Holy Trinity and St John's Church of England Primary School
Hope | Believe | Achieve
Woodland School
Welcome to the Woodland School page!
Scroll down to find out about some of the exciting and interesting things that we see and do in Woodland School.
Mrs Chantler
Woodland School Leader
NOVEMBER 2022
Everyone in Year R enjoyed their first fire bowl experience in Woodland School this week, with toasted marshmallows to enjoy! YUMMY!
Everyone in Year R enjoyed their very first Treasure Hunt in Woodland School this week!
A SPECIAL BIRD OF PREY HAS BEEN VISITING WOODLAND SCHOOL! IT'S A SPARROWHAWK!
WOODEN PEG DOLLIES! A member of the local community kindly donated some old-fashioned wooden clothes pegs...
OCTOBER 2022
OUR FANTASTIC DAY IN BLEAN WOODS!
These mushrooms were found growing underneath the leaf-litter. A sure sign of Autumn!
Children from across the school have enjoyed using clay, twigs and acorns to make and decorate these hedgehogs.
SEPTEMBER 2022
We have some new buckets, spades, rakes and watering cans which we can use in the garden and in Woodland School.
Riley found this Orange Bonnet fungus in Woodland School today!
Gruffalo enjoyed making toasted marshmallows with some Year 1 children today!
We have been delighted to be able to welcome some children from Ukraine to our school. Today they had a very happy time making a stick man family in Woodland School.
BONKERS FOR CONKERS....PART 2
Here is a new hanging bird table which was gifted to us by a member of staff.
Here is a new bird bath that was gifted to us by Liz from The Secret Garden Centre at Quex, to replace one which had been stolen in the summer holidays.
Construction work has begun on a fabulous new tree house and den in Woodland School. We are hoping that it will be finished by the end of October.
Year 1 enjoyed using the wood chunk cylinders to make this wall.
The tree house framework is now in place.
BONKERS FOR CONKERS !!!! There's plenty of conkers in Woodland School! Anyone fancy a game?!!
Some children from Year 5 enjoyed playing with the new wood chunk construction kit and with the new RSPB bird teddies. Lots of investigation and problem solving took place as we constructed a home for the toys.
Dragonfly and Honeybee had a wonderful time exploring Woodland School for the very first time today!
July 2022
Have a GREAT summer holiday everyone!
Remember to make time for nature...
See you all in September.
With love from Mrs Chantler and all of our furry and feathery friends in Woodland School xx
Children from Dragonfly Class and Honey Bee Class have loved playing with the giant construction kit and have had so many creative and imaginative ideas!
Hedgehog class enjoyed cooling off with an ice pole in the shade of the Horse Chestnut tree.
Our new giant wooden construction kit has arrived and the children are enjoying using it to create a hundred and one things!
Some of our lovely Year 6 children helped to make this GIANT stick man for the younger children to play with in Woodland School! He is super!
Mrs Wiles, a member of our staff, made these lovely little owls for the children to play with in Woodland School. THANK YOU!!
Children from Years 1 and 2 have worked collaboratively to create this wonderful "Woodland Animals" totem pole!
Children from Years R, 1,2,3 and 4 have enjoyed spending time in Woodland School engaged in creative, imaginative play.
JUNE 2022
Here is our Woodland School wildlife record board for June...
Two Privet Hawk Moths in Woodland School!
We have purchased these beautiful wood sculptures from Bruk's tree surgery in Birchington. The children think that they look wonderful!
Hedgehog class had a lovely time putting up the tents and playing with them and the teddies, in the warm sunshine. Some of our lovely Year 4 children helped to put the tents up!
Both the Jay and the Green Woodpecker have been sighted every day this week! The Jay is a juvenile and has been coming to the bird feeders to eat the fat-balls. Some children in Year 2 got a very close up view of it. The Green Woodpecker has been feeding on bugs in the grass on the bank and has also been seen clinging to the trunk of the tall Sycamore tree on the bank.
A lovely new cast-iron weather vane, complete with a squirrel, has been fitted on to the den in Woodland School. This is as a result of a request from a Year 3 pupil!
We are having great fun decorating these NATURE GLASSES using natural materials that we have found in Woodland School.
The Year One Woodland School After School Club found this Collared Dove egg yesterday!
The Wildlife Trusts are launching a national event called "30 days Wild" in which everyone is encouraged to do something "wild" every day in the month of June.
Here is a 30 DAYS WILD activity calendar for the month of June!
MAY 2022
Badger class enjoyed a JUBILEE CORGI HUNT in Woodland School this week! There were 70 corgis to find...WOOF!
A local artist recently gave us some off-cuts of wood for free, from their art studio. Children from Years 1 and 2 have enjoyed using the chunks of wood to create structures for the teddies.
We have purchased a large bird bath, two small bird baths and a new bird feeder for Woodland School.
A group of children from Year 2 worked collaboratively to make this little wooden teepee shelter for the tiny teddies. The carpet is made from soft, green leaves and there is a rocking horse and a Christmas tree inside!
We were delighted to welcome some of our parents to a Look and Learn event in Woodland School this week!
Some girls from Year 6 made these super "Colour Boxes" using flowers, leaves and petals found in and around Woodland School.
Swifts are here for the summer and they can be seen flying over Woodland School in the mornings.
Woodland School has just been awarded the RSPB GOLD LEVEL Wildlife Award!
WILDLIFE WATCHING!
The children in the Year 2 lunch club have had some very close up views of a Wood Mouse feeding on some sunflower seeds. The Wood Mouse has worked out that the seeds sometimes fall onto the floor, from the squirrel picnic table. It has made a nest in the fence directly underneath the squirrel picnic table! We sat delightedly for several minutes watching the Wood Mouse dart in and out, eating the seeds!
PETER RABBIT HUNT Can you name ten characters from Beatrix Potter stories? Badger class can! We had a great time taking part in a Peter Rabbit treasure hunt this week and found all ten hidden characters! Well done Badger class!
BLUE TIT NEWS! Children in Years 1, 2, and 5 were lucky enough to be able to watch a male and female Blue-tit repeatedly flying in and out of a nest box in Woodland School today. The birds are going in and out roughly once every minute. This means that there are chicks inside the nest box and the parent birds are very busy flying in with bugs for the chicks to eat!
CLEVER CROW ... A very clever crow visited the school garden today. It had a dry, hard piece of bread in it's beak...too hard to swallow. The clever crow dipped the hard bread into the dish of water, which is left out for the birds. It carried on doing this until the bread was soaked and soft enough to eat...The crow then ate up the bread and flew away. CLEVER CROW!
Year 6 girls calmly and competently worked together to put up the Polish Army tent today.
A group of Year 6 girls found a variety of minibeasts in Woodland School today. We saw a beautiful Red Admiral butterfly at very close range and also this Green Shield Bug.
A group of Year 2 children made a TOAD HALL today! It is a wildlife home for amphibians.
APRIL 2022
Anyone fancy a brew ?
Badger class had a lovely time this morning, making butterflies. This is a good example of the holistic learning that we do in Woodland School: We learnt about symmetry, texture, colour and shape.
A group of Year 6 girls learnt how to make a camp fire this afternoon and then enjoyed making and eating hotdogs and S'mores! Delicious!
Our Head boy, Warona and fellow Red Kite pupil Alfie G helped to split up logs into kindling this afternoon, using large wooden malletts and our Dewalt axe. They did an absolutely amazing job!
A group of Year 3 children enjoyed making an A-Frame shelter with a DD Tarp in Woodland School this morning. They quickly and confidently set about this task...GREAT LEARNING boys and girls!
Some Year 2 children planted up some peas this morning. We used some sticks that we found in Woodland School to use as stakes for the young pea plants to grow up.
We have a pair of robins in Woodland School at the moment and they are taking it in turns to feed their young fledgling. We have been lucky enough to watch them at very close range. The parent birds have been breaking off tiny pieces of the fat-balls and then hopping down on to the den and feeding it to the young robin. Robins can become quite tame and we are hoping that we may be able to carry on watching them feeding in Woodland School this spring.
Everyone in Year 2 took part in a creative, open-ended task this afternoon, making items of play equipment for the Woodland School fairies. We had a GREAT time!
WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL ! We have already been very busy in Woodland School during these first few days back ...
We've had a busy first week back in Woodland School.
Year 3 have been learning to use the I-pads to take photos and enjoyed visiting Woodland School to take some close-up shots of the natural environment.
Year 2 have been up on a minibeast hunt and found lots of different creatures.
The lunch club children have been very busy looking after the school garden...the herbs and the potatoes are doing very well on the new decking area and we hope to be able to give some potatoes to our school cook in May or June to use in the school dinners.
The Horse Chestnut tree has burst into leaf and looks wonderful. Our resident Wren is singing loudly in the spring sunshine and there are Red Admiral and Peacock butterflies flitting about.
We are looking forward to spending time in Term 5 in Woodland School!
A very HAPPY EASTER to everyone in our HTSJ community!
MARCH 2022
Here is our Woodland School wildlife observation record board for the month of March.
Some children from Year 6 enjoyed making and eating S'mores at the campfire!
What a beautiful sunny morning! Hedgehog class had a lovely time collecting natural materials to use when decorating their springtime birds.
Badger class were busy making woven spring birds using natural materials that we collected in Woodland School.
We have now been awarded the RSPB Wild Challenge SILVER LEVEL Award!
We used our gadget to make camp-fire popcorn at the fire bowl. Yummy!
Some children in Year 5 learnt how to split logs safely, using an axe and a mallet. We will use the split logs in the camp fire!
Some children in Years 2 and 3 learnt how to use a fire striker and how to make a camp fire...then enjoyed eating hotdogs at the log circle!
Year 2 have been busy making images of The Green Man using natural materials.
Hot chocolate keeps us warm on cold mornings in Woodland School!
We have seen a pair of Jays today in Woodland School!
Year 1 saw a beautiful peacock butterfly on their way back from Woodland School today!
Year 3 were investigating how many living things could be found within the perimetre of a hula hoop. They found 7 different plant species and 3 different types of minibeast.
Year 2 have been bird watching in Woodland School.
FEBRUARY 2022
Some children in Year 2 have been using the early spring leaves to create colour palettes and pictures.
Year 5 enjoyed eating some jacket potatoes that had been baked in the camp fire. They were yummy.. even if the skins were a little burnt!!
Some children used this RSPB resource to create a colour palette using natural materials from in and around Woodland School.
A Woodland School fairy (...possibly called Chantler-bell)...has hidden ten fairy bags... Can you discover what's inside them?
Some children in Years 2 and 3 have been learning how to use a palm drill safely to make a hole in a wood cookie.
We have Wood mice in Woodland School!
Wood mice are one of Britain's most common rodents. They can be found in woodland, rough grassland and in gardens. They have large ears and large eyes, relative to their size. You can find more information about Wood mice on the Wildlife Trusts website.
Woodland School has just been awarded the RSPB Wild Challenge BRONZE level award! Fantastic news!
Year One have made these bird fat-cakes and they have been hung up in the trees.
The new bug hotel has arrived...
JANUARY 2022
JURASSIC PARK IN WOODLAND SCHOOL !
There are 20 dinosaurs roaming around in Woodland School! We need help from any dinosaur hunters out there please!
NEWS FLASH ...a pair of blue tits are investigating one of the new nest boxes in Woodland School!
Welcome to our very own, very special ...MR LOG !!!
A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
HERE COMES 2022!
DECEMBER 2021
A very Happy Christmas to you all with lots of love from Mrs Chantler and all our furry and feathery friends in Woodland School.
Some children from Year 6 had a fantastic time making stick people and then made up funny stories about them!
Wood Cookie Christmas Decorations
NOVEMBER 2021
VIKING INVASION IN WOODLAND SCHOOL !!
Sixty young vikings invaded Woodland School today. They arrived kitted out with helmets and shields ready for battle with Mrs Chantler and Mr Palmer. Fortunately the viking hoardes decided to make friends with Mrs Chantler and Mr Palmer! The vikings shared their tasty home-made bread which was eaten along with a delicious viking vegetable stew, which was cooked over the open fire.
The wonderful vikings also made shelters with the sails from their longships.
Not a scrap of stew was left over when they marched away at the end of the afternoon for their next adventure!!
VIKING INVASION IN WOODLAND SCHOOL !!!
Some children from Year 2 and from Year 3 made Pudsey and Blush collages with natural materials.
Pudsey Bear is in our Woodland School!
We found a huge centipede near the log circle!
OCTOBER 2021
Two squirrel picnic tables are now in place in Woodland School.
Hot dogs are a tasty treat which we have enjoyed this term in Woodland School.
SEPTEMBER 2021
The BIG BAD WOLF is hiding somewhere in Woodland School! Come and let Mrs Chantler know if you see him!
Year 2 saw a Buzzard flying over Woodland School on Monday!
A Green Woodpecker has been visiting our Woodland School recently. It has a green body and a red head.
The Green Woodpecker has a loopy, undulating flight. It has a loud, unusual call which sounds like laughing or abit like a squeaky door! You can find out more about this bird on the RSPB website.
DD tarp diamond ground shelter in Woodland School
NEWS FLASH! Squirrel picnic tables are on the way!
This week we have been creating shelters and dens using tarps, paracord, tent pegs and mallets.
Year 1 had a visitor in Woodland School...He has purple prickles on his back, knobbly knees and turned out toes...
We used natural materials to make pictures of the snake, the owl and the fox from the Gruffalo story.
We have been toasting marshmellows at the fire bowl. YUMMY!!
Some children from Year 6 have been learning how to use a fire striker safely.
We have been learning how to tie a reef knot and then using this skill to tie wool when making our Harry Potter wands!
There are lots of these little black and red creatures in Woodland School at the moment...they are ladybird larvae!
We found a HUGE garden spider sitting in the middle of a large and very beautiful web!
