Hitcham's Blog

End of SATs Celebrations

2026-05-14T14:23:50.506+01:00

Today marked the final day of SATs week for Year 6, and we could not be prouder of the children. Throughout the week, they have shown incredible perseverance, resilience and determination, approaching each challenge with maturity and positivity. They should all feel extremely proud of themselves for the effort and commitment they have shown.

To celebrate the end of the week, we had hoped to spend some time together on the field enjoying the sunshine. However, the British weather had other plans! Instead, the children enjoyed a well-deserved celebration in class with cake and time to relax together after all their hard work.

We would also like to say a huge thank you to one of our wonderful parents, who very kindly baked some beautiful cakes for us to enjoy. This was such a thoughtful and generous gesture was greatly appreciated by both the children and staff, and it made the celebrations even more special.

Well done, Year 6 — we are immensely proud of every single one of you!

Year 6- Replies from MP

2026-04-27T08:11:00.004+01:00

Earlier this year, Year 6 were able to visit the Houses of Parliament for a full tour. We stood in the House of Commons, observed proceedings in the House of Lords, and learned about how laws are made.

Before the trip, the children wrote letters to our MP, Patrick Spencer, sharing their thoughts on the SPaG paper that Year 6 pupils across the country will be sitting this May. He has since replied to the children individually.

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.

London Trip

2026-03-02T08:58:00.001+00:00

A full-on day travelling into London and visiting the Natural History Museum and then off to the Houses of Parliament for a tour.

A great (& tiring) day for all!

Year 6 London Trip

2026-02-27T13:16:00.003+00:00

Year 6 have arrived in London and are having a fantastic time in the Natural History Museum!

London Trip for Year 6

2026-02-27T10:39:00.002+00:00

In preparation for their trip to London and the Houses of Parliament today, the children drafted formal letters to their MP outlining their views on the Year 6 SATs papers.

They will be delivering these letters during their visit to Parliament today in the hope that their voices might contribute to future discussions about the role of SATs within the curriculum.

As part of their preparation, we researched a range of statistics and evidence to help them construct well-informed, balanced arguments to support their viewpoints.

Electricity

2026-02-05T10:29:00.004+00:00

Over this half term, Year 6 have been learning about electricity. As part of this, we explored voltage, which is the force that pushes electricity through a circuit and can affect how components, such as bulbs, work.

The children carried out an investigation to find out whether increasing the voltage increases the brightness of a single bulb. This involved identifying the independent, dependent and controlled variables, creating a hypothesis, constructing a conclusion after the results had been recorded and then carefully evaluating the effectiveness of the experiment.

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.

Refraction in Action

2025-12-11T08:17:00.002+00:00

Today in Year 6, we explored the science of refraction and how white light can be separated into its different colours. Using prisms, pupils directed beams of white light and produced small rainbows—this showed us how light bends and splits as it passes through a new medium. We learned how this process, called refraction, happens because light changes speed when it moves from one material to another. We discussed how light bends towards the normal when it slows down, just like the way a straw looks bent or distorted in a glass of water.

To build on this, we recreated Newton’s colour wheels and tested whether spinning a coloured disc fast enough would make the colours blend back into white light. The class loved seeing science in action and discovering that white light really is a mixture of all the colours of the spectrum.

A brilliant afternoon!

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!

Snapshot in VW

2025-11-14T10:51:00.006+00:00

This week, the children in VW have been busy!

Linked to our class text Lizzie and Belle, they explored descriptive language to capture the tense moment a chandelier fell and injured Lizzie’s father, Ignatius, focusing on the calm before and the drama after the fall.

In maths, they’ve been adding and subtracting fractions and progressing to mixed numbers. For History, they researched influential figures including Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Windrush generation, organising their findings in chronological order. We used the library for this.

In RE, the class learned about the Qur’an and how Muslims recite it in Arabic. They looked at the opening section of the Qur'an, Al-Fatiha, and tried memorising short sections for 10 seconds at a time- quite an interesting challenge! They reflected on what it might feel like to share Allah’s message with the world.

Recital at St Michael's Church

2025-11-12T18:59:00.006+00:00

On Wednesday afternoon the Woolf Quartet treated Year 6 to music by Haydn, Beethoven and Florence Price. The four amazingly talented musicians met at the Royal Academy of Music.

We met the musicians afterwards to thank them for the wonderful concert.

Our Year 6 cellists and violinists had their photo taken with their cellist and violinists respectively. We explained we don’t have any viola players yet as bigger hands are needed to play this larger instrument!

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!

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.

Taskmaster in MS

2025-10-20T16:18:00.001+01:00

For our Hitcham's Hundreds, Class MS attempted to complete 100 Taskmaster Tasks in one day. Set by Mr Snowden in the role of The Taskmaster, the tasks tested us in a variety of different ways; challenging our drawing, writing, physical, balance and problem solving skills. Some of them were completed over several hours whereas others only gave us a short time to think before having to come up with an answer.

Tasks completed today included:

Task 8: Without removing your pen from the paper, draw the most ambitious animal. Most recognisable ambitious animal wins.

Task 18: Make the most realistic person out of clothes not being worn. You may not appear yourself. You have 6 minutes.

Task 28: Choose a person in your group. Make the longest line of things that start with the same letter as that person’s name. You have 4 minutes.

Task 36: Make the tallest book tower. If your tower falls, you will fail the task. Tallest freestanding book tower wins.

Task 69: Cut out the best snowflake using a single sheet of paper. Best snowflake wins.

Task 70: Repair the piece of paper used to make your snowflake. You have 2 minutes. Most complete repair wins.

Task 86: Retell ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ using only noises. You must not act or say any words. You have 4 minutes.

Mr Snowden also set us a task to be completed at home:

Task 76: Do a random act of kindness for someone at home.

You must do it this evening and provide evidence of the act tomorrow morning.

Although we did not quite manage all of the tasks today, we are hoping to complete the remaining few over the next few days to earn our sponsorship money.

Here is a selection of photos completing some of the tasks above as well as a few others:

Final Night at Camp

2025-10-03T08:23:00.008+01:00

As the last evening at camp drew in, Year 6 made the most of their time together with a nightline adventure, campfires, and a special celebration to mark an action-packed week. We are so proud of the children — they have challenged themselves, supported each other, and embraced every activity with enthusiasm.

Our heartfelt thanks go to the CYM staff and volunteers, whose expertise and warmth have given the children such valuable experiences.

An extra special thank you must also go to our own staff, who have generously given up time with their families to be here — their dedication has made this unforgettable week possible.

We know the children (and parents!) are eagerly awaiting Friday’s reunion.

Please keep an eye on ParentMail for collection details.

Y6 Camp - Archery

2025-10-02T14:03:00.004+01:00

It's a bow-tiful day for some archery and the red team either hit or miss, they are always on point!

(Please excuse Mrs Brown's archery related puns!)

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.

Y6 Camp - Low Ropes

2025-09-30T16:37:00.001+01:00

Red group have been active on the low ropes today at camp.

Y6 Camp – Day 2

2025-09-30T16:32:00.007+01:00

Today has been another busy and exciting day for Year 6! The children continued their rotation of activities and tucked into a filling lunch.

In the afternoon, they had their Clue session, where Major Squirrel came to visit. He spoke to the children about the importance of patience, sharing the story of a family who set up a shop and had to wait two months to receive their very first customer. He explained the ripple effect of this patience and encouraged the children to think about how we can show patience in our own lives—through good manners, respect, and waiting for the right moment.

We also talked about perseverance, which often requires an extra measure of patience!

Water fight!

2025-09-30T13:43:00.006+01:00

The Year 6 children at camp have had a soggy start with a water challenge, although everyone got very wet!