Noticeboard: School Blog

Children of the World

The Christmas production of 'Children of the World' saw Year 6 and the whole school leading their families and friends on an amazing tour through a variety of countries.  Each class represented a different nation, such as China, Malawi and Australia.  The music and costumes brought the whole experience to life, and all children should be congratulated on their performance. 

 

Autumn Term 2011

Front Entrance Project!
Finally, after a long wait, work has started on our new front entrance to the school.  The extension will not only give us a brand new reception area and office, but a medical bay, extended kitchen area and new EYFS cloakroom.  We look forward to the grand opening!

Hello from Stone Farm!

Thursday 24^th March 2011
Our penultimate morning arrived quicker than any of us could have imagined, and we gobbled down as much as we could eat at breakfast before heading out on the coach for our final day trip – Morwellham Quay, a Victorian living history museum.

We were greeted by our team of guides in full Victorian dress, and were immediately thrown back in time.  Throughout the day, we took part in a wide range of activities which helped us to really understand what life was like in the Victorian Era.

Dressing up in traditional Victorian clothes, we paraded around the Quay before having our photographs taken – it was a bit different to our usual hoodies but some of us really took a shine to it all! 
 

  

The Victorian school room and the mine’s dressing floor gave us an unforgettable experience, and fascinating insight, of how it must have been for children in that time.  With a vast amount of knowledge gained, we waved goodbye to our guides and travelled back into the 21^st Century and onto Stone Farm.

The barn hosted our final evening, and we all enthusiastically joined in for an evening of line dancing and country dancing.  It was tremendous fun performing all the dances we’d been practising back at school, and everyone certainly looked the part in their cowboy hats!  The evening was rounded off with a presentation of certificates by the teachers – ‘Best Servers’, ‘Tidiest Bedrooms’ and many more humorous achievements were congratulated before we headed back to Applestone for our last night’s sleep.
 

 

We have all had the most amazing time down here in Devon, and we’re looking forward to sharing all of our stories and photos with you when we get home!


Wednesday 23^rd March 2011
Our day began at a much more reasonable time of the morning, but with as equally large breakfast as the day before.  After we had eaten our fill, our teachers handed out Stone Farm t-shirts as a souvenir of our visit which we all decided to wear straight away.

The coach took us to our coastal destination of Plymouth, where we made our way to the National Maritime Aquarium.  We were met by Lauren and Caroline, who would be our guides for the day, and we started our tour of the underwater world.  
 

 

We saw a huge range of fascinating creatures, one of which being Inca the Giant Pacific Octopus – she was amazing!  Having travelled the world’s oceans, we stopped for a sandwich feast before heading into our 4D experience.  We all had a great laugh as the chairs moved, water splashed and sea creatures came out of the screen towards us.

Leaving the sunny coast behind us, we headed back to Bridestowe village to find out how it compared to Chobham.  We couldn’t believe how small the village was, especially the school!

After dinner, we made our way over to the barn for our evening activity – a falconry display.  There were plenty of ‘Ooos’ and ‘Ahhs’ as we saw 4 different birds of prey: a Harris Hawk, a Kestrel, an Indian Eagle Owl and a Kara Kara.

 

Hello from Stone Farm!

Tuesday 22^nd March 2011
We rose particularly early today, excited to find out what the day was to offer!  A hearty breakfast (including seconds!) provided us with adequate sustenance for a day on Dartmoor.  Our guides, Phil & Mike, arrived and ensured we had all the right kit – packing for today was quite tricky as we also had to take everything we needed for swimming in the evening!

 

We were dropped off on Dartmoor by Kev, our coach driver, and we began our trek across the moor.  Phil & Mike taught us a lot about how people used to live on Dartmoor from the Bronze Age through to more recent times, and expertly guided us to our lunch stop where we consumed our second, and equally large, meal of the day.
 

 

After lunch, we continued our expedition – this time into an area of perilous bog!  After a chuckle at the wobbliness of the ground, we settled down and listened to a story about the demise of Vixana in the bog.  Without any of us sinking into the mucky depths, we journeyed back to the coach and were taken to Tavistock, where we enjoyed washing off the mud whilst we swam and lazed in the bubble pool.
 

 

Arriving back at Stone Farm, it was time for our third mega-feast of the day.  Luckily, we all remembered what we had ordered at breakfast, and we successfully demolished everything our cooks could put in front of us – waste not, want not!

Feeling very full, we settled down to sketching Stone Farm’s resident birds of prey: Hush, the Barn Owl and Hedwig, the African Eagle Owl.  It was fascinating to see these magnificent birds up close.  Our final activity of the day was the Bale Maze, and some of us were even brave enough to find our way through without our torches!  After a fun packed day, and with a host of tired faces, we wearily made our way to bed and were asleep before our heads hit the pillows!  ZZZzzzz....

 

Hello from Stone Farm!

Morning all!
After a few connectivity teething problems, we are now back online, we’re hoping it remains this way but please bear with us; technology seems to be as relaxed as the way of life down here!

Monday 21^st March 2011
Monday morning saw the arrival of the eagerly anticipated Residential visit to Stone Farm in Devon.  After much packing and excitement (and that was just the teachers!), we loaded all of our luggage onto the coach, waved goodbye to our parents and set off on our journey. 

Our electronic items kept us amused and we soon arrived at Montacute House for lunch – yum!  A quick toilet stop and we were back on the coach for the final leg of the journey.

 

We arrived at Stone Farm in good time, where we were met by Mr Hatton and his wife.  Mr Hatton gave us a tour of ‘Applestone’, our accommodation for the week, before finding out our bedroom groups and unloading the coach.

  

 

Beds made and rooms tidy (for now!) Mr Hatton showed us round the farm and we met all the animals we were going to be working with throughout the week: rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, goats, pigs, geese and even alpacas to name a few.  We were all looking forward to getting better acquainted as the week went by! First challenge of the Residential was to decide, and remember(!), our choice of sandwich for Tuesday’s lunch and our first evening meal. 

Dinnertime soon arrived, and it was time to test out our first round of ‘servers’.  Some of us were more adept at table service than others, but we were soon tucking into our first feast of fish, sausages and veggie burgers followed by a choice of ice cream.  ‘Seconds’ served and eaten, we cleared our tables – honing our skills for when we return home!

 

 

Our evening activity began with postcard writing home – we hope you receive them before we get back!  We then headed out into the dark for our campfire, where we sat round singing songs and toasting marshmallows.  Our first day came to an end, and we wearily made our way to bed full of excitement for what was to come the next day...

 

Spring Term 2010

As part of World Book Day, everyone in school dressed up as their favourite Book Character:

 

Characters ranged from Robin Hood and Alice in Wonderland, right through to Gandalf from Lord of the Rings!  The day started with our traditional 'Character Parade' Assembly which gave the whole school the opportunity to see what everyone else had come as.

And it wasn't only the children who had made an effort, as the whole teaching team had come as Dalmatians from the 101 Dalmatians story, including a Cruella de Ville who spent part of the assembly rounding up stray dogs with the help of Horace and Jasper, her two henchmen!

Great fun was had by all and prizes were awarded for the best costumes - congratulations to Sophie (YR), Joe (Y1), Eva (Y2), Stephen (Y3), Alex and Connor (Y4), Joshua and Jonathan (Y5) and Emily (Y6).

Autumn Term 2009

History was the focus during our Enrichment Week:

 

As part of their work on Remembrance Sunday, Years 1 & 2 visited the Chobham War Memorial to place the wreaths that they had made.  They finished the week with a Street Party involving jam sandwiches and rice pudding!

Years 3 & 4 continued their work on the Tudors and took part in lots of activities, including learning to dance and cook in a Tudor style.  Henry VIII even came back and visited!

Years 5 & 6 started the week with a WW2 day, dressing up as school children from 1939, and thinking about what evacuation might have been like.  Amongst other activities, they made gas mask boxes and built their own Anderson Shelters.

Spring / Summer Term 2009

Spring Term 2009: During Arts Week the whole school were involved in the creation of a bench for our Environmental Area. All the children had the opportunity to work with a professional sculptor.

Summer Term 2009: Once again the PTA oversaw the creation of the school float for the Chobham May Carnival.  The theme was 'Children's Favourites' and we opted for the Mr Men.  Despite the weather, children, staff and parents all dressed up and took part in the procession, and we were very pleased to be awarded 'Best Overall Float' - the winning shield is now proudly on display in our trophy cabinet!

Spring Term 2009

In early February, like lots of the country, the school and Chobham village were badly hit by snow:

The adverse weather conditions meant that the school had to close for 2 days as it wasn't possible for anybody to get in. However, staying at home meant lots of time to play in the snow, building snowmen and snow angels!