We shared information about our characters and our books, sharing recommendations with friends and learning about some books we hadn't heard of before.

In English, we went on a trip along our Reading Rivers - tracking all our interactions with reading, from our earliest memories with parents and family members all the way through present day and into future reading aspirations. It was a lovely activity which helped us realise how much reading we do in every day life and think about the uses of reading aside from the obvious enjoyment of books.

Everyone enjoyed Achievers' Assembly where we spotted some amazing character outfits from other year groups, many of us finding a look-alike! (Shout out to the 2 other Dorothys!) 

A big thank you to all the family members for supporting the children in their character dressing up (we know it's not easy - how many times did your child change their mind??) and also thank you to those that came in at the end of the day to read in the classroom. A lovely day, celebrating the brilliance of reading!

The children showed fantastic resilience and teamwork, as they worked on troubleshooting problems and refining their designs, and all under a time pressure!

Although the children were led by experienced STEM ambassador, Samantha Ahern, they worked independently and their creations were completely their own. There is no doubt that we have some fantastic engineers in the making!

Having been training since September, every Friday lunch time, the Year 5 and 6 teams were ready and raring as they spent the afternoon running either a half mile or full mile around Knights Templar's sports field.

Conditions were perfect, we were minus the driving rain from last year, but with a cool breeze to keep the runners from overheating. The 12 children were nervous but ready to take part against the 10 other schools in each category. Even though everyone runs as an individual, the team scores are collected at the end to make a Year 5 or Year 6 team score for the school, so the stakes were high and everyone was keen to try and run their best time.

And, wow.

We would always have been proud of them; they are a dedicated, hard-working and supportive bunch who ALWAYS give things their best effort. But it's always lovely for the children to have their hard efforts rewarded with some amazing results...

Out of 11 teams in each category, the teams placed as follows:

Year 6 boys - 3rd place

Year 5 boys - 2nd place

Year 5 girls - 1st place!

We also had a Year 5 girl and boy runner who placed in the top 3 placings of their individual races, gaining them an individual medal position! All the children ran amazingly and we are incredibly proud of all the effort, determination and the wonderful support they showed to each other throughout the afternoon. A huge well done to you all!