School and Nursery News January 2022
Peaslake School
Happy New Year from Peaslake Free School, we hope you all enjoyed Christmas and New Year festivities with families and loved ones this year.
We felt very privileged to be able to go ahead with our end of term Nativity service in St Mark’s Church, and those who were able to attend were treated to the heart-warming story of “Woolly the Sheep” and how he gave some of his very ample coat to keep the baby Jesus warm. Needless to say the children all performed brilliantly, and this year was even more special at it was Mrs Strachan’s last year. After 25+ years of teaching music each week to generations of Peaslake School children, she is retiring in April to go travelling. I know there will be many parents and children reading this who will remember all the parts and opportunities she gave them to shine in Nativity plays and leavers’ celebrations over the years and she will be greatly missed when she goes.
Before the Nativity rehearsals took over, our topic for the second half of the autumn term was on childhood, past and present. It gave the children the opportunity to look back in time and compare games and toys that their grandparents/great grandparents played with those of their own today. We were able to borrow a box of old-fashioned toys from the Godalming museum so the children had the opportunity to gain firsthand experience of playing with them. There was a noticeable absence of brightly coloured plastic in the box!
The children in Oak class wrote to residents at Felday House telling them what their favourite toys are and asking what their favourite was when they were young. The children were so excited to get replies and it made us reflect on how lovely it is to get a letter through the post, as well as the act of writing one to others. Good preparation for writing Christmas cards!
Our new topic for the Spring term is Bright Lights, Big City and we’re looking forward to discovering some of our famous cities and what they have to offer.
Sara Dangerfield
Peaslake Nursery
This term’s topic was All creatures great and small, when we looked at all aspects of creatures, from their eating habits to the patterns on their bodies and from mini-beasts to jungle animals. Pets were brought in from home and the children then described their ideal pet: one of them wanted to have a whale (just a small one!) in the bath.
The run-up to Christmas involved lots of craft and glitter! We were delighted to be able to welcome parents to our Christmas Celebration. The children had been practising their songs and we were so pleased there was no sign of stage-fright. They sang beautifully: not a dry eye in the house!
Carrying on from animals found on land, our topic this term will be Under the Sea. To brighten up gloomy January and February, we will be looking at creatures we might find at the seaside, looking forward to sunny days again.
Vanessa Pollard
