Personal Development

We recognise that learning experiences can be enhanced by maximising the potential of the outdoors. Our outdoor environment has huge potential for learning, and as such, learning at Molehill does not take place solely within the school buildings. We are extremely fortunate to have beautiful school grounds, featuring a large field, a wooded area, two ponds and two large playgrounds.

Student Council provides opportunities for pupils to become actively involved in decision-making, take on leadership roles, work with others and to have a say in how Molehill develops.

Eco Club aims to empower students to participate and take up meaningful environmental activities and projects. It is a forum through which students can reach out to influence, engage their parents and neighbourhood communities to promote sound environmental behaviour.

Football club develops a love of the game and collaborative team work for students and offers them the opportunity to focus on how sports can lead to a balanced healthy life. Multi sports club offers an opportunity to children to access a range of different sports and physical activities. It is a good way for children to explore what they enjoy and try new things. Cheerleading club also offers an opportunity to learn some basic cheerleading routines and skills, as well as to develop their communication and teamwork skills.

Artsmark is the only creative quality standard for schools and education settings, accredited by Arts Council England. Artsmark’s framework is designed to help us to embed arts, culture and creativity across our whole curriculum, celebrating our commitment to cultural education.

Students develop their performance skills for song and dance in preparation for a countrywide concert that takes place yearly at the O2 area in London.

Children are given the opportunity to learn some basic signs in British Sign Language including the alphabet, colours, numbers, days of the week and songs from a qualified British Sign Language teacher.

Children have the opportunity to learn a new skill or develop an existing skill of crocheting and sewing. They are able to practise their fine motor skills and create something new to take home.

Children are able to develop their problem solving skills by working on solving a range of puzzles such as sudoku, crosswords, jigsaw puzzles, wooden puzzles and many more.

We have been excited to launch our new Molehill Choir. Our choir will showcase our KS2 singers and will have various opportunities to perform during the year. This will help develop confidence, reading and continue to foster a love of music.

Each class in Key Stage 2 has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument such as the recorder and ukulele. Along with this they also develop their skills of reading and writing music, music appreciation and also the discipline needed when playing an instrument.

Children will complete a range of engaging challenges that encourage them to think and behave like real scientists and engineers.

Our new Molehill Choir was launched in September 2023.. Children across KS2 auditioned for a place and we have 20 budding vocalists in our choir, who performed for the first time at the Harvest Assembly. They sang ‘A Picture of Autumn’ beautifully and with great skill. 

The choir learnt their Christmas repertoire ahead of several performances in the festive season. The first of these was as part of the Demelza Carolathon at Fremlin Walk on Friday 24th November. Following this, the choir sang for the residents of Ashley Gardens and members of the Maidstone Active Retirement group at St Martin’s Church. The final performance of the year was as part of the Christingle Service at the end of term. 

Young Voices

After several months of hard work and rehearsal, Molehill Primary Academy’s Young Voices Choir embarked on an adventure to the O2 Arena, London for our annual Young Voices concert. All the children (and adults) who attended had an amazing experience singing along with music legend, and M People lead singer, Heather Small. Singing amongst a choir of over 8,000 children, Molehill’s pupils had their vocals recorded for a charity single and became honorary beatboxers for the night when they sang alongside world champion beatboxers The Beatbox Collective. As always, Andy Instone and his Urban Strides dancers entertained and inspired everyone and the choir enjoyed singing some fabulous songs. The behaviour of our pupils throughout the trip was exemplary and they did themselves and the school proud. We can’t wait to do it all again.n ne

Arty Party 

Fox and Kestrel classes had the opportunity to work with two fantastic artists from Arty Party, a company that works with schools up and down the country teaching fine art to children in an engaging and hands-on way. The shared area outside Fox classroom was a hive of activity throughout the two days and depicted the true organised chaos of an artists’ studio. The children, working together in small groups with the artists, were able to be a central part of the creative process that led to the creation of a fantastic freestanding sculpture that combines both our school emblem and our school vision. I am sure you will agree that any visitor to Molehill will be left in no doubt about what we stand for once they have seen this fantastic piece of art. 

Crochet Club 

Crochet club members worked brilliantly to produce penguin keyrings! We were so impressed with their determination to complete this project with all of the children taking resources home each week to practise. Well done!

Residential – Farms for City Children

‘Farms for City Children is a charity enabling children from disadvantaged communities to experience the adventure of working together on farms in the heart of the British countryside.

Children are immersed in a totally new world, far away from their everyday life. A world with birdsong, clear starry skies, fresh air, real food and plenty of mud. A world where you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste the possibility. It’s a profound experience that will stay with them for life’. The charity was founded by Clare and Michael Morpurgo and some of our pupils were lucky to spend a week’s residential at Nethercott House Farm, in Devon. 

Loddington Farm Trip

Kangaroo and Wallaby class spent the day at Loddington farm. They got to experience a day in the life of a farmer and learn how fruit is grown, picked and sent to the stores. We were able to see how the very tasty Owlet fruit juice is made using the fruit picked off the farm. We got to taste some and it was definitely delicious. It was a brilliant day out and we want to thank The Country Trust for organising such a fantastic learning experience and visit and thank you to Loddington Farm for hosting us.

Hatching Chicks

Watching our Molehill chicks hatch was an incredibly fascinating and memorable occasion. Our whole school community, including any and all visitors to the school, benefited from their first hand experience of life cycles and growth and development. Discussing and holding the chicks encouraged social interaction and promoted caring and nurturing skills. Our wider community were also able to watch the chicks at home and from classrooms through our live stream.  

Astronomy Workshop  

We welcomed a travelling astronomy workshop to the academy! Pupils from across the school learnt amazing facts about our solar system and beyond, including taking a flying visit to and learning information about our incredible neighbouring planets. Inside the dome, the entire night sky was projected onto the inside of the dome. We could look at the beautiful stars and constellations in our night sky.

Science Week

We utilised Science Week to provide additional exposure to science capital outside of the school environment and our Fabulous Finish encouraged parental involvement to facilitate science conversations at home. The overarching theme of the week was how human action connects positively or negatively to each area of science that the children are studying. 

To start the week, Megan Bell, a chemist from the University of Kent delivered an exceptional assembly to our pupils which invited them to think about the connections between the elements in the periodic table. We were very impressed by our pupils’ prior knowledge – reception children described elements as ‘fire, earth, air and water’ which provoked an interesting discussion about how our understanding of science has developed over time. Year 6 pupils were able to identify some of the elements in the periodic table and gave consideration to the environmental impact that humans have on earth.

Cornwallis Science Workshops

Year 5 were lucky enough to attend Cornwallis Academy for a jam-packed day of science activities and experiments. Children had a fantastic time looking at different food groups and performing tests using chemicals. Next they played at being detectives and analysed fingerprints, footprints and calligraphy to discover ‘whodunnit’. After lunch they learned about the different rocks and  looked at different crystal patterns before ending the day using bunsen burners to test different metals and change the colour of flames. It was such a lot of fun and a really lovely opportunity for pupils to get excited about their futures.

Kidzania 

Year 3 and 4, along with Oaks, visited Kidzania – a city just for children. They were able to experience a wealth of various careers such as floristry, veterinarians, police officers and many more. The children had a fantastic time and really enjoyed the opportunities that they were able to take part in.

Cultural day was a tremendous success. It was a sensational celebration of diversity within our school community, and we are thrilled that our children had the opportunity to engage in such an enriching experience. The spirit of the day was truly remarkable, with children and staff alike embracing the occasion by donning unique and vibrant attire representing various cultures. Witnessing this kaleidoscope of colours throughout the school was truly a sight to behold. Furthermore, the children’s taste buds were treated to an array of delectable dishes from all corners of the world. We are immensely grateful to the parents who generously contributed their culinary delights and enabled our children to relish in this multicultural feast. We were privileged to have parents so willing to come in and share firsthand accounts about their own cultures and traditions. By openly discussing their customs and beliefs, you provided our children with valuable insights that will help them develop a greater understanding and respect for diversity.

By celebrating Cultural Day, we aimed to expose our children to a wide range of cultures, fostering understanding, tolerance, and respect among them. It is our firm belief that by embracing our diverse community, we create a richer and more inclusive learning environment, enabling our children to grow into well-rounded global citizens. Through the celebration of events such as Cultural Day, we strive to nurture globally minded individuals, who not only acknowledge their place in an intercultural global community but also demonstrate the attitudes and actions of internationally minded people. By instilling these values within our children, we equip them with essential skills that will shape their future lives and careers.

World Multiple Day

On Wednesday 4th October, we celebrated Multiples Day by dressing up as ‘Times Table Rockstars’! We all enjoyed being creative with our outfits to celebrate the importance of mathematics and learning our multiplication facts. Children engaged in multiple activities in the classroom, such as learning common multiples, playing games using their times tables or having an introduction into grouping numbers. In addition to this, lots of TTRS was played across the academy, helping classes to build points towards the ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition. Well done to Badger class, who were the winning class! 

Number Day

The whole school supported the NSPCC by taking part in Number Day! It was an incredible day with both children and staff all dressing up as a number and donating £1 to this very worthwhile cause. All classes completed activities around their given class numbers with both Kangaroo and Wallaby class playing spot the difference and investigating doubles as part of the number 2, Fox class worked on their 8 times tables using various games and bingo boards, Kestrel class investigated the fifth pillar of Islam as their number was 5 and Eagle class looked at the prefix ‘tri’ and extended their knowledge of working with angles in a triangle all based on the number 3! In addition to all of this excitement, we were fortunate to welcome in all of the parents for a ‘Marvellous Maths’ event, which saw all classes getting involved in completing maths with a difference. Thank you to everyone that joined in on the day, the children are still commenting on how much fun they had!

Book Fair

We were very fortunate to have the Scholastic Travelling Book Fair visit our Academy this term. With a wide range of books available, the book fair was well attended by our school community who demonstrated their love of reading by purchasing over £480 worth of books. Our community’s commitment to reading has provided our Academy with over £190 worth of book tokens we can now use to add more quality texts to our school library. Moreover, it has been fantastic to see and hear so many children talk so passionately about and show great enthusiasm for reading. 

World Book Day 

For most of us at Molehill, World Book Day is the highlight of the Academic year! We ensure that our pupils develop a love of reading because we know that regular reading provides young people with the chance to increase vocabulary and comprehension skills; challenge their perception of the world around them; and escape into different worlds, times and places. We know that the development of strong literacy skills improves the life chances of our pupils and provides them with the key skills that are vital to adult life. Well done to everyone who embraced World Book Day – we were so impressed with the variety of different outfits and were delighted to immerse ourselves in literature learning for the day. 

No-Pens Wednesday 

On the 29th November, Molehill once again took part in “No pens Wednesday”. 

There was uproar, surprise and confusion when children in Leopard class turned up to school to find the pens were cordoned off and a mysterious parcel left on Mrs Grierson’s desk. 

It transpired that the gift was the book ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’. This sparked a wonderful English lesson; reading and enjoying the book and doing some activities linked to feelings. Of course, the pens and crayons hadn’t really quit (though the children were completely convinced at the time). It was simply a way to introduce the concept of “No pens Wednesday”. 

It is to highlight the importance and awareness of supporting children with their speech and language skills. By ditching pens and pencils for the day, children had the opportunity to speak to one another; share things special and important to them; and play and work collaboratively together. The children gained so many new skills from the day and the impact on their learning moving forward has been evident throughout the school.

Upper Key Stage Two has been learning about World War II as part of their inquiry into conflict resolution and the impact conflict has on people’s lives. As part of this inquiry, the children took part in an interactive World War II drama workshop led by a company called Perform for Schools. During this workshop, pupils pushed themselves out of their comfort zone and took risks by taking part in a variety of drama and role play scenarios. Through these scenarios they were able to imagine themselves in a variety of situations that were the reality for many people during the war from saying goodbye to loved ones, coping with rationing to being evacuated to the countryside. We were very proud of the children for how well they engaged with the workshop activities and their enthusiasm to take part. A particular highlight was at the end of the workshop where they learnt a short dance to accompany the well known World War II song ‘The Lambeth Walk’. 

KS1 had a fabulous opportunity to extend their learning beyond the classroom and take part in a Drama workshop linked to one of their inquiries. KS1 has been inquiring into different types of toys and games; with a historical focus of comparing toys from the past to now. The Drama workshop allowed children to experience an imaginative way to learn about old toys and how they were played, recap Science learning about different materials and, of course, play plenty of games! It was a fantastic way to spark ideas for this term’s inquiries and gave every pupil a chance to achieve and be creative. 

Christmas Pantomime

No story captures the imagination of children more than Cinderella and our pupils were transported on a magical journey to the home of Baron Hardup, where they met Cinderella and all her friends!

Filled to the brim with comedy, excitement and adventure, the children had a fantastic time – they loved to cheer the hero Prince Charming and boo the horrible sisters. They roared with laughter at the antics of Buttons!

Sports Days

Our Sports Days were a fantastic success! We are so pleased that so many of our parents were able to join us to celebrate their children’s sporting achievements. We were delighted with the number of adults who also wanted to compete themselves; it was great to see their enjoyment of sport and physical activity shared with our whole school. What fantastic role models they are!

Netball Tournament

Our school netball team went over to Langley Primary Academy to play in a Cluster tournament. The children have been training all year on a Monday and were both excited and nervous to be putting their skills to the test. They played brilliantly with some fabulous goals being made. We won two of our games by a landslide and lost a third, however as a school we scored the most goals and were also complimented for our sportsmanship! A special shoutout to everyone who played!

Christingle Church Service

The academy routinely visits St Martins Church to take part in a special Christingle Service. During the service every child receives the gift of a Christingle, a little lighted wax candle tied round with a red ribbon.  

This year, throughout the celebration, pupils sang a variety of Christmas songs beautifully. We were also very grateful to the older Year 6 children for joining the adults and walking beside our younger children to ensure that we all returned home to school safely. 

Christingle services make an important contribution to the vital work of The Children’s Society. Thanks to the generosity of those who attend and take part, the charity’s work to support some of the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people can continue and help to change lives for the better.

We welcomed the Kent Fire and Rescue Service to Molehill. The team used their skills, knowledge and experience to talk to children about fire safety, giving the children useful advice and helping them build an understanding of what to do to keep safe and reduce the risk of fires starting. Children were encouraged to share what they learnt with their families, particularly encouraging their adults to make sure that there are smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors fitted and regularly checked at home. We also practised the STOP, DROP and ROLL method of putting a fire out if you found yourself on fire.

Kent County Council’s Road Safety Team have been delivering this year a programme called the Kent Road Safety Club. The Road Safety club’s purpose is to make our younger road users safer and to instil from an early age key road safety awareness, knowledge and behaviours.   We have been lucky enough to have this programme delivered to all our children focusing on key objectives that were appropriate to each year group from reception class through to Year 6, and are based around the Kent Road Safety Club code to…

• STOP at the kerb and wait
• LOOK and LISTEN for traffic
• THINK about what to do
• CROSS the road safely with an adult, looking and listening all the time.

Please take time to read the information booklet on the programme so you can reinforce the strategies your children have learnt:

Click here to read the road safety information booklet

At our annual Safety Day this year we warmly welcomed a team of Community First Responders to our academy. They delivered a First Aid Workshop to all of our pupils. The curriculum across the whole day centred around keeping safe and teachers were able to use a range of resources from our National Online Safety programme to reinforce the ways in which pupils can stay safe online. Pupils in Year 5 and 6 have also attended Road Safety Workshops and KS1 attended a Stranger Danger assembly too! 

Year 6 pupils had a fantastic day at the Kent Police Open Day.  They visited a variety of different stalls which related to how different sections of the police work and also how to stay safe. They also watched some great demonstrations and loved the police dogs!