Today we have all arrived at school wearing our best denim attire to raise money for Jeans for Genes. We have been learning about where the money we donate goes. At the Upper and Lower School, we began the week on Monday by learning about what genes are. We found out that genes are the things that affect our eye colour, health, and why we often look like our parents. Did you know we share 95% of our genes with a chimpanzee and 50% with a banana? If we have a faulty gene it can affect our health and we heard the story of Star and Tiana who have brittle bone disease and have broke over 250 bones. We now understand that donating £1 can can help us show we care about others and help provide support and pay for research for families in need. At the Upper School, a big thank you to our House and Vice Captains and Ms Fernandes for such an informative assembly this morning. Thanks also to you all for helping us to support such a worthy cause!
On Monday at the Upper School, we thought about the idea of distilling – taking the most important parts of a lesson and consolidating them in our minds. We know that, in any given day, we are presented with a huge amount of information, and our brains naturally filter out what they do not need. Last week we conducted the “gorilla experiment” which showed us how easily the brain can overlook/distil information when it is concentrating on something else. This week, the children are practising how to actively distil their learning, identifying and extracting the key ideas from each lesson so that the most important knowledge is remembered and understood.
Upper School House Captain Elections
Well done to all children who put themselves forward to become House Captains. Your teachers reported that you spoke confidently in class and those who addressed their houses delivered inspiring and impressive speeches. We are very proud of you all. The voting was carried out democratically as a school, with each house voting for their own captains. Pupils who received the second-highest number of votes have been given the title of Vice Captain.
Congratulations to our new House Captains and Vice Captains:
Athens – Dora (Captain) & Leo (Vice Captain)
Corinth – Bonnie (Captain) & Kevin (Vice Captain)
Olympia – Owen (Captain) & Evie (Vice Captain)
Sparta – Harry (Captain) & Hanna (Vice Captain)
Extreme Reading Competition
Congratulations to Hazel in Oak Class, who wowed us all with her wonderfully atmospheric entry and was crowned the winner of our ‘Extreme Reading’ competition! She was delighted to pick her book prize. If you’d like to see her entry, you’ll need to come and find her amongst her extreme reading peers on our reading wall! A huge thank you to Mrs Snedden for organising such a fun event, and an even bigger well done to every single entrant. We had children reading in the most unusual and creative places: in cars, upside down, and even in incredible gymnastics poses! The imagination and effort that went into every photo made the competition a real treat to judge.
The message is clear: whether you’re hanging upside down, balancing, or curled up somewhere cosy… Keep reading – anywhere, anytime and always!
Grand Opening of the Reception Mud Kitchen
We are very proud to report that the Reception children 2025-2026 have settled into school amazingly quickly and thank you to all parents and carers for their help with this. Yesterday we had the delight of introducing our new Mud Kitchen to the Reception children. Mrs Dorcu, who is the Teaching Assistant in Orange Class, and her family built it over the summer holidays, so it only seemed fair to ask Mrs Dorcu to cut the ribbon and declare it officially open. This was Mrs Dorcu’s first official duty since becoming a British citizen, so it felt like a very royal affair! Thank you to everyone who donated their old kitchen utensils, pots and pans. We hope the children will love exploring the mud kitchen cooking with natural objects, sand, bark, saw dust and of course, mud.
Curriculum Workshops for Parents
This week we have held curriculum workshops for parents and carers in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend. We had a great turnout. Slides from the meetings have now been sent out to all parents and carers.
Cypress Superstars
Well done to all our new Reception pupils who have completed their first full week in school. The children have settled in well and have been enjoying experiencing lunch times. Red and Yellow Class have also had their first Forest School session. What an amazing week! Congratulations to Darcey in Orange Class who came to show her wonderful independent writing about Humpty Dumpty. She had created her own book and made a lovely model of him on the wall. Darcey told Ms Binks how she had used scissors and her fingers to create a hole for Humpty to sit in so he didn’t fall off the wall. You are a superstar Darcey! Well done to Beech Class, who have been completing their PSHE journals and thinking carefully about what they would like to do when they grow older. It has been wonderful to see the children’s ambitions and how these link to their talents and interests. Otis would like to be a comic book illustrator and with his talent for art and love of superheroes, we can really see that dream becoming a reality. Leo would like to be either a vet or an astronaut – both fantastic science-led ambitions, showing real curiosity and drive. We know that with consistency and perseverance, all of the children in Beech Class will be able to reach their dreams. Congratulations to Stella in Rowan Class, who won a competition run by the Friends of Grangewood Park to design a poster to help reduce litter in the park! Her fantastic design will be proudly displayed for everyone to see. Well done, Stella – a brilliant achievement!
We wish all our children and families a relaxing weekend.
Ms Binks, Mrs Carpenter and the Cypress Team
