Here are the posts for July 2008

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Here are some photo's from the music concert on Friday (18th July 2008) afternoon, enjoyed by a hall full of parents who watched individuals perform along with the choir and orchestra for a great afternoon of music.

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It was a fantastic day , we made a brilliant £3940 profit! The PFA believe this is a record for an event, at the school. This means the PFA will be able to give the school nearly £16,000.00 raised from events over the last two years, for the building project.

The campers were all bright & breezy on Sunday morning (kind of) and they all stayed around to help clear up which was brilliant. Unfortunately we did run out of food, but we had sold 300 tickets in advance, which we had food for, after a final tally we think we had in the region of 650 people through the gates, so not really surprising that we ran out . The moral of the story is buy your tickets in advance next year then we know how many we are catering for!!

Nikki Tucker
PFA Chair

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Year 6 wore crazy hats and odd footwear today to raise money for charity, even the staff joined in!!

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The year 6 pantomime was all about the king whose wife died so he held a ball to choose a new wife.

In the end he chose a lady called Ms. MacHose. She had a magic mirror that could talk.

She kept asking the mirror ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?’ The mirror answered every time, ‘You are the fairest of them all’ until one time the mirror said that she was not the fairest, Snow White was.

So she got a huntsman to kill Snow White. Snow White escaped through the woods. She met seven ex-jockeys and they all bet on a horse whose name was Lucky Steed but unfortunately their horse lost so they lost all their money.

Snow White stole the mirror from the palace and asked it who will win the Ascot Gold Cup and it was Mistletoe. They bet on this horse and they became millionaires!!

The End!!

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In Environment Club we do lots of fun things, like pond dipping and scavenger hunts. We have planted lettuce and when it had grown we got to have a piece. One rainy day we made paper, it was loads of fun. At the last environment we made a big art attack made from stuff on the field. It really helps the environment.

Watch our slideshow which takes the art attack through the different stages.

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Year 3 & 4 set off around the perimeter of the field at 1pm, some children set off running while others walked. Some parents walked with the children too. After an hour the children stopped for a well earned rest.

The highest number of laps for the boys was 29, with the girls managing 26.

Next it was the turn of years 5 & 6. Some of the boys managed to run most of the time and so achieved an amazing 32/33 laps, breaking the previous record set 2yrs ago. Some of the girls managed up to 28 laps, again by running most of the time.

Well done to all the children who took part to raise money for Hospice in the Weald and to furnish the new Science Room.
 

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Arts Day takes place in the summer term.

Parents are invited in for coffee and biscuits at break and then join their children in the classes and to join in the creative sessions for the rest of the morning.
Then at lunchtime the whole school and parents enjoy a picnic. This was planned to take place on the field and to be followed by the sponsored walk but due to the weather picnic's took place in classrooms and the hall and the sponsored walk has been rescheduled to take place next Thursday afternoon (17th July).

More parents than ever before joined us yesterday and everyone had fun as you can see from the pictures here, click away and see what brilliant work was produced.

Some of the staff took over child care duties while the parents were taught how the weave and sew.

Year 3 spent the morning showing parents how to weave, weaving paper, wool, material and plastic. We used all sorts of looms too - even hub caps, a bicycle wheel and tree branches!!

4A made some beautiful dragonflies and butterflies out of wire, tights and glitter and some very creative pond scenes (even including some frogs!). It was lovely to see so many parents being creative with their children in the class.

4α had a brilliant time making insects from newspaper and boxes and LOTS of masking tape. Parents all joined in and everyone had fun. Thank you to all the parents - clearing up was so easy!!

5A went into the computer room and created powerpoint presentations (showing parents how to do this) on their recent visit to Hever Castle. Some children were able to add sound effects and music. At the end of the morning children showed the rest of the class their work on the large screen.

5α did pointellism paintings (using dots to create pictures). Lots of detailed concentration was required. Parents were keen to join in.

Year 6 were busy with props and rehersals for their panto, Snow White and the Seven Jockey's

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5α have been designing their own Coats of Arms. See what some of them have to say...

I chose this design for my Coat of Arms for a number of reasons. I ride horses so that is why I have a horse. I chose Tatty Teddy because I love him and I love teddy bears. I’ve got the ice cream because I love the beach. The paddock is there because my name means secure. I used the flowers to show that I love nature. Rebekah

I chose these items because they are my hobbies and things I like. I drew the Chelsea kit because I support Chelsea. I chose all of the sports equipment because I like playing football and other sports. I chose the Horrid Henry book because it is my favourite book. Oliver

Each of the symbols represents an individual meaning. The lipstick in the middle shows that my last name means beauty in German. See the aeroplane flying through the clouds? Well that stands for my love of travelling even if I don’t fly! What else could a cute paw-print mean? The way I adore animals of course!! My netball and bib says that I have fun playing this sport. Finally the books are there because I am an absolute book worm! Emily

I chose this design for many reasons. The 2 footballs are there because I really like football. I also like tennis so I put a net and ball. My name means twin and nobleman so there are two crowns. The background is blue from the Scottish flag and the red stripes are from the English flag because I am half English and half Scottish. Thomas

I chose these symbols for a number of reasons. First I chose the Charlton Athletic shirt because I love football and support Charlton Athletic. I’m half Australian so I had to put an Australian flag on it. I also put a trampoline on because I like bouncing up and down. Harry.

I chose the well in the middle because that’s what Max means. The hand in the middle is the ‘red hand of Ireland’ and the green, white and orange colours are for the Irish flag. The top section is for my love of sports. The section with the foot prints represents my love of monster stories. The last section is there to show that I look at the sky at night. The other colours are my favourite colours but the red cross is for England. Max

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You will be pleased to know that contracts have been agreed and the work has started although the main work will be done in the summer holidays to avoid disruption to the school.

We hope the work will be finished soon after Christmas and the pupils will then have a great new facility for projects in science, technology and art. The new facility will also include a toilet and lift for disabled persons.

We will be funding this from school funds with some help from the Local Authority for the disabled section and of course with funds from the PFA and special thanks are due to them - what has been collected will furnish and equip the room.

Dr John Pomeroy

Chair of Governors

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Some children in yr 5 have been sewing and creating their own shields.

• I chose Tatty Teddy, because I love teddies and I love Tatty Teddy. So that is why he is on my piece of sewing. Hope you like it. Rebekah
• I chose flowers because I think that they are beautiful and have a lovely smell and because I love summer. Amy
• I picked these pictures because I am mad about football. The scarf at the bottom is a Manchester United scarf and that is the team I support. Nathan.
• On my shield I have a wombat because I like them. Wombats are cool, which is why I put one, I would really like a pet wombat, but unfortunately they only survive in the wild. I would love to adopt one, they are so cute. Jodie.
• My picture is a cyber man from Dr Who. I sewed this because I am one of the biggest fans of Dr Who in this school. Tim
• I chose to make my shield with a sword, axe and spear to show the weapons they used to have in Tudor times. We have been learning about the Tudors and I found it interesting. Matthew.

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Year 6 have been designing buggies and racing them. We made our buggies using wood, corrugated plastic and other materials.

Making our buggies was fun but we did have a few problems. The problems involved not having a powerful enough battery, the rubber band snapping or with the balloon powered buggies being too heavy, most people found a solution to their problems. We all had fun and enjoyed making our buggies.

Races took place on the playground.
 

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A group of 8 students from Oita Higashi School in Japan currently on a cultural trip to Britain, based at Bennett Memorial School, spent Tuesday afternoon with year 4.

On the 1st July some students came to St. James’ to learn the English language and they also came to teach us origami. One group in year 4 made crows and another made tigers. They were 15 and 16 year old boys and girls and they didn’t know much English.
 

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Year 3 had a visit from ‘Hector’ and ‘Sylvia’ on Wednesday 2nd July

We found out that all Greek Gods had beards!

We bowed down in front of the gods on Mount Olympus.

We learned that men did all the work, made all the decisions and did all the partying! One of the children tried out one of the games on Mrs Holdstock! Mrs Holdstock married ‘Hector’ and her job was to look after him. She also became his property – wife means property.

Teachers could beat children if they didn’t write their name properly on the wax tablet.

Poor doctors worked out what was wrong with a patient by sampling ear wax, vomit, urine and worse! Yuk!

We had our own version of the Olympics, including ‘Chariot’ racing and javelin throwing.

The day ended with us performing a traditional Greek play. Eros shot his arrow to the centre of the earth. Well done to our narrators who were complimented by Hector and Sylvia as the best Year 3 readers they have heard in schools this year! The orchestra provided a somewhat ‘avante garde’ musical accompaniment.

We had lots of laughs but learnt lots of new facts in the process.
 

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Report by Claire and Siobhan.

On Tuesday 1st July, the top recorder group met up with TWGGS, Speldhurst, Claremont and Bidborough to play some recorder pieces. We played four pieces and some schools played their own. We had a great time and thank you Mr Smith for organising it.