Our refreshed OPAL provision is already making a fantastic difference. It’s so lovely to see children fully engaged in play, working creatively together and developing teamwork through open‑ended activities.

Year 4 have been enjoying their Ukelele lessons.

These lessons give all children the opportunity to experience learning a musical instrument. Through these lessons, pupils will develop key musical skills such as keeping a steady beat, following rhythm patterns and working together as an ensemble. They have also shown great perseverance as they practised new techniques and grew in confidence. We believe it is important that every child has the chance to learn an instrument, helping to build creativity, resilience and a love of music. It has been wonderful to see the children’s enthusiasm and pride in their progress. We look forward to sharing more of their musical journey as the year continues.

Year 4 have been enjoying their first swimming sessions of the summer term.

During these lessons, they practise a range of strokes while building confidence in the water. The children are already excited to see their progress each week as they develop and master new
techniques. Swimming is a vital life skill, particularly for children growing up near
the beach, and it has been wonderful to see everyone engaging so positively.

Hedgehogs class have been out in the village as conveyance officers.

This is part of their transport topic this term. They have also been learning about tally charts
as a means of recording. The most common mode of transport seen were cars,
although they also saw bikes, buses, vans and even some motorbikes! Thank you so
much to all our helpers!

Our Key Stage One children thoroughly enjoyed a drama workshop led by Perform last week.

Through acting out the story and characters of Peter Pan, the children explored different roles,
emotions and motivations. They also reflected on the qualities of the characters and discussed how these link to and demonstrate our school values. It was a joyful, creative experience that
supported both learning and personal development

We’ve had a fantastic time celebrating British Science Week with a full timetable of exciting science activities taking place across the school all week long!

This year’s theme focusses on curiosity — encouraging children to ask questions, wonder why things happen, and think about how scientists explore and make sense of the world around them. Across the school, pupils have enjoyed a wide range of investigations including making ice cream, testing static electricity, exploring shadows, investigating buoyancy and experimenting with magnetism. Classrooms have been full of brilliant ideas, thoughtful questions, and
exciting discoveries from our young scientists! British Science Week has been the perfect opportunity to spark imagination, celebrate scientific thinking, and inspire children to look a little closer at the world around them. Well done to everyone for their enthusiasm and fantastic scientific curiosity throughout the week!

Year 2 have made an exciting start to their new topic, Safari Salama (Safe Travels).

They discovered a mysterious spaceship crash‐landed in the school grounds! This was a fantastic way to
introduce the story Beegu. The children are using this to support them with their writing and have
asked some intriguing questions for the alien!

Year 6 had an action‐packed outdoor enrichment day as they stepped into the icy boots of Shackleton’s Antarctic explorers! 

The children threw themselves into every challenge—building makeshift shelters, whipping up their own ‘sledging biscuits,’ brewing zingy ginger tea and joining
forces to haul a very heavy boat across the field. They even created their own expedition songs to keep everyone’s spirits soaring. A brilliant day of teamwork, adventure and imagination!

Well done to everyone who entered our Christmas reading challenge! 

We were thrilled to see so many children take part in the hallenge, with countless
entries and a fantastic range of activities completed at home. It’s wonderful to see such
enthusiasm for reading! Big congratulations to our winners Gogo and Clementine – well done!

Year 5 will be attending Roedean Junior academy for the next few weeks. So far the children have been challenged to create the tallest possible tower from spaghetti, tape, string and marshmallows (as pictured). They have also learnt about witch trials, what the world would be like if there were no rules and played lots of fun and exciting games.

Forest school this term was linked to our SOS topic currently focusing on the Great Fire of London. We sang around the fire, London’s Burning before becoming fire fighters! We split into teams and had to work out the most efficient way of getting the water across the playground, from the ‘river’ to the ‘fire’. We also created our own mini houses out of wood and straw to mimic the style of property that was around in 1666. 

We also had a visit to school this week from the RNLI. The children learnt all about water safety including identifying hazards, what to do if you get into trouble in water and how to float to stay safe.

Year 4 had an exciting Roman-themed Forest School Day, taking part in a range of activities to prepare for life as Roman soldiers and charioteers. The children created colourful mosaics, crafted their own shields, and took part in a Roman battle using real Roman formations. They also experienced the thrill of chariot racing, designing and running their own courses outdoors. The focus of the day was outdoor teamwork, creativity, and working together to build and navigate a challenging race track.

The girls started the afternoon with a nice warm up before launching into our first match. Unfortunately, we lost this one 2-0 but this didn’t dampen our spirits! We drew our second match, the third saw us take a win and our final match was a very close, 1-0 loss. We are especially proud of Isabella - who was awarded one of the players of the tournament - she even got a medal!

Written by Tori-Mae

We all really enjoyed ourselves and everyone tried their best. By half time we were rocking a 4-0 win thanks to Camilla, who was a resounding success as our top goal scorer. Big shout outs to Isabella who also managed to hit the back of net! The match finished with an overall score of 6-1 to us. It was an eye opening experience playing against St John the Baptist school and we are already looking forward to our next match.

Boys Match

We played really well and despite tough competition, managed to score a goal scored by Rex C to secure us a draw for half time. Fidel came back strong after a quick refreshment and managed to put us in the lead with a 2-1 score. This was short lived, however, as the opposing team managed to end the match with an overall victory of 3-2. We are so proud of the sportsmanship that we showed during the match and were delighted to represent St Margaret's.

Report by Fidel

As part of our space topic, we went on a school trip to Herstmonceux Science Centre. When we were there, we got to experience some hands on science - our favourite parts of this was the moving chair, the vacuum ball and the paint spalt. We also got to enjoy the light centre where there were lots of activities to do with light, dark and shadows. The absolute highlight was getting to see the GIANT telescope in one of the domes. When the roof was opened, it was even more impressive!

Written by Tori-Mae 

Year 4 brought history to life this week with an immersive lesson on the Celtic queen, Boudica! To truly get into character, the children dressed up as warriors and painted their faces, looking ready to take on the Romans. The inspiration didn't stop there; in their Music lesson, they channelled their creativity to write and perform fantastic original songs all about Boudica's famous rebellion.

We’re delighted to share that Sorenna (Y4) has won the Save Rottingdean Library Campaign Poster Competition! Her creative and thoughtful design stood out among many wonderful entries and will be used to help raise awareness of the importance of keeping our local library open.

Libraries are more than just buildings filled with books—they are vibrant community hubs that support learning, imagination, and connection. We are incredibly proud to have taken part in this campaign and to see our children engaging with such an important cause.

Well done, Sorenna, and thank you to everyone who participated!