This week has been Children’s Mental Health Week with the theme of ‘My Voice Matters’. Over the course of the week, we have been doing lots of different activities to encourage the children to talk about their feelings because ‘it matters!’ We ended the week with a dress up day where we all wore something to express ourselves!
To finish our topic of ‘People Who Help Us’, Reception were very lucky to have a special visitor from St Helier Hospital.
We got to meet a paediatric nurse (Evie’s daddy) and found out about their role and what they do day to day. We learnt that paediatric nurses look after children when they are feeling poorly both in the hospital and at their houses (in the community).
We got to explore some of the equipment they might use including a heart monitor and we looked at their uniform. Thank you Evie’s daddy, we had so much fun!
Our entire school recently took part in Storytelling Week, from 27 January to 4 February! 📖 This incredible annual event is a vibrant celebration of the power that stories hold, reminding us of the joys of sharing them. ✨📚
Stories have the remarkable ability to teach us about the world around us, letting us step into someone else’s shoes, encouraging empathy, and broadening our horizons. They also provide a means to relax and escape from the everyday, whilst nurturing essential literacy skills.
To kickstart the week, Mrs. Ryder and Mr. Gilbert, shared an enchanting tale during our assembly. They then set a thrilling challenge for the children: to learn and retell a traditional story over the course of the week! 📚📝
The culmination of this exciting week was a magnificent assembly, where each year group showcased their incredible storytelling skills. The performances were absolutely captivating!
Throughout the week, our eager students eagerly shared stories amongst themselves, and were treated to some mesmerizing tales from adults around the school. In addition to this, all parents, grandparents, aunites and uncles were invited in to school to read with their children and share stories.
🌟 We are immensely proud of all our students for their enthusiasm and creativity during Storytelling Week. Their dedication to honing their storytelling skills was truly inspiring! 🌟
Let's keep the magic of storytelling alive throughout the year, nurturing a love for tales that will last a lifetime! 💫📚
Meeting the real-life superheroes that keep our community safe 🦸♀️🦸♂️
Our children in Early Years had an absolutely amazing day on Monday! They were thrilled to meet three Police Officers from our local Police Station. 🚓 The excitement was contagious as they got a first-hand look into the incredible work they do to keep us safe.
💙 The children listened with awe as our local heroes talked about their role in helping people in our community. They were fascinated to learn about different aspects of police work and bravely asked questions.
But that was not all! The highlight of the day was sitting inside a real-life police car 🚔, trying on a variety of police hats, and getting their fingerprints taken. 🖐️ We could see the joy and excitement on their faces as they actively engaged in these hands-on experiences.
We are incredibly grateful to the friendly Police Officers for taking the time to visit our school and make this experience unforgettable for our children. 🙌 Thank you!
A Century of History - Humanities Week
What a week it's been! Humanities week returned with a bang, diving into 'A 100 Years of History' with a rich focus on working historically. 
Reception's topic was ‘The Royal Family’ specifically looking at Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III. We launched our week by being historians looking at sources to guess our theme for the week. We then looked at images of Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III and compared them. Our next challenging task was to create a timeline of events. During busy time, we have been drawing portraits of Kings and Queens, creating crowns, building models of Buckingham Palace, and getting ready for our Royal Ball.
On Wednesday, we were very lucky to have the opportunity to join a drama workshop. We met Phileas Fogg who took us on an adventure around the world in just 30 minutes. We learnt how to say ‘hello’ in different languages and had a special mission to find the boomerang in Australia!
On Friday, we showcased all of our wonderful to the rest of the school in the top hall. We then walked round to look at the other year group and found out what they had be learning about too!
Nursery were super busy during Humanities week learning all about Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III. We found out lots of information about them including about their childhoods, their families , their hobbies and the different important jobs that they do! We spent time looking at two photographs - one of the Queens Coronation and one of the Kings Coronation. We spent time talking about what a Coronation is as well as the similarities and differences we could spot between the photos. We enjoyed drawing pictures of the King and Queen and sharing our knowledge with the adults around us. We have also been super busy using our great cutting skills to create our own crowns. Phew, what a busy week! 🙂
Each year group's dedication to being exceptional historians was truly remarkable, examining primary and secondary sources with genuine enthusiasm and gaining plenty of knowledge. The week culminated in 'dress up as a historical figure' day and exposition, where all the children got to see what each year group had been learning about.
Welcome to the Reception Team!
Miss Pearce (Peter Rabbit Class) – Miss Atkins (Paddington Bear Class) – Miss Smith (Elmer Class)
We are extremely lucky to have lots of members of staff who support the children across the week in all three classes and have helped us to settle them in to Reception life.
Mrs Roberts – Mrs Sutton – Mrs Kent – Mrs Bassey – Miss Coton – Mrs Vick – Mrs Salvador
What have we been up to this half term?
This half term, our topic has been Magical Me and we have spent lots of time playing and getting to know the children in Reception. We have had learnt lots about each other and ourselves including - our families, bodies, exploring our senses and bones! We have been busy exploring our new environment and building new friendships with our peers. Everyone in Reception has drawn their own family portrait to add to create their own family gallery in their classroom – it looks lovely!
Every morning, we have impressed our teachers with our fantastic phonics! “Phonics helps us to read and to write!” This half term we have learnt; 20 new phonemes, 3 tricky words, and are now beginning to blend for reading and segment for spelling. In more recent weeks, we have been doing our ‘Let’s Read’ sessions and have thoroughly enjoyed looking at the books and talking about the pictures. There is a real buzz in the classroom seeing all the children engaged and their love for reading!
In maths, we have spent time singing lots of number rhymes and becoming confident with counting to and from 10. Whilst following our ReknReks scheme, we have become familiar with the different Numberblocks and are now beginning to subitise numbers to 5.
This half term, we have been really lucky to have Coach Lucy come in every Monday for our own tennis session, and we have loved it! We have been practising our ball skills and ensuring we have control over our racket through different games. In our PE lessons, we have been developing our gross motor skills by completing different challenges; obstacle course, jumping through hoops, throwing, and catching and balancing on stilts!
“I like learning phonics and making my teachers proud!” – Rosa
“I enjoyred reading ‘we’re going on a bear hunt’!” – Jax
“I love making new friends here!” – Evie
“I love maths, it is my favourite and counting all the numberblocks!” – Sebastian
“I like playing outside and doing all my writing!” – Caleb
We have had a fantastic start to our school journey at Aragon and our teachers are incredibly proud of all our hard work. We cannot wait to continue all our wonderful adventures that are ahead of us next half term!
We have been very lucky in Reception and have had a coach from the Tim Henman Foundation come and teach us basic ball skills and control. Every Monday we will be having Coach Lucy come in to teach us some more tennis skills! Take a look at some of the action shots we got today! 
Thank you to Raynes Park High School and Sixth Form for organising this opportunity!
Healthy Me Week 2023 returns with a bang! 
‘Inclusion’ is this year’s focus of one of our most favourite weeks of the school year. We kicked off the week with a whole school assembly on the field whereby members of staff completed an obstacle race but with one of their senses removed to show what it’s like to compete with a physical impairment. Children watched and cheered on their teachers and then were able to have a go at some inclusive activities themselves including seated volleyball, goal ball and boccia.
During Healthy Me Week all of the children across the school took park in ‘Art in Action’ topic work. This varied from making foil people in action, drawing people in action using a variety of styles and also taking photos of people in action.
Below is a picture of a collaborative piece of art work created by a single piece of foil for each person (some exceptions for the accessories) where the children learnt the art of folding, twisting and cutting to make a person in action. Using just their hands and foil!
We have been busy learning all about Our Planet in Reception and last week we went on a Scavenger Hunt to our local part – searching for a whole list of things to find in our local area. We had lots of fun; these are some of the things the children said about our trip:
Last week, Aragon took part in National Numeracy Day 2023. All the children participated in a range of activities depending on their year group. Some of the activities outlined below are what all the children completed as a whole school approach.
Estimation
Across the school, children had to estimate how many pieces of maths equipment was in the jar. Estimation can be difficult and we had a range of different answers. Fatih (right) estimated 673 and Shafia (left) estimated 670. In total, there were 672 pieces of equipment. What an estimate!
Estimate the Weight
Children were given the task to make a figure using cubes. At the start of the session, the children were given a weight that they needed to successfully make. The difficulty was the children were not allowed to weigh their figure until the end. To help assist the children, we provided them with 100g weights. Successfully, Betty-Lew (3A) managed to reach the target of 122g. How impressive!
Shut the Box
The children thoroughly enjoyed the challenging game ‘Shut the Box’. This game involves children having to subitise (recognise numbers without counting) and find the totals to remove all the wooden blocks.
Welcome to Cluckingham Palace!
Well done to everyone who has joined us in creating chickens for King Charles Palace.
We learnt of King Charles’ love for chickens and got creative.
This is Aragon’s Cluckingham Palace, pride of place in the front office.
We have a host of mediums used to create over 110 amazing chicken and hens! Ranging from artists aged 3 to 11! A whole school art piece compiled of art work from pupils in nursery to year 6!
What a great day we have had!😀
We started our day with our Easter egg raffle and had a surprise visit from the Easter Bunny! We were so excited😀 After our Easter raffle, we split off into our house teams where we practised our team chant and enjoyed reading an Easter story all about the Easter Bunny🐰
Next we came back to Reception and had our own egg hunt. Each team had to collect the Easter eggs to see how many points they could win for their house team. Everyone did a great job but an extra special well done to team Unicorn who collected the most points🎉
To finish off our fun morning, we each got to decorate a special Easter decoration to take home! This afternoon we made our own yummy Easter nest cakes! Yum!🐣