Last Wednesday, the Year 3 and 4 children travelled to Bishop's Castle Church to watch three musicians perform. This was followed up by a musical workshop. The children had a chance to play the violin, guitar and mini grand piano. It was a fantastic opportunity for the children to experience, first-hand, a taste of classical music. Many thanks t...
We are coming to the end of a fantastic few days at Arthog! Yesterday, in the bright Welsh sunshine, the children enjoyed scrambling on the rocks and climbing on the Barmouth slabs with ropes and harnesses. The views across the estuary were magnificent! We followed this with an ice cream in Barmouth and a walk back across the bridge. In the even...
Our stay at Arthog has been fantastic so far and we have crammed in lots of activities already! Yesterday, we began our afternoon with some team building activities followed by a dip in the sea and an ascent of the gorge. In the evening, we went for a spectacular night walk with the sunset over Barmouth.
We are so pleased to share the news of our recent Ofsted visit in which the inspectors rated us as 'good' across all areas. The very positive relationships between staff and pupils was recognised within the report and that children are happy in school. We were also pleased that the children’s behaviour and sense of citizenship and social respons...
Many congratulations to both Fin Theobalds and Fin Ferguson for competing at the 2025 Shropshire Athletic Association U10 and U11 Cross Country Championships on Saturday. We are proud of them both for representing our school so well, showing incredible perseverance and resilience alongside 140 other young athletes of a high standard.
We were thrilled to welcome GB athlete Danny Butler to school last week! He helped us with our fitness training as well as showed us some amazing tricks on his bike. We were all so inspired to hear how he became so successful within the world of biking and how much perseverance and resilience it took to get him there. We loved Danny's top tip: m...
What an amazing Christmas production of 'A Midwife Crisis'! We are so proud of each and every child who put so much enthusiasm into rehearsals to produce a magnificent performance for their families this week. We also celebrated together with our annual Christingle service this week to recognise the symbol of Christ's light and love. From all of...
Well done to the children from preschool who performed their first nativity in front of their families this week. They performed brilliantly and looked fantastic in their costumes!
Thank you to St Mary's Church cafe for the warm welcome we received this morning. We really enjoyed singing our Christmas songs to our local community and contributing our acts of kindness to the church's 'kindness tree'.
Class 3 had a really informative trip to Shrewsbury prison this week. The prison was established in 1793 and closed in 2013 therefore the children were able to get a good grasp of how punishments have changed over the years. The prison guide was fantastic and answered so many of our questions. Quiet was restored while the children shut themselve...
Class 2 children from both St Mary's and Clunbury Primary Schools thoroughly enjoyed a visit from 'Mr Egypt'. We all learnt so much about the ancient Egyptians and were very inspired by Mr Egypt's story about how he became an Egyptologist. Through the day we tasted Egyptian bread, decoded some hieroglyphic writing, solved some maths challenges u...
On November 11th 2024, the children took part in the Act of Remembrance at St Mary’s Church to pay their respects to those who fell in the wars.
The children of St Mary's Primary gathered outside of the school at 11am this morning for a one minute's silence and to place poppies in memory of those who fell in the wars from Bucknell village. We would like to say a huge thank you to Julie Parker and Mr & Mrs Meredith for thebeautiful display outside our school. We very much appreciate the t...
Thank you to Shropshire Music Service for a most entertaining performance of a range of music from Chopin to contemporary jazz! It was a wonderful experience for the children to hear live music, learn about a variety of orchestral instruments from talented musicians and participate through song and rhythm.
What a wonderful start we had to our week as Catherine Cooper, our School Author Partner, joined us on Zoom to present the prize winners from last term with the final copy of her new book, Shadowlore. She has also kindly donated copies to both classes and the school library. Last year, Class 2 and 3 entered a competition to have their ideas incl...
What an amazing Harvest Festival it was this afternoon at our special church of St Mary's in the village! Thank you to all of the children who sang and performed so beautifully and to all of the families that came to enjoy our celebrations. Thank you also to all those who stayed for some tea and cake afterwards to raise important funds for Macmi...
During the week beginning the 7 th October 2024, the whole school took part in ‘The Kindness Challenge’. Right from Pre-school to Class 3, we saw children going that extra mile to help other children, ask questions to find out about the interests of children they might not know as well and help to keep our school tidy. We heard so many children...
What a fantastic start to term we have all had in St Mary's Primary! In Class 3, we were thrilled to have a 'virtual' meet with one of our favourite authors: the award-winning author Katherine Rundell. We all (adults included!) felt incredibly inspired to pick up a pencil and start writing our own stories. We are also very excited by the news of...
Catherine Cooper, our favourite author, came to visit our school today to meet Key Stage Two children in person after running a series of zoom sessions and a writing competition this year. The winners of the competition were awarded a copy of her new book and were especially thrilled to see their names listed at the back! Thank you to Catherine...
It has been a year since our last visit to the ecological site at Black Hill near Clunton and this week, we witnessed a real change in our surroundings! Thanks to members of the local parish council, a section of land has been restored to its former glory: the bracken and conifers under control and the land is now covered in whinberries. Class 3...
Thank you to Rob from the South Shropshire Engineering Ambassadors who organised the most fantastic and informative trip for Class 3 to RAF Cosford this week. The year 5 and 6 pupils took part in STEM workshops in the morning, which included firing hand made rockets and designing cars with parachutes to drop from balconies! In the afternoon, the...
Wow! What a spectacular display of talent at the Blue Hills Federation musical performance on Friday evening! The children from across our three wonderful schools sung a selection of songs to a packed out audience and we are all immensely proud of them!
The whole school were also treated to an upbeat, interactive musical session by 'Surge Forward'. They learnt lots about life in Jamaica and the wonderful music that originates from there. Thank you to the amazing musicians Leoni (Reggae singer), Syd (guitarist) and Ruth (violinist) for giving up their time.
Class 2 had a fantastic visit to Barmouth as part of our topic, 'Contrasting our own locality with a seaside locality'. We really enjoyed eating ice-creams, digging and playing on the beach, looking for human and physical features, walking along the promenade and carrying out some surveys to help with our work in school. The behaviour of the cla...
A fantastic day of raft building and rock scrambling at Arthog before returning home! Thank you to the professional and experienced Arthog staff for a truly brilliant few days, creating memories which will remain with the year six children for years to come.
The year sixes from across the federation have had a fantastic time so far on their weekend residential to Arthog. From beach art work, evening hike, canoeing, gorge walking, delicious food and amazing company, the children have had such a wonderful time so far. The smiles haven't left their faces!
Hear our lovely singing at Bettws Church!
Read more about The Federation Singing at Bettws Triangle Festival
Several children from within the Federation came together last week to compete at the TagFest tournament held at Luctonian’s Rugby club. After an initial loss, the children managed to win their following eight matches that they played, including the final against a well-drilled Clee Hill team. The final was competitive and went to extra time bef...
Thank you to the fantastic musicians from Little Weed Music (https://littleweed-music.org/) who came this week to run an Arabian music and rhythm workshop for our year 5 and 6s. This was a wonderful opportunity for the children to explore new rhythms and enjoy playing a selection of instruments together alongside professional musicians. They fi...
We are delighted to announce that St Mary's Primary has been awarded the Reading for Pleasure Award from the Society of Authors for a THIRD year in a row! We believe that reading books for pleasure is a fundamental part of a child's development and unlocks the door to future success. We are therefore so proud to be a school where children enjoy...
Thank you for the warm welcome to St Mary's Church Pop Up Café this week. Class 3 really enjoyed singing their Easter songs to the local residents of the village. Thank you to the café staff for the delicious cakes afterwards!
Thank you to Rupert Marshall (https://www.rupertmarshall-luck.com/), a local professional violinist, for a fantastic performance at Newcastle School this week. He explained how sound was created by the violin and explained all of the different parts of the instrument. His rendition of Ferdinand the Bull with his wife as storyteller was outstandi...
Class 1 recently had our visit to Ludlow Castle to explore, have fun and learn about why castles are built where they are and what life was like in a castle. They had a good time with no rain falling, despite the drizzly forecast. They walked around the outside of the castle, went up some of the towers, saw a dragon, looked inside a well and wen...
All of Key Stage Two had a fabulous time celebrating National Science Day this week! Here is what the Year 5s had to say about the experience: ACE AND SPACE! Thank you to Mrs Rowsell for organising a spectacular Science event as part of National Science Day this week. It was an amazing opportunity to be in the company of scientists from Warwick...
Class 2 and 3 were treated to another fantastic online session with Brit writers Award winning local author Catherine Cooper to announce the prizes to our recent writing competition. Each child was tasked with designing a new object for a character from her books: either for Peabody's Emporium or the Armoury where all the weapons (which can't ha...
Thank you to the Imam of The Islamic Centre in Craven Arms for giving us a fantastic tour of the different features of a mosque as well as supporting us in our learning about the faith of Islam.
Thank you to the Jorvik Viking Centre for visiting us virtually this week in Class 3 to teach us about viking invasions and weapons. We feel very inspired to find out more about our topic this term!
Class 2 had a visit from some Stone Age visitors last term, learning the skills of flint knapping and making clay pots. They also explored a wide range of animal skins and tools/weapons and found out lots about the Stone Age, led by someone who had actually lived as a Stone Age person themselves!
Well done to all of the children of St Mary's Primary for a truly fantastic and professional Christmas performance at our special, local church which looked so beautifully decorated for the festive season. We hope that you all have had a restful Christmas and are looking forward to a new exciting term! Happy New Year everybody!