maths challenge

This week Turtles enjoyed the mystery of Secret Santa maths challenge. Children had to use their knowledge of fractions to solve the clues to work out who the mystery secret Santa was. 

light topic

For our light topic, the children have been looking at how light travels and reflects off mirrors. The children further studied this by looking at the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection using torches and a mirror and marking them on to see that they were equal angles. The children then used this knowledge in order to make periscopes. 

European Languages Day

As part of European Languages Day, Year 6 took a closer look at Greece and where languages can take you. The classes looked at short phrases in Greek and tried to name all the 24 recognized European languages. The children were then given the opportunity to try some Greek food including olives, feta cheese and Greek yoghurt with the children then rating their favorites. After this, the classes then prepared a PowerPoint presentation about how languages can help you and where they can take you.   

Skipping 

Year 6 had a great few days skipping with Chris. In the sessions, Chris taught us how to skip firstly, the crossover, double bounce and single bounce. At the end of the session the children were able to try the larger skipping rope with varying degrees of success.  

Invictus Games

Year 6 had a brilliant day led by Darren from the SSP and Invictus Games Althelete Alex Dewar. The morning session started with a presentation about Alex's life story and looking at his medals before being taught leadership skills to develop teamwork. In the afternoon the year 6 children delivered teamwork sessions to the key stage one children. The children showed excellent leaderships skills and a fantastic day was had by all. 

 Y6 House Captain Speeches

Our Year 6s presented to their houses about why they should be their house captain for this year. They included their promises, parts about them and in some cases bribes! All delivered their speeches well and we await the results of the vote.

career Day

sports day

Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed their final sports day. Taking part in bean bag, skipping, relay and dribbling race as well as hula hopping and throwing events in the morning. In the afternoon, the children took part in obstacle, skipping, sprint, sack, egg and spoon race in front of a captive audience. Sports Day finished with the house captain relay! The Yellow team were eventually crowned the winning house. WELL DONE YELLOW TEAM.  

Netball

We had an afternoon of netball with the SSP. The class took part in numerous drills practicing passing and movement skills. Before finishing, with games in mixed teams. 

Colour run

Year 6 took part in their final colour run at the school. As you can see from the before and after pictures all were covered in paint and enjoyed the run. 

Durham Dash

On Wednesday evening, 31 pupils from KS2 completed in the Durham Dash at Beamish Museum alongside 33 other schools!  The children did amazingly well, with our school winning 4 medals!  

End Zone

Darren for SSP came to teach the children the game End Zone. The children scored points if a member of the team caught it in the 'End Zone'. The class played in their team colours with the Red Team coming out on top.

lIZ MILLION

Year 6 had two lovely sessions with Liz Million, where they learnt to draw the mermonkey from our class text Malamander.

Sardinia dAy 5

On our final day in Sardinia, we arrived at the school to show our healthy magazine that both schools had been collaborating on. The children then split into mixed teams to play a Kahoot quiz about loving a healthy lifestyle. 

After this, the 12 children joined in a PE class with one of the Italian classes. The class began with the children joining a mixed group amd competing in races involving rolls, jumps, squats and rugby. We then treated the Italian school to a game of cricket with our Year 6 children helping them to learn the rules. We all said our goodbyes to each class.

In the afternoon, we went to visit Porto Corolla tower, which was used by soldiers to warn people of an attack using smoke signals. We then headed to the beach for one last play in the sea and sand. 

On our return, we had our final Italian ice cream before writing our last journal entry.

Sardinia dAy 4

On our third day, we headed to the secondary to school to see the difference between it and the primary school before heading back to the primary school to start our activities. Alessandra then showed us how her class had been recycling in the local area. The children had been placing a recycling box around town to collect cups and sorted them into their separate colours. After this, the children used a machine to shred the cups. Then, they used a melting machine to help them turn the plastic into recycled goods such as clocks and pieces of artwork. The class had also set up their own earthworm compost heap the see how certain materials decompose, which Year 6 have also been looking at in their science unit. 

We then split into groups and sorted recycled bottle caps into colours to create a piece of art. Then, we ventured outside to plant seeds and plants in the school gardens. 

In the afternoon, we headed Villisimius beach, which was beautiful and home to flamingoes. We were able to play on the beach and catch a look at the flamingoes from a distance.

Year 6 Forest School

Year 6 had a lovely afternoon with Mrs Kell. Activities included making Japanese style art work with flowers from the school garden, lighting fires with a flint and steel, making and enjoying wild garlic toast and melting marshmallows over a fire. A fantastic afternoon had by all.

Sardinia DAY 3

On our second day, we returned to the school I.C. Villaputzu. Our 12 Year 6 children delivered a presentation they had created about our school, their lessons (as Sardinian schools are run very differently), the local area and traditional dishes. After this, both schools had to use teamwork and communication in order to balance a bridge so that it could support itself. A few attempts later and they were successful!

The children then had a break in the sunshine: watering the schools strawberry plants, Italy vs England football game and communicating and discovering more about each other. We then shared our new school video to the Sardinian children and they then gave their presentation about the local area and Sardinia as well as their school. This was delivered in English by two of their students: Thomas and Angelo. 

After this, we split into two groups with one doing a language exchange with one of the Italian classes learning words such as; cappello (hat), libri (books), porta (door), panca (bench) and finestra (window). The other group worked as a team with another class to create a mosaic image using 10x10 grids.

School lunch today was tomato pasta and meatballs but then the heavens opened. According to the locals, it hadn't rained like that in 2 years and there was even hailstones! We returned to the villa and headed into Muravera to buy souvenirs. 

sARDINIA - DAY 1 AND 2

Our first full day in Sardinia and we were welcomed by our host school in Villaputzu. They greeted us with signs and a song. Then, one of the teachers played a set of traditional pipes - invented in Sardinia - as the children danced and our children and teachers joined in. After this, we were taught about the culture of hip hop and how it originated before being taught some breakdancing moves. Next, the children played volleyball amd had a break with the Italian children playing football and hide and seek. 
In the afternoon, we were showm around the school and welcomed by each individual class. Here, they asked our children questions and we asked them ours. We sat down for lovely lunch of risotto before heading to the park for an ice cream. After our delicious ice cream, we walked to a local honey farm where we saw the whole honey making process. We even tasted a range of different honey! 

Frisbee

Year 6 had a great morning with Darren from SSP. The children were shown how to throw the frisbee properly and enjoyed a competition to see who could score the most points.

ADAM BUSHNELL VISIT

We welcomed Adam back to our school this week. The class were lucky enough to have 2 sessions with him, where the children looked at charactr and setting descriptions using our class text Malamander by Thomas Taylor. The children wrote their descriptions of the creepy mermonkey describing its mechanical movements before using pathetic fallacies to describe the Eerie Book Dispensary!

Egg Decorating Day

Y6 completed their final egg day! We had entrants such as Titanegg, Croc-o-egg Dundee and Mario Egg. The 1st, 2nd and two third places are here.

Wooden bridges

Year 6 began building their Truss bridges out of wood. The class measured, sawed and sanded pieces of wood before gluing them together to form, the first part of their structure.

Soluble or insoluble?

As part of our materials topic, the class tested to see which materials were soluble or insoluble. After this we conducted an experiment to see whether or not the temperature affected the rate of evaporation.

Dodgeball

SSP coaches returned to give the class the opportunity to show off their dodgeball skills. The children played in house teams with Green team winning in our year group. Even Mr Anderson took part!

County Tag Rugby Final

The Y6 tag rugby team took part in the county finals this week after qualifying by winning the previous tournament. The team narrowly lost their first 3 games in the dying seconds. The team were able to win their final 2 games, one of them against the eventual semi finalists. The team finished 11th in the county overall. A big well done to the team!

Cricket

Year 6 enjoyed their cricket taster session with Alex from Durham Cricket. The children were shown how to bowl the ball with a bounce, hit the ball with the bat and what happens if they ball is caught by a fielder. A great afternoon had by all.

Jump Start Jonny!

Jump Start Jonny came to visit the school to take the children through some energetic workouts. Jonny put the children through their paces as he played all of their favourites even getting the teachers involved!

Forensic Science

As part of science week, we were tasked to solve a crime using forensic science. A safe had been robbed and the children had to analyse DNA and fingerprints to solve the crime after whittling down a list of suspects. Fortunately Year 6 solved the crime and the culprit was locked up!

Bread Making

Megan from Chartwells came to help teach Y6 how to make bread. They kneaded the dough and then shaped it forming plaits, flowers and the letters of their names. Thank you to Megan for all her help.

Spaghetti Truss Bridges

We continued our structures topic by building Truss bridges out of spaghetti. The class the added weights to check the strength of the bridges.

World Book Day

Reception and Year 6 shared some books together today for World Book Day. Year 6 came down to visit Reception and brought books for them to read. Reception also shared some of their own class books and Year 6 read to them. It was lovely sharing our favourite stories!

World Book Day

The children brought in a book to share with the class for World Book Day. We had a variety of riddles, joke books, comic books and interesting stories. The children also took part in a Masked Reader, where they had to guess which teacher was reading the story while they were disguised as lemons, strawberries, horses and chicken nuggets.

The Wolf on Trial

This week, we had some visitors as part of World Book Day. The children had to listen to the arguments from the wolf and the three little pigs. The children had to decide whether the wolf was guilty or not guilty. The children decided the the wolf was … not guilty!

Y6 Cooking

Blurb – Y6 started their cooking sessions at Framwellgate Moor Comprehensive School making an apple crumble. The children made their crumble before chopping apples and carefully laying them in the tins ready to cook. Next week, its pizza twirls!

Bridges

We began our DT structures unit by testing different bridges and discussing how the weight was dispersed. The class built a beam and arch bridge first before creating their own designs.

Healthy Club

The children have been working in raising the profile of healthy foods. Two children made a fruit hedgehog using a pineapple and grapes. The children will look at new ways to use food to create art.

Tag Rugby competition!

Our Y6 tag rugby team took part in a competition at Maiden Castle playing against 4 different schools. The team won 2 games drawing the others which lead to them topping their group and qualifying for the county finals! Well done to the team!

KS2 Internet Safety

Safer Internet Day 2024 took place on the 6th of February 2024, with celebrations and learning based around the theme ‘Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online’. This year the KS2 assembly focussed on change online, this included: Children’s perspective on new and emerging technology, using the internet to make change for the better, the changes children want to see online and the things that can influence and change the way children think, feel and act online and offline.

Y6 Archery

Year 6 were able to take part in an archery session with Darren from SSP. They were taught the basics of archery and the safety aspects of it before firing at targets with many hitting the target!

Y5 & 6 Ancient Egypt

On Thursday 25th January Year 5 and 6 had a special ‘Expert’ visit our school. They have been learning all about Ancient Egypt in their History lessons and trying to answer the question: How did Tutankhamen die over 3000 years ago?  Mr Mustafa Menshawy, a University Professor and Egyptian expert, was on hand to share his experiences of Ancient Egyptian times and his theories on how the Boy Pharaoh may have died.  The children were all enthusiastic and Mr Meshawy was very impressed with their knowledge and impeccable behaviour!

STEM session with Durham University

Engineers from Durham University visited Year 5/6 to discuss their careers as an engineer. In Year 6, Gary Parker discussed wind energy to produce energy and electrical power. The class got to test wind power on various different devices before seeing which wind turbine would produce the most volts in a wind tunnel. A big thank you to Mr Szyniszewski for organising the sessions.

Microbits

Blurb – Miss Kaddoura, from Durham University, began teaching Y6 about microbit. In the lesson the children were taught how to program the microbits to show the words or image they wanted. The class will continue to learn more about microbit with Miss Kaddoura over the coming weeks.

Y6 Portraits

We created one line self-portraits, where we weren’t allowed to take our pencil off the page. Before tracing kindness poems around the pines to create a different effect. After this we painted or used collage to create a background before sticking our traced outlines over the top.

Y6 Christmas Biscuit Making

Y6 had the opportunity to make Christmas biscuits at Famwellgate Comprehensive. The children measured out all the ingredients and made a dough before cutting them into Christmas shapes. The children then decorated them beautifully. A big thank you to the Year 10 students for their help and Mrs Evans for having us.

Esh Construction Workshop

On Tuesday, Year 6 had the opportunity to visit New College Durham to take part in a construction workshop. The children learnt about the water cycle and how Esh Construction company are helping to tackle global warming. They also watched a demonstration on how water is filtered before exploring construction careers and going on a tour of the construction area of the college.

Diwali

Year 6 enjoyed learning about Diwali. It was lovely to hear how some of our class mates celebrated with families at the weekend. We even had a try at making Rangoli patterns.

Mono-printing

Mrs Atkinson from Framwellgate Comprehensive came to visit Y6 again to give them the opportunity to do some more mono-printing. The children shaded Anglo-Saxon and Viking images over the top of ink. This led to the ink pressing into the other side of the page creating the prints. The children enjoyed it and the results were fantastic!

Basketball

Year 6 had a fantastic morning with Darren Curry from SSP. They learned the rules of basketball, how to pass and dribble the ball and find appropriate spaces. The children worked well as a team and enjoyed playing games against each other.

Book Festival

For our book festival the children dressed as characters from their favourite books and brought in books or pieces of text to share with the class. Year 6 dressed as The Artful Dodger, The Cat in the Hat, Wednesday Addams and many other characters. In class they shared their texts which included Greek Mythology, Dog Man Adventures and Black Beauty.

Problem Solving

Year 6 tackled a problem using trial and improvement. The class were given a set of numbers and put them into a circle. The numbers next to each other had to add upto a square number. After a number of attempts many groups managed to complete the circle.

Jarrow Hall

What a fantastic day we had at Jarrow Hall learning about Anglo Saxons. In the morning the children looked at Anglo Saxon farming and explored an Anglo Saxon village. In the afternoon they got to try on battle helmets and hold weapons before engaging in a battle of their own

European day of languages

Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed learning Spanish on European Day of languages. They learnt how to say My Name is, how old they were and greet each other. We also identified Spanish colours and numbers.

Walk n Talk

Year 6 continued their Walk n Talk sessions with Darren. This week they walked in their groups discussing answers to certain questions from Darren based around working as a team. The group then put these answers to the test in teambuilding exercises.

Walk n Talk with Alex Dewar

Alex Dewar came to start off our Walk n Talk sessions. Alex came to talk about his time in the army, his injury and his time competing in the Invictus games. After this, he took the children for some team building games where the children had to communicate with each other well to complete them. Darren from SSP will continue to take them for Walk n Talk sessions for the rest of the term.

Y6 Teams House Captain Speeches

The green team Y6s performed their house captain speeches with great success! The house captains were voted for by the other members and will be announced in the first celebration assembly.

Well done to all of the year 6 children in blue house who delivered fantastic presentations for house captains. The children put a lot of effort into their presentations and delivered them with confidence. A great job by all.

Well done to our year 6 children in red house, who delivered fantastic presentations for house captains. The children showed confidence, spoke clearly and gave good eye contact. Well done to all involved.

The year 6 children in yellow house all delivered fantastic speeches to become house captain. We are so proud of the effort the children put into the presentations and the confidence they showed when delivering them.
Well done to all!

Space Race

After looking at artwork from the space race, Year 6 chose a part of an image from different styles of artwork and created 4 different images using various materials such as oil pastels, collage, watercolours and sketching.

Password tumbler

Year 6 began their computing unit by learning about the importance of passwords, what a secure password would be and how to keep passwords safe. The children created password tumblers with different words from different categories written down to generate random passwords they could use.

Sports Leaders

Some of our year 6 children took part in sports leader training with Darren from the SSP, they delivered sessions to the younger children in the afternoon. A great day had by all!