fbpx Keira Pearson, Author at Pilgrims Pre-Preparatory School, Bedford - Page 6 of 7

As this week is Nutrition and Hydration Week, we asked our catering manager, Mrs Bhogal, about her role in ensuring the children eat healthily and drink plenty while they’re at school. She also shares her top tips on how to make healthy meals at home.

What are your top tips to making your meals as nutritious and tasty as possible?

Adding pureed vegetables to sauces is a great way to make meals more nutritious. I would recommend using seasoning and herbs to add flavour instead of adding salt. We also reduce the amount of sugar in our cakes wherever possible. By offering fresh fruit for snacks and prepared fruit and natural yogurt for dessert, the children always have a healthy option on offer.

What’s your favourite vegetable to cook with?

Courgettes! Courgettes are an excellent nutritious vegetable to use in sauces and they make a gorgeous cake too! You can find the recipe for our courgette and lemon cupcakes on our website.

What’s your favourite meal to make and what is the most popular meal with the children?

I love making a traditional chicken curry at home. The most popular meal with the children is bolognaise!

How do you encourage children to eat their five a day?

We always encourage them to at least try different pieces of fruit and our reward tokens help.

What’s the best way to encourage pupils to stay hydrated?

Water is always available to the children. Main school children have their own water bottle in class so they can drink and replenish them throughout the day. There is also a popular water fountain! Even the younger children in Little Pilgrims and Pre School have their own named beakers so they can help themselves to a drink whenever they need one.

What’s the best thing about your job?

The children! I particularly love to see their eating habits change as they move on through the school. It’s lovely to see how keen they are to try new flavours and they get excited when they see their favourite dishes on the menu. They’re not shy to ask for extra portions either!

Remember to look out for our ‘recipe of the month’ which is shared on our Twitter and Facebook pages. You can also download Mrs Bhogal’s recipes from the ‘What’s for lunch page’ on our website.

To mark ‘Safer Internet Day’, our Headteacher, Mrs Webster explains how to keep our children safe online.

Our children are experiencing unprecedented access to information, entertainment and social interaction – more than any generation before them. Young people are also more technically minded, meaning that many children know how to access the internet before the age of eight.

Although it’s important to learn about the online world from a young age, there are also many dangers that parents need to be wary of.

Firstly, we need to be aware of age restrictions – which are there for a reason.

Facebook’s minimum age is 13 and so is Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. However, we would urge parents to take a good look at platforms before allowing children to use them.

After all, there are many other social media accounts that are becoming popular among children, that we may not know much about.

TikTok is one platform that has taken the online world by storm. TikTok is a social media network where users can share videos in exchange for likes and comments. If you have older children, you may be familiar with the music and the trending dances.

And, like other social media sites, the minimum age to use TikTok is 13. But it’s so important that we are vigilant. Lots of younger children are finding their way on to them by simply changing their date of birth. Sharing videos online can be incredibly dangerous, particularly if the children are young and unaware of how to use the platform safely.

Not all internet use is dangerous, however. It’s worth noting that there are various other apps and platforms for younger children to enjoy, many of which are educational. These include blackboard madness, Elmo loves 123s and pocket phonics. There are also a wide range of games to enjoy.

By downloading apps on your mobile device or tablet, you are able to control the content they consume. It’s a lot safer than using their own gadgets.

YouTube is another popular platform. This is because it contains some great videos for children to enjoy and you can also access series of your child’s favourite TV show. So, when you’re on a long car journey or waiting for an appointment, you can find endless episodes of Peppa Pig to keep your little ones occupied.

But like social media, YouTube can pose some risks. Continuously monitoring your children while using platforms like YouTube is vital, especially if they know how to search for videos themselves.

One example of a hoax that hit the headlines in July 2018 was the Momo Challenge. Most prominent on YouTube, people were posing as the fictional character ‘Momo’ to target teenagers to entice them to do as she said, which reportedly involved performing violent acts. This was extremely distressing and meant that all children were at risk of being exposed to this character as she was appearing in a wide range of videos across the platform – including Peppa Pig.

Here at Pilgrims we understand the importance of keeping our children safe and our parents informed. This is why we implement a number of policies and training activities for children, parents and staff alike. We want to make sure that we can all work together to be able to enjoy all the opportunities online offers, while remaining  aware of the potential risks children might be exposed to.

If you would like to research this topic further, the Childnet website has more information. There are also downloadable resources for parents and carers.

With children around the country busy writing their present list for Father Christmas, Mrs Webster, Pilgrims’ Headteacher explains why the school takes time to remind the children about the importance of giving.

December is here and with it comes all the joys of Christmas; decorations, festive lights, carols, nativity performances and, of course, writing to Father Christmas.  At Pilgrims, however, we also understand the importance of teaching the children that Christmas is not just about the presents they may receive.  It’s about much more.

During a recent assembly we asked the children to share their thoughts on what makes Christmas special to them.  We heard lots about family traditions such as digging up the tree from last Christmas which has spent all year at the bottom on the garden, to watching Elf the movie every evening for a week, to making edible tree decorations to deliver to the neighbours.  All demonstrating how most of the children’s precious memories at Christmas time are far from being materialistic.

Many of the children’s stories also mentioned other people; whether it’s carol singing outside a neighbour’s house, to relatives arriving from “a place called London which is really, really far away” to the excitement of calling their friends on the telephone to wish them “Merry Christmas”.

Our children consistently amaze us with their generosity of spirit and an empathy for others – something which fits the Christmas spirit whether you are religious or not.  The choir were delighted to visit the local residential home to not only sing Christmas carols to the residents but also invite them to watch a Nativity performance at school, followed by a delicious afternoon tea.  The children were excited to be able to sit with the residents and to hear about how Christmas gifts have changed over the years.  They were amazed to find out that Christmas stockings used to be filled with apples, oranges and nuts – not toys, books and computer games!  It was lovely to see the expressions on all the faces around the table; both young and old.

So, no matter what you receive for Christmas this year, please also remember the joy of giving; your gift doesn’t have to be wrapped up in paper, it can arrive in the form of a surprise telephone call, a warm hug or even a Christmas sing-song.

Merry Christmas everyone!

To mark Sugar Awareness Week, our catering manager Pam discusses how to be more aware of our sugar intake and shares her tips to reduce the amount we use in our cooking.

Children in the UK are consuming double their daily intake of sugar each day, according to a 2018 study by Public Health England.

This means that children aged between four and ten years old are consuming an average of 13 cubes of sugar each day, even though the recommended amount is no more than five to six cubes.

In Britain, we are consuming too much sugar and we need to be more aware of what we are putting into our bodies, particularly where our children are concerned.

According to the NHS, up to 27% of our daily sugar intake comes from chocolate, sweets and jams. Chocolate spread is one of the worst offenders as it contains 57.1g of total sugar per 100g.

At Pilgrims we have recently introduced popcorn as a morning snack. The popcorn is popped in our kitchen and no sugar or salt is added so it’s a healthy and nutritious snack for the children to enjoy.

Many drinks also contain lots of sugar, with fizzy drinks such as cola containing 39 grams of sugar in a 12oz can. Although fruit juice is seen as a healthy alternative to other sugary soft drinks, it’s important to limit the amount you consume because of the amount of sugar it contains. It is recommended that children should only have 150ml of fruit juice or smoothies per day. It’s also important to make sure the fruit juice is fresh and contains no added sugar, because this can boost sugar levels significantly.

Sugar can also be found in a wide variety of savoury foods, including many sauces. Many supermarkets offer a ‘reduced sugar and salt’ alternative to help you reduce your sugar and salt intake, so it’s always worth looking out for these. All of our tomato sauces are made using carrots and courgettes which are blended in for extra goodness. You can download the recipe for our Meatballs in fresh tomato sauce here.

When cooking, many recipes also tell you to add a significant amount of sugar, particularly when you are baking cakes or sweet treats. I always recommend reducing the amount of sugar used when cooking. All the cakes and tray bakes we make in our kitchen at Pilgrims have had their recipe sugar intake quartered, but they still taste great. We have also added gojo berries into our flapjacks and chia seeds to our biscuits as hidden health boosters.

Instead of sweetened yoghurt we serve natural, unsweetened yoghurt and use a range of fresh fruit purees so the children can create their own flavours.

Although sugar in large quantities can be bad for you, it is also important as part of a balanced diet. Natural sugars in foods such as fruit contain the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that we need to stay healthy. This is why we have fresh fruit available all day so our pupils can choose it for breakfast, lunch or snack.

For more information about sugar and how to enjoy it as part of a balance diet, visit the NHS website.

The new school year may have only just started, but there has been lots going on in Year One at Pilgrims already. Here, Mrs Collins, teacher of class 1JC discusses what the pupils have been up to over the last few months.

The topic for the autumn term in Year One is ‘I’m an explorer, get me out of here!’. Pupils are learning all about different types of transport and how it has evolved over the years.

First of all we received an ‘SOS’ video call from Kirsty the explorer who is stranded in the jungle. She has found some objects from different modes of transport and has been sending them to us so we can investigate which mode of transport we think would be best to help her escape.

On Tuesday 10 September we took a school trip to Shuttleworth where the children learned all about the aircraft, the history of flight and have a look at the different types of aircraft held in the collection. We even got to watch some aeroplanes and gliders land which was really exciting!

Back at school we have been creating huge timelines to measure the passing of time as we formed a train timeline, writing fact files and poems and using bicycle wheels to create large-scale woven art.

Our creative curriculum has let us explore transport from every angle. We have been measuring our paper aeroplane flights, building bridges for trains and underground tracks, turning cogs to see how bicycle chains work and exploring the shapes we can see on a bicycle in art. After half term we will be heading off on our sponsored bike ride around Bedford Park to raise money for our school charity.

The pupils have been taking part in regular outdoor learning sessions and we were the first year group to use the fantastic new outdoor classroom at Pilgrims. The pupils have enjoyed den building in the woods and exploring mathematical language linked to the ‘pebble people’ we found hiding on the school field.

After half term we are looking forward to a visit from a mechanic who will be showing us how the wheels on cars are fitted and also finding out about floating and sinking as we learn about boats. But most importantly, we will find out if Kirsty has managed to escape from the jungle to join us for Christmas lunch!

At the beginning of the year we introduced a new Year One class to the school. We have asked new Year One teacher, Mr Orr about his time so far and asked what he’s looking forward to this year.

What’s your favourite thing about teaching?

My favourite thing about being a teacher is being able to see children achieving their best and helping them to reach their potential.

What has been your favourite moment from this term so far?

The school trip to Shuttleworth has been my favourite moment so far. The children had a great day and it was a perfect way to launch our new topic about transport.

What are you most looking forward to this term?

I’m really looking forward to the Christmas production. In fact, I can’t wait for all of the Christmas activities we have planned at school.

Describe Pilgrims in three words:

Welcoming, fun, innovative

According to research, reading to children makes them more likely to succeed in life. Here, to celebrate National Read a Book Day and Roald Dahl Day this month, Mrs Webster, Pilgrims’ Headteacher looks at other reasons to embrace a bedtime story.

Reading plays such an important part in a child’s development. As well as teaching them how to form words and sentences, it helps concentration while strengthening the memory and encouraging imagination and creativity. Also, from a parent’s point of view, reading together strengthens the bond you have with your child and enables you to spend some quality time together.

The earlier you start, the better but it’s never too late to begin. Reading to your baby improves their phonological awareness, which is the ability to recognise sounds and the structure of words and this will help when they learn to read.

When children reach pre-school age and begin to learn to read and write themselves, the importance of bedtime stories becomes greater. As the saying goes – practice makes perfect, so the more books they read at home, the faster they will learn, and this will help them at school.

So why bedtime?

Bedtime reading is a tradition which has been in place for centuries.

However, results from a survey by Settle Stories revealed that 69% of people don’t have the time to read at bedtime.

This is because parents lead very busy lives and finding that time to read with your child can be difficult, particularly if you work late, unsociable hours or have other commitments in the evening.

We would encourage parents to try an establish a reading routine that fits around you. A story three to four times a week will benefit your child. Ideally, children will benefit from routine so setting specific days that you can enjoy a story with your child at a set time will give them something to look forward to.

Bedtime reading is a great way to relax, unwind and get ready for a new day so, if you can fit it into an evening it will benefit both you and your child.

As the children go back to school after the summer holidays, it’s the perfect time to begin a new reading routine at home. Roald Dahl Day took place on Friday 13th September, so it is the perfect excuse to explore some really exciting stories.

Roald Dahl has written some of the best children’s books of all time. His stories include Matilda, The Twits and Charlie the Chocolate Factory. If you need some inspiration, read this article.

 

We understand how hard it can be to find things to do to entertain the whole family during the summer break, particularly as the weather isn’t always sunny! Here Mrs Webster, Headteacher of Pilgrims Pre-Prep suggests some fun activities that can also be educational.

At Pilgrims we believe it’s important that children continue learning even during the school holidays. The summer break is the perfect time for pupils to reflect on what they’ve learnt over the school year and expand on their knowledge. Family days out can provide fantastic learning opportunities and with a wide range of places to visit in and around Bedford, it is easy to keep your children’s minds active.

What to do in and around Bedford

Here in Bedford, we are very lucky to have so much variety and history on our doorstep.

Priory Country Park is the perfect place to visit on a sunny day. It is a national park packed full of wildlife that can be found in the lakes, meadows and woodland. With fun trails to follow, it is the perfect location for a bike ride. There is even a kite flying area and a play area for the children to enjoy. Don’t forget to check out the wildlife garden, they will be able to impress you with what they’ve learnt at school this year!

The Bedford treasure trail is another fun, outdoor activity for the whole family to enjoy. Although it is designed for older children, it’s a great way to get your little ones involved. See what they can spot as you search for clues to unlock the treasure.

If you’re looking for a day full of history, Woburn Abbey – home to the Duke and Duchess of Bedford – is the ideal attraction. You can take a tour around the individual rooms filled with antiques, artwork and 18th century furniture and then have a walk around the gardens to see what flowers you can find. The estate is even home to a red deer farm!

If your little ones need to let off some steam, Kids World is a fun soft play centre or, for something a little bit different, you could also try sledging at Snozone Milton Keynes. It’s the perfect excuse for your child to meet up with friends and burn energy, while learning how to interact with others.

Bedford library has lots of things going on throughout the summer holidays. On Monday 12 August, children can make their own animal masks or visit the library for Lego, colouring and games on Monday 2 September. The library is the perfect place to meet new people.

Also, don’t forget that Bedford Park and Russell Park are great places to visit for a walk, a bike ride or a picnic. If it’s not raining, parks are the perfect place for hours of fun. You could also take some books with you – reading is even more fun outdoors!

Activities to do at home

You don’t even have to leave the house to take part in fun, educational activities. Doing arts and crafts is a great way to spend a rainy day and it allows your children to explore their creative side. Encourage them to do some painting, create collages, draw a picture or have fun cutting and sticking – it can be as messy as you like!

Imaginative play is brilliant stimulation for your child. Find an old cardboard box and turn it into a spaceship or use toilet roll tubes and string to make a phone; the opportunities are endless.

Baking is also a fun activity. You can work together as a family to weigh out the ingredients, follow a recipe and decorate your creations at the end. Why not try our chocolate and beetroot cake?

With so much to do, we hope you have a lovely break and we cannot wait to hear about all the fun things you get up to when we return to school in September.

The 2018/2019 school year was another busy one at Pilgrims. Here, Headteacher Mrs Webster reflects on some of her favourite moments.

An award shortlisting, a school dog and another successful sport’s day – this school year has been packed full of great moments which make me proud of everyone here at Pilgrims School.

One of my best moments was introducing Jake the puppy to the children for the first time when he was just three months old. The children were so welcoming and quiet in the assembly, as Jake was getting used to his first day at school.

Jake joined us in February 2018 and over the last year he has become a massive part of school life. He greets the pupils and their parents at the school gate in the mornings and is always visiting the children in their classrooms. It’s been great seeing how Jake has helped the children to express themselves and watching the relationships they have formed with him. They love to tell him all about their day!

In June we received the exciting news that we have been shortlisted in the Independent Pre-Prep School of the Year category in the Independent School of the Year Awards 2019! This is a fantastic achievement for us as we work hard to make Pilgrims the best Pre-Prep it can be to ensure that we are giving our pupils the best possible start in their education. I am incredibly proud of everyone at Pilgrims and I am looking forward to receiving the results in October!

We are extremely lucky to have such wonderful outdoor facilities, so we decided to take some of our lessons outside last term. This gave the children the opportunity to learn more about the wildlife in our pond and they even had the chance to make butterfly catchers in the sun! It was wonderful to see the smiles on the pupils’ faces as they found their first frog!

Christmas 2018 was lots of fun too. We all enjoyed taking part in a range of festive activities, including a Christmas advent calendar quiz, a staff pantomime, Christmas crafts and enjoying a tasty Christmas dinner in the dining hall. The pupils even met Father Christmas at our elf event.  Four of our Kindergarten pupils travelled to St Paul’s Church to decorate a tree as part of their Christmas tree festival. Christmas is always a fun time of year and I love enjoying the festive season with everyone at Pilgrims.

World Book Day in March was an excuse for the pupils to dress up – and what fantastic costumes we had! My favourite part was seeing the Year 2 pupils read to the younger children. Everyone had lots of fun and enjoyed some great books.

The summer term finished with sports day – an event that everyone looks forward to. This year some of the older children from Bedford Modern came along to help us out. It was encouraging to see how past pupils have grown up and watch them help our younger children with their races.

The last week of term is always a busy and emotional one. We had to say goodbye to another fantastic group of Year 2s as they move onto the next step in their education. It’s been great to watch them grow during their time at Pilgrims; they have become more confident and learnt new skills each year, and we will miss them!

Every now and again I’m lucky enough to receive a picture or a written note from the pupils and this really does brighten my day. I have had some wonderful drawings of Jake and some wonderful letters from pupils telling me what they have been up to during the school holidays. I keep them all and I love taking them home at the end of the year!

Being a Headteacher is a very rewarding job and I can’t wait to see what the next school year has in store. I hope everyone has a great summer and I look forward to welcoming you back in September.

As we begin Pilgrims’ Healthy Heart Fortnight, headteacher, Mrs Webster discusses why teaching pupils how to keep their hearts healthy is so important, even at the earliest age.

A recent study by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) revealed that around 30% of children in the UK are overweight. This is a result of several factors, but as part of the government’s scheme to significantly reduce child obesity levels over the next few years, the emphasis on healthy living and promoting sport in schools has increased.

As Pilgrims’ pupils are aged between three months and seven years, it is important to ensure that they are receiving the correct nutrition and exercise to be healthy. The children are at very important stages of their growth so, alongside the curriculum, teaching our pupils about how to lead a healthy lifestyle is at the forefront of what we do throughout the year.  Healthy Heart Fortnight allows us to focus on this even more and we’re excited for what’s to come over the next few weeks.

What is Healthy Heart Fortnight?

Healthy Heart Fortnight is something we created and take part in every year here at Pilgrims. This year the children are taking part in a range of sporting activities such as ‘Kick Box’, yoga sessions, and even ‘Rugby Tots’ for the really little ones.  We have even held a ‘what’s your favourite healthy recipe’ competition, with the winning recipes forming part of the lunch menu!

Our annual Sports Day will also be taking place at the end of Healthy Heart Fortnight on 5 July. Pupils from the age of 2 will be competing in a series of races, while their parents are invited to cheer them on from the sideline.

The importance of physical education

A survey by Sport England revealed that 32.9% of children and young people in the UK participate in less than 30 minutes worth of exercise each day.

Physical activity is so important in the first 10 years of a child’s life, not least because the more sport they participate in when they are younger, the more likely they will continue as they get older.

Pilgrims’ pupils are given the opportunity to learn different sports and discover which ones they are good at and most importantly, the ones they enjoy most.

During the summer months the children take part in a wide range of outdoor sporting activities ahead of sports day. This includes regular inter-school activities and events such as tennis and mini-cricket tournaments, competing with pupils from other schools.

Eating and nutrition

Another shocking statistic is that only one in six children are consuming the recommended five portions of fruit and veg each day in England and Scotland.

In order to ensure that our pupils get as much fruit and veg as possible during the school day, our catering team is constantly working to develop the school menus.

All meals are prepared from scratch each day and the team regularly substitute foods with healthier ingredients and use herbs and seasoning for flavouring to reduce the children’s salt intake.

Mrs Bhogal and her catering team will also be holding their famous ‘healthy food taster day’ during Healthy Heart Fortnight, to encourage the children to try some different types of fruit and vegetables.

Working with other schools in the Harpur Trust, our aim is to give our pupils the best start in life by teaching them all they need to know about leading a healthy lifestyle, so that they can continue to do so as they grow older.