Google Search
Highlights
This week, Year 6 have commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day with an online event from the Anne Frank Trust. We were lucky enough to hear from Peter Lantos, whose story about what happened to him and his family really moved us all. We also heard from Victoria Stebleva, an illustrator who has worked with Peter on his book to help children understand his story. As you can see from the pictures above, Peter even answered one of our questions. He advised us to be kind, to care for others (even those different to ourselves) and to never hate.
Billie at Balliol. We love having our school dog Billie to help us with our learning. Billie has had a great few weeks working with the children and has settled very well into her environment. The children love reading and working with her.
"The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is to sing loud for all to hear!" Our school choir have been very busy spreading lots of Christmas cheer this year. The children were very excited to sing at Kempston lights switch on, St Peters Christmas Tree Festival, Rivermead Residential Care Home and The Newells.
Our winning tree!! The winner of the Kempston Christmas tree festival at Transfiguration Church - Kempston, with the most public votes was Balliol Primary School 🎉🎄 Thank you to all of the staff and children who put so much effort into their decorations, and to everyone in the local community that voted for our tree. We are proud to be part of this community festival. Our Tree is now displayed in the school entrance area. Do pop in and have a look.
Some of Year 3 had fun on their sports trip yesterday. They competed in lots of races including hurdles, relay and running. They also had a go at other different sports such as long jump, wall jump, javelin, throwing and jumping. All children had lots of fun and enjoyed cheering each other on!
EYFS Nativity - Well done to all of our children in Daisy, Poppy, Snowdrop and Buttercup Classes on your Nativity yesterday - it was wonderful! It was so lovely to welcome all of our parents to join us and allow the children to share their hard work. The loud voices and beautiful singing have ensured we are all feeling very festive 🎄🎄🎄
Festive Fun! It has been a very festive day here at Balliol...a special visitor this morning, Christmas dinner and Christmas jumpers followed by a virtual pantomime!
It has been a super busy start... Year 3 have enjoyed their Greek Day and Year 4 have had a Fiesta!
Our new catering company Aspens have been providing some delicious meals for the children and the children have really enjoyed the variety of food on offer.
Last week, Y1-6 were lucky enough to experience a live music concert! A huge thank you to Gigs4Kids for their string performance to Years 4-6 and to Luma Sounds for their beatboxing, rapping and music production concert to Years 1-3. As always, thank you to Bedford Music Hub for all of their support with providing these opportunities for the children. All the children thoroughly enjoyed the experience, listening to a range of instruments and learning new musical facts! Some children in Year 2 and 3 even had a go at beat boxing.
Choir sing at Bedford River Festival - The choir did themselves and all of us proud yesterday at the river festival. Thank you to everyone that came to support us. We hope you had a great day 😎
What a fantastic week, our final show for Aladdin has now taken place! A huge well done to all of the cast, backstage team and everyone that came to join us, we truly appreciate all of your support. We are so proud of the children that worked incredibly hard to put on what was a glittering performance in every way.
Today, Year 3 went on their local walk around Balliol School to complete their Geography Fieldwork. They used their geographical skills to follow a map to look at the different types of land use and the impact it has on the environment. They also had a special guest join them too! Billie loved seeing their Geography skills and getting involved with their walk.
Year 6 had an amazing time on their residential at Kingswoood
Quidditch has come to Balliol... Last week the staff and pupils had great fun learning how to play Quidditch. Lunchtime Clubs have started today, with Year 4 putting their training into action. Other Year groups will have this opportunity over the next two terms. We also look forward to taking part in Quidditch Lessons for PE and holding whole school tournaments.
Year 5 visit the National Space Centre
Year 6 were visited by a real-life polar explorer! Each class had a fantastic day, learning so much about life and survival in the polar regions. Some of us even got to try on some polar explorer equipment and 'visit' the Arctic and Antarctic!
Balliol Choir went to sing at Rivermead Residential Home in Kempston to spread the festive cheer. The residents loved the performance, clapping and singing along! Some of the children enjoyed chatting with the residents too and putting smiles on their faces. A lovely experience for all involved, well done everyone!🎶
Year 5 had fun at the allotment. Hopefully the top tips they have picked up will help during their Sow, Grow and Farm project
Year 2 had a fantastic time at sunny Southend yesterday to celebrate the end of a super year and their ‘Coastline’ topic! They visited the sealife centre, paddled in the sea, ate ice creams, built sandcastles and took home a stick of rock. Lots of fun was had by all! ☀️🍦
We would like to thank everyone that came to watch our production of Matilda The Musical last week. We hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did. The cast and crew worked incredibly hard across the year to put together the production and I think that we are all in agreement it was a huge success for all
Balliol Beach Day Year 2 had a fun-filled beach themed morning on Tuesday to celebrate the end of their hard work this year and the end of their ‘Coastline’ topic. They explored rock pools and different shells, built sandcastles, enjoyed tasty ice-creams or ice lollies, watched a Punch & Judy and a magic show and cooled off in paddling pools!
This week, many of our older children are attending the BookTastic Book Festival at the University of Bedfordshire. Y6 have already seen the amazing Patrice Lawrence talk about her book 'The Elemental Detectives'. Y5 go today to see Jasmine Richards talk about 'Future Hero', and on Thursday, it's Y4's turn to see Lee Newbery talk about his book 'The First Shadow Dragon'. Huge thanks must go to the BookTastic team, who are determined to promote a love of reading in the children of Bedford and Kempston. As a result, all of our places were fully funded and every child who attends even gets to take home a copy of the book they have been hearing about. We wonder if anyone can beat the Y6 who had already started reading their book before they even left the auditorium?
Congratulations to His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort. We hope you enjoy our coronation song which we have recorded as a whole school as part of our celebrations.
What a summer for our amazing choir! First they won their class in the Bedfordshire Speech and Music Festival. Then we were were delighted to find out that they had also won the Bedford Choral Society Cup and prize and finally were invited to perform at the Gala Concert at the Corn Exchange to have it presented to them. This award gets awarded to the most outstanding choir from classes 1-6 so this is a huge achievement, along with what they accomplished last week! The choir were excellent and we are all incredibly proud of them!🏆🏆🎶 They had great fun celebrating their achievements at their surprise party!
Voice in a Million 2023
Year 3 trip to Bedford Corn Exchange to see the Bedford Philharmonia Orchestra.
The children celebrated World Music Day. Years 2 to 5 had an African Drumming workshop with Martin, thanks to The Culture Challenge. Then the focus across the school was written composition with notation.We have been so impressed with the children’s knowledge and enthusiasm towards Music, keep it up!
Some of our children enjoying meeting the animals during the Ark Farm visit.
Groups our children and staff have gone to Wembly Arena today to join the Voice in a Million Concert. Voice In A Million presents an opportunity of a lifetime for school children from all backgrounds throughout the UK to come together united in song and perform in front of their own family and friends and members of the general public.
Today is the National Day of Reflection organised by Marie Curie. The children in school have been thinking about all the things we are thankful for and how we can show people that we are thinking of them in times when they are sad and by sharing our good thoughts and wishes. The children have used flowers and ribbons to spread these messages which we have displayed on the fence outside of the school. Please join us in reflecting today.
Fun at Forest School!
This video is being processed
This may take several minutes. Once the processing is complete, the video will be shown here.
This video is being processed
This may take several minutes. Once the processing is complete, the video will be shown here.
Today local author, illustrator, past pupil and friend of Balliol dropped in and left us a mural of one of our favourite books. Thank you David Litchfield.
We had a great time celebrating World Music Day on Monday. It was lovely to hear all the music going on around the school and to hear all of the facts the children learnt about composers, genres and world music. The children really enjoyed listening to a Gigs4Kids concert and participating in African Drumming workshops.
Lockdown Learners - 5.3.21
Lockdown Learners - 26.2.21
Lockdown Learners - 12.2.21
Lockdown Learners - 5.2.21
Lockdown Learners - 29.1.21
Lockdown Learners 22.1.21
Congratulations to our Lockdown Learners - 15.1.21
Well done to Jack and Emily, our new head boy and girl! Thank you for designing our latest KS2 Values certificate for perseverance. Who will be one of the first to receive one?
Thank you to Woodys Wildlife Rescue for helping us get Mr Fox the care and treatment he needed.
Early Words Together Project
World Down Syndrome Day 2019
5.2.19 Safer internet day
The whole school celebrated safer internet day. Years 1, 2 and 3 learned an e-safety song.
School of Rock - Year 5 and 6 had an amazing time!
Friday 9th November
Here are some photos of our path of poppies that we made during our remembrance event.
In Flanders Fields
Year 3 performed this poem by John McCrae during our remembrance celebration.
Fireworks at Balliol 6.11.18
We had lots of fun at our fireworks display
Thank you to The Net for putting on an entertaining and educational performance for our Key Stage 2 children all about e-safety! #nettobemissed
Thank you everybody for all your support with donations at our Harvest Festival. The celebration was a huge success with many harvest parcels safely delivered to worthy homes.
.