Simba - Issue 47

News from Bablake Junior and The Grange Pre Prep

The Lion roars back!

Our strength and majesty are clear for all to see, with Bablake Junior School enjoying a term of considerable success.

The children and staff have returned to school with a sense of purpose and determination, making for great experiences for all the community.

It has been a term of pupils taking the lead, offering excellent role models in the process. Assemblies have been planned and led by the children, who have revelled in the chance to present to the whole school. In addition, it is evident that their sense of responsibility remains purposeful. As a key theme within our school, it is heartening to see pupils choosing to take such opportunities.

Community is a second strand of our themes, and the warmth of relationships between the pupils, and also with their teachers is a tremendous benefit. The children can feel cared for and looked after by peers and staff alike, enabling them to be happier and more settled.

We have seen Excellence – our third aspect – in many guises. Successful selection for County Cricket squads, participation in the Royal International Horse Show, and winning the Warwickshire Tennis competition have all been examples, as have the fine performances on the sports fields for the many teams.

Bablake Junior School is preparing the pupils for all the challenges life will throw at them. Building character is key to this, and our strategies to develop these aspects of the pupils’ personality are essential for their growth. These cubs are certainly readying themselves to be leaders of the pride.

Mr Warren Honey Headmaster

Nursery Pirate Pizza Party

In Nursery, we like to base our topic work on the interests of the children.

We get some very interesting ideas and this means we have to be flexible, but it is wonderful to be able to include the children’s ideas into our activity planning. This term, there were requests for all things pirate! We based our work around this theme and finished the topic with a Pirate Pizza Party. We made real pizzas and decorated our own pizza boxes to take them home, we role played by running our own restaurant and made a pirate ship out of junk modelling. The children pretended the climbing frame was their very own pirate ship and they made the teachers walk the plank!

Miss Holmes

Reception

DIWALI DAY IN RECEPTION

We enjoyed a day dedicated to Diwali in order to talk about and experience some of the different ways that Diwali is celebrated. We had fun making Diwali cards by using a collage technique to create a picture of diva lamps. The children also enjoyed colouring Diwali pictures and decorated them using as many different colours, patterns and shapes as possible.

The children were so creative when making Rangoli patterns. We used chapati dough for patters as well as Rangoli templates to stencil brightly coloured patterns onto black paper. We also had lots of fun using paints, chalk and seeds to create large scale Rangoli patterns on the playground.

We all enjoyed participating in a Diwali dance session with Miss Soan, who taught us different dance moves to some traditional music.

It was lovely to share some of the different items that the children brought into school from home and hear them talk about their own experiences of Diwali. Thank you to all the families that helped by donating food or crafting equipment to help make our Diwali day all the more authentic and realistic.

Mrs Wright

year 1

Palaeontologists in the making

Year 1 stomped into their Dinosaur topic! We were visited by palaeontologists Caris and James who arrived at school with some very cheeky dinosaurs. The children relished the opportunity to meet Mia the baby Triceratops, Bella the Velociraptor and Sophie the 8-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex. The children had the opportunity to explore the differences between the three dinosaurs and their corresponding diets.

The children offered some great questions and volunteered well-thought-out responses. Following the introductory session, the children were excited to inspect and discover a range of real fossils, some of which were up to 45 million years old! Through careful discussion and elimination, we were able to identify the skull of an Allosaurus, the claw of a Velociraptor and the horn of a Triceratops!

Mrs Sawdon

Pavan 1L

Sophie 1S

Saim 1B

Hussain 1F

palaeontologists.

Anna 1S

SUPER, SECRET SKILLS

Secret missions, secret agents and superhero skills were all put to good use during Superhero Day in Year 1.

The children dressed up as superheroes and we saw a wonderful variety of costumes including Batman, Wonder Woman, doctors, teachers, and more! It was a busy day spent making superhero badges, decorating masks, making stick puppets, painting life sized superheroes, designing a perfect villain and then having photographs taken in a superhero style!

Arthi 1F

Joseph 1B

Mrs Sawdon

“My favourite part of Dinosaur Day was meeting Sophie the T-Rex.”

“I loved all our Dinosaur art activities.”

“We learnt to be

It was so good, it was amazing!”

“I enjoyed making my lollipop superhero character.”

“We took lots of cool photos.”

“We are sewing superhero puppets and I am really proud of how mine looks.”

“We dressed up as our favourite superheroes and it was lots of fun.”

Similarities and Differences

This term in PSHE, we have been exploring our similarities and differences and celebrating how special and unique we are.

In Art, we have practised our sketching skills, focusing on facial features and have used oil pastels to bring the portraits to life.

Can you put your detective skills to the test and guess which Year 2 child we are?

Mrs McElligott

RIDING TO SUCCESS!

Earlier in the year Elizabeth (Year 4) qualified with her pony Tony (Colne Tiger Bay) for the Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead. It is the biggest championship show in the country for her riding discipline. She qualified for the First Ridden section which is for children up to 12 years old. Elizabeth was placed 7th and was the youngest child in the top ten.

Elizabeth also qualified for the STARS Champion of Champions which was held at Aintree Racecourse, where she represented Atherstone and District Riding Club. She won the Working Hunter Pony Competition, for children up to ten years old and placed 4th in the Ridden class (for riders of any age) and 5th in the First Ridden class; all of these classes had in excess of 40 competitors in each. Well done Elizabeth!

Future Football Fox

Karum (Year 5) has been signed for Leicester City Football Club Academy.

He loves football and has worked very hard to achieve his goal of playing for a top academy football club.

Well done Karum and good luck!

New Motor Sport karting team for Sebastian

Having made good progress at club levels in the Honda Cadet class with Protrain in 2022, and following successful test sessions this autumn, Sebastian joined the Ambition Motorsport Team at the end of November. This will see him competing in National Karting Championships in the Intermediate Rotax Class during 2023, representing the Parolin factory team operated by Ambition Motorsport. He’ll be racing karts that reach over 100 km/h, and shooting for junior karting honours previously won by numerous current Formula 1 stars.

Good luck Sebastian!

Bablake Founders’ Day

It was wonderful to hear the Founders’ story and celebrate Founders’ Day.

On October 20 th 1890, the first assembly was held in the new Bablake Senior School building. Two hundred boys who had passed an examination were assembled in the Main Hall. A bell was rung and all of the teachers walked into the hall in their black gowns. This was the beginning of the Bablake School site that we enjoy each day. We are proud of our School; learning its history and celebrating 132 years on this site has given us a stronger connection and appreciation of all that Bablake was, is and continues to be.

Big thanks to Mr Peter Burden, Bablake Archivist, for sharing his knowledge and taking time to celebrate with the children. Mrs Jeffcoat

In September, we had a fantastic time celebrating European Day of Languages at Bablake Junior School. The aim of the day was to raise awareness of the variety of languages used across Europe and to celebrate, the children came to school dressed in the colours of European flags.

Spanish was the focus for Years 3 and 4. The children learned how to talk about family members, with the help of a song from Disney’s Encanto, and then created super Spanish family trees.

Years 5 and 6 took part in a carousel of languages. They played number games in Romanian, discovered some funny animal words in Welsh, designed a colourful monster in Portuguese and learned how to sign their names in British Sign Language. They finished the day with a quiz to show off all the new vocabulary they had been learning. It was ‘un día maravilloso!’

Manttan

Forest School

Forest School has been busy and full of fun this term.

Year 3 have been getting to know the residents of our forest and creating some woodland artwork. Year 4 have been busy whittling their own arrows and aiming straight for target practice. In Years 5 and 6, the children have been using tools to create musical instruments to add to our new music area. We are expanding our materials with a new water wall, music station and pond area – the children have been happy to help build and explore the new materials in their friendly forest.

Miss Young

Charity

Our non-uniform day this year raised a healthy sum of £286 for this important charity that supports children and families affected by genetic disorders.

A phenomenal total of £453 was made for this wonderful charity.

Any enormous array of donated cakes allowed us to enjoy two days of cake sales this year!

Thank you for all your support in our charitable fundraising!

Scholastic Book Fair

A wide range of fiction and non-fiction books was available. Sales during the fair created points for us to spend on the School Library. We are lucky to have a lovely array of over £600 worth of new books to enjoy this term.

A wonderful array of goods was steadily donated across our Harvest Collection week. Reverend Slavic inspired our pupils with a Harvest assembly focussing on the origin of our food and the abundance of food that we enjoy. All items were gratefully received by the Coventry Food Bank and Homeless shelter.

We were able to hold a Pudsey raffle, cake sale and non-uniform day this year for Children in Need, raising an amazing £888 for this worthwhile charity.

Another busy book fair allowed many of our pupils to choose and enjoy new books.

Egyptian Day

Egyptian

We were also able to start the process of drying out our tomatoes, using salt in order to be able to mummify them. We need to check them after fifty days to see if they are ready for wrapping.

SAFETY CENTRE

Year 3 visited the Safety Centre in Milton Keynes earlier this term. The children learnt about road safety, fire and water risks, how to contact the emergency services and how to stay safe in and out of the home. The trip supported the children’s understanding and knowledge of hazards, risks and personal safety. The children practised using a zebra crossing, made an emergency 999 call in a phone box and discussed anti-social behaviour in a role play chicken shop.

Everybody had a lot of fun!

Miss Adcock

Day was full of activities such as dressing up, Egyptian dancing and hieroglyphic art.

year 4

Pirate Day

From Pirate Maths to treasure maps, Year 4 created dramatic displays of pirating complete with sea biscuits! Wonderful costumes and enormous energy allowed us to have a most rewarding day that contributed to our love of all things pirate!

Think Tank

Year 4 enjoyed a fascinating day in Birmingham exploring the Science Museum. An interactive show started the day as our pupils explored teeth, dental hygiene and the journey of food through the human body. Our pupils displayed a wealth of knowledge and contributed enthusiastically. We spent the afternoon session exploring the indoor and outdoor exhibits, with the garden pumps and machinery being firm favourites.

Mrs Jeffcoat

Ahoy there me hearties!

A fantastic day of mischief, looting and treasure-seeking was had by all.

Year 5 have been busy on a community project to brighten up the area outside of our classrooms and the end of the day collection area. We have signed up to the 2023 Golden Bulb Competition run by Bulbs 4 Kids, a charity based in the Netherlands.

The organisation very generously sent 600 bulbs in the most enormous box! We received: narcissus/daffodils, tulips, grape hyacinths and crocus bulbs.

Pupils have been busy preparing the areas for planting and were able to plant the bulbs at the end of November in-between all the rainy days. It was a little time-consuming with all those bulbs to dig holes for, so we were lucky to have the whole year group involved.

We thought it was:

• An exciting project

• Fun digging and working as a team

• Great learning how to become budding gardeners

Keep your eyes peeled for the emerging shoots, and hopefully our hard work will be rewarded with a dazzling display in the Spring when we will be learning about plant growth in more detail in Science. Look out for our joyful blooms in the coming months.

TELLING STORIES THROUGH DRAMA

In Year 5 Drama lessons this term, the focus is on the theme of War.

The children have been using physical theatre to tell stories. They have created a series of freeze-frames to tell a story relating to the impact of war.

year 6

CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

This term, Year 6 have been completing a Computing project on The Minpins by Roald Dahl.

A large part of this unit has been learning about the creative process of digital photography. The pupils learned how to capture the perfect shot in the Spinney and have been using photo editing software to enhance and manipulate their images.

Mrs Danes

Girls’ Sport

Under 10s

Well done to all the girls who have been very enthusiastic and committed to each sport and activity that we have participated and competed in. All girls from Year 3 to Year 6 have tried extremely hard in lessons, clubs and at fixtures. The girls thoroughly deserve all the success they have achieved over the term and I am very proud of them all.

Everyone in the Juniors has worked hard to improve their hockey skills this term, they have been an absolute joy to teach. Every girl has had the opportunity to play in fixtures and it has been lovely to watch them improve in their match play.

The girls have had some great wins against Arnold Lodge, King Henry VIII, Solihull, Eversfield and The Croft. It was particularly lovely to watch the U8s play their first ever fixtures and festivals, they were so excited and very much enjoyed themselves. Well done to every single girl in Bablake Juniors, I am so proud of you all.

Thank you also to all the parents who have braved the weather and come to support us. You always cheer us on to even greater effort!

Under 9s

Under 8s

Rema, Year 4

Niamh, Year 4

Fleur, Year 3

Under 10s

Under 9s

“There are lots of skills to learn in hockey and the teachers make learning them really fun.”

“It’s so nice because I love doing sport.” Agnes, Year 3

“We love all the practices!”

“I love learning hockey, it’s my favourite sport now!”

“We really enjoy the matches.”

“I love blocking tackles.”

“The teachers make sport so much fun.”

“I love tackling, getting the ball and scoring goals.”

“It is so cool to be able to travel in minibuses to play fixtures against other schools. We love it!”

Mrs Haywood

What a fantastic start to the year we have had!

IAPS Hockey

The U11A team represented Bablake at the IAPS regional finals held at Loughborough School this term.

We started the day with much enthusiasm and excitement. Our first match was against Witham Hall and the girls all played brilliantly and worked well as a team. Amy was everywhere on the pitch, racing in strongly to tackle then taking the ball up the pitch at speed, finding some super accurate passes to her teammates. Sophia was outstanding, tackling bravely and always racing back to help defend. We held them 1-1 until the very last seconds when we unfortunately let in a fantastic shot from a penalty corner, finally losing 2-1 in an unlucky defeat.

In the second match, we faced the mighty Repton and again the girls ran and ran, defending valiantly and even scoring against them – not many schools managed that feat. Jasmine saved so many shots – a truly great goalie.

Next, we faced Blue Coat and the girls played really well again with everyone racing back to defend. Mention must be made here to Phoebe and Catherine who fought hard at the back, making some brilliant block tackles.

In the knockout stages, we faced Nottingham and despite going behind, we fought back to win 2-1. Jojo and Daisy ran forward like lightning to attack and still managed to race tirelessly back again and again to help defend.

We got through to the semi-finals against RGS Worcester; the girls were determined to play their best again and managed to hold a 1-1 draw at the end of the match… into extra time golden goal! We tried so hard to score but narrowly missed.

Fleur just kept going, so strong on the ball and pushing through tackle after tackle to race into the D. It was a draw at the end of extra time and we were into a penalty shootout. Jojo stepped up and confidently scored after RGS missed its first shot. RGS scored their second penalty shot and Daisy’s great shot was saved by the RGS goalie! It was all down to Catherine… the RGS player missed and Catherine scored! We were in the final!

The girls were exhausted and had no break before playing the final. They played so well giving everything they had! Alexa was super strong, sending some excellent passes up the pitch to her team mates, never giving up. Unfortunately, we lost 2-1 in the final after an epic battle, to come second in the Plate Championship. It was a fantastic day and a great achievement. We are so proud of you!

Mrs Haywood

Jasmine, Year 6

Amy, Year 6

The teams at IAPs were so competitive. I am so proud of our team.

IAPs was really good fun, just playing hockey all day!

Boys’ Sport

Rugby

Rugby continues to go from strength to strength at Bablake Junior School.

There have been 76 rugby matches this term, with huge amounts of success. The teams have been undefeated in 75% of matches, which is a fantastic achievement. In one week alone, every boy in the school had the opportunity to play in a rugby match and it has been a pleasure to watch the boys grow and develop their skills. Of course, it is not just the success that counts; in many ways it is more valuable to see the boys playing the game with rugby’s core values at the forefront of everybody’s mind. These core values are key to the sport of rugby and are something we, as Bablake Junior School, try to instil into our school sporting ethos –Discipline, Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment and Sportsmanship. It doesn’t matter which team you play for in rugby as long as you try to play the game with these values in mind. I am so proud of the way all of our boys represent our school on the field and this term, in particular, has been a most enjoyable one because we all play the game with the right spirit.

Under 11

The U11s have been a formidable group of rugby players this year. Ferocious whilst being in control is the best way to describe them and they have excelled. Indeed, local opposition has found it tough to play against them and it has been a challenge to find suitable opposition to play against our A team. The B, C and D teams should not be underestimated in this group and the D team has also had an unbeaten season! This has all contributed to some wonderful results and all the boys should be very proud of their achievements.

Under 10

The U10 boys have been the surprise package this year. With many new faces joining the group, it has been great to see their remarkable progress. For the A team, there have been great wins against Warwick, Solihull and Eversfield. It has been wonderful to see so many of the U10s enjoying their rugby and the future looks very promising for this talented group.

Under 9

Wow. Wow. Wow. The U9s have been incredible this year. They have relished the contact side of the game and have been unbeaten all year! They have all contributed to A team matches, which shows real strength across the year and it has been lovely to see so many happy faces after every game. Well done.

Under 8

The U8s have been a great, enthusiastic group to coach and have been on a steep learning curve. The progress has been fantastic and the most exciting part of an away fixture was realising that Mr Benfield could drive a minibus! The rugby has also been exciting with an undefeated A team and some fantastic memories made.

Another very successful term on the rugby fields!

Mr Benfield

The

Bablake Junior School annual House Cross Country Competition took place on the Friday before the half term holiday. During the afternoon, all children took part in the races and despite the somewhat inclement weather they all finished, showing true grit and determination and also a lot of talent! There were a lot of examples of Bablake sportsmanship and spirit. Well done to the medal winners, and of course to Fairfax for winning the overall competition.

1st Sophia 2nd Fleur 3rd Catherine 1st Ben 2nd Reyaansh 3rd Charlie

1st Kingsley 2nd Harverr 3rd Cormac

1st Liban 2nd Reuben 3rd Shaan

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024 7627 1285

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