At junior break Cousteau watched the football game with interest. She said, it is a friendly game rather like when I go rafting with my friends!

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1 Cousteau the Puffin Visits St Anne s School Alderney Cousteau the puffin arrived at St Anne s School on Wednesday 1 st May Her adventure had begun...what would she learn on her travels, and who would she meet? St Anne s School in Alderney is a friendly school with 135 pupils aged between 4 and 16. It is located at the bottom of Braye Hill, within a few minutes walk of Braye Beach and about 5 minutes walk to the town s main street, Victoria Street. Cousteau arrived early and promptly joined a group of students who were playing on the slide in the playground. After the whistle was blown and all of the Primary School Children had lined up, Cousteau was formally introduced to the Year 6 class who had been learning all about the puffins of Burhou. Cousteau joined in with the lesson about planning the Year 6 Trip to Guernsey. The children were planning the activities that they would do in Guernsey and working out the cost of these activities. Cousteau was interested to learn about the places that the Year 6 students were planning to visit on their trip and the things that they would experience. Cousteau thought that after visiting Alderney, she would like to visit Guernsey too. At junior break Cousteau watched the football game with interest. She said, it is a friendly game rather like when I go rafting with my friends!

2 After break the children had an RE lesson about what happens at Christian funerals. It made Cousteau think about the wreck that had happened on the way back from Iceland when some of her friend perished in the storms. Cousteau was pleased that they all had the chance to learn about the different feelings that people might have at these times and how Christians are comforted by their belief in God. During PE the children went out onto the field and improved their skills at throwing and catching. It was quiet in school at lunchtime as all of the children and teachers go home for lunch. Cousteau decided to have a look at some of the work that the children had done about puffins. Cousteau rather liked the paintings and the information texts about the puffins.

3 In the afternoon the children were doing some persuasive writing. Others were improving their use of speech marks and some were improving their reading. During Guided Reading time the children were writing letters in role as a character from the book that they were reading. At 3.40 the children all went home. Cousteau began to think about the events of the day and how many new friends she had made. It did not stop her thinking about her old friends though. That night Cousteau went with Mrs Etheredge, the teacher, on a walk - to look her neighbours on Les Etacs commonly known as Gannet Rock and also to look across the water to the Island of Burhou her home!

4 On Thursday morning the Primary school joined together to have an assembly which was being lead by the Reception and Year 1 children. It was a fantastic show which included lots of singing, clearly spoken words and even some French! Afterwards there was great excitement as the Year 6 children prepared to go to the school garden. This has recently undergone a terrific makeover and is now called the Jubilee Garden. It is a natural space with a wide range of habitats. Year 6 were helping to tidy it up. Cousteau considered the possibility of this becoming her home.

5 The greenhouse was too warm, Cousteau preferred it outside... The flowers were pretty and the pond looked like a good place to bathe your feet but it tasted strange without any salt, declared Cousteau. Digging out the bunker looked like hard work. I tried to explain that I used my beak and my feet for digging out my burrow. The children insisted on using a spade and a bucket.

6 The newts and tadpoles were interesting, so were the seeds but they are not part of my diet! Planting the seeds was fun and so was looking for the fish in the pond After break the Year 6 children went to the library and shared their brochures about their favourite places on Alderney. These included Braye Beach, Saye Beach, The tunnel under Essex Castle, The Swingpark, The airport, The campsite, The Birdhide etc.

7 In English we looked at the newspaper articles about PIBs and what had happened to the birds on the South Coast of the UK. We also read about the guillemot which had been found in Alderney covered in PIBs. At lunchtime Cousteau was taken by the Year 4/5 teacher, Mrs Craig, to visit her home and meet the family. During the afternoon there was chance to meet Frodo the PSHE frog from Miss Howells class. After this the Year 6 children went to art with the secondary art teacher. They were working on a WW2 project creating propaganda posters. Cousteau was given the chance to learn some art skills.

8 After some reading of the class book, Once by Morris Gleitzman, the children went to their Year 6/7 maths groups. The group Cousteau joined was doing some work on perimeter. Cousteau preferred the questions about flying around islands but she understood that the questions about fences around the cows fields were easier to work out. At the end of the school day Cousteau helped Mrs Etheredge to put up a display on Our Journeys to school. These included landmarks and recording of direction. Cousteau related this to the journey from Iceland which she has recently completed in order to return to Burhou.

9 These are not my footprints! Do you know what my footprints would look like? That night Cousteau was taken to another favourite place on the island Arch Bay. Can you see the Alderney lighthouse in the background?

10 Friday morning the last day at St Anne s School! It was a non-school uniform day and Cousteau was guest of honour in the whole school assembly. During the science lesson the children were learning to understand how birds beaks had adapted depending on their food and their habitat. They were able to compare puffins, shags, guillemots, black-backed gulls and gannets as well as a whole range of other birds from around the world. The children showed their posters which were to stop the dumping of PIBs into the sea.

11 Cousteau was fascinated by the cake sale which was to raise money for the charity Help the Heroes. After the spelling test and times tables with decimals test, it was lunchtime. During the afternoon Cousteau enjoyed the chance to do music with Miss Howells. Then Ms Allen s English group took Cousteau to do some work on monologues. Cousteau had the opportunity to meet Hudsey Bear who has his own blog! Having had a great time at St Anne s, Cousteau knew it was time to move on. She said her goodbyes and left for pastures new. She takes with her the good wishes of all her friends from Alderney. We hope that the next school has as much fun with her as we did!