Hitcham's Blog

The day I floated over Framlingham

2026-04-24T12:21:00.000+01:00

We had a real treat in assembly today! As part of our literacy‑based curriculum, every class across the school has contributed a chapter to our very own school book, The Day I Floated Over Framlingham. We listened as each teacher proudly read their class’s chapter, and it was wonderful to see the excitement and joy on the children’s faces as they realised they had become authors themselves.

(PS - if anyone knows of anyone who could help us print an illustrated version - please get in touch - it would be so exciting for the children to see their work published).

Heart Stop Motion

2026-04-17T10:59:00.001+01:00

Whilst some were placing their hands on a heart, the remaining pupils in Year 5 and 6 put their photography and scientific skills to the test to create some stop motion videos showing the component parts of the heart as well as the crucial role it plays in our bodies.

The group were the first, with many more to come, to benefit from the use of our new school iPads purchased to help enhance our learning.

After taking countless photographs of their heart facts, Mr Snowden then compiled them into videos sped up to create the stop motion effect. Here are some of the finished videos.

Heart Dissection

2026-04-17T10:34:19.005+01:00

Today, Year 5 and Year 6 pupils took part in a lamb’s heart dissection as part of their science learning. This provided the children with a valuable hands-on opportunity to explore the structure and function of the heart. Before beginning, we discussed ethical considerations, emphasising respect for the animal and the importance of learning from real biological specimens.

The pupils identified key anatomical features and reviewed how the heart functions to pump blood around the body. During the dissection, appropriate PPE was worn at all times. The children carefully examined the internal structures, focusing on identifying the left and right sides of the heart by comparing the relative thickness of the ventricular walls. They successfully located the septum and were able to observe visceral fat on the surface of the heart, as well as identifying external features such as the aorta and the apex.

Overall, it was a fantastic and engaging learning experience that deepened our UKS2 pupils’ understanding of the circulatory system through practical, respectful, and scientifically meaningful investigation.

Year 5 and 6 swimming competition

2026-03-25T16:20:00.000+00:00

Yesterday Year 5 and 6 children took part in a swimming competition against seven other schools at Framlingham College. Two teams competed in the swimming gala with one team finishing 3^rd place. The children had lots of fun, swan brilliantly and should be very proud of themselves!

Year 5 and 6 Netball Tournament

2026-03-25T13:42:00.000+00:00

Last week Year 5 and 6 children took part in a netball tournament at Framlingham Prep School. All the children played brilliantly in all of their matches. Three teams represented our school with all teams placing towards the top of their group and one particular team finishing 2^nd. All the children showed great teamwork, sportsmanship and were proud to represent our school. Well done SRH children.

UKS2 Hockey Success

2026-03-24T08:24:00.002+00:00

Yesterday, SRH took a group of Year 5 and 6s to a hockey tournament in Harleston. Across the three teams they played a series of matches of Quick Sticks style hockey - 4 on a team with no goalkeepers on small pitches.

All three teams won the majority of their 8 matches played in their respective groups with one team winning all of their games. Having won their league, they then went on to play a final match which they drew to maintain their unbeaten status. The children showed great skill and determination in all of their matches.

As always, the children who participated were a credit to our school; playing the matches fairly, following the decisions of the referees and showing respect to their opponents regardless of the result. Well done to all those involved with another afternoon of sporting success for SRH students.

Thank you for the Music!

2026-03-20T16:58:00.005+00:00

Yesterday, our KS2 children took to the stage for the annual House Singing Competition.

This year’s theme was ABBA, and all houses performed “Thank You for the Music” and then they presented their own individual piece:

Bulstrode > Waterloo
Howard > Super Trouper
Hitcham > I Have a Dream / Medley version
Mills > Money, Money, Money

Each performance was filled with enthusiasm, energy, and pure delight.

We were incredibly impressed with the creativity and individuality each house brought to their performances. The children truly lifted the roof—and it was fantastic to see both pupils and staff savouring such a vibrant, joyful atmosphere.

We were joined by three judges who took on the unenviable task of selecting a winner. After much deliberation, Mills proudly lifted the House Singing trophy for 2026.

A huge thank you to all staff who supported the children with their performances and brought so much energy to the stage.

We are also grateful to Mrs Clare, Mrs Barclay, and Mr Lockyer from Thomas Mills for judging this exciting event.

At the end of the day, the children came together once more to perform “Thank You for the Music” for parents on the playground.

We have shared the audio recording of the contest with parents via a link through email from Arbor.

Online Safety

2026-02-05T17:55:00.000+00:00

Safer Internet Day (SID) is next week but as we all know, every day is a time to be vigilant about online safety and how to stay safe. In school we are having two weeks of activities about to how to stay safe online and the use of AI, linked to this year's national theme for SID 2026.

It started today with Michael Harman from Suffolk Police giving a very thorough and in depth online safety talk to the year 5 and year 6 pupils. There was a lot of information about the expectation of how to behave online; the use of social media; strategies to use to help stay safe and a discussion about AI. It was an excellent talk and the children gained a lot from it.

Sadly, the parent online safety session was only attended by 2 parents however, a lot of information was shared with them and we hope they found it useful.

Thank you to Michael for coming to talk at the school and sharing invaluable and useful information.

SRH House Swimming Gala

2026-02-04T21:26:00.003+00:00

This year’s House Swimming Gala was held at Framlingham College on Wednesday, with the whole of Years 5 and 6 attending.

This year, we introduced width races to support children who were new to swimming, ensuring everyone could take part with confidence. It was a fantastic morning, with pupils showing incredible resilience and determination throughout — staff were immensely proud of them all. A new format took a little longer to organise but it was fantastic to see so many children able to access the races.

Every race contributed points, and ultimately Hitcham were victorious, lifting the house cup.

A huge well done and thank you to all the children, to Framlingham College for the use of their wonderful facilities and excellent tuition, and to the staff and parents for their support.

Year 5 Engineers: Cuboid Drawing on Isometric Dots.

2026-01-20T15:25:00.005+00:00

Today in Class AL, Year 5 used multi-blocks to build cuboids before practising technical drawing on isometric dot paper. Using rulers, we carefully constructed accurate cuboids and calculated their volume.

Wonderful World of Music!

2026-01-09T11:41:00.000+00:00

We all enjoyed a fabulous concert yesterday courtesy of County Music Service (CMS).

A huge thank you to the four talented instrumental teachers who inspired, entertained and informed us about woodwind, brass and percussion instruments.

It was fantastic, thank you County Music for this opportunity.

Friday enrichment afternoon - Eco awareness group

2025-12-10T11:51:00.001+00:00

The Eco awareness group have been busy finding out about different areas of sustainability including energy, food, saving water, biodiversity, renewable and non-renewable energy and how to reduce, reuse and recycle. This group finished this cycle by choosing to make either a board game linked to these topics or they could chose to make a sustainable Christmas decoration using sustainable materials.

In addition to this, the whole school helped make history by attending a special assembly from Union Glacier, Antarctica last Friday about sustainability. Robert Swan brought children from all around the world to learn why this is a special place and why we all need to help protect it.

Stars shine out in the church

2025-12-09T14:38:00.004+00:00

Every class contributed to the wonderful display of stars in the church. We all enjoyed making one and they look stunning.... do check them out when you visit the church to see our beautiful tree that our eco club decorated too.

KS2 Cross Country Success

2025-12-09T12:21:00.001+00:00

Yesterday, twenty-four KS2 children attending a cross country event at Hartismere having qualified at a previous event.

The children all exemplified our school value of perseverance as they ran a considerable distance and challenged themselves to keep going despite the terrain and weather conditions.

Of the twenty-four children competing, SRH had 15 children finish within the top 10, six within the top 5 with three placing in the top 3; one first place and two second place finishes. This shows the incredible effort put in by all amongst some tough competition from other schools.

The positive way the children approached their individual events, their determination during and the way they supported and celebrated each other was a credit to the school.

Year 5 and 6 Tag Rugby Competition

2025-11-27T14:51:00.003+00:00

Year 5 and 6 boys and girls played in a tag rugby competition at Thomas Mills High School. Both teams showed great teamwork, determination, and sportsmanship. The children played brilliantly in their matches with one team playing in the final and the other team winning many of their games too. Well done to all those SRH children who took part!

Children in need sale

2025-11-18T14:47:00.008+00:00

School council and Eco council did an amazing job with the toy and book sale in aid of Children in Need. We were grateful for the toys, books, jigsaws, boxed games, dressing up toys and soft toys which we received.

Thank you to everyone for your donations and for those of you bought toys and made donations to a very well worth cause. We raised £259.72.

Enrichment Afternoons - Robin Wood

2025-11-14T19:23:00.002+00:00

The weather didn’t stop us, we just brought the Robin Wood (Forest School's) outdoor activities indoors.

Using natural materials the Key Stage 2 children on this half term's rota for Robin Wood made a collage of Pudsey for Children in Need.

Wow...what a performance!

2025-11-07T12:45:00.001+00:00

We were given a wonderful treat by our musicians from all year groups in our music assembly. The children from across the school performed solos and in groups and it was so lovely to see some of the older children playing their instruments so eloquently and seeing how much progress they have made whilst they have been learning their instruments. Many children have continued with music lessons following the class music lessons and are playing their instruments fluently.

We listened to recorders, clarinet, piano, guitar, boom-wackers and violins. We also heard some lovely singing from the year 5 and 6 choir under the direction of Mrs Johnson; the year 4 who are off to Snape to sing soon, and some duets and solos from other KS2 children.

It truly was so wonderful to see the confidence shown and shared by all the performers.

Cross Country

2025-11-05T13:55:00.002+00:00

Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 children took part in cross country at Brandeston Prep School. The distance varied for each year group and 92 children represented our school. We are very proud of all the children who took part for their achievements. We also had many children who came in the top five and will be running at the County finals. Well done to all of our SRH children! It was lots of fun!

FRIDAY ENRICHMENT - BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE

2025-10-21T16:45:00.003+01:00

Our first round of Enrichment modules on Friday afternoons have finished so all the children in KS2 have experienced 6 weeks of sessions on either Philosophy, Drama, Our Schools Our World (Ec0), First Aid, Robin Wood (Forest Schools) or British Sign Language.

Every 6 weeks the children will rotate to their next Enrichment module.

Mrs Cann has been teaching BSL to her group.

The children learnt why BSL is important and the effective rules of communicating such as saying the words clearly and using expression.

They have learnt the BSL alphabet, how to greet each other including asking for their name, family members, how to ask how someone is feeling and respond, the days of the week, how to count to 20, the colours, some animals and some food.

It is fantastic just how much the children have learnt in just 6 weeks! Mrs. Cann was very impressed. The challenge will be to remember it….

Year 6 at Crucial Crew

2025-10-21T15:59:00.003+01:00

Today Year 6 attended an educational event run by Suffolk Coastal Crucial Crew.

The children were given information, advice, practical skills and simulated experiences for how to remain safe in a variety of different aspects of every day life as well as how to ensure the safety of others and wildlife.

We were treated to talks about:

Fire Safety

Drug and Alcohol Awareness
Water Safety
Online Safety
Electrical Safety
First Aid
Safety and the Environment
Consent and Boundaries

The children were given a step by step guide to aiding someone suffering from cardiac arrest and were able to test out the DRS ABC method on some volunteer mannequins as well as a simulated rescue by the fire brigade from a burning house.

Kindness Champions!

2025-10-20T16:31:00.002+01:00

Class SB has been on a mission — to complete 100 Random Acts of Kindness as part of our ‘Hitcham’s Hundreds’ Challenge. But in true superstar fashion, the children didn’t just meet their goal… they smashed it, completing over 300 acts of kindness in a single day!

From writing heartfelt thank-you notes to teachers, TAs, office staff and classmates, to offering compliments, holding doors, helping others, and simply wishing people a lovely day — the class spread smiles and positivity throughout the whole school.

It was wonderful to see how small acts of kindness can make such a big difference. The children loved every moment of brightening someone’s day — and we couldn’t be prouder of their caring hearts and community spirit!

Thank you to everyone who has sponsored the children, we are so incredibly grateful!

FRIDAY ENRICHMENT - Our Schools, Our World

2025-10-17T17:50:00.001+01:00

As our first wave of our enrichment afternoons draws to end this afternoon, the “Our Schools, Our World” sessions have explored many aspects of sustainability within the community, environment and on a larger scale across the world and climate change.

Today the children have created some fantastic board games to show their understanding and have included some great ideas such as “You left a shower on. Miss a go”; “You have reused a t-shirt to make a bag. Move forward 2 spaces” etc all linked to energy, water, biodiversity, renewable sources, reduce, recycle and reuse.

It was great to see the ideas that the children shared about the positives and the negatives that they have learnt and been applied to their board games.

Harvest assemblies

2025-10-10T16:34:00.000+01:00

We celebrated our harvest festival at St Michaels' s Church. Every class contributed by sharing either a poem, a song or facts about the Waveney food bank. Many of the classes focused particularly on sharing - a message which Reverend Chris reinforced in his blessing. Our donations were being shared with local families through the Waveney Food Bank. Matthew shared some interesting facts and information about the charity at both Key Stage services. The worship team shared prayers about Harvest. Nursery and Reception children held their special assembly at school.

The worship team helped load up the van with not only our school donations but also the donations from the service at St Michael's Church last Sunday.

Thank you to everyone for the donations and we know that there will be families in our local community who will be benefiting from all of these donations.

Thank you also to the parents who kindly offered to help walk the children to and from the church and those that came to join in the harvest celebrations at the church.

Camp Day 3

2025-10-01T15:53:00.006+01:00

Camp Day 3

The children are having a fantastic time as they continue with their activities. This morning began with a beautiful, misty view around the cabins, adding a touch of magic to the day.