St Swithun's CE Primary School

Tuesday 8 November 2022 Visit to The Porch Day Centre During Harvest time, we decided, as a school to support The Porch Day Centre in Oxford, by donating non-perishable foods. The Porch provides day-long support for homeless and vulnerably housed people wanting to move forward in their lives.

Tuesday 1 November 2022 Diwali Assembly On the Friday before October half term, we marked the upcoming festival of Diwali. Diwali is the festival of lights and is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains all over the world. We were fortunate to be joined by Ved’s mum and brother and Arvin’s mum as well as Mrs Patel who explained the main activities of the five days, the traditions behind each special day and what these celebrations include and look like. Children learnt that Diwali celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, through the story of Rama, Sita and Hanuman; that Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth is invited to homes which are decorated with rangoli designs and lit with divas (candles). Hindus pray that Goddess Laxmi brings wealth and good fortune in the new year. We learnt that it is 2079 in the Hindu calendar!

Monday 31 October 2022 Year 2 Explorer Day In Year 2, on the last day of term we had a very exciting day for our Great Explorers topic. We came dressed as explorers to school! First, we created binoculars ready to explore. Next we went on an adventure as David Livingstone, one of the explorers we’ve been learning about. After that, we discovered some new foods that had magical effects on us from across the globe. It was a fantastic day!

Tuesday 18 October 2022 Year 2 Explorer Dome

Tuesday 18 October 2022 Year 6 Map Reading Cedar Class enjoying their Geography lesson, where they were using ‘Digimaps’ to follow a route using six-figure grid references. They thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt more about how to read a map!

Monday 10 October 2022 New Eco Crew

Monday 10 October 2022 Celebrating Harvest Festival We celebrated Harvest in KS2 by using KitKats! If there were 50 children in the world across all 7 continents and 50 KitKats, would each child get one KitKat or would the distribution of food be uneven and therefore unfair The children helped work out that, although Asia and Africa have the largest populations, they don't have the greatest share of the food available. The children also decided that they should donate all the KitKats to the Porch as part of our Harvest offerings. Thought provoking!

Monday 10 October 2022 New Wellbeing Ambassadors

Monday 10 October 2022 New Worship Leaders Congratulations to Heidi, Amelie, Leo, Isabel, Ashleigh and Mathew who have been elected as Worship Leaders.

Friday 7 October 2022 New School Councillors

Thursday 29 September 2022 Congratulations Massive congratulations to Tor and Benny who were awarded the Bronze Award for their Clarinet playing on Friday!! Well done boys!!

Tuesday 27 September 2022 Year 3, 4 and 6 Singing Session Our thanks to Radley College for an exciting Singing Workshop for years 3, 4 and 6. The children were given an introduction to a capella as well as choral singing and learnt a few songs using call and response. They used their bodies as percussion and learnt some musical vocabulary including scale and octave. Thank you Radley College for coming to support us!

Tuesday 27 September 2022 Hackney Colliery Band Y5 trip to Radley WOW, one word - jazzy! Last Thursday, Year 5 had a fantastic time at Radley College embracing the exciting melodies that Hackney Colliery Band had to offer. We learnt about the different brass and percussion instruments they play to create their masterpieces. Whenever they played, we couldn't help but clap and dance along; creating a wave of enthusiasm amongst our classes.

Tuesday 20 September 2022 Year 6 Cooking Last week Year 6 started their cooking lessons. In their first session, they tried different naan breads and then made their own! Thank you to Ms Guthrie for working with the Year 6 children.

Tuesday 20 September 2022 Woodwork in Saplings Saplings have enjoyed experiencing our new woodwork area today. They have all shown great concentration and perseverance; using their finger and arm muscles to experiment with a hammer, nails, screwdrivers and screws.

Tuesday 13 September 2022 Lego Club is Back!! Pictures from our first Lego club of the year. We had a large group of excited children attend our lunch time club today! Lots of creativity and team work. The 30 mins flew by and we were sad that it ended- there's always next week!

Tuesday 13 September 2022 House Captain Elections

Tuesday 13 September 2022 Healthy Smiles Accreditation for St Swithun's! Congratulations to St Swithun's C of E Primary School for working with Community Dental Services and achieving their Healthy Smiles accreditation!!

Tuesday 13 September 2022 School Award We are pleased to announce that St Swithun’s School has been awarded ‘Silver’ for their school games mark. Well done to all of the adults working to keep our children as active as possible.

Thursday 21 July 2022 Leavers' Day Den Making

Tuesday 19 July 2022 Eco Award for St Swithun's 'We like how the Eco-Committee members communicate with each other and to internal and external stakeholders through using a variety of methods including reporting back to classes and through assemblies. You also use your lovely colourful and eye-catching Eco-Board and the school website.

Tuesday 19 July 2022 St Swithun's Water Day On 13th July we celebrated St Swithun’s Day early…it’s on 15th July. The legend is that the weather on 15 July supposedly determines the weather for the next forty days, as noted in the popular Elizabethan verse:

Tuesday 19 July 2022 Year 3 Art Project This term, some of the children in Y3 were fortunate enough to participate in a 4-week project with two visiting artists. Oli and Andrea worked with them and the Endeavour special school in Headington on a project entitled 'The Gift'. Their focus was well-being and their aim to produce artwork that could be gifted to the other school. The children in Willow class produced works inspired by contemporary artists and ranged from a hanging origami mobile, a dance, a sequence of photographic stills and a wooden puzzle. In turn, St Swithun's was gifted a fabulous artwork made by the students at Endeavour that can be seen hanging in reception.

Tuesday 19 July 2022 Year 1 & 2 Hillend Visits!! Recently the Year 1 and 2 classes visited Hillend Outdoor Centre for day trips (Year 1) and overnight stays (Year 2).

Tuesday 12 July 2022 Kabantu Concert

Tuesday 12 July 2022 Year 5 Project Pylon You may recall that our Year 5 children took part in a project, organised by Oxford City Council and sponsored by Pivot Power, to raise the profile of renewable energy. Children used inspiration from pylon designs around the world to design and create their own pylons made out of willow. Well, the artist children worked with – Andrew Manson – used one of the children’s designs to inspire his Superhub Mural. The design he chose can be seen at Redbridge Park and Ride.

Monday 11 July 2022 Street Tag Here are our latest, most active Oxfordshire School teams from the concluded Season 3 of the Vale of White Horse Schools leaderboard, 2022.

Tuesday 5 July 2022 Schools Eco Application Submitted The School Council have now submitted their application for an Eco-Schools Award. The final step was to write an Eco-Code which will be displayed in school.Congratulations to Runa, Ikram, Audrey and Ellie for winning the energy-saving poster competition and to so many others for entering. It's great to see re-cycling have a higher profile in the lunch hall and our energy monitors are doing a great job reminding us to turn off the lights! The good weather has enabled teachers to do a few lessons outside and our new caretaker, Mr Martin, is talking to the cleaning company about using more environmentally-friendly products.

Tuesday 5 July 2022 Larch's AMAZING trip to Abingdon School What an amazing and 'poptasic' experience Larch Class had during our Science workshop at Abingdon School on Friday. We developed our observation and measuring skills by testing out some indicators in acids and alkalis and examining the results. We also added a piece of magnesium to hydrochloric acid and then set fire to the gas within the test tube to see what would happen. Our session, quite literally, ended with a bang when our teacher showed us the effect of setting fire to a hydrogen filled balloon. A massive THANK YOU to the staff at Abingdon School for accommodating us and for this brilliant workshop!

Thursday 30 June 2022 We love Lego club!!! We love Lego club! From towns to cities, to cars and people.. We love creating them all!

Tuesday 28 June 2022 St Swithun's Sports Days Last week we had two successful sports days with Foundation & KS1 on Monday and KS2 on Friday. Merlin were the winning house for Foundation & KS1 and Red Kite were the winners for KS2. All did brilliantly in their events and a special thank you to the sports leaders for running the field events and Premier Sports for preparing the children for their races.Well done to everyonewho took part!!

Tuesday 21 June 2022 Year 6 Matthew Arnold Sports Day Last Friday 17th St Swithun's went to Matthew Arnold for a sports afternoon along with the Y6s from North Hinksey School and Botley School.

Thursday 16 June 2022 World Ocean Day Using cues and changing the tint and the shade the children designed their own pictures to show the different layers of the ocean. We took our learning outside and we measured out a life size whale on the playground and as a team we formed the shape to show how large a whale is. It was great fun!!

Thursday 16 June 2022 Saplings visit Science Oxford We went to Science Oxford and had a wonderful time exploring in the Discovery and Exploration rooms and then going out for a woodland walk . We played a game that helped us to understand how bees collect pollen from flowers and then went bug hunting, some of us even found a newt! It was an amazing day!

Tuesday 14 June 2022 Year 6 Quadkids Event Year 6s participated in a Quadkids event at Botley School on Monday 13thJune 2022. Quadkids is an athletics event, where the children sprint 75m, run 600m (long distance), do a vortex howler throw and a long jump. The children who went represented the school brilliantly and came 2ndout of 6 teams. Caelan also came 2ndin the top 3 individual year 5/6 boys. Well done!

Thursday 9 June 2022 Year 5 MAD Museum visit What fun was had when Elm Class visited The Mechanical Art and Design Museum in Stratford upon Avon on Tuesday 7 June. Children relished the opportunity to see and interact with a wide range of automata. ( An automaton is a control mechanism designed to follow a predetermined sequence of operations.)

Tuesday 7 June 2022 Jubilee Celebrations On the last day of term, St Swithun's had a lovely day celebrating the Queen's Jubilee by giving the children the option to dress in red, white and blue. We all enjoyed scones with jam and cream on the field for morning tea and also planted a special Jubilee tree, which was donated to the school by Millets Farm.

Friday 27 May 2022 Year 6 Hampton Court Visit Year 6 visited Hampton Court on Thursday 26thMay 2022 as part of their Tudor topic, which was back in the Autumn term. Due to Covid bubbles, it was postponed but it was just as exciting. The children had a workshop about Henry VIII’s court and explored the palace. The children represented the school really well and were a delight to take. Thank you to Miss Maskell for organising such an amazing trip!

Friday 27 May 2022 Project Pylon Year 5 children had a fantastic day working with a local artist, Andrew Manson, and an engineer from Pivot Power to find out more about the history, innovation and benefits of green energy, sustainability and environmental art. This creative project, sponsored by Oxfordshire City Council, is related to the electric vehicle charging hub opening at Redbridge Park and Ride in the summer and supports our current learning on Global Warming.

Tuesday 24 May 2022 Cedar's Science Workshop at Abingdon School The children really enjoyed their visit to Abingdon School The session was based around lab skills and the children did different experiments with acids and alkalis.

Tuesday 10 May 2022 Year 3 Visit Chedworth Roman Villa Last week, Oak Class alongside Willow Class, went to visit the National Trust site Chedworth Roman Villa as part of their history topic of Roman Britain. Chedworth Roman Villa is located in Gloucestershire and is one of the largest and most elaborate Roman villas so far discovered in Britain.

Monday 9 May 2022 Thursday at Kilvrough

Thursday 5 May 2022 Day 2 in the Big Kilvrough House

Wednesday 4 May 2022 News from Kilvrough

Tuesday 3 May 2022 Singing Squad trip to Young Voices - Tues 26/4/22 Well, all that can be said is WOWWW!!. After months of hard work practising the songs and dance moves, and also having to endure the disappointment of a postponement, the wait was definitely worth it as Singing Squad and staff made the journey down to Wembley for an afternoon rehearsal and an evening performance of fantastic singing, beat boxing and street dancing for the Young Voices 2022 concert. The atmosphere was electric and taking part in a huge musical performance along with about 4,500 other children was awesome and life enhancing. Despite it being a very long day, the children simply shone; they sang and danced their hearts out. They represented St. Swithun's incredibly well and they should be very proud of themselves. It was certainly a day to remember and cherish for the rest of their lives.

Friday 1 April 2022 Year 6 visit Science Oxford Year 6 had a visit from Science Oxford on Tuesday 30thMarch 2022 and they did a workshop all about survival of the fittest. The activities were all hands on and the children learnt about how the finches that Darwin observed had different shaped beaks (represented by the different sized clips) and therefore, could only eat and survive off certain foods. The children also learnt about how competition could impact on chances to survive! The workshop was fun and engaging and the children learnt lots about our Science topic of Evolution.

Tuesday 29 March 2022 Saplings Mother's Day Tea

Tuesday 29 March 2022 Shona Beecham Music Assembly St Swithuns were lucky enough to have Shona Beecham come and play her violin to the whole school on Thursday 24th March. Shona is currently at the Royal College of Music and has played in concerts around the world. She is also a member of the Chineke! Junior Orchestra who have been featured on Britain’s Got Talent! Our thanks to Shona for a wonderful concert of Bach and Dvoâ„¢ák

Thursday 24 March 2022 Children's Mental Health Awareness Week WOW!!! Take a look at the AMAZING and creative balloons the children made following Childrens' Mental Health Awareness Week. They brighten up our school and it is a delight to see them displayed and hanging around. We looked at the different strategies that we can all employ should we not be feeling too great. These may include going for a walk, playing some sport, reading a book, getting out into nature, deep breathing and mindful colouring. On our balloons, we wrote these on the basket so we had these in our own toolkit to keep us secure, just like the basket does. We also listed the different trusted people whom we could talk to during these times. Speaking with someone can really support when we are feeling upset or 'out of sorts'. These people can lift us up when we are feeling down, and so this is why we wrote their names on the balloon.

Tuesday 22 March 2022 Schools Eco Award

Tuesday 22 March 2022 British Science Week 2022 Following an egg-citing launch assembly on Monday, children across the school engaged in a week of hands-on science. They enjoyed being scientists; exploring, predicting, discovering and asking/answering questions about the science around them using CREST awards as a stimulus for their learning. Children learnt about scientists and their various roles in our world. There was a real science buzz across the school, it’s full of future scientists!

Tuesday 15 March 2022 Year 5 Radley College Visit The Year 5's were lucky enough to visit Radley College last week to attend a concert performed by Braimah Kanneh-Mason. It was an amazing opportunity for the children to experience this and we hope it was inspiring for them.

Tuesday 15 March 2022 Year 4 Big Sing On Thursday 10thMarch, Year 4 took part in the 'Big Sing' in the magnificent surroundings of Radley College Chapel, along with children from6 other local primary schools. They had a wonderful time singing and composing songs based on nonsense poems!

Tuesday 15 March 2022 Anti Bullying Assembly Last week our Anti bullying ambassadors gave a presentation to Key Stage 2 to discuss the importance of their role and what to do if you have any concerns in school. They will be repeating this presentation to Key Stage 1 tomorrow. They did a fantastic job putting the assembly together and presenting it themselves. Well done to all of them!

Friday 11 March 2022 Year 2's trip to the British Motor Museum The children learnt about the oldest car, and went on board a 99 year old bus. They enjoyed using their own special notebook and pencil to write down facts and sketch what they saw.

Tuesday 8 March 2022 School Council start Eco Award!

Tuesday 8 March 2022 Year 5 Orienteering Mr Briggs and Mr French took ten Year 5 children to the orienteering event, organised by Mr Taylor at North Hinksey Rugby Club. They did a fantastic job and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Tuesday 8 March 2022 Year 1 History Workshop Year 1 had a fantastic History workshop where we learnt all about Mary Seacole. First, we explored what life was like during her life, discovering that they didn’t have light bulbs and the fastest mode of travel was a steam train. We then explored and imagined her British hotel and realised that it was nothing like the hospitals we have today. Next, we became nurses and helped our wounded toys by bandaging their wounds. We had a great time!

Friday 4 March 2022 World Book Day - Where's Wally!!! The children had a lovely day dressing up in their own versions of Where's Wally. They enjoyed sharing and reading their favourite books with their buddy classes as well as doing Where's Wally themed work and activities. Thanks to all parents and carers for your support with getting costumes sorted!

Thursday 3 March 2022 Singing Squad Singing Squad is run every Wednesday afternoon between 3.25pm - 4.15pm and is held in the Key Stage 2 Hall with Miss Maskell and Mrs Thrower.

Thursday 3 March 2022 Shrove Tuesday in Saplings On Shrove Tuesday, everyone in Saplings had a wonderful time enjoying pancakes. Each class made their own batter mixtures, chose the toppings they'd like on their pancakes and then thoroughly enjoyed eating them! We also did a good job of washing up our plates afterwards too!

Thursday 3 March 2022 Rowan Science Trip to Abingdon School We enjoyed a trip to Abingdon School to be scientists. As soon as we walked in we put on lab coats and protective glasses. One of us said ‘ I’m a real scientist, I can’t wait to get started.’ Another said ‘ this is terrific seeing the science happen!’ We have been learning about healthy eating so we learnt about energy in food by burning different foods and investigating what this told us about the energy in them. It was exciting when the teachers showed us this with sugar as it created a huge flame!

Monday 28 February 2022 Year 2 Explorers Day In Year 2, on the last day of term we had a very exciting day finishing our Great Explorers topic. We came dressed as explorers to school! First we had created our own world map puzzle and then virtually explored our favourite places on Google Earth. After that we discovered some new foods that had magical effects on us from across the globe. We created our own binoculars to spot our new discoveries more easily. Finally we created paintings of the animals we invented in Science. It was a fantastic day!

Friday 18 February 2022 Year 6 - Bird Spotting & Sketching In art, Year 6 have been studying the work of Frank Jarvis, who is known for his field sketching. He has a passion for nature and in particular, birds. These photos of Cedar class show the children bird spotting in the school’s garden and doing field sketches themselves. A great way to spend a Friday in the sunshine!

Friday 18 February 2022 Year 5 Football Tournament The Year 5s represented the school well and won most of their games. The football festival was at Tilsley Park in Abingdon. All involved had a great time! Thank you to Mr Kearney and Mr French for accompanying the boys.

Friday 18 February 2022 Year 1 The Great Fire of London! In Year 1 this term, we have be learning all about The Great Fire of London. We have really enjoyed finding out that itstarted in a bakery on Pudding Lane in 1666. We explored the reasons for the fire spreading so far and lasting for so long and discovered that the houses were made of wood, packed close together and there was no fire brigade! In art, we created our very own houses out of boxes and then had our own fire, with real fire! It was all very exciting!

Tuesday 15 February 2022 Year 4 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Day Wacky Willie Wonka Day for year 4

Friday 11 February 2022 Year 5 Bikeability Sessions Some children in Elm Class have been taking part in the Bikeability programme which provides children with the skills, knowledge and understanding to cycle safely on the roads. Children have learnt about the ‘ABCDs’ of cycle maintenance and are building their road confidence. Trained instructors help children cycle safely and responsibly, identify and respond to hazards, learn to start and stop on-road journeys and maintain suitable riding positions, show children how to share the road and communicate with other road users, understand signals, signs and road markings and advise children how to manage risk when cycling and negotiate junctions. A valuable life skill!

Friday 11 February 2022 Year 4 Science Enrichment Session As a result of our recent collaboration with Abingdon Science Partnership, children across Year 4 participated in a Primary Physics Workshop to support their learning on ‘States of Matter’. Children enjoyed using laboratory apparatusand measuring equipment, including Bunsen burners. They investigated questions related to evaporation and condensationand discovered more about solids, liquids and gases.

Thursday 10 February 2022 Year 3 visit Oxford History Museum On Friday the 4thFebruary, Willow and Oak Classes went to the Oxford History Museum where we experienced an amazing workshop all about human and animal skeletons. We also were able to look around the museum at all the amazing artefacts.

Thursday 10 February 2022 Chinese New Year Last week the children in our nursery and reception classes (Saplings) have been busy learning about Chinese New Year. We learnt that as part of the traditional celebrations, people clean their houses, so we cleaned our classrooms! Then we tried some noodles, rice and crackers, we decided that they were very yummy. Then some of us had a go a writing in the style of chinese writing, that was tricky! Then on Friday we ended our celebrations by dancing to music as the animals from the Chinese calendar and then creating our very own Chinese dance with ribbons and mirror dancing - great fun!

Friday 4 February 2022 A massive thank you!! Thank you to everyone who donated and purchased a signed Korky Paul book when we were lucky enough to have him visitin January.

Thursday 3 February 2022 What's been happening in Year 2? In writing journeys in Year 2 we have just finished the book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers. We really enjoyed learning lots of vocabulary to describe the exasperated and furious stationery we discovered in our own classrooms. We wrote our letters as angry stationery, and created our own class books. As well as writing, we illustrated our books too in the style of Oliver Jeffers.

Friday 28 January 2022 May Fair - Can you help???

Tuesday 25 January 2022 Drago's Fire Safety KS1 had a visit from Oxfordshire Fire Service last week to tell us all about how to be safe with fire. They told us a story about Drago the Dragon and how he learnt to be careful with matches. After that we got to see inside the fire engine. We asked the firemen questions about their job and learnt a lot!!

Friday 21 January 2022 Art & Craft Club The newly launched Art and Craft Club is proving a success with the childing enjoying making and creating things!!

Thursday 20 January 2022 February Half Term Holiday Camp

Thursday 13 January 2022 Korky Paul Visits Our huge thanks to Korky Paul, the illustrator of the Winnie the Witch Stories, for entertaining and inspiring us all to read and draw. Korky's enthusiasm and sense of fun was infectious and it was wonderful to see the children enjoying themselves so much.

Thursday 16 December 2021 200 Club December Super Draw Winners

Thursday 16 December 2021 Breakfast Club & Art Club Launch St Swithun's and Oxford Active are excited to announce the launch of a Breakfast Club and Arts and Crafts Club from January 2022.

Thursday 16 December 2021 Christingle The children really enjoyed the Christingle service this week. Thank you to all who participated.

Monday 13 December 2021 Christmas Lunch All our children enjoyed the Christmas Lunch.

Thursday 9 December 2021 BBC Oxford Visit BBC Oxford came into school to film our KS2 children singing carols.

Monday 6 December 2021 Year 5 Viking Experience Year 5 were lucky enough to welcome a ‘real-life’ Viking to our school on Monday 6thof December to deliver an inspirational and interactive workshop all about the Viking way of life and the invasion of Britain. Amongst other activities, children had the opportunity to take part in a craft project and be immersed in storytelling. They all had a fantastic time!!!

Monday 6 December 2021 COP 26 Here's a sample of how our children learnt about COP26 and what it hoped to achieve.

Friday 3 December 2021 Football Tournament

Wednesday 1 December 2021 Noah's Pudding "I think the message of the story is that you don't need to all act the same to be in a community. Neither do you all need something external to bring you all together. You just need each other - if one person was left out of the community, it wouldn't be the same."

Friday 26 November 2021 Anti Bullying Ambassadors

Friday 19 November 2021 Children In Need 2021

Monday 15 November 2021 Odd Sock Day Nov 2021

Monday 15 November 2021 Explorer Dome For Year 2

Friday 12 November 2021 Handwriting Competition

Monday 18 October 2021 Woodlands Oct 2021

Thursday 14 October 2021 Welcome to our new website

St Swithuns CE Primary School

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