World War II Topic

What was it like to live in fear of Doodlebugs?

Living in fear of the Doodlebug
doodlebugstories
The children have designed their own Anderson shelters
The children have designed their own Anderson shelters
Homework researching three facts about a WWII leader - Htiler by NH
Homework researching three facts about a WWII leader – Hitler by NH
Class 2 have looked at how propaganda posters were used during
World War II. Here are some that the children have designed.
Year 3 mind map: what we know
Mindmap – what we know, Class 2
Class 3 WWII Display
Class 3 WWII Display

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Our resident Year 4 WWII aircraft expert
shares his knowledge with Year 5 and 6.

Whirlow Farm Visit

KS2 children enjoyed a great day at Whirlow Farm taking part in WW2 workshops as part of their ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ topic, learning about life on the home front. They dressed up in 1940s clothing to be evacuated for the day and took their war time packed lunch in paper bags.

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The children used a hand pump to extinguish a potato incendiary bomb and took shelter when the air raid siren sounded. The farmer’s wife took them on a tour of a WW2 kitchen. In groups they kneaded dough for home made bread and set out the china for the visiting vicar, as well as having a go at some ‘make do and mend’ activities like knitting and rag rug making. It was very funny watching children peel vegetables and loading scraps into the metal pail for feeding the pigs.  Martha , the ‘land girl’ took the children on a tour of the farm. They had a go at ‘digging for Victory’ in the vegetable patch and had a look at how the farm land was used during the war.

Our Enterprising Tuck Shop

Class 3 Tuck ShopClass 3 has started running a tuck shop. We raised money to start it by running a Christmas coffee morning and inviting all the parents. We made over £20 and managed to buy stock and a place to keep it.

We have been running the tuck shop for about 6 weeks! Every few weeks we go out to buy stock. We have a wide range of sweets, fruits and savoury items. We have a treat day every Thursday which means we can buy chocolate, Haribos and lolly pops. On Thursdays, the tuck shop is really popular because it is sweet day, and every body loves sweets! On Fridays two Infant class school council members run the tuck shop, when KS2 go swimming. On other weekdays we have breadsticks, apples, bananas and a mixture of raisins.

We make around ten pounds profit each week from the tuck shop. We are saving our tuck shop money to buy a bin for the school playground. With our tuck shop money we have already bought name badges for our buddy and mini leader jobs.

By NS, MG, EE & RL Class 3

Easter Egg Competition

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The children were challenged to design and make an egg scene and/or person. The competition was judged by our Chair of Governors, Mrs Gill, and Easter egg prizes were awarded for the best ideas in each class. The Winners were as follows:

Class 1
1st – One DirEGGtion
Runners up – Magic Tomb and Glen the Goldfish

Class 2
1st – Neil Egg-Strong
Runners up – Captain Eggman and Horrid Henry

Class 3
1st – Egg-lection of Pope Fran-chick!
Runners up – The Very Greedy Spider and Easter Chicks

Bikeability in the Snow!

Bikeabilty, Level 1 challenge on the playground
Rising to the challenge

Well done to all our Year 6s who completed their Level 2 Bikeability training on Wednesday, despite the snow! Bikeability is cycling proficiency for the 21st century designed to give the next generation the skills and confidence to ride their bikes on today’s roads.

Our trainer for the day was Alastair, from Wheely Fun Wheels, an approved Bikeability trainer working with the School Sport Partnerships who access funding via the Youth Sport Trust. The first session took place on the playground  and included basic bike checks, helmet checks and general handling skills. This Level 1 session concluded with some games; the children barely noticed the falling snow as they rose to the challenge!

After break the children moved on to their Level 2 training on the road outside school. They learnt how to pass a parked vehicle, U-turns, starting and stopping, passing a junction and how to negotiate various left and right turns.

Learning to set off safely
Learning to set off safely

Children completing the course have received an information pack with a certificate and a badge. You can also download the Wheely Fun Wheels information leaflet. They stress that Bikeability training is only the first step in learning how to ride safely on the road. Please go out cycling with your child.

Easter egg competition

Easter egg competition – deadline Thursday 28th March

Over the next few weeks at home – design and make an egg scene/person eg Prince William and Katie, clown, story character? It’s upto you! Maybe you can come up with an amusing name for your design. Be as creative and imaginative as you like but completed items no bigger than a shoe box please.

Please do not bring in your designs until Wednesday 27th or Thursday 28th March and make sure your name is on but not where the judges will see it. Easter egg prizes will be presented for the best ideas in each class.

The Race is on!

At the end of last year Class 3 hid a geocache somewhere on the Woolley Moor Trail. Geocaching is a a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enable devices; participants (geocachers) can take part by hiding their own caches for others to find or by hunting out those already set. When you find a cache you should sign the logbook; you can take something out of the cache to keep and leave another item behind. You should also log your experience on the geocaching.com web site.

Occasionally, you may come across  special items in caches which are called trackables. These are not meant to be kept, but instead geocachers move them from cache to cache logging their movements on geocaching.com using the unique code etched on them. The web site allows you to track the progress of these trackables as they travel the world. At the beginning of this year Class 3 set off two of their own trackables in a Travel Bug race against another school’s trackables. The winner will be the trackable which travels the furthest in 2013. Check out our Travel Bug Race page to find out how we are doing or have a look at the map display in the classroom. Our Woolley Wanderer is currently winning the race having already been up to Scotland and back! Our Falcon Flyer is not far behind and is currently in a cache in Cornwall.

Stretton Handley's trackables are in the lead!
Stretton Handley’s trackables are in the lead!

Red Nose Day

Red Nose Day at Stretton Handley Primary School

Well done children for your enthusiastic contribution to Red Nose Day; you managed to raise a grand total of £74 by paying to dress in red and guessing how Jessie J will grow her hair back!

Ofsted ‘PARENT VIEW’ website

Parent View is a website (www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk) that gives you the chance to tell Ofsted what you think about your child’s school. Parent View asks for your opinions on 12 aspects of your child’s school, from the quality of teaching, to dealing with bullying and poor behaviour. There needs to be a minimum number of responses before any results are made public and displayed on the website. Inspectors will consider Parent View when making inspection judgements. We could receive an Ofsted inspection at any time and it would be great, if those of you who would like to, or have already given, positive feedback to us in person about the school and activities etc, would take a few moments to complete the survey on the website. It is designed so that there can only be one response from a particular e mail address. (Details available on the web site)

As stated on the website, this survey is not designed to receive complaints about schools and schools can raise concerns with Ofsted about Parent View if someone posts something inappropriate. If you have any concerns or worries about your child or about the school then, as usual, please come into school and talk to us so we can work together to sort things out. In the first instance you should speak to your child’s teacher and head teacher.

Please see separate letter sent out Friday 8th February for further details.

Derbyshire Times Video

The Derbyshire Times visited last Monday to take a whole school photograph and to record a video of the children singing and performing “Shine”. A copy of the photograph can be viewed and purchased here.

NB links have expired.

Young Bronze Sports Ambassadors

Our Young Ambassadors

Last week three of our children attended a Young Bronze Ambassador Conference, in Chesterfield, run by the NE Derbyshire School Sport Partnership. The role of the Young Bronze Sports Ambassador is to bring the inspiration and magic of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to other young people in their School.

The children listened to an inspiring talk from an Olympic Games Maker  and took part in Boccia session (a Paralympic sport) led by two Young Platinum Sports Ambassadors from a local secondary school. Finally, after a presentation on how to set up a School Sport Organising Crew, the children got together in a brainstorming session to decide how they were going to start to take on an active role in the selection of sports in their own schools. It is hoped this will lead to new sports competitions taking place within the school and eventually between schools.