Castle Court School - summary of the spring term 2024

CASTLE COURT SCHOOL

SPRING TERM 2024

SCHOLARSHIPS

A SUMMARY OF THE TERM

I am delighted to be able to introduce this summary of the term as your newly appointed Head. I believe that childhood should be cherished. It should be a time of great joy and growth providing each child with magical moments, which I hope will last them a lifetime. Reading through the section summaries and looking at the photos in this booklet, certainly brings me joy and makes me feel immensely proud of the whole Castle Court family. I am also reminded just how much our children achieve each term, the quality of their work, the breadth and depth of the curriculum and the many opportunities that they have access to. For this I must thank my wonderful team for all the care and dedication they give to your children. It is through this nurturing and supportive environment that each child is able to develop

their talents, pursue their passions and gain the confidence and skills needed for future success.

I look forward to seeing you all again after the holidays, ready to create more special memories in the Summer Term.

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Easter.

Best wishes

Katie Johnson Head

Around the School

SUMMARY OF THE TERM: PRE-PREP

All of Pre-Prep have enjoyed a super Spring term approaching their learning with commitment, fun and positivity. A real highlight was World Book Day where the children are always so imaginative with their costumes. They all looked amazing! Here are some of the many highlights this term:

Nursery

Badger Cubs and Badgers have had an exciting time exploring winter and artic animals. They have been watching house games, thoroughly enjoying dressing up for World Book Day and taking part in Easter assembly. We have now moved into Spring and Easter topics and the children are fascinated at the growth of the bulbs, flowers and leaf buds emerging around our wonderful environment. Badgers have been investigating sounds of the week and developing their name writing skills as well. Badger Cubs are increasing their personal independence with putting on their own coats and shoes after sports and walks in the grounds.

Reception

It has certainly been a busy term for our wonderful Reception children. We have explored space to learn about our solar system, travelled to Iceland and China on Castle Court Airways to see the Northern Lights and celebrate Chinese New Year, and thought about how to look after our bodies and minds during Wellbeing Week. In the latter part of term, we have enjoyed planting and looking after our very own beanstalks. A trip to Compton Acres Gardens helped us all to appreciate the wonderful world of plants and flowers and to welcome the start of Spring. The children loved having their parents in for the Easter Egg Hunt. Many happy memories have been made.

Year One

We have had a busy and productive term in Year 1. Our topics have been ‘Houses and Homes’ and ‘Toys’. We have been on a trip to the Synagogue to put our ‘Judaism’ RE lessons into context. We had a brilliant time visiting the East Dorset Museum to explore our topic on ‘Toys’. In Literacy, we have been focusing on the book ‘Dogger’ and have produced our own letters, missing posters and we’ve been learning how to add adjectives in our writing too. In Maths we have been learning how to count in 2s, 5s and 10s and we’ve started looking at time. We are looking forward to another exciting term after Easter when our topic will be ‘Birds’.

Year Two

This term has flown by in Year 2 and the children have had a fantastic time. They have been engrossed in our new topic ‘Endangered Animals and Rainforests’, which included choosing their own endangered animal and learning how to sew a puppet that looked like that creature. In Literacy we have dived into the wonderful story of the ‘Bear and the Piano’, as well as learning about writing instructions and producing a factual report on their chosen endangered animal. The marvellous trip to Marwell Zoo was a fitting end to a wonderful term of adventure!

Spring has certainly SPRUNG in more ways than one in Pre-Prep!

Mr Graham Antell Badger Cubs to Year 2 Section Leader

SUMMARY OF THE TERM: YEAR 3 AND YEAR 4

It has been another great term in the Year 3 and Year 4 Section. One of the highlights of January was the start of the Bikeabilty Course (previously known as Cycling Proficiency) as part of our Castle Awards lessons. The Jubilee Drop Off Area was busy with the arrival of bikes. There was much excitement as the children looked forward to the opportunity to develop their skills as they cycled around the school playground. Many thanks to the parents for delivering these bicycles to school and for collecting them at the end of the day. Thank you to Rob Doyle for running the sessions with such good humour and sharing practical advice with us all.

Another highlight of the Castle Awards sessions was the food preparation lessons.The pupils were taught some basic cutting skills and used these to prepare fruit kebabs. The best part of the lesson was eating these mouthwatering delicacies. We are all looking forward to more of these sessions in the future. We continue to bring our humanities lessons alive by doing activities of a practical nature. Year 4 designed suspension bridges as we learnt about Isambard Kingdom Brunel in history and built Ancient Egyptian clay houses as they considered the effects of The Nile flooding in geography. Shadufs were built and tomatoes mummified as we learnt more about life in the past. Using IT skills to create a stop motion movie of pyramid building was also a highlight of the term. Our creativity continued during SCOTT day making Easter gardens and decorating biscuits, reminding us of the Easter story we had been looking at in RS.

Year 3 celebrated Australia Day by creating maps of the country using Play Doh. They created Aboriginal Style art and even had a go at playing the didgeridoo. They have been busy making card models of Roman buildings in the classroom, as a reconstruction of the city of Pompei was created. They also used natural materials with great creativity to build 3D scenes from the book “Escape from Pompeii” in the school grounds. A morning was enjoyed at Badbury Rings on our Scott Day to discover what it must have been like during Romano- Celtic times. The Celtic Style Haka competition was the highlight of our time there!

Keeping with the Roman theme we launched World Book Week with an online talk from Annelise Gray. She spoke about how her hobbies and interests had led to her writing the Circus Maximus books. The children were interested in all she had to say and asked a variety of questions after the talk to find out more about her work. World Book Day brought the children into the classroom in an array of costumes from many books. The hall was buzzing with excitement as Mrs Johnson led the assembly before the parade of costumes on the concourse outside.

Drama has played an important part of the spring term. For the first half of term Year 3 worked on their presentation “My Favourite Time of Year”. They worked hard learning poems (including some they had written themselves!) and practising songs and dances for this wonderful show. Looking fantastic in their bright T-shirts, their performance to both the lower school and their parents are ones that will not easily be forgotten!

After half term it was the turn of Year 4 to take to the stage as they worked on their play “Pirates Versus Seafolk”. A lot of hard work went into this production as the children learnt their lines and rehearsed songs and dances. It certainly contained “splashing images” and “scenes of a pirate-y nature”! The hall was filled with rapturous applause and raucous laughter at the “terrible jokes” during the performances to both the school and the parents.

There was no better way to end our term than a trip to the theatre. On the final Thursday afternoon, minibuses were loaded with excited children as we headed to Poole Lighthouse. We were treated to a super performance of David Walliams’ “Awful Auntie” by The Birmingham Stage Company. A lovely opportunity to sit back in comfortable seats and enjoy someone else doing the performing!

Another great term and lots to look forward to in the summer!

Mr Andy Laidler

Year 3 and 4 Section Leader

Year 3 play “Our Favourite Time of Year”

SUMMARY OF THE TERM: YEAR 5 AND YEAR 6

What a great term we have had in Year 5 and 6! The Performing Arts evening was fantastic – it was amazing to see how much talent we have in our Section. World Book Day was a huge success; the children made such an effort, both with their costumes on the day, and their entries to the ‘Book in a Box’ competition. We enjoyed an online visit from a children’s author and illustrator in Year 5 to celebrate World Book Day and our Year 6 visit from children’s author, Ashley Thorpe who was very inspirational. The Spring Concert was another opportunity to showcase the talent in Years 5 and 6 with individuals performing pieces as well as the whole of Year 5 singing ‘Oom Pa Pa’ and ‘The Climb’.

In History, we have been learning about life in the 1930s and we are about to begin learning about WW2 after Easter. Our recent trip to The Keep Military Museum in Dorchester really enthused our Year 5s. Our Year 6 pupils had a fantastic day at Winchester Science Museum! They particularly loved learning about our solar system in a session in the planetarium.This has helped to bring their learning to life. In Geography, the pupils have been exploring different parts of the world through our ‘Mountains’ topic in Year 5 and ‘Globalisation’ Topic in Year 6. Both have been partly based on some brilliant books ‘Running on the Roof of the World’ and ‘The Almighty Dollar’, which have really brought to life places as far-flung as Tibet and India and the pupils have been able to link this to their own experiences around the world and in our local area.

We ended the term with our Year 5s watching a fabulous production of David Walliams’ ‘Awful Auntie’! It was great to see a live performance which has inspired us as we are rehearsing for our own version of Roald Dahl’s ‘Revolting Rhymes’. Year 6 are studying ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and rehearsals for their outdoor performances commence after the Easter break.

On the sports field both Year 5 and 6 have been in fine form. The U10 boys’ hockey teams have been developing very well

with the U10A side finishing the season with a fine 4-1 win against Sandroyd and the U10B team having a fantastic home game against the U11B team with the game finishing 6-5 to the U11s!! The sports department have been so impressed with the effort and coachability of all the Year 5s this term and the development they have made in their teams is so pleasing to see. The U10 girls’ netball team finished their season off with a tournament at King’s Bruton and it was lovely to see them involved, and playing so well throughout the day; Mrs Major was delighted with them and their efforts!

The U11s have been equally successful and both the girls’ U11 and boys’ U11 hockey teams have qualified for the West Regional Hockey finals, the girls as county champions and the boys as county runners up. This is the first time the school has qualified both girls and boys together in the same year group and shows how talented all the pupils are in Year 6. The boys finished undefeated and in 3rd place at the Canford tournament and we wish them both the best of luck in their regional finals.

The girls’ U11A team performed amazingly at the IAPS netball finals qualifying into the Plate competition where they reached the final, only to agonisingly lose to Taunton school with a golden goal. The way that the girls accepted that defeat and played all day was a credit to the school and them as sportswomen. We are all really proud of them.

The B teams have also been fantastic all season with both the girls and the boys representing the school with great passion and effort. It has been wonderful to see them all performing in fixtures so well for the school and developing so admirably. We look forward to sunnier, warmer and drier weather in the summer term, and seeing the pupils playing cricket, tennis, athletics and enjoying the pool being open again.

Mrs Louise Munns Year 5 and 6 Section Leader

World Book Day

Spring Concert

SUMMARY OF THE TERM: YEAR 7 AND YEAR 8

The monsoons may have come this term, but nothing has dampened the spirits of our Year 7s and 8s.They have excelled in and out of class.Year 8 have achieved high standards in their recent exams and PSB assessments, and many of them have also been awarded scholarships to their senior schools: to date, they have gained 4 academic, 4 sport, 1 all-rounder, 1 art and 2 drama scholarships to schools including Canford (4 awards), Bryanston (3), BCS, Clayesmore, Millfield and Talbot Heath. Of course, not everyone who applies for a scholarship can be awarded one, but those who haven’t gained an award have also shown great commitment and reached excitingly impressive standards in their chosen fields. Meanwhile, in regular class time, Year 8 pupils studying Macbeth have become prosecutors and defence lawyers speaking adaptively in a courtroom environment whilst trying Lady Macbeth and Macbeth for their crimes. During World Book week, both year groups had excitingly informative sessions with practising authors, and both year groups had our youngest pupils spellbound when reading to Badgers, Reception and Year 1. Other recent activities for Year 7 have included learning about London as a Global City in geography, and producing their dramatically gruesome editions of the ‘Deathbed Diary of Edward VI’ in history. Year 7 continue to impress us all with their zeal for learning and high standards and are on course to emulate Year 8 with their academic and all-round successes next year.

In the wider curriculum, this term has seen wonderful performances in the school hall from our actors, dancers and musicians in the performing arts evening and the school concert, with Year 7 and 8 pupils giving outstanding solo and ensemble performances. A great start has been made with rehearsals for ‘Peter Pan’, which promises to be an unmissable show next term. Some of our Year 7s enjoyed being delegates at Bryanston’s Model United Nations where they developed their public speaking skills as ambassadors for both Mozambique and France as they engaged with some

crucial world problems. Recently all our Year 7s learned a great deal about themselves and the need for good leadership and collaboration during their ‘Dystopian Day’. It was great to see them solving problems and working closely together in group activities.Year 8 have embarked on their PSPQ projects, learning about research and referencing skills at Canford’s library, and beginning work on projects on topics varying from developments in treatments for cancer to the importance of wildlife photography for conservation and sustainability. Year 8 have also continued to develop their leadership skills: they delivered a superb morning of PE teaching to our Pre-Prep classes in the Sports Hall on Scott Day, and were outstanding ambassadors for the school on Explore Day, whether demonstrating their work in the Art room, helping with pupils in the Pre-prep, or giving campus tours to our visitors; for the latter, we had some fine tour guides from Year 7 as well.

In the world of sport, our netballers and hockey players have tackled everything the weather and their opponents could aim at them; the U13 girls made it through to the Dorset Schools County Netball Finals having come 3rd in the qualifying PEDSSA Tournament; our U13 C and D boys hockey teams deserve a mention for achieving some impressively highscoring wins; individual athletes have continued to travel far and wide: just this week, we have had a footballer playing (and scoring a brace) for the Independent Schools select team in Exeter and an athlete travelling to West Yorkshire to run for Dorset in the English Schools Cross-Country.

And now, we look forward to next term, which promises to be even more action-packed for Year 7 and 8, with a big range of academic, co-curricular and leadership opportunities coming their way, and, who knows … maybe even some dry and sunny days!

Mr Dave Higgins Year 7 and Year 8 Section Leader

SCHOLARSHIPS