Tuesday 22nd May

Year 6 Basketball!

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated the blog! I blame it all on SATs!!

Well now that it's all over, I can get back to updating everyone on what we've been getting up to!

On Tuesday this week, we took a group of Year 6 pupils down to Barnfield to take part in a basketball festival. There were 8 schools in total and the children first of all took part in some skills events, followed by matches against other schools. All the children did tremendously well with their skills and in the games, we won 2 and lost 1 (but played very well throughout!).

Everybody was very well behaved and all got to take home a certificate at the end of the day. Well done everyone!

Friday 23rd March

SPORT RELIEF HEROES!

Today, Year 6 (and the rest of the school) took part in the Sport Relief marathon challenge! The theme was superheroes and lots of us got into the spirit of things by dressing up as a whole range of heroes (even I donned a Banana Man outfit, which helped me to relive my younger days!). We even did the course whilst listening to loads of songs which were blasting out over the loud speakers!

As a school, we all contributed to completing the distance of a marathon (we actually completed 30 miles, so did more than an actual marathon!). The event was sponsored and the child with the highest sponsor money raised will win a pair of tickets to watch the next England game at Wembley Stadium! All sponsor money needs to be returned the first week back after the Easter break.

Monday 12th March

BANK LAUNCH!

Today was the first day of the school bank and boy, it was busy! We had over 25 customers, who were all paying in various amounts of money (and were all pleased that they got their free piggy banks in the process!).

The bank staff did extremely well to cope with all the pressure and were scurrying away, completing paying in slips, handing over piggy banks and stamping bits of paper left, right and centre!

Later on in the day, I took Hollie and Eamon down to the Natwest branch on Marsh Road to pay the money in. Well done to everyone involved in the bank and roll on next week!

Thursday 8th March

BARNFIELD WEST VISIT!

Today, we were paid a visit from Mr Bird and Mrs Phipps from Barnfield West Academy, who came in to tell everyone about Barnfield! We learnt all about their huge sports hall, their amazing theatre, the tonnes of after school clubs they run, the different houses and how important their school uniform is.

I think the children were suitably impressed by everything they saw and those who are moving there in September have a lot to look forward to indeed!

Thursday 1st March

WORLD BOOK DAY!
Thursday was World Book Day and children throughout school were invited to dress up as characters that they have been introduced to in the books they have read in class. So in Year 6 we had all manner of characters, including astronauts, scientists, Shakespearian characters and lawyers to name a few! I was very impressed with how many children got into the spirit of things by dressing up and how much effort went into creating some of the outfits!

Tuesday 28th February

TABLE TOP SPORTS!
A group of Year 4 and Year 6 pupils went to Barnfield today to take part in a table top sports event. This was lots of sports that were laid out on flat surfaces (and didn't take much energy to play!!).

The activities we participated in were: table tennis, polyball, table cricket and kurling. We even had to play all these sports against children from a high school (and we were better then they were!).

A great afternoon was had by all!

Monday 27th February

BRILLIANT BOXING!
Wow- what a terrific sports session Year 6 had today! I was a bit unsure if the children would enjoy boxing, but they had a wonderful time and by the end were absolutely exhausted! The children learnt how tiring boxing training is and after an hour's worth of exercise, had definitely lost a few pounds each! There were 6 'training stations', including pad work, skipping and step ups.

We also had a competition at the end to see who could punch the pads the most in 30 seconds, which Kara won with an amazing 105 punches in 30 seconds!! (The message for us all to learn? Don't mess with Kara!!!).
This session was part of the monthly sports sessions being held for each year group. Reception had a boccia session in January and next on the agenda will be handball for Year 2 in March!

Thursday 23rd February

BANK TRAINING!
Today the bank staff had their first training session. Lots of forms, figures and details to remember, so let's hope it all goes well next week when they have to help 40 children fill out the forms for real!

Thursday 23rd February

SHIPWRECKED!

Today we had lots of visitors at Chantry who were coming round to watch some of the fantastic lessons around school. In Discus, we had an enormous yacht shipwrecked in the classroom (well actually a small dinghy, but we used our imagination!) and some mysterious footprints leading away from it. An upturned bag was also found, which contained many different items from the person who'd been stranded. (All the events were watched over by Norman the Lizard who was wondering what was going on!).

The visitors who came to Year 6 were amazed at how calm and well mannered the children were and were blown away by how enthusiastic everyone was. Well done everybody!

Wednesday 22nd February

SAINSBURY'S ONE MILLION CHALLENGE!
Mrs Dumpleton took a group of children to Barnfield today to take part in visually impaired football (which is a Paralympic sport) against other schools from across the town.

The children were placed in small teams and were blindfolded, having to listen for the sound of the ball so they knew where to kick! We did very well and even managed to win the competition! The children received small prizes as congratulations for their efforts and had a great time!

Friday 10th February

HERTFODSHIRE MAVERICKS NETBALL!

On the last Friday of half term, a group of pupils went to watch the Hertforshire Mavericks netball team play a game against Team Northumbria at the Hertfordshire Sports Village in Hatfield.

We travelled up by minibus (thankful that it wasn't snowing!) and managed to find a car parking space after driving round the car park about 6 times! Once inside, we had courtside seats and watched a fast paced game between the 2 teams, who are both in the Netball Super League (which is a bit like the football Premiership!). The Mavericks won the game 54-42 and everyone had a great time.

Thursday 9th February

BANK STAFF

Congratulations to the following children who were successful with their school bank interviews on Thursday:

CASHIERS: Nathan, William, Eamon, Hollie, Amy and Diana

MARKETING EXECUTIVE: Alex

Well done to everyone who applied- the manager of Natwest Bank was very impressed with all the children and found it very difficult to choose between them. The above children will receive their official bank training the first week back after half term!

Wednesday 8th February

KENSUKE'S KINGDOM!

As our Shakespeare unit draws to an end, our next book (which is one of my all time favourites!) will be Kensuke's Kingdom, by the fantastic children's author Michael Morpurgo (who also wrote War Horse which is currently at the cinema). The blurb of the book reads:

'Washed up on an island in the pacific, Michael struggles to survive on his own. He can't find food, he can't find water. In the end, he curls up to die. When he wakes, there is a plate beside him of fish, of fruit, and a bowl of fresh water. He is not alone…'

We have lots of exciting events and activities set up for this unit, which I'm sure the children are going to enjoy greatly!

Tuesday 7th February

MERCHANT OF VENICE PLAY!

So, after learning about the play for the last few weeks, we finally got to perform our scenes to the rest of the school and some of the parents. Each class were assigned 2 or 3 scenes from different parts of the play and each performed their own 'take' on it, with some performing in traditional Shakespeare language and some with modern day language.

We got slightly carried away with the performance and managed to run 15 minutes over the end of the school day (sorry if anyone was late home!). However, everyone acted their parts with great enthusiasm and 'gusto' and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. At some point, a small group of children will get the chance to go and perform some of the scenes at Lea Manor High School's theatre, collaborating with other Luton primary and secondary schools. Keeo your eyes peeled for details about this exciting event!

Wednesday 1st February

SHAKESPEARE!

Our Shakespeare unit (The Merchant of Venice) is coming to its end and in Year 6, we've been rehearsing for the scenes that we'll be performing on our 'fantastic finish' next week. Take a look at a sneak peek at one of our scenes being rehearsed...(it's the one where Prince Arragon tries to open the correct box so he can marry Portia!). Well done to Alex and Linda for their great acting skills (even if the idea of possible marriage horrified them both!!).

Friday 27th January

MK LIONS!
This evening, we travelled to Milton Keynes to train with the MK Lions basketball team before watching an exhilarating game against the Durham Wildcats!

We took a mix of Key Stage 2 children who were excellently behaved and thoroughly enjoyed themselves for the whole evening- some even had their picture taken with the Lions mascot!

The coaches were very impressed with some of the children's skills and techniques and were ecvne touting some of them as future basketball stars!

Tuesday 24th January

ARCHAEOLOGY ANTICS!

Today we visited Cambridge University to take part in an archaeology workshop led by Carenza Lewis, who is from the TV show, Time Team.

After being stuck in traffic for ages, we finally reached our destination and spent the first part of the morning taking part in an archaeology quiz. Did you know that a person in Medieval times who sold dog poo was called a 'bateman' and that guinea pigs were eaten as a delicacy in South America up until the 16th Century? (No, neither did we!).

We were then given animal skeletons and had to try to work out which animal each skeleton belonged to based on the size and style of the bones. (Horses and cows had HUGE teeth!). After we found out each type of animal, we headed over to the Geology Museum and saw lots of fossils and animal bones/remains, including those of dinosuars that roamed the Earth tens of thousands of years ago.

After lunch, we were then given skeleton remains from actual archaeological digs and had to try and piece them together to figure out what animal was in front of us....this was definitely not easy at all!! Some people thought that a dog skull belonged to a cow!

Overall, another excellent day out and hopefully it inspired some of the children to become archaeologists in the future!

Friday 20th January

PENPALS FINALLY GET LETTERS!

It may have taken weeks and weeks, but our pen pals in Ethiopia have finally received our letters! I have been keeping in contact with the headteacher of their school and she assures me the children were VERY excited to receive the letters and as the picture shows, they were keen to write back as soon as they could! All we have to do now is to wait (who knows how long!?) for the return letters to be sent back to us...watch this space!