News and Gallery

Last week we had an invasion of Celt and Romans in school!  Year 3 celebrated the end of their history topic 'Invaders and Settlers' with a Celt and Roman Costume day.  Children had also made different objects including, coins, jewellery, shields, helmets and pots for the Year 3 Class Museums and during the day, our Celts and Romans made mosiac tiles and they also enjoyed listening to the Year 4 Brass Instrument concert! Before the end of term, Year 3 will be visiting the Roman Museum, Verulamium at St Albans.

Last week we celebrated the annual Book Week in school.  This year we had a focus on poetry and throughout the week every class had poetry based activities including writing their own poetry and learning a famous poem as a class.  The week culminated with a visit from local poet Rachel Piercey who led a whole school assembly and then hosted workshops for our Years 1-3 based on her woodland poetry.  Children found these workshops really inspirational and thoroughly enjoyed writing class woodland and animal poetry with her.  We also held a poetry themed costume day and children and staff came to school dressed up with a link to a poem of their choice. 

Our Year 6 children have been continuing their Greek DT topic and have made and painted some beautiful ancient Greek inspired pots.

Spring Term Sporting Fixtures - February 2023

We have had a very busy few weeks of sporting fixtures this Spring Term and it has been very pleasing to see so many pupils representing Archdeacon in football and netball matches, an Indoor local LDBS Athletics Tournament and Borough swimming heats at Pools on the Park in Richmond.  Both the girls and boys football teams have played in round robin league matches again other schools and we have had some good wins and draws.  Archdeacon were placed in Bronze position at the local LDBS Athletics Tournament at St Richard Reynolds School where we scored highest in four of the field events.  We had a very good win in our netball match against another Twickenham primary school where we won 7-4 and are looking forward to the Borough Netball Tournament after half term.  We are awaiting the results of the swimming heats but we know that we will have a number of finalists taking part in the Borough swimming finals in March.  We are very proud of all our children who have shown great attitude, behaviour and sportsmanship in these recent fixtures.  Please see the Sporting Events section in the Wider Curriculum section of the website for more detailed information about these fixtures.

Year 6 have been studying the Ancient Greeks and their DT project has been to create pull-along toys inspired by 'Athrymata'.  This is the ancient greek word for toys and archaeologists in Athens have uncovered wheeled pull-along toys dating back to 4000BC.  Year 6 have made their pull-along toys out of newspaper, masking tap and Mod-Roc.

Last week, parents enjoyed watching the Nursery and Reception and Years 1 & 2 Nativity plays, the Year 3 & 4 Lessons and Carols at Holy Trinity Church and the Years 5 & 6 Christmas Production 'Archie's Christmas'.  All the children acted, danced and sang beautifully and everyone is very proud of them.

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The children have been enjoying some wonderful Christmas activities in school provided by our PTA.  Together as a class, they visited the beautiful Santa's Grotto where they were given a class gift to unwrap.  They also visited our annual Family Present Stall where they were able to choose a gift for a family member or friend which was then wrapped for them to take home, ready to give at Christmas.  Many thanks to our fabulous PTA elves who put together the Grotto and Stall and made today such a wonderful experience for the school.

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Shortly before Half Term, our Years 5 & 6 Basketball Team took part in the Knights Basketball Tournament at Twickenham School. They won all their heats to reach the final where they played against St James School.  The final was a very close match which our team won with a golden basket in the last few seconds of the game.  Congratulations to our team who were fantastic ambassadors for the school and were able to wear their gold medals with pride for the rest of the day in school.  This win will guarantee the team a place in the Borough Champions Finals in May next year.

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On Thursday 6th October we celebrated Harvest Festival with a service for Years 2-6 at Holy Trinity Church and a service for Reception and Year 1 in the Small Hall.  Children have brought in a wonderful array of food and toiletries which will be combined with donations from the Church and given to our local foodbank.  Cash donations will also be combined with Holy Trinity Church and this year will be divided between the Twickenham Spear Homeless Charity as well as A Rocha and Tear Fund who are charities supporting people threatened by climate Change.

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On Saturday 24th September, ten members of Archdeacon Cambridge's Staff who called themselves 'The Archie Marchers', took part in the annual Shine Night Walk through London in aid of Cancer Relief.  They walked 13 miles starting at 8.45pm at night and finishing shortly before 2am!  It was a beautiful clear night and the London Landmarks looked fabulous as they were all lit up.  Collectively with friends, family and Archdeacon Families, they have raised over £5000.  Many congratulations to them! 

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Archdeacon Cambridge's School is now 180 years old which we celebrated at our Autumn Start of Term and Founder's Day Service at Holy Trinity Church last week.  Archdeacon Cambridge's School was founded in 1842, only thirteen years after Robert Peel founded the police force, nine years after the abolition of slave-owning in this country and two years after the introduction of the Penny Post with the Penny Black stamp.  The American Civil War took place twenty years later.

We also welcomed the start of the school year and mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth II.  During the service we sang the 'Life Lived with Grace' song that we had prepared for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in the summer and we also sang the new National Anthem for King Charles III.

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We enjoyed wonderful summer weather for our annual Sports Week and Sports Days for Infants and Juniors last week.  During the week, we welcomed outsider sports providers who held workshops in a variety of different sports including karate, archery, rugby, dance, skipping, dodgeball, tri golf and volleyball.  Our children also enjoyed taking part in different team building and confidence games and we held a workshop on general health and well being.  Our Years 3-6 children also took part in swimming galas in the school pool.  On Friday 24th June we were able to hold our annual Sports Days on Twickenham Green and it was lovely that parents were able to watch this year.  Children competed in their house colours in running, throwing and jumping events and points were collected for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places.  This year was the first time children were competing in the new house names and overall for Infants and Juniors, 'David Attenborough' was the winning Sports Day House.  'David Attenborough' House also won the Years 3-6 Swimming Galas. The week finished with the annual Staff vs Year 6 netball competition 'Golden Child' cheered on by the rest of the school in the Junior Playground and was won this year by Year 6.  Mr Bowie then presented the London 2012 Olympics Swimming Cup and the Diamond Jubilee Sports Day Plate to Year 6 children in 'David Attenborough' House.

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On the evening of Thursday 2nd June, in the middle of the half-term holiday, thirty-one Archdeacon choir children from Years 3 to 6 put their school uniform back on and made a trip to the Terrace at the top of Richmond Hill at the invitation of the new Mayor of Richmond, Julia Cambridge. The Mayor was due to light a beacon as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations and our choir had been invited to sing as part of the ceremony.

There were speeches from Gareth Roberts, who is the Leader of Richmond Council, and from the Mayor herself. Our choir children sang two songs, a bugler played a fanfare, and then, while we waited for it to get completely dark, Gareth Roberts and Twickenham MP Munira Wilson came over to chat to our children.

More and more people arrived to watch the ceremony, then, at exactly 9.45pm, we all counted down from ten to one, and the Mayor lit the beacon. The moment the flames leapt into the air our choir children immediately sang "A Life Lived with Grace", which is the song that was especially commissioned for the lighting of Platinum Jubilee Beacons across the UK and the Commonwealth. And then, at the very end of the ceremony, we were able to look across from our high vantage point at the top of Richmond Hill to see the Windsor Castle fireworks exploding in the far distance.

We are really proud of our choir children: this was a really prestigious, unique occasion and our singers rose to it magnificently. They looked immaculate, behaved perfectly, and sounded fantastic. I have heard some lovely feedback from choir parents and members of the public, and Munira Wilson even tweeted about our choir! Many thanks to all the choir children and parents who came along to the event. It was a huge accolade to have been invited to perform, and it was a splendid occasion which I'm sure all those who attended will remember for a very long time.

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The culmination of our Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations was our whole school tea party in the Junior Playground on Friday afternoon.  Nursery to Reception, including teachers, had dressed up in red, white and blue colours or in the fashion or as a celebrity from the decade that they had been allocated.  It was a beautiful hot sunny day and PTA parent volunteers helped us set up the playground with tables and benches and bunting.  We had special invited guests including past and present governors, Bishop Graham (Bishop of Kensington) and Mark Newton from the LDBS. Each year group had put together a dance from their decade which they performed starting with Year 6 who performed Jail House Rock from the 1950's and finishing with Year 1 who performed the Cha Cha Slide from the 2000's.  Afternoon tea was then served to all the guests.  Many thanks to Mrs Capon, Mrs Buncher and Mr Hawkes for the organisation of our tea party and  Mrs Watts, Mrs Smith and the PTA for sponsoring and supporting the day. It was a very special and memorable occasion.

Each Year Group have been learning about a different decade during the Queen's reign and as part of this, we have put together a magnificent Art Exhibition with portraits of famous or influential people during these decades as well as portraits of the Queen herself.  We are very proud of our '70 Years of Famous Faces' Art Exhibition and delighted that parents have been able to come into school and view the exhibition with their children.  

On Monday we started our Queen's Platinum Jubilee Week celebrations with a visit from Cllr Geoff Acton, Mayor of Richmond.  The Mayor was invited to plant a Rowan tree at the front of the school as the Queen has particularly asked for trees to be planted to mark the occasion.  Our school choirs sang the Queen's Jubilee song and the Mayor and his wife were given a tour of the school by members of the School Council and Miss Lambe.  During the tour, the Mayor had the opportunity to view the Jubilee activities that children were enjoying in classrooms as well as to sit on the magnificent throne and view the beautiful crown that our Art Department have made.  We then held a tea party for the Mayor, his wife, guests from the PTA, Governing Board and School Council.  It really was a very special way to start our week of celebrations!

At the end of March, our Year 5 and 6 Basketball team took part in their first tournament since lockdown. The was extremely excited and determined to get into the finals from the outset! There was 6 teams from various schools in the local area and the children went to their first game full of energy. They worked well as a team and astonishingly won their first game 22-8. 

Sadly, after this extraordinary victory, the children did not win any more games in the round robin; but children stayed positive, congratulated their team mates and celebrated the small victories during the games. After the initial matches, we were thought we were to go home, but we were shocked to discover we had made it into the semi-finals as our goal difference was so great from the first game. 

We did not win our semi-final, however the team we played went on to win the whole tournament.  Whilst it was disappointing not to come away with any trophies, our team was well-mannered, happy and gracious are even in defeat.  We were then very pleased to be offered a wildcard to take part in the Basketball Finals in April.

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Our Year 5 children have been learning about the Egyptians this term and at home have created some fabulous pyramids.  We are enjoying their displays in school which contain pyramids made using lego, cereal, marshmallows and biscuits, card and even kitchen sponges!  Some of the pyramids open to show jelly tombs inside.  

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Earlier in January, our Years 3 & 6 classes took part in a science workshop about Mary Anning who was a pioneering palaeontologist and fossil collector born in 1799.  She became known for incredible finds she made in the cliffs at Lyme Regis in Dorset including the ichthyosaurus (fish lizard) and a complete skeleton of a plesiosaurus .  During the workshop, children learnt about her life, how she discovered the fossils and even had the opportunity to make some fossils of their own.  Children were amazed to learn that as a woman at that time, she was not recognised or rewarded for her scientific discoveries.

We have had a busy December in school with Year Groups rehearsing, performing and filming their Christmas Nativities and Production and our Large Hall has been a wonderful theatre for them.  Children also enjoyed visiting the magical Santa's Grotto with our own PTA Elves.  They listened to a special message from Santa and were given a special medal for making it onto his 'Nice' list.  Our Year 3 and 4 year groups attended the End of Term Service at Holy Trinity which was live streamed into the classrooms for other year groups and our Year 3 readers delivered their pieces beautifully.  On the final day of term, everyone has enjoyed wearing festive colours or Christmas jumpers instead of uniform.

Archdeacon Cambridge's School was pleased to contribute to the Field of Poppies as part of Remembrance Day Commemorations 2022 at Holy Trinity Church.  For half term homework, families made poppies using recycled plastic bottles for the Poppy Field and knitted poppies for a display inside the church.

On Sunday 3rd October 2021 our Junior Choir, which currently consists of children from Years 5 and 6, was invited to perform an anthem during the Mayor of Richmond's Civic Service at St Mary's Church in Twickenham. The service honoured those who have worked especially hard to serve others during the pandemic, as well as focusing on looking after the environment. Our choir sang an anthem in two-part harmony by John Rutter, called Look at the World, to fit with the theme. With only a few weeks to prepare our song, the children's attitude and commitment in choir rehearsals since the beginning of term has been really excellent.

On the day our children behaved absolutely perfectly and rose to the occasion like professionals. Their singing was angelic, and we were so proud of the beautiful sound they made after such a short rehearsal time. One of our Year 6 children, was also invited to light a candle during the service as an act of hope for the future. Afterwards we walked round to York House where our children and their parents attended a reception hosted by the Mayor, with drinks and canapes for the adults and a party lunch for the children. It was a lovely sunny day and the children were able to chat to the Mayor, the Vicar of St Mary's and other dignitaries on the terrace, and then play in the gardens. We have had some lovely feedback about the children from some of the attendees.  It was wonderful to be part of such a prestigious occasion

We had mixed weather for our Sports Week last week but children and staff in both key stages enjoyed participating in a variety of sports.  We welcomed Boundless Dance into school who provided dance workshops for all year groups and Multi Sports ran three days of sporting activities including archery, cup staking, team games, tri golf, ball games and volleyball for Year 6.  Years 3-6 also took part in their annual swimming galas in the school pool during the week.

The week finished with the annual Staff vs Year 6 netball competition which this year was a game of 'Golden Child' cheered on by Years 1-6.  The game involves counting the number of goals scored whilst the other team are completing a lap of the playground.  This year the competition was won by Year 6.

Due to continuing Covid-19 restrictions, we had to make adjustments to our Sports Day.  This year we held the running races on The Green and the throwing and long jump events on the school site.  You can see photographs of Sports Day on the Year Group pages of the website.  During the day we also held a fun sports quiz and basket shoot for Juniors.  Following the Netball Competition, Mr Bowie announced all the results to the school.  The winning house in the Swimming Gala was Shackleton and the overall House winner for the Infant and Junior Sports Day was Scott.

One of the highlights of being a member of the Archdeacon Junior Choir is taking part in the biennial Prom Praise for Schools (PP4S) event at the Royal Albert Hall. Two years ago, in 2019, our choir successfully auditioned to sing a solo song on stage to a packed audience of thousands which was very exciting! Sadly this year the physical PP4S couldn't take place; instead there is a virtual choir initiative which will be broadcast online and we are very proud to say that our choir was invited to record part of the core audio sound. Due to bubble restrictions, Junior Choir is currently limited to Year 6 only, and the 20 Year 6 choir members travelled by coach on Wednesday 12th May to All Souls' Church, off Regent Street. The church is right next to the BBC and its tall spire features daily in the intro to the BBC News. In the church the whole choir recorded the audio track for a specially written song, "Step by Step", and then each child was filmed individually singing the song to appear in the online video. We even managed to fit in a quick visit to Regent's Park before heading back to school on the coach. Our lovely coach driver took us home past iconic London landmarks such as Hamleys, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, The Ritz, Green Park, Harrods, the V&A, and the Natural History Museum.  Thank you to all the children for their excellent behaviour on the day, their great singing, and their dedication to the choir. 

We celebrated our postponed World Book Day last Friday, 23rd April which coincided with William Shakespeare's Birthday.  We had a wonderful array of characters and costumes from staff and children including our Year 6 teachers who dressed as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth!

We were very excited to welcome back our Archdeacon Cambridge's school family on Monday 8th March with our surprise Rainbow Arch and Banner that we had been making in school. All the children had been asked to draw themselves on pieces of coloured fabric; the larger image was stitched onto a fabric banner and the smaller image was attached to the amazing rainbow arch that had been made by Mr Matt and painted by a team in school. On Sunday evening the banner and arch were put at the front of the school ready to welcome back the children.  It was wonderful and emotional to see everyone again.  Now that the weather has turned, the fabric banner will be put up in the Large Hall for everyone to enjoy.

Nursery Penguins

Our Nursery children have designed and created their own penguins for this wonderful display based on the book 'The Emperor's Egg'.

EPIPHANY 2021

Miss Lambe's Epiphany story can be seen here: Miss Lambe's Epiphany Story | Archdeacon Cambridge's Church of England Primary School (primarysite.media)

CHRISTMAS 2020

As a school, we usually sing every day and often many times in a day. We have all missed 'real singing', so we couldn't allow Christmas to happen without one whole-school song. As part of our 'Different, but Brilliant Christmas', the whole school worked together to sing one of our favourite Christmas hymns, Love Shone Down. We hope you enjoy watching. 

Love Shone Down | Archdeacon Cambridge's Church of England Primary School (primarysite.media)

Our Year 1 and Year 2 children were very excited to head to Holy Trinity Church this morning for our Christmas Service. Our Year 2 readers deserve a special mention for the excellent job they did. As always, Tim's sermon was wonderful and the children sang beautifully (and quietly). Please find the link to a video of the service below. 

Christmas Service 2020 | Archdeacon Cambridge's Church of England Primary School (primarysite.media) 

In school we have been marking Remembrance Day this week in a variety of ways.  Many of our children painted poppies onto stones which families then laid at the War Memorial at Holy Trinity Church on Remembrance Sunday.  Our Year 6 children have made some beautiful stained glass poppies which are on display in the Large Hall and other year groups have also been making creative and beautiful poppies which have been in display in school.  Rev Tim Garrett came into school and held a Remembrance Service with our Years 3 & 6 bubble and the other year groups also took part in the two minute silence at 11am in the Infant and Junior Playgrounds.

Thank you very much for the wonderful Harvest food and coins that children have brought in to school this week to celebrate Harvest Festival.  We are very proud of our wonderful Harvest Festival display now in the School Office area and are delighted that we have raised £353.  Everything will be donated to Spear (our local homeless charity) who will be able to distribute the toiletries and food to those most in need at this difficult time.  Years 4 & 5 will be celebrating Harvest during a socially distanced Church Service at Holy Trinity Church and the service will be recorded for other year groups to watch in classrooms.