Friday 31 May 2013

New Classroom Update

Have a look at the latest photos from the site of our new KS1 classroom. We are on track to be finished in mid August. Recently the block and beam flooring was installed. Now we are just waiting to get the walls bricked up and the roof on.






Fact Hunters: Bull sharks, dinosaurs and grass snakes

John Batt
Incredibly the South American bull shark migrates about 2,300 miles (3700 km) seasonally, travelling from the upper Amazon river to the sea.

Gabriella Asllani
Did you know that there are 35 types of wild cat? Some of these include: cheetahs, bob cats, sevals, oncillas and cougars.

Natalie Towner
Did you know that the Argentinosaurus was the largest meat eating dinosaur? It could grow up to an incredible 37.5 metres long and lay eggs the size of a rugby ball!

Louise Paius
Grass snakes prey almost entirely on amphibians, especially the common toad and frog. Incredibly they are also strong swimmers although they prefer to live in woodland.


Broadford Pupils Go Camping

Some of our pupils recently went on a Cub camp. These chances to go away are packed with exciting adventures. If you're interested in joining the Cubs, why not ask these pupils about their experiences?



Thursday 30 May 2013

Weekly Awards: I Got Stuck, MDA & Project Superstar

I Got Stuck Today!
Well done to Charly Wallace, Drew Burkett, Saffron Lubin, Kye Smethurst, Keeley Vann, and George White. By getting stuck they showed that their brains had to work. Although they may have got stuck this week, they showed resilience and learnt something new!


MDA Award Winners:
These pupils have been very kind and polite during their lunchtimes and helped the MDAs out enormously. Well done to: Simona Racklevicius (KS2) and Maison Sheriff (EYFS)



Project Superstars:
These pupils have been working hard at home on their individual projects. It has been great to see the information they have researched and the resourceful way they have made books, models and other items to support their learning. Well done: Daisy Paius, Sam Murcia, Maria Paius, Thelma Amankwah and Samson Wright.




Year 3 African Masks

In Year 3 the pupils have been exploring African masks. In order to complete their designs they had to think about facial expressions and how you convey feelings. Do you think you can work out what emotions they were experiencing in each mask design?













Star Readers & Writers

Star Readers
Congratulations to Alfie McKatherine who has collected his Silver award and £5 book voucher!

Night Zoo Keeper Reading Torches:
These pupils have been recording how long they have read for each night. For every 15mins they can colour in a beam on their reading torch. At the end they earn their certificate. Well done: Emma Groom, Kieran Wright, Alfie McKatherine, Jackie Ramalingam, Chloe Trew and Deborah Mushonga!

Star Writers:
Well done to the star writers this week who have excelled with their creative work. Michael Rack and Natalie Towner have all earned their golden pencils.





Tracker Awards

Bronze & Silver Tracker Awards:
Congratulations to Kynan Omondi, Dylan Parker and Alfie McKatherine who have completed their Bronze trackers this week. 

Gabriella Asllani, Sabina Kopkova, Reanna Rae Wealand, Taylor Barnfield, Maisie Clark, Kie Allen, Ellie Jo Pack, Natalie Towner, Deborah Mushonga, Evan Andrews, Georgia Brooks, Emma Bloy, Teddy Pilcher, Sam Murcia and Lucy Stevens have earned their Silver Pencil. 

Meanwhile, Toheeb Gbadamosi, Dara Adu, Nathan Owsley and Kieran Dansey have stuck the final merits onto their Silver trackers to earn their second certificate.

Louise Paius and Bobbi Jade Hek have now shot onwards to complete their Gold Trackers and move to Platinum!





E for Excellence Winners

E for Excellence Winners:
These wonderful children have demonstrated excellence this week. Congratulations to this weeks E for Excellence winners… well done!

Harley Boland – Mulberry

Georgia Brooks – Cedar

Grace Moody – Pine

Zaima Abidin – Ash

Sophie Prior – Birch

Chloe Trew – Rowan

Kieran Dansey – Maple

Mia Rose Stevens – Elm

Sabina Kopkova – Willow


Fact Hunters: Dolphins, chocolate and brains

Ellie Mae Wager
Did you know that dolphins can talk to each other? When the going gets tough, for instance, some dolphins call for backup. After being bullied by a duo of bottlenose dolphins, some spotted dolphins have been seen returning to the scene the next day with a few pals to chase and harass the bullies!

Lucy Stevens
Amazingly the word chocolate comes from an Aztec word xocolatl… which means bitter water. This is rather odd, as chocolate tastes very nice. In America 71% of people prefer milk chocolate. The best type is dark chocolate; it is high in antioxidants that help to prevent heart disease and cancer.

Nathan Owsley
Incredibly the Ancient Egyptians stumbled upon penicillin thousands of years before Alexander Fleming made the discovery official. They realized that putting mouldy bread on a wound helped it to heal more quickly.

Tommy Overton
Did you know that the human brain weighs approximately 3.0 pounds? Amazingly the brain takes the longest of any organ to develop and goes through more changes than any other organ.

Connor Borrell
Did you know that spiders use silk for a variety of jobs? These include:
  • Swathing silk for the wrapping and immobilisation of prey. 
  • Webs for catching prey using sticky silk - it is elastic to prevent the prey from rebounding off the web.
  • Draglines which are used to connect the spider to the web, as safety lines in case a spider should fall and as the non-sticky spokes of the web. 
  • Parachuting or ballooning which is used to aid the dispersal of young and to find new areas as a food source. 
Ethan Borrell
Ethan has been finding out about ticks. Did you know that ticks are arachnids? They are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than insects. Never remove a tick with your bare hand. Instead, using tweezers, grasp the tick close to the skin and pull gently.


Tuesday 28 May 2013

Half Termly Housepoint Awards

Housepoints:
Red – Faringdon 56

Blue – Chatteris 51

Yellow – Dulverton 58

Green – Cricklade 64

Orange – Dudley 19

Congratulations to Green and Yellow. Cricklade have won the battle this week and finished with 64 points. However Dulverton have emerged victorious in the war with a massive 340 points for the half term. Consequently they have earned the drinks and cakes prize for the first time this year!









Chef Jamie Surveys Pupils

Over the last three terms we have seen a steady increase in the number of children taking up school meals. On Friday, a normal day, there were 180 dinners served. On the special days run by Mandy we have seen in excess of 200 pupils take a school dinner.

Mr Drakes likes to think that this is due to a greater frequency of custard on the menu. More likely than that is how the pupils have been actively engaged in testing the food before it hits the serving counter. Have a look at Kieran and Harry tasting the latest recipes for chicken from Chef Jamie:


Fact Hunters: Tigers, hula hoops, snakes and foxes

Molly Wheal
Did you know that the smallest type of fox is the Fennec fox? It has huge ears though, which allow it to hear its prey.

Dara Adu
Did you know that the largest species of tiger is the Siberian tiger? Siberian tigers differ from other tigers because they have fewer, paler stripes, and they also have manes

Melisa Krasniqi
Incredibly it would take 7408 hula hoop crisps to reach the top of Big Ben! That is a lot of crisps.

Thelma Amankwah
Did you know that a baby human can grow from the size of a pin head to 7/8lb in just 40 weeks?

Jackie Ramalingam
Did you know that there is a species of snake which is adapted to eat just eggs? The Indian Egg Eating snake is found in India. It has a projection on its backbone that allows it to pierce the egg more easily.

Kingsley Onwuegbuzie
While your newborn's eyes are physically capable of seeing just fine at birth, his brain isn't ready to process all that visual information, so things stay pretty fuzzy for a while. As his brain develops, so does his ability to see clearly


Monday 27 May 2013

We're In The Paper

We’re in the paper:
Make sure you pick up a copy of the Romford Recorder this week. Our pupils have been featured for their recent visit from the lollipop lady. Our pupils learnt about road safety and everything that Mrs Stripling has to do as part of her job on the crossing.

We are delighted at the continued prominence that we are receiving for our stories. Our school has been featured in the paper 4 weeks out of the last five! This raised profile in the local area is another reason behind the significant expansion in our pupil numbers.






Sunday 26 May 2013

KS1 Library Raffle Prizes

Returned Books Raffle Prizes:

Every child in KS1 who returns their library book is entered into a raffle. At the end of the half term the class teachers reach into the sack and pull out one name from each class to win a book. Congratulations to our first winners: Sienna Nickson, Abyan Abidin and Deborah Mushonga. They collected their books in assembly yesterday.




Saturday 25 May 2013

Girls' Kwik Cricket Tournament

Well done to the Year 5&6 girls who represented the school in the recent Kwik Cricket tournament. Although many of them were new to the sport they competed really well. In a tough competition they managed to finish in the top ten.



Get Caught Reading & Win £10!

Get your cameras at the ready because its competition time! For your chance of winning a book token we want to see you sharing your favourite stories at home or reading in an interesting place. Upload your pictures to the school's Facebook page or send them in to the library.

The deadline is Monday 3rd June

Here is an idea from Nathan and Jacob to start you off...



Attendance Update: Rowan Make 100%

Attendance:
Key Stage 1: 97.1%

 Key Stage 2: 100% 

 Overall Score: 96.36%

What a brilliant way to finish the half term! Rowan have achieved a perfect week with their attendance and earned a cupcake party. Six classes are scoring over 96% in this week’s table and the school score for the last period is 96.36%. Thank you to you for ensuring that our pupils are getting here every day on time!


Fact Hunters: Cheetahs, trees, ships and gold!

Emanuel Pala
Did you know that the planet Uranus was discovered by the British Astronomer William Herschel in 1781?

Chloe Trew
Incredibly cheetahs can run at speeds of up to 114km per hour! That is fast… extremely fast.

Kieran Wright
The record-holders for the world’s oldest trees may be the Great Basin bristlecone pine trees from California and Nevada, in the United States. Tree-ring cross-referencing, has shown them to be more than 5,000 years old!

Kirsty White
The pound note replaced the gold sovereign in 1914. Then the pound note was replaced by the pound coin in 1983. The note was in constant use on average lasting only nine months, whereas a coin can last forty years or more.

Kieran Dash
Did you know that Saturn could actually float on water if you could find an ocean large enough to take it?

Emma Groom
I bet you had no idea that the person to give the Titanic its name was Joseph Bruce Ismay. He was the man who designed the boat.


Friday 24 May 2013

Reception Arrive Safely

Our Reception classes have all arrived safely and have been enjoying the activities in Thorndon Country Park. Although there may be lots of trees, animals and muddy puddles, they didn't think to install free wifi... or a very good 3G signal. As a result it is a bit difficult for the blog to be updated live!

We will try to post to Facebook when the children are on the coach coming home.

Thursday 23 May 2013

Zaima's James Cracknell facts





On our way back from kids space!





Wednesday 22 May 2013

Star Reader Awards

Star Readers
These children have collected their Bronze award for 10 books: Thomas Brown, Natasha Redmond and Nikola Urban
The following children have read enough to earn their bookmark: Kieran Dash, Tommy Overton, Bryan Malengo Bahati and Georgia Brooks
Congratulations to Prince Onwuegbuzie, Ben Green, Albie Brown, Jaseem Miah and Lucy Stevens who have collected their Silver awards and £5 book vouchers!




My Brilliant Brain Activity





Natalie's Owl Fact





Tuesday 21 May 2013

Weekly Winners

I Got Stuck Today! 
Well done to Jack Eve. By getting stuck he showed that his brain had to work. Although he may have got stuck this week, he showed resilience with his times tables and learnt something new!

MDA Award Winners: 
These wonderful children have particularly helpful at lunchtimes this week.

KS1 Laiba Shah

KS2 Amy Mason