Monday 29 June 2015

Health Week

As part of Health Week at school, Wrens and Robins have been trying lots of different fruits and vegetables. We made a tally chart of the ones we liked the best and found that strawberries were our favourite. We have been growing strawberries in our garden, and now we are checking every day to see if they are ripe so that we can have them for snack. Our second favourite were peppers, which we are now going to have for snack too.  Lots of us tried things we had never had before such as Sharon fruit and we really enjoyed learning about the taste and texture of new foods.

In Year 1 the children turned their hand (and their taste buds!) to smoothie making. We researched our favourite fruit flavours before designing our smoothie drinks. We then got very sticky fingers before we all had a taste. Some of them were really yummy but some we were not so sure about!


Pirates in Foundation Stage

Ahoy me hearties! On Friday 19th June, Robins and Wrens had a very special visitor - Maggot Tom the pirate! We all came to school dressed as pirates too (even the teachers!) and learnt lots of things to help us become Maggot Tom's new crew. We named all the parts of a pirate ship, and found out that the most successful pirate of all time was a Chinese lady which was very surprising! We played games, sang pirate songs and even learnt how to sword fight. We all had a brilliant day and thought it was a great way to finish off our pirate topic.


Key Stage 2 Sports Day

Rain might of stopped play for the Key Stage 1 sports day on Monday but by Wednesday it was all systems go for Key Stage 2. With a field full of enthusiastic pupils, teachers and parents and, for the second year in a row, the sun shining brightly in the sky all pupils took part in a wide range of sporting events; object pick up, obstacle, short distance, long distance, sprint, relay and hurdles running races, long jump, high jump, vertical jump, tug of war, discus, hammer, javelin (Phew!) Congratulations to all the children for their determination and sportsmanship and to the staff and parents for their support. Please visit our Twitter page for photographs and video from the day.

JCB Women in Engineering

On Thursday 23rd June Esther, Sienna and Freya went to the JCB Acadamy for their Women in Engineering event where they took part in a range of activities.

'Our first activity was called 'Egg Crash' where we had to make a protective cart that would protect an egg (not boiled) from cracking when it was pushed down a steep ramp. Even the parents had a go! Freya and Esther's team won the prettiest cart award!'

'Our second activity was called 'The crane' which was a difficult activity where you had to build a crane to hold as many weights as possible from the top of it - which was harder than it looked! The winners had a total of 10 weights, however Esther and Freya's team carried zero and probably won them the prize of 'how not to build a crane!'

'At the end of the day we were presented with our certificates and goodie bags. It was a great, fun day out!'

Esther, Sienna and Freya

Year 5 at Murray Park

On the 17th of June, all of Year 5 spent a fantastic day at Murray Park school. Taking part in a wide range of activities, the children had the chance to see what a day in secondary school is really like. Split into three classes, the children had two lessons in the morning and two in the afternoon. Some groups had the chance to experience Bunsen burners in science, whilst others learned how to create games on Kodu in computing. In maths, we created our own number armies, ready to send into battle, and in English we came up with our own ideas for a mystery story. There was even a textiles lesson where the children designed their own 'hip' teenage shirt, which will be displayed during the fashion show! Exciting times! At lunchtime we were treated to an amazing lunch, put on by the super catering staff at Murray Park, before taking part in a Silverhill vs Mickleover football match. It really was an excellent day out, and the children (and staff) thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Thank you Murray park!

Trips to Tesco

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Over recent weeks pupils from Year 1, 2 and 4 have walked down into Mickleover village to visit Tesco for their 'Farm to Fork' experience. During there time there the children took part in some cheese, bread and fruit tasting, They visited the bakery to see how the bread was made daily and to kneed some dough and then found out how chilly the freezers are! Brrrrr! The children were fascinated by this behind the scenes tour of their local supermarket!



Michael Morpurgo


On Monday 8th June, 7 lucky pupils were invited to attend an audience with the inspirational children's author, Michael Morpurgo at Derby Theatre. Along with an auditorium of pupils from other Derby City schools, the children listened to Michael share his writing experiences and the background behind three of his wonderful stories. As a part of Derby City @DerbyBookFest week, Hayes Education also awarded first prize to Grace for her War Horse front cover design, winning £200 book vouchers. What a wonderful experience and congratulations Grace!

Golf tournament

On a hot a sunny 4th June, nine year 5 and one year 6 headed off to Sinfin golf course for the tri-golf tournament. Armed with a fabulous set of putting skills, we worked our way around the course of ten activities, putting our golfing skills to practise against ten other teams! Some of the challenge on the course included chipping the ball (over huge distances!), aiming at targets to collect as many cones as possible and - number of tricky pitch and putt exercises! The team did fantastically well in the blazing heat, demonstrating excellent behaviour and effort and showed fantastic sportsmanship to the other players! Well done team!

Year 6 in school

 While most of Year 6 were in France, some Y6 pupils stayed in the UK but were still kept very busy on a wide range of activities. On Monday, staff and pupils went to Alter Rock to try their hand at rock climbing while on the Tuesday they turned to the great outdoor in the local area with a spot of geocaching. On Wednesday and Thursday the children worked along side community and parent helpers to create some fantastic outdoor furniture from recycled pallets, an incredible bug hotel and a spot of clay crafting all for our outdoor grounds. Finally on the Friday the pupils visited the National Memorial Arboretum. What an enjoyable, productive and hectic five days that was thoroughly enjoyed by all the pupils.

Monday 8 June 2015

Rolls Royce Primary Engineer Project

Back on the 14th April pupils spent a couple of very productive days with some visitors from Rolls Royce. Children in year 2 and year 4 took part in the Primary Engineer Project from which five children were then selected to attend the celebration day with the vehicles they made. The children had a fantastic time and the year 2 cars came away with a first and runner up prize.

Year 6 trip to France

Mrs Mitchell's French review coming soon!

Year 6 trip to France


Grounds Day

On Friday 15th May the whole school took part in 'Grounds Day' on what managed to be one of the warmest and sunniest days so far this year! All our pupils spent time through the day enjoying and enhancing our amazing school grounds. From art and music, to geography and science. Map reading, sketching, pond dipping, planting and sculpting. Thank you to everyone for making it such an enjoyable day. Our magical school grounds look truly wonderful!

Don't panic Year 6!

It all began on Monday 11th May and by Thursday 14th May it was all over! With a couple of sprained wrists and a case of chicken pox to complicate things a little, afternoon games of rounders, a spot of origami, and a few test papers for good measure, Squash And Toast week came and went in a flash. All our Year 6 children worked really hard, well done to you all, particularly those sitting Level 6 papers and thank you to Mrs Deeney for providing all the bread, fruit and squash for the children.

The writing on the wall

On 28th April Quantum Theatre returned to our school with their 'Writing on the wall' production, performing to Key Stage 1 in the morning and Key Stage 2 in the afternoon. Using the wonderful story of The Gruffalo the show for the younger pupils focused on planning a composition, punctuating sentences and expanding written vocabulary. For the older age group, using Harry Potter as inspiration, pupils learned how to creating settings, build character and plot, organise paragraphs, punctuate direct speech and how to use conjunctions, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs.