CYP – It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It has been another packed week at Cypress with trips, performances, lots of learning and Christmas lunch. What a busy time of year!

Little Cypress and Reception Visit the Church

Our EYFS children have been visiting St John’s Church this week to learn more about the origins of Christmas.  They enjoyed seeing inside the church and taking part in craft activities.  The children were very proud of the crowns and bells they created.  Thank you to all the parents and carers who came along to support on with the trip.

Upper School Christmas Concerts

Ms Barker led a memorable Christmas concert this week for Years 3, 4 and 6, creating a wonderfully atmospheric and heart-warming celebration to end the term. The children sang beautifully, filling the hall with clear voices and lovely harmonies as children held candles,  making the performance feel especially magical. The concert also concluded with a lively and joyful rendition of Feliz Navidad, which had everyone smiling and joining in. It was clear that the children thoroughly enjoyed sharing their hard work, and the audience were delighted. We would like to thank Miss Barker for organising and delivering such a special festive event.

Year 6 to the Petrie Museum

Year 6 enjoyed an exciting trip to the Petrie Museum in London as part of their learning about Ancient Egypt. The museum is packed with fascinating artefacts, and the children were able to see real examples of pottery, jewellery, ancient tools and even beautifully decorated mummy cases up close. They were especially captivated by the intricate amulets and the famous Fayum-style mummy portraits, which helped bring their classroom learning to life. It was a great chance to explore history in a hands on way and left the year group buzzing with new knowledge and inspiration. Thanks to the Year 6 staff and Ms Stewart for stepping in at the last minute due to staff illness.

Reading Tree @ Upper School

We are delighted to share the results of our Reading Tree Award, led by Ms Pumphrey and Mrs Manson. This initiative celebrates children who have read for 20 minutes a day, five times per week. All dedicated readers received a special bookmark featuring a QR code that links to a wintry story read by a surprise guest! These children were also entered into our Book Prize Raffle, and the winners are listed below. In addition, the class in each year group with the highest overall reading engagement earned a cosy Reading Café Afternoon. A huge WELL DONE to everyone who won a bookmark or book prize; you should all be very proud!

Reading Cafe Winners:

Y3 – Cedar

Y4 – Rowan

Y5 –Hazel

Y6- Oak

Christmas Hoops

The school halls at Cypress are looking very festive.  Each of our classes has worked as a team to produce a beautiful Christmas hoop.  At the Lower School, each child has made a decoration to form part of their hoop.  These will then be given to the children to take home at the end of term.  The Upper School children have made hoops using natural materials in the style of traditional Christmas wreaths with a few modern twists! We are feeling very festive; the season of joy is very much upon us!

Reception Nativity

This week our Reception children have put on three performances of their Nativity.  Two of these were to parents and carers and one was to the rest of the school.  We are so proud of our Reception children for put on such great performances and for showing such confidence and pride.  If you would to find out more about this, read our article here.

Christmas Concert at St John’s Church

Christmas Lunch and Christmas Jumper Day 

This week at Cypress we have had our Christmas Lunches.  The meals were delicious and we all enjoyed sampling the wide range of desserts on offer.  In the centre of our dessert trolley we had a beautiful gingerbread house.  Each child had decorated their Harrison’s Christmas hats, with the creator of the best hats winning a Christmas Harrison’s bear.  Thank you to our caterers for making the experience to special for the children. To make our lunches even more special, we all wore our Christmas jumpers to school and made a £1 donation which will be given to Save the Children to help children who do have lives less fortunate than ours.

Cypress Superstars

Emilia, Winnie, Matthew and Brody came to see me and read the poem From a Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson. They gave a clear confident, expressive performance using voice intonation, tone, volume and actions to convey meaning. I was so impressed, I asked them to record it for you below.

A huge congratulations to two of our talented musicians! Alfie in Holly has successfully passed his Grade 1 piano exam, a fantastic achievement that reflects his hard work, dedication and growing confidence at the piano. Emilia in Oak Class has passed her Grade 5 piano exam, an exceptional milestone that showcases her skill, commitment and passion for music. We are incredibly proud of them both, well done. Accasia, Lily and Zuriel from Willow Class popped in this week to share their brilliantly written persuasive texts about Viking soup and they certainly made an impression! Their writing was both informative and very funny, and it had Ms Wayman and me laughing throughout. The trio showed great creativity, confidence and a clear understanding of persuasive techniques. Arabella in Beech visited to share her brilliant work on decimals. It was wonderful to see how confidently she explained her thinking. She showed a clear understanding of place value and demonstrated her methods with real accuracy. It’s always a pleasure to see children so proud of their learning; well done, Arabella!

We wish all our children and families a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Carpenter, Ms Binks and the Cypress Team