As Year 1 arrived at the synagogue they were greeted by the Rabbi and were offered the choice of wearing a kippah (Jewish scull cap). All of the boys wore a kippah and even some of the girls!
After taking their seats in the temple of worship, they were told the story of Moses and how he led the Jews out of Egypt. Year 1 then acted out the story which helped them remember what happened. They were then told what happens during Jewish festivals like the Passover and got to have a look at the magnificent Torah (Jewish sacred book). The Rabbi showed them how he wore his tallit shawl when reading the Torah. They also learnt the symbol of the Jewish people which is the Magen David, also known as the Star of David. The Rabbi showed them the Menorah which holds the seven candles displayed in a Jewish synagogues. It symbolises the burning bush as seen by Moses on Mount Sinai. He also told them about the nine candle- holders which are only used during the Jewish festival of Hanukka. They leant how the Jewish holy day of the Sabbath starts at sunset on Friday and continues until sunset on Saturday. During which time the Jews do nothing that might be counted as work. After the Rabbi kindly answered all their questions, they thanked him for inviting them into his place of worship. The children had a fun filled morning learning all about Judaism.

Year 1 visited the CLC at Gateshead where they had great fun using the software programme 'Photo Story' to write a recount of the seaside.

Children working hard on their recounts.

Year 1 pupils visited the Centre for Life this term as part of their topic, ' My Body' . They were given the opportunity to and compare finger prints, as well as looking at hot and cold effects on the body.

Children building their skeletons.

Year 1 met with Firemen from the local Fire Station to learn about Fire Safety in the home. They took part in a wide range of activities including watching a short Fireman Sam DVD , playing Guess the Hazard and learning rhymes to help them remember the main fire safety messages, The talk was delivered in a fun way which enhanced the children's knowledge about fires and fire safety. The rhymes were catchy and the children were still chanting them on exit of the classroom!

Children having fun taking part in the activities!

Year 1 enjoyed a Body Workshop at the Centre for Life. They got the opportunity to and compare finger prints as well as looking at hot and cold effects on the body.

Children enjoying building skeletons!

Children having fun while visiting the centre.

Year 1 stepped back in time on Wednesday with a visit from Richard, from St. Mary's Heritage Centre in Gateshead. As part of a Victorian workshop, Richard give them the opportunity to guess the use of a range of household objects. He went on to talk about toys they play with today and showed them the different kinds of toys that children in the Victorian times would have played with including the Jacob's ladder, pick up sticks and the top and whip. The children had great fun playing with all the toys and learning about them!

Children having great fun playing with all the toys!

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!

This term, Year 2 pupils were treated to an alternative Nativity when Zoo Lab visited school! Pupils were given the opportunity to hold some of the animals which may have been in the stable in Bethlehem, but are often forgotten. These included: cockroaches, snakes and rabbits! Lucy Strophair said, "It was really good, because the man brought in some creepy animals. We got to hold a few and learnt about the story of Jesus. My favourite animal was the bunny rabbit, but I was scared of the tarantula!"

Year 2 pupils getting the opportunity to hold some of the animals.

Year 1 were also treated to a visit from Zoo Lab, they learnt in a fun way about the animals that live on the forest floor in the Rainforest.

The children enjoyed touching and holding everything from millipedes to snakes!!!

Year 1 visited Broomhouse Farm and thoroughly enjoyed picking turnips, feeding the pigs and even collected free range eggs for the farmer!!!

Children having fun picking turnips.

Children collecting free range eggs for the farmer!

Children enjoying riding around on the farm

Year 1 visited the Heritage Centre to make stained glass windows. It was lots of fun and we brought our work back to school for display.

Children learning about how stain glass windows are made.

Children making their own stained glass window.

Year 1 visited Monkwearmouth Station Museum to find out about seaside holidays in the past. We took part in a treasure hunt around the museum and looked in the seaside bag of a lady from the 1900's. We were given the opportunity to touch the artefacts and even got to use an old fashioned camera, which we had to hold to our stomachs to see the picture we were taking!

Lucy using the old fashioned camera.

Children looking in the seaside bag of a lady from the 1900's.

We had lots of fun when we visited Bluereef Aquarium in Tynemouth and were even lucky enough to watch the seals perform! We gathered lots of information about creatures of the deep to help us with our 'Seaside Topic' and touched rockpool creatures such as crabs and starfish - some felt very slimy!!!!!

Children gathering lots of information about creatures of the deep.

Year 1 went to Sunderland Museum to take part in the Homes Workshop. We were given lots of information about house hold objects from the past and even got to hoover using one of the first ever hoovers!!!! It was a very interesting visit.

Year 1 visited St. Mary's Heritage Centre and were given the opportunity to look at and play with Victorian toys. They played with a variety of toys including Jacob's Ladders, Dominoes. Pick Up Sticks, Spinning Tops, Yoyos, Jacks and Skittles. They then thought of toys they play with now which were taken from Victorian ideas. After that, Richard introduced a range of Victorian artefacts from the home and asked the children to guess what they were used for. The children were then given the chance to handle the original artefacts.

What a busy morning!

Year 1 visited Whitehouse Farm on 10th December 2008. It was great fun! We went in the soft play, fed all of the animals (including calves and kids), had a trailer ride and met Santa. Santa was asleep when we arrived so we sang Christmas carols until he woke up. He gave us all magic flying dust to take home because we had all been good this year (Miss Moore, Mrs Burrell and Mrs Adams even got some!!!). Then before we went home we acted out the Nativity Story, using a real donkey and Holly got to sit on his back!!

Children having fun on the trailer ride.

Children acting out the Nativity Story.

Who can you see riding on a real donkey?

Pupils in Key Stage 1 and Keystage 2 performed at this year's Gateshead Gymnastic Festival at Gateshead Leisure Centre on Thursday 26th November 2008 as well as, children from other schools around Gateshead. Mrs Bone worked with Keystage 1 pupils and Mrs Messenger worked with the Key Stage 2 pupils in preparation for the evening. Their performances to 'Jump Around' by 'House of Pain' and 'Walk Away' by 'The Egg' were outstanding.

Well done to everyone who took part!

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.

On the 5th November Zoo Lab came in to school to work with Year 1 and 2. It was a fantastic, fun learning experience which was linked to science. The theme of the session was 'Halloween' and the children were given the opportunity to view and handle some unusual creatures including, a spider, a large snail and a snake.

On Wednesday 12th November pupils from year 1 attended Heworth Grange Comprehensive School where they participated in a multi skills challenge. The large hall had twelve stations where pupils had the opportunity to practice throwing, kicking, jumping, balancing and a varity of other skills; along side pupils from other schools. One of our teams came third overall. Well done Bill Quay!

Year 1 took a trip to Aldi to find out about the final part in a fruit or vegetables journey from seed to sale. First we searched for unusual foods that we had not seen before and wrote down their names. We saw butternut squash, avocado, chilli peppers and asparagus. Next we tasted a range of fruit and vegetables and described how they tasted. Lastly, Mrs Lane gave us a bag of fruit and vegetables to talk about back at school.

On the 14th October year 1 visited Bill Quay farm. They looked at the animals and the difference between the straw used for their beds and the hay they eat. Then they looked at berries and talked about harvest time and what the berries could be used for, pies, ice cream etc. At the end of the visit before they came back to school the children played a harvest game on the cafe lawn. They all agreed it was great fun!

Welcome to year 1, our class teacher is Miss Moore

Year 1 visited the Discovery Museum in Newcastle to take part in 'Science Storytime' linked to their Science and Literacy topics. The pupils listened to a story ' The Lighthouse Keeper's Catastrophe' by Ronda and David Armitage. Then they participated in a series of group activities to develop the central themes from the story; exploring light, electricity, pulleys, life processes and floating/sinking.
The children had great fun while taking part in all these activities.

Year 1 visited the Sand Park at Bill Quay on Monday 2nd June as part of their literacy topic. They are looking at sequencing and will be re-counting the visit in order, using text and photographs.

Looks like they are having great fun!

Year 1 children visited the Safety Works Centre at Benwell this week where they learned all about road safety, metro safety, fire safety and stranger danger. They took part in role play activities, watched a video and revised The Green Cross Code using a real pelican crossing. The children had a great time and met some Police Officers and a Fire Fighter. Phoebe-Bea dressed up as a policewoman and Ethan posed as a stranger who was arrested and put in the mock prison cell.

Children revising 'The Green Cross Code'.

The children in Key Stage 1 joined in with the visiting music workshop where they learnt about pitch in music. The musicians read and acted out the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and children were chosen to accompany them with instruments. They also joined in with singing high, low and medium notes. All the children enjoyed playing instruments, learning some new songs and moving to the music.

The musicians acting out the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Children enjoying taking part in the workshop.

Children in Year 1 visited Seven Stories this week where they talked to illustrator Derek Matthews about how he made his 'Snappy' pop up books. Then they had the opportunity to work alongside him making their own pop up Christmas cards.

Year 1 drawing some wonderful pictures for their cards!

Welcome to Year 1.
This term our theme is based on the book 'Handa's Surprise' we are learning about healthy eating, growing plants and their habitats and how we can improve our local area.

We know we will have a lot of fun!

The topic this term is The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch and on Monday 21st May 2007 we visited the beach at Marsden. We looked at the human and physical landscape and made sketches of the seascape. We also visited Souter Lighthouse to see how a real lighthouse works and for inspiration for our own lighthouse models.

We went to the Shipley Art Gallery where we worked with a ceramic artist to make a clay turtle. The children were also given the opportunity to look at examples of Art on display in the gallery.

These are the clay turtles the children made.

Year 1 and 2 went to the Discovery Museum.
We took part in an interactive puppet show on The Great Fire of Gateshead.

Year 1/2 visited Norwood Park linked to their Art topic, they looked at sculptures in the environment. They also made mini- sculptures of their own as well as collages and rubbings using natural materials.

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Year 1/2 visited Buddle Arts Centre, Wallsend to see a play called 'A Handful of Sand'. A leading children's theatre company 'Monster Productions' performed the play. The Play was about a child's sandpit games, being magically transformed into a desert adventure. The children also took a flying carpet ride to meet the Teeny Weeny Genie and heard words of wisdom from a wise old camel called Jamal.

Linked to Year 1/2 RE topic ' Special Times' pupils took part in a mock Christening. Ruby and Aaron, who were the parents, chose Lewis, Imogen and Ryan to be the Godparents. They invited the rest of the dass as guest, along with their own photographer Emily, who took some beautiful photographs.

This year we are learning about Mr Grumpy's Outing. One of our 'volunteers' called Rachel has been helping us make a giant car for the wall. It is now complete and is up on our classroom wall and it looks fantastic!

Welcome to Year 1/2, this year we are learning about Mr Grumpy's Outing. One of our 'volunteers' called Rachel has been helping us make a giant car for the wall. We will publish a photograph of it when it is complete. We have lots of exciting visits planned and will give you more details of them soon. Looking forward to a great year ahead!