Mellis Church of England Primary School - 'To Be Our Best'

Back in November 2014, the Church's Standards and Exellence Officer asked the School if it would like to participate in a Christmas art project on the theme of St Nicholas.

The School's contribution - a 'tryptych' (or three panel picture) on St Nicholas of Myra has been displayed at both Bury St Edmunds Cathedral and Mellis Church over the Christmas period!

The School recently hosted Tina from Jaya Dance, who came to teach the whole school about the fabulous Bollywood dancing from India. There were lessons around the school on different aspects of this fascinating country.

The school recently had it's Palmm Sunday service at Mellis Church. There was a re-enactment of Jesus' entry into Jersualem, and some wonderful music courtesy of the choir and instrumentalists.

As part of the school's efforts to promote French, our French coordinator Miss Millie Corke organised a French Big Breakfast for KS2! Ably supported by TAs, Governors and French A-level students from the high school, KS2 tucked into croissants, pains au chocolat and other goodies, with backdrops and music alll giving it a suitably Gallic style!

KS2 recently travelled to the London O2 Arena to sing along with 7000 other children in a fantastic evening of stars and music! A fantastic atmosphere for all concerned!

Mellis pupils recently competed in Football and Netball tournaments, coming in 3rd out of 27 teams for football, and taking 1st place at netball!

Children in Need Day saw pupils and staff bringing in teddies, digging around for a handful of coppers, and baking fabulous cakes for charity. All told - over £325.00 raised! Well done all!

he 11th November saw Mellis school taking its traditional two minutes silence. The school was also ably represented at the village centenary commemoration at the village hall by its Head Boy and Head Girl.

We saw the very best of British democracy in action today, when the candiates for Head Boy and Head Girl delivered some very high quality speeches in front of their electorate. Voting then took place; the results to be announced shortly!

The Year 6s recently went to Knettishall Heath for an end of year BBQ and bike riding excursion! We had a fab meal in the sunshine, and then went hacking off into the woods for games of '40-40' and Pooh Sticks!

The Year 1/2 and 3/4 teams competed with great professonalism during the County finals in gymnastics. Against some stiff competition, the Year 3/4s placed a creditable 5th, whilst the Year 1/2s placed 2nd and are therefore off to the regional finals!

A combination of parent and teacher power saw a fab time had by all at the annual Summer Social!

For the first time, Mellis pupils, parents and teachers camped out on the school field! Not sure that a good night's sleep was had by all, but the bacon butties in the morning were historic!

The Music Department of Mellis School - Mrs Luckett, Mrs Scates and our Peripatetic Brass instructor Mrs Ryan did a wonderful job of organising a superb evening of music from the pupils of Mellis school. Well done all!

The whole school has worked on a series of art pieces for the ordination of Mellis' curate. All art has been themed around the idea of being called to service . . . figures were taken from the Bible who were called to service by God, and each class developed their pieces from there. Mary and Jesus figures, collages of Moses parting the Red Sea, Joseph's Coat of Many Colours, Jonah and the Whale, the Disciples, Noah's Art, and Moses and the Ark of the Covenant were all represented!

The Year 5 and 6s went on a tour of the capital on Monday 9th June. They visited the Globe Theatre to tie in with playscript work, and took in the abstract art of the Tate Modern. We even managed to produce our own perforance art in the Main Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern!We also had lunch in the Quad of King's College London, and finished off with dinner at Pizza Express overlooking the Thames! A fab day for all concerned!

As part of the school's week long commemoration of the centenary of the Great War, the whole school took part in a range of activities to learn about the First World War. There was much dressing up in period costume, and we were lucky enough to have a range of original artefacts (brought in by Mr and Mrs Medwell) for the children to handle. See class pages for more pictures, and do look around the school to see poetry, pictures and models!

On Tuesday Owls Class invited their Parents to a sharing assembly. They are learning about Castles and during the assembly they re-enacted the story of Zog, read pieces of their fantastic writing and shared their own prayers.

The whole school devoted itself to World Book day on Thursday, covering a range of classic texts in a variety of ways, from cooking to translating classic children's books into French!

Starling and Owl class (Reception and Year 1) have had a wonderful day at Banham Zoo. Both classes have been learning about animals that  live  in hot and cold climates.

The Year 6s had a special Aztec Day to 'capstone' their history studies on the topic. In the course of the day, they studied and made models of Aztec Macuahuitl (sword-clubs); Chimillas (Aztec shields); Aztec Death Masks; and Chinampas (Aztec floating fields). We finished up by sampling Aztec style hot chocolate (generally considered smashing!) and Aztec style porridge with chilli . . . perhaps not so smashing!

The school had its special Epiphany service, officiated by Rev. Julia Lall. The school heard about the journey of the Three Kings, and enacted a traditional Epiphany procession around the school!

As the final gathering of the school in 2013, pupils and staff took part in singing carols around the Christmas tree - this year in our own woods!

The school gathered at Mellis Church for the annual Carol Service on Thursday night. With carols, readings, poetry, choir, orchestra, it was a truly wonderful occasion. Well done to all concerned, and a big thank you to our vicar Rev. Julia Lall.

An annual tradition at Mellis CEVC Primary - the despatching of Christmas letter to Father Christmas via the time-honoured method of Firemail!

As part of a pilot project to link Mellis and Wortham Primary Schools via their respective Learning Platforms, twelve Wortham children were hosted by Merlin Class(Year 6) at Mellis, and twelve Mellis children spent an afternoon at Wortham. All children spent the afternoon getting to know each other, and working on Christmas themed art. The whole experience was a very positive one, with lots of excellent suggestions from the children on how we can develop this partnership further!

Issy de Burnay, one of our Year 6 pupils, has recently undertaken the major challenge of swimming the equivalent of the English Channel for the charity Aspire, which assists those affected by spinal injury. With a combination of online donations and sponsorship in school, she has raised over £400.00! Well done Issy. 

To find out more, please click on this link.

As Mellis' response to the disaster in the Phillipines, parents, staff and pupils all joined together (at short notice!) to form a coffee and cake afternoon! Year 5 and 6 pupils waited on, mums, dads, grandads and grandmas, came for a chat and a cake, and a very pleasant time was had by all! Afterwards, the remaining cakes were sold off, and by 3.45 we had raised over £300 toward shelter kits for those rendered homeless by the typhoon!

A long awaited addition to the school's already impressive facilities was formally unveiled with an inaugural ribbon cutting and song! All thanks to all those who have worked so hard and contributed so much to this fantastic resource!

The children and staff supported this national event in a variety of ways, from dressing in pyjamas to running various sponsorship events. Pictured is the annual 'Penny for Pudsey' event, which raised over £50.00 alone!

It is a long established annual tradition for Mellis school to pick a theme for the whole school to pursue. This year the theme was 'Exploration', with each class taking a different slant on this idea. From space to the deep seas, from the woodland habitat to the centre of the Earth, Mellis children wrote, researched and built a fantastic presentation to parents. See left for the classrooms, ready for visitors to the exhibition!

The school hosted nearly 130 children from the three local pyramids in the finals of the Inter-Pyramid Cross Country. Perfect conditions and a terrific effort from all concerned made for a fabulous competitive afternoon! The Mellis contingent can be seen left!

As part of their Local History Topic of the U.S.A.A.F. in East Anglia during the Second World War, the Year 6s visited the 100th Bomb Group museum at Thorpe Abbotts. They then went on to Hardwick Warbirds where they saw genuine, flyable P-51 Mustang, and they also had the the chance to dress up in original WW2 uniforms and flying kit!

Last year, Mellis introduced the position of Head Boy and Head Girl. There was a strong field of candidates for the posts this year, and a series of well articulated speeches were heard by the whole school. Voting then took place, and we are pleased to announce that Mr William Bates and Miss Shamiso O'Mard have been duly elected. Well done to all concerned!

During the summer break, Mellis added two new rooms - our new music room, and our new library!

Many thanks to all those who made these fantastic facilities possible!