Another highlight was our recent victory at The Rupert House Maths Challenge, where our Year 5 pupils competed against other local primaries answering a series of maths questions and challenges designed to develop problem-solving skills. We were also delighted that representatives from each of our Key Stage 2 classes were able to attend the Greener Henley Environmental Fair at Henley College. Students from local secondary and sixth form colleges exhibited and inspired pupils of local primary schools about how we affect our environment. Exhibitors challenged them to reconsider how we live our lives and how we can change our ways.

From a teaching and learning perspective this term, we have had positive visits from both our school improvement partner and our diocesean advisor. Our staff training has been focused on establishing expectations and further embedding our new Behaviour Policy to ensure our classrooms are positive and fruitful learning spaces for all pupils. We have also been focusing on developing a high-quality physical learning environment across the school and developing our approach to the teaching of writing. We also continue to focus on our partnership with parents; we were delighted to welcome the parents of our ‘Stars of the term’ to Celebration Assembly just before half term and we look forward to sharing further details of our parent information sessions across a range of topics in the new year. Our first one being on Tuesday 13th January 7.00-8.30pm, where we welcome Dr Kavita Abraham Dowsing to talk to us about ‘Smart phone Free Childhood’. 

We continue to be mindful of supporting any pupils or families who are at risk of low attendance. High attendance is so imperative for pupils to be successful at school and details about this can be found on our website page - Attendance. I am delighted to share that our current whole school attendance figure is 96.5% and it will be wonderful to see this continue to rise even further in the new year.  

The last few weeks will be packed full of Christmas festivities, including Christmas Jumper Day, Christmas lunches, nativities and much more! It’s such a special time of year in school and wonderful to see pupils and staff embracing the Christmas spirit. I wanted to say a special thanks to FOTS for all of their organisation and support for these activities and to all of the parent volunteers who have supported us this term on a range of trips, Forest School sessions, listening to readers and much more. Trinity would not be the special place it is without all of your incredible support. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. I hope to see many of you at our Christmas Service on Friday 19th December at 10.30am.

Stars of the week

BRYON - Arthur L, Maxi, Felix, Emmie & Rhea

JEFFERS - Hamish H-W, Isabel, Oscar, Vetri & Louis

MURPHY - Jasper, Thalia, Georgina, Jude E, Elio & Ada

ROSEN - Nina, Seb, Walter, Freddy C & Nina

DAHL - Ruby, Amber, Finn, Henry, Persy & Juno

COWELL - Darcey H, Ella, Amy, Nina & Caswell

COEHLO - Phoebe, Monty, Clara, Eve & Emily

PILKEY - Zak, Bella, Abigail & Millie 

PALMER - James, Isabelle, Evie, Arabella & Fraser

ZEPHANIAH - Bailey, Anna, Noah, Isabella & Noah

RUNDELL - Zoe, Millie G, Leo, Freya & Harry

What a wonderful and busy half term it has been in Early Years. The children have embraced every learning opportunity with enthusiasm, curiosity and lots of smiles. 

One of our highlights was Space Week, where the children arrived in fantastic space-themed costumes. We explored the planets in our solar system, learnt fascinating facts about space and enjoyed imaginative role-play in class rockets and space-themed areas. The children loved asking questions about what it might be like to live on another planet.

As the weather grew colder, we discovered the world of Arctic animals. The children learnt how creatures like polar bears, penguins and Arctic foxes survive in their icy habitats. We explored vocabulary linked to cold climates and created icy arctic pictures. 

We’re now enjoying the magic of the festive season with a range of Christmas activities, including crafts, songs and storytelling. The children have been busy creating decorations and preparing for our Christmas celebrations.

English

In English this half term, the children have been focusing on:

• CVC word writing, using their phonics knowledge to segment and blend sounds independently.

• Beginning to explore simple sentences, looking at finger spaces, full stops and initial capital letters. We are so proud of the confidence the children are developing in their early writing skills.

Maths

In Maths, we have been focused in:

• Subitising to 5 – recognising small quantities without counting.

• Exploring 2D shapes, their properties and where we can spot them in the world around us.

• Using practical activities to understand one more and one less, building strong early number sense.

We are incredibly proud of how much the children have achieved this half term. Their curiosity and growing independence are shining through in all areas of learning. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to even more exciting learning in the new year.

This term, Key Stage 1has been buzzing with excitement as the children rehearse for their nativity performance. They can’t wait to share all their hard work—and their wonderful singing—with you at the end of term!

Learning Means The World

As part of our Learning Means the World curriculum, the children have also been exploring the inspiring life of Dr Thomas Barnardo. They learnt how he dedicated himself to helping vulnerable children in Victorian Britain, founding the Barnardo’s charity and opening homes and schools for those in need.

The children were fascinated to discover how courageous Dr Barnardo was: he stood up against unfair ideas of the time, welcomed every child and fought against discrimination. They particularly enjoyed learning about his creative thinking, including his early ideas around fostering and adoption, which helped children find loving families and brighter futures. They were amazed to find out that by the end of his life, Dr Barnardo had helped thousands of children living on the streets of the East End.

English

In English, the children have been channelling their inner researchers and writers. Using the RSPB First Book of Birds, they created fantastic non-chronological reports about garden birds. They learnt how to organise their writing with clear headings, subheadings and key facts, and included labelled diagrams and captions to bring their reports to life.

It has been a truly exciting term filled with learning, creativity and new discoveries.

What a busy and joyful term we’ve had!

We hope everyone has enjoyed the run-up to Christmas. The children have certainly appreciated all the hard work that has gone into preparing for the Christmas Fair. We’re looking forward to watching the EYFS and KS1 nativities, and we will also be enjoying a delicious Christmas lunch - our thanks in advance go to Jill and her catering team. We’re also very excited for our Christmas Service and hope you can join us.

 A huge thank you to all the staff who give their time so generously for our Lower Key Stage 2 children:
• Mrs Calderbank for her I, 2, 3 Sing (Year 3 Choir)
• Miss Hart for leading the KS2 Choir
Both choirs had a fantastic time performing at the Town Hall, alongside other local schools.
We would also like to express our appreciation to Mrs Evans for coordinating all the sports and cross-country events, especially those held at weekends. Thank you for supporting these opportunities!  

Countdown to Learning

We’ve been delighted with the children’s progress in their daily Countdown to Learning. This consists of:

• 5 maths questions
• 4 examples of sentences/non-sentences
• 3 spelling retrievals
• 2 dictated sentences
• 1 sentence-combining task

This routine links closely to the new DFE Writing Framework, revisits prior learning, and strengthens the basics. Thank you for helping your children arrive promptly. 

English

In English, we have been exploring The Street Beneath My Feet by Charlotte Guillain. The children were fascinated to discover the amazing world hidden underground. Inspired by the text, they produced brilliant non-fiction writing and even created their own imaginative underground stories.

Maths

• Cowell and Coelho classes have been deepening their understanding of addition and subtraction using practical resources like Base 10 and counters.
• Pilkey class have been learning about area through real-life scenarios. They had great fun calculating the area of the KS1 playground—imagining it being turned into an ice rink! Later, they put their skills to use helping FOTS by calculating the area of the lunch tables so the correct tablecloth sizes could be purchased.

Please continue to encourage regular Doodle Maths use over the holidays.

Learning Means the World (LMTW)

Our writing unit linked perfectly with our LMTW topic. Rocky the Findosaur has taken us on an exciting journey through fossils, rocks, soil, and the work of palaeontologists. We also learned about Mary Anning, the remarkable English fossil hunter who discovered many ancient species.

We have begun our topic ‘Lindow Man’, exploring prehistoric Britain. The children have been learning about the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Next, we’ll be turning to the Celts and, in particular, Boudicca. We will study evidence from these periods, such as Stonehenge and Skara Brae, and explore how life in these eras shaped local history. 

PE and Forest School

The children have enjoyed handball sessions led by a visiting coach, along with a Forest School takeover led by Mrs Chilvers. These outdoor experiences are always a highlight, helping the children learn new skills, enjoy nature, and support their wellbeing. Thank you to all parents who help make these sessions possible.

RE

In RE, we’ve been exploring Christian celebrations, including baptisms, christenings, confirmations, weddings, advent and Christmas. 

100 Things Launch

This term we launched our new 100 Things Challenge, and Years 3 and 4 have made an enthusiastic start! So far we’ve seen children mastering grass-whistling, climbing trees and hosting teddy bear picnics. We can’t wait to see what they achieve next term.

This term, the children have enjoyed an exciting and enriching learning journey across all subjects.

We began by exploring the inspiring story of Winston Churchill, learning how he led Britain through World War II and motivated the nation with his powerful speeches. We then moved on to the remarkable life of Walter Tull, discovering how he broke barriers as one of the first black professional footballers and as a commissioned British Army officer. These history units linked closely with art, drama and PSHE, encouraging pupils to reflect on prejudice, equality and the ways society has changed over time.

As part of our learning, Captain Russ Danckert (a serving British Army Captain) came into school to talk to the children and share his fascinating insights into modern military life and the different roles that he has undertaken around the world and here in the UK. In Remembrance Day week, this talk was particularly poignant as was the service that we took part in with the whole-school at Trinity Church.

More recently, we welcomed PC Michael Dix from Thames Valley Police to talk to the year 5 and 6 children about a range of topics including bullying, social media and behaviour in the community and the laws around these. He also highlighted a campaign called 'Stay True to You' that encourages young people to trust their instincts.

English

In English, the children have been working on a diary entry based on Scott of the Antarctic by Evelyn and Julian Dowdeswell. A highlight of the term was a live webinar from Antarctica with Robert Swan; polar explorer, environmental campaigner and motivational speaker, best known as the first person to walk to both the North and South Poles. We finished the term with a whole-school Big Write using a Countdown to Christmas stimulus, along with a non-chronological report on Antarctica.

Maths

In Maths, the children have covered Addition and Subtraction, focusing on mental strategies, the inverse, and multi-step problems. They then moved on to Multiplication and Division, exploring factors, factor pairs, and developing their understanding of prime, square, and cube numbers before applying these skills to 4-digit calculations. Year 6 followed the same units but extended their learning into long division arithmetic and problem solving. In Zephaniah and Rundell class we have just started a unit on fractions and have so far covered equivalent and simplifying fractions, and will move onto adding and subtracting fractions very soon.

PE

In PE, the children learnt ball-handling skills and game play strategies in Basketball; such as dribbling, passing and catching, led by the specialist coaches. They continued developing these skills through Handball.

RE

Our RE learning has centred around our big question: How do people make valid judgements about how and why the world is as it is? The children have explored explanations of the world through both faith and science, making thoughtful links and developing their understanding of different world views. The children also worked with Mr Greenman, creating and making Christmas houses for Trinity Church.

We rounded off the term getting into the Christmas spirit, with the FOTS Christmas Fair and we are looking forward to watching EYFS and KS1 Nativity performances, a visit from Santa Claus and our Christmas lunch.

It was also lovely to see and hear about the different activities the children had completed so far as part of their 100 Things project - thank you for supporting the children to make a start on this new initiative.

Finally, well done to the four Trinity pupils from Year 5 who entered the Rupert House STEM Challenge, especially as William and James brought home the gold!

Cross Country

Well done to those Trinity pupils who have been turning up at the various cross country events to represent Trinity and to the children who are coming along to Mrs Evans lunchtime cross country club.

Tag Rugby

Our Year 2 children recently participated in a Tag Rugby Festival at Henley Hawks Rugby Club. They had so much fun and really impressed the coaches with their skills. Several children were pointed out as working well as part of the team, and for being able to pass the ball accurately and correctly. Well done everyone! Of course we couldn’t do this without our fabulous parent helpers who gave up their time to walk us to/from the club or who even stayed on site to assist Mrs Evans - thank you all so much.

This term, the School Council have been busy organising a range of events to support important causes and charities. We began with a whole-school Pyjama Day, raising money for Children in Need and at the same time wearing odd-socks to recognise anti-bullying week. The children then ran our Reverse Advent Calendar, collecting donations for our local food bank, NOMAD, to support families in our community. Finally, through Christmas Jumper Day, we raised funds for Save the Children.

It has been a very busy and successful term, and we are incredibly grateful for all your generosity and support. Thank you for all your support and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

It has been lovely to see so many of the children engaging with our '100 Things to do before you leave Trinity', our new homework initiative. From learning to tie shoe laces to making fruit salad, our pupils have embraced this opportunity to learn new skills and to challenge themselves. 

Thank you to Henley Herald for covering this in the local press. To see the article CLICK HERE

What have we been learning in Assemblies?

We’ve enjoyed looking at the Christmas story through the lens of famous Christmas symbols: Angels, Stars, Manger and Christingle.

Christmas Service: Friday 19th December, 10:30am

We’re looking forward to welcoming you to our school Christmas service. Carols, the Christmas story and some performances from the children.

A warm welcome to join us over Christmas

We’d love to see you at Follow the Star, or one of our Christmas services. Trinity LS Choir will be taking part in our Community Carols on Sunday 14th December at 4:00pm. Details of all our services: www.trinitychurchhenley.org.uk/whats-on/christmas

With very best wishes,

Rev Sam Brewster