During our penultimate week of the first half term (how quickly has that time gone?!), the girls have been as busy as usual working hard in and out of the classroom. Year 6 spent the week in Osmington Bay; a beautiful PGL centre in Dorset. The girls and boys studied the river, went rock pooling and participated in various outward bound activities. I was lucky enough to visit them on Monday night; they were having a ball! Since then, the Twitter pictures have kept us all up to date with their daily routines and achievements. The staff leading the trip came back full of enthusiasm for the group and report that the children were a credit to Claires Court. Well done to all of the pupils and thank you to the staff for their energy and commitment , and for giving up their own time to lead such a successful trip.

Back home, Year 5 have experienced ‘Democracy Day’! The girls learned about voting and what democracy means, linking this to what their lessons would be that day - that is not to say Ms McLean put her feet up!! Year 4 visited Hampton Court on Monday and were privileged to be given a tour by the very knowledgeable Sophie. We first met Sophie on our trip to Windsor Castle to celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday as part of Discovery Education’s live broadcast. Miss Pelizzari and the girls were incredibly impressed by her knowledge and enthusiasm. Once again, the girls and boys were excellent ambassadors for Claires Court. As well as their trip, Year 4 have written diary entries as Neil Armstrong about his journey to the moon; in keeping with their topic of “Never Stop Exploring”. You may have noticed that some of the girls in Year 3 were covered in charcoal earlier in the week. This was due to the creation of cave painting underneath the desks  (on paper of course). The girls were totally engrossed in this creative and quite tricky task! Year 2 started learning about The Plague this week.  The girls have been using their historical enquiry skills to look at sources and answers questions which they set themselves. Year 1 have been measuring with metre sticks and symmetry. Excitingly, the girls received a letter from the Billy Goats Gruff asking the class to design new bridges as the goats did not want to use the troll’s bridge anywhere, for obvious reasons! Perhaps the council could have some tips for when they repair Marlow Bridge! The Reception class have been using their senses to discover new things. I was invited to a smelling competition in which I scored 3/5! For some reason I thought banana was strawberry milkshake! I was also invited to try and find out the difference between salt and sugar by sight. I soon learnt that I could not without tasting the two…