Monday 17th November saw the whole school take part in an 'Enterprise Day' in the style of Dragon's Den. Children in Key Stage 2 were organised into mixed age groups with Year 6 pupils taking the lead. Each group designed and created something to sell at the Christmas Fayre. They presented their ideas to 4 dragons who then chose one group to produce a Christmas shaker for the fayre. One of the dragons was Mr Patterson a Governor for maths and business enterprise.

Children sharing ideas on their product.
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Children working together on their Christmas crackers idea.

The winning prototype.

This term pupils in Year 5 & 6 have been taken part in 'News Real' projects organised by the Tyneside Cinema. Both projects have engaged the children in filmmaking in a creative and exciting way. Inspired by watching original newsreels, pupils in Year 5 & Year 6 worked alongside professional filmmakers to create their own piece of newsreel footage on life in the Victorian times (Year 5) and life during the Second World War (Year 6). These projects will culminate with a celebratory screening of the children's films in the Tyneside Cinema, where the news was first screened over 70 years ago as well as in school.

Dates to be confirmed.

Year 5 children working alongside professional filmmakers to create their own piece of newsreel footage.

On Wednesday in Year 5 , Martin from Zoo Lab came in to tell us about food webs. Martin drew a food chain on the board and we started the food chain off by looked at an actual cockroach. Some pupils even got to hold the cockroach and some other creatures! After the cockroach he explained the next level of the food chain. With the help of a large snail, a frog, a tarantula spider and a snake, he demonstrated how a food chain could be turned into a food web.
It was exciting, informative and challenging.

Bill Quay Tag Rugby Team took part in the Gateshead Tag Rugby Tournament at Low Fell Rugby Club on 22nd October 2008. The team played brilliantly, well done to everyone for taking part!

On Monday we were visited by a lady from Beamish who came to work with us on our topic about the Victorians. We had lots of tasks to do to gather evidence about a miner called James Harris who travelled from Cornwall to Cramlington during Victorian times. We had to use rubbings of his gravestone and census records to fit together the pieces of his life and were able to see some of the tools he would have used in the mine. Two days later, we went to Beamish and had a Victorian style lesson in the school. We had to sit with straight backs and call the teacher Ma'am. After that we went down the mine to see what life was like for James Harris and visited the miner's cottages. We spent the afternoon looking around the town. It was a fantastic day out and everyone enjoyed seeing the Victorian times come to life!

Children working alongside the lady from Beamish.

Christopher, JP, Jack, Julian , Aaron and Kieran from Year 5 had the opportunity, over a few weeks, to visit the Dryden Centre. They met Gary Cordingley a local story teller, who told stories to the boys from different countries around the world including Norway. The boys were very eager to listen to some spooky Halloween stories too including The King of Cats.

Year 5 visited Gateshead City Learning Centre on Friday to take part in a Magic Space Workshop linked to their Science topic, Planets. They took on the role of a 'Space Ranger' finding out lots of information about space and the planets using the internet. They put the information they found into their own powerpoint presentation. In order to quickly recall the order of the planets orbiting the sun, they had great fun making up their own mnemonics!

Children finding out lots of information about space and the planets.

Year 5 took part in a 6 week cycle safety course. They learnt how to use hand signals and road positions to stay safe. Unfortunately the weather wasn't kind to them but all the children had a great time and learnt a lot.

Children from Year 5 and Year 6 had a fantastic day at the Newcastle Falcons rugby ground last week. They spend the morning touring the ground with Danny, then they watched some of the players training in the gym and saw the player's dressing room. They even had the chance to sit on the bench where Jonny Wilkinson sits before a match. Then Danny took them on to the rugby pitch for some tag rugby training. The afternoon was spent in the computer suite where all the children were engaged in an advertising campaign for the Falcons. They each made an advertising DVD which they were allowed to bring home with them.

Can you spot Mrs Hilton on the bench, thats where Jonny's sits?
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Children having great fun tag rugby training.

They even got the chance to meet the Falcons mascot.

Year 5 visited Gateshead CLC which had been transformed by the WOW spacebus team into a scene from outer space. During the morning they made and tested their own rockets, programmed a moon buggy to follow q route, composed some space music and visited a planetarium, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the trip and learnt lots about space.

Year 3/4 and then Year 5 went along to Sunderland Museum to take part in a family portraits workshop. They explored feeling within portraits and then created their own by dressing up and showing emotions in a giant photo frame.

Can you guess what emotions these children are creating?

Welcome to year 5 our class teacher is Miss Newsham.

This year, Aidan and William from Year 5 took part in the Gateshead area final of the Junior Engineers for Britian Knex Challenge, against Katie and Alisha from St. Aidans Primary School. The children had to design a lifting mechanism made from Knex, the model was then judged and tested on its strength, frame and cranking mechanism. Geoff Clack from the Engineers Employers Federation judged the competition and announced Aiden and William the winners.
They went on to represent the Gateshead area in the Regional finals at Sunderland University on 27th June 2008.

Well Done both of you the school is so proud of you!

Year 5 and 6 had a fantastic day at the Stadium of Light. They spent time with Phil Cowler, one of the resident teachers at the stadium, working on 'Healthy Living'. Everyone produced a beautiful poster incorporating tips for keeping fit and healthy. The highlight of the visit was the stadium tour and the chance to run through the tunnel onto the edge of the pitch. Newcastle fans were nearly tempted to change their team!

Sixteen pupils from Years 5 & 6 spent 4 days near Krakow, along with pupils from Hungary & Poland. They visited the famous Salt Mines and Krakow city. Despite mislaying the passports for 10 minutes the trip was a fantastic success. A great time was had by all in Poland and we are looking foward to visiting Hungary and Spain next year!

This was part of the Comenius project.

Joseph, William, Megan and Kayleigh from Year 5 represented the school in the Robotics Competition Final against 5 other Gateshead schools at the City Learning Centre on Friday 4th July 2008. The children were given the challenge of programming a robot to do 3 different movements using a light sensor, ultrasonic sensor and a sound sensor. The children then worked together, rising to the challenge with 'The Bill Quay Robots' winning overall. The children won individual prizes and Mindstorm Robotics for the school. Well done!

Kayleigh and Megan rising to the challenge.

Joseph, Megan, Kayleigh and William receiving their winning prize from Mr McKenna.

Whilst the rest of their classes were in Poland, Years 5 and 6 went to the Life Centre to link in with Year 5's Science topic - Keeping Healthy. They looked around the museum and took part in a workshop where they had a go at making a plaster cast for a broken arm, making fake scabs, looking at skulls and planning a healthy diet. They all had a great day.

Aidan had great fun making a plaster cast.

Children from Years 4 & 5 visited the CLC over 2 days. Year 5 worked on composing a sound track, selecting different sound effects to add to it, using a software programme called ‘Garage Band’. They went on to add their music to a short space film using the software programme 'I movie'. They also had the opportunity to use data loggers to collect and graph information about light, sound and temperature. Year 4 children had the challenge of helping Harry Potter rescue Professor Dumbledore. In their quest to help Harry they had the chance to fly on broomsticks, retrieve magic treasures and write their own spells, using the latest technology equipment. During the visits both classes had the chance to make their own short animation using a software programme called 2 Animate.
They are now looking forward to having a film premiere and watching all their work back at school!

Year 5 working together using data loggers to collect and graph information.

Children sharing their ideas to make their own short animation.

In their quest to help Harry Year 5 children flew on broomsticks!

Year 5 went to 'Exploring Strings' at The Sage to see Simon Mayor and Hilary James from BBC schools music. They took us on a 'Musical Mystery Tour' of silly songs and talked about the instruments, some of which we'd never heard of before like the mando-bass. Afterwards the children got the chance to go up on stage and have a go at playing some of the instruments.

Definitely some budding musicians in the making!

Year 5 had a fantastic and fun packed day at Whickham Thorns. We all had a go at archery trying to hit the Archery Association badge, it was a challenge.
Snow tubing (slide down the dry ski slope in an inflatable ring) was great fun an a bit scary when you started spinning down.
In the afternoon some people got very muddy on the assault course whilst the others got very lost orienteering around the grounds then we swapped over.
We all had a great day and will be putting our orienteering skills into practice back in the school grounds.

Joseph, William, Megan and Kayleigh from Year 5 represented Bill Quay school in a Robotics Challenge against other Gateshead schools at the City Learning Centre on Friday 25th April. The children were given the challenge of programming a robot to do 6 different movements. The children then worked together, rising to the challenge with 'The Bill Quay Robots' winning overall by a clear 60 points!!

They will now represent the school in the finals later on in the year.

Great news 10 chicks have hatched. The children in Year 5 have chosen their names and they are Speckle, Steve, Sweety, Stitch, Fluffy, Chicky, Owen, Daffy, Bill and Jimmy. The chicks will be spending Easter weekend at the Centre of Life in Newcastle before returning to us on Tuesday.

Four children from Year 5 represented our school in the heats of an Animation Competition taken place at Heworth CLC this week. Kate, Daniel, Hannah and Callum 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 well done everyone! .

Congratulations to Roman Road School who won the heat and go through to the next round.

Children planning their storyboard and sharing ideas.

Children using the digital camera to capture the images.

As part of National Science Week Year 5 took part in 'Professor Brainstorm's Exploding Science Show' at The Discovery Museum in Newcastle. Professor Brainstorm showed them how to use science to perform 'magic' tricks like hammering a nail in with a banana and making a balloon shrink and blow itself back up again by using liquid nitrogen. They also looked around the Fashion works exhibition at look at the use of pattern an how it has changed over time. Finally, they had lots of fun exploring the activities in the science maze.

Like the outfits girls!

Looks like the children are having great fun in the science maze.

Girls from Year 5 and Year 6 took part in the Sportshall Atheltics Finals at Gateshead International Stadium on Thursday 6th March 2008. The girls joined up with pupils from Roman Road, Wardley and Lingey House Primary schools to represent the Heworth area as 'Heworth Grange' in the finals. One hundred and sixty pupils took part in the event competing in indoor, track and field events.

A fantastic result for the Heworth Grange team who came in 2nd overall.

Well done to everyone!

Bill Quay pupils were visited by the 'Climate Dome' team on 28th February 2008 where they learnt about what the green house effect is and why it matters. They also looked at climate change and what effect it will have on the weather and us. As well as learning about the impact of melting ice caps on us all.

Children exploring the Climate Dome.

Year 5 visited the Land of the Pharaohs exhibition at Segedunum as part of their history topic. They where able to see some 2,500 year old mummies - one was even out it's bandages! They also looked at artefacts from Ancient Egypt. They then travelled back in time to meet Aneski an Egyptian farmer. She told them about her life and was surprised to learn how different it was to theirs. Just as they were about to take part in a ceremony to worship the Sun God they were interrupted by Shepenwepet, the High Priestess of Amun- Ra who told them stories about the Sun God.

The children were very inquisitive about Aneski life.

As well as finding out lots more about Ancient Egypt the children also had the opportunity to view the Roman parts of the museum and investigate the remains of the Roman Fort.

Children investigating the remains of the Roman Fort.

When Year 5 and Year 6 visited the Metro Centre on 31st January and 1st February 2008 they were in for a surprise. They both followed a maths trail around the malls and realised maths is all around us. They looked at measurement using the metro unit ( a square with a circle and a line in) which can be seen on the railings in the upper malls and identified lots of different shapes. They all agreed it had been a very interesting and enjoyable day. To top it all off Year 5 were chosen to feature in an article in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle about the maths in malls event!

Aiden and Lee from Year 5 working together sharing ideas on the maths trail.

As well as Year 6 developing their 'control' skills further in ICT, Year 5 have also had the chance to develop theirs. They visited Gateshead City Learning Centre (CLC), on Friday 1st February where they spent one and a half hours with teacher, Mr Mullen, working on the Junior Insight Control programme.

Children working on the Junior Insight Control programme at the CLC.

Year 5 went to South Shields Museum to find out about how the Victorians celebrated Christmas. They made lots of Victorian style decorations using traditional materials like paper. Some of the things they made were crackers, cards (using ink pens), angels, doves and a very long paper chain!

Children working alongside staff creating Victorian style decorations.

Yes thats definately a very long paper chain!

Year 5 have been investigating gases linked to their Science topic.
They had great fun making their own air driven monorails using balloons and string.

Look what fun they are having!

On Thursday 8th November Year 4 enjoyed their visit from visiting artist Pippa Bell. They had the opportunity to see images of sculpture throughout the years and found out how they were made and what materials were used.
Year 5 also enjoyed their visit from Pippa who came to talk to them about the Victorians. They looked at some pictures of Queen Victoria's Coronation and life in the Victorian times. They also saw pictures of famous Victorians, such as Florence Nightingale. "It was really fun, we learnt a lot" said Kate Hanlon. "My favourite part was learning about all the diseases and what doctors did in Victorian times" said Callum Doyle.
Year 6 children looked at paintings and photographs from the Second World War. Pippa showed them different techniques used in the paintings and explained how the colours helped to express feeling and emotions. The children also had the opportunity to discuss the different aspects of the war through the paintings.

Pippa working with Year 6.

The Education Business Links team from Gateshead Council came to run a workshop with us. In groups we made our own company, gave it a name and had to design, make and produce a marketing campaign for a hat. Well done to the winning company Fools Fun!

Planning together using lots of ideas.

Designing our products was such good fun!

We had a great day at Beamish, finding out about life in the Victorian times. We visited the town to look around the shops and houses owned by rich people. We saw sweets being made and sampled a few before going to see the dentist! After lunch we had a lesson in the Victorian school. We got very messy trying to write with ink pens!

Pupils getting down to hard work in the school house..

Oh no inky hands!

Yum something smells nice!

This is hard work.

Year 5 went to Shipley Art Gallery as part of their history topic on Victorians. They saw the painting of the Blaydon races and dressed up in Victorian clothes whilst they learnt the song.

Don't you all look the part!

Nice hat William!

Ready for the races boys?

No excuse for you to be late with that lovely Victorian timepiece Jack!
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This term we are going to be very busy time travelling!
We will be going back to the Victorian Times to find out what life was like for children who were alive when our school was built. We are going to visit Beamish and South Shields Museum to take part in some Victorian activities, as well as looking at Victorian artwork at the Shipley Art Gallery. We will also be finding out about our Solar System and what the climate is like on Earth and other planets. We are also using space as our theme for music and art. With all of this as well as our literacy and numeracy work, we're looking forward to a very busy and exciting time.

Linked to their Literacy topic Years 4 & 5 visited the Theatre Royal in Newcastle to see Birmingham Stage Company’s adaptation of one of Roald Dahl’s most famous books ‘Danny Champion of the World’.
The children thoroughly enjoyed joining Danny and his dad on this magical and remarkable adventure with a touching moral.

Ten children from Year 5 represented Bill Quay school in a Robotics Challenge against other Gateshead schools at the City Learning Centre on Friday 29th June. The children were split into two groups and were given the challenge of programming a robot to do 6 different movements. The children then worked together, both teams rising to the challenge with 'The Rampaging Penguins' winning overall by a clear 40 points!!!!
They will now represent the school in the finals later on in the year.

A great team effort, well done everyone!

Year 4, 5 & 6 had the chance to put rubbish to good use this week, linked to their 'Textiles' topic, when Mrs Dale visited the school and showed them how to use recycled material to weave small trays and baskets.

Children from Years 4, 5 & 6 visited the CLC over 2 days. Year 4 worked on composing a song track and they selected different sound effects to add to it, they also worked on a computer aided design programme producing a key ring. Year 5 also composed their own songs using a software programme called Garage Band. They went on to add their music to a comic strip using the software programme 'I movie'. Year 6 had the challenge of helping Harry Potter rescue Professor Dumbledore, in their quest to help Harry they had the chance to fly on broomsticks, retrieve magic treasures and watch Harry play Quidditch, using the latest technology equipment.

Years 5 & 6 will have the opportunity, over the next four weeks, to work alongside a professional art teacher from Heworth Grange School. They will be working on murals to improve the outside environment of the school.

Children from Years 4, 5 and 6 visited the Winter Gardens in Sunderland to discover a new interactive way for pupils to explore and learn more about rainforests, linked to their humanities topic. Pupils were given Rainforest Explorers backpacks which contained ten numbered objects that matched ten numbered task cards hanging on the plants in the Winter Garden. The children were then given rainforest maps with the locations of the task cards shown, the children were then given the challenge to find the cards and read the information before, finding the object and completing the task.

Year 5/6 girls took part in the first ever 6-a side girls football tournament at Heworth Grange. Five schools took part, each completing four matches and a skills challenge. A great team effort from the girls, which will hopefully lead to further girls football in the future.

Pupils in Year 5/6 Hockey team have had great success recently. In the East Gateshead tournament they won all their matches giving them the opportunity to compete in the finals on Wednesday 28th March. The team did extremely well winning three of their games to take the bronze medal. Well done, a great team effort!

Year 5 children visited the Newcastle Discovery Museum to take part in a car balloon workshop. Pupils worked in groups of three with engineers to make a car powered by a balloon which they raced against each other.
The rest of the day was spent looking around the various displays at the museum.

Year 5 children were provided with wood, tools and all the nails they needed to help them create a fantastic wooden sculpture of an elephant for the school garden. They worked alongside professional artist Joe Hillier who helped to create and capture their ideas.
The elephant will reside in the school garden so feel free to come along and have a look for yourself at the children's fantastic creation.

Year 5/6 pupils were selected to compete in the Heworth Athletics Tournament.
Activities included sprints, hurdles, speed bounce, vertical jump, javelin and long jump.
We did very well coming a close second overall in the competition.
The best pupils in each event from the four schools have been selected to represent the Heworth schools cluster in the finals.
Well done to them!

Our science topic is solids, liquids and gases and we enjoyed a fun-packed day at the Centre for Life. We visited 2 science labs, the first one was to see a snow show were we learned all about how penguins keep warm in the South Pole, then Lucy put on lots of items of clothing to show us how to keep warm. During the rest of the show we found out about solids, liquids and gases. The next lab we visited was to learn the difference between snow and ice. We learned how to stick some string on to an ice cube by adding salt. In the afternoon we all went ice skating. It was great fun!

by Emma Hudson

Year 5/6 visited St. Mary's Cathedral and the Salvation Army Temple on the West Road. They compared the interior and exterior of each building and identified key features such as the pulpit, font and cross.

Year 5 had a visit into school from Star Lab where they learnt about planets and the earth and space linked to their science topic.

Year 5 children enjoyed taking part in 2 sculpture days at Bill Quay Farm. This years theme was 'Our World' and the children were provided with tonnes of wood, tools and all the nails they needed. to help them create a fantastic display of animals, objects, landmarks and landscapes. Professional artists were also on hand .to help create and capture their ideas. The finished sculptures will be on display at an exhibition in Saltwell Park on 8th October 2006 during Family Sculpture Day from 11am-4pm. They will also be displayed in the small hall in school when they have been returned from the exhibition.

Year 5 are really looking forward to a planetarium in the main hall to experience viirtual space!

Welcome to Year 5! We are a small class of 19 pupils working with Mrs Hilton on a morning, when we do maths, literacy and science. Our topic this term is Earth in Space and we are making a huge rocket to hang in our class! We will publish a photograph of it as soon as it's complete!

Year 5/6 have been creating different technology designs with specialist teacher Tom Mullholland. They have designed and built bridges which needed to be able to hold a heavy load, just as a normal bridge would. This meant they had to test the effectiveness of their bridges using weights to measure the strength of their structures. The projects have enabled them to use their knowledge of materials, forces and mechanisms and have been really fun activities for them.
As well as the bridges they have made dodgems, ferris wheels and windmills.

Here are some pupils hard at work building their windmills.

Last week year 6 pupils had a fantastic adventure at the Robin Wood Activity Centre near Alston. They faced their darkest fears in the caves and the Piranha pool, scaled Mount Everest on the climbing wall, climbed the heady heights of the trapeze, zipped down the zip-wire and waded courageously through the stream walk. Robin of Sherwood never had such thrilling adventures, I am sure. All the pupils had a go at the activities, as did the Bill Quay staff, even when they were more than a little bit nervous about it! What fantastic fun they all had.

Just hanging around!
Ready, steady, jump!