The School houses gathered for a fun bonding session this week, playing games and having interesting discussions to form connections with the other children in their houses.
Willow-
The children happily gathered together and shared some holiday news. They listened to their housemates and were interested in what they learnt about each, even finding shared interests and things they had in common.
Miss Gilbert wanted the children to explore the connections they had with each other – and found an intriguing way of realising just how many connections there were. They listened as she modelled the rules to the game – two truths and a lie – ensuring everyone was clear of the rules. Willow house quickly foiled Miss Gilbert!
They gathered in mixed groups around the hall with children that they did not usually talk to and enjoyed playing the game and discovering something new about each other!
Chestnut-
Chestnut House were also delighted to share their goals with one another and discover what goals they shared. “I want to be better at tennis,” “I would like to improve my ballet.” They understood that some things took longer to achieve than others.
Mrs Graves was impressed by the ambitious goals the children had. She highlighted that some things were best achieved by working within a team and that by encouraging each other with positive comments and encouragement it would help those to work towards their personal and team goals.
The children discussed ways that they could achieve house points in a positive way; working hard, trying their best, being kind and sharing, enabling Chestnut House to achieve the weekly house cup. Everyone was extremely proud to wear their house badge and felt that this helped them to connect positively with one another.
Beech –
The children gathered together in small groups from different year groups and chatted together to learn more about each other.
They took turns to talk and listen to one another and were delighted to see what things they shared.
The atmosphere within the hall was friendly and welcoming. It was a lovely way to connect and now when the children see each other around the school they can smile and say hello!
Oak –
To visually see how we connect with one another, Mrs Hogarth came up with a clever experiment involving a ball of string. She commenced by asking how eveyone spent the holiday –
“I went and watched Puss in Boots” holding onto one end of the string Mrs Hogarth gave the ball of string to them and holding onto the string they passed the ball to another child that they had this in common with.
“I attended a football camp this week” – and again, the children were amazed at how much they had in common and hands went up if they had also shared this experience over the week! Holding onto the string they passed the ball onto another football camp attendee!
“I enjoy eating steak” – hands went up everywhere and the ball of string continued its journey around the room. We were amazed at how many connections we had made and how much we all had in common by the end of the experiment!
House Mascots were discussed, house songs were selected and everyone was encouraged to learn the words to their uplifting tune until the next time the houses gathered together.
