See the latest news from Polam
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Polam Nursery awarded Millie's Mark
26th March 2021This term has been cause for celebration as we announced that our Nursery has been awarded ‘Millie’s Mark’, a Quality Mark for nurseries awarded by National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) in association with Department for Education and Millie’s Trust. This makes Polam the only childcare provider in Bedford with this endorsement. Millie’s Mark is named after Millie Thompson who died after choking on food at
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Global Be Well Day Poster Competition
17th October 2019Yesterday Beth Kerr, Cognita’s Global Director of Wellbeing, came into school for a special assembly to announce the winner of our GBWD Poster Competition. We had lots of amazing entries but Beth’s winner was created by Aarna (Yr 2). Beth was impressed that Aarna has included all 5 ways to be well, and had incorporated moving parts and friendship bracelet hair into her poster. Aarna
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Community Litter Picking
7th October 2019The Oaks children gave back something to the community on Friday afternoon by litter picking in the local park as part of our 'Week to be Well'. The children were very enthusiastic and managed to collect half a bag full of rubbish from one sweep of the park. As the children were so helpful and left the park looking very tidy, they were able to
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Global Be Well Day
27th September 2019We had such a great day today for Global Be Well Day, spending a whole day concentrating on the 5 areas of wellness. Everyone got active by trying Zumba with Miss Vecchio; they embraced a new skill and learned how to plait with Mrs Phillips; connected with an old teacher by email in the ICT suite with Mr O'Neil; and enjoyed a calming, mindful and
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The Bee Musical
12th July 2019On Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday evening the children from RDW to KS2 entertained family and friends with this year’s summer performance of The Bee Musical. There was singing, dancing and some beautiful solos, as well as a very important message about the importance of bees in our ecosystem. Massive congratulations to staff and pupils for the fabulous set and costumes; many thanks to Mrs Phillips
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Charity Assembly with FACES
8th July 2019Last Friday we held our end-of-term Charity Assembly where we were able to hand over a cheque to our chosen charity FACES. This year the money raised by the PPA will be going to the LunchBox@FACES project, which offers support for families and their children by providing meals during the school summer holidays. Free school meals are a lifeline for many families but when term ends
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Sports Day 2019
28th June 2019Despite a few black clouds in the sky we had a brilliant Sports day last Thursday, thanks to Mrs Worthington and her team of ex-pupil helpers. Saplings and Oaks had their own Nursery Sports Day in the morning, with a variety of field events and running races, and everyone taking home a rosette to show they took part. At the School Sports Day, in the
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Father’s Day Celebrations
17th June 2019Nursery have been spending time with their dads and granddads today and last Friday, as we celebrated Father's Day at Polam. On Friday Catkins, Acorns & Saplings enjoyed craft activities, a sing-song and refreshments, and this morning Oaks dads and granddads took part in our Challenge Morning. All the Nursery children have been working hard over the past weeks to make some beautiful gifts for
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Trip to Akeley Wood School
21st May 2019We were really lucky last week to be able to take everyone from RDW to Year 4 to another local Cognita school – Akeley Wood Junior School, near Milton Keynes. Akeley’s school is set in beautiful grounds and they have their own Forest School. Our children had the chance to play alongside the Akeley pupils, and make some new friends in the sunshine ☀️ We are hoping they
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New 3D Printer
8th May 2019As part of our IT transformation within school, we are very excited to now have our own 3D printer. This term Year 1 have been road-testing the printer by incorporating IT with their topic work on minibeasts. First of all they looked at the body parts on a minibeast and designed their own creature on paper. They then recreated their design in TinkerCAD, an easy-to-use
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OFSTED Outstanding 3rd inspection in a row
2nd May 2019We are proud and delighted to be able to announce that our registered nursery provision, for 2 year olds and under, has been judged Outstanding in all areas for the third inspection in a row. A big thank you to our brilliant nursery team who work so hard to provide a caring, nurturing environment for the children in their care, along with challenging and fun
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World Book Day 2019
7th March 2019We have had a great start to #WorldBookDay19. This morning the children from Reception to Year 4 have all taken part in brilliantly interactive space-themed writing workshops with children's author Clare Welsh
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Year 1 Assembly - Artists through Time
31st January 2019Year 1 treated their parents and the rest of the school to an amazing assembly this morning, all about famous artists through time. They told us facts about the artists and the different styles of painting. They also showcased examples of their own work in those styles, including Impressionism, Pop Art, Op Art, Indigenous Art and Cubism Afterwards parents were invited to a tour of
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Christmas Jumper Day
14th December 2018As well as being the last day of term, today is also Christmas Jumper Day. Not wishing to miss out on all the fun, our School Dog Meg has been in school this morning, wearing her own festive knitwear and enjoying her new toy - a Christmas gift from the PPA.
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Christmas Tree Festival – St Pauls Church
6th December 2018This morning the children in Year 2 and KS2 sang at the Christmas Tree Festival held at St Paul’s Church. They sang for 20 minutes, accompanied by Mrs Phillips on piano, and had learnt all their lyrics by heart, a fact that was commented on and praised by the organisers. We also took the opportunity to look at all the beautifully decorated trees on display.
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End of Year Charity Assembly
5th July 2018This morning Year 1 performed a special assembly about Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated. They acted out the story of The Great Race, when the animals had a race for the Jade Emperor to decide which animals to use for the Chinese calendar. They also played instruments [...]
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Year 1 Assembly on Chinese New Year
1st February 2017This morning Year 1 performed a special assembly about Chinese New Year and how it is celebrated. They acted out the story of The Great Race, when the animals had a race for the Jade Emperor to decide which animals to use for the Chinese calendar. They also played instruments [...]
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Chinese New Year in Saplings
27th January 2017Saplings have really enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year today. They have enjoyed exploring dried noodles and rice, pretending to cook them in the Wok and using chopsticks. They had fun filling and emptying different bowls with rice and thoroughly enjoyed eating all of the Prawn Crackers! They finished off the [...]
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Finger Gym in F1
11th January 2017This week F1 have tried their hand at an activity called Finger Gym which helps them practice their fine motor skills as well as counting and measuring time. You can see here that the girls are all concentrating really hard on their tasks, be it balancing the marbles on golf [...]
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Up, Up and Away!
6th January 2017This term's topic, Up Up and Away, got off to a flying start (excuse the pun!) when the children watched Mrs Woodham use an ordinary toaster to turn plastic bags into hot air balloons. What a brilliant experiment to make Science fun
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Christmas Dinner 2016
16th December 2016Thanks again to our wonderful kitchen staff - Maggie, Paul, Angela & Josh - for a fabulous Christmas Dinner yesterday. Everyone was resplendent in their festive hats and there were rather a lot of mustachioed boys, thanks to the Christmas Cracker gifts!
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A Very Merry Christmas Singalong 2016
15th December 2016The children put on two spectacular performances of their Very Merry Christmas Sing-along on Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon. Everyone sang and played beautifully and F2 coped brilliantly with their costume changes half way through, transforming themselves from elves into a magical nativity troupe. Huge thanks as ever to Mrs [...]
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F1 Christmas Craft Morning
13th December 2016We had another lovely festive day yesterday when F1 parents came in to join their children for an afternoon of Christmas crafts, songs and refreshments. Thank you to all parents and grandparents who came along - the children love having you here - and to Santa for stopping by (he [...]
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Nursery Christmas Craft Morning
9th December 2016We've had a fabulously festive morning in Nursery today as we invited our Acorns & Saplings parents in for a Christmas Craft Morning. There were lots of glittery things to make, a Christmas sing-song accompanied by Mrs Phillips, a wonderful array of Christmas treats to eat and even a surprise [...]
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St Paul's Christmas Tree Festival
30th November 2016This morning Year 2 and Key Stage 2 were honoured to sing at the opening of the annual Christmas Tree Festival at St Paul's Church. The children were able to see the decorations they had made hanging on our tree. They also spoke to the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire who [...]
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Flying the flag for Bedfordshire Day
28th November 2016The weather could not have been more perfect to fly our Bedfordshire County Flag in the playground today. The children were very surprised to see a different flag flying from the flagpole at playtime and were excited to have their photos taken with it. Some of the children in F1 [...]
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Book Fair News
23rd November 2016The Book Fair has been in school since last week and I am delighted to say that, thanks to all the books you have purchased for your children, we now have an amazing £188.56 to spend on books for the school. It has been wonderful to see how excited the [...]
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Happy Birthday Mrs Rawlinson
15th November 2016Today we wished Mrs Rawlinson a very special 'big' birthday by surprising her at lunchtime with a gift, flowers and a very rousing rendition of 'Happy Birthday to You'.
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Halloween Cookery in F2
1st November 2016F2 did some creepy, crafty cookery yesterday and made Oreo Spiders for Halloween. They were having so much fun they didn't even realise they were practising their counting skills when they were snipping the strawberry laces to make the legs!
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Halloween Lunch
31st October 2016There were some spooky goings on in the Kitchen this morning as our catering staff put together a fabulous Halloween menu for the children. At snack time they enjoyed some Scary Fruit and for lunch they tucked into Sausage Mummies, Witches Fingers and Spiders Web Cakes. Don't they look fabulous!
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Tag Rugby Club
18th October 2016Last half term, some of our Year 2 children took part in a Tag Rugby Club held at Bedford Modern School. It was a great success, the children loved taking part and were thrilled to be given their own BMS Rugby t-shirts
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Harvest Festival 2016
14th October 2016This morning was our Harvest Festival. The children sang and played percussion beautifully and one of our parents, Mr Davies, talked to the children about his job as a farmer and got some of the children to try out the work of a combine harvester, by threshing some wheat. Thank [...]
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Autumn Artwork
7th October 2016F2 have embraced autumn this week! They have been looking at the seasons in topic work and have explored lots of autumn themed activities, such as leaf matching and looking closely at autumn leaves, conkers and branches. They have used twigs in maths to show taller and shorter and to [...]
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Antarctic Science Fun
29th September 2016Last week Year 2 and KS2 carried out a fascinating experiment with Mrs Woodham to see how animals stay warm in the Antarctic. The children took turns to put their hands in 2 plastic bags - 1 empty and 1 containing lard - and plunged them into icy water to [...]
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An Autumn Stroll
28th September 2016Look who's been out for a walk this morning! Mrs Testa and Miss Ford took Acorns class out for a stroll in the Polam buggy earlier to make the most of the Autumn sunshine
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Time To Say Goodbye...
12th July 2016The last week of term was rounded off with a special assembly for our leavers. This was a sad yet also happy occasion. We are sad to say goodbye but proud that we have helped prepare our children for the next step in their educational adventure. We celebrated success across [...]
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Summer Production 2016 - the Magic of Space
7th July 2016On Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon the children put on yet another spectacular production for family and friends. They rounded of their Space topic by performing as planets, aliens, stars and humans in The Magic of Space. As well as wonderful acting, singing and dancing there were some solo musical [...]
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Father's Day PE in Nursery
23rd June 2016On Wednesday this week, lots of our Acorns and Saplings class dads joined us for a fun morning of PE activities. There was also a brilliant space-themed photoshoot so the dads could pretend they were astronauts! Many thanks to all the dads who came along and thank you to Mrs [...]
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Year 2/KS2 Residential Trip
17th June 2016Year 2 and KS2 all had a brilliant time on their residential trip this week. They were very lucky to avoid any rain but they still came home muddy and tired. That's what happens when you don't go to sleep until very late and wake up at 4am!
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Sports Day 2016
10th June 2016What a beautiful afternoon we had for Sports Day on Wednesday! After the thunderstorms the night before the field dried out just in time for all our races. There were sprints, hurdles, sack races, egg & spoon, animal & bucket along with ball throwing, long distance, obstacle and distance races, [...]
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The Great Gappo visits Nursery
7th June 2016Today, whilst Years 1-4 were on their trip, the PPA booked a special treat for Nursery. The Great Gappo came to school and performed a brilliant show for the children in Acorns, Saplings and F1. Mrs Pollard and some of children took turns to be his assistant and after the show all the [...]
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F2 Class Assembly
20th May 2016Earlier this month F2 shared the work they have been doing on our topic, Space, in a special assembly. Well done F2!
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Year 1 Trip to Hill Rise Nature Reserve
13th May 2016The sun came out and Year 1 enjoyed a lovely morning at Hill Rise Nature Reserve yesterday. They saw lots of interesting things including a midwife toad, newts and tadpoles, snails, butterflies, bird boxes and wild flowers.
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St George's Day Cake Sale
22nd April 2016There was a huge array of delicious cakes on sale this morning at the PPA's St George's Day Cake Sale. The children all had great fun spending their money. Many thanks to all parents who baked or donated cakes for the sale and thanks again to the PPA for arranging [...]
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Queen's 90th Birthday Tea Party in Nursery
21st April 2016Today the children in Acorns and Saplings donned their handmade crowns and had a tea party on the lawn in celebration of the Queen's 90th birthday. On the menu were cucumber finger sandwiches, cakes, scones and strawberries - a picnic fit for a Queen! And of course there were balloons, bunting [...]
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New Trim Trail for the school playground thanks to our Parents Association
30th March 2016Thank you to our wonderful PPA! Today the trim trail installation was started and already it looks fantastic. The children can't wait to start climbing on it (in fact they have tried to already!) The surface is being installed on Friday so the children should be able to start playing on [...]
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Sport Relief 2016
18th March 2016On Friday Mrs Rawlinson arranged a brilliant Sponsored Keep Active event for Sport Relief, where children and staff had to keep moving for 30 minutes. Each class led a routine to music, and in between routines everyone marched on the spot to keep active. Angela and Paul in the kitchen [...]
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Spring Lambs
17th March 2016Last Thursday Mrs Reynolds arranged some very wriggly lambs to come in and visit. For such little animals they have a very loud bleat
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Visit from Cathie Sabin OBE, president of the Lawn Tennis Association
9th March 2016On 9th March we had a very special visit from Cathie Sabin OBE, the President of the Lawn Tennis Association. Cathie had a tour of the school courtesy of Ben and Luka, and then all our pupils who have tennis coaching had an opprtunity to ask Cathie lots of questions [...]
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House Pancake Challenge
8th March 2016Instead of eating pancakes, today the children have been flipping, throwing, passing and balancing pretend pancakes in our sporty House Pancake Challenge. There was a great spirit of competition throughout the morning and LOTS of cheering and shouting for their teammates. After a closely fought competition Hawks ended up being [...]
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Nursery Mother's Day celebrations
7th March 2016Today the Nursery children invited their mothers in for a morning of craft, signing, dancing - and there was even time for a photo shoot! A firm favourite with everyone was Disco Duck - a dance session led by Miss Higgins. It was all lots of fun and was followed [...]
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Mother's Day morning in F1
4th March 2016This morning the children in F1 put on a special event for their mothers. They sang and danced and even acted out a story. It was fabulous! This was followed by cake and drinks and a chance to chat to other mums, and everyone took home a primrose in a [...]
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World Book Day
3rd March 2016We had a very colourful World Book Day with the children and staff wearing some fabulous costumes. There was lots of book reading and sharing, and some of our Year 2 children went into the Nursery and F2 to read to the younger children. We hope everyone enjoys spending their [...]
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Year 1 Trip to Bedford Castle & Higgins Museum
2nd March 2016The children in Year 1 had a super morning today when they walked to Bedford Castle and then visited the Higgins Museum. They came back full of exciting facts which they shared with us during our World Book Day Assembly in the afternoon. What a busy day Year 1!
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Chinese New Year in F1
10th February 2016F1 celebrated Chinese New Year today. They had noodles for snack, made monkey masks (as it is the year of the monkey), red money wallets and even did some fabulous Chinese writing. What a busy day! Most of the children also fitted in a swim this afternoon too - what [...]
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Trip to Rockingham Castle
1st February 2016Year 1, Year 2 and Key Stage 2 have had a fantastic day exploring Rockingham Castle. We learnt all about living in a castle and the history of the castle. We even went in the dungeon but thankfully none of the children were left there!
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Anna serves up her final Christmas Dinner at Polam
14th December 2015Last week marked the end of an era as Anna served her final Christmas dinner at Polam and retired after 32 years loyal service as cook and dinner lady. Anna joined Polam School in 1983 and has catered for two generations of Polam children, as some current pupils have parents [...]
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Christmas Production raises the roof
9th December 20152015 saw yet another fabulous Christmas production from F2 & Years 1, 2, 3 & 4. With a dress rehearsal in front of an audience of Nursery children, an afternoon performance on 8th and an evening performance on 9th, the children did themselves proud with beautiful singing, excellent poetry reciting, [...]
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Polam celebrates Bedfordshire Day with Clangers!
30th November 2015This morning we celebrated the first official Bedfordshire Day by learning all about Bedford’s most famous food – the Bedfordshire Clanger. David Gunns from Gunns Bakery in Sandy, whose children used to attend Polam, visited the school and talked to the children in a special Bedfordshire Day assembly about the [...]
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Nursery children celebrate Diwali
11th November 2015This morning in the Nursery the children have been learning about Diwali. Mrs Patel told the children the story of Rama and why Hindus celebrate the Festival of Lights. She also dressed some of the children (and Miss Higgins!) in saris. The children have all made glittery divas and will [...]
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Poppy Appeal at Polam
5th November 2015Our Parents Association PPA have been busy selling poppies & other Royal British Legion merchandise in the playground after school this week, come rain or shine. Thank you to everyone who has given so generously.
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Harvest donations helping Bedford's needy
15th October 2015At our Harvest Assembly yesterday one of our parents, Mr Davies, came and talked to the children about farming and Mrs Villa talked to the children about where our food donations would be going. The children said prayers and sang hymns and then afterwards, at snack time, everyone got to [...]
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Taking learning outside the classroom and onto the train
14th October 2015On 12th and 14th October, the children in Foundation 1 and Years 1, 2, 3 & 4 all had an exciting trip out to Woburn Sands on possibly the smallest train in the world (only one carriage!). Everyone had great fun and it was brilliant for both staff and children [...]
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Tag Rugby fun at Bedford Modern School
9th October 2015Year 2 and KS2 boys and girls took part in a fun mini tag rugby tournament at Bedford Modern School. Mrs Rawlinson went along with them and thought everyone took part with enthusiasm and had a good time. We especially liked the t-shirts that were given to us at the [...]
