Circus Skills Day

As part of our new topic The Circus is Coming to Town, Year 2 have taken part in a Circus Skills Workshop.

Matt showing us how to use the equipment.

Matt the jester  came to school with all his circus toys and showed us how to use them. We learnt to juggle with scarves, walk on a tightrope and use flower sticks. Some of us even had a go on a unicycle! We remembered our value of the month, which is co-operation, and worked together to support each other.

Juggling with scarves.

In the afternoon, Matt showed us some of his tricks and skills and then we put on a performance for each other. We had a fabulous day!

Spinning plates.

Walking on stilts.

Year 1's Easter Assembly

On Tuesday morning Year 1 performed their Easter Assembly for their parents.   They were fantastic!   There was lots of great acting, wonderful dancing and most of all brilliant singing.   Well done to everyone in 1 Elm and 1 Fir, we are very proud of you.   Thank you to the parents for coming to watch.

The cast.

Tuesday 8th March 2016

Today Collette from `Lego we play` came into Reception and helped us learn about making dinosaur models. We had a lovely time creating lego dinosaurs and homes for them to live in. Some of us created dinosaurs that we had learned about and some of us invented our own dinosaurs. 

We invited some of our friends from Year 1 to work with us and we enjoyed working with others and sharing our imaginative ideas. Everyone was very proud of us for working so cooperatively together and looking after all the lego pieces carefully.

Thank you Collette for letting us use your fantastic collection of lego. We all had a fantastic time!

World Book Day 2016 - Visit of Birmingham's Young Poet Laureate, Serena Arthur!

A very special guest visited Chilcote on March 2nd 2016, named Serena Arthur, the young Poet Laureate of Birmingham. As part of her amazing role, Serena has been travelling to fortunate schools across Birmingham to offer helpful advice on how to perform and write poetry. 

Despite only being seventeen years old, amazingly, Serena has written over fifty inspiring poems! She has written creations such as: Remember, Remember (the poem that won her the Poet Laureate competition), as well as work based on the themes of war, modernity and reality.

Chilcote pupils were very lucky to hear Serena's poems as part of a fantastic assembly; she read a couple of her favourite ones in front of the whole school (including a poem she wrote specifically for deaf children). Furthermore, she also visited Year 6 to recite a few more pieces that were aimed at more older children (such as a poem about Remembrance Day and the Holocaust). 

All of Chilcote's children learnt lots of other useful information too, as the School Council asked Serena questions about how she became such a spectacular poet. For example, we gleamed that Serena initially failed in her attempt to win the Poet Laureate competition; she had to demonstrate great resilience to come back the following year and win! This was truly an inspiring guest speaker!

Thank you for reading. We hope that all the children enjoyed the guest speaker as much as we did! Thank you to Serena (and her Dad) for visiting. 

Roberta and Dawud

Year 6 

Chilcote School Council.

What a busy week in Reception!

This week has been a very busy and exciting week in Reception!  We have shared a variety of different events:

Chinese New Year

Shrove Tuesday 

St. Valentines's Day

Year 6 Out and About Week!

Across Year 6, we have been taking part in various activities for Out And About Week. In Maths lessons, we have gone outside and made up word problems using nature; we have also used the playground learning resources to find out about factors and multiples.

In English, we went outside to get inspiration for a descriptive story opening. We used what we could hear, smell, touch and see to help us to write ambitiously.

Furthermore, we have been helping with community projects such as advertising the Macmillan cancer charity coffee and cake morning (we designed information posters and spread them across the school!). Also, The House and Vice Captains organised and ran the actual event, which was very successful!

Last but not least, all of Year 6 have been working extremely hard on our Harvest Production, which will help to raise awareness for families in need and teach us all about the morality of greed! Everyone will have the opportunity to see the finished production in the last week of half term!

Thank you for reading.

Mirabella and Robert.

Friday 9th October 2015 - Anti-bullying Day in Year 6

It was Anti-Bullying Day on Friday 9th October, and we had a great time! We watched a phenomenal theatre production called the B Word: it was all about how to cope with bullying and how to support the child that is being bullied. Also it told us that we must tell our parents and teachers if we are being bullied or we witness it ourselves. 

In Year 6 we also completed acrostic poems and answered some important questions about how to support others in different bullying dilemmas and scenarios. Furthermore in Chestnut and Sycamore we made posters and comic strips about bullying using the Comic Life App on the iPads. Hopefully you will see some of our fantastic work on the Anti-Bullying wall display within school.

It was a great day once again and we learnt loads about Anti-Bullying that will help us in our lives.

By Gabrielle and Thomas.

Year 6’s London Trip

On Friday, Year 6 went on a phenomenal trip to London. The coach journey was long and restless, but we knew that it would be worth it in the end!

When we arrived at around 10:00am, we left our transport and went to explore the Science Museum, it was amazing! First we watched a very intriguing show all about different structures, such as man made buildings (e.g. bridges) and natural structures too (e.g. mountains). One child had to sit on a chair of nails and Mr Canning got turned into a sandwich and bashed with a mallet (all in the aid of science learning though).

Furthermore we participated in different experiments such as: how much force four eggs can hold before smashing (it's more than you think because the force gets spread across the arched surface area of the egg!).

After that we went into Launchpad (a science experiment centre where we could try out different experiments for ourselves). It was a mind blowing time as we saw disappearing sand, illusions and mirror tricks - it was an experience we will never forget.

Following a quick lunch we went to see Buckingham Palace where we saw the soldier guards and police officers armed with dangerous weapons (guns and swords) circling the perimeter checking for anyone trying to sneak into the flamboyant, opulent palace! Mr Cross gave us some very interesting information about the Palace - such as if the union flag is flying then the Queen is actually not home.  

Next we saw St. James Palace, St James Park, Horse Guards, Downing Street, the Palace of Westminster and the London Eye! The best bit was waiting to watch the guards change at 4:00pm, as Mr Cross got shouted at by one of the guards walking past him (he was very quiet after that!).

It was such a great day!

Thanks for reading,

Gabrielle.

Year 6’s wonderful trip to Redridge!

Redridge is an outdoor activity centre for people of all ages, and last week most of year 6 visited this destination, which is full of amazing opportunities! When we arrived we went straight into the activities and were split into two groups - one of which went on the enormous on site climbing frame (used for training for the real rock face the following days) and the other group went kayaking and paddle boarding (which are two water sports).

The other fun challenges were: real rock climbing and caving, artificial caving, long walks, orienteering and archery! All of which were enjoyed thoroughly by year 6. In rock climbing there were three different walls: easy, medium and hard. In caving you had to squeeze through many tiny spaces and crawl on slippery cold floors. 

In artificial caving you needed to scuttle through small spaces in the pitch black with only the walls to guide you. Last, but by no means least, was the opportunity to take part in archery.

Overall Redridge was a grand experience: it helps young people develop confidence and independence whilst pushing people to overcome their biggest fears, such as heights, small spaces and the dark. Every single person pushed themselves to their personal limits and tried their hardest! We would all love to do it again!

Amy

Year 6 Blogger 

SCHOOL COUNCIL BLOG - VISIT OF LORD HUNT

Friday 26^th June

Lord Hunt's Visit

On June 26^th Lord Hunt (who actually prefers to be called Philip) came to visit the pupils of Chilcote Primary School, as part of our School Council arrangements and Chilcote's Health Week.  

At 9:00am, in assembly, the Lord completed a Q&A session in which the School Councillors had the opportunity to ask some difficult questions and hear a response from a politician! The answers were really impressive and the Lord even suggested who he'd prefer to win the upcoming Labour Leadership Contest: Andy Burnam is his choice! Interestingly, Lord Hunt also said that his most difficult time was when he has suggested reforming the House of Lords from appointed to elected peers.  

As well as this, he told us all about the House of Lords and the House of Commons at Parliament. He spoke about what happens at both places, and the differences between the Houses. Lord Hunt also told us that the Palace of Westminster is actually falling down!!

As a result of Lord Hunt visiting, we learned lots of new things, such as: why he was interested in politics, and that he was a disappointed about the recent general election result (Lord Hunt is a Labour peer). 

This was an amazing time for everyone at the school, but especially the School Councillors, and all the children learned a lot. 

To end his terrific time at Chilcote the Lord had a tour of the school from the Year 6 Visitor Monitors.

Thank you to Lord Hunt for visiting and taking the time to answer our demanding questions!!

By Councillor Zain       

 

Health Week in Year 6.

This week Year 6 have been doing lots of things for health week, such as: making healthy meals, taking part in the health week quiz and rock climbing (we even got to meet a member of the House of Lords)!

Firstly, Year 6 created delicious curries, which were accurately planned and carefully made to serve to the teachers. There were hot, medium and mild healthy curries; all of them were of outstanding quality and had an enticing flavour which made the teachers give them high marks out of ten!

Next, we all took part in a challenging quiz to test our knowledge on how to be fit and healthy! Every house did fantastically and tried their best to win. Everybody learnt lots from the answers! We can’t wait to find out who were the overall winners (KS1 also have a Health Quiz) during the next assembly.

Finally, every class in the school took part in an exciting sport: rock climbing, using a climbing frame that was put up in the playground! Everybody climbed the tall tower using teamwork to pull them up and safety ropes which enhanced our confidence. It was a fantastic opportunity to try something new! Everyone tried their best and managed to get up on to the wall!

Thank you for reading.

World of Work, Enterprise Day & First Aid Course!

On the May 17th, Year 6 started an exhilarating week! We had so many extra-curricular activities. These included: a World of Work Day, a First Aid Course and last but not least we had the fantastic, politics based, Enterprise Day!

The first project we had was the wonderful World of Work, where many professionals offered their precious time to come into our school and help us explore their job role. The professions consisted of: a pilot, a flight attendant, a solicitor, an artist, a nurse, a police officer, a fire-fighter and many more (even a teacher from our school!). We learned a lot  - the best thing was that having a professional job is very exciting: you meet new people every day! A few of us then created an outstanding presentation on the different jobs and scarily presented this to the rest of the class!

Next, we took part in a challenging First Aid Course – led by an expert first aider from St John's Ambulance - which required great focus and determination. We learnt how to treat an unconscious casualty as well as heal minute and large blood or burn wounds. Additionally, we researched lots of poisons and how to cure them or prevent them from entering our bodies. Finally we discussed what triggers asthma attacks and how to help somebody if they’re suffering from it. The best bit was that

we also got to perform CPR on a dummy.

Last but not least, the whole of Year 6 took part in a political Enterprise Day. This involved us become politicians and trying to win as many votes as possible for our newly created party. We had to do all sorts of tasks including: making our own rosettes, creating our own party colours, creating a party name, writing a manifesto and delivering a speech to the rest of the class so we could win as many votes as possible. Whoever won the most votes became the ruling party and could pick the new prime minister!

In conclusion, Year 6 had a fantastic week: we participated in many magnificent projects! Everyone enjoyed it massively and would wish to do it all again!

By Amy & Zain

Year 6 Bloggers! 

Year 5-Enterprise Day-A day in Politics-Thursday 21st May.

Year 5 enjoyed learning about politics in our country, extending our knowledge of Britain`s current political parties and finding out how the House of Commons operates.

We looked at how to debate effectively and held our own debate on the issue of `Should we wear our own clothes to school, rather than school uniform?` Some of our arguments were so persuasive that many children had changed their viewpoint by the end of the debate!

We created our own political parties and designed logos and slogans to represent them. We wrote manifestos based on issues that we had chosen and then held a Hustings followed by an election in which we all voted for the party we felt would be the most effective.

We all learned a lot about politics and demonstrated many important skills such as developing resilience and working well in a team.

Year 2 enterprise day: a day in politics

Children sharing their manifesto with the rest of the year. 

Children delivering their political speech.

Year 2 have been doing lots of different fun activities today. They have built their own political parties by creating their own names, designing logos and making rosettes. The children picked two issues that they thought were important to society and came up with their own manifesto. They then presented a political speech to convince the rest of the class to vote for them. Both classes then held an election. After all the votes were counted a winning party was announced.

Well done year 2-  you are officially politicians.

St George`s Day in Year 2

Year 2 had a very enjoyable day on Thursday 23^rd April, firstly acting out the story of St George and the dragon in groups, then taking part in djembe drumming workshops with Andy. The children listened very carefully, copied different rhythm patterns and combined them to create some good pieces of music.

At the end of the day, we watched the 1^st Sedgeley Morris dancers perform a hankerchief dance and some different stick dances. It was a lovely end to a very diverse day- reflecting our society in Britain today.  

Year 2 Computing: Super Humans Lego movies

Our Computing unit this half-term has involved creating stop-motion animation Lego movies all about exercise for our 'Super Humans' topic.

We found that good animation takes a lot of time, care, patience and teamwork. Next time we go to see an animated film, we certainly will appreciate it more.

Check these out . . .

Helping the Police in Hall Green

On Tuesday 10^th March, Year 5 took part in an exciting project with local police officers, helping them to make our roads safer.

We found out about the dangers of speeding and learned some worrying statistics about what can happen if people drive above the speed limit. 2 people have been killed recently in Hall Green because people were driving too fast!

Then we went out on to Baldwins Lane with the officers, and using a pro laser gun and other equipment, we identified speeding vehicles and collected information about drivers who were driving above the speed limit. We put our information into a database, and did lots of maths work around our findings.

Back in the classroom, we wrote letters to the drivers, informing them that they were going above the speed limit, highlighting the dangers of this and also the consequences of driving too fast; they could get a fine, points on their licence, or, in the worst case scenario, be responsible for causing injury to another person. The police are going to use our letters and send them to the drivers we stopped. We have also been told to expect some replies back!

We had a really interesting and exciting morning with the officers and it was great to help make our local area a safer place.