New Year Fun

6th January 2017

It is always a joy to look forward to a brand new term and when that brand new term is accompanied by a brand new year it is somehow even more exciting. The weather has been kind and provided us with crisp beautiful winter days with sunshine pouring across white frosted fields and playgrounds. As long as the children wrap up warmly, outside is the best place to be.

In assembly we talked about months of the year and looked at how January came to be named after the Roman God Janus. The children loved hearing about a God with two faces, one looking forward to the future and one looking back at the past. Small children are the best at understanding the value of learning and can readily relate to the importance of Janus looking backwards to learn from the mistakes of the past year in order to go forward and enjoy a more successful new year. They loved the concept and hurried off to draw me pictures of how they imagined Janus would look. You can imagine how much I enjoyed some very amusing pictures of Janus in smart trousers and a purple patterned jumper albeit with the traditional two faces!

The children also enjoyed hearing about the original name of January as chosen by the Anglo Saxons who decided to call this month Wolf Monath because years ago wolves came into the villages in search of food. That led to some wonderful questions about wolves and winter and I was surprised how many children could relate this to another assembly story last term about The Boy Who Cried Wolf which had obviously made more of an impression than I had imagined.

Winter is a beautiful season and I do hope that we have some snow before the end of it. The School looks beautiful with fabulous displays with a frosty, glittering feel as the children explore Arctic Animals, igloo homes and research the topic Pole to Pole with all the fascinating learning entailed by that. Outside in the grounds I was amazed to see ice discs. The children had chosen a selection of leaves and plant materials, placed them on a plate and poured water over them. The result is absolutely magical! I have tweeted a picture on our Twitter feed so do have a look. It is good to be back.

Annie Thackray
Head Teacher