Latest News

Our Reflective Day - The Lord's Prayer

Mon 17 Jul 2023

Today we had a day off timetable where we found out the meaning behind the Lord's Prayer and also learnt to recite it. In Miss Stephen's class the children listened to different versions of the Lord's Prayer being sung. They created art work as they listened quietly and reflected on it. They learnt the prayer using actions.

In Trendle Class they drew picture on 'our daily bread' of what God has provided for us and then ate it. They also thought about 'forgive us our sins' and wrote on a tissue paper person something we needed to forgive someone for and the put it in water and watched it fade anyway. This is what happens when we forgive people or when God forgives us. It makes us feel better. Finally Abbey class enjoyed playing fun games to help them remember the prayer.

School and Church Fete

Mon 03 Jul 2023

Being part of our community is golden thread for our curriculum here at Cerne Abbas CE VC First School. On Saturday the church, village and school communities joined together to run the fete. Our choir at school called 'The Hummingbirds' sang 3 songs at the start of the afternoon. I was very proud of them, particularly one girl who showed our value of courage by singing a solo even though she was very nervous. Well done to everyone who sang you were the stars of the fete on Saturday. Please enjoy the pictures.

Making Bug Homes in the Cerne Abbas Wildlife Garden

Wed 28 Jun 2023

The whole school helped to create bug homes in the Cerne Abbas Wildlife Garden this week. Our work at Hillfield Friary helped to prepare us to do this. Maddie's mum and dad helped Giant and Ducklings to make a log pile, Trendle Class to make a bug hotel and Abbey Class to make bee homes. Absolutely everything we used was donated or recycled - even the tin cans for the bee houses were from the cafe on Maddie's farm and the bamboo was grown in their garden! The roof tiles for the bug hotel were recycled from Reggie’s dad (thank you), the straw was grown on a farm in Godmanstone and the wood was a willow tree that came down Maddie's farm in a storm!

Thank you to Heather and Roy who spent the day with our children creating these homes for the insects to enjoy.

Whole School Muddy Trip

Sat 24 Jun 2023

We had an AMAZING trip to Dorset Water Park Mud Trail on Thursday. The whole school travelled to Corfe and experienced the fun and challenge of the mud trail. The children and staff absolutely loved it and it was lovely to see the children demonstrating our values of friendship and courage as they helped and encouraged one another and tried new challenges even if they felt nervous. There were smiles and laughter all around. I was very proud of everyone. Enjoy the pictures.

Hillfield's Friary

Sat 10 Jun 2023

Each class is taking it in turn to go to Hillfield's Friary and learn about insects. We are then going to use this learning and Help our community build a Wildlife garden.

The Giants and Ducklings went first:

We had such a lovely time learning more about insects and minibeasts with Richard and Chantelle at Hilfield today!
After the excitement of travelling by minibus (and coming down the big hill!) we played some games running around in the garden area and moving like different insects. We especially loved buzzing like bees and flapping our wings as dragonflies and butterflies.
We then went to look inside the moth trap that Richard had set overnight. It was a large box, filled with empty egg cartons. On the lid was a large bulb that had been shining brightly overnight to tempt the moths inside. Richard gently lifted out each box to reveal many exciting moths! The boxes were passed around so we could have a closer look and there was an opportunity to hold some on our hands too. In the trap there was a large poplar hawk-moth, privet hawk-moth, a buff-tip moth (which cleverly disguises itself as a stick!) peppered moths and many more!
We then had a drink and snack before splitting into groups for the next activities. Giants worked on some bee and ladybird clay crafts, using coloured pebbles to recreate patterns using identification pictures. We also created some butterfly print paintings with paint and string which was lots of fun! Meanwhile the Ducklings went off on a bug hunt in the garden. Richard had nets and sheets to collect and gather insects and bugs so we could use our 'pooters' to suck and catch the insects in pots without harming them. This was very exciting! We found caterpillars, spiders, beetles and even damselflies!
The groups then swapped over so the Giants could go bug hunting in the wildflower meadows while the Ducklings had a go at the clay craft. Out in the meadows the Giants found all sorts of insects, which Richard was fantastic at identifying! We spotted shield bugs, cucumber spiders, weevils, aphids, ladybird larvae, dock beetle larvae and many many more! Richard explained that 'true bugs' are insects that have sucking mouths, like we were sucking using the pooters! He also told us that butterflies like stinging nettles so will be looking out carefully on our next welly walk!
After a busy morning we tucked into our packed lunches and cooled off in the courtyard. We even got to help feed the sheep before it was time to head back on the buses to school.
Thank you to everyone who came to help. We had a lovely time!

Abbey went next:

When we were at Hillfield's Friary on Friday we learnt about bees because we are going to build bees homes in the Cerne Abbas Wildlife garden. We played a game that taught us about how dangerous hornets are to bees and then we learnt about what happens in a hive. We were allowed to dress in the protective equipment that bee keepers wear and taste the lovely honey. We also found out where other bees live, they are called solitary bees and what experts bees are as pollinators. We made a bees wax candle each and enjoyed looking at the various flowers bees get there nectar from. We have such food fun and learnt so much. We are now looking forward to making some bee homes for the Cerne Abbas Wildlife Garden in a couple of weeks time.

The Grand Opening of our Bird Hide

Sun 21 May 2023

Robin and Pauline Mills, who live in our village have had many generations of their family come to our school. The last of these left last year and they wanted to say thank you to the school for the happy years that they have been a part of it. They have built us a bird hide in the trees so that we can sit quietly and watch the birds. The Parish Council have also bought us binoculars and a bird spotting book to be able to name different birds. The grand opening involved cutting the red ribbon around the bird hide, the children giving thank you cards and finally singing a song for Robin, Pauline and the people who helped erect the bird hide.

We are very grateful for this gift and the extra opportunity it gives us to take our learning outside. Enjoy the pictures of this happy event.

Our Human Union Jack on the Giant

Sat 06 May 2023

We celebrated the King's Coronation by walking up to the Cerne Giant and creating a human flag. The National Trust gave us permission to go onto the Giant to enable us to make history in a very special and unique way. The whole school walked up to the Giant and despite the rain and wind we made it with happy faces. The children and adults wore red and blue and we painted a union jack, with the help of parents and friends which gave us the white parts. We all bent down and a drone took a picture of us. We then stayed on the Giant for lunch before making our way back down again.

We also sang our King's Coronation Song which we hope you enjoy listening too.

Finally all of the children were given a mug kindly donated to us from the Parish Council and presented by Reverend Jonathan Still.

What a memorable day.

Jewish Lady visits our school

Thu 04 May 2023

Lynda, who is from the Jewish faith, visited our school today. She talked about how they celebrate Shabbat every Friday evening until Saturday night. They begin by tidying their homes and then have a meal with chollah bread, wine and light candles with a prayer. They do no work on Saturday. Lynda taught us a Jewish song and read the creation story. We also found out about Jewish prayer and the Kippah hat that men wear. Thank you Lynda it was a very informative and engaging time for the children.

Author and Playwright visits our school - Chris Connaughton

Wed 26 Apr 2023

We've had a fantastic session with Chris. He has helped us to become storytellers. We started the day together and Chris told us a story about a king and a storyteller. The children were absolutely mesmerised. Chris told us how to engage the listener by using different voices and expression. Chris went around to all of the classes throughout the day encouraging amazing story telling amongst the children. In Trendle he told them a story about a Cobbler who wanted to be the most important thing. He became a king, the sun, a rain cloud, a raging river, a mountain and then finally a cobbler again!
In all of the classes he played a game called WAVE - W = WAY OF WALKING, A = ACTION, V = VOICES , E = EXPRESSION
This game helps us to become animated storytellers.
He also played the Spotlight game. This helps us to share our ideas.
Chris explained how all of these techniques help us to become really successful storytellers.
We will definitely invite him back again. Thank you to FOCAS who helped us pay for him and thank you Chris for a fabulous day.

Our Easter Bonnet Parade

Mon 03 Apr 2023

On the last day of term we had an Easter Bonnet parade. Unfortunately, because of the rain we didn't walk very far. Jonathan, our vicar, judged the hats and the winners were announced in the village. The winners had a book token and the runners an Easter egg. However EVERBODY, had made a lovely hat and so everyone had an Easter egg to take home thank you to FOCAS (our parent teacher association).

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE