E for Effort

Every week, teachers recognise pupils in their class who have made an extra effort. These pupils are presented with the E for Effort cup during our whole school assembly.

Congratulations to all the wonderful children who made an extra effort this week.

Year 2 Maths: Treasure Hunt

Year 2 had to solve mathematical calculations to unscramble the mystery word. The children were able to explore maths in a practical way.

Year 1: Baptism

Year 1 have been learning about Baptism and its importance to Christians. To bring the ceremony to life, Reverend Sue Creighton visited our school to walk the children through the different parts of this religious occasion. Some children donned some formal clothes and were chosen as parents and Godparents. They chose names for their newborn babies and listened intently to the promises they made. Reverend Sue helped the children gain a greater understanding of this Christian ceremony in a fun and engaging way

For their last RE lesson in this unit, the children wrote and decorated a letter thanking the vicar for visiting and helping them.

E for Effort

Every week, teachers recognise pupils in their class who have made an extra effort. These pupils are presented with the E for Effort cup during our whole school assembly.

Last week, alongside individual winners, the whole of Year 6 were awarded the cup for their hard work during SATs week.

Congratulations to all the wonderful children who made an extra effort last week.

2HM Literacy: Writing letters home

Literacy Week 2019 focussed on The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and the adventures of the Pevensie children. After making evacuee tags, packing suitcases with clothes and favourite teddies, 2HM waved goodbye to their parents and boarded a steam train to take them from the dangers of war-torn London to the safety of the countryside.

The children reflected on their journey, described their new lodgings and family and thought about how they felt about all that had happened to them. Also, they wrote some wonderful letters home to their loved ones, letting them know that they had arrived safely. They were able to empathise with the Pevensie children, really thinking about how it must have felt to be an evacuee, and they also understood how different their life in the country would be to their life in London. Great work 2HM.

Year 2 English: Professors of Prediction

2HM have been working really hard on developing their reading comprehension skills. Last week, in preparation for the end of KS1 reading assessments, they consolidated all that they had learnt so far this year by looking at some short pieces of text. They practised the skills of retrieval, inference, understanding vocabulary, sequencing and predicting.

The children were particularly good at making predictions, using clues from the text in order to decide what a character may do next or what event may happen next. They were very surprised when, after reading a short playscript of a scene from Jack and the Beanstalk, their prediction answers did not match up to the published mark scheme.

Having looked together at the mark scheme, they decided that the predictions they made were correct and that in fact, the mark scheme was wrong! Feeling that this needed addressing, a polite email was sent to the publishing company to let them know their thoughts on their marking guidance. They were delighted when they received an email back to say that they agreed with them and that the mark scheme would be amended.

Well done 2HM - you are truly Professors of Prediction!

Autism Awareness Training for Staff

This week, as part of our continuing professional development in Special Educational Needs, Hacton staff attended the second of two Autism training sessions run by Dr Jamie Galpin - Developmental Psychologist from The Bridge School, Islington. Over the two sessions, Dr Galpin has provided an extremely informative insight into Autism, looking at Areas of Difference, Theory of Mind and Central Coherence. He then shared useful strategies such as Social Stories, Comic Strip Conversations and the Incredible 5 Point Scale: methods which can be used to support all children, not just those living and learning with Autism.

Reception Visit to South Weald

Our Reception children enjoyed a lovely sunny day at South Weald where they spent the day thinking about the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. They collected props and recreated the story with their park ranger before going in search of mini-beasts in the forest. Following a lovely outdoor picnic, the children made their own caterpillars and butterflies from natural materials that had been collected from the park.

A huge thank you to the parent helpers and the park rangers who helped to make this such an enjoyable trip.

Year 2 Visit Colchester Zoo

Year 2 had a fantastic trip to Colchester Zoo. To support their understanding and appreciation of animals and their habitats, our budding Attenboroughs observed animals ranging from lions and tigers to butterflies and bugs. They were also lucky to be given the opportunity to feed a giraffe and an elephant. The children thoroughly enjoyed their day at the zoo and were able to consolidate their understanding of animals and their habitats in a fun and practical way.

Places Available in Hacton Nursery

We have a few afternoon places available for children in our nursery from September 2019. Afternoon sessions run from 12.30pm until 3.30pm. Find out more about our outstanding nursery here »

If you would like to visit our nursery or reserve a space for your child, please contact us on 01708 443991 or email contact@hacton.havering.sch.uk.

Nursery: Bear Hunt Obstacle Course

Nursery children were sponsored by friends and family to complete a sensory obstacle course based on 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'.

Children crawled through long wavy grass, were splashed with water crossing the deep cold river, squelched through thick oozy mud, took a stumble trip through a big dark forest, endured a whirling swirling snowstorm before finding the bear in a narrow gloomy cave.

The children ran back to the house, hid under the covers and decided that 'we’re not going on a bear hunt again'.

Going on a bear hunt was exhausting so we all enjoyed a teddy themed snack on the grass. After all, it was a beautiful day.

A big thank you to everyone who helped us raise £350.

Years 5 and 6: Havering Dance Festival

Our Year 5 and 6 pupils took part in the Havering Dance Festival. A group of dedicated children attended a lunchtime club in preparation for the show, where they would perform a dance around a 'musical theatre' theme. After much preparation, Hacton performed a lyrical dance to 'A Million Dreams' from The Greatest Showman.

All of the schools that took part in the festival displayed unique, inspirational dances. The event provided an opportunity for our pupils to participate in a joyful activity with other local schools: building community and benefitting the health and well-being of the children involved.

Literacy Week in Year 6

During Literacy Week, Year 6 took part in a range of activities themed around ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. They created coats of arms (with inspiring mottos) to represent their own personalities and interests. They painted wintry scenes that they hid behind wardrobe doors. Finally, the children wrote impressive character descriptions of the brave Lucy and the cruel White Witch.

Literacy Week in Year 5

Year 5 had a great week immersing themselves in the magical world of Narnia. Inspired by their visit to Narnia, they wrote wonderful setting descriptions and also painted snowy ‘through the wardrobe' scenes. Furthermore, they created their own fantastic flags with working pulley systems.

Finally, some of the children who had prepared play scripts based on the ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ performed them in assembly to The Worshipful Mayor of Havering.

Literacy Week in Year 4

Year 4 began Literacy Week by writing postcards home from the point of view of Lucy Pevensie, which they made look old by teabag staining. In Art, the children used a Pointillism technique (a picture made entirely of dots) to draw a winter scene. To complete the week, they wrote a description of Lucy’s journey into Narnia. 

Literacy Week in Year 3

Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed Narnia week. The children wrote acrostic poems using words and phrases related to ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. They loved this creative writing activity and produced some fantastic poems. After visiting Narnia, the children wrote wonderful first-person descriptions of a snowy setting.

Literacy Week in Year 2

Inspired by the wartime experiences of the children in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, Year 2 made their own evacuees tags and wrote letters home to their families.

After visiting Narnia, Year 2 created their own artworks. They painted winter scenes that were hidden behind the doors of their magical wardrobes.

Literacy Week in Year 1

Year 1 had an exciting Literacy Week theming activities in every subject around The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

In English, Year 1 watched a short clip of Lucy entering the wardrobe and then predicted what she might find. On a walk through the school, the children were surprised and amazed to find a door which, when opened, led to a snowy 'Narnia'. The children lay in the 'snow' and discussed the adjectives they could use to describe the magical land. When they returned to class, they showcased all they had learnt about adjectives this term by writing a description of Narnia.

In Science, Year 1 tested the effect of salt on ice, exploring how it could be used to people safe on an icy day.  In PE, the children loved working in teams to use the PE equipment to make their own snowman and then playing a snowball game where they had to defend their cone towers from being knocked down by other teams.

Theming activities across the curriculum was a great way to explore the C.S. Lewis's classic story and, importantly for Year 1, it was fun.

Literacy Week in Reception: Winnie the Witch

During Literacy Week, Reception children learnt all about Winnie the Witch. They took part in a variety of activities centred around the story Winnie in Winter, a tale that they particularly enjoyed. Our pupils were amazed by their experience of the Hacton snow room that Winnie magicked into existence. The children wrote a description of winter, created melted snowman pictures, explored how cold ice really is, made their own version of Wilbur the cat, made magic wands, created some fantastic junk models of Winnie's house and chalk pictures of Winnie herself.

On Friday, the children dressed up as characters from Winnie’s adventures and had a special snack. They created and ate their own delicious melted snowman biscuits. What a fun-packed week!

Year 4 Music: 'Disco Dancers'

Year 4 have learnt the final song of their recorder unit of work, 'Disco Dancers'. During their weekly Music lessons with Miss Vlasic, the children have been introduced to new notes on the recorder. This song includes the note D to bring the total number of notes that the woodwind wonders can play to 5: B, A, G, E, D.

We have been so impressed that children of all musical abilities have worked hard to learn the recorder, learn notation and perform together in almost perfect harmony. Top tunes Year 4!

Our pupils have found their music lessons extremely rewarding:

"I am so impressed by how much we have learnt on the recorder in such a short space of time."

"It was really hard to go between D and E but after lots of practice, it was much easier."

"It was so hard learning the recorder at first but I am proud we all got the hang of it eventually!"

"I thought going from note D to A was really hard as it was a big change in how many fingers you had to use!"

"I like learning the recorder and am really sad the course is over!"

Reception: Bedtime for Monsters

Reception children have recently finished reading 'Bedtime for Monsters' by Ed Vere. The unit of work began when Reception classes went to the hall for PE and returned to find their classrooms in a terrible state! Monsters had been there had knocked over chairs, poured juice on the tables and made a huge mess with some of the children's favourite classroom resources. What a shock!

After reading the book and finding out that these monsters were actually friendly, children decided they would like to go on their own monster hunt in the Reception play area. The intrepid explorers had fun finding their way through the scratchy forest and gloopy swamp before exploring the cold, snowy mountains and sneaking up the creaky stairs. Eventually, everyone made it back to their classroom and had lots to share about their adventures.

It was lovely to hear the children talking about their favourite parts of the journey and sharing their stories about the monster hunt. Some children even decided to write all about it and draw their own marvellous monster maps.

E for Effort

Every week, teachers recognise pupils in their class who have made an extra effort. These pupils are presented with the E for Effort cup during our whole school assembly.

Congratulations to all the wonderful children who made an extra effort this week.

Year 5 Science: Dissecting Plants

As an introduction to Year 5's new science project 'Life Processes and Living Things', our pupils dissected a plant. By carrying out this careful operation, they were able to discover first hand the reproductive parts of plants.

Firstly, the flower head was split into two, revealing the stamen - made up of the anther and filament - and also the carpel - made up of the stigma, style and ovary. Next, the children gently opened to the ovary to reveal the ovules which are present inside.

Year 5 discussed the importance of the wind and insects in the pollination process. However, the children did identify that, although some species of plant rely on outside help for pollination, others don't. This practical activity fully engaged the children, enabling them to develop their understanding through their own discoveries.

Literacy Week: Story in a Shoe Box

The magical land of Narnia fired up the imaginations of our pupils during Literacy Week. Thinking about what makes a great story, they were encouraged to choose a favourite of their own and enter the 'story in a shoe box' competition. Children were challenged to use a shoe box as a container to recreate a scene from a story they love. We were so impressed by the quality of the competition entries. Congratulations to all of the children who created such dazzling dioramas.

Reception and Year 1: Author Visit from Grant Koper

Children's author Grant Koper visited our school to read his new book to Reception and Year 1 classes. 'The Day Granny's Knickers Blew Away' is the first story in a series of five about Granny Moon's adventures. It was a huge hit with the children who were fully engaged, listening and laughing throughout.

Once Grant had finished telling the story, he opened the floor to questions and the children came up with some amazing ones, such as "Does your book have a blurb?", "What other jobs do you have?", "What is your next book about?" and "Do you use felt tips to write your stories?".

When question time was over, some of the children had the opportunity to meet Grant and receive their very own signed copy of the book. After listening to the amazing author, the children were motivated and excited to write their own stories.

Thank you Grant for such an entertaining and inspiring visit.