Special Days

French

Our French learning in school has had some exciting ‘extras’ recently. Just before Easter Mme Aurelie Dale came to work with each KS2 class. She taught us about Easter customs in France and we were able to sample some traditional French foods.

 

On June 15th the Onatti Theatre Company delighted us with ‘The World’s Gone French’, a very entertaining show in French and English with lots of audience participation.

 

Our year 6 pupils had the opportunity to take part in 2 taster German sessions at the beginning of June. Year 9 students from Welland Park Community College planned and delivered games and activities in small groups, supported by Mrs Debbie Edwards, Head of Languages.

Carnival

A fabulous team of staff created The Octupus's Garden for the float that was entered into the Market Harborough Carnival. Their hard work paid off and they were awarded 3rd prize. Thank you to all the staff, children and parents who made this possible. You did us proud!

 

 

 

Held Together sculpture

To mark 200 years of church schools, the very special wooden 'Held Together' sculpture has been commissioned and is now on a pilgramage. It will be held by children in church schools all over Leicestershire before reaching its final destination of Leicester Cathedral in December. Each school becomes its custodian for a few days. We had the privilage of receiving it from Kibworth Primary School in a special service led by Reverend Brand on Monday 23rd May. Each class has visited the carving and every child has had the chance to feel it, to say how they feel about it and what they think it symbolises.

    

    

     

 

 

Sign to Sing

On February 9th at 2.45pm over 102,000 people took part in Sign2Sing and we helped to break a world record! We used sign language to "sing", 'I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing'. 

  

  

 

 

World Environment Day  June 11th 2010, just happened to coincide with our World Cup non-uniform day hence all the football kits being paraded! After spending the day undertaking a range of activities about our own environment as well as that of our planet Earth, we shared our work in a special assembly. Foundation stage harvested the food they had been growing. Year 1 studied different environments around the world. Year 3 studied our school environment and made  3-D models of the different areas. These were then mounted onto green card if they were friendly to the planet but on red if they weren't! Year 4 made an A-Z of environmentally friendly tips. Year 5 studied the life-cycle of butterflies and revamped some of our garden areas around school. Year 6 got their hands dirty too when they undertook some gardening. They also studied Antarctica and then quizzed the rest of the school to see what facts they knew about the continent. These pictures are taken from our assembly.

 

Year 5 undertook work in the school grounds. Have a look at the difference they made!

The children in 6JG organised a Giant Cake Shop on Friday 29th January 2010 to raise money for the Haiti appeal. Children across the school were asked to bring in 6 cakes and 50p. The cakes were mixed up and displayed on numerous trays and plates. Then the children came into the hall and paid 50p to selct 6 cakes to take home. What a treat! Almost £220 was raised. Thank you to everybody for their support.

 

Some Year 6 children held a Fruity Tooty Sale on the 4th and 5th October 2006. They provided a variety of fruit, chopped up or liquidised into smoothies. The children of the school got a chance to taste fruits they hadn't tried before. The profits all went to the NSPCC. Many thanks to the parents who donated the fruit! It was great to see children from all around the school trying the fruits.

 

On Tuesday 26th September, children across our school had the opportunity to develop their language skills to celebrate the European Day of Languages for 2006. Miss Booth shared Spanish phrases and vocabulary with years 3 and 6; Mr Hayes shared similar phrases and questions but in German with years 4 and 5, and Miss Gogerly shared some simple greetings and story telling in French with the children across Key Stage 1. A great afternoon was had by all ! The children responded really positively to this language experience.

 

We have grown sweetcorn, marrows, courgettes, tomatoes, beans and gourds. Also, pears, apples, redcurrants and blackcurrants. Some children in Year 6 harvested the produce, turned it into some tasty recipes and served it up to their friends in the year group. Mmmm ... tasty!

 

In the Spring 2006, the Green Team completed a survey of the school pond for Leicestershire County Council. They had to take measurements, describe the surroundings and check the wildlife. It was a fascinating job!

 

Mrs Green, Head of Science at Welland Park School, brought a set of microscopes in with some slides. The children were able to see things from a new perspective and to draw the new image they saw.

 

As part of the Market Harborough in Bloom competition, some children from our school joined with other local primary schools to design models of insects made from recycled materials. We made a dragonfly and butterfly from plant pots, sweet wrappers and willow. These were placed in Welland Park. The children also designed a stencil of an insect which they printed onto a white t-shirt. These were then worn for a parade around the park at the launch of Harborough in Bloom. They also made a print block design for a Father's Day card.

 

The Animal Defence Centre, based at Melton Mowbray, train dogs to sniff out drugs and explosives. As part of the dog's training, they were brought to our school and they demonstrated their skills. They were very well behaved and their trainers were able to show us what they are capable of. We met Mason, Shadow and Buster who were eager to succeed as their reward was ... a tennis ball! The children asked lots of questions and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

Year 6 study Victorians as part of their History curriculum. The Leicester Museum Service lent us some genuine Victorian clothing which we were able to handle and explore. The children used the clues they had to make inferences and deductions about Victorian peoples lives.

 

On October 31st we had a visit from Recycler Robot with Shirley Barre from Waste Watch. We learned some fascinating facts such as - a plastic water bottle takes 400 years to decompose in a landfill site and therefore REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE wherever possible for the sake of our planet.

 

On 3rd November, Year 6 went for a walk along the canal. We began at the canal basin and walked for over an hour. This was part of our work in Science on Interdependence and Adaptation. We were Nature Detectives for the day and armed with a magnifying glass, ruler and sketch pad we looked for evidence of habitats and the way plants and animals have adapted to living by the water.

 

 

A Victorian Christmas at Beaumanor Hall. On the 12th December 2006, Year 6 went on a school trip to Beaumanor Hall to experience life as a child in Victorian times as part of our history topic --The Victorians". The staff and children dressed up in Victorian costume for the day.

Firstly, the children went and read each other a story. It was very good, and we also told some Christmas jokes such as: What is Santa's wife called? Mary Christmas.

After, some of us played games like: In and Out the Dusty Bluebells, The Farmer's in His Den. We all had soooooooooo much fun.

We finished off the morning by making paper angels for our Christmas tree. We made them with card and some gold and silver stars!

Yum - lunch time. Victorian lunches were not as good as they are now! We had bread and cheese, Victoria sponge and apples and pears were also on the delicious menu! We had to bring it wrapped in a tea towel. No fizzy drinks or chocolate that day!

After lunch we went to the school room! It was pure torture!!!! We had to write with ink pens and wrote a Victorian Christmas card. Oh and let's not forget the CANE!!!!!!!!!!

Year 6 finished off by singing Christmas carols in the main hall all seated down the majestic staircase.

We sang songs like: We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Silent Night. Also The Twelve Days of Christmas complete with actions!

We would like to thank all the staff who organised the trip. Year 6 really enjoyed it!

By Dana 6JM

World Book Day

Thursday 1st March 2007 was the 10th year of World Book day and we invited Adrian Townsend, a children's author, to come and speak to us about writing books. He was very amusing! The next day he came in to school to sign copies of his books.

Drumming demonstration.

Sam Gorman came in to school with his drum kit to demonstrate his skills and enable some Year 4 and Year 6 children to have a go for themselves. It was deafening!

 

International Languages Day 2007

On 27th September we celebrated Languages Day in school. Each class chose a focus country for the day and did a range of activities based around that country - including a lot of food making and tasting!

Thanks to Miss Kilbourne for joining 4HS and 5WH to share some Italian conversation and to Ms Cernikova for using her translation skills to support our 2 Czech children in 4MB and 5CB, enabling them to converse with their classmates.

At lunch time, staff and children sat down to a delicious European menu, something new for everyone to try.

During the afternoon, all children had a taster session of a foreign language: French with Miss Gogerly for Key Stage 1 children, and either Spanish with Miss Booth or German with Mr Hayes for Key Stage 2 children.

A great day was had by all - thanks to all the children and staff for their enthusiasm!

 

Taking the classroom outdoors.

As we have such lovely grounds, we like to take learning outdoors at any opportunity. We can plant and watch vegetables develop on our allotment. It's great to be able then to pick, cook and eat our fruit and vegetables. The beetroot dye has been used for tie-dye activities and lots of natural materials have been used in art and sculpture. There is no better place to study habitats than in our school grounds and we enjoy providing homes for animals, birds and insects.

 

A storyteller comes to school.

Michael Jones, a very amusing storyteller, came to school in September 2007 to tell the story of Frog and the Stranger. It involved an axe, chopping wood, a tent, a horse, chips, a rubber chicken, leather jackets, a passion for buckets and some of the audience getting wet! This explored issues like prejudice and racism in our Citizenship curriculum.

 

EARTH DAY 22ND APRIL 2008

The whole school were involved with Earth day learning about many different aspects of our planet.

During the day, KS2 watched the DVD Earth which took us on a 90 minute journey from the top to the bottom of the world. This was a film that took 5 years to make and is a breathtaking and stunning insight into what is happening to nature on a daily basis on our planet.

 

 

 

 

The Owl Visit

Alan brought in his Indian Eagle Owl - Tiger. He gave a talk about the owl and got it to fly for us (although Tiger preferred basking in the sun!). We learned such a lot and it was great to see an owl so close up. Thank you Alan.

KS2 Sports Day 2008

ECO EXPO EVENT AT THE WALKERS STADIUM OCTOBER 2009

As we received our 3rd Green Flag this year, we were invited to the region's EXPO event at the Walkers Stadium, home of Leicester City Football Club, to receive our award. Six children attended and had a fabulous, fun-packed day. They were photographed with the Lord Mayor of Leicester who presented the award. The children played an Eco game, iced gingerbread men and made a huge collage of the world from recycled materials. The school was given a caddy to transport food waste from the dining room to our green cone, two plants, a soil Ph tester, a soil moisture tester and a ladybird house. These gifts will help us on our way to receiving the next green flag!