NEWS & EVENTS BLOG

<p>Our first School Council and Eco meeting went very well. The children were full of ideas to make a positive difference in school. We have some exciting events coming up so watch this space&#8230;.</p>

<p>As a class we talked about different habitats across the globe (desert, mountains, ocean, river, countryside etc) and which species was causing the most problems for other animals – humans! We talked about how in particular our demands for food and computer technology, such as mobile phones or games consoles, has led to huge areas [&hellip;]</p>

<p>&nbsp; In our last forest school session for the year, Year 5 Nurture Group brought together many of the skills they have been learning this year: whittling skills, campfire building and campfire lighting. The children are now so skilled that they needed minimal input from Mrs. Villalobos and they independently built a campfire, correctly layering [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Last week at Forest School, we went pond dipping. The pond at Scotswood Community Garden have crested newts, which are a protected species. Harriet, who works at the garden, helped to show us the newts and explained a little bit about their life cycle from egg to adult. Thank you Harriet!   </p>

<p>We had two very cute and fluffy chicks join our classroom this week. It was lovely to see how they had developed in such a short time since hatching! We each had a chance to handle and stroke them and ask questions about their development.</p>

<p>To mark Children&#8217;s Mental Health week, we celebrated, &#8216;Dress to Express&#8217; day in school. The children were given an opportunity to wear clothes to express their personalities. Some wore clothes they would wear every day, some dressed in fancy dress and we even had our very own Michael Jackson! In addition to this, they did [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Year 1 had a fabulous trip to the Rising Sun Country Park. We started our day looking at signs of Winter and Spring and then went on the do a mini-beast hunt. We put the mini beasts we found into special viewing pots and were careful to put the minibeasts back where we found them [&hellip;]</p>

<p>We went to St. Lawrence&#8217;s Park last week to help with spring bulb planting. We met the park rangers who gave us lots of interesting information about the creatures we found and how the spring flowers attract pollinators. Hopefully in spring next year we will see a beautiful bank of flowers thanks to our efforts!</p>

<p>Another group has started at Forest School this week. We learnt about the rules of Forest School; look after ourselves, look after each other and look after nature. We made a bracelet with 3 colours to remind ourselves of the rules. We then went off into the woods to explore and discover. We found some [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Last half term, Year 5 Nurture Group went to Scotswood Community Garden to take part in Forest School sessions each week We learnt how to construct dens, how to tree climb safely, how to use sheath knives to whittle and we also cooked up some interesting recipes in the mud kitchen!!    .</p>

<p>The children ended their first half term on Friday with a fun PE session with Mr Stevenson. They played lots of Parachute games with lots of fun had by all!</p>

<p>Year 2 have had a fabulous morning collecting natural materials from our outdoor environment. We worked in small groups and produced some real works of art! Each picture told it&#8217;s own story, from the tree of life to a Mine Craft creature! We turned our outdoor area into an outdoor Art Gallery.     I [&hellip;]</p>

<p>This week, Year 4 Nurture Group have been working with local gardeners to plant Spring bulbs in the Key Stage 1 and Reception garden. Whilst planting snowdrops, the children were learning about the different parts of a plant and their functions. We were blessed with beautiful sunshine! &nbsp;</p>

<p>We now have a new panel of School Councillors and Eco Squad members. Those children who were interested in the roles put their names forward and a secret vote was held in each classroom. We are sure that the School Council and Eco Squad members are going to do great things this year at St [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Year 2 visited St Lawrence&#8217;s Park to help with the regeneration of St Lawrence&#8217;s Park in Byker. We helped to clear a large flower bed and we planted some seeds. We are looking forward to monitoring the growth of our seeds over the next few weeks.</p>

<p>Some of our children created some amazing posters to remind everyone in school how important it is for us to save energy. Congratulations to those who created our winning posters!</p>