Last week was Year One Outdoor Week. It really is one of the highlights of our year and the children were so excited to get stuck in. Throughout the week, we were lucky enough to have the scout leaders come and join us to lead three special activities; shelter building, tracking and cooking. The children learnt lots of great skills such as knot tying, essentials for shelter, what symbols mean when tracking and how to build a fire. Equally, they got to see their skills of team work, determination, perseverance and many more in action. So many of the children loved testing out whether their shelters had worked and whether or not the weather would mean we got a little wet. Tracking around Chineham was so much fun, especially jumping out on everyone when we were found. The sausages and marshmallows were definitely the favourite of the week though. The scout leaders really were wonderful at getting the children to be active and involved in their learning - how lucky we are that they take the time to visit us.

When we were not with the scouts, the children took part in a huge range of activities. We searched for minibeasts all around our woods and outside grounds, we drew snapshot sketches of small and detailed parts of our grounds, we wrote minibeast riddles, we created a 'listening map' of what sounds we could hear outside and much, much more. The children had lots of opportunities to get a little adventurous with their learning and test out their ability to problem solve and communicate effectively with eachother. 

The children were so enthusiastic and happy to get involved with all of the activities - possibly coming home a little bit more mucky than when they arrived! Thank you again to everyone involved in putting Outdoor Week together and well done children for your fantastic learning. 

This afternoon, Great Binfields Governors invited some special guests to celebrate the success and show gratitude for our new extension.  

As a school, we feel truly grateful for the wonderful building we have and firmly believe that it gives a warm, welcoming feel. Our wonderfully unique children and committed staff are the key contributors to the success of the school however our building is an asset for both school business and the wider community also. We believe that the characteristics of this building, effectively supports the improvement of our children’s learning experiences and it provides plenty of ‘Naturalness’ – a light airy feel in all of the rooms. Our building is individual – each Classroom has distinct design characteristics and has a sense of ‘Flexibility’ because of its large open plan feel with easy access to attached breakout spaces and a widened corridor for pupils' access and storage. We have been provided with well-defined learning zones that facilitate age-appropriate learning, plus big walled areas for displaying our children’s wonderful achievements. The room layouts, wooden ceilings and displays can catch our children’s attention but in balance with a degree of order - there is no cluttered feel and there is always a sense of calm even when it is line up time for lunch or getting ready for home-time!

But what is magnificent is that our fabulous new building and landscaping has a real connection with nature… a visionary aspect of our school ethos and curriculum where we want our children to develop a real love of the outdoor and therefore enhancing their day to day feeling of well-being.

GBP children present and future will benefit greatly from such a wonderful learning environment. We wish to acknowledge the hard work and support of all those who have been involved in this wonderful building project - you should all be so proud. It was also a pleasure meeting Mrs Carmel Gillies, wife of the late lovely Mr Alec Gillies, the lead architect for the original build of our main school. I was lucky enough to meet Alec when Fiona Burrows and Liam Presley (both HCC architects for our most recent expansion) ,first shared the plans for our extension many moons ago now. It was immediately clear that he had a real bond with our school and was very interested in ensuring that the extension blended in seamlessly. I think he would have been very proud of both Fiona and Liam. Mrs Gillies, kindly declared our extension as The Alec Gillies Wing and the plaque can be found in our new library area by the main office.

Mrs Janet Cullinane, our Chair of Governors and myself made short speeches and our guests enjoyed touring the new building as well as our existing building; talking to the children about their school as they walked through. We also enjoyed our GBP cake made my our special Mrs Tollett. The children each received a inscribed pencil to commemorate the event.

Yesterday, Year 2 had a great day on their school trip. They began at Alresford and explored the station whilst learning about bridge construction. After that, they took a ride on the Watercress Line and enjoyed their journey to Alton. At Alton there was a brief trip onto the platform to look at a modern foot bridge design and to see engine re-couple. The children then travelled back to Ropley to have their lunch and take part in a building bridges workshop. Lots of fun was had by all!

A huge well done to you all. I am one very proud headteacher.

Firstly, the children certainly looked the part for their Stone Age Day on Wednesday - thank you to our wonderful parents for helping the children get into the spirit of things with their fabulous costumes.

I popped out to see them whilst they were setting up the fires with Mr Wood first thing and then again when they were tucking into their delicious home-cooked stew. Many were able to tell me lots of facts about the period and were so in role for the day which was lovely to see.

Yesterday the Year Ones had a very busy day at The Look Out Discovery Centre in Bracknell. The children had their day split in two different parts and had lots of hands on and active experiences. For one part of the day, the children explored the outdoor grounds of the centre and the very large forest. They had a set of challenges to try complete that included making a picture using natural resources, play a blindfolded 'guess the tree game', tree identification, a game of IT or stuck in the mud and much more. The children loved running around, climbing, searching and exploring! Then the children spent the other half of their day working their way through the exhibitions inside the centre. There was a water flow play area, facts about trees and how they grow, a construction zone and lots of challenges and puzzles to get our Scientific minds whirring.  As well as all this, some of the children were brave enough to go up the many steps to climb the Look Out tower. The children had to encourage some of us adults as it was a real challenge - but well worth it with some fantastic views. 

The children were so sensible on the trip which meant not only did they have lots of fun but they represented Great Binfields wonderfully. Our coach driver even commented on how polite and sensible the children all were. Well done everyone! A very big thank you goes to all of the adults that helped out on the trip - we really appreciate it.

Have a look at the photos to see what we got up to. 

Today, Year 5 and 6 had two visitors in from Sparsholt Agricultural College where the school bunnies (Bluebell and Buttercup) were bought from.

Gemma and Tia delivered an excellent talk which included how to look after rabbits and how to care for them if they seem unwell. They also taught us about which foods are healthy for a rabbit and which foods need to be eaten in moderation. Did you know that an apple is the equivalent to a rabbit as a cake to a human and a carrot is equivalent to a chocolate bar due to all the natural sugars?! Another interesting fact we found out was that although most people think that rabbits only have 4 teeth, they in fact have 28!

Gemma and Tia were very impressed with the accommodation we have provided for our bunnies and also how well the children have cared for them so far. Take a look at the photos to see what we got up to...