Last Friday we celebrated World Book Day, including dressing up as your favourite book character!

This was a great activity for everybody in the school to get involved with – even teachers!

Everyone looked amazing in their costumes and are we were so pleased to see the children making a huge effort to dress up as their favourite book character.  

The day was also about enjoyment of books and reading. There were lots of activities taking place across the school allowing the children to share their love of reading including the opportunity to share their favourite book with the class. 

 

World Book Day at HBJS 

    

     

Throughout Children’s Mental Health Week, the children’s learning has been focussed on how we can all take care of our mental health and improve our general wellbeing.

The charity, Place2Be, launched the first Children’s Mental Health Week in 2015 to raise awareness of children and young people’s mental health. The theme of the week this year is ‘Let’s Connect’. Let’s Connect is about making meaningful connections for all, during this week and beyond. People thrive in communities, and this connection is vital for our wellbeing.

This week at school, we have taken the opportunity to talk to the children about connections, as well as using the Disney film ‘Inside Out’ to open up discussions about emotions. Art Day on Wednesday was also an opportunity for the children to think about other ways they can express emotions.

 

 

Year 3 the children explored their range of emotions and how to express them through the use of colour. They also created mood mandalas and wheels of coping mechanisms to help them understand and regulate their emotions. 

Year 4 used the film 'Inside Out' to write a guide to anger and sadness to help the children understand what these emotions can look like and feel like. Their reading text and Art Day was focused on the book 'The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse'. The children used watercolours to create a scene from the book and wrote inspirational quotes to go alongside their artwork.  

Year 5 wrote a letter to Riley - the character from the film 'Inside Out'. The children offered their advice on how to feel more positive about her move to a new school. In art they also recreated images from 'The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse' and added positive affirmations to their images. The children designed their own personality islands too and emotion characters in Computing. On Thursday, the Emotional Wellbeing Team also delivered a workshop to Year 5 called ‘Understanding Worries’.

Year 6 discussed how different feelings can sometimes take control and affect their moods. They then looked at different ways of managing these feelings. As a result of watching ‘Inside Out’, the children created character profiles and reflected their feelings through art. Finally, they have made and played their own board games.

The children have engaged in thought-provoking conversations this week and have produced some fantastic pieces of work. If you would like to find out more about the week, please visit Children's Mental Health Week (childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk)

 

 

Over this week and next we have been joined by R&R Training to deliver CPR training to all children and adults in school.

 CPR can double the chances of survival from out of hospital cardiac arrest.

 It is therefore vital that we equip more people with the skills, ability and confidence to help anyone in cardiac arrest.

 As you can see, our children really engaged and enjoyed taking part in the training.

    

 

 

At Herne Bay Junior School, we value the joy that our school animal friends bring. Firstly, we want every child to experience the opportunity of having a pet recognising that it is not always possible or practical for them to have one at home. Secondly, we have experienced first-hand the effect that an animal has on soothing a sad or anxious child or adult as well as building confidence in those children who may otherwise experience some fear without the opportunity to engage directly with them.

Currently we have Colin the Gecko, Ivy (our friendly dogs) and three guinea pigs: Neville, Keith & Gus!

      

 

Today we have welcomed new animals to the school; this time, 2 pigs! Mr Hobbs and Mr Hewitt have built a pen and created a homely area for them within our forest. These two adopted ‘old ladies’ are entering retirement after spending the last few years in a small-holding within an education centre for adults with special educational needs. Over time, once they have become familiar in their surroundings, we will extend the enclosure to allow them to roam more freely within the boundary. The children will be taught about the care of the pigs including the use of leftover food items and home-grown fodder with which they will be fed.

Having animals in school is purposeful. It provides the children with the experience to recognise, respect and care for them and the environment that we share.