Some children from Year 4 were recently involved in designing and building a mini habitat for wildlife from recycled materials. They ‘pinched’ an old tea trolley which was found in the cellar and created ‘Happy Meals on Wheels.’ Three habitats were created. The top layer became the nectar bar and bird feeding station, the middle layer is an ‘insect hotel’ and the bottom layer is for damp and shade loving creatures.

 

The children received a Certificate of Commendation from the Gardner’s World Live Show. Well done to all the children who took part as a huge amount of time, effort and commitment was put into the project.

 

A group of Year 5 children worked hard for several weeks planning, designing and planting up a Salad Bowl for the ‘I love my Salad’ competition. All the children involved then went to the Harrogate Flower Show to see it being judged and had a great day out. We gained the top certificate – Premier Gold for our entry and just missed out on the top prize.

 

During the day the children had the opportunity to see beautiful show gardens, build a dry stone wall, help make a pop bottle greenhouse, make herb hanging baskets, watch a cookery demo and shop at the stalls.

Everyone had a super time and the children are to be congratulated for all the hard work they put in and also their excellent behaviour on the day. The Salad Bowl can be seen in the main entrance of the school. Well done Year 5!
 

Here are the Year 5 children with their Premier Gold certificate- Well done!


Look at our fantastic Salad Bowl entry.

On Thursday afternoon Year 5 set up an exhibition to show off all the fantastic work they have been doing throughout their ‘Is there anybody out there?’ topic.

On display were the newspaper reports that the children decided to write when we first discovered the mysterious piece of metal in the playground; the presentations they did on the planets in our solar system; science fiction stories that were inspired by ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’; pieces of artwork; video presentations and much more.
 

The year 5 children acted as great guides to all the parents and children who came to look at their work and they were clearly very proud of what they had achieved and rightly so! From talking to children and parents is it obvious that the children have thoroughly enjoyed this learning challenge; they have been completed engaged and motivated and as a result produced some super work. Well done year 5!

As part of their topic on ‘What would my life be like in India?’ Year 4 had a fantastic India Day this week. Every child had the chance to make and eat some daal and chapattis; most of them really liked it! They all learnt about the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandan and made a rakhi, a traditional gift from sisters to brothers. 

The children worked in three groups to learn an Indian dance. Each group learnt a different style of dance, traditional, modern and folk. They also had the chance to perform their own moves based on what they had learnt.  

It was great to see so many parents at the assembly where the children shared their brilliant dances. All the Year 4 children must be praised as they demonstrated great team work skills; showed real enthusiasm and tried their very best at all the activities. The Iady who was teaching the Indian dance commented on how polite all the children were and how hard they had worked; she was very impressed and we were very proud of them all. Well done Year 4!

Springbank was delighted to receive a visit from Mrs Iyer, from our partner school in India. She joined us last Tuesday morning and each class had plenty to share.

Mrs Iyer was impressed by the learning that she saw in all of the classes throughout the school and particularly enjoyed some brilliant presentations from years 5 and 6. Year 3 shared their mummy making as part of their ‘Can you walk like an Egyptian?’ topic.

Her visit though, was of particular interest to year 4 who interviewed her as part of their ‘What would my life be like in India?’ topic. The children were really enthused by having a visitor who could share so much first-hand experience.

A real high point of the week was a super country dance assembly where each class had the chance to share some traditional dancing.

The link is set to continue with year 5 planning to share their ‘Is there anybody out there?’ presentations and doing some collaborative science learning with the pupils of our partner school.

Year 3 and 4 put on a brilliant production of Hosanna Rock with every one of them contributing to this great show. We had angels, kings, shepherds, animals, and many more singers, dancers and actors and speakers. A special mention has to go out to Ellie who played Mary and Findlay who was Joseph. They bravely sang by themselves in the show and did a fantastic job.

As part of our work in the community some of the Year 3 and 4 children have been to the Live at Home Breakfast club held at St John's and






























































































































































































Marden Court to sing the Hosanna rock songs for the people there which were really well received. The children sang beautifully and with their usual enthusiasm! Well done Year 3 and 4.

As part of the Year 6 topic for this half term, ‘Who had it better?’ the children have been comparing life now to that in the 1940’s. They have been learning about the differences in all aspects of life such as technology, toys, transport and houses.

In order to gain a better understanding of what Christmas was like during the war, the children made items out of unwanted clothes to sell for their Enterprise topic. They worked really hard on their sewing skills and created some fabulous, bespoke items! They also worked really hard in their company teams, succesfully taking on the different roles: general manager, finance director, sales manager, marketing director and chief purchaser.

Year 6 would like to thank all children and parents who supported them in their 'make do and mend' enterprise sale. We are proud to announce that the children managed to make a whopping £374.75 profit which they are now desperate to spend! We are looking into different trips which the whole of Year 6 could take part in using the profits. Well done to our individual company winners, B4U (Bags for you) who topped the profit list by making £68.51 profit as a team. Some of you may even be lucky enough to receive one of their bespoke items as a Christmas present! A huge thank you also to all our parents and grandparents who came in to support the children with their sewing during the topic, we couldn't have done it without you!

As part of Anti-Bullying Week, which was on 19th-23rd November, the children have learnt about different aspects of bullying, such as the different forms it can take, what to do if someone is being bullied and the reasons behind why someone might bully. Together we discussed different types of cyber bullying and the potential effects this could have. We also learnt about racism and discussed why some people have been bullied because of their race or religion. Each class decided on a definition of bullying which we then collated to create a whole school definition of what bullying is:
 

 

Bullying is when a person or group of people hurt another person or group of people on purpose and this happens repeatedly.
 

As a follow up to this work, on Wednesday 5th December, the children took part in workshops by ‘Kidz Aware’ who use puppets to get their message across and focus on anti-bullying and accepting difference. Year 3’s workshop ‘Count Me In’ focused on understanding and accepting children with different disabilities. Year 4’s workshop ‘Let’s Prevent Bullying’ addressed the issues of bullying and personal safety; how to get help and whom to talk to; the need for children to talk about being bullied and about how bullying can make people feel. Years 5 and 6 took part in the ‘Accepting Difference’ programme, in which they discussed what discrimination, racism and bullying are and how these affect people in different ways. It also looked at different disabilities and how these can impact on a young person’s life. Overall, these workshops were a great success; have a look at some of the photographs below to see the puppets we met.

The Year 3 and 4 Maths workshop was a great success and all parent feedback was extremely positive. Parents commented that they particularly enjoyed finding out about the methods which are used to teach multiplication and division and reported that they feel more confident in helping their children with homework as a result of attending the workshop.

It was a great evening where all the parents got fully involved and had a chance to try out some of the techniques we use for teaching maths; thank you to all those who attended.

Unfortunately the Year 5 and 6 workshop had to be cancelled due to a low uptake but this will be offered again in the Spring term.

For the past two years we have had a link with a school in Gujerat in India and have shared collaborative learning projects with them. Some of our children have got to know children from our link school through letters and emails. 

We applied for funding from the British Council to enable a reciporcal visit to take place between a teacher from each school and we were successful in securing the funding.

 

So during October half term Miss Hughes went to visit the school in India to share more work and plan for Year Four's upcoming topic.  She had a fantastic time and our link school Anand Vidya Vihar made her very welcome with dance presentations, local food and much more. She was impressed by the Indian Pupil's learning and enjoyed her time at the school.  Miss Hughes is leading a whole school assembly next week to share her experiences and the hundreds of photographs she took!

 

We are now hoping to receive a reciprocal visit and are looking forward to welcoming the teacher from India to share the fantastic things we do here at Springbank. Year 4 are also looking forward to starting their India Topic in the Spring term.

 

This is all part of our International curriculum and work towards the Stephen Lawrence Standard. This learning enables our children to develop a greater awareness of different cultures and promotes celebrating diversity and respect for all, something we believe is extremely important for all our children.