Small Schools' Basketball Tournament - Friday 26th February

Seven children from Years 5 & 6 travelled to Stradbroke Business and Enterprise College, alongside 11 other schools, for the annual basketball tournament.

Earl Soham started strongly with a 10 - 2 victory over Thorndon. However, they were brought back down to earth with a defeat (8 - 0) to Wetheringsett. This was followed by a closely fought match against Wilby which resulted in a 2 - 2 draw. The next match was Earl Soham's performance of the day when they came back from 4 - 0 down to beat Occold 6 - 4. Tired legs were a telling factor in the last match when they were beaten 4 - 0 by Charsfield.

So, Earl Soham finished the tournament with the record of: Played 5, Won 2, Drew 1, Lost 2, For 18, Against 20. But, more importantly, they also finished with big smiles and the knowledge that they'd done their best in an extremely sporting manner.

The Iron Man - Dancing the Text

As part of our focus on Literacy, Years 4, 5 & 6 spent last half term using 'The Iron Giant' by Ted Hughes as a stimulus for dance in PE.
The children started by recreating the way that the Iron Man started to piece himself together, using the idea of magnets, following his fall over the cliffs.
Week by week, a different part of the text was looked at with a focus on expression, working at different levels and dynamics of movement. Work was created at individual, paired, small group and whole class levels. Below is a selection of photographs taken over the five sessions.

The Romans

Blue Class have been working hard on their latest topic, the Romans. Set a piece of homework over half a term, the children were asked to research an area of particular interest to them and produce a booklet of work.
There were some tremendous pieces produced and Mr Mansell was delighted with the care effort and attention to detail in the work produced. Below are the three prize winners holding aloft their projects and their prize. Well done to everyone, your work was a delight to read.

Meanwhile, Blue Class have also created this fantastic mosaic (nearly 2metres high) of our school emblem.

Wake and Shake

Children returned from a well-deserved half term break to be met with more incredible weather as we inch closer towards the elusive season of 'spring'.
In a bid to get the children off to a 'flying start', Wake & Shake took place in the hall to get the heart rate going and the concentration levels increased. Apologies for the blurred photos, they were too quick for me!

Safer Internet Day

Today saw a range of activities taking place to develop awareness of using the internet safely.
It started with Mr Mansell leading an assembly about different uses of a computer (list being compiled below) and which information was personal, and which wasn't (children below making their decisions a la 'Runaround'!)In Yellow Class, the children used 'Hector's House' as a resource to develop the children's understanding of people not always being who or what they say they are.

They also looked at the different emotions that can be displayed by people at various times and what may cause them.

Finally, they looked at forms of cyberbullying and how important it is to keep our personal information safe so that this cannot be used by others.


In blue class we began the day thinking about what constitutes personal information and what information is safe to share online.

After break we looked at some examples of emails and discussed how we would respond to them. We learnt to recognise spam mail, chain letters and phishing, and talked about how people can use these to obtain personal details such as your bank account number or email addresses of your contacts.

In the afternoon we watched a video about being SMART online. They learnt that to be SMART, you must keep your personal details Safe; You should not Meet up with online friends; Accepting email from people you don't know can be dangerous; People and information you come across online may not always be Reliable; and if something on the internet makes you feel uncomfortable, you should Tell a trusted adult.
The children discussed a range of scenarios and what advice they would give in each situation.
We finished the day by producing posters reminding us of the rules we had learnt.

 

 

Ipswich Town v Middlesbrough

A contingent of over 30 from Earl Soham (amongst 21, 243 spectators) trekked to Portman Road, Ipswich, for a 'fun' Saturday afternoon at the football.

Having met at the Sir Bobby Robson statue, the enthusiastic hordes made their way to their seats in the South Stand upper tier.

Ipswich, looking resplendent in blue and white started with a fantastic tempo and debut-making Daryl Murphy put the home side one up after just 30seconds. The players went wild (see picture below) and the fans blinked at each other in disbelief.

Everything seemed rosy, Ipswich were well on top, but failed to convert their early superiority into a greater lead. But, we were still enjoying ourselves!

At the break, Town led 1 - 0, and people scampered off to purchase fizzy drinks, cups of tea and king size Kit Kats.

After the interval, the visitors came out looking really 'up for it'. The Ipswich goalkeeper, Arran Lee-Barratt tipped a header around the post. Unfortunately, the resulting corner was powered into the net by the impressive David Wheater to level the scores.

It wasn't until the last 5minutes that Ipswich developed greater urgency with their play, but sadly they didn't get the run of the ball and time for a winner simply ran out.

A win would have been great, but a draw was probably a fair reflection of the performances on show. The children (and adults) appeared to enjoy themselves and hopefully this is something we can repeat for the visit of Barnsley on March 20th. It was a pleasure to organise such a fantastic group of people.

As the floodlights shone through the darkness, the departing fans were left to reflect, yet again, on what might have been.