STEMFest 2023

13th July 2023Victoria Cartmell

This half term, thirty of our year 5 and 6 pupils were lucky enough to take part in this years STEMFest event.

STEMFest is an annual festival, aiming to encourage and inspire young people from North East schools, into STEM subjects and career goals. This year, over 50 North East businesses delivered hands-on activities- showcasing the range of careers and job roles available in the STEM sector in our region.

Whilst at the event, our children were able to explore four zones: Space, Technology (including cyber attacks and piloting), Environment and Manufacturing.

We left feeling inspired and inquisitive about our future careers in the STEM field of work!

Growing Butterflies

30th June 2023N Fada

We decided it would be nice for the children to get a butterfly garden kit so we could grow our own butterflies.

The kit came with a tub of tiny caterpillars and some food. Over a couple of weeks the children enjoyed watching the caterpillars grow as they ate up all of their food in the tub.

The caterpillars then climbed to the very top of the tub and turned into a chrysalis. The children found this stage very interesting and enjoyed watching as a harder shell formed around the caterpillar.

After less than a week, the butterflies emerged from their chrysalis. We put some fresh orange and sugar water out for the butterflies to eat and over the next few days we let them build up their strength before releasing them into the world.

Some of the children were lucky enough to get to hold the butterflies before they flew off!

 

 

3 Red went Under the Canopy!

16th June 2023L Martin

3 Red had a fantastic experience from start to finish yesterday at Sunderland Winter Gardens, where we became Rainforest Explorers for the day!

We impressed the the learning team with our knowledge of all things rainforest, before exploring the rainforest by following the ‘Luna the Lemur’ trail.

Shadows in 1 Red

16th June 2023L Chisholm

This week in our ‘Light Up The World’ theme we have been looking at light and dark; what creates a shadow and how shadows change over time.  The children have measured shadows throughout the day, made their own shadow puppets and figured out that a solid object does not let light through and that is how a shadow is formed.  They had great fun using the torches to create big and small shadows.

1 Red went to the Centre for Life

9th June 2023L Chisholm

Year 1 went to the Centre for Life as part of our theme ‘Light Up The World’.  We had a really great day exploring our universe.  We completed some map work by looking at different continents and which animals came from which country.  We then took part in a ‘Gross Bodies’ theatre show where we discovered what horrible things our bodies do to keep us healthy.  We explored space, its planets, a space rocket and mission control; then took at tour through the stars in the planetarium.  We explored different machines and how they worked and what a great brain we have.  It was a brilliant day and we have learnt so much!

1 Blue Trip to the Life Centre

9th June 2023Miss L Robinson

1 Blue had a fabulous trip to the Life Centre in Newcastle. This trip linked to our theme ‘Light Up The World’. The children did lots of exploring and learning through play. Their behaviour was amazing throughout the day and were a credit to the school.

Little Inventors- Competition Winner!

5th June 2023Victoria Cartmell

Back in February, South Tyneside Council and Dogger Bank Wind Farm teamed up with Little Inventors to bring us ‘Powering the Future: South Tyneside and Beyond!’

Both our Year 4 and %ear 5 pupils took on an invention challenge, created for their year group.

This challenge focused on the role and uses of wind and kinetic energy- both forms of renewable energy.

All of our entries were amazingly creative and bursting with innovation!

Incredibly, out of the 167 ideas posted into the competition, our very own Tommy (4 Red) had his invention selected as a winning entry; he was then invited to meet the designers and have his invention brought to life!

Click here to see the winning entries!

Gardening award!

10th May 2023Victoria Cartmell

This half-term, our gardening club have already achieved their Level 1 award, from the Royal Horticultural Society!

Working in the school garden, we are aiming to get some edible produce (fruits and vegetables) planted, ready to harvest and taste test ourselves.

Adding to our level 1 award, we have also officially been given our School Gardening member plaque and are continuing to work our green fingers, to reach levels 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Well done gardeners, keep up the fantastic work!