A Musical Liaison

Yesterday we were delighted to welcome year ten and twelve students from Thomas Mills High School, along with their music teachers, Miss Scott and Mr Handley, to our school. They treated us to some sensational performances, from Jazz ensembles to Metallica, violin duets to solo singing and even some simply astounding magic tricks.

We finished the afternoon with a joint performance of the song This is Our World, which was delivered with feeling and great gusto.

The afternoon certainly inspired our pupils, with one year six girl telling me this morning that she wants to learn violin and saxophone when she starts High School next year. A big thank you to all the pupils who gave up their time to visit us, and to Miss Scott and Mr Handley for all the hard work behind the scenes preparing and organising the event.

Year 5 Science Morning

Earlier today our Year 5 children attended a morning of scientific exploration and discovery at Debenham High School. The children worked on designing, making and testing a lunar landing module as well as working in an Astrodome during a presentation regarding the Solar System and the wider Universe. Wow!

Year Five Concert at Thomas Mills

Yesterday evening, after several weeks of hard work, ten pupils in year five joined their peers from Wickham Market, Charsfield, Dennington and Sir Robert Hitcham (Framlingham) for a short concert to celebrate the Olympics in London. The children were joined by a selection of the Thomas Mills Orchestra and the Chamber Choir. It was a lovely evening, which I am sure those of you who were there will agree was a lot of fun. If you couldn't make it along to watch the concert, I hope you will enjoy listening to the recordings I made.

You can find them by following this link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wt8rvqsi398qicy/SoSpOc2FnO where the files can be downloaded for playing on your computer. Feel free to forward the link to friends and relatives who missed it.

Thomas Mills Armada Day

Today year 5 and 6 headed off to Thomas Mills for a fantastic cross-curricular day all about the Tudors and, in particular, the Spanish Armada.

We were joined by pupils from Dennington Primary and divided into two groups by year group.

Year 5 began the day in the DT room, building a model of an Elizabethan English warship. In under two-hours, the children were able to create a superb model, using a range of tools that are not available to them at primary school.

Meanwhile, the year six pupils learnt about the Spanish Armada and how they met their downfall due to a combination of good English tactics and superior ships and weapons, mistakes on the part of the Spanish, and most importantly, the good old British weather!

This was followed by a maths session in which the children played a board game. Their aim was to successfully sail their ships (this time in role as a Spanish flotilla) from Spain to the Spanish Mainland to collect Aztec and Incan treasure for King Phillip.

After lunch the groups swapped over and completed the other activities. It was, as usual, an excellent day that all of the children (and staff) thoroughly enjoyed.

Task Tacklers - Fireworks!

The 'Task Tacklers' from Earl Soham, Bedfield, Debenham, Stonham Aspal, Wetheringsett and Helmingham met at Debenham High School for their latest challenge.
During the morning, the children experimented with a variety of compounds to produce the colours for fireworks. They discovered that green is made by using copper chloride, red by using lithium chlorine, purple by using potassium chloride and orange by using sodium chloride. They found this out by dipping the tip of a wooden splint into the substance and then setting light to it using a Bunsen burner.Iron fillings were then added which saw the creation of 'sparks' to the flames.
After more experimenting, Mr Rockett and Mrs McBurney showed some fantastic 'explosions' using gas, washing up liquid and magnesium! Then it was time to design sparklers, followed by the making and testing!
There were some fantastic ideas as the children worked hard to get the mixture of glue, iron filings, magnesium powder and compounds right to have the desired effect. This meant a continual cycle of making, testing and evaluating as the children tried to improve on what they had done previously.
It was a simply great day.

Thomas Mills - Science of the Circus

On Tuesday, children in years five and six visited Thomas Mills High School for a day of activities based around the Science of the Circus.

In the morning the children worked with Mr Gionis in the DT room to produce a tightrope walker toy. The children enjoyed using the coping saws and pillar drill and everyone produced a toy to take home.

In the afternoon, Mr Halls introduced the children to a series of experiments in the science lab. They worked in teams to build a high-dive tower, and find out the science behind the human cannonball, and experimented with different chemicals to find out how fireworks get their colours.

The afternoon finished with a bang (literally) as Mr Halls demonstrated how hydrogen and oxygen could be combined to make water. He also wowed his audience by turning water into wine, back to water and finally into milk.

Enjoy the photographs!

Year 5 Science Morning at Debenham High School

Having taken part in the 'Astronomy Roadshow', a multi-media mobile planetarium, the children moved into a science lab. Debenham High School Science Teacher, Mr Rockett set them the task of making rockets. Using simple materials including a piece of paper, card and a straw, the children set about their task.
Once their first attempt was completed they then went about testing and improving their rocket. Once outside, real testing could begin - congratulations to Jack whose rocket clearly went the furthest. Back in the lad, the children were placed in a spinning chair (to replicate the spinning action of the Earth) and fire their rocket at the 'Sun'. The children certainly had fun and learnt a fair amount about the earth and beyond...

Year 6 'OWL WISE' visit to Thomas Mills High School

This afternoon saw the eight Year 6 pupils travel to TMHS for an hour packed full of information about owls.
They were joined from pupils from all of the other TMHS pyramid schools to be informed and enthused about owls by Phil Eckett. Children had the opportunity to feel how soft the feathers were, witness them in full flight, hear (?) their almost silent flying action and watch one of them run surprisingly fast.

The interesting thing about owls, is that it doesn't matter where you stand - they can always quickly turn their heads and see you! Plenty of things to get the children talking and thinking about some creative writing.

Many thanks to the staff at TMHS for organising this, especially Mr Jellicoe who used to teach me English when I was in the 1st year (what is now Year 7). I hope that I haven't made too many mistakes!

Year 5 & 6 at TMHS

18 children from Earl Soham visited TMHS for a fantastic day of ICT, Science, Design Technology and Literacy. The children had great fun designing and making a rocket to send out a signal to ensure that their coach arrived to pick them up! They also looked at how to measure the altitude that their inventions reached.
The TMHS staff were excellent and this was matched by the interest shown by the children and their results - the bus arrived on time!