Following on from the success of our school mural competition, our House Captains decided it was time that we updated our house banners and ran their own competition for pupils in different houses to design a new banner inspired by the history of their house name. After much deliberation, the winners were: Gainsborough - Elin, Springfield - Eloise, Harrison - Winston and Orwell - Maria. Well done to everyone who entered; we are looking forward to having these bright new banners proudly displayed in the school hall.

We continue to focus on supporting any pupils or families who are at risk of low attendance. Our whole school attendance remains at just below 96% this term. This is partly due to a number of families taking holidays during term time. At Trinity, each school day is carefully planned, and each lesson informs a wider programme of learning. Therefore, every lesson really does count. This term we have made referrals to the County Attendance Team to issue penalty notices for unauthorised absences. We ask that you work in partnership with us and ensure you do not take holidays during term time.  Please visit the attendance page on the school website if you have any questions or queries about attendance.

We have much to look forward to in the Summer Term and I hope everyone has a very enjoyable and restful Easter break.

DAHL - Giorgio, Hugo, George G, Ava and Caswell

COWELL - Maddie, Finley, Rose, Freddie and Finn

COEHLO - Dorothy, Bera, Rosie, Annabelle and Oliver

PILKEY - Mollie, Peony, Maebh, Noah M and Adeline

PALMER - Lottie, Will T, Eva. Elik and Darcy

ZEPHANIAH - Filip, Harriet, Emily, Alex S and Kanish

RUNDELL - Beatrix, Oscar, Annabelle, Mason and Mark

This term in Phonics this term we have been learning Trigraphs and Digraphs and how we blend them when reading words. We have been looking at compound words and words that end in s or es.

In Maths we have been working on number bonds to 10, one more and one less and odd and even numbers.

In Writing we have been looking at the story Jack and the Beanstalk. We have been looking at the sequence of the story and how we can write our own version of the story. We have been looking at new vocabulary we can use to describe different characters in the story. The children also planted their own beanstalk and we have been watching them start to grow.

In Learning Means the World, we looked at the history of bicycles. We looked into how bikes have developed overtime, how bikes have changed and how bikes could develop in the future and created our own bike of the future. The children were also very excited to see two penny farthings and listen to how people get on and off of them and see them being ridden around the playground. They had many questions, including how do they get such big tires and how do they stop.

We have now moved onto our next Learning Means the World unit which is all about Animals. We are looking at different kinds of animals, starting with animals you would have as pets, animals we would see on the farm and then animals that live in different countries. 

This term Reception also participated in two wonderful events run by the Henley Youth Festival. They learnt all about different types of music and listened to some wonderful music being performed. They were also involved in a wonderful dance class, in which they learnt many different dance movements

The children's learning about the story The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark was brought to life during a visit from the Feathers and Fur Falconry Centre, where they learnt about four different owl species including their diet, habitat and how they catch their prey. During their English lessons the children have been learning about and including prepositions, adjectives, onomatopoeia, dialogue, contractions and adverbs in their writing. Can your child explain what these words mean and give some examples for each?

During their Learning Means The World lessons the children have continued their learning journey about pirates, focusing on the difference between rules and expectations; the importance of treating others how you want to be treated; hearing a variety of sounds within the school environment; learning how sounds change when you are close to and further away from the source of a sound; learning how sound travels and how deaf people communicate. A highlight was the rice and the drum investigation where the children learnt about how sounds make vibrations that travel in waves to our ears. CLICK HERE if you'd like to watch. 

In addition to this, the children particularly enjoyed their coding computing lessons, where they learnt about sequencing, loops and events through completing a variety of activities on a programming website. CLICK HERE for the course. See below for what children did during Henley Youth Festival.

What an exciting Spring term we’ve had! We are so privileged to live in Henley and benefit from the amazing Henley Youth Festival with its exciting workshops.  

We enjoyed the Bhangra dance workshop. It was so hard not to join in!  The music workshop was also fun, with children joining in and hearing pitch and tone of various instruments.

Aside from HYF, LKS2 have been busy rehearsing for our end-of-term production.  Year 4 have worked really hard and there are some wonderful solos, confident actors and super backing singers!  We look forward to welcoming you to the church at 1.30pm on Wednesday 2^nd April.

Red Nose day is always exciting and children this year pinned the nose on the teacher.

Academically, in Maths, we worked hard on our retrieval practise to support our mental arithmetic and the children have become more confident.  Year 3 appear to have a sound understanding of fractions and are using the correct terminology: denominator, numerator, equal parts and are able to compare fractions.  In English, we focused on letter writing with different elements for each lesson.  We are moving away from weekly dictations in spelling with rather more of a focus on using spelling in our written work and recognising patterns in our reading.

Pupils have enjoyed Learning Means the World with our Law and Order topic, designing campaign posters using split pins and more recently, designing a new town in our new Window on the World topic.

Well done to all the children who represent the school in cross country and various other sports at the weekends.  It is lovely to hear how successful they have been in our assemblies.   In PE /Games, our focus has been on team games with strategy, collaboration and cohesion. 

This term, Years 5 and 6 have thoroughly enjoyed exploring our Learning Means the World topic, ‘Wars of the World.’ The children have learned about the ‘MAIN’ causes of wars and their impacts, as well as key historical leaders. They have also explored the differences between world wars and civil wars. 

In Science, students have had great fun conducting experiments to investigate how light travels, how mirrors reflect light, and how refraction works. They also explored how shadows are formed and created their own electrical circuits using buzzers and lights.; they even sent messages to one another in Morse code and designed their own periscopes! 

In English, Year 5 has just completed a recount writing project, stepping into the shoes of Esther Jenkins from Emma Carroll’s Letters from the Lighthouse. They have now begun planning and writing a ‘How-to Guide’ for children evacuating, where they are challenging themselves to use a range of writing techniques, including complex sentences, colons, semicolons, and similes. The Year 6’s have been completing shorter units, covering a variety of genres focusing on specific objectives of the end of KS2 framework. 

In Maths, the focus has been on percentages, decimals, and fractions, exploring their relationships. Towards the end of the term, the children have also studied perimeter, area, and volume. 

During PE, the children have been developing their skills in hockey and gymnastics—learning the rules and techniques of hockey while mastering different balances and movements in gymnastics. The year 6 netball team had their first tournament against other local primary schools and finished a respectable 4th and were given the 'progress' award – they enjoyed the morning at Shiplake College and learnt so much. 

This term Years 5/6 also had Forest School – the children love having the opportunity to be learning in nature! Thank you to the parent volunteers for assisting with Forest School.  

We were also fortunate to take part in exciting Henley Youth Festival workshops. Year 5 students created stunning headpieces inspired by the theme of growth and nature, while Year 6 enjoyed a session with the ‘Red Van Man.’ To top it all off, we had the incredible opportunity to watch a performance of Hamlet by the Young Shakespeare Company. The Year 6’s also attended a citizen workshop where they were put into real life scenarios and had to figure out what to do, and also got to see the Gilliotts performance of Annie.  

It has been a fantastic term of learning and creativity—well done to all our students! 

Cross Country

On March 6th, several Year 3-6 children took part in a Cross Country Tournament at The Oratory, Woodcote. The children did incredibly well, coming in the top 15 in each year group and while we couldn’t compete as a team in all the races, those who ran individually did Trinity proud. A huge well done to the girls in Year 3/4 and in Year 5/6 who did compete as a team, especially to the phenomenal participation from Harriet (1st), Ella (2nd) and Maisie (3rd). We certainly finished the day on a high! 

Swimarathon

The children swam so well on Saturday 22nd March and have so far raised £1,028.75 to split between Trinity and The Lions Club of Henley. It was an exciting afternoon with our children swimming between 50 and 89 lengths, which was absolutely amazing and Mrs Evans would like to say how grateful she is to those who participated, helped on poolside and came to support.

If you would like to donate to support our cause of getting more large playground equipment, or if you have additional monies to pay online from the Swimarathon please CLICK HERE for our Just Giving page. 

On Friday 28th March, we were invited to attend an award ceremony to receive The President’s Cup having participated in the Swimarathon at Braywick Leisure Pool in January. It was our support for one another and our positive sportsmanship and  teamwork that helped us gain the cup. Well done to everyone who took part and a very special thanks to the children who came along on Friday evening.

Year 2 Football Tournament

Some of the Year 2 children went to a Football Tournament at Rupert House yesterday and they were AMAZING! Not only did they play brilliantly, they followed rules respectfully and behaved really well, they showed great sportsmanship and cheered for other teams when not playing.

We were thrilled to take part, but imagine the excitement when both our teams went through to the quarter finals and ended up in third and first place out of a total of 13 schools! Three cheers to Trinity. Well done everyone.

Year 5 Football

Year 5 boys went to The Oratory as they participated in a football tournament against seven other schools; Checkendon Primary, Shiplake Primary, St Anne’s, Whitchurch Primary, Caversham Prep, Englefield and St Benedict’s and didn’t they do well? Second place overall, scoring 3-0, 3-0, 2-0 and then into the finals. Well done boys!

Huge thanks to Mrs Evans for all that she does on top of her day job to arrange all of these extra sporting activities, as well as going along to help facilitate them and photograph the pupils having fun.

Red Nose Day

This year, pupils got creative and funny to raise money for Comic Relief by hosting a joke competition in each class. The School Council then read through the winning jokes from each class and selected an overall winner—congratulations to Enzo in Zephaniah class! 

Throughout the day, students took part in exciting Red Nose Day activities, including quizzes, Pin the Red Nose on the Teacher, Guess the Laugh, and designing their own red noses. 

A huge thank you for your generous donations — so far, we have raised over £300! 

New Brainstorm School Initiative 

As part of the Mayor of Henley Award, children are challenged to raise money for a chosen charity by organising their own fundraiser. This year, three Trinity students —Sid, Darcy, and Ella—chose to support our partnership school in Uganda by hosting a fantastic bake sale. Well done and thank you for your efforts! 

We’ve also welcomed some new members to our Pen Pal Club, where students have written and sent letters to our friends in Uganda. We’re eagerly awaiting their replies! 

During Henley Youth Festival, each class was treated to a performance and a workshop linked to this year's theme of 'growing.'

The children in KS1 had a workshop with the artist Michaela Clarke, during which they made a growing flower height chart. The children in Reception and Years 3 & 4 had a lively and joyous bhangra workshop where they learnt some bhangra dance moves. The children in Year 5 had a workshop with the artist Emily Cooling, during which they made a headdress / crown from recycled materials. The children in Year 6 worked with the inspirational up-cycling sculptor Nick Garnett to create a piece of artwork linked to the theme of 'growing.'

The children in Reception to Year 4 watched a musician performance that brought the exciting world of live classical music to life, with a playful twist that had the children laughing and learning throughout. The children heard music from 16th Century arias and Baroque music to Dvorak, Jazz and Brazilian Choro music; there was something for everyone! During the engaging performance, woodwind and brass instruments competed against each other in a friendly competition. The children saw an amazing array of instruments, including 6 recorders, a conch, a hosepipe, and boomwhackers - alongside the more traditional oboe, trumpet and piano. This show sparked curiosity and passion for music with the children. They were particularly amazed to learn that the smaller instruments made a higher sound and the larger instruments made a lower sound.

The children in Years 5 and 6 watched a performance of Hamlet, performed by the Young Shakespeare Company, where four Young Shakespeare Company actors performed Shakespeare’s gripping drama in a fast-moving interactive production. Throughout the performance, the children were involved in the play through a range of drama and language activities, encouraging them to explore the motives, thoughts and feelings of the characters. Some children were chosen to become individual characters in the story and all the children had an opportunity to speak and enjoy Shakespeare’s words.

Thank you to Miss Rolfe for her efforts in pulling this all together.