Four children, one from Year 5 and 3 from Year 6 represented Bill Quay in a Maths Challenge at the Centre for Life. Together with seven other schools they participated in practical activities based around shape, symmetry and probability. Dr Maths (the Evening Chronicle columnist) entertained the children with magic tricks based on maths- something which the children particularly enjoyed.
Year 5 have been taking part in a Forest Project, at Bill Quay Farm. On their first visit Kirsty took them into the forest to explore the secret land of the Quee people! They made friendship bracelets and built shelters for their village. They also made mud faces on trees to scare people from the village.
Despite the cold weather, everyone had a great time.
Year 5 and Year 6 were involved in a visit to Ryton Comprehensive School to see a Royal Shakespeare Company performance of Hamlet. The children have been acting out various scenes from the play in class and were thrilled to be able to see these scenes acted out by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
On Tuesday year 6 and year 5 took part in a session ran by a member of the Red Cross about how to deal with an unconscious person. They watched a demonstration and listened very carefully before practising the recovery position with a partner. The children had great fun but also understood the importance of following the correct sequence of events if ever they came across someone who was unconscious .
Year 5 really enjoyed their visit to the Winter Gardens on Monday. The focus of this visit was to look at the artist Lowry and they were very lucky to get to see some pieces of his work which had not previously been seen by the general public.
The children were given the opportunity to create their own Lowry sketch. They then worked in two groups to create a large landscape which will be completed in school.
On Wednesday 22nd June Year 5 had a visit from a marine biologist who brought in a variety of sea creatures. The children were able to hold all of the sea creatures which included star fish, crabs and lobsters.
The whole class really enjoyed the hands on experience.
Annie and Stewart from the Marine Biology Centre also brought along their interesting creatures to see year 2.
Ten children from year 5 took part in the Gateshead Gymnastics competition on Tuesday. Year 3/4 team won gold as well as our year 5 team. Our entrants in the open gymnastics category also came away with gold and silver making the day a fantastic success!
Year 5 had a fantastic day out at Thornley Woods on Thursday when they took part in a study of the River Derwent. The children enjoyed a long walk along the river stopping along the way to chat about what they could see. They looked at the geography of the river, taking measurements such as speed and depth and finding invertebrates. They also took part in a shelter building activity and even got the opportunity to watch the Red Kites from the top of Kites Hill.
Children taking measurements of the river.
Children enjoying their long walk along the river.
Year 5 visited the Safety Works at Benwell this week where they took part in realistic scenarios to communicate a wide range of safety messages including home safety, the consequences of crime, safety on the Metro, fire safety and basic first aid. They had great fun working with officers from a range of organisations including Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, Northumbria Police, Nexus and St John Ambulance.
Children learning how to stay safe on the metro.
Children learning some basic first aid.
Children in Year 5 class spent three days at nearby Kingswood residential adventure centre this term, where they took part in lots of outdoor adventurous activities. They were able to challenge themselves to achieve thier own targets. As well as help and encourage each other to overcome their fears.
Everyone had a fantastic time including Mrs Wearmouth and Mr Collinson.
Children from Year 5 visited the CLC at Gateshead, where they were shown how to use a software program called Comic Life. Children had great fun making their own comic linked to work they have been studying on the sinking of the Titanic. They added images, clip art, stills from QuickTime movies and drawings. They also added captions, word balloons, lettering and text.
Year 2 visited the CLC and used a software program called Super Story. They had great fun making their own stories using text and moving graphics based on the Sheyped characters from the Shayped series of books.
Susan Warlock, artist in the community, has been working with Year 5 pupils on a six week art project based around the topic they have been studying 'The Victorians'.
Victorian Art Project
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Four children from Year 5 represented our school in the heats of an Animation Competition taken place at Heworth CLC this week. Ruby, Steven, Emily and Jonathan worked together as a team, sharing their ideas to create a storyboard. Then using models, various props, software programme 'I Can Animate' combined with images captured on a digital camera they created their animation. The children thoroughly enjoyed their day at the CLC and produced a brilliant animation 'Hairy and Harry' well done everyone! .
Congratulations to Falla Park Primary School who won the heat and go through to the next round.
Chris Connaughton well known storyteller, actor and author visited Year 5 and Year 3. Chris performed the classic Hans Andersen tale 'The Tinderbox' to Year 3 using voices, actions and details to interest the children. The children then took part in a discussion session linked to the performance where the children shared their ideas. Chris performed Lewis Carroll's Adventures in Wonderland to Year 5. In his performance, Chris brought to life some of the children's favourite characters, including the Dormouse, the Mad March Hare, the White Rabbit and of course Alice. Following the performance Year 5 took part in a workshop which included literacy exercises and storytelling games linked to the performance, to develop children's story writing.
Chris performing to Year 5.
On Monday morning children from Year 5 enjoyed a visit to the Shipley Art Gallery where they took part in, A Slice of Victorian Life Workshop. The children explored the painting entitled, The Blaydon Races - A Study from Life by William Irving. They looked at the different characters and aspects of local history portrayed in the painting. They also got the opportunity to dress up as characters from the painting and look at Victorian historical artefacts to learn more about local Victorian life.
Children dressed up as characters from the painting.
Year 5 had a fun packed day when they visited Heworth CLC on Thursday. They were greeted with a video message from Michael Hood, the Mayor of Gateshead. In the video he explained to the children about Gateshead's bid for city status in 2012. Children were then given the task to find out what is required for a town to become a city. They used Google Earth which is a virtual globe, map and geographic information program which maps the earth by the superimposition of satellite images and aerial photography. They explored Google Earth and located given landmarks around the world. They also participated in an e-safety activity so that they could safely search the internet to investigate the facilities within other cities and record the information. They looked at Gateshead's map and decide whether Gateshead had everything required to qualify for city status. This information was used to create a short PowerPoint presentation to show to the class.
When walking to the CLC the children had used a Global Positional System (GPS) tracker called 'i-gotU' to track their route. Finally, this was displayed, using Google Earth and the children added waypoints to their trail.
Children working on their Powerpoint presentations.
Year 5 had a great day at Beamish finding out about life in the Victorian times. Before lunch they had a Victorian style lesson in the school. They had to sit with straight backs and call the teacher Sir. They got very messy trying to write with ink pens! They also got the opportunity to go down the mine and visit the miner's cottages. After lunch they visited the town to look around the shops, the bank and houses owned by rich people. They saw sweets being made and sampled a few before going to see the dentist! It was a fantastic day out and everyone enjoyed seeing the Victorian times come to life!
Children taking part in a Victorian Lesson in the school.
Children looking at Victorian money in the bank.
Every week for the past 7 weeks, eight boys chosen from year 5/6 have taken part in the Dilley Line Project and have worked alongside a graphic designer, Dan Civicco. They also worked alongside Colgate School.
With him, they learned about graphic design culminating in the design for the Soul Soup Project. The boys worked very hard to come up with an original idea to front this product. They learnt about the importance of strap lines when trying to promote something new and exciting.
Once the children had designed a suitable logo, they were very lucky and had the opportunity to go to Northern Print to actually screen print the logo onto T-shirts. They also designed the logo for the bag for the ingredients. The boys visited Dan's studio so they could see where he actually worked on a day to day basis. They visited designers based in the Ouseburn Valley and learnt a little about where designers took their ideas from and then how to use them.
On the last trip, the boys had the opportunity to visit Potts the Printers in Cramlington to see their hard work being printed.
The boys have thoroughly enjoyed this project and have worked extremely hard on a very worthwhile and exciting cause.
Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 visited Hebburn Independent Methodist Church on Monday where they took part in the 'Bible Comes Alive' workshop. They learnt all about the Acts of the Apostles through role play and oral storytelling from members of the church. The children took part in a quiz at the end of the workshop to reinforce what they had learnt. They also got the opportunity to sing along with the church members.
Year 5 had a visit from Mr Chris Connaughton as part of their Robinson Crusoe project. Chris performed a play about Robinson Crusoe then the children wrote about how they would feel on their first day on a deserted island. They also wrote a message in a bottle and were able to draw a map of their own island. Finally, Chris read to them from his own published books.
Year 5 had a fantastic day!!
Throughout the week children from Bill Quay have had the opportunity to visit the CLC at Gateshead to take part in various ICT workshops. Year 4 and 5 got the opportunity to explore digital music by using Sony Jam Trax software, to record their voices and compose their own music. Mike showed them how to choose different electronic instruments to create layers of music. Everybody's final track was super and we can't wait to receive the CD! They also had great fun playing on the Wii and recording their achievements. The children will use the data collected to create tables and graphs.
Year 2 had great fun using ShayPeds toys to explore 2D and 3D geometric shapes. They also used a software program called Photo Shoot as well as the SheyPeds, to create a short film.
Zoe, Ben, Kate and Beth from Year 5, represented our school in the heats of the Sounds of the Cinema Competition at Heworth CLC on Monday. They were set the challenge of writing the script, including dialogue, composing the soundtrack and lyrics. As well as adding different sound effects for a short film about an action hero called Jonni Star. They performed amazingly in the challenge and were just pipped at the post, finishing in second place. Well done!
Children working hard to complete the challenge!!
As well as visiting Gateshead CLC, children from Bill Quay have also had the opportunity to visit the CLC at Heworth this week. Year 4 and 5 had great fun using Kar2ouche to write a story about George and the Dragon, adding characters and background to their storyboards. They also used the software program 2animate to created their own animation being creative and hands-on learning, the children had great fun and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Year 2 had a fun packed day when they visited the CLC. To start the day off, they popped on 3D glasses and watched a short 3D interactive film 'Under the Sea'. They then listened to a story about the King of Spain who entrusted his treasure chest to Sailor Sam whose ship went missing in the open sea, with the treasure onboard. Using 2simple 2draw software, the children drew their own pictures of the treasure chest under the sea. After lunch the children wrote their own story ending of what happened to the Kings treasure using 2create software. They also got the opportunity to program and control a Bee Bot, to find missing treasure on a treasure map. The Bee Bot is a small dome shaped portable controlled technology robot, which provided an ideal entry path for the children to the world of robotics. The children had a fantastic time using lots of new software and technology!
Year 2 children programming and controling a Bee Bot in order to find missing treasure on a treasure map.
This term linked to the Robinson Crusoe Project, Year 5 children spent the day at the Dove Marine Laboratory in Cullercoats. They explored the rocky shore directly outside the laboratory, to find plants and animals which would have helped Robinson Crusoe survive on his desert island. Inside the laboratory the children described where on the rocky shore they had found each plant or animal. They also completed a dietary components wheel looking at the nutritional content of each organism. The children then got the opportunity to sample different kinds of seafood. During the afternoon session the children explored the caves around the laboratory then designed their own shelter out of different materials. When completed the shelters were tested to see if they could withstand the elements of coastal weather conditions, The children had lots of fun learning about rocky shore organisms and building their shelters!
Children exploring the rocky shore.
Children describing where on the rocky shore they had found each oganism.
Children starting to build their shelters.
During Science week this term, children in Key Stage 2 got the opportunity to watch an amazing Science Magic Show. They were totally enthralled with this visual and interactive show which included lots of fantastic liquid nitrogen demonstrations as well as tricks using sodium polyacrylate to absorb water.
It was truly a learning experience for us all especially Mr Collinson!
Tanith, Lucy B, Julian, Michael, Phillippa, James, Femi and Mrs Welsh represented Bill Quay at the Science Showcase in the Metro Centre this term. The showcase included hands on activities, science fair projects and an inflatable planetarium, allowing the children the opportunity to see what fantastic science is taking place in North East schools.
Children enjoying the hands on activities!
Pupils in Year 5 class spent three days at nearby Kingswood residential centre this term where they took part in lots of outdoor adventurous activities. They returned to school filthy dirty and tired, but reported that they had loved the experience. Mrs Wearmouth and Mr Collinson accompanied the class and needed a well earned rest on their return!
Initially cloudy skies did little to cast a shadow over the fun Year 5 had when they visited Whickham Thorns on Friday. They developed their team building, listening and communication skills through problem solving and team challenges. During one of the team challenges the children were split into two teams and asked to build a waterproof shelter made from plastic bags, string and large twigs. Both teams rose to the challenge sharing their ideas and opinions on what would work best.
Children having great fun building their shelters!!
Children from Year 4, 5 & 6 visited Dance City in Newcastle to watch Tees Valley Dance perform Kick Off. Using football as its inspiration Kick off was a light-hearted piece about exploring the games played by two friends. Injuries, arguments, winners, losers, rules and tactics were all incorporated within the dance performance. After the show the children took part in a workshop with the choreographer of the show and members of the dance group. They got the opportunity to perform dance routines from the show and ask lots of questions about the performance.
The children are really looking forward to working with Tees Valley Dance again when they visit school at the end of the month.
Pupils in Key Stage 2 took part in the Fab Food Funhouse Roadshow to raise awareness of healthy eating. The children were spit into teams and completed physical activity challenges, took part in various games and answered questions about healthy food choices to score points for their team.
A fun afternoon was had by all!!!
Year 4, 5 and 6 visited the Great North Museum to look closely at the Ancient Egyptian Exhibits housed within the museum. They studied the different art work and sketched the designs which they found interesting. These sketches were then used to create an Ancient Egyptian wall art.
Children sketching their designs.
Year 5 and Year 6 met with a fireman from the local Fire Station to learn about Fire Safety within the home. The fireman talked to the children about what to do if a fire broke out in their home, reminding the children of the does and don'ts to stay safe.
This week our pupils have been performing their Christmas Shows and they have all been a great success.
There are certainly some budding stars in the making!
Reception Class performed 'Jesus in a Manger' a traditional nativity play, their acting and singing was tremendous!
Year 1 and Year 2 performed 'A Creepy Crawly Christmas' a thoroughly entertaining show along with brilliant acting and singing from all of the children!
Year 3 performed 'A Tale of two Birthdays'. This tale had action, adventure, magical characters, lots of laughs along with a superb performance from all the children!
Year 4 & 5 performed 'Dick Whittington and his Cat' a popular and well-loved story about Dick, who was down on his luck and decided to head for the city of London to see if the streets were really paved with gold. The show had catchy songs, lots of laughs and of course a 'happy ever after' ending. Providing a great recipe for a thoroughly entertaining show along with fantastic acting and singing from all of the children.
Year 6 performed 'Hansel and Gretal an adaptation of the popular fairytale. Hansel was imprisoned while Gretal 'force fed' him in order to, as the old witch put it 'fatten him up for the Christmas pot! It was great fun to watch with its witty script, catchy songs and some real 'character acting' from the children.
Children rehearsing for their shows!
Every year Film Education organises a nationwide film festival called National Schools Film Week (NSFW) which takes place this year on 19th-23rd October. National Schools Film Week is the biggest event of its kind in the world for young people, it is a unique festival which provides schools across the UK with free trips to the cinema with the aim of exposing children to a wide range of films. This years theme is Creativity and Diversity and our Key Stage 2 children have had the opportunity to take part. They have visited Sunderland Empire Cinema and The Customs House, South Shields where they have enjoyed watching a film.