Whole School Worship - Power for Good
Our theme in today’s collective worship was “Power for Good”. Continuing our focus on Anti-Bullying Week, Mrs Ham shared some of the fantastic answers the children gave on Monday about standing up to bullying. These included saying stop, being assertive, asking why, and telling a trusted adult. We learned of how Jesus was a power for good, even when others turned against him, and we reflected on the ways in which we can also be a power for good by being a good friend and spotting when someone needs our help. The WOW Group also shared how they are being a power for good, by protecting our planet and leading our school’s Switch Off Fortnight campaign. They shared posters recommending ways to save energy around school, including turning off lights and computer monitors when they are not in use, and they explained that they will be checking how well each class is doing at saving energy every break time and lunchtime during the campaign.
Year 5 - Science
We continued our study of the properties of materials by carry out an experiment on thermal conductivity. We measured the temperature of containers of warm water over 30 minutes using thermometers. Each container was insulated using different materials: cotton wool, cling film and tin foil. We found that cling film created a layer of air around the container that acted to insulate the water and keep it warm. The tin foil conducted the heat away quickly.
Year 5 - Odd Socks Day
We launched anti-bullying week by wearing odd socks and by discussing how we can help ourselves and other people who are being excluded or picked on. We talked about the different types of power that people can have and how we can use our power to make our world a better place.
Warhammer club
We started our Warhammer club this week. The children selected the miniatures they wanted to paint before choosing the base colours to paint with. The children did an amazing job covering the models with paint and considering their next steps. These include what details they wanted to paint, which colours they want to use and how they will use washes to add depth and detail.
Friday Celebration Worship
This morning in celebration worship, we reflected on a wonderful first week back to start the second half of our Autumn term. This week, we have remembered all those who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice their lives for us, and we observed a special two-minute silence. We would like to thank everyone who has supported the Poppy Appeal; our poppy merchandise will continue to be available next week. We then presented our individual value award winners in EYFS, KS1 and KS2. Well done to our worthy winners Hunter, Finn, Inaiya, Elijah, Chay, Harriet and Quinn for consistently demonstrating the Barney’s 4Bs, working extremely hard across the curriculum, producing work of an exceptional standard and showing a genuine desire to always improve. A huge well done also goes to Elijah, Chay, Isaac, Lana, Lyla, Cassidy, Naomi and Emily for achieving their pen licences—we know how hard you have all worked for this accomplishment. We also congratulated Whitehall Park as our overall value award winners for the week, along with Year 1 and Year 5 for achieving the highest attendance. Moving on, we celebrated the wonderful achievements of our children who have been excelling outside of school in their various sports and activities. Well done to Beau for being a mighty defender in football, Ida and Leila for showing impressive skill in stop, starting and steering during horse riding, Callie for demonstrating outstanding floor and vault work in gymnastics, Ava for her generosity at Rainbows and for achieving Star of the Week at Street Dance, Lana for her performing arts award, Theo for earning her drawing interest badge and Star of the Week in gymnastics for exceptional beam work, Olivia for achieving her 20m swimming certificate, Lyla for her success in lyrical, jazz and commercial dance, Olivia again for achieving her Level 1 gymnastics award, Isaac for demonstrating exceptional football skills at the Everton Academy experience, Rosie for being a superstar Brownie and earning several badges, Martha for achieving her 10m swimming award, Lydia for earning her laughter badge at Rainbows and for being extremely helpful, and Eleanor for achieving both her Rainbow Silver Award and a laughter badge. In other news, our Wellbeing Warriors also announced Year 3 as the winning class for having the most walkers in October and proudly shared that our school placed third in the borough for the highest number of walkers overall, our Sports Leaders presented India Mill as the Inter-house Dodgeball Competition winners from before the holidays, and we also congratulated our Year 5/6 Boys Football Team, who represented our school brilliantly and achieved two wins in the BwD Football League last night. Looking ahead, we are excited to continue our Scholastic Book Fair next week, to wear odd socks on Monday as we launch Anti-Bullying Week, and to end the week by wearing spots, pyjamas or Pudsey attire in support of Children in Need next Friday. Thank you to our wonderful school family for their support this week and always. Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Value Award Winner Disco- India Mill
Today, India Mill enjoyed a well-deserved non-uniform day and disco to celebrate their success as the overall Value Award winners for last half-term. As part of this, they enjoyed a game of bonfire themed corners followed by a game of musical bumps. Well done to everyone for your fantastic achievement!
Week 1 of BWD Boys Football League
We are super proud of our Year 5/6 boys football team for their amazing performances tonight during their first two games of the BWD school’s league. They won their first match against St James, Lower Darwen 6-0 and gained another win against St Cuthbert’s 5-2. A huge thank you to the parents and family members who came and gave their wonderful support. Well done boys!
Year 5 - Online Safety
After class worship, we spent some time discussing how to stay safe online. We discussed why children should not share personal information online and how to respond to seeing or hearing unpleasant words or images. I talked about the trusted adults in their lives that they can always talk to for help and advice, including family members and staff at school. The children shared their experiences of being online.
.jpeg)
Year 5 - PE
Our new topic in PE is badminton. The children learned how to grip the badminton racket before becoming familiar with how a shuttlecock moves through the air by individually attempting to keep it off the ground for as long as possible. Afterwards, they developed accuracy with underarm backhand shots by aiming for a triangle of cones and we finished by working in pairs to use forehand and backhand shots to return the shuttlecock.
Year 5 - Music
After listening to opera music, the children learned the importance of a vocal warm up before singing. They learned the meaning the the words unison and homophonic and practised these during a performance.
Year 3- Class Meeting delivered by Year 5 Smart School Councillors, Darcy and Alice
Year 5 Smart School Councillors Darcy and Alice did a fabulous job leading a trial class meeting today in preparation for delivering the session to Year 2 on Friday. It was great to see them take leadership for the activity. They began by discussing the results of the previous action, a Big Debate Club on whether it's more important to understand the history or the present of the black community, which resulted in a tie. For today's new discussion, inspired by the TV show The Traitors, small groups discussed the question: "If you had to choose between being completely honest or keeping a secret to win a big prize, which would you do?" Following the discussion, the Year 3 class majority voted in favour of being completely honest.
Year 5 - R.E.
In R.E., Year 5 continued exploring the sacred texts of different religions. We explored Hinduism and the teachings of their sacred texts including the Veda and the Ramayana, which emphasise duty, generosity and honesty. In our final lesson in the topic next week, we will return to the Bible and the different methods it uses to teach Christians.