Portway Infant School
Keep up to date with all the latest news happening in school at the moment.
Forest School took 12 Year R children to the lakes today. We were lucky enough to have beautiful sunshine for our walk. On the way we stopped on the bridge for a quick game of pooh sticks. We had time stop on the pontoon to use our binoculars to discover what birds were living on the lake. We spotted mallard ducks, elegant swans and coots. On the way back to school we took a moment to practise our mindfulness and our breathing exercises. Everyone had a fabulous time.
On Thursday 29th February, our School Council organised a Pyjama Day, and asked for donations for their Pop Up Food Bank after carrying out some research into local charities that they wished to support. They were overwhelmed with the generous donations that were brought in!
The Year 1 councillors spent a long time organising the donations into boxes ready for delivery. This was a tricky job as they had to make sure they made the boxes roughly the same weight.
On Friday 1st March, the Year 2 councillors took all of the donations to Andover Food Bank. The volunteers were so welcoming to the School Council and gave them a tour of the Food Bank while the donations were being unloaded. We found out that the Food Bank supported over 8,000 families last year!
The warehouse is carefully organised and we had a look around. The councillors asked lots of good questions about what the Food Bank needs the most of, to help us to plan any future events.
We then found out that Portway families had donated a fantastic 196kg of food!
Thank you to everyone for donating, and watch this space for more School Council-organised events coming soon!
On Saturday we hosted a number of our Year 2 families at our Forest School site. With all the rain we have had the site is very muddy but everyone came equipped and had a great time.
Our children enjoyed showing their parents around the site and took them to their favourite activity, for some it was the very muddy digging spot! Everyone had the chance to take part in string art using hammers, nails and wool. They were also able to make Easter patterns on wooden cookies cut in the shape of eggs. The children drilled holes in to the cookies so that they could thread raffia through the hole to make a hanging decoration.
Finally everyone came together to whittle a toasting stick for toast and jam or a hot cross bun. They were enjoyed with a cup of warming hot chocolate.
Miss Birmingham
Forest School Leader
Please click the link below to go to our New Entrants 2024 page and book your place at one of our open days.
We have had a great day today sharing lots of silly jokes! Each class voted on their favourite, and that child won a joke book of their very own to practise their comedy skills!
Well done to the following children for giving us all a good laugh!
Duckling winner – James!
“Take a chocolate…smell it…eat it…it’s a slug!”
Gosling winner – Isaac!
“How do you get Pikachu on the bus? You Pokemon! (poke him on!)
Cygnet winner – Dora!
“What do you get if you cross an elephant with a kangaroo? Big holes in Australia!”
Puffin winner – Jack!
“What do you call a key that opens a banana? A monkey!”
Woodpecker winner – Madison!
“Why do giraffes have long necks? Because they have smelly feet!”
Robin winner – Olivia!
“What is a duck’s favourite food? Quack-a-mole waka waka!”
Hawk winner – Logan!
“Why are chickens called chickens? Be-CAWS!”
Osprey winner – Ethan!
“Why did the computer scream? Because someone stepped on its mouse!”
Eagle winner – Belle!
“I threw butter out of the window…I wanted to see butter fly!”
Today is Oakley's birthday - can you believe he's 3 already!!
Please click the link below to watch Oakley's birthday video.
https://portway-infant-school.primarysite.media/media/oakleys-3rd-birthday
Portway Infant Forest School has had the pleasure of hosting a number of Saturday workshops, which have been enjoyed by many of our families this autumn.
Each Saturday morning started with a safety briefing followed by instructions on how to drill holes in wooden slices, using a palm drill. The wooden slices were then decorated and made into name tags or Christmas decorations. The wood (hazel) is sourced from our school grounds, we have plenty of hazel which provides us with resources for our woodland crafts.
Den / shelter building was our next activity. At school this activity helps the children to develop their teamwork, resilience, communication and problem solving skills. This was great fun and our children were very excited to show off their skills. Everybody made an amazing shelter together, some even wanted to stay the night!
The last activity, toasting marshmallows and making smores was everyone’s favourite and they couldn’t wait to get started. The first job was to make a toasting stick, families were asked to find and cut some sticks and then whittle the end using a vegetable peeler. Then each family was invited to the fire to toast their marshmallows. Some enjoyed them as a smore and most enjoyed a warming cup of hot chocolate.
We would like to thank all of our families for supporting the new venture and we are already looking forward to our next event in the spring.
Miss Birmingham
Forest School Leader
Please click the link below to go to our New Entrants 2023 page and book your place at one of our open days.
A huge thank you to those of you who have nominated a special song as part of our World Music Day celebrations.
Here is the list of songs that have been nominated and we will be playing as many as we can throughout the week at drop off.
We have loved watching the amazing pumpkin patch develop outside school this week! It has really brightened up our school and we want to say a big ‘well done’ to everyone who has participated, and to our wonderful PTA for their lovely idea and providing the prizes for the winners!
It was really difficult to choose the winners as there were so many fantastic ones! A big well done to everyone that entered! After a lot of discussion, the winners are...
1st prize - Henry
Also receiving prizes are...
Eleanor, Millie, Maysie, Mya, Aiden, Nico, Penny, Ralph and Alice
A big thank you to everyone that entered a pumpkin - you have made our week very colourful with all of your hard work! Have a fantastic half-term and a very well-deserved rest, we are so proud of you all and can't wait to see you in November!
