Bring a Dad to School Day !!

Today saw our annual Bring a Dad to School Day. There were lots of activities going on in classrooms ranging from playing board games to trying to get a hard boiled egg into a milk bottle!! Lots of energy was seen in the playground and that was just from the Dads!! In fact one of the Dads said to me if only we could bottle the energy seen and use it and from what I saw we could have used the energy to power the school for a whole term!!

So a huge thank you for your enthusiasm and we will see you again next year!!

Football match against St.Michaels

Here is Matthew and Ben (6H) with the football news. On Wednesday the school football team had a match againts St.Michaels. We played well but lost 5-0. Remember the school team hasn't played a game for a very long time so the team was a bit rusty. That's it for the football.


"Head"lines from Mr Knight -  NEW To The BLOG

Nursery - We have all painted a picture which is going to be stuck into our special book, we paint one every term so that we can so how good at painting we are. We had a new fishing game this week, we were much better at it than the grown ups in our room!!!

RM - Mrs Collinson - The children have had a great week and have really demonstrated what superstars they all are at exploring new ideas.  The dads and uncles had great fun too today!!  Thankyou.

 

Here's what they have said about the things they have enjoyed this week:

 

Laura said 'I enjoyed looking at and drawing exotic fruit and 

                 tasting the delicious mango.'

 

Tyler said 'I put sunflower seeds in the pots and watered

               them.'

 

Holly said 'I enjoyed making flowers for our new Garden

                Centre.  My flower is pink and blue and costs

                10 pence.'

 

James said 'I liked the smell of the pineapple, it smells

                  yummy and tastes nice.'

 

So you can truly see what lovely experiences the children and grown ups have had!  Looking forward to next week when we start exploring plants. Have a great weekend.

 

RW - Mrs Weston - RW have had a very enjoyable week continuing with our 'Growing' topic. We have looked at various seeds in packets and in a range of fruits, did some maths with seeds (number bonds to 10), implemented pastel observational drawings of fruit in a bowl, weaved our own fruit bowls and printed fruit inside (based on the story 'Handa's Surprise'), drew and labelled fruit in the ICT suite and looked at and tasted exotic fruit (mango). A great big thank you to all the dads who came to school on Friday morning - the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and couldn''t wait to tell me what they had done. Alex 'loved it when daddy did junk modelling' with him and Jayde said " I liked it when daddy drew a bus."  If any dads want to come in and visit or help at any other stage, Mrs Weston would be more than happy to have them and the children would be thrilled!  

 

2/1D - Mrs Dutton - We have had another week of reading  poems, thinking about why we like them and looking for rhymes, alliteration and repetition. We have started to investigate the conditions which make cress seeds grow best and we will find out if our ideas are true next week. In Numeracy, some of us have been thinking about our times tables while the rest have been using number lines to subtract.  We have also been thinking about the story of Easter. 

 

2/1B - Mrs Barrington - Class 1/2B have continued their work on poems.  They are now real experts at noticing rhyming words, repeating patterns and alliteration.  Well done!   In numeracy some of the children have moved on to multiplication and now know their two's five's and ten's times tables. 

We have also covered the Easter story which is suitably portrayed in a cartoon version video, appropriate for younger children.  We shall be continuing with Easter next week and you never know may even get some chocolate.

 

3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - In science this week we played "Who wants to be a Millionaire" a quiz all about teeth. Some of us didn't get very much money but we had fun playing. We also looked at the teeth we left in milk, water, orange juice and coke. We had only left them in there for a week and the one in the orange juice was all white where the acid had rotted the enamel but the one in the coke was all brown and disgusting. Yuk!

 

We have also been writing an adventure story in literacy. Our stories take place in lots of different place. Mine is in at the park and a p[olice station and Devlin's is in a haunted pyramid.

 

On Bring a Dad to School Day we made some paintings, finished our Anglo-Saxon houses and made them a village to live in as well as making biscuits and an Anglo-Saxon shield.

 

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

 

We have had a very busy week in our class. The children have been trying very hard, in numeracy to tell the time using 5 minute intervals. Most children are getting the hang of it, we are trying to remember to practise as much as possible so that we don't forget. Here are some comments from children about activities they have enjoyed in class this week:

 

" I really enjoyed learning how to tell the time in Numeracy because we learned about telling the time by counting in 5's. Not just the hour and half hour"- Josh

 

" I liked our role plays that we did that helped us to plan writing our adventure stories. We used pictures to help us think about settings, characters and objects in our stories"- Phoebe

 

"I like our adventure stories that we are writing.We have to try and make them exciting by thinking about things like, what is going to happen next?"- Alish

 

"I have liked putting our Anglo Saxon books together, it's fun learning about the Anglo Saxons"- Thomas

 

" I have enjoyed writing our Easter stories because I am learning more about Jesus"- Mikayla

 

"I like my animal project.Did you know that goats are really popular because they make goats milk, cheese and meat?"- Hannah

 

" I have enjoyed learning about teeth and how they grow."- Bethany

 

Thanks for your contributions children, I so glad that you are enjoying your learning so much.

 

Have a lovely weekend - Miss Bernard

 

4B - Miss Bolton - The best thing about this week has been a mad day of paper mache. The children have designed a mini chair for a celebrity or friend. We then cut out the foam basis and covered it in layers of sticky newspaper. By the end of the afternoon, more glue was on fingers than on chairs! However, lots of fun was had and the chairs are starting to look good.

This week has also seen our annual Bring a Dad to School Day. Its such great fun but us teachers have a tough time controlling the mischievious additions to the class!!

We will be counting at the end of Friday how many aluminium cans we have collected this week for recycling and working out how much energy has been saved. Please keep them coming in. The children are really getting into the spirit of recycling and looking after our planet.

 

4J - Mrs Johnston - A big thank you to all the 'dads' who visited 4J today - I'm sure 17 must be some sort of record!  What a creative lot you are.  Thank you for sharing your skills with us.  I hope you had fun, we all did and we didn't set the school on fire with the egg in the milk bottle trick, despite Mr Duff's worries!

Thank you too, to the mums who came in to help with our art session this week, helping decorate our chairs and making the clearing up vanish!  I really do appreciate all your help and support.

 

 5D - Mr Duff - Busy week yet again!! Lots going on and lots to fit in. I was really pleased and amazed on how quickly you picked up finding fractions of a number. Show your parents this weekend, they will be amazed too!! The persuasive writing is coming on nicely and next week we will be writing our final piece. Also the workshop with Andy Rotherham on Thursday morning was super and you gave me some great feedback as well.

 

Well done to Cian, Jack and Ethan for representing Darlinghurst and 5D at the Westcliff High School for Girls Science Fair. I have yet to speak to you about this as it was on Friday afternoon but I am looking forward to hearing all about it.

 

Mrs Amran told me that there was a fantastic photo of 5D in the Evening Echo on Thursday. It was linked to our Animation Day with Belfairs but I am yet to see it. So if you have a copy at home, please bring it in on Monday so I can have a look please !!

 

Remember it is Earth Hour on Saturday night between 8:30pm and 9:30pm - Please switch off !! Well done to Lauryn for making a superb Earth Hour poster at home - it looks fabulous !

 

Lastly, Friday was all about the Dads! Can I say a big thank you to all that came in, it was great to see you. I will leave this week's entry to the blog with the children's comments about this day. Have a great weekend !

 

It was really fun - Callum

I loved playing Monoploy - Rhion

Monopoly took ages ! - Ed

I liked spending time with my step-dad - Shabnam

It was excellent - Zhana

 

5B - Mr Bird - This week provided children with the opportunity to participate in some different activities which served to stimulate  very useful group cooperation. The first of these was the meeting and briefing of the two groups who are going to be involved with a number of very different learning situations the week they return after the holiday. Several children have now got to that 'I can't wait' stage, as I am sure you will know. Lively discussions took place about what unusual activities would challenge them, both at Darlinghurst and the Isle of Wight.   

 

Following on from this, 5B and 5D had an excellent chance to work together on a variety of team building tasks presented by Mr Andy Rotherham. When I asked the children what they thought of the session they were very positive and, I am pleased to say, identified a key factor to group success - listening skills!

 

The week ended with three  5B children, together with others from the school, representing us at a science event held at Westcliff High School. Unfortunately their fourth team member was unable to attend as he had fractured his ankle, we all wish him a speedy recovery. The team enjoyed the experience and I think it would be fair to say, they demonstrated an inovative and truly scientific approach to their investigation. This was yet another great example of what can be achieved by team work. 

 

Still on the theme of teams, I know that most of you will be aware that a member of our class team will be leaving us at the end of this term after 19 years. Mrs Day has been working with this class since September 2007 and during that time has given excellent support to all the children and invaluable assistance to me.  Clearly she will be missed and  we all hope that she enjoys her retirement. Typically she has ensured that Mrs Jones, who will be moving into 5B, has been given everything she needs for a smooth transition.

 

Finally we were pleased to see some of the children's Dads, Granddads and uncles who were able to attend and participate in the construction of a team game challenge on 'Bring a Dad to School Day'. This activity was enjoyed by all and the children were able to ensure that the adults didn't get too many chances to cheat.

 

6M - Mr Martin - This week, in 6M, we have been doing some pre-SATS tests and the positive thing is we have all improved in our scores, which is fantastic!! We have also been designing rain collectors to catch rain, which will also help us water our plants organically. We were researching about tomato products to sell on our school stall (these tomatoes will be organically on our school allotment). Bring a Dad to School Day was fantastic even though we only had 4 dads. The dads all participated in everyday school activities like spellings, tables and P.E. - Jamie and Haleema

 

6H - Mr Hautler - Hi dudes and duddets this is Dan and Elouize this week. It was  a crazy week as we had lots of tests and when we say tests, WE MEAN TESTS!! The football match was great !! The footballers tried very hard even though they lost 5-0 to St Micheals!!! Year 6 made up some games, BAMBOOZEL, Around the world maths, poorest millionaire and battle of the sex's. The whole of year 6 thanks you for reading this. Bye !!!!!!!!! See you again soon..... 

I would like to say a huge thank you to Belfairs High School for coming in this week and working with a large group of our children to produce some excellent animations.

Mrs Andrews, Chris, Lizzie and Josh turned up at 8:30am and didn't leave until 4:00pm and worked all their breaks including lunch!! It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, which the children loved. I know for a fact that I was very tied after a full, hands on day, so I guessing that the children were as well.

Here are some of the children's comments from the day:

I thought it was clever the way we took the pictures and put them onto the laptop - Chloe

It was fun – Michael

 Tesco vouchers !!

Sainsbury vouchers !!

 Flora vouchers (they are back) !!!

We are collecting all the above vouchers, so if you have some please send them in with your children. The more the merrier

 Orienteering

Westcliff High School for Girls came in this week and did an orienteering activity with a group of Year 3,4, 5 and 6's. They learnt the basics of how to use a compass and read a map, whilst running ! Not an easy task. However I am pleased to report that all the children that took part came back safety and not only that were full of excitement. They are looking forward to the competition that will be held at Darlinghurst next month. More details to come at a later date......

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

Nursery - The Nursery have been busy this week making Mother's Day cards. We made butterflies by painting one side of the paper and then we folded the paper in half to create a mirror print. We then mounted them on to coloured paper. We wrote our names under 'Happy Mother's Day Love from' and stuck them inside our cards. We took them home on Friday with our daffodils.

RW - Mrs Weston - RW have continued with their 'Growing ' theme this week by looking at how animals grow. We have talked about the names of baby animals, drawn and voted on our favourite baby animal (which we plotted onto a class block graph), cut out and stuck and matched baby animals with their mothers, looked at and sequenced the life cycles of frogs and butterflies, sequenced numbers along a caterpillar and shared a range of fiction and non-fiction books. We wish all the mums a lovely Mothers' day! 

RM - Mrs Collison - Hi everyone,

Another hectic and productive week has been happening in Class RM! This week, to continue our topic of growing, we have been thinking about animals and their babies.  I have discovered that there may well be some future scientists in our class, as many of the children have been investigating life cycles of frogs and butterflies. Not only that, but we may also have some fantastic future mathematicians, as all of the children have been exploring symmetry!!

1/2B - Mrs Barrington - Class 1/2B are getting so clever, they can now count in 5's, 10's and 2's.  In addition to this they have been learning about rhyming words and poems.  We had great excitement looking for frogspawn at the pond area and even more when we discovered some.  The children really understand the life cycle of a frog and scored 100% on the interactive leapfrog website.

Our big success though has to be the Mother's Day poems.  The children came up with many interesting words relating to their mummies and worked really hard at finding words to rhyme with them.  Interesting was the amount of children that associated their mummy with wine!  Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the spring weather,its finally here.

 

3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - The children have all finished their recounts from the trip. We are now looking at adventure stories. Oxford Reading tree have a number of these that are very useful.

In Numeracy we have been working hard on the 3 times table and now we are working on fractions at various levels.

In Science Mrs Grant has been busy setting up an experiment on teeth, they have been placed in milk, orange juice and coke to see what happens!

In ICT the children wrote time connective sentences on word and changed the colour of the time connective. We are trying to make the children's keyboard skills faster.

 

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

 

This week the children have been working really hard, I'm so pleased with the effort they have made in all that they have done. I am so lucky to have such an enthusiastic class.

 

Here are some of the children's comments

 

"I liked working on our Anglo Saxon villages because it helped us to work as a team"- Scarlett

"We did very well on our times tables/division test. All of us had improved on out results from last week"- Brendan

"We made beautiful Mothers Day cards with butterflies on them"- Aaliyah

"I enjoyed writing our "Bring a Dad to School Day" letters"- Natasha.

 

Thank you so much for your contributions children - Miss Bernard

 

4J - Mrs Johnson - We have been looking at explanations in literacy this week and found that they crop up everywhere! Ask your child to spot the explanation words in this blog! I post the homework on the homework zone just in case the children forget to take their homework books home.  I have been very pleased with the class because when the fire alarm went off on Wednesday they left the classroom sensibly and quietly.  We collected frog spawn from the pond so that we can see the tadpoles develop. We received some postcards from Mrs Peacher and looked at the atlases in order to find out where she has been on her travels.  Thank you to the mums who came to help with the papier-mâché.  As a result we got more done than we would have otherwise.  I am looking forward to next week when we will be having even more fun!

 

4B - Miss Bolton - I worked out that this is the first week in the last 2 months that we've had a 'normal' week in 4B. That is to say, no special days, charity days, themed weeks, visitors etc. Its actually been quite nice.

In Literacy we have been learning how to write explanation text. Its not easy trying to tell the class that writing is not good just because it has full stops and capital letters in. We put a lot of focus on the 5 different types of non-fiction writing and what makes each one good. Each one has different features. Hopefully, it will sink in fully by the end of year 4.

In Numeracy, we have been tackling the scary topic of fractions! They're doing ok and we'll carry on next week. Any help at home with this, putting fraction in a real life context ie; with time, measures, would be appreciated.

 

We are also doing a lot of work at the moment on the environment and recycling. To encourage the children to get into this more, we are recycling lots in class. We have decided to collect and recycle aluminium cans. So if you have any at home, bring them in and we can start to see the real benefits of the amounts we could recycle instead of throw away.

 

5D - Mr Duff - We have been carrying on with our persuasive writing and looking at an introductory paragraphs. We had quite a lot of input on this and I think we are there. Next week we are looking at the next couple of paragraphs about supporting our arguement with evidence. In maths we are all angled out and will be moving on from this topic next week.

 

Animation day!! On Thursday we were lucky enough to have Belfairs come in and spend the whole day with us. The children were fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed seeing how much work goes into making only a few seconds of animation. Thanks to Belfairs, Mr Andrews, Chris, Lizzie and Josh, and we looking forward to seeing you all again!!

 

Here are some more comments from the children about the day:

 

It was very clever how we did it – Ed

It was really fun how we draw the pictures and photographed them – Rhion

It was a fantastic – Jack

I enjoy it – Sarah

It was really fun – Callum

It was exciting – Cian

 

Spanish Club - this seems to be going well and the children were full of beans when they came back today - here is what they said:

 

I really enjoyed the game – Sarah + Chloe

I liked doing the colours and numbers – Zhana

 

Mothers day on Sunday - I won't say what we did as it will spoil the surprise. All I will say it was an idea that Mrs Evans came up with, and I think it was lovely. Enjoy your weekend !!

 

5B - Mr Bird - Environmental issues are still very much in the children's minds, as you will know from the questions they asked for there homework task relating to switching off electrical appliances. They are now preparing themselves for an in depth investigation to check the school's carbon footprint.

 

Tuesday marked the final cricket input from our outside agency with the promise that when they return in the summer the skills can be put into practise with games on the field. All the children thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and are now looking forward to hitting a few sixes!

 

Some of the children have been introduced to the sport of orienteering and the rest will have the opportunity of trying this new activity out over the next few weeks. This has fitted in really well with our current mathematics and geography work.

 

A small group from the class were able to join in for an animation experience on Thursday whilst the remainder carried out some real life angle work outside. Everyone seemed to have a great time. This continued when the class participated in a Science Fair during the afternoon and one team managed to secure a place on the forthcoming event at Westcliff High School.

 

There were also successes for two of the children in a recent art competition for Leigh so there were lots of congratulations being given out this week.

 

I hope that all of the Mums are given a very special day on Sunday and I know that your cards and flowers were very important to the children as I am sure they will be to you.

 

6H - Mr Haulter - This week year 6 have been learning about plants and how nature has designed them to disperse their seeds. There are four different ways; explosion, wind, animal fur and excretion. Also we have been naming different parts of the plant e.g stem, carpel, petal and sepal. We have been to the allotment to sow different seeds and see how they grow.

In topic we have been learning about the weather and how to predict it . We have been given a weather journal so we can predict the weather each day . Also we have been learning what types of weather there is .

In P.E we have been learning dance and movement with the theme of rain forest . We have been doing actions to different  music .

Peter and Emmeline

After a two week break the Darlinghust BLOG is back

Sorry for the break but as reported in the News and Views, The Duff family had a new arrival (Poppy) and I was on two weeks paternity leave.

It's a good job I came back to a quiet week though to let me get back into the the swing of things....not !!  With a visit by one of Her Majesty's Inspectors (HMI) from Ofsted on Wednesday, it was busy from the start but having had a full run down from the children on what's been going on in my absence it made my life a lot easier, so a big thank you to you guys.

If you would like to read how the visit went, please click here. In short in was very successful

Red Nose Day !!

What a great day !! Lots of dressing up, funny jokes and silly singing. Thank you very much for the donations, this money will go along way. Click here if you want to hear the Red Nose Day song !!

Cross country

On Wednesday we played host to a cross country between ourselves and three other schools. This was organised by the Essex Sports Competition Manager and she sent us a lovely message - click here to read it in this weeks News and Views. A huge well done to Mr Haulter for all your help and a massive well done to the children that took place !!

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

 Nursery - This week in the Nursery we have been thinking about where we go shopping. We made a pictogram to show where our Mummy and Daddy goes to buy our food. We have also been listening to animal sounds and guessed which animals made them.

 RW - Mrs Weston - RW have enjoyed a week of 'bear hunting' based on Michael Rosen's book, 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. This week we have made 3D maps and collages of the route taken by the family in the story, programmed and contolled 'Bee Bops' to followthe route, played the 'bear hunt' board game, watched the DVD version of the story and Michael Rosen perform his very animated version of the story on his website, read non-fiction and fiction books on bears, made a list of items that we would take on a bear hunt then cut out pictures of those items from magazines, used the repeating  vocabulary of 'over', 'under' and 'through' from the story applying this to our P.E lesson on small apparatus and went on two Bear Hunts of our own - re-enacting the story as we went, listing geographical features we saw and taking photographs! A great big thank you to the mums who accompanied us on our brook visit and helped the children with all their work on Wednesday.Well done children for working so hard. You have made it a very enjoyable week.

 RM - Mrs McIntosh - What fantastic detectives we have in class RM!  Some children managed to find a friendly bear, however some didn't....in fact one child thinks he saw his googly eyes under the bridge of the brook!!  Alongside bear hunts we have been looking for plastic bears in the sand and making moving brown bears.  Thinking of exotic climes we have been looking at and talking about our favourite holiday...it gave me some lovely ideas of where to travel to for my holidays in the summer. Thankyou children. Have a lovely weekend. 

 1/2B - Mrs Barrington - Our topic for this term is, All around us  We have been looking at photo's from the local area and trying to see if we can recognise the different places.  After that we looked at maps and map symbols.  The children had good fun playing Barnaby Bear's map symbol snap game during computer time.In numeracy we investigated 2D and 3D shapes.  This week we have been learning how to count on.  Soon we shall get round to making our puppets but we still need any odd pieces of material  and wooden spoons.  If you are able to help supply any of the above we would be most grateful.

 1/2D - Mrs Dutton - This week we have been  thinking about our local area, the buildings and places that are special to us and how we can improve our school.In Numeracy we have found out about symbols used on maps and we have been using number lines to count on and back for addition and subtraction number sentances. On Red Nose Day we were very surprised that a crocodile, a clown, a ghoul, some princesses and cat jioned the many red noses in our classroom. Thank you for the money you donated. Our class raised £17.95. Well done. 

 3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hi everybody!

We have had a great week, our trip to West Stow Anglo Saxon Village was very interesting and a great success. We are writing some interesting recounts at the moment and the children have also created their own Anglo Saxon villages.

 

Here are some of the children's comments:

 

"I like making my own village because we could make our own things for our own village"- Thomas

"I liked working as a team and the trip was good for giving us ideas for our villages"- Scarlett

"Visit to West Stow was good because we got to see how the different houses might have been"-Natasha

"Enjoyed learning about how the Anglo Saxons lived"- Aaliyah.

"Liked making houses for my village because it was like making a real one"- Peter

A few of weeks ago we wrote Anglo Saxon calligram poems and Alfie said that he "really enjoyed" writing his.

 

Some children from 3/2B also took part in a cross country fun run this week, Holly and Hannah said that they enjoyed this too.

 

Brendan said that he has had fun doing multiplication and division in Numeracy this week.

 

Thanks for you comments children.

 

Have a great weekend - Miss Bernard

 

 3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - I am sure you all heard about our trip to West Stow. the coach journey was long, but the children really enjoyed looking in the houses , the video and looking around the museum. They were able to use their knowledge from our work on The Anglo Saxons and their definitely learnt many new facts.

They have all written a recount of the trip, some are in great detail. They have also looked at an ordnance survey map of the area and we have been learning about symbols.

In Numeracy we have been working on division as the inverse of multiplication especially in terms of the 5x and 10x tables.

The topic for Science has now moved into teeth both in animals and humans.

The children and staff dressed up for Red Nose day. I think you may have noticed the staff looked more silly than the children!!!!

 

 4B - Miss Bolton - What a couple of weeks it's been! As myself and Mr Lloyd were absent for the last week of last half term, I finished off the International Food Week work by cooking an Italian feast for 25 children. It was all go for the morning but we managed to make pasta and tomato sauce, home made garlic bread and ice-cream for everyone in time for lunch. I've never had the class so quiet while their smily faces polished off big bowls of pasta!

This week, the majority of my class took part in the inter-school cross country tournament. While they were running round our field, myself and the 7 left went down to the Reception classes and helped out. Much fun was had - and my year 4's suddenly had a taste of how difficult being a teacher is!

 

 4J - Mrs Johnston -  It’s a bit hard to concentrate when your teacher is dressed in a red wig and waggles her eyebrows at you but you did well today, 4J. What a sight you all looked too!  Well done for making the effort to dress up and raise money for Comic Relief.

 

Congratulations 4J, what a fantastic exhibition you put on for the rest of the school last week,  giving them a chance to see your amazing projects on the Ancient Egyptians.  You had lots of compliments from staff and pupils.  You have set a high standard for your work for the rest of the year!  Thank you to all the families for supporting the children with their projects – I hope you all had fun and learned about the Ancient Egyptians too!

 

We have been busy thinking the environment, at home, school and our local area.  Don't be surprised if your children challenge you on green issues, although from what they have been saying you are doing a pretty good job.

 

The children have been designing chairs for a character of their choice.  Next week we start the making process.  We need lots of newspaper and assorted items for their creativity to run riot!  If you have any spare time on Friday morning from 9.30 onwards and you don’t mind getting messy, we would love some extra help.  We have one offer already.  Wear old clothes or an apron because children and papier maché are a very messy combination!

 

 5D - Mr Duff - After two weeks off I have to say how fantastic the children have been. Not only on my return but in my absence. Mrs Amran has spoken very highly of you individually and as a class. This was also pointed out by the HMI from Ofsted who spent an hour with us on Wednesday. You are a lovely class and are a pleasure to teach. I think Mrs Amran wanted my job but I'm not giving it up !!

 

As promised here are the links to websites we have been looking at this week. Click here for the One Planet Future film clip and here for WWF's Earth Hour site.

 

The Rainforest work will be continuing next week, with a wider focus on global warming. Persuasive writing will be key to get people to listen to us !! I am confident you know your angles and we will be looking at the angles in triangles and other 2D shapes next week.

Lastly, I am going to briefly mention Red Nose Day !! You all looked great and a special congratualtions to Cian for being voted the funniest costume in 5D. Also I hope you enjoyed 118 !!

Anyway, I am going to call it a day now and head off home to get some sleep !! It's been a long week but a thoroughly enjoyable one. Well done 5D.

 

 5B - Mr Bird - With the absence of a blog during the previous two weeks I thought a mention of some of the highlights would be useful. Following the half term break the children returned to start our latest topic which tackles the issues raised by deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest. They have also been examining how our actions at home can have an impact on climate change. 

 

World Maths Day and World Book Day were also well received and the children thoroughly enjoyed the international challenge with their maths. 

 

This week could not have been  better for restarting the Blog with the return of Mr Duff, although you may find a number of photogrtaphs of his newly arrived daughter being entered by him instead of this! I know all the children in my class would like me to add their congratulations on the birth of Poppy.

 

The children have been provided with the opportunity to make sense of their expanding knowledge about the Amazon Rainforest and the associated environmental issues. The topic based approach has allowed them to examine issues of a global and local nature. Relevant links between local actions and the implications these have on climate change have been identified by our latest recruits to the Environmental Detection Agency, namely 5B.

 

Parents, carers and staff may receive various requests during the next week about identifying which electrical appliances could be switched off and for how long. I hope you wont mind assisting your environmental agents with their enquiries!  You may also find that they will be keen to take part in 'WWF's Earth Hour' on the 28th. March 2009 but they will discuss this with you next week.

 

Our week was quite eventful with a visit from a HMI from Ofsted, who came to observe the provision of Geography within the school. The children were, as usual, great ambassadors and this was reflected in the comments made following the visit. 

 

What better way to end the week than for all of the school to participate in a great day marking Red Nose Day. Thank you for all your efforts. 

 

 6M - Mr Martin - As ever, its been a frenetic week here in 6M.  It's been full steam ahead with the allotment and the ground is nearly ready for cultivation.  Indoors, we have been sowing our first crops, cauliflour, broccoli, potatoes, courgettes to name but a few.  As our topic work progresses (weather) we have been investigating how day-to-day climatic changes affect our lives.  Next week we will be making our own rain gauges so for once we will be praying for less mild weather!