Colston Bassett School

The children enjoyed a varied and fun Easter Camp this year. Activities included yoga with the brilliant Helen Dixon from HD Yoga, tag rugby, gymnastics, dance and football all provided by the great coaches at Tom Flowers Cricket Coaching. As always we enjoyed games of rounders, capture the flag and much more! A big thank you to all the coaches, Miss Farmer and Miss Hutchings for providing another successful sports camp.

The winner of our talent show this year performed a beautiful piano solo. He played 'Le Onde (The Waves)' by Ludovico Einaudi. Please enjoy!

Today we held our annual talent show for the children at Colston Bassett Village Hall. We had an afternoon of all sorts of fun and surprises, including singing, dancing, music solos, storytelling, karate demonstrations and mind games! Congratulations to the child who won the competition (video to follow shortly) and a big well done to everyone who took part!
We also held the DARE graduation for our older children, who were each awarded certificates for their hard work completing the course.

Some of our younger children have been learning about Buddhism as part of their RE studies this term. To reinforce their learning, we visited the Pure Land Meditation Centre today and the children were able to participate in a private meditation session led by Buddha Maitreya, who created the Meditation Centre and an award-winning Japanese garden (https://www.facebook.com/Buddha-Maitreya -168200319868057/).
Everyone enjoyed their visit and had great fun exploring the beautiful Japanese garden, the unique indoor crystal garden and ended the visit with a picnic lunch in the sunshine!

What a wonderful week we have had learning all about Africa! Here are some photos of several other activities that have taken place in school throughout the week, including a 'safari hunt', creating the Big Five animals out of playground equipment and acting out 'Bimwili and the Zimwi' (a story set in Zanzibar).
We would like to say a big THANK YOU to everybody who has organised, taken part in and contributed to this exciting topic week learning about Africa. We are already looking forward to planning our topic week for next year!

Day 4 of our Africa Week and we were delighted to welcome Jean Thompson from the Aquinoe Learning Centre in Kenya and her husband Dave into school. Jean talked to the children about what the charity has been doing since our previous fundraising and how the funds have been used at the school in Kitale. Jean and Dave also very kindly judged the two African-themed competitions that the children have taken part in, 'Design Your Own African Mask' and 'Design Your Own African Animal on a Hard Boiled Egg'. All the entries were wonderful so it wasn't an easy decision - congratulations to the respective winners!
Thank you to everyone who took part in the competitions and donated to the Aquinoe fund throughout this week. Please click on this link for an article on Aquinoe’s website: https://www.aquinoe.org/…/magnificent-m asks-and-excellent-…/

Day 3 of our Africa Week and we moved onto North Africa, specifically Morocco. This morning Miss Hutchings kindly showed the children a PowerPoint presentation about Morocoo and the time she spent there last year.
The children were then treated to a Moroccan lunch at Colston Bassett Village Hall cooked by Mrs Miller. Everybody enjoyed a Moroccan meatball tagine with couscous and falafels. This was followed by baklawa, Medjool dates, pomegranate and bananas - everything was eaten!
Thank you to Miss Hutchings and Mrs Miller for their efforts today.

On Day 2 of our Africa Week, we were delighted to welcome Ann Thom into school. Ann is a native South African and she was born in Johannesburg. She talked to the children about many aspects of her home country, including the history and geography, farming, wildlife and tribes. They were also taught how to say hello in many different South African languages, shown a range of artefacts, played some musical instruments and tried some biltong (a form of dried, cured meat that originated in Southern African countries). This was followed by a gumboot dance - a traditional South African dance performed wearing wellington boots!
Thank you very much to Ann for giving up her time today.

African Dance - as you will see, the children quickly picked up the rhythm and routines and took part with great enthusiasm. What a fun way to end this cultural day!

To celebrate the beginning of our 'Africa Week', we were delighted to welcome Louise Dearden from Primary Workshops for Schools to teach the children African dancing today. This was a great way for the children to experience the wonderful, vibrant and diverse African culture whilst learning some of the traditional dance moves. Video to follow!

Some of our dedicated runners took part in the National Primary Schools Cross Country Finals today. All of the children were truly amazing and showed resilience and perseverance running long distances. Thank you to all the parents who supported the runners today!

Don't forget to remind your children to enter our African competitions to raise funds for the Aquinoe Learning Centre (www.aquinoe.org)! Judging will take place on Thursday 28th March. More details are on the poster 👇

As it is the first day of spring today, we took the opportunity to take the children out on a scavenger hunt, looking for different signs of spring 🌼🌷

Key Stage 1 enjoyed acting out 'Room on the Broom' this morning as part of their Literacy work.

Today we joined in with the national celebrations for Comic Relief: Red Nose Day. We had a non-uniform 'come as you like' day and a ‘guess Katherine Ryan's favourite cupcake’ sweepstake. Congratulations to the winner!
We managed to raise a total of £118.00 for Comic Relief. A big thank you to all the children, parents and staff for their support as always.

Today we welcomed Lydia Powles from the Schools Waste Action Club (SWAC) into school. SWAC is a waste education programme which aims to increase awareness of waste and its management. Lydia talked to our younger children and encouraged them to think about waste, its impact on the environment and how it can be reduced. They also looked at the use of paper and then made their own recycled paper using pulp.
This visit tied in nicely with the children's Science topic on 'Everyday Materials'.

Yesterday, some of our older children visited the British Geological Survey in Keyworth to see the ‘Fossil and Rock Show’. This was a very interesting and informative session for the children and a great way to celebrate British Science Week.

The children had a wonderful time with West End in Schools this afternoon. They performed the wild and wacky 'Jungle Bungle', a literacy workshop which inspired the children to read as they went on a musical safari adventure. They learnt about friendship, emotions and dealing with change, with links to stories such as 'Where The Wild Things Are', 'How To Heal A Broken Wing', 'Danny the Champion of the World' and 'A Huge Bag Of Worries'. This was a wonderful way to celebrate World Book Day and understand the important role that reading can have in our lives.
Thank you West End in Schools for your lively performance today!

Today we are celebrating World Book Day with a dressing-up day as always. Our theme this year is 'any animal from any story' and there are some wonderful characters as you can see! This animal theme is to tie in with a visit from West End in Schools this afternoon - watch this space!

We are just finishing our 6th year, and I can honestly say my two girls love Colston Bassett Prep that much we have tears every end of term! They have grown so much in confidence and can call each and every child their best friend. The teachers are fantastic, supportive and nurturing. I can not speak more highly of Colston Bassett. It is the perfect school for my girls.

My twin boys love Colston Bassett school and have grown in confidence since they began reception in 2015. In addition to small class sizes, the children are encouraged to mix with all other age groups, which enables a caring and friendly atmosphere throughout the whole school. From the beginning, the boys have had positive role models in both staff and older children, and lots of encouragement to develop their interests and skills. I feel that staff have been able to get to know both of my children really well and cater for their individual needs. The school also organises regular walks through the village plus trips further afield, which my two love! There are also many cross-curricular activities in school such as 'India Week' where the children were immersed in Indian culture including food, dance, clothing and art. Overall, i'm very happy with the progress they are making at school, with a real enthusiasm for learning both in and out of the classroom.

My three children have had the most wonderful primary school life at Colston Bassett School. My eldest has just gone up to the Grantham Girls Grammar school where she is doing really well academically and socially. Colston helped to shape her into a hard-working, well balanced young lady and I am so glad we made the decision to start her at Colston.

Making the decision to go to a private school when there are so many other schools in the area was initially difficult to do but once we factored in the small class sizes, the superb pastoral care, the open and friendly teaching staff, the huge range of educational experiences and the extra-curricular subjects such as sport and music, the answer was easy.

We are so glad we chose Colston Bassett Preparatory School for our children.

Colston Basset is a fantastic school which my son loves attending. He has been at the school for almost a year now (he is in year 3) and his growth and development have been amazing. He has dyslexia and at his previous state school he was struggling and not getting the support he needed, and he was starting to hate going to school. Since being at Colston Basset, his confidence has grown every day and he loves going to school. His reading has dramatically improved and he now enjoys reading books by himself, something that would have never happened previously. The support and attention he has received from his teachers has been amazing. The small class sizes make it easy for the children to get the 1:1 attention that they require from the teacher. The teachers and staff at the school are brilliant, they really go the extra mile for the children and provide unique learning experiences such as bringing the local weather team in to show the children how the weather gets to the televisions. All the children get along very well and my son had no difficulties settling into the school. All in all it is one of the best decisions I ever made for my son.

Alistair has been at Colston Bassett for nearly a year now and his development has been amazing. Great small classes with great support from the teachers. I

Highly recommend this great school.

Absolutely amazing school. My children love it and so do we. Wonderful small classes, fantastic teaching staff and it feels like we are a big family. Wonderfully supportive. It has been the best experience watching our children thrive. We could not ask for a better education for our children.

We are just finishing our 6th year, and I can honestly say my two girls love Colston Bassett Prep that much we have tears every end of term! They have grown so much in confidence and can call each and every child their best friend. The teachers are fantastic, supportive and nurturing. I can not speak more highly of Colston Bassett. It is the perfect school for my girls.

My twin boys love Colston Bassett school and have grown in confidence since they began reception in 2015. In addition to small class sizes, the children are encouraged to mix with all other age groups, which enables a caring and friendly atmosphere throughout the whole school. From the beginning, the boys have had positive role models in both staff and older children, and lots of encouragement to develop their interests and skills. I feel that staff have been able to get to know both of my children really well and cater for their individual needs. The school also organises regular walks through the village plus trips further afield, which my two love! There are also many cross-curricular activities in school such as 'India Week' where the children were immersed in Indian culture including food, dance, clothing and art. Overall, i'm very happy with the progress they are making at school, with a real enthusiasm for learning both in and out of the classroom.

My three children have had the most wonderful primary school life at Colston Bassett School. My eldest has just gone up to the Grantham Girls Grammar school where she is doing really well academically and socially. Colston helped to shape her into a hard-working, well balanced young lady and I am so glad we made the decision to start her at Colston.

Making the decision to go to a private school when there are so many other schools in the area was initially difficult to do but once we factored in the small class sizes, the superb pastoral care, the open and friendly teaching staff, the huge range of educational experiences and the extra-curricular subjects such as sport and music, the answer was easy.

We are so glad we chose Colston Bassett Preparatory School for our children.

Colston Basset is a fantastic school which my son loves attending. He has been at the school for almost a year now (he is in year 3) and his growth and development have been amazing. He has dyslexia and at his previous state school he was struggling and not getting the support he needed, and he was starting to hate going to school. Since being at Colston Basset, his confidence has grown every day and he loves going to school. His reading has dramatically improved and he now enjoys reading books by himself, something that would have never happened previously. The support and attention he has received from his teachers has been amazing. The small class sizes make it easy for the children to get the 1:1 attention that they require from the teacher. The teachers and staff at the school are brilliant, they really go the extra mile for the children and provide unique learning experiences such as bringing the local weather team in to show the children how the weather gets to the televisions. All the children get along very well and my son had no difficulties settling into the school. All in all it is one of the best decisions I ever made for my son.

Alistair has been at Colston Bassett for nearly a year now and his development has been amazing. Great small classes with great support from the teachers. I

Highly recommend this great school.

Absolutely amazing school. My children love it and so do we. Wonderful small classes, fantastic teaching staff and it feels like we are a big family. Wonderfully supportive. It has been the best experience watching our children thrive. We could not ask for a better education for our children.