Winter Fayre: School Council and Wellbeing Ambassadors

The Hacton School Council and Wellbeing Ambassadors decided to organise a 'Recycled Fun' stall for our Christmas fayre. The children bought in their pre-loved books, toys and games and then had a few busy lunchtimes organising, sorting and pricing up. 

The children had a great time selling and negotiating and we even had a Black Friday sale to sell off our last remaining stock! 

The children made a very impressive £71.40 which the School Council and Wellbeing Ambassadors will decide on how to spend in the new year!  

Winter Fayre: Hacton Choir

Hacton's Junior choir were very pleased and honoured to be invited back by the PA to perform some Christmas songs at this year's Winter Fayre. After trialling a few different Christmas songs during lunchtime rehearsals, the choir settled on 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland', 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' and 'Silent Night.' 

Pupils in the choir worked extremely hard to learn the songs and to practise the melody, even practising the songs at home. On the day, the pupils braved the chilly weather and sung the songs beautifully to an audience of parents and children. 

Well done Hacton choir. You did us proud!

Awesome Attendance Winners (w/c 22nd November)

At Hacton, we have introduced a celebration of our attendance. Each week, as part of our assembly, we will announce who the Awesome Attendance winners are. They will get to have our Attendance cup for the week and will be rewarded with a treat in recognition of their fabulous attendance. 

See below for last week’s figures:

Achievements of the Week (w/c 22nd November)

Congratulations to our Times Table winners this week! These pupils have hopped aboard the Times Table train to continue their journey to becoming a Times Table Champion. They have worked exceptionally hard to learn and master their multiplication and division facts. 

Congratulations to our Reading and Poetry Superst★rs this week! To achieve this award, all of these children have either read poems or books by their year group authors (Bronze is 5, Silver is 10 and Gold is 15). A big well done to this week's winners who have demonstrated great commitment and dedication to reading. 

Our Achievements of the Week winners should be very proud of their success!

 

E for Effort and WOW! Winners (w/c 22nd November)

In order to reward our pupils who have gone above and beyond in their learning each week and put in extra effort, each class teacher chooses one pupil to receive the E for Effort cup and certificate. 

Here are this week's winners. Well done - we are very proud of you all! 

Year 5: Science

After investigating how the shape of an object impacted its movement in water when dropped, we have been using our findings to design boats. We designed and constructed boats with streamlined features that would cut through the water and reduce the impact of water resistance. Additionally, a second boat was designed and created which aimed to increase the effect of water resistance. Our boats were tested and confirmed our ideas; however, sadly some of the boats did not make it through their maiden voyage. 

Next week, we shall be looking at mechanisms and how they benefit us in our every day life.

Nursery: The Gruffalo

The children were very excited to discover unusual footprints outside the Nursery this week! As curious detectives, we followed the footprints looking for clues to see who they could belong to. A mouse helped us to discover an owl in a tree, a snake in a log pile, a fox hiding in the bushes and we had to be extra careful near the stream! Finally, behind some trees we found the culprit...the Gruffalo!

Year 2: Week Two of Forest School

The children of 2MP had another fantastic week at forest school. This week saw den building, tree climbing and fun on the rope swing! Some children had experience of using the tools; palm drills to make medallions and peelers to whittle sticks to make their very own talking sticks. During the session we saw team work, perseverance and a great sense of responsibility, especially when using the tools.  

We can’t wait for next week!

Reception: Senses

Reception have been learning about the five senses. This week, the children have: 

• tasted different food items such as a sour lemon, a sweet date and a salty crisp
• explored materials that are smooth, rough and bumpy
• listened to different sounds
• used their sense of sight and observation to explore different sceneries
• smelt different spices and herbs

A fun week has been had by all and our Reception children definitely know their five senses! 

#WakeUpWednesday

Now more than ever because of the ever-changing technological world that we live in, it is essential that we equip our children with the knowledge and skills to ensure that they know how to use the internet safely. 

Each week we will be sharing an age-appropriate guide for parents to share with their child when having conversations about online safety, should they feel it is needed. 

This week's guide is about how to be 'SMART' online. 

Forest School: Teacher Visit

Yesterday, the teachers had the opportunity to visit our Forest School. We can definitely see why the children are so excited to attend! 

Awesome Attendance Winners (w/c 15th November)

At Hacton, we have introduced a celebration of our attendance. Each week, as part of our assembly, we will announce who the Awesome Attendance winners are. They will get to have our Attendance cup for the week and will be rewarded with a treat in recognition of their fabulous attendance. 

See below for last week’s figures:

S.M.I.L.E Shoebox Appeal

 A HUGE thank you to everyone who has taken part in this year's shoebox appeal. We have an overwhelming amount of shoeboxes which will help to make such a difference to local families who are living in poverty. 

We can't wait to deliver them to S.M.I.L.E on Monday. 

Achievements of the Week (w/c 15th November)

Congratulations to our Times Table winners this week! These pupils have hopped aboard the Times Table train to continue their journey to becoming a Times Table Champion. They have worked exceptionally hard to learn and master their multiplication and division facts. 

Congratulations to our Reading and Poetry Superst★rs this week! To achieve this award, all of these children have either read poems or books by their year group authors (Bronze is 5, Silver is 10 and Gold is 15). A big well done to this week's winners who have demonstrated great commitment and dedication to reading. 

Our Achievements of the Week winners should be very proud of their success!

 

E for Effort and WOW! Winners (w/c 15th November)

In order to reward our pupils who have gone above and beyond in their learning each week and put in extra effort, each class teacher chooses one pupil to receive the E for Effort cup / WOW! certificate. 

Here are this week's winners. Well done - we are very proud of you all! 

Year 3: Book Cafe

With our new library now built and all classes being given £100 each to spend on books, Year 3 have spent some time this week choosing the books that they would like to be bought. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Year 3 classes were transformed into Book Cafes where children had time to browse through extracts of a large range of recently published fiction and non-fiction texts. They then all had to choose their five favourite books so that we could see which books were the most popular. 

We have some very discerning readers with the top picks including a graphic novel about Rosa Park’s life, some beautiful picture books, a very amusing tale about what happens when you have a time-travelling toilet as well as a book of wacky but weird facts about animals. 

We cannot wait to see our children enjoying the new library space and borrowing the books that they have so thoughtfully chosen.

Nursery: Observational Skills

This week, the children in Nursery have been using their observational skills to become birdwatchers. They were amazing at spotting the various birds using binoculars in our special bird hide. We spotted some blackbirds, crows, seagulls, magpies and a robin. The seagull did a special rain dance on the grass looking for some delicious worms to eat!  

Year 6: RAF Heritage Museum

On Monday and Tuesday, Year 6 had a fantastic time visiting the local RAF Heritage Museum. We were greeted by 4 gentlemen, one of which was dressed in full army attire, who led sessions in each of the rooms. There were a range of rooms for the children to explore: First World War Room, an Officers' Mess, Home Front Room, Bomber Command Room, Map Room, Battle of Britain Room and corridors filled with an abundance of artefacts, posters and information leaflets. Aeroplanes hung from the ceiling, pilot outfits were available to try on, maps of the Hornchurch runways were explained, a traditional WWII living room was set up and a whole lot more was available. 

It was truly amazing and the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves. 

Year 2: Forest School

This week, a very excited 2MP embarked on their forest school journey. Wearing our wellies, we explored the forest school site, collecting sticks, climbing trees and finding fungi. We also chose our forest school names whilst we sat in our log circle under the canopy of autumn leaves. 

We had a wonderful first session and excitement levels are already high for the campfire in four weeks time!

Year 1: Literacy

This week, Year One have been learning about instructions. The children have explored imperative (bossy) verbs and different types of instructions. 

On Wednesday, the children were able to follow instructions to make a jam sandwich. Their highlight was being allowed to eat the sandwich afterwards! After spending time rehearsing the instructions with their class friends, the children wrote their very own instructions for a jam sandwich. 

#WakeUpWednesday

Now more than ever because of the ever-changing technological world that we live in, it is essential that we equip our children with the knowledge and skills to ensure that they know how to use the internet safely. 

Each week we will be sharing an age-appropriate guide for parents to share with their child when having conversations about online safety, should they feel it is needed. 

This week's guide is about Netflix. 

Awesome Attendance Winners (w/c 8th November)

At Hacton, we have introduced a celebration of our attendance. Each week, as part of our assembly, we will announce who the Awesome Attendance winners are. They will get to have our Attendance cup for the week and will be rewarded with a treat in recognition of their fabulous attendance. 

See below for last week’s figures:

PHIC: Bowling Competition

On Monday, twelve children from the PHIC went bowling. Walking to Hornchurch Station, we caught two trains to get to All Stars Bowling in Westfield Shopping Centre, Stratford.

Three schools, with a provision for hearing impaired children, attended and in total 7 teams took part.  Hacton PHIC had 2 teams. The first team, our Year 1 - 3 children, came third, collecting Bronze medals.  Our Year 4 and 5 children, one of which scored the only strike of the competition, came second and collected Silver Medals and a runner up trophy! 

All the children were very proud of themselves and couldn’t wait to get back to school to share their achievements with Miss Hornsby and Mrs Leslie. A great day was had by all; it was an amazing opportunity for our children to see other children wearing a range of different types of hearing aids and also communicating using British Sign Language.

We have been writing a recount of our trip in our Literacy lessons which we hope to share with you when they are finished.

 

 

 

Year 3: Nature Detectives

Our budding Year 3 Nature Detectives have been extremely creative with a transient art challenge. They studied a picture of an actual skeleton and went off in groups to find natural objects to reconstruct it. 

It was hard to choose between them all, but we chose the skeleton that had the most bones, including the joints! 

The winning skeleton was...

Reception: Autumn Walk

This week, Reception took a walk through the field to look for signs of Autumn.  
 
During the walk, the children had the opportunity to use an Autumn hunt checklist and explore the different signs of Autumn such as the different coloured leaves and the hibernating hedgehog. 

The children had lots of fun making wishes on the dandelions, learning about our bat boxes, searching for the hedgehog and using the forest school logs to appreciate the view.  

Achievements of the Week (w/c 8th November)

Congratulations to our Times Table winners this week! These pupils have hopped aboard the Times Table train to continue their journey to becoming a Times Table Champion. They have worked exceptionally hard to learn and master their multiplication and division facts. 

Congratulations to our Reading and Poetry Superst★rs this week! To achieve this award, all of these children have either read poems or books by their year group authors (Bronze is 5, Silver is 10 and Gold is 15). A big well done to this week's winners who have demonstrated great commitment and dedication to reading. 

Our Achievements of the Week winners should be very proud of their success!

 

E for Effort and WOW! Winners (w/c 8th November)

In order to reward our pupils who have gone above and beyond in their learning each week and put in extra effort, each class teacher chooses one pupil to receive the E for Effort cup / WOW! certificate. 

Here are this week's winners. Well done - we are very proud of you all! 

Hacton Remembers

At 11 o'clock on the 11th day of the 11th month, Hacton joined with the nation to remember. Our children stood still and silently for 2 minutes to think about all those who fought and continue to fight for our country. We will remember them.

Year 6: Science

Year 6 were tasked to investigate which materials reflect light most effectively. 

In order to do this, and to fully understand how our eyes see objects, the children used light boxes. These boxes excluded all light sources, except for the chosen source (being a torch). Objects made of a variety of materials were placed inside the box one by one. All lights were dimmed; the children tested whether or not they could see the object firstly without a source of light and then with a small amount of light allowed in through a hole.

Their results concluded that shiny, smooth materials reflect light more effectively than those with dull, rough surfaces and that dark materials tend to absorb light rather than reflect it. 

Nursery: Autumn

This week in Nursery we have been learning about Autumn. On Wednesday, donning our warm coats and boots, we ventured out into the drizzle to investigate. We found leaves of different colours, apples and twigs (to name but a few) and added our finds to our Autumn treasure. 

To our surprise we found the Owl Babies, Sarah, Percy and Bill, and their owl mother perched on a branch in the woods. We enjoyed listening to the story, keeping ourselves warm with pumpkin soup that not only did the children help prepare, but grew from a seed in our very own garden! Not a scrap was left! 

We even left the pumpkin pulp for our family of hedgehogs residing in our forest school!

Year 5 and 6 Football

Our boys' and girls' football teams were the pride of Hacton yesterday when competing against other local schools. The boys drew their first game against Ardleigh Green Juniors and beat St Alban's in their second game. The girls took no prisoners in both of their games! They scored ten goals over both games and did not concede a single goal.  

The team spirit within both teams was excellent and extremely supportive. We had a fabulous day and are looking forward to the next round. 

Year 5: Science

This week, Year 5 have been investigating air resistance. Each group thought of their own questions to test, worked out the range of variables (independent, dependent and control variables) and had to design and make their investigations. We had balloon rockets flying through the air, exercise parachutes attached to children and toy parachutes being dropped from a height. 

We had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and the children loved taking responsibility and ownership of their own learning. Next stop...water resistance.