Charles Dickens Primary said a fond farewell to the children of Year Six this morning in an emotional assembly attended by the whole school. The children hosted the assembly themselves, delivering kind words about one another with the confidence and charm we have come to expect from such a wonderful cohort of children. The school is deeply proud of you all for so many reasons. We wish you all the best in the future and hope you will come and visit us soon!
This year for French Day, the children explored the world of “pays Francophones”, countries throughout the world where French is an official language and culturally significant. We can find such countries on nearly every continent.
From reception to year 2, the children are learned about the continents of the world, traditional songs from Francophone countries, a typical recipe from DR Congo and geographical features, as well as animals in DR Congo.
In year 3 and 4, children took part in workshops, exploring Francophone countries and their specificities (capital city, currency, geography, typical food). Children also learned about each country’s flag, using their knowledge of French colours. Children also explored the world of “Sapeurs”, which stands for “the Society of Tastemakers and Elegant People”. They are a group of people who turn the art of dressing into a cultural statement. We designed our own sapeur outfit and described them in French.
Children discussed why it’s important to learn languages and what benefits this brings to your life, in this workshop we explored breaking codes and learning about French onomatopoeias, it’s was very exciting!
Finally, in our Francophonie workshop, we explored the continents of the world and found francophone countries in each continent.
In year 5 and 6, children did 4 workshops as well. They learned about idiomatic expressions from Francophone countries, working on the vocabulary and matching these expressions up with English ones.
Children are also learned about Famous Belgian people, Magritte, Helene Dutrieu, Hergé and Rubens. The children read the French biographies of these four people and illustrating their life on a comic strip page!
Finally, children also took part in a Francophonie workshop, learning about the continents of the world and finding francophone countries in each continent, as well as practising our French colours to describe the flags of each country.
Miss Lucille
A massive thank you to all the parents, carers, teachers and children who came to the school’s Summer Fair last Friday. With the huge variety of stalls, games, and glitter stations, not to mention the wonderful snacks, drinks and cakes, those who came were spoiled for choice. A huge thank you to those that gave up their time to help raise money for the school. In the end you helped raise an incredible £4,500! Well done to Ms. Gemmell and Ms. Kaloo for organising the event so brilliantly.
Year 6 performed magnificently in their show, Emil and the Detectives this week; the singing was electric, the dancing was wonderful, the acting was terrific and when they combined all three, it was magical. Well done to all the children who performed both on the stage and in the house band. Thank you to all the parents who came and supported the shows. Thank you enormously to the hugely talented Year 6 creative team led by Mr Windle for pulling together such a creative performance completed with an original score!
Year 1 and 2 enjoyed and fun-packed visit to the seaside at Littlehampton this week. The children explored the beach, paddled in the water, and searched for shells and sea life. There was plenty of time to enjoy an ice-cream, make a sandcastle and to reflect on what has been a joyful year for the children. A big thank you to all the parents and carers who helped on the trip.
Last week we celebrated a wonderful Eisteddfod. Thank you to all the parents who have supported their children in entering one of the competitions. Your children did spectacularly well with many performances on the day and during the week.
The quality of music performance and the number of musicians rose yet again so we held categories for each instrument including trumpet, flute, drums, guitar, electric guitar and piano. We also enjoyed wonderful group performances including a large Year 4 and 5 band and sibling duos. We hope we will soon be able to complete some high-quality recordings of the winning musicians for you to enjoy and there will be a large number of photographs coming up on the blog including our art, poetry and story writing winners.
Thank you to every family who helped their children wear clothing to represent their culture or heritage – it was our most international Eisteddfod to date and that also meant an amazing shared lunch for the children with food to sample from all over the world.
Thank you also to Mr Young and the dedicated staff team of Eisteddfod coaches and choir leaders for all their time in organising such a great day.
Congratulations to our stars of the week! These are the children who impressed their teachers with their commitment to learning, their kind and considerate behaviour, and their artistic flair! A huge well done to our pen license winners too! What will you do to be a winner next time around?
