A Year in the Life of Copthorne

July

Beach Day

One of the best afternoons of the year! The children bring their swimming costumes and their towels and the most important rule is... have fun! It wouldn't be Beach Day without fish and chips, ice cream. swimming pools and sunbathing!

Sports Day Fun

Sports Day is always a good one! Lots of fun had by everyone, especially Mums and Dads in the parent races!

David Nieper Visit

The Year 2 children enjoyed their visit to David Nieper where their super sewing was showcased for the Fashion for Free competition and they had the opportunity to see some sewing machines in action!

Art Day

Art Day was so much fun! The children moved around the classrooms to spend time with each teacher focussing on a new artist. They created art inspired by Giuseppe Arcimboldo and Georges Seurat!

June

Leys Challenge Morning

The Leys Challenge Morning is always so much fun! The children had the opportunity to take part in team-building exercises in the hall, a location hunt around the school using their Leys Passports and a pizza-making session in their whole school kitchen area. The children earn 'Leys' which is their currency within the school and they can use them at the end of the morning to buy an item from the shop, this time it was some sweets! Mmmm!

Meet an Author - Billy Bob Buttons

An exciting day today because the children had the opportunity to meet the children's author Billy Bob Buttons. The children absolutely loved his storytelling.

Eat What You Grow

Wow! It was finally time this week for the children to sample the salad that they've been growing out in the gardening section of the outdoor area. Yummy!

Bronze Travel Award

What an excellent effort from everyone on our travelling to school days. We have now been awarded the Bronze Travel Award for all of our hard work, something to be very proud of!

May

KS1 Football

We took our KS1 Football Team to a tournament and they played extremely well. A performance to be proud of!

Grandparents Lunch

It was a pleasure to welcome some of the children's Grandparents into Copthorne this afternoon for a lovely lunch. There were lots of smiling faces and full tummies!

NSPCC Assembly

The Year 1 & 2 children took part in the 'Speak out Stay Safe' Assembly.

Voyage of Discovery Topic Launch

The children absolutely loved coming to school in costume today dressed as pirates! This really got them ready for the start of our new topic. They also had lots of fun at playtime pretending to be real pirates on our pirate ship in the playground.

April

Annual Egg Hunt

The children, parents and teaching staff all looked like they enjoyed themselves during the annual egg hunt. It's a very competitive competition to see which class can find the most eggs.. and there are some special golden eggs hiding too!

Egg Decorating Competition

Every year the designs get better and better! This year we had everything from Angry Birds to pirates!

Poppy Planting

The Year 1 children went on a walk within the community and helped plant poppy seeds with the Town Council at the Centenary Green. Hopefully, we can return next year to see how much they have grown!

Reception's Trip to the Farm

This week the Reception children visited the farm. It looks like they had a fantastic time, petting and feeding some of the animals and even having a run around in the play area!

Extreme Reading

Book and Film Club spent their hour outdoors in the sun and decided to do some extreme reading! The children picked their favourite book and read in a variety of places on the playground, have a look at some of the places they were caught reading!

March

STEM Day

The children really enjoyed taking part in their STEM day instead of the usual Maths and English. They spent time with each teacher taking part in a different investigation/experiment. We also had a visit from a Science teacher from David Nieper who helped us learn about animals and their habitats.

AVSSP Gymnastics Event

6 of our Year 1 and Year 2 children headed down to Alfreton Leisure Centre to take part in the gymnastics event against other local schools. They showed great balance and co-ordination and made Copthorne proud!

Year 2 Bike Ability

The Year 2 children have also been enjoying their bike sessions and are now confidently riding up and down the playground!

Reception Bike Sessions

The Reception children have been really enjoying their bike sessions on a Friday.

World Book Day

We had so many amazing characters walk through our doors on World Book Day from Gangsta Granny to The Cat in the Hat. All of the children looked amazing and we were reminded about why reading is so important.

February

Pancake Day

Breakfast Club enjoyed their themed breakfast this week, Pancakes! Reception Class even made their own pancakes from scratch, mmmm!

Special Delivery

The Reception children were excited to see their letters being delivered to school as part of their Literacy work. They were all very eager to speak to the Post Woman!

January

Dan Magness Assembly

We had a special guest at our Friday Celebration assembly, Dan Magness the Football Freestyler and Guinness World Record Breaker! He really wowed his audience, the children, teachers and parents all left the assembly with big smiles on their faces. The children even had the opportunity to take part in a session with him after, working on some freestyle skills.

Fire Safety

The Year 2 children were visited by the Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service. They sat and listened very well during the fire safety talk and even learned how to stop, drop and roll!

Happy to be Healthy

We were visited this week by something none of us had ever seen before. A smoothie maker machine powered by a bike! The children took it in turns to add fruit into the smoothie maker and then they turned the pedals in pairs to make the blades in the smoothie maker spin. Even the teachers had a go at riding the bike to make the smoothie! The best part was when the children got to try some of the delicious smoothies they had worked hard to make, yummy!

Wheelie Wednesday

We encouraged the children to travel to and from school on wheels on Wednesday. There were so many children coming through the school gates on bikes and scooters, what an excellent sight to see!

Crazy Critters Topic Launch

We launched our Spring topic this week called Crazy Critters! The children had to use all of their senses in lots of different crazy critter themed activities. There were boxes full of different things to feel, guess the animal noises out on the playground and probably the children's favourite... guess the flavour jelly bean! Would they be getting blueberry or toothpaste? By the looks on the children's faces, some of them didn't get the yummy flavour!

December

Special Christmas Visitor

We had a very special visitor in school today! The children were thrilled to see him, the looks on their faces were priceless. He delivered gifts to each of the year groups before having to head off to carry on with all that busy work in the North Pole. Then Mrs Keeling and Mrs Young prepared a scrumptious Christmas buffet for us to enjoy, how yummy!

Singing at Tesco

Another singing session! This time some of our Year 1 and 2 children went to sing at Tesco to raise some money for the school. They managed to raise £66.80 using their lovely voices.

Singing at Wesley Church

The Year 2 children had an excellent time singing at Wesley Church in front of an audience. They even received a present each at the end for their hard work, how lovely.

Christmas Craft Afternoon

This afternoon we invited our grown-ups to come into school to complete some festive Christmas craft activities with the children. They made some lovely calendars together and it was lovely to see lots of teamwork.

November

Crazy Hair Day

We had lots of wacky and wonderful hairstyles come through the door this morning! From red hair to glitter hair and even a doughnut bun hairstyle! Have a look below and pick your favourite!

Wear Blue for Friendship Day

The HobGoblin Theatre company started our friendship day off well with their fabulous performance of The Wizard of Oz. The children took part in a variety of friendship themed activities, including a 'let's be friends' picnic lunch, making friendship wristbands and friendship bunting. The bunting will be displayed in the school hall.

Royal Visit to Alfreton

Some of our children were chosen to attend the official opening of The David Nieper Academy. They even got to watch The Countess of Wessex arrive in her royal helicopter!

Children in Need

Getting 'spotty' for Children in Need. We raised £88.64 for the charity.

Topic Themed Drumming Workshop

The children taking part in a drumming workshop. Reception and Year 1 worked on an African theme and Year 2 were learning about Bhangra.

Remembrance Day

Our whole school joined together to hold a minutes silence. They took part in a variety of poppy themed activities through the day too.

October

Spooky Disco Fun

Lots of fun was had today during our spooky-themed activities and disco.

Year 1 Walk into the Community

Year 1 ended their half term by venturing out into the community. They had written letters to Handa so a walk to the post box was needed to post their letters. They also walked to the market to buy African fruit for their fruit salads. What a lovely morning out!