Wonderful experiences and spreading happiness like glitter at Simon de Senlis

Along with the superb teaching and learning at Simon de Senlis, we believe that rich experiences are such a valuable part of every child’s education and as such we make sure they are there in abundance. We love being a part of our vibrant local and wider community and as such we ensure that all our children build positive relationships with the communities, we are a part of.

On March 28th, it was an exciting day for the children as we welcomed the Mayor and Mayoress of Northampton to the school to open our new outdoor classroom. The classroom has been built next to our extensive Forest School area as an extension of this amazing educational resource. To help the Mayor and Mayoress open the classroom were the School Council, along with the House Captains.

Outdoor learning is such a valuable component of the curriculum at Simon de Senlis, where children can develop their cooperation and collaboration skills, along with their problem solving and reasoning skills. Our outdoor curriculum includes learning within our forest school, where our children and staff engage in a wide range of learning, developing personal and social skills, improving language and communication and showing a deeper understanding of the world around them. It also supports positive wellbeing and enjoyment. Our new outdoor classroom will allow the whole school curriculum to be brought into the outdoors, whatever the weather, from geography to science, art, music, english and PE. Our whole school will benefit from this wonderful new space, and we all love to use it.

All our classrooms are named after inspirational people who have ‘made a dent in the universe’ and our new classroom has been named The Queen Elizabeth II classroom, after our inspirational monarch. The name was chosen after a school wide competition to find a fitting name for this new classroom. The outdoor classroom is also environmentally friendly with solar panels and a wind turbine to generate power and a water collection system to store rainwater to water plants within the school grounds.

The whole school applauded as The Mayor cut the red ribbon to open the classroom and a rousing three cheers came from the 430 children and staff as they watched the grand event. Afterwards tea and cakes were enjoyed in the library after a tour of the school to visit the classrooms.

We were so proud of our whole school as the Mayor and Mayoress commented on the children’s positive engagement and excellent behaviour and as a result, we were personally invited to a tour of The Guildhall from The Mayor. Whilst at The Guildhall, the children learnt more about the history of Northampton, through the architecture, paintings and sculptures and we even saw a painting of Simon de Senlis! We are so thankful to The Mayor and Mayoress for their kindness and generosity.

We work closely with NPAT (Northampton Music and Performing Arts Trust) throughout the year and every child in Key Stage 2 are taught to play four different musical instruments- the recorder, the violin or trumpet, the ukulele and the African drums. In the past weeks, we have been astounded by the skill, confidence and happiness of Year 3 children as they performed a recorder concert to parents and families and of the Year 4 children as they performed a violin and cello concert. Again, a wonderful experience for all.

Throughout the year we ensure that our positive relationship with our local community builds, and we have seen Year 5 children visit Tesco to learn how their bread is made as part of the DT curriculum, children across the school visit Danes Camp for swimming lessons as part of the PE curriculum and children visit the library to continue to develop a love of reading. We also thoroughly enjoy the activities and experiences with the East

Hunsbury Parish Council and know that these have such a positive impact on our children and our wonderful community.

Very recently the whole school has celebrated the Coronation of King Charles. Our school choir were invited to sing at a Coronation Celebration by the Vice Lord Lieutenant and The Bishop of Northampton, the choir sang beautifully to a large crowd and with rapturous applause afterwards. On May 5th, after a whole school party picnic lunch, each year group performed a mini-Coronation concert to parents and families. With flags waving, singing and dancing and crowns galore, this was such a memorable day for everyone. The historic event of the coronation will be remembered by all for many years to come.

We love to read at Simon de Senlis and have so many wonderful experiences for our children to continue to develop their love of reading. To share this love of reading, our Reading Ambassadors recently chose 12 books that they wanted to share with our local community. These books have been left around our local area in waterproof bags and are there for all to enjoy. If you see one, please enjoy reading it and then put it back into its bag and leave it for someone else to read. We hope this will spread our joy of reading to others in our community. And finally, if you’re passing the school, look up at our flag flying proudly. It saysThrow kindness around like confetti. That’s what we are, a school full of kindness and happiness with wonderful experiences set proudly within our wonderful community.