Summer Refurbishment of Early Years
Over the summer we undertook a refurbishment of the resources
and furniture in our Early Years classroom to ensure the children
had access to lots of wonderful learning opportunities during
their play.
Our new starters have settled into our refurbished Kenya
Classroom beautifully and are thrououghly enjoying exploring all
the new learning resources already.
Our next development will be to enhance the outdoor learning
resources for children across the school as well as Early Years,
and we are grateful that once we have a finalised plan, our
fantastic TSA have offered to support us with this project.

What a fabulous performance we were treated to on Tuesday when Burundi Class took to the stage to perform Pantastic!  Every single child performed brilliantly.  They have worked so hard during the rehearsals, especially in the hot weather, getting to grips with all the lines and movement to make it the seamless success it was and we are incredibly proud of the entertaining show they put on.  Huge congratulations to Mrs Fisher for all her hard work and encouragement for the children.

Summer Fair!

What a fantastic event our TSA’s Summer Fayre was last Saturday.  It was so lovely to see so many members of our community support the event and spend the afternoon visiting the stalls, enjoying the refreshments and the displays by the Southern Golden Retriever Display Team and Neylon Taylor School of Irish Dancing.  We are very pleased to report that the event raised an amazing £2200.11, which is phenomenal considering the size of our school.  Our amazing entrepreneurs in Burundi Class raised an impressive £240 as part of their Young Apprentice Challenge so well done to them and thank you to Mrs Fisher for supporting them with this at such a busy time of the year for these children!

Huge thanks must of course go to the members of the TSA for all their hard work in organising the event, and kindly taking it off my hands this year.  And a special mention for all the amazing parents, staff and members of the TSA who helped out on the day who were there bright and early setting up, manning stalls or clearing up afterwards.  Congratulations to Steph Hitchins, our TSA Chair, and her fabulous team for a great afternoon and they are already planning for next year so if you have any suggestions for making it even bigger and even better, do get in touch.

Wire Award

Last week, our school was presented with a special award called the Wire Award by Mrs Lawson from Kent SACRE.  This is in recognition of the quality and inclusivity of the Religious Education provided in our school, of how it enables our pupils to learn about different beliefs and begin to reflect on their own thoughts regarding big questions.  Many thanks to Mrs Frame and the Worship Committee who worked hard to submit the evidence for this recognition as well as all their hard work throughout the year.

Eco School Award

This week we also received notification that as a school we have again been awarded the Eco School Award and this year this is with Merit.  Our Eco Committee work incredibly hard to ensure that our school has a focus on how we can improve our environmental awareness and our impact on the world around us.

Science Week

On Wednesday this week, our Year 5 pupils were invited to visit Meopham School for their Science Fair.  The children took part in four workshops, exploring forensics, acids and alkalis, proteins, starches and sugars in foods and flame tests of different elements.  It was an exciting day and gave the children a taster of the exciting Science learning they will experience when they move on to their next schools.

Thank you to all the parents and families that joined us on our Sports Day this week.  What a wonderful afternoon and it is always so lovely to see all the ages working together in their houses, supporting each other and having fun taking part..  Congratulations again to Willow – our winning house for 2026!

In contrast, the weather for our Year 6 pupils in Dorset last week was cold and damp however they still had an amazing week. We are so very proud of all they achieved, overcoming many fears, developing their independ

They took part in nearly 20 activities during the week including abseiling, campfire, Jacob’s ladder, kayaking, archery, raft building, zip wire, problem solving, beach walk, disc golf and more, and they got to stay up late and cheer England on!  They all ate incredibly well and learnt various songs that we are still hearing back in Trottiscliffe.  The enjoyment and personal development a trip such as this provides the children is so worthwhile and it is a pleasure to look after the children each year during this experience.  Huge thanks to Mrs Lane for accompanying the trip again this year.

ence, being away from home and their families and taking responsibility for organising themselves.

We are incredibly proud of our netball team who, this year, have reached the Maidstone finals of both the Netball League and the Maidstone Cup competitions.  Considering most schools in Maidstone are at least two form entry, and we are most certainly the smallest competing school, to reach the top of these competitions is quite amazing.

For the Maidstone League finals on Tuesday, our team came up against Greenfields in the semi final play-off.  This was a well-fought match and having started strong, we just couldn’t convert as many of our chances into goals as we needed on this occasion and we lost this match 12-4.  We then met East Borough in the 3^rd place finals.  This was another closely fought match, played in sunshine, torrential rain, hail and back to sun again.  Our team battled hard and we ended victorious claiming the bronze medal position.

On Wednesday we returned to Greenfields to play the final of the Maidstone Cup.  After the battle on Tuesday, we knew we were in for a hard match but the team played well.  Yet again the match was played through rain and hail and we were very proud of the resilience of all the players to keep going when the conditions were bad.  Greenfields again were victorious however we reminded the children on the day that just playing in the final is an achievement in itself.

As always huge thanks to Mrs Lane for her continued support and dedication to netball in our school, every year the team surpasses our expectations and this is largely down to her expert training and inspiring the children love the sport.

In between the downpours on Tuesday, our amazing netball team played in the league quarter finals against Bredhurst.  It was a very closely fought battle however our players never gave up and kept battling until the end, finishing the victors at 11-9.  This means they now have a busy week next week with both the league finals and the cup finals taking place next week.  Whatever the outcome, we are incredibly proud of how far they have come as players but more importantly as a team and this is of course down to the fantastic coaching from Mrs Lane.  We wish them all the best for both finals next week and know they will make us proud whatever the outcome.

On Wednesday, Burundi Class explored the Ramsgate air raid tunnels and learnt all about how and why they were created and what it would have been like to take shelter in them during the Second World War.  This was such an interesting visit and the children were fascinated by the stories of some of the characters that sheltered from the bombs in Ramsgate, it really brought their history learning to life.

Then they enjoyed their picnic and games on the beach in the afternoon before heading back and it was lovely to see the Year 5 and 6s really enjoying their time together. Thank you Mrs Fisher for organising this experience for them.

On Wednesday, Uganda Class visited the Living Land show at the Kent County Showground to spend the day learning about farming, meeting animals, watching displays and demonstrations, as well as hands on experiences of shearing sheep, making rope and tasting fresh produce.  Having been a few years ago, we were so pleased to be selected to be able to attend again this year. Lots of schools were present and as always, we were incredibly proud of our pupils who all demonstrated excellent behaviour and good manners throughout the day.

Congo Class had a beautiful (if not rather chilly) day on Tuesday for their visit to Leeds Castle to extend their learning of Kings and Queens.  They took part in a workshop exploring all the royal links the castle has and how Kings and Queens have influenced the castle’s history and development.  Then they had an exclusive tour of the castle, visiting ‘out of bounds’ areas that regular visitors are not normally allowed to access.  They got a ride on the land train and got to explore the grounds during the day. The highlight for many was the chance to ask questions to an AI Queen Eleanor of Castile, its first royal owner.

The children behaved really well and some of their knowledge impressed the tour guides for children so young.  Well done Congo Class and thank you to Miss Vidler for organising such a lovely trip for them to bring their classroom learning to life.