There's Something Strange Happening up the Road!

The morning of Friday 26th March, 2010, was a rather strange one. The events of the previous evening had resulted in reports of sightings of strange glowing objects in the sky and unexplainable noises.

An early morning call from Mrs Elliot at Laxfield Primary School saw four intrepid investigators set off to try to work out what had actually occurred.

They were met by a host of excitable children and the local Police Officer, explaining the events. There was a strange green substance across the playground and over the field. This strangely disappeared near the drain covers. A variety of metallic object were found scattered in the the school grounds, some which looked as though they had bite marks.

Special Agents Handley, Piper-Williams and Holland-Howes (x2) took samples of the green 'goo' to investigate further at school. I look forward to reading their findings...

Dancing The Words - Ancient Greece

Yellow Class have spent the last four weeks working on a series of dance routines in relation to Ancient Greece.

They particularly focused on the changing seasons and the story of Demeter and Persephone and how the plants were neglected whilst Demeter went to search for her daughter and how they all came back to life once Persephone had been found.

The movements had accompanying vocal chants to help with the timing of the sequence. Below are a series of pictures taking during the course of the lessons.

Year 6 Outdoor and Adventurous Day

Year 6 children from Earl Soham joined up with their counterparts from Bedfield, Wetheringsett and Helmingham for a fantastic day of activities and team building. On what was probably the hottest day of the year so far, the children readily mixed with old acquaintances and made new friends ready for their transfer to high school.

All children took part in four activities, during the day, at the fantastic Thorpe Woodlands Activity Centre. There really was something for everyone with archery, high ropes, climbing and canoeing.

It was great to see the support and encouragement the children gave to one-another as they persevered with tasks and tried to overcome their fears.

FimClub Achieves 'Star' Club Status

Earl Soham FilmClub has be awarded 'Star' club status. Due to the range of films that we've shown on a weekly basis and how well the children have been contributing with reviews and requesting films, this is thoroughly deserved for everyone.

FilmClub takes place every Friday, after school, showing a wide range of films to audiences which consist of usually over 3/4 of the entire school. There is plenty more information available on the FilmClub website www.filmclub.org

Ipswich Town v Barnsley

Twenty three intrepid members of our school community ventured to the bright lights of Ipswich in anticipation of a footballing feast. Well, that might be overdoing it a tad, but (at times) the football was quite good.
Ipswich took an early lead when the visiting goalkeeper completely lost his bearings, rushed out of his area to the touchline and let the enigmatic Pablo Counago poke the ball round him, curl a long range shot onto the post only to see it slammed home by Daryl Murphy.


However, the Earl Soham section had seen this happen before during the Middlesborough match, so whilst almost ecstatic, past memories lingered at the back of people's minds.

This time, although unable to add to their lead, Ipswich held firm (ish) to keep out the visitors and record another three points. A relatively happy 20, 588 fans left the stadium carefully taking note of all the lucky clothing they'd need to wear next time!

It was a pleasure to organise, yet again.

Sport Relief 2010

This morning staff and children alike dressed up in their sporting gear and took part in a range of sporting activities in aid of Sport Relief 2010.

Following assembly, the children began a dance-a-thon, with an hour of non-stop dancing in relay style. 
Everyone got in to the spirit and boogied along to great hits such as "Show Me the Way to Amarillo" and "Reach for the Stars".

At break time, various sporting activities took place, from games of football...

...to basketball...

...and more!

The morning was finished off (along with the staff) with a game of rounders, staff v. Y6.
After a gruelling two innings and some very creative accounting, the Y6s won the game 49-39.

But of course, who won or lost is not really important. The important thing is that our efforts helped raise some money for a very worthy cause. Check back here again soon to find out how much we raised.

Our School is...

This morning in assembly, all the children were involved in producing an acrostic for what our school stands for. There were some fantastic ideas from all of the children. This led to much debate amongst the children.

The agreed final version was as follows:

Supportive (we all support each other)
Community (we all belong and ensure that everyone feels a part of our school)
Helpful (we aim to help everyone)
Outstanding (we aim to be the best we can at all we do)
Opportunities (there are many opportunities which we need to make the most of)
Learning (learning is for life)

Other fantastic words included safe, special, cool, collective, happy, optimistic, outgoing and lovely.

Bassoon and Oboe Demonstration

Blue Class were visited today by Sue Simington from the County Music Service, who gave the class a demonstration of the bassoon and oboe. Children going to high school this year will have an opportunity to start taking instrumental lessons, and this was a great introduction to some less well-known instruments. Places are still available for instrumental tuition at Debenham High School, for anyone in year 6 who is interested in starting lessons.

Year 5 Singing Event at Thomas Mills High School

The evening of Tuesday 9th March saw the primary schools from Earl Soham, Charsfield, Dennington, Easton, Wickham Market and Sir Robert Hitcham (Framlingham) link up with students from Thomas Mills High School for a fantastic evening of singing and music.

The TMHS Orchestra started off with 'Overture to Tannhauser'. This was followed by the primary schools signing 'Afton Water' and then 'Canoe Song' which was sung as a whole group, then in a round of four and finally as a round of five as the audience were encouraged to participate!

Next up were the music competition winners from TMHS who were absolutely superb with their range of solo singing, piano playing, violin and a brilliant jazz ensemble. The primary school children sat amazed at what hard work and dedication could achieve.

The primary schools were then accompanied by the TMHS Orchestra for a, 'Abba Medley' including: One of Us, Thankyou for the Music, Knowing Me, Knowing You and Money, Money, Money. Yet again, superbly performed, and the parents joined in too!

A fantastic evening for all involved - sorry, no pictures available.

Year 2 'Wake and Shake' Festival

On Friday 5th March, Year 2 children spent the morning at Debenham Leisure Centre taking part in a wide range of physical activities. Many schools from across the area were represented with all children having a great time.

The children are pictured below with 'Mr Cuddles' from Suffolk Schools Sports Partnership.

Chinese New Year

Children were given the opportunity over half term to to create a piece of work based around the celebration of the Chinese New Year. This year the celebration started on 14th February, the Year of the Tiger.

The children were given some basic information, with their task being to research in more detail and to present their work in as interesting a way as possible.

All entries received are shown below along with some of the overall winners who received a book token for their efforts.

Well done to everyone who entered - judging was extremely hard!

World Book Day - Thursday 4th March

The day started with an assembly which all the children brought along their favourite books to.

Staff shared their favourite books and explained why they liked them so much.

Back in class, Blue Class were busy making story books for younger children...

Children in Red Class spent time reading, listening to stories and writing...

As did Yellow Class...

The school had a lovely feel about it throughout the day. Stories simply can be magical!

Strange Sightings in the Sky at Earl Soham

What is it? That was the question on everyone's lips on Monday morning. Bemused children racked their brains...

A slow moving, bright object was visible in the sky...

Strange patterns were visible on the playground...Memories were cast back to the Roswell incident and strange sightings in Rendlesham Forest. Fortunately, a passer by (who wished to remain anonymous) was on hand to put our minds at rest. "What you can see is the star at the centre of our solar system which is approximately 149.6 million kilometres away from Earth. Most people call it the Sun."

Well, it hasn't been seen for quite some time!

World Maths Day

Blue and Yellow classes started by warming up with the traditional logic problem of the farmer needing to get his chicken, grain and a fox across a river. The farmer is only able to ferry one item at a time to the other side, but needs to ensure that none of the items are left unattended which may eat another item! The children wrote down their ideas for how this could work and then acted them out.

They then undertook the 'Only Smarties Have the Answer' challenge. This involved the children working in groups of 3 or 4 investigating the contents of a fun-size box of smarties.

The children started by counting the contents of their own box.

Then they added the totals of the contents in their group together. This enabled them to work out the mean average per box within their group.

The different colours in each box and group were then sorted and this information was then transferred into a graph which could then be interpreted. This information was then shared with everyone else in large tables. The children also measured Smarties and then worked out the total length if they were placed side by side. The three most effective leaders were then awarded with a rather 'funky' calculator each for their sterling efforts. It had been a great morning for everyone.

Rotary Club Assembly - Shelter Boxes

This morning Rotarians Chris Sharp, Arthur Dorsett and Susan Hansen led our assembly on the theme of Shelter Boxes.

They spoke about the current plight of people in Haiti following on from the recent devastating earthquake.

The children got to see the contents of a Shelter Box which can provide everything that a family of ten people would need to survive should disaster strike. A Shelter Box costs £490 and can save lives and make a real difference. The School Council are going to discuss which fundraising events we could hold to put money towards buying one.Some of the equipment was passed around - here are some children feeling the warmth of one of the blankets.It was an extremely interesting and eye-opening assembly which left the children thinking that they could make a real difference to the lives of many.