Count On Us Challenge

This week three of our pupils took part in the Mayor of London's Count On Us Challenge. Competing in heats against 8 other schools the children had to work through space, number and code breaking challenges. Razvan, Isaac and Sophie had to communicate well as a team to solve the questions with pentominoes and tangrams. Then they faced an individual contest against other schools, matching their mental maths knowledge against the other London schools.

Across the competition, 100 schools have competed and 300 children have taken part. The final is in June... and we may have qualified. Just watch this space!

Reciprocity
In the tangrams round we had to talk to each other about how we felt the pieces fitted together. If you snatched them or took over, it made it much harder to get the solution. If we got stuck, we each encouraged the other to try and think of it in a different way.
Isaac Stevens

Resilience
In the 24 game rounds, you had to keep going for 8 minutes. To keep up your concentration for that long was tough. The other children were so fast! In the second round I felt like giving up becuase the child opposite was like lightening. As soon as the card was turned he would get it. However once I got one right and claimed the card I felt more confident and was able to win more points.
Razvan Gabreanu

Count on Us is a pan-London numeracy programme that works with schools to help young Londoners reach a level of numeracy skill that allows them to meet their full potential, get a decent job and seize the opportunities London offers. The programme includes Maths Clubs, Count on Us Parents, as well as the Challenge.

Learning Power Awards:

These are the key skills that our children will need to learn effectively in class and be successful later in life. Matthew Murcia, Adam Trower & Simon Ositelu have demonstrated effective reciprocity this week – able to listen carefully, work collaboratively and take turns.

Charlie Simpson, Conner Holloway & Henry Cruz Kokonchev have all shown that they are curious about their learning and are able to reason methodically – which means they have collected their Resourcefulness award.

Elisa Rina, Archie Smith, Andreea Birlea, Dylan Vidal, Sophie Prior, Amy Sullivan & Daniel Oladipo have shown that they can manage distraction, notice patterns and become absorbed in their tasks – well done for your Resilience certificate.

Star Readers & Writers

Star Writers:
Kynan Omundi, Atehkosi Nombeko, Emma Bloy, Maizie Leigh Parker, Bailey James Nash, Natalie Towner, Thomas Royer, Lillie Mersh, Mitchell Stapleton, Alex Ianache, Sam Murcia & Austin Hall: these children have all produced pieces of outstanding writing this week. Look out for examples of their work on the blog!

Star Reading Awards:
Conner Holloway have read enough books to collect their Bronze award for reading. James Olatunji, Kyla Millar, Laicey McGeoghan, Sophia Houlston, Tommy Cressey, Ollie Dodge & Phoebe Adams have managed to get their bookmark for 25 completed books.

Sergiu, Abby Sullivan & Jack Eve have earned their £5 voucher for completing 50 books!

Elina Joshi & Tahani Lowe Enu have earned enough to collect their Gold reading award!

Half Price Book Fair

If you haven't managed to attend the Scholastic book fair yet today is your last chance. The books are being collected tomorrow and there will be a final chance to browse the books after school today at 3.15pm in the old hall.

Don't forget all books, stationary and posters are HALF PRICE!

E for Excellence Winners:

These wonderful children have demonstrated excellence this week.

Fallon Sharpe – Mulberry

Molly May Harrop – Pine

Jessica Diaz – Cedar

Godswill Hartford– Cherry

Michael Rack – Ash

Connor Borrell – Rowan

Jack Silva – Birch

Sara Lopez – Willow

Teddy Pilcher – Elm

Charlotte Walsh – Maple

Dylan Vidal – Coconut

Sophie Hann – Palm

Indie Sale – Apple

Hollie Gray – Aspen 

Fact Hunters: Population, deer and planets

Archie Smith
Did you know that the TV Show Hawaii Five-O was named in honor of Hawaii's being the 50th state? Although the show's name has always ended with the numeral "0," the soundtrack album, released in the late 1960s, used the letter "O" instead of the numeral zero

Conner Holloway
Strangely Venus is not the closet planet to the sun, but it is the hottest. The greenhouse effect is what scientists believe causes Venus to be the hottest planet, even though it's farther from the Sun than Mercury.

Sam Doidge
Incredibly the continent with highest population is Asia that accounts for 60% of world’s population. It has 4.2 billion inhabitants!

Sienna Nickson
Amazingly, if a hollow Sun was filled up with spherical Earths then around 960,000 would fit inside. The Sun’s surface area is 11,990 times that of the Earth’s!

Ella Mae Wall
Were you aware that most white-tailed deer live about 2 to 3 years? Maximum life span in the wild is 20 years but few live past 10 years old. 

Tracker Awards:

Charlie Simpson has completed his Bronze tracker. Maison Sherriff has finished his Silver tracker.  Amy Sullivan has picked up her Golden bookmark. Amy Sullivan & William Edwards have completed their Gold.

Iasha Sillah & Ethan Borrell have completed their Platinum trackers. Georgia Brooks has now finished her Prestige Bronze tracker!

Weekly Winners: MDA, Presentation & Swimming

MDA Award Winners:
These wonderful children have been particularly helpful at lunchtimes this week.
EYFS & KS1 Kara Middleton
KS2 Megan Lockhart

Certificate of Presentation:
Emily Johnson, Joshua Ore, Sarah Wall, Henry Cruz Kokonchev, Charlie Green, Austin Hall & Taylor Royer: all of these pupils have shown that they are making a sustained effort to improve and develop their presentation. By carefully forming their numbers and ensuring their handwriting is neat and legible they are producing much higher quality pieces of work.

Marathon Result

Thank you to you all for the support that you have shown for my marathon effort this year. I know that a number of you came to watch the event and many more saw it on TV. As always the crowds were an inspiration, helping all of the runners to complete the distance.

So far the charity pot stands at just over £1,000. With the contributions from the pupils this week during their marathon event I have every confidence that we will reach the total of £1,400 for the Canon Collins Trust.

It has also been a great opportunity to talk to the pupils about how it is necessary to set challenging goals, practice with purpose on a regular basis and to reflect on performance. Without that approach I would not have been able to improve my time to 3h 17min and avoid the pain and discomfort that I had 5 years ago.

Project Superstar & Learning Challlenge:

Well done to Melisa for your fantastic project that was completed in your own time. It is great to see our pupils maintaining their studies outside of school hours. Razvan Gabreanu, Kiera Baker, Florence Ayres, Sienna Nickson, Sophie Nickson, Mya Thakar,  Katherine Barrett & Tia Thakar have all completed elements of their Learning Challenge.

By making the most of the enrichment opportunities they have really widened their learning experience.

Learning Power Awards:

These are the key skills that our children will need to learn effectively in class and be successful later in life. Riley Newell, Nathaniel Ramus, Deborah Mushonga, Ruben Roberts, Harry Vincent, Hayden Northwood, Emily Claydon, Simran Bashir, Danny Groom, Albie Brown, Saffron Egan, Sophie Lewis, Simona Raklevicius, Thelma Amankwah, Tianna Osho, Oliver Bangs, Samson Wright, Lewis Godfrey, Jack Barnett, Melisa Krasniqi, Drew Burkett, George White & Smilte Mikalciute have demonstrated effective reciprocity this week – able to listen carefully, work collaboratively and take turns.

Charlie Cooper has shown that he can manage distraction, notice patterns and become absorbed in their tasks – well done for your Resilience certificate.

Maison Sherriff & Jessica Simpson have managed to show that they can plan and revise their ideas to earn their Reflectiveness certificate.

Attendance:

KS1& EYFS: Apple 97.33%
KS2: Ash 99.4%
Overall: 94.4%

Well done to Apple and Ash for winning the competition this week. The points have now started again as we begin the final term of the year. Who will be the final class to go to the Brewery?

I have Made My Teacher Happy

These children have made their teachers happy. They have been working hard in maths and RWI, have been caring and considerate to their friends and have been very polite to the adults in school.

Well done guys, keep up the good work.

Isabelle Curtis-Rich 

Nina Joshi

Elliott Cottam 

Summer Wingrove 

Maison Sheriff

Thomas Brown

Jordon Iordan

Jessica Chilvers

George Crane 

Steven Davenport

Max Holmyard

Diary Dates

Monday is trip day for Year 5 as they go to the British Museum for a workshop on Greek Myths. We are delighted to inform you that we have the author and poet Louise Yates visiting on Tuesday to share her books with the children. We have the external Health & Safety walk on Wednesday and our Year 6 pupils are being photographed for the Romford Recorder. On Thursday we have the SEN Coffee morning and our More Able pupils are off to City Hall for their maths competition… another busy week!

During the week our pupils will be completing their Team Marathon Sponsored Event - we are aiming for just £3 per pupil sponsorship in order to hit the fundraising target!

Sharing Assembly: Rowan 29th April @ 9.05am
This week Rowan class will be presenting the work that they have been doing over the last term. We look forward to welcoming parents, friends and relatives to their assembly.

Budding Reporters Visit Romford Recorder

When the local newspaper wants to conduct a review of its children's section, who did they call... Broadford Primary. For the last few weeks our More Able pupils have been tasked with looking at the Press Gang Page of the Romford Recorder and reviewing the content.

Reflectiveness
"We had to examine the layout, content and language and think about what could be improved to make the page more suitable for children." Razvan

"Every week we got sent free copies of the paper. Mrs Hoffman helped us to reflect on the Press Gang page and discuss our ideas. I thought that they should have had some sports news for kids and maybe some links to local clubs" Kailen 

Having completed 5 weeks of reviews, the children were then invited to the Romford Recorder offices where they got to meet the editorial team and learn about the different jobs that help to put the paper together.

Careers
"I loved seeing how they use the computers to put the paper together. It was amazing watching the way they laid out the different stories." Leo

"We learnt how to do a bit of short hand. When you are talking to a witness, or investigating a story you have to take notes really quickly. At first it was quite hard, but then we got used to it." Ella

After the visit, we received this lovely note of thanks from one of the reporters...

Dear Mr Drakes

Your pupils were great and the feedback for press gang was invaluable! Thank you very much for doing that for us. Thank your staff as well.

I hope your students all enjoyed themselves!

Harriet Orrell

Team Marathon Sponsorship Event

Mr Drakes is running the London Marathon on Sunday 26th April to raise money for the Canon Collins Trust. To help reach the target of £1,400 we will be holding a team marathon event at school. Each pupil will walk, run or jog their way round 4 laps of our adventure trail.

30 x 4 = 120 laps which is equivalent to a marathon.

If every child managed to get sponsored for £3, we would reach the target and help a worthy charity who support young people in Africa in getting an education.

Please use the sponsorship form below to collect donations from family and friends.

There will be certificates for completing the cumulative marathon distance and for the class and individuals who collect the most sponsorship. All year groups – from Nursery to Year 6 – will take part.

Thank you for all your support!

E for Excellence Winners:

These wonderful children have demonstrated excellence this week.

Aaliyah Yasrin – Mulberry

Matthew Munjere – Pine

Charlie Matthams – Cedar

Haliya Gbadamosi – Cherry

Ethan Gibbs – Ash

Lily Jones – Rowan

Ronnie Marshall – Birch

Temria Hascar – Willow

Daniel Joy – Elm

Molly Wheal – Maple

William Edwards – Coconut

Simon Ositelu – Palm

Andreea Gabreanu – Apple

Ameerah Bashir – Aspen 

Marathon Ready!

Mr Drakes visited the Marathon Expo on Wednesday evening and picked up his number... 35247! Everything is ready for Sunday and hopefully the rain will hold off. There has been tremendous support for the charity so far from staff, parents and friends. If you are able to make a donation then please use the link below.

Next week the children will get a chance to complete a cumulative class marathon and see the finishers medal that Mr Drakes will bring back from Sunday's race.

Mr Drakes's fundraising page

Charlie's Race Car

Charlie has been busy with his Cub groups where they have been making racing cars. They had a presentation linked to the Bloodhound Super Sonic Car and they had to make cars which would imitate its speed!

Charlie's pack is the 3rd Squirrels Heath

The propulsion for the car came from a balloon which the children had to blow up.

Reflectiveness

Initially I came second because I had a wheel failure. As I hadn't fastened it on properly, the wheel fell off. This caused me to drop from first to second. However I then fixed the wheel more securely and I won the next race!
Charlie

Back On The Field

After a period of soggy cold weather and short dark days it is great to get the children back on the field and in the giant sand pit. Have a look at what they've been getting up to at lunch!

More Able Science Day

The Spaceman (Year 3/4)
In order to overcome the Earth’s gravity a certain speed has to be attained; this speed is known as escape velocity. It can be shown mathematically that the speed of a rocket depends on the speed of its exhaust; the faster the jet rushes out, the faster the rocket will travel. Speed is also partly determined by aerodynamics. This project introduces space flight and the design of a small water-powered rocket which will then undergo a test flight. We cannot take you into space but we can simulate its effects!

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall   (Year 1/2)      

Every mirror has a 'silver' lining so take a light-hearted look at your image and reflect upon the way mirrors work. We may build periscopes, draw pictures, some only unlocked by the correctly shaped mirror and maybe think about why Alice had so many problems ‘through the looking glass’.

We're In The Paper: Archie's Star of the Week

We are delighted to see Archie Patrick Stuart in the paper to today in recognition of his efforts to improve his reading. In assemblies this week we have been highlighting to the pupils that their reading ability at the age of 10 is a key indicator for their future success. Confident 10 year old readers will out earn less confident readers by 20% - that's an extra days pay every week by the time you get to 38!

Good job Archie, you're on your way!

TES Awards - Primary School of the Year

We are delighted to announce that Broadford Primary has been shortlisted for the 2015 TES Awards. We have been nominated in the category 'Primary School of the Year' in recognition of the 2014 Ofsted inspection and exam results.

Following the 2010 grading of inadequate and poor performance in the exams, it was imperative that we worked together to put the school back on the right track as quickly as possible. This hard work and effort from all of our pupils, parents, staff and governors has been recognised with one of the most prestigious awards a school can be shortlisted for.

Only 7 other schools are on the list. Hopefully we will get even more positive news on June 19th when the winners are announced. For now we are just going to celebrate and enjoy the fact we have been shortlisted... well done everyone!

Theo The Reading Dog!

This week Elm class had their final reading session with Theo our Reading Dog! For the last couple of months he has been coming in to class on a Tuesday afternoon and the children have been reading him their stories.

"Theo is such a good listener. He lies down at my feet and lets me stroke him. I think he liked the Jacqueline Wilson stories best" Sophie Nickson

"Reading to Theo makes me feel really calm. He might be a big dog, but he is very gentle." Aiden Paterson

Now Theo will move along to hear our readers in Maple class!

What is an election?

Over the next few weeks in assemblies, we are learning about an important event which is about to take place in our country: the general election. To begin, we found out what an election is and looked at the different parties who are currently campaigning for votes.

Children have been challenged to look out for the ways different political parties persuade people to vote for them including: leaflets, television broadcasts and billboards.