More Gymanstics

A few weeks ago I posted a blog about Blue Class's work in Gymnastics, showing the sequences they had been working on. This is a follow-up post to share their final pieces, now using apparatus. The focus of our unit of work has been group balances and the children have worked hard to improve their work over several weeks. The video below lasts about ten minutes, so make yourself a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy.

Leiston Long Shop Trip

Back in September the children in Blue and Yellow classes enjoyed an exciting day at Leiston Long Shop. Children and staff got dressed up in Victorian garb for a hard day's work as boy apprentices at the Long Shop. The day began with a stern talking-to from Mr Garrett, the factory owner, and his staff. The children were divided into groups to take part in a number of different activities, including making casts of parts for a traction engine, a guided tour of the museum, and building a model traction engine.

The day's work was frequently interrupted by visits from Factory Inspectors and members of the Suffragettes, and regular fire drills, where the children were tasked with pumping water from the 150-year-old fire engine.

It was a fantastic day and a memorable experience. We hope you enjoy looking at some of the photographs. Please click on the slideshow to visit our web album and see a larger version.

Harvest Festival

This year our Harvest Festival was held in the school hall. We had a great turn out of parents and lots of wonderful donations of food were made to support the Ormiston trust - an Ipswich-based family support charity. The children learnt about the many different fruits and vegetables grown in this country and whether the part which we eat was 'underground' or 'overground'. The children (and staff) enjoyed singing a number of harvest songs and the recorder group performed 'We Plough the Fields and Scatter' tremendously well.

CATCH IT, BIN IT, KILL IT

There have been lots of coughs and colds going around recently. This week, all children were given a packet of tissues during a 'sneezesafe' assembly which carried the very important message of:

Catch it...

by using a tissue

Bin it...

put all used tissues in a bin

Kill it...

by washing hands with antibacterial handwash.

Wishing everyone a very relaxing and enjoyable half-term break, it has been a long but very enjoyable 7 1/2 weeks. Keep safe.

Mid/South Suffolk Cross Country Championships

Earlier today, two of our year 6 girls travelled to the Royal Hospital School in Holbrook to compete in the next round of the Cross Country Championships.

Faced with the daunting task of nearly 200 other competitors, many of whom were a year older, they lined up in the beautiful surroundings.


Undaunted, the girls ran their hearts out and finished a fantastic 16th and 21st, battling against the elements and illness. This means they qualify for the next round, where I'm sure they'll do themselves proud again.

Well done - a fantastic achievement!

Parents' and Grandparents' Lunch

Wednesday 7th October saw an incredible 83 people take part in our special lunch. Considering we normally average 30 hot meals per lunchtime, this was an incredible feat.

Children, parents and grandparents patiently waited to be served with a menu of:
Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pudding, Carrots, Cabbage, Broccoli and Gravy. This was followed by a delightful Syrup Sponge and Custard.

The children were very excited by having so many adults join them for lunch and the feedback from our guests has been so very positive - thank you.

Some adults then joined the children on the playground, encouraging them to play traditional games. The smiles on everyone's faces said it all.Huge thanks to everyone who was able to join us - we hope you'll be able to do so again - and a very special thank you to Claire Keeling in the kitchen for doing such a fantastic job.

Scarecrows!

The older children have been having a rather 'fun' time of it this week, working in groups making scarecrows as part of our celebration of autumn.




So far, four 'masterpieces' have been produced. Click on the pictures to enlarge them to see what the messages on each one are.

Filmclub Starts!

Friday 9th October saw the first ever gathering for FILMCLUB. This fantastic new venture enables the school to order DVDs for free which are then delivered to the school.

Children are able to access their own part of the FILMCLUB website (www.filmclub.org) to write reviews - which could see them win fantastic prizes - or preview films they may wish to see in the future.

Over 30 children attended the screening of our first film - Freaky Friday.


This fantastic original version, starring a young Jodie Foster, had the children in stitches with the capers that the mother and daughter got up to after they had changed bodies!

Next week's film will be 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' - the original. Bring on the Oompa Loompas!

Gymnastics Sequences

This half term, the children in Blue Class have been working on developing group balances. Over the course of the last few weeks they have worked first in pairs then in groups of three or four to create balances. By examining photographs of their balances they were able to refine and improve them. This week they worked on linking balances in a sequence. The pictures and video below shows their results, which were very impressive.

Well done kids!

(Click to see larger image)

Jeremiah!

The end of the summer term saw the performance of our whole school production 'Jeremiah'. The photographs in this piece are from one of our last rehearsals before the three shows to parents and members of the local community.

The play follows the story of young Jeremiah Obadiah Jackenory Jones who is on the hunt for the 'No good robber' who has stolen his Grandma's jam tarts.

On his journey through the Dark Woods, Jeremiah comes across a number of interesting characters, including: Horatio Malvolio Gladiolio D'Arcy Fitz-Henry IV...
Captain and Mrs Dawkins...
A crocodile with a ticking clock inside it...
The Mad Hatter...
Gameshow host, Robert Nunbungalow...
A dinosaur...
Three bears...A group of grannies (including one that looked surprisingly like Mr Mansell)...

A teenage wolf...
And quite a few others.

The children also performed a number of songs and dances which were 'absolutely brilliant'. The audiences lapped up the tremendous efforts of the children which were more than sprinkled with some subtle (and not so subtle) humour.

It just goes to show what can be achieved with a bit of hard work and support. All-in-all, a fantastic end to a very busy term.

There are more photographs of the actual performances on show in the school hall.