News Blog

Dear Families

Yet another busy but brilliant week here at EHPS. The children’s learning continues and every time I walk around the classrooms, I am so pleased to see the level of focus and effort all of our children have put in. The work in books is filling up nicely as well and our collaborative work between the Specialist Unit and mainstream is wonderful.

Assembly – Black History Month

This week we started with class assemblies that looked at Black History as part of Black History month. 2024’s theme is: “Reclaiming Narratives”. This is about recognising and correcting the narratives of Black history and culture.

In our KS1 and Early Years Class Assemblies, we read the book Look Up! by Nathan Bryon and Dapa Adeola. It is a wonderful book which follows the aspirations of a very passionate and tenacious little girl who is desperate to follow in the footsteps of Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space. It is also a book on our 100 Reads. If you want to read the book again with signing, click this link.

Another wonderful book to share is, Coming to England by Floella Benjamin. Here is it being read on the CBBC bedtime story. Year 2 study this book as part of their Talk for Reading Curriculum.

In our KS2 class assembly, we watched this video to learn what Black History Month was.

We also explored how book publishing company Penguin Random House have revealed a new book vending machine at Linlithgow Academy near Edinburgh, Scotland. The machine gives the pupils access to more than seventy different books from Penguin’s ‘Lit in Colour’ reading lists, the aim is to make works by writers of colour more visible and accessible to children in school.

We talked about what ‘Reclaiming Narratives’ means and how this links to our British Values and Protected Characteristics. Finally, we learnt about Olaudah Equiano and Eniola Aluko and their life stories.

More to explore at home…

As part of RED October, I thought that I would share the book Windrush Child which is written by the late, great Benjamin Zephaniah and explores themes of identity, belonging and resilience.

Here is a podcast in which Benjamin explains how and why he wrote the book, he discusses the historical truth behind Windrush Child and he has some powerful advice for children struggling to find their voice.

RED October Continues

Our RED October continues and this week on Monday Peter Bunzl visited us. It was amazing to learn about all of the things that inspired his writing from his mum and teachers to his own reading books.

Did you know? Year 4 read Cogheart as their class novel, so it was really special for them to meet the real author.

Similarly, on Thursday, Abi Elphinstone, who wrote Ember Spark and RumbleStar, visited us and led a truly engaging assembly! Again, like Peter Bunzl, we learnt about what inspired her but also how she generates ideas – she introduced us to thinking: ‘What if…’ E.g. What if the glove in your cupboard, when you put it on, turns you invisible! I am excited to plan some writing sessions using our author’s ideas.  

It has been wonderful seeing children take part in our reading challenges and earning those reading miles. Please do keep reading and sharing stories with your child at home – it really does make all the difference!

Golden Tickets

Our Proud Points have quickly become a huge hit at EHPS, where we recognise children for simply doing the right thing. So many have already earned a Golden Ticket (which puts them in the running to be the Headteacher for the day at the end of the year!)

On Monday, all of the children with 30 Proud Points will receive their certificate in assembly.

Pumpkins

WOW! Wow! Wow! What a creative bunch you are… over the past 2 days a variety of carved pumpkins have been brought into school and they really are fantastic. If you are picking up, dropping off or coming to our Spooktacular event tomorrow, please do have a good look at them. Thank you families for taking part and getting behind our community events. There’s a selection of photographs of your creations on page 6.

Rugby Success

And finally, last Friday 9 of our Year 5 and 6 girls went to Franklins Gardens to play in a rugby tournament. They did amazingly well and scored many tries – they were described as a competitive bunch. However, the extra special thing was that the BBC were there filming their programme, The One Show as part of the Rugby World Cup draw and you may have seen some of our children on the TV being interviewed by the Gladiator Fury, Jodie Ounsley, who is a professional Exeter Chiefs Rugby player. See page 4 for pictures of the event.

Spooktacular

Tomorrow is our annual Spooktacular event, and I am looking forward to seeing everyone who is coming along and seeing the costumes and fun to be had.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Mrs Pennington