It has become a firm favourite in the Upton Infant School calendar - the Great Upton Pancake Race!

This morning the whole school gathered on the playground to watch representatives from each year group battle it out to win the coveted Pancake Race Trophy.

The brave contenders raced over assorted obstacles, all the while tossing their pancakes. The race ended with each racer eating their pancake - this proved quite difficult!

Take a look at the photos at the bottom of the page.

You may like to look at the video below to find out a little about lent.

Throughout their time at school, our pupils develop various life skills - independence, team work, motivation, enquiry, responsibility and communication.

Alongside this, we have five aims which we want all of our children to achieve, such as 'To be responsible, show respect and care for other'.

Year Two children are given the opportunity to take on various roles of responsibility in school, and in return can collect reward tokens. Many of the children exchange their rewards quickly for a few sweets.

However, one of our Year Two pupils has been saving up his reward tokens throughout the year for a grander prize from our toy shop. In fact, the prize was not even for him, but for his little sister. This is surely the human embodiment of our aims and life skills, demonstrating great motivation and caring for others.

Well done - what a star!

Our Reception children enjoyed a super visit from Mrs Crook from The Etches Collection, as part of their 'Dinosaurs Galore' topic. The children learned so much about fossils, dinosaurs and geological time scales.

The grand finale of their topic will be nest week's Dinosaur Fashion Parade.

Every Friday, the whole school takes part in The Friday Fun Run. The whole school agrees that it is a fun way of keeping fit. Take a look for yourself...

Each year group kick-started their new topics with a 'Sparkly Starter' today.

Reception's Dinosaur topic started with an adventure around Upton in which dinosaur footprints and dinosaur eggs were found!

Year One's topic 'In the Deep, Dark Wood' is themed around the stories of Julia Donaldson, and today the children took part in lots of Gruffalo related activities. There was even a mystery visitor lurking somewhere...

Year Two's Roald Dahl inspired topic began with some very strange characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory taking over! In the absence of the teachers, the children took part in some Roald Dahl inspired activities under the watchful eyes of Violet Beauregarde, Willy Wonka and an Oompa Loompa!

Take a look at the pictures below to see for yourself!

On Wednesday, the children had a visit from specialist officers from Dorset Police to talk about keeping safe whilst using the internet.

The children took part in various activities throughout the day to learn out more e-safety.

If you would like to find out more, please look at the e-safety page on our website.

On the first day back to school after the Christmas holiday, children and staff have been making New Year's Resolutions. Take a look at our TV Podcast Channel to see some for yourself. The children have also been thinking how their resolutions fit with our school aims.

Today also saw the introduction of our first thought for the week, which this week is: A cheery 'good morning' brings a smile to someone's face. We will be asking the children to reflect on this throughout the week. 

Have a lovely week everybody.

What a fantastic two weeks of Christmas performances we have had. We have been delighted by the children's enthusiasm, loud speaking voices, fantastic dancing and super singing.

Well done everybody - take a look at the photos to see some of the magic for yourselves. Happy Christmas!