Yesterday, the Year 5 children put on a 'Play in a Day' with Treehouse Theatre. The children were absolutely fantastic and took on the roles of: Mummies, Tutankhamun, Julius Caesar, Queen Nefertiti, Perfume Dealers, Farmers, Traders, Scribes and many more. Take a look at the pictures to see them in action.

WOW! A HUGE thank you to all of our amazing volunteers who gave up their entire day to spend it with our children. It really brought the school value of 'Aspiration' to life and children were making successful links between future careers and the lessons they do currently. Our wonderful volunteers brought practical activities, experiments, votes, outfits to try on, sheets to complete, fact files, posters and the rest and we were blown away by the effort they had all gone to. There was a real buzz of excitement around the school and we hope that this will now become a well established annual event to look forward to each year at GBP.

A special shout out to:

Marie @ St Kitts Veterinary Group

Yvonne @ Y Fitness

Tracy @ The Elvetham 

Leanne @ Gigi & the Giant Ladle book series

Ross & Chris @ Hampshire Constabulary

Sam @ NHS

Iain @ Twinings

Emma @ Balfour Beatty Construction

Erica @ Pop Up Play Basingstoke

Caroline @ Physical Balance 

We are so grateful to each and every one of you because it genuinely could not have happened without you!

Last week, Mrs Gough took a trip to Ma Humbugs to deliver Year 3's persuasive posters they have been working really hard on. Nicki (the shop owner) was blown away with the high quality posters Year 3 had made. Nicki has taken the posters home so that she can sit down and read them properly. By the time we come back to school, she will have chosen 1 winner and 1 runner up per class. Nicki is going to kindly pop into school to share the news and hand out her yummy prizes. Keep an eye on her website and Social media too, as your posters will be popping up to advertise the amazing Ma Humbugs! 

All year groups have done some fantastic learning this week with our in depth look at the Christian celebration of Easter (more details to come on our RE page) and each class has made either an Eater Card, a Spring Card or a card to celebrate different festivals and celebrations happening at the moment such as Eid and Holi. 

Here are some wonderful examples.

Year 3 performed their Brass Listen to Me concert on Thursday and what a performance they gave us! Mrs Gough and Miss Thomas were 'blown' away with the effort, resilience and technique shown by everyone. A big thank you to Mrs Vaughn for teaching us how to play the cornet, horn and trombone. We look forward to learning how to play a new instrument next term!  

Our Year 6 Netballers took to the court yesterday at Castel Hill School. Mrs Gough was blown away with the team work and skills portrayed! There has been so much improvement since our first match. Great Binfields came away winning 11-5! Well done team!

The sun shone down on us today and the Year 6 were able to thoroughly make the most of the glorious weather during their Basingstoke Trail trip into town. All of the children were respectful, polite and showed great intrigue in our local area. Because of this, we feel they were able to gain lots from the trip and will hopefully be able to impart lots of this knowledge when they are next in town with you, further demonstrating what a fantastic day we all had. The children were genuinely surprised to notice and learn so many new facts about our town centre which they had never spotted before yet walked past numerous times!

Our Basingstoke trail included:

- Exploring the beautifully historic St Michaels Church, which has links to both WW2 and the Tudor period (previous topics that we have studied this year). We really benefitted from the knowledge of the volunteers at the church who were able to bring the history of the building to life.

- Learning about the tragic tale of Mrs Blunden who is said to have been buried alive (twice!) near the Holy Ghost Cemetery. We also visited Thomas Burberry’s grave which is located here too.

-  Noticing the informative blue plaques dotted around town referencing the importance of a number of locations relating to great historical figures such as Jane Austin, Thomas Burberry and the history of the Basingstoke market.

- Locating what used to be the residence of Thomas Burberry’s first retail shop (what used to be the British Heart Foundation at the top of town) which has now been converted into a new supermarket.

- Visiting the current exhibition at the Willis Museum and taking a look at the history of Basingstoke exhibition on the middle floor.

And these are to name just a few of the activities we took part in today. We also enjoyed spotting the fairly recent artistic additions to our town centre and were fascinated to see Kev Munday’s artwork up close and in real life – an artist who has inspired us with our artwork this half term. The general public were also in great spirits too and were really happy to see our children out and about enjoying their local area, as well as enjoying their commutes with the addition of 59 children on the bus. 

Take a look at our photos to see what a fantastic day we had.

On Tuesday, the year 2 children were lucky enough to be invited to the Anvil to watch Barnaby Bear's adventures at sea. This is part of the Hampshire Music Services commitment to bring music alive for children. Willow and Sycamore were very excited to travel into Basingstoke on a bus and walk through town in their bear ears and pirate hats!  They had been practising the songs and were in fine voice along with other schools from around the area. The story told, explained that every pirate is gifted a bear and that one pirate had lost his bear and it had been locked in a chest. Would Barnaby bear be able to save Bertie! Of course he did and the kids loved Barnaby Bear. One of the children exclaimed it was "The best day ever!" We can't wait for next year's adventures with Barnaby!

Today some of the Year 5 pupils (Science Ambassadors and a few extras pulled from a hat) were lucky enough to attend the Basingstoke Primary Schools STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Fair at QMC. The children took part in a range of interactive activities ran by different businesses. The aim was to educate them about STEM industries and career options, as well as challenge perceptions and job role stereotypes. Mrs Franklin was immensely proud of all the children who came along and she received fantastic feedback about their engagement and attitudes.