Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School's P.T.A Presents..................

    Happy's Circus

Thursday 9th October - Doors open 5:30pm - Show Starts 6pm

Tickets £6 per person

Venue - School field

If you would like to read more about Happy's Circus click here

Calling all Lads and Dads!

As part of the school’s Literacy initiative to increase boys’ reading skills, Mrs Weston and Mr Martin are setting up a ‘Lads and Dads’ book group.

We are looking for willing male volunteers who are fathers / relatives / friends of  boys in Years 4-6. The pairs of ‘Lads and Dads’ will each be given a copy of Anthony Horowitz’s ‘ Stormbreaker’ (a fabulous spy novel) to independently read between now and December. All you have to do is be willing to meet once in December to tell us what you thought of the book (and be prepared to sit and watch the film version!)

If you are interested, please complete the slip on this weeks "News and Views" and return it to the school office by Monday 6^th October. (If you are a willing adult but don’t have a partner or a willing pupil but don’t have a partner, please still fill in the form and we will pair you up with somebody.)

Year 5 + 6 football tournament

Mr Martin and I would like to say a big congratulations to the Darlinghurst football team who participated in the Chalkwell tournament on Thursday, boys you did us proud!

I know some of you will think that was not the case, but remember a team is built over time, NO team can have 1 training session and expect to be Manchester Untited!!!!

What was evident as the tournament went on was that you got better and better, we have some great talent so keep working hard lads because success WILL come !!!

BIG thanks also to all the parents who came along and supported, you were very vocal and I know the team appreciated that. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - Mr Lloyd


I would also like to add a well done to the football team, seeing that four of the children were from my class. I know that Mr Lloyd and Mr Martin have been working hard with the football club and it is great to see the children's enthusiasm. I can also see that Mr Lloyd has been searching the internet for a Chinese proverb to accompany his blog entry !!

So after reporting about two topics that are close to my heart, reading and football, what else has been happening at Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School this week?

Mrs Johnston

Reception - RW and RM have had a great week learning the phonemes s, a, t, i and p and have been searching for these phonemes in our classroom and in our words in our reading books! We have started blending theses phonemes to create very simple words such as at, as, is, it, sat etc. We have also all started handwriting this week and have cut out the graphemes (letters) in our names from magazines and newspapers. We even had our photograph taken for the Evening Echo! What a busy week! We are looking forward to next week when we have our European day of languages on Tuesday (- we will be learning more French) and Friday, which is not only Jeans for Genes non school uniform day but also, the harvest festival assembly.

1/2D - Mrs Dutton - We  have  had  a  lovely  week  with  our  story  this  week,  Peace  at  Last  by  Jill  Murphy.  We  have  thought  about  the  sounds  that  kept  Daddy  Bear  awake,  written  about  things  that  keep  us  awake  and  acted  out  the  story  using  sound  effects.  For  our  number activities  we  have  been  finding  out  how  to  use  a  number  line  to  count  on  and  add  two  or  three  numbers  together.

1/2B - Mrs Barrington -

3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - We are continuing with our topic on Romans. This week we have been looking at slaves and what they had to do. The children were amazed to find out that they had to wash them in oil!

3/2B - Miss Bernard -

4P - Mrs Peacher - This week Class 4P have been creating a Harvest alphabet for the Harvest Festival assembly next Friday. Parents of children from 4P are welcome to attend, more details to follow next week. We have also created some work for our 'Green' display. The children were given the brief to design something which will encourage children to be 'green'. Some class members decided to write a poem, some created information posters and others used the cameras to take photos of themselves helping the environment, to put into a book. 

4B - Miss Bolton - 4B have had a week of challenging work. In Literacy we have been newspaper reporters and begun writing an article about a 1940s family who have lost their home in the Blitz. We have found it difficult to write in a newspaper style so we we work on this further next week.

Auf Wiedersehen!

5B - Mr Bird - This week provided us with the opportunity to recreate a Victorian schoolroom to support the research and discussions that have cedntred on this facet of history. The children really entered into the spirit of what school life would have been like for them at the time. There were those amongst them that thought they would like school to still be like it was then !

Everyone is thoroughly enjoying the Bodycare programme and there is just a small degree of healthy competition arising between the two year 5 classes. Currently the results are equal so the pressure is on to take the lead next week.

Please read the newsletter entry relating to the Isle of Wight trip as it would be a great shame if we were unable to go ahead with this terrific opportunity. In the event that you have any doubts, that you wish to discuss before making a final decision, then please speak to me by Wednesday.

5D - Mr Duff - Multiplication has been the order of the week and you did very well with the methods showed, well done !! We did our final build up to the Victorian recount including a superb piece of drama on Wednesday. Our reading at home is coming on nicely, it does need to be kept up but I am confident that it will. Remember to try and look for subordiate clauses and adverbs whilst reading, house points are there to be won. Well done to gold table for winning this week, it was very close.

"Dinner with Mr Duff" was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed having lunch with you. I look forward to the next time. Maybe we can book this next week? I will also get a handful of children to add their comments on what they think of the new school dinners on to the blog. Let me know if you would like to do this.

Anyway, have a good weekend. Don't forgot your biography time line, you can read your more about it on the homework zone.

6H - Mr Hautler - 6H have worked hard this week. We have been research the various types of farming and its history. We are currently studying bread and its importance in cultures around the world. This is linking into our science (mircobes) and DT (cooking). We will be looking at the properties of yeast next week. Congratulations to those who have made it through the x-country selection and well done to those who haved trained but did not make the team. You have all worked hard.

I totally forgot to say hello to our new parents last week!! I can only apologise and say welcome to Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School !! Hopefully you have had a good look around the website and any questions you have, don't be afraid to ask.

Calling all Morrisons shoppers!! Calling all Morrisons shoppers!!

If you shop at Morrisons, could you please take advantage of their voucher scheme which is running from the 15th September until 6th November. Every £10 you spend they give you one voucher and seeing that food prices are on the up and up, spending £10 seems to be very easy nowadays!!

Anyway, Mrs Johnston is very interested in obtaining some equipment which could be used in our school garden or the school alloment. So if you get any vouchers could you send them in with your children please.

If you would like to read more about this scheme please click here.

Right, what has been happening at Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School?

RM - Mrs McIntosh - We've had another week of settling in and getting to know each other! The children are getting on really well and new friendships are being formed already.

I have started finding out where the children are with their learning and will use this information to help them to progress as much as possible over the coming weeks. Any input of reading, recognising numbers, colours and shapes would be really appreciated.

Letters have gone home to inform you of a quick meeting Mrs Weston and I are holding on Monday at 8.45am, regarding reading and phonics in Reception. I do hope that you will be able to come. 

Have a great weekend!  Mrs M

RW - Mrs Weston - RW have worked really hard this week creating a picture of their families, singing new songs in our music lessons, reading our books to a range of adults and even starting French! We have also worked on number recognition and have started looking at phonemes (sounds) at the beginning of words. Next week, we are starting our Jolly phonics programme and look forward to seeing lots of parents at our phonics workshop on Monday at 8.45.

 

1/2B - Mrs Barrington - Once again another busy week for the class of 1/2B.  We have been discussing remembering in preparation for Remembrance Day.  In numeracy we have been learning about teen numbers and tens and units.  The children have had good fun learning and talking about how important it is to have a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle.  Not mentioning any names but a few children told me that their dad's just lay on the sofa watching telly!  This l found very funny.   Let's hope the weather stays good for the weekend and those dads can have a lovely long walk.

 

3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - We have really settled into our topic on Romans this week. The children have been finding out about Roman soldiersand have even got themselves in formation. We also looked at a map to locate Rome and to find out how much of Europe was part of the Empire.

In numeracy we have worked on place value again and counting in 10s, 100s and 1000s.

Torches were the order of the day for Science, we investigated how shadows were formed.

 

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hi everybody!

 

I can not believe another week has gone by,it has gone so quickly. We have had lots of fun this week learning about Queen Boudicca and her fight against The Romans. The children enjoyed it when they had a visit from Queen Boudicca herself (Me). They asked her lots of great questions revealing just how much they had learned. They then went on to interview a few other Queen Boudicca's and Roman soldiers (the children) around the classroom.

We have also had fun investigating shadows, and we are looking forward to doing much more next week. I am also very pleased with way that the children have approached Place Value again this week. They have really improved their understanding.

Next week we are doing addition and subtraction in Numeracy and in Literacy and History we are going to be focussing on slavery during the Roman times.

Children, could you continue to bring in shells, stones and beads for your special mosaics that you are making please? - Thanks, Miss Bernard

 

4B - Miss Bolton - The holidays seem far away now as 4B have really settled into work and routines now nicely.

This week we have been looking at the Blitz and watched a great video showing actual footage from 1941 of the devastation caused during that time.

In Literacy we have been learning how newspaper articles are written. We are going to link this with History next week when the children of 4B will get to be WWII reporters!

The weather held out nicely and we've also been outside this week learning some good old fashioned games to help us play at break times.

If you don't know already, our website has a homework zone and I'm updating it weekly with the homework for that week. Just click on homework zone on the homepage and follow the link to year 4 and class 4B.

Thank you to all the parents who are supporting their children with reading and spelling practice at home already. It makes a huge difference.

 

4P - Mrs Peacher - Class 4P have been learning about writing newspaper reports this week. The children have looked at the features of newspaper reports and have written their own headlines. In maths we have been practicing multiplying and dividing and all of the children haver really grasped the concepts involved, well done all! In science we have been finding out which materials conduct electricity. The children carried out an experiment on Tuesday with Mrs Johnston and will explain to you their findings. Remember kids, electricity is dangerous so don't play with it at home!

 

5D - Mr Duff - After this week you are all subtraction and division super stars, which I am very pleased with. The planning of our recount is coming on nicely, please remember the elements needed as this will make up our success criteria next week.

 

We have found out that school life in The Victorian times wasn't that nice and that life in 5D isn't that bad after all !! We all know about verbs and adverbs, which makes up part of our homework. Plus we have moved onto our 8 times tables and are looking to read as much as possible at home next week.

 

I hope to see many of the parents at the drop in session on Wednesday - for more information see the this weeks "News and Views". Have a great weekend !!

 

5B - Mr Bird - Monday provided a perfect opportunity for the children to view an airship as it flew over the school but the questions that followed from them tended to suggest that they thought I might have been around when the original Zeppelins flew!

We have continued with our Victorian topic and used some role play to recreate a schoolroom of the time. This was received enthusiastically and some even said they would like their school to be more like it. The resulting discussion helped them to realise that it would not be such a good idea.

There is no doubt that the Bodycare programme currently being undertaken by the class is popular and your encouragement and support for the children to take part in physical activities outside of school is appreciated.

Please remember there is a drop in session next Wednesday after school should you wish to speak.   

 

6H - Mr Hautler - This week has been as busy as the last.We ahev spent another sweat week learning about chocolate production which has been very interseting. In Food Technology we got to coat various types of fruit with milk, dark and mailky bar chocolate. They were aboslutely fantastic. This week we have been learning how to round whole numbers and decimals. It was a little tricky to start off with but we all got it in the end! we are enjoying our weekly rugby lessons with Joel and there was no blood shed this week! Below are some photos of our chocolate covered fruit.

 

    

 

    

 

 

 Mrs Johnson - Bonjour tout le monde!

I have been so impressed with how quickly and enthusiastically you are learning French. 

 

This is what you have all been learning this week.

Reception - Bonjour, Au revoir, numbers 1 - 5 and a rhyme about sweets.

Y 1/2 - Bonjour song, numbers 1-5, a rhyme about sweets and a French game.

Y 2/3 - Bonjour song and finding out where France is.

Y4 Bonjour song and animal words.

Y5 - Greetings and telling the time.

Y6 - Greetings and words for clothes.

 

HOMEWORK

YEAR 6 - BRING IN A PICTURE OF A MAN AND WOMAN OR BOY AND GIRL TO STICK IN YOUR FRENCH BOOKS AND LABEL THE CLOTHING.

YEAR 4 - BRING IN A PICTURE OF YOUR PETS.

So it's the first full week back for the children and the second full week back for staff !!

I am sure they was plenty of kicking and screaming and things like "I don't want to go back to school" being said but after getting back into the routine, the teachers soon settled back down

As for the children, well they have been fantastic. Enthusiastic, eager and ready to learn !!

I took the assembly this week and the children looked great in their school uniform and big smiles.

A good sign of things to come !!

So what has been happening at Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School School this week?

 RM - Mrs McIntosh - Welcome to Reception! We have had a great start to the term - the children have been very brave and sensible coming in in the mornings and we've had no tears! Every morning we start the day with 10 minutes of exercises - this includes breathing, stretching, clapping & stamping. I think they have really enjoyed this!

 RW - Mrs Weston - RW have had a fabulous week this week. We have all painted self portraits, had our photographs taken for a class display, started our Activate excercises DVD, had a great P.E lesson and some of us even attended our first music lesson. We have all shared our new reading books with Mrs Weston, Ms Thomson or Miss Porter, and must remember to keep sharing them with the adults at home.

 2/1B - Mrs Barrington - Welcome back to a new school year and class 1/2B.  Where has the time gone?  We have made a very positive start to the new school year.  As a class we read, The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr.  the children are now all hoping that a tiger comes to their house for tea.  In our numeracy we have been counting in 10's  and we are very good.  A big thank you for ensuring your child has their PE clothes in school and their reading books with them each day.  This has been much appreciated.

 2/1D - Mrs Dutton - What a super week we have had. We have been thinking about estimating and careful counting and thinking about foods that give us energy and foods that keep us healthy. We have been reading The Tiger Who Came To Tea and we have written our own invitations to our friends. Well Done everyone.

 3/2CG - Mrs Chatterton - The children seem to be well and truly settled into 3/2CG. This week we have started to focus on our topic on Romans. The children have found out why they came to Britain (remember parents to ask them) and to plot them on a timeline.

This week in maths we have been looking at place value. We have played some fun games to help with reinforcement.

Mrs Johnston has taught  her first French lesson to the class this week, that includes Mrs Chatterton!!!

Reading has taken off well as all three of us love reading and hope top reflect this through the children.

George and Sasha's Great Grandad and Devlin's Dad came in to listen to readers. Thanks.

 

 3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hi everybody!

 

It's been our first full week back since the summer holidays, and as usual, it does not take long for it to seem like we've never been away. Of course, it has been easier for us in 3/2B because, besides the our four new lovely additions we all know each other very well. We have settled quickly into our new classroom environment and we are really getting into our topic, The Romans. It's great because I have not taught the Yr3 topics before so it's all very exciting for me too.

 

We have been looking at Roman mosaics and we are going to design our own, but we are not using tiles.I have asked the children to collect small shells, pebbles and pretty beads to produce a mosaic effect on clay tiles, which they are going to make decorated boxes out of. I can wait to see the effects, I'm sure they are going to be amazing.

 

We have also been working on place value in Numeracy, which is a very important concept. If the children do not understand the value of each digit in a number, then they will not be able carry out other basic activities accurately in maths such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In Literacy we looked at the differences between fiction and non-fiction using books about The Romans, which the children are very good at.

 

This week we are learning some more about the Romans invasion of Britain and in Numeracy we are doing lots of estimating and counting. In Science we are continuing to investigate Light and Shadow and in French we are going to be continuing with learning greetings and looking at where France is located in Europe. Have a fun weekend!  Remember to practise your spellings! - Miss Bernard

 

 4B - Miss Bolton - Teachers get just as nervous about starting the new school year as the children, wondering what their new classes will be like. I'm pleased to say I am really enjoying this new bunch - so far! They have all made such a good start to year 4. Mrs Jones, their LSA from last year, can't believe how well some have settled and how grown up they have become already.

Improving reading levels and enjoyment is a school focus this year and we already have plenty of ideas on fun things to do with reading already for this term. Reading at home with an adult is still a vital element and just 10mins a day can make significant improvements. From next week I will be checking reading diaries regularly, so please remember to sign them everytime you hear your child read - remember, this can be other books as well as your child's school book.

We have an open door policy here, so feel free to make an appointment to pop in and see how your child is getting on in year 4 anytime - I look forward to meeting and working with all of you this year.

 

 4P - Mrs Peacher - I hope you all enjoyed the summer holiday, which now feels like a lifetime ago. Class 4P are back with a bang this week as we have been learning about our new topics, electric circuits and life during WW2. I have asked the children to think of some questions that they would like to ask someone who lived through WW2 and we are hoping to get some grandparents in to ask them about their wartime experiences. We have also created some beautiful autumn leaves paintings for a display. Also a big well done to the whole class as everyone had their PE kit this week. Please keep it up!

 

 5B - Mr Bird - Our first full week in class has provided everyone with the opportunity to meet new challenges and really get settled into a sound routine for the months ahead.

The children have responded well to their various class responsibilities and seem to be taking a pride in making their room a happy and tidy environment in which to work.

I, together with Mrs Amran, have really enjoyed welcoming the children back and with the launch of the Victorian project, know that the opportunity for using drama is something they will thrive on.

Finally, the children have been busy creating some art work which will be displayed in local shops. This is an exciting new venture which will do much to demonstrate our link with the local community.     

 

 5D - Mr Duff - What a start!! I could not have asked for more from all children. Well done!! Your reading at home has been great. The reseach on The Victorians that you have completed was superb and your column addition skills were fantastic. This is not to mention the adjective and alliteration work you did and also the constructive discussions about building a musical instrument!!

 

I said that I would add the two website links that we used during lessons on this weeks blog, so here they are. Click here for the alliteration link and click here for the Victorian link.

 

Don't forget your homework this week. It's in your diary but you can also access it on the homework zone. Any problems, please let either myself or Mrs Evans know.

 

Have a great weekend and see you all Monday

 

 6M - Mr Martin - This week we have had a fantastic time investigating the history and production of chocolate! We've also followed traditional recipies for fondants and designed our own confectionaries ready to cook next week. Next friday we are intending to visit Leigh Library and we are actively encouraging every child to join. These visits, it is hoped will be frequent.

 

    

 

 6H - Mr Hautler - Wow!!!!!  That week certainly went quick. 6H have got stuck into work this week from ordering decimal number through to exploring the production and history of chocolate. Our Year 6 X-country team has been selected and they are practicing daily in preperation for the two up and coming competitions in October. In science we have being looking at Microbes which included designing an investigation to see what the optimum conditions are for food to de-compose. Things could get a little smelly. Next week we have an action packed week including cooking and experimenting with chocolate.