We began by thinking about what makes Swavesey special to us. We talked about how we enjoy being part of groups such as Rainbows and Beavers. We then thought about the faith communities in Swavesey.

We visited St Andrew’s church and met Reverend Stephen Dove. He showed us around the church and shared a story from The Bible. He told us about how the church supports the community. We enjoyed making our own stained glass windows

We also learnt about the Muslim community in Swavesey and Cambridge. Mrs Nadia talked to us about Ramadan and the festival of Eid. She also shared her photographs of the Cambridge Mosque and spoke about the important roles it plays for Muslims.

We have been really proud of how thoughtful, inquisitive and respectful the children have been.

Well done Year 1 and 2. 

‘I enjoyed my visit to the environment area. I especially liked working with a partner exploring nature.’ Olivia

‘It was nice seeing Mrs Norden open the wildlife area and then I enjoyed exploring.’ Sophie

‘I liked the treasure hunt where we had to match photos of plants to real life plants.’ Poppy

‘It was fun seeing nature such as the trees, flowers and bugs.’ Grayson

‘I liked sketching pictures of trees, leaves and plants.’ Buzzy.

‘I enjoyed working with my partner matching the photos.’ Hasandi

‘I am really happy that the environment area is now open and that I could wander around looking at nature.’ Callum

‘It was fun looking at the detail on the bark of the trees and finding bugs under the logs.’ Joe

As part of Science Week we also learnt about a local scientist, Elsie Widdowson who lived in Barrington near Cambridge, for 60 years. Elsie was a pioneering nutrition scientist who helped to develop war time rations. We were curious to find out more about war rations and how people managed to stay fit and healthy during the war despite being on a rationed diet. The fun fact we learnt was that rationing made those growing up in the war cut out rich, sugary and fatty foods, which had a positive impact on their growing brains. Perhaps we should be more curious and try eating less sugar to see if it makes our brains grow?

We have also been curious about the future and have explored the role of AI. We discussed whether all human activity and thinking could be replaced by a robot. What do you think? We thought about the risks involved in machine learning jobs as opposed to how robots can be useful and enhance our lives. We sorted machine-based jobs and ranked them as to how much we’d trust them doing the job. Would you trust a robot?

We tested our ‘book smart knowledge’ in quizzes; it is amazing how many book characters we know! Swallows Class got a shout out online for doing so well in the quiz 😊

KS1 planned to join an online session with the author and illustrator Marta Altes although unfortunately this has had to be rescheduled due to technical difficulties. KS2 learnt about author Kwame Alexander’s life and participated in a fun online ‘Writing Poetry Couplets’ workshop.

The highlight of our week was Book Day itself when pupils and teachers dressed up as characters from books including strange looking creatures, wizards, robots and cowboys to name a few. We marvelled at each other’s costumes during our parade in the playground. Jonty Gentoo the penguin visited school and caused a great stir in the playground too, thanks to Mr Thomson.

We also enjoyed sharing story books with children across the year groups. It was lovely to see the engagement and joy on younger children’s faces as the older children shared books with them, some written by themselves!

Please look out for your child’s £1 book token which should have been sent home this week and continue to share our love of reading!

The children learnt about the Iron Age discovering what daily life may have been like and how people showed resilience and strength to survive. They produced wonderful non-chronological reports sharing their learning and thinking carefully about how to captivate their audience.

They also read the Iron Man by Ted Hughes with their class and learnt about the themes of friendship, courage and strength.

We hope you enjoy looking at some of our fabulous work. Well done to all the pupils for such a fantastic effort, we are incredibly proud of them!

The pupils impressed everyone with their clear voices, enthusiastic acting and fantastic costumes. We would like to say a huge well done to all of the children for such a brilliant performance. It was a memorable experience and a great way to celebrate learning through music, drama and history.

We hope you enjoy looking at photos from our dress rehearsal. 

To bring their learning to life, the children have been exploring a range of play sets designed to reflect nursing through different eras. Florence Nightingale’s set includes a medical chest inspired by her own, complete with blankets, bandages, ‘medicine’ bottles and even a rat to represent the challenging conditions of Scutari Hospital.

The World War I set features a travel suitcase filled with pretend creams, ointments and bandages, helping the children imagine the resourcefulness of nurses working on the front line.

Our modern nursing set is packed with contemporary ‘mimic’ tools, and one of our teaching assistants enjoyed being thoroughly “treated” by Squirrels Class as they practised their new skills.

The children have loved stepping into the shoes of these remarkable women, deepening their understanding through imaginative play and hands‑on exploration.

They returned to the School Council with a host of exciting ideas, from creating small habitats like bug hotels, birdhouses, and hedgehog houses, to planting wildflower seeds that will support visiting pollinators. Many children were also keen to use magnifying glasses and identification sheets to explore the wildlife that may soon call the area home. There were lots of different and exciting ideas shared from all the classes and now our school council will sort through these and start the process of turning this space into something very exciting for both the children and local wildlife!

We’re thrilled to see such enthusiasm for developing a space that encourages curiosity, care for nature, and hands‑on learning. 

Our Year 5 and Year 6 pupils have been bringing history to life through an exciting Design & Technology project linked to their learning about World War II. As part of their studies on life during the war, the children explored how families kept safe during air raids and then set out to design and build their very own Anderson shelters. Blending historical understanding with hands‑on construction skills, they investigated materials, practised joining techniques and experimented with structural strength before creating detailed models of these iconic wartime shelters.

Here is one child’s explanation of the process:

“We did a DT project of making Anderson Shelters. First, we did research on different types of shelters. Then, we practised joining techniques with straws and pieces of wood. Next, we learnt to measure accurately — which was very important if it was going to stick together right. Subsequently, we made our designs for our structures. After that, we made different structures using cocktail sticks and sweets. Once we were happy with how to make a strong structure, we started to construct our final shelters. Once the basic structure was complete, we did the exterior for our shelters using lots of different resources.”

This morning, all the children and staff were treated to a fabulous end‑of‑term pantomime — oh yes they were! — enjoying a lively performance of Rick Whittington and his cat as they journeyed to London to take on the mischievous rats. The hall was filled with laughter, cheers and plenty of “It’s behind you!” moments as the story unfolded.

The show was bursting with songs, dances and heaps of audience participation. Some very lucky pupils were even invited up on stage, becoming part of the magic (and mayhem!) themselves.

One child told us, “I loved it! It was so funny! I really liked the bit with the birds that had phobias.” Another said, “I really liked the bit where Rick finally met the Queen! She couldn’t really hear him and it was so funny that she kept getting it wrong! It was a nice way to end the term.”

And a final pupil — or should we say Tiddles the Cat — who got to leap into the spotlight shared, “I LOVED the pantomime! It was really fun getting to do Kung Fu as Tiddles the Cat and I really liked getting chosen to be in the show.”

With cheers, giggles and a whole lot of panto magic, it was the purr‑fect way to finish the morning and celebrate the end of term together.

This year our focus was the power for good to encourage our pupils  'to speak out, support others, and build a world where kindness wins.'  Thank you to our parents and carers for supporting us and raising money for the Anti-bullying alliance.

We started with celebrating it by having odd socks on the Monday. Each class chose activities based on this to encourage all our pupils that it is everyone's role to help stop bullying. We asked pupils to complete work such as demonstrating how they use power for good to stop bullying.  Below is some of the work to demonstrate the activities children did as well as some photos of our wonderful odd socks!

For more information and support please visit the following website 

https://anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/anti-bullying-week-2025/anti-bullying-week-2025

"The corn snake felt hard and scaly, the tarantula was too itchy to touch, the lizard was heavy, big and skinny, the cockroach was scary and golden.  The snake was called buttercup, she was very long.  The lizard climbed my arm and slept a little. " - Oliver 

"The gecko crawled up my arm , it felt soft as a pillow.  It did not change colour it just stayed green.  The corn snake was silky and smooth, it looked like it was tangled up. " - Nura 

"The gecko jumped from one arm to another and it was really funny. " - Daisy

We have also been busy raising money for the Royal British Legion. Many children made donations and received poppies, snapbands, and reflectors. Thank you for all your generous contributions!

Here are some of the thoughts of the children during the silence:

• "During the silence, I thought about all the soldiers who fought in the war for our country. I thought about how much they risked their lives so we can live peacefully. "
   
• " I thought about my great, great, great grandad who fought in war and I remembered all the others who fought for the country with him. My family have told me all about my great, great, great granddad before, so I remembered their stories"
   
• " I was thinking about all the soldier in the war and how they saved our lives. I forgot to get a poppy this year though! Peace is so important because we all be free!"

These creative sessions have given pupils the chance to immerse themselves in ancient techniques and explore how early humans expressed themselves through art and craft. Over the next two weeks, the children will continue to develop their skills in clay work, carving, weaving and painting to deepen their understanding of this fascinating period in history.

The children showed great enthusiasm and creativity as they took part in each activity. Some of them shared their reflections on the experience:

“I enjoyed the weaving because it was fun, even though it was quite tricky.”
“The cave painting on Mod-Roc was a little hard but I liked drawing and painting the animals.”
“In clay work, we made thumb pots. I enjoyed making the coils and smoothing them out.”

Years 3 and 4 had a wonderful day visiting the Anglo Saxon settlement in Suffolk on Wednesday.

The highlight of the day was exploring the unique designs of the Saxon houses, looking at the features of the sunken feature buildings and everyday objects found inside.

We all became historians for the day, examining artefacts, asking and answering questions based upon the evidence found.

It was a great day out and we built upon our Saxon knowledge and understanding.

We even had time for a quick play at the adventure playground!

Please view more of our photos by clicking this link.