Altered Reality at Inspire2Learn

We spent time learning and exploring Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. During the morning we worked as a co-ordinated team to create a new settlement on a new planet far in the future. We decided on individual tasks and using Minecraft Education Edition, created and then presented our new world. We then explored Virutal Reality using Google Expeditions, Oculus Go and the HTC Vive kit. We spent time under the sea on a shipwreck, in a prehistoric world and visited Mount Everest and the Great Pyramids in Egypt. We discovered the importance of such environments in real world applications as well as the fun gaming side and understood how important virtualisation is and will be in the future, in our lives and future careers.

Animex Animation Workshop with the University of Teesside

Children visited the University of Teesside to take part in an Animexperience workshop, part of the Annual International Animex Festival of animation and computer games. Working with game animators, we discovered how animated movies and characters from cartoons and computer games are created. We created a story board, built a set, characters and props, recorded sound effects and used stop motion animation techniques to produce our own film. The completed films will be premiered at a special screening during the Animex Festival in May, which be attended by International animators and speakers, potentially from Disney, Dreamworks, Epic, Guerrilla Games and Microsoft Rare.

Our fantastic eco team have been busy over the last few weeks thinking about environmental and community projects that will improve our school and local area.  They have been working closely with Groundwork North East and the #iwill campaign.  The children wanted to be involved in a big school litter clean up and have started clearing up our school grounds to ensure it is litter free!  They are going to be continuing their good work by becoming involved in a litter pick around the local area and designing posters to encourage our local community to put litter in the bin.  Other projects are to plant a herb garden, plant fruits and vegetables in our school allotments make homes for local wildlife and create a playground for our school chickens!

In February, the eco warriors also took part in the RSPB Big school bird watch.  We found out that lots of starlings and blackbirds like to live within our school grounds.  The children are now thinking of different ways to attract different species of birds into our school wildlife areas.

Football

Our year 3/4 boys’ team had a big competition at the beginning of March, playing in a football league with some of Stockton’s strongest football teams. During our first few matches, our nerves got the better of us and we drew both matches. As the competition continued, our flare and skills came out and we went on to have fantastic wins with some magical football being played.

Gymnastics

This half term many children throughout the school have taken part in gymnastics competitions, competing against many schools in area. The children are taught a set routine, working on forward rolls and teddy bear rolls as well as apparatus work for the older children. In all key stages the children have performed well with many individual medals being won!

Swimming

A group of year 5 and 6 children took part in the biggest swimming competition of the year! The 5 competitors had shown great talent in the local heats and progressed as a team onto the finals, which take place at Billingham Forum. Here the children had to race against the best swimmers in Stockton. We had individual races in front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke and even butterfly, which is a very difficult stroke to master. Finally, we swam as a team in the medley and freestyle relays. We left the competition with one silver medal and some amazing memories. What a fantastic achievement!

We understand how to keep safe on the road…

This year our Year 6 pupils took part in the Stockton Road Safety Quiz. We spent valuable time learning road safety information and thoroughly enjoyed testing our knowledge. Although we didn’t make the final, we are now better equipped to keep safe when we go out with our families and friends.

One of our Year 6 pupils was top scorer in the whole of Stockton, beating thousands of children to scoop a special award… scoring full marks in doing so! What a fantastic achievement.

“Live life to the full” -John 10:10

It’s hard to imagine living without technology in this day and age, and yet that is what the whole school tried to do for a  week. The technology ban took place, and where technology had to be used, it was kept to a bare minimum. Without the use of  technology, however,  how could day to day life be filled?

Each class planned and carried out a number of activities at school. Lesson consisted of many different activities,  amongst which cooking took place, children could be seen bird watching out in the playground. Maths games were made using paper and pens. Role play replaced watching stories. Books were read and made by pupils. Modelling activities produced fabulously creative rockets. Outdoor games were resurrected and skipping robes were found. Puppets were designed and made to use in puppet shows  and so much more went on. And what did the children think? They loved it!

Furthermore, as computers, phones, tv’s, laptops and tablets were discarded at home by many children and staff alike,  board games came out of cupboards or were made by hand, families cooked together, played together, or simply enjoyed a short walk together. Staring at screens was often replaced with conversation. Of course, nobody wants a world where technology is banned, but do we want to live a life where screens replace social interaction altogether? Surely not! It’s time to find a happy medium.

Today, we remembered those who have been affected by war and “torn from home”. We especially remembered the events from WW2 and the concentration camps. The day was all about Peace and Remembrance. Year 6  remembered those that died or were torn from their homes and families 25 year ago in Rwanda. We can all learn lessons – we can all live our lives courageously and do what is right. Beautiful words written to ‘The Children of Rwanda’.

Our Eco-Warriors led us in a spot of Birdwatching. We got out and about in our school grounds to see if we could identify the birds that like to come and pay us a visit. We identified blackbirds, seagulls, starlings and magpies. This information will be passed onto the RSPB. Wonder if we could attract other different species of birds?