Thursday 8th December

SPACE CENTRE TRIP!

Today we visited the very interesting National Space Centre in Leicester, which was linked with our current book- George's Secret Key to the Universe.

We had a bit of an early start so we could make it on time and when we got there, we went straight into our workshops; one about staying healthy in space and the other about what astronauts wear in space (watch the video of the children doing some exercise, measuring their pulse rates!). Both workshops were thoroughly enjoyed by both sets of children.

Afterwards, we had a short time to look around, before heading off to our 'Planets' theatre show, which was quite amazing! It's quite hard to describe, but the screen was pretty much the entire room and the children were truly immersed in the show they were watching. After lunch, we went on the space simulator (a few dodgy stomachs there!) and went up the rocket tower to see the 2 rockets that are housed at the centre.

All in all, a fantastic visit, where the children and staff learnt lots and lots of new information!

Wednesday 7th December

OLYMPIC PARK TRIP!

Ok, not officially a Year 6 event, but it did involve some Year Sixes, so I thought I'd put it up! Nine children from Key Stage 2 were selected to visit to the amazing Olympic Park, which is almost finished, in East London. We travelled by train from Leagrave up to London Bridge, then caught the underground to Canary Wharf before catching the DLR to Pudding Mill Lane (with no hiccups!). We arrived for our bus tour dead on time, although Mr Rowe nearly didn't take part as he had forgotten his I.D! After a quick phone call back to school, they confirmed who he was and he was allowed to take part!

We saw and learnt LOTS of fascinating facts about the upcoming olympics - 206 countries are taking part, 26 sports are occurring, the Olympic Stadium seats 85,000 people, the Orbit is the big red structure next to the Stadium and Saudi Arabia doesn't allow female athletes to take part!

After our bus tour, we had lunch at the 'View Tube', which had excellent views of the area before heading onto our bike ride around the area, led by a nice man called Joe. We went around the whole area, up canal tow paths (nobody fell in the water!) and then back again. It was very tiring although everyone had a fantastic time!

After our bike riding, we caught the trains back (nearly getting lost at Canary Wharf!) and got back to school at exactly 5pm (the first time I've ever been back on time from any school trip in my life!). A nice note to add, is that on the train back to Leagrave, a lady went out of her way to come and tell Mr Rowe how well behaved all the children were and what excellent role models they were for our school....a very pleasing thing to hear indeed!

Tuesday 6th December

Space Centre reminders
As I'm sure you're aware, the Space Centre trip is this Thursday. Below are some important points for you to remember:

• Any parents who haven't already made payment for this trip, please do so at the office ASAP.
• Children will need to be in school at 7:45am so we are able to leave at 8am. Unfortunately, we will be unable to wait for any children who are late as we must arrive at the Space Centre on time so we can attend the workshops at our allocated times.
• We will be visiting the Space simulator ride whilst there; if you wish your child to go on this, they will need £1.
  
• As well as the £1, your child may also bring an additional £3.50 spending money to spend in the shop. Please do not provide your child with more as they will not be able to spend it.
• If possible, packed lunches should be in a named carrier bag so we can dispose of it after lunch.
• We are aiming to arrive back at school around 4:45pm. If there are any drastic changes to this time, then please keep your mobile phones to hand as the office staff will text you,

If you have any further questions regarding this, please contact Mrs Hedley in the office.

Tuesday 29th November

GIRLS FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT!

Well done to the Year 5 and 6 girls who took part in the football tournament at playfootball.net on Tuesday.

The girls tried extremely hard and did well to come 3rd in their group. There were certainly a few future stars among them!

Friday 25th November

LAST DAY!

We've just had breakfast and will be leaving at about 8:30 your time to move onto the hypermarket.

We may be able to catch an earlier ferry if all runs smoothly, so as said last night, please keep checking your mobile phones in case our arrival time back at school changes.

We've had a fantastic week and it's quite apparent that all the children have had a wonderful time. They're looking forward to seeing everybody back in England and sharing their tales with you!

See you all soon

Mr Kelly

Thursday 24th November

DAY THREE! It's an early post from me today as all the children are dancing away at the disco....from where I am, I can hear a bit of Party Rockers blasting out of the speakers! Today we were granted a bit of a lay in (till half 7 anyway!) and went onto breakfast. The children then wrote out their postcards, which were subsequently posted, before heading off on the coach to the local market. The children were in charge of their money (which they were very wise with) but I apologise in advance for any 'tat' they come home with!! They did visit the gift shop at the Tower yesterday as well, so should have at least one decent souvenir from their trip!

After lunch we headed off on a walking tour of Rue where the children learnt a lot about the location before heading off in small groups to complete a quiz on the town.

When we returned we had dinner where we tried our own dreaded Bushtucker Trial.....snails and frog legs! A good percentage of the children tried them both and I captured some very funny faces as they were attempting to eat them! The children then got changed ready for the disco, which they are currently at.

Tomorrow, I shall try to update the blog but may not have time. Please keep an eye on your mobiles tomorrow as if there are any changes in our return times, school will text you to let you know.

Thanks for reading the blog and leaving comments; the children have really appreciated them. See you all tomorrow.

Monsieur Kelly

Wednesday 23rd November

DAY TWO! And what a tiring day it has been! Up at 6:30am and got back to the Chateau at 9:00pm- some VERY tired faces around (mine being one of them!) The coach journey into Paris and back was a long old affair today but we kept our spirits up through a combination of iPads, magazines, DVDs, telling jokes, finding interesting landmarks and spotting Parisian graffiti (it's a different class of graffiti in Paris you know!) The day itself was absolutely fantastic! Once in Paris, we travelled to the Seine where we took a boat journey along a length of the river with the Eiffel Tower in the background. We left there after about an hour and then moved onto eating our lunch about 300m away from the Tower itself. Our slot to go up the Tower was at 3pm, so we squeezed in a few 'touristy' photos (see if you can notice my contribution to this!) before heading up. Let me assure you that every child was in total awe of heading up to the top....some thought that when they got to the first stop that they had reached the top and were heading straight back down again (they had a surprise in store!). Everyone made it to the summit and we spent a good period of time walking around, taking in the amazing views, even if it was fairly foggy. When we came down, we took the children to buy some traditional French crepes (which they didn't take much persuading to do!) before heading back to the coach for our return journey. We were delayed a little bit coming back beacuse the fog slowed us down, so the children had a slightly later dinner than planned (the food is wonderful by the way) before heading straight to bed and once again they all fell asleep pronto again.

I have to mention something that made me laugh today. A young man, who shall remain nameless (but his name begins with a 'D' and ends in 'avey') was adamant he knew the French national anthem...so I asked him to hum it to me. All was going well until I realised he wasn't humming the national anthem but instead humming the theme song to Star Wars! Not sure when Chewbacca became a French national!?

Anyway, I am now needing to sleep myself, so here's hoping that our market visit and town tour tomorrow will go as well.

Bonne nuit

Monsieur Kelly

Tuesday 22nd November

DAY ONE! (All the blog instructions are in French....I can't read them so I'm hoping this publishes ok!)

Well, we arrived safe and sound some hours ago (after a mammoth M1 and M25 journey), although a very peaceful and calm ferry crossing. Everyone is very impressed with the surroundings (the children think it has a touch of Hogwarts about it- everywhere you turn there's a suit of armour!). We've all unpacked and the children are all asleep, which is fantastic, especially considering it's their first night! They have once again been superbly behaved and are a true credit to the school. They all took part in the Chateau Olympics tonight (where they exhausted themselves quite happily) and afterwards, went back to their rooms to shower and slurp on some hot chocolate and munch their way through some 'pre-bed' biscuits! Tomorrow, we have an early start (getting up at 6:30am) before heading off to Paris for a long day. The children should hopefully all be buying postcards tomorrow whilst eating their crepes, waiting to ascend the Eiffel Tower after having a leisurely boat cruise up the Seine!

Will try and keep you updated tomorrow- in the meantime, if you have any comments to leave, please do so and I'll try and check them in the morning.

Bonne nuit everyone!

Monseiur Kelly

Monday 21st November

NATWEST MONEYSENSE! Off to France tomorrow, but still time to show some stunning photos of some Year 6 pupils from when we had the Money Morning in school a couple of weeks ago! A professional photographer came in (on behalf of Natwest) to take some glamourous shots of the children in preparation for our school bank which is starting in the new year. The photos may be appearing in a local newspaper soon so keep your eyes peeled!

Sunday 20th November

LANTERN PARADE!

This afternoon, we took 12 children to participate in the lantern parade in Luton Town Centre.

We left Park Town Community Centre in Bailey Street and headed with our procession of lanterns (plus one 8ft tall luminous puppet!) up towards the town hall, where we patiently waited for the lights to be switched on. After messages from the mayor and Heart FM, James Argen (who??) from The Only Way is Essex helped us countdown to the 'big switch on' and we had a prime position to see the lights go on!

Afterwards, we strolled back to the community centre where we were given hot dogs, soup and hot chocolate to warm us up! Once again, the children were a credit to the school, so a big well done.

Thursday 17th November

France trip:

Just to let everyone know that the blog will be updated each day next week when we are in France. I shall try to update it each evening at some point and then again possibly on the last day before we leave. Hopefully, I will be able to add some photos of the activities we have been getting up to as well. (Although, I'm not sure how reliable the internet connection is, so please be patient!)

PLEASE NOTE: You may use the blog to leave messages for your child but please be aware that after you make a comment, it will not appear until it has been emailed to me for verification. I will then pass the message/s onto your child. (As long as everything goes to plan!). To add a comment, just click on the little '0 comments' or '1 comments' etc bit and it should allow you to write something.

Mr Kelly

Thursday 10th November

PLANETARIUM AND LANTERN MAKING!

Today we had a double whammy and took part in two different exciting activities!
Firstly, each class took it in turns during the day to travel to Downside Primary to visit the mobile Planetarium that we had jointly booked with them. Whilst there, the children sat inside the gigantic, inflatable structure and were very impressed with what they saw and what they heard. (Ask them about all the different things they were told!). The presenter, Andrew, said the children were a real credit to the school and one of the best behaved groups of children he had ever met!

After school, a lucky group of children had the chance to travel into town and make lanterns in preparation for the annual Luton Lantern Parade, which will take place on Sunday 20th November. (Apparently, James Argent from The Only Way is Essex will be switching the lights on- is he famous? I've never heard of him!). The children came up with some fantastic lantern creations and I look forward to seeing them lit up on the 20th!

Monday 7th November

PLANETARIUM - THIS THURSDAY

As I'm sure you're aware, this Thursday we will be visiting a mobile planetarium to support the work we are currently doing on the Solar System. Could I please ask parents who have not made their contribution towards the cost of this exciting event to do so by Wednesday? Many thanks.

Thursday 20th October

CARNIVAL ARTS WORKSHOP! Today we took a short coach ride to the Carnival Arts Centre down in the town centre. The children took part in a fabric printing workshop, whereby they used their African designs they had created to paint onto paper. The paper will then be heat printed onto fabric so we have our own 'Kangas' to display in school (a Kanga is a traditional East African garment). Everyone had great fun painting their designs and are now excited tos see what the final product is going to look like!

Monday 17th October

WE'RE FAMOUS! (well sort of!)

Take a look at the Luton News website:

http://www.lutontoday.co.uk/news/local/children_march_in_mock_demonstration_1_3160201

to see a news story about our demonstration last week!

Friday 14th October

SCIENCE NIGHT!

I think it's safe to say that everyone had a fantastic time at the Science Museum! (Even after the terrible traffic we encountered in London!!) We arrived and had to hurry to make the first activity, which was making an ultra violet torch (please don't be surprised if you see the children using them to hunt for scorpions or shining them in the dark in the bathroom- I'm sure they can explain this to you!).

From there, we moved onto the laser show, where we saw how lasers are used as security devices and also watched a powerful laser cut through 4 balloons! After this, we then had an evening packed 'lunch'. Our last evening session was making kaleidoscopes and by this point, there were a few sleepy looking children (and adults!). This session finished at around 11pm before we went up to our camp area and set up bed for the night. All children were fantastic during the night and although some told us they weren't going to sleep(!) they were all out for the count by midnight!

The morning session (after breakfast) was watching a brilliant nature movie on the 50ft IMAX screen about orangutans and elephants before moving onto the Launchpad, which was an interactive gallery where the children got the chance to scientifically 'play' with lots of exhibits! Then it was time for prize giving (where Miles won a prize for best best child camper!) before looking around the museum and then waiting outside for our coach...which turned up 50 mins late, although the children were exceptionally well behaved whilst waiting.
Well done to everyone involved for a wonderful experience!

Thursday 13th October

REFUGEE MARCH SUCCESS!

We went on our demonstration today to keep Alem in the country....and it went extremely well!!

We started off from school and made our way down Tomlinson Ave to Leagrave High St. We had our placards and whistles at the ready and lots of children had t-shirts on with messages of support. Different children got the chance to use the mega phone chanting "Don't let the Kelos go....No, No, No, No!!" We were accompanied by 2 PCSOs, the Luton News reporters turned up and we certainly drew a lot of attention to ourself!

Once we reached Lewsey Park, then it was onto the speeches where 4 children stood on the makeshift podium to address the 'crowds'! We then made our way back to school, making equally as much noise as when we came down.

The childrens' behaviour was excellent throughout the march and they set a fantastic example for Chantry.

Monday 10th October

REFUGEE BOY DEMONSTRATION!

On Thursday, we will be taking the children in Year 6 on a peaceful demonstration around Lewsey Farm, which will be linked to our Refugee Boy work. In the story, Alem is due to be deported, so his school friends stage a protest around their community. It is this protest that we will be re-creating, using placards, signs, a megaphone to get our point across, t-shirts with messages on and we'll even be accompanied by police officers! We will congregate at Lewsey Park where we will be addressing the 'crowds', reading the speeches that the characters give in the story! There will even be Luton News reporters there to take photos and make a video recording- we'll be famous!

Make sure you ask your child about the demonstration on Thursday after school!

Friday 7th October

ATHLETICS
COMPETITION!
Today, some of our Year 5 & 6 pupils went to the Sportshall Athletics Competition at Stopsley Sports Centre. They took part in lots of different activities, such as speed bounce, javelin throwing, long jump and relay racing. Even though we had 2 children missing with illness, everyone who took part put in 100%

effort and as a result we managed to come 4th! This means that we get to go back and take part in the town finals in November!

There was even time for our own Usain Bolt (aka Mr Noel) to race, and due to his lightning quick speed, he helped our team to win the fun relay race! (Although it took him about 3 hours to recover afterwards!!).

Tuesday 3rd October

CAKE SALE UPDATE!
Thanks to all parents and children who made/bought cakes for our cake sale last week. We ended up making £86 (not bad for selling cakes!).

Friday 30th September

CAKE SALE!!
Don't forget this Friday is the Year 6 cake sale. Please remember to bring some cakes in for us to sell to help raise funds for Year 6. Any donations appreciated, however big or small!

Monday 19th September

DAN COMES TO VISIT!

A man called Dan came to see us today to speak to us about the life of refugees around the world. He did a quiz with us, where we learnt lots of information, such as:

• Every 21 seconds in the world, another refugee is 'created'
• Nearly all refugees in the world move from a poor country into another poor country
• Afghanistan has produced the most refugees in the last 5 years

Dan knew lots about the experiences that refugees go through (he works with Amnesty International and the Refugee Youth Project) and we learnt lots from him!

Interestingly, Dan has also been carrying out a research project on 'playground singing games' over the past 10 years and has travelled all around the world finding out about different songs. He's also an artist and has a mural of his singing playground games up in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London! You can take a look at this fantastic piece of art here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/whats_on/galleries/childhood/the_singing_playground/index.html (click on the blue 'singing playgound' link to see the painting)