On Wednesday the 29^th June 2022, Year 5 & 6 from St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School embarked on a thrilling school trip to visit some London sights.

The day started with a train journey full of excitement and anticipation for what fun lay ahead, when we reached the capital. After disembarking at Stratford International Station, the children made their way to the DLR station to take a journey to Royal Victoria, where they boarded cabins upon the Emirates Cable Car. They crossed the Thames and took in the unique and breath-taking views of London's captivating skyline from a 90m height. The memorable flight to Greenwich Peninsula took approximately 10 minutes and the children pointed out Canary Wharf, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Shard, The O2, the Thames Barrier, Maritime Greenwich and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park during their crossing. At around 90 metres high, the Emirates Air Line cable car is the highest observation point over the River Thames spanning over 1km between Greenwich Peninsula (for The O2) and the Royal Docks.

Once they had made the journey across the river, the children took a short walk to the North Greenwich pier where they embarked  a Thames Clipper boat. The children enjoyed a 45 minute cruise along one of the most renowned rivers in the world – where they were able to see the 02 Arena, the Cutty Sark, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament.

They disembarked at Westminster pier, the children then proceeded along Parliament Street and onto Whitehall, passing the Cenotaph and 10 Downing Street. The walking tour then took in Horse Guards Parade and a view of Trafalgar Square, before a rest stop in St James Park.

The last viewpoint was of Buckingham Palace, before the children walked the last leg of their tour of London back to Victoria Station. A calm and restful train journey home followed, along with lots of talk about their exciting day viewing the sights in our capital city.

The trip was part funded by the KCC Reconnect scheme. Reconnect is a Kent County Council led, community based programme designed to get Kent’s children and young people thriving following the pandemic.

Trip organiser, David Pasola, Year 5 Lead said: “The trip to London enabled our children to see sights that they have only ever seen on television or read about in books. They were able to experience a cable car and a trip along the river, which was a new experience for many of our children. We are very fortunate to have been able to provide the trip with the assistance of the Reconnect Programme. For many children this will have been their first time going on a train or to our capital city,  as the pandemic had stopped trips like this occurring. The children showed all of our school values during the day – belonging, team work, caring, respect and most importantly enjoyment.”

The children expressed their thoughts on the trip:

Imogen commented: “I like the boat trip, it was a great way to travel – in comfort and still see some of the best London sights!”

Rosie stated: “The cable car ride was amazing, I’m not sure everyone in my pod felt the same! There were some very white faces.”

Tiernan added: “It was the furthest we’d ever been on a school trip. I really enjoyed seeing HMS Belfast – it was much smaller than I imagined.”

Martha summed up the day as: “The best school trip ever!”

Eliza Chick from Year 6 fly’s out to Spain on Friday 24^th June, along with her dance team, who have qualified against 3000 entries to represent team UK in the Dance World Cup in San Sebastian Spain.

Dance World Cup is the equivalent in the dance world to the Olympics.

Eliza will be competing in both the lyrical and commercial categories against dancers and schools from around the world. Well done Eliza and good luck to the whole team.

On Friday 17^th June 2022, the Year 6 class from St Joseph’s Catholic Primary school were invited to a Jubilee Street Party hosted by Broadstairs College. Along with 3 other local schools the children were invited along for a party lunch, music, theatre, sports, crafts and games.

The children started their fun-filled day, with a play devised and performed by the Theatre Studies students. They then began a thrilling carousel of activities including, nail-art, face-painting, tie-dying t-shirts, a sports day session, party games, a world-wide quiz, lawn games and science experiments.  

The children enjoyed a delicious picnic lunch sat in true street party style along the centre of the campus. We began lunch waving flags, as the children sang the National Anthem, then tooted our party hooters and gave rousing cheers to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. We followed our sumptuous feast by ice-cream, candy floss or popcorn.

The children all had a marvellous time and described it as an amazing day out.

Hubert explained “My favourite activity was a quiz show we took part in guessing countries from their flags and anagrams, we scored extra points if we knew the capital city. I did really well as I know my countries well from my Geography lessons!”

Eliza said, “I loved it when we got to throw sponges at grown-ups! The quiz where we learnt different words and languages was great – I can now say hello in many different languages.”

Amelia reported, “The creative section where we had face paints, nail painting and got to make tie-dye t-shirts was my favourite part because we got to take the things home with us and I can wear my t-shirt to show my artistic side. The croquet was a brilliant new experience for me as I had never played it before – it was fun trying to beat my friends”

Mrs Sproates, Year 6 Lead said “It was a fabulous day for the children to experience all the elements of a traditional street party – they have created lots of memories that they will able to carry with them into their new schools. Some of the children have enjoyed new experiences such as croquet and tie-dye and it has encouraged them to try new and exciting opportunities – another key skill as they move forward to secondary school. As this event was led by students, the children were able to learn about the subjects and departments that were hosting the day and this gave the children a flavour of what they could study post 16”

On Thursday 16th June 2022, the school council from St Josephs’s Catholic Prmary School in Broadstairs travelled to London to visit the House of Parliament.

We travelled by train to London, then took the tube to Westminster. During our tour of the Palace of Westminster, we visited the House of Commons to watch a debate about British support to the Ukraine, we then observed in the House of Lords, where they debated the importance of both Houses of Government being co-located. As we exited the Strangers gallery, in the House of Lords, we met a Baroness, who spoke to the children about how you become a member of the House of Lords. We learnt about the history of the Palace of Westminster and about the composition of both Houses.

After our tour, we enjoyed a workshop about democracy and how representation works in the UK. The children were allocated constituencies, and then created their own political parties, voted for a leader and devised a manifesto, which had to be costed out. The children came up with a range of promises, that included a tax on fast food, a ban on single use plastics, longer prison sentences for people who hurt animals and more support for  developing countries. As a group, we then participated in a secret ballot and the representative for each constituency was selected, the majority party then formed the government.

The children really enjoyed their visit and proved themselves to be very knowledgeable about politics and democracy. They were great ambassadors for St Joseph’s.

The children said the following about their day:

Ava: “I found out how debates work and the process of how you can speak in the House of Commons.”

Harry: “I really enjoyed the House of Commmon and Lords because of the debates going on. We got to find out lots of new and interesting facts.”

Olivia: “I liked seeing what the building that we see on TV look like in real life, it was so interesting to see a real life debate.”

Mrs Sandwell who organised the trip explained, “ We feel very fortunate that we have been able to provide the children this exciting opportunity. We began our process to apply for a visit in January of this year and only found out a few weeks ago we had been successful in our application. During our Democracy week in September, our school council representatives were voted for in a democratic process, making their own speeches and being voted for by their peers, so it is very in keeping that the  children were able to see the home of democracy in our country.”

Our school council is comprised of 14 children from Year 2 through to Year 6. The school council represent their classes in meetings with school leaders, meet visitors and perform duties across the school.

This week in Reception we have been learning about what the Seaside was like in the past and what it is like today, in the present. What was it like to use a bathing machine? What would we expect to find on the beach then and now? We then went outside to set up a puppet theatre and explore Seaside activities. We have had a great time learning about Punch and Judy shows, donkeys, seagulls and how our seaside has changed over the years!

The sunshine has been wonderful!

Aim high, achieve together!"

When the sun is shining there is nothing better than being out and about getting fresh air and exercise!

People often say that the Reception Class never seem to sit still, they are always on the go! That is true and it certainly keeps their teachers and teaching assistants on their toes. This is a good thing, because the Department of Health recommends at least three hours of physical activity across the day for children in the early years. It will come as no surprise to parents of young ones how much activity children fit in. That is also why there are healthy snacks of fruit and vegetables as well as water to hand each day so that children can keep their energy up!

'Aim high, achieve together!'

What are the nuts and bolts of it?

Nuts and bolts are great in Reception Class because children have to do a number of things correctly to get them together! Firstly, they have to decide by shape and size, which bolts go with which nuts. They then have to use fine motor skills as well as eye to hand coordination to align the thread and then repeatedly twist and rotate in the correct direction to get the nut and bolt set together properly.

Early math skills, such as matching, sorting, making patterns and categorising come into play and what just seemed like a tub of bolts and nuts can be a puzzle to unwrap and a learning opportunity 'tightened up'.

We love working together to get things done!

'Aim high, achieve together!'

We celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in style beginning with a special Assembly learning about the life of our Queen and enjoying various activities throughout the week including our Reception children making special cucumber sandwiches and crowns.  The week culminated in a special Jubilee inspired picnic lunch including an individual Victoria Sponge cake for every child.  The finale of the day was a Jubilee Pageant.  Edmund , our trumpeter for the day from Chatham and Clarendon Grammar School led the procession of  children, all dressed  in red, white and blue with a rendition of the National Anthem.   Our House Captains Olivia, James, Amber and Elsa then planted a Cherry Blossom Tree in honour of our Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.