday, with the help of Mrs Dillon, our Eco-Committee planted over 100 daffodil bulbs on the school roundabout. They had great fun finding the pre-prepared holes and dropping the bulbs in. We then covered each one up with a handful of compost. We can't wait to see the daffodils flower in the Spring! We have already planted some verbena and rudbeckia around some of the trees on the roundabout. We also plan to put bluebells and forget-me-nots around the edge and sprinkle so

This week, for Cut Your Carbon, we are focussing on "Cool It" and "Ditch The Drive". Lower your washing machine temperature to 30°C for three washes across the month. Washing machines are energy-hungry! Drop the temperature to 30°C for three washes this month and cut carbon without sacrificing clean clothes. Make any three journeys ‘active’ across the month. Transport creates nearly a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions. Active travel - such as walking, scooting, wheeling, o

This week, for Cut Your Carbon, we are focussing on "Veggie Vibes". Make 3 evening meals plant-based across the month. Meat production is responsible for around 14% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, so make three evening meals plant-based and discover how delicious cutting carbon can be!

Sporting fixtures are continuing at pace. This week it was the turn of U9 Boys. We were only expecting to play one game and an additional match did come as a surprise! We are so proud of this group of boys. They battled hard, played their hearts out and grew as a team as each game went on. Unfortunately, they lost both matches but they should be very proud of rising to Wednesday afternoon’s challenge.