Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School

The Last Post

Mr Duff — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:56:29 +0000

This is the last post!

In the New Year we will be upgrading our BLOG and it will be even better!!

Thank you for following this format since October 2007 and from January 2010 you will see a new and improved version.

Click here to go straight there

Week 12 Autumn Term 09/10

Mr Duff — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:21:49 +0000

Headlines from Mr Knight

What a bunch of performers our children are! The Christmas performances are now over and as ever the children rose to the challenge of producing an entertaining event in very little time! We hope that you enjoyed watching the shows – we certainly had bigger audiences than we have known in the past and must apologise if you were not able to get in for the Wednesday evening performance. The staff performed miracles in a very tight time frame and as a school we should thank them for all of their hard work and commitment. To go through an Ofsted inspection and then plunge into Christmas performances is not easy task and deserves praise. The last week of term is nearly upon us and it will be a very busy one with Christmas dinner and parties taking place on various days. Please remember that the school closes at 12.30pm on Friday 18^th December. The school re-opens for the children on Tuesday 5^th January 2010.

Reception - We have had a really enjoyable week in the Reception Classes this week finding out what it is like to perform on a stage with a large audience. We hope you enjoyed the singing, the speaking and the acting as much as we loved performing. Thank you to everyone who came to watch us and for all your clapping. In our classrooms we have also been thinking about Winter and we have made our role play areas into Santa's Grotto (RK) and a Winter Wonderland (RD). We have thought about changes in weather, created snow flakes and snowmen and enjoyed the fog at the end of the week and the Winter sunshine too.

1C - Mrs Collinson - Wow, what a busy week...we are all exhaused!!! However, we are so proud of the children and their fantastic Christmas Play. It was such fun and really got us in the mood for Christmas. Well done 1C.

Here's what the children have enjoyed this week.

Ryan B said 'I liked being Santa in our school play because my mum and dad were watching and I wanted them to be proud of me.'

Libby said 'We have been making sparkly decorations to take home. My favourite is the Angel Gabriel because he has a sparkly dress.'

Ryan C said 'I loved our Christmas Play. I was very excited and nervous because Clet came to see me! I was nervous because there were lots of people watching.'

Have a lovely weekend and really, really looking forward to seeing you all next week for lots of Christmas fun!!

Mrs Collison & Miss Slade.

1B - Mrs Barrington - It's all go! Class 1B have been such busy bees this week. They performed their Christmas play like true professionals and we are so proud of them. I'm sure they have been singing the songs at home and will continue to do so all over Christmas. We have written our letters to Father Christmas and will be displaying these in the window next week just in case you should need any ideas. Reverend Diane Smith from Chalkwell Methodist Church has re-arranged our visit their for Tuesday 15th December. If you are available to help support us in the afternoon accompany the children please let us know as soon as possible. The countdown continues.

2G - Mrs Grant - This week we have been writing a story based on Charlotte and the Chocolate Factory. Mine had two characters called Libby and Yann in it. Mr Willy Wonka was in it too. In maths we have been doubling and halving. We have also learnt about Hannukha which starts on 11th Decmber at sun down. We have also been doing the school play. I really enjoyed doing it but now I am a bit tiered. We have also done some secret things which mum and dad will found out about next week. Merry Christmas. Yann

3B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

3B are beginning to get the Christmas bug and are getting very excited.They have really enjoyed their performances, well done 3B and 2P. I am very proud of you, considering the fact that we did not get to practise very much on stage, you have done very well. Here are some activities that the children have enjoyed, in particular, this week:

"I liked writing the Christmas Story because you can use good adjectives and describing words"- Lilly-Rose

" I liked making Christmas hats because it was fun to do"- Olivia S

" I liked evening performance because everybody was watching" - Olivia K

"The mosaic bowls because it's fun"- Jameel

"The Christmas Story, when I write I get lots of ideas"- Yaa

"I liked the evening performance yesterday because my mum and dad were watching me for the first time in my new school- Ollie

"The performance, my mum's mate, Emily was there"- Liam

"The Christmas Story because I wrote lots"- Jesi

"I liked rehearsals because I like performing on the stage"- Grace

Thanks for your input children.

Have a lovely weekend. Miss Bernard

3/4B - Miss Bolton - A fab week had by all I think is the phrase!! The children in both year 3/4 classes have really done us proud with this year's Christmas play. And if you realise they learnt, practiced and perfected it in not much more than 2 weeks, I'm sure you'd be even more impressed.

My trip to our link school in Nice was extrememly busy but inspiring. We have developed strong links now with a class in Ecole Ray Gorbella and will begin a full link project next half term.

We've made Christmas cards to send to Nice and completed all our topic work for this half term - this means it's Christmas all the way now!!

Our party will be next Thursday - we have paired with 3/4L on this. So we don't end up with 200 sausage rolls, class 3/4B have responsibility for bringing in 'sweet' food and drinks. Please ensure that drinks are juice based rather than fizzy.

Please also note that school finishes at 12.30 next Friday.

3/4L - Mr Lloyd - Bonjour Darlinghurst!

Wow what a mad week in 3/4L! This week Mr Lloyd returned from his trip with Miss Bolton and Mr Bird, they had been in Nice in France and had spent 3 days learning and teaching with our French link class who are called CE2B. We have spent the week looking at the presents and work they sent to us and in return we have written some letters in French which tell them all about us. We also looked at pictures the teachers took from France which were amazing! We couldn't believe how different it was in France, they only go to school for 4 days and they have a 2 hour lunchbreak! We have also made Christmas cards for our French class which we hope will be sent in time for them to get them. This week was also the Christmas play which was brilliant, well done to everyone! Have a great weekend.

5J - Mrs Johnston - We did a Christmas play, which we enjoyed. We have made Christmas decorations. We have been practising our handwriting and maths. Oliver

5AD - Mr Duff - Being updated....

Week 11 Autumn Term 09/10

Mr Duff — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:46:33 +0000

Yesterday we received the call from Ofsted to say they were coming in on Monday and Tuesday.

You will have had a letter home explaining this (it was also on the News + Views) plus you would have received a parents questionnaire. Please could you take the time to fill these in and send them back with your children, or drop them in the office. Your views are very important to us and Ofsted, so we thank you for spending the time to fill them in.

The children in Key Stage 2 have also had to fill in a similar form where they can express their views about their school.

The final report from Ofsted will be added to the school's website as soon as it becomes available.

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

Reception - We have been thinking about the story of Cinderella this week. We have used computers to draw our favourite characters and talked about how Cinderella felt when her step sisters were unkind to her. We have also been thinking about shapes and went on a shape hunt to see what shapes we could find. Charlotte said she liked playing with the playdough the most.

1B - Mrs Barrington - It's that time of year. Class 1B know all about the days of the week, months of the year and the seasons. So we are fully aware that December is a winter month and it's the month we celebrate Christmas. It's also the month when we perform our Christmas play. This year class 1B and 1C are putting on an exciting performance all about Father Christmas. Letters have gone home giving you the details and your help supporting the children learning their words is much appreciated. Please continue to do this. I have arranged for year 1 to visit Chalkwell Methodist church on Tue 1st Dec which links in with our work on Christianity and places of worship. If you are able to attend the trip please let us know. Next week shall be continuing our work on stories from other cultures and will be focusing on the Russian story of Babushka.

2P - Miss Peacher - This week class 2P have been looking at the wonderful world of Roald Dahl. We made our own dream jars and wrote about our own Twitty tricks. In maths we have been looking at symmetry and shapes. We were very good at drawing characters from Roald Dahl books in the style of Quentin Blake.

2G - Mrs Grant - This week we have been learning about Florence Nightingale. She was a nurse in the Crimean war and was known as the Lady with the Lamp because she used to go round the hospital holding a lamp and look at all the sick soldiers in the bed. In science we did some experiments with different surfaces to see on which one the car went the furthest. It was the white shiny one. Mrs Grant tried to trick us by doing the experiment wrong but we knew when she did it. We have also been practising our play. By Hannah

3B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

Here we are again. The children are beginning to get excited about Christmas and they are really enjoying singing our Christmas songs and practising for our play.They also been working very hard on trying to write interesting recounts on their trip to Colchester Castle and they have been very busy finishing their papier mache bowls which they are going to decorate to look like mosaics.

Here are the activities that children in 3B have particularly enjoyed this week:

"I have enjoyed rehearsing, because I like doing the show"- Olivia S

"I like singing songs because I like it"- Yaa

"I liked "Let It Snow" when we practised because we all sang nicely"- Shelise

"Colchester Castle was great because I liked the dungeons"- Jesi

"Colchester Castle because I went with my mum"- Ollie

"Rehearsal was good because I like singing songs and dancing"- Aliyah

"Rehearsal because I liked the actions to the songs"- Lilly

"Colchester Castle because I like the ghostly prison"- Gram

" The Play, it's really fun and I like singing"- Liam

"I liked eating our Romanian apple pie, it was nice"- Paul

"I liked making my papier mache bowl because I like painting"- Grace

" Colchester Castle because it was fun"- Aaliyah

"Colchester Castle because I liked the shop"- James

Thank you children!

Have a great weekend, Miss Bernard

3/4B - Miss Bolton - We have had the busiest week ever!! We are well on the way with our Christmas play. Thank you all so much for helping your children with lines and songs and an even bigger thank you for all the parents that have sent costumes in already. Here are some comments from some of the class about this week:

Erin: I have really enjoyed the rehearsals this week and making circuits.

Sarah: I have enjoyed learning to tell the time.

Jade: I have enjoyed helping lots of people this week.

Mr Lloyd, Mr Bird and myself are off to visit our link school in Nice on Wednesday and looking forward to meeting our French teacher and class. Will have lots of stories and pictures to share with you all when we return.

3/4L - Mr LLoyd - This week we have been continuing with our work for our teachers visit to Nice which is next week. We have also started looking at time in Maths and did some art that was the same as Picasso and Matisse, they look really good and are up on our Nice wall! We hope you have a lovely weekend!

5J - Mrs Johnston - This week in maths we have been doing dividing. Today we went into 5AD and watched a video on Cyberbullying. The video is to keep us safe and help us to stop cyberbullying and how to make friends. By Martine

5AD - Mrs Amran + Mr Duff - This week we have been learning about area and perimeter. We have also learnt about an introductory paragraph and cyber bullying and internet safety. We have done Bodycare. We have been practising our school play and making props. We have enjoyed this week and can’t wait for next week!!! By Josh + Elliott

6M - Mr Martin - Hi it's been another great week in 6M! We've been busy practising our reindeer play but also we have been doing lots Maths and English. We're cooking more pasta!! Yum yum! We are doing biographys in English and on Friday we had a police woman called P.C Watts who talked to us about cyber bullying and how to keep safe on the internet. Ofsted are coming in on Monday and Tuesday so we are on our best behaviuor AS ALWAYS. By Ed and Jacko. :):)

Week 10 Autumn Term 09/10

Mr Duff — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:51:53 +0000

It's easier to say what didn't happen at Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School this week rather than what did!!

International week

Anti bullying week

Dance workshops

Cross country competitions

Open day

Children in Need

That's not to mention Year 3 visiting Colchester Castle and lots of compliments from visitors that looked around our school!!

Phewwww - just about managed to fit all that in. All the children and adults must be ready more than ready for the weekend

Anyway, it's Children in Need tonight on the television, thanks for all your donations today and lets see how much they receive in total. I hope they break last years record. Good luck!

Headlines from Mr Knight

It was good to see so many people at our “Open Day and Evening”. During the day there was a steady stream of people walking round and asking lots of questions. The evening was very similar and we saw quite a few new parents during this session. Thank you all for coming. We would also like to say a big thank you to the children who returned for the evening – their help was much appreciated.

What a spotty lot of children we have at Darlinghurst! Thank you for your support for Children in Need. The children are such a creative bunch – this morning we have seen spots of all different shapes, sizes and colours. There is spotty hair, spotty faces, spotty T shirts and lots of other spotty things. Mrs Johnston has once again proved herself to be highly creative with her spotty Wellington socks – is there no end to her talents!! Thank you for your donations too – we haven’t counted them yet but will let you know how much we have raised on Monday.

Have a good weekend

1C - Mrs Collison -Hi Everyone,

Wow we are exhaused!! What a busy week. We have travelled around the world in 5 days and have visited Asia, the Middle East and Finland to name but a few!!!

Thankyou to all our special family visitors who came to see us yesterday. We hope you had lots of fun!

Here's what the children have said they have enjoyed.

Holly said 'We have had a busy week. I loved it when my sister Faye came to watch me do PE. I showed her lots of points and patches balances.'

Ryan B said 'Yesterday I liked making the dough with Miss Slade for our Arabic bread. Today we are cooking it and tasting it dipped in hummus.'

Libby said 'I enjoyed making our Asian Rainforest. I painted a mummy and baby parrot and on the computer made another bird from the jungle.'

Can I also say a great big thankyou to all the supporters who came to cheer on our fantastic team of runners in KS2 and a special thankyou to all the grown ups that helped, Mrs Daly, Miss Wedell, Miss Crumbie and Mrs Fix.

Have a lovely weekend - Mrs Collison & Miss Slade

1B - Mrs Barrington - Around the world in class 1B. An interesting international week in many ways. We can now locate the United Kingdom on a map and learnt about the different continents. Mrs Eastham told us all about Finland and we got to touch some real reindeer antlers. We listened to a traditional folk story from India called Tiger Child by Joanna Troughton. We painted our own tigers which are now nearly all on display in our classroom. The week finished with us learning about Dubai. Our puppet camels had good fun playing in the sand.

Lucy I liked painting my tiger.

Finlay Enjoyed learning about different countries, India is his favourite.

Tia Had fun making tangrams. A puzzle game from China.

Roman Finding different countries on the globe.

2G - Mrs Grant - This week is Anti-bullying and International week. We have been learning about Australia. It is 10,000 miles away. In maths we have been doing measuring but we can't measure that far!! Kangaroos, Koalas and Red-backed spiders all come from Australia. Mr Bird told us that in the out-back the people have to look under their toilet or "dunny" to make sure that there isn't one hiding. We have made our own information booklets about it and Mrs Grant brought some holiday brochures in so that we could cut out pictures. We also made some Boomerangs. Some people use them for hunting. We also did some Aboriginal painting using litle dots, just like for Children in Need day. We made some anti-bullying posters after watching Dumbo being bullied. It isn't nice and it made me sad. Holly

3/4B - Miss Bolton - What a busy but fun week!! We have thrown ourselves right into International Week but had the extra excitement of learning about our link school in Nice and all about Nice itself. The children did research on the Promenade des Anglais and all the museums you could visit and produced their own tourist leaflet about the area. Most exciting though was finding our link school on Google Earth and Harvey and Christopher even found it on Google Street View! The class have also been producing an 'English' calendar for me to take out to our school in a couple of weeks - some great designs coming along.

Thursday was also Open Day and it was nice to see so many of you in to see what our school is all about.

It is likely we will not have much PE in the next few weeks as all the hall time is now taken up with Christmas play rehearsals. Year 4 is excited to be up and running with this - stay tuned for costume requests!!

3/4L - Mr Lloyd - Hey everyone! This week we have been working on work to do with Nice in France! Mr Lloyd, Miss Bolton and Mr Bird will be going soon to see the class in France who we are swapping work with so we have been making tourist information leaflets to help them when they get there! We have also been doing perimter and used string to go outside and measure around things, it was fun! On Thursday we did some French role play and performed it to the class! Have a good weekend! 3/4 L

5J - Mrs Johnston - This week 5J have transformed into a French class. In France the children do not wear school uniform, therefore we could wear casual clothes...fantastic! The down side was that we were given alot of homework. This was good for our learning though. We can now count to 100 in french and have learnt alot of new words. By Choe

5AD - Mr Duff + Mrs Amran - This week we have been learning about

India

. We drew a poster in our books for anti bullying week. We also did Bodycare and learned about healthy eating. We took part in quiz about

India

. We drew rangoli patterns which was fun!!!!!!! On open evening some people come into our classroom to see our work. On this day some childrenwent to cross country. We also made Diyas out of clay and the next day we painted them. It has been fun this week and can’t wait for next week!!!!! By Josh + Poppy

Can I also add a huge thank you to the parents that dropped by our classroom during the day and evening on open day. I hope you liked what you saw and please feel free to come back and say hello anytime! - Mr Duff

6M - Mr Martin - This week, Mr Martin, having been off, surprisingly we have still had lots of fun, we learnt lots on Spain and made oregani pigs and Santas. Also we had a great opportunity to do different experiments with WHSB. Some of our pupils went off to cross-country and did very well. 6M have had another great week!!! But we're that Mr is back! By Ed and Cian

Week 9 Autumn Term 09/10

Mr Duff — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:28:10 +0000

Happy Birthday to the Darlinghurst website!

The website is 2 years old, well actually it's just over 2 years old but who's going to argue about about a couple of weeks. We hope you still find it informative, interactive and fun!

If you have any suggestions how to improve it or would just like to tell us your feelings about it, please let us know via our guestbook - the more comments the better!!

What has been happening around the Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School this week?

Nursery - We had our first open day in the Nursery today, three Mums stayed to play with us this morning and one Mum this afternoon. Thank you to those Mums for spending some time with us, we hope you enjoyed yourselves. We have are having another Nursery open day on Friday 27th so hopefully we shall have some more visitors then.

Reception - This week we have been thinking about animals in Autumn. We have talked about them having less food to eat and we made fat balls to feed to the birds in our outside play area and we have hibernated our tortiose puppet with lots of straw to keep him warm. We also enjoyed going on an Autumn listening walk to listen for other animals, but our teachers think we may have frightened them away!

1B - Mrs Barrington - Class 1B are the best shape sorters. We know so much about 2D shapes. We even know the name of a ten sided shape do you? Let us know! Alex enjoyed singing Miss Polly had a Dolly. We hope to record some of our rhyming work onto the podcast so you can all hear. Watch this space. Next week is our international week and class 1B and 1C are doing 'Around the world in five days.' Look forward to seeing you on our open day, Thu 19th November. Welcome to our new girl Holly.

1C - Mrs Collison - Hello Again!

Another interesting week! The children have shown me how clever they are at learning about the properties of 2D shapes and how we can hear and write the rhymes in words.

Here's what the children have said they have enjoyed;

Olivia W said 'We did a Cross Country Race. I came 41st. It was good fun but very hard, muddy and slippery...I fell over!!'

Holly said 'In Science we did some dancing to find out about pushing and pulling. I also enjoyed the Cross Country.'

Louis said 'I liked Music & Movement Club after school. We heard a new song and learnt a dance called 'The Twist''

We are looking forward to learning about different countries next week and seeing lots of mummies, daddies, aunties, uncles, sisters, brothers, nannies and grandads coming to join in with the fun!

Have a happy and safe weekend.

See you on Monday.

Mrs Collison & Miss Slade

2B - Mrs Barrington - This week we have been learning about Remembrance Day and why we remember the people who have died in the wars. We also found out why we wear poppies - because they were the only flowere that survived in the fields where the battles took place in world war one. We made our own information leaflet or poster. In maths we have been learning about money and in science we are still looking at forces and movement. We did an experiment to frind out which objects fell the quickest. It was so quick that Mrs Grant videoed it but we couldn't all let go at the same time, so it wasn't a fair test; we got there in the end. By Ry

2P - Miss Peacher - This week class 2P have been learning all about Rememberance Day. The children made their own poppies and also wrote very moving poems about the symbolism behind them. In science we were experimenting with bean bags to see if we could make them move faster and slower. We also had a lot of fun learning our greetings in French with Miss Gibson.

3B - Miss Bernard - We have had such a great time in our class this week. I am very proud of the way the Class 3B have worked. We began the week with maths assessment. Everybody worked so hard and tried their best, nobody gave up, well done to you all. We have also been writing instructions for each other to dress a Roman soldier. Everybody set their instructions out clearly and worked hard to improve on what they had done. As a follow up, we had fun programming the Bee-Bots.

We also had an enjoyable visit to the library, 3B were so well behaved and sensible at the library and on our walk.

We have also had a new addition to our class, welcome Shelise you have settled well.

Here are some of the children's views on what they have particularly enjoyed this week:

"I enjoyed working with the Bee-Bots because it was funny"- Yaa

"The Bee-Bots were fun to play with"- Olivia S

"I enjoyed the walk to the library because there were so many exciting books to read".-Lilly

"Writing our instructions because it was fun"- Aaliyah

"Making our papier mache bowls because it was lots of fun and there were lots of sticking"- Connor

"I liked the Bee-Bots because it was fun"- Ollie

"Instructions was fun, it's good to do things right and I liked the library"- Fayeem

"The library was fun. It's fun to read books and learn to read for when you are older"- Kinga

"Cross Country was good because I came 5th- Lachlan

"I liked Dr Who & the Bee-Bots, it was fun when they shot at the Dr"- Ahroun

"Dr Who & the Bee-Bots, I liked it when the giant Bee-Bot attacked the Dr"- Alex

"I liked Cross Country because I came first out of the girls"- Jesi

"Cross Country was fun, at the end we had our photo taken"- Paul

Thanks for a great week Class 3B.

Have a lovely weekend. Miss Bernard

3/4L - Mr Lloyd - This week we have been looking at area in maths and we have found it really easy! It was also Mr Lloyd's birthday, he said he is 21 but we don't believe him!! We also had two new boys start, Lewis and David, they are really nice and are enjoying being in 3/4L, so welcome!! we also looked at the environment and how we are killing our planet, and ways to stop it. In english we continues looking at subordinate clauses and we have written some work using them. have a good weekend everyone!

5AD - Mr Duff and Mrs Amran - This Week we have been learning about area in maths and Mrs Chatterton has been watching us. We are also doing non-chronological reports in English. We have been having Bodycare in P.E. and some of us are going to do cross country. We have been doing scrap book style word documents in I.C.T.

It has been fun this week and can’t wait for next week! - By Josh + Rakib

5J - Mrs Johnston - This week in 5J we have been telling our class how we use ICT at home. We have also been learning about deforestation and what we need to do to save the rainforest. In English we have been writing persuasive letters using subordinate clauses. In science we have started a new subject about healthy living, linking to our science we have had a lady called Michelle come in for P.E. and to teach us about the body. She gave us a leaflet and if we had done 20 minutes of exercise that day we would earn a sticker. 5J has had a great week this week and hope next week is even better! Abbey

6H - Mr Hautler - This week we have finished our Maths topic on BODMAS, and Also in literacy we have moved on from chronological reports to autobiographies. aswell we are making calenders to a school class in France. Thats about it for this week.

Jack and Leon

Week 8 Autumn Term 09/10

Mr Duff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:23:30 +0000

What happened this weeks entry - the gremlin has struck!!

I hope you had a chance to read it when it was online

When I get a chance I will retype it and post it back here (watch this space)

Week 7 AutumnTerm 09/10

Mr Duff — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:07:30 +0100

Do Something Different Week!!

The last week of half term has got us "doing something different" in our classes. Numerous activities going on around the school including pumpkin carving, sewing rainforst animals and for some reason Mrs Johnston was building a river in her class. I'm not quite sure why Mrs J was doing this but you know what she's like!! Needless to say a lot of fun was had and I think the children enjoyed it as well

Headlines from Mr Knight

The final week of a half term -where has the time gone! All of the classes have been “doing something different” this week and from what I can see from around school they have been having great fun and learning lots. From film-making in Mr Lloyd’s room (my cameo part being the highlight) to X Factor in Miss Bernard’s room – a fantastic range of “different” learning activities. The children are all smiling and the staff are noticeably more relaxed which shows how much fun has been enjoyed. I love these special weeks – they are highlights of the year and an essential part of our creative approach to school. Well done everyone for working so hard all week and throughout the term!

So let's find out what has been happening this week at Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School?

Reception - In the Reception Classes we have really enjoyed this week using the story of We're Going on a Bear Hunt to think of activities. We have ourselves hunted for the bear, made a comfortable home for the bear, we have iced biscuits thinking of the themes of the story, made dark caves to experience what it felt like for the bear and we have shared a picnic with our bears to make them feel happy. We have thought carefully about the repeated sentences in the story and enjoyed wearing bear masks. Harrison said "I liked the torches in the cave" and Beau liked going on the bear hunt outside.

1C - Mrs Collinson - Hi Again!

Wow, what a long half term that was!!! Nevertheless it has been lots of fun and all the children have learnt a great deal about themselves, their families and other types of families in our different communities throughout the world.

Here's what the children have said about their 'Do Something Different Week'

Sam said 'I liked cooking Pumpkin Soup. I had to chop the onions and garlic.'

Clio said 'I enjoyed going to the Library to look at lots of books. My favourite book was about a snail and a whale.'

Kyle said 'I liked going to Waitrose. We went in the freezer where they keep loaves of bread. I worked on the till and it went beep.'

Keep safe in the holidays and have lots of fun!! See you in November!!

Mrs Collison & Miss Slade

1B - Mrs Barrington - A change is as good as a rest. Or so they say. Well there has been very little rest in class 1B it's all been GO, GO, GO! Our trip to Waitrose was successful and the staff there really treated us well by laying out a selection of fruit for us to try plus free goody bags. Then the following day we took a stroll to Westcliff library. The children now know that there are lots of other facilities available at a library. On both trips the children were very well behaved and a credit to our school. Well Done! Then on Thursday we would have made Jaime Oliver proud by making our own pumpkin soup with lots of healthy vegetables put to good use. This linked in well with our story Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper. To end the week on a high the children did their own dressing up catwalk show. Now it's time for a rest and a super safe half term break. Toys will be our topic for next term.

2P - Miss Peacher - Class 2P has been transformed into Darlinghurst Space Exploration Station this week and we have been exploring our solar system. We launched our space station on Monday following instruction from NASA. Then on Tuesday we made a moon landing and went on a space walk. On Wednesday we came under attack from aliens (thanks 5J!) which we spotted on our moon monitor (thanks Mr Bird!). We had to catalogue all of the aliens that we saw so we made them from clay. To finish off our project we visited the Southend Planetarium. After a week like that we all need a holiday!

2G - Mrs Grant - This week we have been learning about "Under the Sea." We have all given a speech to the class and they can be listened to as Podcasts. I talked about crabs. We have written poems about sea creatures, done some descriptions of sea creatures, painted silhouettes and even sewed some. We have also played with water. Some of us got to use a paddling pool outside but I had to do it inside because it was raining, again. We have also made our own creatures to put up as decorarions for the classroom. We have had a great time. Cameron O

3B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

It's blog time again!

We have had a fantastic week in our Music Academy, the children have been really excited and very high all week. We have enjoyed it so much that we are going to continue for another week after half term. So far we have experimented with the percussion instruments, made pictograms, tally and bar charts for our favourite songs and types of music. We have explored some music programmes in the ICT suite and have continued to experiment with them in class. We have designed and made our own instruments which we hope to use in our class band. We are still writing and looking forward to producing our class rap. we will make a podcast for the school website when we are finished.

We still need to do our compositions and we are looking forward to doing our own Class 3B "X Factor" and practise learning our song with a message.

Here are some of the things that the children have enjoyed in particular:

"Creating our musical instruments because I like being creative"- Martine

"I liked listening to different types of music for our tally charts because it was really good."-Fayeem

"The instruments because I liked making my shaker and watching everyone play"- Aliyah

"I liked doing our class rap, because it makes us learn how to sing music"- Jameel

"I liked it when we did our music book covers"- Jesi

"I liked making the instruments because it is good for me and I like the shaker"-Yaa

"I liked watching Fantasia because it was funny. The King was stupid"- Olivia S

"I liked making musical instruments because I like making things"- Nathan

"The ICT suite, doing Musical Mysteries because it makes me learn better"- Liam

"Fantasia, the King was funny"- Kinga

As you can tell, we have had a great week. Have a fantastic half term children! - Miss Bernard

3/4L - Mr LLoyd - WOW what a week in 3/4L!!......This week has been 'World War 2 movie week'.....We have looked at all the stages of movie-making, pre-production, production and post production. We wrote our own stories, scripts and storyboards, then we casted for the film and Mr Knight made a cameo appearance for the filming! We can't wait to see what the film looks like! Have a great half term everyone!

3/4B - Miss Bolton - 'Do Something Different Week'. We love weeks like this, it inspires teachers and pupils alike. For some reason I had the film E.T on my desk and that gave me the idea to base all our work this week on this classic family film. The class watched enthralled and we had great fun designing our own aliens, movie posters and discussing what we would do if we'd found an alien in our back gardens!

Sadly we're finishing our WW2 topic and moving on to an environment topic after half term.

Teachers are already discussin Christmas plays and parties, so the term will fly past as always.

Have a good half term, see you all on Tuesday 3rd November (Monday is a non-pupil day).

5J - Mrs Johnston - This week was a really fun week because it was do something different week, we made a river and made our stuffed animals, some people made gorillas, monkeys, snakes and tarsiers.

5AD - Mr Duff + Mrs Amran - At the start of the week we did our writing assessment and everyone was glad when it was over. Once we finished our assessment we did a lot of halloween games, which were fun. I got wrapped up as a mummy and all the mummies had to rip out of the tissue paper as quick as they could. Everyone enjoyed this week. By Zakib

6H - Mr Hautler - On Thursday 20th October, Darlinghurst took part part in a football match. There were 11 players in our side and we we won 5-3. This week was also 'do what you want week' and we have been building castles out of junk. On friday it was non school uniform and it was lovley to see everybodys cool outfits. On Monday, we blew up 250 balloons of all different shapes and sizes, just because we could. Oscar and George

6M - Mr Martin - Wow! How the weeks have flown. In eight weeks we've covered so much. This week we have completed our 3-D models of castles and learnt about their defence systems and general maintenance. We've come to the end of our fascinating study of microbes and now we have a far greater idea of which microbes are useful to us and which ones are harmful. In PE we had all the rumble and tumble and full-on excitement of dodge ball which we love very much and the Chicken Monsters team won the inter-class competition. We are all absolutely exhausted and looking forward to our half term rest! By Ethan and Adele

Week 6 Autumn Term 09/10

Mr Duff — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:20:50 +0100

Fantasy Football 2009/2010

That's it, no more entries allowed. We have had a record number of people join, 50% more than last year!! There was a mad rush at the end of today just in time for the league to start tomorrow (Saturday 17th October).

All teams need to be registered before 12:45pm (Saturday) and all I will say is good luck to all involved. Lastly, Mr Lloyd thinks he already has it in the bag but I can see a lot of his team is made up from West Ham players

Headlines from Mr Knight

I have enjoyed a very interesting week in Lithuania. The weather has been very cold and wintery - there was snow on Tuesday and again today (Friday) and the temperatures have been below zero for most of the day. Over the last four days I have visited two schools in different parts of Vilius and I have seen some interesting things, some things that have made me think and some things that have made me feel very sad. The children in the schools I have visited have almost all been able to speak at least three languages - Lithuanian, Polish and English for example - and have worked in some pretty grim conditions at times. In both schools the children were very cheerful, friendly and keen to speak english whenever they could.

It will be good to be home and back at school next. I will talk to the children about some of the things I have seen and wil look forward to seeing their reactions. Tonight I have to eat the Lithuanian National dish - called a Zeppelini. This is a type of sausage which consists of minced meat wrapped in potato and deep fried - it looks unappetising and very greasy but I will give it a try!

If I survive the experience I will see everyone on Monday.

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

Nursery BLOG

AM:

Toby - we played on the bikes

Lilly-Rose - I played in the water

Chloe - I went through the tunnel

PM:

Jacob - I played on the computer

Amy - I played on the slide

Charlie S - I played inside and outside

Reception - Another good week in Reception. We had a visit from PC Jan, a police lady who talked about her job, showed us lots of pictures about being a police officer and allowed us to put on police coats and hats. We really did have fun. It was good to learn about the job of being a police officer.

The Reception Team.

1C - Mrs Collison - Hello everybody,

The children have been working very hard this week. We have decided that we are going to become friends with a school in Dubai, so we have been busy introducing ourselves to them and telling them what we like to do.

Here's what some of the children have enjoyed this week:

Ellie said 'I enjoyed making a diva candle holder to celebrate Divali on Saturday.'

Kai said 'I liked PE. We used the apparatus.'

Tyler said 'I liked it when we had to use charcoal to make a black and white picture of me as a baby.'

Have a nice weekend

Mrs Collison & Miss Slade

2G - Mrs Grant - This week we have been learning about the story of Rama and Sita and why Hindu's light divas to celebrate Diwali: it is on Saturday. We have made Diwali lanterns and cookies, they were very nice; my mum said that we could make some at home. We have also sung a Diwali song to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Mrs Grant has put it on the website as a podcast. In Science we had a "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" quiz on Light and Dark. It was really great when we got the questions right because we all cheered. Taylor

2P - Mrs Peacher - This week class 2P have had lots of fun learning about Divali. In maths we solved word problems about Divali sweets. In ICT we researched Divali. In English we followed instructions to make Divali lantersn and then wrote our own instructions. In art & DT we made Divali lanterns and also lots of other beautiful stuff for a display. We had lots of fun learning about Divali!

3B - Miss Bernard - Hi there everybody!

Yet another week has gone by, I can not believe how fast this half term is going. We are really looking forward to our Music Academy in the "Do Something Different Week". We have got lots of ideas for it. If you can think of anything else that you would like us to do, children, let me know please?

This week we have been writing our gladiator stories, which the children have really enjoyed planning and creating their stories. I have enjoyed what they have written so far, I can't wait to read the endings. I hope that they are going to be exciting.

We have also been doing data handling using block graphs, tally charts,frequency charts and pictograms in Maths. You have got steadily better as the week as gone on children, especially with finding information using your charts.

Here are some of the things that the children had to say about their activities last week:

" I liked writing my gladiator story because it was fun"- Aaliyah

" Writing my story because you can actually imagine yourself in the story"- Olivia K

"Writing my gladiator story because it feels like I'm actually in the arena"- Lilly

"My story writing because it feels like I am in the story"- Jameel

"I like our role plays because they are like our stories"- Santi

"Our stories because I like writing stories"- Tayyaba

"The stories because I enjoyed it"- Anita

"The stories because they are fun and imaginative"- Ollie

"I like the project with the balloons"- Olivia S

"I liked Maths because it is fun"- Yaa

"PE because we got to do turing around and we showed the other children"- Paul

"Data handling in the ICT Suite because I like learning about it"- Ai'sha

Thanks for your comments children. I am so glad that you have enjoyed your writing.

Have a lovely weekend, Miss Bernard

3/4B - Miss Bolton - The children of 3/4B have been busy bees this week, trying to finish as much work as possible to tie up this half term. We will be very sad to say goodbye to our WW2 topic but there's more good ones to come, don't worry.

We are loving our new ICT suite at the moment and managed to get an extra session in there yesterday.

Next week is one of our themed weeks - 'Do something different' week!! All I'll say at the moment is that all our work, learning and fun will centre round a classic family film - which I was amazed to realise is actually 27yrs old now! Can anyone try and guess which film it is???

3/4L - Mr Lloyd - This week we have been looking at maths problems and 7 x tables which we are really enjoying! We were also creating our own games using instructional writing to help us, we made some brilliant games which we are hoping to play at some point, can't wait for next week when we start on our WW2 movie! Have a great weekend! - 3/4L

5J - Mrs Johnston - This week we've been practising our french spellings and we also wrote letters in french to a school in France.

In ITC we've been typing up our own profiles, which was good fun.

This weeks blog has been written by Lauren from 5J

5D - Mr Duff - Ahhhh forgot to ask the childen to write it, I was too busy with the last rush of people wanting to be involved with the fantasy football. Watch this space, it will be updated Monday.

6H - Mr Hautler - In maths we have been making a maths games.In English we have been acting as reporters using drama.We have been making our Lunar Theme Parks and we got £500,000 to spend! For our homework in Numracy we have been drawing 3D shapes and the listing their properties. Shoni and Lewcey

6M - Mr Martin - This week in 6M we did drama and a science test.We brought in cereal boxs for our castle models. We also learned about castles and how they defended themselves. We did our book fair posters. We finished our Science topic microbes. We had a fantastic persuasive writing lesson.Lauryn won the book fair competition. Most of the children in our class went to our fantastic book fair. Shabnam and Zhana 6M

Week 5 Autumn Term 09/10

Mr Duff — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:57:37 +0100

Education City

At Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery school we subscribe to an excellent resource called EducationCity.com. The children have the opportunity to use their Science, French, Literacy and Maths skills via these interactive online activities.

The children (and adults) love it and now you have the chance to access all this for just £2 for the whole academic year. You don't get much for £2 these days but I can honestly say you get a huge amount here. Lots of people have already signed up (nearly 100 people) but if you have not sent in your reply yet, don't worry we still have places left if you are quick!

We have extended our membership to cater for this large response and we would do this again if need be.

For the people that have already sent back their replies with their £2's, all the information has now been input, the passes printed out and also given to the corresponding children. If for some reason you have paid but have not received a CityPass, please let me know directly.

I apologise if one of your children got their pass before the other but I had nearly 100 to complete and I did this as quick as possible.

I hope you and your children enjoy taking their learning home with them and any feedback you have about this please free free to tell us here.

Fantasy Football League

It's nearly that time of year again!!! I have opened it up to Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 and hope to have the biggest uptake so far. Not only do the children get the chance to compete against each other but they will also be trying to beat the adults within our school to become the Fantasy Football League Champion.

Past winners: Mrs Chatteron 2007/2008 - Jamie Cooper 2008/2009

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

The deadline is the 17th October - so you only have a week left to join!!

Headlines from Mr Knight

Another week gone in a very busy term. Today I was watching the children while they were taking part in some drumming workshops and I must admit that I was very jealous! They were all having such a good time – despite the amount of noise that was being made by all involved. During lunchtime the drummer was chatting with the staff and he said that he couldn’t believe how happy all of the people in school were! Apparently in a lot of schools that he visits everyone is full of woe!

Our name is clearly getting known in the wider community because we are now in the position of having almost full classes in reception (we have four spare places I think) and no room in the nursery at all. If things continue as they are at the moment we will be oversubscribed which will be a great development.

I will not be in school next week as I am visiting schools in Vilnius, Lithuania. During the week the group that I am leading (made up of 13 Headteachers from all over the East of England) will be finding out about how Lithuanian schools are developing. We will also be telling them about how English schools work and the improvements we are making. I look forward to sharing my experiences when I return.

Have a good week.

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

Reception - We have had such a great week thinking about flat shaes (2D shapes). We have been talking about their sides and corners, thinking about what they are called and finding everyday shapes in our surroundings. We are getting very confident with them and can make good shapes with our bodies. Unfortunately our visitors 'who help us' were not able to come this week as we had planned so we are looking forward to see them soon.

We have had fun playing with the toys. William said, "I like playing with the puzzles", Louise said, "I like cutting and sticking."

1C - Mrs Collison - Hi again everyone!

Another busy week...as always!! This week we having been thinking really hard about how we use our senses in everthing we do. We have been using our sense of sight and touch to recognise the value of coins and our listening ears to remember which familiar events from story 'Peace at Last' by Jill Murphy involved Mr Bear using his senses. Perhaps the children could tell you the senses that Sir Doodles needed to stay safe!

Here's what the children have said they have enjoyed this week;

Shaun said 'I've enjoyed counting in 10's. I can count to 100!!'

Gemma said 'I enjoyed making price tags for my bunny. He cost's 19p'

Ellie said 'I liked painting. I painted a picture of my cousin Ruby because I like looking at her.'

Next week we are thinking about new beginnings and the signs that show us that Autumn is beginning. Perhaps if you are out and about at the weekend you can look for some things that you think remind us of Autumn.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Collison & Miss Slade

2G - Mrs Grant - This week in maths we have been adding numbers by counting in 5s, 10s, and 2s, and although it was very hard I was very pleased with myself because I could do it. In English we made our own board games and wrote instructions for them. I wrote all my numbers on my own and Mrs Grant was pleased because the numbers were all the right way round. In Science we had to design an experiment to see what was the best reflective material. We then got to do the experiment and the tin foil was the best reflective material, it heps the cars see us when it is dark because the light is reflected off of it. In Geography we thought about the shops in our local area and how the big shops were opening and the small shops were closing. I think I have had a good week this week - Kaylie

2P - Mrs Peacher - This week class 2P have been making our own board games based around our local area. We had to write numbers up to 50 or 100 around our games and choose some squares to move on or back 5 & 10 spaces. We had to follow our instructions carefully to make our games. In ICT we wrote up our own instructions for how to play our games. Then class 1C came into our classroom and played the games with us. We had to explain the instructions to them. We had lots of fun. We also enjoyed listening to the drums.

3B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

It's blog time again, it comes around so quickly! We have had so much fun again this week. We have been learning all about measuring length and the units that go with it. We measured each other to see who had the biggest head and longest arms in the class.It was funny because one of the twin's Ai'sha's left arm was the longest and the other twin Tayyaba's right arm was the longest. In English we have been learning about the life of a Gladiator and doing role plays to stimulate our writing for next week.Some children still need to finish performing for the rest of the class, they are so keen.

Here are some of the activities that some of the children have particularly enjoyed:

"The spelling test because spellings help you to learn about words"- Jameel

"Education City, it helps you to get things right."- Paul

"I liked Science because it was fun working with the materials"- Ai'sha

"I liked the measuring, it seems like fun."- Connor

"My mosaic work, I like my picture"- Yaa

"I liked when we did mosaics it's fun designing"- Gram

"I like this activity (mosaic) and everything"- Olivia S

"The mosaics was fun, I found out that I really like drawing"- Alex

"Every single activity we do, especially designing."- Kinga

"I like the gladiator work it was really fun to do"- Liam

"I like when we were learning about the Roman Gladiators- Jesi

"I liked when we watched the Gladiator film"- Lilly

"I liked when we watched the Gladiator trailer"- Olivia K

"Writing about Roman slaves was my favourite because I like writing"

Thanks 3B, I love your enthusiasm, looking forward to your Gladiator stories next week! Remind me to introduce to twitter next week and remember to bring in some boxes, tins, bottles, anything that you think can be made into a musical instrument for our Music Academy.

Have a great weekend children! - Miss Bernard

3/4B - Miss Bolton (Mr Bird) - This week provided the opportunity for the children to use drama as a way of examining some aspects of life during World War 2. They have really become involved and inquisitive about this period and have been eager to share some fantastic pieces of their relatives war history. I did have to stress that I was not alive during the War, although some of them looked doubtful when I told them that!

We have also participated in; an African drumming session, outdoors animal grouping investigation, French conversation - twice a day, practical maths word problems and some very creative writing on National Poetry Day.

With the rain somewhat interfering with playtimes, our PE was even more important and the children thoroughly enjoyed being introduced to a new team game.

Next week they are looking forward to completing their newspaper article in ICT.

3/4L - Mr Lloyd - Hi!

This week we have finished our newspaper reports and begun turing them into real life front pages in the ICT suite, they are looking real great! We also made our WW2 ration books using teabags to make them seem older, we put our names on them and they really look like the real thing! We also drafted up some morale boosting posters and read a poem called 'telegram boy' about WW2. Next week we are finishing our front pages! We also learned about Twitter and how to use it, its fun! Have a great weekend! - 3/4L

(N.B from Mr Lloyd....I would just like to say a special well done to 3/4 L this week on their maths work, their timestables have been excellent and they are really working hard...well done Mr Lloyd's Legends!)

5AD - Mr Duff - This week in 5AD we have done lots of column multiplication, Josh taught us he was good at it we have also done P.E. we finished our rainforest silhouettes. It was all fun can’t wait till next week. By Elliott.

5J - Mrs Johnston - This week we had to do something that involved how to germinate plants. We tried out our own experiment where we had to plant some seeds in different temperatures, places, amounts of water and light and dark.

We are also learning lots of times tables. By Eloise

6H - Mr Hautler - This week 6H and 6M have been making maths boardgames and in English we have been writing storys about King's ,Queens and Dragons.In art we have been drawing still life pictures. by Jack & Megan

Week 4 Autumn Term 09/10

Mr Duff — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:00:37 +0100

Harvest Festival

It's that time of year again and we have received lots of food and toiletries donations, so a huge thank you for these. For me though it was all about our harvest festival assembly! I have got to say how fantastic it was. If you missed it, you really did missed a blinder. Well done to all involved, I am still humming the songs you were singing, very catchy!!

Today the children and staff put on their jeans to support this very worthwhile cause. A charity that is close to my heart. Instead of me telling you all about them, click here to visit their website. They have some very moving short films on their site, and after watching a couple of them with my class I know it left with me with a large lump in my throat. Ellie and Tom's story and Tiana and Star's story really hits home what today has been all about. You can go straight to the films by clicking here. Thank you for all donations.

Headlines from Mr Knight

What a brilliant harvest festival assembly! Very well done to all of those that took part and a very big thank you to Miss Bernard and Miss Peacher for their hard working putting everything together. We have received several letters complimenting the children on their work – which is always very gratifying. Also thank you for supporting our fund raising effort for the “Jeans for Genes” charity. We have been supporting this worthwhile cause for over 8 years now and all contributions are gratefully received.

This week two new members of staff have joined us for the first time.The first is our new Site Manager, Mr Stuart Clark. The second is Mrs Jan Kimberley who is joining the reception classes as an additional teacher. We are sure that you will join with us in welcoming them to Darlinghurst.

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

Nursery

Charlie K - We played with the scooters and bikes outside in the garden

Chloe - We played in the house and in the water

Charlie D - I played on the computer

George - We played with the fishes

Joe - We played in the house

Alfie - I had milk for snack

Sophie - We have played with the bikes

Charlie S - I did a painting for my mummy

Louis -I played in the house

Reception - We have had another busy week thinking about 'people who help us' in school and the wider community. We have also been thinking about fruit and vegetables and our Harvest Festival and have still been able to enjoy the lovely Autumn weather outside. We are having fun in our phonic sessions, becoming more confident with letter sounds and are beginning to read first words. We have also been ordering things by size, thinking about things that are bigger, biggest, smaller and smallest. This week we have been very happy to welcome Mrs Kimberley as another teacher in the Reception Classes and we look forward to having fun playing with her. From the Reception Team.

1C - Mrs Collison - Hi Everyone,

I keep saying the same thing every week....but here it goes again! The children have been superstars during another fantastic week! They all try their hardest all of the time and amaze us with the things they learn! The children have particulary enjoyed our English work which focused around the story 'The Cow That Laid an Egg' and thought it was hilarious when the baby chick said 'mooooooo'! Here's what else the children said they have enjoyed.

Daniel said 'I liked practising my joined up writing in my new purple handwritng book.'

Laura said 'I enjoyed Maths because it was funny when I couldn't find any more addition facts for number 5.'

Reece said 'I liked making my face move. I used glue to make my ears move and a straw to make my tongue stick out. I ran out of time to make my legs move.'

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Collison and Miss Slade

1B - Mrs Barrington - In Class 1B this week, we have really enjoyed listening to and acting out the story The Cow that Laid an Egg. Jacob Clare in our class really liked the part when Marjorie shouted, "l' ve laid an egg!" Finlay Doyle had fun learning about addition and knows some number bonds to seven. We also have looked at our eye and hair colour and the only person in our class with green eyes is Mrs Dennis. Next week we shall be focusing on our senses.

2G - Mrs Grant - This week we have been writing our own stories based on the story "We're going on a bear hunt." Some of us have been to space and seen aliens and some have been to the arctic and found polar bears. We have also drawn scenes from the story and made some props for when we acted the story out.In numeracy we have been looking at co-ordiantes and the four main parts of the compass, and the direction the bear might have taken and the places that he visited. In science we have pretended to be in the bears cave and tried to find some of the things that were in the pitch black, but without any light it was difficult to find them all.

2P - Mrs Peacher - Class 2P have been bear hunting this week and have had lots of fun! We have been looking at maps and directions in maths in the hunt for the bear. We also wrote descriptions of the bear in English for wanted posters, but still we did not catch the bear. In science we were looking at reflective materials which would help us be seen if we were looking for the bear in the dark forest. Today we have had lots of fun (and made lots of mess) creating caves for the monsters that we designed last week.

Well done to my stars of the week - Cameron (English), Sharmayne & Rebecca E (maths), George (science) and Lisa (handwriting). Also a big well done too all of the class for their fantastic performance in the harvest festival assembly. All of the other teachers have commented on how well they did too.

3B - Mrs Bernard - Hello everybody!

We have had a great week investigating 2D shape and symmetry, learning about slavery in Roman times, movements of the sun and shadows and practising for our Harvest Festival Assembly. The children have worked hard and I am really pleased with some of the results. We are STILL creating covers for our topics books in ICT at least the children are getting lots of practise with their IT skills.

Here are some of 3B's favourite things that they have enjoyed this week:

"I liked drawing the shapes on the playground because I like drawing shapes"- Ai'sha

"Doing the topic book covers in ICT was fun"- Gram

"I liked making the 3D shapes out of nets because I like making stuff"- James

"Going out on the playground to draw shapes was really fun"- Chloe

"I liked doing the topic book covers, I like doing work about Romans"- Liam

"I enjoyed writing about the slaves because I like writing"- Fayeem

"I liked doing the halving (symmetry) ,I liked designing them"- Santi

"French with Mr Bird was good because I like learning French"- Aaliyah

"I liked the Harvest Festival because I like dancing"- Clarice

"I liked doing nets because I like doing Art and being creative"- Lilly

"I liked listening to the story before home time because I like stories"- Aliyah

"The 2D shape, because I like shape"- Kinga

"I liked the Harvest Festival because I enjoyed saying my words"- Connor

"Jeans for Genes day because I can't be bothered to get changed when I get home"- Jameel

"The Harvest Festival because I like singing"- Grace

Phew! You had so much to say this week children. I am glad that you have had such a fun week

Enjoy your weekend, Miss Bernard

3/4L - Mr LLoyd - Hi all, another cracking week in 3/4 L!! This week we looked at rationing in WW2 and began to work on our ration books which will have tea bags used on them to make them look old!! We also finished our Anderson sheletrs and put them on the wall....they look great! In maths we had lots of fun practicing our times tables in 'Stand up, sit down' well done to Riley who was the winner and Kierra who came runner up! Looking forward to next week when we make our ration books and ICT when we make our newspaper front pages! Have a good weekend!

3/4B - Miss Bolton - In science we were experimenting about woodlice with deep and shallow water to see what woodlice would like best.In Literacy we were doing a newspaper report about a lady called Mrs Cooper in World War two. In Art and DT we are doing an anderson shelter. In History we are doing about World War two and a Ration book that has tea stains all over it. And we have been doing in Numeracy number grids. Oliver + Jayden

5J - Mrs Johnston - This week in class we have carried on turning our classroom into a rainforest. We have made our own maths word problems based around the rainforest. We printed rainforest animal pictures to go with the problems and have hung them up in the classroom. We have been practising writing introductions to our non-chronological reports. We have shared our homework about what happiness means to us. We learned the song 'Lunchtime Queue' for the Harvest Festival. We spoke about Winter when we performed with Miss Bernard's and Miss Peacher's classes. We all had fun. This blog was written by Tayla.

5AD - Mr Duff - This week we have been looking at column subtraction but it was a bit hard but it was fun and worth doing. This week we have also looked at supporting paragraphs but Mr Duff did some modelling writing on the board first which gave us some ideas and then we wrote our own supporting paragraph with our partners and some of us wanted to put a rhetorical question at the end. We have also watched the harvest assembly. It was Jeans for Geans day today for charity. By Amber and Amie it was fun all week.

6H - Mr Hautler This week we have been doing division and have started our narratives. We have also been learning about team work through team building activities. On Friday we had a special assembly about the harvest which was very good. We also particepated in jeans for gense day. The school had a karate demonstration There may be a club that might be on next half term. George and Jessica

6M - Mr Martin - What an exhausting week! Now that the term is in full swing, we have been as busy as ever. We are currently engaged in writing exciting narratives in english about dragons. We have been learning some key vocabulary for descriptive writing. We have been studying the Bayeaux Tapestry for our topic on Kings and Queens.

Week 3 Autumn Term 09/10

Mr Duff — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:15:22 +0100

Quick one as trying to fit in 417 things and I have an hour to do it!!

What's been going on this week at Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School?

Reception - We have had a really happy week, settling into routines and gainig more confidence with new friends. We enjoyed having a visit from a Dental Hygieneist who showed us how to brush our teeth and talked with us about healthy foods and sugary foods.We also watched a builder using many different tools when he came to mend our classroom door. It was lovely to talk to so many families at parents evening, than you for coming.

The Reception Teachers

1B - Mrs Barrington - A very eventful week in Class 1B. Lots of things have been measured as part of our maths learning. The children loved listening to Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and also got to watch the story on DVD. It was great to meet so many parents at the drop in on Wednesday. Please note l am available by arrangement for those of you that were unable to attend. Please check the window by our class to see if its your child's turn for Show an Tell. Have a lovely weekend.

James - Enjoyed sharing his cd, Accidents will Always Happen

Jacob - Enjoyed sharing his cd, Let it Shine

1C - Mrs Collinson - Hi Everyone!

Another great week in Year 1! The children have really shown how grown up they can be and seem to all be enjoying their time in their new class...hope they are saying the same to you when they are at home!!

Here's what the children have said they have enjoyed learning about this week;

Emma said 'I liked my walk around the school. I saw cars and flowers and a sign that said 2 and a 0, that means slow down.'

MItchell said 'We had fun walking around the school. I saw a zebra crossing and my house and zig zags on the road.'

James said 'I liked golden time because we can play. I do like early work though. We learnt the digraph 'th' and its funny because you have to stick your tongue out.'

Have a great weekend!

Mrs Collison, Mrs Thomson & Miss Slade

2G - Mrs Grant - This week we have been looking at the jobs of people in our local area, and Alfie told us what his Dad does with the Ambulance Service. In Science we have been looking at the Sun and the Moon and how we have different seasons and why our moon seems to change shape. We have been reading a story about a turtle who is afraid of small dark places and writing out own version. In maths we have been doing about right angles, quarter turns as well as clockwise and amti-clockwise. We have had a very busy week.

Edward

2P - Mrs Peacher - This week in class 2P we have all created a monster and are going to build a cave for them next week. In maths we have learnt about quarter and half turns clockwise and anti-clockwise. We also did well with ourv times tables. Billy really enjoyed going into the dark tent this week. George enjoyed doing the experiments with light and we all became magic scientists when we learnt how to bend a path of light.

3B - Miss Bernard - Hi everybody!

In 3B we have taken a break from The Romans this week and focussed on Autumn as part of our preparations for Harvest Festival. We went on a lovely senses walk down the brook on Wednesday and spotted many signs of Autumn despite the day being so beautiful. The children have also collected lots of Autumn objects for their homework, thanks! Here are some of the children's views on some of the activities that we have been busy doing:

"I like the nature walk, the trees were beautiful"- Lilly

"I liked doing my art work about Autumn"- Ai'sha

"I liked my painting because I do loads"- Fayeem

"Maths, adding, taking away and counting because I love Maths"- Kinga

"ICT, Education City because I thought it was fun and creative"- Ollie

ICT, Education City because I like doing all kinds of maths"- Liam

Well done children, I have had another enjoyable week teaching you looking forward to doing more fun activities next week.

Have a great weekend! - Miss Bernard

3/4L - Mr Lloyd - Hi all!

This week in 3/4L we have been doing more work on our world war 2 projects! We look further at Anderson shelters and even began making our own! we also researched some top secret information for Winston Churchill to aid the war effort. On friday we played football in P.E, some people scored some excellent goals.

5J - Mrs Johnston - This week we learned about rainforests and we are making our class into a rainforest. It is going well.

We are learning about seeds. We went around the school and took some seeds and drew them. We learned about which seeds are dispersed by water. Do you know? If not, ask someone in 5J! The ICT suite is looking nice. - Blog written by Dawid

5D - Mr Duff - This week in 5AD we did lots of division and we learnt about rhetorical questions. We also did the bus stop method in maths and had lots of fun!! - by Elliott, Amber and Amie.

6M - Mr Martin - Another great week at 6M! We have been starting our stories about dragons
and have been studying partitioning and using the collum methods in maths.
In P.E we have been looking at mirrored and a-symetrical balances on apparatus.Linked in with our history topic, the castles and fortresses we have made our own Bayeux tapestry showing a recent event of our lives. by Anna & Ed

6H - Mr Hautler - Wow! that was a quick week. Time certainly does fly when you are having fun. We have all worked extremely hard this week and are looking forward to a well earned break over the weekend. Mr Hautler has said he is very pleased to see his class taking responisbility for their own learning by completing homework tasks on time(not leaving it to the last minute) and asking when we are not sure. This is good practice for Year 7!

Molly

Week 2 Autumn Term 09/10

Mr Duff — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:18:00 +0100

And so it begins!!

It's Autumn term 2009/10 and we are looking forward to an enjoyable, successful and totally entertaining year ahead.

Although we are only at the end of the second week, there is already a fantastic buzz around the school and we have lots of happy children.

Headlines from Mr Knight

We all seem to be back in to the swing of things this week. Life has been very busy with all sorts of things happening which is always a very satisfying way to spend the time.

There are lots of new faces around the school this term and a few people who have changed their role. Starting with the most important ones – Mrs Corfield and Mrs Gourley have joined Miss Churchman in our revamped school office and are doing sterling work in their new roles. Mrs Corfield is largely dealing with Pupil Matters and Mrs Gourley is taking responsibility for General Administration. Miss Churchman continues to be responsible for Financial Matters and is also leading on Premises issues. We hope to appoint a new assistant to complete the team in the next week or so. Mrs Collison, Mr Lloyd and Mrs Grant are now all fully fledged teachers and thoroughly enjoying themselves! Finally we have a new group of Graduate trainees working with us – Mrs Usher, Miss Wise, Miss Walkerley, Mrs Eastham, Miss Crumbie and Mrs Weddell. If you manage to remember all of these names – you are doing very well!

Last week Mr Bird and I held interviews for a new site manager. We saw some very strong candidates and offered the job to one of them. To our delight he accepted and if everything goes well we hope he will start work on 1^st October. We will introduce him to you when he starts!

So what's been causing this buzz around Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School !!

Nursery

Lewis - we played with the dinosaurs Lilly-Rose - we played with cutting and sticking George - we played with the bugs
Nicholas, Joe, Katey - we had fun in our first week at Nursery

Gracie - liked playing with the dinosaurs

Louis - liked playing in the house

Sophie - did some drawing

Aryan - liked playing on the computer

Maisie - painted a picture

Reception - We have been having a great time in the Reception Classes, getting to know each other and finding out about new routines. We have started doing phonic and number activities and we have been thinking about ourselves being special people and how people help us. Next week we hope we are going to have some special visitors too.

From the Reception Team.

1B - Mrs Barrington - Hello and welcome to Class 1B's first blog of the year.

We are getting on very well and have been very busy and noisy. This week we have listened to the story 'The Tiger who Came to Tea' by Judith Kerr. We invited different animals to tea and wrote our own invitations. In maths we are very good at counting back to zero from a two digit number. Below are some of our favourite parts of the week:

Jacob - Enjoyed talking about the story

Caitlin - Had fun playing with the soft toys

Finlay - Likes reading his reading book

Have a super weekend and see you next week.

1C - Mrs Collison - Welcome back everyone! It was so lovely to see all our happy, friendly faces back in class, but no longer Reception children, Year 1 children!! How time flies and how the children have grown.

Here's what we've been up to this week:

Libby said: 'I have enjoyed sticking labels in my English book. I made labels to stick on Mrs Collison, Laura and Sid the skeleton!'

Ryan B said: 'I had fun playing word bingo. Charlie won but I found the words shed and food.'

Ryan C said: 'I liked loads of things! The role play was good. I pretended to trip over and Doctor Daniel fixed my bone.'

As you can see the children have settled in well and are really acting like they are well and truly ready for Year 1.

Have a lovely weekend and we'll see you on Monday!

Mrs Collison & Miss Slade.

2G - Mrs Grant - This week we have written about Mr Wolf and what he does during the day. I think that Mr Wolf would make cakes, and make the kitchen very messy. We have also been learning about time, (o'clock and half past) the days of the week, which we have also been learning in French, and months of the year, but not in French, yet. In science we have been learning about light and dark. Mrs Grant wanted to show us some shadows but the sun didn't come out so she used a lamp to pretend. And we got to go in the new ICT suite.

Alicia

2P - Miss Peacher - The children in class 2P have been learning all about time this week.

'I really enjoyed acting out the story of a week at Darlinghurst'. Rebecca Essex

'I can remember now all of the months of the year!' Aimee Wilson

The children have also been practicing saying the days of the week in French and are pretty good. Well done guys!

3B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

We have had another fun week in our class. I am really enjoying my teaching in Class 3B and I can tell that the children are really excited their learning too. I particularly enjoyed our Science lesson where the children had the torches out and they were investigating how light travels. They had tubes, prisms, cards with holes and mirrors. The atmosphere in class was very busy with children so excited about their learning. Alex also went outside to investigate shadows with his sun dial which he made as part of his home work. He took Paul and Gram with him. They got very excited when it worked.

Here are some comments from the children about the activities that have taken place in class this week:

“I really enjoyed working with Alex’s sun dial”- Paul

“Working on Light and Shadow with the torches because it was fun”- Aaliyah

“Doing Light and Shadow because it was interesting”- Tayyaba

“I liked learning about Light and Shadow” – Ai’sha

“I like Maths, counting in 10’s”- Fayeem

“I liked playing the Number Bonds Bingo making 100”- James

“I liked playing the Place Value game with Miss Bernard”- Ollie

“Maths, I liked it because it was hard. If you learn it you will be very good”- Yaa

“I liked doing our Topic Book covers, it was fun”- Liam

Thanks for a great week 3B. Next week our main topic will be Autumn, remember to collect lots of leaves, conkers and cones for us to do exciting things with.

Have a great weekend!

Miss Bernard

3/4B - Miss Bolton - Welcome to a new school year and the first blog entry. Well, class 3/4B have been back just over 2 weeks now and although are a lively bunch have settled in well! We have launched ourselves fully into our first topic of life during WW2 and I'm amazed at how much information the children are coming in with that they have found out at home. Keep up the encouragement at home, it really makes a difference.

3/4L - Mr Lloyd - This week and last week we have been looking at World War 2.

First we did a timeline and a non chronological report. After that

We created a front cover for our topic books and a poster warning people of the dangers of air raids!! We then identified habitats and found describing words for them. We are really enjoying our new class and cant wait for next week!!

3/4 L - Natasha, Charlotte and Thomas

5J - Mrs Johnston - This week we have been researching our own animals for the rainforest. On Wednesday we went in the computer suite. On Friday we drew our animals and painted them. We also made vines out of newspaper and painted them green and brown. We have enjoyed this week very much.

Written by Mia and Alexia

Note from Mrs Johnston - it wasn't only the newspaper that was painted green and brown!

5D - Mr Duff - This week in 5AD we have been learning about column addition and about the rainforest. We have been looking at how bad deforestation is. We have been looking at subordinate clauses and trying to find them in our reading books. We have enjoyed this week and we can’t wait till next week!! – Joshua and Elliott.

6M - Mr Martin - We have had a really good week in 6M! We have been mirroring each others movements with different apparatus in P.E. Also we have created some collages, using all sorts of materials, to make a dragon. In maths we have been partitioning two digit, or three digit numbers by one. We have discovered how to write a narrative poem in English and we will be writing stories next week. By Anna and Ed J

6H - Mr Hautler - This week in our English class, 6H have been writing poems

In Maths we have been multiplying using the written and mental partition method.

We've done a lot of art. One of the things we did in art this week was making art related to maths.

We have to do a collage including the different elements of maths in it, such as shapes,angles and multiplecation. The second part of art was painting self portraits.

We are going to add a paragraph of writing about ourselves underneath.

Molly and Morgan

Week 11 Summer Term 08/09

Mr Duff — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:57:59 +0100

The countdown has begun!!! One week to go!!!

Where has the year gone, blick and you would have missed it?

Well next week is the last, so let's make it a good one. We have a Southend trip for Year 5, teddies bears picnic for the young ones, sports day, Year 6 prom and then it will be Friday before we know it. Don't forget the last day of term we finish at 12:30!

Headlines from Mr Knight

A very busy start to a Friday morning. Like lots of schools in the area we have been informed that several of our children have been confirmed as having symptoms of swine flu. That meant a hasty rewrite of the weekly newsletter and phone calls to the local authority and the medical service to check on latest advice. Hopefully the guidance given in "News and Views" will make clear what you should do as parents.

We have received all of our Year 6 SATs results now and I must admit that we are very happy with them. The children have performed very well - particularly in Science and English. Mathematics is still our weakest area but it is improving over time. In Science every child in the year group, with the exception of the one that was absent, gained the national level for their age and half of the year group did even better than that. Very well done children - and very well done Mr Hautler and Mr Martin!

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

Nursery - I played with the sand - Lilly-Rose

We played in the water - Tyler

We played with the doll's house - Luke

I played with the drawing - Bryony

We played outside - Beau

We played with puzzles - Holly

W played with the trains - Chloe

We had a bouncy castle because it was the Nursery Sports Day - Henry

RM - Mrs Collison - Hi everyone!

Well I can't start with anything else apart from the fantastic news that I will be taking my lovely reception class into Year 1. I was really excited about the news and I hope you were too. Class RM are a great class with such lovely characters and I look forward to helping them grow and flourish in class 1C.

Another hectic week this week! What with magic plane rides to Fairytale Land, making fabulous castles from a wide variety of different materials and eating delicious Chinese food, another week has just flown by.

Here's what the children have said they enjoyed;

Daniel said 'I enjoyed using the Beebots. I had to make them move forwards and backwards to find a castle.'

Kai said 'I have enjoyed playing with the computer. I put on the headphones and listened to Jack and the Beanstalk. It was funny.'

Samuel said 'I liked going fast on the orange motorbike and sliding down the slide backwards '

Laura said ' I liked pretending to go to Fairyland World, it was a shame I didn't get there because Captain Collison's plane got lost.'

Have a great weekend and look forward to seeing you all on Monday.

Mrs Collison & Mrs Thomson

RW - Mrs Dutton - My, how this week has flown! And this week we have been back in time! We discovered how people lived in the middle ages, especially knights, jesters, princesses and all things medieval! We have made crowns and princess hats which the children then showed off in a parade- very grand! The children also enjoyed the Chinese lunch, " I loved the coconut icecream!" (Cody) " I liked the chicken and the rice!" (Alisha) In I.C.T. we were able to visit the Cbeebies website and play games based on Jack and the Beanstalk. Looking forward to our fun and games next week before the summer hols. Have a great weekend!

Miss Porter.

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

An other enjoyable week for class 3/2B, we have been doing our Dinosaur topic and we all know how fascinating and exciting they are.I love teaching 3/2B because they are always so enthusiastic about everything. They are helping to keep me going as my energy levels are slumping as we head towards the end of term. The Dinosaur topic is also helping to do the trick. Here are some of the children's views on the activities that we have been doing this week.

"I have enjoyed sewing my dinosaur motif because it is fun"- Molly

"I like the sewing because I have not done it before and I've got really far"- Aaliyah

"The sewing if fun. It is my second time and I've really enjoyed it"- Phoebe

"The sewing is fun and I don't think that it is too hard to do"- Raman

"I liked when my group went out and drew the dinosaur on the playground"- Natasha

"I enjoyed measuring the dinosaurs and finding out how many metres there were"- Josh

"Drawing the big brachiosaurus was fun because I got to draw a big line for it's neck and back"- Brendon

"Measuring the dinosaurs was fun, I liked measuring them"- Peter

"In ICT we drew pictures using First Artist. I enjoyed it because I got to print mine out. We ran out of time when we did our 80's pictures- Scarlett

"I liked ICT because I got to work with Emma and I haven't worked with her before"- Grace

"ICT was fun, I liked doing my dinosaur logo"- Ai'sha

"I liked ICT because I managed to make my pictures look exactly like my dinosaur design"- Mikayla

"ICT was fun, I was glad as I did not get to finish my picture during 80's week"- Hannah

"I enjoyed watching "Walking with Dinosaurs" because I liked it when the big dinosaur jumped up at the little dinosaur"- Thomas

Well done children, you have all worked hard this week, as usual. I am so pleased that you are enjoying the dinosaur topic. Really looking forward to having an enjoyable last week with you.

Have a great weekend.

Miss Bernard

3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - This week we have been very busy writing a dinosaur story. We have done lots of dinosaur numeracy using data. We started our dinosaur bags that Mrs Chatterton bought us for our end of year present. We are sewing dinosaurs on them. We looked at the Cretaceous period for history.

We went swimming for the last time, we have really enjoyed it. Niall

4B - Miss Bolton - This week in year 4 has been brilliant. The children have been working hard to finish all loose ends with work and we're done - with a week to go to. This means next week we can enjoy our last week as year 4 without any pressures.

The highlight though has been our trip to Kentwell Hall. It really is the best trip the children can go on and all loved every minute - apart from Connor who still claims last years Natural History Museum was better! The children looked great all dressed up, which leads me to saying big thank you to all of you for making such a fantastic effort with costumes.

We have collected lots of photo's and video's from this year and would like to give you the opportunity to have a disc with all of them on. If your child brings in 50p, they will get a disc with all from their time in year 4. It will include a full video of our part in the Christmas play and our trip to Kentwell Hall.

Please follow this link to the Gallery pages for a couple of photo's of Kentwell Hall.

4J - Mrs Johnston - This weeks blog is from George Gough
On Monday we started by reporting the things we did for the school's 40th birthday. We then saw an article like ours in the Echo. My favourite part of this week was going to Kentwell Hall. I liked going to see the Tudor house and it was really funny feeding the fish. I also got looked at funny when I was walking to school dressed as a Tudor. In assembly we also listened to the year 6's talk about their trip to France, which sounded really good.

5D - Mr Duff - To be written by Ed and Anna on morning morning, please check back.

5B - Mr Bird - On Monday, class 5B spent the first lesson talking about decisions that we will make in our life. It all started off with our task which was : Would you rather be, a Lifeboat Crew Member or a Famous Celebrity. Later on in the day we discussed our Southend Projects although it was not in great detail. We also had a session where we talked about Southend.After that Brittany told us how she had around the number of 24 pets. we also wrote up our reports to go home.

On Tuesday Mr Bird went to France so Mrs Amran came in to cover. We wrote our thank-you-for-the-helicopter-photos-and-speech letters to Mr Morgan and Captain Juppey. we also touched on our Projects a little more.

On Wedesday some children finished our letters to Mr.Morgan and Captain Juppey. We had our reports sent home.

We also had English but instead of writing we played games in the I.C.T Suite.

On Thursday we had a look at some of the classes free written stories. There were stories about injured horses that were in the army, a girl who broke her arm and her leg on a rollercoaster and a group of boys who went to a warhammer club. After lunch we had a couple Volley Ball matches. Half the nuns played volley ball while the other half played a bomb game where you played catch but the ball was a bomb and whoever had the ball by the count of ten was out.

On Friday we did our spellings and tables tests.We all had a game of heads-down thumbs-up. Everybody joined in and everyone had lots of fun. We also had a first aid session were the casualty had a deep cut and the first aid-er had to check if there alright,then we had to act out how to make them better.

It was our last Friday afternoon in year 5 sob,sob!) and everbody had lots of fun

have a good weekend and see you on Monday.

Week 10 Summer Term 08/09

Mr Duff — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:28:10 +0100

It was back to the 60's for us this week, with hippies and flower power it felt like an episode of Austin Powers!!

For me to type everything that went on would take for ages, so you can either ask your children what they did this week, and if they just grunt at you, please feel free to scroll down to their class and see what they really did !! Needless to say it was a fantastic week, that the children and adults all enjoyed. A big thank you to Mrs Chatterton for organising it, your hard work paid off, it was great

So lets go straight into finding out what did happen this week at Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School.

RM - Mrs Collison - What a fandabedozi week.....but I'm exhausted!!! I bet the children have been sleeping really well at the end of each day this week! Helicopters, parties, dancing and more importantly jelly & icecream...every week should be party week!!!

Here's what the children have said they enjoyed:

Emma said 'I liked the helicopter man. He landed really fast and I had to run away.

Ellie said 'I liked hearing Daniel (Mrs Collison's boy) playing the drums. I liked the catwalk and had to wiggle my hips. I wore a red and black dress.'

Shaun said 'I really, really, really, really liked watching Mrs Collison Strictly Come Dancing, street dancing and then the helicopter came.'

Back to normality next week (well, as normal as we can be!!)

We'll be thinking about life in medieval times and making lots of mess!! Have a good weekend and see you all on Monday.

1/2B - Mrs Barrington - We've had it all this week, helicopters, French songs, cha cha slide, guitars, street dancing, banquets and bouncy castles. Oh and lets not forget the SUN. Lots of fun and excitement had by all. Class 1/2B are fully rehearsed in many songs from the 60's their favourite being Yellow Submarine by the Beatles.

Kinga enjoyed art work by Andy Warhol.

Josh enjoyed the banquet.

Klaudia loved dressing up and Mrs Barrington's boots.

Natasha's favourite was the helicopter and Taylor remembered it was called a squirrel.

Another busy week next week as year 1 and 2 take to the seaside, Yippee!!

Class 1/2B say "LOVE AND PEACE"

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hi everybody!

What an exciting week we've had celebrating our 40th year. The children have thoroughly enjoyed investigating the 80's. They were absolutely mesmerised by the Live Aid footage. We also enjoyed all the activities that we saw during our open day on Wednesday, especially the guitars and I was so proud of the children from our Street Dance club when they did their "Dance through the Decades".

Here are some of the children’s comments about the activities that they have particularly enjoyed this week:

“80’s week, because it’s fun and it was interesting because we learned information”- Hannah

“80’s week, because it’s fun and cool. I’ve never learned about the 80’s before”- Evan

“Live Aid was fun, I liked my work that I did about it”- Ai’sha

“I liked learning about Live Aid. I liked doing the 80’s magazine- Max

“I liked doing the 80’s adverts for our magazines because it was fun doing them and seeing what they look like”- Thomas

“Live Aid was great. I liked it because mum said it was a big part of her life when she was a teenager and I got to learn about it. We have a lot, but people in Africa don’t have anything”- Scarlett

“I liked Karate because my dad used to do it and it was fun doing what my dad used to do”- Josh

“I liked Karate because I used to go and it reminded me of that”- Ryan

“I enjoyed the Banquet because the food was nice and I liked the ice cream”- Aaliyah

”The Banquet was good, the lollies were lovely”- Kaya

“I liked the Banquet, we got ice cream”- Mikayla

“The Banquet was great, we had lots of food”- Ella

“I really enjoyed doing the Street Dance performance”- Emma

So, again, the children have had a fun, enjoyable week. It’s been so exciting. I almost forgot to mention the helicopter. That was fantastic!

Enjoy your weekend! - Miss Bernard

4J - Mrs Johnston - This blog has been written by Georgie Kent:

On Monday there was a helicopter that came to the school field and the whole school was in the shape of the school logo. Next, Mr Morgan made a talk about the helicopter. It was very interesting.

Tuesday - we made musical sculptures with Graham.

There was a man teaching martial arts. Only Years 3, 4 and 5 had a go. We had to should loudly!

On Wednesday it was Open Day and lots of children performed in the hall.

Thursday We had a banquet. We had to dress as hippies, most people made a big effort and we had lots of food.

Friday - After school is the Bouncy Castles. In 4J we have been starting to make a newspaper about the things that have been happening in this exciting week.

5B - Mr Bird - On Wednesday it was an open day where mums, dads, aunties, uncles,nuns and granddads could come in. Even ex-pupils came in to have a look a round. We also had a guitar assembly where some children that have been going to the guitar lessons held by Mr Briggs, got a chance to show how good they are at playing. Well done to:

George who was playing Good Riddance by Green Day ,

Aaron who was playing One by Metalicer,

Max who was playing Enter Sandman by Metalicer and Molly who was playing a song that she (and Iona from 4J and Jamie from 6H) had wrote themselves.

Later on in the day Molly went on to play her guitar for the school song.

On Thursday, we all dressed up as people from the sixties. There was a variety of costumes including hippies, 60's nerds, Bobby Moore and a police man (Mr Bird)! Everybody took part in the banquet and after eating we all got either Ice Cream, Jelly and Ice Cream or an Ice Lolly - Written by Oscar

5D - Mr Duff - What a great week!!!! Starting from the helicopter landing in the field and having our pictures taken in front of it to dressing up in 60’s clothing.

At Westcliff high school for boys on Tuesday we were focusing on our map and compass skills using their computers.

On Wednesday there was the open day where our class preformed the cha cha slide and some people preformed with clubs as well.

We had our banquet with Mrs Cornish yesterday, who took TONS of photos!! Also we did news paper portraits of our friends wearing their 60’s costumes.

We had loads of fun celebrating Darlinghurst’s 40^th anniversary!JJ - Written by Anna + Ed

Week 9 Summer Term 08/09

Mr Duff — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:46:59 +0100

Darlinghurst is 40 years old (and that's older than me!)

To celebrate we have numerous activities going on next week ranging from a helicopter visit on Monday to a banquet on Thursday. It should be very enjoyable and I am looking forward to it all. Get a full run down of what's happened in next weeks blog!

Mega Bouncy Castle Event

As part of the celebrations the school's PTA has arranged a Mega Bouncy Castle Event for Friday 3rd July between 2.30pm and 5.30pm. The cost is £6.00 for a wristband, which is for unlimited use of at least 12 Bouncy Castles. Sounds like fun to me, I wonder if adults are allowed?

Headlines from Mr Knight

What a steamy week we have had this week. The school has been very hot every day and I am very surprised that the children and the staff can manage to concentrate throughout the day. It is even more surprising to see some of our children wearing a fleece zipped up to the top even when temperatures are reaching record levels! Please encourage your children to dress for the weather - there is no need to wear a fleece when the sun is shining and even the seagulls are sweating!

We have a very full and busy week next week as we will be dedicating the week to celebrating the fact that the school is 40 years old. Highlights include a visit by a helicopter to take aerial photographs, an Open Day (Wednesday 1^st July), a reunion opportunity (also 1^st July), a celebration street banquet (Thursday 2^nd July) and to round up the week a “BouncyCastle" event on Friday. You should have received details about all of these events in the last few weeks - all we have to do now is survive the week!!

What else has been happening at Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery school this week?

RW - Mrs Dutton - This week we have been writing about what we would like to find in a pirate treasure chest and our ideas were very interesting. We have also enjoyed looking at the 5 Painted Lady Butterflies and drawn pictures of them. On Friday we released them to fly to lay eggs that will hatch into more caterpillars. We discussed how we felt when they flew away, Isobella and Finley they were sad because they wanted them to stay, Alex was happy they flew away to make more caterpillars and butterflies.

RM - Mrs Collison - Hi there everyone,

Another fun week had by all. The children have been very busy helping me with their reports this week and telling me all the things they enjoy about school. We have also had fun with making edible pirate boats. The children have shown me how very good they are at spreading butter, cheesespead and jam, so there is no need to make the children's sandwiches for them in the morning....because they can do it themselves!!!

Here is what the children have said they have enjoyed this week.

James said 'I liked eating my pirate boat, it had cheesespread in the middle.'

Ryan C said 'I enjoyed making a race track with the guttering. My red car went very fast when it was going down the hill and then it came out.'

Alistair said 'I liked drawing with the Thomas book. Thomas is a little blue train with the number 1.'

Mitchell said 'I've enjoyed learning about numbers. Mrs Collison put her feet on the bugs when we were estimating!'

Next week we are really looking forward to our school birthday party, with lots of learning about the 1960's through dancing, clothes and most importantly lots of lovely food!! Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Collison & Mrs Thomson

1/2D - Mrs Dutton - What a busy week we have had. We have been counting in 5's, gropuing in 5's and beginning to remember our 5 times tables. In our writing we have been reading and writing poems. We have had the excitement of the butterflies emerging - we have discuss their lifecycle throughout and really enjoyed watching them. We released them on Friday morning to start the life cycle again. Some of our class also represented the school in the Borough Sports, Olivia said she really enjoyed this and it was the best part of the week for her.

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

Another week has gone by and we are getting closer to our 40th Year celebrations. The children in 3/2B are beginning to get excited. A few children have been researching the 80's as homework for our 80's topic week. I'm really looking forward to all the things that we have got planned.

Here are some of the activities that the children have enjoyed this week:

I have enjoyed practising Street Dance because it is fun- Emma

I liked Street Dance because I am doing movements that I have never done before- Mikayla

Street Dance has been good because I know how to do all the dances now- Alisha

I've enjoyed Art because I like making my motif- Ai'sha

I like Art because I like being creative-Grace

I am enjoying Art because I've never done this (designing dinosaur motif to sew on bag) before- Evan

I enjoyed KS1 Borough Sports because I was competing against children that I didn't know- Ryan

I really liked swimming because I like to learn new stuff- Liam

Swimming is great because I like to learn new activities- Alfie

Our blog is a little bit short this week because half of the class were out doing shared reading with Mr Martin's class. Most of the class always have something to say, 3/2B have a very positive attitude towards school. That's why I enjoy teaching them so much.

Have a lovely weekend and keep on gathering information about the 80's please!! - Miss Bernard

3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - This week we have been having fun learning about Dinosaurs. We didn't know there were so many! We are writing a piece of non fiction. Mrs Grant got us to draw a picture of an imaginary dinosaur and we have made it out of clay. We learnt about the Jurassic period. In maths we have been doing lots of multiplying word problems, some were really hard. Mrs Grant helped us to finish off our Powerpoints on dinosaurs.

In science we have been looking at rocks and their properties and seeing if they are permeable or impermeable. We used lots of water for that! - Chyna and Connor

4J - Mrs Johnston - This week's blog has been written by Brendan.

Monday: we learnt about air resistance and practised making the Darlinghurst badge for the 40th anniversary. Tuesday: we did Tudor work for a display.

Wednesday: we finished it off.

Thursday: we watched a DVD on Shabbat then we wrote about the main parts of it.

Friday: in the morning we finished the RE off and then we had a practice for Open Day and then we had Golden Time.

4B - Miss Bolton - This week year 4 has been studying Henry Vlll and have now almost completed our tudor topic!!!! We have also been practicing our logo for our 40th anniversary helicopter photo!!!!! On monday we created are own super-markets in numeracy and had the chance to be real shopkeepers!! In Art we sketched the school from various angles as part of the celebrations. We are looking forward to next week when we are having banquet and martial arts training!! 4B Reece and Harry

5B - Mr Mr Bird - This week (on Tuesday and on Wednesday) the whole school had a rehearsal for the picture of us making the badge. Also on Wednesday, Owen, Nikita, Danielle, Phoebe, George, Rebecca and Molly all went on a sport leadership course and are doing so for the next 2 weeks. Everybody really enjoyed thenselves and had lots of fun! On Thursday we had a digital assembly telling us about contemporaily art and on the 4th of July there is a taste tester and on the 11th of July the real club starts.

On Friday, an amount of children went to Mrs Chatterton to practice chords for the school song on the 40th anniversary.There were 4 children from Class 5B, Tavis,Aaron,Max and Molly.

They got on really well and really enjoyed it.

5D - Mr Duff - To be written by the children on Monday!! If any of 5D are reading this I need volunteers!!

6H - Mr Hautler - We have had a very busy week doing a lot of work.We have finally finished our diarahmas and taken them home.We are also getting ready for more activities as it's our 40th week next week. The whole school had logo practise and we hope we do as good as we did this week. We are also getting ready for our leavers assembly.Although we are excited for our assembly we are nervous because teachers from our secondary schools came in to talk to us about our transition from year 6 to year 7.We have recently started making our buntings. This was a very enjoyable week and we hope everyone had a good week to. Chani and Daniel

6M - Mr Martin - 6M has worked really hard on their own topics this week, they have chosen sensible topics and making use of spared time.Year 6 pupils are preparing for the yr 6 production, people who didn't get the part took it well , the people without a speaking part are dancing, so everyone has something to do.They are all participating and we look foward to the production.

Week 8 Summer Term 08/09

Mr Duff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:20:00 +0100

Sorry late update - I had to get to my coconut stall straight after school on Friday and this is the time I usually update the blog. I will keep it to the point this week.

We knew it was going to be tough!

Congratulations to all the children who competed in this years Borough Sports. We all knew that making it to the 1st division was going to be more of a challenge and as it turned out, it was. The children should be very proud of their efforts and deserve a pat on the back for making the opposing schools work hard to gain places. You're behaviour was outstanding and sportsmanship second to none. We had some very good results in the field events and some surprises in the track. Through talking with spectator and parents, it was clearly evident that the 1st division is extremely competeive, even in the spectator stand. A new experience for all of us. We will be competing in division 2 next year.

Mr Hautler

Headlines from Mr Knight

All good things come to an end eventually. We knew that competing in Division 1 was going to be hard but the children gave it their best shot! We were like Southend United playing in the Premier League - brave and committed but unable to conquer the teams with greater resources! Very well done to everyone who took part and to all of those who supported the team. Special thanks to Mr Hautler who worked so hard with the team - Miss Slann would have been proud of you!

Apparently the weather is going to be good for the next few weeks. Please ensure that your children are well prpeared for the conditions - apply suncream, provide a hat and make sure that they have a water bottle for frequent rehydration. The summer is here for such a short time - it would be a pity to miss the glorious conditions due to sunstroke. Thank you for your help with this matter.

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

RM - Mrs Collison - Ahoy there me hearties!! Pirates again this week, however the children have absolutely amazed me with their developing number skills and the knowledge they have now all displayed in reading maps to find buried treasure....by using CO-ORDINATES!! Is there no end to their talents!!

Here's what the children said;

James said: 'I liked making maps and putting the parrot in. When I read the map it was in co-ordinate A4'

Louis said: 'I enjoyed looking for pirates in the role play area with my friend Tyler.'

Libby said: ''I enjoyed playing outside with my friend Rhianna. We played mummies and daddies.'

Clio said: 'I liked making cakes for the pirates out of playdoh.'

Next week we are going to be thinking about Literacy and writing messages in bottles for the pirates to find.

Have a lovely weekend and take care - Mrs Collison X

RW - Mrs Dutton - We have been thinking about pirates again. We have learnt a pirate rhyme, played a game to find out what was in the treasure box and many of the children have been finding out how to use co ordinates to make their own treasure maps.

Shaun said "I have enjoyed doing the pirate pictures on the computer."

Alisha said "I really liked drawing pirate maps."

Isobella said "I liked drawing on the whiteboard and making pirate pictures."

Jay said " I have had fun playing in the role play area."

1/2B - Mrs Barrington - It's been an amazing week for class 1/2B. We really enjoyed reading Anna's Amazing Multi-Coloured Glasses by Wendy Body. Below are some important messages the children would like you to know;

Josh - We have been learning to tell the time..

Rebecca - Have fun at the school fete.

Taylor and Lilly-Rose - Spellings have finished for the term.

Natasha - We have been learning about Anna's Amazing Multi-Coloured Glasses.

Paul - We made some amazing multi-coloured glasses.

1/2D - Mrs Dutton - In Numeracy we have been finding out more about telling the time to half past, quarter past and quater to the hour, We have used the clocks and our bodies to try to remember these times. In our topic of The Seaside we have also enjoyed reading the story Anna's amazimg multi-coloured glasses and we have used our ICT skills to design a pair of sunglasses. Cameron said his favourite part of the week was "collecting and counting all those cups for the school fair. I hope I will win one." Hopefully we will have sun this year!

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hi everybody!

Another week gone!

We have been really enjoying our Dinosaur topic. The children have been looking at the different prehistoric ages and locating which dinosaurs lived at that particular time.We're also beginning to design logos for our dinosaur bags. Some of the children took part in Borough Sports this week which they really enjoyed, despite having not done as well as in recent years.

Here are some comments from children about some of the activities they have taken part in this week.

"I think that doing the dinosaur logos is fun"- Evan

"Designing logos is fun"- Ryan

"I like doing the Dinosaur Timeline because it's simple and there are lots of new words to learn"- Peter

" The Dino Timeline is great because we get to look at different dinosaurs and see which age they come from"- Thomas

" I enjoyed researching the Dinosaur Timeline"- Aaliyah

"Borough Sports was fun because I like to run and I came joint 3rd with Scarlett"- Natasha

"I enjoyed Borough Sports because it was my first time and I came in 3rd place"- Scarlett

"It was fun and I came 3rd"- Alisha

" Borough Sports was fun"- Raman

" I enjoyed Borough Sports even though we lost"- Josh

"Borough Sports was fun because some of my friends from another school were there. But I didn't like the wait"- Grace

"Borough Sports was fun, but I fell over and hurt myself"- Jack

"I enjoyed "Borough Sports because I've never come 1st, 2nd or 3rd before an this time I came 3rd.- Charlotte

"Borough Sports because I jogged passed somebody in the race and it was my first time in KS2 Borough Sports.- Brendan

"This week I enjoyed doing the alphabet in French because I like doing the alphabet"- Tayyaba

We have had a fun and busy week.

Have a fun weekend! - Miss Bernard

3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - This week we have been writing letters, we chose to write to different authors to invite them to come to our school. I wrote to J K Rowling because I really like the Harry Potter books. This morning we made sculptures that have got some musical electronics inside them that can be seen in Southend on 2nd July. I helped to make the tree. In ICT we have been making a Power Points presentation about dinosaurs - I am doing about a T-Rex. In science we have been looking at rocks and how they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, some are hard and some are soft like chalk - Paige

4B - Miss Bolton - Some of us in 4B this week cooked around 250 flapjacks to sell to raise some money for our class. They were yummy! We still have some left and will be selling the left overs on Monday.

We had a great time learning about Henry VIII and all his wives too. Today we made Fathers Days cards. We have also learnt about decimals in maths this week.

Blog written by Jessica and Poppy.

4J - Mrs Johnston - This blog has been written by David and Cai.

This week we have doing work about Henry VIII. We have done very well. We have written a lot and made a show about Henry VIII. We have drawn pictures and we all did a good job. We went outside for PE and we did Tudor dance and then we did jousting.

Sports update from George

Going to Borough Sports was really good. I liked racing against the other schools. I liked it when Steven ran his fastest and Charlie kept going even when her foot hurt.

Week 7 Summer Week 08/09

Mr Duff — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:45:48 +0100

Summer Fair

Next Friday is our summer fair, well l'm pretty sure it's called a summer fair but I suppose some people might call it a summer fete. To confuse things even more, I have even heard it called the summer BBQ. Can I say now that all three are the same thing and it is after school next Friday, which is the 19th.

Why the coconut? That's the stall my class and I will be on and personally speaking I am thoroughly looking forward to it. Having been to the last two, I can honestly say it's the best school summer fair/fete/bbq that I been to and a huge thank you must go to our fantastic PTA for organising it.

So I would love to see as many people there as possible supporting the PTA, our school and just as importantly having fun!!!

Borough Sports

The team has been selected and next Wednesday afternoon is D-Day (tried to get a topical link in there). Having be victorious in the last 4 years the pressure is on Mr Hautler to bring home the cup but as a school have been promoted to the Premership this year and competition will be extremely tough. So I wish all the children the best of luck and go out and enjoy yourself. Have fun!!

Anyway, that's enough about next week, what's been happening this week at Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery school?

Nursery - am

We played outside - Maisie

We done some painting, I helped to paint a face - Tyler

We played on the bikes - Toby

We played in the cars - William

We played in the Nursery house - Harley

We did drawing on the easel - Holly

We played on the computers - Luke

We planted some cress seeds - Maisie

Nursery pm

We dressed up as policeman (when Jan the community officer came in) - Chelsey

We played on the bikes - Layton

We did colouring in - Kelcey

We played outside - Emily

We planted cress seeds - Ben

We did sharing - Harrison

RW - Mrs Dutton + Ms Thomson - We have had a really enjoyable week finding out about Charles Darwin and the important things he did. We took a ‘Thinking Walk’ just like Darwin did and started a doodle book after looking at plants and insects, using magnifying glasses to see details and pictures to find out what we were looking at. We had so much fun we want to have more ‘Thinking Walks’ to find out more about nature.

Caitlin said “ I loved the daisies”

John said “We saw different types of insects. We saw bees collecting nectar.”

Roman said “Thank you for our honey bees.”

RM - Mrs Collison + Ms Thomson - A super week of exploring nature has been had by all and I am sure there will be many future Charles Darwins who started life in Mrs Collison's Reception Class!!

Here's what the children have said:

Gemma said: 'I have enjoyed learning about Charles Darwin and I know when he got older he had a big, white beard. When he was little he had a little black beard and he went on thinking walks around his garden. He found lots of ants!'

Olivia R said: 'I liked going on our thinking walk. I found lots of insects and flowers but didn't have enough room to draw them in my doodle book!'

Shaun said: 'I liked using binoculars and a camera when I went on my thinking walk.'

Ryan B said 'I liked watching the DVD about Charles Darwin. I found out that he was a naughty boy at schoo!!

Ship Ahoy!!!...Here's to more pirate adventures next week!

Have a safe weekend - Mrs Collison & Mrs Thomson

1/2B - Mrs Barrington - Water, water everywhere in class 1/2B as most of you know we have been learning all about capacity. This gives us a great opportunity to be outside with the water trays. Lots of children have been comparing containers and explaining their findings to the class.

Rebecca would like you to know that it took 6 small jugfuls to fill her teapot. Saeed used a measuring jug and measured 1000ml.

Next week we shall be making our sunglasses so let's hope we have some sun!

Rebecca and Samuel are looking forward to their bike ride on Sunday.

1/2D - Mrs Dutton - This week we have been having fun with water finding out about capacity (there have been many sets of clothes drying on our indoor class washing line) and some of us soaked our bathroom floors while completing our homework, playing with different containers in the bath! Sorry parents!! In our writing time we have enjoyed the story The Sail And The Whale and have been thinking about different beach settings. Bailey said “The best part of this week was working out how many cups of water fitted into an empty bottle. It took 4.”

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

Another busy week has flown by. The children were really excited because we started to investigate Dinosaurs, Rocks and Soils. These are subjects that they are all eager to learn about. I would also like to congratulate them all for their positive approach towards Maths this week. I introduced the Column Method for adding and taking away, which I know some of them found quite difficult, but all of the children worked hard and tried their best. Well done!

Graham from Creative Partnerships also came in to conduct a workshop with the children where they made models and incorporated the noises boxes that they made during a previous session. We all had great fun. One group made a tree which will be part of an exhibition in Victoria Circus on July 2nd, the rest of the class made robots. The children were very inventive and creative. They look fantastic.

Here are some of the things that the children have really enjoyed this week:

“I like the robots because I like making things”- Ai’sha

“Making the tree, it was fun and clever how we did it”- Phoebe

“Our model with Graham was half alien/half robot. It was fun seeing what it looked like”- Scarlett

“Making the robots was fun”- Evan

“ The robots were fun because my mum thought of some good ideas”- Alfie

“Our palm tree looked good”- Brendan

“I liked finding out about rocks”- Tayyaba

“I think learning about different rocks is fun. One of the rocks had the same name as me, Slate”- Kaya

“Finding out names of the different rocks was interesting”- Mikayla

“Rocks are beautiful”- Bethany

“Finishing my Viking long-ship was fun and they all turned out good”- Thomas

“Writing our Viking Plays was fun. Our group made ours up as we went along”- Aaliyah

We have had a great week. We do work hard in our class, but it also involves lots of fun!

Have a fantastic weekend! - Miss Bernard

3/2C - Mrs Grant - This week we have been learning about dinosaurs, fossils and rocks. In literacy we have written a Viking play script which we then acted out. In numeracy we have been adding 2 and 3 digit numbers and showing our working out, which has been quite hard for some of us as we forget to write it down, but Mrs Grant makes us show it to so that we can see where we are going wrong. In RE we have drawn a picture of the Viking goddess of death, Hel. She was a beautiful woman from the waist up but a rotting corpse from the waist down. By Sarah

4B - Miss Bolton - This week we have been learning about the Tudors, The War of the Roses, Henry VII and his son Henry VIII. We have especially enjoyed learning about Henry VIII and creating a diary imagining we were him. In numeracy we have learnt how to use a compass and had great fun going outside and using the compass to plot a route from the bike shed to the stage! - Caleb and Louis. 4B.

4J - Mrs Johnston - The gremilin ate Freddie's blog from before half-term but he was tracked down and made to write it out again in his best gremlin handwriting!

This week in 4J we have been practising our mental maths. On Wednesday we watched a French puppet show of Little Red Riding Hood which was brilliant. My favourite part was when the wolf chased the grandma and then ate her!

On Thursday we took part in an assembly about getting rid of nits and I was some hair. I also gave a talk about my transformers and everyone said it was good.

We made puppets in class. I made a future predator from Primeval. Beck made a sponge puppet, lots of children used socks - clean ones!

We have also all been training lots for the Borough Sports.

This week's blog has been written by Abbey.

This week we have been learning about the Tudors. We have learnt about the War of the Roses and Henry VIII. We have written letters pretending we were in Tudor times and two people acted out being Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. We have really enjoyed this week and hope next week is just as fun!

5D - Mr Duff - Firstly I would like to say how mature you all were with the maths testing we have been doing this week. No nerves, no worrying and just doing your best. This is very much a testament to the way you have grown up this year, well done.

Graham from Creative Partnerships came in and made our classroom into a huge mess (which I had to apologise to the cleaner for) but having said that we had a huge amount of fun and made some wonderful sculptures.

Mr Rochester spent some time in our class this week and got you thinking about what will 2020 look like and what you thought you might be doing or have done by then. Some excellent discussion were had and it was amazing to see what you thought off. You then wrote a letter to your future self and this will be sent to your home address next week but it's only to be open in the Year 2020, so you can look back and reflect on what your thoughts were back in the year 2009. A fantastic concept and a lesson well taught, thank you Mr Rochester.

You all have your sunflower seeds to grow and observe. Don't forget to note any changes on your observation sheet. Prize for the tallest sunflower!!!

We were back out to our quadrats this week looking for any changes. We noticed that two were very similar to last week but one had sprung into life and had lots of daisies were visable. Photos were taken and Darwin Doodles drawn, both of which will make up part of our final display.

Next Thursday we will be going to Old Leigh and visiting the cockle sheds. It will be a great day out and a packed lunch will be needed. Before you go though, we need the permission slips back in, so bring those back in next week please.

Enjoy your weekend !!

5B - Mr Bird - The following entry has been compiled by Molly.

This week, Class 5B have been sketching, Charles Darwin, H.M.S Beagle, a variety of plants and also learning the techniques of shading.

We have also planted Sunflower seeds and over the course of the weeks up to the end of term. What we have to do is see whose sunflower gets the largest (but we're not aloud to change it and if it needs repotting we have to show Mr Bird, just to make sure there is no cheating!)

Friday was our last time at the swimming pool and over the last four weeks everybody has really enjoyed themselves. This week in the pool we had floats, sinkers, mini surfing boards and balls.

Have a nice weekend and see you Monday. Molly.

I would like to add a comment about the way the children have participated in all of the elements relating to our science themed fortnight. The level of enthusiasm for the work, both in and out of the classroom, has been excellent. Our nature observation walks and field studies, have encouraged everyone to take a full and active role in expanding their knowledge of evolution and some of the work undertaken by Charles Dawin.

The children have been giving regular progress reports on their projects and we are all looking forward to seeing the end product in July.

A final note for parents and carers of children in 5B, please remember to return the permission slips for our trip next week.

6M - Mr Martin - This week year 6 have been doing art eg. making ideal garden diaramas, creating eco friendly theme parks and designing our bunting for the Guiness world book of records. Also preparing for Borough Sports which are next week on Wednesday 17th June. We have officially finished our display about Charles Darwin. We have enjoyed this week's lessons and we are looking forward to competing in the Borough Sports next week.

6H - Mr Hautler - This week we started our diaramas on our gardens and we did '6H has got talent' to audition for our leavers assembly in order to get a speaking role the play. In P.E we did relay which some of us didn't like. We also got our places for Borough Sports.

By Nathan and George.

Week 6 Summer Term 08/09

Mr Duff — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:40:53 +0100

First of all can I apologise for no BLOG entry on the last week of last half term This was simply because of a gremlin creeping into our systems at school and causing havoc!! Anyway he has been found and dealt with and we are back to normal !!!

Charles Darwin 1809-1882

This week has been all about Darwin!! With his 200th birthday this year Mrs Dutton and Mrs Chatterton decided to celebrate this fact and have worked very hard to give all teachers a pack of goodies, which included lots of information, facts and bundles of super activities all about this famous historical figure. A huge thank you to Mrs D and Mrs C for your help, it has been an excellent week

Headlines from Mr Knight

I hope that you all enjoyed the half term holiday. The weather was rather good for a change and it is quite clear from the children that many of you took full advantage of the better conditions. The children certainly seem to have a received a boost and they have started the new half term in a very positive manner.

As many of you will know Mr Rice's funeral took place during the break from school and was very well attended by many members of the school and wider communities - in fact there was barely room in the chapel to accommodate everyone. It was a very fitting tribute to a very warm, friendly and generous man who will be sadly missed for some time to come. We will be raising some money for a memorial at some time during the next few weeks - I hope you will be able to support us with this effort.

The next few weeks will rush past and before we know it we will be half way through the summer holidays. Fingers crossed for a really successful six weeks!!

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

Nursery - We liked playing in the garden this week in the lovely sunshine. Some of our beans have grown but some did not do very well over the half term holiday. We did hand printing with Mrs Essex and mixed two colours to make a new colour by putting one colour on one hand, the other colour on the other hand and then rubbing them together to make a new colour.

RW - Mrs Dutton and Ms Thomson - This week we have dressed up as pirates, we have made pirate hats using semi circles and rectangles and pirate ships from recyclable packaging, We have designed under water pictures using a computer and we have been thinking about how many paces we need to go to find the buried treasure!

RM - Mrs Collison and Ms Thomson - Ahoy there me hearties!! A great and vey funny week has been had by all!! The children have had lots of fun exploring their imaginations and pretending to be pirates of the Cariibean Sea. We have travelled across the Atlantic Ocean from England in search of a fabulous place to bury our treasure in the beautiful country of Jamaica (although I did lose a couple of children overboard as they fell off our pirate ship!!!

I am so proud of all the children from this week, as always, especially with our visit from an HMI Inspector who commented that the childrens learning and development was outstanding!! Well done everyone. Here's what the children have said:

Holly said 'I have liked learning how to spin hoops around outside in the garden. It has been lovely and warm.'''

Ellie said 'I have enjoyed coming to school and learning about finding treasure in Jamaica.'

Laura said 'I enjoyed pretending to be a pirate and rowing Captain Collison's ship to Jamaica!'

Olivia W said ' I enjoyed learning and really did enjoy circle time with Mrs Thomson because we had to help Peter Pirate find friends because he kept stealing gold and

didn't have any friends.'

Looking forward to next week and our 'Big Plant Hunt' and learning about Charles Darwin.

Mrs Collison & Mrs Thomson

1/2B - Mrs Barrington -Class 1/2B have had almost 100% attendance this week, this just goes to show what a fit and healthy class we are. This term our topic is the Seaside already the children have drawn some super shell pictures, which will be going up on display. Our literacy work this week was based around the story Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell. The children wrote about the work that their grown ups do at home and would like me to include examples in the blog.

My Mum does the cooking and l ask, "what's for dinner?" by Anita year 2.

In my house I tidy up my bedroom and my mum says, "How goes the work?" by Lilly-Rose year 2

My brother and I tidy our bedrooms and my mum and dad say, "How goes the work?" by Cosmo year 1

Class 1/2B would also like to add that they are really looking forward to having a push and pull day when they can bring their bikes, scooters and skateboards into school.

1/2D - Mrs Dutton - As if to coincide with a few days of sunshine, our topic this term is The Beach and we have been looking at and drawing the fine details of shells, coral, sponges and star fish. We have had more letters about where our Flat Stanley’s have been ( and many of them have been to different beaches in the

and Europe) and enjoyed looking at these places in our atlases. One Flat Stanley went to the dentist on his trip. Ry said “ I went to the dentist and my Flat Stanley did too with my cousin”. To commemorate the birth of Charles Darwin, born 200 years ago, we have been looking closely at the different seeds and plants found on our school field and we are trying to grow some.

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

We have had such an enjoyable "Great Plant Hunt" week. We began by hunting for plants around the school grounds and we found quite a few which we tried to identify using our identikit. We are looking forward to hunting for some more when we go to ChalkwellPark. The children and I have had great fun investigating the life of Charles Darwin; he was such an interesting man. Here are some of the children's thoughts on the Charles Darwin activities that they have been doing:

“I enjoyed writing about the life of Charles Darwin because it was fun"- Aaliyah

"I found it interesting because we can do what he did"- Evan Hayward

“I enjoyed it because I always wondered who was on the back of a £10 and now I know who he was and what he did"- Scarlett

"I enjoyed doing Art, it was fun because we used paints, charcoal and pastels to do pictures of Charles Darwin"- Ryan

"I loved our Charles Darwin work because the things he has done are interesting to learn."- Josh

“I loved the Plant Hunt because I got to find plants that we have not paid attention to on the field while we were playing"- Thomas

"I liked the Plant Hunt because all the plants are pretty."- Bethany

In Numeracy we have been investigating the use of Venn and Carroll Diagrams to sort data:

"I liked doing Venn and Carroll Diagrams because I really enjoy doing Numeracy"- Ella

"I thought that it was interesting because you might need them sometimes and it's good to know how to use them."- Natasha

"l liked the problem solving activity with Carroll diagrams because Numeracy is my Favourite subject"- Brendan

“The Venn diagrams were good because they are something interesting to learn about”- Raman

Here are some other activities that children have enjoyed this week:

“The Science assessment on plants was fun to do because there were different things I liked doing on the test”- Alfie

“I enjoyed the French word search because I normally find them boring but I liked words from a different country”- Mikayla

We have also had two new students join our class this week Molly and Max, who is from France.

“I have enjoyed my first week, but I find it strange because I am not speaking French”- Max

“I have enjoyed my first week because I am back with my old friends” (Molly used to come to our school) - Molly

Phew! That was a long blog!

Enjoy your weekend everybody! - Miss Bernard

3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - All this week we have been looking at the life of Charles Darwin, the man on the back of a £10 note. In PE/Drama we did freeze frames to show different parts of his life and in music we went on a "Thinking Walk" using musical instruments for some different animals that Darwin might have seen on his travels. In Literacy we have been looking at what happened to him during his life, with his wife and 10 children. In numeracy we didn't do Darwin but we have been looking at days of the week, months of the year and Venn diagrams and Carroll diagrams. In Science we looked at how plants grow under different conditions, and some even tried the cress, it was quite spicy and I thought it was yuk!! - By Libbie

4B - Mr Lloyd - We've been so carried away with work the past 2 days, we forgot the children writing the Blog! Our main work this week has continued with our history of film topic and we've been looking at animation. The class were amazed to find out that the older Disney films were all drawn and the past 2 days have found out how hard they are to do.

We have been lucky enough to borrow equipment from Belfairs to allow us to do this. The class have planned out their own story and currently in the middle of completing 30 drawn frames, each one with elements that move slightly. This is becoming a job and a half! I have to commend the class though for their perseverence and patience with this. We will then photograph each one and load it onto Movie Maker, add titles and credits and hopefully end up with a (very) short animation. We will let you know the end results next week.

4J - Miss Bolton - This week the whole school have been learning about Charles Darwin and in year 4 we had a 'Great Plant Hunt' on the field. Everyone especially enjoyed this because it was adventurous. We practised our letter writing skills by writing letters telling Charles Darwin what we have been doing.On the last two days of the week we created our own animation cartoons,using equipment kindely lent by Belfairs school.We are looking forward to showing Mrs Johnston our finished animations!! By Alexia, Mia and Tayla.

5D - Mr Duff - What a fantastic week. Darwin, and more Darwin!! We started of by making our own "quadrats" (observation areas) on the school field, just like Darwin. We then went on our Thinking Walk, just like Darwin. We made drawing of our findings, just like Darwin. Are you seeing the pattern!! It has been great to following in the footsteps of such a historial and famous scientific researcher.

We used some very informative websites, which I promised to post of this weeks blog.

Click here - for The Great Plant Hunt

Click here and here for Evolution websites we look at regarding Darwin and Change

We even managed to fit in lots of other things this week as well!! PE focused on Borough Sports activities and not to forget our weekly trip to Blenheim for our swimming lesson. In maths we are finishing off our revision sessions and will be having a couple of tests next week.

Daniel, Devang, Michael, Tia, Cian, Callum and Asan all participated in an orienteering festival held at the school, well done to you.

Graham from Creative Partnerships came in to talk about our musical designs, he was very very impressed. We will get a chance to make these next week !!

Phewww, what a week - another busy one to come next week though - enjoy your weekend!!

6M - Mr Martin - This week in class 6M we have been learning about Charles Darwin, it has been 200 years since his birth!!

We have also been making dioramas for our perfect garden, the winner will get a £10 gift voucher from a shop of their choice. We have been making our own sea creature to see how they have adapted!!! We hope everyone has a nice weekend!!! By Jamie and Haleema

6H - Mr Hautler - We have had quite a relaxed week. We have been looking at Charles Darwin, who looked at animals and evolution. We designed our own creatures. We then designed what they would look like one million years in the past and one million years in the future. In music we learnt about guitars and how to play them and we were shown different guitar peddles like the wha wha peddle. This week has been really fun!

Ellie and Ryan

Week 4 Summer Term 08/09

Mr Duff — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:01:00 +0100

(sorry for the late update this week)

Walk to School 2009 is next week so let's make it a good one !

Even if you usually come to school by car, why not park a little way from the school and walk the rest.

Stickers will be given out and put on your classes chart - see how many you can get!!!

Quick announcement - whilst I remember, Mrs Grant has said there will be no dance club on Wednesday as the book fair will be in the hall

On that note please remember the book fair next week. It's in the hall after school every day and it's buy a book and get another one free!! Can't be bad

Headlines from Mr Knight

Well done to all of out Year 6 children for trying their best in the SATs this week. Having a week full of tests can never be much fun but the children have done themselves proud over the last few days. Results do not come out for some time yet but I am sure that the children have done their best!

We had some visitors in school this week looking at our bike sheds. Due to the fact that Southend has been named a cycle town the government has given the council a large sum of money to spend on bike sheds at schools. As you all know we have some already but there was a proposal to replace them. When the visitors saw the current shed they said they would prefer to renovate our current ones rather than provide us with new but at the same time want to spend some money on improving our facilities. Hopefully this extra money will be spent on putting a gate in the fence to the Prittlebrook path and a ramp to allow cyclists to enter the school from the path! fingers crossed!

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

RM - Mrs Collison - The children have had another great and eventful week....the weeks just flies past!! We have been thinking about sea creatures and the children have found it very funny that I have extreme difficulty saying 'anemones'!! Choice Tuesday was fabulous and we now have a family of octopi and rainbow fish adorning the classroom!!!

Charlie said 'I enjoyed playing Guess Who with the picture of a sharks teeth'

Olivia R said 'I liked the story of the Rainbow Fish because she shared all her scales'

Shaun said 'I've enjoyed playing with my best friend Loius on the computer playing number games'

Holly said 'I enjoyed the role play area and cooking dinner for the bears. Their favourite dinner was pizza.' Have a lovely weekend - Mrs Collison & Mrs Thomson

RW - Mrs Weston - RW started their 'Underwater' theme this week. We shared a range of fiction and non-fiction books to learn about the similarities and differences between a range of sea creatures and at the beginning of the week, focused on Marcus Pfister's 'The Rainbow Fish'. We discussed the theme of sharing and talked about and wrote about times when we have been able to share. Roman really enjoyed taking close up photographs of sea creatures ready for our 'Who am I?' sea creature writing. He said, "I love using the digital camera and taking photos". We also continued with our focus on pairs and the children went outside to see who could draw the most pairs of fish, then count them in twos. Kadie said "I liked drawing the fish outside - it was fun." We also made tissue paper sea creatures, wax crayon resist sea pictures and even took home octopuses after our 'Choice Tuesday' activities. Finally, we played a range of fish and sea creature related ICT games on CBeebies and used the 'crickweb' website and the 'Leap into language' literacy games in the ICT suite.

2/1D - Mrs Dutton - We have had fun in our writing time this week; some of us have been investigating facts about nocturnal animals and writing a report on our favourite one and we have all written a letter or postcard pretending to be a traditional story character writing to another story character. This was great fun!

Some of our Flat Stanley's have been posted back to us and we have been finding out about their adventures while they have been away. “My Flat Stanley went to Cornwall. He sat on Mr Bean’s lap and he got buried in the sand on the beach. It was fun to see the photo’s of what he did” written by Gram.

2/1B - Mrs Barrington - It's all been go in class 1/2B this week. Year two worked very hard planning and putting together an informative text on nocturnal animals. The children had a fun musical experience on Wednesday with Graham, when they made all sorts of interesting sounds. When deciding what to write on our blog space some of the children came up with the following; Every Friday we do spellings. Lilly-Rose This week we have been learning about Judaism and everyone made a Torah scroll. Samuel Lewis Every Tuesday we do P.E. by Taylor .

We are also looking forward to the puppet show next week. We shall let you know all about it!

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

Another busy week in Class 3/2B. The children have been working really hard, even though there are only 9 Yr2's in our class doing their SATs. The whole class took part in the long writing task which involved them writing about Night Time and Nocturnal Animals. I was very proud of the children because they were very grown up and focussed. They sat in virtual silence for nearly an hour which is not easy for children of their age. So far the results have been very encouraging.

Here are some of the children's comments about what they have enjoyed this week:

"I have enjoyed making oars for our Viking long boats"-Hannah

"Making oars for our boats has been funny because I kept making then too big or too small"- Charlotte

" I enjoyed putting soil in when we were planting seeds"- Evan

"The Science lesson was fun when we put lots of water on the seed and it overflowed"- Ben

"I have really enjoyed practising for the Borough Sports and now I can run much faster"- Scarlett

" I liked using the compass points when working on direction"- Alfie

"I enjoyed learning about North, South, East and West"- Josh

" I liked taking part in our Viking role plays about invading monasteries because it was fun"- Jack

As you can see we have had an exciting variety of activities going on.

Have a great weekend! - Miss Bernard

3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - In Literacy this week we have done some non-fiction writing on some animals that come out at night. In Numeracy we have been looking at the points of the compass and making some maps and following directions on them. In Science we have been looking at plants and why some need to grow in greenhouses and why they don't grow under the stones by the pond, because it's too dark. In PE we tried to throw the javelin but it was a bit windy and they didn't go very far - By Jordan

4J - Mrs Johnston -This Blog has been written by Iona.

This week 4J have been watching a black and white film called ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and we are really enjoying it. In Literacy we have written a biography about Walt Disney.

5B - Mr Bird - At the beginning of the week we did some miming for the rest of the class about a scary situation. Also on Wednesday we did some acting for an adventure.

On Friday the whole of year 5 attended Blenheim swimming pool for a swimming lesson. It was really fun and the water was absolutely boiling. Everybody enjoyed themselves so much that they can’t wait for the rest of the sessions - This entry was written by Molly.

5D - Mr Duff - Problem solving in maths has got our brains aching this week. I am very glad to say though you coped with the tasks and activities very well and even had some fun!!! In literacy we are building up to our narrative piece of writing, a story. I am looking forward to going over the fortune line next week and then finally getting to write them.

Friday was all about swimming. All of Year 5 went over to Blenheim and had a fantastic time. I will let the children finish this weeks blog with their comments about this:

I really enjoyed the swimming and I am looking forward to next week - Ed

It was a great experience for people that didn't know how to swim - Tom

I thought it was fun and wish we could do it every day - Jasmine

It was really warm and I thoroughly enjoyed it - Anna

6H - Mr Hautler - This week has been a tough but important week for us. It has all been focused on SATS. We had nine tests in 5 days, but we're really glad they're over. Now SATS are over we have many things to look forward to including a BBQ which we have next week, the french trip, prom and leavers assembly.HORRAY!!!! SATS ARE OVER!!

6M - Mr Martin - This week in 6M, it has been a stressful due to the SATS!! We have had to do 9 tests!! That's loads!! We have had loads of free time due to the SATS, which included 3 films. We were also going to have an end of SATS BBQ but Mr Martin looked at the weather forecast and there wasn't very good responses!! Next week we will be back to lessons and we will be learning about Charles Dharwin. Finally the SATS is over and all that hard work has paid off!! By Jamie and Haleema

Week 3 Summer Term 08/09

Mr Duff — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:06:48 +0100

Darlinghurst Primary and Nursery School meets.....

When watching the online version of Dragons Den the other day, I was was very taken by a product that I would have loved when I was a lad.

I used to love playing football over the park and we used to throw our jumpers, t-shirts, coats or whatever we were wearing to make goals. If this wasn't possible, we would try and find some sort of mark on the ground and say things like, "the goal is from that bald patch in the grass to that weed."

This was fine until the ball rolled over whatever clothing we had used or went across the bald patch or touch the weed. If I were in goal at the time I used to say, that wasn't a goal, it hit the post. It was a completely different matter if I was the striker though, and the word goooooooaaaaaaal would have been heard for miles away!!

Needless to say, this lead to quite a few arguements and it wasn't unusual for the whole game to come to a grinding halt.

That is why I am such a huge fan of the product I saw on Dragons Den called Qwikgoal

Basically it's a set of portable fold away goal posts that can be put up and taken down in seconds. They are made of a nigh on indestructible plastic, technical name Exxon 75003, which have a removeable base unit which itself has grass gripping teeth!!

Watch the inventor, Giles Bury, explain more here.

Anyway after seeing this product I emailed Giles to see if he was interested in sending our school 10 sets of goalposts free of charge and to cut a long story short he agreed.

Quikgoal is now the proud sponsor of Darlinghurst's school website!

The children have already been using them whilst playing football at lunchtime and during their P.E. lessons and the feedback has been great. So a huge thank you to Giles and we wish you the best of luck with your product.

Watch Giles ask the Dragons for £49,000 for a 20% of his company, does he get it? Click here to see.

If you would like to purchase a set of Quikgoals, they cost £19.99 plus P+P and you can order them online here

Borough Sports

It's that time of year again where we start training for the Borough Sports, the highlight of the Primary Sports calendar. Children from across Southend compete in a variety of adapted track and field events. This year we have managed to make it to the 1st division which is an achievement in itself. We will be competing against the big schools from the Southend area on the afternoon of Wednesday 17th June at Garons.

By now your child should know whether they have been selected for training and trials. The final team will be announced 2 weeks prior to the competition and programmes will be able to be purchased from the school office at a cost of 50p. Programmes will not be available at the event.

Below is a list of dates and times for training sessions. After school sessions will held between 3:30 - 4pm and you may collect your child from the field. If for some reason your child cannot attend a session, please let me know.

Regards

Mr Hautler

Monday 11th May

Lunchtime - all running events.

Afterschool - standing jump, long jump, javelin, ball throw, shot-put.

Tuesday 12th May

Lunchtime - all running events.

Wednesday 13th May

Afterschool -standing jump, long jump, javelin, ball throw, shot-put.

Thursday 14th May

Lunchtime - all running events.

Afterschool - standing jump, long jump, javelin, ball throw, shot-put, relay teams.

Monday 18th May

Lunchtime - all running events.

Afterschool - standing jump, long jump, javelin, ball throw, shot-put.

Tuesday 19th May

Lunchtime - all running events.

Wednesday 20th May

Afterschool - standing jump, long jump, javelin, ball throw, shot-put.

Thursday 21st May

Lunchtime - all running events.

Afterschool - standing jump, long jump, javelin, ball throw, shot-put, relay teams.

Parents Consultations

Super to see so many parents this week. Personally speaking I thoroughly enjoyed letting parents know the fantastic things that have been happening in and around school, the progress their children have been making but just as importantly how much fun we are having!! I know the other teachers in the school feel the same and even though it meant two late night for us this week, it was all worth it.

Headlines from Mr Knight

Another busy week completed. This week I have been out of school quite a lot mainly attending to events organised by the National College for School Leadership which is based in Nottingham. Through these events and meetings I meet and mix with lots of other Headteachers and School Leaders from the rest of the country. Some of the stories that many of these colleagues tell about their schools are quite worrying - and I always feel very proud to be the Headteacher of Darlinghurst as a result. Our children are great - it would appear many of my Headteacher colleagues are nowhere near as lucky. Our staff members are great too - and it would appear that many of my Headteacher colleagues are again not so lucky. As for parents - well I know I'm very lucky as far as that is concerned! Have a great weekend!

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

Nursery - We have been tasting different fruit in the Nursery, this week we tried melon it was lovely. We looked at the outside which was green and the inside which was orange, we also found out that if you plant the seeds they will grow into a new plant. We looked at different foods and sorted them into different groups like fruit, vegetables, bread, meat and fish, milk and yogurt, and foods we have as a treat like cake and crisps.

RM - Mrs Collinson - I can't believe that another week has come and gone!! We've had a busy week again.. I think by the end of this year there will be some fantastic mathematicians in our class. We have been thinking about estimating and it has been wonderful to see how accurate the children are at estimating the number of bears in my secret sack!!

Here's what some of the children have enjoyed this week

Shaun said " I have enjoyed reading to my friend James."

Daniel said " I enjoyed colouring and cutting out my spiral snake."

Tyler said " I have enjoyed drawing Jungle Animals on the computer in ICT."

Louis said " I have enjoyed playing in the sand with my friend Shaun."

Next week we're moving on from the jungle and travelling deep down under the sea!! Have a lovely weekend and see you all safe and sound on Monday!

1/2B - Mrs Barrington - Another short but busy week in class 1/2B. The children have really enjoyed listening to The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. They created their own Gruffalo pictures and then wrote some very descriptive sentences. The Gruffalo has sharp teeth. By Max Macdonald year 1. I have included the web site address which has lots of games and activities relating to the story. www.thegruffalo.com In numeracy the children have been learning place value, thousands, hundreds, tens and units. Whilst this can be tricky the children worked hard making three digit numbers. We are still finding out about The Great Fire of London and hope to visit a fire station in the near future.

The children in class 1/2B would really like you to know that they are the best class in Darlinghurst!

3/2B - Miss Bernard - Hello everybody!

We have had a short, but productive week. The children have been very positive and worked have very hard.We started our SATS writing this week and like with everything that we do they approached the activity with much enthusiasm.

I read the children a story during our Jeremy Strong author study week called "Giant Jim and the Hurricane. For their SATS short writing task they had to write a description of a character and I chose Giant Jim for them, which they were very happy about.

Charlotte said that she "enjoyed writing about Giant Jim and adding illustrations".

Next for our SATS long writing task next week the children have to write a fact file about night time. We chose some nocturnal animals to research and write notes on. The children have to study their notes and use the information to write their fact file.

"I liked finding out about nocturnal animals and learning something new"- Scarlett

"I liked finding out what different animals do"- Josh

"Learning about nocturnal animals was interesting because I learned that foxes are the cleverest animals"- Hannah

" I enjoyed the work about nocturnal animals because animals are my favourite thing"- Ella

"Finding out about nocturnal animals was really fun"- Ryan

We are also continuing to learn about The Vikings:

"I liked working in my Viking topic book because I enjoyed labelling the map"- Emma

"I found doing the map about where the Vikings came from fun"- Alfie

And Thomas enjoyed doing multiplication and division because "it was easy!"

Have really enjoyed our short week, looking forward to reading your fact files on nocturnal animals next week.

Enjoy your weekend - Miss Bernard

3/2C - Mrs Chatterton - This week we have been doing about the Vikings and some of us got to pretend that we were a Viking while the others asked us questions. We have also been doing some more work on our Viking longboats. In Literacy we have carried on looking at one of the characters from one of the authors we were looking at last week.In numeracy we have been doing dividing as well as odds and evens. In French we are starting to look at families. In science we did an experiment with celery and food colouring and the test worked really quickly, even before we could write it down - By Niall

4J - Mrs Johnston - This Blog was written by Sam 4J

It has been a great week learning about films. We have learnt how silent film became talkies. We have made our own silent movies and they were really funny. Thank you to Mr Lloyd for helping us. Now we are trying to put sound with them.

We tested out putting bones in vinegar and a few weeks later the one in white vinegar

went all bendy .Last week we wrote a biography about Charlie Chaplin now we are

learning about Laurel and Hardy.

4B - Miss Bolton - This week 4B have been learning about sound effects and how they were used in film.We have been using the 'easy speaks' and we are going to record some sound effects to put into our silent movie.When we watched our silent movie we all thought it was very funny.We have also been learning about 'talkies' and about all of the machinery they used to make sound effects.We all thank Mr Lloyd for putting our film together and making it look really old fashioned!We can't wait to do some more filming! - By Elliott and Joshua 4B

5D - Mr Duff - Only a short week but it was a very important one. With parent consultations on both Wednesday and Thursday, it was great to let all the parents that attended know how well their children had have been doing.

As a class you have really grown up and matured, I am very proud of you all. It was also very nice to hear the feedback from the parents as well, and I would to take this opportunity to thank you again for the collaborative learning you have been doing at home as well this year. Your support has been vital in your child's progress.

But Year 5 is far from over and there is a lot of learning and fun to be had yet, starting with swimming next Friday. A note be coming out on Monday but every child will need a swimming costume/trucks, towel and a swimming hat. A voluntary contribution of £2 per lesson will also asked for to cover the costs. The note will have all the details on there but if you have any questions, please let me know.

What else have we covered this week? Fractions and percentages, subordinate clauses, music workshops, Borough sports trials, football, French and lots more to besides! Not bad for a short week!!

Keep it going as the Summer term is going very quickly, two week left before half term. Frightening

Have a good weekend and I will see you all on Monday.

5B - Mr Bird - Unfortunately the gremlins have struck this week and the first class blog which had been written by one of the children has disappeared into the cyberspace!

I have produced a condensed version for you here, starting with a mention about all the hard work the children have done during the selection process for the Borough Sports. Every child participated and dealt with the results of the selection in a very mature way. The level of enthusiasm indicated just how important they see this event and the opportunity of representing the school.

Our second music session was eagerly recieved and there is no doubt that we have a few budding session musicians in the class.

5B demonstrated a dance to the rest of Key Stage 2 and following that invited everyone to join in. I must say the resulting performance was enjoyed by the children and it may just be repeated during our 40th. anniversary celebrations.

I would like to end by thanking everyone for their kind words after the unusual conclusion to the school day on Tuesday, I was just pleased to be able to make it back the next day.

6H - Mr Hautler - Hello readers of the Darlinghurst Blog

6H have been revising for there sats for the entire term! And next week we will be sitting our sats.

Moving on, Mr.H has been gathering up the children for Bourough sports training although the weather hasn't been great.

That's all for our blog this week, so we'll be going until next time.

Ben and Zara