Latest News

Keep up to date with all the news from the school.

Come and see our virtual tour...

• Christmas Carols and Our Hummingbird Choir

  Sat 03 Dec 2022

  The children from our school opened the Cerne Abbas Christmas Fair on Saturday with carols. We sang 'Away in a Manger', 'Silent Night', 'Little Donkey', 'It was on a Starry Night', and 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas'. It was a magical way to open the fair.

   

  The next day our choir, called 'The Hummingbird' sang at the St. Nicholas Service in church. The children also led the prayers and Ollie was the child Bishop who gave an address about how we can contribute positively to our world. He finished with a Christmas blessing for everyone.

  Well done to all the children of our school. What a lovely way to start Christmas.

  

• Worship Group Leading Worship

  Mon 21 Nov 2022 Angela Brown

  Today  one of our Worship Group led Worship to introduce our value of Peace. She planned and delivered this herself.

  

• Mental Health and Well-Being Week

  Mon 14 Nov 2022

  We started our Mental Health and Wellbeing week with a happiness talk from Jermaine Harris. He travels the world talking to groups including famous people such as footballers and celebrities.
  He told us that scientists have worked out that being kind to others make us all happy. He explained that there are two ways to make us happy...
  1. Saying thank you for things that make us happy
  2. Moving and dancing (we all had a boogie to 'I like to move it move it...!'
  Scientists say that when we move around, our brains feel happy.

  He talked about the importance of role-models and how they believe in themselves. It is important that we imagine ourselves where we want to be and set a goal e.g to be the best golfer.
  We learnt how to give ourselves self affirmations... e.g. I am strong, I am beautiful

  He talked to us about the power of breathe and taking breaths which fill our tummies (not physically!).

  Throughout the presentation, the word 'dance' popped up... every time this happened, we had to stand up and dance... children loved this!

  This has been such an uplifting morning... thank you Jermaine.

  

• Our Hopes and Dreams Week

  Fri 14 Oct 2022

  This week has been our 'Hopes and Dreams Week' where we have been thinking about what hopes and dreams we have for the future and what we might like to do when we are grown up. We have been very lucky and have met lots of interesting people who have been telling us more about their jobs and work.

  On Monday we met Ali who talked to us about her job at Monkey World. She talked lots about the qualities she needs to do her job well. She told us that after school, she continued to learn and how learning doesn't stop when you leave school. She told us the importance of being curious and doing a job that brings us joy and happiness as well as paying the bills.

  On Tuesday we had a visit from Charlotte who is a plumber. She talked about her job working in people's houses, helping to mend broken or leaking pipes or helping to fit new bathrooms or radiators. She pointed out the different pipes in our classroom and told us about the water inside them that heats up to keep us warm or to allow us to use our taps. She showed us lots of tools that she uses when she's working including a special pipe cutter!

  On Wednesday we met Callum who is a business manager in the fenestration industry (new word for most adults and children!!) We learnt that means he works for companies who generate the materials for, build and fit windows and doors in peoples houses and other buildings like shops, schools and hospitals. We watched videos of working factories showing how the plastic is heated and shaped then cut precisely and distributed to suppliers. We especially liked watching the fork lifts driving around! Callum told us that when he first started working he used to drive the fork lift but now he works managing a team of people and selling things to companies that need them.

  Yesterday we had Jonah's Mummy, Zoe, an artist and illustrator visit our classroom. She showed us some of the books she has written and illustrated, focusing on a new book 'Totty' the turtle. We looked closely at the pictures then she helped us to create our own special turtle! We each had a section of the shell to decorate with tissue paper and sparkly stickers as well as a baby turtle which we used to create our own head bands. We had lots of fun making art with Zoe and loved listening to her read us one of her new books as our home time story.

  Today we met Stuart who is Ivy's Daddy. He talked to us about the job he used to have working as a civil engineer. He showed us lots of interesting pictures and talked to us about the varied roles within civil engineering and how anyone who likes maths, problem solving, building or fixing things would have lots of skills to become a civil engineer! We watched a video that showed us some big civil engineering projects including bridges, power plants, train tracks and even wind turbines. It was very interesting to hear from people of different ages, both women and men, talking passionately about their roles within the industry. Stuart even gave us some special pom pom civil engineer buddies wearing hard hats as gifts to bring home!

  What a special and exciting week! We are very grateful to all our visitors for taking the time to talk to us and give us inspiration for what we might like to do when we are grown up. Thank you especially to our parent visitors!

  

• Singing at Manor Casterbridge OAP Home

  Fri 14 Oct 2022

  This week we sang our harvest songs to the old people of our village. Our value has been joy this week and we certainly brought them joy as we sang to them. And as one of our children said 'it brought me joy as well because we were bringing happiness to the old people.'

  

• Hopes and Dreams Week - Zoe (illustrator)

  Thu 13 Oct 2022 Angela Brown

  Today, Zoe who is an illustrator, came into school to talk about her job. In Trendle, she explained how she illustrates for books and television. She talked about composition which is where thi has need to be placed on a page. Based on her new book, Totty, the children created their own underwater illustrations on sticky paper and then stuck them onto card. Their creations were absolutely fantastic and I know we've got some budding illustrators in Trendle.

  

• Hopes and Dreams Week - Ali from Monkey World

  Mon 10 Oct 2022 Angela Brown

  This week is Hopes and Dreams Week where we will be thinking about what we might like to be when we are older.
  Today we had Ali from Monkey World who talked to us about her job at Monkey World. We talked to us about her role which is to educate about all the different types of monkeys and apes. She discussed the qualities she needs to do her job. She explained that she needs to be brave when talking to lots of new people, confident to know what to say, loyal to Monkey World as she represents them in their uniform. At school, she talked about the importance of listening to enable her to learn. She explained that, at school, taking part in plays and assemblies really helped her to learn how to communicate to others. She told us that after school, she continued to learn and how learning doesn't stop when you leave school. She told us the importance of being curious and doing a job that brings us joy and happiness as well as paying the bills. I'm sure they are a few children who think that they could have qualities needed to work at Monkey World.
  Thank you Ali!

  

• Our Values Day

  Tue 20 Sep 2022

  We are currently reviewing our values and vision with children, staff, parents and governors. We have decided to keep our 3 Christian values of Friendship, Peace and Trust but we are no longer going to keep our 7 learning values (courteous, communicative, co-operative, considerate, conscientious, caring and confident). We would however like to add some more Christian values to our list. Today the children were introduced to 4 more values. These were:

  • Courage
  • Hope
  • Forgiveness
  • Joy

  Children worked in their teams and took part in fun activities to help them understand each one. The day concluded with each child voting for the values they would like to add to our current 3. We are now going to ask the parents to vote. We look forward to letting you know what the results are.

  

• History Day

  Tue 12 Jul 2022 Angela Brown

  We have had a super History Day. The children all looked fantastic. We started the day with an assembly all about the history of our school. We saw historic photos and listened to a recount of Miss Catherine Granville who was a teacher at the school... can you believe she called the children 'wild beasts!'? The children in Trendle then used a real fountain pen to practise writing their name...some found this tricky. They then watched a snippet of The Borrowers which was originally written in 1952. Abbey class boys learnt about the school building and girls (as they would have done in 1940s) learnt how to sew. Just before playtime, we found out about the types of games children played in the 1940s and 1950s and at playtime, we took part in these games.
  After play we learnt about what school was like. Children didn't wear school uniform because after the war, due to rationing, people used their rations to buy other clothes. We found out that all children walked to school...by themselves. Children started school after their 5th birthday and only moved up to the next class when they had learnt enough to move up. Judy showed us some old desks kindly brought in by Alfie Isles and showed us the ink well she would have used. She talked to us about discipline (which luckily is different to now). After this session, Giants and Trendle took part in a lesson children would have taken part in...a nature walk. Abbey class had a traditional arthmatic lesson.
  For lunch, we enjoyed a 1940s/1950s style lunch of meatloaf or cheese, potato and onion pie and for pudding....jam roly poly!
  In the afternoon, we had a talk by George Mortimer who showed us what Long Street looked like in the past. We then used boxes to recreate Long Street. These will be displayed at the event at the village hall on Tuesday evening next week.
  Thank you to all the members of the community who came in today to share their knowledge. You really made our day special!

  

• Our trip to see the Gaudier Ensemble in Church.

  Fri 08 Jul 2022

  The Cerne Abbas Music Festival is world famous and the whole school were invited this week to see the the Gaudier Ensemble play Berwald's Grand Septet in B flat major for Winds and Strings. The children were mesmerised and one little boy in Year 2 exclaimed when they had finished 'Wow I loved that I hope they play something else'. It was a real privilege to watch their rehearsal and a lovely experience for our children.